This past Saturday, Melissa Harris-Perry stepped away from hosting her show on MSNBC. In an email that leaked on Friday, Harris-Perry wrote that she wasn’t going to work for a network that treated her show as “worthless” after it was repeatedly pre-empted for election coverage.
Since then and according to Vox, Harris-Perry has been in negotiations with MSNBC until 5 PM on Tuesday. Apparently, those negotiations didn’t go well, because Harris-Perry is now tweeting up a storm about how MSNBC has treated her.
Some of these tweets are defiantly celebratory:
5pm. Pushing back from pointless "negotiations" like … pic.twitter.com/bqa6l3uzXD
— Melissa Harris-Perry (@MHarrisPerry) March 1, 2016
She also put up a number of graphs about how her show brought diversity to cable news and political commentary:
#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
#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
And she expressed gratitude for getting to host the Melissa Harris-Perry show, and thanked her crew:
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
But she also put MSNBC on blast for how they treated her, and portrayed her:
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
Note to @YvetteMiley & Phil if I cc u on email Tue & it's leaked to press on Friday maybe I'm not the unpredictable one. #GetYourLeaksPhil
— Melissa Harris-Perry (@MHarrisPerry) March 1, 2016
This seems to be in response to to an MSNBC executive telling the Washington Post that Harris-Perry was “a brilliant, intelligent but challenging and unpredictable personality.” Harris-Perry seems to volley the “unpredictable” remark back at MSNBC in questioning how her email leaked to the New York Times in the first place.
Many fans have been tweeting their praise of Harris-Perry under the #Nerdland hashtag.
Earned this hoodie after my second shot at guest hosting @MHPshow. I'll always wear it proud. ❤️✊🏾 #nerdland pic.twitter.com/C0vGWMVkkQ
— Janet Mock (@janetmock) February 28, 2016
https://twitter.com/JillFilipovic/status/704014469932965889
As @MHPshow ends, we have a responsibility to continue amplifying the voices #nerdland spotlighted. As she’d say, the struggle continues.
— Jamil Smith جميل كريم (@JamilSmith) February 28, 2016
As for Harris-Perry, she’s likely not coming back to MSNBC, but she promises to keep everyone guessing.
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
(via Vox & Washington Post)