Freelance Reporter: NBC/MSNBC Politics Managing Editor Tried “to bully me on behalf of the DNC”
“conduct during the call was highly inappropriate and unethical”
Yashar Ali is a liberal journalist, but a fair one. If you spend any time on Twitter, you’ll see that he is respected by many conservatives.
On Friday, he published a series of tweets which described an attempt to intimidate him by the managing editor of NBC/MSNBC politics on behalf of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
Diana Stancy Correll of the Washington Examiner summarizes the story:
Reporter says NBC editor bullied him on behalf of Democrats
A journalist has accused the managing editor of politics for NBC and MSNBC of trying “to bully me on behalf of the” Democratic National Committee.
In a series of 24 tweets, Yashar Ali claimed that Dafna Linzer behaved unethically after he received a tip Thursday from a trusted source about the dates of the first 2020 primary debates. Ali claims he followed up with the DNC after his source told him the debates were set for June 26 and 27, which were going to be announced on MSNBC at 4 p.m.
According to Ali, the DNC asked him to hold off on publishing the scoop in his newsletter so they could notify state parties first.
Shortly afterwards, she called him in “a menacing tone” to ask him to hold the story so the DNC could make its calls. Ali said, “She wanted me to wait so they could call state party leaders.”
Here’s the story in Yashar’s own words:
1. Yesterday, I received a call from @DafnaLinzer who serves as managing editor of NBC/MSNBC politics. Dafna’s conduct during the call was highly inappropriate and unethical. So what was the purpose of her call?
She called me to bully me on behalf of the DNC.
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) March 29, 2019
2. Dafna, who oversees the political coverage for NBC and MSNBC, was calling to bully me into delaying the publication of an innocuous scoop and at no point did she advocate for her network, it was only about the DNC.
Here’s how this all started…
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) March 29, 2019
3. Yesterday morning I received a tip from a trusted source. The source told me the DNC would be announcing the dates of the first 2020 primary debates later that day. The source gave me the dates they would be announcing: June 26 and 27.
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) March 29, 2019
4. At first I thought it was just a fun tidbit that I could tweet out. But after I called several presidential campaign staffers I learn that all the Dem campaigns were desperate to learn what the dates were going to be. I decided to post the scoop as an item in my newsletter.
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) March 29, 2019
5. This wasn’t a huge scoop but it was a decent one so I quickly called the DNC to fact-check the tip as I was running out of time: the dates would be announced on MSNBC in the 4:00 PM hour. It’s important to note that almost of all of my communication with the DNC was off record
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) March 29, 2019
6. So I won’t share most of what was said but can tell you it’s pretty run-of-the mill stuff. I asked the DNC if my tip was accurate and they asked if they could call me back in 10 minutes. A few minutes later they called back and asked if I could delay posting my scoop
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) March 29, 2019
7. For another hour so they could go through their important notification calls to the state parties. I told them I couldn’t wait as the news would leak and leave me without a story. That’s all I can say about the call. Two minutes later I received a call from Dafna.
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) March 29, 2019
8. I’ve never spoken to Dafna by phone. A couple years ago she reached out to me to see if I wanted to have coffee and talk about working at NBC News but I declined as I was actively investigating NBC matters and thought it would be strange if I discussed a job.
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) March 29, 2019
9. So when I saw Dafna calling I assumed she would ask me to consider delaying my post so that MSNBC could announce it first. Given that this was an innocuous scoop and not some investigative story I wouldn’t have lost sleep if I had delayed. But that’s not why she was calling.
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) March 29, 2019
10. After exchanging pleasantries, Dafna told me that she received a call from the DNC and was told I had a story. Now it’s not strange that the DNC called her, they were coordinating an announcement. What was strange was that she was calling me and taking a menacing tone
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) March 29, 2019
11. She asked if I could hold the story and I said I couldn’t. She was agitated, “why not?” I said I’m not going to lose a scoop. Then she got angrier and said “Why not? It’s not a big deal, let them make a few phone calls.”
My jaw dropped.
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) March 29, 2019
12. I realized that @DafnaLinzer, the head of all political coverage for NBC News and MSNBC wasn’t calling to advocate for her network, she was calling to advocate the DNC’s position. She wanted me to wait so they could call state party leaders.
