MSNBC news anchor Joy Reid apologises for homophobic blog posts
(Spike TV)
MSNBC news anchor Joy Reid has apologised after it was revealed that she penned homophobic blog posts.
Reid, an anchor for MSNBC, was exposed over the weekend by a Twitter user who posted snippets of her personal blogs dating from the 2008 Presidential election.
In the blogs, Reid repeatedly targets rumoured GOP Vice Presidential candidate Charlie Crist with a number of homophobic slurs.
Reid referred to Crist, who has faced repeated speculation about his sexuality, as “Miss Charlie”, insisting his marriage to a woman was a fraud.
She said: “I can just see poor Charlie on the honeymoon, ogling the male waiters and thinking to himself, ‘God, do I actually have to see her naked?'”
Reid added: “It wouldn’t be a kind of gay wedding without a guy with a big handlebar mustache in attendance.”
She also made derogatory references to TV show Will & Grace and gay Star Trek actor George Takei, before suggesting Crist would hire an interior decorator to fill the White House with “flamingo-shaped napkins”.
The TV host has since apologised for the posts.
(Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images for ColorOfChange)
She wrote: “This note is my apology to all who are disappointed by the content of blogs I wrote a decade ago, for which my choice of words and tone have legitimately been criticized.
“As a writer, I pride myself on a facility with language — an economy of words or at least some wisdom in the selection. However, that clearly has not always been the case.”
(Photo by Gabriella Demczuk/Getty Images)
Explaining the posts, she said: “In 2007 I was a morning talk radio host and blogger, writing about Florida politics (a blog I maintained until 2011.)
“Among the frequent subjects of my posts was then-governor Charlie Crist, at the time a conservative Republican, whose positions on issues like gay marriage and adoption by same-sex couples in Florida shared headlines with widely rumored reports that he was hiding his sexual orientation.
“Those reports were the subject of lots of scrutiny: by LGBTQ bloggers, writers and journalists, conservative blogs, a controversial documentary film called ‘Outrage’, and even by the comedic writers at South Park. But it was my own attempt at challenging Crist on my blog that has now raised the issue of not just my choice of words, but what was and is in my heart.
“Let me be clear: at no time have I intentionally sought to demean or harm the LGBT community, which includes people whom I deeply love. My goal, in my ham-handed way, was to call out potential hypocrisy.
“Nonetheless, 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. It was insensitive, tone deaf and dumb.
“There is no excusing it – not based on the taste-skewing mores of talk radio or the then-blogosphere, and not based on my intentions.”
(Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for The Women’s Media Center)
Reid added: “In addition to friends and coworkers and viewers, I deeply apologize to Congressman Crist, who was the target of my thoughtlessness.
“My critique of anti-LGBT positions he once held but has since abandoned was legitimate in my view. My means of critiquing were not.
“In the years since I went from blogger to opinion journalist, I have also learned, through brilliant friends and allies in the LGBT activist community, how to better frame my critiques of those who challenge people’s right to love who they want, marry them, and walk in the world as fully free people.
(Photo by: William B. Plowman/NBC/NBC NewsWire via Getty Images)
“Re-reading those old blog posts, I am disappointed in myself. I apologize to those who also are disappointed in me. Life can be humbling.
“It often is. But I hope that you know where my heart is, and that I will always strive to use my words for good. I know better and I will do better.”
Crist has not commented on the row, but former White House comms director Sean Spicer hit out at “silence” from MSNBC over the comments.
He said: “.@MSNBC host and @MeetThePress frequent guest @JoyAnnReid apologies after getting caught mocking @CharlieCrist – silence from @MeetThePress @NBCNews on-air talent”.
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