Joy Reid
Joy-Ann Reid | |
---|---|
![]() Reid in 2016 | |
Born | Joy-Ann M. Lomena December 8, 1968 |
Alma mater | Harvard University |
Occupation | Journalist |
Television | AM Joy The Rachel Maddow Show |
Political party | Democratic[1] |
Spouse | Jason Reid |
Children | 3 |
Joy-Ann M. Lomena-Reid (born December 8, 1968), known professionally as Joy Reid, is an American cable television host and a national correspondent at MSNBC. In 2016, The Hollywood Reporter described her as one of the political pundits "who have been at the forefront of the cable-news conversations this election season."[1] That same year, she wrote a book on the recent history of the Democratic Party, called Fracture: Barack Obama, the Clintons, and the Racial Divide.[2] In 2017 and 2018, Reid faced controversy after a series of what The New York Times called "incendiary" posts from her defunct, decade-old blog were rediscovered and shared on social media.[3]
Early life
Reid was born Joy-Ann Lomena in Brooklyn, New York.[4] Her father was from the Democratic Republic of Congo[5], and her mother a college professor and nutritionist from British Guiana;[5] the two met in graduate school at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.[4] Reid was raised Methodist and has one sister and one brother.[4] Her father was an engineer who was mostly absent from the family; her parents eventually divorced and her father returned to the Congo.[4] She was raised mostly in Denver, Colorado, until the age of 17, when her mother died of breast cancer[5] and she moved to Flatbush, New York, to live with an aunt.[4] Reid graduated from Harvard University in 1991 with a concentration in film.[6]
In a 2013 interview on MSNBC, Reid recalled that her college experience was a quick immersion into a demographically opposite place from where she lived, from a community that was 80 percent African-American to a community that was six percent African-American. She had to learn to live with roommates and people who were not her family. She paid her own bills and tuition while at Harvard, and said it was a good learning and growing experience overall.[7]
Career
In 2016, The Hollywood Reporter said that she had the "ability to break down complex issues in a way that makes them digestible and accessible," and speak to both policy wonks and ordinary viewers. She left journalism in 2003 to oppose the war in Iraq and President George W. Bush, but returned to broadcasting as a talk radio host, and then worked in the Barack Obama presidential campaign.[1] In 2018, the New York Times stated that "Ms. Reid, the daughter of immigrants, has emerged as a "heroine" of the anti-Trump "resistance".[5]
Reid began her journalism career in 1997, leaving New York and her job at a business consulting firm to begin working in southern Florida for a WSVN Channel 7 morning show.[8]
Reid was a 2003 Knight Center for Specialized Journalism fellow.[9]
From 2006 to 2007, Reid was the co-host of Wake Up South Florida, a morning radio talk show broadcast from Radio One’s then-Miami affiliate WTPS, alongside "James T" Thomas.[5] She served as managing editor of The Grio[10] (2011–2014), a political columnist for Miami Herald (2003–2015), and the editor of The Reid Report political blog (2000–2014).[11]
From February 2014 to February 2015, Reid hosted her own afternoon cable news show, The Reid Report.[12] The show was canceled[13] on February 19, 2015 and Reid was shifted to a new role[14] as an MSNBC national correspondent.[15]
Since May 2016, Reid has hosted AM Joy, a political weekend-morning talk show on MSNBC, and is a frequent substitute for other MSNBC hosts, including Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow. As of 2018, Reid's morning show on Saturday averages nearly 1 million weekly viewers.[5]
Reid is the author of the book Fracture: Barack Obama, the Clintons, and the Racial Divide, published by HarperCollins on September 8, 2015.[16][17]
In 2015, Reid gave the inaugural Ida B. Wells lecture at Wake Forest University's Anna Julia Cooper Center.[10] In 2016, she received the Women's Media Center's Carol Jenkins Visible and Powerful Media Award.[18] Reid also teaches a Syracuse University class in Manhattan exploring race, gender and the media.[5]
In 2017, Reid ranked fourth among Twitter's top tweeted news outlets (@MSNBC) and most tweeted journalist (@JoyAnnReid) at each outlet.[19]
In 2018, Reid was nominated for three NABJ Salute to Excellence Awards. One for her ground-breaking segment where a Pastor is pulled to safety at Charlottesville white nationalists march, for Reid's reporting on the damaged caused by the hurricanes to the U.S. Virgin Islands and lastly for the segment that won her an award Tragedy of ‘Time: The Kalief Browder Story’ where Reid sat down with Kalief's brother Deion Browder and filmmaker Julia Mason.
