As Joy Reid Comes Under Attack For Past Controversial Statements, She Finds Unlikely Ally In Sean Hannity

Joy Reid has taken lots of heat in the past week over some things she said on her old blog, and now she’s finding support from an unexpected person – Sean Hannity. The Fox News host acknowledges in a Friday post to his website, Hannity, that Joy is not a fan, and commends her for taking responsibility for past statements.

Among the old blog posts for which Reid has been attacked this week is one in which she asks viewers to watch a documentary titled Loose Change that promotes the theory that the U.S. government is responsible for the 9/11 terror attacks. In another, she took a shot at Senator John McCain with a photoshopped image that shows him as the gunman responsible for the deaths of 32 people at Virginia Tech in 2007. Both Joy and the network who employs her, MSNBC, have issued statements on the matter. Joy’s apology reads, in part, the following.

“While I published my blog, starting in 2005, I wrote thousands of posts in real time on the issues of the day. There are things I deeply regret and am embarrassed by, things I would have said differently and issues where my position has changed. Today I’m sincerely apologizing again.”

She went on to apologize specifically for the Loose Change comments and the depiction of John McCain saying that she has no doubt that 9/11 was carried out by Al Qaeda and has tremendous respect for John McCain.

After commending Joy Reid for “starting to take responsibility” for things she wrote in the past, Sean Hannity goes on to offer her some advice. He suggests that she speak with each of the groups and people who were offended by her statements and offer her apology to each of them. He believes that her apology should be accepted and that there is no reason for her to lose her job over statements made 13 years ago.

Sean calls for a recent trend in the relationship between the public and the media to stop.

“Someone needs to take the lead in cable news and stop the ‘crush, fire them, and destroy hosts you may disagree with’ environment. I guess as the number one rated host in cable, I’ll start.”

He continued by voicing his support of the right of free speech and second chances.

MSNBC seems to agree. In their statement about recent attacks on Joy, they said that the old statements that have surfaced in recent days, while hurtful, don’t reflect the person they know today. They acknowledged her apologies and noted the evolution of her ideas and opinions. They said nothing to indicate that Reid’s employment with them is in jeopardy.