Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Pelosi: “He either is stupid, or he thinks the rest of us are.” Why not both?

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Come on, man.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Be a traveling stable for those who can’t find room at the inn.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

People are weird.

Days Since JD Vance Insulted Women Across America: Zero

There is one struggling party in US right now, and it’s not the Democrats.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

White supremacy is terrorism.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Accidentally Like a Martyr

Accidentally Like a Martyr

by | 67 Comments

This post is in: 

After the big shitshow that was sparked by hiring noted cipher Ronna McDaniel, it looks like she’s going to get the boot at NBC.   I agree with Steve M that this is the best thing that could have happened to her.   Apparently, she’s a decent fundraiser, but she’d have to be at least decent to run the RNC.  But what are her other qualifications to be a commentator (not that most of them have many)?  And, Jesus, the baggage she’s carrying.

Aside from the Jan 6 stuff, which is disqualifying in itself, the whole name thing is beyond creepy.   She’s the granddaughter and niece of two major Republican players, and she threw that away to kiss more of Trumps big old orange ass.  That shows a lack of character that is still pretty notable, even in a coarse political time like ours.

So, now she’s going to be a martyr, and she’ll get a job with Fox or whatever other right-wing bubble outlet hires her, after she takes home a nice settlement from NBC.  NBC will look stupid for trying to make her their insurance-against-Trump hire (Josh Marshall goes through the rather byzantine logic on that — the short story is that Trump doesn’t stay mad at people for long if he can make use of them, and if she’s at NBC, she probably would have access to a Trump administration.)

I’ve got nothing more to say about this that isn’t pure disgust.

Speaking of the media, Talking Points Memo is having their Spring fundraiser.  If you haven’t subscribed yet, here’s the link for a discounted subscription. You can also apply for a community-supported membership (free) there.  I have no connection to TPM other than liking their content and wanting them to continue.

Reader Interactions

67Comments

  1. 1.

    rikyrah

    How dare they pick on me after I tried to overturn an election?

    Poor me 😡😡

     

    Her azz should have been arrested in Michigan

  8. 8.

    HumboldtBlue

    Then usual suspects — in between tweeting that the bridge collision was Isis, result of an open border, due to the captain dying from vaccines or some other batshit racist thing they can think of — are up in arms that Jen Psaki gets a pass while the ever-honorable and staunchly patriotic Ronna McDoucheface is being unfairly cancelled.

    Fuck the fucking fuckers.

  11. 11.

    Jeffro

    fuck trump-enabling, insurrection-excusing hacks

    Ronna can “legitimate political discourse” my entire a$$

  13. 13.

    HumboldtBlue

    Dan Rather has some thoughts on the NBC fiasco.

    I’d like to weigh in on NBC news’ recent decision to hire Ronna McDaniel.

    By giving her a platform, NBC has given legitimacy to the lies she helped the former president spread.

    Now we come to the why. Why would NBC News hire someone as controversial?

    Here’s the reason:

    News gathering is a business, and the networks have prioritized widening their audience.

    They feel the need to show their Republican bona fides by hiring conservative voices.

    But that is the crux of the problem.

    Which Republicans?

    Trump loyalists who are election deniers and January 6 apologists?

    To me, that doesn’t seem like the answer.

    It’s another reason independent journalism is essential right now, essential to provide unvarnished coverage in one of the most important elections in American history and to hold the mainstream media accountable.

  19. 19.

    narya

    @Baud: I used to resemble that remark.

    I watched Rachel last night, and she was NOT having it. She did a really good job laying out election denial for the past millennium*, showed how it’s an anti-democracy maneuver, and then said, this jamoke is one of those deniers and is therefore part of the anti-democracy crowd and has no place here and won’t be on my show.

    *might be a slight exaggeration

  22. 22.

    RaflW

    Thanks for the TPM discount link. I’ve visited enough recently to notice that I should subscribe. Saving a few bucks is nice, too.

  23. 23.

    smith

    Endorsing the Big Lie should be disqualifying for anyone pretending to be a political commentator. Of course, not asking about the Big Lie when interviewing Republicans about the election should be disqualifying for anyone pretending to be a political journalist, but we see how frequently that standard is observed.

  25. 25.

    JaySinWA

    Per Axios https://www.axios.com/2024/03/26/ronna-mcdaniel-nbc-rnc-chair-explained

    • Multiple networks scrambled to sign McDaniel when she left the RNC last month, despite her role in former President Trump’s efforts to block certification of the 2020 election in Michigan.
    • NBC ultimately won and landed McDaniel on a $300,000 paid contributor deal. But it now faces an internal mutiny, with several of the network’s top stars publicly condemning the signing.

    The speculation that this was going to cost NBC big bucks seems unlikely if 300K was the price of the whole deal. And multiple networks bidding? I wonder what the other offers were.

  26. 26.

    RaflW

    @HumboldtBlue: Along the lines of Rather’s argument, if NBC gave even one tiny little shit about preserving democracy (something that at least arguably was seen as a brief for “the fourth estate”), they’d hire apostate Republicans.

