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NBC Confronts Backlash And Uproar; Dismisses Ronna McDaniel Following Controversy Surrounding Her Political Contributor Role
The network's move follows a wave of disapproval from prominent anchors like Rachel Maddow and Joe Scarborough, who publicly denounced McDaniel's hiring.
NBC has let Ronna McDaniel go after several star anchors at the network denounced her appointment as an on-air political contributor. Ms. McDaniel was the former chairwoman of the Republican National Committee.
She was roped in last week by NBC to provide insights and diverse viewpoints into the upcoming elections, but her appointment was immediately criticized by reporters at the network and viewers on social media.
Here’s what NBC said of its decision to fire McDaniel.
Ronna McDaniel will not be a contributor at NBC — NBCUniversal chairman wrote in a staff memo
“After listening to the legitimate concerns of many of you, I have decided that Ronna McDaniel will not be an NBC News Contributor,” Cesar Conde, the chairman of the newsgroup, wrote in a staff memo on Tuesday.
“No organization, particularly a newsroom, can succeed unless it is cohesive and aligned,” he continued. “Over the last few days, it has become clear that this appointment undermines that goal.”
The decision to reverse Ronna McDaniel’s hiring is a major challenge for Mr. Conde, who had approved of her hiring to ensure the election year coverage included a diverse range of political perspectives.
NBC wasn't and will not be the first network to engage in the practice of hiring Washington veterans as political commentators. Reince Priebus, former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, recently joined ABC news.
Here's how a revolt against Ronna McDaniel unfolded at NBC
After McDaniel’s hiring was announced with extravagant fanfare on Friday, prominent faces of the NBC news wing, including Rachel Maddow, Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, and Nicolle Wallace, among others, lined up to denounce the decision.
On Monday night, Rachel Maddow dedicated 29 minutes of her top-rated and widely viewed show to criticizing McDaniel’s hiring, calling it inexplicable. She told her bosses: “Take a minute; acknowledge that maybe it wasn't the right call.”
Viewers of MSNBC, the left-leaning division of NBC's cable network, expressed equal outrage, citing Ronna McDaniel's tenure as the leader of the Republican Party during former President Trump's administration and her management of his unfounded allegations regarding the legitimacy of the previous presidential election.
Ronna McDaniel, who occasionally clashed with Trump, left the Republican National Committee this month after pressure from the former president and his allies. Following that, she signed with Creative Artists Agency to shop for good deals with suitable networks. McDaniel’s bargain with NBC stood at about $300,000 a year, The New York Times reports, citing a source.
In his aforementioned Tuesday memo, Mr. Conde described Ms. McDaniel’s hiring as a “collective recommendation” by the NBC leadership team, however, since he was the one to ultimately approve of her appointment, he accepted full responsibility for the decision, saying, “I want to personally apologize to our team members who felt we let them down.”
Elsewhere in the staff memo, Conde assured, “We continue to be committed to the principle that we must have diverse viewpoints on our programs, and to that end, we will redouble our efforts to seek voices that represent different parts of the political spectrum.”
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