After announcing that former Republican National Committee Chairman Ronna McDaniel would contribute “across all NBC News platforms,” network executives have backed down following backlash and threats of a boycott from viewers and employees, decreeing that McDaniel will not appear on MSNBC.
In a hastily drafted memo, Rashida Jones, the cable network’s president, told employees the cable network has no plans to have McDaniel on the channel, according to people familiar with the conversations, the Wall Street Journal reported.
A number of MSNBC anchors and producers have objected to McDaniel’s hiring because of her ties to former President Donald Trump, her reluctance to say the 2020 presidential election results were accurate, and her alleged role in the scheme to nominate fake Electoral College electors and the RNC’s efforts to challenge the results.
Steve Schmidt, former Republican consultant, tweeted: “The journalism disgrace at NBC/MSNBC is historic. Do not doubt that. The hiring of a fascist, Ronna McDaniel, who is an election denier and serial liar who conspired to overthrow democracy in America is as cynical and corrupt as it gets.”
Already McDaniel’s proposed role has been reduced. It wouldn’t be surprising for NBC to announce next week that it has reconsidered her hiring and withdraw the job.
It’s not unlikely that many of MSNBC’s hosts — who have spent four years crusading against the GOP’s authoritarian bent while beating back misinformation and lies about the 2020 election — told executives that they would be uncomfortable with McDaniel appearing on their shows.
Many Democratic viewers used Twitter to tweet videos of McDaniel making Fox News appearance in which she lied about the election results and insulted Democrats. Some of MSNBC’s most influential viewers and guests and analysts who have appeared on its shows lambasted the hiring on social media.
As many threatened a boycott, it became clear that McDaniel would alienate its liberal audience. MSNBC is currently the No. 2 cable news network, trailing Fox News but ahead of CNN.
In announcing the McDaniel hire to staff, Brown wrote, “It couldn’t be a more important moment to have a voice like Ronna’s on the team…. As we gear up for the longest general election season in recent memory, she will support our leading coverage by providing an insider’s perspective on national politics and on the future of the Republican Party—which she led through some of the most turbulent and challenging moments in political history.”
But viewers and liberal activists called B.S. on NBC and set Twitter ablaze.
Heather Thomas, a former TV star and a fierce critic of Donald Trump and the MAGA movement, tweeted “Boycott NBC.” Thomas, a 1980′s sex symbol and star of “The Fall Guy,” has 90,000 followers.
David Rothkopf, an author and columnist and a frequent guest on MSNBC, tweeted, “Hiring Ronna McDaniel is a terrible decision. Having a range of views is useful. But hiring a proven serial liar is disastrous. NBC is and must be, first and foremost, in the credibility business. She will compromise that every time she appears on air. She cannot be trusted.”
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McDaniel was run out of the GOP Committee by Donald Trump so that he could replace her with family members who will funnel money to his legal expenses and campaign. She has been linked to efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and often has promoted conspiracy theories and falsehoods while insulting Democrats.
Ron Filipkowski, Editor-in Chief of the anti-Trump MeidasTouch.com, has with nearly 900,000 followers. He tweeted a Fox News TV hit in which McDaniel calls Democrats “pro-chaos and pro-criminal.”
He added: “I never thought anyone could get channels to change faster than a Rick Santorum hit on CNN, but MSNBC will challenge those records with Ronna McDaniel’s appearances as a commentator.”
Dozens more voiced similar sentiments.
Political strategist Rachel Bitecofer, a frequent MSNBC guest, tweeted,: “Ronna McDaniel was balls deep in the coup plot. She flew to swing states to encourage Republican state legislators and Republican election officials to submit fraudulent electors to steal the election from Joe Biden. If I was an NBC News employee, I’d be pissed.”'
NBC News and MSNBC laid off roughly 75 employees, many of them journalists, in January. Viewers wondered: Is this where the network got the money to pay McDaniel?
