Morning Joe hosts express frustration about yanked show after Trump shooting
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"Morning Joe" hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough on Tuesday, July 16.
Hosts of MSNBC's popular "Morning Joe" program seemed dumbfounded Tuesday trying to explain why their show did not air in its regularly scheduled time slot on Monday.
Why it matters: A CNN report suggested NBC News executives yanked the show to avoid any potential comments from the program's guests that could be seen as inappropriate in light of the assassination attempt on former President Trump Saturday evening.
- NBC News denied the CNN report, telling The Washington Post that the decision was part of a broader programming strategy with a singular news feed.
- Joe Scarborough told viewers Tuesday the hosts were "very surprised" and "very disappointed" by the decision.
- An NBC News spokesperson did not respond immediately to an Axios inquiry about the Morning Joe host statements Tuesday.
Driving the news: The hosts seemed confused and skeptical of the decision in their remarks on Tuesday morning.
- "We were told, in no uncertain terms, on Sunday evening that there was going to be one news feed across all NBC news channels yesterday," Scarborough said. That would mean that NBC's flagship news shows, "The Today Show" and "NBC Nightly News" with Lester Holt, would also be preempted by a rolling, breaking news feed.
- "That did not happen," Scarborough explained. "We don't know why that didn't happen. Our team was not given a good answer as to why that didn't happen. But it didn't happen."
- "We were also told it was going to happen throughout the day. And I guess, after there was such a strong blow back about yesterday morning, I guess they changed their plans."
- Morning Joe co-anchor Willie Geist said he was "suited up and ready to go for yesterday morning, on a big morning, and was told that something else was going to be broadcast."
What they're saying: Scarborough, Geist and co-anchor Mika Brzezinski expressed frustration with the decision, and the implied lack of trust from management that the show wouldn't go off the rails.
- "We want to be here for our audience, and we know you trust us," Geist said. "And we have the ultimate respect for you guys. So we're here today. I wish we'd been here yesterday."
- "We would have liked to have been here yesterday, and we are still trying to figure out exactly why there wasn't that one news feed," Scarborough said.
- "I think the reason why is this show began and continues 17 years later on, being the place where you can go to have the hard conversations, in a civil way," Brzezinski said. "And so it seems like now, more than ever, is a time that we would like to be on."
State of play: The confusion over the show being pulled painted a broader picture of tension within the NBC News universe.
- Scarborough on Tuesday issued a threat if the episode is ever repeated.
- "Let me just say, next time we're told there's going to be a news feed replacing us, we will be in our chairs," he said. "The news feed will be us, or they can get somebody else to host the show."
Flashback: The instance comes a few months after MSNBC news anchors and hosts publicly rebelled against management's decision to hire former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel as an on-air contributor.
The big picture: Tension between newsrooms and management at major outlets has grown with journalists questioning coverage decisions around major stories, such as the Israel-Hamas war and the 2024 election.
