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

MSNBC / Rachel Maddow Blog

U.S. center-left / liberal

Owned byVersant Media Group (Nasdaq: VSNT), a publicly traded company spun off from Comcast/NBCUniversal on January 5, 2026
FundingAdvertising and cable/streaming distribution fees, plus subscriber revenue; publicly traded shareholders replace Comcast as ultimate owners
On the administrationbroadly critical

Background

Launched in 1996 as a joint venture between Microsoft and NBC (hence the name), the channel dropped Microsoft's stake in 2005 and became wholly owned by NBCUniversal, later Comcast. Under president Phil Griffin and later Rashida Jones, it built a primetime lineup of liberal opinion hosts — Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell, Chris Hayes — that made it the highest-rated cable news network at times during the Trump and Biden years, particularly among left-leaning viewers. Maddow's blog and show have been known for deep-dive investigative segments and consistently critical coverage of Trump; she scaled back to one night a week in 2022 but returned to a five-night schedule for Trump's second-term inaugural period before reverting to Mondays. In 2025, Comcast announced it would spin off most of its cable networks (MSNBC, CNBC, USA Network, and others) into a new standalone company, initially called SpinCo; the group was renamed Versant Media, and MSNBC itself was rebranded MS NOW ('My Source for News, Opinion and the World') on November 15, 2025, physically relocating from NBC's 30 Rockefeller Plaza headquarters. The spinoff formally completed January 5, 2026, severing the network's institutional link to NBC News' newsgathering operation, though it retains much of the same on-air talent and editorial orientation. Critics on the right have long labeled it a partisan counterweight to Fox News; supporters describe it as a needed check on conservative power, and under the new ownership its opinion programming continues to lean heavily critical of the Trump administration's policies and conduct.

Sources

  1. MSNBC to Change Name to MS Now Under Versant
  2. MS NOW (Wikipedia)
  3. MSNBC change name MS Now spinoff NBCUniversal
  4. MSNBC rebrand MS NOW taking place Nov. 15
  5. Rachel Maddow returns to host nightly MSNBC show for Trump's first 100 days
  6. Rachel Maddow Explains Trump's Plans to 'Rig' 2026 Midterm Elections

Profile compiled 2026-09-24; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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