MSNBC has taken its celebrated “Morning Joe” off-air on Monday reportedly on fears that their well-known leftist hosts could say the wrong thing or something deeply insensitive about the Saturday Trump assassination attempt which could leave the network in a bind. The show is missing in action on this crucial day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

“The progressive news network confirmed the decision to preempt its influential and top-rated morning show after a CNN inquiry Sunday evening,” CNN confirms. “The network said the show will resume airing Tuesday.” 

As speculation abounds, and as some try to dubiously claim that it’s ‘normal’ for Morning Joe to not air during a major political news event, NBC issued the following statement: “Given the gravity and complexity of this unfolding story, NBC News, NBC News NOW and MSNBC have remained in rolling breaking news coverage since Saturday evening,” a spokesperson said.

The press release followed with: “As we continue to cover this story into the week, the networks will continue to cross simulcast, alternating between NBC News, NBC News NOW and ‘MSNBC Reports,’ so there is one news feed covering this developing situation.”

CNN then admitted the following based on one of its sources:

A person familiar with the matter told CNN that the decision was made to avoid a scenario in which one of the show’s stable of two dozen-plus guests might make an inappropriate comment on live television that could be used to assail the program and network as a whole. 

Indeed there is a long history of show hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski making astounding and highly incendiary claims which leave network executives facing scrutiny and having to field difficult questions.

At the very least, the decision to pull the program on Monday displays lack of trust in the long-running program and hosts by top network leadership.

Conservative pundit Laura Loomer sounded off in wake of the decision, pointing out the following:

MSNBC has pulled Morning Joe off air this week because they don’t think their leftist hosts can control themselves from celebrating the attempted assassination of President Trump.

Let’s be honest. The rhetoric from MSDNC, CNN, WAPO, NY TIMES and Joe Biden is a contributing factor to why Donald Trump almost had a bullet in his skull this week.

They have been inciting violence against Trump for years, calling him Hitler, saying he’s a dictator and a “threat to democracy”. The shooter was probably even a Morning Joe viewer. I’d be willing to take that bet.

Stunning. On this uniquely impactful morning, #MSNBC pulls its signature show #MorningJoe, for fear that some jackwagon panelist would say something grotesquely inappropriate. Profoundly pathetic… and probably a wise move on their part. pic.twitter.com/JqqDSGfz9f

— Mark Davis (@MarkDavis) July 15, 2024

Ironically some on the Left are miffed at the display of obvious lack of trust, with Liberal journalist Jeff Jarvis questioning on X, “What the f—, MSNBC? You preempted your excellent weekend programming… and now you’ve silenced [Morning Joe] in favor of your anodyne streaming news cos-play called Now?”

“This is when we need the analysis and conversation these shows bring us (yes, with controversy; that is how public discourse works through it: with discussion),” he continued. “It is shocking that NBC/Comcast do not understand their own company’s programs and raison d’etre.”

But again, MSNBC has not alluded to any deeper reasons behind temporarily pulling the program other than to say it wishes to provide coverage via a single news feed.

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Meanwhile, this kind of scrambling to reign in the narrative is on display at a number of other outlets too, Glenn Greenwald points out…

This is the magazine that just published a cover story explicitly depicting Trump as Hitler, complete with the Hitler mustache, Nazi fonts and a panel of “fascism experts” (e.g. the scholar @brianstelter).

Now they have to pretend to find the assassination attempt “despicable.” https://t.co/FGJwEzofuM

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 15, 2024