NEW YORK: Prominent Muslim journalist Mehdi Hasan has decided to quit USA TV channel MSNBC rather than accept a demotion that saw him lose a regular Sunday night program on the network. Hasan announced at the end of Sunday show that “I’ve decided to look for a new challenge.
Who is Mehdi Raza Hasan?
Mehdi Raza Hasan,46, is a British-American broadcaster and author. He presented The Mehdi Hasan Show on Peacock since October 2020 and on MSNBC from February 2021 until the show’s cancellation in November 2023. On the final broadcast on January 7, 2024, he announced that he was leaving MSNBC.
A graduate of Christ Church, Oxford, Hasan began his television career as a researcher and then producer on ITV’s Jonathan Dimbleby programme. Following a stint on the BBC’s The Politics Show he became deputy executive producer on Sky’s breakfast show Sunrise before moving to Channel 4 as their editor of news and current affairs. In 2009 he was appointed senior editor for politics at the New Statesman. In 2012 he became a presenter on Al Jazeera’s English news channel, and in 2015 moved to Washington, D.C. to work full-time for Al Jazeera on UpFront and host the Deconstructed podcast produced by the online publication The Intercept from 2018 to 2020.
Hasan is the author of Win Every Argument, and the co-author of a biography of former Labour Party leader Ed Miliband. He was formerly the political editor of the UK edition of The Huffington Post and the presenter of the Al Jazeera English shows: The Café, Head to Head and UpFront.
Why did he quit MSNBC?
British-American broadcaster Mehdi Hasan has left the show named after him The Mehdi Hasan Show and the US news channel MSNBC ‘to look for new challenges’.
“As we begin 2024 with an election coming, a war still ongoing, and too many Trump trials honestly to even keep track of, and with this show going away, I’ve decided it’s time for me to look for a new challenge,” Hasan said during his final broadcast on Sunday.
But some media channels linked his resignation to the November cancellation of his Sunday-night series The Mehdi Hasan Show.
He also shared the clip on X, erstwhile Twitter. Hasan thanked show producers and people who followed his show.
“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. To be clear, I am so, so proud of what we’ve achieved on this show on this network, and I can’t thank you enough for tuning in and for your support, and for your feedback. But as they say, new year, new plans.”
On November 30, 2023, the MSNBC announced that its weekend lineup would be changed and Ayman Mohyeldin would replace Hasan on Sunday nights. At the time, Hasan was slated to stay with MSNBC as a political analyst and fill-in host, until his exit announcement on Sunday.
