Joy Reid Slams Mainstream Media for Echoing ‘Lies’

Veteran journalist Joy Reid tears into the press, accusing them of enabling a MAGA-backed military crackdown on California

Joy Reid is calling out what she says is the real fake news—and this time, it’s coming from inside the mainstream media.

The former MSNBC anchor turned independent firebrand lit into news outlets Wednesday for what she described as complicity in spreading Donald Trump’s distorted version of events in Los Angeles. Writing in her “A Daily Reid” Substack and podcast, Reid claimed corporate media is “selling a lie” that could justify turning California into a militarized zone.

“The regime is lying about Los Angeles—and the media is helping,” Reid wrote. “You want to know what’s really happening? Go there. We did.”

Reid and her former cable news crew landed in L.A. last Thursday to cover the growing protests against President Trump’s sweeping ICE raids across California. Her report paints a jarring contrast to the dystopian chaos broadcast on cable news. According to Reid, what they saw was not “lawless anarchy,” but an aggressive federal dragnet targeting Latino neighborhoods with what she calls “military-style abductions.”

“ICE is terrorizing brown people across the city. This is not about criminal aliens—it’s about feeding Trump’s daily quota of 3,000 kidnapped immigrants to impress his MAGA base.”

Trump Sends in Troops Over Newsom’s Objections

By Sunday, Trump had dispatched nearly 5,000 military personnel—including Marines—to Los Angeles under the guise of restoring order. Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass both publicly opposed the move, saying local officials had the protests under control. Instead, critics say the military presence only escalated tensions, sparking clashes, fires, and mass arrests.

“This is not an intervention—it’s an occupation,” Reid said. “Trump, Noem, Hegseth, and Bondi are staging a hostile takeover of California to manufacture a national emergency.”

Her warning wasn’t just rhetorical. Reid claims the administration is preparing to invoke the Insurrection Act, a rarely-used piece of legislation that would allow Trump to deploy the military domestically without state approval. According to Reid, it’s already being floated by surrogates on television.

“CNN and others are giving platforms to people openly discussing martial law like it’s just another Tuesday,” she wrote. “Pam Bondi’s practically auditioning to be the next Leni Riefenstahl.”

The Media’s Role in the “Crisis”

Much of Reid’s fury was reserved for the press itself, which she claims is broadcasting Trump’s propaganda without context. Videos of isolated fires or confrontations, she says, are being looped endlessly, while the real story—the systemic targeting of immigrant families—gets buried.

“The media’s obsession with chaos visuals makes it look like all of L.A. is burning,” Reid said. “It’s not. Go five blocks in any direction and you’ll see families shopping, eating, working.”

Even Mayor Karen Bass echoed that point in a recent interview with NBC4, saying, “The unrest is confined to a few blocks downtown. The visuals make it look like the whole city is in flames. That’s just false.”

“The Real Threat to Business Isn’t Protesters—It’s the Trump Regime”

Reid also took aim at business leaders and conservative pundits who have defended the military intervention as necessary to protect jobs and storefronts.

“If these business owners really cared about their dishwashers and cashiers, they’d be protesting Trump’s ICE raids—not welcoming tanks into their cities,” she wrote. “The regime is kidnapping workers. That’s the threat to the economy.”

In closing, Reid insists Los Angeles is not a war zone—it’s a “normal American city under siege by its own government.” And unless the media changes course, she says, they risk becoming part of a much darker agenda.

“The country should be watching California closely,” Reid warned. “Because if they can occupy Los Angeles today, they can occupy Chicago, Atlanta, or New York tomorrow. Don’t say you weren’t warned.”