Report: NBC News Execs Thought Matt Lauer’s Forum Performance Was a ‘Disaster’

[DonViejo]

Source: Mediaite

Matt Lauer has received a ton of criticism from fans and critics alike over his performance during Wednesday night’s Commander-In-Chief candidate forum. Now, one report says that his bosses concur with the consensus that Matt was #Laueringthebar.

CNN’s Brian Stelter is reporting that several high-ranking sources at NBC News “said they hear the criticism and agree with at least some of it.”

One executive, whom Stelter didn’t identify, was particularly blunt. “Disaster,” the executive said.

Lauer has been widely criticized for, among other things, not challenging a number of Donald Trump‘s statements, including his fully debunked claim that he opposed the Iraq War.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.mediaite.com/online/report-nbc-news-execs-thought-matt-lauers-forum-performance-was-a-disaster/

[Coolest Ranger]

1. I knew it was going to be a joke

that's why I did not tune in

[Auggie]

2. Hope this is his swan song

[PatSeg]

8. Oh, there will be more

It will be hard to define one moment as "his swan song". At least the media isn't kissing his ass anymore for the most part.

[Auggie]

18. Then how about the last time he moderates any type of political forum?

[PatSeg]

21. I'm sorry

My brain misfired. I thought you were talking about Trump.

Yeah, this could be a "swan song" for Lauer. I never understood his success, as he is so unimpressive. What is the appeal there?

[anamandujano]

31. Lauer is ten miles wide and an eighth of an inch deep.

He's "glib."

[PatSeg]

49. But he's not even good at being "glib"

I have a dishrag with more personality. What on earth makes this guy worth $25 million a year? It really boggles the mind.

[anamandujano]

65. I could not agree with you more.

[TNNurse]

39. Trump or Lauer or both???

[Auggie]

47. I meant Lauer but it can apply to both

[Wellstone ruled]

3. More Media fodder for the

Cocktail Circuit in D.C..

[LisaM]

4. And within the disastrous interview....

why didn't he ask Trump why he didn't serve in Vietnam?

[Andy823]

40. Exactly.

He should have asked that question, and asked about him comparing his chasing women during that time and not getting a STD the same as serving in Vietnam. There were plenty of things that should have been asked, but were not, and his going after Hillary the way he did really made him like like a sexist jerk.

[KingCharlemagne]

71. Or about torture - nt

[PatSeg]

5. This Tweet!

Lauer: What do you think of babies?
Trump: They're very soft.
Lauer: In 2006 you tweeted they AREN'T soft.
Trump: Yes they are.
Lauer: Okay.

— Eugene Mirman (@EugeneMirman) September 8, 2016

http://www.mediaite.com/online/report-nbc-news-execs-thought-matt-lauers-forum-performance-was-a-disaster/

[liberalhistorian]

22. It makes me physically ill how the media is

catering to and falling all over Drumpf, when he should be a pariah and his poll numbers should be near zero.. Infuriating and frightening.

[PatSeg]

33. The lack of integrity among journalists

is appalling and very frustrating. I wonder how many of these faux journalists claim Walter Cronkite or Edward R. Murrow as their heroes.


"The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer." In Trump's case, a whole lot longer evidently.

[wordpix]

57. this media "falling all over Drumpf" theme keeps coming up in various threads

CPTV finally stood up tonight and invited two expert journalists to speak about their Drumpf research and especially about his "great businessman" claim. These two experts eviscerated Trump. Called him Wizard of Oz, PT Barnum, very important info in that interview. Info needs to get out but CPTV/PBS Newshour didn't event have a blurb about it on the web.

[ErikJ]

6. Time to put him out to pasture.

[metroins]

10. He's not even a journalist

He's decent at Morning shows and hosting.

Whoever put him in charge of this is to blame, not Lauer. When I think of journalist or presidential moderator, I don't think of Matt Lauer.

He's done interviews before, but those are pretty tightly controlled areas. Not foreign policy and security.

This was poor planning.

[hibbing]

25. Do you think Chris Wallace?

[metroins]

30. I think Chris Wallace is extremely biased

But I think we're supposed to get 1 left, 1 neutral, 1 right debate.

I don't mind Wallace being a moderator because I expected somebody on the right and I think he's an OK choice. It's not like they got a crazy radio host.

Wallace knows more about politics than Lauer....Lauer is a morning show host. He's family friendly fun guy, not politics guy.

[Jeff Murdoch]

35. Wallace even occasionally

commits an act of journalism.

[pansypoo53219]

68. shouldn't they ALL be neutral?

[metroins]

69. Real life vs Ideal

I can't name a neutral journalist.

[Ghost Dog]

7. " journalistic malfeasance ",

in the words of Synergie in another thread, is a huge, overall & in general, fucking problem, is it not?

Salaried media people know well who's paying, for what.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

9. Andy Lack was the NBC exec who pushed Lauer.

According to mediate, looks like he will take the hit for this "disaster."

