Let Me Make Sure I Understand This: Parts 1 & 2

Let Me Make Sure I Understand This #1: On Thursday, Brian Williams finally mentioned the N.Y. Times story about the duplicitous and shady methods that G.E. uses to avoid paying income tax, six days after the story initially ran. But when he did mention it, it was only to introduce a report (by Lisa Myers) whose sole purpose was to defend G.E. and allow CEO Jeff Immelt to make excuses for his company's immoral behavior. I had always thought that Lisa Myers had integrity and that she was not one of those NBC newsbots who automatically toe the network line and blindly defend the actions of NBC, G.E. or Comcast, regardless of what they have done. But I guess I was wrong about Myers. Her story was pure spin and damage control. I should have known better. Obviously, Nightly News would only air a story about the Times article if their intent was to defend G.E.

Let Me Make Sure I Understand This #2: With everything going on in Libya, Japan and elsewhere around the world, the Nightly News producers thought it would be a good idea to devote two-and-a-half minutes of Thursday's broadcast to a "Making A Difference" story about a school singing program for students with Down syndrome and other developmental disabilities. This story can be summed up as "'Glee' for the intellectually challenged" and it doesn't belong on what is supposed to be a news broadcast. Why doesn't NBC just spin off the "Making A Difference" segments into a separate one-hour prime-time program so they will no longer pollute Nightly News? Meanwhile, despite four months of continued violence following the elections in Ivory Coast, Nightly News still has not mentioned this story once. Maybe if George Clooney made a point of talking about the Ivory Coast situation, Ann Curry would sit up and take notice. Oh well, at least we know all about the challenged students who sing their hearts out.