President Trump blasted lefty cable channel MSNBC’s rebrand to MS NOW – claiming the network is a “failure by any name” and ripping the CEO of its owner Comcast as “dopey.”
“MSNBC is doing so poorly in the ratings that they are looking to change their name in order to get away from the stench of their fake news product,” Trump wrote in a late-night tirade on Truth Social, his social media platform, in all capital letters.
“So much fun to watch their weak and ineffective owner, ‘Concast,’ headed by dopey Brian Roberts, hopelessly and aimlessly flailing in the wind in an attempt to disassociate itself from the garbage that they created!”
NBCUniversal did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Owner Comcast is forcing MSNBC to take a new name and stripping the left-leaning network of NBC’s iconic peacock symbol as it carries out a $7 billion spinoff of its cable assets.
Mark Lazarus, who will lead Versant, the new publicly-traded company consisting of MSNBC, CNBC and other cable assets, announced the rebrand to MS NOW – short for My Source News Opinion World.
“As we all know, the peacock is synonymous with NBCUniversal, and it is a symbol they have decided to keep within the NBCU family,” he said in a memo Monday morning.
The new acronym was mercilessly mocked online, with social media users quipping that it stands for “Majorly Skewed News Overly Woke” or “Most Surely No One Watching.”
Some started calling the network – home to anti-Trump anchors like Rachel Maddow – “BS NOW” while others joked that the standalone “MS” looked like a reference to multiple sclerosis.
The president has long railed against MSNBC and its liberal news anchors, often using the nickname “MSDNC” – a dig that the network is a megaphone for Democratic Party leaders.
Earlier this year, he went so far as to slam MSNBC as a “threat to our democracy” and questioned whether the news outlet should “even have a right to broadcast.”
Trump has also taken aim at mainstream news outlets like ABC and CBS.
He secured a $15 million payment from ABC News toward his presidential library to settle a defamation suit, and reached a $16 million settlement with CBS owner Paramount over a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris — though he expects a larger sum.
Meanwhile, MSNBC staffers are likely surprised by the rebrand after Lazarus earlier this year assured that the cable news channel would be able to hold onto its name.
“I know there was some discussion with the MSNBC name, so you can take that off of your worry list on things,” Lazarus told staffers during a meeting in January.
A company insider told The Post that it “doesn’t set a great precedent for management to change the name after promising staffers it wouldn’t.”
“It’s not a way to boost trust in the new company and its leadership.”
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