Steve Scully Suspended By C-SPAN — While Joy Reid Carries On at MSNBC

Mike Coppola/Getty Images; Mandel Ngan/Getty Images

C-SPAN political editor and host of its Washington Journal Steve Scully has been placed on indefinite leave, the network announced Thursday, for admitting he lied when he claimed a hacker breached his Twitter account. The result was very different from the one experienced by MSNBC host Joy Reid, who has claimed for years that her blog was “hacked” and insists the perpetrators are still at large.

The contrast provoked critics this week to once again ridicule MSNBC’s decision to stand by one of its top personalities, who first claimed her blog was “hacked” after a 2018 Mediaite report noted that it contained derogatory references about gay men. The content in question was apparently authored in 2007.

She said in a statement at the time:

I learned that an unknown, external party accessed and manipulated material from my now-defunct blog, The Reid Report, to include offensive and hateful references that are fabricated and run counter to my personal beliefs and ideology.

I began working with a cybersecurity expert who first identified the unauthorized activity, and we notified federal law enforcement officials of the breach. The manipulated material seems to be part of an effort to taint my character with false information by distorting a blog that ended a decade ago.

Now that the site has been compromised I can state unequivocally that it does not represent the original entries. I hope that whoever corrupted the site recognizes the pain they have caused, not just to me, but to my family and communities that I care deeply about: LGBTQ, immigrants, people of color and other marginalized groups.

Like Reid, Scully’s initial claim involved law enforcement. “Steve Scully notified us that his Twitter account was hacked,” the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) wrote in a statement after Scully’s report. “CPD reported the apparent hack to the FBI and Twitter, and we understand that the federal authorities and Twitter are looking into the issue.”

An attorney for Reid similarly said in 2018 that the FBI was investigating, but that claim was never corroborated. NBC refused to confirm that a report was submitted to law enforcement. Subsequent statements from the network failed to mention the bureau.

That crucial difference between Reid and Scully could represent a crucial difference in the eyes of their employers. Submitting a false statement to the FBI constitutes a federal crime, making it a perilous game for all parties involved.

However, that has not assuaged critics, who have written some brutal commentary about Reid’s standing at her network.

“Media outlets with integrity view it as an embarrassment worthy of sanction when their journalist gets caught outright lying about having been hacked,” Intercept Editor in Chief Glenn Greenwald wrote Thursday on Twitter. “Then there’s MSNBC, which *promoted* Joy Reid to a prime-time show after she got caught fabricating an elaborate hacking tale.”

RealClearInvestigations writer Mark Hemingway — formerly of Weekly Standard fame — added, “Honestly, I respect that Steve Scully came clean about lying. It was the right thing to do. Your move, Joy Reid.

At least Steve Scully admitted his (stupid) lie. Not only did Joy Reid fabricate an elaborate tale about a time-traveling hacker, she claimed an FBI investigation had been launched on the basis of her fabrications. And she was still promoted to a primetime slot on MSNBC!

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) October 15, 2020

Steve Scully employs the Joy Reid Defense for his very particular hackers. They took over his account only for one Tweet and he left it up for hours and hours.

No one believes this.

— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) October 9, 2020

Again in contrast to Scully, the notoriety Reid received as a result of her scandal has only seemed to fuel her star at MSNBC. Reid has been promoted twice since joining the network in 2014 — notwithstanding the cancellation of her first show, The Reid Report. The network granted her a role as a correspondent after that initial flub, and in 2016, made her the anchor of her own weekend morning show. In 2020, she moved up to anchor the 7 p.m. prime time slot vacated by Chris Matthews.

MSNBC did not respond to a request for comment from Mediaite.

The lesson for young aspirants in the television news business isn’t entirely clear, but might be phrased thusly: Always stick by your story, and never involve law enforcement.