News/Commentary

MSNBC and CNN engaged in ‘bidding war’ for WH press sec Jen Psaki ahead of planned exit: report

April 3, 2022 | | Print Article

Get the latest BPR news delivered free to your inbox daily. SIGN UP HERE

CNN and MSNBC allegedly engaged in a “bidding war” for the punditry services of reportedly departing White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki.

Psaki is expected to land at MSNBC when she reportedly leaves the Biden administration in a few weeks. This is yet another example of the revolving door between government and corporate media outlets, which is roughly similar to the back and forth between regulators and regulated industries.

According to Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich, both ratings-challenged liberal networks were willing to open their checkbooks and pay big bucks in an attempt to hire Psaki, who regularly spars with Heinrich’s colleague Peter Doocy during press briefings.

Unstated by Heinrich was the perhaps potential conflict of interest in terms of Psaki fielding questions from reporters at White House pressers while she and her agents were possibly negotiating with their bosses over a new gig.

Paski is well known for blaming America’s ongoing economic woes on the so-called Putin price hike than Bidenflation.

At the end of a conversation about various news topics on The Fox News Rundown podcast, Heinrich circled back to Psaki, who Fox News host Tucker Carlson has described as Joe Biden’s publicist:

“So we have confirmed, from a source familiar with the situation, that Jen Psaki will be leaving her post here at the White House in the coming weeks. Sometime this spring, she’s going to be taking a job at MSNBC. I was told that there was a bidding war between CNN and MSNBC to get her on board,” Heinrich told host Jared Halpern.

“There are some, you know, legal stipulations about how she has to go about her departure and contract signing, in terms of, you know, federal ethics rules. So she wants to be, you know, have her i’s dotted and t’s crossed on that front. But we do know she’s going to be leaving. There have been some reports from other outlets which I don’t have the details on, but Axios, for instance, reported that she’s going to be taking a show on Peacock to their streaming service, and then would also, you know, lend her voice to the programing on the cable channel during the day as well,” she continued.

The main selling point for NBC’s Peacock streaming channel is that it’s the home of Wrestlemania (which is happening this weekend) and other WWE pro wrestling content.

In addition to hosting a show on Peacock, Psaki “will also be a part of live programming on MSNBC’s cable network as a voice on different shows, but she will not be hosting the 9 p.m. hour replacing Rachel Maddow, which has been speculated,” the aforementioned Axios reported. “Political spokespeople are often prime targets for cable networks, whose audiences tend to be political junkies.”

The Psaki discussion starts at about minute 22 in the podcast embedded below:

When Halpern pointed out that Psaki’s departure was not a big surprise, Heinrich added the following.

“Yeah, she we’ve known, you know, for a while that she was going to head out. I think it was, you know, pretty much too soon after she got into this job that the expectation was that she would do it for a year. You know, she was out of government before this after having been in government for the Obama administration. So she sort of came back to this government job and didn’t plan on staying in it long term. And a year is, you know, it’s a good run for a press secretary. We don’t know who’s going to follow her up, but we are waiting to see.”

Psaki’s purportedly imminent departure has prompted a lot of commentary on social media as well as from ex-President Donald Trump. Here is just a sample:

DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW

Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!

$10
$15
$25
$50
Other
$
Success! Thank you for donating. Please share BPR content to help combat the lies.
Robert Jonathan
Latest posts by Robert Jonathan (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

PLEASE JOIN OUR NEW COMMENT SYSTEM! We love hearing from our readers and invite you to join us for feedback and great conversation. If you've commented with us before, we'll need you to re-input your email address for this. The public will not see it and we do not share it.

Latest Articles