NBC should not have fired Ronna McDaniel: Richard M. Perloff
- Published: Apr. 05, 2024, 5:53 a.m.
After some of its on-air MSNBC commentators criticized NBC for hiring former Republican National Committee head Ronna McDaniel as a paid contributor, NBC bowed out of the deal. Big mistake, writes Cleveland State University distinguished politics professor Richard M. Perloff in a guest column today. Chris Boehke, Advance Local
- Guest Columnist, cleveland.com
NBC’s decision last week to fire Ronna McDaniel is a symptom of the shortcomings of cable television news. NBC had recently hired McDaniel, the former Republican National Committee chair, to offer some political diversity to their stridently liberal prime time panel. But the network abruptly fired her when MSNBC hosts vehemently condemned the hiring, in light of McDaniel’s effort to subvert the outcome of the 2020 election by promoting false claims of election fraud.
To be sure, there is a strong argument that, given the threat to democracy posed by Donald Trump’s multifaceted 2020 refusal to peacefully transfer power, anyone, let alone a highly visible Republican official, who advances baseless claims of a fraudulent, stolen presidential election has no business participating in on-air discussions about the panoply of issues bearing on democracy in the 2024 campaign.
But McDaniel’s firing also flies in the face of a principle articulated by democracy theorists, namely that democracy thrives when we have discussions that include different perspectives on issues of the day. Proponents of deliberative democracy emphasize that a robust democracy requires spirited debate on issues that divide the electorate. Exposure to divergent viewpoints not only respects diversity of viewpoints on complex issues, but also allows people from opposing sides to hear the merits of their adversary’s position. This bolsters tolerance, a political good in short supply in polarized America.
As the fractious debates about free speech on the Israel-Hamas war have amply shown, there are moral and legal limits to free speech, involving (though this can be complex) areas where speech devolves into hate and prejudice.
But, as offensive as McDaniel’s stolen-election claims were to advocates of the central democratic tenet of peaceful transfer of power, they hardly represented hateful, deeply prejudiced speech acts.
For as dissonant as this is to those who were rightly offended by Trump’s election-subverting actions, nearly seven in 10 Republicans buy into Trump’s claim that Biden won the 2020 election only “due to voter fraud,” per a May 2023 Monmouth University poll. Of course, just because many people fervently believe something doesn’t mean it is true. It isn’t , but the fact that tens of millions of Americans appear to believe this means it is a part of the nation’s political discourse.
And here is where one is reminded of the eloquent statement from the great advocate of free speech and democracy, John Stuart Mill. As Mill famously wrote about censorship, “If the opinion is right, [people] are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error. He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that.”
This is precisely the problem with NBC’s decision to fire McDaniel after MSNBC hosts complained, and with cable news in general. McDaniel would have brought nonliberals into the MSNBC audience fold, exposing them to counterarguments they may never have heard, perhaps changing some minds as Republican viewers exchanged error for truth, listening to more than just their side for once. It’s not ideal to include an election denier on a panel, but it’s a price worth paying to get both sides talking to each other.
Richard M. Perloff is a distinguished professor of communication, psychology and political science at Cleveland State University. Cleveland State University
To be fair, Fox inhabits an equally partisan echo chamber. It offers a primarily pro-Trump slant, as it did with its outrageously incorrect claim that Dominion Voting Systems rigged the 2020 election , likewise depriving its viewers of the opportunity to trade error for truth, à la Mill.
But when cable news networks develop programming that merely reinforces their audience’s attitudes, a strategy to gain a reliable economic share of the viewing audience, they contribute to the nation’s polarization, hardening attitudes, increasing animus, and, in the long run, reducing the quality of democracy that MSNBC claimed to value in the short-sighted decision to fire Ronna McDaniel.
Richard M. Perloff is Distinguished Professor of Communication, Psychology, and Political Science at Cleveland State’s Levin College of Public Affairs and Education.
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Students walk out of schools across Alaska to protest the governor's veto of education package
JUNEAU, Alaska — Students in Alaska’s capital walked out of school Thursday and marched through the halls of the statehouse to protest Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s latest education veto and the Legislature’s failure to override it.
The walkout was part of a protest organized by the executive board of the Alaska Association of Student Governments, said Felix Myers, a student organizer from Sitka. Plans called for 40-minute walkouts at schools across Alaska, with 40 representing the number of votes lawmakers needed to override the veto. Lawmakers fell one vote short in their override attempt last month. The walkout was planned for around 11 a.m., a time chosen in part to minimize disruptions and to ensure participation, he said.
“We’ve tried to be heard, we’ve tried to be listened to and we’ve been ignored, and that’s why we’ve gotten to this point,” he said in a phone interview from Anchorage. Myers is a student adviser to the state board of education but said he was not speaking or acting in that capacity concerning the walkout.
Dunleavy in March made good on a threat to veto a package overwhelming passed by lawmakers that called for a $175-million increase in aid to districts through a school funding formula. He complained the measure lacked provisions he supported, including a three-year program offering annual bonuses of up to $15,000 as a way to attract and keep teachers and changes to the application process for charter schools aimed at promoting those schools.
But those items lacked broad support among lawmakers, who questioned the effectiveness and cost of the untested teacher retention plan and expressed concern that allowing the state education board — whose members are appointed by the governor — to directly approve charters would erode local control.
After vetoing the package, Dunleavy said he was moving on to other issues, such as energy, but in a later statement said: “As the conversation around education continues, I will work with every member of the legislature to pass an increase in funding and needed reforms.” He has not specified what increase in funding he would support.
School leaders and advocates urged a roughly $360 million increase in aid — but nonetheless supported the package passed by lawmakers as a positive step. School officials have cited the toll of inflation, along with high energy and insurance costs, as they struggle in some cases with multimillion-dollar deficits and teacher shortages.
They also said unpredictable levels of state support make long-term planning difficult. Lawmakers last year approved a one-time, $175-million funding boost but Dunleavy vetoed half that sum. Lawmakers could not muster sufficient support to override that veto, either.
School funding is expected to remain a closely watched issue the remainder of this session.
During the walkout Thursday, students from Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé and supporters — including some legislators — marched roughly a mile to the state Capitol, with some carrying handmade signs and chanting slogans, such as “fund our future.” They chanted loudly in the Capitol halls, including on the third floor, where the governor’s offices are, though Dunleavy was not in Juneau Thursday.
About two dozen students gathered in the House Finance Committee room and after a meeting on an unrelated issue had concluded, approached Republican Rep. Julie Coulombe. She is one of the lawmakers who voted for the education package but voted against overturning Dunleavy’s veto. Coulombe welcomed their questions.
She said given Dunleavy’s opposition to the package, she worried that even if an override were successful he would still wind up cutting at least some of the additional funding for schools when he got the state budget. She said she wants to keep working on a plan that would provide extra funding and get Dunleavy’s support. She encouraged the students to stay involved.
“Don’t lose hope, this is a messy process,” she said.
Rachel Wood, a student who marched to the Capitol on Thursday, said the event showed her young people can play an active part in what happens at the Legislature. She and fellow student Meadow Stanley said they hoped lawmakers who expressed support for education back that up by passing increased funding.
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