Lloyd Blankfein, Robert Moses and Neil Simon were all among those who sent a child, grandchild or stepchild to work with the mayor. Tim Russert's son Luke Russert was another intern who probably got a little help finding his way to the top of the pile before taking an internship in 2007. From The Times:

Luke Russert, son of the “Meet the Press” host Tim Russert, worked at City Hall during summer 2007. In an interview, Mr. Russert said that he juggled two internships that summer — one at the mayor’s office, the other at NBC, working for Conan O’Brien.

“I did not have the traditional internship,” he said, quickly adding that when he was at City Hall, “I was like everyone else.”

Mr. Russert also insisted that he went through the application process just like everyone else.

The host began to cry in the middle of his remarks, while discussing the milestone.

"This is a big moment for me, because it's really the next step for me and for the program," Mr. Gregory said. "It has not been an easy transition, but I've always felt like I'm never alone in that."

[via TV Newser]

"The first couple of weeks I was on MSNBC, every night I would come home and she would meet me at the door and stare at me and say, 'Stop acting like a jackass on national TV!'" said Mr. Scarborough. "She said this back in 2003. I said, 'Well, that's what I'm getting paid for. They hired me for that reason.'"

"She said, 'You need to be more like Tim Russert,'" he continued. "My response was, 'Well, honey, they already have one of those.' She said, 'They need another.'"

Nearby, Mr. Scarborough's on-air partner, Mika Brzezinski, smiled. She was standing next to Donald Trump, who was wearing a pink tie. Mr. Trump slung his arm around Harold Evans and gazed around the room, which was packed with Morning Joe regulars.
 
Jack Welch, Mike Barnicle, Ray Kelly, Willie Geist, Leslie Stahl, Donnie Deutsch, Mark Halperin, Erin Burnett, Ana Marie Cox, Phil Griffin—they had all gathered at the media watering hole on 55th Street in Manhattan to fete the publication of Mr. Scarborough's new book, The Last Best Hope: Restoring Conservatism and America's Promise.

A few minutes earlier, Tina Brown of the Daily Beast—in hyperkinetic hostess mode—had introduced Mr. Scarborough. "This man is so incredible," she said of MSNBC's morning political talk show host. "He's the only person, other than my husband, who has seen me at that time of the morning."

She ceded the microphone to Mr. Scarborough, who gamely launched into his stump speech on what's ailing the Republican party.

"Conservatives always like to talk about Ronald Reagan," said Mr. Scarborough. "They remember Reagan's ideology but they forget his temperament."

Mr. Scarborough told a story involving Colin Powell, Ronald Reagan and the Oval Office. The punch line  involved Mr. Reagan ignoring Mr. Powell to gaze out the window at some squirrels, which were eating some acorns that he had recently sprinkled in the garden.

"Reagan temperamentally was incapable of hating," said Mr. Scarborough. "If people wanted to fight, scratch, claw and yell, he always rose above that. That's what the Republican Party needs to do. ... If Reagan were alive today, he wouldn't be calling Barack Obama a communist. He wouldn't be calling the next Supreme Court justice—what did he call her?"

Mr. Scarborough scanned the room in search of someone who could recall what Rush Limbaugh had called U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

"A racist?" said Mr. Scarborough. "A reverse racist. This is insane."

"When I hear Rush Limbaugh and others calling Colin Powell a 'liberal' I just have to laugh because there is nothing liberal about Colin Powell's approach towards foreign policy," he said. "So what is a conservative? A conservative conserves taxpayer dollars. A conservative doesn't engage in military adventurism. A conservative doesn't add seven trillion dollars to entitlement programs that are already going bankrupt. A conservative shows restraint."

"The Republican party either reforms or it dies," he added. "Hopefully, they will look at this book and take some cues and actually start acting conservative again."

Everyone clapped, and then promptly returned to vodka tonics and passed mini crab cakes.

According to multiple network sources, MSNBC is in the process of developing a weekend political show to be moderated by Chuck Todd, the network’s political director and chief White House correspondent.

Last year, in the wake of Tim Russert’s death, network executives seriously considered Mr. Todd to take over the moderating duties on Meet the Press.

Ultimately, however, Mr. Todd lost out to David Gregory, a more seasoned TV newsman, who had significantly more experience than Mr. Todd sitting in the anchor’s seat and doing one-on-one interviews with top newsmakers in Washington.

The new show on MSNBC, to debut in late spring, would give Mr. Todd more experience as a political moderator and provide him with a good opportunity to develop his long-form interviewing skills. At the same time, it would give MSNBC an original political program to show off on a weekend schedule that is currently dominated by crime documentaries and taped content.

