Our friends at the Washington Free Beacon published an absolutely spell-binding piece Tuesday blasting the artist soon-to-be-formerly-known-as MSNBC for enlisting “paid black actors playing ordinary Americans” in a hilariously Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) move to balance out “pensive shots of MSNBC’s white primetime stars,” helmed by Rachel Maddow reading the Constitution.
Collin Anderson and Thaleigha Rampersad authored this tour-de-force article blasting MSNOW and parent company Versant flushing $20 million for an ad campaign that includes this spot the two dubbed “a ham-handed effort…to cater to MSNBC’s large black audience—the largest in cable news—when its primetime and morning anchor lineup is overwhelmingly white.”
But not only did they use individuals the Free Beacon deciphered as actors, they did so “without identifying them as paid performers.
They explained: “The actors, Alex Mason, Shekaya Sky McCarthy, and Marcel Noel, stare off into the distance as Maddow speaks of forming ‘a more perfect union.’ Mason is shown by himself, while McCarthy is pictured next to a black child, and Noel plays a coffee-drinking patron at a diner.”
They added there was also a “black woman in military uniform embracing her child,” but “the Free Beacon could not identify them.”
They ran through the three’s acting credits with Mason and Noel having been seasoned commercial actors and McCarthy having been seen “in the YouTube series ‘Sad-Ass Black Folk.’”
These five served as the racial counter-balance to MSNBC’s “overwhelmingly white” primetime team of Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow, Jen Psaki, and Lawrence O’Donnell.
The Free Beacon took notice it included other white hosts/personalities in Morning Joe’s Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, The Beat’s Ari Melber, The 11th Hour’s Stephanie Ruhle (“wearing a gaudy ring that boasts what appears to be an enormous diamond as the ad’s producers endeavor to show her earnestly taking notes”), Deadline: White House’s Nicolle Wallace, and correspondent/illegal alien advocate Jacob Soboroff (“the white son of the powerful Los Angeles real estate developer and former Los Angeles Police Department commissioner Steve Soboroff”).
The only minority personalities they flagged were The Weeknight’s trio of Alicia Menendez, Symone Sanders Townsend, and Michael Steele.
By our count, we also spotted Morning Joe third-wheel Willie Geist (who’s white) correspondent Antonio Hylton (who’s black).
Anderson and Rampersad also mocked a second ad, which was “narrated by the celebrated black poet Maya Angelou” despite having died 11 years ago:
A second ad in the campaign— narrated by the celebrated black poet Maya Angelou, who died in 2014—also uses Mason, McCarthy, and Noel. In this ad, as Angelou can be heard reading a poem about diversity, Mason is shown with family members—a woman and a small child—and a visibly pregnant McCarthy is again shown with a child, while Noel again sits in a diner. As with the “We the People” spot, this ad intercuts shots of black actors with MSNBC’s white anchors, along with archival news footage of black protesters.
MSNBC’s effort to showcase black people, racial justice, and civil rights in ads promoting an overwhelmingly white slate of news stars reflects the dissonance between the network’s marketing strategy and its striking lack of on-camera diversity.
To read the rest of their 1,400-plus-word article, click the link above (or here).
