Director's Cut Blog with Frank Macek

"Meet The Press" Host David Gregory The moderator of NBC's "Meet the Press" was in town on Monday to moderate the City Club's "Swing State, Building Our Momentum" at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel on Public Square. The event began at noon and was widely attended by Cleveland's business leaders and political movers. The panel featured Christopher Connor, Chairman and CEO of Sherwin Williams Co., Dr. Delos (Toby) Cosgrove, President and CEO at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Stephen Steinour, Chairman and CEO of Huntington Bancshares Inc. and Dr. Jerry Sue Thornton, President of Cuyahoga Community College. Afterwards, David stopped by the WKYC Digital Broadcast Center for a visit, to shoot some promos with Senior Political Correspondent Tom Beres and to sit down with WKYC 6 & 11 PM anchor Russ Mitchell for a one on one interview about educating the campaigns on Cleveland's strengths. David has hosted "Meet Th...

Update: David Gregory was offically introduced as the new host of "Meet the Press" as we mentioned in our previous article last week. -------- The New York Post reported today that NBC has apparently settled on David Gregory as the new host of Sunday morning's "Meet the Press." The problem is someone leaked the information to the media before NBC wanted it out, which is to come this week when Tom Brokaw will pass the chair to David. As we reported earlier, Brokaw's last show as moderator is to be this Sunday, December 7th. This leak has led the network brass to be a little cranky and refusing to confirm or deny that Gregory is its choice. However, given the star power of Gregory, we are pretty certain he's got the job. The Post also reports that NBC Political Director Chuck Todd, himself a contender for the job, may have been the source of the early announcement. Stay tuned on this soap opera. We wonder aloud why everyone seems to think keeping secrets ...

TV Week is reporting today that Tom Brokaw's last day as moderator of "Meet The Press" will most likely be on Dec. 7, according to the New York Times. Brokaw filled in as the interim moderator after the death of Tim Russert in June, and there has been much public speculation as to who will be the show's next permanent host. However, according to the Times, NBC News is still determining who that replacement will be. A lot of speculation has been placed on possible replacements including NBC's David Gregory, NBC Political Director Chuck Todd, PBS's Gwen Ifill, or Discovery's Ted Koppel who is leaving that network before the end of his planned contract.

We are sad to learn that NBC's Tim Russert has died at age 58. The network says Tim died this afternoon after collapsing from a sudden heart attack the network is confirming on MSNBC.com Tim was the Washington Bureau Chief for NBC News, and hosted 'Tim Russert,' a weekly interview program on MSNBC, a frequent correspondent and guest on other NBC News programs, such as 'The Today Show' and 'Hardball,' and Tim co-hosted the network's presidential Election Night coverage. He also presented the polling results of the NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey on the NBC Nightly News, alongside the anchor of the show. Russert was born in Buffalo, New York, and received a Jesuit education. Russert is an alumnus of Canisius High School in Buffalo, New York and a graduate of John Carroll University and Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University in Cleveland, Ohio. MSNBC COVERAGE: NBC PHOTOGALLERY: CLICK HERE A DIRECTOR'S CUT LOOK BACK... The fo...