Cenk Uygur: NBC Will Fire David Gregory Just Like They Fired Me

Matt WilsteinApr 22nd, 2014, 2:21 pm

As someone who was fired from his job at MSNBC in 2011, The Young Turks’ Cenk Uygur has a unique perspective about the way things work in the NBC family. On Monday, Uygur shared his take on the new report about NBC apparently hiring a “psychological consultant” to get to the bottom of Meet The Press host David Gregory’s ratings problems.

Uygur predicted that Gregory is on his way out as host of Meet The Press based on the news that has been leaking out of NBC this week. “Dude, read the writing on the wall, you’re a goner,” he said to Gregory before laughing off the notion that the host leans too far to the left. In fact, “he’s way too right-wing,” Uygur declared.

“Look, how do I know that NBC is doing this?” Uygur mused. “Because it’s almost, like, step-by-step the exact same thing they did when they wanted to remove me, and my issue was not ratings.” Just like in his case, Uygur said NBC is citing outdated ratings numbers to prove their point rather than relying on the most recent information. “Those numbers don’t come out by themselves,” Uygur explained. “Someone inside NBC News leaks them, and they leak them right before they’re about the bury the hatchet in your back.”

Uygur cited numbers that he believes NBC leaked to Mediaite following the initial report in the Washington Post, but in reality that was not the case. He appears to be referring to ratings numbers Joe Concha quoted in his column about the situation Monday afternoon.

Those numbers from the fourth quarter on 2013 — showing that Meet The Press had its lowest total viewer in a final quarter since 1991, when Russert first started its lowest 25-54 demo ratings in the show’s history — did not come to Mediaite from NBC and could be easily accessed long before this week’s revelations.

In fact, POLITICO‘s Dylan Byers reported those figures all the way back in January under the headline, “NBC’s ‘Meet The Press’ hits historic lows in the final quarter of 2013.”

“You don’t go through all this effort of leaking to all these different places if you’re not planning on replacing the guy,” Uygur continued, before again referencing Concha’s predictions about possible replacements. He ended by heartily dismissing the idea of Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski taking over Meet The Press as a “disaster” and embracing the idea of Chuck Todd.

“Chuck, good luck with the new job,” he concluded.

NBC may very well be preparing to cut Gregory loose, as Uygur suggests, but one of his key pieces of evidence is simply not true.

Watch video below, via The Young Turks: