By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2025-01-08 16:51:38 | Updated at 2025-01-09 07:05:51
14 hours ago
MSNBC's Joy Reid is going viral today after a fit over Mark Zuckerberg's U-turn on Meta's fact-checking programs.
The ReidOut star took to TikTok to air her distaste on Tuesday, a day after bizarrely claiming the Trump administration's transition to power 'was a violent [one]'.
The latter was delivered on the air, as the progressive continues to publicly pan the looming administration.
'Why would conservatives think that fact-checking is biased against them?' Reid, 56, began in the clip, posted hours after Zuckerberg, 40, admitted Meta censored conservative opinions on an industrial scale during the current administration.
'I mean, what are you sharing?' If you keep getting fact-checked for false information,' the commentator asked aloud.
Smiling, she pointed to her head and told followers to 'Think about it,' before claiming most - if not all - censored opinions on platforms like Facebook were misinformation.
The rest of the rant had a condescending tone, highly critical of conservatives.
Zuckerberg - who sat down with Donald Trump in November - notably refused to endorse the president-elect during the election. After Joe Biden's win, Meta planned campaigns promoting his agenda, such as encouraging users to take the coronavirus vaccine.
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MSNBC's Joy Reid had a fit Tuesday over Mark Zuckerberg 's U-turn on Meta 's fact-checking programs
Zuckerberg on Tuesday said the decision served as Meta 'going to get back to [its] roots, and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms'
'What were conservatives on Meta sharing that was getting flagged so much?' Reid, filming from home in a hoodie, in turn asked.
'Were they spreading false information?' she asked sarcastically, letting out a laugh.
'And why were they so eager?
'Why are Republicans in general so eager to end the idea of fact-checking?' she continued. 'What are they trying to share?'
The outspoken Kamala Harris supporter concluded by posing a question to her mostly liberal audience, asking 'What is the motivation for not wanting it fact-checked?
'Just something to think about,' Reid said coyly, again with a grin and while pointing to her cranium.
Commenters on X were quick to point out holes in the anchor's argument, as Zuckerberg only hours before copped to instances of censorship.
One person wrote: 'Joy Reid is losing her mind at FB and IG committing to free speech.
'Why would conservatives think that fact-checking is biased against them?' Reid, 56, began in the clip, posted hours after Zuckerberg Meta censored conservative opinions
Reid recently fled Elon Musk's X, after the South African was tapped by the president-elect to head the Department of Government Efficiency
The night before, the liberal host claimed the Trump administration's transition to power 'was a violent [one]', bizarrely pointing to the events of January 6, 2021
'Democrats need to censor, lie, and cheat, in order to win,' they went on, claiming 'These changes are a huge blow to them.'
Another offered a similar, curt assessment. 'Democrats HATE free speech.'
Reid notably left the platform back in November, part of wave of Harris supporters who have taken issue with Elon Musk's recent support for Trump.
The ReidOut star took to TikTok to announce that decision as well, speaking to her roughly half a million followers.
Explaining why, she offered a lengthy explanation - dramatically declaring 'it was just not worth it.'
'Hey guys, today I did something I've been meaning to do for a while,' Reid says in the clip, which was posted days after the end of the election. She panned to two stills that indicated her X account had already been deactivated.
'And the reason for doing it, and kissing goodbye my 1.9million followers over there,' she explained, 'I hadn't been posting for a long time.'
She added: 'I just didn't want to contribute content once it was purchased by its present owner [Musk].'
She then said how 'every so often,' she still used the platform to peruse 'news that was trending. But I just realized it's not really worth it.'
Reid, 56, reportedly was recently floated a pay cut. She currently rakes in $3 million a year. She has yet to announce any intent to leave any of Meta's platforms
Sure enough, she fled to the site started by Twitter's original founder, Jack Dorsey, dubbed BlueSky.
For the next several weeks, commentators like Reid, Rachel Maddow and Joe Scarborough continued to discuss the result - often with rants laced with ire toward Trump, and now Musk as well.
Meanwhile, MSNBC's ratings took an immediate nosedive - plummeting from 6million daily viewers the day of the election to 596,000 two days later.
That's now up slightly to 791,000 viewers daily, around half of Fox News' 1.46 million.
After the post-election drop, the network noted how its fiewershp fell by a similar 42 percent in the wake of the 2016 election, where Trump beat out Hillary Clinton.
It went on to have four of its most-watched years in network history, before waning for the subsequent four.
Meanwhile, the new boss of the media firm that oversees MSNBC, SpinCo CEO Mark Lazarus, has reportedly repeatedly aired his desire more Republican voices on the network - and to move more opinion content out of primetime.
He has also set out on some cuts to some presenters' pay.
Trump and Zuckerberg are seen here meeting inside the Oval Office in September of 2019. A year later, Meta planned campaigns promoting his successor Joe Biden's agenda, such as encouraging users to take the coronavirus vaccine
Trump would later accuse the now-40-year-old of plotting against him during the 2020 election
SpinCo CEO Mark Lazarus expressed his desire for the new direction multiple times over the past month, as insiders told The Ankler he's seeking to shed the station's perception of liberal bias.
Fellow primetime personalities Reid and Stephanie Ruhle have been presented with pay cuts, along with Morning Joe co-host Jonathan Lemire, the outlet reported last month.
Meanwhile, the abrupt about-face from Facebook founder Zuckerberg Tuesday harks back a similar shift in strategy seen from Meta in 2020, first reported by The Financial Times.
At the time, in a pivot from the platform's then-hands-off approach to combating misinformation, Facebook took part in a series of campaigns promoting then top-line items on the then-president elect's agenda.
This included encouraging users to take the then-anticipated coronavirus vaccines while being told share content promoting the Paris Climate Agreement.
The so-called 'charm offensive,' came after Trump withdrew the United States from the pact, after saying the country was given a 'bad deal,'
Biden rejoined as one of his first acts as president, pledging commitments to address climate change.
Moderna and Pfizer went on to roll out vaccines months later, with the federal government overseeing the process.
Meta has since made several moves in recent days that are likely to please Trump's team, such as appointing former Republican official Joel Kaplan to head up public affairs at the company
On Monday, Zuckerberg added Dana White - a well-known friend of Trump's - to Meta's board of directors in another olive branch to Trump
Zuckerberg on Tuesday said the decision served as Meta - previously Facebook - 'going to get back to [its] roots, and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms.
'We're going to get rid of fact-checkers and replac[ing] them with community notes similar to X,' he concluded. On Monday, Zuckerberg added Dana White - a well-known friend of Trump's - to Meta's board of directors.
Reid has yet to announce any intent to leave Facebook or Meta-owned Instagram.
