Joy Reid Msnbc
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an 11 26
Joy Reid wonders who really controls the news after shock MSNBC firing
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AN 5 26
President Donald Trump’s political brand is based on convincing unexceptional people that they are better than they actually are, but one critic says he's doing so at the expense of exceptional people who happen to belong to marginalized communities.
“Donald Trump is literally hypnotizing mediocre people into thinking that they are meritocratic geniuses, while telling highly accomplished Black, Brown, and Asian people that they are nothing — that everything they have was given to them by those same mediocre people,” liberal commentator Joy-Ann Reid said on Tuesday in an episode of “The Left Hook with Wajahat Ali and Joy-Ann Reid.” The pundit elaborated that Trump and his administration promote the idea that white men do not need to prove their merit because, by virtue of being white men, they are already exceptional.
“They're literally seeing a deficit of white men even trying to go to college now, because they're being told: you don't have to do anything, you just have to be,” Reid said. “You just have to exist as a white man and you're qualified to do anything. You can be a neurosurgeon — just walk in there, use your brilliant European brain, and start operating on people. You're fine. You don't need to know anything. But Black people, according to the late Charlie Kirk, can't even be a pilot — even after going to school to become one. If they're sitting behind the wheel of a Cessna, the claim is they don't know how to do it, that they were just pulled off the street and thrown into the chair.”
Not only do these arguments hurt ordinary people by encouraging discrimination, Reid argued; they also hurt the American economy and do damage to the government when second-rate leaders inevitably stumble at their jobs.
“So they're telling women and people of color: you're not qualified to do anything. But white men are being told: you're qualified to do everything," Reid said. "So you're having people walk into positions they're not ready for. This is Donald Trump doing exactly what they claimed affirmative action did to Black students — setting them up to fail by placing unqualified people in positions beyond their preparation. That was their theory. And that's literally what's happening to these mediocre white guys now.”
Reid offered up the Trump administration as the clearest example.
“RFK Jr. cannot help but fail because he's not qualified for the job,” Reid said. “Pete Hegseth cannot do anything but look like an idiot because he's not qualified for the job. When you're not seeking the most qualified people, you're setting all of these men up to fail — including the President of the United States.”
Reid is not alone among liberal pundits who argue that Trump’s appeal relies in part on elevating mediocre men into believing they are great. Salon writer Amanda Marcotte made a similar point in July on “The Daily Blast with Greg Sargent.”
“So much of the MAGA movement really is driven by this jealousy that they can’t admit to themselves,” Marcotte said. “…I think you see that come up again and again with these fascist movements, right? They are full of mediocre people who are burning with resentment and grievance toward people that they call ‘the elites,’ who are often just people that are more excellent than they are, who are better at stuff than they are. They hate them and they just want to punish them.”
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an fair 3 25
At a time when the Democratic Party’s opposition to the ongoing right-wing authoritarian assault on US government is failing miserably (FAIR.org, 2/27/25), MSNBC’s recent purge means it is all the more unlikely that the cable news network will have any role in holding Democrats’ feet to the fire.
The news channel has nixed or demoted their most progressive anchors, all of whom are people of color. These are the hosts who have drawn the most ire from Donald Trump’s online warriors, according to Dave Zirin of The Nation (2/28/25). They are also some of the few who were willing to air the network’s rare criticism of Israel. In their stead, MSNBC has elevated Democratic Party apparatchiks and a center-right never-Trumper. This rightward shift reflects the reality that the channel’s corporate ownership has never cared for its left-of-center brand.
The network’s overhaul, led by its new president Rebecca Kutler, cancels Joy Reid’s ReidOut, Alex Wagner’s nighttime spot and Ayman Mohyeldin’s weekend evening show, with Reid fired, Wagner demoted and Mohyeldin’s voice diluted into a co-anchor position.
The ReidOut is getting replaced by a panel show consisting of Symone Sanders-Townsend, the former Biden and Harris advisor; Alicia Menendez, the daughter of disgraced ex-Sen. Bob Menendez; and Michael Steele, the former Republican National Committee chairperson, now a Democrat whose politics symbolize the Democratic Party’s disastrous fetish for centrist triangulation. Wagner’s 9 pm slot will now be anchored by Jen Psaki, another Biden alum.
As an indication of just how disruptive Kutler’s new vision for MSNBC is, even Rachel Maddow—the network’s biggest star with the most popular show—is getting a staff downsizing. The move seemed almost retaliatory, as it came after Maddow aired her grievances during one of her nightly shows (2/24/25). “Personally, I think it is a bad mistake to let [Reid] walk out the door,” Maddow said. “It is not my call and I understand that, but that’s what I think.” She added:
It is also unnerving to see that, on a network where we’ve got two, count ’em, two non-white hosts in primetime, both of our non-white hosts in prime time are losing their shows, as is Katie Phang on the weekend. And that feels worse than bad, no matter who replaces them. That feels indefensible, and I do not defend it.
Bucking the trend
Joy Reid has had her disagreements with the left. Her ardent defense of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential bid veered frequently into baseless accusations, online scolding of Bernie Sanders and promotion of the Russiagate conspiracy theory (FAIR.org, 9/3/16, 6/30/17, 8/24/16). Altogether, that contributed to Democrats’ refusal to conduct a true postmortem of the Clinton loss, the ramifications of which still aid Donald Trump’s dominance.
But during Joe Biden’s presidential tenure, Reid proved to be progressive, relative not just to MSNBC’s other anchors, but many in the corporate media writ large. As New York’s skies turned orange amid historic Canadian wildfires in the summer of 2023, for instance, Reid was one of the few who called out the role of fossil fuels (FAIR.org, 7/18/23).
While other outlets were overemphasizing the inflationary impact of President Biden’s paradigm-shifting economic stimulus in the wake of the Covid pandemic, Reid bucked the trend, drawing the ire of right-wing media (FAIR.org, 7/13/23).
Perhaps most notably, Reid was an outlier in her coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza and its backlash in the US. A FAIR study (8/15/24) found that Reid’s show was the only weekday news program studied to feature students expressing pro-Palestinian sentiment during coverage of the student Gaza solidarity encampments that cropped up at college campuses across the country last spring. The same study found that her show was the only one studied to have mentioned the words “divestment” and “police violence” more than “antisemitism” in relation to the encampments.
Similarly, as outlets like the New York Times provided Israel cover for its bombing of the densely-populated Jabalia refugee camp that killed and wounded 400 Palestinians, Reid questioned how Israel could justify such a disproportionate attack (FAIR.org, 11/15/23).
The panel of Sanders-Townsend, Menendez and Steele promises none of that nonconformity. Instead, they represent MSNBC’s decision to represent an even smaller sliver of the Democratic elite. By elevating the former Biden and Harris advisor Sanders-Townsend, MSNBC has empowered someone with an interest in defending the current Democratic guard’s rule.
The Lincoln Project–affiliated Steele similarly owes his ascendancy to the sort of Democratic group-think that spurred Kamala Harris’s ruinous gun-touting, Cheney-approved centrist presidential bid. Expect Hakeem Jeffries praise.
Pointing out hypocrisy
Though not fired, Mohyeldin and Wagner are two more MSNBC figures who have elevated criticism of Israel and are now facing a demotion. Following ex-Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s finding that Sudanese military forces had committed genocide against the Sudanese people, Mohyeldin (MSNBC, 1/13/25) took to the airwaves to point out Blinken’s hypocrisy:
The horrific atrocities committed against the Sudanese should be labeled as genocide. But Blinken’s declaration begs the question: Why is the US unable to apply that same standard to Israel?
If the Biden administration is calling out the famine in Sudan, why not also address the ongoing famine in Gaza, which has been condemned by independent experts from the United Nations?
After New York Mayor Eric Adams sicced the NYPD on Columbia and CUNY students who had erected Gaza solidarity encampments, Wagner (5/1/24) brought on Jelani Cobb, the dean of the Columbia School of Journalism, and CUNY journalism professor (and MSNBC contributor) Peter Beinart, a well-known critic of Israel. During the show, Wagner said she agreed with Beinart that it’s “probably a good thing for our national discourse” if the encampment movement is remembered in history as a turning point for debate about US support for Israel. She also suggested that common misrepresentations of the student protestors as treasonous were a “cudgel” to distract from the issue of US foreign policy towards Israel.
Mouthpiece for elite interests
Wagner’s replacement is Jen Psaki. No one is more qualified to execute MSNBC’s crusade to become nothing more than a mouthpiece for elite Democratic interests. As Julia Rock wrote in Jacobin (5/13/22) when Biden’s former press secretary left the administration for her first MSNBC gig:
The skills required to act as a press secretary in corporate Democratic presidencies—saying little of substance, committing to nothing, dispensing snark and scoffs, and never even accidentally challenging power—appear to carry over well to playing pundit on MSNBC, the corporate network that serves as the Democratic Party’s de facto propaganda outfit.
