NBC's Hiring Fiasco: Torn Between Opinion and Objectivity, Network Faces Backlash and Threat of GOP Convention Restrictions
Nathan Rivero, 3/30/2024NBC News faces a firestorm after hiring and quickly firing former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel due to backlash from MSNBC's liberal commentators. The saga exposes growing tensions between NBC's news division and MSNBC's left-leaning personalities, potentially jeopardizing NBC's coverage of the upcoming Republican convention.
The corporate leadership at NBC News find themselves engulfed in a firestorm after their disastrous decision to hire -- and almost immediately fire -- former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel as a paid contributor. The debacle has laid bare simmering tensions between NBC's news division and the opinionated stars at MSNBC, while potentially jeopardizing the network's access at the upcoming Republican convention.
In a frenzied series of events, NBC proudly announced McDaniel's hiring last Friday to serve as an analyst, touting her ability to provide insight into the upcoming 2024 election. But by Tuesday, the deal had spectacularly imploded amid a revolt from MSNBC's liberal commentators, who railed against putting someone they deemed an "election denier" on the network's "sacred airwaves."
The explosive backlash -- which played out in real time across NBC and MSNBC's programming -- left NBC News president Rashida Jones and News Group chairman Cesar Conde scrambling to contain the self-inflicted damage. An exasperated insider described the two as "corporate climbers" who are "happier to please parent company Comcast than take care of their employees." The source added that Conde and Jones were "thunderstruck" by the intensity of the opposition, as "they just didn't see the blowback coming."
Indeed, MSNBC's biggest stars took the opportunity to publicly eviscerate NBC's leadership team. Rachel Maddow declared on-air that Jones had reversed course on McDaniel due to "essentially unanimous" outrage from MSNBC staffers -- despite Jones' private assurances that McDaniel wouldn't appear on the liberal cable channel. "Morning Joe" co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski announced McDaniel would never grace their program, with Scarborough slamming NBC for the "inexplicable" decision.
"This embarrassing infighting shows that NBC News has lost all legitimacy as an objective news operation," one former staffer told Fox News Digital. "MSNBC's woke, far-left theocracy now controls everything."
In a memo to staff, Conde acknowledged undermining the goal of a "cohesive and aligned" newsroom, taking "full responsibility" for approving the hire -- even as he absolved other leaders like Jones who had championed bringing McDaniel aboard. But the damage was done, with the MSNBC insider accusing Conde of throwing "his underlings under the bus" in a transparent attempt to placate MSNBC's vocal stars.
The ramifications could extend far beyond internal tensions. The Republican National Committee is now weighing retaliation by restricting NBC's access at their convention this summer in Milwaukee -- a potentially disastrous blow that would deprive the network of meaningful coverage during a pivotal political event.
"We are taking a hard look at what this means for NBC's participation at the convention," an RNC spokesperson warned. The network has clashed with Republicans before over perceptions of bias, prompting the RNC to revoke an NBC debate in 2016.
With McDaniel seeking her full $600,000 contract payout after just 20 minutes of airtime on "Meet the Press" -- earning $500 per second -- the entire saga stands as a remarkable embarrassment for NBC. It underscores how allegiance to the liberal worldview espoused by MSNBC's commentators continues to dictate major decisions across the larger NBC News organization.
"NBC News, either wittingly or unwittingly, is teaching election deniers that...they can do that as...paid contributors to our sacred airwaves," host Nicolle Wallace proclaimed, decrying McDaniel's mere presence at the network. Her colleague Joy Reid was more succinct, slamming NBC for the "inexplicable" hire that elevated what she deemed "anti-democratic sentiment."
Such rhetoric ignores the network's own well-documented history of airing falsehoods and discredited conspiracies -- including peddling the Trump-Russia collusion hoax, dismissing the Hunter Biden laptop story as Russian disinformation, and promoting Jussie Smollett's staged hate crime. MSNBC even allowed host Joy Reid to baselessly claim hackers planted homophobic posts on her old blog, an assertion that fell apart under scrutiny.
By capitulating to MSNBC's rage, NBC has seemingly endorsed the principle that anyone insufficiently opposed to Trump is unfit for their airwaves. It remains to be seen whether the network will pay an even steeper price from Republicans seeking equal treatment -- or face a reckoning from the dwindling ranks of NBC stalwarts who still prize editorial independence over blatant political allegiances.