Melissa Harris-Perry rejects MSNBC deal in scathing farewell.

[Stellar]

Melissa Harris-Perry has chosen the freedom to speak over an exit package.

On Tuesday, the outgoing MSNBC host said that her exit negotiations with the network fell through after she refused to accept the terms of a non-disparagement clause that she described as "a gag order."

"They wanted me to sign a non-disparagement clause, and we had a deep disagreement over what constituted the non-disparagement clause," Harris-Perry told CNNMoney on Tuesday. "They wanted me not to speak about MSNBC. I said no."

James Perry, Harris-Perry's husband and the one who led the negotiations with MSNBC, said that MSNBC's non-disparagement clause would have restricted his wife to speaking about MSNBC only when it was "positive or in her academic work."

"I'll never get another penny from MSNBC," Harris-Perry said.
The channel announced on Sunday that it was "parting ways" with Harris-Perry. That came two days after she published an email to friends saying that she had been "silenced" because the network had pre-empted her show for two consecutive weekends.

Yvette Miley, the senior vice president of talent and diversity, told CNN that Harris-Perry's show, like others on MSNBC, was only pre-empted in order to focus on the contentious 2016 presidential primary contest and said there were no plans to cancel it or strip Harris-Perry of editorial control.

"MSNBC is the place for politics, and as we're covering 2016 part of that coverage meant that we were going to look for opportunities during the course of 2016 to really focus on the race for the White House," Miley said. "There were pre-emptions that impacted shows across the network."

James Perry confirmed that MSNBC had never expressed any intention to cancel her show prior to her decision to publicize her email. But he also said that the network's treatment of his wife was "consistent with the way they had 'disappeared' other hosts."

"Over the past year, a lot of employees have been disappeared from MSNBC, and what we've observed is there is a clear process for how they've been disappeared: You get taken out of the system and your name as a host is taken out of it as well. And then when you communicate and ask them about it, you don't get any response," Perry said. He declined to provide specific examples.

Both Harris-Perry and James Perry said that she had continuously asked MSNBC's leadership for clarity on her role with the network and received no response.
"Starting around Thanksgiving, I began asking, 'Does anybody know if the show is going to be on air in 2016?" Harris-Perry said.
Holding back tears, Harris-Perry said that she worked hard to support her family, her kids and her mother.

More: CNN

[dragonfly301]

1. I read this and thought - I hope she gets picked up by another network

but really what other network? Fox, MSNBC and CNN all seem to be cut from the same cloth these days. I'm spending a lot of time livestreaming TYT.

And the added salt in the wound is that MSNBC hired Ted Cruz's spokesperson to fill the slot -

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. I wish Current had made it.

[Stellar]

5. That's what I was trying to remember...Current tv with Keith Olbermann...

That would have been great for all the Dems that MSNBC are throwing under the bus.

[GreenPartyVoter]

16. Exactly!

[KamaAina]

13. Its successor al-Jazeera America is closing at the end of next month.

If anyone has a spare half-billion or so (the price they paid for Current) lying around, we could build a whole network around her.

[GreenPartyVoter]

14. I know! Very sad about ALJ too!

[Jitter65]

49. Somehow we lost access to Al-Jazeera English when AJ-America came on board.

My fav TV hosts

Soledad, MHP, Olberman gone.Wish they could team up and get a show of their own.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

45. RT with Thom and Ed

For the most part, she'll get the same guests and have complete editorial control.

[metroins]

51. I boycott RT for it's Russian Propaganda

Doesn't matter to me who they put on, I'll do my best to never give them a rating.

The website and most views in articles are extremely anti american.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

54. Lol

[stillwaiting]

3. Integrity. She has it. Rachel lost hers clearly. nt

[TipTok]

4. Sounds ugly on both sides..

[hfojvt]

6. rejects an offer and then chokes back tears

meanwhile the internet tells me she is worth $40,000,000.

Not including what her husband is worth.

How dare somebody pay you millions of dollars and then expect that you will not disparage them?

[Stellar]

7. $40,000,000? Link please. I didn't know college professors made that kind of money. nt

[jeff47]

8. Well, it's on the Internet, so it must be true!!! (nt)

[Stellar]

10. LMAO! Okay...

[hfojvt]

22. well she has had a TV show for four years

she's written two books, and is a columnist.

Plus, Princeton professors do make decent money.

Is $40,000,000 true? I cannot be sure, but it is the only source I have. Even if she only made $500,000 a year for her show, that's still a lot of money where I come from.

For someone who has made that kind of money and refuses who knows what kind of deal to continue making and then sobs "I work hard to support my family". Well, that does not sit right with me. I've taken a whole lot of crap over the last decade or so to keep my own $15,000 a year job, so her "hardship" of only having a professor salary and book royalties doesn't generate a lot of sympathy from me.

