A CNN panel on Sunday castigated MSNBC host Joy Reid over the ongoing controversy surrounding her inflammatory blog posts made beginning in 2005, likening her unsubstantiated hacking claim to one from disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner (D., N.Y.).
After more controversial blog posts were exposed from Reid's now-defunct The Reid Report blog earlier this week, she appeared to drop her previous claims of being hacked, saying she was "sincerely apologizing again" for her past posts and that she was "embarrassed" about some of the things she previously wrote.
CNN's "Reliable Sources" host Brian Stelter said he doesn't know if Reid lied about her posts being hacked but that it appears to be the case.
David Zurawik, a media critic with the Baltimore Sun, said NBC hasn't helped the media's credibility in the current environment as President Donald Trump tells the American people the press lies.
"NBC News does not need to be presenting somebody or being silent about something that says 'maybe this person sitting at this host's desk is a liar,'" Zurawik said, "This lie– look, this alleged lie is also kind of complicated in the sense that it's kind of nutty. It's the kind of thing you make up when you're really desperate. Students make these kinds of stories up."
Stelter chimed in to mention the role of Reid's supporters, asking CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist Maria Cardona about their pivot to distract from Reid's issues.
"I think this does go [negatively] to her credibility, because if she had just come out and apologized, period, people like redemption stories. People want to give people a second chance. People want to believe people when they say that they are really sorry," Cardona said.
"This happened what-- 2005? That was a long time ago, so she can definitely say, 'I am not the same person that I was back then. I apologize.' That would be it, but now the story is this," she added.
Cardona also reflected on Weiner's claims in June 2011 that his Twitter account was hacked and he didn't send a lewd photo of himself to a college girl in Washington state. She said the hacking claims by Reid are similar.
"When Wolf [Blitzer] presented him with the pictures on-air, and he kept claiming that he was hacked. That's not a good memory for people to have when Joy Reid talks about her hacking. And now, the fact that [NBC and MSNBC] aren't even addressing it, I think even shines more of a light on it," Cardona said.
Matt Lewis, a CNN commentator and Daily Beast senior columnist, agreed with the other panelists, adding he believes members of the media have become tribalists for their own people.
"There is a sense that we are all tribalists now, and if someone's coming after one of our people, we need to circle the wagons and protect that person. And that's what MSNBC is doing right now with Joy Ann Reid," Lewis said.