Melissa Harris-Perry Takes to Twitter to Slam ‘Culture of Fear at MSNBC’
Former MSNBC Host Seems to Have Concluded Severance NegotiationsÂ
Melissa Harris-Perry stunned fans last week when she walked off her show Friday after weeks of being pre-empted – and after what she called nearly a month of calls and emails to her bosses being ignored. Her fans were furious at MSNBC, but by Saturday it was clear she would not be returning. It also became clear race played a role in the equation.
Tuesday afternoon and early evening, Harris-Perry posted a stream of tweets that showed her pride in her wealth of accomplishments at the helm of “The Melissa Harris-Perry Show” for four years, and at the network for eight. But her tweets also seemed to suggest she may have felt underpaid at MSNBC, and was frustrated with the lack of attention paid to diversity there.
One of the unintended consequences of salary inequity– harder to get us to take one of those non-disclosure payoffs huh? #freedomovermoney
— Melissa Harris-Perry (@MHarrisPerry) March 1, 2016
As for me… I am just waiting to be free… tick tock…tick tock… is it 5 o’clock yet?
— Melissa Harris-Perry (@MHarrisPerry) March 1, 2016
5pm. Pushing back from pointless “negotiations” like … pic.twitter.com/bqa6l3uzXD
— Melissa Harris-Perry (@MHarrisPerry) March 1, 2016
After those tweets, her first was to apologize to other people of color MSNBC parted ways with, blaming the network’s “culture of fear” for her silence.
A few apologies: @MartinBashir @Toure @finneyk I am sorry for and ashamed of my earlier silence. I gave into to culture of fear at #msnbc
— Melissa Harris-Perry (@MHarrisPerry) March 1, 2016
She also gave thanks to the people she worked with, handing them credit for the success of her show:
To be sure, hosting @MHPshow was one of the greatest joys of my professional life-a weekly privilege for 4 years. #NerdlandForever
— Melissa Harris-Perry (@MHarrisPerry) March 1, 2016
Failures on @MHPshow were mine & nearly everything good belonged to brilliant team of producers, researchers, interns. #NerdlandForever
— Melissa Harris-Perry (@MHarrisPerry) March 1, 2016
And she pointed to the diversity on her show, of which she rightly was quite proud:Â
#Nerdland was a platform for diverse, brilliant voices to weigh in on politics — the only place on #MSNBC & cable pic.twitter.com/Oj1SnV30aP
— Melissa Harris-Perry (@MHarrisPerry) March 1, 2016
#MSNBC says they would put their diversity “up against everyone else in the news business.†It’s a low bar. pic.twitter.com/dwlaNbsLU9
— Melissa Harris-Perry (@MHarrisPerry) March 1, 2016
And at least for now, her final tweet of the series: #NerdlandForever indeed.
So #MSNBC y’all keep making cable great again. I’ll be staying challenging & unpredictable. #NerdlandForever pic.twitter.com/BCDOBLfITm
— Melissa Harris-Perry (@MHarrisPerry) March 1, 2016
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Image via Twitter
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