Joy Reid Doubles Down: Homophobic Posts ‘Hacked,’ ‘Fraudulent’
MSNBC’s Joy Reid is standing by her claim that her now-defunct blog was the target of a cyberattack in which homophobic content was added to the site.
A cybersecurity expert working with Reid said in a statement to HuffPost on Tuesday that he found evidence five months ago of “suspicious activity” and that the alleged hacking was the subject of an ongoing federal investigation.
Jonathan Nichols, identified as an independent security consultant by a representative of MSNBC, said the posts in question had been “entered with suspicious formatting and time stamps.”
Reid had previously apologized in December for writing homophobic blog posts after Twitter user @Jamie_Maz tweeted screenshots of them. In those posts, written in 2007 for The Reid Report, a politics blog Reid kept during her years as a morning talk show host in Florida, she repeatedly accused former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (D) of being a closeted gay man.
“As someone who is not a member of the LGBT community, I regret the way I addressed the complex issue of the closet and speculation on a person’s sexual orientation with a mocking tone and sarcasm,” Reid wrote in her statement. “It was insensitive, tone deaf and dumb.”
Last week, @Jamie_Maz shared new screenshots that allegedly feature dozens more anti-LGBTQ posts from Reid’s old blog, Mediaite first reported on Monday. While the blog itself has been shut down for several years, the amateur sleuth allegedly accessed the posts via the Internet Archive , a nonprofit dedicated to building a massive digital library known as the Wayback Machine.
Some of the most damning posts claimed “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.”
In response to the new screenshots, Reid issued a statement on Monday denying having authored them and claiming her personal blog had been hacked.
According to her statement:
In December I learned that an unknown, external party accessed and manipulated material from my now-defunct blog, The Reid Report, to include offensive and hateful references that are fabricated and run counter to my personal beliefs and ideology.
I began working with a cyber-security expert who first identified the unauthorized activity, and we notified federal law enforcement officials of the breach. The manipulated material seems to be part of an effort to taint my character with false information by distorting a blog that ended a decade ago.
Now that the site has been compromised I can state unequivocally that it does not represent the original entries. I hope that whoever corrupted the site recognizes the pain they have caused, not just to me, but to my family and communities that I care deeply about: LGBTQ, immigrants, people of color and other marginalized groups.
A representative for Reid’s MSNBC show also told HuffPost on Monday that the alleged hacking was subject to a federal investigation. The MSNBC representative did not comment on which agency was investigating the matter when HuffPost asked. Nor did the FBI immediately respond to a request for confirmation of such an investigation.
Links to the resurfaced posts stopped working around mid-February, according to @Jamie_Maz and SplinterNews, making it difficult for HuffPost to confirm their legitimacy.
HuffPost also obtained letters sent in December by Reid’s lawyer to Internet Archive and Google, requesting metadata about the blog and information regarding login attempts.
Internet Archive published a blog post on Tuesday stating that Reid’s lawyers had approached the group in December to ask about removing archives of Reid’s blog, claiming “fraudulent” posts were “inserted into legitimate content.” Internet Archive denied the request, noting it “found nothing to indicate tampering or hacking of the Wayback Machine versions.”
“Her attorneys stated that they didn’t know if the alleged insertion happened on the original site or with our archives (the point at which the manipulation is to have occurred, according to Reid, is still unclear to us),” according to Internet Archive’s post on Tuesday.
“At least some of the examples of allegedly fraudulent posts provided to us had been archived at different dates and by different entities,” the statement continued. “We let Reid’s lawyers know that the information provided was not sufficient for us to verify claims of manipulation. Consequently, and due to Reid’s being a journalist (a very high-profile one, at that) and the journalistic nature of the blog archives, we declined to take down the archives.”
Following Internet Archive’s correspondence with Reid’s lawyers, Reid’s blog implemented a code that prevented the archive from indexing her blog, the organization said in its statement. Internet Archive did not speculate as to who placed the code.
“That request was automatically recognized and processed by the Wayback Machine and the blog archives were excluded, unbeknownst to us (the process is fully automated),” according to Internet Archive’s statement. “The robots.txt exclusion from the web archive remains automatically in effect due to the presence of the request on the live blog.”
Nichols, Reid’s cybersecurity consultant, said Tuesday that there was “significant evidence” indicating the recently circulated posts were never even on the site ― even after the alleged hacking.