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) March 29, 2019
13. I thought to myself “this is how people think it works.” It’s not. But Dafna was doing it. She kept pressing me. Now I acknowledged, for stuff that isn’t about serious investigative reporting, there is no problem holding something. But I knew once others got the call
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) March 29, 2019
14. I would lose a scoop. Dafna reminded me she was a nat sec reporter at WAPO for ten years and they would hold stuff all the time (note: so people wouldn’t get killed). “Why can’t you just wait, let them make their calls, then you’ll be the first to put it into print,” she said
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) March 29, 2019
15. I couldn’t believe what she was saying. Again, it was fine for me to print the story an hour later, beat her own network by three hours, she just wanted me to let the DNC inform state party leaders. Why the hell did she care?
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) March 29, 2019
16. I kept telling Dafna no, that I wasn’t waiting. And she kept getting more frustrated. She was exasperated…she didn’t understand why I couldn’t wait for the DNC to make their state notification calls.
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) March 29, 2019
17. I was so surprised me that she was talking this way with a total stranger. The head of the political division was trying to bully me at the behest of the DNC over a dumb scoop (even though they may not have asked her to)
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) March 29, 2019
18. 2/3 of the way into the conversation Dafna started a sentence with “this is off the record.” She hadn’t said it at the beginning of our conversation and most important at no point did I agree when she said “off record” to keep it off record.
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) March 29, 2019
19. I’m not one of those gotcha reporters, I think it’s bad for sourcing relationships to make people like they constantly feel like they have to say “off record.” But Dafna isn’t a source and she was calling to intimidate me, so she doesn’t get the benefit.
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) March 29, 2019
20. She said “off record” one more time later in the call and again I just let her keep talking, I did not agree to anything. I then told her I had to go talk to my editor and she got even more frustrated and said “No. I want to talk to you about this.”
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) March 29, 2019
21. I said “no, I want to go talk to my editor.” Then she sent me over the edge and said “What’s your editors name, I want to talk to them.” She was trying to intimidate me..on behalf of the DNC. I ended the call.
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) March 29, 2019
22. After the call with Dafna I published the stupid scoop. Then I did a gut check and over the next two hours I called 10 experienced prominent reporters and told them the story. They were all stunned by what Dafna did and encouraged me to share it publicly.
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) March 29, 2019
23. I’m not naive to the fact that this incident is going to be twisted by some with an agenda to discredit the media and say they collude with political parties. But I think its more important to expose bad behavior then keep it under wraps. What Dafna did was unethical
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) March 29, 2019
24. There are plenty of times reporters will introduce people in politics to other reporters or TV people. I have done it many times, that is advocating for more coverage, not less. Dafna was advocating for me to not do something on behalf of a political party.
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) March 29, 2019
25. What I can’t figure out is (and no one else I spoke to could understand), why open yourself up to this for a stupid story? How was this worth it?
END
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) March 29, 2019
Here’s a response from Professor Jacobson:
*hard to believe* managing editor of NBC/MSNBC politics would act on behalf of DNC, you *certainly* would not suspect it from their news coverage https://t.co/fVXJ0gfLZn
— Legal Insurrection (@LegInsurrection) March 29, 2019
This one from T. Becket Adams is also great, via Instapundit.
if MSNBC’s news chief is willing to go to bat like this on behalf of the Democratic National Committee for something that really doesn’t matter, i wonder what she does for the things that are of actual political consequence
— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) March 29, 2019
Ace of Spades makes a great point about this story as well:
I thank Yashar for his reporting here, and the courage in defying the Herd Mind in doing so.
But I can’t help but think — maybe those of us who think the Political-Media Complex does often work this way are more right about that than you’d care to admit to yourself, Yashar.
This woman seems to have had no shame or concern about what she was doing — as you yourself state. That indicates to me that she didn’t think what she was doing was unusual, over-the-line, or even outside of customary routine.
That’s what she thinks — and I’d say she is the expert about her own actions and behavior.
So at least this one person has been doing this thing so much she isn’t even fazed by questions about doing it, and she also hasn’t before been criticized publicly for doing it.
That tells me that you’re a bit naive on this point, Yashar. Maybe you’re just not seeing this even though it’s going on all around you. Maybe the word is out that you’re one of the ones who won’t Play Ball so they don’t usually try this with you.
Tucker Carlson did a segment on this last night. This video is cued to start at the 9:15 mark, just press play:
Featured image via YouTube.
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Comments
This is nothing new. Since the invention of the printing press, members of the press have been aiding and abetting thee people and projects which they favor. This included both slanting reporting and spiking stories. Nothing changed.
