Right reason, but the wrong person
When Ronna McDaniel, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, was hired by NBC, network executive Carrie Budoff Brown explained: “It couldn’t be a more important moment to have a voice like Ronna’s on the team. ... She will support our leading coverage by providing an insider’s perspective on national politics and on the future of the Republican Party.”
Brown was absolutely correct in saying that conservative Republican voices should be fully represented on mainstream media outlets if those outlets want to maintain their credibility and their audiences. McDaniel was hired for the right reasons. But she was the wrong person to fill that role. That’s why, after their own staff rose in revolt, NBC brass cut their losses and cut her loose.
Donald Trump has altered some basic rules about American politics and journalism. He has made attacking the news media a core part of his strategy. He has lied constantly, while never correcting himself, backing down or apologizing. By embracing the doctrine of “alternative facts,” he has challenged the fundamental concept of verifiable reality.
Since McDaniel has aided and abetted Trump’s perfidious campaign against truth itself, she disqualified herself from joining the news media she has reviled for years. The furious uprising against her by many of NBC’s top stars shows just how poisonous the relationship between Trump World and the mainstream media has become.
“The firestorm over Ms. McDaniel,” wrote The New York Times, “underscores the challenges facing news organizations as they try to integrate voices that are supportive of Mr. Trump into their election-year coverage, at a moment of intense partisanship and tribalism among voters and viewers.”
One complaint against McDaniel was that she consistently supported Trump’s totally fraudulent claims that the 2020 election was rigged. Asked by CNN’s Chris Wallace if Joe Biden had won the election, she replied, “I don’t think he won it fair. I don’t. I’m not going to say that.”
But her sins went far beyond election denialism. In a November 2020 phone call with Michigan election officials, she supported Trump’s attempt to block certification of his defeat. She backed a party resolution that called the Jan. 6, 2021, events “legitimate political discourse” and endorsed the censure of two Republican lawmakers who joined the congressional panel investigating the insurrection.
“To be clear, we believe NBC News should seek out conservative Republican voices to provide balance in their election coverage,” said Mika Brzezinski, whose husband and co-host on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Joe Scarborough, is a former GOP congressman. “But it should be conservative Republicans, not a person who used her position of power to be an anti-democracy election denier.”
On “Meet the Press” last Sunday, McDaniel conceded that Biden had won the election. Asked by host Kristen Welker why she had rejected that obvious truth for more than three years, McDaniel replied, “When you’re the RNC chair, you kind of take one for the whole team, right? Now I get to be a little bit more myself, right?”
Normally that would be a reasonable defense. Political operatives say things all the time they don’t fully believe in order to represent their boss or party. But these are not normal times, and Trump is not a normal politician. By parroting Trump’s incessant and insidious lies, McDaniel crossed a line. Her sins were unforgivable, at least when it came to joining a TV network — especially NBC, long one of Trump’s main targets.
Chuck Todd, the longtime host of “Meet the Press,” explained the rebellion against McDaniel’s employment: “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 past six years have been met with gaslighting, have been met with character assassination.”
There is nothing new, or inherently wrong, about politicians joining news organizations. On CNN, I worked for years with the late Tony Blankley, Newt Gingrich’s former spokesman. Tony was a thoughtful, reasonable and witty conservative, and I enjoyed debating him every Sunday. MSNBC is full of veteran Democratic operatives, including Jen Psaki, Biden’s former press secretary, and Lawrence O’Donnell, who worked for Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
In describing an acceptable hire for a news organization, O’Donnell posits the “Nixon rule,” which reads: “No one close to the crimes.” Nixon’s core co-conspirators were off-limits as media hires, but speechwriters were OK. O’Donnell gave the example of Bill Safire, who left the Nixon White House to become a longtime columnist for The New York Times.
Ronna McDaniel was way too close to the crime. NBC was right to dump her.
Steven Roberts teaches politics and journalism at George Washington University. His new book is “Cokie: A Life Well Lived.” He can be contacted by email at stevecokie@gmail.com.