Jussie Smollett’s fake hate crime. The media smear of students at Covington Catholic. The infamous NASCAR garage pull that wasn’t a noose. Russian collusion by President Donald Trump.
These are all stories Joy Reid chose to talk about multiple times on her show over the last three years, all of which turned out to be baseless hoaxes.
Now that Reid is disparaging the media’s “missing white woman syndrome” for focusing on the possible homicide of semi-famous YouTuber Gabby Petito, it’s worth mentioning that Reid has hardly ever or possibly never cared enough to discuss nonwhite missing women on her show. It’s not like much would be lost — again, most of her time is spent on unsubstantiated hoaxes whose only purpose is to drive ratings up and create as much fear and racial tension as possible.
Reid had her opportunities. For example, she could have chosen to cover honest stories about the missing Dulce Maria Alavez. But she decided to cover the salacious and phony tale of Smollett instead. When she could have reported on Dawnita Wilkerson, she chose to discuss the racist, horrific ramifications of garage pulls. She is just as bad as everyone she criticizes, worse even. Reid weaponizes false stories to create outrage rather than report on issues that can help society.
I am sure that a Harvard University graduate such as Reid can find the FBI’s missing persons list and bring attention to any missing person she wants. But Reid doesn’t care about missing women of color or other nonwhite victims of crime. Not faked, Smollett-like crimes, but crimes that disproportionately afflict black victims. More than half of all murder victims are black, even though only 13% of the population is black.
Actions speak louder than words. And if Reid is going to call out the media for giving insufficient attention to missing women of color, maybe someone ought to ask her why she has evinced so little concern herself.
