NBC News has taken heat from both sides of the political aisle for the announced plans to hire former Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel — and now the story has taken a twist.
The network reportedly has abandoned the plans to hire McDaniel.
“SCOOP … NBC NEWS plans to drop ex RNC-chair Ronna McDaniel as a paid contributor following on-air revolt from NBC/MSNBC talent. Execs are deliberating over details; announcement pending,” Dylan Byers of Puck News wrote in a Tuesday post on the X social media platform.
“Meanwhile, McDaniel is seeking legal representation,” Byers said.
SCOOP @PuckNews: NBC NEWS plans to drop ex RNC-chair Ronna McDaniel as a paid contributor following on-air revolt from NBC/MSNBC talent. Execs are deliberating over details; announcement pending. Meanwhile, McDaniel is seeking legal representation.
Full details, scoops &…
— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) March 26, 2024
The backtracking by NBC News comes after McDaniel appeared on the air only a single time amid protests over her hiring from the left and right alike.
She seems to be having a problem finding any allies since being deposed as the chairwoman of the RNC.
McDaniel announced on March 8 that she was stepping down from her position heading up the political arm of the GOP.
Should Ronna McDaniel have signed a deal with NBC News?
The now-former GOP chairwoman was then at loose ends — and apparently thought her soft landing sport would be as a commentator for NBC and MSNBC.
Almost as soon as her new role was announced, however, members of the left-wing media establishment erupted in angst.
Former “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd, for one, was furious that his former network was jumping in bed with McDaniel.
Todd was sympathetic to host Kristen Welker over the hire during an appearance on his former show on Sunday.
“Our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation because I don’t know what to believe,” he told Welker. “I don’t have any idea whether any answer she gave to you was because she didn’t want to mess up her contract.”
Todd added that McDaniel “has credibility issues that she has to deal with: Is she speaking for herself or is she speaking on behalf of who is paying for her?”
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow also blasted her bosses for hiring McDaniel, according to The Hill.
“If you care what I think about this, the fact that Ms. McDaniel is on the payroll at NBC News — to me that is inexplicable,” Maddow said on her show on Monday. “You wouldn’t hire a wise guy, a made man like a mobster, to work in a DA’s office. You wouldn’t hire a pickpocket to work as a TSA screener. And so, I find the decision to put her on the payroll inexplicable.”
It looks like all the far-left “journalists” complaining about the network’s new hire led NBC News executives to experience a slight change of heart.
However, leftists aren’t the only ones unhappy about McDaniel joining the liberal media as the voice of Republicans.
She wore out her welcome with many on the right as well after years of poor leadership of the RNC.
