Actually no, I didn’t. I did think NBC showed its true colors in hiring her. I think the volatile reaction from journalists inside and outside of NBC came as a complete surprise to NBC’s senior managers.
Their surprised reaction also confirmed my suspicion that NBC is very similar to Boeing in many respects.
Journalism requires seasoned and respected journalists in the same way that building safe airplanes requires seasoned and respected airplane engineers. Comparing NBC to Boeing, neither journalists or engineers are running those companies. Financial types are, and in both instances, those financial types are inexperienced in and far removed from the primary businesses of each company.
Hiring McDaniel was merely business as usual for a senior NBC manager looking for increased “entertainment” cash flow from a former RNC chief with the same belief systems they hold. The NBC leadership had no understanding about what business they are actually in relative to how far McDaniel had crossed over the line into unethical and potentially illegal behavior in promoting TFG’s lies and a stolen election. Their journalists knew and revolted violently.
In a sense McDaniel is like the door that blew out of a Boeing 737 Max airplane.
The unfolding Boeing story is that the airplane engineers knew something like that would happen because their management was clueless about building safe airplanes, Boeing’s primary business. The same cluelessness about not understanding what business their journalism company is in can be said about NBC’s senior management which is bolstered by the unfolding story that journalists have no say in how the company is run.
There are many similar stories in American companies and in our elected representatives: what business are they in and is the pursuit of profit their only goal?
You nailed it! The connection between bad decisions at Boeing and NBC is real. CEO's doing anything to make bonus profit levels by the next quarter would even destroy their own companies to do it. I worked at a place where three CEO's in a row took between six months to a year off for health reasons. No one noticed, the place functioned as it always had, but those CEO's didn't loose a dime. You can be sure they didn't work their way up through the ranks, strait from business graduate school to executive. They don't have a clue how the business works - common sense? ethics? Don't make me laugh.
Another example of profits over people to enrich the small minority
“Intel, the largest chip maker in America, with 2023 revenues of $54 billion, has just been awarded an $8.5 billion grant from the federal CHIPS and Science Act, plus $11 billion in favorable loans.
In addition to badly needed microchips, Intel produces totally useless stock buybacks. On its website the company proudly proclaims to have spent $152 billion on stock buybacks since 1990. That’s not a typo -- $152,000,000,000. Which is why it deserves to be called Stock Buybacks Я Us.
Intel took $152 billion of its revenues, some portion of which could have been used for R&D and building new microchip facilities in the U.S. as well as paying workers more, and instead funneled it to its largest Wall Street stockholders and corporate executives, enriching the top fraction of the top one percent.
A company repurchasing its own shares sees earnings per share rise because there are fewer shares in circulation. Share prices rise, though nothing new is made, and the largest stockholders, including top Intel executives, cash out with eye-popping profits. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger hauled in $179 million in 2021, most of it coming from stock-related compensation.
Stock buybacks are a form of stock manipulation, which is why they were outlawed by the Securities and Exchange Commission after the Great Depression, up until deregulation in 1982, that limited buybacks to two percent of profits. Now it’s all the buybacks Wall Street can eat, with nearly 70 percent of all corporate profits going to this form of stock manipulation. “
The upper classes won't be happy until we are all slaves. Sure, they'll let us have a little money; so they don't have to house and feed us, but in essence many of us already live paycheck to paycheck. Is that not a definition of slavery?
Excellent analysis! Journalists from NBC / Universal and the entire range of NBC / Uni news channels should have a role in vetting / hiring news consultants. There should likely be a permanent "vetting" committee.
Agreed. If you think deeply about what MBA training is supposed to do, a likely answer is that MBA training is intentionally aimed at improving the operational efficiency of the firm in pursuit of maximum profit. Operational efficiency and maximum profit in this context are purely financial because financial results are the sole metric that defines “success” in all business entities.
Thus, the fundamental MBA doctrines are LCP, the lowest cost of production, and market domination. LCP translates absolutely into the pursuit of cost efficiencies without regard for any impact on product quality or integrity, or on the perceptions of the end user, the general public, or the employees involved in creating and delivering the product. Market domination translates to the destruction of all competition in the delivery of products, or an intentional or unintentional collusion in how the market operates.
MBA LCP and market domination training doesn’t involve deep learning or understanding anything about the inherent nature of the products being produced, nor does it instill caution about using the learned tools in ways that will disrupt the underlying quality of the products being produced, or the communities in which they are produced. Externality impacts are specifically and intentionally ignored in the financial results at the time, but cannot be ignored after the fact.
The hubris of MBA LCP and market domination only becomes evident when catastrophes occur. Until then its practitioners think it’s the real thing.
