Joy Reid lives to see another day as an MSNBC weekend anchor amid a growing controversy surrounding things she said on her now-defunct blog. In old blog posts, she said that same-sex affection was “gross,” encouraged her followers to watch a 9/11 truther movie, published a photo of Sen. John McCain’s head on the body of the Virginia Tech shooter, and criticized CNN’s Wolf Blitzer for being too nice to Israeli officials. Not a good look.
She’s apologized for some of these remarks several times with vague and distancing statements, but she’s also made bizarre claims that her blog was hacked by someone trying to make her look bad. Her attorney even went as far as to claim the FBI was investigating the matter, but the Internet Archive, the nonprofit that powers the “Wayback Machine,” disputed her claim, and many others have pointed out that the hacking narrative doesn’t hold water. Some of her colleauges at MSNBC reportedly want her to own up to her lies, but network higher ups are standing by the anchor.
Reid could regain some of the respect she’s lost in recent months by being honest, but that’s not the path she’s chosen. Instead of owning up to the comments, Reid is clearly lying in a weird attempt to cast blame where it likely does not belong.
We’ve all said things we regret, and part of being an adult is owning up to past mistakes and accepting the consequences. Making up a weird story about getting hacked — a story that does not make sense or hold water — is not a good look for someone whose job it is to host a news show. Reid has a huge credibility problem, which puts her brand, her show’s ratings, and the networks overall credibility at risk.
While the latest chapter of this ongoing saga unfolded last week, two other women got into trouble for saying bad things. One remains largely unscathed (with a shiny new trophy to boot!) while the other lost her job. Can you guess which woman voted for Trump?
ABC canned self-avowed Trump supporter Roseanne Barr’s show last week after she tweeted a racist remark about Valerie Jarrett. While many (including myself) think her remark warranted punishment, firing her within hours of that tweet seems a bit much. Perhaps a suspension or waiting a few days to see how things played out before letting her go would have sufficed, but as someone who was never a fan of her show, I didn’t mourn her departure from the silver screen. That is, not until Comedy Central’s Samantha Bee called Ivanka Trump a “feckless c—” and suggested that she put on “something tight and low” to get her dad to change his immigration policies, without retribution from the network. She still has her gig as host of “Full Frontal” and even received an award from the Television Academy the next day for inspiring social change.
To recap, three women in television have said bad things, but only one lost her job. The message this sends is loud and clear: there’s a standard for liberals and there’s an entirely different one for conservatives. Let’s stop pretending otherwise.
