The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: MSNBC Is a ‘Money-Losing Operation’

Episode Date: March 7, 2025

While Rachel Maddow decries the network for firing Joy Reid and large swaths of news presenters, they conveniently leave out that Reid worked a fraction of the time her Fox counterparts did for a larger salary. If Maddow really cares about the recently fired news staff, she’d forgo her $25 million annual salary and give it away, argues Victor Davis Hanson on this edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.” “ As far as Joy Reid goes, she had an audience of about 150,000. … Everybody else had no idea what she—who she was or what she was saying. She was getting at $1.3 million dollars. “ Very politically connected people have one rule, one protocol, one value judgment for all of us. And, they have no intention of following it themselves. They’re never subject to the consequences of their ideology. “Do you realize, if you just said, ‘I, Rachel Maddow, tonight promise that I will work my 52 days this year for free, given the ample compensation I have received, and I will fund 250 staffers at MSNBC for $100,000 a year, given what I make, $25 million.’ Let’s just try that.” The Daily Signal cannot continue to tell stories, like this one, without the support of our viewers: https://secured.dailysignal.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We'd love to talk. Business. I'd like to talk about some hypocrisy that's been in the news lately. MSNBC is a money-losing operation. They are firing entire swath of news presenters and readers and also staff. But here's my point. Let's take Rachel Madd out. Her audiences declined drastically.

She typically works one day out of five per week. She went on MSNBC and blasted them for firing Jory Reed, and especially treating she said their shared staff poorly. and they laid them off, and she was very angry. Rachel, you probably made $100 or $200 million. If you really are upset about the firing of poor Joey Reed and the firing of the staff, I have a polite suggestion for you. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for the Daily Signal.

I'd like to talk about some hypocrisy that's been in the news lately, and it tends to be mostly on the last. and mostly by very elite people that you wouldn't expect because we were told, of course, they were populists and men and women of the people. Let's take Rachel Maddow. She's on MSNBC. Her audiences declined drastically. She typically works one day out of five per week.

I think after the election she was coming in a little bit more often, and that's going to terminate, and she'll go back to her one day. She took a pay cut from $30 million to $25 million. in. MSNBC is a money-losing operation. They are firing entire swath of news presenters and readers and also staff. But here's my point. She went on MSNBC this week and blasted them for firing Joey Reed, and especially treating, she said, their shared staff poorly, and they laid them off. And she was very angry. But if you look at the size of her audience, about a million more or less, and you look at the size of her salary, and you look at unlike her Fox counterparts who come in five days a week, she only comes in one day, and you look at how long she's had this sweetheart deal.

Don't you think you could say to this woman of the people, this socialist? Rachel, you probably made $100 or $200 million. If you really are upset about the firing of her. poor Jory Reed and the firing of the staff. I have a polite suggestion for you. You make now 25 million. Let's say that those staffers were making 100,000. Do you realize if you just said,

I, Rachel Maddow, tonight promised that I will work my 52 days this year for free, given the ample compensation I have received? And I will fund 250 staff. at MSNBC for $100,000 a year, given what I make, $25 million. Let's just try that. As far as Joy Reid goes, she had an audience of about 150. I live about 20 miles from Vyselia, California. That's about 150,000 residents.

In other words, we're a nation of 335 million people. Joy Reid was talking to one moderate-sized city of about 150,000. Other words, to the people of Visalia. Everybody else had no idea who she was or what she was saying. She was getting at $1.3 million. She's always attacked. She cannot finish a sentence without using the word white, white, white, white. And she's very liberal, liberal, liberal.

But you remember in 2018 all of these tweets, surface from her where she called Governor Charlie Chris, Miss Christy, and suggested he was gay. She suggested that Anne Coulter was of ambiguous sex. Then she started saying that gays kissing themselves made her sick. And of course, she was in danger because she had presented this persona to us that she was so progressive and liberal. And then she said she was hacked. The FBI was on the case.

Well, the FBI was on the case and found nothing. And then she said, well, they didn't find hacking, but I don't remember writing. That's not me. It's like me saying Joe Biden is not coherent. And then that causes a storm. And then I say, I don't think I ever said that. Well, here's the tape, Victor, you said it. Well, it's not me.

She has never, she's apologized for saying it, but she's never said that she said it. Let me just finish with one other example of what we're dealing with. Remember Sheldon White House? the one, the senator, I think it's a senator from Rhode Island, and he gives these soapbox speeches about conflict of interest, conflict of interest, that Elon Musk, who's getting no money for running this Doge program of the Department of Government efficiency is crooked. He's conflicted. He shouldn't be there. And then we learned that he has been voting on federal legislation to allot monies to an oceanic group, which counts on an oceanic advocacy group, which is run

by Sheldon White House's wife. And since 2008, her advocacy for this particular oceanic group has rewarded them with $14 million in funds. Her take is somewhere between $1 and $2 million over this period. My point is this. I don't know whether Sheldon, and you don't know, whether Sheldon White House did anything improper. But given the standards that he has set in his accusations about other people, you would think that his wife wanted to avoid any, any hint of impropriety. In other words, why doesn't Sheldon White House do this? I am voting on federal legislation to allot monies for oceanic research and the preservation of oceans. My wife, since 2008, has run a consulting group that consults with various oceanic groups, and then she

bundles money and her advocacy from legislation that I vote on, and then she parcels it out and gets a fee for that. And therefore, because I have a conflict of interest, I'm going to recuse myself. Did he ever do that? No. So, one of the things, let me just finish. One of the ironies of the Doge project and this reexamination of federal monies and the reexamination since the election of the media in general, especially on the left, is we have

a weird phenomenon with very powerful people, very wealthy people, very politically connected people have one role, one protocol, one value judgment for all of us, and they have no intention of following it themselves. They're never subject to the consequences of their ideology. This is Victor Davis Hansen for The Daily Signal. Thank you for watching today's podcast, and for more news like that, subscribe to the Daily Signal. Maybe you can check out my own website at Victor Hansen for podcast, lectures, ultra-series behind a paywall, but more importantly, just daily columns that are accessible and free to everyone. Thank you very much.