Today Show Blooper: 'On A Lighter Note...MURDER!'

It's probably one of the most awkward things to do for any broadcaster, making that transition from a hard news story about war or a tragic plane crash into a lighter feature story about, say, the latest Hollywood gossip about Bradgelina. It's commonplace on the morning shows for a Meredith Vieira or Diane Sawyer to make that hard turn from a story on Iraq to a piece on the hottest fashion trends, the commonly heard phrase is: "On a lighter note." Well it seems David Gregory, substitute hosting for Matt Lauer on this morning's Today show, hasn't quite mastered that segue. After a Robert Bazell piece about military combat hospitals in Iraq that featured images of wounded soldiers in surgery it was up to Gregory to make that transition, except the story he was throwing to wasn't exactly an upbeat one.

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The following occurred in the 7am half-hour of the January 25th Today show:

Meredith Vieira: "Robert Bazell reporting. And by the way that woman, like all those seriously injured was moved to an Army hospital in Germany. From there the injured often go to the U.S. It is 7:16am and now here's David."

David Gregory: "Meredith thanks. Now switching gears to a lighter note it, it's a murder, rather, actually, not quite a lighter note. Still a difficult topic. It's a murder that sounds like something straight out of a James Bond film but this one's all too real. A Belgian woman is charged with killing a romantic rival by sabotaging her parachute while they were skydiving together. NBC's Keith Miller has more."