‘Indefensible’: Rachel Maddow Spotlights MSNBC’s Problematic History With Hosts of Color

Joy Reid’s departure from MSNBC has brought a sudden and unwanted focus on the progressive network’s handling of on-air talent of color.

That’s not my hot take; that observation is straight from MSNBC’s biggest prime time star, Rachel Maddow, who went hard against the network’s decision to fire Reid in a searing Monday night monologue delivered just hours after her now-former colleague signed off for the last time.

While I don’t believe for a moment that Reid’s racial identity had anything to do with her firing, MSNBC’s decision to abruptly oust the high-profile host has angered a significant segment of their viewers because they’ve come to see these very sorts of corporate actions through that prism.

It’s a point of view they’ve been told to believe over and over again — by MSNBC.

Maddow’s farewell was full of praise for Reid but layered with remarkably sharp criticism of the MSNBC executives behind the move, whom she blamed for making a “bad mistake.”

“I have learned so much from her,” she said. “I have so much more to learn from her. 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.”

Jen Psaki and Stephanie Ruhle also weighed in by praising Reid, while Lawrence O’Donnell was also criticized MSNBC directly after Maddow handed the airwaves over to him on Monday.

“The idea that those people are all now adrift somehow makes absolutely no sense, as you pointed out earlier,” O’Donnell said to Maddow. “And I hope something can be done about that.”

It’s stunning — as it was last year when a slew of MSNBC hosts protested the hiring of former RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel — to watch powerful on-air talent use their own network to criticize the decisions made by their bosses.

Some credit is owed to MSNBC here: the network allows open dissent even if it curries more criticism. Yet two things are evident in both the McDaniel and Reid episodes: 1) The talent has the freedom to say whatever they want, and 2) There is a significant chasm between how network executives and their top talent believe the company should operate.

I’m reminded of an old broadcasting adage that it’s never wise to get into a fight with a guy holding a microphone. But in this instance, MSNBC owns the microphones and is allowing talent (to which it pays millions of dollars a year) to openly criticize it.

Cable news networks rely on collaboration and alliances between big personalities with bigger contracts. Talent comes and goes as those personalities clash against each other, and the leadership is charged with keeping the lights on.

But the more significant issue for many of MSNBC’s progressive viewers is how the network is handling its hosts of color — something Maddow herself condemned as “indefensible” on Monday night.

“I will tell you it is also unnerving to see that on a network where we’ve got two – count them – two nonwhite hosts in prime time, both of our nonwhite hosts in prime time are losing their shows, as is Katie Phang on the weekend,” she said. “And that feels worse than bad, no matter who replaces them. That feels indefensible. And I do not defend it.”

Others were less measured in their criticism. Former MSNBC host turned social media troll Keith Olbermann called the changes a “racist purge” in a new podcast.

“The firing of Joy Reid by MSNBC!” he blared. “Of course, it was racist. MSNBC has only ever had four women of color solo anchor their own shows, and they’ve now fired all four of them.”

Olbermann is referring to Tiffany Cross, Phang, and Melissa Harris-Perry. What he didn’t note is that two male anchors of color — Jose Diaz Balart and Ayman Mohyeldin — also lost their own shows (they will remain on the network in different capacities). Some will insist that Olbermann is irresponsibly race-baiting. I think he’s just got a massive axe to grind and delights in crapping on his former network. .

Like all television networks, MSNBC makes regular changes to its stable of on-air talent. This is just the latest. Yes, people of color are being let go, but that is in part due to the fact that the network hires a lot of people of color. Its lineup is diverse and reflects the demographic face of America.

But I’m not making a case that MSNBC has behaved immorally. The network’s sin is a more threatening one to its bottom line: by casting out well-liked hosts of color, MSNBC is sparking outrage among a significant chunk of viewers at a time when they can ill afford to lose any.

Former MSNBC host Tiffany Cross called for a boycott.  Toure also blasted the network, and Angela Rye also told her followers to turn off MSNBC. The criticism, which resonates among liberals, represents a real problem that the network has to contend with.

Reid’s 7 p.m. timeslot will now be hosted by former Biden aide Symone Sanders, former RNC chair Michael Steele, and Alicia Menendez, daughter of senator turned convicted felon Bob Menendez. Yes, they are all people of color. More importantly, these hosts all come from or are deeply aware of the established and lucrative political media ecosystem from deep within the Beltway. And maybe that’s the real point in the Trump 2.0 era, where corporate media overlords appear eager to make nice with the once and current president.

But none of MSNBC’s challenges with racial dynamics is new. In 2010, the Dallas Tea Party published a video that mocked Keith Olbermann’s critique of their organization, reclaiming the question “Where are the Black People?” and showing a screenshot of MSNBC’s all-white slate of on-air talent, which you can watch here:

It was a remarkably effective video that I covered at the time and earned me a “Worst Person in the World” honorific from Olbermann (though he changed the segment to “Hall of Shame” that night, I think as a dig on my name.)

That was 15 years ago, and I’ve been reliably told that that entire episode led Al Sharpton to threaten then-MSNBC boss Phil Griffin unless he got a show. He did, and as a result, MSNBC’s on-air roster started to become a lot more diverse. Am I responsible for Sharpton’s MSNBC career? God, I hope not, but stranger things have happened.

As you can see, MSNBC’s effort to present a diverse set of voices has come with challenges for a long time. Ain’t that America?

TV hosts get fired all the time, and the fact that Joy Reid is a woman of color does not make that decision racially based. But the decisions made by the executive team really don’t matter if a large section of MSNBC viewers — especially women of color — believe it to be a massive middle finger to them, And Maddow’s comments only serve to embolden that idea.

MSNBC has conditioned its audience to embrace identity-based outrage. Now, it’s coming back to bite them.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.