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Former MSNBC Host Claims She Needed Permission to Criticize Hillary Clinton

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


A former MSNBC host made a stunning admission about the network and her ability to criticize two-time failed Democratic presidential candidate and former first lady Hillary Clinton.

Krystal Ball, herself a one-time Democratic congressional candidate from Virginia, served as co-host of “The Cycle” from 2012 to 2015 on the left-wing Comcast-owned network. In an interview with top podcaster Joe Rogan, Ball, 41, recounted a 2014 monologue when she urged then U.S. Sen. Clinton (N.Y.) not to try for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.

“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 an appearance last week on “The Joe Rogan Experience.”

“I was allowed to say it,” she said, adding: “I deliver my thing. I did it exactly how I wanted to do it.”

But her advice for the eventual nominee, who then lost to Donald Trump, did not go over well with Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC at the time, the New York Post reported.

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“Afterwards, I get pulled into an office and you know, ‘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 told Rogan.

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Ball went on to say that most cable news hosts are not necessarily talented, but they are more often chosen because they “are reliable purveyors of whatever” narrative the network wants to push.

The Post noted further:

Ball had gained national infamy in 2010 while running for office after bloggers published leaked photos showing her posing with a sex toy while at a party when she was in her early 20s. Since leaving MSNBC, the Democrat formed a PAC backing progressive candidates and launched the podcast “Breaking Points with Saagar Enjeti,” with whom she appeared on Rogan’s show.

“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 responded.

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“That’s the way that it works [in cable news],” she added. “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.”

The former host noted further 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.”

Last month, a MSNBC correspondent may not of toed the company line after revelations of two sets of classified documents were mishandled by President Joe Biden stemming from the time right after he was vice president.

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“Lawyers found them, as soon as they found them, the White House is saying, they turned them over to the National Archives which then got the Justice Department involved,” Justice and Intelligence correspondent Ken Dilanian said.

“Attorney General Merrick Garland at some point referred this matter to the U.S. attorney in Chicago who is one of two Trump holdovers in the administration. In other words, he was appointed by Donald Trump and they did that on purpose to create an appearance of independence here and that U.S. Attorney going to decide whether there needs to be a criminal investigation and if there is, we can presume that Merrick Garland would appoint a special counsel, but I think we’re a long way from that because from the White House account, this was inadvertent and they self-reported and they acted immediately,” he added.

“Nonetheless there are some significant concerns here, A) how did these classified documents get to a place they shouldn’t have been and B) why did the White House sit on this for so long? They knew six days before the November midterm. Joe Biden knew, his aides knew, yet they did not tell the public until this leaked to the news media,” he said.

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