Sources close to the situation say Jones was concerned that Cross ignored her directives to stop taking on rival cable and radio personalities during her show. “The news group makes these business decisions all the time.” “MSNBC made a programming decision to cancel the show,” a spokesperson for the network told Variety. But, at Rashida’s level, in doing so, what she’s actually doing is defaming Tiffany in the process,” Freedman said. “There’s one kind of wrong in going around trying to justify one’s unjustifiable behavior. Some are concerned that Cross was unfairly penalized for being an outspoken Black journalist.īryan Freedman, the high-powered attorney Cross retained after her ouster from MSNBC, told Variety that Jones’ behavior was harmful to his client. Many of the sources who spoke to Jones, a rare Black female leader in the sector, felt her efforts to present her case to industry insiders underlined how controversial the decision was to fire Cross in the first place. Cross’ firing has been the subject of numerous conversations initiated by Jones with elite media figures in recent weeks, nearly a dozen individuals interviewed by Variety said. While Wallace was on hand to discuss her series, Jones had a different hot topic in mind, four sources aware of her dealings that day said - it was Tiffany Cross, the outspoken MSNBC anchor who Jones had abruptly fired three days earlier.Ĭross was the firebrand weekend host of “The Cross Connection,” a host who’d drawn the ire of rightwing pundits such as Tucker Carlson, and had also raised eyebrows - both internally, and among some viewers - with her blunt on-air comments about political figures like Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Another individual present that day agreed it was “bizarre” that a top executive from NBCUniversal would step foot inside ABC. “It’s beyond odd that the head of a rival news operation at a different network would come to ‘The View,’” noted one source with knowledge of the visit. But the visit to “The View” nonetheless raised eyebrows in the news biz. Jones is known to have accompanied some MSNBC talent to other media appearances, even on rival networks.
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