MSNBC has been granted exclusive rights to cover the South Carolina Democratic convention this weekend, meaning even C-SPAN has been barred from airing live footage from the first major political event of the 2020 Democratic primary.
But even more amazing than the fact that South Carolina Democrats cut a sweetheart deal with MSNBC is that the left-wing cable news company has chosen noted homophobe Joy Reid and infamous anti-Semite Al Sharpton to host its convention coverage and interview the 2020 Democratic candidates.
Talk about putting your best foot forward.
Reid was discovered in 2018 to have authored multiple homophobic blog posts for which she never really apologized. In fact, rather than blame “youthful indiscretions” or suggest that she has “evolved” on her views of the LGBT community, Reid lied and claimed a shadowy cabal of cybercriminals hacked into her long-defunct personal blog and the Wayback Machine Internet Archive, and maybe even the U.S. Library of Congress, to make it appear as if she authored a handful of homophobic articles nearly a decade ago.
Later, after Reid’s attorney claimed they contacted the FBI to investigate her story alleging hackers had “manipulated material” to “include offensive and hateful references that are fabricated and run counter to [Reid’s] personal beliefs and ideology,” the MSNBC host issued a nonapology apology for her lies.
“I genuinely do not believe I wrote those hateful things because they are completely alien to me. But I can definitely understand based on things I have tweeted and have written in the past why some people don’t believe me,” she said in May 2018. But she definitely wrote those things.
Anyway, this ought to make for some fascinating television this weekend should Reid get the chance to interview South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, whose being gay may or may not offend the cable news host’s sensibilities.
Then there is Sharpton, whose anti-Semitic rhetoric and provocations are the stuff of legends. From whipping up riots against “diamond merchants” in Crown Heights, N.Y., to defending a New York’s City College professor who accused “rich Jews” of financing the slave trade and of controlling Hollywood so that they could “put together a system of destruction for Black people,” the MSNBC host has made his attitude toward Jews crystal clear. Sharpton is the same guy who once said in defense of the anti-Semitic NYC College professor mentioned above, “If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house.”
This should make for even more fascinating television this weekend should Sharpton get the chance to interview Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., whose Jewish heritage may or may not offend the cable news host’s sensibilities.
Of course, none of what I am talking about apparently matters to South Carolina Democrats, who seem concerned only with putting on a good show.
“This is probably one of the first times that a major state convention is going to have a show broadcasting from inside of it,” said South Carolina Democratic Party spokesman Tim Sullivan. “We wanted to put on this big show for our conventiongoers and for our viewers.”
I will give Sullivan this: A three-ring political circus emceed by a homophobe and an anti-Semite will certainly make for a “big show.”
