Joan Walsh

On April 1, 2018, Kyle Kashuv, a witness of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, tweeted that Walsh "liked" a tweet criticizing him. She replied, "Are you really policing who 'likes' tweets from a grieving Parkland father who lost his daughter? Good luck handling your stress, Kyle." Callum Borchers of The Washington Post found his argument illogical and her rebuttal snarky.

On December 23, 2017, Walsh revealed that MSNBC had chosen not to renew her contract, which the network said was a decision made because of an annual review. In their statement, MSNBC also said that "Unfortunately we couldn’t renew Joan, but she and her distinct perspective will still be invited on our shows." She had worked there for twelve years, six of them under contract. The decision prompted critical reactions from other MSNBC personalities, including Joy Reid and Chris Hayes. Some of Walsh's supporters also protested MSNBC's decision using the Twitter hashtag #KeepJoanWalsh. Later that day, Walsh tweeted that she would move to CNN in 2018, which was soon confirmed by a CNN spokeswoman.

Walsh was born in September 1958 in Brooklyn to an Irish Catholic family; in 1960, her family moved to Oceanside, Long Island. She has one brother and one sister. At the age of 13, her family moved to a northern suburb of Milwaukee where she attended high school. Her mother died when she was 17. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin.