NBC News Fires Contributor Following Backlash Over Her Hiring

NBC hired former RNC head Ronna McDaniel just last week, but after backlash over her history of promoting disinformation, she was fired days later.

By Michael Hein

NBC News fired Ronna McDaniel on Tuesday, just days after announcing that she had been hired as contributor to the network. McDaniel is the former head of the Republican National Convention (RNC), and her hiring was heavily criticized – especially by other NBC employees. In a memo to staffers obtained by Deadline, executive Cesar Conde explained why the network decided to drop McDaniel after all.

"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," he wrote. "I want to personally apologize to our team members who felt we let them down. While this was a collective recommendation by some members of our leadership team, I approved it and take full responsibility for it."

Last week, NBC announced that McDaniel would appear as a contributor across various NBC News platforms including MSNBC. Critics pointed out that McDaniel had done a lot to promote the conspiracy theory that the 2020 presidential election was illegitimate, reiterating untrue claims by former president Donald Trump. McDaniel used her power to try and reverse the result of the election, and she also presided over the RNC when it censured Republican congressional reps Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. They were censured because they joined the House January 6th Committee which investigated the attack on the Capitol.

Many of these criticisms came from anchors within the NBCUniversal network. Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace, Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Chuck Todd all condemned this hiring decision publicly. Maddow discussed the topic for nearly half the run-time of her show, saying it was "inexplicable." After Conde announced that McDaniel had been fired, Maddow followed up by saying she had "deep respect" for the executives for listening to "the essentially unanimous feeling" among other network employees.

As for McDaniel, she was dropped by her talent agency CAA after her firing from NBC. An insider told Deadline that McDaniel is looking into legal options after this unceremonious firing. McDaniel got some public support from other conservative pundits including Ari Fleischer and Megyn Kelly. Even Trump commented on the story in a post on his Truth Social network.

"Wow! Ronna McDaniel got fired by Fake News NBC," the former president wrote. "She only lasted two days, and this after McDaniel went out of her way to say what they wanted to hear. It leaves her in a very strange place, it's called NEVER NEVERLAND, and it's not a place you want to be. These Radical Left Lunatics are CRAZY, and the top people at NBC ARE WEAK. They were BROKEN and EMBARRASSED by LOW RATINGS, HIGHLY OVERPAID, 'TALENT.' BRING BACK FREE AND FAIR PRESS."

It's not clear if McDaniel still intends to seek work as an on-air pundit. Without her, NBC's strategy for covering Trump's campaign is reportedly up in the air.

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