Why Joy Reid deserves - and why I am giving her - the benefit of the doubt

[EffieBlack]

Last edited Thu Apr 26, 2018, 01:08 PM - Edit history (1)

1. She has no history of lying.

2. She has owned up to her comments in the past.

2. She didn't just deny making these comments or just deny them and claim she was hacked. SHE BROUGHT IN THE FBI. She's not stupid and surely knows that making a false report to the FBI is a serious federal crime that could land her in jail for years.

The FBI's not stupid either. If she were lying and she wasn't really hacked, it would take them about 45 minutes to figure that out. It's unlikely they'd still be investigating it.

3. Joy is a badass.

4. Joy scares some white people to death.

5. The people and entities pushing this. And that's all I'm gonna say about that.

6. Al Franken. And that's all I'm gonna say about that too.

7. She's earned it.

None of this is to say that these accusations couldn't possibly be true. But right now, all of the evidence I've seen points to a targeted but empty smear job against a powerful and influential African-American woman. And unless and until I see something more solid than I see right now, I'm giving Joy my full benefit of the doubt.

EDITED TO ADD #8. No one - her readers, her editors, other than commentators, etc. - seems to have any recollection of Joy ever writing such things nor did any of them respond to or comment on any of these alleged comments in real time. Wouldn't someone have said something at the time she supposedly wrote them? Or when MSNBC gave her a platform, wouldn't someone then pointed these out and objected?