MSNBC staffers are hitting the panic button after news Comcast plans to abandon the liberal news outlet from NBCUniversal.
In a shocking decision, Comcast announced it would spin most of its cable networks into a separate company. This move could drastically change the landscape of legacy media, as streaming appears to be the future. This move includes MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Oxygen, E!, SYFY, and the Golf Channel, a company separate from the NBC broadcast network.
Although the spinoff, temporarily dubbed “SpinCo,” won’t require approval from the Department of Justice (DOJ) or the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the company will need to find a partner to make its way through the post-cable viewing environment. It is unclear whether the incoming Trump Administration will make it easy on the network.
During his radio show last week, Trump ally Steve Bannon unleashed an all-out-war on liberal cable news networks, warning them that they “better be worried” and to “lawyer up.”
“There are only two media entities that Donald Trump dislikes more than CNN. One is MSNBC, and the other is NBC,” Craig Moffett, founder of MoffettNathanson, said in a phone interview with CNN.
MSNBC staffers are questioning their future at the network, noting that the decision was made from a business standpoint.
One employee told Fox News Digital that there has been no talk about what the editorial side of things will look like, but remained optimistic after several headaches were caused by some of its on-air “talent” such as Mika [Brzezinski, Joe Scarborough, and Joy Reid.
“I would say some people are probably relieved that probably Comcast and NBC will have less to do with that because if you look at the kerfuffles over the last year with Brzezinski and Scarborough and with [former Republican National Committee chair and one-time NBC News political analyst] Ronna McDaniel, it was all… out of sync with our viewers, are our hosts and reporters out of sync with our bosses,” they said.
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The staffer said they are in the dark about decisions being made at the network, noting that they don’t even know if they would continue operating out of its famed Rockefeller Center headquarters.
“Everybody at MSNBC sort of saw the worst coming between some of the cuts that we've taken and the political winds shifting and our exodus of viewers,” the staffer continued. “I think most people have come to terms with the fact that our alignment with NBC is not great.”
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