MSNBC faced a backlash from its own anchors and employees that caused it to decide not to have Ronna McDaniel on the network.
The Wall Street Journal reported:
Rashida Jones, the cable networkâs president, has been seeking to address internal backlash in the wake of an internal Friday announcement by NBC News regarding McDanielâs hiring as an on-air contributor. In that internal memo, the political chief, Carrie Budoff Brown, said McDaniel would contribute âacross all NBC News platforms,â causing turmoil among several of the networkâs on-air hosts and staffers, people familiar with the matter said. MSNBC is part of the NBC News division.
Jones told employees the cable network has no plans to have McDaniel on the channel, according to people familiar with the conversations. A number of MSNBC anchors and producers have voiced concern internally about McDanielâs ties to former President Donald Trump and the RNCâs role in his efforts to challenge the 2020 election results.
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The original report that the initial plan was to feature McDaniel across all NBC News platforms, including MSNBC, was correct, but it appears that the backlash to having one of Trump’s 1/6 co-conspirators on the network was so strong that Comcast backed off of that plan.
McDaniel will be interviewed by Kristen Welker on Sunday morning’s Meet The Press, and she will likely be a part of NBC’s political coverage both on the over-the-air network on shows like Today and on their streaming channel NBC News Now.
As intense as the employee backlash might have been, the viewer backlash was worse.
Comcast, NBC’s corporate owner clearly views MSNBC’s leftward lean as nothing more than branding that they could stomp on.
Ronna McDaniel was still given a plum job in corporate media to cater to Trump, but at least MSNBC viewers don’t have to worry about her showing up on their channel.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelorâs Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association