Lester Holt, the anchor of NBC Nightly News, argued Tuesday that news organizations and the journalists they employ should do everything they can to call out misinformation permeating the political media ecosystem and separate facts from falsehoods forcefully to combat that trend.
Former CNN Great Big Story VP Ashley Codianni is joining NBC as executive editor of Today Digital, and Missy Dunlop Parsons is being promoted to executive producer of Today All Day, the morning show’s 24/7 lifestyle streaming channel. In this new role, Codianni will manage the Today.com editorial and social teams, working in tandem with the Today broadcast team to highlight programming across all our digital platforms.
Deborah Turness is leaving NBC News after eight years to become the CEO of ITN, the UK news producer. Turness first joined NBC News in 2013, becoming the first woman in U.S. history to be president of a network news division. She moved over to become president of NBC News International in 2017 after the company took a stake in Euronews. NBC sold its stake in Euronews last April to focus on the launch of an international television news channel, named NBC Sky World News. Four months later, NBC abandoned plans to launch the channel, citing commercial challenges related to the coronavirus pandemic.
NBC News announced Thursday that Catherine Kim has been upped to SVP, global digital news, where she will continue to oversee all digital newsroom activities for NBC News and an expanded digital effort at MSNBC. David Firestone will now run the daily coverage as executive editor, NBC News digital. He will report to Kim.
Exclusives
Savannah Guthrie’s next one-hour special won’t appear on any of NBC News’ best known properties, which include Today and NBC Nightly News. And yet, it may be of more critical importance to the NBCUniversal-owned news organization than any in-depth report she’s presented in recent months. Guthrie will today kick off a week-long focus by NBC News on the mental health of young people during the pandemic, the first of what NBC News President Noah Oppenheim says will be a year-long effort to provide deep reports — one a week — around specific topics across NBC News media properties.
Tom Llamas, the weekend anchor of ABC’s World News Tonight, has dramatically quit the network to move to rival NBC. Llamas, 41, is being lined up for a wide-ranging role across NBC News that involves work across the network’s news shows, streaming services and MSNBC.
Tom Brokaw, 80, author of The Greatest Generation, was NBC’s lead anchor at Nightly News and for big events for more than 20 years before giving way to Brian Williams in 2004. He was a White House correspondent during Richard Nixon’s presidency, and began co-hosting Today in 1976. He started hosting Nightly News in 1983.
Kristen Welker and Peter Alexander were named the new chief White House correspondents for NBC News, part of a rejiggering of some of the news unit’s personnel in the nation’s capital as many news outlets prepare to cover a new presidential administration.
The NBC Nightly News anchor frequently ends his broadcasts now with commentaries, an unusual departure for network evening newscasts that have more than a half century’s track record of playing it straight. Holt’s essays, many of them pleas for unity in troubled times, can seem mild to viewers used to the rhetorical warfare of cable news. He says he’s filling a need for voices of empathy in public life.
Today, Dec. 11, NBC News is dedicating the full NBCNews.com homepage to coverage of the most important topic on the planet: The coronavirus pandemic. This is the first time the site’s homepage will devote all of its content to a just one topic.
Al Roker returned to the Today show on Monday morning, two weeks after undergoing surgery for prostate cancer. “I’m back! I’m so excited to see all of you,” the 66-year-old meteorologist wrote on Instagram.
Since she held President Trump’s feet to the fire at a crucial turning point of the campaign, her future at NBC News appears bright.
Al Roker is recovering at home after having prostate cancer surgery, he tweeted Thursday. “See you all soon,” said Roker, whose surgery took place at Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Josie Robertson Surgery Center in New York.
NBC Nightly News returned home Monday, Nov. 9, after more than six months of anchoring remotely and from alternate setups — and introduced new on-set video wall graphics and a new approach to blocking the show that follows its Decision 2020 editions from Studio 1A.
Al Roker of NBC’s Today said today that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and will be undergoing surgery to have his prostate removed. “I’m going to be taking some time off to take care of this.”
The NBC News White House correspondent worked hard Thursday to keep control of the second and final encounter between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden, steering but not stifling exchanges. Midway through the debate, she even received a compliment from the Republican president, who said, “So far, I respect very much the way you handled this.”
President Donald Trump steamrolled Chris Wallace with constant interruptions in the first one, a performance that cost the Republican incumbent support in the polls. Susan Page struggled to make the vice presidential candidates adhere to time limits their campaigns had agreed to in advance. Next up: Kristen Welker. The NBC News White House correspondent is scheduled to moderate Thursday’s second and last session between Trump and Democrat Joe Biden. It’s hard not to feel trepidation for her.
What Kristen Welker Can Learn From Savannah Guthrie
Margaret Sullivan: “Savannah Guthrie brought her A game to last week’s NBC town hall with President Trump. As Thursday’s final debate between Trump and Joe Biden approaches, Guthrie’s NBC colleague, White House correspondent Kristen Welker, needs to have the best night of her career, too — but in a very different way. To make this debate something that serves the public interest rather than being the disastrous circus that it could be, she needs to be in control.”
NBC was reeling heading into Thursday’s town hall with President Trump, under widespread criticism for scheduling it at the same time as ABC’s town hall with Democratic opponent Joe Biden. NBC was accused of rewarding Trump for rejecting the debate commission’s plan to do the second debate virtually. That was quickly forgotten when the president sat opposite Guthrie, who questioned him specifically on when he last tested positive for COVID-19 (he said he didn’t remember), whether he had pneumonia (didn’t say) and his personal finances.
NBC has been rocked by an internal feud over its decision to host a town hall with Donald Trump at the same time as ABC’s Thursday event with Joe Biden. The internal conflict extends to the highest levels of NBCUniversal, where MSNBC head Phil Griffin strongly disagreed with NBC News President Noah Oppenheim’s decision to unilaterally move forward with the town hall during that time slot, according to three high-ranking sources at the TV media giant.
Joe Biden participated in a 90-minute town hall from Philadelphia on ABC, while NBC News went ahead with its hourlong session with President Trump in Miami — despite protests from Hollywood stars and others who criticized the network for forcing viewers to choose because the two events were held at the same time.
NBC News Group chairman Cesar Conde says in a statement that “we share in the frustration that our event will initially air alongside the first half of ABC’s broadcast with Vice President Biden,” adding that “Our decision is motivated only by fairness, not business considerations.”
The president and Joe Biden were supposed to meet Thursday for their second debate hosted by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates. Following the president’s diagnosis, the commission switched it to a virtual meeting, but Trump declined to participate. Biden then agreed to appear on ABC. Critics of NBC questioned why the network scheduled Trump for the same time, making viewers have to choose if they were interested in seeing both candidates react live in a similar format.
Donald Trump will do a town hall for NBC News on Thursday, after an agreement was reached between the network and his presidential campaign on the details for the event. That means that Trump and Joe Biden will each participate in separate town halls on the same evening, after plans for a presidential debate with a similar format were scrapped.
Employees at NBC’s New York O&O claim they’re being treated like second-class citizens when it comes to the company’s coronavirus testing policies. They are demanding they receive COVID-19 tests like their colleagues at NBC News, MSNBC and even Saturday Night Live, who are being tested at least once a week, sources close to the situation say.
