Haddad To GMA Speculation: “Overblown?”

Today’s Wall Street Journal has a piece titled “ABC News Girds For New Bout With ‘Today.'” David Westin “declined to discuss his hunt. But people close to him say candidates include ‘Good Morning America’ deputies Tom Cibrowski and Jessica Guff, and Neil Shapiro, former president of NBC News. Speculation that Mr. Westin will hire Tammy Haddad, executive producer for MSNBC’s ‘Hardball with Chris Matthews,’ has been overblown, these people say.”

Here’s my understanding of the situation: Haddad has been talking to ABC for months about a variety of jobs at the network. Once Ben Sherwood resigned seven days ago, the GMA job seemed like an option, too. But some insiders believe all the talk about Haddad is just a negotiating ploy…

> Update: 3:30pm: “Haddad had been talking to ABC about a job as uber-political producer, largely because Mark Halperin, the political director, has never produced a second of network television,” an e-mailer says…