TODAYco-anchor Savannah Guthrie shed light on the tumultuous events that led to the hiring and subsequent firing of former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel at NBC.
Guthrie, promoting her new book,Mostly What God Does, told Stephen Colbert, host of The Late Show, details about the atmosphere at the network during McDaniel's short tenure.
The incident unfolded almost two weeks ago when several NBC hosts staged an "on-air protest," prompting the network to swiftly reverse its decision to hire McDaniel. Guthrie shared with Colbert that the atmosphere during those days was "unpleasant," highlighting the discomfort and tension that permeated the network at the time.
The late-night host probed Guthrie about her role in the hiring process, to which she clarified, "I didn’t have anything to do with it."
She emphasized the importance of diversity of opinions in media coverage, stating, "The instinct to try to have a diversity of opinions and perspectives as we cover an election is the right instinct." However, she also emphasized the significance of upholding truth and facts in journalism, underscoring the need to safeguard democracy.
Colbert asked, "So, there was no, like, companywide email saying, 'Oh, heads up tomorrow we’re gonna announce this?'"
Guthrie answered, "No, no, no, no. I was not in the know. I knew nothing about it. And look, the bosses made a decision. They reversed that decision. They acknowledged a mistake, and we moved on. And the only thing I’ll say about it is, number one, I didn’t have anything to do with it."
"But look, I think the instinct to try to have a diversity of opinions and a diversity of perspectives and voices as we cover an election is the right instinct," she explained. "And it’s complex, and it’s made more complex by the politics that we have right now."
"I went to law school. In law school, we learned that if you didn’t engage the counterargument, if you didn’t know what all sides were saying, your own position was quite weak," Guthrie told Colbert. "So I feel that, particularly in mainstream media, we need to include an array of voices."
"There’s a line, and the line is truth, the line is facts, and the line is you have to be someone upholding our democracy."
Never miss a story — sign up for the OK! newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what OK! has to offer. It’s gossip too good to wait for!
According to a number of executives and media personalities, McDaniel has little hope of having a media career after her fallout with MSNBC and NBC News.
“I can’t imagine Fox News would hire Ronna and want to deal with managing her with Trump and his base and invite the inevitable incoming fire they’d be on the receiving end,” an executive told Mediaite. “Her track record of failure at the RNC is not a ratings draw worth the risk.”