According to sources, the specifics of the show—live vs. taped, one-on-one interview vs. a panel of guests, half-hour vs. an hour, Saturday vs. Sunday—are still being worked out. Presumably the show will originate out of NBC’s Washington D.C. bureau, where Mr. Todd is stationed. Staffing has yet to be determined. 

Mr. Todd, 37, was widely considered one of cable news’ breakout stars during the election. Prior to joining NBC he was the editor in chief of Hotline and had spent most of his career in print media. He came to prominence during the 2008 political campaign, when his encyclopedic knowledge of electoral mechanics became a great asset to MSNBC and NBC News during the hotly contested and drawn out Democratic primary.

Recently, Mr. Todd along with co-author Sheldon Gawiser published a book entitled How Barack Obama Won: A State-by-State Guide to the Historic 2008 Presidential Election.

A senior network executive confirmed the news. An MSNBC spokesperson declined to comment.

Keith Olbermann's tribute to his mother, MSNBC, April 4, 2009

Glenn Beck, Fox News, March 13, 2009.

Juan Williams on Election Night, Fox News, November 4, 2008.

Roland Martin on Election Night, CNN, November 4, 2008.

Andrea Mitchell on Tim Russert's death, NBC, June 13, 2008.

Tom Brokaw on Tim Russert, NBC, June 15, 2008.

Jon Stewart after 9/11, Comedy Central, September 20, 2001.

Dan Rather discussing 9/11 on Late Show with David Letterman, CBS, September 17, 2001.

Herbert Morrison at the site of The Hindenberg disaster, newsreel, May 6, 1937.

On Friday, February 27, Mr. Alongi will be stepping down as the executive producer of NBC News’ specials unit in order to launch a media consulting firm, called Alongi Media Solutions.

“It’s been a great run,” Mr. Alongi told The Observer on Thursday afternoon.

Over the past several years, Mr. Alongi has organized, coordinated, and produced hundreds of large events for NBC News, ranging from political debates to the Olympics to the national political conventions to the memorial services for his colleague Tim Russert.

Mr. Alongi said he will use his expertise in logistical planning, television production, and business management to lure in clients interested in organizing and carrying out large public spectacles.

“What I really love to do is to pull together major events,” said Mr. Alongi. “I love coming up with a theme, figuring out how to organize it, how will it play out, how to present a cohesive message, and how do you keep the interest of the audience either in person or via television. That’s the kind of stuff that I’m really hoping to get my hands into.”

Mr. Alongi hopes to cull his clients from the world of domestic think tanks, foreign governments, media companies, and political organizations. He said that he is currently on the verge of signing up two clients but could not discuss the specifics of the potential deals until the contracts were finalized.

Mr. Alongi will not be the first longtime NBC News veteran to be starting a media consulting or communications firm. In fact, in recent months, doing so has become all the rage among current and former 30 Rockers.

Back in May of 2008, Steve Friedman, the longtime mornings news producer (and former executive producer of the Today show), formed Vir2l, a full-service media consulting firm. In November, NBC News chief legal correspondent Dan Abrams launched a media consulting firm—to be staffed up by current and former journalists—called Abrams Research. And in January, former NBC News senior investigative producer Jim Popkin formed a Washington-based communications group called Seven Oaks Media Group.

Mr. Alongi said that his company’s logo and Web site are currently under construction.

Unlike many of his peers, Mr. Alongi did not take a buyout from NBC News. According to Mr. Alongi, he approached NBC News president Steve Capus many months ago and asked to be let out of his contract. NBC executives complied. In the future, Mr. Alongi hopes to maintain a working relationship with NBC—albeit in a much reduced capacity.

Recently, for example, NBC executives asked Mr. Alongi if he was interested in returning to work from the editorial side on the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. “I said, 'Sure, why not?'” said Mr. Alongi. “It’s a good way to keep my hand in the business here.”

For the time being, Alongi Media Solutions will be based out of Mr. Alongi’s home office, though he is also considering setting up work space in Manhattan. In terms of staffing, he plans on tapping into his network of friends and former colleagues who have recently bailed on the TV news business.

“I’ve been accumulating a list of some of the people who recently decided to step out of network operations,” said Mr. Alongi. “It’s from all the networks. I could be calling upon people from ABC, CBS, CNN, and NBC, and as projects come up, hiring them as contractors on an as-needed basis. If the business really takes off, I’ll consider adding full-time employees. But I’m taking it one day at a time.”

"I've thought a lot about what it means to success--succeed somebody like Tim Russert," said Mr. Gregory. "I'm not Tim. But along with this great team, I can just work real hard to make him proud."

