Rachel Maddow told the story that some people at NBC don’t want to be told about Ronna McDaniel’s hiring, democracy, and NBC News.
Maddow said:
We have had a lot of these guys. But our generation’s version of this guy has gotten a lot farther than all the rest of them. And why is that? He would have been as forgotten as all the rest of them had he not been able to attach himself to an institution like the Republican Party and had the leader of that party in his time not decide that she would abide him, she would help. She would help with the worst of it.
It’s my understanding that MSNBC’s leadership did not object to Ronna McDaniel being hired by NBC News when the matter first arose, but when the hiring was announced, and MSNBC staff essentially unanimously and instantly expressed outrage, our leadership at MSNBC heard us, understood, and adjusted course. We were told this weekend in clear terms Ronna McDaniel will not be on our air. Ronna McDaniel will not be on MSNBC. And I say that and give you that level of detail because there has been an effort since by other parts of the company to muddy that up in the press and make it seem like that’s not what happened at MSNBC. I can assure you, that is what happened at MSNBC. Ronna Mcdaniel will not appear on MSNBC, so says our boss since Saturday. And it has never been anything other than clear.
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
And I will also say if you care what I think about this, I will tell you the fact that Ms. McDaniel is on the payroll at NBC news, to me that is an inexplicable. You wouldn’t — you wouldn’t hire a wise guy, you wouldn’t hire a made man like a mobster to work at a DA’s office, right?
You wouldn’t hire a pickpocket to work as a TSA screener. And so I find the decision to put her on the payroll inexplicable. And I hope they will reverse their decision. And it’s not about, you know, Democratic Party, Republican party. It’s not about partnership. It’s not about right versus left. It’s not about being a political professional versus some other kind of person. It’s not about being mean or nice to journalists. It’s not about just being associated with Donald Trump and his time and the Republican Party. It’s not even about lying or not lying.
It’s about our system of government and undermining elections and going after democracy as an ongoing project, right? And this is a difficult time for us as a country, and I think that means we need to be clear-eyed about the implications of it. Difficult times make for difficult decisions. We are contending with something we’ve never had to contend with before. In the news business, yes, we are covering an election, which we do all the time. But we’re also covering bad actors trying to use the rights and privileges of the democracy to end democracy. The chief threat among them now is not the rioters and kooks but the slick political professionals who are turning their attention to the fact that election results aren’t real, and they shouldn’t be respected.
We are contending with this now not from William Dudley Pelley’s brown shirt militias, right, but from the multi-billion massive political operation of one of the two governing parties of the United States of America. And that’s new. And with our country up against something that daunting and that scary and that dangerous for the country, I think bad decisions will inevitably happen. Mistakes will be made. But part of our resilience as a democracy is going to be
recognizing, us recognizing when decisions are bad ones. And reversing those bad decisions. Listening to legitimate criticism, responding to it, and correcting course. Not digging in, not blaming others. Take a minute. Acknowledge that maybe it wasn’t the right call. It is a sign of strength, not weakness, to acknowledge when you are wrong. It is a sign of strength. And our country needs us to be strong right now.
Video:
This is about democracy. It is about letting a minion of the authoritarian fox into the hen house and giving the fox a central platform to help destroy democracy.
Some at NBC News have tried to spin a different tale and make it sound like there really wasn’t a rebellion by staff and journalists against the McDaniel hiring. They want to make it appear that the door is open to McDaniel appearing on MSNBC.
Rachel Maddow explained that the door is shut, and she called out executives at her employer and NBC News’s prized new employee while putting it all into context.
This isn’t about Republicans or Democrats.
All that matters is the future of our democracy.
A Special Message From PoliticusUSA
If you are in a position to donate purely to help us keep the doors open on PoliticusUSA during what is a critical election year, please do so here.Â
We have been honored to be able to put your interests first for 14 years as we only answer to our readers and we will not compromise on that fundamental, core PoliticusUSA value.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s 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
