The meltdown from the left about the hiring of former RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel is spectacular. McDaniel was hired by NBC News as a political analyst. She will be seen on all of NBC’s platforms, including MSNBC, according to the announcement.
The extent of her participation at MSNBC is in question because the progressives who work there are in a major snit over its network using a pro-Trump Republican as a pundit. MSNBC uses Never Trump Republicans and Republicans who have left the party to join with Democrats out of hatred toward Trump. No real Republicans are allowed.
One of the regulars on MSNBC is Michael Steele. He is a former RNC chairman who served in that capacity from 2009-20011. He is of the Never Trump variety of Republican pundits. So, it is not unprecedented for MSNBC to hire a former RNC chairman.
Chuck Todd, a Swamp creature in good standing, hosted NBC’s Meet the Press for a decade. He is one of the unhinged speaking out against Ronna’s new television gig. He told the current host of the show, former White House correspondent Kristen Welker, that NBC should not have put her in this position. Really?
Welker interviewed Ronna in a segment of the show on Sunday. She made a point of saying the interview was planned before the announcement of Ronna’s hiring by the network. “This will be a news interview, and I was not involved in her hiring.” She said that she didn’t have anything to do with the decision to hire Ronna as a paid contributor at the network. I thought that was a weird comment. Do show hosts make personnel decisions for news networks?
Welker’s interview with her new colleague was not a softball interview. Welker pressed her on her participation in Trump’s denial of the 2020 presidential election results. She questioned her about using RNC funds to pay millions of dollars for Trump’s legal bills.
After that interview, Chuck Todd participated in a panel discussion. He told Welker that the bosses at NBC owed her an apology for hiring Ronna. He began by saying he’d deal with the “elephant in the room” and went from there.
“I think our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation,” Mr. Todd said. “Because I don’t know what to believe. She is now a paid contributor by NBC News, so I have no idea whether any answer she gave to you was because she didn’t want to mess up her contract.”
Mr. Todd said that Ms. McDaniel “has credibility issues” and went on, “There’s a reason why there are a lot of journalists at NBC News uncomfortable with this, because many of our professional dealings with the R.N.C. over the last six years have been met with gaslighting, have been met with character assassination.”
He added: “So when NBC made the decision to give her NBC News’s credibility, you got to ask yourself, ‘What does she bring NBC News?’”
That, my friends, is a grown man who is acting like a little snot. That’s Todd’s brand but he usually isn’t quite so honest about it. Imagine Chuck Todd castigating the network for hiring Ronna and saying he can’t believe a word out of her mouth. He accused her of saying what she thought wouldn’t affect her contract. Chuck Todd spent about a decade on NBC as a Sunday morning show host who regurgitated DNC talking points and ran cover for Democrats every week. He made a lot of money being a good soldier for the Democrats.
Reince Priebus is a paid contributor at ABC News. He is a regular panelist on the network’s Sunday morning political show. Another regular panelist is former co-chair of the DNC, Donna Brazile. She has her baggage, including being exposed as someone who provided Hillary Clinton with debate questions. This show is hosted by George Stephanopoulos, a former campaign and White House staffer for Bill Clinton. No bias there, right?
Welker asked Ronna if Biden legitimately won the 2020 election. She acknowledged he did. Then Welker criticized her. Because of course.
“Fair and square, he won,” Ms. McDaniel said. “It’s certified. It’s done.”
“Ronna, why has it taken you until now to be able to say that?” Ms. Welker asked.
“I’m going to push back a little because I do think it’s fair to say there were problems in 2020 and to say that does not mean he’s not the legitimate president,” Ms. McDaniel replied.
Progressives don’t want a real Republican on networks where they dominate, which is pretty much all of them except Fox News Channel. The reason FNC is so successful and has much higher ratings than the other news outlets is that it strives to present both sides of an issue. Its ratings would not dominate all the others if the audience wasn’t comprised of conservatives, independents, and, yes, liberals. The reason outlets like CNN and MSNBC struggle is because they are mostly one-sided. Their audience is smaller. It’s human nature to move toward those who offer varied opinions and strive to reach out to everyone. That’s what news coverage is supposed to be.
So much of what is called journalism these days is nothing more than opinions. Leave opinion shows to primetime hours. Daytime should be for honest news coverage.
Chuck Todd was a staffer on The Hill and a political operative for years. To act like he was hired on journalistic cred is ridiculous. He was in the pipeline from Capitol Hill to punditry, the same as the others.
Symone D. Sanders, former spokeswoman for Vice President Kamala Harris now has a show on MSNBC, as does Jen Psaki. Symone offered praise to Welker after her interview with Ronna. She “got her on the record.” That’s called doing her job, Symone.
I am glad Kristen Welker interviewed Ronna Romney McDaniel today on @MeetThePress b/c she got her on the record on a lot.
Today it was confirmed:
– Ronna is a Trump supporter who thinks J6 was not a good day
– she thinks Trump didn’t want J6 to happen (even though he told them…— Symone D. Sanders Townsend (@SymoneDSanders) March 24, 2024
Chuck Todd can take a seat. He and others who followed Tim Russert destroyed Meet the Press because of their political hackery. Russert may have been a Democrat voter but he kept the show fair and balanced as a professional. Those days are long gone.