SMH: MSNBC’s Joy Reid Issues Apology For Recently Surfaced Homophobic Blog Posts
April 29, 2018
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Joy Reid Apologizes For Old, Resurfaced Homophobic Blog Posts
Joy Reid has issued an apology to the LGBTQ community after a series of homophobic blog posts from her now-deleted blog, the Reid Report, surfaced online earlier this week.
The MSNBC host faced a similar issue back in December of last year, when different posts with similar homophobic sentiments were found, and she apologized in that instance as well. During the events of this most recent scandal, Reid placed the blame on alleged hackers for getting into her old blog and changing the words. But on Saturday morning, Reid admitted that cybersecurity experts have not been able to find evidence of hacking, and resorted to sincerely apologizing for the words written.
“When a friend found [these blog posts] in December and sent them to me, I was stunned. Frankly, I couldn’t imagine where they’d come from or whose voice that was.” Reid continued, “I genuinely do not believe I wrote those hateful things…But I can definitely understand, based on things I have tweeted and have written in the past, why some people don’t believe me.”
.@MSNBC's Joy Reid addresses homophobic blog posts:
"I genuinely do not believe I wrote those hateful things … But I can definitely understand, based on things I have tweeted and have written in the past, why some people don't believe me." pic.twitter.com/PWjdPfs5KB
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) April 28, 2018
According to reports from Vox, the most recent posts included remarks including “most straight people cringe at the sight of two men kissing” and that “adult gay men tend to be attracted to very young, post-pubescent types.” They also included accusations of men in Hollywood being gay including Tom Cruise, Karl Rove, and Chief Justice John Roberts’s son. In addition, a newly resurfaced tweet from Reid allegedly made fun of conservative pundit Ann Coulter by making transphobic remarks referring to her as, “shim.”
On Monday, Reid released a statement which called the newly discovered blog posts the work of hackers, who were “part of an effort to taint my character with false information by distorting a blog that ended a decade ago.” These blog posts were dated to the mid-to-late 2000s, when Reid was not a well-known public figure–which many argued would give hackers no incentive to bother her.
Reid is now accepting that the hacking story cannot be proven, also saying that she grew up with a conservative mindset. Although she thinks differently now, she admits that she has been more close-minded towards gay people in the past. “I have not been exempt from being dumb or cruel or hurtful to the very people I want to advocate for,” she said on Saturday. “I own that. For that, I am truly, truly sorry.”
“I cannot take any of that back. I can only say that the person I am now is not the person I was then. I know that my goal is to try to be a better person and a better ally,” she continued. “I’m hoping, out of all of this, there’s an opportunity to talk about the ways in which hurtful speech really does imperil marginalized communities.”