MSNBC isn’t Fox — that’s good for Chris Matthews, if not Bernie Sanders

Chris Matthews is looking a lot like Megyn Kelly — and that has some media watchers worrying. They shouldn’t be.

A recent dust-up between Matthews and backers of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) raised a key question: Will MSNBC be pushed into a fervent “Bernie embrace” like the bear-hug that Fox News often gives to President Trump?

The answer is no. The reason is the very best one in all of television: Money.

We’ll get to Megyn Kelly in a second. But first: Sanders has long complained that left-leaning MSNBC underplays his campaign. The senator reportedly confronted network brass about the treatment he gets from Matthews and Chuck Todd. Matthews himself fueled the fire when he compared Sanders’ Nevada victory to the Nazi invasion of France in World War II. That ignited charges of anti-Semitism from the Sanders’ team and compelled Matthews to apologize on-air.

Critics quickly compared the “Hardball” host to Megyn Kelly. As a Fox news anchor in 2015, she sharply questioned Donald Trump about his treatment of women, only to be attacked by Trump and his allies. Soon after, the nervous network threw full support behind the New York billionaire, undermining its journalistic integrity.

But there’s another way to view the Fox News move. The channel was only doing what it needed to do as an important profit center — that is, it was following the money. Then-Fox News chief Roger Ailes actually backed Kelly at first, insisting that Trump apologize. He didn’t, of course, and viewer rage against Fox grew; ratings and revenue declines were sure to follow. Under Ailes, that was never going to happen — and the pro-Trump swing got underway.

Money is important at MSNBC, too, but the calculus is different. It’s not a lone-wolf news channel like Fox. It is part of a bigger, more profitable outfit called NBC News. Consider this: MSNBC brings in about $500 million in revenue per year — not bad, but that’s the same revenue the “Today Show” brings in all by itself. Anything the cable outlet might do to severely damage the nonpartisan brand of the broadcast news division would significantly hurt the bottom line. (Full disclosure: I was a producer at NBC News from 1994 until 2006.)

Studies show that major network newscasts get their ratings stability and profitability from their middle-of-the-road approach. Even in this polarized environment, viewers across the political spectrum tune in because they find the networks credible and reliable.

That means NBC News and left-leaning MSNBC must walk a delicate tightrope together, balancing the different needs of each unit against what’s best for business overall.

“Meet the Press” treks that line every day. “MTP Daily” airs on MSNBC, but producers and the show’s anchor Chuck Todd can’t run as far to the left as everyone else on the channel. They need to protect the credibility of the main “Meet The Press” broadcast production, consistently the highest-rated Sunday morning talk show. That hour pulls in guests — and viewers — from all sides of an issue, including prominent Republicans.

As a result, ratings for “MTP Daily” are typically softer than the more zealously progressive MSNBC programs airing before and after. But executives place those lower numbers inside the bigger profit picture for “Meet the Press” and the NBC News brand.

All these competing concerns — weighed against each other with a constant eye on the bottom line — will likely prevent MSNBC from going as far as Fox has in full-throated support of a politician. That’s a plus for many critics and journalists, including Chris Matthews.

If anything takes Matthews off air, it’s more likely to be allegations of unwanted sexual comments.

But when it comes to how far to go in either polarizing political direction, keep this in mind: those two news channels travel very separate paths for pretty much same reason — It’s good business.

Sometimes, if you’re lucky, it’s good news-business, too.

Joe Ferullo is an award-winning media executive, producer and journalist and former executive vice president of programming for CBS Television Distribution. He was a news executive for NBC, a writer-producer for “Dateline NBC,” and worked for ABC News. Follow him on Twitter @ironworker1.