MSNBC Admits They Screwed Up And Rehire Sam Seder

MSNBC President Phil Griffin said that the network got it wrong when they believed an alt-right personality and fired Sam Seder over a 2009 tweet, and they have rehired the progressive back as a contributor.

MSNBC President Phil Griffin said in a statement, “Sometimes you just get one wrong, and that’s what happened here. We made our initial decision for the right reasons — because we don’t consider rape to be a funny topic to be joked about. But we’ve heard the feedback, and we understand the point Sam was trying to make in that tweet was actually in line with our values, even though the language was not. Sam will be welcome on our air going forward.”

It was a bad decision by MSNBC to believe a right wing white supremacist supporting conspiracy theorist instead of doing an investigation before they made a decision, but MSNBC did the right thing and reversed their firing of Seder.

MSNBC has made a lot of good decisions over the past couple of years. The movement toward news during the day has paid off with a ratings boom. Getting rid of Ed Schultz turned out to be the right call given the direction that Schultz has taken since taking a job on RT. Having Brian Williams host a live show at 11 PM has worked out really well. It has been years, but the Keith Olbermann debacle is still a bit mind-boggling, but MSNBC has turned it around.

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They may have blown it by firing Seder, but they did the right thing by hiring him back.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association