Canceled MSNBC host Katie Phang reveals next shocking move
Katie Phang has launched a YouTube channel under a left-leaning media umbrella after she was canceled from MSNBC.
The Katie Phang Show was one of several casualties brought on by a lineup shift implemented by new network boss Rebecca Kutler in early 2025.
Now, almost one month after her final show aired on the network, she has unveiled her new business venture - revealing she actually gave keen listeners a clue in her final MSNBC appearance.
Phang will join the MeidasTouch media group with a brand new YouTube show titled Phang Unleashed.
'YouTube is the perfect place for Katie Unleashed,' the attorney and legal analyst wrote on X.
'We'll talk about the law, politics, and culture. You'll hear from trusted, familiar voices. And you'll hear from new voices with fresh takes.'
'It's time we realize WE are the cavalry we've been waiting for,' she added.'
The revelation should have come as no surprise to longtime viewers after Phang teased the collaboration in her final on-air appearance.
At the time, she said she would 'meet you where you are at places like Substack and YouTube with fellow truth tellers like MeidasTouch.'
Phang has also launched a Substack account to go alongside her new show.
'When it came time for me to get out of mainstream media and find my way into the holy land of independent journalism, I could not think of a better place to be than [with] the guys at MeidasTouch,' she said in her first YouTube episde alongside MeidasTouch co-founder Ben Meiselas.
In her second to last episode on air, an emotional Phang cried as she interviewed Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett.
Joy Reid, Jonathan Capehart and Ayman Mohyeldin also said goodbye to their programs as part of a strategic overhaul from higher-ups.
Capehart and Mohyeldin will fill different roles on the network as well, with news shows being built around them.
The same could not be said for Phang, who, like Reid, twisted the identity-politics knife while lamenting her situation after seeing her show pulled by her bosses.
'I was proud to platform more AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) voices than any other cable show ever,' Phang wrote in a pointed post to Instagram in February. 'Representation matters,' she concluded.
'I went hard on so many issues,' Reid complained separately, while weeping through her remarks on a Zoom call to supporters.
'Whether it was the Black Lives Matter, issues of a young baby or a mom or dad that was killed or when we opened up people's eyes to the fact that Asian Americans were being targeted, and not just Black folks.
'My show had value,' she insisted.
As for MSNBC, the picture has gone from bad to worse. In February 2021, MSNBC averaged a total of 1.4 million total viewers every hour throughout the entire day and an average of 2.9 million total viewers during only primetime hours.
Today, those numbers have dwindled down to just roughly 600,000 and 1 million total viewers, respectively - a more than 50 percent decline on both ends.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Sun
35 minutes ago
- The Sun
Trump says he has group of ‘very wealthy people' lined up to buy TikTok after pushing back ban of social media app
DONALD Trump said he has a group of "very wealthy people" lined up to buy TikTok. The President has repeatedly delayed a ban blocking the app to allow more time for negotiations with the Chinese owners - who have consistently refused to sell. 4 4 4 Trump has fought to force TikTok's owners to sell to an American party since his first term. A bill signed last year makes it illegal to operate under the current Chinese owners, but the ban has been delayed three times and the company has always refused to sell. However, on Sunday, Trump told Fox News a "group of very wealthy people" wanted to purchase the app from ByteDance. He said: 'I think I will need China['s] approval, and I think President Xi will probably do it." Without revealing any details, he added: 'I'll tell you in about two weeks.' The closest to Trump has come to barring American users from TikTok was at the time of his inauguration in January this year. A ban took effect on January 19, and TikTok shut itself down an hour before that, telling users "you can't use TikTok for now" due to a "law banning TikTok". But around 12 hours later it came back online after conversations between the US and China behind the scenes - and was available for download again three weeks later. Since then, Trump has delayed the ban three times - twice for 75 days and most recently by 90 days on June 17. The eventual ban or sale is required by a "foreign adversary" bill signed in March 2024. ByteDance challenged the Act, but it was upheld by the Supreme Court in January. It's not clear how much TikTok would sell for, with valuations ranging from $30billion to $300billion. Rumoured new American owners have included major tech companies like Microsoft and Oracle. The wildly popular YouTuber Mr Beast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, said in January he would submit an official offer for TikTok through and investment group led by Jesse Tinsley. Steve Mnuchin, Trump's treasury secretary during his first term in office, also floated the idea of purchasing the app with a group of billionaire investors when the ban was first passed. Amazon reportedly made a last-minute bid to purchase TikTok three days before the second recent extension in April. The bill banning continued Chinese ownership of TikTok cites concerns about national security risks. ByteDance was initially given nine months to sell-up - and that expired in January. However, the company has repeatedly insisted it will not give-up the app. It said in April: "ByteDance doesn't have any plans to sell TikTok." Reports circulated that it was considering a sale of the app without the key algorithm, but these were denied. The owners insisted: "Foreign media reports of ByteDance selling TikTok are not true." 4
Sky News
36 minutes ago
- Sky News
Donald Trump says 'very wealthy group' has agreed to buy TikTok in the US