The worst part of MBA generated hubris is that catastrophes can take many forms and result in unintentional knock-on impacts. Like, for example, the decimation of the working middle class of a country by allowing massive job offshoring in pursuit of LCP, or disrupting how government functions by creating financial incentives for elected representatives to support pursuit of corporate LCP and market domination at the expense of the long term viability of a nation or the well being of its citizens. Others include Boeing and NBC. The list is long.
Honestly, not in a million years. It’s all about money and ratings and I think that was the basis for hiring her. Turned out it may also have been the reason for firing her. The firestorm was overwhelming. Thankfully, people still care about democracy more than ratings and we let NBC know it.
They had to let her go quickly: they had a mutiny on their hands and they caused it themselves by either not recognizing how toxic and MAGA complicit and/or weak and sycophantic or all at once McDaniel was AND ALSO stupid to begin with by trying to guess they might need an “in” with Trump if he was elected when he had already threatened to go after NBC /Universal.
Had she not been a craven opportunist without a backbone and soul, morals & scruples, and without respect for the Constitution, Rule of Law with disgust for the BIG LIE she would not have enabled him to begin with. Had she been an “adult in the room as a guardrail at the RNC, she would have left him a long time ago as soon as he asked for his personal legal bills to be paid by the RNC.
(The “ask” for her to drop her “Romney name” was a sop to the master brander / grifter little insecure boy, but not the mark of a would be dictator / traitor. But McD was too ambitious herself.)
Ronna is lawyering up*: who knows how that will shake out: likely with her emerging many x a millionaire* happy to be an unemployed always Trumper. (No one believes she had “her own anti-Trumpism inside her” as RNC Director; her even saying that makes her despicable and too stupid to not have recognized the significance of her supporting Trump in Michigan and offering to provide lawyers with RNC money for those supporting the fake elector scheme.)
* NBC UNI knew all of that ahead of the hiring: they can’t credibly claim they were surprised about her background as a reason for NBC /MSNBC anchors not to want to work with her as a “colleague”.
NBC knew they were not hiring a journalist. How did NBC UNI envision she would be able to offer assistance in understanding “the inside” of the GOP during a 2024 election campaign when the only recent GOP experience McD has had was as a mascot to insurrectionists, grifters, and thugs and as an RNC “Director in Training or ‘Apprentice’ ” that did not even know how to get reputable GOP candidates funded and elected and how to keep Trump in line to support better and electable candidates?
NBC UNI will likely have to pay her big time —unless they have some Wizard lawyer and a great NBC UNI-oriented contract with McD—that can pull a rabbit out of a hat.
Let go or sent to a non-functioning backwater - yes. This quickly - no. I’d be curious to know besides the immediate overwhelming on-air negative responses by NBC news staff that was widely carried by lame stream media, how large was the emailed and social media response by the public (of which I was one) to NBC?
For trivia comparison, the infamous NBC cancellation of Star Trek in 1969 might be the biggest letter writing (pre email) campaign upon NBC ever, as devoted fans hearing rumors of cancellation wrote near the end of season two (December 1967) through and after cancellation in February 1969 (According to Wikipedia), NBC received 116,000 hand written and typed letters between December 1967 and March 1968, and according to a NBC executive, over one million letters of support over three years (including one from then NY Governor and future VP Nelson Rockefeller.).
I knew the pressure from staff and viewers would change her trajectory, for sure. They had to right the ship.
I know We The People have power to change things. We need to let those supporting Trump and Trump's network of people and organizations and corporations all hellbent on a Christofascist Nationalist Movement KKKrowd agenda know, that We The People do not accept that. We need to vote out MAGA and those complicit in keeping MAGA alive out of office.
We need to round up those responsible for the creation and promotion of Project 2025, a treasonous plan to strip away Democracy. Everyone involved is committing treason against our country, and like the January 6th Insurrectionists were rounded up and charged, so should these people. Lots of conspirators to take down Democracy. A Federal RICO case as well? 🤔
Honestly, I'm surprised NBC acted so quickly to get rid of her! I guess the heat was more than they could bear from the people who actually work for them. As I said several times during the last week, hiring McDaniel in the first place made no sense unless she was ready to dish the dish on The Trump Party....
When even Chuck Todd, an equivocating Hillary NeoLib jellyfish if I ever saw one (one of those "Donald Trump is better than Bernie Sanders because...SOCIALIZM!!!!!" types!), actually grew a spine for once in his life and publicly denounced McDaniel, that's when I suspected NBC might have overplayed their "balance to favor big-money sponsors" hand, big-time.
But, I'm sure NBC will recover its cowardice soon enough, probably just in time to hire RFK, Jr. for "Balance".
My husband was a public relations professional who worked with NY's top firms representing - well, all kinds. He also worked directly in media as a writer. From the moment she was hired, he said, "I give her one day. She'll be gone by tomorrow." As for me, barely a media follower at all, but fiercely political, I was simply elated the response came so quickly.
I have to admit reading about what happened and watching the included video short brought a smile to my day. Let’s hope this is a sign of things to come.
