If It’s Sunday…

As we await an official announcement that David Gregory will be the new moderator of “Meet the Press” we want to pull back the curtain about how this story broke.

Gregory was at the top of most lists to take the reins of the show, so the news, if true, is no surprise.

But this is the kind of story that usually appears first in the Washington Post, the New York Times or even the Wall Street Journal. The story is that big. But it didn’t. It was first reported by Huffington Post Monday evening. Danny Shea attributed the news to no one, but rather wrote, “the Huffington Post has learned.”

Other write-ups followed, right until this morning — the New York Times, the LA Times and the Washington Post. The Associated Press story appeared in dozens more newspapers and Websites today. An NBC News spokesperson told The AP’s David Bauder Tuesday, “We have nothing to announce. Just because the Huffington Post says something doesn’t make it true.”

So, was Huffington Post lucky or good?

These announcements are usually well-coordinated press department affairs. Perhaps NBC was, and still is, hoping to make the news real Sunday morning…on the show…with Tom Brokaw handing off to Gregory.

But, as one network insider speculated yesterday, maybe NBC is slighting the paper of record for its unflattering story on NBC News military analyst Barry McCaffrey.

Our call to NBC News today requesting an update on the situation was not returned.

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