Glad I waited to weigh in on the Ronna McDaniel chaos. I was hopeful, though not certain, somebody at 30 Rock would wake up. Somebody would undo the stunningly stupid decision to hand a national audience to an insurrectionist. Somebody would see the massive fail of trading the credibility of a superior news organization for “the other side.”
WTF!
Thankfully, Chuck Todd, Joe Scarborough, Mika Brezinski, Rachel Maddow, and Joy Reid had the courage to speak up. Those heavyweight NBC News and MSNBC anchors kicked up some serious dust. In an unprecedented and undoubtedly historic move, each took to the airwaves, and condemned McDaniel’s hiring. They called out their bosses on TV. This stuff almost never happens. (I’m not counting David Letterman’s epic rants at CBS).
But it did, triggering questions from CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and The Wall Street Journal. The suits (and shareholders) were squirming.
Finally, late Tuesday afternoon, it became clear to NBC brass what the world saw last week. Clumsily, they had tripped over Journalism’s Red Line. NBCUniversal News Group chair Cesar Conde, who signed off on the hiring, reversed the decision. Ronna McDaniel’s actions as chair of Trump’s Republican National Committee (RNC) disqualified her as a paid commentator at NBC News.
We owe Todd, Maddow, and their colleagues a sizable debt. They risked their careers to speak TRUTH to power. It’s not hyped to say they stood strong for American democracy.
“…the fact that Ms. McDaniel is on the payroll at NBC News — to me that is inexplicable. You wouldn’t hire a wise guy, a made man like a mobster, to work in a DA’s office. You wouldn’t hire a pickpocket to work as a TSA screener. And so, I find the decision to put her on the payroll inexplicable.” - Rachel Maddow
“What in the wide, wide world o’ sports is a goin’ on here?”
(HT to Mel Brooks, Slim Pickens and Blazing Saddles)
Most of the folks who subscribe to this column work in news media. A few of you don’t, so let me explain why this is so rare and significant. Exactly how did NBC News get in so much trouble?
Last Friday, the network announced it hired ousted RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel as a “contributor.” She signed a three-year, million dollar contract to share her insider insight exclusively for the network. The NBC suits, specifically senior vice president of politics Carrie Budoff Brown and NBC News president Rebecca Blumenstein, thought McDaniel would balance the left-leaning commentators and traditional (Reagan) Republican operatives NBC typically uses in election cycles.
One problem, those mainstream Republican voices – think folks like Nicki Haley and Chris Christy – are far outside the circles of both the MAGA mob and the current Republican nominee for president. They don’t speak their language, won’t send them a Christmas card, actually can’t stand to be in the same room with them. What’s a network to do? Who could carry MAGA’s water on the nightly news programs? How would we hear the other side?
Enter Ronna McDaniel
She ran Trump’s RNC from 2017 until March 8 of this year when the Mad King fired her. Mitt Romney is her uncle. She’s a polished communicator experienced in playing on big stages. So, theory is, if the Mad King wins, Ronna gives NBC an inside track on the who, what, where, when, and why. More importantly, she may be welcome in Trump’s Oval Office.
In the network news world, this theory makes perfect sense. Buying access by hiring former public officials is an accepted practice. George Stephanopoulos, once President Bill Clinton’s communication chief, is in the anchor chair at ABC News. Former RNC boss Michael Steele spent years on NBC. Former Trump Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney worked for CBS and is now with NewsNation. Both Mike Pence’s former Chief of Staff Marc Short and Joe Biden’s former Press Secretary Jenn Psaki are with NBC News. CNN has a ton of paid commentators, overt supporters and insiders for Democrats and Republicans. So does FOX News.
In the most important election since 1860, NBC needed someone to tell the “Trump side of the story?” They couldn’t settle for actual MAGA mouthpieces, a dangerous collection of QAnon crazies, election deniers, White nationalists, Christian nationalists, the architects of January 6th, and on and on.
So, why not MAGA-Lite Ronna McDaniel?
