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Ronnaghazi & The Hunger Screams of Late-Stage Linear

Inside 30 Rock, the dueling narratives over the lengthy courtship and rapid firing of the 2020 election-denying former R.N.C. chair highlight a behind-the-scenes blame game over the network’s conflicted vision of political diversity, and itself.

ronna mcdaniel
The day-long McDaniel pile-on evidenced a larger truth about the NBC News Group operation, and especially MSNBC, in the Maddow-Scarborough era: the talent runs the place. Photo: David McNew/Getty Images
Dylan Byers
March 27, 2024

Last Thursday, Cesar Conde, the thoughtful and manicured chairman of the NBC News Group, reached out to former Republican National Committee chair Ronna Romney McDaniel to welcome her to the NBC News family and congratulate her on her new role as a contributor—a role that, as I’ve reported, would not merely furnish her with a $300,000-a-year perch but, perhaps more importantly, also help facilitate her return to the D.C. establishment. McDaniel, of course, had imbibed the MAGA brain poison more than even some of Trump’s most loyal supplicants, and her fastidious election denialism and establishment eye-poking were always going to require complex re-entry choreography.