Nytv | The New York Observer

From High Chairs to Anchor Chair

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:00:47 -0400

For 18 months following his abrupt departure from WNBC-4, courtesy of a buyout in the summer of 2008, Rob Morrison, the station’s erstwhile morning news anchor, wrestled with the question of life after journalism. He wrote a children’s book about his wife’s cat, Happy. He started a blog, “Daddy Diaries: Confessions of a Stay-at-Home Anchorman,” on the Huffington Post. And he begrudgingly explored becoming one of those vaguely confusing media PR-consultant types, which are...

In Recession, Money Honeys Get Company From Grumpy Old Dudes

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:19:24 -0400

In mid-October, the morning after the Dow Industrial Average topped the 10,000 mark for the first time in ages, a young, energetic TV reporter for the Fox Business Network (FBN) named Sandra Smith briefed Don Imus and his viewers on the state of the markets. She does this a couple times an hour, every morning. Stock index futures were up, she said. Ditto various earning reports. Things were banging.

“In about 15 minutes, we’ve...

It's On: CBS News Investigates Letterman Scandal

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:08:43 -0400

Over the past year, Armen Keteyian, the chief investigative correspondent for CBS News, has reported on cyber-thieves in New Jersey, murder-for-hire plots in Wisconsin and teenage bomb-makers in Atlanta. But these days, Mr. Keteyian is hard at work on a story much closer to home—namely, alleged blackmail plots within his own newsroom.

On Oct.3, two days after news broke of the alleged blackmail attempt of David Letterman by 48 Hours producer Joe Halderman, CBS...

60 Minutes Football Piece Is Quite Rather-esque

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:04:51 -0400

Last week, on Friday, Oct. 9, Wayne Nelson, the executive producer for Dan Rather Reports, was sitting in his office at HDNet’s headquarters in New York when an incredulous staff member ran in. Have you seen the promos for this weekend’s 60 Minutes, producer Meredith Ramsey asked? The clips touted an upcoming piece by Bob Simon on the long-term danger of repeated head injuries in sports. Mr. Nelson and Ms. Ramsey felt like they...

Bizarre Late Night Love Triangle

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:49:03 -0400

You can’t be victimized by criminals, explained David Letterman on the Late Show Monday night. You have to push back.

Outside the fortified walls of the Ed Sullivan Theater, a full moon hung in the sky. Mr. Letterman must have been tired. For the past several weeks, not only had he been pushing back, he’d been putting his back into it, straining against an apparent outbreak of villainy. Along the way, he had...

Watch Your Backs, MSNBC! Imus Can See You!

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:43:24 -0400

Not long ago, shortly after dawn, Don Imus sat behind a live microphone and let his mind linger for a moment on Hillary Clinton’s wardrobe. The day before, he had watched Harry Smith on CBS’s Face the Nation interview Secretary of State Clinton about such things as Iran’s nuclear ambitions. What, Mr. Imus now wondered, was with her red pantsuit? “I don’t know if I would have worn it,” said Mr. Imus. “It was...

HBO, The Writers' Network

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:00:29 -0400

Not long ago, in the spring of 2009, Colette Burson and Dmitry Lipkin, the husband-and-wife writing team, were running late on a crucial project. In a few short weeks, their half-hour series, Hung, would be premiering on HBO. At the time, they were busy cutting the all-important title sequence. On the morning it was due, the final product still needed more polishing. The deadline came and went.

It was around then that they...

She's Headed to Prime Time, and She's Solo

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:31:49 -0400

It was Tuesday morning, the day after Labor Day, and Diane Sawyer was smiling brightly and wearing black. Toward the top of the hour, Chris Cuomo, one of her co-anchors on Good Morning America, looked at the camera and ran through the morning’s headlines. There was swine flu spreading rapidly through American schools, an alleged serial killer arrested in Milwaukee, great white sharks off the coast of Cape Cod, bombings in Afghanistan, cracks in...

The Peacock Prince

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:58:42 -0400

Not long ago, on a Wednesday night in July in Washington, D.C., a veteran NBC News executive producer named David Corvo stood onstage inside the U.S. Capitol visitors center and addressed a room full of several hundred bureaucrats, military staffers, journalists and District gadflies gathered to watch a preview of a new NBC series, called The Wanted, that promised to do the impossible: make the important but tedious concerns of the nation’s capital sexy,...

The Reinvention of Brian Graden

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 19:46:58 -0400

Earlier this summer, when Brian Graden announced in an email to colleagues that he would be stepping down as the president of entertainment at MTV Networks at the end of the year, he didn’t cite the reasons typically invoked by media executives on their way out the door. He wasn’t starting a Huffington Post–meets–something-or-other Internet company, nor would he be founding a nebulous PR consulting firm, nor would he be retreating to academia to...

