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Actor Mark Ruffalo Demands NBC, MSNBC Stop Hiring 'White Conservatives'

Mark Ruffalo / Getty
June 13, 2017

Hollywood actor Mark Ruffalo shared a petition on social media demanding that MSNBC stop hiring white conservatives to work at the network.

Ruffalo, the star of such films as View From the Top and The Dentist, linked to a petition demanding that both MSNBC and NBC stop their "white conservative hiring spree."

"Sign the petition: Tell @MSNBC @NBCNews to stop the white conservative hiring spree," Ruffalo wrote.

"After President Obama won in 2008, FOX News did not hire dozens of progressive, female, Black and Brown, young TV personalities in order to speak to the Obama coalition," the petition reads. "So why on earth is MSNBC pushing out Black and Brown voices and filling its network with hard-line extreme conservatives?"

Among the NBC conservative hires listed on the petition are Nicolle Wallace, George Will, Hugh Hewitt, Megyn Kelly, and Greta Van Susteren. They also note that liberal hosts of color like Melissa Harris Perry, Alex Wagner, and Touré Neblett have seen their roles diminished or terminated.

"The man in charge of MSNBC has made it clear that he wants to make the network whiter and more conservative—even though the ratings of progressive shows are skyrocketing," the petition complains.

Ruffalo has a long history of liberal advocacy, sometimes courting controversy. During the George W. Bush administration, Ruffalo was a prominent supporter of 9/11 trutherism. In 2016, Ruffalo embraced a conspiracy theory claiming that the Zika virus was invented by a Brazilian pharmaceutical.