It's good to know that even in this shitty economy, whiny diva crybabies married to people (at least) indirectly responsible for the recession can still find a lucrative job out there. It gives hope to the rest of us. Or, whatever the opposite of "hope" is. The test results back?
So David Gregory has officially won the Meet the Press hosting gig, which opened up when the same guy who once chided Gregory for being a cock died. In light of the hire, MSNBC/NBC political director Chuck Todd has revealed the other premiere candidates for the position, such as Katie Couric and Gwen Ifill.
We never thought we'd say this, but could Jeff Zucker have picked a more annoying choice? How about just giving the Sunday morning spot to Sarah Palin?
JOSSIP IN-DEPTH — David Gregory will be your next Meet The Press moderator, even if nobody on the inside is confirming it. On Gregory's end, his agent won't confirm the news probably because the contract isn't finalized and signed yet, even if the verbal arrangement is in place. Same goes for 30 Rock's insistence that Gregory isn't their man yet. But it's pretty much all said and done at this point. The Times' Bill Carter says NBC "settled on David Gregory," which almost sounds like an inadvertent backhand. The Washington Post's media recycler Howard Kurtz claims the two are in "advanced negotiations," though two sentences later covers his butt by adding, "if not derailed at the last minute."
When the announcement is made that Gregory is taking the job, it will mean he beat out Chuck Todd, Andrea Mitchell, Chris Matthews, Gwen Ifill, John King, Katie Couric, and (yes, Tina Brown) even Rachel Maddow, who wasn't in the running.
The whole "Who will NBC pick?!" charade has been a numbing experience; between Tim Russert's death and this week's news about Gregory, there's been a historic presidential election, a terrorist attack in India, the collapse of America's economy, and a new Britney Spears album. But before we can start focusing on how Gregory can fuck up the MTP brand, let's take a moment to realize how we got here. CONTINUED »
So blogs are reporting that David Gregory is definitively, definitely the new host of NBC's Meet the Press, and that Tom Brokaw will sign off his interim period after next Sunday's meet and greet with Barack Obama.
Of course, for now they remain rumors as NBC is like "What, we never said that!" and Gregory's camp refuses to comment. But The Huffington Post, which is claiming credit for the scoop, isn't exactly an unreliable source, so if they are reporting the story as fact, NBC might as well throw in the towel and give the job to Gregory anyway.
But confirmed or unconfirmed, Jeff Zucker's choice of David Gregory to fill Tim Russert's shoes is a strange one:
Chuck Todd, the ginger-haired sane one on MSNBC, is writing a book about the election called How Obama Won. And since it deals with a similar subject matter as Gwen Ifill's, he will probably be banned from ever talking to another politician again because, he is biased. That's what happened to Ifill, right?
So that probably means that he's ineligible to host Meet the Press, and it's going to go to one of those more objective MSNBC'ers, like Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, or an angry dog with worms. You know, anyone other than a logical choice.
With the election finally upon us tomorrow, it's time to move beyond who's going to play house in the White House to who's going to fill Meet The Press' moderator chair, to replace Tom Brokaw, who replaced Tim Russert on an interim basis. Back in June, when Russert died, the list of possible candidates included these names: Andrea Mitchell, David Gregory, Katie Couric, Chuck Todd, Gwen Ifill, and Tom Brokaw. Now that we're approaching the timeline of when NBC News will supposedly make a decision — between Nov. 4 and Dec. 31 — the names being floated about are: Andrea Mitchell, David Gregory, Katie Couric, Chuck Todd, Gwen Ifill, and Tom Brokaw. Oh good: Change we can believe in. [NYT, earlier]
Some folks can actually see beyond Nov. 4, to a time after Americans know who their next president will be. And who their next Meet The Press moderator will be. Right now, Tom Brokaw is filling in for the deceased Tim Russert, but he's only holding things down till the election. Then, a replacement will be named; some suspect multiple moderators might be chosen (unlikely, say we). David Gregory and Chuck Todd are said to both be serious contenders. They are both white men, just like Russert and Brokaw! Which has led some — including those capable of registering domain names — to urge NBC to consider non-white, non-male candidates. We hear there's some lady named Gwen Ifill? CONTINUED »
As bad as that town hall presidential debate was on Tuesday (it was the worst), a lot of it could be blamed on the terrible format, the weird lights, and Tom Brokaw's incessant whining. So the third and final debate next Wednesday in New York is going to be better right?
Not if Bob Schieffer has anything to do with it. The anchor of CBS's Face the Nation is moderating, and yes, it will also be the worst debate:
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While watching the debates on Thursday, did Tom Brokaw's chummy relationship with John McCain make you a little bit uncomfortable? The two seemed like golfing buddies right? It was weird. But at least Brokaw doesn't have any personal history with the Republican nominee, which is more that can be said for 2004's moderator Bob Schieffer, who will also be doing the duty at the third debate this week. Schieffer has close ties with George W.: his brother co-owned a Major League baseball franchise with the Prez, and was elected Ambassador to Australia by his old buddy.