The entire Meet the Press episode can be viewed on YouTube. She was disgusting, never answering a question directly and seemed to be making it up as she went along, treading very carefully with her words. A huge round of applause to the journalists who did a round table at the end. Thanks to Chuck Todd for his summation. 🇺🇸💙🇺🇸💙
Elliot, I think your glad that Ronna McDaniel was hired on a whim by NBC news executives that only thought of market share and the decision was reversed when solid journalists revolted because what McDaniel did as RNC chair was against the rule of law. The integrity of journalism at NBC triumphed as senior NBC journalists from Chuck Todd to Morning Joe to Nicole Wallace to Rachael Maddow to Lawrence O’Donnell said their objections to Ms. McDaniel were not due to her political views but because she aided and abetted in criminal activities in Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election. NBC Universal management had to back down on the hire and the opinions of their finest journalists had to be respected.
This is the best commentary I have read yet on the Ronna McDaniel fiasco. Thank you Elliot. First, since 2015, mainsteam media has toed the trumpsters line. And they went downhill from there.
When the Covid pandemic hit us, they spouted all the trumnpster's lies and denials of scientific facts. I know science is difficult to understand (you, Elliot, are excepted) especially viruses. I've tried to help by posting in simple everyday language about what viruses are, and their frequent rates of mutation. I also acknowledged the problem that science is not exact like math is. What we in the scientific community accept today may change tomorrow as new data is discovered - and this is more true of biology than the other physical sciences. Even chemistry changes as more 'artificial' man-made elements are discovered in the enormous atom smashing machines.
But the trumpster's ignorance was beyond understanding and some of his stupid suggestions were downright dangerous and even fatal. But night after night they were given an audience on evening news. I'm sure Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw and you were gnashing youir teeth.
But that wasn't all, the mainstream news media covered his crazy outbursts about how 'honest' and 'believable' Putin was - more so than our own intelligence services. Even his "love affair" with Kim Jong Un was covered as though it were serious news.
I watched the entire January 6, 2021 attack on OUR Congressional Building; I happened to be home in California at the time and was on he phone with a friend in DC. I was concerned he might be in danger and we watched together - me on CNN he on MSNBC. I must admit the television news people were aghast at the harm to police officers, the damage to the Congress Building, the Legislators and Vice President running in fear of their lives. But as soon as the trumpster started down playing the insurrection as "peaceful tourists - just wanting to watch the proceedings" and "peaceably protesting" the "fake stolen election results" They were Johnny on the spot to film their idol.
Thank goodness the insurrection hearings were broadcast on CSPAN. You saw exactly what was happening.
Since then the mainstream media has been doing their "both sides tango" by which they obviously meant reporting every lie dribbling from the fat orange slug's mouth while repeatedly mentioning that Joe Biden was born with a stutter and "he would be the oldest elected president".
Now that Joe has served 1,161 very productive days, passed some really great legislature, that has actually helped people like me, an old (91) decrepit retired school teacher, social services worker, business analyst, subject matter expert, instead of Bezos, Musk, Hunt, and Koch what do they report - polls of "how well the trumpster is doing (which he's not) how well he is avoiding trials, and Joe's stutter and age. Only on Substack do I see reports of the trumpsters obvious onset of dementia, his less than admirable physical condition or even the fact he is approaching 78 with less brain power than Biden. No I don't miss TV at all.
Not only did the employed journalists of NBC revolt, so did viewers. I emailed the three women who had hired McDaniel to protest that hire. So did a lot of other Substack readers. I think we helped move McDaniel out the door. What on earth were they thinking? She's a traitor and should be charged in the false electors scheme.
But Lawrence O'Donnell said it best. "Why did you change your name for Donald Trump?"
NBC should send out bonuses to all their staff who strongly opposed Ronna Romney McDaniel’s hiring. Maybe divide up the $300,000 they were going to pay her a year . It wouldn’t be a big payday but the symbolism would be priceless.
After watching her interview on Meet the Press I learned more about McDaniel than just her being a typical Trump flack. She has serious gaslighting skills. But her reputation exploded her employment quicker than you can say Scaramucci.
When you bounce your family name for Trump you’ve told the world nothing is beneath you. Not even helping Trump plot America’s demise as a democracy. NBC heeded the calls from in the house to send Ronna Romney McDaniel back into the “ sympathetic” embrace of her once and future boss.
"The Confederacy of cowardly complicity" pretty much says it all. Thank you Elliot. A great way of looking at an awful situation. I was horrified at first and expressed my displeasure to NBC like most of us.
I'd hoped all of us speaking out would make a difference and they'd let her go but was I unsure. After watching Morning Joe yesterday I knew her days were numbered. So PTL for that. It's nice to know we really can make a difference.
