NEW YORK (AP) — Hiring non-journalists as contributors to television news organizations is not new. Far less common is the pushback of such decisions by journalists who work there, as has happened recently at CBS and NBC News.
Discontent arose over CBS’s hiring of former Trump administrative official Mick Mulvaney as a commentator and discussions about current White House press secretary Jen Psaki working at MSNBC when her time in the Biden administration is up.
In both cases, journalists have publicly remained silent about their concerns about the decisions. Due to concerns about Psaki — who has raised ethical concerns for the press secretary — NBC News president Noah Oppenheim was forced to address the discussions in a conference call with Washington-based staff, first reported by CNN.
While both cases are different, the fact that these internal complaints came to the surface illustrates some of the pressure many journalists are under, said Mark Whitaker, a former executive at NBC News, CNN and Newsweek. They are already operating in a hyper-partisan time and are accused of promoting “fake news,” he said.
“There’s a sense of ‘this just makes our job harder when we’re attacked,'” Whitaker said.
Every case is more complicated than rubbing the elbows against the water cooler with a partisan.
Neither MSNBC nor Psaki have publicly confirmed their talks about a role there. MSNBC has already hired Symone Sanders, former chief spokeswoman for Vice President Kamala Harris, for a job starting in May. NBC News has made an effort to differentiate between its journalists and MSNBC, which has bolstered its opinion programming, although that’s tricky when journalists like Andrea Mitchell and Chuck Todd both have shows on the cable network.
At least until the situation clears up, NBC News journalists are being put in the awkward position of having professional contact with someone who may soon become a colleague.
NBC correspondent Kristen Welker asked Psaki about her status at a recent White House briefing, saying, “Is it ethical for you to continue to hold this job while negotiating with a media outlet?”
Without confirming or denying those conversations, Psaki said she had already gone “over and above” strict ethical requirements. Welker followed up twice, asking, “how can you be an effective briefer if you do indeed have plans to join a media outlet?”
Psaki said she has taken steps to ensure no conflict arises. While the situation is still in flux, CNN reported that it is not expected to conduct on-camera interviews with NBC News or MSNBC staff, and will not be involved in decisions about booking administrative assistants on the networks.
Oppenheim declined a chance to discuss the matter, via a spokesperson.
CBS News said Mulvaney’s signing was part of building the network of contributors ahead of the 2022 midterm elections and the 2024 presidential election. News department co-chair Neeraj Khemlani said in a staff meeting ahead of the announcement that CBS makes sure it hires employees to ensure the network has access to officials in both parties with a by-election looming, according to a tape of that meeting provided to the Washington Post.
In addition to internal grumbling, CBS News also received criticism from outside; Post columnist Margaret Sullivan, for example, dismissed the “fearful cynicism” of the move. Mulvaney, a former congressman, served Trump as chief of staff and director of the Office of Management and Budget.
CBS has had other like-minded outsiders as contributors, such as former Trump Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, and it recently announced the signing of former National Security Adviser HR McMaster.
However, Mulvaney was criticized for lying when he publicly admitted that Trump had withheld support from Ukraine in order to pressure the country to investigate political opponents, later suggesting that he had not said so. In the early days of the coronavirus, he said the media hyped the virus as a way to topple Trump.
“Even in opinion journalism, respect for facts is essential,” said Geneva Overholser, an experienced consultant who has worked at both the University of Missouri and USC Annenberg journalism schools.
“I read the CBS staff’s response as an attempt to stick to that principle, to uphold the network’s honor,” she said. “More power for them.”
Khemlani was not made available for an interview. CBS said that when Mulvaney appears as a commentator on political news, he will be with news anchors who can give context to his statements.
Since the March 29 announcement that he had been hired as a collaborator, he has appeared on the network’s streaming service once, but not yet on TV, a spokeswoman said.
