Washington Gadfly

Shocker: Melissa Harris-Perry Paid Off Tax Debt

Evan Gahr Investigative Journalist
Font Size:

Former MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry has quietly settled her $70,302 federal tax lien that attracted massive media attention last year, turning the spotlight on her fellow stars’ own outstanding debts.

Perry last April told Winston-Salem Journal reporter Michael Hewlett that she and her husband were repaying the money and had already put down $21,272. And unlike Al Sharpton’s similar comments about his own mammoth tax bill — swallowed whole by ace media reporter Dylan Byers-she was actually telling the truth!

Hewlett disclosed Wednesday that Harris-Perry and her husband settled the remaining debt on October 13, 2015.

The Perrys ponied up even though their liability was a one day story. How refreshing that two public figures — James Perry heads the Winston-Salem Urban League — actually did the right thing without any public pressure.

Melissa Harris-Perry did not even tweet about it!

Alas, MSNBC host Al Sharpton still owes nearly $600,000 in personal taxes to New York state that Byers, peddling MSNBC spin as objective fact, reported that he was incrementally paying back. Actually, the judgments have been gathering dust since first issued in 2008 and 2009.

Of course, MSNBC national correspondent Joy-Ann Reid still owes New York some $5,000 in taxes. Toure Neblett, another former MSNBC host, settled his $46,000 debt about three months after Byers said he was in the process of paying it down. But there is no evidence indication online he was making partial payments in April 2015 as Byers suggested.

He did not pay off a separate $12,849.87 tax warrant until this March.

So, basically, Byers batted one for four. That is a really poor average for a baseball hitter and even worse for a journalist.

Especially when he decided to take Al Sharpton, of all people, at his word. Who else is Byers giving the benefit of the doubt these days?

And, what’s up with Sharpton and Reid anyway? Do they think high taxes are just, with apologies to Rudyard Kipling, the white man’s burden?

Clearly, MSNBC, despite its incessant coverage of the rich supposedly not paying their fair share of taxes, is not pressuring them to settle the debts. Management is not always so diffident.

In 2008, when Page Six, following up on my ambush interview of then-host Keith Olberman, reported he owed a minuscule $2,269.50, the suits apparently acted differently.

Olbermann paid back the money just two months later — either in a sudden burst of integrity or, more likely, under pressure from Griffin.

So why did he give the other “talent” a free pass?

What is the differential factor here?

Hmmm.

Evan Gahr

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel