It's common knowledge that MSNBC leans pretty far to the left, but the tweet the network's account sent out on Saturday afternoon to do with conservatives and affirmative action really solidified such a bias. It was also confusing, as it didn't contain any context with it. There was also no thread or accompanying article, or subsequent apologies or explanations.
Conservatives don’t mind affirmative action hires so long as the people hired fit their preferred demographic.
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) January 29, 2022
Again, there is no context, but it's likely the tweet is in response to reactions to do with President Joe Biden doubling down on his campaign promise that he will nominate a Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court, thus discriminating based on sex and race.
As Landon hired on Satuday, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) said that whomever the president nominates will benefit from affirmative action, while the Court is "adding someone who is the beneficiary of this sort of quota."
The tweet is also confusing, considering that many conservatives prefer hires based not on attributes such as race and gender, but on merit and skillset.
Our friends at Twitchy highlighted some responses to the tweet pointing out as much.
We do. Color, gender, those are things we don't think should be taken into consideration, especially when we're talking about SCOTUS. Merit is what matters, and this decision basically says black women need help to get onto the court.
— Karen Mann (@TheKarenMann) January 29, 2022
If the demographic is "most qualified for the job" and "most likely to be a good fit in the organization" then sure.
— No One Cares (@whocares1311) January 29, 2022
One such example sits on the Court now, Justice Clarence Thomas. The justice has spoken out quite strongly against affirmative action before. He graduated from Yale Law School, but on his own merits, not because of special treatment afforded to him by affirmative action, as people had assumed.
Winsome Sears, the current lieutenant governor of Virginia, who made history by being the first woman and first Black woman elected to the position in the commonwealth. In her victory speech during the early hours following Election Night, she referenced former President Barack Obama and herself as "living proof" of how great the country is.
"In case you haven’t noticed, I am Black and I have been Black all my life. But that’s not what this is about," she indicated during her speech. "It’s a historic night. Yes, it is. But I didn’t run to make history. I just wanted to leave it better than I found it," she also later acknowledged in her speech.
As the Twitchy post also pointed out, Stephen Hayes, who was formerly a contributor for Fox News and who has been with outlets such as The Dispatch, National Review and the Weekly Standard, recently joined MSNBC.
The so-called conservatives on the network tend to be former ones, with many of them having few to no positive things to say about the conservative movement.
Both Thomas and Sears have been horrifically derided by the left. Joy Reid in particlar had horrific things to say about both, as well as Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), another Black conservative.
And where is Reid, a racist race-baiter employed? By MSNBC, of course.