Achi news desk-
iIt should have been a simple appointment in the often lucrative world of political punditry: a former high-ranking party official moving from politics itself to American television screens with a mission to wisecrack, opine and spin.
US cable news is littered with such figures: former congressmen, former presidential candidates, reformed spin doctors, one-time campaign leaders. All of them are on fat contracts for sitting behind desks and debating the political topics of the day.
So it was a bit of a surprise when NBC’s hiring of former Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel prompted a staff revolt, legal battles, endless inches of bad press and a stunning media feud that seemed poised to burn down a major cable news network. liberal America, MSNBC. . It also ended when McDaniel was fired last week shortly after her appointment was announced.
But in an American political landscape that is still being significantly reshaped by Donald Trump and his conspiracy-laden rhetoric – especially regarding the big lie of the stolen 2020 election – perhaps smarter network bosses should have expect the turmoil.
McDaniel presented a conundrum. On the one hand, she had served as Trump’s preferred RNC chair from early 2017, through the turmoil of the January 6 Capitol riot, winning re-election to the post in unanimous elections in 2019 and 2021. Her perspective could be a valuable resource.
But along the way, she participated in a 2020 phone call pressuring Michigan county officials not to certify the vote from the Detroit area. “Don’t sign it … we’ll get you attorneys,” he said. She has been far from dismissive of Trump’s promotion of the idea of widespread electoral fraud in the United States. To many, McDaniel was not just a career politician; she had tried to help a bid to overturn an election.
For any network, but especially NBC and its liberal MSNBC sibling, McDaniel’s role as a threat to American democracy could not be ignored. On her first appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press last Sunday, McDaniel said the Capitol riot “doesn’t represent our country. It certainly does not represent my party.”
But she was immediately grilled about why she hadn’t said that sooner. “When you’re the chairman of the RNC, you’re … you’re taking one for the whole team right now. I get to be a little more myself, okay?” she suggested.
Probably not. Her words were nowhere near enough to quell a rebellion within the broadcaster. MSNBC anchors Rachel Maddow and Joe Scarborough condemned the move, along with Jen Psaki (herself fresh from serving as White House press secretary), Mika Brzezinski and NBC’s Chuck Todd.
Maddow said the choice to hire McDaniel was “inexplicable” and accused her employer of giving air time to someone who “wants to undermine elections and go after democracy”. Todd said that “a lot of our professional engagement with the RNC over the last six years has been met with gaslighting, met with character assassination.”
The rage continued for several days, and soon McDaniel went away. “No organization, especially a newsroom, can succeed unless it is cohesive and aligned,” Cesar Conde, chairman of the NBCUniversal News Group, wrote to staff. “Over the past few days, it has become clear that this appointment undermines that aim.”
Previously it had typically been the head of talent at a broadcaster who made the hire, and the newsroom employees went along with him, rightly or wrongly. But these are no longer normal times in America: Trump is almost certain to be the 2024 Republican nominee and often leads Joe Biden in the polls, despite continuing to voice his 2020 election fraud lies.
“There are ongoing debates in the networks about how to give voice to the conservative side of the equation without giving voice to fringe elements,” said Rick Ellis, author of Too Much TV’s Substack newsletter. “If NBC News had said, yes, we’re going to have her on our shows to hear her point of view, there wouldn’t have been so much squatting. The tipping point was that she was going to be a paid analyst.”
MSNBC already employs one former RNC chairman. Michael Steele works as an on-air analyst and weekend show host. However, he did not try to overturn an election result.
McDaniel has yet to comment, but Politico said she is considering legal options and expects to be paid in full for her two-year, $600,000 contract. A “person close to McDaniel” was quoted as criticizing NBC for allowing their talent to “drag Ronna through the mud and make it seem like they were innocent bystanders”.
The incident is part of a wider debate about partisanship in the US media. McDaniel’s firing follows well-publicized efforts by CNN owner Warner Bros. Discovery to broaden its political perspective, an effort that led to the firing of CNN chief executive Chris Licht.
In a statement, the RNC suggested it may pull NBC’s credentials from its convention in Milwaukee this summer. “We are looking carefully at what this means for NBC’s participation in the convention,” said Danielle Alvarez, spokeswoman for the RNC and the Trump campaign.
But the McDaniel and NBC situation also speaks to a larger issue – a plushly carpeted corridor between political and media positions that undermines the integrity of both. In many ways, the only people who satisfied this system were the heads and experts. At a time of extraordinary American election McDaniel and NBC discovered that was no longer enough.
“There is too much of this long way between working in the White House or in Congress and ending up on cable news. I understand it’s helpful because they know how the government works, but the problem is they’re seen from coastal or Beltway perspectives and they’re pushing out other voices that would be helpful get them in the mix,” said Ellis.
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