Ronna McDaniel, the former head of the Republican National Committee, is considering taking legal action after she was ousted from a contributor slot on NBC News.
McDaniel has met with Bryan Freedman, a popular attorney among disaffected and ousted cable news stars looking to take legal action against their old employers, according to POLITICO. Freedman’s resume includes representing Megyn Kelly against NBC, Tucker Carlson against Fox News, and Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon against CNN.
McDaniel expects from NBC she will be paid out the full $600,000 that her two-year contract had been worth, but part of McDaniel’s discussion with Freedman was about her options to sue for damages as well. The former RNC head is exploring legal action for defamation and a hostile work environment, according to POLITICO.
NBCUniversal News Group Chair Cesar Conde announced that NBC News and its sister network, MSNBC, were cutting ties with McDaniel on Tuesday after days of internal backlash, some of which played out publicly on the networks themselves. The public backlash began with Chuck Todd, NBC’s chief political analyst and former moderator of “Meet the Press.”
Todd appeared on his old show, now hosted by Kristen Welker, and expressed angst over an interview Welker had conducted with McDaniel. The interview was booked while McDaniel had still been head of the RNC, but took place after she was announced as an NBC contributor.
“You got put into an impossible situation, booking this interview, and then all of a sudden the rug was pulled out from under you, and you find out she’s being paid to show up?” Todd said on Sunday. “It’s unfortunate for this program, but I am glad you did the best that you could.”
After days of hosts on the networks bashing the decision to hire McDaniels on air, Conde sent a memo to employees announcing that McDaniel would not be appearing on either network.
“No organization, particularly a newsroom, can succeed unless it is cohesive and aligned. Over the last few days, it has become clear that this appointment undermines that goal,” Conde wrote. “I want to personally apologize to our team members who felt we let them down. While this was a collective recommendation by some members of our leadership team, I approved it and take full responsibility for it.”
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