During the last days of March, the NBC/MSNBC executives, including MSNBC president Rashida Jones, hired Ronna McDaniel as political commentator for their shows. McDaniel was the outgoing chair of the Republican National Committee. She was replaced by North Carolina Republican Party chair Michael Whatley, with Trump daughter-in-law Lara Trump acting as co-chair.
The appointment of McDaniel to her NBC post apparently was intended to encourage her to leak some information that would be helpful in downplaying Trump's image. She would be, they hoped, another Liz Cheney who attacked Trump on the January 6 commission, but who was subsequently defeated by Rep. Hageman in the GOP primary in Wyoming. McDaniel's appointment immediately brought condemnation from the chief network program leaders. Her only appearance was on Chuck Todd's Meet the Press show the following Sunday morning. Todd tore into her for her previous support of Trump. Joe Scarborough and Mike Brzezinski joined the chorus on their other shows.
However, the best opposition was when Rachael Maddow had a hissy fit for 29 minutes on her show. She called the hiring "inexplicable." McDaniel, she said, was "someone who is part of an ongoing project to get rid of our system of government." It was like hiring a mobster to work at a DA's office. "You wouldn't hire a pickpocket to work as a TSA screener" would you, she queried, adding that she hoped the NBC executives would reverse their decision. That they did, when most of the NBC/MSNBC network stars revolted.
McDaniel could have commented on the millions of illegals, many of whom were multiple perpetrators of crime, who have broken our immigration laws in the last three and a half years. She could have said that previously both Democratic presidents Obama and Clinton had proclaimed that we were a nation of laws, and those laws forbade illegal entry. Furthermore, she could have commented that inflation had caused prices to skyrocket 13% since Biden took office. "Look at grocery store prices!" she could have exclaimed. These, and many more such comments, illustrated risks that the network stars were unprepared to take if McDaniel was permitted to stay as commentator.
A few days later Savannah Guthrie of NBC news straddled the fence. She said that "it was an unpleasant few days at our network, no question about it. I think the instinct to try to have a diversity of opinions and a diversity of perspectives and voices as we cover an election is the right perspective...but there's a line. The line is truth. The line is facts." But as an infamous biblical character once asked, "what is truth?" Who makes that decision? We need to hear many points of view in order to come to our own decision about the truth. Referring to NBC's decision to cancel McDaniel's contract, Geraldo Rivera who has been on both political sides said: "This is censorship." He's right. Anyone who blanks out other points of view can be extremely biased in his or her view of the truth. Geraldo accused the NBC network of arrogance.
My personal practice is to watch NBC both in the mornings and also at lunchtime; ABC for evening news, (including Wheel of Fortune!) and Fox news later on. I tune in to Fox Business from time to time to see if I still have any money left in my stock account. I'm hoping this gives me a balanced view of national and world affairs. There are those who say you should never listen to Fox, and Hannity in particular. Do they get a balanced opinion?
Peter Gilderson, Madison.
