I saw Melissa Harris-Perry’s apology on MSNBC the other day, and hope it was enough to kill the fake outrage over a joke made on her program about Mitt Romney’s adoptive Black grandchild. (I posted a link to the apology on my website: www.amok.com).
As a broadcaster and journalist, I normally bristle when I see non-broadcaster/journalists helm news talk programs. It’s sort of like the star athlete becoming the TV commentator. Sure they know the game, but can they communicate as well as they audible at the line of scrimmage? Can they connect with the people?
When they do, we all win.
In the non-sports realm of cable talk shows, it’s not the star quarterback that gets lured to the spotlight, it’s the opinionated academic plucked from the ivory tower.
For the most part, that’s MHP on MSNBC.
Unlike a broadcaster, Harris-Perry didn’t cut her teeth in small market TV and climb her way to the top.
From her Wikipedia entry: “Harris-Perry graduated from Wake Forest University with a bachelor’s degree in English and received a Ph.D. in political science from Duke University. She also received an honorary doctorate from Meadville Lombard Theological School and studied theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York.
