Looks like Phil Griffin's job may be on the chopping block at MSNBC as well - The Daily Beast
To several highly-placed sources at MSNBC, its looking increasingly like the Comcast-owned cable outlets 10 p.m. host could meet the same fate as President Donald Trumps fired FBI director.A Sunday Huffpost story suggesting that ODonnells show is on the chopping block has fueled internal speculation about ODonnells future, along with other rumored shakeups at MSNBC, including fears of a change in status for its longtime president, Phil Griffin, who reports to Andy Lack, chairman of NBC News and MSNBC.
A network executive told The Daily Beast that the Huffpost story is wrong, and said ODonnell and MSNBC management are negotiating with an eye towards renewal and a new deal.The same exec said on Tuesday that Griffins job is safe, and that hell remain as MSNBCs president for years to come.
Griffin loyalist Rachel Maddow, who happens to be the top-rated personality in cable news, had privately expressed concern about her bosss future and declared to colleagues in recent weeks that if Griffin leaves, she would follow him out the door.
The 61-year-old Griffin, who has been running the cable outlet for the past decade and officially was named president in July 2008, is the executive who took a big risk on Maddow in August of that year, giving the little-known radio personality and left-leaning cable commentator her own prime-time television show.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/05/16/is-lawrence-o-donnell-facing-the-chop-at-msnbc
From gossip columnist Roger Friedman:
My NBC sources say that ODonnells tireless criticism of Donald Trump is the cause of the trouble. ODonnell calls Trump a liar on TV almost every night. Says my observer: Phil Griffin fought back Trumps demands to Comcast chief Steve Burke that ODonnell get fired for years. But now hes president and now its Andy Lacks decision and Andy has never run a single promo for ODonnell and he wants access to Trump for Lester Holt interview and more.
Morale at NBC News has been low for some time. My source says: This version of NBC news would have handed the Pentagon papers back to the Pentagon. The New York Times and Washington Post remain our best hope. http://www.showbiz411.com/2017/05/15/msnbc-ending-lawrence-odonnell-the-last-word-show-despite-top-ratings