NBC could face a boycott over its recent hiring of former Republican National Committee (RNC) chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who joined in with Donald Trump's election denial movement in 2021 and has only now publicly turned her back on it.
The company's announcement that McDaniel was joining the network as an on-air contributor following her resignation as head of the RNC earlier this month triggered an internal backlash among NBC employees, as well as igniting criticism from conservatives.
While MAGA supporters like Charlie Kirk and former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis accused McDaniel of switching sides and helping Democrats, current and former NBC employees reminded the network of her role in pushing the former president's voter fraud claims after the 2020 election.
Mike Sington, a retired senior executive at NBCUniversal who worked at the company for 30 years, wrote on Sunday on X, formerly known as Twitter, criticizing NBC for hiring McDaniel and calling for viewers to boycott the network's Meet the Press show. The post has so far been views by 2.3 million accounts.
"I was an employee of NBCUniversal for 30 years, and I am urging you to boycott NBC's Meet the Press tomorrow (March 24)," Sington wrote.
"Former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel is scheduled to make her debut as NBC's newly hired political analyst. McDaniel took part in Trump's [alleged] plot to assemble a fake slate of electors to overturn the results of the 2020 election," the post continued
"She was also [allegedly] involved in pressuring Michigan officials to not certify the vote. McDaniel is an ultra MAGA Trump sycophant who has constantly lied about the 2020 election results. She does not deserve a platform on NBC," he added.
Several X users have shared the post tagged with #BoycottMeetThePress on the social media platform since Sington's post. "Great Job MSNBC hiring Ronna McDaniel, a big lie pusher. I hope her ratings tank like your morals have," one user wrote.
"I support a free press and our First Amendment. But I refuse to listen to a known liar who sows mistrust in our democratic institutions," wrote another.
Newsweek reached out to NBC News via email for comment early on Monday.
McDaniel, who was the second female and longest-serving RNC chair since the Civil War, backed Trump's alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election won by President Joe Biden.
She also backed the censure of then Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinziger when the pair joined the House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
But in a pre-recorded interview on NBC News Meet the Press with Kristen Welker on Sunday, McDaniel declared that Biden won the 2020 presidential election "fair and square"—backtracking on her former support of Trump's claim that the election was stolen from him.
On the same day, NBC anchor Chuck Todd criticized the decision to hire McDaniel, saying live on air on Meet the Press: "There's a reason why there are a lot of journalists at NBC News are uncomfortable with this."
"We weren't asked our opinion of the hiring but, if we were, we would have strongly objected to it for several reasons," Joe Scarborough said on Monday on Morning Joe, as reported by Politico.
The network appears to be listening to its employees' complaints. MSNBC President Rashida Jones said on Sunday that McDaniel will not appear on the network's shows, as reported by The Wall Street Journal on Saturday. Deadline reported that Jones said it would be up to individual show hosts to decide whether they want to work with McDaniel.
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Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek Reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on U.S. and European politics, global affairs ... Read more
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