News Anchor Seemingly Fired After Quoting Snoop Dogg On Air

A longtime Mississippi news anchor and meteorologist appears to have been fired after quoting Snoop Dogg on air during a March 8 broadcast.

On NBC affiliate station WLBT, anchor Barbie Bassett was participating in a report about the rapper’s new addition to his wine line when she replied, “Fo shizzle, my nizzle,” to a colleague’s joke, according to Deadline.

The famous Snoop Dogg quote incorporates a slang term for the N-word.

According to the outlet, Bassett has not appeared on the channel since and her profile was removed from WLBT’s official website, leading many viewers to assume she was axed from the station.

In a statement to People, WLBT’s regional vice president Ted Fortenberry said the station was “unable to comment on personnel matters.”

“Right now, we are focused on helping the communities of Rolling Fork and Silver City in the Mississippi Delta, where more than 20 people were killed and an entire town destroyed Friday night,” Fortenberry continued.

Bassett has gone silent on Twitter since her last news broadcast, including during deadly tornadoes such as the one Fortenberry mentioned.

However, on March 14 she posted a meme on Instagram that referred to withstanding a “storm.”

“And that’s a fact, Jack,” she captioned the post, which received mostly supportive comments.

In October 2022, Bassett ignited controversy by making a racially insensitive comment when she referred to a Black reporter’s grandmother as “grandmammy” on air, for which she later apologized.

“I used a term that was offensive to many in our audience and to my co-workers here at WLBT. Though not intentional, I now understand how my comment was both insensitive and hurtful,” Bassett said in her televised apology.

“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,” she continued.