MSNBC Reaches for Viewers With Sex and Crime ‘News’

A motel handyman who confessed to a string of murders at Yosemite and who, said one woman, “couldn’t get an erection.�

A 22-year-old Connecticut student who claimed she was raped while staying with a family in Japan.

A teenager charged after his 15-year-old girlfriend shot herself in the head as part of a suicide pact.

Some cheesy tabloid television show? Not quite. These are among the nightly offerings on MSNBC, the cable news network that usually airs the work of Brian Williams, Chris Matthews, Matt Lauer and Jane Pauley.

The focus on violence dominates the 8 p.m. programs: “Special Edition,� which airs Tuesdays through Thursdays, and Monday’s “Crime Files.� The programming is part of an effort by the NBC-Microsoft venture to reposition itself as a network that does more than chase the day’s headlines.

Not that “Special Edition� deals only with crime. There’s also sex. Anchor Laurie Dhue hit the beach for a bikini-filled feature on spring break. Another program was devoted to online porn.

Erik Sorenson, MSNBC’s vice president, says the programs deal with “real-life stories that are compelling, fascinating and somewhat sensational--if we’re choosing them right, maybe frequently sensational. On a slow news day, which most days are, it’s a nice alternative. To a younger news viewer, that generally is more appealing than institutional news that is incremental and slow moving.�

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Sorenson says he’s trying to “broaden the mix� so that MSNBC, unlike its rivals, doesn’t simply run “talk shows and headline interviews. The big problem in cable is that nobody watches unless there’s a big story.�

The nearly 4-year-old network, which has a news alliance with the Washington Post, has also launched Lauer’s “Headliners and Legends� series. And it has produced a few documentaries, from “Why Planes Crash� and “Fall of Saigon� to “Serial Killer--Minds & Madness� and “MSNBC Investigates JonBenet Ramsey.�

Though Sorenson says the racy 8 p.m. stories are similar to those on “20/20� or “48 Hours,� he admits there is “internal debate� about whether the format works on cable.

Last week, “Special Edition� and “Crime Files� dealt with child sexual abuse (“What would make a mother violate her own daughter?� asked anchor John Seigenthaler); mountain lions and coyotes that attack; Mary Kay LeTourneau, the teacher who had sex with a teenage student; and private eyes who catch cheating spouses. (Lauer chipped in with a profile of Ted Bundy.)

The programs have also reported on a woman accusing the Unification Church of mind control and the high number of executions in Texas, featuring an artist’s “dramatization.� When they run out of sensational crimes from the last decade or so, they turn to golden oldies: the Attica prison riot, the Manson murders.

Prime-time ratings are down for all the cable news networks, though Fox News Channel has almost held steady. Last month, CNN reached an average of 545,000 households (down from 1.1 million in April 1999); CNBC, 321,000 (down from 488,000); Fox, 288,000 (down from 296,000); and MSNBC 181,000 (down from 391,000).

Fox News President Roger Ailes doesn’t think much of MSNBC’s “celebrities and tabloid� approach. “They’re announcing they’re only a part-time news network,� Ailes says. “When there’s no news, they’re going to be Discovery and A&E.;�

But Sorenson says MSNBC is doing well with the “more upscale demographic� coveted by advertisers. “We care only about 25- to 54-year-olds, and we really don’t care at all about households,� he says. “If I had the [older] audience profile Fox News Channel has, I would be let go.