MSNBC ripped by Soledad O’Brien after touting female anchors: ‘Zero women of color in this picture’

MSNBC was slammed on social media after a Los Angeles Times story touting “The Woman Warriors of NBC” was flagged by former CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien and others for lacking women of color.

The story featured MSNBC anchors Stephanie Ruhle, Hallie Jackson, Andrea Mitchell, Katy Tur and Nicolle Wallace.{mosads}

“The five female anchors who now shape most of the daytime news programming at MSNBC,” reads the MSNBC tweet to its 2.5 million followers.

The five female anchors who now shape most of the daytime news programming at MSNBC. https://t.co/VJniTZEIZU

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) June 6, 2019

The tweet became what is referred to as “ratioed” from there, which is the term for when negative replies far outpace retweets on a particular tweet.

O’Brien, who now works for a Hearst TV weekly talk show but was previously employed by CNN, NBC and MSNBC, took to Twitter to point out the omission.

Zero women of color in this picture. https://t.co/16g4EMVm34

— Soledad O’Brien (@soledadobrien) June 6, 2019

“Zero women of color in this picture,” O’Brien wrote in a tweet liked nearly 10,000 times as of Friday afternoon.

An MSNBC spokesperson pointed out that the rest of the weekday and weekend lineup outside of the 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET has the highest percentage of hosts or anchors who are people of color across all of cable news, citing a Columbia Journalism Review story on the subject.

The spokesperson also noted that in 2017 and 2018, MSNBC was the No. 1 cable network in African-American total viewership, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Other figures had weighed in on Thursday to ask why the network placed its African American hosts, including Joy Ann Reid, in weekend slots only.

Congrats to all. They are great, sharp and this is well earned. But there are no people of color in this photo. It’s 2019. It’s America. There’s no excuses. And everyone should be embarrassed by it. https://t.co/NjYx9hHx5z

— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) June 6, 2019

your newsroom needs more black people https://t.co/YgoqVX01mf

— David Dennis Jr. (@DavidDTSS) June 6, 2019

Conservative provocateur Ann Coulter has previously weighed in on the issue of diversity at the network.

Which reminds me: Why does MSNBC put all its black hosts on the low-rated weekend ghetto? This must change! #ParityatNBC #NBCWhiteNationalists

— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) May 20, 2019

Updated: 11:55 p.m.