Monday, February 29, 2016

Melissa Harris-Perry Axed from MSNBC Claiming Racism

Melissa Harris Perry on Quitting MSNBC
For four years, Melissa Harris-Perry hosted a little watched weekend progressive political talk program on  MSNBC. Harris-Perry made a name for herself by outrageous antics such as wearing tampons as earring.and claiming that kids belong to whole communities. Well, Harry-Perry got in a tizzy with her bosses and played the race card one too many times and now has lost her hostess position.

MSNBC had embraced a "Lean Forward" mentality towards news, striving to become the default progressive news and opinion channel. Since 2012, MSNBC has raced to the bottom of cable newser ratings and seemingly could not rise with the "Lean Forward" strategy.

As the Election 2016 has been generating lots of interest (particularly for the Republican primary challenges), MSNBC had been focusing more on live political news coverage. Consequently, some shows had been pre-empted.

Melissa Harris-Perry was in a huff because her low rating Saturday show was being pre-empted by live news coverage for the third time in a row, so she walked off the set. More consequential was the email that the Wake Forest University Presidential Chair of Politics and International Affairs and The Nation columnist in which she refused to be a TV token for her liberal news executive overlords. Perhaps she thought that playing the race card would make a different while assuaging her ego. But  Harris-Perry was quickly terminated when word of the email became public.


Harris-Perry saw racism everywhere. Harris-Perry railed about one of Mitt Romney's children adopting a biracial baby. Harris-Perry saw racist overtones in Darth Vader of Star Wars.  Thus her polarized perspective was pretty pronounced.  But the rapidity that MSNBC did away with her show because she turned the racial grievance gun towards Manhattan liberals who program several no ratings shows with questionable minority talent (e.g. Al Sharpton) to front diversity shows or assuage African American activist agitators is telling.


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