David Zurawik really wants MSNBC to get rid of Michael Steele

Baltimore Sun media critic David Zurawik is the latest to try and diagnose and treat MSNBC, which has flailed in ratings over the last two months.

In a segment on The Daily Rundown Monday, MSNBC contributor and former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele floated the idea that he might run for governor of Maryland. "I love the idea of service," Steele said.

Zurawik thinks this is one of many of MSNBC's problems, aside from being a "propaganda sundae" for the Obama administration with former admin. officials David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs on the dole.

He wrote Monday:

Steele loves the idea of a paycheck. And MSNBC was one of his last, best hopes after Fox News passed on him. And who knows if MSNBC will renew him. With the ratings misery MSNBC now finds itself in, cuts are certainly not out of the question at renewal time. And why not Steele, who has generated less than zero excitement on the channel?

An article in Salon made a similar point about MSNBC. Being all politics all the time has hurt the channel in a non-political year, it said. And Bill Carter in the New York Times pretty much said the same, noting MSNBC's inability to do hard breaking news -- such as the Boston Marathon bombing -- which has dominated the news cycle of late.