QUAGMIRE ALERT, as we see the grim toll mount: “NBC boss Jeff Zucker is expected to make big cuts on the newsgathering and operational side of the company’s news division, including eliminating an entire level of MSNBC’s management team, in a bid to save between $20 million and $40 million.” Of course, cutting newsgathering means eliminating their big advantage over new media with less infrastructure. As I’ve said before, hard news is the killer-app for Big Media, but they seem curiously uninterested in playing to their strength.