NEW YORK >> MSNBC’s Joy Reid insists that homophobic language in one of her old blog posts is the work of a computer hacker and her security expert said today they have a strong suspicion of who did it.

He wouldn’t name his suspect, however.

The bizarre tale involving the news network’s rising star is a technical who-dun-it that not everyone believes, given that Reid had admitted in December to similar anti-gay language in the same forum and had apologized for it. A gay rights organization has subsequently backed away from its plans to give an award to Reid, host of the “AM Joy” weekend shows on the cable news networks.

MSNBC says the case has been referred to law enforcement officials and the network is awaiting their determination.