Laurel and Hardy are perfect together. Romeo and Juliet are (temporarily) perfect together. NBC and Ann Curry, however, haven’t even been comfortable together for a long time now. That strained relationship has come to an end of sorts, as Curry is officially stepping away from NBC News full-time to branch off in a different career direction that, as it happens, will probably cross paths with NBC News in the future. Breaking up truly is hard to do.
Curry is in the midst of getting a media startup going, seeded by NBCUniversal, which will give her the chance to do reporting on a broader range of subjects in different formats, to be brought to whatever network wants each story the most. (Though perhaps more complicated than that.) Here’s how she described her intentions in an NBC press release.
In today’s world of fragmented media, this is the time to seize the opportunity to improve the way we distribute and even tell stories. I want to expand my drive to give voice to the voiceless to emerging platforms and produce both scripted and non-scripted content, in addition to continuing to report on-air about stories that matter.”
One presumes she thinks that all of these stories would matter, but her point is clear enough. She’s got things to do and people to interview, and there’s a good chance she could successfully lead a small empire of quasi-indie journalism, given her history with the Today Show, Dateline NBC and NBC News in general. She’s reported on incidents both war-torn and peaceful all around the world, interviewing a host of international world leaders and important figures…including George Clooney. And her many awards speak for themselves long after the work that earned them was over. If only she’d teamed up with VICE.
Curry’s departing words were subdued and appreciative for her NBC family, though she still got it in there that she “can’t wait to expand my reach and work with people I admire in other places.” That’s kind of a burn, right?
While Curry has always kept her behavior professional, there’s little question that her feelings about NBC will ever be what they once were, before her anchor-teaming with Matt Lauer turned rotten and NBC started looking to replace her. Things only got worse from there, as Curry (and many others) blamed Matt Lauer for allegedly trying to push her out the door, or at least away from him in general. That all came to an end in June of 2012 when she left Today altogether. Not that the rumor mill stopped working that day or anything.
Here’s hoping Curry finds a renewed passion for her work and brings the kind of stories that light a fire under the 24-hour news cycle’s ass. Or even just a story about someone’s ass catching on fire. We like that kind of stuff, right?
