The anger inside MSNBC after the network preempted its top morning hosts on the first day of the Republican National Convention reached a crescendo Tuesday, with people inside the network and close to the situation dumbfounded as to how executives could have created a situation that allowed its top stars to go scorched earth on them for the second time in four months.
Multiple sources described the sentiment inside 30 Rock to The Daily Beast as intense frustration, with employees eviscerating NBC News Group President Cesar Conde and MSNBC President Rashida Jones’ decision Monday to yank Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski off the air on the first day of the Republican National Convention.
“The buck stops with Cesar,” one source close to the situation said.
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“When you decide you want to own a news division—these are journalists,” the source continued. “They’re truth seekers, they’re there to tell the story and they’ll tell the story about their own company.”
The fury was on display on Tuesday’s Morning Joe, where Scarborough tore into MSNBC and NBC executives over the removal. Scarborough said the hosts were told there would be one news feed across NBC’s news channels, though the network ultimately simulcast NBC News Now’s Morning News Now, featuring anchors Samantha Sellars and Joe Fryer.
“There is a level of disappointment and disillusion in our leadership in a way that is unlike anything before,” one MSNBC staffer told The Daily Beast.
CNN reported on Sunday that the network had sidelined the two hosts that day over fear they would make an “inappropriate” comment after Saturday’s assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
“Next time we’re told there’s going to be a news feed replacing us, we will be in our chairs,” Scarborough said. “The news feed will be us, or they can get somebody else to host the show.”
Multiple sources pinned the blame on Conde, who took over as head to the NBC News Group in 2020. Those who spoke with The Daily Beast felt that Conde’s lack of journalistic experience—he studied business at Harvard before earning his M.B.A at the University of Pennsylvania, working in executive roles afterward—enabled a decision like this, showcasing an inability to understand what audiences seek out MSNBC’s perspective programming for and feeding into the criticisms the network is solely a left-wing melting pot.
It follows his hiring in March of former Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel on as a contributor, a choice framed as an attempt to consider Republican voices but one that prompted an on-air mutiny across NBC and MSNBC airwaves decrying the hire—spearheaded by hosts like Chuck Todd, Scarborough, and Brzezinski. McDaniel was ousted after a weekend, and Conde eventually took “full responsibility” for the mis-hire.
One source familiar with the situation noted that the Morning Joe talent have often considered themselves bigger than the network, despite the fact that Scarborough or Brezezinski—who both live in Florida—do not run MSNBC.
“Ultimately, [leadership is] not beholden to the talent,” the source said. “They’re beholden to their talent, their affiliates, and their bosses.”
Some within MSNBC speculated whether yanking Morning Joe off air Monday was an attempt by its parent companies—NBCUniversal and its parent, Comcast—to appeal to a potential Donald Trump administration, particularly as Trump allies have continued to batter the network.
Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski address the decision to sideline their show following the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
MSNBC“There’s no world in which any of this makes sense unless Comcast is attempting to curry favor,” one MSNBC employee said. (While Semafor reported on initial plans to also bench Nicolle Wallace and Ari Melber on Monday, those plans were jettisoned, and opinion hosts—including Rachel Maddow—were on MSNBC’s airwaves on Monday night.)
Comcast referred The Daily Beast to NBC’s news division. “The programming decisions are made entirely by NBC News Group,” an NBC News spokesman said.
It’s unclear whether Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and NBCUniversal President Mike Cavanaugh would want to see a reinstated Donald Trump, who has repeatedly attacked Roberts and Comcast as a whole over its NBC ownership. An OpenSecrets analysis of campaign donations showed Roberts has largely donated to Democrats over the last 15 years, with some donations to Republicans.
Still, the sentiment wouldn’t be foreign to media executives. Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav—who oversees CNN—told reporters last week at the annual Allen & Co. Sun Valley Forum in Sun Valley, Idaho, that he wanted a president who prioritized business interests.
“We just need an opportunity for deregulation, so companies can consolidate and do what we need to to be even better," Zaslav said.
The anger within MSNBC represents a broader frustration across news organizations in a time where network executives—both old and, increasingly, new—find ways to simultaneously cover an election with almost daily unprecedented events while trying to curtail costs and resources. That has soured relationships with those who are ultimately the faces of the network: the talent.
“This sort of unhappiness being aired would never have happened under Jeff Zucker’s leadership at CNN,” another source familiar to the situation said, referencing the ex-CNN host known for his familial-like relationship with talent.
Still, the choice to rankle the top stars of a morning program others have left sources who spoke to The Daily Beast unimpressed by Conde’s continued fumbling of the news divisions—prompting journalists to air their grievances in front of millions.
