Nerds: Melissa Harris-Perry is Taking A Stand

Nerds:

This has troubled my soul in a big way. I have been there and it is not a laughing matter.
MSNBC is giving their only fair and impartial talent the run around. I am partial to MSNBC because I think they are fairly liberal in giving their show hosts autonomy in presenting subject matter they are passonate about. MHP took her show and used it as a format that highlighted some of the serious concerns facing the Black community and did a Damn good job. She was funny, intelligent and fearless in her reporting. She decided to walk off the show baring her name due to politics and the head honchos at MSNBC giving her the run around.

Read the article - the interesting thing is many blacks in corporate America are treated the same way, she went public with her feelings and is letting the world know she is being silenced. What are your thoughts on her chess play? Would you do the same thing? Or, do you think she should have handled it differently?

Article (Written by the New York Times):

In an unusually public flare-up, one of MSNBC’s television personalities clashed with the network on Friday in a dispute about airtime and editorial freedom and said she was refusing to host the show that bears her name this weekend.

The host, Melissa Harris-Perry, wrote in an email to co-workers this week that her show had effectively been taken away from her and that she felt “worthless” in the eyes of NBC News executives, who are restructuring MSNBC.

“Here is the reality: Our show was taken — without comment or discussion or notice — in the midst of an election season,” she wrote in the email, which became public on Friday. “After four years of building an audience, developing a brand and developing trust with our viewers, we were effectively and utterly silenced.”

In a phone interview, Ms. Harris-Perry confirmed she would not appear on the show this weekend. She said she had received no word about whether her show, which runs from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays and Sundays, had been canceled, but said she was frustrated that her time slot had faced pre-emptions for coverage of the presidential election. She said she had not appeared on the network at all “for weeks” and that she was mostly sidelined during recent election coverage in South Carolina and New Hampshire. (She was asked to return this weekend.)

In her email, Ms. Harris-Perry wrote that she was not sure if the NBC News chairman, Andrew Lack, or Phil Griffin, the MSNBC president, were involved in the way her show was handled recently, but she directed blame toward both.

“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.”

For MSNBC, this is unwelcome news during a heated election. Last year, after its scandal involving Brian Williams, Mr. Lack, the former head of NBC News, was brought back to run the news division, and one of his chief missions was to fix the ailing MSNBC, which significantly trails Fox News and CNN in viewership. In the last few months, Mr. Lack has steered MSNBC away from its liberal identity and moved it toward harder news in the daytime hours. Since January, the network has had round-the-clock election coverage (including the reintroduction of Mr. Williams as co-anchor on primary nights), and notched strong ratings gains year-over-year in the mornings and afternoon.


Ms. Harris-Perry, who is also a professor at Wake Forest University, has hosted her MSNBC show since 2012. She has used the show to explore issues like social justice and racism, and diversity has been the centerpiece of the show since its start.

“I care only about substantive, meaningful and autonomous work,” she wrote in her email. “When we can do that, I will return — not a moment earlier.”

She said that last month the onscreen branding for her show was replaced by MSNBC’s slogan, “The Place for Politics.” With the election heating up, her show was pre-empted each of the last two weeks and for the most recent edition, on Super Bowl Sunday, she was told to talk mostly about the presidential race.

She still did speak about other topics, including Beyoncé’s new video for her song “Formation” and how it addressed race. But perhaps in a sign of the network’s shifting priorities, as she and her guests engaged in a lengthy discussion about the video, live video of rallies for Jeb Bush and Chris Christie in New Hampshire played in a box on the screen as well.

Ms. Harris-Perry, who is under contract, said that she was told that pre-emptions and election coverage were going to play out for the “foreseeable future.” Joy Reid will take over her time slot on Saturday, just as she has for the last couple of weeks.

Ms. Harris-Perry said not being able to talk to her viewers felt like a “betrayal.”

“It is perfectly fine, 100 percent reasonable and perfectly acceptable for MSNBC to decide they no longer want the M.H.P. show,” she said. “But they should say that. They should cancel the show; they should stand up. And maybe it would be rewarded with huge ratings, but they shouldn’t kill us by attrition and take us off the air without telling anybody, including us. That for me is what’s painful and difficult.”

 

I agree - there were some things she could have done differently - but I think she exhausted all of her options and her back was against the wall and they were not responding. overall, the decision was bold and it got the attention. Now, if they re going to react positively or negatively to her actions is another question. I do not think this is going to end well for MHP. And Geez, it was my favorite show on the network.

 

One of the last episodes I watched was with her interviewing Bernie Sanders. Do you think this is a Clinton conspiracy??? She was / is a supporter of Bernie.

They do not make journalists like her anymore. They want Don Lemon Types in the seat to further propel the foolishness they are pushing to keep us away from issues that matter with voices to tell the narrative with logic, tact and intelligence.

 

Damn IT!!!!!!! well, she was playing with fire. anytime you embarrass a company like that and you're under contract it is so easy. I hope this was a part of her bigger plan to go somewhere else. she is talented and the need to smart blacks on TV is lacking. I know she will land on her feet and be just fine.

 

That is so true. The media is cut throat. I just cant believe she is gone. I really really liked her and what she bought to the agenda of the network. She was always on point with the issues that were really souring the underbelly of our nation. damn them. damn MSNBC.

 

well said man!