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Yahoo!
By David Bauder, Ap Television Writer. Wed Oct 9, 5:24 PM ET
NBC canceled Matt Lauer's planned trip to Cuba for Friday's "Today"
show and accused the Cuban government of failing to deliver a promised interview
with Cuban President Fidel Castro — who decided to talk exclusively with
ABC's' Barbara Walters.
"We committed to doing the show down there a couple of weeks ago with
the understanding we had an interview with Castro and when the Cuban government
reneged on our agreement, we changed our plans and will cover the story from
here," NBC spokeswoman Allison Gollust said.
The U.S. television networks were interested in speaking with Castro for the
upcoming 40th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis.
Lauer was going to anchor "Today" from Havana.
Earlier, CBS' Dan Rather was told that he would be granted a Castro
interview for "60 Minutes II." But then those promises turned fuzzy.
"It became increasingly obvious that no one was getting information
that they trusted," CBS News spokeswoman Sandra Genelius said, "so we
chose to walk away from it."
ABC was planning to make the most of its interview, scheduled to run on
Friday's edition of "20/20." The network will also run excerpts on "Good
Morning America," "World News Tonight" and probably on "Nightline."
Walters and Castro have a history: the newswoman interviewed the Cuban
leader in 1977.
Walters was assured by the Cuban government before leaving for the
interview, which was conducted Monday, that she would have an exclusive,
spokesman Jeffrey Schneider said. Castro personally assured Walters of the same
thing when they met, he said.
Schneider said he didn't know whether that was a condition for the
interview.
"We like to have exclusive stories," he said. "So does she."
Gollust said NBC neither expected, nor asked for, exclusive access to
Castro. | 
