We all know that NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams is an egotistic, narcissistic, self-promoter. That's stating the obvious. But on Monday's Nightly News (5/6/13), he outdid even his own lofty narcissistic standards. On that broadcast, he reported that the Medal of Honor Society was posthumously awarding its Citizens Honors Medal to the six educators who were killed in the Newtown massacre. Good choice--I think we all agree that they deserve the award. But what Brian didn't disclose is that he himself sits on the board of directors of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. So in other words, he was using his own newscast to promote an organization on whose board he sits--without disclosing his connection to the organization. The MOH Foundation relies heavily on citizen donations, so by doing a story on the MOH Foundation, Brian was raising awareness for his organization with the specific goal of generating donations. That is deceptive, unethical and downright sleazy.
Later in the broadcast, Brian reported the breaking news story that Bill Clinton almost succeeded in brokering a Led Zeppelin reunion for the 12/12/12 Sandy Relief Concert. Now, first of all, this isn't news and it doesn't belong on a network newscast. It was just another excuse for Brian to show video of Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi, two performers that he personally idolizes and who he frequently includes in Nightly News stories. Another expedition into narcissism for Brian Williams. But during this story, Brian also made a point of plugging the Robin Hood Foundation, the concert's organizer. And guess who sits on the board of directors of the Robin Hood Foundation? You guessed it--Brian Williams. And of course the Robin Hood Foundation, like the Medal of Honor Foundation, relies heavily on donations. So he plugged two organizations on whose board he sits--with the specific goal of increasing awareness of those organizations as a way to prompt his viewers to donate. And he never disclosed his connection to either organization. Wow, this guy has some big balls.
Also during Monday's broadcast, Brian reported that Pfizer would begin offering Viagra for sale on the web as a way to offset internet sales of generic and knock-off Viagra drugs. In that story, Brian referred to Pfizer as, "The folks who make the real stuff." Do you know what else Pfizer does? They sponsor NBC Nightly News segments. Since Jan. 1, 2013, Pfizer has sponsored nine different Nightly News "Making A Difference" segments. Of course, that's in addition to the commercials they run for their various products on Nightly News, other NBC shows and the many NBC Universal/Comcast networks. So by promoting Pfizer (and reminding us that they make "the real stuff"), Brian was shamelessly promoting one of his biggest sponsors. Perhaps this was just an opportunity for Brian to say "Thank you" to his pals at Pfizer. But maybe it was something else. Maybe Pfizer actually paid NBC News to have Brian Williams read a faux "news report" about them. That's known as a product placement or branded content. And I certainly wouldn't be surprised to learn that NBC News accepts payment for product placements on Nightly News. After all, paying to have a news report appear on Nightly News would be a great way to let people know that Viagra will now be available on the web. And if Brian Williams himself is selling it, all the better. Because he has such integrity. Does anyone believe that the weasels at NBC News wouldn't do something like this?
So let's recap: On one Nightly News broadcast, Brian Williams promoted two organizations on whose board he sits (both of whom rely heavily on donations) and one mega-huge pharmaceutical conglomerate that sponsors Nightly News segments and advertises on NBC. Brian Williams is a self-promoting, narcissistic scumbag. There's no other way to describe him. A news anchor who uses his broadcast to promote his sponsors and help solicit donations for organizations on whose board he sits should not be allowed on the air. When is the FCC going to demand that NBC dump this guy?
Monday, May 6, 2013
Friday, May 3, 2013
NBC Nightly News Weasels Begin Promoting Sunday Night Football--In May!
This blog has been dormant for the past 8 months. The reason was pretty mundane: My computer was really old and it couldn't access the new, updated version of Blogspot.com. Basically I was locked out of my own blog. Now I have a different, slightly-less-old computer and I can access this site again. In lieu of this blog, I've been expressing my opinions through Twitter (@FakeBriWilliams) which has been working pretty well in terms of making my views known (although not quite so well in attracting followers). I'm not sure what role this blog will have in the future--perhaps it will act as an adjunct to my Twitter posts, since 140 characters can be quite limiting when trying to express the enormous asininity of Brian Williams and NBC Nightly News. We'll see.
Thought for the day: It's been three months since the Super Bowl, which means it's time for the weasels at Nightly News to start promoting NFL football again, even though the regular season doesn't begin for four months. The reason: Sunday Night Football is--by far--NBC's best-rated show and it brings the network a ton of ad revenue. On last Tuesday's (4/30/13) Nightly News, a story about a Boston bombing victim featured a photo of Patriots QB Tom Brady. The same broadcast also included a 2:15 story about how the new Atlanta Falcons stadium may displace some local churches. On Friday (5/3/13), Maria Bartiromo's Nightly News report on the economy included a segment about how the Miami Dolphins were now hiring support and service personnel. These football references were no accidents--they were intentionally inserted into their respective news stories as a way to shamelessly promote the NFL--and, by association, Sunday Night Football on NBC. This is the way the sleazy weasels at NBC operate. They (and "they" includes weasel-in-chief Brian Williams) use Nightly News as a promotional vehicle for NBC sports and entertainment shows. I guarantee that over the next four months, Nightly News will provide a steadily increasing stream of football-related stories leading up to the start of the NFL season. And once the season begins, we can expect the NBC weasels to shift into high gear and resume their regular practice of concluding Sunday Nightly News broadcasts with a football story--usually a story that relates directly to one or both of the teams playing later that night on NBC. NBC Nightly News is often little more than a commercial for Sunday Night Football and other NBC shows. Did you see the way Nightly News promoted the Olympics last summer? That's how they roll at NBC.
To quote George Costanza--"I'm back, baby!"
Thought for the day: It's been three months since the Super Bowl, which means it's time for the weasels at Nightly News to start promoting NFL football again, even though the regular season doesn't begin for four months. The reason: Sunday Night Football is--by far--NBC's best-rated show and it brings the network a ton of ad revenue. On last Tuesday's (4/30/13) Nightly News, a story about a Boston bombing victim featured a photo of Patriots QB Tom Brady. The same broadcast also included a 2:15 story about how the new Atlanta Falcons stadium may displace some local churches. On Friday (5/3/13), Maria Bartiromo's Nightly News report on the economy included a segment about how the Miami Dolphins were now hiring support and service personnel. These football references were no accidents--they were intentionally inserted into their respective news stories as a way to shamelessly promote the NFL--and, by association, Sunday Night Football on NBC. This is the way the sleazy weasels at NBC operate. They (and "they" includes weasel-in-chief Brian Williams) use Nightly News as a promotional vehicle for NBC sports and entertainment shows. I guarantee that over the next four months, Nightly News will provide a steadily increasing stream of football-related stories leading up to the start of the NFL season. And once the season begins, we can expect the NBC weasels to shift into high gear and resume their regular practice of concluding Sunday Nightly News broadcasts with a football story--usually a story that relates directly to one or both of the teams playing later that night on NBC. NBC Nightly News is often little more than a commercial for Sunday Night Football and other NBC shows. Did you see the way Nightly News promoted the Olympics last summer? That's how they roll at NBC.
To quote George Costanza--"I'm back, baby!"
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Sleazy NBC Weasels Use Nightly News To Promote NBC's Fall Schedule
On Monday (9/10/12), NBC Nightly News ran a "news story" about the debate between letting your baby cry all night or rushing to comfort it as soon as it begins crying. First of all, this idiotic story does not in any way qualify as news. With so many actual news events going on across the country and around the world, it's appalling that Brian Williams and his producers would allow this story to air on a news broadcast. But that's hardly the worst part of this horrible situation. The title of the story was "Up All Night"--the same title as the NBC sitcom starring Christina Applegate and Will Arnett that will have its season premiere on Sept. 20. And as if that wasn't bad enough, the story began with an 11-second clip from the NBC sitcom. So it's obvious what's going on here. The weaselly NBC executives think "Up All Night" could become a hit, so they collaborated with Brian and his producers to manufacture a sham "news story" for the sole purpose of promoting this show. It's hard to imagine that a so-called professional news organization could do something so sleazy and unethical. But then again, NBC News these days is rarely mistaken for a professional news organization. One of the main goals of Brian and his producers is to use Nightly News to promote NBC's sports and entertainment programs (and to promote their sponsors as well--but that's a whole different topic. For more on Nightly News's product placements, see the 4/8/12 edition of The Nightly Daily: http://nightly-daily.blogspot.com/2012/04/nbc-nightly-news-show-notes-4712.html). Here's another recent example of Brian using his broadcast to promote NBC's prime-time programming: During the 17 days of the London Olympics, Nightly News spent a total of two-hours-and-twenty-seven minutes airing Olympic-related stories as a way to entice viewers to watch NBC's prime-time Olympic coverage. That's almost nine minutes a night--roughly half of each broadcast when you factor out the commercials and other extraneous non-news material. Obviously, the more viewers that watch the Olympics, the more ad revenue NBC earns.
But perhaps the sleaziest promotion Nightly News ever did was last Feb. 13. Two days after Whitney Houston's death, a story about Houston was given the title "The Voice", which also happens to be the name of NBC's singing competition show. There is absolutely no doubt that the producers gave the story this title in order to promote the NBC show "The Voice", which would be airing later that same night (the words "the Voice" remained on the screen for more than fifteen seconds). Brian and his producers should be deeply ashamed of themselves for using Houston's death to promote an NBC entertainment show. But of course, they're not. That's what they do. In fact, they're probably proud of themselves for figuring out a nifty way to promote "The Voice".
It is a common practice for Brian to use Nightly News stories to promote the Olympics, Sunday Night Football, Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock, and many of NBC's sports, entertainment and news shows--including, of course, his own Rock Center which is heavily promoted on Nightly News. This is not just sleazy and unethical--it falls under the category of journalistic malpractice. Viewers tune in expecting to see news, and instead they see fake news stories promoting NBC shows. So where's the outrage? Why isn't anyone doing anything about this? Why aren't angry viewers marching on 30 Rock with torches and pitchforks demanding the resignation of Brian Williams and NBC News President Steve Capus? When is the FCC going to shut down Nightly News once and for all?
But perhaps the sleaziest promotion Nightly News ever did was last Feb. 13. Two days after Whitney Houston's death, a story about Houston was given the title "The Voice", which also happens to be the name of NBC's singing competition show. There is absolutely no doubt that the producers gave the story this title in order to promote the NBC show "The Voice", which would be airing later that same night (the words "the Voice" remained on the screen for more than fifteen seconds). Brian and his producers should be deeply ashamed of themselves for using Houston's death to promote an NBC entertainment show. But of course, they're not. That's what they do. In fact, they're probably proud of themselves for figuring out a nifty way to promote "The Voice".
