Coming out of one of her Wednesday commercial breaks, MSNBC’s Joy Reid managed to spread three bits of misinformation on the state of education in Florida in less than one minute.
Reid kicked off the segment doing her best impersonation of Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, “So, we’ve been talking during the show about Republicans legislating their feelings. Well, in Florida, they have taken it to a new level with what can be described as the extreme coddling of the conservative mind.”
Lukianoff and Haidt’s book was about adult college students, not impressionable elementary-to-high school students, but Reid continued as if there was no difference, “Already, the not-so-free state of Florida under the governance of Ron DeSantis has been banning books that make conservatives feel uncomfortable.”
Launching into her bits of fake news, Reid first claimed, “It’s to a point that teachers could potentially go to jail for sharing contraband books, like about Rosa Parks or Roberto Clemente.”
That is absurd and false. The removal of the 40-page book, Roberto Clemente: Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates, was done in one county by people trying to make a political point, but on February 13, Duval County Public Schools released a statement that the book was “approved.” Nobody is going to jail for having books on Parks or Clemente.
Already down a strike, Reid swung and missed at her point, “In fact, one full-time substitute teacher was abruptly fired after posting a video showing the empty bookshelves in their classroom.”
Reid left out the part where this substitute teacher was fired, in part, for spreading misinformation about the state of school libraries.
Clemente may have been a hard man to strike out, but Reid is different. Next, she claimed that “You also add restrictions in schools about what can be taught about race and gender for fear of white children might feel bad when they find out that not all white people were heroes and that there were gay people long before RuPaul.”
Again, nobody is against teaching real history, but real history is not necessarily Joy Reid’s version of history. Three strikes, Reid’s out.
Not deterred, however, Reid also mocked concerns over children’s presence at drag shows, “And yes, there is the obsession over drag performances that somehow cause irreparable harm to conservatives and their kids, though they have yet to explain how generations of young minds survived in many Bugs Bunny cartoons where he dresses up as a girl bunny.”
Bugs Bunny would do that as a joke to trick Elmer Fudd, not to make a 2023-related political point about gender or sexuality.
This segment was sponsored by Roman.
Here is a transcript for the February 22 show:
MSNBC The ReidOut
2/22/2023
7:41 PM ET
JOY REID: So, we’ve been talking during the show about Republicans legislating their feelings. Well, in Florida, they have taken it to a new level with what can be described as the extreme coddling of the conservative mind. Already, the not-so-free state of Florida under the governance of Ron DeSantis has been banning books that make conservatives feel uncomfortable.
It’s to a point that teachers could potentially go to jail for sharing contraband books, like about Rosa Parks or Roberto Clemente. In fact, one full-time substitute teacher was abruptly fired after posting a video showing the empty bookshelves in their classroom. You also add restrictions in schools about what can be taught about race and gender for fear of white children might feel bad when they find out that not all white people were heroes and that there were gay people long before RuPaul.
And yes, there is the obsession over drag performances that somehow cause irreparable harm to conservatives and their kids, though they have yet to explain how generations of young minds survived in many Bugs Bunny cartoons where he dresses up as a girl bunny.