[Stellar]

24. Again...link please.

Is $40,000,000 true? I cannot be sure, but it is the only source I have. Even if she only made $500,000 a year for her show, that's still a lot of money where I come from.

For someone who has made that kind of money and refuses who knows what kind of deal to continue making and then sobs "I work hard to support my family". Well, that does not sit right with me. I've taken a whole lot of crap over the last decade or so to keep my own $15,000 a year job, so her "hardship" of only having a professor salary and book royalties doesn't generate a lot of sympathy from me.

No link, no verification. Just smoke and mirrors.

[rockfordfile]

34. There's something wrong with you

I'm not sure what it is. To me you sound like a conservative republican. Your comments reads like something from a right wing site.

[snooper2]

9. If she was worth that much she would have easily paid her back taxes right?

[spanone]

18. and the internet is always right, of course!

[Shankapotomus]

11. All of the other hosts disappeared

Should get together and reappear on FreeSpeechTv or maybe their own online production.

[Stellar]

15. Whoa, I knew nothing about FreeSpeech TV....

Thanks for sharing.

https://www.freespeech.org

[Shankapotomus]

17. I think it comes with basic cable

I have it. Thom Hartmann, David Pakman, Bill Press, I think Ring of Fire is on there, etc.

[tech3149]

29. Guess again

I love my tiny little ISP/ cable company (wpa.net) but they put on Blaze when FSTV and many other options were available.
Christ! Even buying a Roku to get access to other information isn't a gaurantee. I've got no problem if I want to watch Netflix or Hulu but switch to RT or FSTV and it's constantly relaoding.

[pintobean]

12. She refused to work

and publicly trash-talked her employer. I have no pity for her.

[Stellar]

19. I'm sure she feels bad about that.

[patricia92243]

20. She sounds likea prima donna to me. Others got their programs postponed , why not her also.

[Justice]

21. This piece says 2 weeks, I thought I read elsewhere it was 6. If she blew up over 2 weeks, that was

really not smart.

[Jester Messiah]

23. Good for her!

She shouldn't take any of their shit.

[Flying Squirrel]

25. It kinda sounds like "1984"

The way people were just 'disappeared' and all traces removed as though they had never existed.

Very Orwellian.

[leftynyc]

26. Pretty standard exit agreement

If you get money, there is a non-disparagement clause. I had to sign that when my last job laid me off 14 years ago and gave a very nice severance package.

[metroins]

53. Depends how much she would've gotten

She can scathe MSNBC for a year or two and maybe make more than the severance.

Depends on how she markets herself.

Personally, I am not a fan of how she has handled this situation.

[oldandhappy]

27. Reid, the Rev, MHP -- hmmmm

[Stellar]

28. Before/After...

the age of Obama.

...Torre', Harold Ford, Jr., Karen Finney...

[lindysalsagal]

30. I hope Rachel isn't next.

They only care about ratings: not news or information.

[Kingofalldems]

31. I notice the republicans can't wait to attack her.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

32. She should have thought of how much her kids and her mother depend on her financially before

she did such a stupid thing.

We stopped watching her when she wore tampons as earrings. Disgusting!

[Stellar]

33. What was the point Mellisa was trying to make...

when she wore tampons as earrings?

[Boudica the Lyoness]

36. I have no idea.

[bettyellen]

55. I think it was the tax on tampons.

[Stellar]

58. Well...

MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry Dons Tampon Earrings To Protest Texas Abortion Bill

Some filibuster abortion bills, some march against them, and some wear tampons on their ears.

On her MSNBC show Sunday morning, Melissa Harris-Perry brought attention to Texas’ recently-passed abortion regulations—and the burnt orange-clad demonstrators who had fought their passage—in her own way: with a pair of homemade tampon earrings.

“My producer Lorena made for me last week some tampon earrings,” Harris-Perry said as she put on the jewelry. “The Texas state legislature said that you couldn’t bring tampons in, when these women were going to, in fact, stand up for their own reproductive rights.”

During a second special session of the Texas legislature, security in the Capitol building briefly banned tampons from the rotunda for fear that the feminine products would be tossed at lawmakers passing the last-minute bill.

The earlier protests had been so disruptive that Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst had been unable to call a vote on the bill, resulting in an embarrassing but temporary setback for Texas Republicans, who vowed not to let demonstrators get the better of them again. But Capitol security got a bit overzealous in confiscating tampons from female protestors, a policy they quickly reversed after it garnered national attention.

Mediaite

[bettyellen]

59. Oh, people were using them in protest! Interesting, ha ha. Bet those dudes would run.

I remember seeing this same pic the same week I read about people protesting the tampon tax. Dumb assumption on my part- thanks for clearing that up!

