TV | Anatomy of NBC's slide to a 'punch line'

In a new story, The New York Times traces the network's embarrassing decline to also-ran among the four broadcast networks; nearly half of Gannett's 23 TV stations are NBC affiliates. "It has been an unseemly spectacle for a company that prides itself on a smooth corporate culture," the NYT says today, "and the disastrous culmination of a high-stakes gamble" last year by NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker to move talk show host Jay Leno to the 10 p.m. slot, passing The Tonight Show to the younger Conan O’Brien.