DC Trawler

NBC wants to know what’s wrong with David Gregory

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You think you’ve got problems? Try being scofflaw gun criminal David Gregory. Not only are his ratings in the crapper, but now his bosses think he might be nuts!

Gregory’s main problem, according to Paul Farhi at WaPo:

The great-granddaddy of Sunday-morning Beltway blabfests isn’t just not No. 1. It’s No. 3 and in the midst of a three-year slide. During the first three months of this year, the NBC program finished behind perennial rivals “Face the Nation” on CBS and “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” on ABC, despite being helped by two weeks of Winter Olympics hoopla. In the final quarter of last year, viewing among people ages 25 to 54, the preferred group for TV news advertisers, fell to its lowest level ever.

Ever. As in, since 1947.

So, what is NBC doing about it?

Last year, the network undertook an unusual assessment of the 43-year-old journalist, commissioning a psychological consultant to interview his friends and even his wife. The idea, according to a network spokeswoman, Meghan Pianta, was “to get perspective and insight from people who know him best.” But the research project struck some at NBC as odd, given that Gregory has been employed there for nearly 20 years.

Even odder: The fact that David Gregory has been employed anywhere for 20 years.

In defense of his right to be on television, Gregory concludes:

“I’ve covered the White House, I’ve covered 9/11, the road to war, constitutional crises, and honestly, I wouldn’t be able to focus on this job if I was going to let that stuff get to me. I knew it would be there going in and I’m just focused on being David Gregory…”

And there’s the issue right there. David Gregory is focused on being somebody America doesn’t like.

Keep up the good work, Dave!

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Jim Treacher