You may have seen a video making the rounds this week: a clip from the 1994 "Today Show," featuring hosts Katie Couric, Bryant Gumbel, and Elizabeth Vargas discussing this weird thing known as the Internet. Like, what that little "a" with the ring around it is for (@) and how it's pronounced (at? about? around?). Witness the sparkling dialog:
Bryant: "What is Internet anyway?"
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Katie: "It's that massive computer network, the one that's becoming really big now."
It's an amusing little clip that shows us just how far we've come in 17 years. Kudos to Katie for at least knowing something about the Internet in 1994, even as Bryant shows himself to be an empty suit. Why am I not surprised?
Apparently, NBC was not as amused -- so much so that it not only tried to wipe that video off the InterTubes, but also delete the employee who posted it. According to the Washington Post's Rob Pegoraro – or rather, his Twitter stream -- the as-yet-unnamed NBC employee who shared that video blast from the past on YouTube has been fired. Because if overpaid meat puppets didn't know anything about the InterWebs two decades ago, the terrorists will win.
Or maybe they wanted to bury all evidence of that truly frightening tie Bryant was wearing. That, I would believe. But seriously, NBC. Firing an employee? For posting that clip? Really?
It gets better. While someone with their panties in a vise was busy trying to hunt down all copies of that video on the Web -- as if that were even possible at this point -- someone else was rebroadcasting it on national TV and embedding it on their website.
That someone? Why, NBC's "Today Show," of course.
Here's my theory about what's going on, totally unencumbered by facts. Now that the FCC and DOJ have approved Comcast's acquisition of NBC Universal, the Comcasters are bringing down the hammer.