I truly hope the Media Powers that Be have learned something valuable from this experience. Differing viewpoints and policy discussions are much needed but they are needed with people who are trustworthy, not known liars and supporters of insurrectionists. Contrary to what TFG and many on the right say the American people still do care about Ethics and Truth in Journalism and the Media. They still want the facts. It matters very much. ❤️🇺🇸💙
I smelled a rat when I heard RRMcD was hired by NBC! I couldn’t help but wonder that she already had some kind of an “in” and this was it: She formed a good rapport with two of the NBC Executives, per Politico:
“The NBC-McDaniel relationship was forged last year when NBC executives wooed her to land a Republican presidential debate, which was a high priority at the network. CNN had beat NBC in the race for a Trump town hall, and securing a debate took on extra significance. McDaniel’s price included a rebuke to the company’s own cable network: MSNBC would not be allowed to simulcast the debate. NBC took the deal.
Through that process McDaniel built a good rapport with NBC News executives CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN, senior vice president of politics, and REBECCA BLUMENSTEIN, president of editorial. McDaniel left the RNC, signed on with CAA and went looking for a TV contract. While McDaniel had talks with other networks — she was trying to avoid working for CNN but had serious discussions with ABC — NBC always had the inside track. “Ronna had a good experience with Carrie and Rebecca and felt more comfortable than with some of the other networks,” a person close to McDaniel said.”
to the real pambo. Thank you for this information. It makes me really sad that 3 women, women in positions to have a real voice have fallen prey to the profits over people mantra of todays business climate. Hopefully they have all learned something, will self reflect, and do better in the future.
Thank goodness vocalized sanity stirred this whiplash effect of now she’s hired, now she’s fired. What I find so unbelievable is that January 6, 2021, still has not received the shock and disgust it deserves. The potential that pardons might occur for those who defiled our democracies core values that day, causes me to shutter with horror for our future. I was a senior in high school, in an American Lit class when the librarian dashed into our class and whispered something to our instructor. What has happened ? I surely do need Mr Rather, Dr. Richardson and Mr Kirschner to keep nudging me to have hope. Thank you Francis Scott Keys for writing the words that became our anthem, the Star Spangled Banner.
Susan, I am so sorry that your life has been so impacted by the MAGA movement. Adversity can also be a great teacher. I was in high school and heard about the assignations of both Kemedy’s and Martin Luther King Jr,, heard about the lynchings, killings, bombings and bringing out the national guard while trying to integrate schools, buses, restaurants, etc. The 1968 riots in Chicago were horrific, but we also had the women’s movement, the protests against Vietnam, winning many civil rights actions. All generations have had their highlights and their disgraces. We can’t go back. New technologies will continue to evolve and we will need to regulate them for the common good. I am so glad to see how involved you are. There is still much to be hopeful about. You might also like Robert Reich’s substack.
Where is the mainstream press? Sure, we will never hear the truth from Fox. But where are the rest of them? Hiding behind their 'report both sides' policies? They have no problem reporting Republican lies. Whatever happened to fact checking, challenging, and reporting the truth? Why aren't they doing their JOBS?
The 'Free Press' in America is a joke. What are we up to now? 7 or 8 'entities' control 80% of the mass media in the U.S.? Not to be too cynical, but I’m guessing that the ‘wants’ of the shareholders are prioritized long before the ‘needs’ of the Republic are even considered. Collusion? Hell, a couple of 4-somes at Pebble Beach will take care of hiding that minor issue.
Thankful that we have the Substackers. I sure wish the rest of America did!
They were after $$$ from increased ratings and hedging bets in case Trump is elected because he’s said he’ll go after NBC & MSNBC. But principled journalists and anchors denied them the $$$. Also: Trump will go after NBC /MSNBC anyway if ge wants to regardless of whether McD is at NBC.
It's all about corporate, Elliot, and journalism wasn't even anywhere on the bus. We all know journalism is in crisis, as corporate continues to eat away at journalism.
Dear Readers, I'm curious to know if you thought she would be fired, and so quickly?
Actually no, I didn’t. I did think NBC showed its true colors in hiring her. I think the volatile reaction from journalists inside and outside of NBC came as a complete surprise to NBC’s senior managers.
Their surprised reaction also confirmed my suspicion that NBC is very similar to Boeing in many respects.
Journalism requires seasoned and respected journalists in the same way that building safe airplanes requires seasoned and respected airplane engineers. Comparing NBC to Boeing, neither journalists or engineers are running those companies. Financial types are, and in both instances, those financial types are inexperienced in and far removed from the primary businesses of each company.
Hiring McDaniel was merely business as usual for a senior NBC manager looking for increased “entertainment” cash flow from a former RNC chief with the same belief systems they hold. The NBC leadership had no understanding about what business they are actually in relative to how far McDaniel had crossed over the line into unethical and potentially illegal behavior in promoting TFG’s lies and a stolen election. Their journalists knew and revolted violently.
