A former MSNBC host dropped a bombshell claim that she needed to have the president of her network vet any commentary that included criticism of Hillary Clinton prior to her running for president in 2016.
Krystal Ball, a former Democratic Party congressional candidate from Virginia, was a co-host of “The Cycle” from 2012 until 2015 for the channel.
During an appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast last week, she recalled a monologue in 2014 where she urged then-Sen. Clinton (D-NY) to not seek the Democratic Party nomination for president.
“I did this whole thing that was like, ‘She sold out to Wall Street. People are gonna hate this lady. She’s like the terrible candidate for the moment. Please don’t run,’” Ball said during her interview.
“I was allowed to say it,” she said, adding: “I deliver my thing. I did it exactly how I wanted to do it.”
However, Ball’s advice to Clinton, who would win the nomination but go on to lose to Donald Trump, apparently didn’t sit well with then-president of MSNBC Phil Griffin.
“Afterwards, I get pulled into an office and you know [I was told], ‘Great monologue, everything’s fine. But next time you do any commentary on Hillary Clinton, it has to get approved by the president of the network,’” Ball said.
Ball garnered national infamy in 2010 while running for office after bloggers published photos of her posing with a sex toy while at a party in her early 20s.
After she left MSNBC in 2015, Ball formed a PAC backing progressive candidates and launched the “Breaking Points” podcast with Saagar Enjeti, with whom she appeared on Rogan’s show.
Ball told Rogan that while she did go on to make “further Hillary Clinton commentary, I would love to say that that didn’t affect me and that I was there to be a truth teller.”
“Listen, I’m a human being,” she added. “I’m sure I responded to the incentives of that system, like, ‘God, I don’t want to get in trouble with the boss.’”
“For sure,” Rogan said in response.
“That’s the way that it works [in cable news],” Ball continued. “Oftentimes, people [who work at the network] know where the boundaries are. They know what they’re allowed to say.”
“So they don’t need that direct intervention of censorship,” she added.
Ball went on to say that most people who work in cable news “aren’t really there because they’re talented.”
“They’re there because they are reliable purveyors of whatever it is that that network wants to purvey,” Ball said. “That’s ultimately why they get the job and they understand the parameters of the task.”
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