NBC’s Ronna McDaniel Mistake: A lesson in supporting journalists over ideologues

When NBC News announced that the network had hired the former chairwoman of the Republican National Committee as an on-air political commentator, Twitter filled up immediately with calls for a boycott of NBC and MSNBC. It was a typical reaction to something that hacks people off — stop buying the product. That works for pillows and black beans, but in a democracy threatened by Trumpism, it’s unwise and potentially destructive to suddenly reject a credible source of news. Agree with them or not, the hosts and guests, anchors and reporters on NBC and MSNBC provide news and informed opinions about what’s happening in American government, politics, commerce and culture. MSNBC obviously leans to the left, but that cable channel never indulges in the kind of crackpot speculations and twisted views that come from FOX News. (Just yesterday, a FOX host suggested, with no evidence whatsoever, that the disaster at Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge was connected to migrants crossing our southwestern border with Mexico.)

Ronna McDaniel, who as leader of the RNC played along with Trump’s election lies and deemed the Jan. 6 riot an example of “legitimate political discourse,” had been hired less than a week when NBC’s top news executive decided to let her go. This came after a storm of criticism from NBC’s journalists or partisans-turned-journalists — that is, people like afternoon host Nicole Wallace, a former Republican who was a chief defender of George W. Bush, or weekend host Jen Psaki, who only two years ago was press secretary to President Biden. (I have a bias: There are plenty of strong journalists in NBC’s ranks who could host MSNBC’s shows. This practice of hiring former servants of the political class carries with it a credibility issue. CNN, on the other hand, gave hosting and anchoring jobs to people who had served as reporters, bringing genuine journalist experience and skills to their shows.)

McDaniel is gone because insiders at NBC and MSNBC complained openly about her hiring, and because viewers spoke up. The management of NBC News changed course because people, inside and out, raised hell about McDaniel being an on-air analyst. You don’t abandon a credible news organization because you don’t like the management or its decisions in hiring. You fight back for the sake of professional journalism and, with it, our democracy.