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Unknown A
All right, let's go ahead and get to all of the chaos drama going on at msnbc, which is really quite interesting. So I'll try to give an overall breakdown. We'll get into some of the specifics here. Joy Reid is out of the company entirely and her primetime show canceled. Katie Fung, who was a weekend anchor, apparently out of Florida. They had a Florida operation. Didn't even know that. Anyway, she's, she is also, she's had her show canceled. Alex Wagner, who had taken over the 9pm slot from Rachel Maddow, she is out of the 9pm slot, being replaced by Jen Psaki and after Rachel has been brought back in for the first hundred days of the Trump administration, but apparently they're putting in Jen Psaki rather than Alex Wagner into that slot. Alex is going to stay with the network but do just like, you know, on air correspondent kind of stuff.
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Unknown A
Amyn Moyeldine, who is having his show taken away but is supposed to be part of a new ensemble show. Same thing with Jonathan Capehart. Supposed to be part of a new ensemble show. Joy Reid is being replaced by another ensemble show which has more Biden and party spokespeople. This one has Alicia Menendez, whose dad is Bob Menendez. Gold bars Bob, you've got Michael Steele, the former RNC chair, and then you got Simone Sanders, who previously was a Kamala Harris comms person. So, I mean, there's a lot to say about these moves. But one thing is if you didn't think it was possible for MSNBC to be any more in the tank for the Democratic Party, you were wrong because that is what these moves basically are across the board. I mean, you literally bring in Jen Psaki into primetime. Simone Sanders also into primetime. You already have Nicole Wallace, Michael Steele.
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Unknown A
These are all close party operatives who are given prime slots. And some of the voices here. And I'm getting more into this in a moment. Like, even though obviously I've had disagreements with everybody on the network, but you know, Eamonn has been a real critic of Israel and you know, he has done reporting in Gaza. Like he has a real deep understanding of that. He's been notable for being outspoken there. He also has been outspoken at times with criticism against the Democratic Party. So he's no longer gonna have a solo show. Alex Wagner has also spoken out against Israel, not as often or forcefully as Aman, but she also has done that in her primetime slot. Joy Reid has been probably one of the most consistent voices with regard to Israel and Gaza. So it is notable that those are some of the people who are either losing their position or out of the network altogether.
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Unknown A
Notably last night Rachel Maddow in her primetime show. And Rachel, of course, is the big dog at the network and is very loyal to the network as well. She actually criticized them for some of these moves. Let's take a listen how she framed.
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Unknown B
In all of the jobs I have had, in all of the years I have been alive, there is no colleague for whom I have had more affection and more respect than Joy Reid. I love everything about her. I have learned so much from her. 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. I will tell you. It is also unnerving to see that on a network where we've got two, count em, two non white hosts in primetime. Both of our non white hosts in primetime are losing their shows, as is Katie Fang on the weekend. And that feels worse than bad. No matter who replaces them.
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Unknown B
That feels indefensible and I do not defend it.
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Unknown A
So interesting that she decided to criticize the network at all, which again is pretty unusual. Joy had her last show last night. Her final panel was like Rachel, Nicole Wallace and Lawrence O'Donnell, which seemed to be like a show of support for her. Whatever. So in any case, like I said, they are quelling some of the few. And Joy also was critical at times of the Democratic Party, even though she hated Bernie Sanders from the whole body language expert situation. But she has been critical of the Democratic Party at times. That will be gone. Eamon, like I said, has been critical. That will be gone. And Alex has been critical on Israel. That will be gone as well. So there you go.
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Unknown C
Yeah, but that's my thing with Rachel Maddow. It's like what? All she sees is color. It's like it makes a lot more sense from an ideological perspective. They want a bunch of Biden sycophants like Simone Sanders.
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Unknown A
But it is true. Literally every one of the people that I mentioned is a person of color and they have. So it's not crazy to like note that also they do have.
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Unknown C
Yeah, but that's the only thing she had to say.
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Unknown A
They do have a track record of firing like black women in particular. So Melissa Harris Perry, Tiffany Cross, Tamron hall, and now Joy Reid. So as a network that's supposed to be progressive and supposed to Be diverse. And that's the audience. A big part of the msnbc, like the audience that remains and still watches. Significant part of that is black viewing audience. And so, you know, I think it is. I don't think it's unreasonable to note that.
