{"id":518004,"date":"2026-07-09T18:45:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T18:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/518004\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T18:45:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T18:45:07","slug":"today-show-faces-criticism-over-savannah-guthrie-assignment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/518004\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Today’ show faces criticism over Savannah Guthrie assignment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fans of the \u2018Today\u2019 show<\/a> have been up in arms following the producers decision to assign Savannah Guthrie<\/a> a certain story this week.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the longtime co-host presented a story on air about an elderly man who had gone missing, but was later found. According to ABC11<\/a>, Rondy Packard Sr., 70, of California was reported missing after he failed to return from a fishing trip on the morning of June 28. Fortunately, after a six-day search, he was found, much to his family\u2019s relief. <\/p>\n

But given that Guthrie\u2019s own mother, Nancy Guthrie<\/a>, has been missing since late January\u2014with little progress made in finding out what happened to her\u2014many viewers did not approve of the show\u2019s decision to give her that story to read.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow why would they make her report on this story?!?\u201d asked one person on X, sharing a screenshot of Guthrie reporting on the case<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In response to the user\u2019s post, one comment read, \u201cLike they\u2019re sick and twisted,\u201d referring to the daytime news program\u2019s producers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had an entire anchor room of people who could report and she was the only one????\u201d grilled another user.<\/p>\n

A third person said: \u201cBosses really out here assigning \u2018missing elderly\u2019 stories like it\u2019s not your own mom missing. Heartless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others called the decision \u201cterrible\u201d and \u201cevil.\u201d<\/p>\n

One comment even claimed: \u201cAt this point the today show is using her trauma and her family\u2019s tragedy for views and you can\u2019t tell me otherwise because otherwise they wouldn\u2019t have done this.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, not everyone took issue with Guthrie reporting the story. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s her job… should she also not report on any story that involves a mother?\u201d asked one user.<\/p>\n

Nancy Guthrie<\/a>, 84, has been missing since Jan. 31. The case has been marked by a months-long, agonizing search involving the FBI and local authorities, further complicated by several ransom letters sent to various media outlets. <\/p>\n

On June 22, one ransom note received by a media outlet indicated that Nancy had died shortly after her abduction<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In response to the message, Guthrie tearfully made a statement<\/a> at the \u201cToday\u201d desk the following day. \u201cWe are in agony, and we cannot be at peace. We love our mom. We\u2019ll never stop looking for her,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fans of the \u2018Today\u2019 show have been up in arms following the producers decision to assign Savannah Guthrie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":["post-518004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}