"Part of the deal is that you can no longer break up Washington parties by doing your drop-dead imitation of me," said Mr. Brokaw.

"I got that memo very carefully," said Mr. Gregory.

Is Tina Brown "like Schindler, in a skirt-suit"? That's what John Koblin calls her when it comes to bringing laid off writers into her Daily Beast. But what can they hope to be paid? Plus: January Groans: Mags' Lean Month Gets Downright Gaunt.

Can a 26-year-old consultant who took Columbia's Publishing Course and worked for a time at Little, Brown save publishing? Leon Neyfakh meets Eric Wolff, who says, "Truth is, there isn’t a whole lot of reason for a big media company to own a book company unless it wants to be in that business... Corporations generally want growth stories, and there’s no growth in books.”

Plus: Missbehave's new editor... Superstar avatars... Murdoch the Magnificent.

Mr. Gregory—NBC’s chief White House correspondent, host of MSNBC’s 6 p.m. show 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and the world’s most indomitable substitute anchor—was filling in on Sunday for Lester Holt as co-anchor of Weekend Today.

But if Mr. Gregory has his way, as he often does at NBC, he will soon be spending his Sunday as moderator of Meet the Press.

Tom Brokaw had said he didn’t plan to stretch his interim hosting duties through the December holidays; and the network had scheduled an interview with President-elect Barack Obama for the Sunday, Dec. 7 program. Surely NBC News chief Jeff Zucker would have completed his plan for the future of Washington’s most important Sunday news program by then?

The conventional wisdom leading into Thanksgiving had been that the network was in the final stages of a bake-off between Meet the Press round table regulars Andrea Mitchell, NBC’s chief foreign affairs correspondent; NBC political director Chuck Todd;  and Mr. Gregory.

Outside names were largely regarded as nonstarters: NBC is not in a financial position to enter into a bidding war.

But by Monday, internal betting was favoring Mr. Gregory.

“He’s the one who has substituted on the show,” one TV executive told The Observer over the Thanksgiving break. “He’s the most logical choice.”

Following a day of intense speculation inside the network about the future of the show, a report surfaced on the Huffington Post the evening of Dec. 1, citing no sources by name, declaring that Mr. Gregory had gotten the gig.

But inside the network uncertainty about what was going on continued through the following day. If the report was true, why wasn’t it being announced? Were there contracts remaining to be signed? And if so, were there conditions still to be met? And if those were not to be met now, then when?

Steve Friedman, the former longtime television news producer and current president of Vir2L Media, said that NBC executives had made most logical choice. “There are no bad ideas in television,” said Mr. Friedman. “There’s only poor execution.”

Mr. Friedman said there were a number of reasons to go with Mr. Gregory. “One: He’s a pro,” said Mr. Friedman. “Two: He’s there. Three: In a time of financial problems at the networks, it makes a lot of sense to stay in-house and not go outside to hire somebody at big dollars that are added. And—four—as important as Meet the Press is from an image point of view, it really isn’t a huge financial number.”

Mr. Friedman pointed out that while NBC makes a profit on Meet the Press, and can charge advertisers a premium for the prestige of the show, it’s still on only once a week for an hour. Compared to, say, Today, which is on for four hours a day, seven days week, Meet the Press has a smaller window of opportunity for gain and loss. “The difference between first and third, outside of ego, is not a big financial hit,” said Mr. Friedman. “The difference between first and third might be five or six million a year.”

Earlier this year, Noah Oppenheim, a seasoned producer who had worked with Mr. Gregory on Today, was tapped to help produce Mr. Gregory’s show on MSNBC, Race for the White House. Mr. Oppenheim, who has since left MSNBC to become vice president of Reveille Entertainment (the production company started by Ben Silverman, now the head of NBC Universal entertainment), told The Observer on Monday night that, if true, Mr. Gregory would be a natural fit for Meet the Press.

“He’s got great instincts when it comes to what area of stories to probe,” said Mr. Oppenheim. “I don’t think there’s much of a learning curve when it comes to politics. He knows that world as well as anyone. He gets great stuff out of people.”

“He brings great star power,” said a person familiar with the inner workings of NBC News. “He acts like a star and can be one. He’s certainly got the ego for it. He can be an aggressive questioner—as he showed in the White House Press Room. He was a dramatic and good and persistent questioner. And he’s not afraid to be disliked.”

“The trick that Russert pulled off, however, was to make it all about Russert and yet not to seem to be about Russert at all,” added our source. “That’s why people liked him and viewed him as a good inquisitor. The question is whether this guy can pull off the same trick.”

