• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, July 1, 2011

Did NBC Universal see Fox News thriving with its conservative-leaning approach and decide to swing to the other end of the political spectrum? Nope -- it just sort of happened, said former NBCU chief Jeff Zucker.

"There was not a secret meeting that said, hey let's go left with MSNBC," Zucker said in an appearance at the PromaxBDA event last week.

He said Keith Olbermann emerged as a liberal voice with an anti-Gulf War stance and drew an audience. MSNBC placed a companion show behind it, and things sort of moved in that liberal direction, with profits, not politics, the guiding strategy.

"That was a business decision," Zucker explained. He noted MSNBC's ratings troubles before the new approach, saying for its first 10 years "we couldn't get arrested."

Does a liberal-leaning prime time line-up on MSNBC chip away at the credibility of the NBC News brand? Zucker said if that were the case, "Today," Brian Williams and "Meet the Press" would not continue to thrive.

"The viewer can distinguish," he said, much like people realize the editorial page is different than the rest of the newspaper.

Olbermann has since moved to Current TV. Lawrence O'Donnell has replaced Olbermann in the 8 p.m. slot and his "The Last Word" had its 100th episode Friday.