JOSSIP REPORTS — Um, Tom Brokaw? You're a liar. Yes, you're a well-respected newsman, who anchored NBC Nightly News for nearly two decades with aplomb, overseeing everything from the First Intifada in the Gaza Strip to the Monica Lewinsky scandal. But you're also full of fibs.
When Jossip and others reported earlier this month that you were among the NBC News veterans voicing your concerns to the high ups that Keith Olbermann and Chris Mattthews' partisanship was making 30 Rock stink of liberalism instead of neutrality, you quickly denied the claim, saying you never voiced concerns to GE chief Jeff Immelt, NBC News head Steve Capus, nor MSNBC president Phil Griffin.
Except here we are, just a few weeks later, and — what's this? — you've changed your story. CONTINUED »
Since our story on Wednesday about General Electric CEO Jeff Imelt's comments at a black business conference, the responses have poured in. We've been on the phone and emailing with GE's communications department (friendly); GE execs (firm); GE shareholders (furious); staffers at NBC Universal, MSNBC, NBC and Access Hollywood (in shock, but not surprise); and others who attended the Black Corporate Directors Conference earlier this month.
And here's the takeaway: A number of people are countering our story, but almost all of them were not at the conference, and they all happen to be GE employees. That, and we've also been told by other attendees that the way we depicted Immelt's comments was, in fact, accurate. So: CONTINUED »
Two former GE execs who attended the Black Corporate Directors Conference — Lloyd Trotter, the ex-CEO of GE Industrial GE vice chairman, and Art Harper, the former CEO of GE Equipment Services — weigh in on our post of Jeff Immelt's remarks about trusting black men and women. (Worth noting: Both Trotter and Harper are black.) Read their comments here.
JOSSIP REPORTS — The future of NBC, and what to do about Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews at MSNBC, may be the least of General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt's problems. Because he just dipped himself into the murky waters of race relations, and he's about to drown.
Two weeks ago at the annual Black Corporate Directors Conference in California, Immelt was one of several high-powered guests (among other corporate execs and political powerhouses) on a panel moderated by CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien (she of the Black in America specials). Official guests and attendees of the three-day conference operate under the assumption that everything is off-the-record; reporters and news crews are barred, and participants aren't supposed to share what's said there.
Except somebody did leak the conversation — and told Jossip about Immelt's thoughts on black men and women. We'll give you a hint: He only trusts them as far as he can throw them. CONTINUED »
And that makes two. After Felix Gillette's Observer piece that claimed a number of NBC News veterans were voicing their concerns about the direction the network, and MSNBC, were headed (i.e. the left) to top brass, at least two of those namedropped have come out to say Gillette got it wrong. First was Andrea Mitchell (via Keith Olbermann's "Worst Person in the World" segment), who says she never stood up at a NBC News gathering in D.C. to say she was worried, and now it's Tom Brokaw who insists he never spoke to the likes of GE chief Jeff Immelt, NBC News president Steve Capus, or NBC Universal head Jeff Zucker about NBC's editorial leanings. Which must come as a surprise to all the 30 Rock insiders we've spoke with, who might counter Brokaw's claim.
Accustomed to playing defense, MSNBC president Phil Griffin finds himself in a worn-in seat prescribing euphemisms toward his embattled network. With the in-fighting between Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews, Joe Scarborough, and David Gregory taking a backseat to the assumption that Griffin & Co. caved to right-y criticism that the network's coverage leaned too far to the left — thus resulting in K+M moving back to pundit-only chairs — MSNBC now finds itself again defending its internal decisions. If only criticism of the cable news network, then, were coming from Fox News and sites like Olbermann Watch. In fact, for months it's been NBC News insiders who've besieged the ears of Griffin, NBC News president Steve Capus, and GE chief Jeff Immelt, begging for change. So who's been complaining? CONTINUED »
The item we thought we were running was about about how Barry Diller and John Malone are having settlement talks while suing each other in Delaware.
And then we found ourselves unable to ignore this expanding General Electric ad on Bloomberg.com, which displays a live interview with GE chief Jeff Immelt. After watching a minute or two of it, you'll be directed to this site, where you can continue watching what's essentially a shareholder conference call disguised as a "conversation about GE's performance and the outlook for 2008." The ad unit comes from rich media company Eye Wonder and, for us at least, is the first live streaming video we've seen in an ad. It's quite captivating, and almost makes us forget about Immelt's denials that he wants to sell off NBC.
The ad also lets you submit questions to Immelt. We asked, "Who makes your tie?" because all the other crap they were talking about was filled with too much financial jargon.
It was GE chief Jeff Immelt, with an assist from Brian Williams, that got Paris Hilton's Today interview pulled, says the Post. Though NBC still stands by its word that it never paid, nor planned to pay, for Hilton's chat, the top dog decision was handed down as a means to beef up the lackluster rep of the Peacock. Remember Don Imus? And Seung-Hui Cho's media manifesto? Yeah, that made NBC look bad, and they don't have any more eyes to make black.
But hey, at least they're putting up a fight against CBS — at one time the only real candidate for Biggest PR Blunders From a National TV Network of the Year Award.