Well, kids, January 6th and The Big Lie changed everything. The bloody and treasonous storming of the Capitol, the empaneling of fake electors, the “I just want to find 11,780 votes…” the plan to disqualify Biden voters in Michigan, Arizona and Georgia… all came with Ronna McDaniel in charge at Trump’s RNC.
Ronna was not only in the room. She did nothing to stop the madness, nothing to protect the voters, to protect the constitution, to save American democracy. Worse, she did the opposite, joining and even leading portions of an attempted coup. Her excuse, as told to Kristin Welker on Sunday’s Meet The Press: “When you’re the RNC Chair, you kind of take one for the whole team.”
Huh? Let’s go steal some votes in Georgia. Well, OK, it’s wrong but I guess I’ll kind of have to take one for the whole team.
I have no clue why hasn’t she been indicted?
So when NBC made the decision to give her NBC News’s credibility, you got to ask yourself, ‘What does she bring NBC News?’” Chuck Todd
The outrage over Ronna McDaniel’s potential role at NBC goes deeper than January 6th. Since 2015, the MAGA mob has put mainstream media in the crosshairs. They cheer Trump’s attacks on reporters the way lions feasted on Christians in the Coliseum.
Ronna McDaniel helped serve the buffet, as Chuck Todd broadcast on Sunday’s Meet The Press, “There’s a reason why there are a lot of journalists at NBC News uncomfortable with this because many of our professional dealings with the RNC over the last six years have been met with gaslighting, have been met with character assassination.”
McDaniel as a shield for NBC News?
As nutty as it sounds, there may have been another motive for getting McDaniel on board. Network brass is worried about a repeat Trump presidency. Remember the parade of pit bull press secretaries chewing up reporters in the daily news briefings? Have we all blocked the chaotic COVID news conferences? Have you forgotten “enemy of the people”?
Network leaders haven’t. They’re not sure the news divisions can weather another four years being demonized. Worse, for executives whose bonuses are measured by profits, the prospects of navigating a Washington regulatory structure manned by MAGA maniacs is freak out time.
Remember, nightly news programs aren’t the only businesses of network television. Actually they’re not much more than a hood ornament for mega entertainment corporations. NBC Universal, Disney (ABC/ESPN), Paramount (CBS), WarnerMedia (CNN) are the parent companies. They operate highly profitable TV properties dependent on licenses from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). They’re engaged in mergers and acquisitions often needing government approval.
These network CEOs watched Trump’s punishment of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, owner of The Washington Post, detailed in former Editor Martin Baron’s must read “Collision of Power, Trump, Bezos, and The Washington Post.” They watched Ron DeSantis take down Disney in Florida, They fear an adversarial relationship with Trump. Semafor’s Max Tani reported Sunday:
“Behind the move is the reality that is sinking in for U.S. corporate media, and corporate America in general: They may soon be dealing again with a Trump administration, willing to use the tools of government to reward allies and punish enemies. For the great publicly traded conglomerates like NBCUniversal Media’s parent, Comcast, that may leave little choice but to extend an olive branch to the former president.
Companies like Comcast, Disney, and WarnerMedia, which dominate U.S. television, got an object lesson in presidential revenge during the last Trump administration. Trump reportedly demanded that the Justice Department sue to block the merger of AT&T and Time Warner. (The lawsuit failed, though the merger also quickly unraveled.)
Executives are concerned at the possibility that Trump could take revenge on the company, a high-profile NBC employee told Semafor.
Late last year, the former president explicitly raised the prospect of taking regulatory or investigative action against NBC and Comcast.”
So, there is reason to be worried
A Trump presidency could actually kill traditional, fact-based news. Trump is a wanna-be dictator. His Supreme Court is ready to dismantle press freedoms. His followers prefer MAGA’s ecosystem of sycophant podcasters, broadcast networks (FOX, NewsMax, Salem), bloggers, Tik-Tok-ers, and YouTubers which amplify his rants and “alternate facts.”
Mainstream broadcast media isn’t certain it can survive another four years of the Mad King. So, they are – stupidly, I think – attempting to appease him by picking a few of his players, people like Ronna McDaniel, for their team. “Hey Donald, we got Ronna with us. We’re o.k., right?
