Did one of MSNBC’s most prominent hosts, Joy Reid, intentionally mislead the public when she claimed to have evidence that anonymous hackers were behind offensive posts on her old blog? That’s the question MSNBC has refused to answer.

Reid has since admitted culpability for the posts, which included accusing various political figures of secretly being gay, promoting a 9/11 conspiracy documentary and suggesting the forceable relocation of Jews from Israel. (In a statement on Friday, Reid said she now believes in Israel’s right to exist and that Al Qaeda was behind 9/11.)

Neither Reid nor MSNBC addressed on Friday the fact that Reid once claimed to have definitive evidence that she had been hacked. After Reid’s claims fell apart under scrutiny, she admitted on April 25 that she didn’t actually have any evidence of hacking. (RELATED: Joy Reid’s Hacking Story Filled With Holes)

MSNBC did not return an inquiry from TheDCNF over the weekend asking whether the network believed Reid intentionally misled the public when she claimed to have evidence of hacking (which she didn’t have).

The network also didn’t answer a question on what effect Reid’s apparent misleading of the public might have on the host’s credibility.

Multiple panelists on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” on Sunday chastised Reid and MSNBC over their handling of the hacking controversy.

WATCH:



“This does go to her credibility because if she had just come out and apologized, period, people like redemption stories, people want to give people a second chance, people want to believe people when they are truly sorry, maybe liberals give more leeway for evolving, maybe because we believe in evolution, but I think it also has to do with, this didn’t happen yesterday,” CNN commentator Maria Cardona said of Reid’s hacking claims.

“What was this, 2005? That was a long time ago, so she can definitely say ‘I was not the same person I was back then. I apologize,’ and that would be it but now the story is this. And frankly it reminds me of the Anthony Weiner issue, remember, when Wolf [Blitzer] presented him with the pictures, remember, on air? And he kept claiming that he was hacked,” Cardona said.

“That’s not a good memory for people to have when Joy Reid talks about her hacking. And now the fact that they’re not even addressing it even shines more of a light on it.”

Another CNN commentator, Daily Beast columnist Matt Lewis, noted that MSNBC is “circling the wagons” around Reid. “They’re doing what a political campaign would do, not what a media outlet would do,” said Lewis, a former Daily Caller columnist.

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