It is a common practice for Brian to use Nightly News stories to promote the Olympics, Sunday Night Football, Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock, and many of NBC's sports, entertainment and news shows--including, of course, his own Rock Center which is heavily promoted on Nightly News. This is not just sleazy and unethical--it falls under the category of journalistic malpractice. Viewers tune in expecting to see news, and instead they see fake news stories promoting NBC shows. So where's the outrage? Why isn't anyone doing anything about this? Why aren't angry viewers marching on 30 Rock with torches and pitchforks demanding the resignation of Brian Williams and NBC News President Steve Capus? When is the FCC going to shut down Nightly News once and for all?
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Brian Williams & NBC Nightly News Show Notes: 8/25/12 Through 8/30/12 (++)
From watching NBC Nightly News this past week, you'd think there were only three stories: The death of Neil Armstrong, the Republican National Convention and Hurricane Isaac. Apparently, Brian Williams, Lester Holt and the Nightly News producers don't see their job as reporting all the week's news--they see their job as overreporting those few stories that are guaranteed to earn high ratings while ignoring the rest of the important news from across the country and around the world. Here's what happened this week--according to Brian, Lester et al.:
Sat. August 25--Nightly News spent 9:40 reporting on Hurricane Isaac and 5:40 reporting on the death of Neil Armstrong. Nearly two minutes of their Isaac coverage was devoted to how the storm is affecting Haiti, as if that somehow makes up for the way Nightly News abruptly discontinued their coverage of the 2010 Haiti earthquake in order to spend massive amounts of time promoting the Vancouver Olympics (which started one month after the Haiti earthquake).
***At least 330 people were reportedly killed in a government-sponsored massacre in Syria. So how much time did Nightly News devote to this story? Two minutes? One minute? Nope. It was given all of twenty seconds. Obviously, the Nightly News producers do not care about foreign news (unless it's NBC's own Olympic coverage or stories about the British Royals) because foreign news brings much lower ratings than sensationalistic stories about hurricanes.
***The final segment of the broadcast featured weatherclown Al Roker giving a rambling, repetitive litany of previously reported Isaac facts. He ended his "report" by telling us to stay tuned in to the Weather Channel (which is owned by NBC Universal) and "The Today Show". So this really wasn't about the hurricane, it was about promoting NBC properties. Great job, Al! Thanks! By the way, Roker's show on the Weather Channel is called "Wake Up With Al". That's really, really creepy. I think I need to take a shower now.
Sun. August 26--Nightly News increased their Isaac coverage to more than 10 minutes. This included a pompous 90-second piece from Brian Williams--making a rare self-promotional weekend appearance--in which he again tries to desperately convince us how much he cares about New Orleans. Obviously, the NBC News research department continues to inform Brian that the more he pretends to love New Orleans, the more compassionate he seems, and the higher his ratings climb. So he never misses an opportunity to pander to the people of Louisiana, because pandering is what he does best. Wouldn't it be nice to have a news anchor who reports on stories based solely on their news value, and not based on how they can help his or her ratings? Oh yeah--now that I think of it, there was such an anchor--his name was Charles Gibson.
***During one of the reports on Isaac, we were shown a clip of some comments from Tampa Police Chief Jane Castor. However, she was never identified. I guess the Nightly News producers just assume we all know who she is.
***The broadcast also spent more than five minutes reporting on something just as important as Isaac--the upcoming Republican National Convention. By "reporting on the convention", what I really mean is "promoting the convention". In the following week, NBC will be devoting a large chunk of time to the convention, including programming on CNBC, MSNBC, "The Today Show", Nightly News and several hours of prime time coverage. So by promoting the convention, they are really promoting their own coverage of the convention. And let's face it--promoting NBC programming is one of the main responsibilities of the Nightly News anchors and producers. Remember the two-and-a-half hours Nightly News spent shamelessly plugging the Olympics over those 17 days? Of course you do--it was just a few weeks ago.
***News flash! Ann Romney is the new Michelle Obama. The Nightly News producers have discovered that Ann Romney is very popular and brings huge ratings to their broadcast, so they now make a point of putting her on the air as often as possible. Look--there she is making pancakes! There she is going to church! Isn't she awesome? She's almost like Kate Middleton! First Ladies (and potential First Ladies) are always popular (and always bring high ratings to news broadcasts), so for the Nightly News producers, filling up newstime with Ann Romney is a no-brainer. And by giving her lots of TV exposure now, they're setting themselves up to be in her good favor should Mitt Romney win the election. Then we can look forward to seeing Ann with Jay Leno, Jimmy Fallon, Carson Daly, Matt Lauer, Ellen, Steve Harvey and Jeff Probst. And of course, with Brian Williams.
***Although the Nightly News producers spent more than fifteen minutes reporting on Isaac and the Republican Convention, they nevertheless thought it would be a good idea to waste 2:25 on a pointless story about the TSA and airport shoe removal. Apparently, air travelers will still be removing their shoes for years to come. This trite story could have been reported in fifteen seconds, but they dragged it out to ten times that length because this story was easier to present than real news. And also because Brian has a fetish for stories about air travel. And we all know that whatever Brian wants, Brian gets. Even on nights when he isn't anchoring.
***Speaking of real news, the producers devoted 24 seconds to the Syrian massacre that killed 330 people. That's four seconds more than the previous night's broadcast. I guess you'd have to call that progress.
***Lester Holt spent another 1:40 on a tribute to Neil Armstrong because the ratings go up every time a Nightly News anchor says the word "hero".
***The broadcast ended with a final minute on Isaac because the more scared they can make us, the more likely we will be to watch tomorrow's broadcast. The producers are basically using a cliffhanger ending taken right from the soap operas. Will the levees hold? Will Darlene be able to save her dog Skippy? Can Lonnie rescue his bedridden wife? Will the police arrest Mr. Vandrusz for profiteering? Will gramps be saved by an army helicopter? Tune in tomorrow to see how many people lost their homes! Lots of people will cry! On "As The Hurricane Turns" (AKA NBC Nightly News).
Mon. August 27--Brian and his producers pared their Isaac coverage down to a threadbare 7:20 so they could spend even more time (nearly six minutes) promoting NBC's Convention coverage. Real classy.
***Brian then reported these stories: Two U.S. troops were killed by an Afghan soldier, a Taliban mob beheaded 17 people attending a dance where music was being played and Syrian rebels shot down an army helicopter that was firing on civilians. Brian devoted a total of 37 seconds to these stories. Brian doesn't give a shit about foreign news because it doesn't help his ratings.
***Brian introduced a story about a possible link between a woman's weight and the recurrence of breast cancer. At the top of the broadcast, he previewed this story by calling it "an important story". Um...question for Brian: Aren't all the stories on a network newscast supposed to be important? Well, yes--they're supposed to be. But on Nightly News, that's rarely the case. I guess Brian made a point of calling this story important in order to distinguish it from all the trivial, pointless Nightly News stories about dogs, whales, space travel and planets, British Royals, taunted elderly bus monitors and the Olympics. So remember, Nightly News viewers, if Brian says a story is important, you'd better pay attention. Especially because important stories are so infrequent on Nightly News.
***Brian spent 25 seconds telling us that the FAA plans to study whether air travelers really need to put away their electronic devices before takeoff. A story about a study that may not even change anything? This isn't even worth mentioning. But as I already said, Brian has a fetish for air travel stories and he gets to do whatever he wants.
***Brian ended the broadcast with another tribute to Neil Armstrong. Even though Lester Holt spent more than seven minutes reporting this story over the past two nights, we all know that a story isn't really a story unless Brian himself reports it. Before the final commercial break, Brian promoted the story by calling Armstrong "The last modest hero we ever had." After the break, Brian called him "The last truly modest hero our nation ever produced." So I guess if you say the exact same thing twice, it must be true. Brian's fetish for air travel stories is only eclipsed by his fetish for space travel stories. When it comes to astronauts, Brian is a fawning, ass-kissing sycophant. And his 1:20 laudation for Armstrong was just about the most ass-kissing sycophantic testimonial you could ever imagine hearing. Brian is too wrapped up in his own personal ego trip to understand this, but if you heap praise on someone over and over and over again ad nauseam, it tends to lose meaning. Because of his personal fetish, Brian has zero credibility as an objective reporter about Neil Armstrong (or any other astronaut for that matter). Of course, Brian has zero credibility as an objective reporter about anything. How can he be objective when his main goals are promoting himself and his broadcast, promoting NBC's sports and entertainment programming, promoting his sponsors and pandering to the viewers with a litany of stories designed specifically to attract ratings rather than provide information? Brian isn't a reporter, he's a cheerleader and carnival barker for himself and NBC. Brian is the exact opposite of a "modest hero". He's self-promoting buffoon.
***The self-promoting buffoon signed off for the evening by telling us to watch "an update on the storm on your late local news tonight and of course the Weather Channel all evening long." Even down to the last second, he's still shilling, shilling, shilling. And that's sad, sad, sad.
Tues. August 28--Nightly News spent a combined 17:20 reporting on Hurricane Isaac and the Republican Convention. So you might think that leaves a lot of time to report on other news. Wrong. When you remove all the commercials, the promos and the self-promoting story introductions, Nightly News is essentially a twenty minute broadcast. So how much time did they spend reporting stories other than Isaac and the Republican convention? Less than two minutes. That's ridiculous. A newscast is supposed to report all the day's news, not just the stories that will bring in high ratings. It is absolutely irresponsible for a newscast to devote so little time to reporting the rest of the day's news. But then again, no one ever claimed that Nightly News was a responsible broadcast.
***When Brian introduced John Yang's report from the convention floor, he made sure to tell us that Yang was with the delegates from "the great state of Maine." These major political conventions must pose a real logistical challenge to Brian. So many states to shamelessly pander to, so little time.
***Right after that, Brian told us that Luke Russert "has made his way to the great state of West Virginia". Why doesn't Brian just take a few minutes at the beginning of the broadcast to call each individual state "the great state of..." Then he won't have to worry about doing it during the broadcast. Russert sounded like he was doing an ad for the West Virginia board of tourism. Of course, the larger issue is this: Why is Luke Russert even on the air at all? Before being hired, he had no experience whatsoever as a journalist. His only credential is that he's the son of Tim Russert. And since Brian liked Tim, he gave Luke a coveted on-air job. There are hundreds--maybe thousands--of experienced television correspondents looking for work, and Luke Russert gets handed a plum job. It's nice to see that nepotism is alive and well an NBC News. Obviously, Brian has taken Luke under his wing and is personally guiding his career as a favor to Tim's memory. It's the same way Tony Soprano took Christopher Moltisanti under his wing and guided his career.