“These instances may be the result of screenshot manipulation with the intent to tarnish Ms. Reid’s character,” Nichols said in his statement. “Oddly, there were no responses in the comments section of the entries, despite the inflammatory nature of the posts. If those posts were real, they would have undoubtedly elicited responses from Ms. Reid’s base.”
Twitter user @Jamie_Maz vehemently denied manipulating the screenshots , aside from adding red lines to some of them to highlight particular statements made in the alleged posts.
“Nothing was doctored or altered or created,” @Jamie_Maz told HuffPost. “What you see is what I saw on the Wayback Machine site.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/joy-reid-homophobic-blog_us_5adf9e1ce4b07560f39654a4
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A note to Ms Miller's article:
When Reid made those statements about Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, he was a Republican.
As far as what normally would happen to someone at MSNBC for making such comments, Wayne Dupree, who was named to the 2017 Newsmax’s 50 Most Influential African-American Republicans, dosen't think any action will come of it, despite the “nasty” rhetoric. He said:
“When we look at this from a common sense perspective, we will see that nothing will probably happen to Reid because she is completely insulated from any repercussions that would be called for in today’s politically sensitive climate,” he wrote. “Why do I say this: she’s a liberal, black woman, and those two cards will save her from just about anything … but we will always know.”
I find it hilarious, hypocritical and beyond disingenuous for conservatives to accuse and blame people on the left of having made homophobic comments in the past. Conservatives are still making homophobic comments on a daily basis, so pointing out someone on the left was somewhat critical of a politician refusing to come out of the closet really takes the cake.
The reality is that many even on the left supported DOMA in the past which wasn't overturned until 2015, but most sensible Americans have evolved to recognize how ignorant and bigoted such a stance really was. The comments made on her blog were from 2007 and weren't saying “I cringe at the sight of two men kissing”, but said “most straight people cringe at the sight of two men kissing” which I doubt any conservative here would disagree with, they're still cringing even at the thought of two men kissing, let alone the sight of such.
So until conservatives evolve on their stance against gay marriage they have zero right to point to past liberals who over a decade ago held the same views as conservatives do today.
I don't mean to dismay you further, but the point here is that the people who do all the name calling (progressives at MSNBC) refuse to discipline one of their own for something that she partly admits to but now appears to be covering up. MSNBC hasn't evolved - they have always been crusading for gay rights - now is the time for them to show they stand for their values even when it hurts.
They proved to be the supreme hypocrites
Yawn.
Reid is a tv personality. Her views on social issues are nearly irrelevant.
Her bio states that she's a journalist, cable TV host, and MSNBC national correspondent.
Whether she made "homophobic" comments 10 years ago or not, it is embarrassing . People usually cover their ass when they are embarrassed.
When she gets caught in the level of lies and stupidity that conservative pundits get caught in all the time ( see O'Reilly, Hannity, Limbaugh, etc) then there will be something to talk about.
She is obviously LYING and NBC is backing her up with a LIE !
That's the point!
Some of the most damning posts claimed “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.”
Oh, the horror! It’s right up there with evangelical conservatives calling for the death penalty for gays!
Some of the most damning posts claimed “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.”
While I am not Gay, if these are the worse things said I am more inclined to think of them as a skewed observation rather than Homophobia. If I am wrong then perhaps we all have become a tad too sensitive.
I can't find the clip, but Nick Di Paolo (I think) covers this issue hilariously in his stand up. Some straight men just innocently cringe when they see two men getting touchy with each other, which doesn't make them homophobic. Paraphrasing, he said he's got nothing against gays at all, and thinks they should be afforded all the same courtesies as heterosexuals, but just because he doesn't cheer on two guys exhibiting passion in public and yell things like"yeah - now run your fingers through his chest hair", doesn't make him anti-homosexual. It's about the same reaction you might have to watching two really fat people make out in public. Doesn't mean you hate fat people, it's just seeing something that you don't normally see and it invokes an automatic reaction.
In the case of men, instant primal disgust. I guess that happens when a guy is normal
That's odd. I would've sworn this should have made wall to wall coverage on CNN and NBC. Isn't this the sort of thing they love to skewer people over?
And here we are yet again. A progressive liberal that accuses others of bigotry, hatred, racism, or any other ism, is once again being outed as being exactly what they accuse others of.
This happens day...after day...after day.
Thank God liberalsim is an almost extinct cult.
being outed as being exactly what they accuse others of.
’Exactly’? Lol - I think this is way over your head. Why is it that conservatives will say anything to make their our brand of hate feel more normal and commonplace?
It seems progressives have cornered the market on hate