MSNBC said Friday that it is standing by host Joy Reid, who apologized for writing offensive blog posts that resurfaced this week and said she no longer holds the opinions found in them.
“Some of the things written by Joy on her old blog are obviously hateful and hurtful,” the network said Friday of comments Reid wrote on her now-defunct blog, The Reid Report, more than a decade ago. “They are not reflective of the colleague and friend we have known at MSNBC for the past seven years. Joy has apologized publicly and privately and said she has grown and evolved in the many years since, and we know this to be true.”
MSNBC’s statement comes two days after BuzzFeed reported on two controversial posts Reid wrote in 2006 and 2007. The posts feature a 9/11 conspiracy theory and a manipulated image of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) as a mass shooter. BuzzFeed resurrected them weeks after Reid claimed her blog had been hacked to feature homophobic content written under her name.
“There are things I deeply regret and am embarrassed by, things I would have said differently and issues where my position has changed,” Reid, who now hosts the weekend show “AM Joy,” said Friday in a lengthy apology, adding that she has reached out to McCain’s daughter Meghan McCain regarding the incident.
“I’ve also spoken openly about my evolution on many issues and know that I’m a better person today than I was over a decade ago,” she added.
Reid’s apology did not reference her previous hacking claims, which her attorney said at the time were being investigated by the FBI. Neither did the statement from MSNBC, which previously pushed evidence claiming to support Reid’s hacking claims.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that MSNBC issued a statement supporting Reid’s hacking claims. The network only shared evidence it claimed backed Reid’s claims.