Apparently Joy Reid said or did something. In the wake of all the news on Hannity is this not odd?

[Roland99]

It's Al Franken all over again

The left will trip over itself for days worrying about this instead of the destruction of our democracy

[Adrahil]

1. Always ask yourself....

Who does this serve that this is happening right now, even if true?

Reid is getting Frankened. The right is using our integrity against us to silence a powerful, effective, black female voice.

Don't support it.

[HootieMcBoob]

10. Thank you! NT

[OhNo-Really]

22. Spot on. Maybe there is a covert anti-DU team muddying this site's waters with garbage

[smirkymonkey]

28. That is exactly what it seems like to me.

[OhNo-Really]

29. It is hurting the site.

Too much gossipy content. I find myself going to Guardian and der Spiegel for news.


It's not here much. Then again, news outlets everywhere seems to have devolved into gossip column rags.

[PatrickforO]

30. You have coined a new term that I am going to start using every time it looks

like someone is getting railroaded.

They are being Frankened. And this Reid thing is obviously a right-wing smear.

And you're right - this republic and our representative democracy are being attacked by the Republican servants of big capitalists and billionaire parasites on a thousand different fronts 7/24/365, because the billionaire parasites have lots and lots and lots of money to make that happen every day.

All this is - is just a distraction hoping we won't notice something particularly egregious, like the ripping back of food inspection regulations. Or trying to appoint some guy to the administration who thinks Islam is a country.

These are fucking criminals. Joy Reid is not.

[forgotmylogin]

54. When this happens on their side, they rally the wagons.

And they've had success with it.

I stand with Joy Reid as she exists now.

I don't care what she might have written in the past - whether it's true or hacked or whatever, people are allowed to evolve their thinking so even if she did write them - which I'm inclined to disbelieve - that doesn't make any difference. I know I held ideas years ago that I've evolved past. I'm not that person anymore.

Whatever was written is not who she is now; she disagrees with it whether she wrote it or not.

Reid is a beautiful mind, a too-rare strong black female voice on network news (as said above) and fierce ally for our side. That's what matters to me.

[stonecutter357]

2. K&R

[NCTraveler]

3. Reid seems to be fighting.

Very little similarity outside of it being clearly orchestrated by the right.

The “left” seems extremely concerned.

[LexVegas]

4. This is being pushed by Greenwald and supporters of a certain failed non-Democrat. nt

[Fullduplexxx]

8. The same failed non-dem who gets a special carve-out in the tos?

[Eyeball_Kid]

39. Greenwald has GOT to be bored and has nothing else to do.

We've got a serious problem with a coup going on in the White House. We have Russian agents crawling all over Trumpy's ample posterior, and Trumpy is tickled by the attention. That's the big issue that Greenwald and an army of idiots are ignoring. If he's that bored, he needs to find a sturdy corn cob and a tube of lube.

[CousinIT]

5. It's Tit-For-Tat Trumpista Terrorism. Every time a Trumpista is implicated in criminal, immoral...

...behavior -- caught, as it were -- the Trumpista Terrorist Regime cooks up some shit about someone on the Left to "get back" at them. Franken, Joy Reid, etc.

It's Tit-For-Tat Trumpista Terrorism. Otherwise known as sophomoric "they did it toooo!" juvenile bullshit.

Aaaaand the media falls for it E V E R Y time.

After their Trumpista Terrorist rapist, criminal, serial sexual offender, racketeer (whatever), gets off scot-free with their crimes, they sit back and huck-huck about destroying one of ours, who is likely innocent.

It's the Trumpista Terrorist Regime. Get used to it.

[EffieBlack]

6. Yup

[HipChick]

7. As evidenced by all the pearl clutching posts...

[Freethinker65]

9. How Joy decides to fight this will be interesting.

Franken admitted to a silly snapshot and realized during his career both as a comedian and politician that plenty of his past actions could be "used against him" and he could be tied up for years trying to remember every detail. He decided to admit he was human and probably there were events in his life he could have handled better and requested an official congressional investigation to sort through the original accusation(s). I was satisfied with that, but others were not. He decided to just leave the Senate as the entire matter began to snowball politically and become a liability as his fellow legislators were forced to take sides.

Sam Seder decided to fight a firing for an obvious twisting of a satirical blog post he wrote years ago. That post was brought back into public view and promoted as being "pro-rape" by known alt-right Mike Cernovich. I believe Sam got his job back after explaining over and over what satire was and that the post was obviously anti-Polanski if you were literate.

I hope Joy did not write the posts that are currently positioned to take her down. The two I saw here on DU about not wanting to watch gay sex acts because she found them gross and making fun of lesbian hairstyles are at the least very hurtful and sophomoric, and at the worst extremely anti-LGTBQ. It will be interesting to see if she can prove to the people that matter (including her audience) that her archived blog was manipulated. Did she save and keep backup copies of her drafts and blog posts? Do any of her regular readers back then (by comments on other posts) remember (or not remember ever seeing them) the posts in question?

