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MSNBC, host Joy Reid silent about blog posts echoing conspiracy theory

Once again, Reid finds herself facing questions about decade-old posts that appeared on her former blog.

MSNBC hosts Chris Hayes and Joy Reid take a selfie on the stage of the Prince Theater on Tuesday before the taping of their show, “Everyday Racism in America.”
MSNBC hosts Chris Hayes and Joy Reid take a selfie on the stage of the Prince Theater on Tuesday before the taping of their show, “Everyday Racism in America.”Read moreTOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer

Once again, MSNBC and AM Joy host Joy Reid are facing questions over contentious, decade-old posts that have surfaced from her former blog.

In two separate March 2006 posts on the blog, the Reid Report, Reid echoed "truthers" who claim al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden were not behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

In one post, archived by WayBack Machine and recently uncovered by Buzzfeed, Reid encouraged readers to watch Loose Change 9/11, a viral documentary that promoted a debunked conspiracy theory that the U.S. government was behind the Sept. 11 attacks. The film was co-produced by Info Wars host Alex Jones, a far-right conspiracy theorist who is being sued by the parents of victims of the Sandy Hook massacre for claiming the school shooting, which resulted in the death of 20 children and six adults, was a "false flag" operation designed to promote harsher gun control laws.

In another blog post, Reid repeated a common question asked by conspiracy theorists about the collapse of 7 World Trade Center, which was not hit by the airplanes involved in the attack.

"Somehow I think it will be a generation before we get the full story on what happened on 9/11?" Reid wrote in the post.

MSNBC and NBC News did not respond to a request for comment. On social media, Reid has remained silent about the newly unearthed blog posts.

In December 2017, Reid apologized for "insensitive, tone-deaf and dumb" posts on the same blog that claimed then-Florida Gov. Charlie Crist was gay and only married a woman to help his political career. "Let me be clear: At no time have I intentionally sought to demean or harm the LGBT community, which includes people whom I deeply love," Reid said in a statement. "My goal, in my ham-handed way, was to call out potential hypocrisy."

Reid again came under fire last month when more blog posts, in which she claimed being gay was a "lifestyle" and "immoral," were uncovered. She initially claimed she had proof the posts were hacked and the FBI was investigating the situation, but later backed off and said she doesn't "believe" she wrote them.

"I've spent a lot of time trying to make sense of these posts. I hired cybersecurity experts to see if somebody had manipulated my words or my former blog," Reid said on AM Joy. "And the reality is they have not been able to prove it."

After the homophobic posts were revealed, many of Reid's on-air colleagues publicly voiced their support for the embattled host, who has not faced any repercussions from MSNBC over the posts. Among those voicing support was Rachel Maddow, MSNBC's most prominent personality, who wrote on Twitter she had "never been prouder to work" with Reid.

Despite the outpouring of support, the LGBTQ advocacy organization PFLAG rescinded an award it had planned to give to Reid, who has acknowledged that, like many people, her views on the gay community have changed dramatically in the years since the blog posts were written.

"The person I am now is not the person I was then. I like to think I've gotten better as a person over time — that I'm still growing, that I'm not the same person I was 10 or five or even one year ago," Reid said. "And I know that my goal is to try to be a better person and a better ally."

In the wake of the posts revealed last month, the Daily Beast suspended Reid's column and assigned cybersecurity reporter Kevin Poulsen to investigate claims Reid's blog had been hacked. Poulsen found that evidence of a hacking provided by Reid's attorney fell apart under scrutiny.

"It's possible that in the end Reid will discover her adversary isn't a determined hacker, but a far more dogged foe: The Joy-Ann Reid of years past, writing in a voice she can no longer recognize as her own," Poulsen wrote.