#versant

Demicia Inman at Vibe:

NBC News has reportedly fired multiple journalists responsible for verticals dedicated to diverse communities. According to The Wrap, 150 staffers were laid off on Wednesday (Oct. 15), impacting NBC BLK, NBC Asian America, NBC Latino, and NBC OUT, which covers LGBTQ+ news. The newsroom will still publish stories that relate to the specific groups; however, it will no longer employ specific teams. The outlet reported that five staffers will allegedly remain to contribute coverage on the verticals to the newsroom. As noted by The Wrap, the downsizing accounted for about 7% of NBC News’ newsroom of about 2,000 staffers and 2% of the wider NBCU News Group. A source claimed the layoffs “did not target specific teams and were driven by the network’s budget and the desire to streamline its editorial efforts.” The alleged layoffs come as NBC News parent company NBCUniversal prepares to spin off MSNBC and CNBC into the new company Versant amid shifts.

NBC News shutters the NBC BLK, NBC Out, NBC Latino, and NBC Asian America verticals and teams associated with the verticals, both due to the split of NBC News’s operations from MSNBC and CNBC and the Trump Regime’s war on DEI initiatives.

See Also:

The Advocate: Breaking: NBC fires teams of journalists focused on marginalized communities, axing NBC Out & NBC BLK staff

LGBTQ Nation: NBC News layoffs end its reporting team for LGBTQ+ focused news vertical NBC Out

Regular disclaimer that this information may change over time. 

Versant, adj. /vər-sənt/ - Concerned about, occupied or engaged in or with, something. Intimately acquainted with a subject or person.

Christopher Wiggins at The Advocate:

A federal judge has dismissed former Republican California U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes’s defamation lawsuit against MSNBC host Rachel Maddow and NBCUniversal, ruling the network did not act with “actual malice” in reporting that Nunes refused to turn over a package from a sanctioned Russian agent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In a 24-page opinion issued Friday, U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel granted summary judgment to NBCUniversal, writing that “no reasonable jury could find that NBCU made the statement with constitutionally-defined actual malice.” Nunes, a longtime ally of President Donald Trump and chief executive officer of his social media company, filed the lawsuit in 2021 after an episode of The Rachel Maddow Show aired a segment about a package addressed to Nunes from Ukrainian legislator Andrii Derkach. Derkach was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2020 for acting as a Russian agent and attempting to interfere in the 2020 presidential election.

Maddow told viewers that Nunes “has refused to hand [the package] over to the FBI, which is what you should do if you get something from somebody who is sanctioned by the U.S. as a Russian agent,” relying on a news story by Politico. According to court documents, Nunes and members of his staff testified that the package was turned over to the FBI on the same day it was received. Nunes also sent a letter to then-Attorney General William Barr advising him of the package’s arrival. [...] Castel rejected Nunes’s arguments that Maddow and MSNBC distorted the Politico reporting and ignored other news stories that stated the package had been appropriately handled. According to the ruling, Maddow and Gnazzo said they were not aware of a follow-up article quoting a fellow Republican lawmaker saying the package had been turned over to the FBI. Nunes also argued that Maddow’s long history of criticizing him, identifying 36 episodes in which she discussed him by name, proved personal bias. But Castel wrote that “bare assertions of bias are insufficient” and found no evidence that the statement at issue was published with a “high degree of awareness of ... probable falsity.” “In context, Maddow’s reference to Nunes as an ‘easier hit’ refers to Maloney’s information that there was a package receipt for the delivery to Nunes from Derkach, which provided ready support for part of the claim,” Castel wrote, referencing Rep. Sean Maloney’s comments during a prior MSNBC interview.

Daniel Arkin at NBC News:

MSNBC will change its name to MS Now, for My Source News Opinion World, and unveil a new logo this year as part of the cable news channel’s spinoff from the Comcast-owned media company NBCUniversal. Comcast announced last year that it would spin off most of its cable television networks into a separate publicly traded company called Versant. The new company will include MSNBC and the financial news channel CNBC as well as the USA Network, Oxygen, E!, SYFY and the Golf Channel. The branding changes represent Versant’s emphasis on “building our individual identity and vision for the future while laying a foundation for the continued growth and success of our businesses,” Versant CEO Mark Lazarus said in a memo to staff Monday morning. [...] MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler said the network will not change editorial direction as it builds out its own newsgathering operation entirely separate from NBC News. (MSNBC launched in 1996 as a joint venture between NBC News and Microsoft.) “While our name will be changing, who we are and what we do will not,” Kutler said in an internal memo. “Our commitment to our work and our audiences will not waiver from what the brand promise has been for three decades.” [...] CNBC, for its part, will keep the acronym “Consumer News and Business Channel” but will debut a new logo without the peacock.

After over 29 years, MSNBC will get a new name: My Source News Opinion World, or MS Now in short. CNBC, however, will keep its name, but lose the peacock with it.

This is because of the NBCU/Versant split, where the peacock logo stays with NBCU properties, and this will cause Golf Channel and CNBC to change their logos.

See Also:

AP, via HuffPost: MSNBC Will Change Its Name Later This Year As Part Of Corporate Divorce From NBC

MSNBC: A message to our community: MSNBC to become MS Now

Ted Johnson at Deadline:

MSNBC transformed into the newly named MS NOW on Saturday morning, as the network splits from parent company Comcast. “Don’t adjust your settings,” Jonathan Capehart, co-host of The Weekend, told viewers shortly after 7 a.m. ET, from studios in Washington. “We are formerly MSNBC. As of this moment, we have a new name, MS NOW, which stands for My Source for News Opinion and the World. But other than that, and these snazzy new graphics, not much is changing. Bottom line: Same mission, new name.” Moments earlier, viewers saw Morning Joe Weekend host Willie Geist sign off for the final time under the MSNBC name, with a shot of the NBC Peacock logo.

MS NOW has been preparing for this moment since last year, when Comcast announced that it would be spinning off MSNBC along with other cable networks into a new company, later named Versant. MS NOW has built up its own newsroom, as NBC News no longer is a sister network. MS NOW will not stream episodes of its shows after they air on Peacock, the Comcast service, although past MSNBC shows like Morning Joe and Deadline White House with Nicolle Wallace were still available as of Saturday morning.

Name: Darkpelt

Gender: Female

Age: 2 ½ years old