NBC News has officially named Deborah Turness as its new president. Turness will start her new role in August, reporting to NBCUniversal News Group chairman Pat Fili-Krushel.

“It is quite simply the greatest imaginable honor to be named as the next President of NBC News,” said Turness in a statement. “I am hugely excited by the opportunities that lie ahead and look forward to working with the talented journalists and technicians who make it one of the great global news operations.”

Turness is the editor of ITV News in the UK, a role she has held since 2004. She will remain that role until July, helping to select her successor at the British broadcaster. ITV and NBC News have long been partners, sharing bureaus and correspondents across the globe.

“Deborah has built an outstanding reputation as both a journalist and business executive with a proven track record for innovation and collaboration,” said Fili-Krushel in a statement. “She is a leader with a global perspective, who is also very familiar with NBC News, having worked closely with us through our partnership with ITN. Her passion for the news business, combined with her creativity and vision, will be a tremendous asset to NBC News, and I’m very pleased to welcome her to the team.”

The announcement was expected, as multiple outlets reported that Turness was the pick a week and a half ago. Her name was first floated back in April.

More information, below.

Read more

The Washington Post goes into great detail looking into how the Department of Justice investigates leaks by targeting journalists, by revealing that the DOJ targeted Fox News correspondent James Rosen following a report back in 2009.

The AP made waves last week after it was revealed that the DOJ targeted the personal and professional phone lines of hundreds of journalists in an apparent attempt to determine who leaked information.

Rosen’s case is a bit different, because he was targeted specifically and because he was identified as possibly breaking the law, nonetheless, the actions of the DOJ do have a chilling effect on journalists across all media organizations. Even Glenn Greenwald, hardly a fan of Fox News (or U.S. TV news generally), called the move “dangerous.”

Update: Brit Hume appeared on FNC to talk about the incident. Video after the jump.

In the exchange, Rosen used the alias “Leo” to address Kim and called himself “Alex,” an apparent reference to Alexander Butterfield, the man best known for running the secret recording system in the Nixon White House, according to the affidavit.

Rosen instructed Kim to send him coded signals on his Google account, according to a quote from his e-mail in the affidavit: “One asterisk means to contact them, or that previously suggested plans for communication are to proceed as agreed; two asterisks means the opposite…

Read more

ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl finds himself in an unusual and never comfortable position: he has become the news.

Karl has released a statement expressing “regret” after it was revealed that he inaccurately identified reviewing handwritten notes based on emails as having reviewed the actual emails in his bombshell “exclusive” on Benghazi. While Karl did say that his story was based on “summaries” on the web story, in the stories that aired on the ABC news broadcasts it was reported that ABC had “obtained” the emails.

The full emails, (the first of which was obtained by Jake Tapper) which were released later that week, revealed content and quotations that did not entirely match up with the notes that Karl was given, although they did support some of the issues Karl raised. That said, Karl and ABC News maintain that the crux of the reporting–the changing talking points–remains accurate.

“I regret that one email was quoted incorrectly and I regret that it’s become a distraction from the story, which still entirely stands,” said Karl in a statement. “I should have been clearer about the attribution. We updated our story immediately when new information became available.”

Karl became the story on cable news last week, and was even mentioned on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” where he was effectively accused of being used by Republicans by White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer. Karl was also one of the stories covered on “Reliable Sources.”
Read more

“CBS This Morning” and PBS anchor Charlie Rose is a busy man, and his schedule is about to get even busier. According to the New York Times’ Elizabeth Jensen, Rose will be adding a show in primetime on Friday nights on PBS, likely replacing the existing newsmagazine in that slot produced by WNYC, “Need to Know”

The half-hour program, called “Charlie Rose Weekend,” will cull the best of his late-night program, which has been seen on PBS for two decades. It will also feature original interviews, and will touch on politics, science, business, culture, media and sports. It is scheduled to begin in July, PBS officials told executives of its member stations at the PBS annual meeting in Miami last week.

Add Shelley Ross’ name to the growing list of disciples of the Sisterhood of St. Angelina.

Ross, former executive producer of ABC’s “Good Morning America” and CBS’ “Early Show,” underwent a double mastectomy last month after discovering that she, too, carried the BRCA gene, which greatly increases the risk of developing breast cancer.

Ross says it was Jolie’s stunning Op Ed in the New York Times last Tuesday that convinced her to go public, the same day, via her blog, daily Xpress.

