NBC News will part ways with Ronna McDaniel, but that won’t end the drama

I have to admit, I’m a bit surprised. NBC News is cutting ties with contributor Ronna McDaniel before she even really contributed.

McDaniel is the former chair of the Republican National Committee who was hired by NBC News, presumably to bring a conservative voice and perspective to the network’s political coverage.

But after an avalanche of criticism from outside and, especially, inside the network, Cesar Conde, NBCU News Group chairman, sent a note to staff Tuesday evening saying, “There is no doubt that the last several days have been difficult for the News Group. After listening to the legitimate concerns of many of you, I have decided that Ronna McDaniel will not be an NBC News contributor. No organization, particularly a newsroom, can succeed unless it is cohesive and aligned. Over the last few days, it has become clear that this appointment undermines that goal.”

The beef that many had was not about McDaniel’s conservative background or right-leaning ideas. It was that she perpetuated lies that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, and then verbally attacked honest journalists for accurate coverage, including pointing out the lies that Donald Trump and some Republicans were trying to sell.

McDaniel’s entire NBC career will last all of one contentious interview on last Sunday’s “Meet the Press.” That’s when moderator Kristen Welker relentlessly pressed McDaniel on her contradictions and showed that NBC News’ newest contributor had a serious credibility problem.

What followed was a conga line of harsh, on-air criticism, starting with former “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd. His no-holding-back commentary clearly galvanized the staff and emboldened others to speak up. Todd was followed by MSNBC personalities such as Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, Nicolle Wallace, Joy Reid, Jen Psaki, Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell. It was an unprecedented mutiny played out for viewers to watch from their living rooms.

Writing for CNN, former longtime Baltimore Sun media critic David Zurawik wrote, “It was two days of the most aggressive, public and passionate pushback by employees against a decision by their bosses that I have seen in 35 years of covering the media.”

Yet, even after all that pushback — all of which was completely fair and accurate — and after all the external roasting, my guess was NBC would hunker down and wait for the storm to pass. Then, at a later date, they would quietly put McDaniel back on the air in the safe space of a big panel.

But that isn’t going to happen. NBC News is cutting ties with McDaniel. And while it’s never too late to do the right thing, this is going to leave a scar at NBC News.

Let’s start with this: Clearly, none of the executives behind the decision to bring McDaniel aboard consulted with actual journalists at the network ahead of time. If they had, perhaps all the stunning on-air criticism would have been shared behind closed doors, away from a gawking TV audience. That, perhaps, would have saved NBC News the embarrassment of hiring McDaniel in the first place and then having an equally embarrassing public revolt on their hands.

It also seems painfully obvious that NBC News executives were completely unaware of McDaniel’s past attacks on the media and, specifically, NBC News.

Conde took responsibility in the memo to staff, writing, “I want to personally apologize to our team members who felt we let them down. While this was a collective recommendation by some members of our leadership team, I approved it and take full responsibility for it. Our initial decision was made because of our deep commitment to presenting our audiences with a widely diverse set of viewpoints and experiences, particularly during these consequential times. We continue to be committed to the principle that we must have diverse viewpoints on our programs, and to that end, we will redouble our efforts to seek voices that represent different parts of the political spectrum.”

Therein lies the key problem. Executives at NBC News were too focused on adding a conservative voice that they didn’t do the proper vetting before hiring McDaniel. The vetting process, as it turned out, was Welker’s interview with her on “Meet the Press” — an interview that turned out to be disastrous for McDaniel.

While she did condemn the violence of Jan. 6 and ultimately said Joe Biden won the election “fair and square,” McDaniel tried to straddle the fence by still saying there were concerns about the 2020 election. And as far as her past comments when she was at the RNC, McDaniel essentially said she was taking one for the team back then. That led Todd to ask if McDaniel’s opinions were solely based on who was signing her latest paycheck.

Maybe if McDaniel had been less defensive, more humble and completely apologetic, she and NBC would have survived this mess. But she showed just enough defiance and not enough culpability to placate anyone.

In the end, maybe management wanted to keep McDaniel, but whatever shred of credibility she had was torched by some of the biggest names at NBC News and MSNBC. Maybe NBC News leaders realized she was no longer of any value to them.

After the blowback from within NBC’s walls, but before she was let go, The Atlantic’s David A. Graham wrote, “This leaves McDaniel without any constituency. Her hire offended NBC News journalists. No liberal viewers will like seeing her, and some MSNBC hosts have already ruled out booking her. Neither MAGA Republicans nor the establishment rump will accept her.”

Now she won’t be on NBC/MSNBC at all. That part of the problem will be solved. But a whole new problem — the trust of many NBC/MSNBC journalists in leadership — is just beginning.

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Now what for NBC?

It should be no surprise that McDaniel was immediately scooped up by a network news organization not long after being ousted as chair of the RNC. In fact, there are rumors that if NBC News hadn’t hired her, another network would have.

This essentially follows the TV news playbook.

