MSNBC reportedly preempted its long-running "Morning Joe" talk show on Monday to prevent guests from saying something inappropriate about the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
A person familiar with the matter said executives at the liberal news outlet were concerned that an out-of-bounds remark made during the live telecast could be used against the program or the network, CNN reported late Sunday.
The decision to preempt "Morning Joe" was reportedly made by the chairman of NBCUniversal News Group, Cesar Conde, after consulting with MSNBC president Rashida Jones and hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.
A network spokesperson "emphatically" denied the CNN report, the Washington Post reported Monday.
The spokesperson said the move was instead part of a broader strategy to cover the deadly sniper attack on Trump's campaign rally Saturday with a unified feed of video from NBC News, MSNBC and the online NBC News NOW streaming network.
A "Morning Joe" staffer told the New York Times that its producers and hosts were told over the weekend that MSNBC's shows would be replaced by NBC News programming.
But staffers were surprised when NBC News NOW replaced "Morning Joe" on Monday instead of NBC's "Today" show, which wasn't preempted, the source told the Times.