If she had written the posts, I would hope she would have been smart enough to admit it like Sam Seder did with his Polanski rape post and then explain why she did so. Honestly I remember people making fun of Harriet Myers more for her lack of experience than her haircut, but I do remember people opposed to scenes in films like "Brokeback Mountain" from people that did not even see it. Only Joy knows for sure what she wrote and why on her blog.

[csziggy]

42. I read those two blog posts attributed to Reid differently

You said, "The two I saw here on DU about not wanting to watch gay sex acts because she found them gross and making fun of lesbian hairstyles are at the least very hurtful and sophomoric, and at the worst extremely anti-LGTBQ."

I don't have a link to the DU post that included the blog posts but my memory is that the writer said that "many men" found gay sex gross not that it was personally gross to the writer. The comment about "Brokeback Mountain" was similarly about something someone else said, not the writer personally. I say "writer" since Joy Reid has denied writing some of the controversial blog posts.

The blog post about the "lesbian hairstyles" seemed to me to be satirical and not serious. I know Joy Reid has a wicked sense of humor and this could be an example - and that without intonation of a recording it can read completely different than intended.

I am withholding judgement about Joy Reid, the same I did about Al Franken. This smells far too much like a smear job, the same way the Franken case did. We cannot continue to lose our strong progressive voices to unsupported and questionable claims. We need every single voice for our side.

[Sunsky]

11. I agree

People should know who their enemies are. Joy read is not the enemy of gay people (Scott Pruitt is, many in the Republican party are). Who on DU has listened to Joy Reid and got the sense that she is homophobic? The Joy Reid that I watch has always been a companion for equal rights and justice for all. Why is it so easy for us Democrats to turn on ourselves? Why is it that a certain group of "progressives" are always dividing the Democratic party and are very akin to the Russian troll farm? As not so smart person once said, Fool me once shame on you... if you fool me once you can't fool again. However, us "smart" Democrats can be duped over and over and over again...
This is a Russian/Republican tactic of turning the gay community against the black community because if Joy is fired, it will not go over well with the AA community. Divide and conquer has always been a tactic of the Republican party. They sow division and then use that as a cover for their election theft.

[progressoid]

12. Al Franken?

Franken admitted to his transgressions. Seems like Reid is doing the opposite.

[PDittie]

14. +1

[uponit7771]

16. Reid actually apologized about ALL of her post long ago, not apologizing for ones she did

... write and I don't blame her

[Roland99]

38. But he apologized for things he did not need to. Even fake claims

It was obvious the state fair hand-on-the-butt claims were faked as the background was from a GOP tent. A DUer posted a thread back then about it.

And the claims went completely silent as soon as he said he’d step aside.

[get the red out]

13. Absolutely!

This whole thing stinks to high heaven.

[uponit7771]

15. There is four or five of the "left" that will try and push BS, that's about it

[ehrnst]

17. Some of the Left was just waiting to rip her to shreds. (nt)

[Ferrets are Cool]

18. Not odd at all. It's par for the course. nt

[Saviolo]

19. A friend of mine on Twitter put it well:

Link to tweet

Joy Reid is a black woman. If we’re digging up decade-old receipts I remember the likes of dan savage trying to blame black Obama voters for prop 8 and drive wedges between us. “black people are homophobic” is an old canard among white gays. Don’t fuckin fall for it

Link to tweet

I’ve said this before, perhaps I need to clarify. Again. I don’t care what you thought of queer people a week , or a decade ago. I care if you are on my side now. If you are, welcome. If you’re just here to score points by calling out irrelevant things, you’re not on my side

[Cha]

32. Wow.. thanks for those tweets, Saviolo..

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[Sunsky]

41. Great tweet

The prop 8 debacle is exactly what this reminds me of. Same old tired ass BS being used to divide us again.

[treestar]

20. Part of the zero tolerance perfection thing

that the right never does to itself!

[kcr]

21. It is Franken all over again.

Fix any apology as a target on their back for any smear and it works. All you have to do is say, "But they apologized! See, they're guilty!" Every simpleton will buy it.

[Eyeball_Kid]

36. IMO, Reid just needs to move on and report the news.

Stay within those limitations, and she'll do alright. She should not presume that she has gravitas beyond her current job description. She does good work. She's not the best, but she's good and worth watching, especially when she's discussing an issue with a right winger.

[kcr]

40. I refuse to ignore or minimize the issue

Ignoring the right-wing smear machine is the worst mistake. There are too many who are supposed to be on our side who are easily manipulated into carrying their water and no one learns from their mistakes apparently.

