ABC’s “Good Morning America” did it.
CBS’ “This Morning” did it.
NBC’s “Today” did not do it.
This “it” refers to airing the annual moment of silence that is held each September 11th at 8:46 a.m., in both New York City and Washington D.C., marking the time when the first hijacked plane hit the World Trade Center’s North Tower in 2001.
Instead, during this time, “Today’s” Savannah Guthrie was interviewing Kris Jenner about her new breast implants, the expiration date on her breast implants and how important it is for women with breast implants to keep track of their implant expiration dates.
Not coincidentally, the finale of the latest episode of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” aired this past Sunday.
This was no accident and in fact, the only time NBC has aired the moment of silence was last year on the 10th anniversary of the attacks. People immediately began pillorying NBC and “Today” for not airing it. Viewers tweeted thoughts of disgust and disappointment.
The incident received such wide coverage mainly because “Today” was the only one of the three network morning shows to not participate in the moment of silence.
As a result, #NBChate trended on Twitter and the previously wildly popular morning infotainment show is currently struggling to recapture its viewers, while it has been beaten in the ratings by “Good Morning America” eight out of the past 10 weeks.
Steve Capus, president of NBC News, did send out a message to the managers of NBC’s affiliated stations on Wednesday acknowledging that they had been hit with a storm of criticism from viewers about their decision to air the interview. He apologized for putting the stations smack in the middle of the said storm.
Capus sent his memo to NBC Affiliate Corporation Group executives and began by citing the extensive coverage “Today” provided on Wednesday to the attacks on the American embassies in Libya and Egypt.
Then Capus added, “Yesterday, we made an editorial call resulting in the September 11th moment of silence not being seen. While we dedicated a substantial amount of airtime to anniversary events, we still touched a nerve with many of your viewers … and for that we apologize.”
“Today’s” coverage remembering the attacks included a lengthy segment earlier in the show with a September 11th survivor. Also included, the “Today” broadcast showed multiple shots of Ground Zero and the Freedom Tower throughout the show. Further, it was a topic of discussion in the show’s regular Today’s Professionals segment. NBC News’ cable network, MSNBC, also aired the entire “Today” broadcast from September 11th, 2001, which has been a network tradition since 2006.
But, things could get worse for NBC if people begin to point out the fact that NBC’s parent company, Comcast, who also owns the E! network, employs Ryan Seacrest, new star of “Today’s” show firmament and executive producer of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians”.
“People are obviously still affected by 9/11, but this brings up the point, how long are people going to act like this happened yesterday? It might be time to move on,” said Carolyn Mannix ’14.
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