Cheryl Gould, the former senior vice president of NBC News, went off on her former employers on Wednesday for their decision to air a town hall with President Donald Trump at the same time as ABC’s previously scheduled town hall with Democratic candidate Joe Biden.
“I am dismayed — more like disgusted — by NBC’s decision to air Trump’s ‘I wont play by the rules so let me make my own rules’ town hall opposite Biden’s,” Gould wrote in a Facebook post. “Is this what the new leadership at NBC thinks is the right thing to do? To be complicit in Trump’s tantrum? A shameless grab for ratings! I wouldn’t be shocked if this were Fox News. But NBC? My former home? I’ve never been happier to say the word ‘former.’”
She seemed to really want her message out there; Gould added in the comments, “Feel free to share.”
Cheryl Gould was with NBC News for 37 years, stepping down from her post in 2014. She was the first woman to serve as executive producer of “NBC Nightly News.”
NBC News will host a town hall event with Trump on Thursday, an event filling the timeslot vacated by the second presidential debate after Trump withdrew over objections to the debate’s virtual format. NBC’s “Today” anchor Savannah Guthrie will moderate the one-hour event, which will be held outdoors at Miami’s Pérez Art Museum.
Biden will participate in a 90-minute town hall in Philadelphia on ABC moderated by “Good Morning America” anchor George Stephanopoulos. Both events will begin at 5 p.m. PT.
As TheWrap previously reported, the town hall event has drawn criticism from those who say it unfairly competes with a rival ABC town hall with Democratic nominee Joe Biden, an event scheduled last week.