Report: NBC blocked Ann Curry's tweet in support of ill competitor Robin Roberts

Matt Lauer and NBC can't be very happy about New York magazine's in-depth account of the backstage in-fighting that led to Ann Curry's ouster from the "Today" show last year.

"If Matt Lauer doesn’t want to be seen with sharp knives, it’s because last summer his co-host Ann Curry was discovered with one in her back," Joe Hagan wrote of the "Today" show's hosting drama, reporting that Lauer wanted Curry to leave and had threatened to move to ABC as a negotiating tactic.

But Hagan also reported that NBC felt so competitive with ABC's "Good Morning America," that Peacock execs prevented Curry from tweeting her sympathies to a very ill Robin Roberts.

"Ann Curry was gone but not gone, which created a situation of spectacular awkwardness. Any trust that had existed between Curry and 'Today' was shattered. When Robin Roberts left 'Good Morning America' a month later to get treatment for MDS, Curry asked NBC if she could tweet a note of sympathy for the ABC co-host. NBC said no, afraid she was trying to aid the enemy."

Roberts, a breast cancer survivor, had a bone-marrow transplant last year to treat her blood disorder, myelodysplastic syndrome.