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In Sochi, Nevils was tasked with working with former “Today” co-anchor Meredith Vieira, who’d been brought back to the show to do Olympics coverage. In her account, one night over drinks with Vieira at the hotel bar where the NBC News team was staying, they ran into Lauer, who joined them. At the end of the night, Nevils, who’d had six shots of vodka, ended up going to Lauer’s hotel room twice — once to retrieve her press credential, which Lauer had taken as a joke, and the second time because he invited her back. Nevils, Farrow writes, “had no...

As soon as Yahoo’s Bianna Golodryga said she didn’t want to “turn political,” you knew that was precisely what she was about to do. But when Golodryga proceeded to criticize the Texas open-carry law this morning, you might be surprised that it was Meredith Vieira who—excuse the expression—shot her down. Vieira was a guest on Morning Joe to discuss a documentary, for which she served as executive producer, about the University of Texas Tower shootings in 1966, in which Charles Whitman shot 49 people, killing 16. The gun-control shoe was bound to drop, and after her “not to turn political,”...

The most effective way to ensure women get paid as much as men is for women to be prepared to “work harder” and seize any opportunities that may come their way, actress Stacey Dash told TV host Meredith Vieira on Wednesday. One tactic that is not useful, Dash said, is complaining and making excuses. “I feel like it’s an excuse. It’s the same thing with race. It’s an excuse. Stop making excuses. If there are opportunities, be prepared for them — and be the best if that’s what it takes. If you have be extraordinary, then be extraordinary.”

When Meredith Vieira recently interviewed Donald Trump for NBC's Today show, she asked him whether he was concerned that people would have trouble taking him seriously as a presidential candidate. After all, she reasoned, here is a man who stars in his own television reality series. Who could possibly engender less gravitas than a TV reality show star? Trump, of course, pointed to the success of the show as further evidence of his ability to be successful at anything and everything. But putting aside the irony of the question being asked by a network news anchor who is also a...

As headlines have Meredith Vieira leaving the "Today" show, a source tells ET and The Insider that Matt Lauer has notified his NBC bosses that he will be resigning from the "Today" show when his contract expires on December 31, 2012. Could he be thinking about re-teaming with his former "Today" show co-host Katie Couric and his former "Today" show executive producer Jeff Zucker? It has been widely speculated that Couric is expected to leave the "CBS Evening News" and launch her own talk show with Zucker. The "Today" show released a statement Wednesday, saying, "There seems to be an...

Asked to name the person who preceded Meredith Vieira as his Today sidekick, Matt Lauer declined to mention Katie Couric, claiming "there was no one ever. No one came before Meredith." Matt's convenient case of amnesia came in response to a question from Robin Hall, who is celebrating his 10th and last year as executive producer of the Macy's Thanksgiving parade. Reminiscing with Matt and Meredith, an impish Hall had clearly decided to stir up a little trouble with his question. But Matt wouldn't bite. View video after the jump.

Apparently the irony was lost on Meredith . . . Interviewing Blago this morning, Meredith Vieira, co-anchor of NBC’s Today show, twice suggested to Rod Blagojevich that the former Illinois governor would have demeaned himself to appear on a reality show . . . on NBC. The two talked after a judge turned down the indicted Blago’s request to travel to Costa Rica to be a member of the cast of “I’m A Celebrity: Get Me Out of Here!” MEREDITH VIEIRA: A lot of people are wondering why a former governor would want to be on a show like this....

"Today" might have hit a new low in tasteless humor on network morning news shows, with a sheep-shagging double entendre this morning. Meredith Vieira and Al Roker are over in Ireland this week. Opening this morning's show, the pair explained that as part of their visit, they did a bit of sheep-herding, which led to this suggestive exchange between the pair. . . View video here.

Blago was the last person I expected to turn up on Today this morning. But there he was at the end of the first half-hour. And it seems like he might have broken some news. He twice told Meredith Vieira that members of the Illinois state senate offered him a deal that would have allowed him to serve out his term as governor if he agreed to act as a “ghost” governor, and in particular would not appoint a replacement to Barack Obama’s US senate seat. ROD BLAGOJEVICH: "I don’t see myself at all as being shamed or disgraced. I...

Green Week is upon us again, time for more global warming scare-mongering by the NBC family of networks. Kicking things off during half-time of last night's NBC Sunday Night Football, Meredith Vieira put Al Gore's alarmism to shame. [H/t reader Mick L.] Gore predicted a measly 20-foot rise in sea levels, enough to drown much of Manhattan. Vieira outdid him by a factor of 10, raising the spectre of a sea-level rise of 200 feet. That exaggerates the increase predicted by scientists by literally hundreds of times. Vieira, speaking from Sydney, Australia, where she is focusing on water shortages, chatted...

It's Green Week again at NBC, time for more global warming scare-mongering by the network. During half-time of last night's Sunday Night Football game, Meredith Vieira helped, uh, kick things off with a bit of alarmism that would put Al Gore to shame. The Today show co-host raised the spectre of the oceans rising . . . at least 200 feet! [H/t reader Mick L.] Readers will recall that Al Gore's claim, propagated in An Inconvenient Truth, of a Manhattan-drowning 20-foot sea-level rise has been widely rejected as so much alarmist hooey. But compared to her apocalyptic vision, Vieira made...

