Some Thoughts on Ronna McDaniel and NBC News

There's more to the story than cancel culture victimization.

A big story on TV-news this week has been about… TV-news. As just about everyone has heard by now, NBC News fired former RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel just days after the network announced that she had been hired as a contributor.

The stark reversal came after a huge internal backlash from NBC employees, some of which remarkably spilled out in front of the cameras on MSNBC. Many on the political right have been crying foul in response, describing the incident as a clear case of “cancel culture.”

I have a few thoughts on the topic.

First, I don’t think NBC should have ever hired McDaniel. My reasoning has nothing to do with her being a Republican, a former RNC head, or a pro-Trumper. In fact, I think those perspectives could have added value to her role as a contributor, even with Trump and MAGA-world having effectively thrown her under the bus.

I wouldn’t have hired her due to her anti-democratic efforts pertaining to the 2020 election. She was involved with Trump’s fake-elector plot, she pressured Michigan canvassers not to certify their state’s election results, she referred to January 6 as “legitimate political discourse,” and she suggested for about three years that President Biden's victory was illegitimate.

I don’t think any outlet that purports to be a serious news organization should hire such a person.

Interestingly, in her sole NBC appearance as a contributor, McDaniel seemingly conceded that her rhetoric (and at times, lack thereof) as a Republican leader didn’t represent her true thoughts on matters including January 6.

“When you’re the RNC Chair, you kind of take one for the whole team,” she said. “Now I get to be a little bit more myself, right?”

I’m not sure if that was an attempt at repentance, but it sounded bad, and only further illustrated her lack of character.

Anyway, I should add that while I wouldn’t have hired McDaniel, I also wouldn’t have hired a number of current, longtime NBC News employees; Al Sharpton would probably be at the top of that list. In fact, I’d love to hear those at the network, who publicly decried the decision to hire McDaniel, explain why they’ve long been silent on NBC pay-rolling a guy perhaps best known for inciting a riot. Or maybe they could weigh in on Rachel Maddow’s spreading of 2016 election conspiracy-theories, or Joy Reid’s infamous homophobic blogs (that she’s never taken full responsibility for). And don’t even get me started on Brian Williams, who remained an NBC employee (albeit in a diminished role) for years after being exposed as a serial fabricator.

All that aside, it’s important to note that executives at NBC News knew exactly who McDaniel was when they hired her. They knew her past, they were well aware of her integrity problems, and yet they offered her a contract anyway. Thus, it’s pretty cowardly that they would then kick her to the curb after a few days of internal push-back. I mean, if you’re going to make the decision to hire a controversial figure, you shouldn’t fold the minute others (including some folks with their own integrity problems) point out that the individual is, in fact, controversial.

Regardless, McDaniel is gone, and it’s hard to imagine a news-media future for her elsewhere. I’m sure she’ll receive whatever pay NBC News promised her in her contract, but left-leaning networks (including cable networks) won’t touch her for the same reason she was just dumped. Interestingly enough, I think the same will be true of Trump-friendly networks, being that she’s widely despised by MAGA-world, having been used as a scapegoat for years of Republican election losses that were far more attributable to Trump.

Of course, that won’t stop the political right from presenting her as a cancel culture victim, while largely ignoring far more egregious news-media firings (like Fox’s termination of Chris Stirewalt), along with their side’s calls for more.

Ah, cable news. The industry never fails to prove what a flaming mess it is.