Former MSNBC Host Melissa Harris-Perry Joins BET

Melissa Harris-Perry (Photo by D Dipasupil/Getty Images for PFLAG National)

By    |   Monday, 11 July 2016 12:12 PM EDT ET

Melissa Harris-Perry has joined BET News as a special correspondent, four months after the fiery-voiced broadcaster left MSNBC claiming the network cut her airtime because she wouldn't perform as its "little brown bobble head."

Deadline reports Harris-Perry will "host and contribute to various BET News programs and develop long-form news specials for the network." Her first appearance will be as a co-anchor for BET's coverage of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions.

Harris-Perry and MSNBC cut ties in March after she slammed the network's decision to preempt her news and opinion show for other programming.

In an email sent to her colleagues and obtained by The New York Times, Harris-Perry ranted:

"Here is the reality: Our show was taken — without comment or discussion or notice — in the midst of an election season. After four years of building an audience, developing a brand and developing trust with our viewers, we were effectively and utterly silenced."

Harris-Perry also took aim at NBC News chairman, Andrew Lack, and MSNBC president Phil Griffin for allegedly minimizing her exposure.

"I will not be used as a tool for their purposes. I am not a token, mammy or little brown bobble head," Harris-Perry said.

Harris-Perry's on-air proclamations often made news.

Last December, she called "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" a "racist" movie because of villain Darth Vader appeared to be "a black guy," until "he claims his son, goes over to the good, takes off his mask and he is white …"

She once likened getting an abortion to having cancer treatment or getting a hand amputated, asked outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder if he would quack like a duck, and said children should belong to their communities, not their families.

Also, she compared a hunger strike by terrorist suspects held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center to the ordeal suffered by slaves in America.

Aside from her new duties at BET, Harris-Perry is also an editor-at-large for Elle.com and a professor of politics and international affairs at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.


Newsfront
Melissa Harris-Perry has joined BET News as a special correspondent, four months after the fiery-voiced broadcaster left MSNBC claiming the network cut her airtime because she wouldn't perform as its "little brown bobble head."
melissa harris-perry, bet, msnbc, host
339
2016-12-11
Monday, 11 July 2016 12:12 PM
Newsmax Media, Inc.

View on Newsmax