Though the connection was obvious between Shieffer and Bush, you didn't see Americans getting riled up in the same way they did when, oh say, Gwen Ifill moderated the VP debates, because she was writing a book about Obama's politics. Then it was all cries of "partisanship!" and "biased-media!"
It begs the question: Who gets called out on media partisanship more, the left or right?
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When Matt Drudge last week "broke news" that Gwen Ifill — at that point the upcoming moderator to the vice presidential debate — was writing a book about black politics in America and releasing it on Inauguration Day, conservatives quickly shaped the story to make everyone think the PBS (and NBC) veteran was authoring a pro-Obama book and, thus, wasn't qualified to moderate what will likely be the most-watched of the debates. Except, as we explained, Ifill wasn't writing a pro-Obama book, and she's about the most objective, fair journalist out there who's absolutely perfect to moderate a debate. Yesterday, then, Ifill appeared on Meet The Press (alongside a sleep Peggy Noonan) and, because this is a NBC network, was also forced to sit through Queen Latifah's tame Saturday Night Live impersonation — minus Latifah plugging Ifill's book. "Being played by Queen Latifah is not a bad thing."
Meanwhile: CONTINUED »
Saturday Night Live has been the launching pad for the careers of Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, and Tim Meadows. But for the past several seasons, the only reoccurring African-American member in the cast is Keenan Thompson. And as talented as Keenan is, he's a little too hefty to play Barack Obama.
So last January, when the cast needed an Obama impersonator to play against Amy Poehler's Hillary Clinton, they sent out a casting notice for an African-American male, but ultimately ended up putting the Lebanese Fred Armisen in black(er) face.
And now it looks like they've done it again: Cashing in on Tina Fey's resemblence to Sarah Palin, Lorne Michaels has set up another cameo for his former employee as the Alaskan governor, this time aping Palin's performance at the debates last night. But hmm…who to play the moderator, Gwen Ifill?
Best moments of the debate included Palin winking, Palin telling Biden that his wife's reward was in heaven (4:15 into the clip), and everyone agreeing on gay rights.
But what did the guys who are paid to analyze the debates think? A pundit round-up, after the jump:
Sometime last night, link factory and cable news talking point shaper Matt Drudge posted a link to an article about Gwen Ifill, the PBS vet and broken legged moderator of tomorrow's VP debate, claiming she was coming out with a pro-Obama book on Inauguration Day. If true, an obvious favoring of Obama could jeopardize Ifill's plans for tomorrow night's session, since moderators are supposed to remain objective; any harsh questions aimed at Palin could then "justly" be labeled by the right wing as unfair and bias.
Except Drudge, to be sure, is not the nonpartisan link factory Fox News would have you believe. So it makes sense that the news outlet he linked to for the story would be the right-wing zealot website WorldNetDaily, a place where, much like Drudge, ordinary news topics get twisted ever so slightly to become slanted in such a way that the reader would be forgiven for realizing he bought into the spin. (For instance, an article about how Americans can relate to Obama is headlined, "Do Americans have anything in common with Obama?" See the twist?)
So is Ifill's book even about Obama? And if it is, is it really pro-Obama? You can take a guess. CONTINUED »
Yesterday, NBC News political director Chuck Todd anchored an hour of daytime programming for MSNBC. He also told colleagues he's going to anchor an hour a day during the network's convention coverage, newsroom sources tell us.
Know what Todd's colleague David Gregory said to his colleagues? That Todd is "gunning" to be the host of Meet The Press — a gig Gregory is said to desperately want for himself.
Too bad our informants say common opinion under the 30 Rock umbrella reveals few staffers want either of 'em to get the gig.
The candidate everybody is pining for? A certain presidential debate moderator. CONTINUED »
When television networks are treated to the ratings bonanza (read: 60 million viewers) known as this fall's four presidential debates, viewers will see PBS anchors Jim Lehrer and Gwein Ifill each moderate a debate, along with NBC's special something Tom Brokaw and CBS News' former anchor and current chief Washington correspondent Bob Scheiffer. That means no involvement from ABC News or, for that matter, a one Katie Couric. But you know who was selected to participate by the Commission on Presidential Debates? MySpace. News Corp.'s social network will power MyDebates.org, which will live stream the debates and poll users in real time on the issues being discussed. Granted, this is not the same thing as letting MySpace users frame the questions, like the CNN-YouTube primary debates did. But at least they were asked to the table. Sorry Couric. Sorry Gibson.
NBC News is doing the respectable thing and not commenting, publicly, about their plans in naming a successor to Tim Russert, whose death on Friday at the network's Washington studios has left them without a Meet The Press anchor, or a D.C. bureau chief. As a show of respect for Russert's family and his colleagues, 30 Rock is holding off on telling anyone what they plan to do come this Sunday.
While NBC News chief Steve Capus and NBC head Jeff Zucker wisely selected Tom Brokaw to moderate yesterday's MTP Russert tribute, with a line-up of the guests the late anchor would've booked himself, there's nothing firmed up for the weeks ahead, claims NBC.
None of that means media's chattering classes aren't placing over-unders on who's going to fill Russert's slot, at MTP or leading the network's Washington unit. There's a list of usual suspects, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. So who's the most likely to take the very big reins?
Let's take a look. CONTINUED »
