Is MSNBC Taking Morning Joe Off Air in Wake of Trump Shooting an Admission They Can’t Do News?

Loyal viewers of Morning Joe were undoubtedly disappointed to flip on MSNBC Monday morning only to find the network’s franchise opinion show had been pre-empted for straight news programming.

Like most broadcast and cable news outlets, MSNBC tossed its regular programming over the weekend for breaking news coverage of Saturday evening’s assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. Unlike CNN and Fox News, however, MSNBC continued to pre-empt its coverage into Monday morning, thereby taking Morning Joe, perhaps the network’s most prominent program and an influential political institution, off the air.

Over at MSNBC’s competitor CNN, media reporter Oliver Darcy reported the move was borne out of an abundance of caution: “A person familiar with the matter told CNN that the decision was made to avoid a scenario in which one of the show’s stable of two dozen-plus guests might make an inappropriate comment on live television that could be used to assail the program and network as a whole.”

When reached for comment, an NBC spokesperson categorically denied CNN’s reporting as false.

The network also explained its programming decision in a statement: “Given the gravity and complexity of this unfolding story, NBC News, NBC News NOW, and MSNBC have remained in rolling breaking news coverage since Saturday evening. As we continue to cover this story into the week, the networks will continue to cross simulcast, alternating between NBC News, NBC News NOW, and ‘MSNBC Reports,’ so there is one news feed covering this developing situation.”

If CNN’s reporting is accurate, then it’s also shocking. Either way it’s difficult not to see this as a tacit admission that the network doesn’t trust its stars, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, as well as their roster of high-profile guests that make up the mornings on MSNBC, to report breaking news or even to refrain from saying something offensive and bring negative attention to a network already feeling the heat from Trump supporters eager to blame his shooting on the media. In MSNBC’s defense, spend five minutes watching Donny Deutsch talking about anything, and you can see the logic.

Attempts from Trump boosters in the media to tie the shooting to MSNBC’s commentary is as predictable as it is moronic. The network’s consistent condemnations of Trump can be fairly criticized for being hyperbolic, but it’s not materially different from anything you see on Fox News, and it’s certainly not a call for violence.

That said? Sidelining arguably the most influential MSNBC franchise on a weekday following such a grave and historic that could forever change the American political landscape? It’s a stunning miscalculation by network executives, including NBC News Group chairman Cesar Conde and MSNBC president Rashida Jones.

The attempt on Trump’s life occurred early Saturday evening, and the hours that followed were a scramble of breaking coverage on a summer night when most talent was enjoying a night off. CNN threw a suit on Wolf Blitzer and got him on the air. NBC’s Lester Holt manned the breaking news desk for several hours. Fox News tapped Sean Hannity for much of its coverage. On Sunday, MSNBC notably pre-empted much of its usual programming, including roundtable show The Weekend as well as rising star Jen Psaki’s program, airing breaking news coverage instead. That makes total sense. It’s the weekend, much of the programming is pre-planned, or even pre-taped, and the shooting was still breaking news.

Monday morning is a different story.

“Staggering mismanagement and terrible decision making,” one cable news insider told Mediate of the programming call. They also said the move suggests executives do not trust its biggest stars — namely Scarborough and Brzezinski — to handle such a serious and complex story without stepping into it.

Scarborough and Brzezinski are world-class professionals who have been hosting a political talk show for years. If two seasoned and wildly successful morning show hosts can’t be trusted to handle one of the biggest news stories of our lifetimes with care, then MSNBC has much deeper problems, and pre-empting their top show is but a symptom of much deeper issues.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.