“Now we know why the ‘Apprentice’ tapes, the rest of them, were suppressed,” said Brock, referring to the “14,000 [hours of] unaired outtakes that we tried very hard to get during the campaign. Yeah, I mean, it is an outrage and I know that there are hosts at MSNBC now who feel that their jobs are at risk because the brass is for Trump.” He said he’d spoken with one such host and that he had heard about others.

Those outtakes from the “Apprentice” were a big oppo-research get in the fall campaign. The Associated Press did an extensive story on Trump’s conduct on the “Apprentice” set, a piece that relied on recollections from contestants, editors and crew members. The Post scoop revealing a more-than-decade-old recording of Trump saying the lewdest of things on an “Access Hollywood” tape also pointed in the same direction: Where there was fire, there was more fire. A former “Apprentice” producer even tweeted that sentiment:

Brock is founder of Media Matters, which has long policed conservatively titled misinformation in the media, as well as Correct the Record, an opposition research outfit geared toward the Hillary Clinton cause. He pursued the “Apprentice” material, even at a high cost:

NBC issued a statement at the time indicating that it didn’t have the “legal right” to dish out footage from the program. “Apprentice” creator Mark Burnett and MGM, the rights holder, issued a similar statements.

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As for Brock’s representation about MSNBC hosts: The cable network managed to avoid much of the controversy — and, indeed, shame — that fell on its two main competitors throughout the presidential election. Fox News ran nakedly pro-Trump programming across at least three shows — “Fox & Friends,” “The O’Reilly Factor” and “Hannity” — while CNN came under attack for running too much unfiltered Trump-rally feeds and for airing paid commentary by Corey Lewandowski, the fired Trump campaign manager, even as he received severance payments from the Trump campaign. That said, “Morning Joe” co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski frequently invited criticism for their ever-evolving take on the Trump campaign.