As press secretary, Psaki was known for insensitive and condescending quips in response to the public’s desire for good things. After the Democrats’ John R. Lewis Act, which would have enacted broad voting rights reforms, failed to pass the Senate in January 2022, Psaki suggested the public “go to a kickboxing class” or “have a margarita” to rejuvenate their spirits (Business Insider, 1/21/22).
Then there was the time when Psaki got short with NPR national political correspondent Mara Liasson in response to her question asking why the United States, unlike other wealthy nations, couldn’t distribute free Covid-19 test kits to every US household (Jacobin, 12/8/21). Psaki, suggesting the best way to provide tests was Biden’s convoluted plan for reimbursements through private insurance, asked Liasson, “Should we just send one to every American?” Feigning ignorance, she continued, “Then what happens if every American has one test? How much does that cost, and then what happens after that?”
Psaki’s knack for subduing the electorate’s impulse for government to meet their needs will serve MSNBC’s priorities well. Add to that her gig as a “crisis consultant” (Jacobin, 3/20/21) for the Israeli AI facial recognition startup formerly known as AnyVision, whose services were used to surveil Palestinians in the West Bank (NBC, 10/28/19), as well as her consultancy for the ride sharing giant Lyft (Business Insider, 4/1/22), and it’s no wonder she got the primetime 9pm slot.
Ideological thrashing
MSNBC’s rightward tack may come as a surprise to those who think it was born fully formed as Fox News’ liberal opposite. But its ideological thrashing over the years—oscillating between right-wing pundits like Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson and Michael Savage, and liberals like Phil Donahue and Keith Olbermann—before donning its current liberal identity in 2008, with the hiring of Rachel Maddow, shows the network is more akin to a cable news version of John Carpenter’s The Thing (FAIR.org, 8/28/21).
The owners of MSNBC—once Microsoft and General Electric, then GE alone, now the cable giant Comcast—have never held a commitment to its center-left brand beyond its capacity to capture as large a fraction of the market as possible. Now, as other mainstream corporate outlets like CNN are making similar adjustments (FAIR.org, 2/17/22), MSNBC seems to believe its best path to profit is shirking progressives.
The Democratic Party is facing an unprecedented—and justified—crisis in confidence among the public. A recent Quinnipiac University poll showed Democrats with just a 31% approval rating, the lowest since the school began measuring party approval. Meanwhile, a poll by the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project found that “ending Israel’s violence in Gaza” was a top issue for voters who supported Biden in 2020, but cast their ballots for someone other than Harris in the 2024 election.
MSNBC’s firing and demotion of its most progressive ranks, the ones who aired criticism of Israel, means that the Democratic Party—currently America’s sole opposition party in Congress—is all the less likely to be held accountable as the authoritarian right attempts to steamroll through our democracy.
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joy reid msnbc 1 24 ~ MLK hijack quote
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MMA
Trump pushed replacement theory during the debate. Mainstream media fact checks sanitized it.
Written by Gideon Taaffe
Published 09/11/24
As presidential nominees Kamala Harris and Donald Trump debated, Trump claimed that “illegal immigrants” are “coming in” while Democrats are “trying to get them to vote.”
While some news outlets fact-checked the remark, The New York Times tepidly noted just that the conspiracy theory “lacks evidence,” and the Times and other outlets failed to highlight the extreme origins of the lie that Democrats are trying to replace white people with politically supportive nonwhite immigrants, otherwise known as the “great replacement” conspiracy theory.
The failure to highlight this context is another instance of the media “sanewashing” Trump’s remarks.