“I was literally shocked when I read about her,” Ross, 60, says. “I thought what she did was so smart. It’s an opportunity to expand the dialogue. Like her, I was able to write down all the details. Nobody can interpret this as if I’m dying.”

In this case, “nobody” is Ross’ code for media, which over the years has run some brutal (mostly anonymous) slams against the producer. Still, it was common knowledge that Ross’ uber-intensity had alienated her from many of her coworkers.

Says Ross: “I got the shit end of the stick from the media. It was like a feeding frenzy.”

With her mastectomy, Ross was determined not to repeat that experience, so she told no one outside a small group of friends. They kept her secret, she says.

“My real concern, to be perfectly honest, was with outlets … that have printed false, libelous, damaging, actionable reports, regardless of what I tried to correct,” says Ross.

“If it [mastectomy] got out to what is certainly a small handful of detractors, I would have read about some anonymous person ‘hearing a death rattle.’ I’m not dying and I’m not dead.”

In fact, after six months’ chemotherapy, a double mastectomy, a hysterectomy and an infection that hospitalized her last week, Ross is so not dead that she’s juggling several major projects.

Read more

At the end of a CBS Evening News story about where he got his start, it was announced that CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston would be leaving the network. Pinkston, 63, joined CBS in 1980. He spent 10 years as a reporter at WCBS and, since 1990, has been a correspondent for CBS News, including a stint at the White House.

Pinkston’s final story was about where he got his start — at WLBT in Jackson, MS in 1971 — and why. It was due, in part, to the fact that 50 years ago tomorrow civil rights leader Medgar Evers asked for, and received equal time — unheard of at the time for a black man to appear on TV in the segregated South. Less than month later, Evers was assassinated.

At the end of that story, anchor Jim Axelrod announced Pinkston is leaving CBS. “He’s always been one of the true gentleman in this business and we will miss his warmth, his grace and his class,” said Axelrod. It’s not known if Pinkston is leaving for another opportunity or leaving the business.

ABC’s David Muir is the subject of an AdWeek Q+A. The “World News” weekend anchor talks to Sam Thielman about reporting from Iran, transitioning to the “20/20″ anchor desk and the reason why he looks forward to trips to faraway places:

How does the new agenda compare to what you started off with?
It is sort of an insane schedule, I’ll admit it. Last year I worked every day; there was Tahrir Square and Fukushima, and then the famine in Africa. I thought, “At least this year will be easier,” and then they asked me to take on 20/20.

It does sound like an incredibly packed schedule.
When I hear “13-hour flight,” I get excited, because it’s 13 hours no one can get ahold of you on your BlackBerry.

Do you worry that moving to a more prominent position will keep you chained to the desk?
I think the best anchors out there are the ones who globe trot and who are hungry every day to explore another corner of the world. Once I’m done with one project, I’m already thinking, “What’s the next thing I want to investigate?”

Last night’s “Saturday Night Live” featured a farewell appearance for “Stefon,” played by Bill Hader, who is leaving the show after this season. Stefon, it seems, was leaving “Weekend Update” anchor Seth Meyers for someone new… a prominent TV news anchor.

WATCH:

After the jump, the “SNL” skit about “PoliticsNation with Al Sharpton”
Read more

CNN is hard at work constructing a brand-new set for “New Day,” the channel’s new morning show, which will debut June 17.  CNN senior producer John Griffin tweeted a few photos of the set under construction. So far there isn’t much to see, except for one big design choice: exposed brick. Lots and lots of exposed brick. There will also be an open green room.

While “Today,” “Good Morning America” and “Fox & Friends” rely on glossy studios with large open windows, and “Morning Joe” goes for the contemporary look,  there is another morning show that loves itself some exposed brick and an open green room: “CBS This Morning.” For what its worth, CNN president Jeff Zucker had nothing but praise for “CTM” at the press conference for “New Day” not long ago.

(h/t @Greg_Hanna)

In case you haven’t heard, the northeast is beginning to feel the brunt of an invasion, as billions of large insects called cicadas emerge from their underground homes to mate.

There are a few different broods of cicada, and this one last emerged in 1996. NBC’s “Today” helpfully shared a video of co-anchor Matt Lauer–then at WNBC New York–anchoring a newscast on the cicada, and featuring a report from correspondent Pat Battle.

WATCH: