NBC News was so worried about the liberal bent of its cable television channel MSNBC that they consciously had to spend more money covering the Romney campaign than other outlets.
The Washington Post’s Erik Wemple highlights a report on the 2012 campaign that says other networks pulled back from covering VP candidate Paul Ryan toward the end of the campaign, while NBC kept a five-person team covering Ryan.
NBC Political Director Chuck Todd said one reason for their expensive decision to cover both Romney and Ryan was that his network was “feeding four entities”—NBC, MSNBC, CNBC and Telemundo—in addition to MSNBC.com. He needed the manpower.
Todd also brought up the nakedly liberal leanings of MSNBC, the cable channel that broadcasts his political show every morning. “I had a chip on my shoulder,” Todd said, saying he did not want the news side of the network to be accused of “half-assing coverage” of Romney.
“It’s funny because if you talk to the Ryan people, they’re all like ‘Yep, NBC was always here,’” Todd said. “We have this one editorial page, shall we say, of our network that was a constant thorn in the side of Republicans. They just needed to know that NBC News was serious about making sure we were there every time.”