The problem we have today, is that the public had been the target od a public relations campaign mounted by the new media. Starting right after WWII, the news media started pushing the narrative that reporters and news organs were neutral. They simply gathered information and presented it to the people. This was totally false. Media outlets had agendas and they pursued those agendas continually. In addition to editorials, straight news stories were reported or ignored or the facts were couched in certain ways to support the point of view of the ownership of the organ and to advance the agenda of groups and people favored by the ownership. It just steadily got worse. Gradually, news reporters and news agencies began to fabricate facts, which they reported as being actual. Sometimes this was to further an outside agenda and, at other times, it was to increase revenue. And, the media organs simply continued down that road. After all, until the 1990, the MSM had a near monopoly on the dissemination of “news”. And, the members of these news organizations truly believed that people were nothing more than gullible sheep. They were apparently unfamiliar with the quotes attributed to Abraham Lincoln.
So, nothing has changed, in the news business, except that the members of that business are now getting caught fabricating the facts to influence their customers. And, even when they get caught, they no longer make any attempt to even appear sorry for their actions. Everything has to be regarded as unsubstantiated propaganda until it can be independently proven to be true. Facts are fabricated, definitions redefined, and outright lies abound. This has always been the news media.
“This is nothing new.”
While I agree there has always been a partisan outlook in the news and commentary, prior to the 1950’s there was a balanced media, I.E., roughly the same amount on both sides. The commies showed the way and the left took over the media entirely. The media now is nothing more than an extension of the democrat party and entirely corrupt. Yea, yea, there are some exceptions, but not much and none in the broadcast media.
I’m sorry, but balanced lying does not not help the consumer.
Prior to the 1960s, you had a national media which was mostly print media. And, with a few exceptions, that media was essentially local. Then came consolidation. large news conglomerates started buying up local publications. And, virtually all of those conglomerates were controlled by liberal progressives and wholly supported liberal progressive agendas and the Democrat Party. Fast forward 50 years and now virtually the entire MSM, and most of the local media organs are wholly staffed by liberal progressives who are willing to trumpet the progressive agenda. So, yes there is now a lack of balance there. But, the news dissemination system has now changed, With the expansion of electronic media and the internet, we now have other sources of “information” beside the established media. The problem is still the same, though, accuracy of that information.
The purpose of the press is not to be propagandists or cheerleaders for one agenda or another. The press has always present themselves as neutral reporters of facts. This has always been, by and large, a lie. But that is what people expect from a free press; the accurate presentation of information so that the consumer can make an informed decision. As I said, having a choice between competing inaccurate information, in the same topic, does not really serve any purpose for the news consumer.
So, we are still left with the same situation which has always prevailed in this country; which lies to believe.
“I’m sorry, but balanced lying does not not help the consumer.”
I didn’t say that it did, nor did I say there was balanced lying. What I said – there was a balance to the sides that doesn’t exist now. I would even say the balance that existed then allowed the conservative side to counter the lies of the left. And that would help the consumer.
I don’t recall which story it was that began my suspicions but I’d guess it was the john lennon murder. Yeah, that’s a long time ago.
There was something about the way it was written that made me look at a lot of stories and see the bias/slant to push the reader to a certain conclusion. Even then I still wouldn’t have thought it was a conspiracy or that the networks would be so sleazy.
Liberalism is divergent, a progressive process. Ali is clearly yesteryear’s liberal. American conservatism is a reconciliation of classical liberalism and Judeo-Christian religious/moral philosophy.
The simultaneous choice of attacks, words and phrases makes obvious that CNNMSNBCNPRABCCBS all have news directors, editors,and producers in direct touch with the Democratic Party and/or its agents daily.
A republic needs a press. It need not be a good press, a reliable press, a neutral press, or an honest press. But it does need to be an independent press. If not independent, it’s just a propaganda bureau for one or another faction in the government, and serves no useful function—the government can release its own propaganda without needing the press to be messenger-boys.
This is what’s changed. The colonial-era press was pretty damn scurrilous; dominated by sensationalism (at best) and outright lies (at worst). But at least it was only rarely a mere government mouthpiece. However, nowadays the obvious suspicion that the mainstream press is just an arm of the DNC is inescapable. But suspicion isn’t fact.
This incident gives us a fact. At least at NBC/MSNBC, our worst suspicions have been confirmed.
What would REALLY be news:
Freelance Reporter: NBC/MSNBC Politics Managing Editor Tried “to bully me to tell the truth about the DNC”
Hee!
That bit of news will come right after the announcement that a large comet is going to hit earth in a few days with total destruction, or that hell has frozen over, whichever comes first.