[The Wizard]

23. Anyone here ever have a different opinion

than they had 10 years ago? It's called evolution. When new information or an epiphany causes us to rethink previous issues we have a different point of view.
52 years ago I was drafted into the army, and understandably against the draft. I now believe that two years of government service (not necessarily military) would be a good thing.
If Democrats continue to keep falling for GOP / Russian propaganda we will continue to lose. If you're looking for purity then you're deluding yourself. Get real Democrats. We know the enemy will use every dirty trick under the Sun against us. Ask Al Franken who left the Senate because the Democratic leadership has no spine and convicted him without due process.

[mythology]

27. Except she's saying these posts weren't her

She admitted and apologized for some previous posts.

She's saying these are from somebody else. If she's lying about that, it's a problem.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

37. That WOULD be a problem... fortunately, I don't think she is.

[keepleft101]

24. I love Joy Reid

I dont know the whole story. I hope it isnt true.

[Nitram]

25. We are a little too eager to jump on one of our own for not being liberal enough, not being

"pure" enough. We need to give our people a chance to explain themselves, give them the benefit of the doubt after they've done so much for the country and for the movement.

[late]

26. Times change

Joy does good work, esp. on minority issues.

Which is prob exactly why the racist Right is trying to silence her.

The country changed it's mind about homosexuality. So you have a situation analogous to racism. A situation where responsible people change with the times.

It's worth noting that Jeff Sessions never did change, and his love of the Drug War is a big part of the new Jim Crow.

The good news here is that if the Right wants to push this, it'll blow up in their faces. Like when they dragged sex center stage in politics...

[barbtries]

31. nope.

i posted my support for her on twitter. i can't be on twitter as much as many people right now just too busy at work, but my plan is to stop looking at this issue. it's absurd the way the left turns on people.

remember Melissa Harris-Perry? loved her show. i think this is a racist and misogynistic attack. Joy Reid is very good at what she does and is an important voice.

[Eyeball_Kid]

33. This isn't about Reid. It's about hating the left.

Reid is just fodder for the propaganda machine. If it weren't Reid in the Right Wing Snowflake Society's hate basket, it would be someone else, preferably a POC, getting negative air time.

One of the awful by-products of this kind of slander is that those who identify the meta-message can easily react by promoting Reid as a martyr of sorts, and mythologize her skills, behavior, history, and personal life in reaction to the fascists who are demonizing her. That would be a mistake.

Like all of us, Reid has her shortcomings, no matter what anyone thinks. No one has a history that elevates them to premature sainthood. Regular viewers of cable news can articulate Reid's occasional inability to separate her personal animus toward political opponents from her professional responsibilities as a media journalist. The cable news industry is one that typically allows anchor persons to blur those lines, with mixed results. IMO, the proper way to evaluate the kerfuffle around Reid is with a resounding, "meh".

[workinclasszero]

34. The GOP right is looking for help from greens

and independents to take out a powerful black female liberal voice.

I hope no Democrats will lend them a hand.

This hit job only benefits the deplorable right.

[PatrickforO]

35. The Joy Reid thing is a right-wing smear.

Reid is a black woman with a strong voice.

And, golly, she may have written some things ten years ago she regrets now. Who here has not done that?

C'mon.

Let's focus on the Trump outrages, please. He and his lawless, treasonous administration are systematically fucking us all every day. That deserves our single-minded intensity. Not something someone wrote a decade ago, and if other entries were 'hacked into' her blog, then the situation is worse.

[oberliner]

43. Why didn't she just apologize and move on?

Why come up with this "my blog was hacked" excuse?

[kcr]

44. Maybe because her blog was hacked

or it really is just coincidence that every time someone on the right gets in trouble, anonymous claims of butt touching and old blog posts that no one saw at the time spring up out of nowhere. Amazing, isn't it?

[oberliner]

45. "Lewd photo was hack, Weiner says"

Remember that one?

[kcr]

46. Oh, well then. Might as well be a Republican

Every Dem must be bad!

[oberliner]

51. The point was that even Democrats sometimes lie

We have to be willing to accept that such a thing is possible. It's not always just a RW conspiracy. Occasionally folks on our side make mistakes.

[kcr]

47. No such thing as hacking. It never happens

That's just a thing that bad libruls say because they're bad. Those horrible lying libs. You're so right!

By the way. Did it look like Weiner's pic was a hack job but it just happened to not be? Or was this just a pathetic attempt at using a logical error to make your point?

[oberliner]

49. Here's the thing

Joy has admitted that some prior homophobic blog posts were hers - and she has apologized for them.

Also - there are some twitter posts that she made around the same time that could be construed as homophobic or trans-phobic.

Again, I think if she apologized and said that she has evolved on these issues and said that these past blog posts do not represent her current views - then I would applaud her evolution and say folks should move on. That is in fact what she had done initially.

[Kingofalldems]

48. Every single day.

[oberliner]

50. It seems that way

It's sometimes difficult when we hold those we admire to such a high standard that they don't always live up to.

But at the same time, that is part of what separates us from the right-wingers.

[Kingofalldems]

52. Not what I meant.

[Kingofalldems]

53. Piling on.