Chair of the Republican National Committee Ronna McDaniel addresses the Republican National Convention at the Mellon Auditorium on August 24, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

We’re seeing an ongoing — and to me, pretty comical — garbage fire at NBC News over the hiring of Ronna McDaniel (or who I guess we might call Ronna X, since her last name may be subject to ongoing contract negotiation) as a paid contributor. I’ll assume you’ve seen at least some reports on the controversy. I want to add three things. First a personal aside, second a guess about what happened and third something about the structural roots of “bothsidesist” news coverage.

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