NEW YORK –
Only 80 hours passed between NBC News announcing Ronna McDaniel as a paid contributor and the network ousting her from that same position. But for NBC Universal News Group leadership, those were 80 painful hours.
On Tuesday night, after another full day of media rumors churning at warp speed, NBCU News Group chief César Conde sent his staff a memonotifying his troops that he had reversed his decision to welcome the former Republican National Committee chairman to the “team.”
“After hearing the legitimate concerns of many of you, I have decided that Ronna McDaniel will not be a contributor to NBC News,” Conde said, adding that he wanted to “personally apologize to members of our team who felt we let them down.”
Conde had no choice. The embattled NBCU boss, who I’m told faced the crisis from an unknown location outside of 30 Rock, was facing an unprecedented rebellion from his top stars, who, one by one, came on air and They criticized leadership’s decision to hire McDaniel. The only surprising aspect of Conde’s memo was the fact that it arrived 48 hours late, allowing what began as a crisis to escalate into one of the worst corporate PR calamities in recent memory. .
“What a shit show!” a media executive exclaimed to me on Tuesday shortly after Conde relieved McDaniel of his NBC News credentials.
In his note, Conde said he took “full responsibility” for hiring McDaniel. But he also pointed the finger, telling staff that hiring her was “a collective recommendation from some members of our leadership team.” In fact, several people familiar with the matter have told me that infighting among NBC executives over who was to blame for the disaster has reached a fever pitch, with various factions of the NBCU News Group blaming others.
Regardless of who is to blame, the whole affair made it clear who is really in control of the company, and it is not Conde & Co. Although NBCU’s senior management resisted getting rid of McDaniel for days, they were eventually forced to succumb to the pressure of his talent. As a second media executive told me, it is now “very clear who is in charge” after “weak leadership was on full display.”
“Has Caesar lost the room?” a third media executive asked.
As the Peacock family argues over who was really to blame, the company faces a new public relations mess. Led by Donald Trump, right-wing figures are already attacking the network for being overrun by intolerant and woke leftists.
“These radical left lunatics are CRAZY and the top management at NBC ARE WEAK,” Trump roared on his Truth Social platform.
Ari Fleischer, who was press secretary under President George W. Bush, wrote in X: “What NBC is saying is that if you are for Trump, you don’t belong. Good. Let NBC be just for Democrats.”
Of course, that narrative is intellectually dishonest. The objection to McDaniel both inside and outside of NBCU was not that she is a Republican. It wasn’t even that she was a Trump-supporting Republican. No, the objection arose from the fact that McDaniel was a active participant in the plot to subvert the 2020 vote. And, in addition to that embarrassing story, he had a long history of defaming NBC News and MSNBC.
However, NBCU will now have to deal with dishonest attacks from the right, which will follow them in the days, months and even years to come. As unfair as it may be, they will certainly hurt the network’s brand in Republican circles, a place it had worked hard to attract.
NBCU will also have to deal with McDaniel, who spent the last 24 hours interviewing lawyers as he prepares for a potential legal fight with the network, according to a person familiar with the matter. The rift between McDaniel and NBCU had grown to such a point by Tuesday that the network’s top brass did not inform her that she had been fired, I was told. Instead, McDaniel learned of her dismissal through media reports.
As NBCU takes a beating from the right, the company’s leadership was quickly praised by its journalists and top stars. Shortly after Conde sent her memo, Rachel Maddow appeared on Joy Reid’s show, where the two praised Conde for changing course.
“I think it’s a show of strength and respect for the people who work at this company and make us who we are,” Maddow said. “That leadership was willing to change on this, I’m grateful to them.”