Axios’ Sara Fischer and Zachary Basu pointed out the pipeline between the White House and TV news operations. They found that going back to 2000, more than half (16 of 31) of White House press secretaries and communications directors have gone on to become paid contributors, commentators or hosts on news programs. And 10 of the past 14 press secretaries have gone on to TV jobs.

Still, places such as NBC struggle to find voices that expertly provide the Republican perspective, especially from the MAGA-Trump faction.

In his piece for The Atlantic, Graham wrote, “This is a devilish moment for news organizations. Outlets that seek to understand Trump and his movement — even those that are very critical — want to find voices that represent them. But finding people who are still connected to Trump and can also speak with intellectual honesty is exceedingly difficult, if not inherently impossible. The McDaniel fiasco shows NBC hasn’t solved the puzzle yet.”

Longtime media journalist and former Washington Post reporter Paul Farhi tweeted, “Implicit in the Ronna McDaniel-@NBCNews hiring controversy: How can, or should, MSM news orgs reflect Trump-centric perspectives in discussions of the campaign? They can’t just stack the panel in a one-sided way. So who’s a ‘responsible’ Trump voice?”

Washington Post media reporter Jeremy Barr wrote earlier this week, “Since Trump began his first campaign for president more than eight years ago, television networks have struggled to balance a desire to welcome voices that reflect the pro-Trump perspective with a resolve to adhere to basic standards of truth — a challenge that has only been magnified in the wake of the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection. The networks have also sought to do so without attracting the ire of their own employees and the viewing public, almost always with limited success.”

Now what for McDaniel?

NBC News reportedly had signed McDaniel for $300,000 a year to be a contributor. Axios’ Sara Fischer reported Tuesday that McDaniel was exploring legal action.

Then, later in the day, New York Times media reporter Michael M. Grynbaum tweeted that McDaniel is no longer represented by CAA and that she is “interviewing attorneys to engage with NBC on her behalf.”

Aside from whether she will get the money and what an exit package might look like, the big question is whether she has a future on TV. You have to wonder if the whole soap opera of the past few days has made her too toxic for networks such as ABC, CBS and CNN. And seeing as how she’s not particularly embraced at the moment by Trump, Fox News might not be an option for her either.

Psaki speaks out

Throughout this whole NBC-McDaniel matter, many — including me — have talked about how those who work in politics often then go into TV. A go-to notable example is Jen Psaki, who went from being the White House press secretary for Joe Biden to hosting a show on MSNBC.

Well, Psaki isn’t a fan of that comparison, and she spoke about it on her show Monday night. Her comments seemed more directed at right-wing commentators who are making that false equivalency.

Psaki said, “I was in the room for tough debates, for difficult decisions, for the messy and at times incredibly grueling process of governing, and that experience is something that I am extremely proud to bring to this table and to this network. There are many others who have followed a similar path. … But here’s the thing, that kind of experience only matters and only has value to viewers, all of you, if it is paired with honesty and with good faith.”

Psaki pointed out McDaniel’s past comments and actions questioning the legitimacy of the 2020 election, as well as her views on Jan. 6. Then Psaki added, “Look, this isn’t about Republicans versus Democrats. This isn’t about red versus blue. This is about truth versus lies. Service to the country versus service to one man committed to toppling our democratic system.”

Mediaite’s Zachary Leeman has more, including video from Psaki’s show.

Horrific accident

The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed early Tuesday morning after it was struck by a cargo ship. As of Tuesday night, six construction workers who were working on the bridge at the time were still missing.

This is a media newsletter, so I did want to write a little about the media coverage.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott appeared on CNN on Tuesday, and while being interviewed, CNN showed dramatic video of the bridge collapsing over and over.

During the interview, Scott said, “I’m going to be the first to ask that CNN and everyone else stop showing the video. No one needs to see … a possibility of their family member being severely injured or otherwise, over and over and over again because it’s just traumatizing our community.”

To be clear, CNN wasn’t the only news outlet showing video of the bridge being hit by the ship and then collapsing. In fact, as far as I could tell, every major news network showed the video. And it was on the homepages of The New York Times and The Washington Post for most of Tuesday.

Often, accidents and tragedies are caught on video, and so a question arises: What responsibility do news organizations have when showing these kinds of videos?

When it comes to the Key Bridge collapse, I asked my colleague Kelly McBride, Poynter’s senior vice president and chair of Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership, to share her thoughts.

She told me, “The image of the bridge collapsing isn't particularly traumatic to the audience viewing it. The camera is quite distant, and it wasn't a targeted act of violence meant to terrorize, the way that 9/11 was or the many mass shootings that we've experienced. It was an accident, like a volcano erupting or an avalanche tumbling down.”

McBride added, “It is likely traumatic to the loved ones of the missing workers, as is all coverage of this news story, including images of the rescue operation and images of the bridge the moment before impact. For that reason, I could see some newsrooms electing to use a still image or limit the use of the video. But given the widespread distribution of the video, that won't make much of a difference in the overall use of it. I don't think using the video is particularly insensitive as long as the news coverage is advancing the story, by bringing in new perspectives and information.”

