Once again, a Nightly News anchor has intentionally misled the viewers about the exclusivity of a "Today Show" interview. On Feb 8, Brian Williams told us that Michelle Obama would be appearing "exclusively" on the next day's "Today Show". In fact, Mrs. Obama also appeared on that day's "Live With Regis and Kelly". Then, on Sunday night, Lester Holt ended the broadcast with a 20-second plug for Charlie Sheen's "exclusive" appearance on Monday's "Today Show". However, Sheen was also interviewed on Monday's "Good Morning America" (on ABC). In fact, Sheen seemed to be all over TV and the internet on Monday. So his "Today Show" appearance was hardly an exclusive. It's shameful that Brian and Lester (and their Nightly News producers) would intentionally lie to the viewers just so they can boost the "Today Show" ratings by a few micropoints. Don't they have any integrity? Don't they have any conscience? Are they really willing to lie so blatantly? And if they would lie about the exclusivity of an interview, doesn't it follow that they would lie about other things? Clearly, the answer is "yes".
How about that Christiane Amanpour? First, she scores an interview with Hosni Mubarak. Then she gets an interview with Muammar Khaddafy. So who will be her next mega-awesome interview? Osama bin Laden? Jimmy Hoffa? Why can't Richard Engel or any other NBC correspondents get the same access as Amanpour to the superstar dictators? She's the rock star of foreign correspondents. Meanwhile, it's obvious that Brian must have been fuming. I thought I saw smoke coming out of his nostrils (which is very bad for his surgically-altered nose). I'm sure that everyone at Nightly News was green with envy over Amanpour's scoop. When Nightly News showed a clip from the Khaddafy interview on Monday, they used the BBC feed, not the ABC feed. That way, the on-screen credit was attributed to BBC, not ABC. Brian and his producers were so angry and jealous of ABC's scoop that they refused to even acknowledge the network's involvement (except for Andrea Mitchell, who briefly mentioned ABC). It's like refusing to talk to someone because their score on the math test was higher than yours. Talk about petty.
Let me make sure I understand this. On Monday's Nightly News, Jane Russell got a 30-second obit. Frank Buckles, the last surviving American WW I veteran, got a 40-second obit. On August 9, Ann Curry read a 45-second obit for Brian Williams's father. But Duke Snider, one of the greatest baseball players of the post-war era, only got a 25-second obit. Snider had more home runs (326) and more RBIs (1031) than any other player during the 1950's, but he only gets a 25-second obit. Where's the justice? I'm curious: How many home runs and RBIs did Brian Williams's father have?
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