Whoops. It's turning into quite the morning for gaffes on the NBC/MSNBC family of networks. As noted here, on Today, Meredith Vieira stumbled into the sensitive area of Matt Lauer's marital history. Then, during Morning Joe's 8 AM hour, Joe Scarborough accidentally used an F-bomb, leading to an extended apolog-a-thon. [H/t reader P.C.] View video here [warning: contains unexpurgated F-bomb 20 seconds in]. During a break, Time's Jay Carney had apparently told a story of some politico who had used the F-word. Back on the air, Scarborough had actually been praising the discipline of the Obama team. He described them...

Hard to believe, but Meredith Vieira is apparently not a regular NewsBusters reader. The Today co-anchor would otherwise have avoided an embarrassing lapse. On Today this morning, Vieira claimed that it was only "blogs" that went after Sarah Palin's family matters. That left her vulnerable to McCain senior adviser Steve Schmidt's zinger, pointing out that one of her own network's anchors had questioned Palin's ability to serve as vice-president while attending to her children' needs. Schmidt was presumably referring to Brian Williams. As we noted yesterday in Williams Hides Behind Pantsuits to Take 'Who's Minding Baby?' Shot, the Nightly News...

Was George Soros behind the publication of Scott McClellan's book? Meredith Vieira had the perfect opportunity this morning to find out—but chose to punt. The Today co-anchor certainly had the time: her much-touted exclusive interview with the author of What Happened ranged over the show's first two half-hours. But even when McClellan himself put the issue on the table by citing his publisher by name and alluding to its philosophy, Vieira failed to pursue a line of questioning that could have put matters in an explosive new light. As MRC's Brent Baker has detailed, McClellan's publisher, PublicAffairs: is part of...

The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.—Archilochus (7th-century BC) Mark Penn might not be appearing before the cameras on Hillary's behalf nowadays, but bet that he is beavering away behind the scenes on his polling. And judging from Hillary's dogged [to mix an animal metaphor] performance on this morning's Today, it's obvious that Penn's turned up one big thing: Dem primary voters hate oil companies. Meredith Vieira gamely tried to get Clinton onto other subjects during her interview. But no matter the question, the answer was almost invariably the same: I Hate Big Oil. Since...

NBC says some find bookcase and Christmas lights offensive Candidate wishing voters Merry Christmas upsets some folks The latest effort to spread the idea that religion has no place in the public square comes as a response to a TV spot produced by presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. I urge you to watch the two video clips I have placed in this e-mail. First, is the ad by former Governor Huckabee wishing people a Merry Christmas. Click here to watch the 30-second ad. Next, is a clip from the Today Show (Dec. 18), hosted by Meredith Vieira, on which Governor...

To celebrate Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize a jovial Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira called up Jimmy Carter on this morning's "Today" show. During the interview with the former President, the "Today" co-hosts even prodded Carter to push for a Gore in '08 candidacy: Matt Lauer: "Let me just go over what you said a second ago, and you also said in The Denver Post this morning. You said, 'I have confidence in and I know him well. He,' quote, 'is the best qualified person in America to be president.' And you said you would endorse him. Do...

Ah, those diversity-loving liberals. You know, the kind who would stifle free speech with their Orwellian "Fairness Doctrine," who threaten legal action against mom-and-pop T-shirt makers who criticize MoveOn.org. Wesley Clark would now take things one step further, whacking Rush Limbaugh off the Armed Forces Network radio airwaves. "Today" co-anchor Meredith Vieira interviewed the retired general and former Dem presidential candidate on this morning's show. MEREDITH VIEIRA: He wants Congress to pull Rush Limbaugh off the Armed Forces Radio Network, which is funded by taxpayers . . . You started this email campaign to get Limbaugh off the Armed Forces...

Warning to Bush administration officials: when being interviewed by Meredith Vieira, be prepared to make your point in 7-10 seconds, or risk being rudely caught off by the "Today" co-anchor. Twice in the course of her interview of Condoleezza Rice this morning, Vieira intemperately interrupted the Secretary of State just seconds after she began responding to her host's question. MEREDITH VIEIRA: Yesterday Senator John Warner asked General Petraeus whether the war in Iraq is making us any safer, and the general responded "I don't know." [Note: in subsequent testimony before the same committee, Petraeus made clear the link between Iraq...

Honeymoon? Forget about it. The morning after his announcement, "Today" wasted no time in going after Fred Thompson. Like a Las Vegas bride with a bad hangover, Meredith Vieira seemed particularly grumpy. At 7:05 a.m. EDT, the "Today" co-anchor interviewed Tim Russert. MEREDITH VIEIRA: The other candidates are out debating last night, and he's on Leno, he's yukking it up announcing that he's running for president as if it is a punch line. Was that a smart thing for him to do? By her acerbic tone, Vieira left no doubt that, in her mind, it wasn't. Russert suggested that Thompson...