NBC's Trump Video Misfire Bares Internal Strife
October 14 2016 - 2:50PM
Dow Jones News
NBC is in damage control regarding its handling of an
11-year-old recording of on-air personality Billy Bush and
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump talking in crude and
misogynistic terms about women.
Mr. Bush's exit is being negotiated and NBC News is conducting a
review to determine who knew what and how its businesses could
better respond in the future, according to executives familiar with
the situation. There are still questions about just when the
existence of the tape became known, its path to the airwaves and
who leaked it to the Washington Post last week before NBC could get
its own story out.
A complication is that the two Comcast Corp. players in the
drama—NBC News and the entertainment magazine show "Access
Hollywood"—have had a strained relationship over the years. "Access
Hollywood" staff complain they are treated by the news organization
like a minor partner, people at the show said. Now, with NBC News
exonerating its own handling the matter, the two sides are fighting
to spare their reputations after being scooped by an outsider.
The Bush-Trump material was the property of "Access Hollywood"
from when Mr. Bush was a co-anchor on the show and was working on a
2005 piece about Mr. Trump's filming of a cameo on an NBC soap
opera. "Access Hollywood" is a daily show that competes with CBS
Corp.'s "Entertainment Tonight" and Warner Bros.' "Extra."
Initially, an executive close to the show said the footage was
discovered early last week when a producer recalled it after the
Associated Press published a story about crude remarks Mr. Trump
had made on the set of the reality show "The Apprentice," which he
starred in for NBC.
Since then, though, it has emerged that Mr. Bush himself shared
knowledge of the recording with colleagues last August while he was
covering Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and there was debate about how
to proceed, according to the people close to "Access Hollywood" and
Mr. Bush. "Access Hollywood" executive producer Rob Silverstein is
a personal friend with Mr. Bush and was sensitive to the potential
blowback the story could have, a person close to him said.
NBC News and NBC executives insist they were unaware of the
existence of the recording until last week, a stance that is
disputed by the people close to Messrs. Silverstein and Bush, who
feel their show and staff are being "thrown under the bus" to
protect the news unit.
The story was slowed in part by legal reviews, as NBC's lawyers
weighed whether Mr. Trump—who, like Mr. Bush, was wearing a
microphone—had any reasonable expectation of privacy, a person
familiar with the matter said. On Oct. 7, shortly after it was
determined that "Access Hollywood" wouldn't get a piece aired until
the following week, the material was leaked to the Washington Post
from someone who NBC believes is one of its own employees. Soon
after their story posted, NBC followed up with a report on its
cable network MSNBC.
Both "Access Hollywood" and NBC News have been criticized for
their slow disclosure of the tape considering how dramatically the
Washington Post's publication shaped the dialogue in the two days
leading up to the second presidential debate. The plan was for
"Access Hollywood" to break the story with NBC News following up on
it, the people said
"NBC News did exactly what you would expect from a great news
organization. As soon as we saw the tape and made the assessment it
was undoubtedly newsworthy, we moved quickly and deliberately to
get it published and to do so in the most responsible way," a
spokesman said earlier this week.
As for Mr. Bush, initially NBC executives insisted he wouldn't
be reprimanded for his remarks on the tape. They quickly changed
their minds over the weekend after Mr. Bush's role in video was
widely criticized and NBC began negotiating his exit. Mr. Bush had
recently been named co-anchor of the 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. hour of
NBC's "Today," whose audience is primarily women. Members of the
"Today" show staff also argued against him remaining, a senior NBC
News executive said.
Write to Joe Flint at joe.flint@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 14, 2016 14:35 ET (18:35 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024