NBC News

NBC News is partnering with TV One, the network aimed at adult African-American viewers, to provide them coverage of the 2012 election. Their coverage will include the final night of the Republication National Convention and the Democratic National Convention, as well as election night.

Critics suggest that much of NBC News’s coverage is driven not by newsworthiness, but by corporate synergy, in which the news division generates stories to heighten interest in the primetime Olympic telecasts.

Now in it’s 20th season, the NBC News show is launching “Dateline Chatline,” a major social TV initiative aimed at merging “all viewer discussion surrounding Dateline into one easy-to-access, user-friendly online site.”

Beginning Monday, Savannah Guthrie moves from the NBC morning program’s third hour to co-host with Matt Lauer following Ann Curry’s ouster yesterday. The turnover comes as NBC’s profitable morning show faces its most serious ratings challenge from ABC’s Good Morning America since the mid-1990s.

She announced her departure on the show this morning, ending a week of awkward television as she continued working after word spread that NBC was looking to oust her.

Sources say that Ann Curry will have a “substantial” role at NBC News, while Savannah Guthrie has been officially offered the Today post.

While the media focuses on Ann Curry’s future, or lack thereof, at the Today show, the fallout from that decision has significantly strengthened the standing of her boss, Today Executive Producer Jim Bell. In fact, many of the news division’s biggest decisions, even those beyond the Today show, are now being run by Bell first.

Lawyers for Jerry Sandusky sought a mistrial before his conviction for child sex abuse on the grounds that prosecutors showed jurors an inaccurate version of a bombshell NBC News interview with the former football coach, and the mistake may now form part of the basis for an appeal.

NBC News, which has long had to share its website with MSNBC at msnbc.msn.com, is finally set to get its own website. NBCNews.com, which sources say is tentatively scheduled to launch in September, would allow NBC News to distance its digital presence from that of its sister cable network, where programming has becoming increasingly liberal.

The Today show’s battle with ABC’s Good Morning America isn’t the only dogfight NBC News shows are locked in to maintain the ratings supremacy the network’s news division has long enjoyed. Meet the Press has been beaten lately with some regularity by CBS‘s Face the Nation. In the evening, ABC World News has been slowly gaining on long-reigning NBC Nightly News, which has lost the most viewers this season to date of all the network newscasts in the 25-54 demographic that advertisers covet.

The network’s coverage of the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin controversy costs reporter Lilia Luciano her job less than two weeks after the firing of Jeff Burnside.

The producer’s dismissal followed an internal investigation that led to NBC apologizing for having aired the misleading edited audio of George Zimmerman’s call to police thenight he shot Trayvon Martin..

NBC News has apologized for editing the 911 call that Trayvon Martin shooter George Zimmerman made to police on the night of Martin’s death, saying it deeply regrets airing the altered version of the tape.

RTDNA Chairman Kevin Benz: “American journalism risks losing the trust of the very people we work for, the American citizen, if we do not recommit to powerful, ethical reporting and concentrate on the message we are sending.”

NBC says it will investigate its handling of a piece on the Today show that ham-handedly abridged the conversation between George Zimmerman and a dispatcher in the moments before the death of Trayvon Martin

The initiative is part of “NBC News: Hiring Our Heroes” program in conjunction with The Chamber of Commerce that’s designed to help veterans and military spouses find employment.

Super Tuesday represented another strong TV news day for the cable news networks — but one of the broadcast networks could also claim some honors.

NBC on Feb. 8 will roll out a new documentary series, Hidden Planet, featuring foreign correspondent Richard Engel that will stream directly to the iPad via the Rock Center app.

Newsweek and The Daily Beast will begin featuring 2012 presidential campaign coverage from NBC News beginning this month.

Chelsea Clinton’s much-trumpeted deal with NBC seems to be nearly done. Her contract is for only 90 days, and while she’ll provide the network with two more stories, sources say it is not certain she’ll immediately sign again.

NBCUniversal has decided to kill an ambitious plan to develop an office development and news production facility in the Universal City section of Los Angeles.

NBC News today is rolling out NBCPolitics.com, a new site that will collect all of its political news coverage in one place. Vivian Schiller, NBC News chief digital officer: “It’s really a reflection of looking at the Web as the Web, as opposed to looking at the Web as an extension of television only.”

TV news is good news for NBC. The top-rated NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams — with 9.1 million average viewers — is outperforming NBC’s primetime lineup average of 7.0 million.

NBC News President Steve Capus emphasizes that the former president’s daughter was not hired as a publicity stunt and will not be covering political news.

The veteran NBC Sports anchor was in a Rock Center Manhattan studio for an interview with Sandusky’s lawyer, Joseph Amendola, when the lawyer said, “What if I can get Sandusky on the phone?”

The former president’s daughter will be a special correspondent, focusing on reports for the “Making a Difference” series on NBC Nightly News.

Amanda Knox is the next biggest news interview get since a Florida jury sprung Casey Anthony. ABC, NBC and CBS each have a rep in Italy hoping to get a shot at the first sitdown with Knox, whose 2009 conviction for killing a roommate was overturned Monday.