Far-left host Mehdi Hasan announces he's leaving MSNBC: 'New year, new plans'

Far-left host Mehdi Hasan announced on the final episode of his eponymous show that he has decided to leave MSNBC effective immediately to pursue "new challenges."

Hasan's time on NBC-affiliated platforms was rather brief. "The Mehdi Hasan Show" first aired on the NBC streaming service Peacock in October 2020, the same month that Hasan, a 44-year-old Briton who graduated from Oxford, became a naturalized U.S. citizen.

By March 2021, the show had moved to MSNBC, where it aired on Sunday evenings for two and a half years before it was abruptly canceled last November as part of a larger shake-up at the network. At the time, MSNBC President Rashida Jones said that canceling Hasan's show as well as as adding a new morning program, among other moves, would help the network "build on our accomplishments and keep the momentum going into 2024 and beyond."

Jones insisted that Hasan would remain on staff as an analyst and fill-in host, but it appears Hasan was not satisfied with his new role. On Sunday, the final broadcast of "The Mehdi Hasan Show," Hasan broke the news to his audience.

"Tonight is not just my final episode of 'The Mehdi Hasan Show.' It's my last day with MSNBC. Yes, I've decided to leave," he said, though as of Monday afternoon, his X account profile still claims he is the "Host" of "The Mehdi Hasan Show" on MSNBC and Peacock.

His announcement lasted just about a minute and contained few details about the reasons for his departure or his plans for the future. However, it did express gratitude for his soon-to-be former employer and optimism about his prospects.

"I'm so, so proud of what we've achieved on this show, on this network, and I can't thank you all enough for tuning in and for your support and feedback. But as I say, new year, new plans," he said.

Though Hasan did not mention that his performance had underwhelmed his NBC bosses, that appears to have been the case. An unnamed source familiar with news channel who spoke with the New York Post in November claimed that Hasan's "point of view was a little too out of the mainstream if you know what I mean."

At the time, his show's ratings had tanked following his relentless criticisms of Israel, even after Hamas' horrific attack on innocent Israelis on October 7. In early November, Hasan even told guest Mark Regev, a senior adviser to Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that the Israeli government "kills children."

Hasan, an outspoken Muslim, was not just unapologetically pro-Palestinian. He also seemed to take aim at fellow Muslims who aligned themselves with Christians and those on the right in the fight against LGBTQ indoctrination in public schools. On his show, he suggested that such Muslims were "linking up arms with people who, once they're done bashing gays, will go back to bashing Muslims."

Hasan also faced severe backlash last April after he accused fellow journalist Matt Taibbi of committing perjury during congressional testimony about the so-called Twitter Files for simply confusing the acronyms of two obscure government agencies. Journalist Lee Fang called Hasan's baseless accusations "petty, personalized attacks."

"Matt Taibbi in one tweet mixed up an acronym and he quickly corrected the record," Fang said.

"Mehdi has engaged in many lies in this whole process. The lying about never talking about the Hunter Biden laptop, he did. Lying about never reporting on this more scurrilous Russiagate allegations, he did. And then, the most serious allegation here is that Matt Taibbi lied under oath to Congress," Fang continued.

"This is perjury, this is serious stuff," Fang concluded. "This is kind of very petty, personalized attacks that aren't true."

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