MSNBC rebrands for an independent future
Plus: Trump is trying to regulate elections, but they were designed to prevent that
MSNBC rebrands for an independent future
When MSNBC spins off from NBCUniversal (NBCU) by the end of the year to become an independent company, it will have a new name and logo. MSNBC will become My Source News Opinion World (MS NOW), and the multicolored Peacock logo MSNBC now borrows from its outgoing parent company will be replaced with a new red, white, and blue mark.
“It looks very sporty,” Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough said announcing the rebrand on air Monday.
The new name speaks to the network’s ambitions to stand on its own once it no longer has the global news gathering operation of NBCU to rely on. At the same time, the name is intended to sound similar enough to the old one to evoke a sense of brand continuity and signal to longtime viewers that the tone of the network’s coverage isn’t expected to change.
Launched in 1996, MSNBC’s name was a nod to the two companies that partnered on to create it: Microsoft and NBC. Microsoft divested its stake in the company in 2005, and by 2007, the network had become known as a liberal cable news alternative to Fox News with the added bonus of having a network news operation to lean on for reporting and talent, care of NBC News.
From the beginning, MSNBC borrowed the NBC “bird” for its own logo. Originally designed as an 11-feather peacock by graphic designer John J. Graham to promote NBC’s color television programming, the mark made its on-air appearance in 1956. The current six-feather version of the mark, first introduced in 1986 and designed by Chermayeff & Geismar, reduced the number of feathers down to just the primary and secondary colors. Over the years, it’s been refined even further.
With the brand value that comes from decades of Olympics coverage, hit shows like Saturday Night Live, and local affiliates plus channels like MSNBC and CNBC that extended the brand’s reach to 24-hour cable news and financial news, the NBC logo has become one of the most recognizable in television.
With the break-up of the NBCU from its cable holdings, NBCU is keeping the Peacock logo and “NBC” suffix for itself. That means NBCU’s outgoing cable networks, which will live under the new parent company Versant, all have to rebrand without the Peacock, including MSNBC, CNBC, Golf Channel, GolfNow, and SportsEngine. (CNBC, which was originally named the “Consumer News and Business Channel,” gets to keep the “NBC” in its name).
In an internal memo, MSNBC president Rebecca Kutler said “the future of our success is not tied to remaining within the NBC family and using the peacock as part of our identity,” and the company is planning a significant national marketing campaign for the rebrand.
Even so, the symbolism of replacing a rainbow-colored peacock with a corporate-looking red and white flag on blue backdrop has not been lost on some observers, who have wondered if it signals a move away from the network’s progressive coverage.
In a “message to our community,” published online, MSNBC said that although its name was changing, its promise to viewers wasn’t. “For our viewers who have watched us for decades, it may be hard to imagine this network by any other name. We understand. But our promise to you remains as it always has. You know who we are, and what we do,” the network said.
The network is clearly hoping that its new flag-waving brand will be received like a home with a “In This House We Believe…” yard sign in the front yard changing its flag from Pride to American when June turns to July. The new MS NOW name and logo is meant to mark a change in seasons but not of liberal values, the company contends.
MS NOW represents a new era for the No. 2 most-watched channel in all of cable, which is on the verge of turning 30 and striking out on its own for the first time. But the true meaning of the rebrand will ultimately depend on what it delivers for its viewers.
Previously in Yello:
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Trump is trying to regulate elections, but they were designed to prevent that
President Donald Trump has big plans for redesigning the way states hold elections ahead of the 2026 midterms, calling for a nationwide end to mail-in ballots and voting machines on Monday.
The U.S. Constitution stands in his way.
In a new post on his social network Truth Social, Trump wrote that he was “going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS” as well as voting machines, which he called “Highly ‘Inaccurate’” and “Seriously Controversial.”
“ELECTIONS CAN NEVER BE HONEST WITH MAIL-IN BALLOTS/VOTING, and everybody, IN PARTICULAR THE DEMOCRATS, KNOWS THIS,” Trump wrote without providing evidence supporting his claims.
