PrintSaturday schadenfreude: Tiffany Cross abruptly fired by MSNBC
It's been a week full of impending doom for both wings of the Democrat party: the candidates and the progressive media. CNN's increasingly desperate floundering has been covered by Peter Barry Chowka here, here, and here, while sister network CNBC's defenestration of its expensive anchor Shepard Smith once again proves that the Fox News brand is the only cable news perch that can make and keep a star shining bright.
Now it is MSNBC's turn to eject a host who has become an outright embarrassment. Brian Steinberg of Variety reports:
Tiffany Cross, the MSNBC weekend host who was known for running the freewheeling Saturday commentary program "Cross Connection," is leaving the NBCUniversal-owned cable-news outlet.
Her production staff was informed of the decision Friday morning, according to three people familiar with the matter. MSNBC declined to make executives available for comment, and Cross could not be reached for immediate comment.
MSNBC decided not to renew Cross' contract after two years, according to one of these people, and severed ties with her immediately.
It's one thing to decide to not renew a contract, but locking her out of the studio tomorrow indicates panic. And it's not hard to figure out what the panic was about, though Steinberg paid no heed to it:
CROSS: "I say Florida literally looks like the dick of the country. So let's get rid of Florida. Ron —" [crosstalk]
MCKELVEY: "Are you saying castrate the dick of the country?"
CROSS: "Yes. Seriously, let's castrate Florida. Here's the problem, Ron DeStupid, Ron DeSantis, whatever you want to call Florida Man, he is so problematic. The people there passed Amendment Four, which gave returning citizens, those formerly incarcerated, the right to vote. He instituted a poll tax. He has done everything he can to keep Black and brown people from the ballot. He traffics in stupidity and ignorance and I just think they are a problem for the rest of the country. Let's get them out."
Well, at least when she mentioned "dick," she seemed to gesture (as ladies of certain sort do), indicating that it was an impressive size:
Grabien screen grab.
It's not a really good idea to insult and threaten the third most populous state in the nation when you are in the business of gathering eyeballs to sell to advertisers. It is also a state where MSNBC's parent company has a major theme park and studio complex and a state that has a governor who retaliates when major corporations pick a fight.
But nobody ever accused Tiffany Cross of having any I.Q. points to spare. Megyn Kelly has even called her a "dumbass" on her podcast, igniting a feud:
Naturally, Cross hit back, calling Kelly "thirsty," which I take as an ethnic slur against people of Irish descent as drunkards:
So it is unsurprising that Kelly gloated over Cross's firing, calling her "the most racist person in all of television":
MSNBC apparently hired Cross specifically because of her race, as Variety's Steinberg indicates:
Cross was an essential building block in MSNBC's efforts to add a broader range of diverse voices to its schedule. After competing in an on-air bake-off of sorts in 2020 with Jonathan Capehart and Zerlina Maxwell to fill weekend hours previously led by Joy Reid, Cross has presided over a loose but chatty program that she also promoted heavily on social media.
So who will replace Cross? MSNBC has hired Jen Psaki and so far has not elevated her to hosting duties. But the ginger gal Jen is awfully pale, and for MSNBC, that might lead to criticism, to replace a black with a white. There are other POCs whom Steinberg sees as possibilities:
[I]t also has an array of recent hires, like Katie Phang or Symone Sanders, it could also utilize.
We'll see if the network works by quota.
I'd guess Cross will head back to BET, where she used to be D.C. Bureau chief. Meanwhile, she can commiserate with African American fired female and former MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry about how unfair it all is.
