Commercial Break of the Day: The Today Show Cuts Off Janelle Monáe as She Begins to Talk About Police Brutality
While Today might welcome the fantastic Janelle Monáe to perform for the morning show Aug. 14, the NBC producers don't welcome her thoughts on #BlackLivesMatter.
.Mic has the story:
...Monáe was delivering her new song "Hell You Talmbout," which the Verge describes as "both a protest song and a tribute; a call to arms and a forceful reminder of the tragic, tangible consequences of police brutality," before the feed rapidly switched to commercials.
"God bless all who've lost lives to police brutality. We want white America to know that we stand tall today. We want black America to know we stand tall today. We will not be silenced!" Monáe said. At that point, the camera quickly panned away and an anchor began to speak over her.
It seemed like a very abrupt and purposeful cut away from her speech, even if NBC producers say that it wasn't.
People weren't happy about it, intention or not.
Props to @JanelleMonae on her performance today. Too bad they cut her off as soon as she started talking about some real stuff.#whytodayshow
— Kameron (@KamSammich) August 14, 2015Uh, did the @todayshow just cut off Janelle Monáe for a commerical or her words about police brutality?
— Ashley Parker (@fleuredeflorida) August 14, 2015Interesting. @TodayShow anchors cut @JanelleMonae off there a bit when she ended "Tightrope" with a statement about police and race.
— Nathan Hager (@nhagerwnew) August 14, 2015dang @TODAYshow, just couldn't let her finish, huh? love ya @JanelleMonae! #BlackLivesMatter cc: @deray @Nettaaaaaaaa pic.twitter.com/QeGhY5lQGJ
— marla york. (@theseMYtweetz) August 14, 2015