Media magnate and journalist Steve Brill talks to ProPublica about the state of media, his recent 26,000 expose on U.S. healthcare in Time and his days in TV news.

On hiring talented people:

“I think it’s a lot intuitive, but there are a lot of mistakes. After all, I deserve to do community services. I am the person who brought Nancy Grace to television.”

He also shared this funny anecdote about Cynthia McFadden and Terry Moran, both now on ABC’s “Nightline.”
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David Bauder of the AP has a story this weekend wrapping up the Casey Anthony trial and Nancy Grace‘s place in it — or at least covering it.

While you may know most of the details of Bauder’s story, there is this quote from Steve Brill, the founder of Court TV.

“I feel like I owe the nation community service for having hired her and put her on television,” says Brill. “She’s a monster.” At Court TV, anchors and commentators were instructed to explain the legal process to viewers but not opine on guilt or innocence, he said.

Dan Abrams‘s next act: research. Over the past few months the former MSNBC anchor has been quietly setting up Abrams Research, a consultancy meant to help business executives handle PR challenges. TVNewser has learned Abrams had another year on his contract but asked to be released early to start the firm.

“NBC News could not have been more accommodating throughout this process,” Abrams tells TVNewser. “I was flattered in September when they offered me a variety of high profile anchoring roles. When I informed them that I wanted to start this business instead, they agreed to restructure my deal and make me an outside contributor.”

Abrams, an 11-year NBC veteran, lost his MSNBC show in August, replaced by Rachel Maddow. He’s been NBC’s chief legal correspondent, an anchor on MSNBC and its general manager for 15 months in 2006-2007.

For his new business, Abrams is getting an assist from former Huffington Post editor Rachel Sklar; his first client is billionaire Ron Perelman; investors include Allen & Co. managing director John Josephson, and Abrams’s advisory board is made up of media heavyweights Steve Brill, Bob Wright, and Bonnie Fuller, among others.

And Abrams tells us he’ll still have time for TV. “I will be staying on as the Chief Legal Analyst for NBC News and hope to remain with NBC for many years to come,” he says.

More in the Abrams Research press release, after the jump…

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