Category: National Media

Luke Mullins of the Washingtonian wrote a long-form narrative detailing the inside turmoil that surrounded David Gregory and the circumstances leading up to his dismissal as “Meet the Press” moderator.

While the piece did little detail anything earth shattering new surrounding Gregory’s ousting, it was very interesting to read up on all of the tiny details in their proper context.

What the story does dive into is how Comcast, the parent company of NBC, is more involved in NBC’s division and how that may potentially impact the proposed merger between Comcast and Time Warner.

My “Meet the Press” viewing naturally increased after new moderator Chuck Todd took the helm. In recent weeks however, my urgency to watch and my initial exciting about Todd cooled off. What started it for me was the high urgency that Todd and the rest of the media gave to the Ebola scare. The Ebola story quickly turned into sensationalism and I wasn’t going to waste my time with that. Asides from a few cosmetic changes to the set and a change of guests, “Meet” quickly went back to being just another weekend show that rehashes the same over-cycled news from the week.

Nevertheless, news itself about the “Meet the Press” institution continues to fascinate me, though I think anyone who considers his or herself a news junkie or even has some interest in journalism will find Mullins’s piece worth reading.

New “Meet the Press Set” – Photo courtesy, NewsCastStudio.com.

Six weeks and five episodes into Chuck Todd’s run as moderator of “Meet the Press,” now seems like a good time to dish out some pent-up thoughts pertaining to NBC’s venerable television franchise.

I’ve been watching “Meet the Press” semi-regularly since 2007. I regret that I had not begun watching it sooner, having missed out on much of Tim Russert’s run as moderator.

I’ve agreed with the general sentiment towards David Gregory and that the show had appeared to operate off a paint  by numbers formula. The public’s reaction to the news in late August that NBC’s Chuck Todd would take over as the show’s moderator was a mixed bag, and for a variety of reasons.

While it would be hard to find anyone from within the news media who doubt that Todd is as affluent in politics as it comes, some people hesitate that he just doesn’t have the demeanor or looks to hold down such a prominent television hosting role. The more general sentiment is that the Sunday morning talk show routine has run its course and that Todd represents more of the status quo.

The digital age and 24/7 news media has certainly lessened the overall impact of the Sunday morning talk shows.  While the Sunday talk shows continue to skew towards an older audience, shows like the “Daily Show,” “The Colbert Report,” and “Last Week Tonight,” deliver fresh and exciting content on a subject that often leaves people angry and frustrated — and they skew younger.

Prior to the anointing of Todd as the new “Meet the Press” moderator, there were suggestions that NBC News was leaning towards, or at the very least exploring, radically different means to help differentiate the show from its Sunday morning competitors.

Here’s how Politico’s Dylan Byers narrated such possibilities in his Aug. 15 report:

In fact, even Todd’s bosses needed to be persuaded. Deborah Turness, the president of NBC News, was lukewarm on him, sources at the network said. Disappointed by the program’s poor ratings under host David Gregory, she had entertained all manner of revisions: Moving the show to New York and handing it over to a more affable, nonpolitical personality like Savannah Guthrie, the co-host of the “Today” show; changing the show’s name; perhaps even canceling it and starting over. That Turness was considering such diverse and radical options right up until the end — while Gregory was left to twist in the wind, enduring an onslaught of criticism and negative press — shows just how uncertain she was about the appropriate solution.

Just last week, word came out that NBC News offered the moderator chair to the “Daily Show’s” John Stewart(!).

Also, the fact that Deborah Turness might even for a second consider cancelling the show is just batshit crazy.

I just can’t shake the feeling that giving the job to Todd was a reluctant move by NBC. I hope I’m wrong, because even though the Sunday morning talk show formula may be incapable of living up to the relevance in had prior to the digital age and 24/7 news, I still find it to be an important cog in the overall political news media. Todd alone is a vast improvement over Gregory, and I like how has so far come across on the show.

