MSNBC’s Joy Reid addresses homophobic blog posts on AM Joy on 28 April
MSNBC’s Joy Reid addressed the alleged homophobic blog posts on her show on Saturday, 28 April.
Reid is a US cable television personality and hosts her own show on the MSNBC network, AM Joy.
Background
Posts from an old blog of Reid’s, The Reid Report, came to light late last year. The posts were published in the mid to late 2000s. In the posts, Reid mocks Florida Governor Charlie Crist and claims his marriage is a ‘sham’ to hide his sexuality.
Reid apologized last year, saying ‘This note is my apology to all who are disappointed by the content of blogs I wrote a decade ago, for which my choice of words and tone have legitimately been criticized. As a writer, I pride myself on a facility with language — an economy of words or at least some wisdom in the selection. However, that clearly has not always been the case.’
‘As someone who is not a member of the LGBT community I regret the way I addressed the complex issue of the closet and speculation on a person’s sexual orientation with a mocking tone and sarcasm. It was insensitive, tone deaf and dumb. There is no excusing it. Not based on the taste-skewing mores of talk radio or the then-blogosphere, and not based on my intentions.’
The latest
Still, LGBTI groups are up in arms after more of Reid’s old blogs were posted to Twitter earlier this month.
Now, on AM Joy, Reid is claiming she doesn’t ‘believe’ she actually penned those posts. She claims The Reid Report was hacked.
‘I genuinely do not believe I wrote those hateful things because they are completely alien to me,’ she said. ‘But I can definitely understand based on things I have tweeted and I have written in the past why some people don’t believe me.’
Reid added that she hired cybersecurity experts to investigate the alleged hack, but they were unable to find any proof.
‘I’ve not been exempt from being dumb or cruel or hurtful to the very people I want to advocate for,’ Reid said. ‘I own that. I get it. And for that I am truly, truly sorry.’
Watch Joy Reid’s full explanation below:
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