I’ve never worked in television news, and I don’t know the players involved in hiring Ronna McDaniel.
But I have worked on the entertainment side of television for over 30 years, and have been in countless meetings with high-level tv executives, including the CEOs of studios, networks and streamers.
In my experience, high-level television executives are generally not thoughtful people. They pride themselves on making decisions quickly and decisively. If anything, taking time to listen, to stop and consider, is seen as indecision and could even be perceived as weakness. They’re impatient, either not having the time, or maybe the wiring, to think deeply. Couple that with an arrogance that comes from being told by the people around them how smart they are, and voila, they make bad decisions. And television makes a lot of bad decisions.
I think what happened at NBC News is probably as simple as: A) They wanted more Republicans on their air B) McDaniel came at a price they could afford (budgets are very important) and C) No one thought much beyond that.
Strange as it sounds, I doubt they even considered whether a news organization should hire someone who worked on a project to overthrow democracy, or whether someone who lied to undermine the 2020 election would be a good fit for an organization that’s supposed to travel in truth. Considering such things would be seen as too intellectual and require too much thought.
When I heard about the McDaniel hire, I wasn’t surprised. It’s what happens when you mix shallow thinking with arrogance and add the need to be seen as decisive.