Instead, of cowering and appeasing, the networks need to find some balls. Goddammit, NBC, quit appeasing and do your job.
You should be applying aggressive, rigorous, fact-based, and FEARLESS coverage of what may be coming. Follow the path of Edward R. Murrow’s takedown of Senator Joseph McCarthy during the “Red Scare” of the 1950’s.
Can you imagine Murrow or Walter Cronkite, John Chancellor, David Brinkley, Chet Huntley, Peter Jennings, Dorothy Kilgallen, Harry Reasoner, Daniel Schoor, Nancy Dickerson, Helen Thomas, and Leslie Stahl backing down from the Trump mob? Wouldn’t happen.
Besides, making nice with the likes of Ronna McDaniel is just plain wrong, a complete abdication of morality and responsibility. The MAGA mob cannot be given the open mic of a network contributor, cannot wear the credibility of a network news division. Ronna and the election deniers, the QAnon crazies, the Christian Nationalist are threats to American democracy. To normalize their propaganda gives it the appearance of FACT, when it is anything but.
MAGA disciples aren’t bringing you “the other side of the story.” They are the story. Everything they say and do needs to be fact-checked, analyzed, and reported, all within the context of Trump’s stated intention to undermine our institutions and freedoms. Did NBC expect its anchors to offer truthful contradictions to McDaniel’s every utterance? Preposterous, and simply unworkable.
It should go without saying, but I’ll offer it anyway. The same standard we apply to MAGA should be set for the folks on the Left who are known to be prone to wild ass accusations, conspiracy theories and outright lies. There’s been a lot of unhinged dialogue coming from that side lately, especially around the horrific tragedy in Gaza.
So, you’re cancelling conservative voices?
Nope. That’s BS and you know it.
MAGA voices aren’t conservative. They spew authoritarian propaganda. Not welcome.
What is welcome are authentic Right-leaning writers and journalists. The voices of the Right deserve the opportunity to deliver fact-based coverage. Give them access. Peggy Noonan, David French, David Brooks, David Frum, Anne Applebaum, Brett Stephens, Russ Douthat, Jennifer Rubin, Kathleen Parker… all y’all come on down!
Voices from the true conservative Right are especially vital now, because MAGA’s elected officials generally refuse to engage with mainstream media. They perceive it as unfriendly and unfair. Easier to talk with FOX, or here in Phoenix, with talk radio like KTAR or KFYI. Their cowardice and lack of accountability saddles we in the media with seeking out rational, fact-based, Right-leaning leaders.
But, access doesn’t mean they get an open mic. An election denier should be called out with extreme prejudice. The Marjorie Taylor Greens of the world – in Arizona that’s Representatives Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar, and Eli Crane along with most of the statehouse Republicans – can’t be trusted to deliver anything resembling facts.
It’s a really tough problem. Democrats more than willing to tell their story. MAGA is MIA unless you’re perceived as friendly media. It’s easy to understand how NBC screwed up. Certainly, it’s embarrassing for the network to rescind its offer to McDaniel. Likely, they’ll pay her the million bucks promised in the contract and everyone will move on. Lesson more than learned.
Messy win for journalism & democracy
Still, NBC’s reversal is a rare win for journalism and democracy. As messy as the past five days have been, and as nasty as the criticism will be going forward, this is a notable and positive outcome. Hats off to NBC’s journalists and to the mainstream media watchers for keeping the spotlight on 30 Rock. Journalism needed this, ‘cause it’s pretty bleak out there.
Profit chasing corporations are cutting journalism jobs by the thousands. Most who remain in newsrooms are poorly paid, work ridiculously long hours, and face daily trolling on social media. Too often they deal with verbal and physical attacks on the streets where they work.
You do it because you’re invested in bettering the community you serve. You do it to protect American democracy. You do this work because you love it. It makes a difference.
Once in a while, you’re challenged to call out the Ronna McDaniels of the world, and even to hold your bosses to account.
Thank you for your courage. Be safe. Democracy is counting on you.