Keith Olbermann Calls Out MSNBC for ‘Brutally Racist’ Decision to Axe ‘Minorities’ and Their Shows, Including Joy Reid

Keith Olbermann wants his former employer to know what he thinks of its latest actions.

On Monday, Feb. 24, MSNBC’s new president Rebecca Kulter announced that The ReidOut‘s Joy Reid would be leaving the network after 10 years. Earlier this month, Andrea Mitchell gave her last broadcast of MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, while Jonathan Capehart, Ayman Mohyeldin, Katie Phang and Alex Wagner also reportedly had their shows canceled.

In response to the news, Olbermann, 66, wrote on X: “Now 5 different anchors of color dismissed/cancelled. An MSNBC purge so brutally racist it makes you think it was done by Musk. Joy Reid, Wagner; now Katie Phang, Jonathan Capehart, Ayman Mohyeldin.”

MSNBC declined to comment when reached by PEOPLE.

Olbermann, who hosted Countdown with Keith Olbermann on MSNBC from March 2003 to January 2011, elaborated on his Countdown with Keith Olbermann podcast on Feb. 24 and claimed that MSNBC gave “no pretense being made” about Reid’s departure, which he believes is part of a “racist purge” at the network.

“They did not even attempt to cover this up with a fig leaf by firing an unnecessary non-person of color, somebody like Stephanie Ruhle whose show is actually still on the air at 11:00 even though MSNBC would make more money by simply replaying a Maddow rerun,” he said.

Olbermann also wondered “why on earth would they do this?” and said it “reeks of ‘we don’t care if you think we are racists.'”

“Fire all the minorities around the place and you are signaling to the viewers that you do not care about diversity of opinion,” the former anchor said, later adding, “what you are doing is racism.”

Olbermann continued to make his point known on social media, as others like Rachel Maddow started to weigh in and condemn Reid’s departure.

During a Feb. 24 broadcast of The Rachel Maddow Show, Maddow, 51, called it “a bad mistake to let [Reid] walk out the door.” When a commenter disagreed with Maddow’s message on social media, Olbermann wrote on X, “It’s racism, you f—ing bloated nitwit. They fired all the hosts of color.”

Olbermann also wrote on the platform: “Last week they had five shows hosted by people of color. Now they have none.”

Additionally, he called on Maddow, Chris Hayes, and Lawrence O’Donnell to take a stand and not do their shows on the evening of Feb. 25 in protest of MSNBC’s actions. “If you go on the air tonight – or at minimum go on without condemning the overt racism of the people who give you $25 million a year – you are complicit,” he wrote on X.

Kulter broke the news about Reid’s departure in a memo to staff on Feb. 24. “Joy Reid is leaving the network and we thank her for her countless contributions over the years,” she wrote. “Her work has been recognized with several esteemed honors, including most recently, the 2025 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding News Series.”

In the memo, Kutler noted that rotating anchors will fill in Reid’s 7 p.m. slot in the coming weeks. The three anchors — Symone Sanders Townsend, Michael Steele and Alicia Menendez — are currently hosts of The Weekend, and will now move to weekdays at 7 p.m. to host a new ensemble hour of news. The move also makes Menendez the first Latina in MSNBC primetime.

Additionally, a source familiar with the situation tells PEOPLE that Phang and Wagner are expected to remain at the network as a legal correspondent and senior political analyst, respectively, despite MSNBC no longer broadcasting their shows.

The source also notes that the network is in the process of hiring POLITICO’s Eugene Daniels as a host, and has the most diverse lineup across all of cable news.