Star Tribune
NBC’s fast-moving Ronna McDaniel flap shows defending U.S. democracy worth the hassle
Congratulations, NBC.
The network’s bold new “Hire a Liar” initiative is already delivering results. A divided nation has come together to agree that nobody asked for more Ronna McDaniel on their TV screens.
Faced with petitions, withering criticism and a near-revolt in the news division, NBC is reportedly rethinking its decision to platform an election denier who has dedicated considerable efforts to unraveling the fabric of our democracy on the say-so of former President Donald Trump.
Before the network revisits its worst programming decision since “Manimal,” let’s review the first few, and possibly last, days, of McDaniel’s news career.
Somebody, somewhere thought it would be a good idea to hire McDaniel, former Republican National Committee chair, as a paid commentator. If execs had waited a few months, she probably would have churned out a tell-all book, and they could have picked it up in the bargain book bin for an economical $2.99.
Instead, NBC offered McDaniel a reported six-figure salary, in the craven hope that MAGA viewers would forget the “fake news” diatribes Trump endlessly uttered and embrace the Peacock.
In the days since her debut, on-air hosts have lined up in near-unison to denounce the Republican operative’s hiring.
On Monday, Lawrence O’Donnell, who once worked for a Senate Democrat, pointed out that politicians and journalists have crossed and blurred the lines between their professions so many times that it can be hard to see the line anymore. But the line is still there.
“I stopped inviting Trump liars like her on this program in 2016,” O’Donnell said. “Because I’ve never seen a satisfying, successful interview of a Trump liar, and have never thought that I alone could crack the code of how to interview a Trump liar. They are fast and furious liars and I doubt that I could keep up.”
On Sunday, McDaniel popped up on Meet the Press and blithely admitted that President Joe Biden — contrary to every word she’s spoken into a microphone up to this point — won the 2020 election “fair and square.” While at the RNC, she said of her previous positions, “you kind of take one for the whole team.”
McDaniel’s hiring even prompted the unflappable Chuck Todd to wade in on live television.
“I think our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation, because I don’t know what to believe,” an appalled Todd told host Kristen Welker, who booked an interview with the former Republican Party chairwoman weeks ago, but found herself interviewing an NBC News colleague instead. “She is now a paid contributor by NBC News. Well, I have no idea whether any answer she gave to you was because she didn’t want to mess up her contract”
NBC News hired McDaniel even after she spent years mindlessly parroting the Trump administration’s message that the news isn’t to be trusted and journalists are to be hated. Even after the mob on Jan. 6 knotted TV cables into nooses and carved “Murder the Media” on the doors of the Capitol.
When Trump said he didn’t like her name, Ronna [REDACTED] McDaniel changed it. When Trump lied, she lied.
Speaking truth to power requires more courage than McDaniel seems capable of mustering. But the actual journalists at NBC are braver. The ones who spent years penned in the center of Trump rallies, watching their president order his followers to boo and hiss at them.
After blindsiding their staff and bruising their brand, NBC executives seem to be having second thoughts about their new hire.
The DFL candidate for a Roseville seat in the Minnesota House is pushing back on allegations from his Republican opponent that he doesn’t live in the district he hopes to represent.
Curtis Johnson is currently a member of the Roseville Area Schools board. He has owned a home in Little Canada since 2017, according to Ramsey County property records.
In May he filed to run for the open seat in House District 40B, saying he lived in an apartment complex less than 3 miles from his Little Canada home. The district includes parts of Roseville and Shoreview and has been represented by DFLer Jamie Becker-Finn, who isn’t seeking re-election, since 2017.
In a statement, Johnson said he and his wife decided to move to Roseville last year, but they’ve struggled to find the right house. In the meantime, he’s been renting “a Roseville apartment as my primary residence while we keep searching for a forever home.”
“My wife and our youngest child still live in the house because we didn’t want to disrupt our child’s life by moving the rest of the family into my apartment and then moving them again after we found a house in Roseville,” Johnson’s statement said.
Wikstrom released an ad Oct. 15 that accused Johnson of lying about his residency, but he has not committed to making a legal challenge. A residency challenge would be decided by the Minnesota Supreme Court.
“My confidence level is high that we have a solid case he is not a resident of the district,” Wikstrom said in an interview. He noted that Johnson’s vehicle is often at the Little Canada home and a portable storage container appeared out front days after his political ad went online.
An unlicensed driver is now charged on accusations that he was speeding and under the influence of alcohol when he set off a chain-reaction pileup on an interstate exit ramp in Minneapolis, leaving one person dead and several others injured.
Talon Covie-Cardell Walker, 29, of St. Paul, was charged late Thursday afternoon in Hennepin County District Court with criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the seven-vehicle pileup about 9:15 p.m. Wednesday after exiting from eastbound Interstate 94 toward Lyndale Avenue.
Walker remains held without bail ahead of a court appearance Friday afternoon. Court records do not list an attorney for him.
A search warrant affidavit was filed in court by the State Patrol that cleared the way for Walker’s blood to be collected to measure his degree of intoxication. Results are pending. The affidavit said Walker was “pushing 100 mph when taking the ramp, [and] it appears no braking took place before the crash.”
Walker was driving without a valid license, according to the state Department of Public Safety. In late 2019, his license was suspended, then it was revoked in spring 2021, the agency said.
Court records in Minnesota show Walker has traffic convictions for careless driving and operating a motorcycle without a license. State records also show convictions for illegal weapons possession, disorderly conduct, a minor drug offense and twice for violating a court no-contact order.
Walker’s passenger, 20-year-old Taniyah Randle-Smith, was taken by ambulance to HCMC with life-threatening injuries, according to the patrol. A hospital spokeswoman said Thursday afternoon that she was in critical condition.
Killed in the crash was Natalie Gubbay, a 26-year-old SUV driver from Minneapolis, whose vehicle was struck by Walker’s. Her passenger, Molly Elizabeth Brenton, 28, of Virginia, Minn., was taken to HCMC with noncritical injuries.
A juvenile has died while in detention at the Red Wing correctional facility in southeastern Minnesota.
Officials with the Minnesota Department of Corrections said staff on Saturday found an inmate who was unresponsive. Authorities attempted life-saving measures, which were unsuccessful. Paramedics arrived and the resident was pronounced dead at the scene, said spokeswoman Shannon Loehrke.
An investigation is underway to determine how the inmate died, she added.
No information about the identify of the deceased was released.
The Red Wing facility has a capacity of 88 inmates.
