Trying to lower the ratings in an election year, a major television network has hired a pair of provocative pundits from the political establishment to inject some sharp perspective into its otherwise candid campaign coverage.
The result – the discussions of Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley Jr. of 1968 – was a hit with viewers and an unexpected success for ABC News. It also inspired television news departments to bring more partisan voices to their coverage, a trend that intensified at the dawn of the 24-hour news era in the early 1980s.
These days, the role of the “paid contributor” — contract commentator, to puff on demand — has been fully integrated into the television news ecosystem. Typically, the role is filled by a political veteran who can provide an insider’s perspective on the news of the day based on experience, such as an elected official, a Beltway strategist, or a West Wing aide.
Or, in the case of Ronna McDaniel, as a former chair of the Republican Party.
Ms. McDaniel’s tenure as a paid contributor at NBC News was less successful than that of many of her colleagues. (Her two immediate predecessors as Republican leader, Michael Steele and Reince Priebus, work for MSNBC and ABC News.) Her hiring led to an open revolt from NBC and MSNBC stars, who said rules out the fact that Ms. McDaniel was involved in former The efforts of President Donald J. Trump to undermine the results of the 2020 election.
She was fired by NBC on Tuesday, four days after she started. Ms. McDaniel, whose deal was worth $300,000 a year, is now seeking to be paid at least $600,000 over the two years she signed on, according to a person familiar with her plans.
The episode caused turmoil at NBC News, where reporters and producers on Wednesday were still troubled by their bosses’ handling of the situation, according to several people who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private matters.
By Wednesday, critics on the left were calmed by the network’s decision to cut ties with Ms. McDaniel. But some political reporters at NBC remain concerned that Republican officials, who have derided the network’s leadership for refusing to keep Ms. McDaniel, may now be reluctant to pursue stories.
Others at NBC questioned the byzantine leadership structure developed by Cesar Conde, the chairman of NBCUniversal News Group, who said on Tuesday that he accepted “full responsibility” for Ms. McDaniel’s hiring while noting that it was “a collective recommendation” from his team. Under Mr. Conde, franchises such as the “Today” show, “NBC Nightly News” and MSNBC report to different executives while being arms of the same company.
Despite the collapse of Ms. McDaniel’s deal, NBC and its peer networks are unlikely to back away from relying on Washington veterans to provide commentary alongside traditional reporters.
Ideally, these contributors enhance a network’s ability to explain political events to its audience when the news reporters themselves are unavailable. Networks seek a wide ideological variety of contributors so that various perspectives can be reflected on air.
“Who better to tell you about life inside the White House, a political party or a presidential campaign than someone who actually worked for one?” said Michael LaRosa, a former MSNBC producer who served as a spokesman for first lady Jill Biden. “They have a unique experience that a reporter at a network or the public probably doesn’t have, which allows for greater awareness and information to provide to the viewer.”
But finding paid contributors who reflect the views of Mr. Trump and his supporters has proven challenging.
In 2017, CNN fired Geoffrey Lord, a veteran of the Reagan White House and tireless Trump defender, after he evoked a Nazi salute in a Twitter exchange. More recently, the GOP’s full embrace of Mr. Trump’s baseless conspiracies about voter fraud has raised questions about how to responsibly include those views — which have a large constituency of the voting public — while staying within its bounds. responsible, documented journalism.
Several NBC News executives believed Ms. McDaniel struck the right balance. While he had made some false claims about the 2020 election, he also earned Mr Trump’s ire by not pushing his conspiracies as hard as he had hoped. That accolade failed to register with stars like Rachel Maddow, who called Ms. McDaniel “someone who is part of an ongoing project to get rid of our system of government.”
Paid partisan commentary on television news took off in the early days of 24-hour cable, when executives were scrambling to fill airtime. Experts who could chat during an hour-long program were a worthwhile investment, sometimes more so than traditional journalists, whose reporting duties were burdensome and expensive.
It also made sense for cable networks to put political figures with branded names on retainer. That way, when a big story broke, producers didn’t have to waste precious minutes trying to book guests. Specialists were already on the payroll and contractually obligated to travel to the studio.
Sometimes, these pundits become TV stars themselves. Joe Scarborough is a former Republican congressman. James Carville was a top aide to Bill Clinton. Donna Brazile is a former chair of the Democratic Party. Nicolle Wallace worked in the George W. Bush administration. Alyssa Farah Griffin served under Mr. Trump. The list goes on and on.
Beltway insiders offered their own kind of charm. “As cable news has grown, there has been a desire to highlight the stature and prestige of these networks,” said Kathryn Kramer Brownell, a historian at Purdue University and author of “24/7 Politics: Cable Television and the Fragmenting of America since Watergate to Fox News.”
“The motivation is to claim this trusted knowledge that they can sell to their viewers – that these political insiders can tell them how Really it works,” Ms. Brownell said in an interview. “We know that’s not necessarily true. They have a particular point of view, or possibly a particular party point of view and an ideological agenda. But presenting that information helps the network compete for viewers, to say they have something unique to offer.”
Contributors brought another asset to the networks: their Rolodexes. Glossy magazines had long awarded “contributing editor” contracts to socialites in exchange for access to their rarefied worlds. if Vogue wanted to photograph the private gardens of, say, a minor king of Spain, he helped have the aristocrat’s backgammon partners on speed dial. Television newsrooms operate on a similar philosophy, with former party leaders like Ms. McDaniel helping book their old colleagues as guests.
Jeff Greenfield, the longtime television political analyst who began his career working in politics, wrote in Politico on Wednesday that despite the backlash against Ms. McDaniel, “it doesn’t mean that agents should be off limits as analysts.” .
There are just certain conditions they must meet, he wrote: “Are they upfront about their prejudices and identify as partisan, or are they able to put aside their recent political work and tell the honest truth?”
In the end, Mr. Greenfield added: “I have a clear, firm view on whether such a move is defensible: It depends.”
