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Mar 13

Morning Media Newsfeed: Snyderman Out | Univision Host Fired for FLOTUS Dig

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Dr. Nancy Snyderman Out at NBC News (TVNewser)
NBC News chief medical editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman is leaving the network. Snyderman announced Thursday that she is leaving NBC News to take a faculty position at a medical school. THR / The Live Feed “I stepped out of the OR a few years ago and it is now time for me to return to my roots, so I am stepping down from my position as chief medical editor at NBC News,” Snyderman said in a statement. “Covering the Ebola epidemic last fall in Liberia, and then becoming part of the story upon my return to the U.S., contributed to my decision that now is the time to return to academic medicine.” HuffPost Snyderman’s departure comes just a few months after the network reprimanded her for breaking an Ebola quarantine. After returning from a reporting trip to Liberia, Snyderman was spotted getting takeout from a restaurant in New Jersey. She was placed on “family leave” for a month and a half, after which she apologized on Today. The Washington Post She never covered Ebola news again. Snyderman worked for NBC News for nine years and, before that, had been a medical correspondent for ABC News. She also had been an executive at Johnson & Johnson, managing consumer education. NYT Snyderman’s departure is the latest shake-up at the NBC News group in recent weeks, as the network has been in engulfed in crisis involving the news anchor Brian Williams. Last week, NBCUniversal hired Andrew Lack to lead its news division, the first step in a major restructuring of the executive ranks. Williams, meanwhile, is on a six-month suspension after he admitted that he had misled viewers with a story about a helicopter incident in Iraq. Lack officially starts in April but was aware of Snyderman’s departure from the network.

Univision’s Rodner Figueroa Fired Over Racist Comment Toward Michelle Obama (HuffPost)
Univision host Rodner Figueroa was fired Wednesday after comparing first lady Michelle Obama’s appearance to that of someone from the cast of the Planet of The Apes. PRNewser Figueroa was fired after a segment on live television where he said, “Well, watch out, you know that Michelle Obama looks like she’s from the cast of Planet of The Apes, the movie.” Figueroa, Univision’s (former) host of entertainment news show El Gordo Y La Flaca, was sent out the door almost immediately. TVNewser Figueroa has written a public letter to First Lady Michelle Obama, asking for her forgiveness. In the letter, he insists his comment was never intended to be interpreted about Obama herself, but rather the makeup artist’s poor effort to copy the First Lady’s look. Figueroa writes that while nobody at Univision objected initially to his comment, he was called and fired after the network received a complaint from Mrs. Obama’s office. THR Figueroa, who in 2014 won a Daytime Emmy Award, did not respond to requests for comment Thursday. He worked for Univision for 17 years and had been on El Gordo Y La Flaca since 2000.

FNC Hires ‘The Man Who Killed Usama Bin Laden’ (TVNewser)
Fox News has hired former U.S. Navy SEAL Rob O’Neill as a contributor, offering military expertise and analysis. O’Neill is best known for being profiled in the FNC documentary, The Man Who Killed Usama Bin Laden. FishbowlDC He is FNC’s second contributor hire in recent days with Dr. Alveda King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., being brought on board last week. Variety During his career in the Navy, O’Neill served as a team leader within the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, also known as SEAL Team Six, and completed more than 400 different combat missions within four theaters of war. O’Neill has flirted with greater fame since leaving the military. He did an anonymous interview with Esquire magazine in 2013 about the fateful bin Laden raid and took part in the Fox News special last year. His disclosures — and those of another Navy SEAL, Matt Bissonette — have fueled debate over whether military personnel engaged in some of the nation’s most critically important national-security initiatives ought to be recognized for their service or keep the details of their roles in clandestine operations from public scrutiny.

Kathy Griffin Flees Fashion Police After Seven Episodes (THR / The Live Feed)
Fashion Police is now down two panelists. Just weeks after the exit of longtime cast member Kelly Osbourne, Kathy Griffin has announced her own departure — breaking the news in a long Twitter missive late Thursday afternoon. “After seven episodes of Fashion Police, I discovered that my style does not fit with the creative direction of the show and now it’s time to move on,” she wrote, before wishing producers and the network well. Mediaite “I do not want to use my comedy to contribute to a culture of unattainable perfectionism and intolerance toward difference,” Griffin said, perhaps pointing to recent criticism the show has received. Griffin’s announcement comes just a couple of weeks after her Fashion Police colleague Giuliana Rancic came under fire for making what many viewed as a racist comment towards Disney Channel star Zendaya. Deadline Much more a vet than Griffin of the show once led by Joan Rivers, Osbourne walked away from her co-hosting perch of five years on Feb. 27. Osbourne’s departure followed her outrage at Rancic’s comments. Rancic later apologized for her remarks, which Osbourne seemed to accept, but she left soon afterward anyway.

