Simon Sanders Doesn’t Want His MSNBC Show To Be Predictable: ‘I Have a Reputation for Telling It’

For most of her working life, every time Symone Sanders appeared on television, she was the representation of someone else.

As Senator Bernie Sanders’ national press secretary for the 2016 presidential campaign, he was his surrogate voice in the media. In 2020, he joined the Joe Biden campaign, again representing a politician in the public sphere. After Biden’s election, Sanders joined the government as Vice President Kamala Harris.

But Sanders is now planning a new venture, and this time he’s doing it in his own name.

“I spent my career as a spokesperson for other people and now it’s just me,” Sanders said. hollywood reportr in the interview.

Sanders debuts this weekend simon At MSNBC, he joined cable channel programming and also produced original episodes for the Peacock streaming service on MSNBC.

And while politics will be the focus of the show, Sanders says it will be broader, including “news you need to know, from politics to pop culture.”

“We’re not just going to make DC, we’re going to make interesting stories for you, we’re going to get into the conversations that you and your friends have, the group chats that you have,” added Sanders.

That’s a perspective that, according to Sanders, was sorely missed on television.

“It’s been a long time since you’ve seen people like me on TV. I’m talking about black women. I’m talking about young people. “I haven’t really seen a single bald young black woman from the Midwest,” Sanders said. “There’s no one to do what I’m going to do. No one is on TV with my experience and wit, I know the current President of the United States, the Vice President of the United States and some of the biggest names here in politics well.

“I am the self-styled queen of culture, I wonder what’s going on and what’s going on in the music, entertainment, fashion and art industry. “I’m going to put all of that on my show,” she added. “That’s what makes me different and I hope people want to hear it.”

This is all part of what Sanders describes as the show’s three “guiding principles,” the topics he bets on, will appeal to regular MSNBC viewers as well as younger viewers who may not regularly watch cable news.

“First, I do not represent the Biden administration. They have speakers. I’m not one of them,” Sanders said. “It’s not my job to be a speaker in the first place. And I feel it visually. “Even if I wanted to be a speaker, I’d stay at work.”

“The second thread I have is that, as I am at the table on the other side of the room, not only in this administration, but in the campaigns, I am very connected to the progressive movement, my job is to inform. And help open the curtain a little by explaining “why,” added Sanders.

“Third, I believe in being honest. I have a reputation for saying, how is it, ok? says Sanders. “You can ask the people I worked with in the White House, the people I worked with on the Sanders campaign, my former colleagues at CNN, the people I work with now. I’m telling the truth, and sometimes telling the truth has given me a little trouble, but I’m telling the truth. “And the truth is not always what my former White House colleagues agree with, but I will hold it to a high and substantial standard and tell the truth, that’s all I can do.”

Sanders joins the MSNBC broadcast, Rachel Meadow leaves prime time, a corporate push for the broadcast and a desire to generate more votes over the weekend. And he is unlikely to be the last former White House official to join the channel. His counterpart in the Biden administration, Jen Psaki, is also expected to join him after he leaves the White House in the coming months.

But there is hope that new faces and formats can shake up the cable news landscape and develop the next generation of TV talent.

simon There will be political and cultural panels, and Sanders says he intends to feature journalists as guests to review his reports, both from his colleagues at NBC News and from local journalists across the country.

Instead of focusing on the news (and knowing the show is available on Peacock or TV on weekends), Sanders wants to try to update the week’s news or highlight what’s on his mind. The rest of the media was left out.

But he also admits that hosting is very different from commenting.

“It’s a much bigger responsibility,” Sanders said. “I can no longer pontificate from the page just saying ‘oh why aren’t people covering this’ or ‘they haven’t done their due diligence to familiarize themselves with the story’, it’s now my job to do everything I can to bring the story back to light.” some missing points.”