Last week I reposted - restacked - a column by Steve Schmidt. In my column, entitled The NBC/MSNBC Ronna Romney McDaniel Disgrace - Repost. The first line of it was:
WTF is going on at NBC News?
As a frequent viewer of MSNBC and having grown up in a household where NBC News was the default choice – with the large exception of Walter Cronkite – I was appalled by the decision to hire a person involved in a crime to subvert American Democracy.
After reading all the coverage about this story, including who made the decision, how the decision was made, the “rationale” for the decision, and the totally anticipated rebellion by NBC journalists, I have developed some clarity as to how those NBC executives could make such an incredibly dumb decision.
They had no idea of the history and legacy of the medium and the company they worked in.
Here are the four executives that have been cited and quoted regarding this decision:
NBC Universal News Group Chairman Cesar Conde
NBC News President Rebecca Blumenstein
SVP Politics, Carrie Budoff Brown
Rashida Jones, President of MSNBC
Here is a brief work history for each of them:
Conde – He is one of the four who has a bona fide TV career, having come up through Univision and then to NBC/Universal. An understandable path for a top network news executive.
Blumenstein has a really impressive background in print, from Newsday to the Wall Street Journal and then to the New York Times[it is interesting that her LinkedIn profile still has her as currently at the New York Times. Since she joined NBC a year ago it is clear that Linked In is not on her radar]
Brown – another print person with 14 years at Politico
Jones – she has the other bonafide background in TV having worked as a producer, news director and executive.
The coverage of this debacle highlights the following:
Conde, the most senior executive, has stated since McDaniel was dropped that the buck stops with him. Noble statement
Jones went along with the decision, announced Friday 3/22, but then over the weekend she took the public stand that the election denier would not appear anywhere on MSNBC. This was after every top on-air host expressed outrage to her. So, she went along with the decision of her superiors but quickly changed course. Good for her.
Blumenstein and Brown were cited as the people who had bonded with McDaniel when negotiating a Republican debate on NBC.
What stands out to me?
The two women executives most instrumental in the decision had no TV background. They had been successful in the journalism world but only in print. In addition, both are too young to have personally experienced the golden age of TV and TV news.
Hey Rebecca and Carrie, what are your favorite Eric Sevareid moments? Do you understand the visions of David Sarnoff and William Paley? How much do you respect Frank Stanton's career? Who were Morrow’s Boys? What did you think of “Three Blind Mice”?
Were these questions asked of these two women during their hiring process? Doesn’t look like it.
Odd that two women from the print world would not steep themselves in the history of the medium they now “run”.
I remember a long time ago, when I was hired at NBC, having worked at a a national newspaper rep firm, to sell advertising time. I was told to read “Business Behind the Box” the then authoritative book on network television…..and I did.
I have to assume that Conde was involved in the hiring of Blumenstein and Brown. Did he see these two women's great success in print and not think that they should learn the history, thinking, and legacy of the proud company they were joining?
I don’t think so.
How could these two women executives possibly know about the legacies of Murrow, Paley, Stanton, Chancellor, and Garroway and make the decision they did?
They only knew the fever bubble of media in the last 10 years, not the great past, legacy, honor, power and respect that television network news has been all during the lifetime of we boomers.
I would bet that Scarborough, Maddow, O’Donnell, and Wallace know how to answer the above questions better and more passionately than Blumenstein and Brown.
And that is why they won. Knowledge is power.
Scarborough? They guy who gave Trump a national platform for months during the 2016 campaign? He'd know?
Maddow? The host of "outrage of the day?" She'd know?
McDaniel's hire does cross a line in that she was a participant in Jan 6th, but let's not pretend that this is the harbinger of a new direction for MSNBC or cable news.
Scarborough is a proud Gingrich acolyte and cosigner of the "contract for America" that normalized government shutdowns. Michael Steele was a corporate lawyer and RNC chair. Maddow's first job for MSNBC was a panelist... on Tucker Carlson's show. Remember how, after his scintillating career on CNN, Tucker went to MSNBC? I do.
They're not journalists, but they're the faces of MSNBC.
MSNBC is a not a news channel. It's entertainment. The only thing surprising about them hiring McDaniel was that anyone was surprised.