HEH: We must rally around Joy Reid.

Why keep this investigation going? Because of the stakes. Somewhere out there is a hacker — or perhaps an entire collective — specializing in retroactive-digital-homophobia-archival-insertion intrusions. This time they victimized Joy Reid. But tomorrow they could go after anyone in the industry. They’ll memorize old blogging archives; they’ll study fonts and writing styles; they’ll turn back the web’s clock a decade, then push it forward, then drop some inflammatory text on some platform. They’ll make everyone think that their targets are way more homophobic than they ever were, regardless of their ability to “evolve” on gay rights.

(As with any claims in the public arena, Reid’s proclamations have drawn some haters. “Joy Reid’s Defenders Praise Her Apology — But Ignore Her Apparent Cover-Up,” notes a headline over at HuffPost. Some people, apparently, have no appreciation for what Reid “genuinely” believes.)

When we asked MSNBC for an official statement, we got no such thing. And when we asked Nichols whether he’s still working on Reid’s hacking, we received no response. These people have no time for silly press inquiries. They have a perpetrator to track down.

An ultra-sophisticated time-travelling hacker from the future? Hasn’t NBC already aired this story?