Why Has Obama Become Boring TV?

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 18:30:29 -0400

Decades ago, when Pat Buchanan was working as an adviser to President Richard Nixon, he looked forward to the administration’s televised press conferences, which were held infrequently and with caution. At the time, Mr. Nixon’s relationship with the Washington press corps was fraught with tension. For Mr. Buchanan, the high potential for acrimony turned every press conference into a synapse-popping affair.

“They were crackling with tension and dissent and anger and raw emotion,”...

Will NBC's The Wanted Endanger Foreign Correspondents?

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:52:56 -0400

Not long ago, the accomplished war correspondents Damien and Diana Cave were watching TV in their apartment in Miami, where Mr. Cave is now the bureau chief for The New York Times, when they saw a trailer for a new summer show on NBC.

The promo crackled with action. A man in military clothing stormed a beach. Helicopters flew here and there. Men brandished guns. Tires screeched. Things exploded. The cast, three tough-looking guys...

Palin to Punditry? Probably Not

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:40:53 -0400

Long before Charles Gibson asked her about the Bush Doctrine, before Katie Couric asked her about what publications she liked to read and before her subsequent recriminations about gotcha journalism, Sarah Palin studied communications in college and spent the early days of her career as a local TV sports reporter in Alaska.

“The Iditarod is the biggie, but it’s not the only mushing going on …”

In short, Ms....

With Video of Iranian Death, What's O.K. to Air?

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:22:35 -0400

On the morning of Monday, June 22, television producers across the city grappled with a difficult question—how much of Neda’s death do we show on TV?

Over the weekend, Neda Agha-Soltan, a 26-year-old Iranian woman, was shot and killed in the streets of Tehran, nearby clashes between pro-government militias and demonstrators. Her tragic final moments were captured on a cell phone video and soon disseminated rapidly across the Internet, transforming the young woman into...

The Zen Art of Early Show's Zev Shalev

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:18:17 -0400

On the morning of Friday, June 12, in a makeshift tent on the flight deck of the U.S.S. Intrepid aircraft carrier, past a crowd of umbrella-toting tourists glistening in the misty morning rain, past a row of fighter planes facing a tug boat creeping up the Hudson River and past a stage outfitted with Lionel Richie’s piano, Zev Shalev looked at a clock. Seven minutes until airtime. He took a long gulp of water.

Dobbs' Ratings Dip Down

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:18:19 -0400

Lou Dobbs frowned. It was the night of Friday, June 5, and the CNN anchor was in front of the cameras, reporting the news that President Obama had created a new position in the White House—a so-called “pay czar” who would monitor executive compensation at businesses bailed out by the government.

“The number of czars now in the Obama administration: roughly 20,” said Mr. Dobbs. “That would amount to almost as many czars as...

Does Ed Schultz Have a Contract with MSNBC? Ed Says 'Yes!'

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 13:50:14 -0400

In early April, when MSNBC President Phil Griffin announced that talk radio veteran Ed Schultz was joining the cable news network to anchor the 6 p.m. hour, he said little about the details of the deal, other than to note that he was “thrilled to have Ed kicking-off our primetime lineup.”

The 6 p.m. time slot has long bedeviled MSNBC executives. And, to date, the arrival of the popular, liberal talk show host...

Dan Rather Does Guantánamo

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:43:06 -0400

Dan Rather, the Category 5 newsman, is on a collision course with Guantánamo Bay.

“When war descends, whether it’s a so-called asymmetrical war or some other kind, we know that innocents get swept up,” said Mr. Rather. “There are, as we speak, 21 detainees still there in Guantánamo who have been cleared and ordered released but are in this Never-Never Land. The courts and others say you are to be released, but nobody will...

Camp Liberty Revisited

Tue, 12 May 2009 18:52:29 -0400

At 9:31 a.m. on the morning of Monday, May 11, Martha Raddatz, the senior foreign affairs correspondent for ABC News, read a jolting message on the network’s internal distribution list.

An ABC News producer in Iraq had just posted some breaking news from Baghdad. According to a press release from the U.S. military, five American troops had just been shot and killed inside Camp Liberty. The names of the dead were being withheld. The...

MSNBC, The Place for ... Changemakers! Big Re-Brand as 'Obama Network'

Tue, 05 May 2009 20:15:21 -0400

On a recent Thursday morning, John Kelly, an NBC executive who, among other jobs, oversees ad sales for MSNBC, sat in his office overlooking Rockefeller Plaza and fired up a presentation called “The Face Behind the Momentum.”

