Network political contributors have a long history. But are they more trouble than they're worth?
NBC News' messy hiring and firing of former Republican National Committee head Ronna McDaniel puts a spotlight on television's practice of paying on-air political contributors
NEW YORK — One of the nation's most prominent news outlets has found itself in an embarrassing mess over the hiring — and quick firing — of someone who isn't even a journalist in the first place.
Among other things, NBC News' brief employment of former Republican National Committee chief Ronna McDaniel has illustrated the role of political contributors in television news, and the frustration many executives feel in adequately representing the GOP point of view in the Donald Trump era.
NBC News' leadership felt it had secured a prize in the services of McDaniel to provide an insider's perspective on the Republican campaign. Yet they were taken aback and changed course Tuesday after network personalities like Chuck Todd and Rachel Maddow objected to working with someone who had trafficked in election disinformation.
Those bosses, starting with NBC Universal Chairman Cesar Conde, now face questions about their leadership and anger from Republicans, some of whom their journalists count upon as news sources heading into a presidential election.
“The reputation of a news organization will never rise on the hiring of a non-journalistic contributor,” said Mark Whitaker, a former NBC News senior vice president and Washington bureau chief. “But it can fall.”
Televised political combat existed in earlier times, like Shana Alexander and James Kilpatrick's “point-counterpoint” segment on “60 Minutes” in the 1970s. Politics and journalism had its share of cross-fertilization with figures such as George Stephanopoulos and the late Tim Russert.
Yet the idea of
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