Some commentators have called MSNBC’s decision to cancel several shows, including that of former host Joy Reid, “racist” because other hosts at the network who have low ratings were not also taken off the air.
The left-leaning corporate network announced that shows hosted by Reid and Alex Wagner would be canceled as part of an effort to re-tool its lineup, also canceling weekend shows hosted by Katie Phang, Jonathan Capehart, and Ayman Mohyeldin. Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann denounced the firings as a “racist purge” on BlueSky.
“Dear @maddow.msnbc.com,” Olbermann posted on the site, “If you go on the air tonight – or at minimum go on without condemning the overt racism of the people who give you $25 million a year – you are complicit Same for you @LawrenceODonnell.msnbc.com and @chrislhayes.bsky.social. Protest, or you are all Joe Scarborough.”
Dear @maddow.msnbc.com
If you go on the air tonight – or at minimum go on without condemning the overt racism of the people who give you $25 million a year – you are complicit
Same for you @LawrenceODonnell.msnbc.com and @chrislhayes.bsky.social
Protest, or you are all Joe Scarborough.
— Keith Olbermann (@olbermann.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Olbermann claimed that the network’s “racism” was blatant, citing the failure of the network to include hosts Stephanie Ruhle or Katy Tur in the show cancellations as a “cover.”
“They didn’t even try to hide the racism by firing an unnecessary white anchor like Tur or Ruhle as cover,” he wrote on BlueSky.
Olbermann previously called for the network to fire “Morning Joe” co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.
“Obviously you have to fire Mr. and Mrs. Scared-Bro,” Olbermann wrote in the Dec. 17 op-ed. “However: Continue their banal but largely benign political coffee klatch show without them.”
During her Monday evening show, Maddow tore into MSNBC over the network’s decision to cancel Reid and Wagner’s show, calling the move a “bad mistake.”
“I love everything about her. I have learned so much from her. I have so much more to learn from her,’ Maddow said on her 9 p.m. show. “I do not want to lose her as a colleague here at MSNBC, and personally, I think it is a bad mistake to let her walk out the door. It is not my call and I understand that. But that’s what I think.”
Reid drew low primetime ratings for the network, garnering 922,000 viewers on Feb. 19, compared to 973,000 amassed by host Chris Hayes, figures still well below those posted by Lawrence O’Donnell and Rachel Maddow.
O’Donnell and Maddow both appeared on the final episode of Reid’s show, “The ReidOut,” alongside “Deadline: White House” host Nicolle Wallace, during which they bemoaned the show’s cancellation and the left-wing host’s departure.
“I am bereft that ‘The ReidOut’ is ending,” Maddow said.
“I think that my reaction to the end of the ReidOut and your departure is despair,” Wallace added.
O’Donnell invoked the 1964 murder of civil rights worker Michael Schwerner in Mississippi while reflecting on the firing of Reid.
“It looked hopeless in 1964,” O’Donnell said. “It looked in 1964 that if you think you’re going to work to get black people the right to vote in Mississippi, you are going to be dead and no one’s going to get the right to vote. And in the end, he won. He won in death. He won from the grave.”
The Nation’s Justice Correspondent Elie Mystal also criticized the cancellations in an article on the magazine’s website and on social media.
“Cancelling Joy Reid means the door she held open for the next generation of Black voices will slam shut,” Mystal posted on X. “Without her, the next her, won’t get platformed by white media. That, of course, is why white media pushed her out.”
Reid had a history of making inflammatory statements largely directed toward conservatives on her show. On Nov. 5, she attacked “white women” for not backing former Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election.
Reid also labeled Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona as a “mayonnaise sandwich on Wonder Bread” during the 2024 campaign, claimed Russia targeted WNBA player Brittney Grainier for being black and queer, laughed when a guest went on a racial tirade against Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas and claimed that a desire to have children was akin to white supremacy.
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