Ronna’s Revenge, NBC Goes To the Back of the Bus At GOP Convention

The intriguing thing about the NBC fracas with Ronna McDaniel is that it’s not a quiet one off that is going to go away, much as the Don Lemon firing quieted down after a short while. No, a major nerve was hit and McDaniel is said to be hiring counsel “to sue everybody who defamed her for breach of contract.” That’s how Hugh Hewitt put it in a recent Fox News interview. Politico:

The Republican National Committee is weighing whether to restrict NBC’s access to this summer’s convention, following the network’s decision to drop former RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel as a contributor.

Such a move would mark a dramatic escalation in the growing rift between Donald Trump-allies and the TV network — a rift that has stemmed from NBC’s decision to part ways with McDaniel amid a revolt among top on-air talent. […]

But any attempt to restrict the network’s access at the convention would likely engender strong pushback from top brass there, as well as organizations tasked with representing the media and, potentially, rival journalists and outlets.

The RNC did not further elaborate on what “a hard look” meant. But a major showdown with the press at the biggest political event of the election cycle could prove to be an unwanted distraction for Republicans. That is especially true for a presidential nominee who takes heavy interest in the media coverage he receives.

What’s that you say? Don’t congressional press gallery officials run the credentialing process for convention hall access, and the RNC’s got no say? Well, yeah, but then the RNC sounds powerless and that’s not a good look when you’re huffing and puffing and threatening to blow somebody’s convention coverage down. Plus, there is a reality that if Trump hates NBC and McDaniel hates NBC that some method of censuring NBC will be derived. MAGA is all about school yard bullying, after all.

Rob Zatkowski, the Director of the House Periodical Press Gallery, said that the RNC, which was recently taken over by Trump allies, did not have actual control over which outlets can be credentialed for the convention.

“[If] the publication is credentialed on Capitol Hill, and one of the parties asked that the publication not be credentialed for the convention, we would credential the publication anyway. To my knowledge this has never happened before,” said Zatkowski.

And look at who is running to do damage control, none other than Michael Whatley.

“I think we want to be able to use every single available outlet to get our message out to the American people,” Whatley told conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt, who was formerly a host on MSNBC. “But people are not going to go on a network that they can’t trust, that they know they won’t be treated fairly. So I think you’re going to see that across the board. We know that we need to find alternative ways to talk to the American voters. We can’t just stay still. We can’t just stop. We have to be able to communicate.”

The irony here is that nobody at NBC was communicating with anybody. Puck is reporting that Rashida Jones was “very interested” in having McDaniel on her network, MSNBC, and then once the fur started to fly, then Jones immediately did a 180. Jones actively lobbied for McDaniel to be on MSNBC and then when all the air talent went into mutiny, she changed posture. So the question is, did Jones have no remote clue that things would go down the way they did? Because I think it’s safe to say that you could have asked any viewer of NBC or MSNBC what would happen when McDaniel’s hire was announced and they would have predicted what did in fact happen. So how can management be so clueless?

McDaniel began to pursue legal representation—both to deal with NBC, and in the event that she wanted to sue the organization for defamation, now that her ostensible colleagues had raked her over the coals. McDaniel intends to seek a full $600,000 payout, and may pursue defamation charges. She has identified Bryan Freedman, the famed litigator to defenestrated television stars, as her preferred lawyer, but can’t hire him until she is formally terminated from the network. NBC News leadership did not communicate directly with McDaniel on Tuesday (and, as of this writing on Wednesday evening, has still not communicated with her).

Finally, at 6 p.m. on Tuesday night, roughly five hours after news of McDaniel’s impending termination broke, Conde sent a memo to staff: “Hey all,” it began. “There is no doubt that the last several days have been difficult for the News Group. After listening to the legitimate concerns of many of you, I have decided that Ronna McDaniel will not be an NBC News contributor. 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.”

This is going to be an interesting legal snafu. The utter tone deafness and blindness of NBC and MSNBC management is something to behold. I wonder if they might decide to just give Ronna the $600,000 payout and avoid the bad publicity? On the other hand, supposedly there is no such thing as bad publicity.

It ain’t over yet, whatever happens.