A freelance writer for the Huffington Post and the New York Magazine has whipped up a storm with NBC News over the DNC’s first 2020 presidential primary debates.
Yashar Ali has accused Dafna Linzer, managing editor of politics at NBC News and MSNBC, of using conduct that was “highly inappropriate and unethical” during at telephone conversation.
Ali’s reporting accuses NBC News officials of pandering to the Democratic National Committee, and doing their bidding for them in respect of about where and when the first presidential primary debate of the 2020 election cycle would be held.
Ali tweeted on Friday; “Yesterday, I received a call from (Dafna Linzer) 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.”
In a tirade of tweets on Friday afternoon, Ali went on to say; “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.
“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.
“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.
“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.”
In the 25 tweets that Ali ultimately posted on the matter, he went on to say that he had informed his colleagues at HuffPost, who urged him to go public with his story.