The Biggest Controversies in MSNBC History

MSNBC might not be the most controversial cable news channel out there, but it has had its share of bad PR in its time on the air.

From offensive comments made by MSNBC hosts — on camera and off — to workplace conflict that played out publicly, here’s a timeline of our picks for the biggest controversies from nearly three decades of the network’s history.

2003: Michael Savage insults a prank caller with homophobic insults

Conservative radio host Michael Savage lost his MSNBC show, The Savage Nation, in July 2003 after losing his cool with a prank caller on air. After the caller insulted Savage’s teeth, the host fired off a barrage of homophobic insults.

“Oh, you’re one of the sodomites!” Savage said, per the San Francisco Chronicle. “You should only get AIDS and die, you pig! How’s that? Why don’t you see if you can sue me, you pig?”

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In a statement, an MSNBC spokesperson said that Savage “made an extremely inappropriate remark” and that “the decision to cancel the program was not a difficult one.”

2007: Don Imus makes an abhorrent remark about the Rutgers women’s basketball team

Shock jock Don Imus crossed the line with MSNBC in April 2007 when he made a racist and sexist remark — which TV Insider won’t reprint — about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team.

NBC News said the decision to cut ties with Imus “[came] as a result of an ongoing review process” that “[took] into account many conversations with our own employees,” per The New York Times.

2013: Alec Baldwin uses a homophobic slur

In November 2013, after actor Alec Baldwin was caught on tape yelling homophobic language at a paparazzo, MSNBC yanked the six-week-old talk show Up Late With Alec Baldwin off the air in what the network called a “mutual parting,” per NBC News.

Baldwin allegedly called the photographer two homophobic slurs. He claimed he only used one, not realizing it was a slur, and denied using the other.

2013: Martin Bashir suggests that Sarah Palin should have to eat feces

Just a week later, British journalist Martin Bashir resigned from MSNBC after weeks of controversy around the comments he made on his self-named program about former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who had said it was “going to be like slavery” when the U.S. had to pay its national debt.

In response, Bashir suggested that Palin should be punished with someone defecating in her mouth, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Bashir issued an apology in his resignation announcement, saying, “It is my sincere hope that all of my colleagues, at this special network, will be allowed to focus on the issues that matter without the distraction of myself or my ill-judged comments.”

2016: Melissa Harris-Perry gets cut after criticizing the network

In February 2016, TV host Melissa Harris-Perry refused to return to work at her self-named weekend MSNBC show after feeling preempted and sidelined during the network’s presidential election coverage, telling The New York Times she hadn’t appeared on MSNBC in “weeks.”

In an email to coworkers, Harris-Perry wrote, “Here is the reality: Our show was taken — without comment or discussion or notice — in the midst of an election season. After four years of building an audience, developing a brand, and developing trust with our viewers, we were effectively and utterly silenced.”

Harris-Perry also wrote in the email that she would “not be used as a tool for their purposes” and that she was “not a token, mammy, or little brown bobblehead.” She later told the Times she didn’t think she was being denied airtime because she was Black but said on The View her treatment had racial implications. Days after the walkout, an MSNBC spokesperson told the Times that the network and Harris-Perry were parting ways.

2020: Chris Matthews exits MSNBC after several inappropriate comments over the years

Chris Matthews left his MSNBC show, Hardball, mid-broadcast in March 2020 after a brief on-air statement apologizing for his comments about women. “We’re talking here about better standards than we grew up with, fair standards,” he said in that farewell, per the Los Angeles Times. “A lot of it has to do with how we talk to each other. Compliments on a woman’s appearance that some men, including me, might have once incorrectly thought were okay were never okay, not then and certainly not today. And for making such comments in the past, I’m sorry.”

Days earlier, journalist Laura Bassett alleged in a GQ essay that Matthews inappropriately flirted with her before a 2016 interview. But Matthews had a history of inappropriate comments. In 2006, he criticized Ann Coulter’s appearance, and the following year, he called Laura Ingraham “great-looking” and Erin Burnett “a knockout” on air, per Refinery29. And in 2016, he joked about needing “that Bill Cosby pill” before interviewing Hillary Clinton, per The Cut.

2024: NBC News hires Ronna McDaniel, sparking outrage among MSNBC anchors

MSNBC anchors rebelled against network execs In March 2024 after NBC News made a paid political analyst out of former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel, who was involved in attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, per CNN. MSNBC hosts Chuck Todd, Mika Brzezinski, Joe Scarborough, Nicolle Wallace, and Rachel Maddow all objected to the addition of McDaniel to the NBC News payroll.

Within days, NBC News changed course and let McDaniel go. “There is no doubt that the last several days have been difficult for the News Group,” Cesar Conde, president of NBCUniversal News Group, said in a memo to staff. “After listening to the legitimate concerns of many of you, I have decided that Ronna McDaniel will not be an NBC News contributor.”