The network opted not to renew Seder’s contributor contract on Monday after a 2009 tweet resurfaced online, but has reversed its decision. MSNBC reverses course on firing contributor Seder after backlash

MSNBC on Thursday reversed its decision to fire contributor Sam Seder after critics said the network overreacted to right-wing media recirculating an old tweet in which he made a crude joke.

“Sometimes you just get one wrong — and that’s what happened here,” MSNBC President Phil Griffin said in a statement announcing Seder’s return.


The network opted not to renew Seder’s contributor contract on Monday after a 2009 tweet resurfaced online in which he made a crude joke about his daughter and movie director Roman Polanski, who fled the country decades ago after being charged with raping a 13-year-old girl.

"Don’t care re Polanski, but I hope if my daughter is ever raped it is by an older truly talented man w/a great sense of mise en scene," Seder tweeted, which he said was a criticism of people who defended Polanski's art.

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Mike Cernovich, a popular conservative blogger and figure in the so-called alt-right movement, re-upped the remarks and called on reporters to cover the matter as they have done with sex-related controversies in the media.

The decision not to renew Seder’s contract immediately incited a backlash online from journalists and media critics who said MSNBC had caved to pressure from Cernovich. A petition for MSNBC to rehire Seder had garnered over 12,000 signatures as of Thursday morning.

“EVERY media article has defended Sam Seder's right to make child rape ‘jokes’ that would get anyone else fired, but yeah there is no media narrative at all, and there's totally a diversity of viewpoint in the media. Yes, sure thing guys, we totally buy that,” Cernovich sarcastically quipped on Twitter on Wednesday.

Griffin said MSNBC “heard the feedback” and that it “understand the point Sam was trying to make in that tweet was actually in line with our values, even though the language was not.”

"I appreciate MSNBC's thoughtful reconsideration and willingness to understand the cynical motives of those who intentionally misrepresented my tweet for their own toxic, political purposes,” Seder said in a statement.

News of Seder’s return, first reported by The Intercept, was acknowledged by MSNBC staffers online Thursday.

“Welcome back, @SamSeder!” MSNBC “All In” host Christopher Hayes tweeted.



This article tagged under: MSNBC