Meet Tom Brokaw

NBC announced (from Wired.com):

NBC Plays It Safe By Tapping Brokaw for "Meet The Press"

In a bid for stability over reinvention NBC has tapped former nightly news anchor Tom Brokaw to take over hosting duties for "Meet the Press," the Sunday public affairs program whose long-time moderator, Tim Russert, died unexpectedly 10 days ago.

NBC said Brokaw would moderate MTP through the 2008 presidential election.

The choice of gravitas over an attempt to attract another -- or at least an additional -- demographic is significant because NBC has an unusually deep bench of seasoned on-air political interviewers and commentators who ply their chair-bound trade nightly on MSNBC -- unlike any of the other networks, who do not have cable counterparts.

MSNBC's cable stars include Chris Matthews (who also hosts a Sunday political talk show on the Washington NBC affiliate) and Keith Olbermann -- both of whom have seen their prominence rise dramatically in the past year or so with opinionated and intense coverage of the presidential primaries.

Olbermann especially has caught fire with periodic "Special Comments" in which he eviscerates President Bush -- and which are staples on YouTube -- and by being the lead anchor on key primary result nights, along with Matthews.

There are other lights on the ascent as well: NBC White House Correspondent David Gregory is the newest addition to the hour-long political talk format, with "Race to the White House," and correspondent David Shuster is a frequent fill-in host on the MSNBC political bloc who also contributes reporting and commentary to all shows in the evening lineup.

Nobody was seen publicly vying for the job, which would have been the height of unseemliness. But MSNBC strongly denied a New York Post report that Matthews "seemed to be plotting" to get Russert's job and that Olbermann threatened to quit if he didn't get it. On his "Countdown" program Olbermann expressed his own disgust at the newspaper report, printed on the day of Russert's memorial and added that he wasn't remotely qualified to fill Russert's shoes.

And yet ... it is precisely these sorts of unexpected tragedies that create the opportunity for a paradigm shift, so the choice of Brokaw has to be seen, if not dull, as ... safe.

Brokaw, a former "Today" Show host, was NBC's network news anchor from 1981 until 2004, when he retired at age 64. He's been a special correspondent for the network since then, a reliable appearance on major political nights and a best-selling author: "The Greatest Generation" coined a phrase and sparked a new interest in the World War II.

We wish Brokaw well and hope he can survive the speculation -- which begins now -- about who will replace him after Nov. 4.

And, we're hoping this won't turn into another Bob-Scheiffer-for-Katie-Couric-deal. For our view of things, see above.