patrick.net

An MSNBC producer has posted a scathing, open letter after quitting the network, claiming it is a 'cancer' because it 'blocks diversity of thought' and 'amplifies fringe voices'.

Ariana Pekary posted the letter online yesterday after quitting the network where she spent seven years working as a producer on shows including Up Late with Alec Baldwin and The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell.

She said she could no longer stand to work at the network which 'stokes national division, even in the middle of a civil rights crisis' and 'blocks diversity of thought and content because the networks have incentive to amplify fringe voices and events'.

Pekary both complained that the network devoted too much time to President Trump in its election coverage - drowning out other potential candidates even though the coverage was mostly negative - and that it focused too much on the politics of the pandemic and the federal response to it rather than science. ...

'I’ve even heard producers deny their role as journalists. A very capable senior producer once said: “Our viewers don’t really consider us the news.

"They come to us for comfort,"' she said. ...

Pekary's decision was endorsed by a former New York Times journalist who quit the newspaper claiming it lives in 'fear' of it's 'assigning editor' - Twitter - and cancel culture.

Bari Weiss clams she was called a 'racist' and 'Nazi' at the newspaper because she held more conservative views than her colleagues.

'We're used to criticism. Criticism is kosher in the work that we do. Criticism is great.

’What cancel culture is about is not criticism. It is about punishment. It is about making a person radioactive. It is about taking away their job,' she said afterwards. ...

More than ever, I'm craving a full and civil discourse.