    I have no idea if Ken Buck is even remotely interesting on TV. But even he would have been a better selection for NBC than Ronna ex-Romney in terms of not promoting every J6 lie.

    But there are still genuine conservatives who’ve retired from daily GOP politics due to Trumpism who could credibly commentate on conservative issues, and actually help platform that the party doesn’t have to be all MAGA lunatics.

    But that’s a bridge too far for Rebecca Blumenstein.

  27. 27.

    FastEdD

    TPM and Balloon Juice are my 2 main sources of news-I contribute to both because I want them both to survive. The Great Orange Satan is okay, but they increasingly rely on links from AP. If I want to read AP I can easily go over there. I haven’t seen John Judis at TPM lately, thank FSM.

  28. 28.

    Shalimar

    I’m not sure Trump will allow Ronna to become a martyr.  And I’m pretty sure she would have taken a job with Fox instead of NBC if they were willing to offer one.  There are plenty of lower-tier rightwing outlets that can hire her.

  29. 29.

    Percysowner

    I have subscribed to TPM for a while. They put out good content and deserve support.

  30. 30.

    RaflW

    @JaySinWA: “scrambled”. She gave multiple weeks notice. Very publicly.

    Also, too, Axios is garbage (no offense to you, Jay, but their “Politics for Dummies” bullet briefs style is just crap.)

  31. 31.

    trollhattan

    This is the network that paid Megyn Kelly
    [checks notes]
    Sixty-nine million dollars.

    Sixty

    Nine

    Million.

    I need that job, clearly, because whoever is running the joint isn’t up to the task.

  34. 34.

    JaySinWA

    @JaySinWA: I see in the earlier threads a reference to her hiring being worth $300K per year, with out  a reference to the term of the contract. But it still seems pretty lowball as media contracts go. Axios said the “deal” was worth $300K implying a 1 year contract. Hard to know with people off the record, but I don’t think NBC is going have to pay off Ronna with millions.

  36. 36.

    JaySinWA

    @RaflW: No offence taken. Axios is crap, but they were the first source I found for a dollar amount. I see other sources are chiming in with 300K/year rather than $300k total. Not like the millions that NBC has poured out for other conservative commentators.

    NBC hiring authority – “But boss she was a cheap hire to replace the people we had to lay off. You want cheap or good?”

  37. 37.

    Betty Cracker

    Also highly recommend TPM — great original coverage of lots of issues we care about.

    @narya: Maddow’s segment on the McRomney hire was fire! 🔥

  38. 38.

    Anonymous At Work

    This is going to sound nasty but Ronna Romney-McDaniel is a whore.  Not a slut, this isn’t about sex but she clearly will do anything for money.

  42. 42.

    narya

    @Betty Cracker: I was kind of in shock a little! Adding in the history lesson was awesome, too–tied the whole thing together. And she was clearly pissed. I haven’t watched all of O’Donnell yet, though at the beginning he had a bunch of nice shit to say about Tim Russert, which, ew.

  43. 43.

    Chris

    @Anonymous At Work:

    This is going to sound nasty but Ronna Romney-McDaniel is a whore.  Not a slut, this isn’t about sex but she clearly will do anything for money.

    “Mercenary.”  Say it with me: “mercenary.” 

    (I really wish that term went back to having all the seedy and immoral connotations it used to have.  Nowadays it just sounds cool and badass, sort of like “gangster.”)

  44. 44.

    Barry

    @Baud: “I wish I could get paid for getting hired and fired before I started work.”

    And being fired for good reason.

  45. 45.

    NotMax

    @JaySinWA

    $300,000 is chicken feed for the network. NBC was charging advertisers between $5 and $6 million per spot during the last summer Olympics. Wouldn’t be at all surprised to see that rise into low double digit millions for the upcoming Paris games.

  48. 48.

    Redshift

    @piratedan: Someone I was reading recently (Josh Marshall maybe?) explained that a big reason bothsides is worse that ever is that political reporting is one of the few areas where advertising is still really profitable. And the reason is that it’s an extension of lobbying. It’s not worth advertising on outlets they think only reach one party.

    So it’s not that the anchors and journalists just happen to be terrible, it’s that the only people who can move up to the high-paying jobs are the ones who are willing to go along with what makes the must money.

  50. 50.

    Waspuppet

    @sdhays: Certainly not on actual journalists, 50 to 100 of whom NBC laid off in January.

    As for Romney McDaniel, Steve M.’s predictions are all going to come true, except she could very well get called back into TrumpWorld. They’re bringing back Manafort and Lewandowski; don’t tell me it can’t happen.

  51. 51.

    Barbara

    @Redshift: But but but . . . information wants to be free!

    I feel so awful for the personal fallout experienced by the individual who coined this slogan, but it was always crap logic not worthy of his intelligence.

  53. 53.