Hopefully, the recently upgraded set is a vote of confidence in Todd by the NBC News brass. However, I question the necessity of a new set. The previous “Meet the Press” set was introduced in 2010 and was yet to come across as out of date. One thing I don’t like since Todd took over is the anchor desk he shares with his roundtable. Though it’s only a small caveat, I believe being moderator of “Meet the Press” is an esteemed honor, enough so that the host should rightfully be seated at the “head” of the desk, if you will, apart from the rest. Simply sitting in the middle doesn’t separate him enough, in my opinion. Todd either feels more comfortable being seated in the middle with the roundtable guests or NBC made that cosmetic decision for him.

For now, I’ll continue to enjoy “Meet the Press” for what it’s worth. A simple re-hash of the week’s most important news and political stories along with some debate that I may or may not enjoy, pending the guests. While I happen to like Todd’s attempt at a slightly more casual and viewer friendly program, I don’t know if that will be enough to lure people away from ABC’s “This Week” or CBS’s “Face the Nation.” If he can’t, I reckon his leash will be shorter than Gregory’s (six years).

Network broadcasting evening news isn’t what it used to be. While not exactly breaking news, such an observation was more apparent this week after ABC News announced that Diane Sawyer will be stepping down as host of “World News,” and will be succeeded by current weekend “World News” host, David Muir, beginning Sept. 2.

I’m pretty sure Megyn Kelly’s move to primetime on the Fox News Channel, or the Piers Morgan primetime exit at CNN got more reaction then the Sawyer/Muir news.

I haven’t been a fan of Sawyer’s overall presentation since succeeding Charles Gibson as “World News” host — most notably because the awkward inflections that turn up so often in her voice. Muir, has the look of a star anchor man and has done a good job on the weekend ‘World News.’ While I’m not 100% confident a 40 year old Muir would have been ABC’s first choice for the job full-time, say back in 1988 or 2005, he should be a fine choice for the modern incarnation of the network evening newscast.

At first, I suspected that ABC News veteran George Stephanopoulos would not have been all too happy about not getting the “World News” gig — it has been believed for years that he had his eyes on that job. Considering how far the network evening newscast has fallen in prominence, however, being named the network’s overall “lead news anchor” may be enough to make him happy. As lead news anchor, Stephanopoulos will be ABC News’ go to for all breaking news and special events, including election nights — a role that traditionally was occupied by the host of “World News.”

Stephanopoulos, who signed a long-term extension with ABC News in April, will continue to host “Good Morning America” and “This Week.” Sawyer, meanwhile, will become a full-time investigative reporter and appear for special interviews.

Sports broadcaster Kenny Albert has had one heck of a busy month. As the radio play-by-play voice of the New York Rangers, he called all six games of the Rangers/Canadiens Eastern Conference Finals, while also calling all seven games of the Blackhawks/Kings Western Conference Finals for NBC Sports.

For the better part of two weeks, Albert was traveling back and forth between New York, Chicago, Montreal and Los Angeles.

While Albert’s schedule obviously became less hectic during the Rangers/Kings Stanley Cup Finals, it doesn’t mean he’s entirely off the hook.

Less than 24 hours after the Rangers lost the series to the Kings after five games on Friday night, Albert flew from Los Angeles to St. Louis to call last night’s Nationals/Cardinals game on Fox.

While I’m sure Albert wishes the Rangers/Kings series would have gone the other way, he should be due for some kind of a break now that the Rangers season is over.
Some added bits and bytes… Below are a few miscellaneous observations while watching last night’s Nationals/Cardinals game during Fox’s “Baseball Night in America” broadcast.

– I’ve hated that Fox has been using their NFL theme music package for all other sports broadcasts (something they started doing during the 2010 MLB post-season). I was happy when I heard their classic MLB music during last night’s “Baseball Night in America” broadcast. They have continued to use their MLB music package on Fox Sports 1 MLB broadcasts as well as for MLB games on their respective Fox Sports regional channels. It’s a great sounding package and deserves use on the main Fox network. I’m glad it’s back, though they were still using the NFL music at the open of last night’s “Baseball Night in America” pregame studio show. I get that use of the NFL theme package seemingly adds prominence to the broadcast, but it just doesn’t work. It feels dirty.

