MSNBC Staffers 'Questioning' Network's 'Fairness' With Nepo Baby Hires: Report
MSNBC staffers are reportedly fuming over a sudden influx of nepo babies working for the network, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Nepo babies is a slang term used to describe those who seemingly benefit from nepotism. Most recently, the nepo baby debate sparked an intense online backlash against the children of Hollywood elite like Ben Platt, Deacon Phillippe and Lourdes Leon.
While nepotism hires are not a new phenomenon, insiders claim staff at the network are growing restless watching colleagues with high-profile connections quickly move up the ranks.
A report said emotions at MSNBC intensified after Luke Russert, the son of late Meet the Press legend Tim Russert, was put on the fast track to stardom.
"The move has quickly become the talk of the newsroom, with some labeling it a nepo baby appointment and questioning the fairness of the decision-making process," an insider told the National Enquirer.
"It's a total joke but about to get worse," the source continued. "MSNBC is also looking to hire Allison Williams, daughter of disgraced former host Brian Williams, and Thomas Matthews, son of disgraced former host Chris Matthews."
RadarOnline.com has reached out to reps for MSNBC for comment.
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While actress Allison, 35, is most famously known for her roles in Get Out and HBO's Girls, her father's scandal catapulted her into the nepo baby spotlight.
Brian, 64, was suspended without pay from NBC News in 2015 for embellishing his role in a helicopter crash while covering the Iraq War in 2003 during a Nightly News broadcast. He was then removed from his post at NBC News and reassigned to MSNBC'S 11th Hour.
Five years later in November 2021, Brian announced he was leaving MSNBC and NBC News after 28 years with the company.
As for the father-son Matthews duo, the former Hardball host announced his retirement from the network in March 2020 amid a harassment scandal.
In February 2020, former HuffPost journalist Laura Bassett detailed how Chris "inappropriately flirted" with her when she was a guest on his show four years earlier.
Chris later told Vanity Fair's Inside the Hive podcast that Basset was "highly justified" and he "accepted the credibility of the complaint."