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Noah Oppenheim

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Noah Oppenheim
Born1977 or 1978 (age 45–46)[1]
NationalityAmerican
EducationA.B., Harvard University
Occupation(s)Journalist, television producer, author, screenwriter
Known forPresident of NBC News
SpouseAllison Oppenheim

Noah Oppenheim (born 1977 or 1978)[1] is an American television producer, author, and screenwriter. Previously, Oppenheim was the executive in charge and senior producer of NBC's Today Show, where he supervised the 7–8am hour of the broadcast, and head of development at the production company Reveille.[2][3] He became president of NBC News in 2017. The same year, Ronan Farrow claimed that Oppenheim attempted to stop his reporting on the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse cases, a claim that Oppenheim and NBC have strongly rejected.[4]

Early life

Oppenheim was born to a Jewish family,[1] the son of Marcia (née Nusbaum) and Jay Oppenheim.[5] He attended The Gregory School in Tucson, Arizona, and served as an editor and writer for the school newspaper, the Gregorian Chant.[6] After high school, Oppenheim graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 2000. While attending Harvard, Oppenheim was editorial chair of The Harvard Crimson from 1996 to 2000.

Career

Writing

In October 2006, Oppenheim and David Kidder co-authored the Rodale, Inc. series The Intellectual Devotional.[7] The series’ volume "The Intellectual Devotional, American History" made The New York Times Best Seller list for political books in 2007.[8]

As a screenwriter, Oppenheim wrote the film Jackie, for which he won best screenplay at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival,[9][10] and co-wrote the scripts for The Maze Runner and The Divergent Series: Allegiant.[11][12]

Television

CNBC/MSNBC

Oppenheim started his television career at MSNBC in 2001 as a senior producer on Hardball with Chris Matthews.[13][14] He then became the executive producer of Scarborough Country when it launched in 2003.[15][16]

Later in 2003, Oppenheim wrote an op-ed criticizing the media's coverage of the Iraq War.[17][18] NBC Nightly News executive producer Steve Capus and anchor Tom Brokaw complained about an opinion article being written by an NBC-affiliated producer.[19]

He left MSNBC in 2004, returning NBC News in 2005, where he helped create CNBC's Mad Money with Jim Cramer, and worked as the senior producer of The Today Show until 2008.[2][20]

Reveille

In 2008, Oppenheim joined Los Angeles entertainment group Reveille as its vice president of development.[21] He oversaw development of various television shows including The Buried Life and It's On with Alexa Chung [22] He left in 2010.[23]

NBC News

In January 2015, Oppenheim returned to NBC as senior vice president of "Today."[2] Oppenheim was made president of NBC News in February 2017.[24]

Under Oppenheim, in May 2019 NBC News launched a streaming service called NBC News Now.[25][26] In December 2021, Oppenheim said competition was intensifying to become the preferred new streaming service as consumer habits shifted toward dedicated streaming platforms.[27][28]

In June 2019, Oppenheim was one of three heads of U.S. broadcast news outlets to promise that coverage of the 2020 presidential election cycle to be more in-depth and “nuanced.” Oppenheim said NBC News was hiring a large number of journalists to cover the election campaign, including journalists from local papers around the country who were knowledgeable about their region.[29] In August 2020, Oppenheim said NBC News had doubled the number of staff tasked with covering election security and misinformation.[30] But he said he was trying to avoid a “self-fulfilling prophecy of [electoral] chaos and confusion.”[30] “Frankly, the well-being of the country depends on us being cautious, disciplined and unassailably correct,” he told The New York Times.[31]

During his tenure as president of NBC News, articles and opinion pieces Oppenheim wrote while attending Harvard resurface, which raised concerns about the culture Oppenheim is cultivating at NBC and whether it is accommodating to female employees.[32][33] He has been accused of self-dealing by repeatedly promoting children's books co-authored by his wife on the Today Show.[34]

Harvey Weinstein

In 2017, it was Oppenheim's idea to put Ronan Farrow on the story about the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations, which were credited with popularizing the Me Too movement; NBC News ultimately, however, failed to publish it, a decision Farrow blamed on Oppenheim.[35][36] Farrow took the story to The New Yorker which published it soon afterwards.[37][38][39]

