MSNBC’s Chris Hayes would like to see more hosts of color on the cable networks – including his own.

“It’s a problem,” says Hayes, a lifelong Caucasian. “People’s opinions, interpretations of news, journalistic instincts, editorial concerns are the product of the people they are, the experiences they have, the way they move through the world.

“It’s why organizations, companies, the Senate, the U.S. Supreme Court benefit from diversity. … Diversity produces people with a specificity in their world view, and it benefits the product.”

Hayes’ product, ‘All In with Chris Hayes,’ debuts Monday in the 8 p.m. slot formerly occupied by Ed Schultz. Rachel Maddow (Hayes’ mentor) follows at 9, with Lawrence O’Donnell at 10.

It is a Murderers’ Row of liberal brainiacs. It is also, like the prime-time lineups at CNN and Fox News, blindingly white – a state of affairs to which Hayes says he has given “obsessive thought.”

Diversity is his top priority, he says. ‘All In’ will feature a wide variety of guests, especially conservatives. Hayes followed the same practice on his MSNBC weekend show, ‘Up with Chris Hayes,’ which debuted in 2011.

“I can’t control my gender, race or sexual orientation,” says Hayes. (He and his wife, law professor Kate A. Shaw, have an 18-month-old daughter.) “I can control who we have on and what voices we introduce to viewers.”

Those voices will be streamlined on ‘All In,’ Hayes says. Discussions will run up to 17 minutes, less than half as long as the marathons on his two-hour ‘Up.’

“I want to create a show that a lot of people watch, and produce really good TV,” says Hayes, who never met a complex sentence he didn’t like. “I want it to be high-quality journalism – compelling, dynamic and addictive.”

Hayes’ admiration of Maddow borders on hero worship. She gave Hayes his first shot as a guest anchor.

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Chris Hayes is moving to primetime, and as of today, his 8pmET show has a name and a launch date. “All In with Chris Hayes” will premiere next Monday, April 1.

Hayes takes over the timeslot from Ed Schultz, who is moving to weekends. Denis Horgan was recently named executive producer for “All In.”

MSNBC’s release, after the jump. Read more

• After more than 40 years at Television Centre, BBC News moved into its new home at London’s Broadcasting House this week. The BBC newschannel and news bulletins for BBC One join BBC World News which moved into the new facility in January.
• Bloomberg Media Group and El Financiero will launch a new multi-platform Spanish-language business news service for Mexico and Central America. Broadcasting from El Financiero’s HD studio in Mexico City, the network will launch later this year.
• Denis Horgan, who’s been with MSNBC on and off for 10 years, will be the EP of the new Chris Hayes 8pmET program. Horgan originally joined MSNBC in 2003 as Senior Producer of “Countdown with Keith Olbermann.”

Come April MSNBC’s Ed Schultz will be holding for on Saturday and Sunday afternoons on the channel, with Chris Hayes taking over 8 PM weekdays. As it happens there has been solid reporting since November that Schultz’s days at weekday prime may be nearing an end.

After his move was announced Politico’s Dylan Byers doubled down on his reporting, arguing that Schultz’s departure was planned in advance to make room for new talent. Schultz did not take kindly to this, and responded on his radio show yesterday afternoon:

“I’m amazed at media vultures out there who think that they’re gaining respect by people because they talk to someone anonymously. Politico,  they’re nothing but a bunch of freaking whores down there in Washington. That’s all they are. They don’t know their ass from third base and none of their people have talked to me.”

In a Media Beat interview, Schultz told us that on his show, “sometimes gets to bar talk, but that’s how people talk.” See it after the jump…

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Steve Kornacki is the new host of MSNBC’s weekend morning program “Up,” MSNBC president Phil Griffin announced today.

Kornacki was previously a co-host on “The Cycle,” the network’s weekday 3 p.m. show. He is a senior political writer for Salon.com. “Steve has a great political mind and his ability to connect with viewers made him a natural fit to continue driving that dialogue,” Griffin said in a statement.

Kornacki replaces Chris Hayes, who is moving to primetime next month.

“I want to thank Chris Hayes and his team for creating a totally original and incredibly smart model for political television,” Kornacki said. “It’s a real honor and a real challenge to take his seat, and I’m excited by the chance to foster the same kind of lively and diverse conversations.”

