After an unprecedented barrage of on-air opposition from network stars, NBC News has cut ties with Ronna McDaniel, the former Republican National Committee chair, whom they hired last week as a contributor.
“No organization, particularly a newsroom, can succeed unless it is cohesive and aligned. Over the last few days, it has become clear that this appointment undermines that goal,” NBCU News Group Chairman Cesar Conde said in a memo to the entire news group on Tuesday evening. The memo came hours after Puck’s Dylan Byers reported that NBC planned to drop McDaniel, executives were deliberating over details, and McDaniel was seeking legal representation. “I want to personally apologize to our team members who felt we let them down. While this was a collective recommendation by some members of our leadership team, I approved it and take full responsibility for it,” said Conde, who had publicly remained silent amid the torrent of public criticism from his own employees.
He added that the initial decision to hire McDaniel was made out of “our deep commitment to presenting our audiences with a widely diverse set of viewpoints and experiences, particularly during these consequential times,” and continued commitment to that principle. “We will redouble our efforts to seek voices that represent different parts of the political spectrum,” said Conde.
Though there has long been a revolving door between the worlds of politics and TV punditry, leading voices on NBC and MSNBC were particularly rankled by McDaniel’s past amplification of Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election being “rigged”— even playing a role in his efforts to pressure Michigan election officials not to certify the results.
“NBC News is, either wittingly or unwittingly, teaching election deniers that what they can do stretches well beyond appearing on our air and interviews to peddle lies about the sanctity and integrity of our elections,” MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace said Monday on her afternoon show. “There is an easy way to avoid the controversy NBC News has stumbled into: Don’t hire anyone close to the crimes. That’s what happened to the [Richard] Nixon gang,” Lawrence O’Donnell said on his evening program. “Our democracy is in danger because of the lies that people like Ronna McDaniel have pushed on this country,” said Jen Psaki.
That McDaniel was put on the payroll at NBC News is “inexplicable,” Rachel Maddow said Monday night, urging her bosses to “reverse their decision” in an on-air plea. “Take a minute. Acknowledge that maybe it wasn’t the right call,” she said. “It is a sign of strength, not weakness, to acknowledge when you are wrong.”
It was NBC’s Chuck Todd who unleashed the on-air floodgates on Sunday, after Meet the Press host Kristen Welker interviewed McDaniel for a previously scheduled interview. “I think our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation,” Todd, who previously hosted the Sunday show for nearly a decade, told Welker in a panel after McDaniel made her debut. “Because I don’t know what to believe. She is now a paid contributor by NBC News, so I have no idea whether any answer she gave to you was because she didn’t want to mess up her contract,” said Todd.
In the interview with Welker, McDaniel continued to make unfounded claims about “issues” with the 2020 election, though she acknowledged that Joe Biden “won” and is the “legitimate president.” Then, on Monday morning, Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski piled on. “We weren’t asked our opinion of the hiring,” Scarborough said, “but if we were, we would have strongly objected to it.” Brzezinski noted that “NBC News should seek out conservative Republican voices to provide balance in their election coverage, but it should be conservative Republicans—not a person who used her position of power to be an anti-democracy election denier, and we hope NBC will reconsider its decision.” It “goes without saying,” she added, that McDaniel would not be a guest on Morning Joe.
