NBC News and MSNBC Chairman Andy Lack’s long-predicted retirement, just days short of his 73rd birthday, was confirmed Monday with a press release from newly installed NBC Universal CEO Jeff Shell, who named Telemundo head honcho Cesar Conde as the new executive in charge of Comcast-owned NBC News, MSNBC, and CNBC.
The move—which brings the CNBC financial network under control of the news division, having been outside Lack’s purview and reporting to NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke—effectively reverses a core personnel decision by Shell’s predecessor, who publicly tapped Lack’s deputy Noah Oppenheim for the top news job even amid a storm of criticism both inside and outside NBC News.
NBC News staffers had been critical of Oppenheim—occasionally to his face at staff meetings—over his handling of Ronan Farrow’s reporting on disgraced and now-imprisoned movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. Oppenheim’s boss, Lack, was also widely blamed for perceived journalistic failures at the news division.
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