NBC News boss Deborah Turness is spending the last few days of the year eyeing cuts - moves that could include axing some senior on-air talent, The Post has learned.
Turness, brought on in August to shake up the moribund news division - where "Meet the Press" and "Today" had stumbled - is in the midst of a host of end-of -year buyouts and cost reductions, sources said.
The current moves are not the first time Turness has irked journalists under her command.
NBC veterans have complained privately that Turness is not serious enough, sources said.
"Instead of getting better, NBC News has been getting worse," said one executive. "It's a mess."
The grumblings are centered on Turness' more aggressive tabloid style.
"Why would the network operation turn to tabloid style? Must be that people are not watching. And in fact, both Meet the Press, the most venerable program in television history, and Today, traditionally the most profitable product of NBC News, have fallen behind the competition. So revenues lag, and costs must be cut. Somehow, audiences must be persuaded to come back, and nothing sells like sleaze.
"Nobody is yet mentioning the hard left turn NBC News made when Barack Obama took office. The network has become a laughingstock for its softball propagandist approach. That could have a lot to do with its decline (Fox News, in comparison, is doing just great). But that is unmentionable at 30 Rock, the network's headquarters.
"There is no way to know how much damage the leftist lunacy broadcast on MSNBC has done to the NBC News brand, but it cannot have helped. NBC News figures regularly appear on MSNBC, and the stain may not come out.
"NBC News fully deserves its fate, having reneged on its duty to provide hard hitting news. But as an amateur student of broadcast history, I can't help but be nostalgic just a smidgen. NBC, after all, invented network broadcasting in the days of radio. Working with its sister corporation, the now defunct (take heed, NBC Universal!) RCA, NBC pioneered technologically (it invented color television) and culturally.
"That proud history is now lying in ashes. What a shame. The current bosses have sold their souls and sacrificed their heritage on the altar of politically correct Obama worship. Barack Obama is bringing ruin to those who backed him as some kind of messiah. There may be a lesson in this, but those who need it most are incapable of learning it."
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