MSNBC host Joy Reid issued an apology on Sunday for a series of blog posts nearly a decade ago, mostly critical of former Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida, that have been criticized as homophobic and “anti-gay.”
“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,” Reid said in a statement shared with NBC News, which, like MSNBC, is owned by NBCUniversal.
The blog posts were unearthed on Thursday by Twitter user @Jamie_Maz.
"From 2007 to 2009 @joyannreid authored a dozen homophobic posts not only attempting to out Charlie Crist as gay, she attacked & mocked him for being so," @Jamie_Maz wrote in the first of a series of tweets about Reid.
The Twitter user noted Reid repeatedly referred to Crist as "Miss Charlie" in her posts and speculated that his 2008 marriage to a woman was a fraud and part of a “veep marketing strategy.”
During the time she wrote those blog posts, Reid was a morning talk radio host and blogger covering Florida politics.
"Among the frequent subjects of my posts was then-governor Charlie Crist, at the time a conservative Republican, whose positions on issues like gay marriage and adoption by same-sex couples in Florida shared headlines with widely rumored reports that he was hiding his sexual orientation," Reid wrote in her apology.
"At no time have I intentionally sought to demean or harm the LGBT community, which includes people whom I deeply love. My goal, in my ham-handed way, was to call out potential hypocrisy," Reid added.
Crist, who served as Florida’s governor from 2007 to 2011, supported a state constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in 2008. He later apologized for supporting the amendment, telling Watermark Online, an online LGBT publication based in Orlando, "I’m sorry I did that. It was a mistake. I was wrong. Please forgive me."
Now, it is Reid who is seeking forgiveness for, as she put it, “insensitive, tone deaf and dumb” comments.
"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. My means of critiquing were not," she wrote.
"Re-reading those old blog posts, I am disappointed in myself. I apologize to those who also are disappointed in me. Life can be humbling. It often is. But I hope that you know where my heart is, and that I will always strive to use my words for good. I know better and I will do better," Reid wrote.
