Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 3, 1993 TAG: 9303030172
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
NBC NEWS CHIEF QUITS UNDER FIRE
Michael Gartner resigned as president of NBC News on Tuesday, less than a month after the network apologized for rigging a fiery truck crash near an Indiana corn field."Concern over recent NBC News broadcasts continues to consume a great deal of energy and attention within the NBC News organization," Gartner said in a written statement.
"For that reason, and because I Gartner have accomplished much of what I set out to do when I accepted this position, I have decided to make this change," said Gartner, 54, who became NBC News' president Aug. 1, 1988.
He said he was immediately relinquishing day-to-day control to Executive Vice President Don Browne and would leave on Aug. 1, his fifth anniversary in the job.
Gartner was a successful Iowa newspaperman, editor of the Des Moines Register and Tribune and a former Page One editor of The Wall Street Journal when he was tapped to head NBC News. He knew little of television.
His mission was to cut costs, but after a year in the job, NBC was reportedly ready to dismiss him. According to Ken Auletta's study of network TV, "Three Blind Mice," Gartner kept his job only because NBC's leading candidate didn't want it.
In announcing his resignation, NBC pointed to recent initiatives by the news division, including the NBC News Channel for affiliates, a Spanish-language news service, programming ties formed with the Public Broadcasting Service and quadrupling to 72 the number of news hours broadcast each week on NBC.
Gartner's critics pointed to his staff layoffs, the closing of foreign bureaus, NBC's botched initial coverage of the San Francisco earthquake, his decision to name the alleged victim in the William Kennedy Smith rape trial and his approving the cheesy tabloid-style "I Witness Video."