Controversial Journalist Michael Wolff Claims Fear of Trump Scared MSNBC Into Banning Him From Air

AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey

Author Michael Wolff claimed Thursday in a piece published by The Hollywood Reporter that he is being blacklisted by all cable news and broadcast networks because his latest book about President Donald Trump has the media afraid of upsetting the president.

Wolff said the book, All or Nothing: How Trump Recaptured America, is being ignored by television news, singling out the left-leaning network MSNBC, because Trump has the media running “scared.”

In the book, Wolff claimed to have the inside track to what was driving Trump and those around him in the final days of the 2024 election.

He said Thursday he received predictable pushback from Trump and his allies while writing it, but that its reception from one media outlet stunned him. Wolff wrote:

While the book was greeted by gratifying reviews in many print outlets, including the New York Times, and debuted at No. 9 on theTimes’ best-seller list, most every significant television news outlet — ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN — has declined to have it discussed on its news shows. MSNBC, a network whose bread and butter is opposition to the president and which had booked me for several shows, including Lawrence O’Donnell, a show I regularly do when I publish a book, canceled those appearances as soon as portions of the book began to leak, followed shortly by the White House tirades.

Jesse Rodriguez, MSNBC’s chief booker, explained to representatives from my publisher, Crown, the Penguin Random House imprint, that the book was being reviewed by “Standards and Legal,” in itself an unusual step. Rodriguez, who kept assuring my publishing team that he hoped we’d soon be back on schedule, seemed to express surprise as this turned into a multi-week and indeterminate process.

The author went on to claim Trump had carried out an effective campaign of scaring the media into “banning” him.

Wolff cited Trump’s successful civil suit against ABC News and George Stephanopoulos as evidence that the media is afraid to allow him to target Trump on the airwaves.

“What was not anticipated is how quickly and easily the media has capitulated and groveled. In the past, news organizations have met governmental threats and incursions with implacable resistance,” he wrote Thursday. “But in this new climate, where corporate parents are hostage to Trump’s whims — MSNBC’s parent, Comcast, is, for instance, spinning off the network and likely hoping to sell it, which will need regulatory approval from Trump’s FCC — news divisions don’t seem to have much of a chance.”

Claims in Wolff’s three previous books about Trump have been challenged, including his latest regarding Fox News, The Fall.

New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman previously questioned the credibility of Wolff’s 2018 book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. “Thin but readable,” she stated of the book. “Well written. Several things that are true and several that are not. Light in fact-checking and copy-editing.”

All or Nothing says it “delivers a breathtaking insider account of the 2024 Trump campaign—undoubtedly the wildest, most unpredictable campaign in U.S. history, including multiple criminal trials, two assassination attempts, and a sudden switch of opponents.”