This is why people hate big, corporate media culture.
An NBC employee that posted vintage “Today” show clip from 1994 -- in which then-anchor Katie Couric asks, “Can you explain what Internet is?” -- to YouTube was apparently fired over it.
Rob Pegoraro, a Washington Post reporter Rob Pegoraro, wrote in a tweet that the unidentified staffer e-mailed him to say he had been let go:
The guy who posted the 1994 Today Show "what is Internet?" clip on YouTube e-mailed to say he got canned for that. Ugh.
A spokesperson for NBC Universal did not immediately return an e-mail seeking confirmation and comment.
The clip -- featuring off-air footage of Couric, Bryant Gumbel and Elizabeth Vargas discussing what, exactly, this “World Wide Web” was -- immediately went viral – and NBC has been asking YouTube to remove copies of the video.
As the Live Feed noted, current "Today" host Matt Lauer even joked about the clip on the air:
"It's easy to laugh now, but we all felt that way," Lauer said. "It was a mystery to all of us."
He added: "I talked to Bryant last night about that clip. He has become quite tech savvy -- he just bought a Sony Walkman."
Luckily, there are plenty of copies still out there on the Internet, like this one:
Watch it while you still can.
