NBC believes in duty and supports the president (phew!)

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The Obama administration doesn’t have to worry; NBC is in its corner.

Responding to a question from the website Deadline Hollywood Daily about the number of presidential preemptions in prime time, NBC’s entertainment chief, Ben Silverman, said, ‘We believe in duty and support our president.’

While Silverman was being a little flip, there has been a lot of grumbling by the networks about the amount of prime-time appearances by Barack Obama. Fox Broadcasting made news last month by not carrying an Obama briefing, although it did carry the president on its Fox News Channel.

Silverman said that the network will evaluate requests for airtime from the network on a case-by-case basis but would not go out on a limb and say he could envision a scenario in which the network does not carry an Obama briefing. He also joked that the network reviewed its fall schedule with Obama, who was pleased that ‘Chuck’ was coming back and looked forward to NBC’s Olympic coverage.

— Joe Flint