On the morning of Sunday, July 20, NBC News paterfamilias Tom Brokaw was wrapping up Meet the Press, where he has been anchor since the sudden and untimely death of Tim Russert.

The weekly round table had ended, and it was time to say goodbye to his guests, NBC political director Chuck Todd and NBC White House correspondent David Gregory.

When the segment ended, both reporters sat with their hands neatly folded in front of them and awaited the frugally dispensed approval of Mr. Brokaw.

“Thank you very much, David Gregory, our NBC White House correspondent and, of course, star of MSNBC’s The Road to the White House,” said Mr.  read more »

John Koblin does a post-Murdoch Wall Street Journal roll call of all those writers and editors who've left and says, "it’s fair to say The Journal hasn’t experienced anything quite like this, well, ever." Plus: The Los Angeles Times' Patrick Goldstein launches a blog.

Felix Gillette wonders who will be replacing Tim Russert as NBC's Washington D.C. Bureau Chief. Whoever fills that role "must continuously grapple with producers in New York to make sure his reporters get plenty of airtime on the morning and evening newscasts."

Leon Neyfakh tells the tale of Reif Larsen, a "28-year-old Columbia M.F.A. student [who] wrote a novel about a whimsical child from Montana who likes maps, and suddenly all kinds of famous editors in New York were calling his agent, Denise Shannon, and telling her they really wanted to publish it.  read more »

On the morning of Sunday, June 22, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams made a much anticipated announcement at the end of Meet the Press, which he was moderating in the wake of Tim Russert’s sudden death of a heart attack nine days earlier.

“Beginning next week, my friend Tom Brokaw has agreed to step in as moderator of Meet the Press, to get us through this election season,” said Mr. Williams. “And allow me to add, during these past difficult days, Tom’s been an enormous comfort here in this Washington bureau.”

A comfort: yes. A full-time presence in Washington: no.  read more »

This morning, Luke Russert made an appearance on NBC's Today where he spoke to Matt Lauer and Meredith Viera about his late father, Tim Russert, who passed away of a heart attack on Friday afternoon.

The segment began with a moving photograph, taken by the Associated Press on Sunday morning, which captured Luke standing in the Meet the Press studio in Washington D.C., with his hands resting on his father's empty anchor's chair.

“I’m going to keep that chair forever,” Luke Russert told Mr. Lauer this morning. “That’s my chair now.”

had previously been diagnosed with coronary artery disease, which he treated with medication and exercise. After the collapse, medics rushed Russert to Sibley Memorial Hospital, where efforts to resuscitate him failed. According to doctors at the scene, cholesterol plaque had ruptured an artery in Russert’s heart, which was enlarged, an autopsy later revealed.

Tom Brokaw announced the news of Russert’s death on the air for NBC. His colleagues were shocked and grief stricken. Doris Kearns Goodwin, who has known Russert for about a decade and was a frequent guest of his on Meet the Press was in tears after a television station broke the news to her with a telephone call.

"I feel so bad," she told The Observer. "He was such a good friend."

"Somebody just called from the television studio and said have you heard the horrible news about Tim and I thought he must have been in a plane crash,” she added. "He's a giant and he's the best. I loved him…I can't imagine what the news bureau is going through down there. I heard it is just wailing.”  read more »

A recent episode of 'Race For the White House.'

“MSNBC and NBC are one,” said Phil Griffin. “We’ve said that for over a decade. It actually is true now.”

Mr. Griffin, the senior vice president of NBC News, was speaking on the phone to NYTV on Monday afternoon. He had brought up the unification of the two news operations as a way of explaining the internal politics underpinning the launch of MSNBC’s new prime-time show, Race for the White House, which premiered on March, 17 at 6 p.m., replacing Tucker.  read more »

MANCHESTER, N.H.—Twelve-story buildings qualify as skyscrapers here, so when you come into town, the Radisson on Elm Street is one of the first things you see.

It’s the hotel where NBC, ABC and C-SPAN are all kipping, and it’s also where Hillary Clinton’s campaign bus drops and picks up reporters every day, and where New Yorker political reporter Ryan Lizza said he comes to have a drink at night.  read more »

Oops! NBC reported this morning that Rep. Steve King, a key Iowa G.O.P. congressman, had endorsed Mitt Romney. Then a little while later, the network took it back, saying on its Web site that in fact Rep. King is backing Fred Thompson.

To NBC's credit, it didn't try to hide its error. Its site explains: "Team Romney is in the back of the room looking bewildered. They were all here, leading all the press to conclude that it was an endorsement for Romney."

You can see the progression of updates here.

Over the last few weeks, we've learned from several reports that NBC is planning a series of layoffs at NBC News and MSNBC. Today, TV Newser provides some names.

According to the site, Davidson Goldin, MSNBC's editorial director; Amy Rosenblum, the senior producer of the 10am hour of The Today Show; Joe Alicastro, a veteran NBC News producer; and Jean Harper, a senior prodcuer at Nightly News who has worked with Brian Williams for many years are all on the way out.

Mr. Goldin's likely departure was first reported last week by The New York Post.

NBC is planning to get rid of an entire level of MSNBC's management team, as well as making major cuts at NBC News, according to The New York Post. Two senior MSNBC staffers -- head of primetime programming Bill Wolf, and editorial director Davidson Goldin -- are set to see their jobs eliminated. But the cable network's top shows -- those hosted by Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, and Dan Abrams -- are said to be sacrosanct, and will escape the cuts unscathed.

As for CNBC, it too will be unaffected, says The Post, because NBC chief Jeff Zucker wants it at full strength to compete with Fox Business.