During the Overtime segment of Real Time with Bill Maher this Friday, ex-MSNBC host Krstyal Ball had some harsh words for her former network, saying it’s done “real damage” to anti-Trump politics and crossed the line into the “realm of conspiracy theories.”
Ball, who left MSNBC after her show was canceled in August of 2015, was read a question from a viewer by host Bill Maher, asking her if she thinks the network hurts or helps “progressive causes.”
“Overall, I think MSNBC in the Trump era has done real damage to the left,” Ball said, adding that she was speaking her critique from a place of “love.”
“The Russia story and what happened there was important, but it was not all-important,”she continued. “And they went so far in the realm of conspiracy theories.”
Ball went on to give the example of how one commentator appeared on the network and said that Trump had been a secret Russian agent since 1987.
“This is ridiculous, okay?” Ball exclaimed. “This is way out from what journalistic facts said, and it’s to the exclusion of other stories that people actually care about — about healthcare, about trade, about the future of their lives, automation — these things are real, and they don’t get focus when you only look at one thing.”
According to Ball, MSNBC “built up expectations so much, that when the report came out people were like, ‘Oh, this is no big deal,’ when it was a big deal.”
Ball has railed against MSNBC over its coverage of the Mueller probe before. In a segment for The Hill’s Rising this July, she accused MSNBC of pushing “feverish Russia conspiracy theories.”
“So after watching seven hours of a spectacle that felt much more cruel than enlightening, I can no longer avoid pondering a question which, honestly, gives me no joy to ponder: just how much damage has MSNBC in particular done to the left?” she said in the July 25 segment. “Now, this critique is not meant to be personal to the anchors and commentators there. Many of whom, I know. Some of whom are actually close friends, having worked at that network for five years. But nearly all of whom got swept up in the ratings bubble that was feverish Russian conspiracy theories.”
Featured image via screen grab
