OPINION | NBC News Has No Choice But Revoke Offer to Ronna McDaniel
As an election denier and Trump toady, former RNC chair has no role in civil discourse
NBC News has made the most grievous error in judgement by hiring the newly departed chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC), Ronna McDaniel, as an on-air contributor.
It's a decision that must be reversed immediately. McDaniel shouldn't even be allowed to appear even once as a paid contributor, as her debut is planned for Sunday’s flagship Meet The Press program.
McDaniel essentially was ousted by Donald Trump, who preferred to install his own lackys at the head of the party, including his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump.
After Sunday, McDaniel is slated to appear as a contributor on NBC, MSNBC and NBC News Now programming.
Her appearance Sunday is being reported as an interview, conversations about which began before she was hired as a paid staffer.
The problem lies not in McDaniel being interviewed about her nearly eight-year tenure atop the RNC, or even her thoughts about the 2024 elections.
Nor is it an issue that NBC wanted to hire an additional Republican to its stable.
The network — especially on its MSNBC cable outlet — already maintains a healthy roster of Republicans and former Republicans, including Nicolle Wallace, Richard Haass, Elise Jordan and even one of McDaniel’s predecessors at the RNC, Michael Steele.
I personally agree with very little that probably most of them believe politically. But each one has proven themselves willing to stand up against Trump and for the truth and the facts, even when it’s inconvenient politically.
No, the problem is that McDaniel is a serial liar and fabulist.
As the head of the RNC, McDaniel told countless falsehoods.
She accused Democrats of trying to “destroy” and “assault” the integrity of elections, and after Joe Biden won the 2020 election, McDaniel claimed without evidence that there was electoral fraud and voter fraud, and had the RNC promote falsehoods and conspiracy theories about the election.
She continued to lead the RNC even after it declared the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol to be “legitimate political discourse.”
And McDaniel has been fact-checked for her many falsehoods about the House select committee established to investigate the House select committee established to investigate that insurrection.
After that much dishonesty, what possible value could McDaniel bring to NBC’s programming?
If NBC News wanted a McDaniel interview, fine.
It should have arranged it as its reporters and producers had done countless times when she worked for the Republican party: as an unpaid interview subject.
That would allow for the kind intense, real-time fact-checking required for an interview with someone so demonstrably disposed to telling untruths.
Doing the same thing as a paid contributor muddies those waters and it’s going to be almost impossible for an on-air journalist to maintain the adversarial relationship required for such a conversation if the person being interviewed now is their peer and colleague.
I'm not sure exactly what NBC News is playing at, and I'm not sure that NBC News Senior Vice President Carrie Budoff Brown and other top brass do, either.
One of the first things that we’re taught as journalists is that all we have is our credibility. We lose it, it could take a lifetime to get back — if we ever do.
Is Ronna McDaniel worth that kind of risk for an entire news organization?
I say, “No,” and say that it’s time for those NBC executives to change their minds now, before it’s too late.
Please support our work…
Please subscribe…