NBC News' decision to hire former Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel has drawn heated criticism from many people at the network, but The New Republic's Greg Sargent believes that there's a disturbing rationale behind it.
In his latest podcast, Sargent talked with New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen about the potential reasons behind McDaniel's hiring, and Rosen speculated that the network may have wanted some inside access to former President Donald Trump's orbit should he win the White House again this year.
"It seems to be an appointment that has a lot more to do with getting comfortable with Trump World than with doing good journalism," Rosen explained.
"I think what you're saying there has a really dark implication," Sargent replied. "If Trump wins, big media companies will have to adjust to a new level of retribution being taken against enemies of MAGA like them, the big media companies. And maybe they're preparing for that eventuality. It's important to remember that the bigger context here is that Trump has attacked NBC News as an arm of the Democratic Party."
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Sargent added that CNBC recently conducted an interview with Trump in which it let him spout multiple demonstrably false claims without any attempt to push back, which he feared could signal "a really ominous set of preparations being made here."
Rosen said that this possibility was definitely worth considering given Trump's history with the news media.
"His movement really empowers itself in many ways in rejection of the news," Rosen said. "And that, in turn, helps with MAGA politics because it allows for a kind of a rejection of reality as well. And that has become part of the way that MAGA politics works."
