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The 20-plus-year anchor of a local news channel in Mississippi was seemingly booted from her position for quoting Snoop Dogg live on air.
And it that sentence alone makes you want to stop the planet and get off, get in line.
Barbie Bassett, who co-hosted the morning show at the NBC affiliate WLBT, was ousted from her seat following a March 8 broadcast in which she quoted Snoop’s iconic phrase, “fo’ shizzle, my nizzle” in response to her colleague’s joke that she should get a tattoo in honor of the rapper just like Martha Stewart did in a recent commercial. At the time, the pair were running a segment about Snoop Dogg’s new line of California wine, Snoop Cali Blanc.
Unfortunately for 55-year-old Bassett, the word “nizzle” is Snoop’s signature slang for the n-word, which black rappers are allowed to say at will but white middle-aged news anchors apparently aren’t allowed to quote. Bassett was seemingly unaware of this connection, thinking she was throwing out Snoop’s line in good fun.
Longtime Mississippi news anchor appears to no longer be employed with the news team after saying, "Fo shizzle, my nizzle" on airhttps://t.co/O5tFTsac1g pic.twitter.com/hs01IyVQaL
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) March 24, 2023
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But it looks like her ignorance didn’t save her from getting canned. Bassett, who had worked with the news channel as an anchor and meteorologist since 1999, hasn’t been back on air since that show, and her name has been removed from the station’s online list of personalities.
According to The New York Post, the station’s regional vice president Ted Fortenberry said he was “unable to comment on personnel matters.”
Someone who felt perfectly comfortable commenting on the topic, however, was black podcaster Charlamagne tha God, who defended Bassett on "The Breakfast Club" podcast.
"I don’t think she should have been fired for that," he said. "She might not even know what ‘nizzle’ means, yo. Come on, like stop. That’s not a reason to fire that woman."
Snoop could not be reached for comment - though it's hard to imagine him caring.