Data Mining for Scandal or Retribution - Joy Reid Is a Victim of This
It happens. People who want something to pin on someone now have incredible tools to dig out everything that person has written on the Internet. It's all out there, and searchable. Even long-gone websites can be searched since pretty much everything written on the web has been archived carefully.
Worse, context is not often considered when someone wants to damage another person's reputation. Simply by quoting some words written long ago, but by leaving out the context, it can be claimed that that person is an awful human being with thoughts that every decent person should condemn.
In today's unforgiving political environment, finding and publicizing even a few out-of-context or even fake writings can overwhelm even a huge body of current writings. We're very quick to throw people under the bus these days for something they may or may not have said or written 10 or 15 years ago. We'll gleefully ignore mountains of good work toward progress to destroy people.
It's a shame. Many people have felt the weight of such negative data mining. No amount of explanation or presentation of surrounding context will repair the damage in many cases. No apologies for old words are enough. Old words can destroy a person, especially if they are presented publicly by those who devoutly wish to destroy a person and who are less than honorable.
All a person being attacked can do is to hope the situation improves with time. All that person can do is continue to do whatever it is they are doing that is good and hope people will recognize that out-of-context statements made in the past should not be the measure of anyone. Hoping for balance and reasonable consideration is the only defense, really.
Many people have had such things happen to them. The more outspoken they are, the more likely they have, at one time or another, said or written things they might regret or that could be used against them if the context is removed. All one can do is continue on a current path and hope for the best.
It has happened to me. It can happen to anyone. It could happen to you.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Who made you the authority on who can and cannot speak for Democrats? Who cares what Faux noise is reporting?
"prior to this no one in the real world had even heard of her"... that statement is laughable at best. Now let me get back to my fake/alternate world 
I guess we just live in an imaginary world, where Joy-Ann Reid is a known television host and has a huge following on social media 
