NB … seething / Boeing, Boeing, gone / Journalism!

NB … seething. NBC’s decision to hire ex-Republican National Committee head Ronna Romney McDaniel (Mitt Romney’s niece) as a contributor has sparked what Poynter’s Tom Jones calls “downright mutiny” among staffers at NBC News and MSNBC …

■ … notably, ex-Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd, who returned to the show yesterday to vent.

■ Transcript: “A lot of journalists’ … professional dealings with the RNC over the last six years have been met with gaslighting, have been met with character assassination.”

■ Columbia Journalism Review’s Jon Allsop: “Todd’s on-air broadside against his own bosses was surprising. It was also, as I see it, spot on.”

■ MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski: “She will not be a guest on Morning Joe.”

■ One of the network’s hosts tells Politico: “Across MSNBC they have been cutting contributors. So everyone’s like, ‘What the f*ck? You found $300,000 for her?’”

■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson: “Trump Republicans like McDaniel were willing to overthrow American democracy so long as it kept them in power.”

■ Columnist Parker Molloy: “She was personally involved in the illegal ‘fake elector’ plot to install Trump for a second term.”

■ Stop the Presses news critic Mark Jacob: “NBC stands for Now Boosting the Coup.”

■ There’s a petition letter-writing campaign to get McDaniel fired.

Elsewhere on the political media spectrum. Notus: A former Democratic operative is testing the limits of what a newsroom in battleground states can be.

■ Columnist Neil Steinberg praises Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas for a weekly show on Chicago’s historic Black radio station, WVON, where she urges people to find out if they’ve overpaid property taxes.

Trump’s day to face the money music? Updating coverage: The ex-president was set to find out how New York wants him to pay the $457 million he owes in a business fraud case.

■ Ex-U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, now a CNN contributor: “Can any of these prosecutors prosecute?”

■ Popular Information: Trump’s squeeze puts him even more in thrall to wealthy right-wing donors, who more than ever can bend him to their will.

■ The Onion suggests ways for Trump to raise a half-billion dollars.

Boeing, Boeing, gone. Beset by a torrent of embarrassing and dangerous mishaps, the company’s CEO says he’s leaving—at the end of the year.

■ Also out: The head of its commercial aircraft business—bowing out immediately—and its chairman, who says he won’t seek reelection.

■ The FBI last week on Friday informed passengers on the Boeing plane that blew a hole midflight that they might be victims of a crime and therefore “entitled to receive certain services.”

■ Actually, I’m a Very Nice Person columnist Julia Gray’s relieved: “It’s a good thing I didn’t get that job in Boeing’s strategic communications department.”

CloserThanThis. The Democratic race for Cook County state’s attorney remained up in the air, with only about 2,000 votes separating Eileen O’Neill Burke and Clayton Harris III—and another 3,500 to be counted in Chicago and the suburbs.

■ That’s less than half a percentage point, halving Burke’s lead as of Saturday.

■ The “Bring Chicago Home” referendum is dead.

Journalism! Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch has apologized to the Tribune and other reporters after his office ignorantly ordered Democratic representatives not to speak about “political matters” at the Capitol.

■ After the Sun-Times asked concert promoters and others why they hadn’t reimbursed Chicago for traffic control outside big events, they paid up to the tune of $1 million.

■ Acclaimed investigative journalist Jamie Kalven slams the Cook County sheriff for an assault on the free speech of two University of Chicago students who criticized his policies at the county jail.

Thankyouthankyouthankyou. Once again, we call the roll of those whose contributions keep Chicago Public Square coming, free for all—including Marie Dillon, Carol Lavoie Harper, Claire Barliant, Mike Chamernik, Jennifer Thiele, Fritz Mills, Dave Tan, Bernard Schoenburg, Carole Barrett, Tim Spencer, Jo Patton, Tom Shepherd, Christine Cupaiuolo, Zarine Weil, Donna Barrows, Ronald A. Fox, Linda Paul, Judee Barone, Kate Arias, Jack Bizot, Steve Nidetz, Ken Davis, Jerry Wolin, Mary Godlewski, Timothy Mennel, Jim Moriarty, David Jones, Sherry Nordstrom, Lloyd Sachs, Ed McDevitt, Jim Grimes, Mark Mueller, Tim Baffoe, Len Jaster, Gail Frost, Kathy Catrambone, Michael Mini, Stephanie Textor, Jeff Baker and Martin Berg.

■ Join their ranks today for any amount—even just $1, once—to see your name atop tomorrow’s list …

■ … and $100 or more gets your name hyperlinked to the website of your choice.

■ Mike Braden made this edition better.