NY Times’ Brian Stelter points out the “curious timing” of the trip Al Roker and Matt Lauer made to Afghanistan for the “Today” show last week, the same week that their program’s closest competition, “Good Morning America,” bid farewell to Diane Sawyer as she leaves for ABC’s “World News.”

While the timing might have been “curious,” Stelter reports that the scheduling was pure coincidence and not part of some larger competitive strategy:

“Today” had been in talks with the Pentagon for weeks about taking the morning show to Afghanistan. Mr. Lauer hitched a military ride on Monday with Robert M. Gates, the defense secretary, at the beginning of his trip to Afghanistan and Iraq. But the secretary’s travel plans in war zones are confidential, so when Mr. Lauer told viewers Monday morning that he was flying to Afghanistan that day, he couldn’t explain the circumstances.