[TeamPooka]

11. Lester Holt has a lot of work to do in the 1st debate to restore NBC News reputation cause of Lauer,

better do a good job with facts

[kysrsoze]

12. Haha! What's they expect from tha vacuous asshole? Didn't they watch the olympics?

[PearliePoo2]

13. I read that LauerTheBar was on the short list for one of the debates.

At least he's been exposed and out of contention as a moderator for ANY future debates! Laurier The Lame!

[catbyte]

14. He should stick to what he knows--emceeing the Macy's Parade &

bantering with celebrity chefs on The Today Show. Anything else is way beyond his narrow "talents."

[underpants]

15. and Sharknados

He was in two of the movies

[catbyte]

23. I forgot about that one.

Too bad it was a teevee movie, because his performance was Oscar bait.

[dawn frenzy adams]

53. You're kidding?

He was in Sharnados? Bwah-ha-ha.

[underpants]

62. Sharknado 2: The Second One & Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!

He and Al Roker

[benld74]

16. He's NOT news he is TALK SHOW

[AwakeAtLast]

37. Which means he should never have been chosen.

Why couldn't it have been someone with integrity? Where's Ann Curry?

[TexasBushwhacker]

42. Ann is no longer with NBC

I don't know why they chose Lauer in the first place. He isn't a serious journalist and never has been. They should have used Lester Holt. Hell, they could have had Tom Brokaw do it.

[wheniwasincongress]

55. One report yesterday

said that NBC execs were considering Lauer for moderating one of the debates (it went to Holt)

[wordpix]

58. they should have gone to Rachel; she is most knowledgeable and

also very polite to all, even those she doesn't agree with. And she's tough and does good digging.

[maryellen99]

63. I think this is why NBC execs pushed for Lauer and I bet it's true

http://www.politicususa.com/2016/09/08/matt-lauer-forum-hosting-gig-donald-trump-afraid-rachel-maddow.html

[BumRushDaShow]

17. That is their modus operandi

"It's easier to ask forgiveness than ask permission".

I.e. - Ready. Shoot. Aim. Oops. Apologize.

They don't really care because the deed was done and per the head honchos behind closed doors-

[liberalhistorian]

19. What I'm not understanding is why the hell

they thought he would have been anything close to a good choice and why they believed he'd do anything resembling a decent job with this gig. Sure, he may their "golden boy" in some areas (God alone knows why, but they do), but that doesn't mean he'd be good for this particular gig. Actually, I think he's an all-around disaster, which is why I never watch and haven't for years, but then I'm not a fancy-pants high-muckety muck at NBC.

[BumRushDaShow]

38. Probably because he was not a political analyst

because God forbid, the others that were floated out there would have been considered "too libbbbrrruuullll" (despite neither Schmuck Toad or Andrea Greenspan being anywhere near "liberal".. and Rachael would have been a non-starter from the Trump campaign).

[wishstar]

20. I want them to give Hillary back those 13 hijacked minutes that Lauer kept her on email questions

Burned me up this morning when Jonathan Karl on ABC Good Morning America had gall to say she struggled last night because the first 13 minutes of her time was taken up by emails, without him mentioning it was unbalanced Matt Lauer who boxed her in on meaningless repetetive email questions while letting Trump have free rein.

[NastyRiffraff]

48. And then he tried to cut her off

when she was talking about ISIS and national security, claiming he was "running out of time.' She just ignored him and kept on till she was done.

He was "running out of time" because he completely wasted everyone's time for 13 fucking minutes!

[wordpix]

60. yes, that too. No more Lauer on debates

Back to the Today show with you.

[Cosmocat]

52. Love how that was HER fault

and the rationalization from the "liberal" MSNBC Morning Joe folks was the whole never ending hype over the fake e-mail scandal is her fault because people keep asking her about it.

It is HER fault, they keep asking about it.

[wordpix]

61. speaking of Morning Schmo, did you catch him going off this morning?

He was going insane. Seriously, he's been bashing Trump all summer and suddenly he was screaming about how horrible Hillary is. And his alleged lover Mika did not know what to do but looked totally flustered. She should get an award for keeping it together while he went ape shit.

[wordpix]

59. yes, this is the thing that burns me up, too

SHE has to answer q's about emails but Trump isn't asked any q's about bribing elected officials.

In an alleged commander in chief forum, no less.

[George II]

24. It was a horrible performance for a horrible event that had a horrible format.

That big buildup all weekend and early in the week, and they each got about 25 minutes? Ridiculous.

[0rganism]

26. so now the narrative shifts to how lame Lauer is instead of how weak tRump's statements are

possible up-side, maybe this will "assist" future moderators in doing their "job".

[bulloney]

32. I think Lauer's performance was by design to keep discussion away from Trump's performance.

What have we been reading and hearing all day? Lauer's poor performance and virtually nothing has been said about the lack of substance in Trump's statements and the lack of knowledge he shows on issues.