In a sense McDaniel is like the door that blew out of a Boeing 737 Max airplane.
The unfolding Boeing story is that the airplane engineers knew something like that would happen because their management was clueless about building safe airplanes, Boeing’s primary business. The same cluelessness about not understanding what business their journalism company is in can be said about NBC’s senior management which is bolstered by the unfolding story that journalists have no say in how the company is run.
There are many similar stories in American companies and in our elected representatives: what business are they in and is the pursuit of profit their only goal?
You nailed it! The connection between bad decisions at Boeing and NBC is real. CEO's doing anything to make bonus profit levels by the next quarter would even destroy their own companies to do it. I worked at a place where three CEO's in a row took between six months to a year off for health reasons. No one noticed, the place functioned as it always had, but those CEO's didn't loose a dime. You can be sure they didn't work their way up through the ranks, strait from business graduate school to executive. They don't have a clue how the business works - common sense? ethics? Don't make me laugh.
https://lesleopold.substack.com/p/chips-ahoy-for-stock-buybacks-us?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1972574&post_id=142978156&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=f14pb&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Another example of profits over people to enrich the small minority
“Intel, the largest chip maker in America, with 2023 revenues of $54 billion, has just been awarded an $8.5 billion grant from the federal CHIPS and Science Act, plus $11 billion in favorable loans.
In addition to badly needed microchips, Intel produces totally useless stock buybacks. On its website the company proudly proclaims to have spent $152 billion on stock buybacks since 1990. That’s not a typo -- $152,000,000,000. Which is why it deserves to be called Stock Buybacks Я Us.
Intel took $152 billion of its revenues, some portion of which could have been used for R&D and building new microchip facilities in the U.S. as well as paying workers more, and instead funneled it to its largest Wall Street stockholders and corporate executives, enriching the top fraction of the top one percent.
A company repurchasing its own shares sees earnings per share rise because there are fewer shares in circulation. Share prices rise, though nothing new is made, and the largest stockholders, including top Intel executives, cash out with eye-popping profits. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger hauled in $179 million in 2021, most of it coming from stock-related compensation.
Stock buybacks are a form of stock manipulation, which is why they were outlawed by the Securities and Exchange Commission after the Great Depression, up until deregulation in 1982, that limited buybacks to two percent of profits. Now it’s all the buybacks Wall Street can eat, with nearly 70 percent of all corporate profits going to this form of stock manipulation. “
The upper classes won't be happy until we are all slaves. Sure, they'll let us have a little money; so they don't have to house and feed us, but in essence many of us already live paycheck to paycheck. Is that not a definition of slavery?
Excellent analysis! Journalists from NBC / Universal and the entire range of NBC / Uni news channels should have a role in vetting / hiring news consultants. There should likely be a permanent "vetting" committee.
I think that the worst thing that happened to business and the economy was the creation and popularization of the MBA degree.
Agreed. If you think deeply about what MBA training is supposed to do, a likely answer is that MBA training is intentionally aimed at improving the operational efficiency of the firm in pursuit of maximum profit. Operational efficiency and maximum profit in this context are purely financial because financial results are the sole metric that defines “success” in all business entities.
Thus, the fundamental MBA doctrines are LCP, the lowest cost of production, and market domination. LCP translates absolutely into the pursuit of cost efficiencies without regard for any impact on product quality or integrity, or on the perceptions of the end user, the general public, or the employees involved in creating and delivering the product. Market domination translates to the destruction of all competition in the delivery of products, or an intentional or unintentional collusion in how the market operates.
MBA LCP and market domination training doesn’t involve deep learning or understanding anything about the inherent nature of the products being produced, nor does it instill caution about using the learned tools in ways that will disrupt the underlying quality of the products being produced, or the communities in which they are produced. Externality impacts are specifically and intentionally ignored in the financial results at the time, but cannot be ignored after the fact.
The hubris of MBA LCP and market domination only becomes evident when catastrophes occur. Until then its practitioners think it’s the real thing.
The worst part of MBA generated hubris is that catastrophes can take many forms and result in unintentional knock-on impacts. Like, for example, the decimation of the working middle class of a country by allowing massive job offshoring in pursuit of LCP, or disrupting how government functions by creating financial incentives for elected representatives to support pursuit of corporate LCP and market domination at the expense of the long term viability of a nation or the well being of its citizens. Others include Boeing and NBC. The list is long.
I am pleasantly surprised to see her fired and so quickly. I’m encouraged seeing the public and the news professionals stand up and demand her firing.
Honestly, not in a million years. It’s all about money and ratings and I think that was the basis for hiring her. Turned out it may also have been the reason for firing her. The firestorm was overwhelming. Thankfully, people still care about democracy more than ratings and we let NBC know it.
Never in a million years. But the backlash was powerful. What were they thinking, to begin with?
