Ronna McDaniel will undoubtedly cause a lot of sound and fury at NBC News. Shakespeare can tell you what it means.
NBC News surprised many of America's news critics on Friday when it unveiled a new deal with McDaniel, most recently chairman of the Republican National Committee. , who denies the validity of the 2020 presidential election and frequently criticizes the American media. One of the outlets McDaniel often defends for criticism is the left-leaning MSNBC, part of NBCUniversal's news operation.
“This couldn’t be a more important moment to have a voice like Lorna’s on the team,” NBC News executive Carrie Budoff Brown, who directly oversees political reporting and “Meet The Press,” said in a Friday memo. McDaniel said he would provide “an insider's perspective on national politics and the future of the Republican Party.” According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, McDaniel's arrival sparked so much chatter that MSNBC President Rashida Jones felt it necessary to placate panicked anchors and producers in an internal memo, saying the former RNC leader He pointed out that he would not appear on left-leaning cable broadcasts. .
On Sunday, McDaniel acknowledged in an interview with “Meet The Press” host Kristen Welker that the 2020 election was, in fact, legitimate, but she nodded to a “problem” that has rarely been explored. But the show's former host, Chuck Todd, told Welker on air: “I think my boss should apologize for putting you in this situation.” He added, “There's a reason so many journalists at NBC News are uncomfortable with this: Because over the past six years, so many of our professional dealings have been subject to gaslighting and personal attacks.” He suggested that McDaniel's contributor contract was in exchange for “access.”
McDaniel's hiring would raise even more eyebrows if NBC News hadn't been so practiced in recent years at attracting talent in a bid to take on conservatives.
Megyn Kelly joined NBC News from Fox News Channel in 2017, in what was then seen as a strategy to attract the voters (among them suburban women) who put Donald Trump in the Oval Office. In May of that year, Nicole Wallace, once known as a powerful Republican political operative in the George W. Bush White House, took the helm of MSNBC's new afternoon program, “Deadline: White House.” CNBC took a gamble in 2020 by handing over its 7 p.m. slot to Shepard Smith, the former chief news anchor at Fox News, for an hour-long general news broadcast.
Only one of the three maneuvers achieved long-term success. Wallace is as popular among MSNBC devotees as Rachel Maddow.
There were other maneuvers, such as running a town hall with President Trump on the other side of an ABC News broadcast featuring then-candidate Joe Biden. President Trump was reluctant to hold another joint debate during the 2020 presidential election. NBC News recently raised eyebrows when it chose Welker to interview Trump early in his 'Meet The Press' tenure. Critics have long argued that even though the interview is recorded, the network is relatively helpless in pushing Trump, who disguises himself and ramblings while the cameras are rolling.
Other TV news outlets have tried similar approaches to conservative audiences. These contributor agreements are typically characterized as a way for news organizations to gain insight and input into a mix they otherwise lack access to. In the recent hiring of Republican adviser Marc Short as a contributor to NBC News and CNBC, or the naming of former national security adviser HR McMaster as a contributor to CBS News, news departments are actually putting people in difficult situations. I put you in a difficult situation. I gained knowledge about how government works. how the Trump campaign makes its decisions; And what the Republican Party craves. Those who stir up controversy are usually caught supporting false facts or unfairly criticizing the media.
But make no mistake. Some of this hiring has been driven in part by economic pressures. In the streaming age, venerable TV news outlets face just as much new technological competition as prime-time outlets. Securing broadcast access and the far right could increase audience and advertising during coverage leading up to the next election. This is a cycle that typically draws larger crowds to NBC News, CNN, Fox News and their competitors.
The aforementioned reasons may have had some influence on CBS News' decision in 2022 to hire former Trump White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and CNN's 2019 efforts to hire political operative Sarah Isgur, a former U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman. There is no doubt about that. Jeff Sessions in editorial management role.
Those two moves didn't really work. Less than a year later, Mulvaney was no longer a CBS News contributor and had most recently taken on a similar role at Nexstar's NewsNation. Flores never actually got the full-time job that CNN executives had originally envisioned. Instead, she worked as a political analyst and later secured roles at The Dispatch and ABC News.
Cautionary tales aside, the news media likes to consider these and other candidates because it adds drama. As CNN proved in the run-up to the 2016 election, stacking your screen with bickering heads in red and blue can grab attention. Viewers rarely think about 'casting' in news broadcasts, but that's becoming more common these days, especially with Fox News Channel's success with 'round table' programs like 'The Five' and 'Outnumbered.' and “Gutfeld!”
So there could be a day in the not-too-distant future when MSNBC anchor Jen Psaki (former White House press secretary) and McDaniel sit on the same podium during a major political party convention or election night. Both will participate in NBC News' political coverage.
I'm not sure whether including hardliners makes good journalism, but it probably helps make for good TV.