I don't remember hearing a network throwing its own employee under the bus like this article on NBC executives unless it's by design. That's like admitting the quality of your programming is inferior.

The media want a horse race. They keep ignoring Trump's corrupt and incompetent past and keep badgering Hillary's emails even though decisions and statements from agencies investigating the email controversy have said wrongdoing has been minor-to-nothing. If they would go after Trump with half of the effort they have on Clinton, they'd be coming out with new major scandals every week, from Trump U to his outsourcing jobs to questionable business dealings to bribes to his multiple incidents of marital infidelity and on and on...

[Eleanors38]

46. Pretty much true. I think MSM is afraid of tRump and the FR. It doesn't want criticism from them.

MSM has been smash-mouthed by the FR for 30-40 years, and now with the innertubes displacing MSM, they are too beat up to fight the Right. (They don't fear Democrats since the reputation built for them is one of sniveling bully victims; i.e., you can smack them around without consequence.)

[riversedge]

27. CNNMONEY: Behind the scenes, NBC execs concede Matt Lauer forum performance was "disaster"

I hope this report is true and nbc is doing some soul searching!




Behind the scenes, NBC execs concede Matt Lauer forum performance was "disaster"


http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/08/media/nbc-news-forum-trump-clinton-postmortem/



by Brian Stelter @brianstelter

September 8, 2016: 3:08 PM ET




Replay
Trump's 'liberal' economic policies
NBC News knows the "Commander-in-Chief Forum" was not Matt Lauer's finest hour.

One executive, speaking anonymously, was blunt about it: "Disaster."

The morning after Lauer's back-to-back interviews of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, several high ranking sources at the network said they hear the criticism and agree with at least some of it.

Lauer was widely criticized for failing to fact-check or follow up when Trump falsely claimed that he was opposed to the Iraq war when it started. Some viewers thought Lauer held Clinton to a higher standard than Trump. Several people who were sitting in the audience told CNN that they were frustrated too.

The ratings for Wednesday night's forum were strong, according to preliminary data. But the reviews were pitiful. So what went wrong? That's what journalists both inside and outside NBC are asking now. There is no clear answer.

Lack of preparation is one theory.

New York Times TV critic James Poniewozik wrote Thursday that Lauer seemed "unprepared on specifics of military and foreign policy: "He performed like a soldier sent on a mission without ammunition, beginning with a disorganized offensive, ending in a humiliating retreat." ,...............

[sinkingfeeling]

28. I emailed them last night about the double standard Lauer used.

[vinny9698]

29. Just shows the regard that NBC has about vets

It should be seen as an insult to vets, that they think this issue deserves a talk host and not a serious journalist.

[Kingofalldems]

34. Today Show Boy is a total lightweight.

[SCVDem]

36. I watched some of the after show

Holy crap!

Did I watch the same thing as Andrea Mitchell?

I couldn't stomach her bullshit pandering for tRump. Click!

[bucolic_frolic]

41. Matt Lauer behaved in a perfectly rational manner

He was making his career overture to Trump TV

Won't he get a great contract offer?

[Scruffy1]

45. Bingo

All you have to do to understand right wing ideology is to follow the money. Phyllis Schaffley got rich peddling her crap and so have many others. If you work in the media you can get rich kissing rich ass. If you tell the truth, you'll probably stay poor.

[wordpix]

64. exactly what I was gonna post or close to it

follow the $$$. If I were a RW journalist, I'd be making a mint.

[Mr.Bill]

43. My summary of his segment with Hillary Clinton:

Even though I have a great deal of experience doing interviews, I have prepared twice as many questions as I know we will have time for, so we will only be able to let you give half of your answer before I interrupt you saying "we only have so much time here".

[tavernier]

44. Soooo...

This should be on the NBC evening news in 2 minutes.

Right? Right?

[StrictlyRockers]

50. How did this happen, Mr Lauer?

[Fritz Walter]

51. But -- despite their concerns -- he's still on the payroll

Because -- as any good corporate-media whore would -- he delivers ratings.

Thank you Bombast/Yfinity/NB₵ for Lauering standards even Lauer than expected.

[wheniwasincongress]

54. Lauer should stick

to asking tough questions like "What was it like working with Tom Hanks?" and "Boxers or briefs?"

[Rex]

56. And yet the media will do everything possible to make sure Trump wins.

The media is out of control and dangerous...all for a paycheck.

[Beartracks]

66. "Disaster" cuz he pandered, or cuz it was so obvious??

===========================

[SHRED]

67. The FAUX outrage from fellow media members is laughable

They all have guilt to share in letting Don the Con skate.

[kimbutgar]

70. Hopefully the criticism of Lauer who is personal friends with Cheeto will make the other debate

Moderators hesitant to go easy on Cheeto lest they get their own careers demolished.

In my opinion Lauer is now tarnished in a lot of people's minds.