***Brian spent 40 seconds reporting the death of photojournalist Malcolm Browne. Brian likes to report the obits of real journalists because it allows him to pretend that he's in that club. He isn't.
***The final story was about a man in New Orleans' lower ninth ward who is going door to door checking on his neighbors. That's a nice thing to do, but how is this news? It isn't. But sappy human interest stories like this get higher ratings than actual news, so every year, Brian packs his broadcast with hundreds of minutes of this drivel. On a night when Nightly News presented so little actual news, it's shameless that they would include this story. But shameless stories get good ratings, and that's all that matters to Brian and his producers. On this night, Nightly News did not even bother reporting on Syria. But at least we know all about the man who goes door to door checking on his neighbors.
Wed. August 29--The lead story on the effects of Hurricane Isaac featured four different shots of dogs (with their owners) being rescued. This is not an accident. Nothing on Nightly News happens by accident. NBC News research shows that Nightly News viewers like dogs, so part of Brian's strategy for boosting his ratings is to include dogs as often as possible in news stories. If research showed that viewers liked armadillos, he would use armadillos in Nightly News stories.
***Here's how Brian introduced a segment with the Weather Channel's Jim Cantore: "Jim, I'm watchin' the coverage--seeing a lot of streets and neighborhoods--even structures that I'm familiar with...." That HE's familiar with. Because the news is always about Brian. And notice how Brian dropped the "g" from watching (and pronounced it as "watchin'")? That's part of his strategy to appear less patrician and more like the "regular good old middle-American folks" whose ratings he so desperately craves. At the end of Cantore's report, Brian said, "Jim, I do remember seven years ago tonight the water approaching that very intersection where you're standing...." Again, the news is about Brian and what HE remembers.
***Brian spent more than three minutes talking with Ann Romney. She's popular now and trending on many social media websites, so Brian makes a point of including her on Nightly News as often as possible (she was also featured prominently in the preceding story). Dogs, Ann Romney--anything that can be used to pander to viewers and grab ratings is fair game to be exploited by Brian and his producers.
***Next, we saw a three-minute story about the new book by a former Navy SEAL detailing the killing of Osama bin Laden. Meanwhile, over at CBS, Scott Pelley actually interviewed the book's author, who goes by the pseudonym Mark Owen. Brian spends a good chunk of time kissing ass to Navy SEALs (and every other member of the U.S. military) and Owen chose to ignore Brian and speak with Scott Pelley instead. It seems as if Navy SEALs don't really like Brian.
***Later, Brian spent twenty seconds telling us about the opening ceremonies for the Paralympic Games. Brian doesn't really care about the Paralympics because they don't generate any money or ratings for NBC, like the London Olympics did. In fact, NBC is so uninterested in televising a ratings loser like the Paralympics that they've relegated those Games to their NBC Sports cable channel, where they will get a paltry few hours of midweek coverage--but nothing on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. The only reason Brian aired this story was because it allowed him to show a clip of Will & Kate.
***Once again, Nightly News did not report on the civil war in Syria. But at least we know all about dogs being rescued in Louisiana and Ann Romney.
Thurs. August 30--The broadcast began with nine-and-a-half minutes worth of coverage on the Republican Convention. Part of this time was devoted to Brian's "interview" with Paul Ryan. During this interview, Brian incorrectly asserted that the Republican platform does not allow for abortion exception in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother. Ryan had to correct Brian--twice--by reminding him that the platform is silent on the issue and the President sets policy. It's obvious that Brian's main goal in this sham interview was to try to trip up Ryan and catch him in a contradiction, but Ryan ended up running circles around Brian. Score: Ryan 1; Brian 0.
***Next, Brian brought in Tom Brokaw for some commentary. Big mistake. Whenever Tom appears with Brian, he reminds viewers what it was like to have an actual journalist as anchor of NBC Nightly News, instead of a talking head reading off a teleprompter. Tom's enormousness makes Brian seem feeble and slight by comparison. Note to Brian--it's not a good idea to have Tom Brokaw on your broadcast.
***Pete Williams is still my hero. On this night--as he does on all nights--Brian introduced Pete with a treacly, "Good evening, Pete." And as usual, Pete refused to return Brian's greeting with an equally syrupy, "Good evening, Brian." Instead, Pete ignored Brian and launched right into his story on voter ID laws in Texas. Contrast Pete Williams with fawning Nightly News sycophants like Kristen Welker and Peter Alexander who always respond to Brian's greeting with a hearty, "Good evening TO YOU, Brian!" I applaud Pete for having the balls to stand up to Brian. It's just sad that Brian is so desperate to appear well-liked by the Nightly News correspondents. From what I understand, that's not the case at all.
***A story on the aftermath of Hurricane Isaac in Louisiana featured multiple shots of dogs being rescued. Once again, this is just Brian's way of pandering to dog-loving viewers in the hope of getting a ratings boost.
***Here's how Brian introduced Jim Cantore's segment on Isaac: "Jim, we're gonna come on up there and join you tomorrow to see for ourselves...." Of course Brian has to draw attention to himself and announce what HE will be doing, because that's much more important than what's actually going on in New Orleans.
***Brian took 30 seconds to tell us that a 100-year-old man in L.A. accidentally drove his car into a group of school children. It's obvious that Brian has no clue about the difference between local and national news items. Or perhaps he does, but chooses to report on sensationalistic local stories because they bring in ratings.
***Stop the presses! Breaking news! MTV is cancelling "Jersey Shore". This is what Brian has decided merits 30 seconds of newstime on Nightly News. Can you imagine Scott Pelley running this garbage as a news piece on CBS Evening News? That would never happen--even though CBS and MTV are both controlled by the same corporate entity! But I guess it's not fair to compare Brian Williams to Scott Pelley. Pelley is a news anchor whose responsibility is informing his viewers about important stories happening across the country and around the world, and Brian is a carnival barker whose main goal is to run stories that boost his ratings and promote his network and sponsors. Totally different job descriptions.
***Here's how Brian introduced the final segment: "Thanks to the good people of the New Mexico delegation on the floor of this convention, Andrea Mitchell has set up shop there to offer us a few final thoughts" on the convention. Clearly, Brian's goal for covering the two political conventions is to refer to the people in each of the fifty states as "the good people of..." because shamelessly pandering for ratings is what he does best. I guess the nine minutes-plus that Nightly News devoted to the convention at the beginning of the broadcast just wasn't enough, so we needed another 1:10 to close the show.
***The broadcast ended with 30 seconds of theme music, accompanied by shots of the Tampa skyline. So let me get this straight--Nightly News did not report a single story from outside the U.S.--no Europe, no Africa, no Asia, no Syria--but they wasted 30 seconds of dead air at the end of the broadcast. That's appalling. But at least we learned about some important stuff--like the 100-year-old man who ran over some kids and that "Jersey Shore" is being cancelled. Great job, Brian!
Sat. August 25--Nightly News spent 9:40 reporting on Hurricane Isaac and 5:40 reporting on the death of Neil Armstrong. Nearly two minutes of their Isaac coverage was devoted to how the storm is affecting Haiti, as if that somehow makes up for the way Nightly News abruptly discontinued their coverage of the 2010 Haiti earthquake in order to spend massive amounts of time promoting the Vancouver Olympics (which started one month after the Haiti earthquake).
***At least 330 people were reportedly killed in a government-sponsored massacre in Syria. So how much time did Nightly News devote to this story? Two minutes? One minute? Nope. It was given all of twenty seconds. Obviously, the Nightly News producers do not care about foreign news (unless it's NBC's own Olympic coverage or stories about the British Royals) because foreign news brings much lower ratings than sensationalistic stories about hurricanes.
***The final segment of the broadcast featured weatherclown Al Roker giving a rambling, repetitive litany of previously reported Isaac facts. He ended his "report" by telling us to stay tuned in to the Weather Channel (which is owned by NBC Universal) and "The Today Show". So this really wasn't about the hurricane, it was about promoting NBC properties. Great job, Al! Thanks! By the way, Roker's show on the Weather Channel is called "Wake Up With Al". That's really, really creepy. I think I need to take a shower now.
Sun. August 26--Nightly News increased their Isaac coverage to more than 10 minutes. This included a pompous 90-second piece from Brian Williams--making a rare self-promotional weekend appearance--in which he again tries to desperately convince us how much he cares about New Orleans. Obviously, the NBC News research department continues to inform Brian that the more he pretends to love New Orleans, the more compassionate he seems, and the higher his ratings climb. So he never misses an opportunity to pander to the people of Louisiana, because pandering is what he does best. Wouldn't it be nice to have a news anchor who reports on stories based solely on their news value, and not based on how they can help his or her ratings? Oh yeah--now that I think of it, there was such an anchor--his name was Charles Gibson.
***During one of the reports on Isaac, we were shown a clip of some comments from Tampa Police Chief Jane Castor. However, she was never identified. I guess the Nightly News producers just assume we all know who she is.
***The broadcast also spent more than five minutes reporting on something just as important as Isaac--the upcoming Republican National Convention. By "reporting on the convention", what I really mean is "promoting the convention". In the following week, NBC will be devoting a large chunk of time to the convention, including programming on CNBC, MSNBC, "The Today Show", Nightly News and several hours of prime time coverage. So by promoting the convention, they are really promoting their own coverage of the convention. And let's face it--promoting NBC programming is one of the main responsibilities of the Nightly News anchors and producers. Remember the two-and-a-half hours Nightly News spent shamelessly plugging the Olympics over those 17 days? Of course you do--it was just a few weeks ago.
***News flash! Ann Romney is the new Michelle Obama. The Nightly News producers have discovered that Ann Romney is very popular and brings huge ratings to their broadcast, so they now make a point of putting her on the air as often as possible. Look--there she is making pancakes! There she is going to church! Isn't she awesome? She's almost like Kate Middleton! First Ladies (and potential First Ladies) are always popular (and always bring high ratings to news broadcasts), so for the Nightly News producers, filling up newstime with Ann Romney is a no-brainer. And by giving her lots of TV exposure now, they're setting themselves up to be in her good favor should Mitt Romney win the election. Then we can look forward to seeing Ann with Jay Leno, Jimmy Fallon, Carson Daly, Matt Lauer, Ellen, Steve Harvey and Jeff Probst. And of course, with Brian Williams.
