MSNBC reportedly prohibited unfavorable coverage of former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2014 without approval from the network’s president, according to a former MSNBC host who claimed most of the cable news staff are simply “reliable purveyors of whatever it is that that network wants to purvey.”
Appearing on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, broadcaster Krystal Ball described sharing her take on Hillary in 2014 as the former senator was viewed as a possible candidate for president in the next elections. Hillary formally announced her campaign the following year.
“Now, ultimately, shortly before I was let go, I did a monologue when Hillary Clinton was building up to run for president. It was back in 2014, so this was early on,” Ball said. “And I did this whole thing [about how] she sold out to Wall Street [and] people are going to hate this lady.”
“She’s, like, the terrible candidate for the moment, [so] please don’t run,” she added.
In that take, Ball, who co-hosted MSNBC’s The Cycle at the time, expressed her opposition to a Hillary run despite any admiration for her:
In a time when corporations have hijacked our politics, enabling them to reap all the profit without feeling any compunction to do right by their workers, is someone who sat on the rabidly anti-union board of Walmart for six years the right person to restore workers’ rights?
In a time when we are still reeling from a global financial disaster brought on by foolhardy bank deregulation, is someone who recently took $400,000 to give two speeches at Goldman Sachs the person we need to wrest control of the asylum back from the banking inmates?
According to Ball, despite Hillary’s talents, she was “not the woman to address the deep inequality, corporate political capture, and middle-class rot afflicting our country.”
“So although I deeply admire and respect Secretary Clinton, I must say: ‘Don’t run Hillary. Don’t run,’” she concluded.
Reflecting on that monologue, Ball said though she was technically “allowed” to say what she did and did so “exactly” how she wished, she was subsequently reprimanded.
“Afterwards, I get pulled into an office and [was told,] ‘Great monologue, everything’s fine; but next time you do any commentary on Hillary Clinton, it has to get approved by the president of the network,’” she said.
The former Democrat congressional candidate from Virginia then explained how the incident assuredly affected her later coverage of the now-failed presidential candidate.
“I would love to say that didn’t affect me and I was just there to be a truth-teller,” she said. “But listen, I’m a human being. I’m sure I responded to the incentives of that system of like, ‘I don’t want to get in trouble with the boss,’” she said.
Claiming her “very blatant example” illustrates “the way that it works,” Ball argued that “oftentimes, people [already] know where the boundaries are.”
“They know what they’re allowed to say, and so they don’t need that direct intervention of censorship,” she explained.
She also revealed that staff are mostly mouthpieces for the network’s agenda.
“Most of them in cable news — they’re not really there because they’re talented,” she said. “They’re there because they’re reliable purveyors of whatever it is that that network wants to purvey.”
“So that’s ultimately why they get the job and they understand the parameters of the task,” she added.
Similar left-wing media censorship intended to sway elections was evident during the run-up to the 2020 election when coverage of the Hunter Biden laptop scandal was suppressed in a move that would draw significant backlash.
The infamous “laptop from hell” story provided evidence of Hunter’s shady foreign business dealings and his involvement in illegal activities, such as serious drug use and meetings with prostitutes.
Though at the time of the story’s publication, Hunter’s scandals were widely dismissed by the establishment press; after Joe Biden’s taking office, multiple mainstream media news outlets verified the laptop and its contents.
Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.