NBC News plans to dump Ronna McDaniel after staff revolt to her hiring: Report

 NBC News plans to remove Ronna McDaniel as a paid contributor after less than a week, according to a report Tuesday.

The report comes after the former chair of the Republican National Committee was signed on as an analyst last Friday. This was followed by a revolt by current and former employees and unprecedented on-air rebuke of network leadership by NBC and MSNBC hosts, including stars Rachel Maddow, Joy Reid and Nicole Wallace.

Puck News reported that NBC planned to fire McDaniel and that executives were discussing the details. It was also reported that McDaniel is seeking legal representation. There has been no official network announcement regarding McDaniel, but one is pending, reporter Dylan Byers wrote on X.

McDaniel, known for her close alliance with Donald Trump when he was RNC chair, came under criticism soon after her appointment was announced, over her efforts to overturn Trump's 2020 election loss and President Biden's victory. Due to their association with previous rhetoric being inappropriate. MSNBC president Rashida Jones, who initially signed off on bringing on McDaniel, had to reassure her progressive channel's talent that McDaniel would not appear on their "sacred airwaves", as Nicole Wallace put it.

McDaniel has made only one appearance as an analyst, and on Sunday had to be questioned by "Meet the Press" host Kristen Welker, who had already told viewers she was not involved in McDaniel's hiring. Subsequently, former host Chuck Todd criticized network leadership for the appointment and publicly aired NBC journalists' complaints over bringing in McDaniel, who was touted by NBC News political chief Carrie Budoff Brown as an important pick. Was.

"There's a reason a lot of NBC News journalists are uncomfortable with this, because many of our professional dealings with the RNC over the last six years have been accompanied by gaslighting, accompanied by character assassination," Todd said Sunday. He also called on NBC chiefs to apologize to Welker.

The following day, "Morning Joe" co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski ridiculed NBC for bringing in McDaniel, with Brzezinski saying he hoped "NBC will reconsider its decision."

Beginning Monday afternoon with Wallace, one of the faces of MSNBC's political coverage and a staunch supporter of the Democratic Party, partisan MSNBC hosts contributed to a coordinated pressure campaign against the network leadership.

MSNBC host Jen Psaki, the former Biden White House press secretary who also worked for Barack Obama, defensively rejected comparisons between her appointment and McDaniel's, saying she, unlike McDaniel, is dedicated to public service. Were. Rachel Maddow, who only hosts her show on Monday nights, devoted half her program to attacking the mercenaries, calling it "inexplicable."

"I want to join myself with all of my colleagues at both MSNBC and NBC News who have expressed strong and principled objection to our company keeping on the payroll of someone who has not only attacked us as journalists but , but rather a person who is part of an ongoing project to get rid of our system of government," Maddow said. "Somebody who is still trying to convince Americans that this election stuff - that it doesn't really work, that this last election, that this was not the real result, that American elections are fraudulent."

Some media viewers raised their eyebrows at the lukewarm response from NBC and MSNBC talent, given the roster of former Democratic flacks like Psaki, Simone Sanders-Townsend, Ben Rhodes and others.

The disastrous situation prompted critics to insist that pro-Trump voices are not welcome on mainstream media airwaves, although many of the hosts who rebuked their bosses for bringing up McDaniel were defensive about the notion that they were promoting intellectual diversity. Didn't want.

Psaki said, "Look, this is not about Republican versus Democrat. This is not about red versus blue. This is about truth versus lies. One committed to serving the country versus overthrowing our democratic system." Service to the individual."

Instead, he argued that McDaniel was vulnerable because she was tainted by the "Big Lie", a term often used in the media for the over-arching narrative promoted by Trump that the 2020 election was stolen from him, which The finale took place on 6 January. The Capitol riot, his second impeachment, and the subsequent federal indictment.

McDaniel did not respond to a request for comment.