First I want to apologize for the lack of completeness and time that I would want to put into this diary, but I’m a bit stunned by these allegations and I don’t really know where else to go to discuss with like-minded individuals other than DailyKos (and I do hope a discussion can be had).
So, I guess I’m late to the party but, I actually just found out about this story a few hours ago, and I’ve read the initial reports, the responses from Reid, her “security expert” (whom I will get to in a bit), and the releases from the various archives where Reid’s content is stored.
Lastly as a bit of background on me: this is actually my field of work; network and computer security, software and development (particularly in eCommerce). This is part of what I do for a living, and I’ve more than 15 years of experience in this field; so that’s largely why I find the story fairly interesting.
Now with the preamble out of the way, I just want to post some of the initial tweets that sparked this controversy:
So, with the comments here for us to see and discuss; I have to say, these seem to me to be pretty clearly homophobic. I think we can all agree with that right?
Now, I’ve noticed some on Twitter, including Joan Walsh stating that the comments and screenshots depict homophobic content, but that in 17 years of reading Reid’s blog, Walsh does not recall any instances of these kinds of remarks being made by Reid; arguing that, her blog would have been cancelled as a result.
Reid herself states that she was hacked and that this is an effort to smear her by extremist elements online.
Here’s where my mind is at; just thinking this through rationally…
Are the comments above, and the reported comments made by Reid homophobic/transphobic or not? As far as I can tell, the answer to this question is clearly yes, yes they are, unquestionably so.
Are the comments above relevant to Joy Reid’s current career at MSNBC? I think so, yes. I do understand if others, or even Reid, were to argue that she had a change of heart/views since she’s written these comments — IF — she’s written these comments. But the problem here, logically, is that she’s not addressed these specific comments at all; not to tell her audience, or her employer, or her advertisers, how she now feels about what she may have once stated on her blog.
Is Joy Ann Reid’s argument about being the subject of attacks by right-wingers and extremists believable? Absolutely. She is being attacked, right now, both fairly and unfairly; and I do think someone or some group went out of their way to dig through these public archives.
Is Joy Ann Reid’s argument about being hacked likely true? Probably. Old and un-maintained Wordpress blogs are extremely easy to gain access to; so I would not bet against the possibility that someone, at some point in time, gained access.
Does Joy Reid’s argument about being hacked clear her of, or even cast doubt upon, the claims being made against her? No; not in any reasonable sense with what we know so far. The problem with her argument, and that of her “expert,” is that hacking Reid’s old blog would have nothing to do with the Internet Archive’s records of her webpage, which were taken contemporaneously with the content in question — not recently. So to believe her argument, we would have to assume that Reid’s blog was hacked almost a decade ago, and potentially someone would have waited 10 years to use this as a means of damaging her.
…
So all in all, does the evidence suggest Reid made these comments? Yes, I’d say so. Who else made them if not her? To believe otherwise seems far-fetched; that is to say, someone would have hacked Reid’s blog, at some point before the Internet Archive was recording it’s content, and after Reid stopped paying attention and maintaining it. Now, is that possible? Yes, that is possible. Is it likely? I doubt it.
So where does that leave us? Well, as far as I can tell, that means a popular, left-wing commentator is being smeared by her own homophobic commentary from years ago. And that also means many on the left and the right will cry out for her head on a platter, while others cry out about hypocrisy on either side of the ideological spectrum.
But for me, I have tried to consider myself a principled individual. And if I’m going to hold conservatives to a certain moral standard when it comes to the treatment of minorities; then, it stands to reason that, in order to be ethically self-consistent, we should hold Reid to the same standard.
Her comments, again assuming they are hers since the evidence suggests that they are, are clearly homophobic; so, I cannot see a logical/ethical conclusion here other than calling her out for her bigotry just as I would with any number of commentators who claim not to be what they actually are.
However, I’m very open to discussion on the topic and since the story is very new, I’m hoping for some dialogue about angles that I may have missed, information I may not be aware of, or perhaps just a perspective that I’ve not considered?
Oh, and I guess I should say that ’m really not looking for a fight with anyone. I don’t know why people choose to come to this site to fight one another… I’m just trying to understand what’s going on, how other liberals and progressives are feeling about this news, and if others agree with me that Reid’s comments are bigoted and should be treated as such?
Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read all of this, and again, apologies if it’s not of the best quality for DKos...