Was not expecting it, but as it turns out... hats off to the Journalists who took a stand! ...with a capital "J".
I was hopeful. Now they need to complete the job by firing those who hired her. I'm sure there's room for them at Fox "news"
They had to let her go quickly: they had a mutiny on their hands and they caused it themselves by either not recognizing how toxic and MAGA complicit and/or weak and sycophantic or all at once McDaniel was AND ALSO stupid to begin with by trying to guess they might need an “in” with Trump if he was elected when he had already threatened to go after NBC /Universal.
Had she not been a craven opportunist without a backbone and soul, morals & scruples, and without respect for the Constitution, Rule of Law with disgust for the BIG LIE she would not have enabled him to begin with. Had she been an “adult in the room as a guardrail at the RNC, she would have left him a long time ago as soon as he asked for his personal legal bills to be paid by the RNC.
(The “ask” for her to drop her “Romney name” was a sop to the master brander / grifter little insecure boy, but not the mark of a would be dictator / traitor. But McD was too ambitious herself.)
Ronna is lawyering up*: who knows how that will shake out: likely with her emerging many x a millionaire* happy to be an unemployed always Trumper. (No one believes she had “her own anti-Trumpism inside her” as RNC Director; her even saying that makes her despicable and too stupid to not have recognized the significance of her supporting Trump in Michigan and offering to provide lawyers with RNC money for those supporting the fake elector scheme.)
* NBC UNI knew all of that ahead of the hiring: they can’t credibly claim they were surprised about her background as a reason for NBC /MSNBC anchors not to want to work with her as a “colleague”.
NBC knew they were not hiring a journalist. How did NBC UNI envision she would be able to offer assistance in understanding “the inside” of the GOP during a 2024 election campaign when the only recent GOP experience McD has had was as a mascot to insurrectionists, grifters, and thugs and as an RNC “Director in Training or ‘Apprentice’ ” that did not even know how to get reputable GOP candidates funded and elected and how to keep Trump in line to support better and electable candidates?
NBC UNI will likely have to pay her big time —unless they have some Wizard lawyer and a great NBC UNI-oriented contract with McD—that can pull a rabbit out of a hat.
A disgrace to the Romney family for sure.
Phyllis , I hope they do have to pay her her full contract amount, They need to hurt a little for making such a dumb decision.
Let go or sent to a non-functioning backwater - yes. This quickly - no. I’d be curious to know besides the immediate overwhelming on-air negative responses by NBC news staff that was widely carried by lame stream media, how large was the emailed and social media response by the public (of which I was one) to NBC?
For trivia comparison, the infamous NBC cancellation of Star Trek in 1969 might be the biggest letter writing (pre email) campaign upon NBC ever, as devoted fans hearing rumors of cancellation wrote near the end of season two (December 1967) through and after cancellation in February 1969 (According to Wikipedia), NBC received 116,000 hand written and typed letters between December 1967 and March 1968, and according to a NBC executive, over one million letters of support over three years (including one from then NY Governor and future VP Nelson Rockefeller.).
I knew the pressure from staff and viewers would change her trajectory, for sure. They had to right the ship.
I know We The People have power to change things. We need to let those supporting Trump and Trump's network of people and organizations and corporations all hellbent on a Christofascist Nationalist Movement KKKrowd agenda know, that We The People do not accept that. We need to vote out MAGA and those complicit in keeping MAGA alive out of office.
We need to round up those responsible for the creation and promotion of Project 2025, a treasonous plan to strip away Democracy. Everyone involved is committing treason against our country, and like the January 6th Insurrectionists were rounded up and charged, so should these people. Lots of conspirators to take down Democracy. A Federal RICO case as well? 🤔
Didn't think it'd be that quick. I thought I'd be after a lawsuit
Honestly, I'm surprised NBC acted so quickly to get rid of her! I guess the heat was more than they could bear from the people who actually work for them. As I said several times during the last week, hiring McDaniel in the first place made no sense unless she was ready to dish the dish on The Trump Party....
When even Chuck Todd, an equivocating Hillary NeoLib jellyfish if I ever saw one (one of those "Donald Trump is better than Bernie Sanders because...SOCIALIZM!!!!!" types!), actually grew a spine for once in his life and publicly denounced McDaniel, that's when I suspected NBC might have overplayed their "balance to favor big-money sponsors" hand, big-time.
But, I'm sure NBC will recover its cowardice soon enough, probably just in time to hire RFK, Jr. for "Balance".
My husband was a public relations professional who worked with NY's top firms representing - well, all kinds. He also worked directly in media as a writer. From the moment she was hired, he said, "I give her one day. She'll be gone by tomorrow." As for me, barely a media follower at all, but fiercely political, I was simply elated the response came so quickly.
Sorry, absolutely not!
