“I will not be used as a tool for their purposes,” she wrote. “I am not a token, mammy or little brown bobble head. I am not owned by Lack, Griffin or MSNBC. I love our show. I want it back.”
Ms. Harris-Perry is black, and Mr. Lack and Mr. Griffin are white. In the phone interview on Friday, Ms. Harris-Perry clarified her remarks and said she did not think race played a role in her recent absence from the air.
“I don’t know if there is a personal racial component,” she said. “I don’t think anyone is doing something mean to me because I’m a black person.”
An NBC News spokesman said in a statement, “In this exciting and unpredictable presidential primary season, many of our daytime programs have been temporarily upended by breaking political coverage, including M.H.P. This reaction is really surprising, confusing and disappointing.”
From: Melissa Harris-Perry Walks Off Her MSNBC Show After Pre-emptions – The New York Times
I read that article at the NYT website this morning. All I could think was, what a whiner. First she makes it racial and then claims it isn’t.Report
Hmm, it’s almost as if there’s a power imbalance where a black female commits career suicide when speaking truth to power, forcing them to humiliatingly repudiate what they had previously said in order to avoid retribution.
Nah, she’s a hypocrite.Report
Which is more likely, that msnbc is being racist or that the statement from msnbc, that many programs are preempted in this election season, is true? Not to mention that she makes allegations but provides no evidence.Report
Pretty sure committing career suicide is going to involve some manner of repudiation if the harm is to be minimized, race or see not withstanding.
The question is, if a white man does it, do they get a pass, or did they still commit career suicide?Report
This reaction is really surprising, confusing and disappointing.
said the frog to the scorpion.Report
I will miss her insightful thoughts on Star Wars.Report
MHP is out.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/29/business/media/melissa-harris-perry-is-out-at-msnbc-cable-network-confirms.htmlReport
To have an intelligent opinion on this, I’d have to know if there’s a history of MHP’s show being treated differently from other MSNBC shows, or whether there’s some other sensible reason for her to think she’s being treated unfairly. But no one else on the internet seems to care whether their opinion on this is based on any facts or not, so why should I be the first?Report
@mike-schilling
You’re clearly new to the internet. Here… let me help…
To have an intelligent opinion on this, I’d have to know if there’s a history of MHP’s show being treated differently from other MSNBC shows, or whether there’s some other sensible reason for her to think she’s being treated unfairly. But no one else on the internet seems to care whether their opinion on this is based on any facts or not, so why should I be thefirst?!!!ReportI found the reaction to her walk-off really odd. The same people who typically say that TV news is awful and leads to fascism etc suddenly started staying that MHP is a dummy who can’t understand that preempting thoughtful shows with the latest Trumpism is the way TV is supposed to work.Report
What’s odd about the reaction to her tantrum? MHP seems to think that hers was the only show on msnbc being preempted.Report
She’s not going quietly. Why am I not surprised?
http://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/melissa-harris-perry-is-not-leaving-msnbc-quietly/285999
http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/01/media/melissa-harris-perry-msnbc-farewell/index.html?iid=hp-stack-domReport
I would have thought someone taking a huge pay cut so they can openly shit on CNN would have had your respect. I wonder what’s different about MHP…Report
She might have my respect but she seems like a crank with an axe to grind. She’s all allegations and no proof.Report
Why don’t you tell me what is different.Report