MSNBC producer Ariana Pekary blasted the network as a “cancer” in an open letter explaining her reasoning for quitting, the New York Post reports.
In her resignation letter “Personal news: why I’m now leaving MSNBC” posted on her personal website, she slams her former employer for letting ratings control content and accuses the network of blocking “diversity of thought.”
“This cancer risks human lives, even in the middle of a pandemic,” she wrote of MSNBC.
Pekary worked on “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell.” She joined the MSNBC team seven years ago to work on “Up Late with Alec Baldwin," according to the newspaper.
“The longer I was at MSNBC, the more I saw such choices — it’s practically baked in to the editorial process – and those decisions affect news content every day,” she wrote. “Likewise, it’s taboo to discuss how the ratings scheme distorts content, or it’s simply taken for granted, because everyone in the commercial broadcast news industry is doing the exact same thing.”
She said the network’s current approach has forced “skilled journalists to make bad decisions on a daily basis.”
“The model blocks diversity of thought and content because the networks have incentive to amplify fringe voices and events, at the expense of others,” Pekary penned. “All because it pumps up the ratings.”
She wrote that her last day was July 24. She said ratings already had impacted how the network was covering the election with an emphasis on President Donald Trump over former Vice President Joe Biden.
“Any discussion about the election usually focuses on Donald Trump, not Joe Biden, a repeat offense from 2016 (Trump smothers out all other coverage),” she wrote. “Also important is to ensure citizens can vote by mail this year, but I’ve watched that topic get ignored or ‘killed’ numerous times.”
Pekary added for the same reason, Trump’s leadership became the primary focus of the coronavirus coverage instead of “science itself.”
“As new details have become available about antibodies, a vaccine, or how COVID actually spreads, producers still want to focus on the politics. Important facts or studies get buried,” she wrote.
She details how another producer told her that viewers “don’t really consider us the news” and they tune in for “comfort.”
She said other colleagues agreed that the network has gone downhill.
“We are a cancer and there is no cure,” she remembered a TV veteran telling her. “But if you could find a cure, it would change the world.”
She said Baldwin and others supported her decision to quit. She added she isn’t sure what she will do next, but she knew she “simply couldn’t stay there anymore.”
“Now maybe we can’t really change the inherently broken structure of broadcast news, but I know for certain that it won’t change unless we actually face it, in public, and at least try to change it,” Pekary added.
Her decision was lauded by former New York Times columnist Bari Weiss, who penned her own resignation letter last month. She blasted her former employer for straying from journalistic principles.
“Eager to see what @arianapekary does next,” Weiss wrote on Twitter.
A MSNBC rep on Tuesday told the New York Post that the network has a “responsibility to cover stories that are critical to our viewers.”
“They rely on our hosts, correspondents and contributors to go where breaking news and the facts lead, asking tough questions and digging into stories with deep analysis. We encourage debate and differences of perspectives in our newsroom because it makes the product better,” the rep stated.
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