No hackers, just changing position: MSNBC pundit Joy Reid apologizes for blog posts
Controversial MSNBC commentator Joy Reid has apologized for blog posts about Israel, 9/11 and John McCain, choosing not to blame phantom “hackers” this time. The network is standing by Reid, saying she has “grown and evolved.”
“There are things I deeply regret and am embarrassed by, things I would have said differently and issues where my position has changed. Today I’m sincerely apologizing again,” Reid said in a statement on Friday.
On Thursday, the Daily Caller published excerpts from blog posts written by Reid, calling CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer “a former flak [sic] for the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC),” and saying that AIPAC is a “powerful lobbying group that holds the whip hand over Republican and Dmeocratic [sic] members of Congress alike.”
On her old blog, @JoyAnnReid accurately noted that Wolf Blitzer is “a former flak for the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).” For the first time, I think she is at risk of losing her job. https://t.co/GH3LR9laHy
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) June 1, 2018
The Daily Wire published links to eleven more blog posts from Reid on Friday, containing disparaging remarks about Senator McCain (R-Arizona) and his 2008 running mate Sarah Palin, as well as praise for Hamas (designated by the US as a terrorist organization).
Apologizing for her blog posts, Reid wrote she is “a better person today than I was over a decade ago” and that she doesn’t question “Israel’s right to its sovereignty” or that “Al-Qaeda perpetrated the 9/11 attacks.”
Is this Joy Reid's third version of events?1. I was hacked2. I definitely don't remember posting those things3. My positions have changed since then
— neontaster (@neontaster) June 1, 2018
MSNBC is standing by their pundit, issuing a statement on Friday that some of Reid’s blog posts were “obviously hateful and hurtful,” but are “not reflective of the colleague and friend we have known at MSNBC for the past seven years.”
In April, when Reid’s old blog posts first became a subject of scrutiny, she claimed that “hackers” had tampered with the Internet Wayback Machine archive. Her attorney even said the FBI was investigating the alleged hack, which the bureau has declined to confirm or deny. Technology experts have expressed doubt the alleged hack of the internet archive was even possible.
“It’s just a joke," said an MSNBC employee about the network's refusal to address Joy Reid's hacking story. It is a joke - a sad one - but it happened because many liberals and MSNBC decided it doesn't matter if one of their journalists fabricates a tale https://t.co/pbB31uSkiwpic.twitter.com/o6hbwBtExs
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 1, 2018
There was no mention of hackers or anyone tampering with her words this time, however. Nor has there been an apology for the appalling lack of historical and geographical knowledge expressed in 2017, when Reid invented a country called “Soviet Yugoslavia” (and then claimed Slovakia was part of it) while criticizing President Donald Trump's taste in women:
Donald Trump married one American (his second wife) and two women from what used to be Soviet Yugoslavia: Ivana-Slovakia, Melania-Slovenia.
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) July 21, 2017
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