***Although the Nightly News producers spent more than fifteen minutes reporting on Isaac and the Republican Convention, they nevertheless thought it would be a good idea to waste 2:25 on a pointless story about the TSA and airport shoe removal. Apparently, air travelers will still be removing their shoes for years to come. This trite story could have been reported in fifteen seconds, but they dragged it out to ten times that length because this story was easier to present than real news. And also because Brian has a fetish for stories about air travel. And we all know that whatever Brian wants, Brian gets. Even on nights when he isn't anchoring.
***Speaking of real news, the producers devoted 24 seconds to the Syrian massacre that killed 330 people. That's four seconds more than the previous night's broadcast. I guess you'd have to call that progress.
***Lester Holt spent another 1:40 on a tribute to Neil Armstrong because the ratings go up every time a Nightly News anchor says the word "hero".
***The broadcast ended with a final minute on Isaac because the more scared they can make us, the more likely we will be to watch tomorrow's broadcast. The producers are basically using a cliffhanger ending taken right from the soap operas. Will the levees hold? Will Darlene be able to save her dog Skippy? Can Lonnie rescue his bedridden wife? Will the police arrest Mr. Vandrusz for profiteering? Will gramps be saved by an army helicopter? Tune in tomorrow to see how many people lost their homes! Lots of people will cry! On "As The Hurricane Turns" (AKA NBC Nightly News).
Mon. August 27--Brian and his producers pared their Isaac coverage down to a threadbare 7:20 so they could spend even more time (nearly six minutes) promoting NBC's Convention coverage. Real classy.
***Brian then reported these stories: Two U.S. troops were killed by an Afghan soldier, a Taliban mob beheaded 17 people attending a dance where music was being played and Syrian rebels shot down an army helicopter that was firing on civilians. Brian devoted a total of 37 seconds to these stories. Brian doesn't give a shit about foreign news because it doesn't help his ratings.
***Brian introduced a story about a possible link between a woman's weight and the recurrence of breast cancer. At the top of the broadcast, he previewed this story by calling it "an important story". Um...question for Brian: Aren't all the stories on a network newscast supposed to be important? Well, yes--they're supposed to be. But on Nightly News, that's rarely the case. I guess Brian made a point of calling this story important in order to distinguish it from all the trivial, pointless Nightly News stories about dogs, whales, space travel and planets, British Royals, taunted elderly bus monitors and the Olympics. So remember, Nightly News viewers, if Brian says a story is important, you'd better pay attention. Especially because important stories are so infrequent on Nightly News.
***Brian spent 25 seconds telling us that the FAA plans to study whether air travelers really need to put away their electronic devices before takeoff. A story about a study that may not even change anything? This isn't even worth mentioning. But as I already said, Brian has a fetish for air travel stories and he gets to do whatever he wants.
***Brian ended the broadcast with another tribute to Neil Armstrong. Even though Lester Holt spent more than seven minutes reporting this story over the past two nights, we all know that a story isn't really a story unless Brian himself reports it. Before the final commercial break, Brian promoted the story by calling Armstrong "The last modest hero we ever had." After the break, Brian called him "The last truly modest hero our nation ever produced." So I guess if you say the exact same thing twice, it must be true. Brian's fetish for air travel stories is only eclipsed by his fetish for space travel stories. When it comes to astronauts, Brian is a fawning, ass-kissing sycophant. And his 1:20 laudation for Armstrong was just about the most ass-kissing sycophantic testimonial you could ever imagine hearing. Brian is too wrapped up in his own personal ego trip to understand this, but if you heap praise on someone over and over and over again ad nauseam, it tends to lose meaning. Because of his personal fetish, Brian has zero credibility as an objective reporter about Neil Armstrong (or any other astronaut for that matter). Of course, Brian has zero credibility as an objective reporter about anything. How can he be objective when his main goals are promoting himself and his broadcast, promoting NBC's sports and entertainment programming, promoting his sponsors and pandering to the viewers with a litany of stories designed specifically to attract ratings rather than provide information? Brian isn't a reporter, he's a cheerleader and carnival barker for himself and NBC. Brian is the exact opposite of a "modest hero". He's self-promoting buffoon.
***The self-promoting buffoon signed off for the evening by telling us to watch "an update on the storm on your late local news tonight and of course the Weather Channel all evening long." Even down to the last second, he's still shilling, shilling, shilling. And that's sad, sad, sad.
Tues. August 28--Nightly News spent a combined 17:20 reporting on Hurricane Isaac and the Republican Convention. So you might think that leaves a lot of time to report on other news. Wrong. When you remove all the commercials, the promos and the self-promoting story introductions, Nightly News is essentially a twenty minute broadcast. So how much time did they spend reporting stories other than Isaac and the Republican convention? Less than two minutes. That's ridiculous. A newscast is supposed to report all the day's news, not just the stories that will bring in high ratings. It is absolutely irresponsible for a newscast to devote so little time to reporting the rest of the day's news. But then again, no one ever claimed that Nightly News was a responsible broadcast.
***When Brian introduced John Yang's report from the convention floor, he made sure to tell us that Yang was with the delegates from "the great state of Maine." These major political conventions must pose a real logistical challenge to Brian. So many states to shamelessly pander to, so little time.
***Right after that, Brian told us that Luke Russert "has made his way to the great state of West Virginia". Why doesn't Brian just take a few minutes at the beginning of the broadcast to call each individual state "the great state of..." Then he won't have to worry about doing it during the broadcast. Russert sounded like he was doing an ad for the West Virginia board of tourism. Of course, the larger issue is this: Why is Luke Russert even on the air at all? Before being hired, he had no experience whatsoever as a journalist. His only credential is that he's the son of Tim Russert. And since Brian liked Tim, he gave Luke a coveted on-air job. There are hundreds--maybe thousands--of experienced television correspondents looking for work, and Luke Russert gets handed a plum job. It's nice to see that nepotism is alive and well an NBC News. Obviously, Brian has taken Luke under his wing and is personally guiding his career as a favor to Tim's memory. It's the same way Tony Soprano took Christopher Moltisanti under his wing and guided his career.
***Brian spent 40 seconds reporting the death of photojournalist Malcolm Browne. Brian likes to report the obits of real journalists because it allows him to pretend that he's in that club. He isn't.
***The final story was about a man in New Orleans' lower ninth ward who is going door to door checking on his neighbors. That's a nice thing to do, but how is this news? It isn't. But sappy human interest stories like this get higher ratings than actual news, so every year, Brian packs his broadcast with hundreds of minutes of this drivel. On a night when Nightly News presented so little actual news, it's shameless that they would include this story. But shameless stories get good ratings, and that's all that matters to Brian and his producers. On this night, Nightly News did not even bother reporting on Syria. But at least we know all about the man who goes door to door checking on his neighbors.
Wed. August 29--The lead story on the effects of Hurricane Isaac featured four different shots of dogs (with their owners) being rescued. This is not an accident. Nothing on Nightly News happens by accident. NBC News research shows that Nightly News viewers like dogs, so part of Brian's strategy for boosting his ratings is to include dogs as often as possible in news stories. If research showed that viewers liked armadillos, he would use armadillos in Nightly News stories.
***Here's how Brian introduced a segment with the Weather Channel's Jim Cantore: "Jim, I'm watchin' the coverage--seeing a lot of streets and neighborhoods--even structures that I'm familiar with...." That HE's familiar with. Because the news is always about Brian. And notice how Brian dropped the "g" from watching (and pronounced it as "watchin'")? That's part of his strategy to appear less patrician and more like the "regular good old middle-American folks" whose ratings he so desperately craves. At the end of Cantore's report, Brian said, "Jim, I do remember seven years ago tonight the water approaching that very intersection where you're standing...." Again, the news is about Brian and what HE remembers.
***Brian spent more than three minutes talking with Ann Romney. She's popular now and trending on many social media websites, so Brian makes a point of including her on Nightly News as often as possible (she was also featured prominently in the preceding story). Dogs, Ann Romney--anything that can be used to pander to viewers and grab ratings is fair game to be exploited by Brian and his producers.
***Next, we saw a three-minute story about the new book by a former Navy SEAL detailing the killing of Osama bin Laden. Meanwhile, over at CBS, Scott Pelley actually interviewed the book's author, who goes by the pseudonym Mark Owen. Brian spends a good chunk of time kissing ass to Navy SEALs (and every other member of the U.S. military) and Owen chose to ignore Brian and speak with Scott Pelley instead. It seems as if Navy SEALs don't really like Brian.
***Later, Brian spent twenty seconds telling us about the opening ceremonies for the Paralympic Games. Brian doesn't really care about the Paralympics because they don't generate any money or ratings for NBC, like the London Olympics did. In fact, NBC is so uninterested in televising a ratings loser like the Paralympics that they've relegated those Games to their NBC Sports cable channel, where they will get a paltry few hours of midweek coverage--but nothing on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. The only reason Brian aired this story was because it allowed him to show a clip of Will & Kate.
***Once again, Nightly News did not report on the civil war in Syria. But at least we know all about dogs being rescued in Louisiana and Ann Romney.
Thurs. August 30--The broadcast began with nine-and-a-half minutes worth of coverage on the Republican Convention. Part of this time was devoted to Brian's "interview" with Paul Ryan. During this interview, Brian incorrectly asserted that the Republican platform does not allow for abortion exception in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother. Ryan had to correct Brian--twice--by reminding him that the platform is silent on the issue and the President sets policy. It's obvious that Brian's main goal in this sham interview was to try to trip up Ryan and catch him in a contradiction, but Ryan ended up running circles around Brian. Score: Ryan 1; Brian 0.
***Next, Brian brought in Tom Brokaw for some commentary. Big mistake. Whenever Tom appears with Brian, he reminds viewers what it was like to have an actual journalist as anchor of NBC Nightly News, instead of a talking head reading off a teleprompter. Tom's enormousness makes Brian seem feeble and slight by comparison. Note to Brian--it's not a good idea to have Tom Brokaw on your broadcast.
***Pete Williams is still my hero. On this night--as he does on all nights--Brian introduced Pete with a treacly, "Good evening, Pete." And as usual, Pete refused to return Brian's greeting with an equally syrupy, "Good evening, Brian." Instead, Pete ignored Brian and launched right into his story on voter ID laws in Texas. Contrast Pete Williams with fawning Nightly News sycophants like Kristen Welker and Peter Alexander who always respond to Brian's greeting with a hearty, "Good evening TO YOU, Brian!" I applaud Pete for having the balls to stand up to Brian. It's just sad that Brian is so desperate to appear well-liked by the Nightly News correspondents. From what I understand, that's not the case at all.
