Ex-MSNBC Host: Had To Get Network President’s OK Before Criticizing Hillary

This is how the “fake news” sausage gets made.

“Fake News” isn’t just making things up and then reporting them while citing “anonymous sources familiar with the matter” *cough* Russiagate *cough* — it’s an entire philosophy. It includes the editorial decisions behind which stories are ignored and which are covered, as well as the way that they’re covered.

Former MSNBC host Krystal Ball gave Joe Rogan a glimpse of her experience into just how that works in a recent appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience.

Ball, a journalist and former Democrat Congressional candidate in Virginia, said that when she was with MSNBC, she learned there were boundaries of what was acceptable commentary on the network. Ball said that after a 2014 monologue critical of Hillary Clinton and urging her not to run for president, she was told that the next time she planned to do commentary on Clinton, it would have to be approved by then-network President Phil Griffin.

“I did this whole thing that was like, ‘She sold out to Wall Street. People are gonna hate this lady. She’s like the terrible candidate for the moment. Please don’t run,’” Ball said last week while on Rogan’s podcast. “I was allowed to say it, I deliver my thing — I did it exactly how I wanted to do it.”

“Afterwards, I get pulled into an office, and you know [I 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,’” said Ball.

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“I did further Hillary Clinton commentary, there’s no doubt about it. I would love to say that that didn’t affect me and that I was just there to be a truth-teller,” she said and added, “Listen, I’m a human being. I’m sure I responded to the incentives of that system, of like, ‘God, I don’t want to get in trouble with the boss.’”

“So, that’s the way that it works. That’s a very blatant example, but often times people know where the boundaries are, they know what they’re allowed to say, and so they don’t need that direct intervention of censorship,” adding, “and also, by the way, these people — most of them in cable news — they are not really there because they are talented. They’re there because they are 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.”

Ball is now co-host of the podcast “Breaking Points” with right-wing journalist Saagar Enjeti, who appeared on Rogan’s podcast with her.

Cross-posted with Clash Daily