Journalist: NBC ‘Intimidated Me on Behalf of the DNC’

By Thomas Manning

A freelance political news reporter by the name of Yashar Ali is accusing NBC and MSNBC’s managing editor of asking him to spike a story so NBC and MSNBC can get the scoop ahead of him while representing the Democratic National Committee, not NBC news.

Yashar Ali, who is a freelance political journalist, brought the issue up on Twitter where he tweeted the story out in 25 tweets of how NBC and MSNBC’s Managing Editor, Dafna Linzer, called him on Thursday, March 28, asking him to spike the story in a “menacing tone,” revolving around the dates that the first Democratic Primary dates would air on NBC, MSNBC, and also, Telemundo.

“Yesterday I received a call from @DafnaLinzer who serves managing editor of NBC/MSNBC politics. Dafna’s conduct during the call was highly inappropriate and unethical,” Ali’s first tweet read on Thursday, March 28.“So what was the purpose of her call? She called me to bully me on behalf of the DNC,” Ali continued.

Ali went onto to post a series of tweets totaling 25 in total describing the phone call, and how Linzer said she was representing the DNC, not NBC or MSNBC. The posts gained national attention from radio hosts like Sean Hannity who talked about it on his April 1st radio show.

According to Adweek, Ali got the site locations and the dates of the debates before NBC was ready to announce them. The point of Linzer’s phone call was to ask him not to be the first in reporting it, and to hold his scoop’s information until the NBC “news” organization was able to report on it first.

The interesting point to many covering the story was the fact that the managing editor of a supposed news network that has major influence in the United States was not representing her news organization, but the Democratic Party, (hmmmmm…collusion?).

NBC News’ managing editor isn’t a rookie in the news business; she spent ten years at the Associated Press, the Washington Post, and also, ProPublica.

Tweets 20 and 21 of the thread explains how Ali let Linzer keep explaining the reason for her call and how she kept intimidating him into trying not to publish his piece. Tweet 20 says: 20) “she said “off the record,” one more time later in the call and again I just said 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 just want to talk to you about this.” Tweet 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.

The whole tweet thread can be found here, via Ali’s Twitter page.

Concluding, it shouldn’t be surprising that news outlets like NBC have editors with connections to the Democratic Party, as the most recent poll available from 2013 showed that only seven percent of journalists in the United States were registered as Republicans, and given the way that the current Republican president and past Republican presidents have been treated by the major news channels, it shouldn’t be a surprise.

Writer’s note: NBC news and Mr. Ali were contacted for their sides of the story but neither responded to the requests.

**********

(TLB) published this article from the WesternFreePress



MORE ABOUT AUTHOR Born in 1987, Thomas Manning, currently resides in Suffolk County, New York. He enjoys reading, following politics and current events, and writing. When he is not following politics, he’s reading or going to the gym—6 to 7 nights a week. Baseball and hockey are his favorite sports and when he’s not watching the two C-span…

•••• The Liberty Beacon Project is now expanding at a near exponential rate, and for this we are grateful and excited! But we must also be practical. For 7 years we have not asked for any donations, and have built this project with our own funds as we grew. We are now experiencing ever increasing growing pains due to the large number of websites and projects we represent. So we have just installed donation buttons on our websites and ask that you consider this when you visit them. Nothing is too small. We thank you for all your support and your considerations … (TLB) •••• Comment Policy: As a privately owned web site, we reserve the right to remove comments that contain spam, advertising, vulgarity, threats of violence, racism, or personal/abusive attacks on other users. This also applies to trolling, the use of more than one alias, or just intentional mischief. Enforcement of this policy is at the discretion of this websites administrators. Repeat offenders may be blocked or permanently banned without prior warning. •••• Disclaimer: The Liberty Beacon contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of “fair use” in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, health, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “fair use” you must request permission from the copyright owner. •••• Follow TLB on Twitter @thetlbproject