Ronna McDaniel will leave NBC contributor role after less than a week: Report

NBC News will drop former Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel from its paid contributor lineup after news of her hiring sparked criticism from both inside and outside the network, according to a report by Dylan Byers of Puck News.

A separate report indicated that NBC execs are meeting on March 26, 2024, to decide her fate.

NBC officially ousts Ronna McDaniel after days of controversy, on-air bashings from other talent

NBC just announced McDaniel’s hiring on March 22, 2024 — so assuming she is let go sometime in the next few days, she’ll have been on the job for less than a week.

McDaniel’s exit comes after a series of NBC and MSNBC personalities lashed out on air about her hiring, including Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell, Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Chuck Todd, the latter of whom blasted her hiring on “Meet the Press” just minutes after McDaniel’s first paid appearance Sunday, March 24, 2024.

NBC and MSNBC staffers behind the scenes were reportedly angered by her hiring as well.

At issue is not that McDaniel is conservative — which several of the on-air diatribes against her hiring made clear, but that she was a vocal supporter of Donald Trump’s false claims that he won the 2020 election, none of which have been proven to be true.

McDaniel has made recent attempts to clean up her image and downplay her previous statements, likely tied to her desire to land a job as a paid contributor at a network.

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According to multiple reports, MSNBC President Rashida Jones and other key NBC management signed off on McDaniel’s hiring. One report called the decision among NBC News management “unanimous,” though it’s not clear how many people that entailed. 

Separate reports indicate that after the hiring was announced, NBC said it would not use McDaniel on MSNBC, its cable news channel known for its progressive slant, but that wasn’t good enough for many.

Meanwhile, McDaniel has reportedly hired legal counsel, presumably to assist her with exit negotiations with NBC. According to a previous Puck News report, NBC was paying McDaniel six-figures per year. It’s likely that NBC could be on the hook for paying out at least some of her contract value even though it may have only used her for only a few days.

It’s not uncommon for news networks all of types to hire former political figures as paid analysts or contributors to appear on their programs, typically as one-on-one guests or to sit on roundtables as opposed to filing reports. 

These roles are typically paid on a per-appearance or guaranteed amount, and contributors and analysts often have other jobs with other companies or organizations. 

In these roles, part of their appeal is bringing their political perspective and experience to viewers, so it’s widely considered acceptable for reputable news organizations to make these hires. 

Historically, most networks hire people from all over the political spectrum in order to provide counterpoints and stimulate debate.

Like most networks, MSNBC employs multiple contributors and hosts with more conservative views, though none of them have been tied so closely to Trump’s misinformation campaigns as McDaniel.

Nicolle Wallace, who anchors “Deadline: White House,” was a former communications director and campaign staffer for George W. Bush, a Republican. She also worked on Sen. John McCain’s 2008 campaign.

Scarborough, who co-anchors the network’s morning show, is a former Republican congressman for Florida.

Both Scarborough and Wallace have denounced the actions of the MAGA Republican movement and expressed their disapproval of Donald Trump and his administration. 

MSNBC also notably has Jen Psaki, who was the first White House press secretary for President Joe Biden’s administration, on its payroll. She left that role and joined MSNBC as an analyst, though she has since been promoted to anchor her own show and primary election coverage for the network.

Psaki also has not be tied to any efforts to spread misinformation on behalf of Biden or his administration, though she is frequently the target of quasi-conspiracy theories, criticism and misinformation from conservative pundits and Trump surrogates. 

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