MSNBC host Joy Reid is under fire once again for old homophobic blog posts.
Twitter user @Jamie_Maz posted screencaps from Reid’s former blog, The Reid Report, late last year. She made the posts in the mid to late-2000s. In the posts, she mocked former Florida Governor Charlie Crist. She said his marriage was a sham to cover up his sexuality.
Reid apologized for these posts. In her apology, she wrote:
‘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.’
However, last week, the same Twitter user, posted more of Reid’s alleged posts. So far the thread consists of more than 40 tweets.
Thread – 1/x Joy Reid’s homophobic blog posts were far worse than 1st reported.
They also had nothing to do with Republican hypocrisy on gay marriage. Joy also opposed gay marriage at the time. She gleefully accused people of being gay and posted a number of questionable things. pic.twitter.com/ZloivXczTS
— Not a bot (@Jamie_Maz) April 18, 2018
The user acknowledged they took screenshots before the site came down.
Such as this one, in which Reid allegedly wrote: ‘Does that make me homophobic? Probably. … But part of the intrinsic nature of “straightness” is that the idea of homosexual sex is… well… gross.‘
8/x People yelling at me on twitter: Joy’s posts aren’t homophobic.
Joy’s blog: “Does that make me homophobic? Probably.”
She blames PC culture for straight people not being allowed to call gay sex gross but allowing gay people to say the opposite. pic.twitter.com/jX11KB6p7k
— Not a bot (@Jamie_Maz) April 18, 2018
‘Fabricated’ posts
The site Mediate also posted blog posts, as well as a new statement from Reid. In her new stance, Reid claims someone fabricated and manipulated the posts.
Here is the statement in full:
In December I learned that an unknown, external party accessed and manipulated material from my now-defunct blog, The Reid Report, to include offensive and hateful references that are fabricated and run counter to my personal beliefs and ideology.
I began working with a cyber-security expert who first identified the unauthorized activity, and we notified federal law enforcement officials of the breach. The manipulated material seems to be part of an effort to taint my character with false information by distorting a blog that ended a decade ago.
Now that the site has been compromised I can state unequivocally that it does not represent the original entries. I hope that whoever corrupted the site recognizes the pain they have caused, not just to me, but to my family and communities that I care deeply about: LGBTQ, immigrants, people of color and other marginalized groups.
It is unclear which posts she believes were hacked, or if she stands by her original apology about Governor Crist.
Doubtful skeptics
This is where it gets tricky, especially since the blog is now defunct.
The Internet Archive made a post addressing the claims of manipulated posts.
‘This past December, Reid’s lawyers contacted us, asking to have archives of the blog (blog.reidreport.com) taken down, stating that “fraudulent” posts were “inserted into legitimate content” in our archives of the blog,’ they wrote.
However, they continued: ‘When we reviewed the archives, we found nothing to indicate tampering or hacking of the Wayback Machine [a digital archive of the World Wide Web] versions. At least some of the examples of allegedly fraudulent posts provided to us had been archived at different dates and by different entities.’
The security consultant Reid employed released a statement about the alleged hacking.
Here’s the statement of security consultant Jonathan Nichols regarding the claims of blog-hacking by MSNBC’s Joy Reid. pic.twitter.com/wGAui8Mfa5
— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) April 25, 2018
The consultant, Jonathan Nichols, wrote the ‘login information used to access the blog was available on the Dark Web’.
He also suggested some of the posts were subject to ‘screenshot manipulation’ aka photoshopping.
A CNN report reveals that an internet archive from the Library of Congress contains the posts and that they were archived and saved in 2006. If this is true, skeptics say, the hacking would have had to happen back then, not last December.
Also, the Wayback Machine captured these posts at or near the time they were posted – over ten years ago. For this account to make sense, someone would have had to access Reid’s blog with Dark Web credentials, then travel back in time https://t.co/1QxuL94fvG
— Joe Bernstein (@Bernstein) April 25, 2018
The fallout
LGBTQ advocacy group PFLAG National revoked their Straight for Equality in Media award from Reid.
In a statement, they explained: ‘When we extended our invitation to Ms. Reid to honor her at our 45th anniversary celebration, we did so knowing about the blog posts from the late 2000s regarding Charlie Crist. We appreciated how she stepped up, took ownership, apologized for them, and did better—this is the behavior and approach we ask of any ally. However, in light of new information, and the ongoing investigation of that information, we must at this time rescind our award to Ms. Reid.’
Others are wondering if this ‘takedown culture’ does any good.
I’m really getting concerned about this takedown culture in which we want to fire anyone if we find old tweets or writings that they have grown from. We’d all be without jobs if someone did some real digging into our lives. Just saying.
— Terrell J. Starr (@Russian_Starr) April 25, 2018
As for her current MSNBC position, an NBC spokesperson said Reid will stay on air.