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Unknown C
My thing is, is look, when you're a progressive work, especially fair, look within their analysis and view of the world, which is literally racial obsessed, I guess it makes sense. But what I would say is Tiffany Cross, Simone sand or Tiffany Cross, Joy Reid and all those people have what in common? Terrible ratings. I mean, at the end of the day, from what I read, they asked Joy to take a pay cut and basically she said no. So that's what I think is actually happening here. That's one of the reasons that she was canceled. So in a way, she's narcissistic. Our producer G.R. griffin makes a good point. What? Rachel can't take a pay cut. She's only working one day a week for $30 million.
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Unknown A
Oh, she's in every day now?
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Unknown C
No, only for the first hundred days.
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Unknown A
For the first 100 days, yeah.
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Unknown C
Right. And what, you think she's doing that for free or she didn't demand an extra 10 million or whatever on the top of that. So just saying, if you actually cared about any of that. But my view of this is just that they are desperate to put the ideological blinders on the situation and continue their grip and guide on the Democratic Party. I don't think it will work, just to be clear, because of the way that the liberal base is currently reacting to Morning Joe and others. And also, this is the thing about media shakeups is, yes, initially, independent media and all that was very beneficial to Republicans. What, Democrats are gonna sit around and do nothing about it? I mean, Midas Touch is a huge channel. I feel like I have to mention them now if they're gonna be the number one podcast in the country, I check their channel every day and be like, all right, what are the shitlibs into today?
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Unknown C
And it's all like, Donald Trump humiliated on the world stage. I'm like, I guess this is what does it for the boomers and for liberals out there. Okay? But my point is, is that you gotta take it seriously. And I don't do that in the same way with msnbc. So that's why I think MSNBC will ultimately fail is because this new energy is all exploding online.
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Unknown A
That's right.
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Unknown C
On Blue sky, on YouTube, podcasts. I mean, and this is why, you know, I still cheer independent media. The Internet is a vehicle to bypass the establishment in all forms. That's why the right did very well there. Well, liberals, you're out of power literally for the first time in 20 years at an ideological and a narrative level. Use what is your at your disposal. And that's what they're doing. They're going in the Midas touch. You know, they're you. These left wing groups are using the Internet and email list and all that, like it's 2004 again to organize all these protests.
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Unknown A
Move on is back.
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Unknown C
Moveon is back. I mean, like, listen, guys, you have the opportunity. The Bernie Sanders campaign of 2020 and 2016 showed you the blueprint. You can raise a shit ton of money if you want to. Just online. You don't have to do anything. Do I think they're gonna do any of this? I don't know. But my point on the liberal activism front is just that MSNBC's attempt here to keep the grips on power and all of that, it's not gonna work. I mean, at the same time, I'm loving it. I hope they burn just because I would love to see them go bankrupt. And the entire experiment has been completely ridiculous and a net negative. But overall it is amusing on all sides. I would just say I want Joy to finally tell us the truth about her blog posts. Did you actually get hacked or not?
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Unknown C
That's the first question that I would ever ask her.
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Unknown A
There's. So I think it is an important indicator of how they're positioning themselves. Because if you really like, if you really are worried about cost cutting, I'll tell you, there's two very expensive personalities that start your day. Yeah, 5 million each.
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Unknown C
No, maybe more.
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Unknown A
10 million who have your audience absolutely is disgusted with.
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Unknown C
Yeah.
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Unknown A
So if you wanted to try to rebuild credibility with the liberal base blue Maga types, they should be the first ones to go because that overhead is massive. You guys remember Comcast is spinning off MSNBC as part of like they're spinning off a number of their cable channels, but MSNBC being one of them. They're no longer gonna be under Comcast. They're no longer gonna be tied to the NBC brand, which gave them some journalistic credibility, which means they need to go more in the direction of opinion and talking heads because that's what they need to lean into. So you've got, starting your day, two people who liberals feel utterly lied to them and betrayed them. That's going to be a weight around your neck. But rather than going in that direction, which I think you'd have more of A chance of picking up, you know, picking back up some of your audience, et cetera.
