Media Bias

[rasetsu]

I liked Rev's version better.

[Brian Peacock]

[L'Emmerdeur]

Speaking of 'balance' in media, the nominally 'liberal' MSNBC just hired the inveterate liar and reliable source of disinformation, Ronna Romney McDaniel, who recently vacated the chair of the Republican National Committee (making way for Lara Trump).

'"Handmaid of American Fascism": Ronna McDaniel’s New NBC News Gig Sparks Fury'

Exactly two weeks after her Trump-engineered exit as chair of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel has been hired by NBC News and MSNBC as a political commentator, fomenting fury among journalists, press watchers, and ordinary Americans.

Declaring that the network has a “crucial mission,” which it “performs like no other,” NBC News senior vice president of politics Carrie Budoff Brown announced McDaniel’s hiring to employees in a memo Friday, which was published by The Hollywood Reporter.

“It couldn’t be a more important moment to have a voice like Ronna’s on the team,” Brown wrote. “As chair of the Republican National Committee, she spent nearly eight years at the highest levels of American politics before stepping down earlier this year. As we gear up for the longest general election season in recent memory, she will support our leading coverage by providing an insider’s perspective on national politics and on the future of the Republican Party — which she led through some of the most turbulent and challenging moments in political history. And as a longtime Michigan resident, she’ll be an important voice from one of this year’s key battlegrounds.”

Critics shared a different version of McDaniels’ résumé – and NBC News’ responsibilities.

“NBC is and must be, first and foremost, in the credibility business. She will compromise that every time she appears on air. She cannot be trusted,” wrote David Rothkopf, a journalist, author, and foreign policy, national security and political affairs analyst and commentator. Rothkopf is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He also called it “a terrible decision” and McDaniel “a proven serial liar.”

Media Matters ran this headline: “NBC News hires Ronna McDaniel, who played a key role in Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, according to NBC News.”

The sub-head: “Even participating in an attempted coup can’t disrupt the politics-to-pundit pipeline.”

“Prosecutors argued that, as NBC News characterized it, McDaniel has ‘unique knowledge’ about ‘the conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election,'” writes Media Matters’ John Knefel. “NBC News executives can perhaps be forgiven for these repeated oversights, though. After all, the network laid off dozens of its news staffers in January, so maybe there aren’t enough researchers around to dig into the network’s own coverage of its newest contributor.”

[L'Emmerdeur]

McDaniel was at NBC for approximately 0.1 of a Scaramucci. Now she wants to collect the full value of her contract with the network. I think they should have to pay it, the stupid fucks. She's a rotten pile of used cat litter, but she didn't breach the contract.

'$500 Per Second: Ronna McDaniel Reportedly Has a Few Expectations'

Former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel, who was ousted by NBC News chairman Cesar Conde Tuesday after massive in-house and public outrage over signing her as a paid contributor, reportedly has some expectations about what she is owed.

Anger over McDaniel’s hiring was palpable at MSNBC, where the news network’s top hosts on-air denounced the decision to sign someone who allegedly assisted in trying to overturn the 2020 election. The New York Times on Tuesday reported, “a review of her record shows she was, at times, closely involved in and supportive of Mr. Trump’s legal and political maneuvering ahead of the violent attempt to block Congress from certifying Mr. Biden’s victory on Jan. 6.”

McDaniel’s price tag generated additional outrage, as some noted NBC News had recently laid off 13 researchers yet opted to pay her $300,000 a year. (According to the NBC News Guild, executives had “illegally terminated 13 union journalists.”)

According to Politico, McDaniel expects to have her full two-year contract paid in full.

“McDaniel expects to be fully paid out for her contract, two years at $300,000 annually, since she did not breach its terms, we’re told — meaning that her single, not-quite-20-minute interview Sunday could cost the Peacock more than $30,000 per minute, or $500 per second.”

[Brian Peacock]

I'm wondering what the data has to say about who's watching NBC, and whether that suggests they should probably curry a little favour with the incoming fash administration.

[L'Emmerdeur]

Data may have had something to do with the decision, but I'm inclined to think it's another example of the way mainstream media tends to try to triangulate--she clearly could be a vital 'insider' voice to represent Trumpworld. Unlike Fox News, NBC has a long-standing culture of being more or less politically neutral, at least nominally. You could say that is commendable. MSNBC is center-left (in America) but in a nod toward neutrality employs some pre-Trump conservatives in prominent positions on their show line-up. However, the right considers both NBC and MSNBC to be mouthpieces of the leftist Deep State, consequently their attempts at neutrality don't land. The MSNBC conservatives are 'RINOs' so are ineffective at carrying weight with the red hats.

McDaniel had been discarded by Trump, but still had some remnant credibility with MAGA. She's made a name for herself with brazen autocratic mendacity, and triangulating with that is a stretch. The NBC executives believed they could manage it but they were mistaken. Sitting in their luxurious corner offices high above the street, they convinced themselves it was a clever move but in the real world the response was a nearly universal 'WT-everloving-F?'