[rockfordfile]

35. She did nothing wrong. The blame all goes to NBC/MSNBC. This reeks of racism.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

37. I think constant accusations of racism

will really damage the Democratic party. People are getting tired of the over-use of it.

[Stellar]

43. What have you got against a people calling out racist when they see it or subjected to it...

does it piss you off? I know it really pisses off Republicans.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

46. NO, YOU DON'T GO THERE WITH ME!

Don't you dare. There are some of us who have to live with the repercussions of all the race baiting (for votes).

I raised a successful black man - now middle-aged. I cannot imagine what it would be like raising him now with people telling him the world is out to get him and every slight is proof of it.

I raised him to understand he could be anything he wanted to be and he will only be judged by the content of his character. We were NEVER subjected to racism in the white community, we only experienced it in the black community in SE DC.

Race-baiting pisses me off so knock it off it's damaging people who are struggling in the real world.

[Stellar]

47. Boys what have we got here...a SCREAMER!

Don't you dare. There are some of us who have to live with the repercussions of all the race baiting (for votes).

Race baiting for votes? And I just have to go through life with all of this racism just for being BLACK. At 72 years old I don't need you to tell me what I better not do. I'm proud to say that I've raised two middle aged son in Chicago and I have two grandsons to think about in this day and age. We did not have all the privileges that you and your son did. I hope your son stays in your neighborhood or close to home so that they won't ever have to find out about the real world.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

48. and right on cue is the 'privilege' bull shit.

My son hasn't lived in the same state as me for decades. He's lived all over the middle east, Europe and the American south. He's now retired to Alaska to start a very nice profitable second career.

You may consider Chicago as the real world but I encouraged my son to explore planet earth, which he did. He did it as a human being and not as a black man (which he is) raised to believe every slight, odd look was racism and the world was out to get him.

Yes he was raised privileged all right. He was privileged to have had me and his dad as his parents!

I have a granddaughter and she also is being raised as a human being and citizen of the planet.

If you were to venture out of Chicago you will find people have had enough of the race baiting and I'm afraid it's hurting the Democratic party.

[Stellar]

50. Well, moving right along....

blah, blah, blah...

[bettyellen]

56. they were screwing around with her editorial content. sucks.

[Stellar]

42. Poor baby!

How dare she....doesn't she know some people in the audience have such delicate ears and eyes?

Tampons Seized At Texas Legislature As Pro-Choice Protesters Descend On Austin Ahead of Abortion Vote

Pro-choice protesters armed with tampons saw them seized by security as they entered the Texas capitol in Austin on Friday as they prepared to show their frustration with a law that would restrict abortions to up to 20 weeks. The hotly contested legislation has become the focus of national attention since state Sen. Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth) temporarily derailed the law’s progress with a talking filibuster in June.

“Abortion rights advocates dressed in orange Friday, some carrying gynecological devices and signs, while anti-abortion activists wore blue and held images of fetuses and Bible verses,” read a report in Talking Points Memo on Friday.

More: Mediaite

[notadmblnd]

57. Were they used tampons?

if not, why were they disgusting?

[Last_Stand]

38. She's been off the rails lately...

with her "hard worker" and Star Wars being racist schtick.

[DivenParker]

39. Well, that does not sit right with me.

Well, that does not sit right with me.

[bdwker]

40. Good. With that attitude....

I don't see a lot of other news programs lining up to hire her.

[Vinca]

41. I think what she did was incredibly stupid.

Shows are always getting bumped or moved around, especially in an election year. Look at the big shake-up earlier at MSNBC. MHP immediately played the victim of race card which made no sense given other women of color who have had their shows canceled are still reporting on the network. Ratings are ratings. I don't know what MHP's were, but given her time slot I can't imagine they were over the moon. She might have had a long career of on-air journalism, but she blew it. I wouldn't hire her if I ran a station.

[NaturalHigh]

44. The bottom line is her ratings.

Did she do well in the ratings contest? If she had, I think she would still be around.

Her temper tantrum over her show being pre-empted was incredibly stupid.

[Mike Nelson]

52. Disparagement clauses are common...

...I suspect something else is wrong. You don't burn bridges like this... I doubt any major news org will take a chance on her...

[tularetom]

60. She tried a power play and discovered she had very little power

I'm not defending MSNBC, it's a piece of crap like all other cable news outlets.

But she had a show that was on weekends, early in the morning, before anybody was even awake. Very few people watched it. It made absolutely no difference to Comcast's bottom line whether that show was on the air or not. Plus she allowed the show to reflect her own personal biases, which is her prerogative, unfortunately it narrowed the focus of the show to the point it turned viewers off.

She did the right thing, however, when she told them to stick their non-disparagement clause up their collective asses. I'd like to hear more about it.