• Newsweek, Monday, February 9, 2009 9:16 AM

NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker has managed to stay positive during daunting times, especially about MSNBC. "NBC Universal's 2008 profits were up 1%. I don't think there's a media company out there that's had a better year," he boasts.

MSNBC used to be an also-ran, but last year it changed the entire game, attracting an entirely new audience, Zucker contends. The fact that MSNBC has a reputation for leaning left, largely because of Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, has not had any adverse impact on NBC News. "NBC Nightly News," "Today" show and "Meet the Press" all now "enjoy wider margins of victory over their competition than they did 18 months ago before that perception was widely held."

Zucker's position is that the bias perception of MSNBC is driven by a couple of programs with a very strong point of view and a real audience. The rest of MSNBC programming is traditional reporting. "I believe that the audience that comes to MSNBC and NBC is fully capable of distinguishing between the two." As far as the animosity between Olbermann and Fox's Bill O'Reilly, he wishes it weren't "so personal," but says he trusts Olbermann's instincts.

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