Presidents aren’t given power over state election law. The “elections clause” in Article I, Section 4, of the U.S. Constitution leaves “the times, places, and manner of holding elections” for the U.S. House and Senate up to the states, and only Congress is given power to “make or alter” these rules.
The elections clause is one of the Constitution’s many built-in mechanisms for separating and checking power, and already, federal judges have blocked parts of a past Trump executive order that would have imposed federal rules over elections.
Undermining election integrity
Trump’s attacks on election infrastructure — from mail-in ballots to ballot drop boxes — have forced local elections officials to find new ways to build trust. Maricopa County, Arizona, gave tours of its tabulation and election centers ahead of the 2024 election, while in Ada County, Idaho, officials now publish every ballot online.
Ironically, voting records show Trump has himself voted early, and after opposing early voting measures and calling them fraudulent ahead of his 2020 election loss, he paid lip service to early voting in 2024. A Republican “Swamp the Vote” initiative in 2024 asked Trump supporters to pledge to vote early or request a ballot in an effort to boost early turnout, and it worked. Now he wants to ban mail-in ballots entirely.
Trump falsely claimed in his social media post on Monday that the U.S. is the only country with mail-in voting (at least 40 countries allow people to vote by mail), and he said he would sign an executive order ahead of next year’s midterm election to make the changes. Eight states and Washington, D.C., allow for all-mail-in elections, and an additional 15 states allow for mail-in elections in some circumstances and jurisdictions, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Hollow legal ground
Trump’s apparent legal argument for having the power to end mail-in voting as president, as laid out in his post, is that states are “merely an ‘agent’” for the federal government in counting and tabulating votes, and the president is the ultimate authority of the federal government.
“They must do what the Federal Government, as represented by the President of the United States, tells them,” Trump wrote.
Like his push for Texas to adopt new congressional districts that are gerrymandered to help Republicans, Trump’s latest election proposals are about letting the president decide policy that’s actually left up to the states, and giving the executive branch power to shape the legislative branch that was designed to act as one of its checks. Rather than a separation of powers, it’s a consolidation.
Have you seen this?
White House sending social media teams with FBI on some arrests in D.C., sources say. The highly unusual arrangement runs afoul of longstanding Justice Department norms which seek to insulate criminal investigations from political influence. [Reuters]
Jimmy Carter is getting a postage stamp on what would have been his 101st birthday. The U.S. Postal Service plans to release the stamp for purchase on Oct. 1 in Atlanta, on what would have been former President Carter’s 101st birthday. [USPS]
“Made in the USA” is a struggling brand. New data shows that shoppers are putting cost over country. [Fast Company]
FLOTUS sends peace letter. If federalizing D.C.’s policing was supposed to make people feel safer, plunging restaurant bookings in the District suggest it’s not working. Meanwhile, FLOTUS is seeking peace and war, sending a letter to Putin asking him to think of the children, and a $1 billion lawsuit threat to the son of a former president unless he apologizes. [Whig]
History of political design
Ann Romney's Pinterest account (2025 screenshots of 2012 boards). Former Sen. Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign replicated elements of then-President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign digital strategy, but on Pinterest, Ann Romney was an early adopter. She joined the site four months before former first lady Michelle Obama joined, and Romney's profile was made after viral parody Pinterest boards attacked her husband. Her boards included "Campaign," "Recipes," "Family," "Patriotic," "Things I Love," "Inspiration," "Crafts/DIY," and "July 4th Recipes." Click through below to see more.
Portions of this newsletter were first published in Fast Company.
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Honestly, the MS NOW logo looks like an ultra progressive organization. Which I have no problem with, but it's not intentional, so in that respect, it misses the mark. To me, the first part conjures up Ms. Magazine, and the 2nd part the National Organization for Women. And I KNOW I've seen a flag logo like that somewhere, for one of the progressive online pubs or something.
1 thing that would help MSNBC; every time Joe starts screaming into the mike, it would automatically mute him