The NBC News organization and Oppenheim were criticized for not publishing the Weinstein story, criticism that intensified when news broke of the sexual harassment claims against Matt Lauer.[24][40] Ronan Farrow later said that Oppenheim played a major role in refusing to allow NBC News to report on those allegations in 2017. Oppenheim denied Farrow's claim and said that the reason NBC News chose not to report on the story was that the available evidence did not meet their journalistic standards.[35] However, other accounts of contemporary discussions within NBC News are consistent with Oppenheim preventing NBC journalists from reporting on Weinstein.[35] Oppenheim denied that NBC hid the Matt Lauer accusations over the years and calls Farrow's book a "smear" though many on his staff remain skeptical.[41] Farrow also reported that NBC News hired a "Wikipedia whitewasher" who removed references to NBC's role in the Weinstein case from several Wikipedia articles, including Oppenheim's.[42]

Personal life

Oppenheim is married to Allison Oppenheim.[43][44]

References

  1. ^ a b c Bloom, Nate (December 5, 2016). "Jews in the News: Kirk Douglas, Natalie Portman and Max Cassella". Jewish Community Centers and Federation of Tampa.
  2. ^ a b c Steel, Emily (January 16, 2015). "NBC Names a 'Today' Veteran to Lead the Show". The New York Times. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
  3. ^ Adalian, Josef (January 16, 2015). "NBC Finds New Today Show Boss". New York Magazine. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
  4. ^ Battaglio, Stephen (February 15, 2017). "'Today' show executive Noah Oppenheim is named president of NBC News". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  5. ^ "Elaine Nussbaum, a resident of the Jewish Home of Eastern Pennsylvania, died Thursday at the facility. Her husband, Sidney Nussbaum, died March 6, 1983". The Scranton Times-Tribune. June 11, 2011. Archived from the original on August 17, 2017.
  6. ^ "Gregory alumni".
  7. ^ Grove, Lloyd; Cartwright, Lachlan; Kirell, Andrew (October 23, 2019). "'Disgusting': NBC Staffers Furious About News Chief Noah Oppenheim's Self-Dealing". The Daily Beast. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
  8. ^ Buddo, Orville (December 22, 2007). "Search The Caucus SEARCH Final Poli-Book Best Seller List for 2007". The New York Times. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
  9. ^ Johnson, Ted (December 18, 2016). "PopPolitics: Noah Oppenheim on the Limits of Dramatic License in 'Jackie'". Variety. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
  10. ^ Ellwood, Gregory (December 2, 2016). "Noah Oppenheim On 'Bizarre' Back And Forth Of Making 'Jackie' And Covering The Election". Playlist. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
  11. ^ Ford, Rebecca (July 9, 2014). "'Divergent' Threequel 'Allegiant' Taps 'Maze Runner' Writer (Exclusive)". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
  12. ^ Anderson, Soren (March 17, 2016). "'The Divergent Series: Allegiant': A descent into sci-fi action, confusion". Seattle Times. Retrieved January 20, 2022.
  13. ^ "Noah Oppenheim, executive-in-charge of TODAY". Today. NBC. December 9, 2016. Retrieved February 22, 2021.
  14. ^ "Noah Oppenheim". IMDB. Retrieved February 22, 2021.
  15. ^ Moraes, Lisa de (January 16, 2015). "Noah Oppenheim Named 'Today' Show Chief". Deadline. Retrieved July 27, 2018.
  16. ^ "Joe Scarborough suspended from MSNBC for campaign donations". Politico. November 19, 2010. Retrieved February 22, 2021.
  17. ^ Hagan, Joe (January 19, 2004). "Dean TV Performance Eviscerated On Air: 'Worst Since Quayle'". Observer. Retrieved February 22, 2021.
  18. ^ Britt, Thomas W.; Adler, Amy B.; Castro, Carl Andrew (2006). Military Life: Military culture. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 187–. ISBN 978-0-275-98304-8. Retrieved March 2, 2012.
  19. ^ Hagan, Joe (February 16, 2004). "Dr. Bob Arnot's Parting Shot". NY Observer. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
  20. ^ "Oppenheim at Today".
  21. ^ Emily, Steel (January 15, 2015). "NBC Names a 'Today' Veteran to Lead the Show". The New York Times. Retrieved February 19, 2021.
  22. ^ Ibarra, Sergio (June 22, 2009). "On the Horizon: Noah Oppenheim". TV Week. Retrieved February 19, 2021.
  23. ^ Sperling, Nicole (December 13, 2010). "Black List showcases the best overlooked screenplays". LA Times. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
