Reporter Exposes NBC/MSNBC Politics Editor for Advocating on Behalf of Democratic Party

Conservatives have long suspected that mainstream media outlets have become nothing but propaganda wings for the Democrat party.
This isn’t just idle speculation: Whether it was CNN’s Candy Crowley jumping to Barack Obama’s defense during the 2012 debate with Mitt Romney or the same network’s reporter Jim Acosta acting as if he’s more activist than journalist, there are plenty of examples of bias within the media today.
You can add another piece of evidence to the stack. On Friday, a Huffington Post contributing reporter named Yashar Ali relayed a disturbing phone conversation he had with the top editor of NBC / MSNBC politics — and it again raises the question of just how evenhanded today’s media truly is.
“Yesterday, I received a call from (Dafna Linzer) who serves as managing editor of NBC/MSNBC politics,” Ali began. “Dafna’s conduct during the call was highly inappropriate and unethical. So what was the purpose of her call?”
In his view, it had nothing to do with journalism and everything to do with political bias. “She called me to bully me on behalf of the DNC,” Ali claimed.
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.
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He went on to break down the conversation in a long 25-part series of posts on Twitter. You can read the entire thing there, but here’s the condensed version.

Basically, Ali received a fairly routine “scoop” about the upcoming 2020 Democrat primary debates. That was hardly stop-the-presses reporting, but the kind of bread and butter details that help reporters like him do their jobs.
But the problem with the call from the head of NBC / MSNBC politics was that she seemed to be working more for the Democratic National Committee than for her own news organization.
“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,” Ali said.
In the process of confirming if his information was accurate prior to publication, the Huffington Post contributor called the Democrat party for comment. They urged him to hold off on his story about the primary debate dates — but then things got strange.
“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,” Ali said.
Remember, Dafna Linzer doesn’t work for the Democrats, at least not ostensibly. As the editor of politics for NBC and MSNBC, she’s supposed to at least try to stay non-partisan and unbiased. But according to Ali, that wasn’t the case here.
“Dafna told me that she received a call from the DNC and was told I had a story,” he tweeted. “What was strange was that she was calling me and taking a menacing tone.”
“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,” he continued.
That’s when it dawned on the reporter: The top political editor and professional journalist was blatantly acting like an activist.
“I realized that (Dafna Linzer), 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,” Ali wrote.
“The head of the political division was trying to bully me at the behest of the DNC over a dumb scoop … Dafna was advocating for me to not do something on behalf of a political party,” he concluded.
As Ali himself pointed out, this probably won’t be the scandal of the century. But it’s one more piece of the puzzle which increasingly looks like widespread liberal bias within the establishment media — an industry where once-proud journalists seem to have sold their souls for politics.
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