Hypocrisy or Plain-Vanilla Stupidity?

This shit triggers me.

Ronna Romney McDaniel has been hired by NBC!

My husband yelled that headline from the living room to me. He then reminded me of who she is. OMG, I thought Rachel Maddow is going to quit or strike in protest.

Thankfully, I was wrong about the quitting or striking. Not wrong about her reaction, which was echoed or previewed by all of the other key anchors on MSNBC. I think that if NBC hadn't acted so quickly to fire McDaniel, quitting or striking or getting “sick” would likely have happened with the weeknight crew.

I haven’t heard what the terms of McDaniel’s firing. Yesterday, I said to my husband, “If they paid her $300k on her way out the door, it would still be a cheap way out for NBC.”

If they used her stupid comments about the 2020 election “having a lot of problems” as “cause” for her firing, I wish them luck in the inevitable lawsuit. If they are going to say they were surprised that she continues to sing her trademark songs, NBC is either lying or stupid.

Photo by Jametlene Reskp on Unsplash

What the Actual Fuck?

This McDaniel stuff triggers me because even though it isn't directly disability-related, it emotionally reminds me of all the times I witnessed decisions being made above my pay grade that were so manifestly stupid that I could barely stand it. (Meaning that I stood it because I couldn't afford to quit.)

Hiring people who don't know shit about disabilities to make disability-related policy is a good example, because I have seen that over and over. Not removing incompetent people in key disability-related policy roles, likewise.

We didn't have someone like Rachel Maddow to speak truth to power. And, the thing about Rachel is that she isn’t just a brilliant and articulate narrator of the truth, she is also NBC/MSNBC’s key rainmaker.

So of course Ronna was fired. Whomever hired her should also be fired. Whatever that person’s motivation was to hiring McDanielould in the first place was so screamingly wrong headed would make me skeptical of all of their future decisions.