Former MSNBC, Current CBS This Morning Producer On Security Watch List


It is not hard to imagine someone leaving an employer in a blaze of glory, doing unspeakable things before being escorted out of the building and added to a security watch list. But what about someone who helped create one of the most-talked about political TV shows that is still wildly popular who simply left for what he thought would be a better job?

CBS This Morning Executive Producer Chris Licht is apparently on a security watch list at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where he used to work as executive producer on Morning Joe on MSNBC.

Licht did not realize he was on any watch list until he recently accompanied CBS This Morning co-hosts Gayle King and Charlie Rose to a taping of Late Night with Seth Myers and was initially denied entry to the building, according to the New York Post‘s “Page Six”:

“When he arrived at 30 Rock on June 10 for a meeting, the female security guard at the desk recognized Licht, but wouldn’t give him a visitor’s pass.

“‘What’s the matter? What did I do?’ Licht said, according to one of the many witnesses in the lobby. ‘He was visibly embarrassed. They kept him waiting there for about 10 minutes while they huddled in a backroom.'”

The problem, it turned out, was that MSNBC President Phil Griffin has a list of people he has banned from the building and apparently he still holds a bit of a grudge against Licht for taking his brand of smart morning television over to CBS, where he has taken the network’s struggling morning hours and turned them into appointment viewing.

Licht tweeted a confirmation of sorts regarding the security watch list once he was finally allowed to enter the building and wait with King and Rose for their taping of Late Night.

While it is unknown which other former MSNBCers may be on the security watch list at 30 Rock, I’m betting a variety of people who went out from the network in a blaze of glory are probably included along with their photos so security know exactly who they’re looking for. If I had to pick the top two on the list, I would say it probably includes Keith Olbermann and Alec Baldwin. What do you think? Who is on that list? And should Licht have been added even though he supposedly left on good terms simply for a better job?

[Image via Flickr Creative Commons]

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