David Shuster Suspended From MSNBC After Testing For CNN [View All]

An Anchor Is Suspended at MSNBC
By BRIAN STELTER
Published: April 6, 2010


MSNBC said on Tuesday that it had suspended indefinitely one of its most prominent anchors, David Shuster. The decision came days after the revelation that Mr. Shuster had participated in a test of a new show for CNN, a competing cable news channel.

Mr. Shuster anchored two hours a day on MSNBC, at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. His contract is set to expire at the end of this year.

The MSNBC president, Phil Griffin, and other executives were said to be angry when they found out about the CNN test through an article in The New York Observer Friday morning. A spokesman for MSNBC, which is owned by NBC Universal, said on Friday that it was “unacceptable” if true and that Mr. Shuster would be punished appropriately.

According to The Observer, the CNN test episode featured Mr. Shuster and Michel Martin of National Public Radio. It is unclear how long ago the test took place, or whether it was well received within CNN; a spokeswoman for that channel declined to comment Monday.

Mr. Shuster did not appear on MSNBC on Monday, the day that the channel’s executives met to determine their action. His agent had no comment about the meeting, and MSNBC declined to comment further on Tuesday.

Mr. Shuster, who worked at the Fox News Channel for six years before joining MSNBC, was a jack-of-all-trades anchor for the channel. In addition to his two hours a day, he regularly filled in at other times and sometimes reported in the field. Last month he handled most of MSNBC’s marathon Sunday coverage of Congressional health care votes. For a time he was also the appointed substitute for “Countdown with Keith Olbermann,” MSNBC’s highest-rated show.

Mr. Shuster, however, did not have his own branded program the way some other MSNBC anchors did. And he had something of a reputation for controversial comments. He drew criticism in 2008 when he asked whether Chelsea Clinton had been “pimped out” during her mother’s presidential campaign. At that time, he was suspended by the channel for two weeks.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/business/media/07msnbc.html?hpw