The private Paula Deen overwhelms the public Paula Deen.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/22/dining/paula-deen-is-a-no-show-on-today.html?smid=tw-nytimes

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/06/19/paula-deen-uses-the-n-word-7-shocking-details-from-her-deposition.html

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/paula-deen-defends-use-n-572562

From the Food Network's PAULA'S HOME COOKING web page (still online as of this writing), this description:
"With small-town life as her inspiration, Paula Deen brings uncomplicated and delicious home cooking to a series dedicated to the American traditions. Whether it's her stories or her recipes from her country kitchen, Paula has always had a gift for lifting spirits."

Now, here's most of the comment made by June Pagan on DEADLINE.com's Comments section under the updated article about Paula Deen and loss of endorsements (plus the Random House book deal):
"Discrimination on any level is not to be tolerated let alone endorsed. The Food Network and any business that is ethical should not be supporting any business that treats it’s employees like second class citizens. It is not right for employees to have to endure racial slurs and pornographic material in the workplace. Obviously ,the employees were afraid of losing their jobs. Paula Deen is a Southern cook who hit a stroke of luck by getting picked up by the Food Network. They gave her fame and she should have passed on that opportunity by making sure that all of her and her co-partners in business supported the people that supported them. Making uncomfortable statements, jokes and exposing them to unfair treatment was and is disghusting, low class and unacceptable."

Deciphering NBC Newsdude Steve Capus' Ann Cuury statement.

"So morning television is HDTV and Ann Curry should have been comfortable doing fluff pieces. And, believe me, our highly-paid consultants tell us that fluff holds onto more eyeballs than serious news in the morning. It's not the first time we've stooped to conquer viewers over six decades of TODAY. Remember the chimpanzee J. Fred Muggs and Willard Scott dressing in drag as Carmen Miranda? We just do that shtick more frequently these days. And besides, Ann--like Meredith--just didn't have the Katie Couric zip. That's why we're rolling dice that Savannah Guthrie can turn the world on with her smile, just like Mary Tyler Moore. Seriously, are you naive enough to think we'd pin the blame for our ratings decline on Matt Lauer?"

Blog commenter with post-mortem on Ann Curry's demotion from TODAY host to NBC correspondent.

Yielding the floor to commenter "Bird" from the HOLLYWOOD-ELSEWHERE site:
Sure, Ann never quite had the snappy easy banter with Matt that Katie or Meredith had, but ultimately she's taking the fall for the scattershot gosspy mess Today has become of late. You can't follow a report on an upcoming Supreme Court ruling with the latest on a reality "star". I mean, unless she was the victim of a terrorist attack there is no reason any [Kardashian] should be mentioned in the top half of the 7am hour.
Good luck to Ann, and my condolences to her replacement.

A question Piers Morgan didn't ask Deborah Norville.

Since Larry King's endgame on CNN, it's no longer considered a good idea for ratings' sake to (gasp!) do an entire segment on a topic/guest.  So Piers Morgan had Deborah Norville on for about ten minutes tonight to answer questions about morning shows, Ann Curry and deal with the subtext of what it's like to follow a popular co-host and be unaccepted.

Here's a question Piers didn't ask Deborah:
You've hosted INSIDE EDITION--a tabloid show.  Used to be that shows like INSIDE EDITION, HARD COPY and A CURRENT AFFAIR had a place in early-evening access--and actual news was still covered on morning and evening news shows.  How do you feel about the TODAY show's continuing efforts to emulate and imitate INSIDE EDITION?