Joy Reid spoke out on HuffPost Live Tuesday about what it is like being the newest host on MSNBC, the cable news network with the most racially diverse roster of hosts.
Reid debuted as the permanent host of "The Reid Report" on Monday. She joins other hosts of color at the network, including Tamron Hall, Melissa Harris-Perry, Al Sharpton, Alex Wagner and Karen Finney. Cable news, of course, is an industry that has typically been known for its lack of diversity.
Reid attributed MSNBC's move to have more hosts of color partly to the network's audience. She said that one-third of the network's viewers are black.
"This is just good constituent service to make sure that the people who watch our network see themselves reflected in all of our variety," Reid said. "Having people who reflect the whole spectrum of humanity is just the job of news organizations. I don't think MSNBC should be unusual. Everyone should be doing that."
"You can't give the news to a diverse 300-million-person country by only representing a slice of it," she added.
MSNBC has stood out on diversity in other ways. Melissa Harris-Perry's show, for example, differed from most other Sunday morning political shows because the majority of its guests were not white males.
In a release about its February ratings on Tuesday, MSNBC touted that it drew more African-American, Hispanic, and Asian viewers in the key demographic during weekday primetime than either CNN or Fox News.