NY Daily News:KO reamed by NBC News pres to protect Lauer

[drbtg1]

From Lloyd Grove's Lowdown column today:

In August he was reamed out by MSNBC president Rick Kaplan for his perhaps too graphic commentary about Peter Jennings' death. But last week Olbermann was reamed out by a higher-ranking TV exec — NBC News president Steve Capus — over his long interview with famous widower Michael Schiavo.

Capus scorched Olbermann for stepping on a carefully orchestrated Matt Lauer-"Today" show-"Dateline NBC" exclusive. The Lauer package was pegged to Dutton's March 27 release of "Terri: The Truth," Schiavo's tell-all about his late wife's short life, lingering death and accompanying media circus.

I hear Capus calmed down when Olbermann assured him he didn't know about the previous deal, because he landed his interview through direct contacts, not Dutton, and Schiavo never informed him.

Capus last week let Olbermann air highlights — in which the newly remarried Schiavo tears up and slams Republicans and President Bush for interfering. But MSNBC still didn't promote it outside the little-watched cable outlet. It will air an Olbermann-Schiavo special only after Lauer does his thing.

IMO, the hell with Capus. If Capus is attacking someone who has talent beyond anything Lauer will ever know, then no wonder MSNBC isn't doing well. Capus needs to go. And throw out the no-talent Greenwich silverspoon with him!

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/389481p-330352c.html

[crispini]

1. Good lord.

:eyes:

[RamboLiberal]

2. I couldn't agree more - Go To Hell Capus

And besides Lauer has turned in to nothing but another Repuke shill! If MSNBC were smart they'd be promoting the hell out of KO - he's has the only show on that miserable network worth watching.

Good for KO and his staff that they hustled to get the Schiavo interview - it was a great piece that really exposed the RW crap like Bush, Frist and Santorum that used Terri for their own crass purposes.

[gkhouston]

3. sounds like NBC may have spent too much money

on secondhand merchandise and KO got the first class exclusive. The irony? I'm guessing KO may have gotten his exclusive simply by behaving like a decent human being when he was reporting the Schiavo story last year.

[drbtg1]

4. Too much money?

Has there been a change of policy? There may be perks given, but I thought NBC was one of the remaining entities that didn't pay for interviews.

[gkhouston]

5. perhaps they don't

In that case, I guess the president was upset because the Schiavo interview has the potential to upstage the Dateline show and decrease its potential ratings/revenue. I wonder if someone at Dateline tried to get an interview with Schiavo and got turned down. :7

[drbtg1]

7. Oh, I see what you mean...but if we're talking about smart business

Of course, what Capus could have done, once it was established that Mr. Olbermann had access, was fly Mr. Olbermann to Mr. Schiavo for a face-to-face sitdown and aired that on Dateline NBC. It would have done the job of getting the interview on Dateline plus promoted the talented MSNBC anchor on the NBC network (Gee, promoting MSNBC with their only real talent! What a novel concept!). Besides, Lauer has the Today show gig, he doesn't need the promotion, as he's already able to stand on the 30 Rock ice rink and yell, "I'm king of the world".

Thus, all of them could have been team players for the benefit of the company.

BUT, NOOOOOOOOOO! The idiot news pres and the Greenwich silverspoon had to let their egos take over. Complete fools!

I'm glad Capus and Lauer don't work for my company.

[RevCheesehead]

6. These people give me a headache.

[Patsy Stone]

8. Oh, when will it end?

And, do they (NBC) think that Matt and KO have the same audience? I'm sure KO would be pleased to know he's in competition for viewers with Today. Once again, if they hadn't said anything over at NBC, no one would have been the wiser. Who would have remembered the KO interview and taken the time to compare it to the upcoming Matt interview? Instead, all of the in-fighting is back to bite NBC News in the butt. The news department seems to be its own worst enemy.

:crazy:

[Gogi]

9. So, a real newsman gets an exclusive...

and upsets the network's carefully orchestrated plans to surround talking head Matt Lauer with a fake breaking news report? Note to Mr. Lauer: real news people don't need to be spoon fed. Capus is an overpaid idiot.

[Berry Cool]

10. You said it, Gogi.

While Poster Boy Matt sat back and waited for Schiavo's publisher to grant him the expected interview, Keith went out and hustled just the way he used to back in the days when he heard a tip that Steinbrenner was going to fire a Yankees coach. He used his connections to be a REAL reporter and get an interview with someone he wanted an interview with.

For that, he gets conked on the head and buried?

Sure. After all, the expensive, on-air talent at NBC must be protected...even at the expense of that poor cousin MSNBC.