MSNBC “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough said Tuesday he was “surprised and disappointed” that the news program taken off the air the day before and did not receive a proper explanation as to why.
The four-hour morning news and talk show, a favorite of President Joe Biden and his fans, was replaced Monday by a live news feed from the streaming service NBC News Now, which focused on the aftermath of Saturday’s attacks. attempted murder about former President Donald Trump.
Scarborough said he was told Sunday night that all NBC News channels would operate on one consistent feed all day starting Monday.
“That didn’t happen,” he said Tuesday on “Morning Joe.” “We don’t know why that didn’t happen. Our team hasn’t gotten a good answer as to why that didn’t happen, but it didn’t happen.”
An MSNBC spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
The bias drew attention Monday morning, especially after CNN reported that MSNBC management was concerned that one of the show’s commentators or guests would make an inappropriate comment. MSNBC said that was not true. “Morning Joe,” like other shows on the network, has often been bitingly critical of Trump.
On Monday afternoon, idiosyncratic presenters such as Nicolle Wallace and Ari Melber presented their regular programs, while Rachel Maddow provided coverage of the Republican National Convention.
Scarborough suspected that MSNBC had changed its plans because of the “setback” it suffered from ending its own show early.
“We wanted to be here for our audience,” said Willie Geist, another “Morning Joe” anchor. “We know you trust us and we have the utmost respect for our audience. We’re here today and we wish we were here yesterday.”
Scarborough said that “the next time we’re told there’s going to be a newsfeed replacing us, we’ll sit in our seats and the newsfeed will be us. Or they can have someone else host the show.”
It is the second remarkable uprising on the radio by MSNBC personalities in recent months. Several anchors, including Scarborough and former “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd, objected in March to NBC News hiring former Republican National Committee head Ronna McDaniel as a contributor, a decision the network later retracted.
Before the assassination attempt, “Morning Joe” talk for several days over whether Biden should run for reelection after the president’s poor performance in a debate with Trump, prompting Biden to call into the show to defend his decision to stay.
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David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him on http://twitter.com/dbauder.