Dylan Byers: Hi Peter, I figured I’d check in since I’m off the grid this week and very much missing our weekly podcast gab session. As summer gets underway and I’ve got this opportunity to get a little perspective on the news cycle, I’m realizing that this is very much the calm before the storm, politically speaking. 

First, though, just as I was preparing to ask you about MSNBC and their place in the cable news world, with their ratings dwindling and their uncertain direction in the post-Trump world, the news dropped that the Supreme Court had killed Roe v. Wade, ending federal protections for abortion. It feels like their coverage of the ruling also revealed a few things about their challenges.

Peter Hamby: Funny you mention that. I actually flipped on Fox and MSNBC this morning to see how they were covering the abortion news. When I was watching MSNBC, it definitely hit home that they inhabit this sort of tortured spot between news and opinion, especially during dayside programming. It’s been that way for years, and maybe execs are fine with it. But they do this thing where they throw to their really wonderful reporters in the field, all over the country, and those reporters deliver information that often doesn’t square with the received wisdom of the left.