News is a tricky thing. If you have footage of something, particularly something that is shocking or important or "breaking news," you're almost obligated to show it. If you don't show it, people would start to wonder why you're not showing it, especially if it has something to do with a major event that you as a network are covering. For example, the death of Olympic luger Nodar Kumaritashvili.

But when does "news" turn into exploitation and "too much?" That's what NBC was facing with the footage of Kumaritashvili's death before the Olympics even started. Some (including me) thought that they showed it way too much. Over and over again, often in slow motion and with commentary. They even showed it at the start of the opening night ceremonies and viewers weren't happy about that at all.

It's no secret that Jeff Zucker is the most hated man in broadcasting. That is, if you don't work for NBC or GE. While Zucker has spent his time overseeing NBC and NBC Universal tinkering and experimenting the broadcast network into a fourth-place laughingstock, there is a reason why he continues to remain at the company and get more and more responsibility: the man makes GE money.

While the NBC broadcast network hemorrhages cash, NBCU's cable consortium makes money in buckets. Even in the NBC microcosm, NBC News is making money with 'Today' and the 'NBC Nightly News' while the entertainment and sports divisions aren't doing well. Which is why it's not surprising that news president Steve Capus defended his boss to Jon Friedman of Marketwatch.com.

As this election season turns into the home stretch, whether you're for McCain or Obama, this is a very exciting time in politics -- and I find myself really missing Tim Russert quite a lot. This point was really driven home for me when I watched Tim Russert's show Meet the Press last week. Tom Brokaw has been a really good anchorman and reporter, but -- I'm sorry -- he's not a good moderator. He's just not. He doesn't get involved in the questioning enough. He doesn't ask the penetrating questions. He doesn't do his homework like Russert did to be right on top of the facts and catch politicians spinning rather than speaking the truth.

Like I said, Brokaw is not in his element with Meet the Press. Fortunately, he's only doing MTP until after the election. I give him credit for stepping in when Russert died unexpectedly and there was a network crisis. However, looking to the future, NBC needs to find the right person to take the big chair. NBC News chief Steve Capus is reportedly thinking about a rotation of hosts, including Chuck Todd (NBC's political director) and David Gregory (host of Road to the White House, MSNBC).

Probably the least-surprising news to come out of yesterday's NBC sessions was that the network is going to expand Today to a fourth hour. NBC News president Steve Capus and Today executive producer Jim Bell paneled with Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira, Al Roker, and Ann Curry to discuss the move as well as the show's year of transition.

Of course, the show's signature easy-going goofiness was in evidence. Matt Lauer: "I see you all typing away on your laptops, and I'm not going to tell you what your headline should be. But the headline we think should be 'Today show crew boringly happy.'" Meredith joked about kissing a monkey on the show earlier that morning: "I can't get over the fact I kissed a monkey this morning. I initiated it, and quite frankly, I can't stop thinking about it."

Things are not going well for NBC Universal these days. Studio 60 and Friday Night Lights are doing poorly in the ratings, the highly touted Kidnapped was canceled and pushed out to the dead zone known as Saturday nights, and even some of their established shows, like Law & Order, are slipping a bit. Now, it looks like the news division is about to take a direct hit as well.

According to TV Week, NBCU plans to eliminate 700 jobs, about 5 percent of their workforce, in order to slash $750 million off of their administrative and operating costs. The reductions will comprise of buyouts, offers of early retirement and attrition. The biggest department to be affected will be the NBC News, which will go through an extensive streamlining process in order to prepare themselves for the oncoming digital revolution (which is already in full swing, but why quibble.). According to News President Steve Capus, the changes being announced will allow the network to re-invest in new growth areas.