- ## Trump pushed replacement theory during the presidential debate
- During the presidential debate Donald Trump claimed, “A lot of these illegal immigrants coming in, they’re trying to get them to vote.” Trump made the remark in response to a question about whether he lost the 2020 election. ABC, [9/10/24]
- Claiming immigrants are being imported into America in order to vote in elections is a part of the white nationalist conspiracy theory known as the “great replacement.” The theory alleges that nonwhite immigrants are “replacing” the votes of white Americans in order to undermine white interests, and that Democrats are supporting this effort. Media Matters, [3/4/24]
- ## Mainstream media failed to link Trump’s comments to the far-right conspiracy theory
- The New York Times claimed Trump’s response “lacks evidence” and failed to mention his comment was an offshoot of “great replacement” beliefs, even though the paper has previously reported on the conspiracy theory.Instead, the Times focused only on the lie about noncitizen voting, writing, “In recent months, Trump and other Republicans have frequently made the false claim that there’s a major crisis of noncitizens illegally voting in federal elections.” The Times had previously thoroughly reported on great replacement theory, and in particular former Fox host and Trump ally Tucker Carlson’s role in “stok[ing] white fear” and mainstreaming what the paper called a “racist conspiracy theory.” The New York Times, [9/10/24, 4/30/22]
- Other outlets also succeeded in calling out Trump’s lie about noncitizen voting but failed to highlight its link to replacement theory. NPR, The Washington Post, NBC News, and MSNBC all highlighted the slim likelihood of migrants voting in the election, but stopped short of highlighting the claim’s racist origins. NPR, [9/11/24; The Washington Post, 9/11/24, 9/11/24; NBC News, 9/10/24; MSNBC, 9/11/24]
- Some in mainstream media ignored the response altogether and did not mention it in their online fact checks. ABC News, CBS News, and CNN ignored the former president’s remarks on migrants voting. ABC News, [9/11/24; CBS News, 9/11/24; CNN, 9/11/24]
- ## This failure follows a broader trend of mainstream media “sanewashing” Trump’s comments
- The New Republic argued that mainstream media have been sanitizing Trump’s comments by simplifying and laundering them to seem like more mainstream political statements.Parker Molloy (who previously worked at Media Matters) highlighted several instances of sanewashing, including CNN simplifying a Trump social media rant and The New York Times ignoring Trump’s comment supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s misinformation on autism and failing to report on Trump’s spread of anti-trans conspiracy theories. The New Republic, [9/4/24]
- Columbia Journalism Review’s Jon Allsop called the premise of sanewashing “persuasive” in his piece, titled “Is the press ‘sanewashing’ Trump?”Allsop also noted mainstream media are also downplaying Trump’s more violent and extreme comments on immigrant gangs and election misinformation: “If sanewashing the incoherent things Trump says is a problem, then so is failing to proportionately cover his all-too-coherent threats.” Columbia Journalism Review, [9/9/24]
- Many mainstream media outlets recently sanewashed a speech Trump made to The Economic Club of New York, failing to inform audiences about his incoherent response to a question about child care policy. Media Matters, [9/10/24]
- On MSNBC, Joy Reid highlighted the sanewashing impulses of the mainstream media, warning that Trump’s and Harris’s debate performances would be held to different standards. Reid: “His answers are sure to be sane-washed by much of the media immediately after the debate and in the days to come to ensure that he continues to be taken seriously by American voters.” MSNBC,*The Reid Out*, [9/9/24]
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an 2 24 no lnx
Tuesday's episode of MSNBC's The ReidOut, Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson spoke with host Joy Reid Tuesday about one of the most "frightening" aspects of a potential second Donald Trump administration.
Reid pointed to a Tuesday Politico report highlighting the fact that Russell Vought, former Trump director of the Office of Management and Budget is spearheading the potential administration's efforts to inject Christian nationalist ideals into the US government.
The MSNBC host emphasized that during a second Trump term, the United States government could eventually mirror Argentina's government — which has become an "the ultra-capitalist state" under its president — if the MAGA hopeful is successful in implementing a Christian nationalist state.
READ MORE: 'Handmaid’s Tale': Biden campaign blasts Trump Christian nationalism plans
"We don't want to do that. We really don't want to do that," Robinson replied. "I lived in Argentina. I love Argentina, the people and everything, but we don't want to follow their terms of government and how they raise their government. Vought wants to give Christian nationalism an image makeover and make it a bright and sunny and good thing. The Constitution — it doesn't really say separation of church and state, according to him. That piece — the Politico piece — about his plans is really frightening."
The longtime Post columnist emphasized, "One of the most frightening things is his apparent plans to bring back one of Trump's worst appointees, Michael Flynn, who pops up in that story later on. And he's become a christian nationalist nut. I guess he always was or has been for a long time. I'll tell you, this is extreme and it is — it's not irreversible, but this is really terrible for the country. And the Republican party is fine with this, and it's not only allowing it, but aiding and abetting it, and pushing it forward in a very deliberate way."
Watch the video below or at this link.
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