MSNBC anchor Kendis Gibson is leaving the far-left network for a local news station, CBS’ Miami station, because he no longer wanted to be part of a “hyper-partisan” news environment.
Variety reported:
The move shows ViacomCBS bringing in new local staffers under Wendy McMahon, co-president of the company’s news and stations unit, and Gibson says he welcomed the chance to take on a wider range of reporting than he was able to do at MSNBC, where he was anchoring early mornings on weekends.
“I wanted to get away from working in the hyper-partisan 24/7 political news space,” Gibson said. “This is a good chance to anchor a newscast that covers the full gamut of the news cycle which I love, including world news, entertainment news, human interest stories and stories important to local communities — and in an awesome city with a big commitment to local news from the top down.”
The Daily Wire previously reported on a former MSNBC producer who wrote an open letter back in August 2020 explaining why she left the network the previous week, saying that they are a “cancer” that is “stoking national division” by amplifying “fringe voices” and forcing “journalists to make bad decisions on a daily basis.”
The letter was written by Ariana Pekary, whom Fox News noted described herself as an “integral member” of MSNBC’s “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell.”
Pekary began her letter by sharing quotes of what people said to her over the last couple of years as she pondered leaving the network due to the detrimental effect that it is having on society.
“July 24th was my last day at MSNBC. I don’t know what I’m going to do next exactly but I simply couldn’t stay there anymore,” Pekary wrote. “My colleagues are very smart people with good intentions. The problem is the job itself. It forces skilled journalists to make bad decisions on a daily basis.”
Pekary said that at MSNBC it was “practically baked in to the editorial process” that decisions on what and who give coverage to were based on what would generate the most ratings for the network. She said that behind closed doors “industry leaders will admit the damage that’s being done.”
A high profile TV veteran reportedly told her, “We are a cancer and there is no cure. But if you could find a cure, it would change the world.”
“As it is, this cancer stokes national division, even in the middle of a civil rights crisis,” Pekary said. “The model blocks diversity of thought and content because the networks have incentive to amplify fringe voices and events, at the expense of others… all because it pumps up the ratings.”
“Context and factual data are often considered too cumbersome for the audience,” Pekary later added. “There may be some truth to that (our education system really should improve the critical thinking skills of Americans) – but another hard truth is that it is the job of journalists to teach and inform, which means they might need to figure out a better way to do that. They could contemplate more creative methods for captivating an audience. Just about anything would improve the current process, which can be pretty rudimentary (think basing today’s content on whatever rated well yesterday, or look to see what’s trending online today).”
Pekary said that she had heard colleagues “deny their role as journalists,” and claimed that a “senior producer” told her, “Our viewers don’t really consider us the news. They come to us for comfort.”