The Hollywood Reporter’s Paul J. Gough pours some water on Peter Lauria’s Post article…

“There is an ongoing process at NBC News to reallocate, reorganize and right-size the division given the business pressures that every major media organization is facing,” NBC News said in a statement. “This process began some time ago, it continues today, and will continue tomorrow.”

Further details were not available from the company.

The source disputed a New York Post report on Thursday that said the General Electric-controlled company planned to make “deep” cuts in the news division to save $20 million to $40 million following poor November ratings in NBC’s entertainment division.

Two NBC News sources said the Post report caught employees by surprise, as the size and scope of the cuts have not been determined.

Keith Olbermann will be doing a Special Comment on the Iran NIE report tonight…

Tonight Keith Olbermann will give a Special Comment regarding the revelation that President Bush knew about the possible suspension of an Iranian nuclear program in August. Following is an excerpt of tonight’s Comment:

“A bright man, or an honest man, would have realized no later than the McConnell briefing that the only true danger about Iran was the damage that could be done by an unhinged, irrational Chicken Little of a president, shooting his mouth off, backed up by only his own hysteria and his own delusions of omniscience.

Not Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mr. Bush. The Chicken Little of presidents is the one, Sir, that you see in the mirror.

And the mind reels at the thought of a Vice President fully briefed on the revised intel as long as two weeks ago — briefed on the fact that Iran abandoned its pursuit of this imminent threat four years ago — who never bothered to mention it to his boss.”

Yikes, CNN has done it again…

Cable News Daily Live Ratings for December 5, 2007

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 1,013,000 viewers
CNN – 548,000 viewers
MSNBC – 323,000 viewers
CNBC – 214,000 viewers
HLN – 275,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 2,112,000 viewers
CNN – 976,000 viewers
MSNBC- 732,000 viewers
CNBC – 141,000 viewers
HLN – 484,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 286,000 viewers
CNN – 178,000 viewers
MSNBC – 117,000 viewers
CNBC – 64,000 viewers
HLN- 99,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 538,000 viewers
CNN – 333,000 viewers
MSNBC – 273,000 viewers
CNBC – 69,000 viewers
HLN –164,000 viewers

Morning programs P2+ (25-54)
FOX & Friends – 870,000 viewers (299,000)
American Morning- 328,000 viewers (113,000)
Morning Joe – 186,000 viewers (55,000)
Morning Express w/ Meade- 231,000 viewers (105,000)
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It’s the story that refuses to die! Mulitchannel News’ Steve Donohue blogs about Keith Olbermann’s WPITW segment last Friday and says Olbermann got it wrong. (via TVNewser)

“They [Fox] would kill for Cramer’s ratings,” Olbermann said in the “Worst Person” segment. “Oh, and by the way,” Olbermann added, “Alexis Glick, Liz Claman and Neil Cavuto – the heart of a Fox Business machine being watched by literally dozens of investors – each of them dropped by NBC and CNBC.”

That’s where Olbermann got it wrong. Cavuto, one of the first employees hired at Fox News in 1996, had the highest rated program (Market Wrap) on CNBC before he jumped ship to Fox along with dozens of other NBC News staffers. That’s how The Washington Post reported it when Cavuto joined Fox in September 1996.

TVNewser has a bit more detail on what’s going down today. Meanwhile, Jossip tries to finger the leaker. I think it’s barking up the wrong tree. The key in the “left on their own volition” quote isn’t that maybe Haddad or Sullivan would want to write their own histories, but whether they’d still be in a position to know what’s going on to the point that they could feed Lauria. I don’t think that’s likely.

The question I would ask is who at 30 Rock would have it in their interest to spin these staff cuts that way so as to not make it appear they were basically firing people? Sullivan was loved by the MSNBC staff so her departure was probably a pretty big morale blow. I would expect that NBC is going to have to have a Town Hall meeting before the end of the week. The damage being caused by all the leaks to the blogs and the Post surely must have the news division’s staff reeling. NBC News needs to get back out in front of this.

Jossip also has this must read entry on the cuts. Here’s the nut graph…

“Zucker does not give a shit about the ratings of the daytime news block on MSNBC,” says a well-placed network insider. “The sales people are always telling this to the NBC News management. All they care about is MSNBC ’sales prime,’ because that’s where they think the money is. This in my view is so fucking stupid as to be unimaginable, but that’s NBC U.”

Page Six dishes about something that landed on CNBC’s Charles Gasparino’s answering machine…

CNBC’s Charles Gasparino got the shivers when he played his phone messages and heard former New York Stock Exchange Chairman Dick Grasso wishing him a “happy and blessed” holiday in a raspy growl. It was a shock since the newsman’s new book, “King of the Club,” rakes Grasso over the coals in a warts-and-all expose, which zeroes in on the $190 million kiss-off Grasso took as well as rumors he may have fathered a love child. “It was a little scary,” Gasparino told us. But he bit the bullet and called Grasso back and “we had a perfectly nice conversation.”

Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was intereviewed on Morning Joe this morning. Transcript follows…

JOE SCARBOROUGH, MSNBC HOST: You look at the national policy, this guy right here, Mike Huckabee, Governor Mike Huckabee has shot to first, the Rasmussen poll has him ahead of everybody else. He is with us now.

Former governor of Arkansas and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. Sitting there on top of the Rasmussen poll, 20 percent nationally. Governor, let me start by asking you, now that you are ahead, are you going to lose your sense of humor? Can you still talk to us about Hendrix and cougar hunting and Willie Geist?

MIKE HUCKABEE, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I certainly would hope so, Joe.

In fact, when I was hearing the bumper music coming in, “All Along the Watchtower,” it occurred to me there is a shot of White House, Hendrix music playing, that’s the Huckabee White House. Hendrix music blasting throughout the White House as the president stands all along the watch tower.
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Variety’s Brian Lowry writes about how CNN has been forced to kill its special on Iran because of the new NIE on the country’s nuclear status…

The latest National Intelligence Estimate concluding that Iran discontinued its nuclear weapons program four years ago has claimed one casualty: CNN has postponed speculative documentary “We Were Warned — Iran Goes Nuclear.”

The two-hour spec, which was slated for Dec. 12 under the “CNN Presents” banner, was “set partially in the future,” featuring a what-if scenario as former government officials — playing fictional cabinet members — debate how to deal with the Iranian threat.

In a must read, The New York Post’s Peter Lauria follows in ICN and Jossip’s footsteps and provides more details on the budget cuts coming to NBC and MSNBC…

December 6, 2007 — NBC boss Jeff Zucker is expected to make big cuts on the newsgathering and operational side of the company’s news division, including eliminating an entire level of MSNBC’s management team, in a bid to save between $20 million and $40 million, The Post has learned.

Lauria also writes that CNBC will be spared the blade and the cuts will fall upon NBC and MSNBC only. From Lauria’s article two sections are key to understanding all of this…
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