#@$&% Brian Likes

Monday's Nightly News featured a two-minute "news story" about the latest puppy-cam. The broadcast featured three promos for the story as if it was really important. And Brian raved about the puppy-cam, calling it "The best web-cam of all time." Nightly News should just be renamed "Shit Brian Likes" because that's really what it is. Brian does "news stories" on anything he wants. Dogs, Springsteen, firefighters, NASCAR, Gulf Coast shrimpers, Pringles, Donald Trump, Medal of Honor winners, Ted Danson, Paul Simon--it's unbelievable. Even worse--NBC did not even bother airing an east coast version of Nightly News on Sunday because obviously the hockey game was more important. But we get two minutes of puppy-cam. Great. How many actual news stories did Brian ignore so he could show us the puppies? How much time does he waste every year on garbage that has no news value? The FCC should forcibly remove Brian Williams from his job and revoke NBC's right to air a news broadcast.

Yet again, Brian has broken his promise not to do stories on Sasha & Malia Obama. On Jan. 5, 2009, Brian vowed not to run any stories on Sasha & Malia unless there is a compelling reason to do so. And for at least the fourth time, he has broken his promise. What was the compelling reason? Because they were reading "Where The Wild Things Are"? How about a promise not to show anymore puppy-cam stories (or eagle-cam stories or owl-cam stories or animal-cam stories of any species)? How about a promise not to show any more gratuitous stories about Gabby Giffords or Donald Trump or Michael Douglas? Or discontinuing the "news stories" whose only purpose is to promote Sunday Night Football? How about not showing endless movie clips as a substitute for news coverage? Here's a radical idea: Why not show 22 minutes of actual news each night? I know it sounds crazy, but why not give it a try?