Come 2018, one of those two MSNBC contributors still has a job. Care to guess which one?
MSNBC, the allegedly "liberal" news channel, notified Joan Walsh that they are terminating her contract as a contributor. (Full disclosure: I am longtime friends with Joan, from her days at Salon). The reason the MSNBC executives gave to her agent were "budgetary" concerns.
But they have the money to give Hugh Hewitt his own show. Trump apologist Hugh Hewitt.
You know, this guy.
They also have the budgetary stretch for Charlie Sykes, who is desperately trying to save Republicanism from Trump, although every single Republican in office is lining up next to him.
They've got enough shekels for Peggy Noonan, Our Lady of the Three Martini Lunch, whose political acumen is so sharp that she worried that maybe Doug Jones' pro-choice stance was icky compared to Roy Moore's pedophilia.
Lord knows they have the money to pay the single best argument to "MSNBC is the liberal news": Joe Scarborough, who LOVED Trump and enabled him to get millions of dollars of free airtime gossiping while on the pot during the primary, until Trump went after his girlfriend.
They have the budget to go to Steve Schmidt, who is trying to redeem himself for inflicting Sarah Palin on the world, by pretending the Republican Party he's been part of for his entire career hasn't been hurtling towards the ignorant, racist, democracy-destroying place it's in since the Reagan years.
They didn't worry about budgetary concerns when they brought on George Will, despite Will's disgusting and unapologetic "rape" column and validation of tea party lies, like climate change being a hoax.
They have the money to give Megyn Kelly and Nicolle Wallace their own shows. In Kelly's case, it's quite inexplicable, as it has been soundly panned from the beginning. They tried (and failed, because they failed to understand their audience) to give shows to Greta Van Susteren and Mark Halperin (and John Heilemann, who still remains as a paid contributor).
Noticing a pattern?
Hell, MSNBC doesn't even try to hide it, leaning in with ads like this
Here's the thing: you may not have a particular affinity for Joan Walsh, as I do. But it is incontrovertible that the voices you hear frame the debate. When President Obama was in office, MSNBC leaned in, offering shows to People of Color, like Tamron Hall, Melissa Harris-Perry, Al Sharpton, Karen Finney and Joy Reid (sadly, only Reid remains). Now that we're in the Trump era, with Trump and his flunkies calling out the corrupt media, MSNBC head Andy Lack is clearly tacking to reflect that: white, conservative primarily male pundits.
This is a HUGE miscalculation on MSNBC's part, ignoring the zeitgeist outside the Beltway--the plummeting approval rates of Trump; the distrust of the Republican majority; the growing number of women in the Resistance movement now running for offices; the empowerment of women in workplaces and the public square.
MSNBC's most unapologetically liberal hosts, Rachel Maddow and Joy Reid, enjoy high ratings. Lawrence O'Donnell and contributor Sam Seder were recently saved by viral campaigns.
And yet, despite that evidence that liberal audiences are watching and are invested in who appears on air, MSNBC's Andy Lack decides to let go a solid, feminist, liberal and fact-based voice like Joan Walsh and keep Trump fluffer Hugh Hewitt?
No, I say.
Please contact MSNBC in whichever manner suits you:
Snail mail: MSNBC, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, N.Y. 10112 Attn: Andrew Lack
Comment line: (212) 664-4444
Twitter: @MSNBC (tag @joanwalsh as well, use hashtag #WTFMSNBC or #KeepJoanWalsh.) Digital director: @Farrashley
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/msnbc/
Don't let them change the framing of the political debate by removing liberal voices one by one. Stand up against the Foxification of MSNBC. Sign the petition.