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Unknown A
Instead, you're getting rid of some of the voices that could have been, you know, critical of the legacy Democratic Party and helped to chart a different pathway forward. And again, like I said, I have ideological issues, basically all of these people, but they are some of the people who were at least a little bit willing to criticize the Democratic Party. And instead you're getting literal former Biden spokesman. I mean, think about that. And Ryan was making this point on Twitter like, Biden was a disaster for the Democratic Party. Getting behind him in 2020 was a disaster for the Democratic Party. It blocked any sort of change in structure or different approach and hobbled you with this old, aging, flailing man. You guys covered for him forever. You blocked any sort of primary effort that could have led to a Democratic challenge to him within the Democratic Party at a time when Democrats were saying they wanted to see other options.
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Unknown A
And now you're doubling down on what has been the most destructive strategy deployed within the Democratic Party by bringing in both Simone Sanders is getting elevated into primetime as partisan ensemble show and Jen Psaki, who is a literal campaign operative and spokesperson for him. Think about that. It's insane. It's an utterly insane decision to make. Not to mention, of course, I don't wanna hear anything from them about how closely tied Fox News is to the Trump White House, et cetera. So, yeah, I mean, I think it's a set of foolish decisions. I certainly don't think it's gonna solve their problems. Then the other thing is the way they handled all of this was just a total shit show. We could put E2 up on the screen. So there was apparently a bunch of stuff leaked about Joy Reid's show getting canceled and they're having to tell them no, Trump wasn't a factor.
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Unknown A
That had nothing to do with it. I know that the amen announcement of moving him out of his own solo show into an ensemble show that was handled in a catastrophic way. And so they're trying to play cleanup about what's going on because they know how vulnerable they are to this idea that they're bending the knee to Trump and that they're doubling down on the failures of the past, the Democratic Party, and they won't broke any criticism of the Democratic Party, et cetera. So they know they're in a very vulnerable spot with their own audience and are kind of, I think, panicked about the way that these announcements even were rolled out from within the organization. They're Just a mess.
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Unknown C
Yeah, it's hilarious. I say keep it going and let's try and let's bring an end to the business as soon as possible. Did you know, I was actually reading about this, that they anticipate losing some 15% of their own subscribers just this year. That's a disaster.
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Unknown A
Is that from Peacock?
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Unknown C
No, no, no. Their subscribers for cable, for people who are cutting. They're cutting the cord. Yeah. So there are so many people. I've been meaning to talk about this. With the jacking up of YouTube TV and Fubo to like $85 per month, they're now basically making cable just as expensive as it used to be. And so with that, a lot of the reasons why people kept it was news and sports. Well, both of those are kind of becoming disaggregated. And if you just don't care about MSNBC anymore, you're like, okay. For a lot of older people, that's the easiest decision they'll make as it continues to go up for their overall price bucket. So existential event for the news business. Yeah, for fox, for MSNBC and for cnn.
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Unknown A
Yeah. I mean, I just. I wish I was remained as hopeful as you are about the independent media space because you've seen so many of, you know, so many creators just get captured by the similar dynamics as the mainstream media. So, you know, I will say, I do think what is very hopeful to me is that msnbc, cnn, Washington Post, New York Times, they do not, and I don't think they will ever have again the grip on the liberal Democratic base that they once did. And that was so important. You know, that really allowed them to completely control the 2020 primary and say, you got to get behind Biden and boy, did they ever. Yes, I don't think that dynamic exists anymore. Now, does that guarantee a better outcome or, you know, an outsider takeover? No, it doesn't guarantee any of that, but it creates a lot more space and possibility for that than ever existed in 2016 or in 2020.
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Unknown C
Yeah, it'd be interesting. Could be the Libs 2016 moment. It'd be. Yeah, honestly, be fun. Hey, if you like that video, hit the like button or leave a comment below. It really helps get the show to more people.
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Unknown A
And if you'd like to get the full show ad free and in your inbox every morning, you can sign up at Breaking points. Com.
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Unknown C
That's right, get the full show. Help support the future of independent media at breakingpoints.
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Unknown A
Com.