One of the advantages of hosting any type of information program or dialogue on TV is the authorization to speak. Now, some journalists and TV personalities are also being allowed to participate.
NBCUniversal needs to unleash the proverbial Bactine after being attacked earlier this week by many of its top information figures over the rent paid by former Republican National Committee Chairman Ronna McDaniel’s NBC Information executives. McDaniel should have been, until Wednesday, an excellent political news analyst, weighing in on issues as the 2024 presidential election approached. But the prospect of paying someone who brazenly tried to help former President Donald Trump discredit the 2020 election results raised internal alarm bells for many NBC News anchors and many of their own — including Joe Scarborough, Joy Reid, Rachel Maddow and Nicolle Wallace – devoted vital time on Monday to pushing again against the decision, with Maddow spending half an hour on her Monday night primetime MSNBC show to compare McDaniel’s joining NBCUniversal to supporting would-be fascist usurpers of the US government.
Their outrage wasn’t unwarranted, but the visual image of a parade of prominent presenters criticizing an organization through the very TV equipment it owns was, well, distinct.
It may not be like that anymore.
ESPN recently faced similar problems. Pat McAfee, the outspoken former football player whose show was licensed for afternoon play by sports giant Disney, in January expressed his dissatisfaction with Norby Williamson, an influential ESPN executive who manages many studio shows and tries to keep them under control. control. , accusing him of working to sabotage his program in negotiations with the media. ESPN, which has so far suspended anchors and personalities from talking about politics to criticizing its coronavirus vaccination coverage on an outdoor podcast, has so far left McAfee alone, promising to mend any strained relationships behind the scenes. And Maddow walked similar ground not long ago, again pressing NBC News in 2019 for its handling of Ronan Farrow’s reporting on disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.
Now that this kind of thing is emerging, fully protecting it may become problematic. “There’s almost an incentive to keep doing this, because it worked,” says Ben Bogardus, interim associate dean of the College of Communications and associate professor of journalism at Quinnipiac University. “Anchors are deciding to defend themselves” on air rather than having an internal debate with executives, he adds — which carries a lot of weight with the public. “Finally, viewers see them as the face of the news, not their anonymous bosses.”
The anchor’s new autonomy is in evidence as young journalism aficionados standardize on a growing range of less formal data sources. Newsletters, long-form substacks, and clever Tik Tok videos and Instagram Stories rely more on character and emotion than their TV and traditional print counterparts. and TV is trying to catch up. Jackets, ties and makeup are no longer strictly on screens after the coronavirus pandemic forced news agencies to rely more on services beamed into the studio via Skype or similar video services.
More adults are getting their information from less varnished sources. Eighty-six percent of U.S. adults frequently or frequently obtain information from a smartphone, laptop or tablet, according to the Pew Research Center, along with 56% who say they do so frequently. In 2022, 49% said they typically acquired information on digital devices. Pew says the share of respondents who get information through digital devices “continues to outpace those who get information from TV.”
Journalists at NBC News and MSNBC had reason to protest McDaniel’s lease. She remains a newsworthy figure given her comments about the integrity of the 2020 election, and having her as a paid worker during campaign coverage without questioning her about her past could be difficult for NBC News luminaries like Lester Holt or Savannah Guthrie. Now that MSNBC personalities have some leeway to oppose this outspoken trend’s decision, will others want comparable alternatives?
Imagine if CNN environmental correspondent Bill Weir went on “CNN Newsroom” to vent about how long Warner Bros. Discovery dedicates to covering the effects of climate change. Would Norah O’Donnell decide to complain to “CBS Night News” viewers about the amount of promotional time the network gives her show each week? What if an information character needs to have difficulty with the actions or work of a community colleague?
These things will be wrong. In 2020, CNBC diehards can often rely on seeing familiar faces like Joe Kernen, Rick Santelli or Andrew Ross Sorkin fight over the red-blue divide. In 2019, Fox Information Channel mainstay Shepard Smith decided to leave the network he had called home for more than twenty years after opinion hosts including Tucker Carlson began poking fun at him on air.
In the past, acts considered equivalent to an even more delicate revolt were punished – and quickly. Josh Elliott, the former “Good Morning America” team member who came to CBS News after a stint at NBC Sports, has gained traction as anchor of the Paramount World division’s new streaming effort, then known as CBSN. But he later let it slip in 2017 that he was being promoted to work on some CBS News linear properties without getting permission to act from executives. Instead of being shown a new table, the anchor was shown at the door. Brooke Baldwin’s 2020 decision to post on Instagram that her CNN afternoon show was cut in favor of campaign coverage and that the decision was “not my choice” reportedly infuriated the channel’s top executives. She left CNN in 2021 regardless of gaining a reputation with the public.
Most of the dialogue on company issues by presenters is tightly controlled and planned. MSNBC President Rashida Jones was well aware of what the network’s various anchors planned to do on Monday, according to people familiar with the matter. Other strange moments of information over the years have also been monitored, including Chris Matthews’ strange on-screen farewell in 2020 after he was embroiled in allegations about behind-the-scenes behavior and pushback regarding language he used on air. The anchor, an MSNBC mainstay, had just two minutes to say goodbye to viewers before Steve Kornacki took the reins for the rest of the hour.
It’s when things go off plan that problems start to occur. Ann Curry’s emotional departure from NBC’s “In the Present Day” in 2012 so upset viewers that the show began losing in its never-ending ratings battle with ABC rival “Good Morning America.”
Certainly, an improvised second triggered this week’s on-air attack. Chuck Todd first raised alarms Sunday about NBC Information’s rental of McDaniel when he appeared on “Meet The Press.” “There’s a reason why a lot of journalists at NBC News feel uncomfortable about this, because a lot of our professional dealings over the last six years have been met with gaslighting, they’ve been met with character assassination,” he told host Kristen Welker. , also adding: “Our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation.”
Todd’s comments were not expected by producers or executives, according to five people familiar with the matter, with one characterizing his comments as “off the cuff.” But they sparked a real-time video revolt, with prominent anchors impeaching McDaniel as an analyst, which only made the prospect of booking her on multiple NBC News and MSNBC programs increasingly problematic.
Such antics won’t help information organizations in the long run, says Bogardus. “Your big anchors, your big names that convey information and commentary, are the celebrities, not the story that they are overlaying,” he says. A greater journalistic effort would cause “personalities to take a backseat to the information they are transmitting”, he adds. Ultimately, “I don’t think it comes across well on television.”
Information personalities and commentators have gained new levels of autonomy in recent months, as “creators” are beginning to dominate the content economy, particularly in the digital domain. However, when it comes to dirty clothes, it’s best to leave them in the closet.
