I’m sure you know Joy Reid from her MSNBC show, and possibly this tweet:
Revising my tweet from yday. The great clarion voice in the Democratic Party is Bernie Sanders. And he'll be ignored just like Dean.
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) December 1, 2010
Of course, she quickly backed off that position after getting paid by MSNBC. More recently, folks uncovered her old homophobic blog posts, before she was an MSNBC host; these are most notable because, instead of apologizing, she launched a nonsensical defense that hackers had planted the posts on her blogs… except that those posts were found on the “Wayback Machine” of the Internet Archive, a project that takes snapshots of the web at various points in time and, well, archives them. Meaning that the only way this could have happened is if A)someone hacked the archive specifically, or B)someone traveled in time to plant those posts on her blog.
For some reason, MSNBC just shrugged and accepted this explanation. And no surprise, she’s been very reliable since they gave her a show in smearing capital’s Public Enemy Number One, Bernie Sanders.
Today, however, Reid took those smears to a new level, hiring a “body language expert” to tell people Bernie was lying about his exchange with Elizabeth Warren. (Warren’s camp leaked to CNN an exchange where Sanders supposedly told her in 2018 a woman couldn’t win the presidency– the second part of a two-part hit job in the past week– a statement Sanders flatly denied saying and that doesn’t track with his history, and one which CNN gladly presented at the debate as fact, purposely fanning the flames further after the debate. Even Warren team members suggested Sanders’ account of the exchange was more accurate, and yet…)
Joy Reid brought on a “body language expert” to accuse Bernie of lying because his physical posture resembles that of a turtle. Really. pic.twitter.com/CCfSJoGIkU
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) January 18, 2020
Besides the fact that this is pure pseudoscience, it’s pure anti-semitism. Note the comparison of Sanders to a reptile (a common anti-semitic stereotype) as well as claims about how he “rubs his hands together,” a very familiar anti-semitic image meant to invoke the stereotype of Jewish greed:
Body language expert: “Then he rubs his hands together”
Joy Reid: *nods* https://t.co/lu6uMMdM4y
— Eoin Higgins (@EoinHiggins_) January 18, 2020
And this “expert,” Janine Driver, is not only a practitioner of bunk science, but is also involved in the anti-vaccine movement (okay, I suppose I repeat myself), has made a number of other ludicrous claims, previously provided her “expertise” in law enforcement, and, of course, is close to Joe Biden– and a supporter of Donald Trump.
The “body language expert” Joy-Ann Reid had on to say Bernie Sanders lied at the debate posted anti-Vaxxer content at least twice pic.twitter.com/73hcWTi2TM
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) January 18, 2020
lol antivaxxer who thinks Obama has ties to ISIS pic.twitter.com/nOZrgZL1mO
— gato fumador ❼ (@QueenInYeIIow) January 18, 2020
The body language expert breaking down Trump during the GOP debates lmao pic.twitter.com/Zx5xzc7cDr
— aussie fugazi 🌏🔥 (@buckadef) January 18, 2020
— Janine Driver (@janinedriver) July 13, 2019
Um, I have some news about Joy's body language expert. 💀 pic.twitter.com/3LOrgDCEVc
— Joe Biden is a Racist (@BethLynch2020) January 18, 2020
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) January 18, 2020
So to recap: The homophobic Joy Reid had on an anti-vaxxer who made a career out of a junk pseudoscience used to justify locking people up, and is apparently personal friends with Joe Biden or at least close enough to get invited to his house for a dinner, and is an open Donald Trump supporter, to tell her audience that Bernie Sanders is lying and untrustworthy. And not even for the first time!
Today on @JoyAnnReid show isn’t the only time @janinedriver had bogus body language analysis on Bernie Sanders.
In 2016, she compared his finger-wagging to being a “judgemental” cop and says “someone could be like, ‘Wait a minute, is he the right person for president?’” pic.twitter.com/BC9kiPN450
— Andrew Jerell Jones (@sluggahjells) January 18, 2020
I say it a lot these days, but: Is it any wonder people at large don’t trust the media?