Pressure of Truth
Exposing the spin on all sides of the news.
Outlet profile

CNBC / MS NOW

CNBC: U.S. business-news, center to center-right on economics; MS NOW: U.S. left/progressive

Owned byBoth are owned by Versant Media Group, a publicly traded company spun off from Comcast/NBCUniversal in early January 2026. Versant also owns USA Network and other cable channels. Comcast shareholders received Versant shares in the spin-off. NBC News stayed with NBCUniversal.
FundingCable and satellite carriage fees paid by distributors, plus advertising. CNBC also earns money from digital subscriptions (CNBC Pro) and licensing. Versant is financed as a public company, with investors and debt.
On the administrationmixed

Background

CNBC launched in 1989 as the Consumer News and Business Channel and was later folded into NBCUniversal under NBC and then Comcast. It built its audience on market coverage and has drawn criticism both for pro-business, market-friendly framing and for on-air commentary that is sometimes opinionated. MSNBC began in 1996 as a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC. It moved from a mixed lineup to a progressive prime-time identity during the 2000s and 2010s, and it was a frequent target of Republican criticism. Comcast announced plans in 2024 to spin off most of its cable networks, including CNBC and MSNBC, into a new company called Versant. MSNBC renamed itself MS NOW (My Source for News, Opinion and the World) on November 15, 2025, partly to separate itself from NBC News, which stayed with NBCUniversal. Versant's spin-off was completed on January 2, 2026. On the administration, CNBC's business reporting covers Trump's tariffs, energy policy and foreign policy through economic effects, and its news tone is mostly neutral. MS NOW's prime-time opinion programming is consistently critical of the second Trump administration. In September 2026, Trump said he was banning MS NOW, CNN and Politico from the White House. A judge later ordered access restored for CNN and MS NOW, and the Justice Department has opened an antitrust inquiry into the White House TV press pool's suspension of coverage.

Sources

  1. MSNBC to rebrand as Ms Now under Versant ownership
  2. Versant (Wikipedia)
  3. MS NOW (Wikipedia)
  4. Trump says he's banning MS NOW, CNN and Politico from White House (CNBC)
  5. Justice Department investigates TV networks as White House press-access fight escalates (CNBC)
  6. MS NOW Rebrand: What's In a Name? (Hollywood Reporter)

Profile compiled 2026-10-13; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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