WASHINGTON D.C. – Former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan took a swipe at The New York Times, accusing the paper of not efficiently representing the ideological “left” of the country.
Speaking at Semafor’s Innovating to Restore Trust in News summit, Hasan was asked on Thursday about whether he wanted to expand the reach of his start-up news brand Zeteo, which he launched last year after leaving MSNBC, so that news consumers across the political spectrum subscribe to his outlet.
“I could’ve hired a bunch of Never-Trump Republicans, right? People who I’m friendly with. I didn’t do that… Look, they’re everywhere. They’ve got enough platforms,” Hasan told Semafor’s Max Tani on Thursday. “What’s not doing fine when we’re talking about the diversity of viewpoints- you know, we’re obsessed with getting MAGA viewpoint out there. The New York Times will send 100 journalists in Iowa to speak to Trump voters, but what’s missing, of course, is the left.”
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“Isn’t it crazy that three cycles in now, The New York Times does not have a Bernie Sanders-supporting columnist,” he continued. “I mean, Jamelle Bouie, kind of, but there’s no actual proper ‘Bernie Bro’ on the pages of The New York Times. Where’s the ideological diversity there on the left?”
The New York Times did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
The progressive media personality went on to tout his own hiring practices at Zeteo, his Substack and YouTube-based news platform, arguing that, unlike the Times, his outlet fairly represents the left.
“So for me, I wanted to have voices from the left, the center left, the far left,” Hasan said.
“We’ve got John Harwood, who’s a kind of mainstream liberal ex-CNN, ex-CNBC who writes very sympathetically [about the] Democratic Party very well. I’m a huge fan of John. That’s why he was one of my first hires. I’m so proud that he joined Zeteo. We also have Naomi Klein, who’s not seen in that vein. We have Owen Jones in the UK, who quit the Labour Party because [British Prime Minister] Keir Starmer was, you know, he saw him as a betrayer of the left,” he continued. “So we have a great range of views across the left, center left, liberal left, but no- everywhere I’ve ever worked is filled with conservatives. I’m not gonna start a media company and say ‘Come on in, conservatives!'”
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Hasan left MSNBC in January 2024 following the cancelation of his show weeks prior. He was a sharp critic of Israel’s response to the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack and its ongoing war in Gaza, while also condemning the Hamas attack itself.
Critics accused MSNBC of stiffing one of the network’s most prominent Muslim voices after Oct. 7. It was said after his weekend and Peacock shows were canceled that Hasan would remain with MSNBC as an on-air analyst and a fill-in host. However, the network rarely used him as he only made a single on-air appearance outside of his own program during that time, according to Grabien transcripts.
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