No, Rachel Maddow Didn’t Launch a Rogue Newsroom With Stephen Colbert and Joy Reid

A viral post promised a “news revolution.” Here’s what’s true — and what isn’t.

In the last few days, a breathless social-media claim ricocheted across Facebook and elsewhere: Rachel Maddow had “quietly launched a brand-new newsroom” outside the confines of MSNBC, teaming up with Stephen Colbert and Joy Reid to “break through censorship” and expose corruption. It sounded cinematic — and it was fiction. Independent fact-checks found no evidence for the story, and rated the claim false.

How the rumor caught fire

The narrative spread via short videos and graphic posts that racked up hundreds of thousands of views, often linking to ad-stuffed blogs repeating the same script. Fact-checkers traced the surge to a patchwork of social pages that pushed near-identical language and imagery — a hallmark of coordinated virality rather than original reporting. Several posts even relied on AI-generated pictures or recycled comedy stills to imply legitimacy.

Crucially, no credible outlet — broadcast, print, or digital — reported that Maddow, Colbert, and Reid had launched a joint newsroom. That absence matters: if three of the most visible figures in American media suddenly unveiled a new venture together, you’d expect a flood of mainstream coverage. There wasn’t any.

What the principals are actually doing

Maddow has already addressed — and debunked — the broader rumor that she’s starting her own network or newsroom. On a broadcast in late July, she told viewers plainly that she has not founded, nor is she planning to found, an independent news operation.

Joy Reid, meanwhile, exited MSNBC early this year amid a wider programming shakeup. Since then, she’s continued her political commentary outside the network and has spoken publicly about inequities she experienced in television. People magazine recently reported that she’s building out her own platforms, including a YouTube presence, rather than joining a new Maddow-led newsroom.

As for Colbert, the late-night host’s name was drafted into the rumor to add star power. Fact-checkers note there’s no record of him signing onto any Maddow-Reid venture. (’ roundup references separate reporting about the future of his CBS show — but none of it includes a pivot into a Maddow-led newsroom.)

Why a false story landed now

The timing is telling. MSNBC itself is in the headlines for real reasons: a corporate spin-off of several NBCUniversal cable properties into a new company called Versant, and a rebrand of MSNBC to MS NOW by year’s end. That genuine upheaval has fueled confusion and speculation — fertile ground for sensational hoaxes that feel plausible to casual scrollers.

Rumor merchants also lean on a familiar playbook. They frame established journalists as rebels “breaking free” from supposed gatekeepers, attach urgent language (“Quietly launched,” “news revolution”), and then monetize the clicks through low-quality sites. In this case, investigators found the posts recycling the same copy across multiple pages, with some operators apparently located overseas — another common tell.

The real newsroom story

There is a legitimate, consequential media story here — and it’s not a secret startup. The rebrand to MS NOW (short for “My Source for News, Opinion, and the World”) reflects a broader effort to separate the spun-off cable networks’ identity from NBC News, complete with new logos and a push to define a distinct editorial footprint. Whatever one thinks of the new name, the change is a matter of record and will shape how the channel positions itself going into 2026.

That context helps explain the rumor’s traction: when institutions shift, audiences search for simple, dramatic narratives to make sense of the noise. “Maddow builds her own newsroom” is a story that ties a bow on a complex corporate move — even if it’s untrue.

How to spot the next one

A few habits can keep you from getting spun:

Look for corroboration. If a claim involves marquee names, there should be multiple independent reports — not just mirror-copy posts and anonymous blogs.

Watch the visuals. AI-generated or context-free images are red flags; trace photos back to their source when possible.

Follow the money. If every link points to a site drowning in ads and pop-ups, you’re likely the product, not the audience.

Bottom line: as of August 26, 2025, there’s no credible evidence that Rachel Maddow, Stephen Colbert, and Joy Reid have launched an independent newsroom together. The story took off because it was built to do so — frictionless, dramatic, and just plausible enough to pass the scroll test. The real work, as always, is slower: separating signal from noise in a media ecosystem that rewards the opposite.