MSNBC hosts Jen Psaki, Rachel Maddow & Joy Reid. Psaki will be taking the slot previously hosted four nights a week for Alex Wagner, who will be remaining with MSNBC. Reid will be leaving the network. (AP Photos from The Philadelphia Inquirer)
I don’t have a lot to say here about individual cable news/talk hosts. For one thing, I pay a lot more attention to newspapers and other print outlets than I do to broadcast/cable. But it’s also because I don’t think there’s that much interesting for me to say about hosts of clearly partisan shows.
But Monday night MSNBC star host Rachel Maddow exhibited some real courage on the air by criticizing her corporate bosses over two things:
- The first was for the network removing hosts Joy Reid and Alex Wagner – the network’s only nonwhite primetime hosts. “That feels worse than bad, no matter who replaces them,” Maddow said. “That feels indefensible, and I do not defend it,” Maddow told her audience.
- But she reserved her strongest words for the dismissal of the behind-the-scenes producers and staffers. She said on-air people always have to face that the time will come when they will be replaced, but that the loss of excellent researchers, editors and producers was inexcusable after all of their hard work. “It’s not the right way to treat people,” Maddow said, lambasting the decision makers at the network, “It’s inefficient, it’s unnecessary.”
It’s never surprising to see Maddow taking on her political targets fearlessly. That’s her job. But it is all too rare to see a network star taking on ownership. Obviously, MSNBC has a progressive point of view. Fox News is a conservative talk-show network. That’s who they are. But the common bias between them is that they almost always have a pro-ownership bias. And Rachel Maddow broke out of that last night.
Bravo, Rachel.
NOTE: MSNBC is owned by media giant Comcast. Comcast is currently looking to spin off its cable networks including USA, Oxygen, E!, SYFY and Golf Channel, as well as CNBC and MSNBC.
The clip below is cued up for the segment where she discusses the network’s actions.