GREAT MOMENTS IN PERFORMATIVE KABUKI: Chutzpah: Rachel Maddow Nukes MSNBC Over Recent Firings, Claims Racial Animus.
On-air reactions to recent programming changes continue to reveal the ongoing institutional rot at MSNBC. As part of a network-wide prime time meltdown, star anchor Rachel Maddow openly blasted the programming changes that led to the cancellation of multiple programs in addition to Joy Reid’s.
Here is Rachel Maddow’s rant in its entirety (click “expand” to view transcript):
Rachel Maddow RAKES MSNBC on-air over programming changes pic.twitter.com/Q0wQ1nMbpy
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) February 25, 2025
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Maddow then proceeded to impute racial animus to the cancellations of Reid and Wagner’s shows:
MADDOW: I will tell you, it is also unnerving to see that on a network where we’ve got two, count ‘em, two nonwhite hosts in primetime, both of our nonwhite hosts in primetime are losing their shows, as is Katie Phang on the weekend. And that feels worse than bad, no matter who replaces them. That feels indefensible. And I do not defend it.
Never mind that Reid’s show is rumored to be replaced by a weeknight version of The Weekend, featuring Michael Steele, Symone Sanders-Townsend and Alicia Menéndez. Reid might be gone, but her toxic brand of racial arson remains alive and well at MSNBC.
After interceding for production staff, Maddow proceeds to end her diatribe by chiding the network to “do a lot better”. It is here that we stop and consider the madness of allowing the inmates to continue to run the asylum. Allowing talent to spike the ball after the ouster of McDaniel effectively created the permission structure for them to think themselves entitled to openly weigh in on personnel decisions.
I assume this rant by Maddow was first run by Standards & Practices, and/or MSNBC’s management who signed off on it before it aired, as a little red tufo to throw to the network’s viewer. Because while Maddow is ranting and raving on Reid’s behalf, notice that she’s not resigning herself. And as Larry O’Connor speculates, based on Maddow’s reaction when she dropped in on Reid’s last show, “You can’t convince me Maddow didn’t get a heads-up or even gave approval for Joy’s pink slip.“