Donald Trump has said the US government has found a buyer for TikTok that he will reveal "in about two weeks". The president told Fox News "it's a group of very wealthy people", adding: "I think I'll probably need China approval, I think President Xi will probably do it." TikTok was ordered last year to find a new owner for its US operation - or face a ban - after politicians said they feared sensitive data about Americans could be passed to the Chinese government. The video app's owner, Bytedance, has repeatedly denied such claims. It originally had a deadline of 19 January to find a buyer - and many users were shocked when it "went dark" for a number of hours when that date came round, before later being restored. However, President Trump has now extended the deadline several times. The last extension was on 19 June, when the president signed another executive order pushing it back to 17 September. Mr Trump's latest comments suggest multiple people coming together to take control of the app in the US. Among those rumoured to be potential buyers include YouTube superstar Mr Beast, US search engine startup Perplexity AI, and Kevin O'Leary - an investor from Shark Tank (the US version of Dragons' Den). Bytedance said in April that it was still talking to the US government, but there were "differences on many key issues". It's believed the Chinese government will have to approve any agreement. President Trump's interview with Fox News also touched on the upcoming end of the pause in US tariffs on imported goods. On April 9, he granted a 90-day reprieve for countries threatened with a tariff of more than 10% in order to give them time to negotiate. Deals have already been struck with some countries, including the UK. The president said he didn't think he would need to push back the 9 July deadline and that letters would be sent out imminently stating what tariff each country would face. "We'll look at the deficit we have - or whatever it is with the country; we'll look at how the country treats us - are they good, are they not so good. Some countries, we don't care - we'll just send a high number out," he said. "But we're going to be sending letters out starting pretty soon. We don't have to meet, we have all the numbers." The president announced the tariffs in April, arguing they were correcting an unfair trade relationship and would return lost prosperity to US industries such as car-making.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Trump threatens to cut off New York City funds if Mamdani ‘doesn't behave'
Donald Trump on Sunday threatened to cut New York City off from federal funds if favored mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, 'doesn't behave himself' should he be elected. Mamdani, meanwhile, denied that he was – as the president said – a communist. But he reaffirmed his commitment to raise taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers while saying: 'I don't think that we should have billionaires.' In an interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, Trump argued that a Mamdani victory was 'inconceivable' because he perceived the candidate to be 'a pure communist'. He added: 'Let's say this – if he does get in, I'm going to be president, and he's going to have to do the right thing, or they're not getting any money. He's got to do the right thing or they're not getting any money.' More than $100bn flows to the city from the federal government through different entities and programs, according to the city's comptroller last year. Speaking Sunday with NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, Mamdani said, 'no, I am not' a communist. He also said that he had 'already had to start to get used to the fact that the president will talk about how I look, how I sound, where I'm from, who I am – ultimately because he wants to distract from what I'm fighting for'. Mamdani said he was inspired by the US civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr, who once remarked: 'Call it democracy or call it democratic socialism. There has to be a better distribution of wealth for all of God's children in this country.' He then reiterated his intent to raise taxes on New York's wealthiest as part of a campaign pledge 'to shift the tax burden from overtaxed homeowners in the outer boroughs to more expensive homes in richer and whiter neighborhoods'. 'I don't think that we should have billionaires because, frankly, it is so much money in a moment of such inequality – and ultimately what we need more of is equality across our city and across our state and across our country,' Mamdani said. 'And I look forward to work with everyone, including billionaires, to make a city that is fairer for all of them.' Mamdani said the proposal reflected 'a description of what we see right now'. 'It's not driven by race,' he said. 'It's more of an assessment of what neighborhoods are being undertaxed versus overtaxed. 'It is not to work backwards from a racial assessment of neighborhoods or our city. Rather, it's to ensure that we actually have an equal playing field.' Many New Yorkers and moderate Democratic politicians have expressed concern over Mamdani's win over former governor Andrew Cuomo in the 24 June primary for the Democratic nomination. Among those to endorse him was progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. But he has not been endorsed by many other prominent Democratic party figures, including the New York governor, Kathy Hochul, who said coolly after his win: 'Obviously, there's areas of difference in our positions, but I also think we need to have those conversations.' Mamdani said on Sunday that he was looking forward to discussions with Hochul, saying: 'Ultimately, my policies, my vision, it's driven by an assessment of what's actually happening.' Asked if he thought moderate Democrats were afraid of him, Mamdani said: 'I think that people are catching up to this election. 'Ultimately what we're showing is that by putting working people first, by returning to the roots of the Democratic party, we actually have a path out of this moment where we're facing authoritarianism in Washington DC' under the Trump administration. In his comments on Mamdani's having secured the Democrats' nomination in the heavily Democratic city, Trump said: 'It's shocking.' 'I used to say we will never have a socialist in this country,' the president said, in part. Asked about Mamdani's proposals to oppose his administration's immigration crackdown and to arrest Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he sets foot in New York, Trump said the mayoral candidate would 'be very unsuccessful' on both counts. 'He's a radical left lunatic,' Trump said. Mamdani, for his part, said Democrats 'need to be a party that's not just against Donald Trump – but also for something'. 'And our campaign was for working people, bringing dignity back into those lives,' Mamdani said.
