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Lloyd Braun promised two things yesterday:

1. Yahoo won't use Lloyd Braun's original-content ideas for TV-style web shows — the ideas that, presumably, got Braun hired.
2. Lloyd Braun isn't leaving Yahoo.

No, I have no idea how these two facts logically cohere, but the Yahoo Media Group head's announcement hit the front of the New York Times business section.

"We are very happy with Lloyd, and Lloyd is very happy with Yahoo," said COO Daniel Rosensweig. And by "happy with," he means "rejecting every idea from the mouth of." Like the puppet-anchored news shows. And the nation-wide manhunt reality show. All of Lloyd's contributions, basically, have been cancelled.

Lloyd flatly admits: "This is not about creating one-off hits like in my old business." But weren't one-off hits the whole point of hiring him? Isn't this the man known for greenlighting Lost and Desperate Housewives?

So if Yahoo drops the original-content focus...then why, exactly, does it need Lloyd Braun?

Yahoo Says It Is Backing Away From TV-Style Web Shows [NYT]