The New York Post reports on a “top-secret meeting” recently at 30 Rock between GE CEO Jeff Immelt, NBCU President Jeff Zucker and “the top suits and some of the on-air talent at CNBC.”
“There was a long discussion about whether CNBC has become too conservative and is beating up on Obama too much,” a source told the Post.
GE publicist Gary Sheffer released this statement to TVNewser, “There are two things wrong with the Post’s item: There was no secret meeting and there was no direction given on how CNBC should cover the news. I have talked to many of the dinner attendees, including the hosts. They say this was nothing more than a dinner to celebrate CNBC’s outstanding coverage of the financial crisis. Sounds to me like someone is mad they didn’t get an invite.”
The Post item did add, “No edict was ultimately handed down by the network chieftains.”
The 30 Rock dinner was first discussed last Thursday by Bill O’Reilly of Fox News which, like the Post, is a News Corp. entity. “The other day at CNBC, it was a very high level meeting. General Electric boss Jeff Immelt and his henchman, NBC chief Jeff Zucker, apparently are worried the financial network is becoming too conservative, and passed their concern on to underlings,” O’Reilly said.