(Maire Clayton, Headline USA) MSNBC has reportedly cut the majority of staffers who work on Rachel Maddow’s show, according to The Guardian.
The staffers were given the option of getting severance or the option to reapply for a different role. The shakeup will take effect on April 21.
The outlet said a source at MSNBC stated it was not “widespread layoffs” and instead just reallocating producers for different needs within the company.
The move came after both Joy Reid and Alex Wagner had both of their shows canceled. Wagner will still be with the network as a correspondent.
The layoffs came after MSNBC’s parent company, NBCUniversal, was forced to pay $30 million to a doctor from a federal immigration center who was falsely accused by MSNBC hosts Maddow, Nicolle Wallace and Chris Hayes of performing unnecessary hysterectomies on detainees.
Maddow referenced the restructuring that is going on at MSNBC during her Monday night monologue.
“That has never happened at this scale, in this way before when it comes to programming changes, presumably because it’s not the right way to treat people, and it’s inefficient and it’s unnecessary,” she began. “And it kind of drops the bottom out of whether or not people feel like this is a good place to work, and so we don’t generally do things that way.”
The leftist host also implied she thought her bosses were racist for letting Reid go and removing Wagner’s show.
She claimed it was “unnerving” to axe “both of our non-white hosts in prime time.”
Maddow expressed how she was sad to no longer have Reid as a colleague, as she will miss having her at the network.
“And, personally, I think it is a bad mistake to let her walk out the door. It is not my call, and I understand that,” Maddow added.
