MSNBC will cut ties with Melissa Harris-Perry. Whatever happened here, it’s too bad.
"She had it," MSNBC president Phil Griffin once said about MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry.(Heidi Gutman/MSNBC via Episodic)
Political reporters have spent a lot of time this campaign cycle crafting delicate ways to explain the voting behavior and candidate preferences of an electorate that seems angry, economically frustrated and convinced that the country’s changing demographics and social mores are somehow to blame.
Some of the reporters covering these voters share the same anxieties. The sense among some journalists that they too are living and working in an increasingly unstable, topsy-turvy, mystifyingly diverse world is not exactly a secret. Some media companies outperform others in efforts to to diversify their staffs. But, to allow that staff diversity — at whatever level it exists — to truly shift internal priorities, set agendas and shepherd resources? Well, that would be something else entirely. And, as such, it remains rare.
It could, until this week, generally be found on Melissa Harris-Perry’s show, an MSNBC news and public affairs program that has aired on the network since 2012 with its eponymous host. The show has generally brought to the cable network’s 10 a.m. to noon Saturday and Sunday time slots a diverse array of academics, journalists, activists and others who hail from, write about or live in our rapidly transforming country rarely included or represented on other weekend political shows. They often sit at points up and down the age register and across the race, ethnicity and gender spectrums. But they typically come to discuss a variety of events and developments in the news. Sometimes, this is the news that is everywhere; sometimes, it is the news largely ignored elsewhere.
And as of Friday, it seems there has been a bit of a problem. Harris-Perry, a political scientist at Wake Forest University, asked a former staffer to publish an email she sent to her current show team explaining why she would not be on the air this weekend. Then, she told the the New York Times that, at least for now, she will not appear on the show.
Here are some of the critical bits of Harris-Perry’s email. (And a note that “nerds” is a term Harris-Perry often uses affectionately on air in reference to her audience and staff.)
As you know by now, my name appears on the weekend schedule for MSNBC programming from South Carolina this Saturday and Sunday. I appreciate that many of you responded to this development with relief and enthusiasm. To know that you have missed working with me even a fraction of how much I’ve missed working with all of you is deeply moving. However, as of this morning, I do not have any intention of hosting this weekend. Because this is a decision that affects all of you, I wanted to take a moment to explain my reasoning.Some unknown decision-maker, presumably Andy Lack or Phil Griffin, has added my name to this spreadsheet, but nothing has changed in the posture of the MSNBC leadership team toward me or toward our show. Putting me on air seems to be a decision being made solely to save face because there is a growing chorus of questions from our viewers about my notable absence from MSNBC coverage. Social media has noted the dramatic change inMSNBC will cut ties with Melissa Harris-Perry. Whatever happened here, it’s too bad. - The Washington Post:
