MSNBC‘s Joy Reid is in the news today for reportedly having promoted a 9/11 conspiracy theory documentary on her now defunct blog. Her coverage last week of Israeli settlements was equally unhinged, as she stated that a map showing Israel, including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, the West Bank (with Hebron), the Gaza Strip, Jordan and Egypt “shows how much of the West Bank in what would be the state of Palestine is already taken up by the settlements, by Israeli settlements.” About the eight locations identified on the map, including Israel and her neighbors, the host of AM Joy stated (“Nikki Haley blames Hamas for Gaza violence,” May 20) stated: “I want to show this map because people don’t understand when you say settlements it’s sort of an amorphous thing. But it’s the places that are in the West Bank. Well, that not the one that shows all of the Israeli settlements in it. This would be seven. Seven from my producers. That just shows how much of the West Bank in what would be the state of Palestine is already taken up by the settlements, by Israeli settlements.”
Is Reid saying that Jordan and Egypt are Israeli settlements, those “amorphous things”? Or that Gaza City and Tel Aviv are Israeli settlements? How about Jerusalem? Perhaps the entire country of Israel? Are vast parts of Egypt and Jordan “taken up” by Israeli settlements? Reid’s producers pulled the map from an Atlantic article by Wajahat Ali (“A Muslim Among Israeli Settlers“), who appears as one of the panelists on the broadcast. The Atlantic does not misidentify the map as representing Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
CAMERA has contacted MSNBC to request correction. This would not be the first time that MSNBC was compelled to broadcast an apology for the gross misuse of maps of the region.
Stay tuned for an update.
June 17 Update
MSNBC has responded to CAMERA:
Please notice that on the air Joy pointedly says “this is not the one (map) that shows all the settlements. “ She then says this would be seven for my producers. She is not referring to seven settlements—she is alerting the producers in the control room that she wants to use the seventh element from the numbered list of graphics and video that she refers to while discussing a particular topic. Once she realized that the map she was seeking was not the one that was shown she immediately mentioned it on the air. Her mention of the number seven was not a reference to the number of settlements but an on air signal to her producers in the control room to put up a different graphic.
The correct graphic never did appear in the broadcast, and MSNBC declined to clarify in a future broadcast.