War hysteria took out one of the few antiwar voices in the major media as the country abandoned some of it most basic values in the lead-up to the war on Iraq.

In 2003, the legendary television host Phil Donahue was fired from his prime-time MSNBC talk show during the run-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The problem was not Donahue’s ratings, but rather his views: An internal MSNBC memo warned Donahue was a “difficult public face for NBC in a time of war,” providing “a home for the liberal antiwar agenda at the same time that our competitors are waving the flag at every opportunity.” Donahue joins us to look back on his firing 10 years later. “They were terrified of the antiwar voice,” Donahue says.

Some revelations from the report by the always-consistent Democracy Now:
-Chris Matthews claims ignorance that Donahue was fired over politics when Amy Goodman confronts him
-Donahue says MSNBC’s decision was based on a Republican focus group, when in fact he had top ratings