MSNBC Host Apologizes for Offensive Blog Post.
BALDWIN: MSNBC host Joy Reid is apologizing for yet another controversy surrounding inflammatory posts from her old blog. She just issued the statement and I will read just part of it. She writes, "while I publish my blogs starting in 2005. I wrote thousands of post in real time on the issues of the day. There are things I deeply regret and am embarrassed by. Things I would've said differently and issues where my position has changed. Today I am sincerely apologizing again." She published a photoshopped image of Arizona Senator John McCain looking like the Virginia Tech shooter. The caption, mocked comments that McCain had made about taking down Osama Bin Laden. His daughter, Megan, calling her beyond disgusting and disgraceful. She has said she has the highest respect for Senator McCain that, she reached out to Megan McCain. Was that what forced her for breaking her silence?</s>BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: That was one of the factors. Megan McCain criticizing Joy Reid for this. There is also the question of what else could come out. It seems like every day there's a new revelation of stuff on her old block, this idea that she had suggested people watch this 9/11 truther documentary that some found disturbing. So, there were a number of reasons why she felt she had to come out today and address this. There could be even more posts that maybe are going to be published by various web sites in the future. This started more than six months ago. There had been anti-gay posts on her blog she discovered, she apologized. In April more posts came out and she had a different reaction. She said she was hacked. And that is really the issue at play here. Joy Reid is a time slot rival of mine, I hate to talk about rival and be critical in any way. But the issue here is credibility with regards to her claim about being hacked. She said she was hacked. Then she said she couldn't prove it in April, then she half backed away from being hacked. Now in this new flareup, these new blog posts this week, she's not saying she was hacked at all. So, I guess that idea's gone out the window.</s>BALDWIN: Wondering what that means for the hacking claim. And, Jeremy, to you, why not just if you're Joy, why not just come clean, full throat, mea culpa from the beginning, this is what I wrote, it was this time in my life, get it all out there then?</s>JEREMY BARR, MEDIA AND POLITICS REPORTER, "THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER": We still know what she wrote and what she didn't write. It seems like she wrote many posts that were offensive. What you want to credit for them and her note today she was contrite, but she didn't say I wrote those blog posts.</s>BALDWIN: Doesn't that make it worse for her?</s>BARR: People are saying, as Brian said, it's an issue of trust. She's a newscaster so you want to trust what she says. It's been a slow roll over the last few months and this is her longest statement to date. It doesn't mention hacking at all. She's doing what she did a few months ago, which is say I apologize for my past blog posts but once again not taking any responsibility.</s>STELTER: And MSNBC is standing by her.</s>BALDWIN: They put out a statement, let me read it. "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 that we have known at MSNBC for the past seven years. She has apologized publicly and privately and said she's grown and evolved in the many years since. And we know this to be true. Very supportive still of Joy." Where was MSNBC the last couple of weeks when this has also been coming out?</s>STELTER: Like 48 hours ago it was on Buzzfeed. Heard about that 9/11 documentary especially disturbing. It took the network a wild to address this. But they are being supportive. I think it is notable this comes on a week when we are talking various people crossing various lines. Each case is unique, each case is different. But in this case, I think we have to recognize that people do change, they should be given the space to evolve. And that's what she's saying, she's evolved and grown over the years and MSNBC is supporting her over that. A little different over the Roseanne Barr case, racist posts five years ago, another racist post this week. No indication of change or evolution. To be fair, Joy has said she's changed and evolved her reviews, but it's the credibility issue about claiming you were hacked and maybe not claiming you were hacked and then you had an expert say the FBI is investigating, maybe that's not true. That's really, I think the issue here. It's up to her viewers to decide if she's credible on that or not.</s>BALDWIN: Jeremy, last question to you, it really does sound like MSNBC is standing by her. Do you think she's safe job-wise?</s>BARR: I think the network likes her a lot. She's a very important voice for the network. She's popular with viewers. Her MSNBC colleagues when it was OK to do that, came out and supported her. The advertiser boycott effort has been a lot more tepid than against Laura Ingram on Fox News. I think that they think she has a path forward and they hope this statement will put things to rest for now.</s>STELTER: We're going to hear her critics say this is another double standard. That's been the line of the week. In this case for a liberal star.</s>BALDWIN: Jeremy Starr, Brian Stelter, thank you. Coming up next, as American starts a trade war with allies, vows of retaliation. That's next.