Sparky and I are huge Donahue fans and we had tuned in tonight to watch during dinner on MSNBC, but there was a "Countdown Iraq" show on, which we assumed was a special because of Dubya's speech earlier (which was an obvious attempt to distract people from Dan Rather's Interview with Saddam Hussein a few hours later). A few minutes ago, we were watching Conan O'Brien's show and guest Dana Carvey blurts out 'So Donahue's show was cancelled yesterday...' and we both looked at each other in shock.

So the first thing I did is run in and check MSNBC's website, which still shows Donahue in their listings, their website people aren't too efficient I suppose. And of course, they have no mention of the cancellation. So I flipped over to USA Today's site and there's the article. Then over to the NY Times, and there's a whole string of articles including a rebuttal from Phil on how MSNBC is trying to "Out-fox Fox" by bringing in more conservatives to it's lineup.

I don't know about you, but this really scares me. Besides being a terrific interviewer, Phil Donahue was one of the last liberal voices on TV. He also did a great job of letting both sides voice their opinions, which hardly anyone else does anymore on TV. His last show was with Rosie O'Donnell, who is, of course, against the was on Iraq. This is about more than ratings kids.

More links -
MSNBC Cancels Phil Donahue - NY Times
MSNBC Dumps Donahue Show, Cites Weak Ratings