In the lengthy statement, Mr. Cannon said he was “now receiving death threats, hate messages,” but also an “outpouring of love and support from the Jewish community.” He said he had “dedicated my daily efforts to continuing conversations to bring the Jewish Community and the African-American community closer together.”Mr. Cannon said that he had tried to speak with Shari Redstone, the controlling shareholder of ViacomCBS, “to have a conversation of reconciliation and actually apologize if I said anything that pained or hurt her or her community.” But he said he had heard “Dead Silence!” and that ViacomCBS “wanted to show me who is boss, hang me out to dry and make an example of anyone who says something they don’t agree with.”He also accused the company of “mistreating and robbing our community for years” and of “underpaying talent on their biggest brands.” Mr. Cannon demanded an apology from ViacomCBS, full ownership of the “Wild ’N Out” brand and an end to “the hate and backdoor bullying.”Mr. Cannon, an actor and a musician, is also a host of the Fox show “The Masked Singer.” It was not immediately clear if Mr. Cannon’s relationship with the network was being re-evaluated. Fox did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday night. Mr. Cannon’s dismissal by ViacomCBS came after the star wide receiver DeSean Jackson was fined and disciplined by the Philadelphia Eagles last week for sharing an anti-Semitic quotation attributed to Hitler. On the June 30 episode of his podcast, Mr. Cannon was interviewing the rapper Richard Griffin, known as Professor Griff, about his dismissal from the hip-hop group Public Enemy in 1989.

Source: New York Times July 15, 2020 06:06 UTC