Kaplan vs. Zucker?…
The Philadelphia Inquirer has a story on Rick Kaplan’s future but buried inside is a must read blurb on his exit from MSNBC…(via INS News)
Meanwhile, back at MSNBC … NBC News president Steve Capus delivered the verdict to Kaplan, but industry insiders say Capus’ boss, NBC Universal TV honcho Jeff Zucker, made the call.
Sources say the two Alpha males clashed on their visions for the network _ Zucker wanted more emphasis on crime and lots of repeats; Kaplan wanted more fresh news. Big Rick is about a foot taller than Zucker, but Zucker outranks him.
“I fully didn’t expect Rick to go as quickly as he did,” says Capus. Still, “I thought it was inevitable, at some point.”
If this is true, and that may be a big if, then MSNBC’s problems won’t be changing anytime soon and Rick Kaplan may go down in MSNBC’s history as the guy who got shown the door for being right. More repeats? More crime? This is not the answer for a 24 hour cable news channel. But the question lingers…is the story accurate? It seems to fly in the face with what Steve Capus has talked about publicly recently; namely the tighter integration of NBC and MSNBC. More crime and repeats won’t get you there. It’ll do the opposite. It’ll drive them further apart. That said, it would explain a few things…repeating Olbermann, doubleshifting Abrams and Hardball, Crimetime In Primetime…were they all at Zucker’s prodding?
I guess we shall see which way MSNBC is really going to go shortly…
It may be time for NBCUniversal to consider shuttering the network, and have some of its talent absorbed into other NBC News enterprises.
Comment by Bob — June 14, 2006 @ 1:18 am
I think people are reading way too much into the integration of NBC and MSNBC. To me that means exactly what Zucker wants which is more crime and repeats. Integration of NBC and MSNBC is probably code for dumping ground for previously aired NBC shows so that money can be saved/made. I don’t think it means actual crossover of NBC talent or utilization of NBC sources.
Comment by bravesfan — June 14, 2006 @ 5:37 am
“More crime and repeats”? Now I’m REALLY confused. If that’s what Zucker wants, why doesn’t he just turn it into the Rita Cosby Channel?
Zucker’s vision for MSNBC doesn’t seem to jibe with the selection of Abrams and Griffin to do the work. Unless Abrams is seen as being the man who is the legal expert, so he is the natural choice for bringing more shows about “crime and justice” on board.
Yeesh. If MSNBC becomes “Court TV Lite,” it WILL go down the toilet. What are they thinking?!?!?
Comment by tanne — June 14, 2006 @ 6:50 am
I read the MSNBC article on the Wikipedia website that there was fear a number of years back on the part of staffers that MSNBC would be shuttered and transformed (or mutated) into a dumping ground for reruns of NBC entertainment programming.
Comment by Bob — June 14, 2006 @ 7:59 pm
That Wikipedia entry is largely maintained by the MSN MSNBC group. I’m not saying it’s not accurate, just that that the information contained is not coming from MSNBC insiders…
Comment by Spud — June 14, 2006 @ 9:26 pm