Sitting at a desk, beneath a framed drawing of Uncle Sam with an NBC peacock logo on his hat, Mr. Kelly tapped away at a laptop computer. On the other side of the room, a wall-mounted flat-screen television...

Kabul Fever: Turning to Afghanistan, the Press Learns Its Own Lessons from Baghdad

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:41:29 -0400

Not long ago, Richard Engel, the chief foreign correspondent for NBC News, was working on a story in eastern Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan. One day, he hiked for 45 minutes up a mountain. On the top of the hill, he found a tiny guard tower, looking over into Pakistan, where a few U.S. soldiers and stray dogs were hanging out.

“It turned out I’d been on a patrol with one of them...

The Crying Game: I’m Sad as Hell and I’m Not Going to Take This Anymore!

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 20:02:47 -0400

"It seems like the voices of our leaders and special interests and the media, they’re surrounding us.” Glenn Beck, one of America’s most popular television populists, was speaking to his audience on the afternoon of Friday, March 13, during an hourlong special. At this point, he was choking back tears. This was the money shot: the moment that gave the special its title. It was good. “It sounds intimidating, but you know what?” he...

Economic Crisis: Where Can President Find an Adviser Who Gives Good Television?

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:00:00 -0400

Not long ago, President Barack Obama finally got around to filling three of the top jobs at the Treasury Department that had been vacant since his inauguration.

But even afterward, one top financial job was left conspicuously unfilled—namely, the role of Economic Surrogate in Chief.

A good economic statesman—somebody who can crunch budget projections by day and give good TV by night—can be hard to find. It’s a lesson that’s been driven home in Washington in...

MSNBC's Latest Acquisition, Ed Shultz, Is Roiling Rustic on Populist Mission

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 07:28:58 -0400

On Monday evening, for the third time in less than a month, progressive radio host Ed Schultz filled in for David Shuster as the host of MSNBC’s 6 p.m. show 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

About 10 minutes into Monday’s telecast, Mr. Schultz reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a blue credit card. Looking into the cameras, Mr. Schultz directly addressed U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

“This is the only credit card my wife...

Rage of the Page

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:04:12 -0400

On a recent Sunday morning, while most of their 20-something buddies were probably still on the futon sleeping off the previous night’s rail vodka, two pretty, fresh-faced young women—one donning nerdy-hot librarian glasses, the other dark-haired with a broad, warm smile—pinned NBC peacock pins to the lapels of their gray, plaid Brooks Brothers jackets and dragged themselves into the visitor’s center at 30 Rockefeller Plaza to lead a tour.

These...

Scarborough/Bloomberg Not Quite Frost/Nixon!

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:31:39 -0400

At 5 a.m. on the morning of Monday, March 9, after many months of planning, NBC Universal at long last unveiled its 24-hour hyper-local newslike cable channel, called New York Nonstop (Channel 161 on Time Warner cable!).

Some 12 hours later, Chuck Scarborough, who for decades has been the face of NBC’s local news in New York, kicked off the nascent channel’s premier hard-news program, New York Nightly News. For...

Nightline ‘Throws’ to Kimmel, Refuses to Die

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:36:33 -0500

On typical evenings, the anchors at ABC News’ Nightline wrap up the show just after midnight with a quaint sign-off to viewers, “Good night, America.” But on the night of Monday, March 2, with the entire landscape of late-night television undergoing the first major shift in years, Nightline broke with protocol.

“That is our report for tonight,” said Cynthia McFadden. “Stay tuned now for Jimmy Kimmel. Jimmy’s got a special guest, the bachelor...

Wouldn’t You Rather Report With Dan? He’s Hiring!

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:34:17 -0500

Since its inception in the fall of 2006, HDNet’s Dan Rather Reports has served as a long-form showcase for the insatiable reporting appetites of one Category-5 newsman—namely, Mr. Rather.

But according to sources, the program’s executive producer Wayne Nelson wants to upgrade from the current solo configuration to an ensemble cast and has recently begun looking for new correspondents. Reached by phone on the afternoon of Tuesday, March 3, Mr. Nelson confirmed as...

NBC Teaches TV Tyros to Take Over Local News

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 14:58:41 -0500

Never ask your most important question first.

That was the advice Today show producer John O’Rourke was giving.

First, you’ve got to shoot some “B-roll.” Then some softer questions. Then, the kill.

“You don’t want to be like, ‘Hi. So, did you kill your mom?’”

That got a laugh from the pupils gathered in a second-floor classroom at...

