NBC & MSNBC Hired Ronna McDaniels Because They're No Longer "Leaning Forward."
The once-proud bastion of liberal, even sometimes progressive journalism has sold out. No more, no less.
Hello, friends,
Last week, we talked about social media hellscapes and the TikTok ban. Today, we’re moving on to more traditional media.
This week, in what promises to be a super-short article, we’re briefly discussing NBC and its pet news-front MSNBC, its latest decision as reported by The Daily Beast to hire recently drummed out Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, and its now-concrete commitment to conservative values.
You see, we first talked about MSNBC engaging in bullshit the week they fired Mehdi Hasan. Mehdi is best known for his interviewing talents, where he’d press his guests to answer his questions when they were being evasive. That apparently made MSNBC quite angry. Their official excuse, as I recall it, was that they were rearranging their programming to prepare for the 2024 election.
I guess that’s because they didn’t want their guests challenged in interviews?
So, now, NBC has hired the former head of the RNC to be an analyst, and I couldn’t be more disappointed with a network I used to love.
See, here’s the thing. As Mother Jones reminds us, not only was McDaniel extremely hostile to the press (and especially left-leaning MSNBC). Not only was she just supportive of Donald Trump’s coup attempt. No, no - she was on the phone for some of those calls.
She aided and abetted a coup attempt.
It’s unclear what NBC’s motive for hiring her is. The most charitable case I’ve seen presented is by Reddit user u/dormidormit that it’s some kind of ‘We need everyone we can get to beat Trump’ type of play. “Oh, McDaniel is on the outs with the Republican Party? Time to bring her on board, maybe she knows something we can use!” Or maybe it’s a “Hey, let’s try to broaden our audience by recruiting someone we don’t necessarily like, but someone who provides an new voice that’ll bring in new people.”
I disagree.
To the first point, McDaniel participated in the coup attempt. She was the obedient head of the RNC until, what, two weeks ago? Maybe? And there’s been no indication - none whatsoever - that the woman who removed the “Romney” from her name because her relative insulted Trump is suddenly going to go up against the rest of the Republican party. I’ve seen not one shred of evidence that she’s going to be of any kind of anti-Trump use.
To the second, I used to be a huge MSNBC viewer - their target demographic, at least once upon a time. I’d watch Countdown and then Maddow something like 3-5 times a week. More recently, I’d even put up with Neal “Child Slavery” Katyal’s presence to watch their shows. Oh, and my father died with MSNBC being the last thing he’d watched on TV. So I was invested in that channel. MSNBC mostly has a liberal viewer base. Bringing in a Fascist coupist is not going to retain much of that audience, and will probably endanger it. As for bringing in new viewers? Which Republicans do you think are eager to watch the “socialist” channel because Trump’s reject is on it?
Bad plan all around.
As to the least charitable case I could make? NBC’s parent company Comcast is simply interested in Trump’s victory in 2024, so it’s paying McDaniel for her services of alienating its own viewer base so that left-leaning folks have one less place they feel like they’ll get honest and accurate information from. That, and it’s paying McDaniel to “get revenge” by doing something “controversial,” like joining a liberal network, without actually having to do much of anything like endorsing and voting for Joe Biden.
Oh. And maybe they want to drive out other, more liberal journalists? Marisa Kabas, an MSNBC commentator, has railed against this decision. Maybe she and others will walk out (I obviously can’t speak for her or others). Maybe that’s their goal, or maybe that’s just an unintended consequence.
So, yeah, I’m vehemently against this. I’d sooner choke down my distaste for Ana Kasparian and Cenk Ugyur’s recent conservative turns and watch The Young Turks than I would watch MSNBC.
Or I guess you can just read The Progressive Cafe to get your information?
Thank you for reading The Progressive Cafe. If this article has helped you, please consider signing up for our mailing list. This article is by Jesse Pohlman, a former hyperlocal journalist and sci-fi/fantasy author from Long Island, New York, whose website you can check out here.