From Jeff Zucker's Lips To The Gray Lady's Ears

Jeff Zucker as a Machiavellian Mary Poppins sings, dances, levitates, and the whole schmeer. "CNBC is now a place for politics, to borrow a phrase from its sister channel MSNBC. The network’s journalists have been encouraged to speak their minds, making the line between reporter and commentator almost indistinguishable at times."

Not from an NBC press release but a Brian Stelter & Tim Arango NYTimes piece "CNBC Thrives as Hosts Deliver News With Attitude" without acknowledging the paper has a "content-sharing agreement" with NBC, MSNBC, CNBC.

The third player in this content-pimping troika: Bill Carter "A Matrix Of News Winners Buoys NBC" tha "Since making a commitment two years ago to opinion programming from the left side of the political spectrum, MSNBC’s ratings have surged. The channel just had its best February ever, averaging 471,000 viewers a day, up from 341,000 in February 2007. MSNBC now pulls in a bigger percentage of the news profits than the network news department, said the senior executive who provided information on NBC’s finances. The margin was not disclosed.CNBC, the Weather Channel and Telemundo are not counted in the news profits. But with those outlets added, the percentage of contribution to NBC Universal’s profits climbs to 25 percent — or about $775 million. Mr. Zucker said, “One of the hallmarks of the company is how we integrate our assets.”NBC’s consistent victories in news, Mr. Capus said, “help us as we go out into the marketplace — and in a marketplace that can be a scary place to be these days.”

In February Arango and the Times' Fourth Man - Richard Perez-Pena - were getting their rocks off at 30 Rock in the endless loop NBC circle jerk and missed the Big News that Rupert Murdoch's #2 guy Peter Chernin was bailing News Corp.

Rival ABC News execs snipe that NBC "Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams was about as tasty to viewers as cardboard until Williams started showing up (repeatedly) on "Saturday Night Live" showcasing his fabled comedic talents. Don't discount BriWi's appearances on Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show." Brian's so hot that he may expand to 44 minutes (an hour if you count NBC's profit machine).

Related Cityfile New York: "Given the questions that have been raised over the years about the ties between New York Times reporter Bill Carter and NBC management, it's a bit of a wonder the paper still permits him to churn out puff pieces about the network. But they do, and so today Carter happily reports that NBC News "is making a pile of money" and the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams is doing so fantastically well that Steve Capus, the president of the division, is now thinking about becoming the "first network to expand to a full-hour newscast." There's a great idea! Now instead of not being home to catch Williams from 6:30 to 7pm, you can miss an extra half-hour between 6 and 6:30pm, too. The persuasive evidence supporting this winner of an idea is below.

Here's my idea: GE's Jeff Immelt and NBC's Jeff Zucker should legitimize the obvious media pimpline, er pipeline, and put the financially-strapped New York Times under its burgeoning bumbershoot.

The Times just sold the rarefield air "the crown jewels" breathe inside Times HQ for $225 mil to a NY real estate investment company. About the same amount of bailout dough Mexican media baron Carlos Slim forked over for a stake in an American newspaper former crown jewel.