  24. ^ a b Marcin, Tim (November 29, 2017). "In the wake of the Matt Lauer firing, meet NBC News president Noah Oppenheim". Newsweek.
  25. ^ Munson, Ben (May 29, 2019). "NBC News Now ad-supported streaming service launches". Fierce Video. Retrieved January 24, 2022.
  26. ^ Perez, Sarah (March 11, 2019). "NBC's free news-streaming service, NBC News Now, will launch in May". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 24, 2022.
  27. ^ Steinberg, Brian (December 28, 2021). "TV's Biggest Newsrooms Poised for 2022 Surge in Streaming Wars". Variety. Retrieved January 20, 2022.
  28. ^ Steinberg, Brian (October 26, 2021). "NBC News Has Ambitious Streaming Plans For Election Night". Variety. Retrieved January 20, 2022.
  29. ^ Steinberg, Brian (June 6, 2019). "Broadcast News Chiefs Vow Deeper Coverage in 2020 Election". Variety. Retrieved January 20, 2022.
  30. ^ a b Smith, Ben (August 2, 2020). "How the Media Could Get the Election Story Wrong". The New York Times. Retrieved January 20, 2022.
  31. ^ Grynbaum, Michael M. (October 31, 2020). "Networks Pledge Caution for an Election Night Like No Other". The New York Times. Retrieved January 20, 2022.
  32. ^ Cartwright, Lachlan; Kirell, Andrew; Tani, Maxwell (October 11, 2019). "NBC News Chief Noah Oppenheim's Harvard Writings on Women and Sexual Assault Horrify Staffers". The Daily Beast.
  33. ^ Oppenheim, Noah (December 17, 1999). "Considering 'Women's Issues' at Harvard". The Harvard Crimson.
  34. ^ Grove, Lloyd (October 23, 2019). "'Disgusting': NBC Staffers Furious About News Chief Noah Oppenheim's Self-Dealing". The Daily Beast. Retrieved November 8, 2019.
  35. ^ a b c McHugh, Rich (October 11, 2019). ""You Are to Stand Down": Ronan Farrow's Producer on How NBC Killed Its Weinstein Story". Vanity Fair. Retrieved October 19, 2019. In Oppenheim's mind, he was somehow the victim here. He had launched an amazing and important investigation, only to be saddled with two journalists who just didn't live up to his exceptional standards. Never mind that the New Yorker found a way to publish the same investigation he had killed. Never mind that he was continuing to sit on the results of that investigation while every other news outlet in the country pursued it. He, Noah Oppenheim, was the hero of the tale.
  36. ^ Farrow, Ronan (2019). Catch and kill: lies, spies, and a conspiracy to protect predators. New York: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0-316-48663-7. OCLC 1121593969. NBC says that, you know, you didn't- that the story wasn't publishable, that it wasn't ready to go by the time you brought it to them," she said, referring to Oppenheim's and Kornblau's suggestions that I'd pitched the story, come up empty, then gone off to report it elsewhere of my own volition. Maddow pressed an inded finger on her Lucite desk. Her real eyebrows arched up, and, in the desk, her reflected ones plunged down: a Cirque du Soleil of skepticism. "But obviously it was ready to go by the time you got it into The New Yorker." I'd been clear with Oppenheim that I'd avoid, but wouldn't lie. "I walked into the door at The New Yorker with an explosively reportable piece that should have been public earlier, and immediately, obviously, The New Yorker recognized that," I said. "It is not accurate to say that it was not reportable. In fact, there were multiple determinations that it was reportable at NBC.
  37. ^ Koblin, John (October 11, 2017). "How Did NBC Miss Out on a Harvey Weinstein Exposé?". The New York Times.
  38. ^ Guthrie, Marisa (October 11, 2017). "Why Ronan Farrow's Harvey Weinstein Bombshell Did Not Run on NBC". The Hollywood Reporter.
  39. ^ Ohlheiser, Abby. "The woman behind 'Me Too' knew the power of the phrase when she created it – 10 years ago". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved March 28, 2021.
  40. ^ Koblin, John (December 1, 2017). "After Firing Matt Lauer, NBC Executives Move to Control the Damage". The New York Times.
  41. ^ Tani, Maxwell (October 14, 2019). "NBC News Chief Unleashes on Ronan Farrow in New Staff Memo". The Daily Beast. Retrieved October 16, 2019.
  42. ^ Farhi, Paul (October 10, 2019). "Ronan Farrow overcame spies and intimidation to break some of the biggest stories of the #MeToo era". The Washington Post.
  43. ^ Leitereg, Neal J. (April 3, 2015). "'Today' chief Noah Oppenheim lists Westside place for lease". Los Angeles Times.
  44. ^ Corbett, Sue (June 2, 2017). "BookExpo 2017: Rethinking Royal Garb: Savannah Guthrie & Allison Oppenheim". Publishers Weekly.
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