‘A bad mistake’: Rachel Maddow blasts MSNBC following Joy Reid departure

Donald Trump’s insidious policies are already taking a toll on the country, as everyone from federal workers to media personalities face renewed hurdles — and even job losses — over his directives.

One major executive action that’s had far reaching effects revolves around Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion practices at businesses across the nation. Its already damaging the careers of employees across sectors, and with MSNBC’s decision to bow under Trump’s pressure, it officially adds the network to an already-lengthy list of impacted companies — and network star Rachel Maddow is not a fan.

If there’s any name you know at MSNBC, it’s almost certainly Maddow’s. She’s the superstar of MSNBC, and her left-of-center opinions have made her among the biggest enemies of the far-right. To MAGAs, she’s the left’s equivalent of Sean Hannity, which makes her akin to the devil — right alongside fellow MSNBC staples like Lester Hoult and Joy Reid.

Both of whom boast nearly the same level of name recognition as Maddow, which made it all the more shocking in late February when both hosts were shuffled out of — or fully removed — from their broadly-successful former roles. It was the blow to Reid that hit the hardest, however, after The ReidOut was gracelessly cancelled, and Reid, as a result, left the network. Her departure from her longtime home was met with outrage by both Reid’s fans and her co-workers, several of whom spoke out in protest.

It was Maddow’s vocal pushback against the decision that made the most waves, however, after arguably MSNBC’s biggest star blasted her own network via her mega-popular program, The Rachel Maddow Show. Noting that “there is no colleague for whom I have had more affection, and more respect,” Maddow called it a “mistake” for MSNBC to “let her walk out the door.”

She added how “unnerving” it is to watch her own network — a purportedly progressive one, at that — adhere to policies that just robbed it of some of its only diverse talent. “On a network where we’ve got two — count ’em, two — non-white hosts in primetime, both of our non-white hosts in primetime are losing their shows,” she said.

Maddow is right, but I’ll up her language a bit. That’s downright alarming. If anyone out there is supposed to stand up to heartless politicians, its the media. We are the Fourth Estate, are we not? Is our entire purpose not to hold power accountable, to push back and challenge illegal or discriminatory schemes? When we cave to pressure from politicians, we threaten the entire existence of the press.

We cannot let this lie, and Maddow’s vocal outcry is exactly the right response. We are a check on the power that Donald Trump is so recklessly wielding, and his careful targeting of the press gets bolder with each day. Between his numerous lawsuits, attacks against journalists, and these insidious policies, he’s slowly carving away at the press corps, and if he’s successful, this country will have no choice but to watch as the truth dies right alongside Lady Liberty.