***A story on the aftermath of Hurricane Isaac in Louisiana featured multiple shots of dogs being rescued. Once again, this is just Brian's way of pandering to dog-loving viewers in the hope of getting a ratings boost.
***Here's how Brian introduced Jim Cantore's segment on Isaac: "Jim, we're gonna come on up there and join you tomorrow to see for ourselves...." Of course Brian has to draw attention to himself and announce what HE will be doing, because that's much more important than what's actually going on in New Orleans.
***Brian took 30 seconds to tell us that a 100-year-old man in L.A. accidentally drove his car into a group of school children. It's obvious that Brian has no clue about the difference between local and national news items. Or perhaps he does, but chooses to report on sensationalistic local stories because they bring in ratings.
***Stop the presses! Breaking news! MTV is cancelling "Jersey Shore". This is what Brian has decided merits 30 seconds of newstime on Nightly News. Can you imagine Scott Pelley running this garbage as a news piece on CBS Evening News? That would never happen--even though CBS and MTV are both controlled by the same corporate entity! But I guess it's not fair to compare Brian Williams to Scott Pelley. Pelley is a news anchor whose responsibility is informing his viewers about important stories happening across the country and around the world, and Brian is a carnival barker whose main goal is to run stories that boost his ratings and promote his network and sponsors. Totally different job descriptions.
***Here's how Brian introduced the final segment: "Thanks to the good people of the New Mexico delegation on the floor of this convention, Andrea Mitchell has set up shop there to offer us a few final thoughts" on the convention. Clearly, Brian's goal for covering the two political conventions is to refer to the people in each of the fifty states as "the good people of..." because shamelessly pandering for ratings is what he does best. I guess the nine minutes-plus that Nightly News devoted to the convention at the beginning of the broadcast just wasn't enough, so we needed another 1:10 to close the show.
***The broadcast ended with 30 seconds of theme music, accompanied by shots of the Tampa skyline. So let me get this straight--Nightly News did not report a single story from outside the U.S.--no Europe, no Africa, no Asia, no Syria--but they wasted 30 seconds of dead air at the end of the broadcast. That's appalling. But at least we learned about some important stuff--like the 100-year-old man who ran over some kids and that "Jersey Shore" is being cancelled. Great job, Brian!
Friday, August 31, 2012
Why Brian Williams Is The Biggest Hypocrite on TV
On the 6/3/11 NBC Nightly News, Brian Williams spoke derisively about Mitt Romney's new wardrobe and his new look of "studied casualness". Brian accused Romney of buying "new jeans and a fleet of I'm-just-a-regular-guy shirts...," as part of a new and intentional image makeover. Romney's goal was obviously to appeal to the middle-American heartland working-class, salt-of-the-earth people whose votes he so desperately needs. Wow--where does Brian get balls that big? On Friday's Nightly News (8/31/12), Brian reported from New Orleans wearing the exact same type of I'm-just-a-regular-guy shirt and pants that he criticized Romney for wearing! And Brian was wearing these clothes in order to appeal to the middle American heartland working-class, salt-of-the-earth people whose ratings he so desperately needs. What a hypocrite! (Brian is partial to blue shirts and beige khakis.) Talk about "studied casualness"! Where does Brian get the nerve to criticize Romney for image management? There is no one on the planet whose image is more studied, managed, controlled and manipulated than Brian Williams. Every aspect of his on-air persona is carefully honed and crafted to bring us the character of "Brian Williams" that we see every night on Nightly News. I'm certain that Brian has ten image managers for every one Romney has. Hair stylists. Makeup artists. Wardrobe consultants. Personal assistants. Skin consultants. Feng Shui advisors. Astrologists. I'll bet Brian employs a full-time person just to act as his tie wrangler. And then there is NBC's team of high-priced behavioral consultants and analysts. They pore over every microscopic detail of every Nightly News broadcast. What if Brian sat three inches to the right? What if he moved his left arm up a bit? What if he lifted his head up higher? What if he dropped his "g's" and pronounced words like "talking" as talkin' and "watching" as watchin'? What if he wore more blue? Should he wear his eyeglasses more often? Should he trim 1/4" off his hair? They search for any tiny change that can improve Brian's ratings. They constantly conduct focus groups to find out what viewers think of every aspect of Brian and his broadcast. Do you like his hair? Do you like his tie? Do you like his shirt? Do you like his tone and inflection? Brian wouldn't dare wear a stitch of clothing on the air unless it had first been approved by a focus group. If a panel of viewers indicated that they didn't like one of his ties, it would be taken out back and burned immediately. But the analysis doesn't stop there. There's also bio-analysis. Focus group participants are hooked up to medical monitors while watching NBC Nightly News. Their heart rates are monitored. Their breathing is monitored. Their pupil dilation is monitored. Their eye movements are monitored. All on a second-by-second basis. If viewers look away from Brian at a certain point, the analysts need to find out why. Was it his tone of voice? The particular news story he was reading? The camera angle? The people in the newsroom behind him? The on-screen graphics?
So with all this going on, Brian had the nerve to criticize Mitt Romney for buying a few new shirts--the exact same kind of shirts that Brian himself wears to improve his own image. Politics is largely about image. News broadcasting is ALL about image. Brian has taken one of his own most weaselly and disingenuous traits and used it to mock Mitt Romney. That is the ultimate in hypocrisy. And it's hilarious. It would be like Donald Trump making fun of someone else's hair.
So with all this going on, Brian had the nerve to criticize Mitt Romney for buying a few new shirts--the exact same kind of shirts that Brian himself wears to improve his own image. Politics is largely about image. News broadcasting is ALL about image. Brian has taken one of his own most weaselly and disingenuous traits and used it to mock Mitt Romney. That is the ultimate in hypocrisy. And it's hilarious. It would be like Donald Trump making fun of someone else's hair.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Brian Williams & NBC Nightly News Show Notes: 8/18/12 Through 8/24/12 (Updated--Full Week)
Here's what you may have missed on NBC Nightly News this past week:
Sat. August 18--As Lester Holt introduced the lead story about the Medicare debate, there was a giant animated flag waving behind his head. No surprise--there is often a giant animated flag waving behind Lester or Brian Williams. It's just another way for the producers to pander to the God-lovin', NASCAR-watchin', middle Americans whose viewership is so prized. Another ratings stunt from Nightly News.
***After that, Lester (with the giant flag still waving behind him) brought in David Gregory for some expert analysis. By "for some expert analysis", I mean "to promote 'Meet the Press'".
***Did you really think the Olympics are over? Well, they're not. Lester read a story about Michael Phelps posing for some provocative photos, followed by a story about Olympic Athletes being honored in Des Moines. This story included footage of Gabby Douglas and Lolo Jones. NBC is busy selling their Olympic DVDs, so the Nightly News producers are doing everything they can to help with promotion.
***The next story was about an Indiana baseball team in the Little League World Series whose players are competing in the memory of their former coach who died of cancer. That's nice, but why is this on a newscast? It's not news. But that doesn't matter to the Nightly News producers. To them, news isn't nearly as important as ratings. And sappy, emotional stories like this one (usually involving cancer) are exactly the types of stories that keep viewers from changing the channel. If the producers can get viewers to bond with a story, then ratings go up. Nightly News leads all other newscasts in exploiting cancer as a way to get high ratings. Congratulations to the producers. They should be so proud of themselves. By the way, this story was titled "Field of Dreams". The producers love to give their stories the titles of movies, TV shows or popular songs because it gives the viewers something familiar to relate to. And if a viewer sees something familiar, he's more likely to keep watching. In the past four months, the producers have done this 25 times. Here are some of the titles they've used for stories: "The Rising", "Coming to America", "Moonstruck" (three times), "The Weather Channel", "Risky Business" (five times), "Modern Family", "A Star Is Born", "Ring of Fire", "The Natural", "Father Knows Best", "All in the Family", "Top Chef", "To Catch A Thief", "Back to the Future" (twice), "Deep Impact" and "Sudden Impact". Just another sleazy ratings ploy from your friends at Nightly News.
***The final story was about a National Guard veteran who tracks down purple hearts in pawn shops, antique stores and other places and then returns them to the original owners (or the owner's family). This is another story without a shred of news value. Like the previous story, it was included only because it's a good way to keep viewers tuned in and boost ratings. So the final four minutes of the broadcast did not contain any actual news. What a surprise. Not really. Nightly News reports on garbage because garbage gets high ratings.
Sun. August 19--No Nightly News on the east coast because golf ran late. Let's face it--golf gets higher ratings (and earns higher ad rates) than news, so pre-empting Nightly News wasn't exactly a tough decision for the NBC programming weasels.
Mon. August 20--Brian spent 3:10 on a story about a woman with Parkinson's disease who underwent brain surgery to lessen her symptoms. We're glad it worked out for her, but this isn't news. It's just another opportunity for Brian and his producers to exploit someone's serious medical condition in order to help their ratings. Shameful.
***Speaking of shameful, here's what Brian said about Rosie O'Donnell's heart attack: "She finally took a BAYER aspirin--the way she learned in the TV commercial." It's no coincidence that Brian mentioned Bayer by name. Bayer is by far the most frequent advertiser on Nightly News--they usually run two, three or even four commercials a night for their various products--Bayer aspirin, Aleve, One A Day vitamins, Alka-Seltzer products, Phillips Colon Health, Citracal, etc. Now I don't know what brand of aspirin Rosie actually took, but an anchor who blatantly promotes his largest sponsor on the air is the lowest form of journalistic life. Of course, plugging Bayer products on Nightly News is nothing new for Brian. On 12/6/10 and 10/27/11, Nightly News ran sham news stories about the health benefits of aspirin. In truth, these stories were created as product placement opportunities for Bayer. In both stories, Bayer was the only national brand of aspirin shown (multiple times, in fact) and both stories included clips from Bayer TV ads. Those aren't news stories, they're commercials. And on 6/8/10, Nightly News aired a story about an obscure Danish medical study which concluded that Naproxen (sold in the U.S. as Bayer's Aleve) can reduce the risk of heart attacks. Needless to say, this story featured many shots of Aleve. But I wouldn't want you to think that Brian only plugs Bayer products on the air. For a more complete list of Brian's on-air promotions and product placements, see the 4/8/12 Nightly Daily blog (http://nightly-daily.blogspot.com/2012/04/nbc-nightly-news-show-notes-4712.html).
