Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann is accusing his former bosses of conducting a "racist purge" following the firing of Joy Reid. In a scathing critique, Olbermann claimed that the firing of Reid, known for her strong hate of President Donald Trump, was part of a broader pattern of what he calls discrimination and bias within the network.
Olbermann, who announced he was leaving X in December, made an exception to go on a rant against his former network, claiming MSNBC went on a "racist purge.”
“It is such a confused, brutal, racist purge at MSNBC it’s like they’re being run by Elon Musk,” he wrote on X.
It is such a confused, brutal, racist purge at MSNBC it's like they're being run by Elon Musk
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) February 24, 2025
He went one step further and called on his former colleagues, Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell, and Chris Hayes, to protest and refuse to continue their broadcasts.
“Dear @maddow, If you go on the air tonight - or at minimum go on without condemning the overt racism of the people who give you $25 million a year - you are complicit. Same for you [O'Donnell] and [Hayes]," Olbermann continued. “Protest or you are all Joe Scarborough.”
Echoing Olbermann’s comments, Maddow fired back against MSNBC, saying she thought it was a mistake to fire Reid.
“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,” Maddow said. “I love everything about 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.”
Maddow also claimed that Reid was fired because she is black.
"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 primetime, both of our nonwhite hosts in primetime are losing their shows, as is Katie Phang on the weekend," she said.
Reid was fired as the network continues to experience notable fluctuations in viewership over recent months. In January 2025, the network's total-day viewership declined by 34 percent, averaging only 506,000 viewers. Reid’s show, "The ReidOut,” also experienced a significant drop in viewership, averaging just 973,000 viewers in February 2025—down from 1.3 million the previous year.
Editor's Note: Major shakeups are occurring across mainstream media networks as radical, left-wing talking heads are being shown the door. The leftist media are losing the ideological battle for America in real-time.
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