Joy Reid claimed MSNBC bosses were “horrified” by her presence on social media and repeatedly pressured her to stop tweeting before ultimately canceling her primetime show, The ReidOut.
In a wide-ranging conversation with Katie Couric released Monday on Reid’s new podcast, the former MSNBC host claimed that management at the left-leaning Comcast-owned network discouraged her from engaging with audiences online, fearing it gave her too much autonomy.
“Anytime I would tweet anything, I would get calls — I would get, ‘Please get off Twitter, we hate it,’” Reid said.
“They just don’t like that it pulls their talent and their reporters out of their control because now you’re not running what you’re tweeting through Standards and Practices. It’s giving your personality directly to the audience, which they don’t like because it’s no longer managed and curated by them.”
Reid’s MSNBC program “The ReidOut” was canceled in February as part of a broader programming overhaul led by the network’s new president, Rebecca Kutler. Reid’s final broadcast aired on Feb. 24.
The cancellation occurred amid a network-wide restructuring that also affected other hosts, including Alex Wagner and Katie Phang.
Reid’s remarks come ahead of the June 9 launch of “The Joy Reid Show,” a new podcast and YouTube series.
She posted the interview with Couric to her website and YouTube channel, marking her most candid remarks yet about her February departure from MSNBC.
The network gave no public explanation when it canceled “The ReidOut,” sparking speculation that the decision was part of a broader post-election shakeup following Donald Trump’s return to the presidency.
Several non-white anchors were let go around the same time. Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann called it “an MSNBC purge so brutally racist it makes you think it was done by [Elon] Musk.”
When Couric asked her directly what led to her dismissal, Reid said she’s still unsure.
“I’ve been asked this so many times,” she said. “And people think that I’m just saying it to BS, but I’m being honest with you — I don’t know.”
Reid said she learned about the cancellation not long after exchanging emails with MSNBC’s public relations team celebrating the show’s NAACP Image Award win.
Reid insisted the cancellation wasn’t related to poor ratings.
“It wasn’t ratings,” she said. “We had just had a ratings meeting a couple of weeks before that talking about the fact that our show… other than Rachel Maddow, we were down the least” in the wake of Trump’s win.
“We were just told that we were doing… that we were holding on pretty well,” Reid added. “And then, you know, it’s not like the ratings have gotten better since I’ve been gone.”
She described the way the news was delivered as “scripted” and “just very perfunctory,” noting she received no specific reason for the show’s end.
“I wasn’t told ‘The ratings were terrible,’ ‘It’s something you did,’ ‘You tweeted a terrible thing,’” she said, adding that she had already been “extra careful” online amid growing concerns inside the network about talent on social media.
Although Reid said she doesn’t necessarily believe her outspoken criticism of Trump was the reason for her show’s cancellation, she acknowledged it may have played a role.
“I’m a black woman doing the thing. You know what I mean?” she said.
“I think that there’s a difference for Trump in hearing the kinds of criticisms, specifically, out of a black woman. It bothers him in a way it doesn’t bother him like anything else.”
“There’s a fear of him,” Reid added. “We’re seeing it everywhere.”
Reid has faced multiple controversies over the years, beginning with the resurfacing of homophobic blog posts from her defunct site, “The Reid Report.”
Initially claiming her blog was hacked, Reid later admitted there was no evidence to support that, though she maintained the posts didn’t reflect her views.
She also apologized for past tweets mocking Ann Coulter and Lindsey Graham with sexist and homophobic language.
In 2020, Reid was accused of Islamophobia after comparing Trump’s rhetoric to that of radical Islamic leaders, prompting backlash from Muslim-American groups.
More recently, during MSNBC’s 2024 election coverage, she called Florida a “fascist-type government” and criticized white women voters in North Carolina for not supporting Kamala Harris, blaming them for the state’s failure to protect abortion rights.
Reid also stirred controversy with her response to the assassination attempt on Trump, suggesting his own rhetoric may have helped incite political violence.
Critics accused her of downplaying the seriousness of the attack and called for her show to be canceled.
The Post has sought comment from MSNBC.