When Hamid Karzai Speaks, Fareed Zakaria Listens

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:26:52 -0500

Around the world, nostalgia for George W. Bush’s foreign diplomacy might be in short supply these days. But not long ago, Fareed Zakaria, the editor of Newsweek International and the host of CNN’s world affairs program GPS, listened with curiosity as one foreign head of state spoke wistfully of the bygone era of the 43rd president of the United States.

“President George Bush is a great person,” said...

You've Got Mika

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 20:13:14 -0500

“Stop that!” said Mika Brzezinski, who plays cohost to Joe Scarborough on the morning radio program The Joe Scarborough Show. “No, no, no. You know what? That’s what you do when you want to win a fight.”

“No, I want you to answer the question,” said Joe Scarborough. “I’m not fighting.”

Ms. Brzezinski flipped her hand through her blond bangs and threw Mr. Scarborough a look. “You sound like my...

Not-So-Suddenly Susan!

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 19:07:56 -0500

It doesn’t surprise many that Susan Zirinsky, the CBS News producer, was the inspiration for Holly Hunter’s Jane Craig character in Broadcast News.

On a recent Monday afternoon, she was uncharacteristically static for a moment as she stared at a framed poster for Three Days in September, a documentary about the 2004 Chechen terrorist attack on a school in southern Russia.

Normally a compact blur of energy, she wears her brown...

Mr. Whitaker Goes to Washington

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:41:25 -0500

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Mark Whitaker, the 51-year-old Washington bureau chief for NBC News, was chuckling to himself. All this talk about celebrities invading the capital had made him jumpy, and he and a bunch of his fellow guests at a party at the British embassy here on Saturday night had just participated in a group head-swivel. Who had just entered?

“Oh my God,” one guest whispered. It was Peter Orszag, the...

Television Finds House Expert on New York's Neurosis

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:47:50 -0500

On the morning of Sunday, Jan. 11, while many New Yorkers were looking around to find a place to watch the Giants-Eagles playoff game, NBC News correspondent Mike Taibbi was looking around to find someone to interview about the mind-set of the victims ripped off in Bernard Madoff’s alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

NBC News correspondent Mike Taibbi was crashing a piece for that Sunday’s Nightly News about the latest developments in the...

Do You Know the Way to Tel Aviv? For CBS, via London

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:36:19 -0500

Shortly after 1:30 a.m. on the night of Dec. 29, CBS News foreign correspondent Mark Phillips stood on a rooftop, overlooking the city of Tel Aviv. Lights from the city’s skyline flickered behind him. Through an earpiece, he listened to anchor Maggie Rodriguez, who was sitting in a studio in New York, filling in for Katie Couric on the CBS Evening News.

“The White House accuses Hamas of...

Hunting the Talking Heads

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:37:17 -0500

In recent months, TV stations and networks have been laying off and buying out correspondents, producers, editors and anchors at a dizzying rate. During the second week in December, CNN let go Henry Mauldin, the cable news network’s talent-development chief—a move that seemed to be a grim omen for that particular caste of TV executives who make their living scouting new talent. After all, who needs headhunters if you’re cutting back your head count?...

David Gregory's Secret Agent Men

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 19:26:07 -0500

When agent Richard Leibner’s phone was ringing off the hook one night last week, everyone was asking him the same thing: Was his longtime client David Gregory the next host of Meet the Press, or wasn’t he?

He called back, telling reporters he could neither confirm nor deny the report that first appeared on the Huffington Post.

Perhaps this was because his agency, N....

Jeff Zucker's Challenge: Fire Them Before Cute Caroling Promo Spot

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 19:24:20 -0500

On Friday, Dec. 5, a crowd of anchors, reporters, producers and executives from New York’s WNBC-4 was gathering in the long early-morning shadow of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree for its annual taping of a holiday singalong that has served for years now as the station’s local promotional holiday-season piece.

Historically, the singalongs have been festive occasions. But in the dark days of 2008, every office get-together can become fraught with fear...

The Russert Chair

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 20:07:06 -0500

On the morning of Sunday, Nov. 30, David Gregory, NBC News’ ubiquitous robo-anchor, popped up in front of the cameras at Rockefeller Plaza where over the course of several drizzly hours, he held forth on such topics as the dismal weather, Barry Manilow and the world’s largest floating Christmas Tree, which turns out to be in located in Rio de Janeiro.

Mr. Gregory—NBC’s chief White House correspondent, host...

We Look Forward to Speaking With Mr. Abrams at His Earliest Convenience

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 19:19:29 -0500

On Monday evening, former MSNBC general manager and current NBC News chief legal analyst Dan Abrams was talking about his new gig.

