Ex-NBC News Chief Advocates Gumbel for 'Meet the Press'

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Bryant Gumbel, back to network television news? Catching up this Sunday morning with an item from my pending file originally bumped by Barack Obama's Joe Biden announcement, back in August former NBC News President Michael Gartner, who in 1991 made Tim Russert the moderator of Meet the Press, recommended that NBC now resurrect veteran left-winger Gumbel, whom he hailed as “smart” and “quick,” and give him the Sunday morning interview program.

In his weekly Friday column at the end of the Olympics (“NBC's Costas golden; Meet the Press next?”), USA Today founder Al Neuharth urged NBC to pick Bob Costas, who hosted the games from Beijing, to replace interim host Tom Brokaw. Below the August 22 column, the paper ran a reaction from Gartner, now principal owner of the Iowa Cubs minor league baseball team:

Bob Costas -- or Bryant Gumbel. Both are smart, quick, and do their homework. Either would excel. But it's not my call -- or Al's.

The news media's reputation is safer because it's not Gartner's call.

Gartner was President of NBC News from 1988 to 1993.

Screen shot is from a December 10, 2005 appearance on the late Tim Russert's weekend show on CNBC.

Gumbel, the former co-host of NBC's Today and CBS's Early Show, is now host of HBO's monthly Real Sports news magazine program.