***Brian then took 30 seconds to read the obituary for Scott McKenzie, who had a hit (his only hit, actually) 45 years ago with "(If You're Going To) San Francisco". Brian likes to read obits for musicians because it allows him to show us how hip and cool he thinks he is. Also, the NBC research department has informed him that playing clips from pop songs is a good way to boost the ratings. After all, viewers would much rather hear a clip from a classic rock song than hear about an economic summit or another massacre in Afghanistan. I'm surprised that as he read this, Brian didn't wear some flowers in his hair.
***Brian followed this with obits for director Tony Scott and actor William Windom, during which he showed clips from "Top Gun", "Crimson Tide", "Murder, She Wrote", "Star Trek" and "To Kill a Mockingbird". Obviously, viewers like seeing movie and TV clips just as much as they like hearing classic rock songs. Altogether, these three stories lasted seventy seconds. So that's seventy seconds of pop songs, TV and movie clips. That's not a news broadcast, it's an episode of Extra or Access Hollywood.
***Here's some important news--Michelle Obama hosted a state dinner for kids. Michelle Obama is one of the most popular people in America right now, so Brian makes a point of showing her on Nightly News as often as possible.
***The broadcast ended with Brian's 2:10 tribute to Phyllis Diller. At first I couldn't figure out why Brian would devote so much time to Diller's obit (and why he would narrate the story himself). But the reason soon became clear--after Bob Hope died in 2003, Diller gave an interview to Brian on his CNBC newscast. So naturally, Brian used a clip of that interview. I actually believe that the only reason Brian spent so much time on this story was so he could include the clip of himself interviewing Diller. After all, there's nothing Brian likes reporting on more than himself. Because the news is always about Brian.
***After Brian signed off for the night, the broadcast continued with 25 seconds of theme music accompanied by a panoramic shot of the New York City skyline. Now, Brian and his producers could have used this time to air an additional story--perhaps on Syria, Iran, Iraq or some other country that they didn't cover that night. But they didn't do that. As usual, Brian would prefer to waste time than to report news. Well done.
Tues. August 21--In the broadcast intro, Brian told us about Diana Nyad's "incredible sea quest" to swim from Cuba to Florida. Later, he spent two minutes on this ridiculous non-story--which ended with a promo for Nyad's appearance on Wednesday's "Today Show". As always, Brian chooses to cover stories based not on their news value, but on how they can be used to promote other NBC shows like "Today", "Dateline" or "Rock Center". There's a phrase for what Brian does: Sleazy snale oil salesman.
***Brian reported the breaking news story that starting in January, Jimmy Kimmel's late night show will begin at 11:35 instead of 12:05. Obviously, this is just a way for Brian to promote "The Tonight Show", which he did by showing clips of Jay Leno. Sleazy snake oil salesman.
***In another piece of breaking news, Brian told us about this year's Beloit College Mindset List. For incoming freshmen, Brian said, "exposed bra straps have always been a fashion statement, not a wardrobe malfunction." This is what a network news anchor chooses to report on his broadcast. How classy.
***Wait--there's even more breaking news. Michelle Obama gave an interview in which she discussed having "the talk" with her daughters. Brian reported this as if it was actual news. Obviously, Michelle Obama is great for Brian's ratings so he reports on everything she does. But even more important, she gave the interview to ivillage.com--a NBC Universal website. So that's the third NBC media property Brian has plugged on this broadcast. Sleazy snake oil salesman.
***The final story of the night was a "Making A Difference" piece about an organization that takes disabled children scuba diving. Kudos to them--that's a very noble thing to do. Unfortunately, in no way, shape or form does this qualify as news. In fact, of the hundred or so "Making A Difference" stories that Nightly News airs each year, not one of them has ever contained a single shred of actual news. This is just another opportunity for Brian and his producers to exploit disabled children in order to get a ratings boost. A story about disabled kids scuba diving is just a variation of the tried-and-true Nightly News "kids with cancer" theme. It's a story that appeals to viewers on an emotional level, and it obviously tested well with focus groups. And a positive focus group response translates to higher ratings. This is what's given 2:35 of valuable news time on Nightly News. By the way, this MAD segment was sponsored by Prevacid, so Brian and his producers actually got paid for exploiting disabled kids. Sleazy snake oil salesman. Now that I think about it--why does Prevacid on Nightly News sound familiar? Oh yeah--now I remember. Back on the 5/25/10 Nightly News, Nancy Snyderman reported on an FDA warning about the dangers of proton pump inhibitors--like Prevacid. Apparently, they can weaken bones and cause users to be at an increased risk for fractures and even osteoporosis. So in 2010, Nightly News reported that Prevacid can be dangerous to users. Now fast-forward a couple of years. Prevacid's manufacturer pays for a MAD sponsorship, so Brian and his producers don't care how dangerous it is. Sleazy snake oil salesman.
Wed. August 22--Brian took a moment to talk about the New York Times photospread that published pictures of the second 1,000 U.S. military personnel to be killed in Afghanistan. "I just looked down and saw a kid from MY hometown in New Jersey." MY hometown. Because the news is always about Brian. By the way--does anyone really believe that he just happened to look down and see that? More likely, he assigned a couple of associate producers to scour the photos until they found someone from his hometown. And who even knows if Brian was telling the truth? He may have just claimed to see someone from his hometown. I wouldn't put it past Brian to lie about this since he lies about so many other things.
***Brian spent 30 seconds showing photos from the Mars Rover. In the past six weeks, Brian has spent more than nine minutes reporting on the Mars Rover. That's far more news time than he has devoted to Africa in that time span. Here's a thought for Brian: Instead of covering an event 154 million miles away, how about reporting on stuff happening a mere 7,000 miles away in Africa? And it doesn't even have to be instead of Mars. There's time to report on both Mars and Africa if he would just eliminate all the idiotic non-news stories he reports on every night. But let's face it--Africa is a ratings loser for Brian and his producers. Africa is filled with mostly black people and Brian's mostly white viewers are not really interested in news about black people, especially if they're on another continent. So Brian continues to ignore Africa unless George Clooney goes there, in which case Ann Curry follows him around like a puppy.
***Brian spent 1:20 reporting on a recently-discovered 1960 taped interview with Martin Luther King, Jr. Just to prove that he actually does report on black people occasionally.
***The "Making A Difference" story this night was an "update". That's a code word meaning a previous MAD piece had really high ratings so the producers are going to keep milking it for all it's worth. This story was about Mini Tyrell, a seven-year-old kid who drives mini-cars to raise money for kids with cancer. Did I just say "kids with cancer"? You bet I did! The Nightly News producers LOVE to air stories about kids with cancer because the ratings for these stories are off the charts! The story featured lots of heartwrenching shots of kids with cancer because those are the money shots that make viewers so sad. And sad viewers equal high ratings. This is the third story Nightly News has done on Mini Tyrell in less than a year (the others were on 10/24/11 & 10/31/11). So that's seven-and-a-half minutes the producers have devoted to a story with absolutely no news value. Great job! By the way, this story spelled Mini's last name as "Tyrell", but when it was reported on some NBC websites, it was spelled as "Tyrrell". I guess we can pick whichever spelling we like best. Cool--no reason why reality should intrude on our spelling fun! This story was reported by newsmoron Anne Thompson because it didn't require any journalistic skills whatsoever. She just sat there with that idiotic grin on her face as if something was really, really funny. She was probably grinning because she earns a six-figure salary for reporting the same lame garbage over and over and over again. I'd grin too, if that was me.
***Meanwhile, on this day nearly fifty people were killed in a dispute over cattle grazing rights in Kenya. You didn't seriously think that Brian Williams would report this story? Come on people--it's in AFRICA for Christ's sake!
Thurs. August 23--At the beginning of the broadcast, a tease for the Hurricane Isaac story was given the title "High Anxiety", and a story about Prince Harry was given the title "Casino Royale". Yet again, the producers gave their stories the names of movies in order to keep viewers interested and boost ratings.
***As part of the Hurricane Isaac coverage, Mark Potter reported on the possible damage the storm could do if it scored a direct hit to Haiti. Here's what Brian said at the end of the story: "Port-au-Prince, Haiti tonight where perhaps this will focus the world's attention on that nation again." Is that some sort of a sick fucking joke? On Feb. 12, 2010, Exactly one month after the Haiti earthquake hit, the Vancouver Olympics began. And from that point on, Nightly News barely reported on the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake because they were too busy promoting NBC's Olympic coverage in a desperate attempt to boost the network's ratings. And Brian has the nerve to talk about focusing the world's attention back on Haiti? He was one of the decision makers who chose to virtually ignore Haiti after the Olympics started! Brian's pathetic attempt to rewrite his network's own history makes him a hypocrite of the highest order.
***A story about a book on the killing of Osama bin Laden written by a Navy Seal included a 30-second "Rock Center" clip of Brian interviewing Former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen. Hardly surprising, since one of Brian's most important jobs as Nightly News anchor is to promote NBC's prime time shows, including, of course, his own "Rock Center".
***Here's how Brian introduced the very next story: "Tonight on 'Rock Center', we are devoting the entire hour to one subject--the Mormon Church in America." Brian then spent the next 90 seconds promoting his "Rock Center" broadcast by inexplicably showing an excerpt from his interview with Abby Huntsman (daughter of former Presidential candidate Jon Huntsman) in which she talked about how she met her husband, how much she loves him and what a great guy he is. Huh? How is this news? This is the kind of garbage that Brian chooses to fill his broadcast with on a nightly basis.
***Breaking News! The U.S. Post Office had to destroy $1.2 million worth of Simpsons stamps due to a lack of interest from the stamp-buying public. I'm really glad that Brian told me about this important piece of news.
***For the final story of the night, Brian spent 2:45 telling us about Prince Harry's Las Vegas vacation, including the photos of Harry playing naked billiards. The story was titled "The Trouble With Harry" (as opposed to the "Casino Royale" title it was given at the top of the broadcast). An earlier promo for the story was accompanied by the song "Viva Las Vegas". Brian Williams is practicing the most idiotic and base type of sensationalistic yellow journalism. He airs stories solely because of their ratings value and doesn't give a damn about actual news. When is the FCC going to shut down Nightly News for being a sham newscast? When are they going to ban Brian from the airwaves for being a pandering sycophant? When are irate viewers going to march on 30 Rock with torches and pitchforks, demanding that Nightly News stop its horrible and unethical practice of showing crap instead of news? When is that going to happen? When?
***On this night, Nightly News did not report any stories on Syria, but at least we know all about the Simpsons stamps, Abby Huntsman's awesome husband and Prince Harry's naked Vegas romp. Amazing.
Fri. August 24--Brian was off this night and the broadcast was anchored by David Gregory. And I'm pretty sure I know why. Friday newscasts in August are traditionally among the lowest-rated newscasts of the year. So rather than see Nightly News suffer a ratings drop with his name on it, Brian took it on the lam and got out of town. Here's what I mean: When Brian is off and doesn't anchor a weeknight edition of Nightly News, his producers understand that the broadcast will have lower ratings than if Brian was anchoring. So when Brian is off, his producers submit those Nightly News broadcasts to the Nielsen ratings Service intentionally misspelled as "Nitely News". That way, the lower-rated "Nitely News" broadcasts are counted in a separate category from Nightly News, and they don't detract from Nightly News's higher ratings. So by taking Friday off (a day when the broadcast would have a low rating anyway), Brian insured that his producers would submit that broadcast to Nielsen as "Nitely News" and that it wouldn't bring down his weekly ratings. Another ratings manipulation trick from the sleazy weasels at Nightly News.
***A story about Mitt Romney included twenty seconds worth of clips of Donald Trump. Obviously, the producers are promoting the new season of "Celebrity Apprentice".
***A story about the USADA stripping Lance Armstrong of his Tour de France titles was narrated by the idiotic Anne Thompson. It's obvious that she knows nothing about Armstrong or cycling--she's just reading the script that was handed to her. Any time the producers have a story that doesn't require any knowledge on the part of the reporter, they give it to Thompson.
***During a story about Hurricane Andrew twenty years later, we heard commentary from Erik Salna, of the Florida International University International Hurricane Research Center. Unfortunately, a Nightly News graphic identified him as being from the "FLU International Hurricane Center". Note to the producers: Florida International University is abbreviated as "FIU", not "FLU".
***Gregory spent 40 seconds narrating the obituary for Jerry Nelson, who operated the Count von Count muppet on Sesame Street. Really? A Muppeteer? This belongs on a network news broadcast?
***The broadcast ended with a story about how Drive-In movie theaters are making a comeback. It's hard to imagine a story more trivial and less important than this one. Which is exactly why the producers gave it 2:05 on Nightly News. Because Nightly News is a show about nothing. Absolutely nothing. As if to prove that point, this story included a clip from "Grease" because showing movie clips is a great way to boost the ratings without showing any actual news.
Sat. August 18--As Lester Holt introduced the lead story about the Medicare debate, there was a giant animated flag waving behind his head. No surprise--there is often a giant animated flag waving behind Lester or Brian Williams. It's just another way for the producers to pander to the God-lovin', NASCAR-watchin', middle Americans whose viewership is so prized. Another ratings stunt from Nightly News.
***After that, Lester (with the giant flag still waving behind him) brought in David Gregory for some expert analysis. By "for some expert analysis", I mean "to promote 'Meet the Press'".
***Did you really think the Olympics are over? Well, they're not. Lester read a story about Michael Phelps posing for some provocative photos, followed by a story about Olympic Athletes being honored in Des Moines. This story included footage of Gabby Douglas and Lolo Jones. NBC is busy selling their Olympic DVDs, so the Nightly News producers are doing everything they can to help with promotion.
***The next story was about an Indiana baseball team in the Little League World Series whose players are competing in the memory of their former coach who died of cancer. That's nice, but why is this on a newscast? It's not news. But that doesn't matter to the Nightly News producers. To them, news isn't nearly as important as ratings. And sappy, emotional stories like this one (usually involving cancer) are exactly the types of stories that keep viewers from changing the channel. If the producers can get viewers to bond with a story, then ratings go up. Nightly News leads all other newscasts in exploiting cancer as a way to get high ratings. Congratulations to the producers. They should be so proud of themselves. By the way, this story was titled "Field of Dreams". The producers love to give their stories the titles of movies, TV shows or popular songs because it gives the viewers something familiar to relate to. And if a viewer sees something familiar, he's more likely to keep watching. In the past four months, the producers have done this 25 times. Here are some of the titles they've used for stories: "The Rising", "Coming to America", "Moonstruck" (three times), "The Weather Channel", "Risky Business" (five times), "Modern Family", "A Star Is Born", "Ring of Fire", "The Natural", "Father Knows Best", "All in the Family", "Top Chef", "To Catch A Thief", "Back to the Future" (twice), "Deep Impact" and "Sudden Impact". Just another sleazy ratings ploy from your friends at Nightly News.
***The final story was about a National Guard veteran who tracks down purple hearts in pawn shops, antique stores and other places and then returns them to the original owners (or the owner's family). This is another story without a shred of news value. Like the previous story, it was included only because it's a good way to keep viewers tuned in and boost ratings. So the final four minutes of the broadcast did not contain any actual news. What a surprise. Not really. Nightly News reports on garbage because garbage gets high ratings.
Sun. August 19--No Nightly News on the east coast because golf ran late. Let's face it--golf gets higher ratings (and earns higher ad rates) than news, so pre-empting Nightly News wasn't exactly a tough decision for the NBC programming weasels.
Mon. August 20--Brian spent 3:10 on a story about a woman with Parkinson's disease who underwent brain surgery to lessen her symptoms. We're glad it worked out for her, but this isn't news. It's just another opportunity for Brian and his producers to exploit someone's serious medical condition in order to help their ratings. Shameful.
***Speaking of shameful, here's what Brian said about Rosie O'Donnell's heart attack: "She finally took a BAYER aspirin--the way she learned in the TV commercial." It's no coincidence that Brian mentioned Bayer by name. Bayer is by far the most frequent advertiser on Nightly News--they usually run two, three or even four commercials a night for their various products--Bayer aspirin, Aleve, One A Day vitamins, Alka-Seltzer products, Phillips Colon Health, Citracal, etc. Now I don't know what brand of aspirin Rosie actually took, but an anchor who blatantly promotes his largest sponsor on the air is the lowest form of journalistic life. Of course, plugging Bayer products on Nightly News is nothing new for Brian. On 12/6/10 and 10/27/11, Nightly News ran sham news stories about the health benefits of aspirin. In truth, these stories were created as product placement opportunities for Bayer. In both stories, Bayer was the only national brand of aspirin shown (multiple times, in fact) and both stories included clips from Bayer TV ads. Those aren't news stories, they're commercials. And on 6/8/10, Nightly News aired a story about an obscure Danish medical study which concluded that Naproxen (sold in the U.S. as Bayer's Aleve) can reduce the risk of heart attacks. Needless to say, this story featured many shots of Aleve. But I wouldn't want you to think that Brian only plugs Bayer products on the air. For a more complete list of Brian's on-air promotions and product placements, see the 4/8/12 Nightly Daily blog (http://nightly-daily.blogspot.com/2012/04/nbc-nightly-news-show-notes-4712.html).
***Brian then took 30 seconds to read the obituary for Scott McKenzie, who had a hit (his only hit, actually) 45 years ago with "(If You're Going To) San Francisco". Brian likes to read obits for musicians because it allows him to show us how hip and cool he thinks he is. Also, the NBC research department has informed him that playing clips from pop songs is a good way to boost the ratings. After all, viewers would much rather hear a clip from a classic rock song than hear about an economic summit or another massacre in Afghanistan. I'm surprised that as he read this, Brian didn't wear some flowers in his hair.
***Brian followed this with obits for director Tony Scott and actor William Windom, during which he showed clips from "Top Gun", "Crimson Tide", "Murder, She Wrote", "Star Trek" and "To Kill a Mockingbird". Obviously, viewers like seeing movie and TV clips just as much as they like hearing classic rock songs. Altogether, these three stories lasted seventy seconds. So that's seventy seconds of pop songs, TV and movie clips. That's not a news broadcast, it's an episode of Extra or Access Hollywood.
***Here's some important news--Michelle Obama hosted a state dinner for kids. Michelle Obama is one of the most popular people in America right now, so Brian makes a point of showing her on Nightly News as often as possible.
***The broadcast ended with Brian's 2:10 tribute to Phyllis Diller. At first I couldn't figure out why Brian would devote so much time to Diller's obit (and why he would narrate the story himself). But the reason soon became clear--after Bob Hope died in 2003, Diller gave an interview to Brian on his CNBC newscast. So naturally, Brian used a clip of that interview. I actually believe that the only reason Brian spent so much time on this story was so he could include the clip of himself interviewing Diller. After all, there's nothing Brian likes reporting on more than himself. Because the news is always about Brian.
***After Brian signed off for the night, the broadcast continued with 25 seconds of theme music accompanied by a panoramic shot of the New York City skyline. Now, Brian and his producers could have used this time to air an additional story--perhaps on Syria, Iran, Iraq or some other country that they didn't cover that night. But they didn't do that. As usual, Brian would prefer to waste time than to report news. Well done.
Tues. August 21--In the broadcast intro, Brian told us about Diana Nyad's "incredible sea quest" to swim from Cuba to Florida. Later, he spent two minutes on this ridiculous non-story--which ended with a promo for Nyad's appearance on Wednesday's "Today Show". As always, Brian chooses to cover stories based not on their news value, but on how they can be used to promote other NBC shows like "Today", "Dateline" or "Rock Center". There's a phrase for what Brian does: Sleazy snale oil salesman.
***Brian reported the breaking news story that starting in January, Jimmy Kimmel's late night show will begin at 11:35 instead of 12:05. Obviously, this is just a way for Brian to promote "The Tonight Show", which he did by showing clips of Jay Leno. Sleazy snake oil salesman.
***In another piece of breaking news, Brian told us about this year's Beloit College Mindset List. For incoming freshmen, Brian said, "exposed bra straps have always been a fashion statement, not a wardrobe malfunction." This is what a network news anchor chooses to report on his broadcast. How classy.
***Wait--there's even more breaking news. Michelle Obama gave an interview in which she discussed having "the talk" with her daughters. Brian reported this as if it was actual news. Obviously, Michelle Obama is great for Brian's ratings so he reports on everything she does. But even more important, she gave the interview to ivillage.com--a NBC Universal website. So that's the third NBC media property Brian has plugged on this broadcast. Sleazy snake oil salesman.
***The final story of the night was a "Making A Difference" piece about an organization that takes disabled children scuba diving. Kudos to them--that's a very noble thing to do. Unfortunately, in no way, shape or form does this qualify as news. In fact, of the hundred or so "Making A Difference" stories that Nightly News airs each year, not one of them has ever contained a single shred of actual news. This is just another opportunity for Brian and his producers to exploit disabled children in order to get a ratings boost. A story about disabled kids scuba diving is just a variation of the tried-and-true Nightly News "kids with cancer" theme. It's a story that appeals to viewers on an emotional level, and it obviously tested well with focus groups. And a positive focus group response translates to higher ratings. This is what's given 2:35 of valuable news time on Nightly News. By the way, this MAD segment was sponsored by Prevacid, so Brian and his producers actually got paid for exploiting disabled kids. Sleazy snake oil salesman. Now that I think about it--why does Prevacid on Nightly News sound familiar? Oh yeah--now I remember. Back on the 5/25/10 Nightly News, Nancy Snyderman reported on an FDA warning about the dangers of proton pump inhibitors--like Prevacid. Apparently, they can weaken bones and cause users to be at an increased risk for fractures and even osteoporosis. So in 2010, Nightly News reported that Prevacid can be dangerous to users. Now fast-forward a couple of years. Prevacid's manufacturer pays for a MAD sponsorship, so Brian and his producers don't care how dangerous it is. Sleazy snake oil salesman.
Wed. August 22--Brian took a moment to talk about the New York Times photospread that published pictures of the second 1,000 U.S. military personnel to be killed in Afghanistan. "I just looked down and saw a kid from MY hometown in New Jersey." MY hometown. Because the news is always about Brian. By the way--does anyone really believe that he just happened to look down and see that? More likely, he assigned a couple of associate producers to scour the photos until they found someone from his hometown. And who even knows if Brian was telling the truth? He may have just claimed to see someone from his hometown. I wouldn't put it past Brian to lie about this since he lies about so many other things.
***Brian spent 30 seconds showing photos from the Mars Rover. In the past six weeks, Brian has spent more than nine minutes reporting on the Mars Rover. That's far more news time than he has devoted to Africa in that time span. Here's a thought for Brian: Instead of covering an event 154 million miles away, how about reporting on stuff happening a mere 7,000 miles away in Africa? And it doesn't even have to be instead of Mars. There's time to report on both Mars and Africa if he would just eliminate all the idiotic non-news stories he reports on every night. But let's face it--Africa is a ratings loser for Brian and his producers. Africa is filled with mostly black people and Brian's mostly white viewers are not really interested in news about black people, especially if they're on another continent. So Brian continues to ignore Africa unless George Clooney goes there, in which case Ann Curry follows him around like a puppy.
***Brian spent 1:20 reporting on a recently-discovered 1960 taped interview with Martin Luther King, Jr. Just to prove that he actually does report on black people occasionally.
***The "Making A Difference" story this night was an "update". That's a code word meaning a previous MAD piece had really high ratings so the producers are going to keep milking it for all it's worth. This story was about Mini Tyrell, a seven-year-old kid who drives mini-cars to raise money for kids with cancer. Did I just say "kids with cancer"? You bet I did! The Nightly News producers LOVE to air stories about kids with cancer because the ratings for these stories are off the charts! The story featured lots of heartwrenching shots of kids with cancer because those are the money shots that make viewers so sad. And sad viewers equal high ratings. This is the third story Nightly News has done on Mini Tyrell in less than a year (the others were on 10/24/11 & 10/31/11). So that's seven-and-a-half minutes the producers have devoted to a story with absolutely no news value. Great job! By the way, this story spelled Mini's last name as "Tyrell", but when it was reported on some NBC websites, it was spelled as "Tyrrell". I guess we can pick whichever spelling we like best. Cool--no reason why reality should intrude on our spelling fun! This story was reported by newsmoron Anne Thompson because it didn't require any journalistic skills whatsoever. She just sat there with that idiotic grin on her face as if something was really, really funny. She was probably grinning because she earns a six-figure salary for reporting the same lame garbage over and over and over again. I'd grin too, if that was me.
***Meanwhile, on this day nearly fifty people were killed in a dispute over cattle grazing rights in Kenya. You didn't seriously think that Brian Williams would report this story? Come on people--it's in AFRICA for Christ's sake!
Thurs. August 23--At the beginning of the broadcast, a tease for the Hurricane Isaac story was given the title "High Anxiety", and a story about Prince Harry was given the title "Casino Royale". Yet again, the producers gave their stories the names of movies in order to keep viewers interested and boost ratings.
***As part of the Hurricane Isaac coverage, Mark Potter reported on the possible damage the storm could do if it scored a direct hit to Haiti. Here's what Brian said at the end of the story: "Port-au-Prince, Haiti tonight where perhaps this will focus the world's attention on that nation again." Is that some sort of a sick fucking joke? On Feb. 12, 2010, Exactly one month after the Haiti earthquake hit, the Vancouver Olympics began. And from that point on, Nightly News barely reported on the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake because they were too busy promoting NBC's Olympic coverage in a desperate attempt to boost the network's ratings. And Brian has the nerve to talk about focusing the world's attention back on Haiti? He was one of the decision makers who chose to virtually ignore Haiti after the Olympics started! Brian's pathetic attempt to rewrite his network's own history makes him a hypocrite of the highest order.
***A story about a book on the killing of Osama bin Laden written by a Navy Seal included a 30-second "Rock Center" clip of Brian interviewing Former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen. Hardly surprising, since one of Brian's most important jobs as Nightly News anchor is to promote NBC's prime time shows, including, of course, his own "Rock Center".
***Here's how Brian introduced the very next story: "Tonight on 'Rock Center', we are devoting the entire hour to one subject--the Mormon Church in America." Brian then spent the next 90 seconds promoting his "Rock Center" broadcast by inexplicably showing an excerpt from his interview with Abby Huntsman (daughter of former Presidential candidate Jon Huntsman) in which she talked about how she met her husband, how much she loves him and what a great guy he is. Huh? How is this news? This is the kind of garbage that Brian chooses to fill his broadcast with on a nightly basis.
***Breaking News! The U.S. Post Office had to destroy $1.2 million worth of Simpsons stamps due to a lack of interest from the stamp-buying public. I'm really glad that Brian told me about this important piece of news.
***For the final story of the night, Brian spent 2:45 telling us about Prince Harry's Las Vegas vacation, including the photos of Harry playing naked billiards. The story was titled "The Trouble With Harry" (as opposed to the "Casino Royale" title it was given at the top of the broadcast). An earlier promo for the story was accompanied by the song "Viva Las Vegas". Brian Williams is practicing the most idiotic and base type of sensationalistic yellow journalism. He airs stories solely because of their ratings value and doesn't give a damn about actual news. When is the FCC going to shut down Nightly News for being a sham newscast? When are they going to ban Brian from the airwaves for being a pandering sycophant? When are irate viewers going to march on 30 Rock with torches and pitchforks, demanding that Nightly News stop its horrible and unethical practice of showing crap instead of news? When is that going to happen? When?
***On this night, Nightly News did not report any stories on Syria, but at least we know all about the Simpsons stamps, Abby Huntsman's awesome husband and Prince Harry's naked Vegas romp. Amazing.
Fri. August 24--Brian was off this night and the broadcast was anchored by David Gregory. And I'm pretty sure I know why. Friday newscasts in August are traditionally among the lowest-rated newscasts of the year. So rather than see Nightly News suffer a ratings drop with his name on it, Brian took it on the lam and got out of town. Here's what I mean: When Brian is off and doesn't anchor a weeknight edition of Nightly News, his producers understand that the broadcast will have lower ratings than if Brian was anchoring. So when Brian is off, his producers submit those Nightly News broadcasts to the Nielsen ratings Service intentionally misspelled as "Nitely News". That way, the lower-rated "Nitely News" broadcasts are counted in a separate category from Nightly News, and they don't detract from Nightly News's higher ratings. So by taking Friday off (a day when the broadcast would have a low rating anyway), Brian insured that his producers would submit that broadcast to Nielsen as "Nitely News" and that it wouldn't bring down his weekly ratings. Another ratings manipulation trick from the sleazy weasels at Nightly News.
***A story about Mitt Romney included twenty seconds worth of clips of Donald Trump. Obviously, the producers are promoting the new season of "Celebrity Apprentice".
***A story about the USADA stripping Lance Armstrong of his Tour de France titles was narrated by the idiotic Anne Thompson. It's obvious that she knows nothing about Armstrong or cycling--she's just reading the script that was handed to her. Any time the producers have a story that doesn't require any knowledge on the part of the reporter, they give it to Thompson.
***During a story about Hurricane Andrew twenty years later, we heard commentary from Erik Salna, of the Florida International University International Hurricane Research Center. Unfortunately, a Nightly News graphic identified him as being from the "FLU International Hurricane Center". Note to the producers: Florida International University is abbreviated as "FIU", not "FLU".
***Gregory spent 40 seconds narrating the obituary for Jerry Nelson, who operated the Count von Count muppet on Sesame Street. Really? A Muppeteer? This belongs on a network news broadcast?
***The broadcast ended with a story about how Drive-In movie theaters are making a comeback. It's hard to imagine a story more trivial and less important than this one. Which is exactly why the producers gave it 2:05 on Nightly News. Because Nightly News is a show about nothing. Absolutely nothing. As if to prove that point, this story included a clip from "Grease" because showing movie clips is a great way to boost the ratings without showing any actual news.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams Sets A New Olympic Record!
During the 17 days of the London Olympics, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams devoted 147 minutes to Olympic-related stories in order to shamelessly promote NBC's Olympic coverage. That's two-hours-and-twenty-seven minutes--the equivalent of more than six entire Nightly News broadcasts (a Nightly News broadcast runs 22 minutes when you factor out the commercials). That is without a doubt the most appalling, unethical, sleazy, self-promotional display ever put on by an evening news broadcast. So how much actual news did Brian Williams ignore so he could promote NBC's Olympic coverage? What news did he sweep under the NBC rug? Which important stories did he simply refuse to report so he could spend more time desperately trying to funnel viewers to the Olympics on NBC? There is a phrase for what Brian Williams did: Journalistic malpractice. People tune in to the news to find out the important stories that are happening across the country and around the world. But instead of providing viewers with that information, Brian Williams chose instead to use his broadcast as a promotional vehicle for NBC's Olympic coverage. The FCC should shut down NBC Nightly News and ban Brian Williams from the airwaves forever.
By the way, during the 2010 Vancouver Games, NBC Nightly News spent a total of 129 minutes plugging the games so the 147 minutes they spent promoting the 2012 Olympics represents a new Olympic record for NBC! A hearty congratulations to all the sleazebags at NBC News! They must be so proud of themselves!
By the way, during the 2010 Vancouver Games, NBC Nightly News spent a total of 129 minutes plugging the games so the 147 minutes they spent promoting the 2012 Olympics represents a new Olympic record for NBC! A hearty congratulations to all the sleazebags at NBC News! They must be so proud of themselves!
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