Joy Reid, the managing editor of The Grio and a frequent MSNBC contributor, filled in for host Martin Bashir on Monday. During one of the segments, Reid and guests Ryan Grim of the Huffington Post and Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post discussed the recent detention of Glenn Greenwald's partner, David Miranda, by British authorities at Heathrow Airport. I was surprised when Reid seemed to defend the detention due to Miranda's connection to Greenwald.
Here's the segment. Reid first questioned Greenwald being referred to as a "traditional" journalist (whatever that means). Ryan Grim pretty much defended Greenwald and, in the process, called out David Gregory for suggesting that Greenwald should be in prison. At this point, Reid turned to Jonathan Capehart and said:
Are you at all troubled by the situation here on either side? I mean on the one hand, you had David Miranda who was detained, but he wasn't just on vacation in Britain...he was actually meeting with Laura Poitras, who was one of the other journalists, the Guardian writer, who participated in exposing the Snowden secrets. So he was there acting in sort of a journalistic capacity himself.
Can someone please explain to me why it matters that Miranda "wasn't just on vacation" or that "he was there acting in sort of a journalistic capacity." Does Reid think that somehow justifies what the British authorities did and that we really shouldn't be "troubled" by it? It is disturbing, to say the least, to see someone on MSNBC so casually assert that if you are "acting in sort of a journalistic capacity" on stories that expose government abuses of power and embarrass government officials, then detaining those journalists, or their partners, under the alleged authority of "anti-terrorism" laws is something that should just be expected.
I know that Reid and Greenwald have had issues with each other in the past. It is obvious that neither is much of a fan of the other. Unfortunately, it seems that Reid cannot isolate her personal animus toward Greenwald and, as a result, she seems to endorse the idea of detaining journalists who threaten those in power.