The show's official name is "The Cross Connection." But truth-in-advertising would have dubbed it, "All About Identity Politics."
Because that's how host Tiffany Cross explicitly pitched her new MSNBC weekend-morning show to her audience today. The show takes the slot formerly occupied by Joy Reid, who has moved on to a weekday primetime show on the network.
Cross began her opening by describing the show as "our home." And by that, Cross made clear that the people invited into that home were various communities of color and sexual minorities, whose various identities she mentioned multiple times. The only reference to whites was to the way voters had "unseat[ed] a beneficiary of years of white supremacy."
Yet while explicitly seeking to appeal to an audience of color, Cross managed to condescend to such viewers. She said her show is targeted to people who "get lost in the acronyms, the insular inside-baseball chatter that may sometimes fly over [their] head on cable news channels." And in an odd echo of Bill O'Reilly's old line about "looking out for you," Cross added, "ride with me because I am always riding for you."
While the show presents itself as glorifying diversity, it can be expected that there will be little diversity of opinion on display, with virtually all guests singing the same liberal lines.
Tiffany Cross's ode to identity politics was sponsored in part by Walmart, Gold Bond, Proctor & Gamble [maker of Gain], and Fidelity. Contact them at the Conservatives Fight Back links to let them know what you think of their sponsorship of this kind of show.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
The Cross Connection
12/12/20
10:00 am ETTIFFANY CROSS: I really want to tell you about this. My new home, our new home. Not only is this the beginning of a dream 20 years in the making, but what a time to kick off a show like this one. It is our time.
. . .
We’re going into a new year with one of the most diverse congresses this country has ever seen, with record numbers of women of color, openly LGBTQ folks and indigenous Americans serving than ever before. A record number of voters turned out this year to help unseat a beneficiary of years of white supremacy, punctuating the power of the new American electorate which comprises a whole lot of voters of color.
And they helped elect a black woman Vice-president. And right here, just announced this week, we have a black woman president making history as a pioneer. Rashida Jones will be the first to run a major news network.
. . .
[I'm] hosting a show that is designed with you in mind. This is your home. If you’ve watched cable news shows and yelled at the TV because you’re not hearing your voice or your lived experience reflected, this is the show for you. If you’ve been angry that so many of these political discussions are being led by people waxing poetic and nostalgic about a country that never existed for you, you have found a home here. If you get lost in the acronyms, the insular inside-baseball chatter that may sometimes fly over your head on cable news channels, ride with me because I am always riding for you.
. . .
I did a fellowship at Harvard, where I taught the impact the lack of diversity in newsrooms has on our democracy. And just around that time, Cesar Conde, also a pioneer as the first Latino man to chair NBC Universal news group envisioned a newsroom that looked like America.
And so here we are. We’re creating a news home in a country where the majority of Americans under 16 are people of color. They’re Asian-Americans, Pacific Islanders, Hispanics, Latinos, Native Americans, African-Americans, and those of multi-ethnic backgrounds.
. . .I look forward to closely examining the politics and policies of a new White House, how they will navigate an increasingly progressive Congress, and holding this administration accountable, particularly to those who helped elect them.
. . .
We’ll discuss all that and more on this show, with us at the center. We’ll touch on politics, culture, humanity, and the inhumanity of some yet-to-be addressed disparities. So leave your Tims, your crocs, your stilettos, sneakers or sandals at the door and come right on in. Let’s do it for the culture. Welcome home.
