Freedom Rider: The Real Problem with Joy Ann Reid

Margaret Kimberley, BAR editor and senior columnist

06 Jun 2018

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“It is interesting that she gets scrutiny for all the wrong reasons.”

“One of the more amazing outcomes of the Trump administration is the number of neoconservatives that are now my friends and I am aligned with. I found myself agreeing on a panel with Bill Kristol. I agree more with Jennifer Rubin, David Frum and Max Boot than I do with some people on the far left.”-- Joy Ann Reid

Joy Ann Reid is among the stars of MSNBC, the Comcast-owned cable news network which enjoys an undeserved reputation as being left leaning. Reid, Rachel Maddow and Chris Hayes are little more than well paid mouth pieces for the Democrats and their neoliberal agenda. MSNBC is rightly known as MSDNC owing to this very obvious allegiance.

Reid has been in the news lately not because of any groundbreaking coverage but because of posts she made long ago on a personal blog. She wrote homophobic comments, then claimed to have been hacked and sought validation from a so-called expert who was affiliated with white supremacists. She made an abject apology but can’t put the matter behind. She is now in trouble because long ago she stated truthfully that CNN’s Wolf Blitzer was an AIPAC spokesperson. She made fun of John McCain by comparing him to a serial killer and she questioned the official story of the 9/11 terror attacks. This columnist isn’t bothered by any of those things but it is interesting that she gets scrutiny for all the wrong reasons.

“She tries to outdo everyone else in pushing the Russiagate story and her efforts are often more comical than anything.”

Like Maddow and Hayes, Reid isn’t really a journalist. She just plays one on television. She is best known for her very blatant loyalty to the ruling elite overlords. One of the most shameful displays of her nontalent and slavish partisanship was her ambush with then colleague Melissa Harris Perry against Wikileaks and Edward Snowden. She and Perry teamed up for a disgraceful hit piece against Wikileaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson in an effort to defend the indefensible Barack Obama when he criminalized whistle blowing.

But twitter is where Reid’s forte of foolishness is most obvious. She tries to outdo everyone else in pushing the Russiagate story and her efforts are often more comical than anything. She claimed that Trump’s marriages to two eastern European women proved collusion with Russia. She actually referred to “Soviet Yugoslavia.” If Yugoslavia was anything it was independent of Moscow and everyone knows that, everyone except the high paid news reader.

When she isn’t getting into arguments with Bernie Sanders’ wife (yes, that happened), she is singing the praises of the right wing. She tells a lot about herself and about the Democrats she serves with such eagerness.

“She actually referred to “Soviet Yugoslavia.”

Now she is in trouble for insulting the wrong people, pointing out Israeli lobbying and making light of the revered John McCain. But her woes are a reason to look at her body of work and talk about why she should really be under the microscope.

Joy Reid represents the worst in American corporate media and exposes it as a tool used to diminish dissent, promote the neoliberal agenda, and beat up on leftists, the group most hated by the Democratic Party. She isn’t alone in spreading stupefying nonsense on air. The equally over rated Rachel Maddow talks about Russia more than all other topics combined. She does so while presenting only the most Russophobic points of view, which makes her little more than a war propagandist.

But Maddow is wise enough to think before hitting send on twitter. Reid is known for being shrill and consistently wrong. In other words, she is just a hack.

MSNBC plays a strange role among many Democrats and progressives. In a country bereft of true political activity, watching television has become a substitute. When Barack Obama was president angry Republicans turned to Fox news for solace and MSNBC ratings were down. Democrats had their guy in office and didn’t need to see their favorite talking heads. Now that Donald Trump is in office Fox fans no longer feel a need for validation but Democrats think of themselves as being in resistance if they tune into MSNBC.

“The equally over rated Rachel Maddow talks about Russia more than all other topics combined.”

Reid is the last of the black talent who became prominent on MSNBC during the Obama years. There was less need for Melissa Harris Perry or Toure absent a black president. As the sole survivor she may be safe despite creating a public relations headache for her bosses. If there were any doubt about her alliances a word of defense and praise from Eric Holder, who calls her a “unique and compelling voice for tolerance,” tells us all we need to know.

If Reid’s troubles take her off of MSNBC she will be replaced by someone who is perhaps more competent, but no less of a suck up to powerful interests. That is how these jobs are filled after all. They may not mention Soviet Yugoslavia but they will surely find themselves on common ground with neoliberals. That is the only place where the high paying celebrity news jobs can be found.

Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com . Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com.

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