To date, Mr. Gregory has already hosted multiple shows on MSNBC, neither of which succeeded (à la Rachel Maddow) in developing much of a cult personal following for Mr. Gregory. As a result, many casual observers might wonder in the days to come why NBC might choose the guy with the worst ratings in their cable channel’s prime-time lineup for the most prestigious job in political television. But the truth is that while Mr. Gregory has not attracted much love during his stints on cable, nor has he stirred up much trouble. In the cable universe, not causing controversy is a death sentence. In the world of Sunday morning public-affairs programming, it’s a trait that has great appeal to network executives.

Back on Aug. 17, Mr. Gregory got a solo flight moderating Meet the Press. Along the way, he interviewed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; moderated a square-off between two candidate surrogates, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal; and presided over a political round table featuring Josh Green, Andrea Mitchell and Chuck Todd. Overall, the show went smoothly—if not remarkably. NBC won the ratings battle for the weekend with roughly 3.2 million total viewers (CBS’s Face the Nation had 2.5 million and ABC’s This Week had 2.4 million).

“This is the definitely the safest choice,” said one network staffer. “He’s a smart guy with the political chops. The question is going to be, can he maintain the audience? The most important thing will be making sure that Meet the Press continues to dominate when it comes to guests.”

And Mr. Gregory certainly has the will to dominate. Every year, Television critic Andrew Tyndall tallies up the time spent in front of the camera by all correspondents on the evening newscasts at CBS, NBC and ABC. In recent years, in a profession teeming with insatiable camera hogs, Mr. Gregory has dominated. In each of the past four years, Mr. Gregory has finished as either the single most heavily used reporter in network news or the second most. Not to mention that he is a relentless substitute anchor. Over Thanksgiving weekend, for instance, he was everywhere viewers looked on NBC, filling in on both Today and the Nightly News. Even his critics concede that Mr. Gregory has an incredible motor.

Unsurprisingly, his omnipresence has done his reputation more good among viewers and network executives than among some of his colleagues and inferiors.

“I think it’s a tragedy,” said one of his colleagues, about Mr. Gregory’s apparent ascent to the Meet the Press position. “It’s depressing. It shows that your skills as an inside fighter matter more than your skills as a journalist.”

“The last supposedly safe decision a network executive made was giving the CBS Evening News to Katie Couric,” said one TV insider. “That was considered the safest possible move. And look how that worked out.”

In fact, NBC may be contemplating an even safer move. What if it were possible to keep David Gregory at NBC and still keep everyone happy who wanted this job?

On Tuesday morning, Mike Allen of Politico posted a story stating that “network executives” had confirmed to him their plans to name Mr. Gregory moderator of the show. “The executives provided elliptical information,” wrote Mr. Allen, “that did not either raise or preclude the possibility that a supporting cast could be named along with Gregory.”

On Monday and Tuesday, several sources inside and outside of NBC News speculated to The Observer that NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker would eventually name a couple of current NBC staffers (such as Andrea Mitchell) to a beefed-up group of semi-permanent panelists.

“It seems very likely that no matter who winds up in the moderator chair, the panel will probably be more prominent that it was in the past,” said a former TV news executive. “Because whoever fills the anchor chair, even if they are a very experienced interviewer, we’re in a more p.c. world now, and there are a lot of different demographic boxes that NBC needs to check off. Also, even though it never seems to work, that’s another way for them to try and keep their passed-over talent happy.”

And unhappy talent may not be affordable at NBC right now. Not long ago, a large number of NBC News staffers were offered buyout packages. In recent weeks, the deadline for the buyouts has come and gone. And the latest rumor is that if NBC doesn’t receive enough buyout applications, newly minted D.C. bureau chief Mark Whitaker would soon begin laying off a number of his D.C. staff.

And so, several sources said, the decision was less about what great talent the network could afford to attract—Katie Couric! Ted Koppel!—but whom, given the shallow backbench of name-brand personalities, the network could not afford to lose.

With all the other big NBC gigs tied up for the foreseeable future, the only plum left to give out is Meet the Press. And if the reports hold up, it would seem, that last plum had to be dropped in Mr. Gregory’s mouth.

“It’s a time for reflection and change,” said our source. “Everyone is doing it. NBC is just being forced to do it in a more public manner.”

fgillette@observer.com

Mr. Gregory's name has been reportedly on a short list of possible replacements for the esteemed position since Tim Russert passed away of a sudden heart attack this past June.

When reached by Media Mob, an NBC News spokesperson said that the network "has nothing to announce."

Likewise, when contacted by phone, Mr. Gregory’s agent, Richard Leibner of N.S. Bienstock, said he could neither confirm nor deny the report.