We’ve said it before: we’re not sure how Joy Reid keeps her gig at MSNBC when she’s wrong about so much so often.
If you want to play this sad game of telephone, you have to start with Newsweek, which on Wednesday alerted its readers to a piece in National Review, saying that writer David French was claiming “nuclear war probably won’t get you in the suburbs.”
Nuclear war probably won't get you in the suburbs, conservative magazine tells readers https://t.co/sr4FKEhoJJ pic.twitter.com/KENA9wYXcx
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) January 17, 2018
That piece was picked up by Raw Story…
Oh, fer fuck's sake!!! https://t.co/Q7JkwEhz5T
— Headly Westerfield (@Aunty__Em) January 17, 2018
… which was then passed on through Twitter to Joy Reid, who turned “won’t get you in the suburbs” into “will only kill Democrats and minorities.”
https://twitter.com/JoyAnnReid/status/953759909140627456
Not that it matters to Joy Reid, but here’s what French wrote in response to the false alarm that had Hawaiians afraid that a ballistic missile was headed their way:
First, you have to understand that the odds are overwhelming that you’ll survive an initial blast. Nuclear weapons are devastating, but it’s a Hollywood myth that any individual strike will vaporize an entire American city, much less the suburbs and countryside. You can go to sites like nuclearsecrecy.com to see the blast radius of direct nuclear strikes at various yields.
Yeah, run that paragraph through Joy Reid’s head and it comes out sounding just like, “The conservative argument in favor of risking nuclear war is, ‘don’t worry, it will only kill Democrats and minorities.'”
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Spare me the histrionics. I wrote a short post saying people should prepare for bad events and not simply assume they’re going to die. You’re against preparing for the worst? https://t.co/oWpXdnjOpD
— David French (@DavidAFrench) January 17, 2018
In the annals of misleading and ridiculous tweets, this takes the cake:
1. I did not argue in favor of risking nuclear war.
2. I never said anything like the words in those quotes.
3. I wrote only in favor of prepping for bad events.Other than that, the tweet’s great. https://t.co/oWpXdnjOpD
— David French (@DavidAFrench) January 17, 2018
Not only did I not write what she says I wrote, I’ve written at length about the profound risks in Korea.
Like here: https://t.co/VIxoTxRD1q
And here: https://t.co/4AIEK5PhkF
Then, to PUT IN QUOTES a pure falsehood is absurd. https://t.co/oWpXdnjOpD
— David French (@DavidAFrench) January 17, 2018
Better not tweet links … Joy apparently doesn’t read past the headline.
This is a disgusting lie. David wrote no such thing, nor did he imply such a thing. I’d say this is beneath Joy Reid, but it’s not. How ugly is our politics that one day David has doctored photos of his mixed race family thrown at him, and the next he’s on the end of this. (1) pic.twitter.com/FRDhNQp8RL
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) January 17, 2018
The shame here belongs to @JoyAnnReid and those who employ her. David’s post, which is about preparation for disaster and nothing else, is here: https://t.co/gy9KjFI44m. You can see for yourself how disgraceful is Reid’s claim. (2/2)
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) January 17, 2018
https://twitter.com/SethAMandel/status/953769650306932737
This is an insanely uncharitable reading of a sensible piece https://t.co/VYBOszhvqR
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) January 17, 2018
https://twitter.com/Moj_kobe/status/953769553313476608
A tale of hyperbolic telephone, in three acts
1. National Review: A nuke would spare most people, especially in suburbs but also in big cities
2. Newsweek: NR says a nuke would spare conservative suburbs
3. Twitter: NR says nukes are ok because they'd only hit Dems & minorities pic.twitter.com/uQtdUwQrh1— Julia Galef (@juliagalef) January 17, 2018
This is absolutely not what @DavidAFrench wrote. Nor does it sound remotely like anything he would write. What an incredibly irresponsible and disappointing tweet. https://t.co/ohdPBzwJ8o
— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) January 17, 2018
I can’t believe @DavidAFrench wrote in favor of construction of nuclear weapons that will only kill the cutest corgis. He is surely history’s greatest monster.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) January 18, 2018
As a Certified #SalonConservative™️ I recommend all well-meaning liberals bring “outrageous” articles by conservatives to me first and let me translate them before things get out of hand.
— Ben Howe (@BenHowe) January 18, 2018
While I enjoy the condemnation of Joy Reid, I would be remiss in not pointing out that the completely false "David French said nukes were okay" meme actually originated with this slimeball https://t.co/cfGYot6OMS
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) January 18, 2018
Shameful.
Editor’s note: This post has been updated with additional tweets.
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