Every once in a while, MSNBC host Joy Reid grants a platform to a conservative, risking that her audience will faint at the presence of an opposing viewpoint. On Friday night's edition of The Reidout (aka Freakout), Reid gave time to Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice.
Reid began with a weird exercise in getting Justice to agree that liberal parents have rights to bring up their children as they see fit. (Agreed, duh.)
Then she pulled out a recent Washington Post review of "book challenges," which found "The majority of the 1,000-plus book challenges analyzed by The Post were filed by just 11 people." The implication is that somehow this is unrepresentative of public opinion. But it is democratic, in that it challenges decisions made by unelected public-school bureaucrats.
Notice that unelected school librarians are never unrepresentative in liberal eyes -- because the presumption is the schools are in liberal hands. They are also presumed to be the experts, and the parents challenging them are presumed to be morons.
Reid asked: "Why should 13 people get to decide what books tens of thousands of children get to read?" Justice began to answer, and Reid said they were "banning books." Justice provided a fact check of the liberal media spin (notice it's "BAN BOOKS" on the screen underneath):
“No one’s banning books.
— Tiffany Justice (@4TiffanyJustice) January 20, 2024
“Write the book, print the book, publish the book, put the book in the public library, sell the book.
“We’re talking about a public school library. Children don’t have unfettered access to the internet at school. … Why is no one out there protesting… pic.twitter.com/TvwIaVsxf1
Justice made the great point that schools crack down on graphic sexual content inside schools on the internet, so why not the library? Reid had no answer. Reid then tried to grill Justice about the details in the sexually graphic book All Boys Are Blue, about what was the name of the main character. She weirdly suggested keeping the book out of a school library forced people to buy the book, so it's "a tax." As if public libraries don't have it? As if liberals aren't distributing free copies at the LGBT centers?
But mostly, Reid just wants to stick to the theme that conservatives can't be Experts. Only liberals are that smart.
Moms for Liberty Co-Founder Tiffany Justice @4TiffanyJustice demolishing Joy Reid as she's failing to ambush Justice 🤣
— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) January 20, 2024
Reid: "What is the expertise that you have to decide that an award winning book like 'All Boys Aren't Blue' isn't appropriate to read?"
Justice: "What a tragic… pic.twitter.com/ccsewiNHuY
Justice asked "In what context is a strap-on dildo acceptable for public school?" Again, Reid has no answer. Instead, the D-word sends her off on an interruption frenzy. Reid contended that conservatives are hypocrites for reading their objectionable passages at school-board meetings. Imagine reading a passage from a book like All Boys Are Blue on Reid's show. Reid wants to complain conservatives take these books "out of context," but she shouts down any attempt to establish a context.
What's funny about this is that Reid wants the kids to have a library book that talks about anal rape and strap-on dildos, but she's blanking it out on Twitter!
"In what context is a XXXX-XX XXXXX acceptable for public school?"
— The ReidOut (@thereidout) January 20, 2024
Moms for Liberty co-founder @4TiffanyJustice joins Joy Reid on Moms for Liberty seeking influence over public school library content resulting in what many see as de facto book bans. MORE: https://t.co/KmNOB5voUw pic.twitter.com/BOzK3HNuIJ
You have to giggle at the line about "what many see as book bans." That's regular NBC News spin for "what liberals say."