Good Morning America Will ‘Yahoo! Your Day’ (TVNewser)
The Yahoo! placards were flying outside Good Morning America ahead of an announcement of an expanded ABC/Yahoo! partnership. Starting Monday, Yahoo! editors will begin appearing more frequently on GMA to, as ABC calls it, “Yahoo! Your Day.” Variety The deal is designed for both sides to expand the reach of their content as media audiences become more splintered. Katie Couric’s involvement would also seem to put to rest speculation that the former Today anchor might be heading back to NBC amid the shakeup at NBC News. Deadline Yahoo! Screen and Yahoo! TV will feature “special clips” from Disney/ABC shows including Scandal, How to Get Away With Murder, Grey’s Anatomy, Pretty Little Liars, Jimmy Kimmel Live and Dancing With The Stars. THR / The Live Feed The GMA segment will each day feature Yahoo! editors and experts, including style editor Joe Zee, beauty editor Bobbi Brown and food editor Kerry Diamond. Flickr images will be integrated into GMA weather reports and Tumblr will be featured in the morning show’s Social Square. The companies also will develop a more robust partnership on major news events, including the 2016 presidential election.

Author Terry Pratchett Has Died (GalleyCat)
Fantasy author Sir Terry Pratchett has died. He was 66 years old and suffered from early onset Alzheimer’s disease. CNN Pratchett, who wrote more than 70 books, including those in his “Discworld” series, had been diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer’s disease in 2007. Pratchett continued to write following his diagnosis, completing his last book, a new Discworld novel, in the summer of 2014. NYT He became Sir Terry when Queen Elizabeth II knighted him as 2008 turned to 2009. In a Twitter post on Thursday, David Cameron, the British prime minister, said Pratchett had “fired the imagination of millions” with his books and had “fearlessly campaigned for dementia awareness.”

HuffPost Adds Scott Conroy (FishbowlNY)
The Huffington Post has named Scott Conroy senior political reporter, focusing on the 2016 presidential election. Conroy comes to HuffPost from RealClearPolitics, where he worked for the previous four years. FishbowlDC Conroy began his career in political journalism covering the 2008 presidential campaign for CBS News as an embedded reporter on the Romney and Palin planes, and was a contributor to the network’s 2012 election coverage.

Jay Penske Makes His First Major WWD Move (FishbowlNY)
Fairchild Fashion Media owner Jay Penske has been spending a great majority of his media-calendar time recently not on Deadline or Variety but rather WWD. And he has chosen to do with the 105-year-old fashion industry bible what he did not so long ago with his 110-year-old showbiz bible. New York Post WWD cutting its print frequency from daily to weekly and focusing on its Web presence. The final daily print issue will be April 24. WWD print subscribers will get the weekly edition as well as the Daily Digital, which will be delivered via email each day, starting April 29.

Lionsgate to Get $375 Million in Production Financing From China’s Hunan TV (Variety)
China’s powerhouse broadcaster Hunan TV plans to give Lionsgate $375 million in production funding, in a deal that would represent the largest Chinese investment in Hollywood filmmaking to date. THR The agreement, which gets Hunan TV into the U.S. market through Lionsgate, includes film production and distribution, and will be unveiled on March 18 in Changsha. The Asian investment is expected to account for 25 percent of the film production costs incurred by the mini-studio in the next three years, with total budgets to run to $1.5 billion.

Viacom Agrees to Pay $7.2 Million to End Internship Lawsuit (THR / Hollywood, Esq.)
Viacom will be putting up more than $7.2 million to end a lawsuit over unpaid internships. If approved by a New York federal judge, the settlement will represent the most amount of money ever set aside to resolve labor claims on the internship front.

Andy Samberg to Host 2015 Emmys (THR / The Live Feed)
Fox and the TV Academy’s choice for this year’s Emmy host is Andy Samberg. The actor and comedian, star of the network’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine, will emcee the live awards show on Sept. 20 — marking his first time hosting a major television event.

MSNBC to Launch Daily Facebook Videos (Variety)
MSNBC’s two newest programs won’t be seen first on the cable news network. In the latest example of so-called “traditional” news outlets casting about for audience in new ways, the NBCUniversal-owned outlet will produce two daily videos that appear on Facebook before they surface anywhere else.

ITV Acquires The Voice Creator Talpa for Up to $1.17 Billion (Variety)
The U.K.-based broadcast, production and distribution group ITV has acquired John de Mol’s entertainment show producer Talpa Media, which is the creator of singing competition format The Voice.

Robin Thicke, Pharrell’s Lawyer to Appeal ‘Blurred Lines’ Verdict (THR / Hollywood, Esq.)
The attorney who represented Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams in the “Blurred Lines” case said he would be appealing the verdict handed down on Tuesday.

James Carville to Write for Media Matters (Politico / Dylan Byers on Media)
James Carville, the longtime Clinton loyalist and Democratic strategist, will write a recurring guest column for Media Matters for America, the liberal watchdog announced on Thursday.