    WaterGirl

    @RaflW: Well, I’m mad because you’re getting a discount and are paying less than I paid to join a few months ago!

    (Just trying to channel the people who already paid off their loans are mad that other people got their student loans forgiven.)

    It didn’t really take. :-)

    As Josh says.

    Want better media?   Support a better media company!

  54. 54.

    Jess

    Methinks the establishment media just doesn’t get how pissed off we are about the very real threat to democracy and their part in it.

  55. 55.

    smith

    @Jess: It’s weird that they apparently believe that the First Amendment would survive under Trump. Or maybe even weirder that they could be willing to just quietly join the MAGA Ministry of Truth.

  57. 57.

    bbleh

    I’ve got nothing more to say about this that isn’t pure disgust.

    Except:

    … And Why It’s Bad News
    For The Biden Campaign
    A Times Panel Discussion

  58. 58.

    Chris

    @Redshift:

    a big reason bothsides is worse that ever is that political reporting is one of the few areas where advertising is still really profitable. And the reason is that it’s an extension of lobbying.  It’s not worth advertising on outlets they think only reach one party.

    Not sure if this is what you’re trying to say, but “mainstream media” outlets like the New York Times are largely caught between the money men who mostly want to push conservative messages, and the audiences that are mostly still liberals.  They can’t just straightforwardly publish liberal messages (or even facts which tend to vindicate liberal ideology), because that’s not what the money men want.  But they can’t straightforwardly publish conservative messages either, because then they’d lose their audience, get typecast as “just another Fox News clone,” and no longer be any good even to the money men (who already have much better outlets for reaching conservative audiences).

    Hence, the status quo we’ve got, where “mainstream media” outlets like the New York Times exist to launder conservative talking points into liberal audiences.  Which does indeed make political reporting a form of lobbying, in that you’re lobbying the voters that, if left to themselves, wouldn’t end up on the same page as you.

  59. 59.

    Redshift

    @Baud:

    Huh? Right wing media gets advertising.

    Should have mentioned that I think he was mostly talking about print journalism (from memory, can’t recall for sure.) But I don’t think they do get high-dollar advertising – a lot of catheter ads and “buy gold” stuff, just like MSNBC. (Which is why Fox doesn’t survive on advertising.)

  60. 60.

    cain

    @HumboldtBlue:

    I think the other thing is that conservatives sit and watch ads on TV. They got nothing better to do. They are jealous of Fox News which have people sitting there watching Fox News all day long without changing the channel.

    They kind of want my parents who are like Fox watchers, but have MSNBC on all the time.

  61. 61.

    azlib

    Yes, TPM is excellent.  I do not alway agree with Josh, but that is okay. I am an ad-free member and I consider it a bargain at $140 per year.

  62. 62.

    frosty

    TPM was the first blog I read, and I’m a paying member. Then I branched out until I found this one and now TPM, B-J, and Wonkette are where I get my news. SAD! I’m in a bubble!

    Two good things I can say for Josh’s site: 1) They break stories no one else has written about, which I find amazing for such a small outfit, and 2) they  went reader supported and they’re making it work. He had some good posts in his Editor’s Blog recently on how advertising dried up and it was either change or die.

    Now that I think of it, Wonkette did the same thing. And B-J is reader-supported (I guess?) and has never had ads.

  63. 63.

    PST

    @JaySinWA:

    I wonder what the other offers were.

    I wonder what the other offers are NOW. Is she damaged goods that CNN et al. would hesitate to hire at all? Or is “cancelation” like a badge of honor that will enhance her value with certain media?

  64. 64.

    PaulB

    @frosty:  And B-J is reader-supported (I guess?) and has never had ads.

    Not quite. Balloon-Juice did have ads. Between that and special Amazon links, John managed to keep the lights on. However, the system here and the advertising system never quite worked well together, causing multiple problems.

    Finally, the participants here were offered a deal: if we provided sufficient funds, via Patreon or whatever, the ads would be removed. Enough of us jumped at the opportunity that we were able to keep the site funded and the ads removed. If the funds run short, WG will, I’m sure, put out a request and we’ll once again contribute.

    I chose to contribute a lump sum; others have contributed smaller amounts on a regular basis via Patreon. It all works.

  65. 65.

    frosty

    @PaulB: You’re right, now I remember the annoying banner ads. I pony up a lump sum once or twice a year, or whenever W-G shakes the cup. It’s a bargain.

  66. 66.

    cmorenc

    @smith:

    it’s weird that they think the first amendment would survive under Trump

    (In)Justice Thomas thinks constitutional libel law (NYT v Sullivan and case law that flows therefrom) is in serious need of revision, and not in the direction of greater shielding of journalists.  Fortunately, so far even among the other five members of the RW block, he hasn’t picked up sufficient support (yet) to pull that off.

  67. 67.

    ascap_scab

    $300k for one 20 minute interview!

    Great job, Ronna!

    Now let’s hope Cesar Conde gets canned.

Comments are closed.