Controversial blog posts
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On November 30, 2017,[20] a Twitter user @Jamie_maz[21] reproduced posts written between 2007 and 2009 on Reid's former blog "Reid Report", suggesting that Florida's then-Governor Charlie Crist was a closeted homosexual.[22] Following criticism of the posts as homophobic, Reid apologized, calling the posts "insensitive, tone deaf and dumb."[23] Crist responded thanking Reid for her apology.[20] After reviewing more posts from her old blog, which she said she did not remember making, Reid asked lawyers to investigate if her blog or its archives might have been hacked.[21]
In April 2018, the same Twitter user reproduced additional posts from the defunct blog. According to The Nation, these posts expressed "Ridiculing and recirculating rumors about purportedly closeted politicians and celebrities…Using the trope of gay sex to mock politicians and journalists…Opposition to same-sex marriage…Revulsion at gay sex."[24] Wayback Machine, where the posts had been found, said it detected no evidence of hacking in the archived versions of her site.[21] The second batch of posts prompted LGBT advocacy group PFLAG to rescind its plan to give Reid an award,[25] and The Daily Beast to suspend future columns from her.[26]
Reid's employer, MSNBC, called her blog posts "offensive"[27] and said her writings and tweets were "harmful to the LGBT community."[28] Reid opened the April 28, 2018, edition of AM Joy with an apology, saying, "I genuinely do not believe I wrote those hateful things because they are completely alien to me. But I can definitely understand, based on things I have tweeted and have written in the past, why some people don't believe me. I've not been exempt from being dumb or cruel or hurtful to the very people I want to advocate for. I own that. I get it. And for that, I am truly, truly sorry." She also said, "I hired cybersecurity experts to see if someone had manipulated my words or my former blog, and the reality is they have not been able to prove it."[29] Response to her apology was divided along party lines.[30]
In late spring of 2018, blog posts from 2005 through 2007 were brought to public attention. According to the Washington Post, Reid encouraged her readers to watch the now-debunked 9/11 conspiracy film Loose Change and appeared to promote the forcible relocation of Jews from Israel to Europe.[31] Another controversial post, this one from 2007, used a photoshopped image of Senator John McCain superimposed on the body of 2007 Virginia Tech University gunman.[32] Reid apologized, expressing her current opinions, and, after two days of deliberation, MSNBC expressed their continued support: "Some of the things written by Joy on her old blog are obviously hateful and hurtful...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."[31]
Personal life
Reid is married to Jason Reid, a documentary film editor for the Discovery Channel. They have three children together.[4]
References
- ^ a b c Hill, Jarrett (4 November 2016). "MSNBC's Joy Reid on Election Day Predictions, Donald Trump's Scar on the GOP". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
- ^ Reid, Joy-Ann. "Fracture - Joy-Ann Reid - Hardcover". HarperCollins US. Retrieved 2017-06-13.
- ^ Victor, Daniel (June 1, 2018). "Joy Reid, MSNBC Host, Apologizes Again as More Incendiary Blog Posts Surface". NYT. Retrieved June 8, 2018.
MSNBC said in a statement that some of the blog posts were "obviously hateful and hurtful," but that they were "not reflective of the colleague and friend we have known at MSNBC for the past seven years."
- ^ a b c d e f Grove, Lloyd. "Joy Reid, MSNBC Anchor, on the Racism of the Tea Party, Family Dramas, and Why She Loves Boxing". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
- ^ a b c d e f g Holson, Laura (February 10, 2018). "How Joy Reid of MSNBC Became a Heroine of the Resistance". The New York Times. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
- ^ "DACA Seminar". harvard.edu. Harvard University. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
- ^ Witt, Alex (2013-05-25). "Joy-AnnReid reflects on college years at Harvard". MSNBC. Retrieved 2018-05-31.
- ^ Balzano, Cata (May 17, 2016). "Journalist Joy Reid honored by Miami Coalition of Christians and Jews". Miami Herald. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- ^ "Race in American Politics Series: Joy-Ann Reid". ash.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2017-06-13.
- ^ a b Stinson, Tevin (October 2, 2015). "Journalist Joy-Ann Reid delivers first Wells lecture". Winston-Salem Chronicle. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
- ^ Nourse, Gionna (October 14, 2015). "MSNBC's Joy Reid to speak at Church Street Center tonight". The Beacon. Official student newspaper of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
- ^ Alexis Garrett Stodghill (January 27, 2014). "Joy-Ann Reid to host new show on MSNBC". The Grio.
- ^ Connor, Jackson (2015-02-19). "MSNBC Cancels 'The Reid Report,' 'Ronan Farrow Daily'". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2017-08-04.
- ^ "MSNBC Shifts Ronan Farrow, Joy-Ann Reid; Thomas Roberts Returns to Dayside". www.adweek.com. Retrieved 2017-08-04.
- ^ Ariens, Chris. "MSNBC Shifts Ronan Farrow, Joy-Ann Reid; Thomas Roberts Returns to Dayside". AdWeek. Retrieved February 19, 2015.
