“Noah’s Ark” / “Great Leader”

Three follow-ups to last night’s Noah Oppenheim post:

> A Today Show staffer sends in his opinion: “It is considered a bleak joke, plain and simple. We’ve been struggling here with bad press and lower ratings and this guy is part of the solution? The question everyone here is asking is WHY?” The staffer adds that “yes, the Noah’s Ark jokes are flooding around here.” More: “What we’re all asking is: What has he EVER done to get a senior job in morning television? (Remember: He has never worked in morning television.) The answer among us little people: Nothing. He’s just friends with the right people.”

> A former colleague of Oppenheim comes to his defense: “I worked with Noah Oppenheim at Scarborough Country and he was a great leader. He had sound editorial judgement and he trusted his staff to get the job done. His vision added to the success of the show. The Today Show is lucky to have him. The negative comment coming from a former Scarborough staffer is obviously a disgruntleed employee who never had anything positive to say about anyone. His staff did like him because he was good at what he did. He is a talented producer.”

> An anonymous e-mailer also disputes the negative comments: “Noah is brilliant. People who worked for him, as I did, know that he’s smarter than pretty much anyone else out there. Any bad comments are envy, also because he willingly left an Executive Producer job others would kill for. He’s extremely funny, and he’s a nice guy. I worked for him for several months, and years later he’s still a friend. Whoever is writing in lies must be jealous.”