Hi Vickie, the NBC journalists and commentators went all out against it, risking their jobs.
I have to admit reading about what happened and watching the included video short brought a smile to my day. Let’s hope this is a sign of things to come.
The entire Meet the Press episode can be viewed on YouTube. She was disgusting, never answering a question directly and seemed to be making it up as she went along, treading very carefully with her words. A huge round of applause to the journalists who did a round table at the end. Thanks to Chuck Todd for his summation. 🇺🇸💙🇺🇸💙
And there was a huge backlash on the comments section.
Dead right! Here’s to more frequent moments of clarity!
Bravo! I am so happy to read this. Now, tell us tRump is going to jail! We will all be ecstatic!! TIA
Elliot, I think your glad that Ronna McDaniel was hired on a whim by NBC news executives that only thought of market share and the decision was reversed when solid journalists revolted because what McDaniel did as RNC chair was against the rule of law. The integrity of journalism at NBC triumphed as senior NBC journalists from Chuck Todd to Morning Joe to Nicole Wallace to Rachael Maddow to Lawrence O’Donnell said their objections to Ms. McDaniel were not due to her political views but because she aided and abetted in criminal activities in Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election. NBC Universal management had to back down on the hire and the opinions of their finest journalists had to be respected.
I especially liked Lawrence O’Donnell’s and Rachel Maddows commentary’s on the subject.
This is the best commentary I have read yet on the Ronna McDaniel fiasco. Thank you Elliot. First, since 2015, mainsteam media has toed the trumpsters line. And they went downhill from there.
When the Covid pandemic hit us, they spouted all the trumnpster's lies and denials of scientific facts. I know science is difficult to understand (you, Elliot, are excepted) especially viruses. I've tried to help by posting in simple everyday language about what viruses are, and their frequent rates of mutation. I also acknowledged the problem that science is not exact like math is. What we in the scientific community accept today may change tomorrow as new data is discovered - and this is more true of biology than the other physical sciences. Even chemistry changes as more 'artificial' man-made elements are discovered in the enormous atom smashing machines.
But the trumpster's ignorance was beyond understanding and some of his stupid suggestions were downright dangerous and even fatal. But night after night they were given an audience on evening news. I'm sure Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw and you were gnashing youir teeth.
But that wasn't all, the mainstream news media covered his crazy outbursts about how 'honest' and 'believable' Putin was - more so than our own intelligence services. Even his "love affair" with Kim Jong Un was covered as though it were serious news.
I watched the entire January 6, 2021 attack on OUR Congressional Building; I happened to be home in California at the time and was on he phone with a friend in DC. I was concerned he might be in danger and we watched together - me on CNN he on MSNBC. I must admit the television news people were aghast at the harm to police officers, the damage to the Congress Building, the Legislators and Vice President running in fear of their lives. But as soon as the trumpster started down playing the insurrection as "peaceful tourists - just wanting to watch the proceedings" and "peaceably protesting" the "fake stolen election results" They were Johnny on the spot to film their idol.
Thank goodness the insurrection hearings were broadcast on CSPAN. You saw exactly what was happening.
Since then the mainstream media has been doing their "both sides tango" by which they obviously meant reporting every lie dribbling from the fat orange slug's mouth while repeatedly mentioning that Joe Biden was born with a stutter and "he would be the oldest elected president".
Now that Joe has served 1,161 very productive days, passed some really great legislature, that has actually helped people like me, an old (91) decrepit retired school teacher, social services worker, business analyst, subject matter expert, instead of Bezos, Musk, Hunt, and Koch what do they report - polls of "how well the trumpster is doing (which he's not) how well he is avoiding trials, and Joe's stutter and age. Only on Substack do I see reports of the trumpsters obvious onset of dementia, his less than admirable physical condition or even the fact he is approaching 78 with less brain power than Biden. No I don't miss TV at all.
Although I believed they'd bench her eventually, I was surprised how quickly NBC management pulled the plug.
AB Stoddard noted, "the truth does not have two sides."
Journalism cannot be fair or balanced when performative liars are platformed and handed a microphone.
Not only did the employed journalists of NBC revolt, so did viewers. I emailed the three women who had hired McDaniel to protest that hire. So did a lot of other Substack readers. I think we helped move McDaniel out the door. What on earth were they thinking? She's a traitor and should be charged in the false electors scheme.
But Lawrence O'Donnell said it best. "Why did you change your name for Donald Trump?"
Amen!! Well said.
NBC should send out bonuses to all their staff who strongly opposed Ronna Romney McDaniel’s hiring. Maybe divide up the $300,000 they were going to pay her a year . It wouldn’t be a big payday but the symbolism would be priceless.
After watching her interview on Meet the Press I learned more about McDaniel than just her being a typical Trump flack. She has serious gaslighting skills. But her reputation exploded her employment quicker than you can say Scaramucci.