I also wanted to point you to a piece by Axios’ Zachary Basu and Sara Fischer: “Misinformation runs rampant after Baltimore bridge collapse.” They note how a bunch of conspiracy theories ran wild following the accident. Authorities were clear when they said there was no evidence that this was a terrorist attack.

Basu and Fischer wrote, “Rampant misinformation during mass casualty events is not a new phenomenon. But under Elon Musk's ownership of X, the platform has evolved from an essential real-time news source to a breeding ground for conspiracy theories.”

Gannett sheds three news executives

For this item, I turn it over to Poynter media business analyst Rick Edmonds

In a month that Gannett announced it is dropping its expensive Associated Press service, it has also parted company with three high-level news executives.

It was announced internally that Rachel Lobdell will leave the company and her position will be eliminated. She joined Gannett in May of last year and has been deputy to chief content officer Kristin Roberts.

Lobdell, a digital specialist, came to Gannett from a similar position at Fortune magazine, with earlier stops at Vice and The Wall Street Journal.

Senior director of news learning Cynthia Benjamin, who has spent her entire 36-year career at Gannett papers and corporate jobs, is also leaving. In a LinkedIn post, she said that she was contemplating retiring later this year but was told her last day would be April 1.

Roberts, who has been at Gannett for just over a year, declined a request for an interview about the changes. Chief communications officer Lark-Marie Antón said this should not be viewed as cutting back the news side of the company, Rather, Antón said, “Kristin is integrating teams and making strategic decisions to mitigate redundancies.”

A previously announced commitment to fill or add 800 editorial positions remains intact, Antón said.

In a third departure, Manny Garcia, executive editor of the Austin American-Statesman, resigned to become editor-in-chief of nonprofit startup Houston Landing. Besides holding one of the top big city editorships in the chain, Garcia had previously been editor of the Naples Daily News and an executive at Gannett corporate.

Gannett, the nation’s largest newspaper company with more than 200 outlets, has experienced heavy turnover in its top ranks over the last 18 months. News president Maribel Perez Wadsworth left in November 2022, and a year later was named president and CEO of the Knight Foundation. Amalie Nash, who oversaw editorial at the regional papers, has joined the nonprofit National Trust for News.

In other Gannett top editor departures, Garcia’s boss at Houston Landing, CEO Peter Bhatia, came to that position from the Detroit Free Press. And, George Stanley, the longtime editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, retired in December 2022 and has since become CEO of the nonprofit Wisconsin Watch.

Check it out

Take some time to check out this excellent piece from my Poynter colleague Amaris Castillo: “In New Orleans, a pioneering nonprofit newsroom ponders a future beyond its founder.”

Castillo writes about Karen Gadbois and The Lens — a nonprofit, nonpartisan public-interest newsroom.

Castillo writes, “In a time of growing news deserts, local newsroom closures, and what feels like a never-ending stream of job cuts at legacy news publications, The Lens — a pioneer in nonprofit news — operates with a newer and attention-grabbing business model. What comes next for it and for its co-founder? Even Gadbois herself seems unsure. But the answer is important for this newsroom and for an entire industry, where nonprofits are seen as a new way forward, but founders play an outsized role — and their retirement or departure can upend even successful endeavors.”

The Clark Effect

University of Iowa basketball star Caitlin Clark continues to make TV history. Iowa’s opening round game in the NCAA Tournament against Holy Cross last Saturday drew 3.23 million viewers on ABC, according to Sports Media Watch’s Jon Lewis. That made it the most-watched women’s tournament game ever before the Final Four. The previous high was when Clark’s Iowa team played Louisville in the Elite Eight — a game that drew 2.50 million TV viewers.

ESPN/ABC certainly breathed a sigh of relief on Monday night when Iowa was severely tested but survived for a 64-54 victory against West Virginia.

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Media tidbits

• Mediaite’s Colby Hall with “‘Such an (expletive)!’ Jon Stewart Gives Cutting Takedown of Kevin O’Leary Defending Trump Fraud.”
• The Daily Beast’s Justin Baragona with “Laura Ingraham’s Sidekick Vanishes From Fox News After Viral Clip About Black Voters.”
• For Nieman Lab, Hanaa’ Tameez with “War correspondent Jane Ferguson pulls back the curtain on her career covering global conflicts.”
• Smart and timely words from The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch: “Shohei Ohtani and sports media’s big gambling problem that isn’t going away.”

Hot type

• Stanford University sophomore Theo Baker, winner of a 2022 George Polk Award in Journalism, writes for The Atlantic: “The War at Stanford.”

More resources for journalists

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• Reporter’s Toolkit (Seminar) (May 7-June 11) — Get equipped with the tools you need to be successful and receive one-on-one coaching. Apply by April 28.
• Get the edge on reporting on the eight hot topics of the 2024 election with Beat Academy (webinar series) — Rolling enrollment from now through September. Enroll today.

Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected].