Ronna Romney McDaniel, NBC and Chuck Todd finding his balls

If you've read this column any time over the last ten years, you'd have no problem deciphering my political leanings. I'm a liberal Democrat—and it's more than just a leaning.

I spend a lot of time watching MSNBC—really, too much time. When I watch a national newscast, it's always NBC Nightly News. If I'm watching a Sunday show, it's “Meet the Press.”

But, when I watch these programs, I don't always need to see commentators who think like I do. I occasionally like to get news from the other side of the political aisle. I feel it's important to get alternative views, not including Kellyanne Conway’s ‘alternative facts.’ It's a way to hear what these folks think without wasting my time watching FoxNews or NewsNation.

Over the weekend, it was announced that NBC was hiring Ronna McDaniel as a commentator. A new Republican view during an election year. Sounds good except for a few things:

She’s a lying election denier who tried to undermine the people’s votes in Michigan. She even told the electors there not to certify the results and that the RNC would spring for lawyers if needed. That should be enough to keep her off the NBC family of networks.

And it's not only me who is dismayed by her hiring. NBC/MSNBC talent is more than a bit upset. Get this from an anonymous journalist:

“Across MSNBC they’ve been cutting contributors. So everyone’s like what the fuck? You found 300 for her?”

Scathing on-air objections have come from every MSNBC voice. But that was nothing compared to what we surprisingly heard from the former host of “Meet the Press”, Chuck Todd.

NBC hired him in 2007. Todd became the face of “Meet the Press” in 2014. He kept that role for ten years. In that decade, he took plenty of heat from both sides of the spectrum. Liberals felt he would have on Republicans who would lie to him without any follow-up questions or pushback. Conservatives hated him, too—although I’m not sure why. Chuck was even getting threats from both sides of the aisle. They were valid enough that NBC had to hire extra security to keep him and his family safe.

Chuck Todd was definitely a company man, but what occurred over the weekend was too much, even for him. He was a panelist on Sunday’s “Meet the Press.” After new host Kristen Welker uncomfortably interviewed McDaniel, he had something to say:

“Our bosses owe you an apology. There’s a reason why there are a lot of journalists at NBC News uncomfortable with this because many of our professional dealings with the RNC over the last six years have been met with gaslighting, have been met with character assassination. So when NBC made the decision to give her NBC News’s credibility, you got to ask yourself, ‘What does she bring NBC News?’”

WOW! Way to go Chuck! Where has this been over the last ten years? Congratulations on finding your balls!

Something like this you would expect to hear from Rachel Maddow; and she did spend her lengthy first block excoriating NBC for McDaniel’s hiring. But when you hear this from Chuck Todd, you would have to think that NBC News management may have to be rethinking this decision.

It will be interesting to see how NBC uses Ronna. All of the MSNBC talent has said they won’t have her on their programs. Management said that’s fine. But they aren’t paying her three hundred big ones to sit around and do nothing. My guess is we’ll see her on “Meet the Press” again—and much more often than we’d like. When that happens, don’t be surprised if we get another version of Chuck Todd finding his balls again. He might even make his mentor, the late Tim Russert proud. If this keeps up, we may be able to say again, “If it’s Sunday, it’s “Meet the Press.”