Why did NBC's Craig Melvin's Today promotion announcement seem fraught with sensitivity?

CNN

Melvin will officially become Today's "news anchor," a position that was quietly dropped in 2016. But his promotion Tuesday seemed like a formality. As Brian Stelter points out, Melvin is on the weekday version of Today practically every day. So why wasn't a bigger fuss made over his promotion? "In part, it's about the hangover from the (Matt) Lauer scandal. And it's about the art of morning TV war, in which shows are constantly seeking an advantage over competitors," says Stelter, whose 2013 book on the network morning show wars is being turned into an Apple TV series starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. Stelter points out that Today received a lot of buzz when it replaced Matt Lauer with Hoda Kotb, forming morning network TV's first all-female anchor team, which has been embraced by the audience. So NBC News didn't want to make it seem like Melvin's promotion meant that it was moving away from an all-female anchor team.