One year after being savaged for its decision not to carry live the traditional Moment of Silence ceremony on September 11, NBC’s Today show got back in step with competitors this morning, airing a four-minute special report anchored by Savannah Guthrie and Matt Lauer. Last year on this date, ABC’s Good Morning America, CBS This Morning and the cable news networks carried the early-morning moment-of-silence ceremonies in New York City and at the White House. But at the moment when the first plane hit the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, Today was interviewing Kris “Mama Kardashian” Jenner about the expiration date on her breast implants, and about the season finale of Keeping Up With The Kardashians on E!, which is owned by NBC-parent Comcast. ThoughToday did devote a portion of its broadcast that day to commemorating the anniversary of the attack, The Reporters Who Cover Television nonetheless jumped all over Today’s MOS counter-programming call, gleefully noting NBC was being torched on Twitter with understatements such as“The terrorists just won” and “#NBC talking about Kris Kardashian’s boobs at 8:46? #epicfail #respect.” It was considered to be one of Today’s bigger public relations disasters — not to be confused with the show’s more recent PR disasters (see Ann Curry ouster and Matt Lauer’s whiny interview in the most recent edition of Esquire). LINK
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