- ^ "Fracture: Barack Obama, the Clintons, and the Racial Divide". Kirkus Reviews. July 15, 2015. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
- ^ Reid, Joy-Ann (2015). Fracture - Joy-Ann Reid - E-book. Retrieved July 16, 2017.
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ignored (help) - ^ "Women's Media Center Announces Sally Field as the 2016 Host at the Women's Media Awards". Retrieved 2017-08-04.
- ^ Warren, James. "Twitter reveals the kings and queens of newsroom tweets". Poynter Institute. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
- ^ a b Ahmed, Tufayel (December 4, 2017). "MSNBC's Joy Reid apologizes for decade-old homophobic blog posts about Charlie Crist". Newsweek. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
- ^ a b c Guthrie Weissman, Cale (April 24, 2018). "The Internet Archive rejects MSNBC host Joy Reid's claim that her old blog was hacked". Fast Company. Retrieved June 8, 2018.
The Internet Archive says Reid's lawyers contacted the organization back in December, claiming that "fraudulent" text had been "inserted into legitimate content," and asking the organization to take those posts offline.
- ^ Leah, Rachel (December 4, 2017). "Joy Reid apologizes for attacking "Florida Congressman in "tone deaf" homophobic blog posts". salon.com. Salon. Retrieved May 2, 2018.
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," Reid added. "My means of critiquing were not.
- ^ Nyren, Erin (3 December 2017). "Joy Reid Apologizes for Old Homophobic Blog Posts: They Were 'Insensitive, Tone Deaf and Dumb'". Variety.
According to Mediaite, the statements, which were posted between 2007 and 2009—The Reid Report has been shut down for several years—speculate on the sexuality of then-Florida governor Charlie Crist, who Reid refers to as "Miss Charlie" several times throughout. The posts mock him for supposedly being a closeted gay man, including the conspiracy theory that Crist married his then-wife Carole Rome in order to further his chances of becoming John McCain's running mate. Crist, at the time a conservative politician, was well-known for holding policy views against same-sex marriage, though he has since switched stances and political parties.
- ^ Kim, Richard (April 27, 2018). "The Very Specific 2006-ishness of Those Alleged Joy Reid Posts". The Nation. Retrieved May 2, 2018.
I don't know if Reid wrote the posts in question, but it wouldn't surprise me if she, or any liberal blogger at the time, had.
- ^ "LGBT advocacy group rescinds award to Joy Reid". CBS News. April 27, 2018. Retrieved May 2, 2018.
When we extended our invitation to Ms. Reid to honor her at our 45th anniversary celebration, we did so knowing about the blog posts from the late 2000s regarding Charlie Crist. We appreciated how she stepped up, took ownership, apologized for them, and did better—this is the behavior and approach we ask of any ally. However, in light of new information, and the ongoing investigation of that information, we must at this time rescind our award to Ms. Reid.
- ^ Levine, Jon (April 26, 2018). "Daily Beast Suspends Joy Reid Column Over 'Serious' Accusations About Past Homophobic Blog Posts". thewrap.com. TheWrap. Retrieved May 2, 2018.
- ^ "Watch MSNBC's Joy Reid address offensive blog posts". msnbc.com. MSNBC. April 28, 2018. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
- ^ "Joy Reid apologizes to LGBT community for tweets, posts". msnbc.com. MSNBC. April 28, 2018. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
- ^ Hayes, Christal (April 28, 2018). "Joy Reid: 'I genuinely do not believe I wrote those hateful things'". usatoday.com. USA Today. Retrieved April 28, 2018.
- ^ Wang, Amy B (April 28, 2018). "Joy Reid apologizes for anti-LGBT posts, says she can't prove her blog was hacked". Washington Post. Retrieved May 2, 2018.
Reid's apology received mixed reactions, split largely along party lines. The MSNBC host was widely panned by those on the right, who found her hacking claims flimsy and her apology halfhearted…Others, including Reid's colleagues at NBC as well as members of the LGBT community who appeared on her show after her open, praised Reid for taking responsibility for her actions and for vowing to do better.
- ^ a b Farhi, Paul (June 1, 2018). "MSNBC stands by Joy Reid after new apology for controversial blog posts". Washington Post. Retrieved June 10, 2018.
After two days of internal deliberations, the network's executives chose to side with Reid. "Some of the things written by Joy on her old blog are obviously hateful and hurtful," MSNBC said in a statement. "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."
- ^ Concha, Joe (May 31, 2018). "Joy Reid's old blog showed photoshopped McCain as Virginia Tech shooter". The Hill. Retrieved June 10, 2018.
The post includes a caption with an actual quote from McCain declaring that he would follow al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was still in hiding at the time, "to the gates of hell to capture him."
External links
- 1968 births
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