Last night NBC aired the series finale of its sitcom “The Office.” The show, which follows the wacky and touching goings-on at the Dunder-Mifflin Paper Company in Scranton, Pennsylvania, was never as big a hit as comedies like “The Big Bang Theory” or “Two and a Half Men,” but found a loyal audience large enough to sustain it for nine seasons.

Leading up to the finale, NBC aired a retrospective of the series, featuring interviews with the cast and crew, and video footage from a trip they made to Scranton celebrate the show. An astute reader noticed that the retrospective was actually produced by NBC News, although it didn’t feature any notable news talent.

As strange as it may seem, NBC’s news division–not unlike ABC and CBS–will occasionally be commissioned for specials that are more entertainment than information. Peacock Productions, a production house within NBC News, is producing daredevil Nik Wallenda‘s walk across the Grand Canyon next month on Discovery Channel, just as ABC News produced his walk across Niagara Falls. Still, having the news division produce a retrospective on a show that could easily have been produced by the show’s own staff is sure to raise some eyebrows.

Cable TV viewership was down somewhat last week compared to prior weeks, perhaps owing to May sweeps on the broadcasters resulting in more people sticking to the channels lower down on the dial. The top two channels were entertainment channels TNT and USA, which had some big finales of their own. That said, cable news more than held its own, retaining strong ratings.
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Soledad O’Brien is responding to criticism she’s received over remarks made recently while talking about her “Black in America” documentaries. In the process, she also made news about an upcoming series she’s developing called “White in America.”

During the talk at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, O’Brien discussed what critics call the “divisive” nature of “Black in America.”

First of all, it’s only white people who ever said that — ‘if we could just see beyond race. If only people didn’t see race, it would be such a better place, and you are responsible for bringing up these icky race issues, Soledad, you should just let sleeping dogs lie. I was like, again, ‘OK, white person, this is a conversation that you’re clearly uncomfortable with, and I have no problem seeing race, and I think we should talk about race.

In response today, O’Brien says, “My comments on the importance of discussing who we are and where we come from are nothing new. What is new is our friends in the blogosphere taking the conversation out of context and ginning up headlines so we lose sight of the real issues. I would encourage those reporting on my work to listen to the conversation in its entirety, and this time, turn their mute buttons off. As a journalist, my job is to probe the uncomfortable topics to drive conversation. I’m happy to see that’s still happening as a result of ‘Black In America,’ and I look forward to continuing that conversation as we continue to tell the stories of who we are. We’re not just working on BIA, but also developing a ‘White in America.’ Stay tuned for that one.”

O’Brien and CNN parted ways earlier this year, but through her production company, Starfish Media Group, she is producing documentaries which will air on CNN. O’Brien will deliver a “Black in America” special later this year and three more docs next year. In 2009, O’Brien also fronted “Latino in America.”

Former NBC and CBS correspondent Ed Gordon is the subject of Mediabistro’s latest “So What Do You Do?” interview. Gordon, the host of a nationally-syndicated radio show as well as an interview series on NBC O&Os, offered some advice about navigating “exclusive” interviews in today’s media landscape:

Well, it’s not as easy as it used to be in what I call the “old days.” I mean, it used to be that you got an exclusive and it was exclusive, and you were the only one who could talk to that person for, let’s say, at least a week, or a month, or during that period. Now, it’s very hard to get an exclusive interview because people just don’t believe in talking to one person. They’ll talk to you, and then Dr. Phil and Entertainment Tonight and everybody else. So, I think what you want to shoot for is getting someone to talk to you in a way they don’t talk to everyone else.

The AP reports that the Department of Justice secretly seized phone logs from its reporters and editors, apparently tied to the reporting on a foiled terror plot.

“There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters,” wrote AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, citing the severe Constitutional issues with the seizure.

Former CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier, now an intelligence and counterterrorism reporter for the AP, was one of the journalists who had their phone logs seized. Dozier was seriously inured in Iraq in 2006. She left CBS for the AP in 2010.

Read the full AP teport here.

“Murphy Brown” was one of the preeminent sitcoms of the 1990s. The show, which starred Candice Bergen as the title investigative journalist and anchor, was a huge hit for CBS, and had a major cultural impact.

Last year, rumors abounded that the show may come back as a special for the 2012 election. That never came to fruition, but The Hollywood Reporter reunited the original writer’s room, and asked creator Diane English what Brown would be up to today:

“She’d be doing exactly the same thing. FYI would still be on the air, the way 60 Minutes is still on the air,” she says, noting that the cast simply would be “a little older” and “a little creakier.”

WATCH:
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Season two of HBO’s “The Newsroom” is only a few weeks away, and to whet the appetites of those die-hard news fans, HBO has released a video preview of what to expect in season two. While news items will still play a part in the show, there are some underlying storylines that play out throughout the season.

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With the Boston bombing in the rearview mirror, the week of April 29-May 5 was something of a return to normalcy for cable news. While the Jodi Arias trial kept HLN elevated in the cable network ranker, CNN fell out of the top 10.
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Several television news journalists have landed on Reader’s Digest list of “The 100 Most Trusted People in America.” At #12, “Good Morning America” anchor Robin Roberts is the most-trusted television news personality on the list.

In addition to Roberts, the morning shows are well represented: “GMA” anchor George Stephanopoulos is #57, while “Today” show co-hosts Savannah Guthrie and Matt Lauer are #85 and #97, respectively.

The three evening news anchors make the list –ABC’s Diane Sawyer at #25, NBC’s Brian Williams at #29 and CBS’ Scott Pelley at #63. ABC’s Barbara Walters (#34), Katie Couric (#37) and Christiane Amanpour (#56) are also among the most trusted.

From the cable news landscape, CNN’s Sanjay Gupta is #17 and  Anderson Cooper is #50. HLN’s Dr. Drew Pinsky is #90 and Fox News anchor Shepard Smith rounds out the list at #100.

Former CNN anchor TJ Holmes, who left the channel at the end of 2011 to launch a late night news/comedy hybrid show on BET, is back on the job market, now that BET has formally canceled the program. Holmes filled in on MSNBC in December.

Holmes talked to The Root’s Richard Prince about the departure:

“I will never, ever regret
 thinking that my heart was in the right place,” a young black man 
taking his skills “to do something that was not being done for our 
community,” that is, providing a daily news show geared toward 
African Americans. “You learn from the mistakes, there are questions I 
should have asked, things that should have been cleared up,” but 
reaching the black community in that way was “an opportunity I would 
love to have” again, Holmes said.