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NBC News president Deborah Turness had to apologize after infuriating top execs and talent by announcing the network news organization had been asleep for 15 years.

Turness, who came to the job from Britain’s ITV News one year ago, dropped the tactless clanger in a New York Times interview on Sunday, saying, “NBC News hadn’t kept up with the times in all sorts of ways, for maybe 15 years . . . I think the organization had gone to sleep.”

Sources tell us Tom Brokaw, managing editor and anchor of NBC’s “Nightly News” from 1982 until 2004, Turness’ predecessor Steve Capus (NBC News president from 2005 to 2013 and now executive producer of “CBS Evening News”) and CNN chief Jeff Zucker “are apoplectic” over Turness’ remark.

One network insider fumed, “Turness is making enemies. Her ‘asleep’ comment is incredibly disrespectful to many of NBC’s top journalists, especially Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams, and her predecessors Steve Capus, Andy Lack, Neal Shapiro and Jeff Zucker.”

Another NBC source added, “The comment caused uproar inside NBC. Several people inside NBC News, including execs who report to Turness, complained. It offended everybody who preceded Turness as far back as Neal Shapiro.”

We’re told Turness was forced to send out apologetic e-mails to staff addressing her comment.

The source added, “It’s astonishing that she seems to have discounted 15 years of robust success before she arrived. Even Brian and Matt Lauer, who were forced to heap praise on Turness in the story, are privately concerned about the direction NBC News might take. There is talk of layoffs. This notion she is swooping in from England to save a snoozing news organization is simply wrong.”

Reps for NBC, Capus and Zucker didn’t get back to us.