Less than a week after he announced he was launching a “global strategy firm” that would assemble a network of thousands of working journalists, bloggers, authors and ex-journalists, he was drowning in applications.

He’d made it easy, of course. The same day...

The Corpulent News Network

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:53:22 -0500

Cindy Adams woke up on Election Day knowing exactly where to spend her evening. There were parties all over town. Lefty celebrities would be out in force. But the longtime gossip columnist for the New York Post wanted to be at the place she felt would be “the heartbeat of the world”—namely, the CNN Grill.

Like many of her pals in the media, Ms. Adams had first frequented the CNN Grill...

Broke As A Peacock!

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:45:06 -0500

In recent months, bad news in the financial world has translated into big news for CNBC, and big news is good news for a 24-hour cable news network. With national interest in financial news at a fever pitch, the business news network has been posting its highest ratings in its 19-year history.

And now, owner GE is rewarding them with … budget cuts!

Bosses at CNBC, The Observer has learned, are...

Rather Lawyers Charge Heyward Hondled 'Memogate' Panel

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:43:09 -0500

On Jan. 10, 2005, CBS President Leslie Moonves sent his employees a novella-length memo with the subject line “The Independent Panel Issues its report.”

CBS had formed said independent panel months earlier, in the fall of 2004, in order to investigate the development, preparation and aftermath of Dan Rather and company’s flawed report on President Bush’s military service. The report had aired on 60 Minutes Wednesday on Sept. 8, 2004, a few...

A Star is Reborn

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:13:37 -0500

On the afternoon of Friday, Oct. 31, Katie Couric sat down in the Olympic Flame diner at the corner of 60th Street and Amsterdam, and ordered a cup of coffee. Outside, the weather was mild. Beams of sunlight streamed through the window. A woman dressed in some sort of elfin costume strolled down the sidewalk.

Ms. Couric said that as a kid, her mother liked to dress her up on...

Original Cable Guy Phil Griffin Tastes Network Revenge

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 19:39:48 -0400

On the afternoon of Thursday, Oct. 23, around 1 p.m., Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC, reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet.

Mr. Griffin was sitting at a table at the Sea Grill restaurant, overlooking the ice rink at Rockefeller Plaza, the nerve center of NBC. From the wallet, he pulled out a tattered CNN work ID from the early ’80s, a memento, he said,...

A Better News Division, Rockefeller Money Can't Buy

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 19:13:39 -0400

On the afternoon of Tuesday, Oct. 21, John Wallace, the president of NBC Universal’s local media division, stood in a television studio on the sixth floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza and spoke to a room full of employees about the future of local news.

The space, which decades ago served as the studio for The Tonight Show (that is, until Johnny Carson decamped for the West Coast), now serves as the...

Senior McCain Adviser: Palin Did 'Fantastic' With My Buddy Katie

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 19:00:57 -0400

Before Nicolle Wallace took over the role of senior adviser to John McCain’s presidential campaign, the wrangling on the evening news in recent weeks over Sarah Palin’s performance in interviews with CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric might have been the kind of on-air debate she relished.

“Governor Palin did fantastic,” the 36-year-old told The Observer in a telephone interview on the afternoon of Oct. 6.

Press to Senators: Shush!

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 19:31:07 -0400

“I am writing in frustration over the tenor of the general coverage on McCain this past week,” Douglas Holtz-Eakin, top economic adviser to the Republican presidential candidate, Senator John McCain, wrote in a blast e-mail to financial reporters over the weekend.

One could be forgiven for thinking he was talking about the events of Tuesday, Sept. 16, when he was briefing reporters in Miami on his candidate’s prescriptions for...

Greta, Charlie, Katie, Sean, Reporting Live From Inside the Palin Bubble

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 19:16:39 -0400

On Saturday, Sept. 6, Drew Griffin, a correspondent for CNN, arrived with his camera crew at the home of Chuck Heath, the father of Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin.

Mr. Griffin was there for an interview. He had landed in Wasilla, Alaska, three days earlier, fresh off the Hurricane Gustav story, and was now charged with reporting on the life of the charismatic Alaska governor for a CNN documentary to be...

Hard Fall: What Happened to NBC?

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 20:27:37 -0400

On Tuesday afternoon, Phil Griffin, the president of cable-news network MSNBC, had had enough of the interviews and was getting angry.

Roughly 48 hours earlier, Mr. Griffin had announced his decision to remove Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews from anchoring big political nights for his network. Henceforth, according to Mr. Griffin’s dictum, NBC News’ chief White House correspondent, David Gregory, would handle the news duties for MSNBC. Mr. Matthews and Mr. Olbermann would shift...