Liberal columnist Byron Williams of the Oakland Tribune said that MSNBC’s hiring of Al Sharpton for its 6PM slot was “more about ratings than journalism.” Now that the first month of ratings are in, the hire might end up damaging MSNBC in BOTH categories.

The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer at 6 pm topped MSNBC’s Politics Nation with Al Sharpton in the key demo 25-54 (163k vs. 141k) in September. In addition, the Blitzer-led program grew +19% in the demo (163k vs. 137k) and +22% among total viewers (590k vs. 483k) vs. last year. Sharpton was down -24% in the demo (141k vs. 185k) and -15% in total viewers (599k vs. 708k) compared to MSNBC’s programming a year ago.

The story is even more damaging when you look inside the numbers and realize that the 5:00 PM edition of “Hardball”, which airs right before Sharpton’s show, had more viewers than the civil rights activist-turned television journalist. “Hardball” also beat Blitzer and CNN in that 5:00 PM time slot.

In other words, viewers who aren’t watching Fox News prefer MSNBC to CNN during the 5PM “Hardball” hour and then switch channels and watch CNN or Fox News when Sharpton appears on their screen.

The New York Times saw the trend in the ratings numbers and sounded the alarm earlier today with the headline: MSNBC Is Close to Falling to Third Place in Cable News Ratings. The Old Gray Lady blames the ratings dive on the absence of Keith Olbermann, and surely that has something to do with it. But the weak lead-in to the prime time line-up supplied by Sharpton can’t help. Add to that the overall perception that MSNBC is no longer serious about journalism as evidenced by the controversial hire and it’s easy to reach the conclusion that so far, the Al Sharpton Experiment is a failure.

On the bright side for MSNBC, they’ve been able to celebrate the fact that so many video clips of Mr. Sharpton have made their way through the viral corners of the Internet. Plus, the added benefit of watching their own anchor mocked on live television by Mr. Sharpton. And let’s not forget the embarrassment of the MSNBC’s newest host not knowing when the civil rights act was passed or the proper way to pronounce “Galileo“.

All in all, hell of a job, Phil Griffin.