Popular podcaster Joe Rogan joined the fun Friday evening, telling Elon Musk whose timeslot he wants should he pull the trigger and purchase MSNBC.
As our colleague Nick Arama reported, the network has been enduring considerable upheaval. Comcast, the parent company of NBCUniversal, is looking to restructure, rebrand, or even sell.
With that news, Donald Trump Jr. had a lightbulb appear above his head. He shared his idea with the X CEO, gently suggesting that Musk should purchase MSNBC.
For his part, Musk didn’t dismiss the idea of rescuing the dinosaur media outlet asking, “How much does it cost?”
Immediately, you could feel all of conservative social media turning their heads like that Chris Pratt surprise meme from “Parks and Recreation.” You know the one I’m talking about.
Musk further teased the possibility with a post which read, “The most entertaining outcome, especially if ironic, is most likely.”
With that, Rogan decided he wanted a piece of the action.
“If you buy MSNBC I would like Rachael Maddow’s job,” he replied on X. “I will wear the same outfit and glasses, and I will tell the same lies.”
If you buy MSNBC I would like Rachael Maddow’s job. I will wear the same outfit and glasses, and I will tell the same lies.
— Joe Rogan (@joerogan) November 22, 2024
Ya gotta love the idea of Rogan doing a one-hour show that would almost immediately catapult the new ‘MXNBC’ network to the top of the ratings.
That said, we could do without the second half of Rogan’s brainstorm. We’ve seen the same outfits, glasses, and lies before in the form of Chris Hayes, Mark Cuban, and Rosie O’Donnell.
Hard pass.
Still, how much fun has it been watching what basically amounts to the MAGA Avengers discussing taking over MSNBC? Musk, for his part, responded to Rogan by writing, “Deal.”
After Trump Jr. answered Musk’s question about the costs by noting the price tag “can’t be much” because just “look at the ratings,” the X CEO continued teasing the idea.
In another response to Rogan and the President’s son, he wrote, “Maybe I should show up there with a sink.”
It was a nod to the origin story of how Musk purchased Twitter and turned it into the free speech Mecca now known as X.
Readers may recall that the improbable process began with a tweet in 2017 in which Musk told his followers, “I love Twitter,” immediately followed by the question, “How much is it?”
Next thing you knew, Elon was showing up at Twitter headquarters with a sink.
Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in! pic.twitter.com/D68z4K2wq7
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2022
While Rogan’s comments are likely just a joke, he has been tearing into legacy media of late, including a brutal takedown of both MSNBC and CNN.
“I was just reading something about CNN’s ratings and MSNBC’s ratings post-election – they’ve crashed,” Rogan said on his podcast earlier this week. “All these left-wing kooks on YouTube are hemorrhaging subscribers.”
“Where people go, ‘You guys are out of touch, you’re not accurate, you’re delusional.’ And people are speaking with their subscriptions and they’re speaking with their purchasing of the Washington Post and their purchasing of the New York Times.”
Musk purchasing a dying network seems unlikely. But it’s a lot of fun to speculate.
Tell me – who would you like to see join Rogan on the new MXNBC lineup?
