Shriver to Quit Job at NBC News

Maria Shriver, trying to balance her roles as a television journalist and as active first lady of California, announced Tuesday that she was leaving her job at NBC News.

The announcement capped weeks of back-and-forth between the network and Shriver, who has been contributing anchor on the newsmagazine “Dateline,” and came after three difficult months of juggling the unusual dual roles.

Shriver had grappled publicly and privately with being both a journalist and a political figure, describing herself as a “work in progress.”

“I was in uncharted territory for a journalist,” Shriver said in a statement released Tuesday. NBC said Shriver, who had talked to numerous colleagues in recent weeks about what she would do, would not otherwise comment.

“I have no doubt that I could report now and in the future for NBC News with total objectivity, independence and without conflict, as I have for the last 18 years,” she added in her statement. But after “much soul searching” she decided it wasn’t possible to maintain her journalistic credentials and still be an active first lady, she said, adding that it had become clear that “my journalistic integrity and that of NBC News will be constantly scrutinized.”

Still to be determined is whether this decision will allow Shriver more time for her role as a key political advisor to her Republican husband, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. He credited her with drawing Democratic and independent votes during the fall’s recall election. The final agreement hammered out between NBC and Shriver leaves open the possibility that she could still appear on television.

Time permitting, she said in her statement, she will work on documentaries and special projects for NBC-owned cable channels or even the NBC network itself, just not under the NBC News banner. NBC has rights of first refusal on any projects, and if they are rejected, Shriver can take them to other cable channels or PBS, with the exception of rival cable news networks. One possible project relates to her children’s books, the latest of which, on Alzheimer’s, will be published in May.

In recent weeks, there has been talk among Schwarzenegger’s political advisors that Shriver might campaign publicly for Propositions 57 and 58, the deficit bond issue and balanced budget amendment that will appear on the March 2 ballot. As of Tuesday, no campaign event for Shriver had been scheduled.

She raised eyebrows with her bosses and many media observers in December when a story in The Times reported on her prominent -- if behind-the-scenes -- role in securing an agreement on budget policy between Schwarzenegger and state legislative leaders. That deal allowed the governor to get the two propositions on the ballot. Also in December, Shriver gave a speech in Sacramento in which she compared the behavior of state legislators with that of children.

Despite her close ties to top NBC News figures, including “Nightly News” anchor Tom Brokaw, many inside the organization were adamant that, with those acts, she had crossed an ethical line and should take a leave, as she had during her husband’s campaign. Others said that, at a minimum, NBC needed to clarify exactly what roles she could and couldn’t play.

NBC News President Neal Shapiro said Tuesday that he had gone “back and forth,” contemplating what he also called uncharted territory. Ultimately, he said, “I shared her biggest concern -- that there would be such incredible scrutiny on every single thing she did

Covering California politics would be “obviously a bad idea,” he said, but as the two talked, nearly every other potential topic she could cover also posed problems.

“We’d say, ‘This really isn’t political, but it could be; this isn’t a central issue facing California, but it might be.’ When you really looked at stories and assignments, it was sometimes very hard to guarantee they wouldn’t touch on any part of politics, because so much of our life does,” Shapiro said.

Shriver’s departure from NBC News was described by the network as “an extended leave of absence,” and Shapiro said she would be welcomed back in the future, depending on the vagaries of her political life. Schwarzenegger’s current term ends in January 2007.

Orville Schell, dean of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, called it a “good decision, both for her and her husband. We are entirely too far down the road of the total hybridizing of news and entertainment, and this was the mother of all examples of this.”

But Schell said Shriver’s continuing deal with the broader NBC network was also problematic. “Leaving the lingering suggestion of an association is sufficient to muddy the waters,” he said.

A decision on how she will use her office as first lady -- she has a space inside the Capitol’s “Horseshoe,” where the governor’s senior staff works -- is still to come.

Shriver has expressed some discomfort with her role. She dislikes being called first lady and has reportedly tried to persuade her California Highway Patrol security detail to call her Maria.

“I said to my girlfriend, I used to feel like I was juggling a lot; now I feel like I could work for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. I’ve got so many balls in the air I have no clue where they’re going to land,” she said Dec. 9 in Sacramento. While calling herself a “full-time volunteer for the state of California,” she has suggested she won’t be a full-time first lady.

Recent weeks have offered conflicting hints on whether Shriver’s role would expand. This week, Terri Carbaugh, formerly the public voice of the California secretary of state, started work in the governor’s office as the first lady’s spokeswoman.

People close to Shriver both inside and outside the government -- many of whom spoke on condition of anonymity -- say she has a number of initiatives in the works, on issues from parents to character education. Shriver herself has said she wants to help form a statewide network of women who own businesses or wish to start one. She also plans to establish a permanent gallery in the Capitol, highlighting the history of California’s first ladies.

At the same time, aides to both her and the governor note that Shriver and Schwarzenegger still live in Brentwood. The first lady has been spending one or two days a week in Sacramento. She is also maintaining long-standing, time-consuming commitments to several causes, from Head Start to the Special Olympics.

“Her life is very busy now,” said Donna Lucas, deputy chief of staff to the governor, who has emerged as Shriver’s right hand in Sacramento. “I don’t see her increasing her profile.”

Friends and aides say the couple’s four children, ages 6 to 13, still consume most of her days. Schwarzenegger has said publicly that, because he is away, he sees his family less.

His schedule varies. In general, he has said, he spends Monday through Wednesday nights in Sacramento, but tries to be home Thursday and Friday nights. On those days, he works out of an office in Santa Monica. He is with his family most weekends, and remains a fervent and vocal fan of the youth sports teams on which his children play. He told a San Francisco audience recently that on many nights he reads with son Patrick, 10.

The couple have said they have no plans to move permanently to Sacramento from the Los Angeles area, where Schwarzenegger has lived more than 30 years. But they continue to look for a home in the capital where they could entertain and occasionally bring the children. Lucas, the deputy chief of staff to the governor, says Shriver wants any home they find to be “a permanent residence, not only for this governor but future governors.”

In the meantime, Schwarzenegger and Shriver bunk at the Hyatt across the street from the Capitol.

In a radio interview Monday with Sacramento station KFBK, the governor said: “My wife is up here, you know, comes up here, and every time she goes to Sacramento she looks for a home -- if there is something that is perfect for this situation. But so far, she hasn’t found anything yet, and I myself spend very little time on that.”

Asked in another recent radio interview if Shriver were “working pretty hard behind the scenes,” the governor said: “Oh, absolutely. Maria is an extraordinary first lady, and she takes her job very seriously.”

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Jensen reported from New York, Rabin from Sacramento and Hall from Los Angeles. Times staff writer Joe Mathews in San Diego contributed to this report.