“In late June 2025, a rumor spread that longtime MSNBC host and political commentator Rachel Maddow would be launching her own news network. A series of posts from Facebook accounts … claimed Maddow was “secretly” starting talks with investors and media professionals and was “frustrated” with controlling MSNBC executives.”
In late June 2025, a rumor spread that longtime MSNBC host and political commentator Rachel Maddow would be launching her own news network. A series of posts from Facebook accounts called FreeTV and depresión claimed Maddow was “secretly” starting talks with investors and media professionals and was “frustrated” with controlling MSNBC executives.
One Facebook post stated:
In a move that has sent shockwaves through the media world, Rachel Maddow is reportedly in secret talks to launch her own independent news network—because she’s done letting corporate bosses control her voice.
This bold plan promises full editorial freedom, no sponsors to appease, and zero censorship.
But someone tried to stop her. And now the full story is slipping out.
(Facebook user FreeTV)
Snopes readers also reached out to us wondering if the story was true. However, the rumor was false.
The Facebook posts linked to articles on several webpages designed to look like news websites. Per one of the articles, on a site called BreakingNews60s:
[…] behind the scenes, Maddow has long felt the tension between storytelling and structure. One former producer described it simply: “She wanted to go deeper. The network wanted to go faster.”
Over time, the tension became a quiet rebellion.
According to internal sources, Maddow has grown increasingly frustrated with the corporate imperatives guiding editorial choices—shorter segments, more viral moments, fewer deep dives. Executives encouraged her to amplify drama. She wanted to amplify truth.
That dissonance set in motion what now appears to be a deliberate exit strategy—one that could mark the most consequential media departure since Oprah Winfrey left network television to launch OWN.
We found no available evidence that Maddow plans to launch her own network, not from Maddow’s own social media accounts, from MSNBC or in news coverage about Maddow. The article comes from a website that shares made-up news stories with no evidence to back its claims.
We searched for reliable news reports about this potential move by Maddow, and found no coverage of it from any mainstream outlets. Were this story true, it would have been covered widely.
MSNBC’S website states: “Rachel Maddow is host of the Emmy Award-winning ‘The Rachel Maddow Show’ on MSNBC. ‘The Rachel Maddow Show’ features Maddow’s take on the biggest stories of the day, political and otherwise, including lively debate with guests from all sides of the issues, in-depth analysis and stories no other shows in cable news will cover.”
Maddow’s latest episode aired June 23, 2025, and she criticized U.S. President Donald Trump for selecting Thomas Fugate, a recent college graduate with no relevant experience to run domestic counterterrorism. Fugate had reportedly been appointed to run the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships, a division of the Department of Homeland Security that covers terrorism prevention.
When clicking on BreakingNews60s link, we immediately received a pop-up advertisement alert, suggesting the articles are clickbait. The “About Us” page gives us little to no information about who is behind such a website, stating:
News Hour is always open to your feedback, suggestions, and concerns about our programming, website, and journalism.
As of January 2, 2025, NEW NEWS PAPERUSA is revising our website comment policy and will only allow comments on specific articles that have been moderated. We will communicate in the article when the comment feature has been enabled.
Any questions, complaints, and feedback can be sent to [email protected]. These emails will be pre-screened for pornography and spam, then distributed to senior staff at NEW NEWS PAPERUSA . Due to the large number of viewer emails we receive each day, it is not possible to respond directly to each letter as we would like.
We reached out to the above email and will update this story if we hear back. The phone number on the website is not functional.
We also clicked through the social media links on their website. Clicking on the website’s X and Instagram buttons at the bottom of the home page, directed us to The Associated Press’ official Instagram profile. The Facebook button directed us to a page titled “Legends. Hits. And more.” The LinkedIn button directed us to the New York Daily News’ LinkedIn page, and the YouTube button simply reopened the website’s home page.
The articles also claimed that the hashtags #RachelUnleashed and #MaddowNetwork were being used by her fans on social media in response to the news. However, we found they had barely been used, as of this writing, and not in the context of a new network.
We have frequently covered rumors about Maddow before, including a false claim that White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt debated and confronted her on live television.
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