I was trying to see if there was any more tea being spilt from NBC/MSNBC staff over the Ronna McDaniel debacle. Sadly, most of the staff is leaking to Puck, and I cannot afford to be a subscriber. But Joan Walsh of The Nation had some insights about some of the named idiots behind the hiring/firing of Ronna McDaniel — Cesar Conde and Carrie Budoff Brown. However, what struck me was Walsh’s list of on air hosts at MSNBC who went public with their mutiny and those who remained silent.
The list of the silent confirmed my impressions about the more worthless hosts on MSNBC, which I will get into in a moment.
First, Walsh states what we all must be thinking about Cesar Conde’s statement firing Ronna McDaniel:
“I have decided that Ronna McDaniel will not be an NBC News contributor,” NBC News head Cesar Conde wrote in a memo to staff. “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.”
“I have decided.” How lordly.
Walsh has a great point. No, “After consulting with senior management and our staffers, a consensus was reached that the hiring of Ronna McDaniel was a mistake and needed to be addressed...” The lord of NBC saw the peasants with pitchforks heading his way, and he tossed McDaniel out to them.
And Walsh calls Conde and Brown stupid. No ifs, ands, or buts.
But she has another read on why hiring an obvious insurrectionist was a terrible idea. By now, you have all have read the BS email sent out by Brown stating that NBC needed McDaniel’s politcal insights and “voice.” Walsh states what everyone else already knew: McDaniel sucks on TV.
Yes, McDaniel supported Trump’s election lies and his insurrection. It should have disqualified her. But also, in television terms: She was not charismatic, convincing, or even articulate. If you watched her on Sunday with beleaguered Meet the Press host Kristen Welker, who said she booked the interview with McDaniel before she knew the RNC flack was hired as a contributor, you know this.
McDaniel sputtered, and lied, repeatedly. She claimed that she was merely worried about the safety of Wayne County, Mich., election officials—yes, Detroit is the county seat—when she and Trump called (the call was recorded) to urge them not to certify their local election results. That was bullshit. Trump and McDaniel were plainly trying to get their local allies to refuse to certify the vote in a major Democratic stronghold. Welker tried to counter as many lies as she could, but it was like playing television whack-a-mole.
And Walsh points out that even the RNC forced her out of her job. Yes, it was at Trump’s order, but still, what great insight does a fired political hack bring to any network? And even her “extended family” of the Romney’s want nothing to do with her now.
But what also struck me with Walsh’s article was the list of MSNBC hosts who risked thier jobs to say, “OH HELL NO!” to hiring an insurrectionist at NBC. I didn't get to see all the shows that day because I wasn’t glued to MSNBC all day long. I did manage to see the hosts from 4 P.M. onward, and I saw the clip from Joe Scarborough’s show.
But here are the hosts who said NOTHING about NBC hiring Ronna McDaniel: Ana Cabrera, Jose Diaz-Balart, Andrea Mitchell, Chris Jansing, and Katy Tur.
I don’t get to watch Cabrera or Diaz-Balart, so I don’t know how — how can I say this politely? — beltway media they are. I suspect that both don’t feel they have enough of a following to rock the boat, so they decided to stay quiet to keep their jobs.
However, what’s Andrea Mitchell’s fucking excuse for staying silent? Frankly, Mitchell needs to retire because she is just going through the motions. When she interviews some Republican, Mitchell usually lets the Republican say whatever the fuck he/she wants with no pushback. Besides being in her job too long, my impression of Mitchell is she is now Ms. Beltway Media Establishment.
As evidence of this, I give you the Valerie Plame affair during the George W. Bush Administration. Mitchell landed herself in the middle of the Bush’s attempts to attack her husband Joe Wilson, a critic of Bush’s Iraq War. Scooter Libby used reporters to out an undercover CIA agent, Valerie Plame, in retaliation for Wilson’s criticism that Bush lied about uranium yellow cake being purchased by Iraq from Niger.
One of those reporters was Andrea Mitchell, and she claimed that EVERYONE IN D.C. KNEW THAT VALERIE BLAME WAS A CIA AGENT! This was a lie, and Mitchell tried to back pedal when she stated this. Here is a link to a transcript of Mitchell explaining how she “messed up” with regards to Valerie Plame.
Given how buddy buddy Mitchell is with Republicans in D.C., she is in no danger of ever losing her job. Besides, Mitchell is a — ahem — feminist icon to many women reporters. She blazed a trail for other women reporters to follow, so Mitchell can remain in her job until she keels over from a heart attack.
But we go nothing but silence from Mitchell, according to Walsh.
As for Chris Jansing, she’s typical beltway media.
And I have written previously about Katy Tur being a sellout and her arrogant view that the media has been too critical of little things like segregation, the Vietnam War, and politically motivated violence from the police (1968 Chicago Democratic Convention police riot wasn’t really all that bad or even a riot started by the police). What gets under Tur’s skin is when the two sides in D.C. cannot “compromise” (it’s ALWAYS both sides at fault!).
Hopefully, more of the NBC and MSNBC staff will leak to outlets that do not ask for subscriptions. It’s nice to get confirmation of what most of us have known for decades about the media. We aren’t a bunch of conspiracy theorists when we say that corporate ownership of the media has ruined how Americans get any information on politics.