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In a sign that Tiffany Cross plans to fight back after MSNBC unexpectedly canceled her weekend show, the popular TV host has hired a lawyer.
On Nov. 4, MSNBC notified the Cross and her team that their weekend show “Cross Connection” would not be renewed. The show was canceled immediately, with news of the cancelation not reaching Tiffany until Friday, a day when companies and politicians often drop bombshell news hoping people ignore it as the weekend approaches.
Cross, who brought new Black viewers to MSNBC with her unapologetic condemnations of white supremacy, was blindsided by the cancelation.
“Fresh off the heels of a ‘racial reckoning’, as so many have called it, we see that with progress there is always backlash,” Cross posted on Nov. 5 in a Facebook post.
“Now is not the time to retreat to politics or journalism as usual. It is my hope that the last two years at MSNBC have been disruptive and transformative, changing how politics are discussed and making policy more digestible,” she added.
New York Post goes after Tiffany Cross with racial dogwhistles
MSNBC wouldn’t divulge the reason for the firing. Yet, two weeks after the incident, the New York Post released a blistering article that paints Cross as the angry Black woman who overspent company funds and underperformed at her job.
The conservative media outlet cites an unnamed source in its bashing of Cross, but that didn’t stop other media outlets from picking up the story and running with it.
“She made calls saying, ‘I’m going out in a blaze and I’m taking down the network and going after Rashida,’” a source allegedly told the New York Post, referring to Rashida Jones, the first Black woman to lead a cable news network.
The unnamed source went on to claim that Cross knew about the pending firing and planned to retaliate and that she would spend an excess of $100,000 on lavish hotels during her business trips reporting around the country. The source also claims the network was fed up with her clapping back at racists like Tucker Carlson and that her ratings were low on the network.
It’s unclear why it took two weeks for this unnamed source to come forward with these “details,” however some have speculated the network is trying to get ahead of a pending lawsuit by attacking Tiffany Cross’s character and reputation.
Roland Martin predicts lawsuit
Roland Martin, a political commentator and friend of Tiffany Cross, wasn’t having any of it.
“When I was At @CNN, we had a central travel system. If I called to book a hotel room, they gave me hotel rates. I didn’t just charge it to the company. You actually think that @msnbc would have let @TiffanyDCross run up a $100K hotel tab and folks figure it out later?” Roland Martin posted on Instagram.
While the alleged source claims Tiffany Cross knew about the pending firing, Martin said he talks to Cross everyday and that she had no idea.
“This is CLEARLY an attempt by Someone inside of @msnbc to sully the reputation of @TiffanyDCross. They clearly fear her going after them legally and they want to trot out every conceivable negative thing to damage her reputation,” Martin added in a second post.
Meanwhile, it appears that Roland Martin’s assumptions may be correct. Tiffany Cross has hired an attorney to represent her. Power attorney Bryan Freedman is the same lawyer who represented Gabrielle Union after she accused America’s Got Talent of racism following her departure as a judge. That incident ended in a settlement for Union.
Bryan Freedman also represented Megyn Kelly, who sued NBC, resulting in a $69 million settlement.
“What’s the business case for letting her go? Brian Williams lied and they brought him back. Joe [Scarborough] and Mika [Brzezinski] had a [romance], and they expanded their hours and paid them more money. Many people in the business feel like [Cross] was made an example out of,” a source told Page Six news on Friday.
So far, Tiffany Cross has not commented on the issue, but it appears MSNBC may be heading toward a payout as well.