– By the way, I hate the “Baseball Night in America” name. I get that Fox wants to market their Saturday primetime broadcasts as something special, but the entire “fill in the blank Night in America” name has been overdone. It started in Canada with “Hockey Night in America,” which NBC borrowed for their “Football Night in America” primetime studio show several years back. NBC borrowed the idea again for their own “Hockey Day in America” specials. And now, Fox has borrowed it for their primetime baseball broadcasts. It’s overdone.

– Thumbs up to new MLB on Fox game analyst Tom Verducci, who worked last night’s Nationals/Cardinals game with Kenny Albert. Verducci was a joy to listen to, especially when explaining, in-depth, the throwing mechanics of Nationals starter Stephen Strasburg and Cardinals starter Shelby Miller. I’ve long enjoyed Verducci on MLB Network’s “MLB Tonight” broadcasts, so I’m not shocked that he has adapted so nicely in the broadcast booth.

When I heard Rush Limbaugh’s response to last week’s news that CBS chose Stephen Colbert to succeed David Letterman as host as the “Late Show,” I was thinking how glad I am not to be a damn conservative.

I can’t imagine how happy a conservative minded person can possibly be — those who are likely to subscribe to the mindset of a Limbaugh or a Bill O’Reilly — since they are constantly paranoid about everything. For the sheep who nod their heads while Limbaugh speaks, they sincerely believe that CBS has declared war on the traditional late night television viewer who just wants pure wholesome comedy after watching the late local news.

Below is a portion of Limbaugh’s remarks, last Thurday, on his syndicated radio program:

What this hire means is a redefinition of what is funny and a redefinition of what is comedy, and they’re blowing up the 11:30 format under the guise that the world’s changing and people don’t want the kind of comedy that Carson gave us, or even Letterman. They don’t want that anymore. It’s media planting a flag here…It’s a declaration. There’s no unity in this hire.

You know Limbaugh is stretching when he is willing to include Letterman in the group of traditional late night comedians — Letterman’s “Late Show” has adapted more of a liberal vibe in recent years, with his continued jabs at President George W. Bush becoming a regular, if not signature, bit. While Letterman hasn’t made his name off political satire, his show has enough of a liberal vibe that would likely discourage hardcore conservatives from watching. Limbaugh has to absolutely hate Letterman.

Even if CBS’ intent was to declare a bold political statement, who cares!? We’re not in the 1970’s anymore where you only have three of four television channels to chose from. If conservatives are unwilling to watch Colbert’s “Late Show,” they have the option to watch Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Comedy Central or classics from their VHS collection.

In all seriousness though, the idea that CBS giving the ‘Late Show’ to Colbert is supposed to be a political statement is as absurd as it gets. Even though I am not familiar with Colbert outside his current blowhard conservative character, he has been recognized by and large as an all-round gifted comedian who is poised to accept the challenge of modernizing his act for a more mainstream audience. Colbert has a younger following and he is active on social media — two parameters that CBS hopes allows their late night show to be more competitive against Fallon’s “Tonight Show.”

CBS doesn’t care about Colbert’s political ideology! CBS just wants to make more money and Colbert has the potential to make that happen!

On a semi-related note, last week, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly lamented how Colbert’s liberal influence potentially damages the country. O’Reilly spoke more about Colbert yesterday while appearing on ABC’s “The View.” In response to the absurdity of all this, my buddy Terence from T Dog Media tweeted the following…

LOL at Bill-O thinking Colbert is a threat to our country when he’s sitting on the same set with Jenny McCarthy.

— T Dog Media (@tdogmedia) April 16, 2014

Quite possibly the best tweet ever.