When you bounce your family name for Trump you’ve told the world nothing is beneath you. Not even helping Trump plot America’s demise as a democracy. NBC heeded the calls from in the house to send Ronna Romney McDaniel back into the “ sympathetic” embrace of her once and future boss.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
"The Confederacy of cowardly complicity" pretty much says it all. Thank you Elliot. A great way of looking at an awful situation. I was horrified at first and expressed my displeasure to NBC like most of us.
I'd hoped all of us speaking out would make a difference and they'd let her go but was I unsure. After watching Morning Joe yesterday I knew her days were numbered. So PTL for that. It's nice to know we really can make a difference.
I truly hope the Media Powers that Be have learned something valuable from this experience. Differing viewpoints and policy discussions are much needed but they are needed with people who are trustworthy, not known liars and supporters of insurrectionists. Contrary to what TFG and many on the right say the American people still do care about Ethics and Truth in Journalism and the Media. They still want the facts. It matters very much. ❤️🇺🇸💙
I smelled a rat when I heard RRMcD was hired by NBC! I couldn’t help but wonder that she already had some kind of an “in” and this was it: She formed a good rapport with two of the NBC Executives, per Politico:
“The NBC-McDaniel relationship was forged last year when NBC executives wooed her to land a Republican presidential debate, which was a high priority at the network. CNN had beat NBC in the race for a Trump town hall, and securing a debate took on extra significance. McDaniel’s price included a rebuke to the company’s own cable network: MSNBC would not be allowed to simulcast the debate. NBC took the deal.
Through that process McDaniel built a good rapport with NBC News executives CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN, senior vice president of politics, and REBECCA BLUMENSTEIN, president of editorial. McDaniel left the RNC, signed on with CAA and went looking for a TV contract. While McDaniel had talks with other networks — she was trying to avoid working for CNN but had serious discussions with ABC — NBC always had the inside track. “Ronna had a good experience with Carrie and Rebecca and felt more comfortable than with some of the other networks,” a person close to McDaniel said.”
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2024/03/25/inside-nbcs-mcdaniel-meltdown-00148769
to the real pambo. Thank you for this information. It makes me really sad that 3 women, women in positions to have a real voice have fallen prey to the profits over people mantra of todays business climate. Hopefully they have all learned something, will self reflect, and do better in the future.
Spot on!
I thought it would take a little longer. Now we know how fast our opinions reach a target.
Thank goodness vocalized sanity stirred this whiplash effect of now she’s hired, now she’s fired. What I find so unbelievable is that January 6, 2021, still has not received the shock and disgust it deserves. The potential that pardons might occur for those who defiled our democracies core values that day, causes me to shutter with horror for our future. I was a senior in high school, in an American Lit class when the librarian dashed into our class and whispered something to our instructor. What has happened ? I surely do need Mr Rather, Dr. Richardson and Mr Kirschner to keep nudging me to have hope. Thank you Francis Scott Keys for writing the words that became our anthem, the Star Spangled Banner.
Susan, I am so sorry that your life has been so impacted by the MAGA movement. Adversity can also be a great teacher. I was in high school and heard about the assignations of both Kemedy’s and Martin Luther King Jr,, heard about the lynchings, killings, bombings and bringing out the national guard while trying to integrate schools, buses, restaurants, etc. The 1968 riots in Chicago were horrific, but we also had the women’s movement, the protests against Vietnam, winning many civil rights actions. All generations have had their highlights and their disgraces. We can’t go back. New technologies will continue to evolve and we will need to regulate them for the common good. I am so glad to see how involved you are. There is still much to be hopeful about. You might also like Robert Reich’s substack.
I have hope, and this is what I believe:
HOPE > OUTRAGE(S)💥
Where is the mainstream press? Sure, we will never hear the truth from Fox. But where are the rest of them? Hiding behind their 'report both sides' policies? They have no problem reporting Republican lies. Whatever happened to fact checking, challenging, and reporting the truth? Why aren't they doing their JOBS?
The 'Free Press' in America is a joke. What are we up to now? 7 or 8 'entities' control 80% of the mass media in the U.S.? Not to be too cynical, but I’m guessing that the ‘wants’ of the shareholders are prioritized long before the ‘needs’ of the Republic are even considered. Collusion? Hell, a couple of 4-somes at Pebble Beach will take care of hiding that minor issue.
Thankful that we have the Substackers. I sure wish the rest of America did!
What was NBC thinking?
They weren't.
They were after $$$ from increased ratings and hedging bets in case Trump is elected because he’s said he’ll go after NBC & MSNBC. But principled journalists and anchors denied them the $$$. Also: Trump will go after NBC /MSNBC anyway if ge wants to regardless of whether McD is at NBC.
It's all about corporate, Elliot, and journalism wasn't even anywhere on the bus. We all know journalism is in crisis, as corporate continues to eat away at journalism.