Departing MSNBC host complains of culture of fear!
WASHINGTON (PNN) - March 1, 2016 - Melissa Harris-Perry, the departing liberal MSNBC host who announced last week she was boycotting her own weekend show, went on social media Tuesday to complain about a "culture of fear" at the cable news channel. "A few apologies," Harris-Perry said on Twitter to her 435,000 followers. She name-checked three former MSNBC on-air personalities who were terminated from the channel in recent years: Martin Bashir, Toure Neblett and Karen Finney.
"I am sorry for and ashamed of my earlier silence. I gave into [a] culture of fear at MSNBC," Harris-Perry said.
Bashir was let go in 2013 after he made a crude comment about former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. Neblett was also taken off the air last summer when executives began moving MSNBC away from liberal commentary and toward hard news.
In another tweet, Harris-Perry targeted two executives at MSNBC, suggesting that they had leaked her internal emails to them to the press last week. "[I]f I cc u on email Tue[sday] and it's leaked to the press on Friday maybe I'm not the unpredictable one," she said, with an apparent reference to MSNBC President Phil Griffin and Vice President Yvette Miley.
Last week, Perry said she would boycott her own weekend show because MSNBC had preempted it in previous weeks with live 2016 presidential campaign coverage. Harris-Perry often covers race issues and social justice on her show.
"I will not be used as a tool for their purposes," Harris-Perry wrote to her colleagues in an email, which became public in a New York Times report. "I am not a token, mammy, or little brown bobble head. I am not owned by [NBC News Chief Andy] Lack, Griffin or MSNBC. I love our show. I want it back."
In another tweet on Tuesday, however, Harris-Perry said that hosting her show was "one of the greatest joys of my professional life - a weekly privilege for 4 years."
A spokesperson for MSNBC did not return a request for comment.
