NBC fires former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel after internal uproar and blatant anti-GOP bias
Editor's note: This story has been updated after Tuesday's announcement that Ronna McDaniel will no longer join NBC News as a contributor.
Ahead of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech this month, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the quiet part aloud about MSNBC's cheerleading for progressive politicians on the network's “Morning Joe”:
“I was going to say, I don’t think you guys need me," she said with a laugh. "I was just listening to the commentary. I don’t think you guys need me this morning, but it’s good to be on.”
Jean-Pierre said this because before her appearance on the show, host Joe Scarborough couldn’t praise Biden enough, staunchly defending the 81-year-old president against criticism of his fading mental abilities.
“He’s better than he has ever been, intellectually, analytically,” Scarborough said. “F you if you can’t handle the truth. This version of Biden … is the best Biden ever.”
So why am I telling you this story?
Because it’s illustrative of just how in the bag Scarborough and many of the network’s other leading “journalists” are for Biden. They might as well be on the president’s payroll. More on that later.
And it helps explain why there was so much internal backlash at MSNBC, which is part of the NBC News division, after NBC announced it had hired Ronna McDaniel, the former chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, as a contributor. On Tuesday, the network executives caved, firing her only four days after they had announced her hire.
Ronna McDaniel is bad, but Jen Psaki is A-OK?
The floodgates of grumbling opened Sunday on “Meet the Press” when NBC News analyst Chuck Todd had an on-air freakout over his employer's hiring of McDaniel.
“I think our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation,” Todd told host Kristen Welker after she had interviewed McDaniel. “There’s a reason why there’s a lot of journalists at NBC News uncomfortable with this, because many of our professional dealings with the RNC over the last six years have been met with gaslighting.”
Biden shows his age: Democrats try their darndest to defend the president, but Robert Hur testimony reaffirms he's too old
Todd’s criticism of NBC was the first public expression of the internal mayhem after Friday’s announcement.
On Monday, MSNBC personalities such as Scarborough, Rachel Maddow and Nicole Wallace took time on their shows to express their displeasure.
Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store.
Perhaps the most ironic comment came from Jen Psaki, who was on the Biden payroll before joining MSNBC herself two years ago.
The former White House press secretary said direct political experience “only matters and only has value to viewers if it is paired with honesty and good faith,” which apparently is true for her but not McDaniel.
Give me a break.
The outrage over McDaniel’s hiring was noticeably absent among these same journalists when Psaki came on board. Todd and Scarborough seemed totally fine as a deal with Psaki was negotiated while she still served as a Biden mouthpiece. (Some reporters to their credit did voice concerns, but there’s no comparison with the high-profile reaction to McDaniel's deal.)
'No interest in giving voice to half of the country'
McDaniel’s biggest “flaw” seemed to be that she headed the Republican Party at the behest of former President Donald Trump after he won the 2016 presidential election. McDaniel previously had been the chair of the Michigan Republican Party.
Trump has since tossed McDaniel aside, which is why she was in the market for a new gig.
NCAA lawsuit: These women say transgender rules discriminate against them. So they're suing the NCAA.
McDaniel's detractors insisted that she was a threat to democracy. Never mind that McDaniel could have offered insight into Trump’s thinking – and that of his supporters, who happen to make up a large percentage of the electorate in this election year.
“This just shows how detached the chattering class is,” Republican strategist Dennis Lennox told me. “They have no interest in giving voice to half the country. The idea that you hire the sitting Democratic White House press secretary but the immediate-past-chairman of the Republican National Committee is persona non grata simply because she has a different political viewpoint from the prevailing editorial line of MSNBC is absurd.”
It is absurd, and it points to the obvious liberal bias that dominates much of mainstream media. These MSNBC anchors have shown themselves for who they are: unabashed advocates for Biden.
MSNBC President Rashida Jones had already assured staff that McDaniel won’t appear on the channel’s programming.
I had hoped that NBC News would give McDaniel a chance and not give in to the cancel culture and intolerance on full display within its company. Sadly, the intolerant left has won again and liberal hypocrisy reigns at a once proud news network.
Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at [email protected] or on X, formerly Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques
You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NBC fires Ronna McDaniel, caving to internal anti-GOP freakout
