Clay Aiken Calls on MSNBC to Fire Joy Reid as More Hateful Blogs Uncovered

MSNBC host Joy Reid and Clay Aiken.
Jamie McCarthy, Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images
Joshua Caplan

Singer Clay Aiken called on MSNBC to fire Joy Reid Thursday amid new revelations that the AM Joy host published a photoshopped image of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) as the Virginia Tech gunman on her former blog.

“Ok. I’m truly over it with this mess. First the homophobic posts, then the 9/11 ‘Truther’ posts, and now this nonsense with manipulating images,” Aiken fumed. “And watch @JoyAnnReid blame this on a hacker… or better yet… Ambien. It’s time for her to go too.”

In replies to his followers, Aiken said that Reid has “lost all credibility.”

BuzzFeed uncovered the post depicting McCain as a mass murderer:

The October 2007 post, titled “Baghdad John Strikes Again,” discusses then-GOP Presidential nominee John McCain’s infamous claim that he would “follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell.” The image appears at the end of the post, which was apparently penned by Reid.

The McCain post is the latest in a series of archived items from Reid’s blog that have embarrassed the AM Joy host and her network. Though Reid apologized for several homophobic posts last December, she later attributed others to a hacker. Reid subsequently admitted that she could not substantiate this claim after news reports knocked down the evidence her private cybersecurity expert provided. Reid and MSNBC have both pointed to an ongoing FBI investigation into the alleged breach.

This development comes one day after Buzzfeed reported the embattled MSNBC host published 9/11 conspiracy theories on her now-defunct blog.

In March 2006, Reid published a blog post which promoted a video titled Loose Change 9/11, an 80-minute film produced by Infowars founder Alex Jones, that alleges the U.S. government was behind the Islamic terror attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Center. 

In December, the MSNBC host apologized for publishing homophobic remarks about former Flordia Gov. Charlie Crist, in which she called the Republican-turned-Democrat “Miss Charlie.”

In another post, Joy wrote “Stop pretending, brother,” later adding, “It’s okay that you don’t go for the ladies.”

“This note is my apology to all who are disappointed by the content of blogs I wrote a decade ago, for which my choice of words and tone have legitimately been criticized. As a writer, I pride myself on a facility with language—an economy of words or at least some wisdom in the selection,” Reid said in a statement published by The Wrap.

“However, that clearly has not always been the case,” she added.

In late April, a progressive Twitter user found more anti-gay posts from the Reid Report, but Reid claimed that they were maliciously added by a hacker; her lawyer said the FBI was investigating the claim. Investigations from both right and left-wing news outlets decisively disproved the “hacking” claims. Reid went on air and apologized for them, though she continued to claim “I genuinely do not believe I wrote those hateful things.”

MSNBC has kept Reid on its staff and has not further addressed the controversy.

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