A hot mic has landed Joanna Coles in some hot water! Joanna attends the 2025 Outstanding Mother Awards on May 08, 2025. (Photo by Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for Father's Day/Mother's Day Council, Inc.)
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In tonight’s edition, Daily Beast Chief Content Officer (and co-host of two of the publication's podcasts) Joanna Coles has apologized after being caught on a hot mic. Find out what she said – that prompted a complaint from a staffer – below.
Also, tonight, the peacock has flown the coop. We get reaction from inside 30 Rock about MSNBC’s name switch and why the change to “MS NOW” will cost around $20 million.
Plus, Daily News staffers descended on Montauk this past weekend as they ramped up their campaign against Alden Global Capital. Scroll down to find out who they’re calling the Montauk Menace as they fight for fair contracts.
It’s Tuesday, which can mean only one thing here at Breaker – Hamish McKenzie is back with Hamish’s Hot Sauce. This week, the Substack co-founder tells us about the hit show he missed out on getting tickets to, and what he believes it says about the future of media.
Finally, a tribute to Myron Rushetzky, the former New York Post City desk supervisor who passed away Friday, and who, even in retirement, kept the spirit of the paper alive.
Mentioned tonight: Mark Lazarus, Rebecca Kutler, Rachel Maddow, Nicole Wallace, Eugene Daniels, Yamiche Alcindor, Bret Baier, Barry Diller, Shari Redstone, Lachlan Murdoch, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr, Kara Swisher, Mark Shapiro, Ben Sherwood, Katie Feeney, Heath Freeman, Andrew Julien, Dick Costolo, Larry Wilmore, James Stewart, Ben Mullin, Michelle Gotthelf and more.
The Daily Joanna
(Exclusive.) It’s the podcast no one asked for. “The definitive Trump biographer Michael Wolff and the Daily Beast’s unmissable interviewer Joanna Coles combine forces to dive deep into Trump’s secrets and psyche to reveal what’s driving the man the world can’t stop watching,” the blurb for ‘Inside Trump’s Head’ states.
Inside Trump’s Head made its debut last week and has already tackled the big political issues emanating out of Washington, such as ‘Why Trump and Epstein Competed to Bed Princess Di.’
That’s despite The Beast having to retract a story from their website linking Melania Trump to Jeffrey Epstein that was based on comments Wolff made on their marquee podcast.
“After this story was published, The Beast received a letter from First Lady Melania Trump’s attorney challenging the headline and framing of the article. After reviewing the matter, the Beast has taken down the article and apologizes for any confusion or misunderstanding,” the editor’s note reads.
But it’s issues involving the "unmissable interviewer” Coles, who is also Chief Content and Creative Officer of The Daily Beast, on their eponymous pod that alarmed staffers and led to a complaint, Breaker has learned.
In April, the longest serving African American White House correspondent and MSNBC contributor, April Ryan, featured as “Beast of the Week,” joining Coles and her former co-host Sam Bee on the pod following the White House Correspondents weekend.
“Um, it was the oddest thing I've ever been to,” Ryan told Coles and Bee about the shindig. “Mind you, I've been to about 28 of them now, 28 years, 28 White House Correspondents Association dinners. Um, we had no president. Uh, the president is typically the guest of honor.”
The trio went on to discuss how the comedian Amber Ruffin, scheduled to perform, lost the plum gig following remarks she had made on The Daily Beast podcast.
And Ryan spoke about how, when she was about to be honored by the association's president, Eugene Daniels, the screen behind him mistakenly cut to another prominent Black journalist, NBC News’ Yamiche Alcindor.
“It's, it's crazy. Been a bad, a bad week for black women with the White House Correspondents,” Coles mused.
But Breaker has learned it was something else that Coles later said that was caught on a hot mic – and that never aired – that would lead to a complaint and two producers subsequently leaving the show…
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