Mississippi morning news anchor Barbie Bassett has been absent from the air, after blurting out a Snoop Dogg quote during a live broadcast.
After doing so on March 8th, she has not appeared back on air; And as reported by the Clarion Ledger, Bassett is no longer listed as a news team member.
The incident took place while discussing Snoop Dogg’s latest venture into the California wine market, Snoop Cali Blanc,
Bassett and her colleagues at NBC affiliate WLBT were making jokes about his latest business venture, and co-anchor Wilson Stribling joked that a newsroom journalist may get a tattoo like Martha Stewart inspired by Snoop Dogg.
In response to this, Basset merrily chimed in with “Fo shizzle, my nizzle,” seemingly unaware that “nizzle” is slang for the n-word.
Bassett, who is White, also tweeted the phrase in 2011, but the post has since been deleted.
This isn’t the first time she’d found herself in the centre of controversy either; Back in 2022, Bassett issued an apology after using the phrase “grandmammy” while speaking with a Black female reporter, who she also called “girl” and “sis.”
“Though not intentional, I now understand how my comment was both insensitive and hurtful. I have apologized to Carmen Poe,” Bassett said at the time. “Now, I would like to apologize to you. That is not the heart of who I am. And for that, I humbly ask for your forgiveness and I apologize to everyone I have offended.”
“I will learn from this and participate in training so I can better understand our history and our people. I can’t mend the hurt my comment caused. I pray you’ll forgive me and that you’ll extend grace through this awful mistake,” Bassett added.
As for her latest slip up, it’s uncertain what this means for the future of her career, and WLBT have not commented on the matter further.
