"A Bad Day At NBC"

[Coexist]

"A Bad Day At NBC"
"It's a bad day at NBC," an insider says.

A tipster reports a "big purge at Dateline...lots of layoffs today." Does anyone have details?...

Update:

Seventeen Pink Slips At 'Dateline'

Variety's Michael Learmonth reports: "Seventeen Dateline employees were issued pink slips Friday... 10 Dateline staffers in New York were laid off, five in Washington, D.C., one in Chicago and another in Burbank... That number does not include buyouts, which have been offered to dozens of employees across the news division."

Also: "Several cameramen in the D.C. bureau were said to be considering buyouts, which would pay the rough equivalent of three years salary and allow them to return as freelance employees after six months."

A tipster says David Corvo was in DC laying people off today. A network insider says the number of "volunteers" choosing buyout packages exceeds the number of layoffs...

[xultar]

1. Dateline sucks so it shouldn't be a shock.

[pissedoffprogressive]

4. All they do is internet preditors. Reminds me of Maury - whose your babies daddy?

[pissedoffprogressive]

2. our Keith is OK RIGHT?

[Berry Cool]

10. Keith is fine.

First of all, he's not on Dateline. Second, he's bringing in amazing ratings on MSNBC compared to everything else. Wednesday night of this week he had what may have been his biggest ratings yet. He's not going anywhere. He's already confirmed that.

And before anyone talks about how great Donahue's ratings were before he got canceled, well, Keith had a chat last Sunday on Firedoglake and said there was more to Donahue's cancellation than met the eye. It was a much more expensive show, for one thing, and for another, I guess Phil wasn't the most cooperative of hosts.

And third, let no one begin spreading the rumor again that Keith is moving to CNBC. His show and Tweety's are not going anywhere; they're staying on MSNBC for the foreseeable future.

[Ringo84]

3. No I don't

I wonder what's going on? I usually watch Nightly News to stay informed. I'll let you know if they say anything about it tonight.
Ringo

[AlCzervik]

5. they should can Lauer, that would save tons of moeny and lots of jobs.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

6. I have a feeling...

That this has something to do with that Predator-catching thing they have been wallowing in. Didn't someone kill themselves over it recently?

It may have been decided that it has crossed more than a few lines.

[soleft]

9. link to story

Prosecutor Kills Himself in Texas Raid Over Child Sex
By TIM EATON
TERRELL, Tex., Nov. 6 — A prosecutor in this North Texas town killed himself Sunday as the police tried to arrest him on charges of soliciting sex over the Internet from a person he thought was a 13-year-old boy.

The prosecutor, Louis Conradt Jr., 56, had been caught in a sting operation set up by Dateline NBC, the television news magazine, and an Internet watchdog group called Perverted Justice. An NBC camera crew was outside the house to film the scene when the fatal shot was fired.

Mr. Conradt had refused to open the door when police officers arrived at his house, where he lived alone, said Sgt. Snow Robertson of the Police Department in Murphy, a nearby town where officers said Mr. Conradt intended to meet the boy he thought he had communicated with.

Officers eventually forced their way into the house, only to find that Mr. Conradt had shot himself in the head with a small-caliber semi-automatic handgun, Sergeant Robertson said. Mr. Conradt died later at Parkland Hospital in Dallas.

Police officers from Murphy had gone to the house with a tactical team and two officers from Terrell to serve a warrant for Mr. Conradt’s arrest. One of the officers from Terrell knew Mr. Conradt from his work as a prosecutor, Sergeant Robertson said.

Mr. Conradt had been a district attorney in Kaufman County and was the chief felony assistant district attorney in Rockwall County at the time of his death.

The police planned to search his computer and his house, Sergeant Robertson said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/07/us/07pedophile.html

[lpbk2713]

7. Dateline was OK when it was Dateline.

But then it changed to "Predator Sting".


And after a couple of those it got kind of old to me.

[NJCher]

8. not just Dateline

Lots of programs and networks have turned to sleaze in the ratings tumbles. The audience is fragmenting to iPods, Internet, and home theatre.

A&E--the "arts and entertainment" network should be renamed the "Dog the Bounty Hunter" network.

CourtTV used to have some decent shows: now it's sleazoid crap like Cops and other chase-type crime shows.

Sensationalizing. Anything to get the last shreds of audience.

It's pathetic but at the same time, DVD recording, the Internet, and my iPod bring me a much needed relief.

Six of one, half a dozen of the other, I guess.




Cher

on edit: link to story of suicide:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/11072006/tv/dateline_perv_da_a_suicide_tv_michael_starr.htm