NBC - NEWS FOR THE SAKE OF ENTERTAINMENT?

NEWS FOR THE SAKE OF ENTERTAINMENT?

NBC is being taken to task for its decision to reconstruct the Golden Globe Awards show on Sunday as a news event that will include a two-hour Dateline documentary in which Matt Lauer will interview the nominees and a one-hour news conference during which the winners will be announced. Several former and current TV news correspondents depicted the night-long affair as an effort by the network's entertainment division to co-opt news programming. Former CBS and CNN correspondent Deborah Potter told the Los Angeles Times: "It's pretty clear there isn't much of a firewall between news and sales anymore, but my goodness, you don't want to bulldoze it." A former NBC News producer who did not want to be named told the newspaper, "Nobody believes the news division made the decision to carry it. ... It's serving the entertainment division's purpose. ... This is the way principles get chipped away, bit by bit." The Times said that the decision to move the Golden Globes from entertainment to news "was made at the highest levels of NBC Universal, in discussions led by CEO Jeff Zucker."

10/01/2008