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‘Bad Journalism’: NBC News President Blasts New York Times for Critique of ‘Today’ Show Video That Never Aired

Jul 2, 2012  •  Post A Comment

NBC News President Steve Capus called out The New York Times for critiquing a highlight video about former "Today" co-host Ann Curry that never actually aired on television, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The segment was described by the newspaper’s chief television critic, Alessandra Stanley.

In her story about Curry’s farewell as the "Today" co-host that aired last Thursday, June 28, 2012, Stanley wrote, in part, "Highlight reels are the gold watch of television news, and ‘Today’ showed a long, affectionate one of Ms. Curry, from her first days in local news to her trip to the South Pole where she planted the NBC flag. It included goofy moments clowning on the set, and also a tableau that seemed — under the circumstances — somewhat insensitive. Ms. Curry, ebullient as ever, leaned into Mr. Lauer, who was wearing an arm sling. ‘Don’t come anywhere near me with a hug,’ he said jokingly, but perhaps not entirely so."

We here at TVWeek think that’s quite a lot of words that Stanley includes in her review of Curry’s on-air farewell about a highlight reel that actually never aired during Curry’s farewell.

As THR reports, "the video was never scheduled to air on TV; instead it was an old video posted online."

Capus, who was among the NBC executives who fired Curry from her co-host duties on "Today," told THR, "When a television critic writes a critique of a program and then later admits she hasn’t watched the television broadcast, that’s bad journalism. That’s not just a mistake."

The Times posted a correction Saturday, stating: “The TV Watch column on Friday, about Ann Curry’s final appearance as a host on NBC’s ‘Today’ show, referred erroneously to a highlight reel of Ms. Curry. The highlight video was available on the show’s Web site; it was not shown on the television show Thursday and should not have been included as part of the critique of Thursday’s show. The highlight reel was created last year, when Ms. Curry started in her role as host, not in connection with her departure.”

The THR report adds that the correction about the highlight tape during Curry’s farewell, "was actually the third mistake in Stanley’s critique. A previous correction noted that Stanley had written that Savannah Guthrie, Curry’s replacement, was included in Thursday’s Today show send-off. Guthrie was on the show during the 7 a.m. hour to discuss the Supreme Court Health Care ruling, but she was not in the studio for Curry’s goodbye. The newspaper also misidentified Morales as Guthrie in a photo caption; that was also corrected."

To see a video of the emotional on-air goodbye speech by Curry last Thursday, please, click here.

5 Comments

  1. Given the number of editing missteps at NBC in the past few months, Capus’ criticisms are the pot calling the kettle black.

  2. There is no excuse for any news organization to inaccurately report news. People always remember the initial story. Corrections are never seen by all of the people that saw the initial story. That initial story will be considered as fact by everyone that saw it. But the correction may or may not ever be seen.

  3. You are both right.
    Just another sign of the country sliding into complete ignorance. We need to break up the conglomerates.

  4. Capus is an embarrassment to the journalistic community. He has almost single handedly wrecked what used to be good broadcast journalism.

  5. Alternate headline: Alessandra Stanley Does What Alessandra Stanley Does; No One Is Surprised

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