MSNBC Primetime Hosts Completely Ignore Jussie Smollett Verdict

On Thursday, almost every network and news website agreed that Jussie Smollett's conviction for staging a hate crime was the day's top story. And based on the reaction, there wasn't a close second. However, one news network considered the verdict so meaningless that it didn't mention it in primetime.

Any guesses which network?

It was MSNBC. All five MSNBC primetime hosts -- Joy Reid, Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes, Lawrence O'Donnell, and Brian Williams -- completely ignored the verdict. Instead, MSNBC focused primarily on an appeals court's decision to reject former President Trump's request to shield presidential records from the Jan. 6 committee. That went on for hours -- from 7 pm to 11 pm, to be exact.

Two years ago, MSNBC covered the Smollett scandal aggressively. Smollett had convinced the network he was the victim of horrendous racism.

Here's what Joy Reid had to say in January 2019:

"Nooses never really disappeared as messages of a very specific kind of terror, but every time they're used, my God, it's chilling. Praying for Jussie's full recovery. And for us all."

Then, somehow, everything changed. According to Grabien transcripts cited by Fox News, MSNBC's primetime lineup has not covered the hoax since his "false narrative unraveled."

So what's going on here, besides corrupt journalism? Why would the second-largest news network in the country ignore an outcome of a story it spent months building up?

The answer is obvious. MSNBC realized that it had no use for Smollett once he was to determined to be a fraud. Even a racist like Joy Reid knew she couldn't defend Smollett anymore. There was no longer a racial angle or a narrative or even a subplot to use against police or America. Instead, there was only a black man who orchestrated his own hate crime. MSNBC cannot capitalize on such incidents.

That's how media works. MSNBC is just more transparent about its motives than its counterparts are.