Free Republic

What’s it like behind the scenes at MSNBC? Ratings and politics were at the core of every editorial decision, according to one former producer, forcing “skilled journalists to make bad decisions on a daily basis.” In a letter about her July 24 departure from MSNBC, Ariana Pekary explains why she left. “It’s possible that I’m more sensitive to the editorial process due to my background in public radio, where no decision I ever witnessed was predicated on how a topic or guest would 'rate.' The longer I was at MSNBC, the more I saw such choices — it’s practically baked...

FACT CHECK: She’s right. – Ariana Pekary, a producer at the evil, Goebbels-style fake news operation MSNBC who resigned last month, has written a parting letter in which she classifies MSNBC and other TV news operations as “a cancer” on our country. It’s pretty hard to argue with that. The letter, posted on her blog, accuses the network’s producers of exactly what you’d expect – choosing stories and panel guests not based on their newsworthiness but on how they might help with the ratings: It’s possible that I’m more sensitive to the editorial process due to my background in public...

MSNBC producer Ariana Pekary quit the network in July and wrote a blog post Monday explaining how she believes “the news” – including her former network – “is fundamentally flawed.”...“The model blocks diversity of thought and content because the networks have incentive to amplify fringe voices and events, at the expense of others… all because it pumps up the ratings,” Pekary continued. “This cancer risks human lives, even in the middle of a pandemic.” The former MSNBC producer wrote that “this cancer risks our democracy,” too, and that “context and factual data are often considered too cumbersome for the audience.”...