Numerous companies, including Pfizer, The Economist, and P&G brands, ran advertisements on Katy Tur Reports on MSNBC Wednesday, during which Tur and one of her guests smeared Charlie Kirk following the news that he had been shot. These and other companies did not commit to pulling their advertisements from MSNBC in response to a Federalist inquiry
Analyst Matthew Dowd was sacked from the network after his implication on Tur’s program that Kirk’s assassination was a natural response to his rhetoric. “I always go back to: Hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions. … [Y]ou can’t stop with these sort of awful thoughts you have, and then saying these awful words, and not expect awful actions to take place,” Dowd said.
The Federalist reached out to the companies (or their parent companies) listed below, asking whether they would publicly condemn the inappropriate comments made on Tur’s program, and whether they had plans to pull their advertising from MSNBC. Only one responded to the questions.
Pfizer, Kenvue (Listerine), The Economist, Pharmavite (Nature Made), Renewal by Andersen, P&G (Nervive and Zevo), AbbVie (Ubrelvy), Bayer (Aleve), Spectrum News 13, Spectrum Reach, Quincy Bioscience (Prevagen), GSK (whatisshingles.com), singlecare.com, Safelite, AliveCor (kardia.com), Morgan and Morgan law firm, Custom Ink, Bausch + Lomb (Blink NutriTears), Dexcom, Balsam Hill, Lipo Flavinoid, and Atlantis Consumer Healthcare (Senokot) were among the companies the Federalist contacted regarding their products’ advertisements.
P&G’s Herbal Essentials did not specifically condemn the comments but claimed “we don’t get to see the final program content, or indeed placement, before our adverts are aired.” They maintained “we support responsible broadcasters with our advertising” and said the matter “will be passed on to our brand team for consideration in the future.”
The Federalist was unable to get in contact with a media representative for Greenway Kia, who also ran an ad during the Katy Tur Reports segment.
During her show, Tur painted Kirk as a “divisive figure; polarizing; lighting rod.” Multiple times, she drew attention to the “environment” that led to Kirk’s assassination and framed the conversation around gun control.
As The Federalist’s Shawn Fleetwood noted, Tur also “pondered the political consequences of this latest example of violence against conservatives,” saying, ““You can imagine the [Trump] administration using this as a justification for something.” Dowd likewise described an “awful, toxic stew” in the United States where “we have this free speech, which has turned into hate speech, combined with an unbelievable access to guns.”
MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler acknowledged that Dowd made “inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable” statements, though Kutler’s statement was posted to MSNBC’s public relations X account, not the outlet’s much more widely followed main account. Kutler and Tur remain in their positions.
Catherine Gripp is a graduate of Arizona Christian University where she earned a degree in communication and a minor in political science. She writes for The Federalist as a reporting intern.