10 years ago, “Shock and Awe” kicked off the Iraq War. It was a made-for-TV war, with explosions rocking the skies above Baghdad, and correspondents reporting live on cable news from their hotel balconies.

TV news not only covered the war, but promoted it as well, regularly featuring guests who beat the war drum, and ignoring those that had opposing views. Sometimes, as The Huffington Post’s Jack Mirkinson notes, it was a vicious circle:

Perhaps the most notorious example of the Washington-media nexus over Iraq came when Dick Cheney appeared on “Meet the Press” in September of 2002. He cited the lead story in that morning’s Times as he talked to Tim Russert (“I want to attribute it to the Times,” he memorably said). The story, by Miller and her colleague Michael Gordon, said that Hussein was busy using aluminum tubes to help build nuclear weapons. The Bush administration had leaked that story to Miller. The circle was complete.

The war has not been forgotten. With the President making his first mideast trip of his second term, cable news is finding time to look back at Iraq. Throughout the week a number of segments about the war are on tap at the “big three” cable news channels, nestled in between the other day’s coverage.

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MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell is interviewed by Salon. The interview focuses on O’Donnell’s cameo in the new movie “Olympus Has Fallen,” and segues into his scripted TV past and cable news present. O’Donnell plays himself working at a fictional TV news channel in the movie. When asked why he says yes to appearing in films, O’Donnell replied:

Because I miss show business so desperately that I will do anything short of pornography at this point to hang around sets and have fun.

Sets are really fun workplaces and everyone there is creative and energetic. These are the most creative electricians in the world. They’re not the electricians who come to your house. They’re the most creative carpenters, the most creative carpenters, writers, directors, directors of photography: there’s a great spirit to a film set that is unique in American workplaces by far. And it is the most fun I’ve had in my professional life.

He was also asked whether he had any advice for his new primetime colleague Chris Hayes:
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MSNBC host Ed Schultz ended his show last night by expanding a bit about his move to the weekends, and praising his replacement at 8 PM, Chris Hayes.

On moving to the weekend:

“I understand that Politico wrote that I am going to a relative no mans land for cable news programming. Really? Well I guess I wouldn’t want it any other way because we are going to build those hours into the best hours on cable.”

On Hayes:

“I also want to say to all of those folks who have been loyal to my brand, Chris Hayes is going to do a fantastic job, he is a great brilliant young talent and he is going to have a lot of years at 8 O’Clock.”

WATCH:

MSNBC president Phil Griffin talks to The Daily Beast’s Lloyd Grove about this week’s primetime shakeup at the channel. Ed Schultz will move to the weekends next month, while Chris Hayes will take over the 8 PM slot. Griffin says that the move was, in fact, Schultz’s idea.

“This began with Ed coming to me,” Griffin insisted. “And I will tell you that Ed has an incredible following in the network… Ed and I were talking about his contract, and Ed is a very sharp guy. He said he wanted to be here long-term … He wanted to spend more time in Minnesota. I said, ‘Well, Ed, I am extending the weekend. I need someone for 5 to 7. It’s critical. It’s going to be as important as 8 to 10 [on weeknights].’ And he came back to me and said, ‘I want to do that long-term.’ ”

He also weighs in on what Hayes’ new program will look like:
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The NBC News Group, including NBC News, MSNBC and CNBC, held an upfront presentation today at the New York Public library in midtown Manhattan. The Celeste Bartos Forum in the Library was lit up in shades of purple and blue, as media buyers and advertisers mingled with NBC News executives and talent.

Newly-minted MSNBC 8 PM host Chris Hayes was there, as was Matt Lauer, the co-anchor of “Today” who has been at the center of a number of news stories of late. He seemed to take the stories in stride, joking with Savannah Guthrie onstage:

“I would like to tackle what might be a teeny white elephant in the room,” Lauer said to laughter from the crowd. “We all love covering the news,  we hate being the news, and so I would like to say on that subject–from the bottom of my heart–that I promise to spend all of my time and energy over the next several months trying to keep Savannah out of the headlines. ”

We want to go back to the most-watched morning program and the least talked about morning program,” he added.

Lauer sat next to NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke during the lunch, and “Today” was the final NBC News property pitched during the presentation, emphasizing how important the show is to the network.

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