Wednesday, November 30, 2011
The NBC Nightly News Producers Are Morons
During Wednesday's Nightly News story about the Republican presidential candidates, an excerpt from a Mitt Romney television ad carried this on-screen credit line (supplied by the Nightly News producers): "Mit [sic] Romney Campaign Ad". That's right, it said "Mit". Seriously. I'm not kidding. They actually managed to misspell "Mitt". Romney has now become the fourth Republican presidential candidate--half of the entire field--to have his or her name mangled by the idiotic Nightly News producers. Previously, they misspelled Herman Cain (as "Hermain" on the 10/12 broadcast), Jon Huntsman (as "John" on the 11/27 broadcast) and Michele Bachmann (both as "Michelle" and "Bachman" variously on the 6/26, 8/10 and 9/6 broadcasts). That leaves only Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum as candidates whose names have not been misspelled by the Nightly News producers. And I'm sure it's only a matter of time for them. Does anyone at Nightly News care? Is anyone paying attention? These sloppy mistakes happen night after night after night. Except when they air stories about whales, Will & Kate or the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree (the producers never make mistakes in those important stories). So what are the qualifications for becoming a Nightly News producer? That's a trick question--there are obviously no qualifications required for the job. No college (or high school) is needed. No spelling or math skills are necessary. In fact, no skills at all are required. Clearly, NBC News is not a professional news organization and Nightly News is not a professional news broadcast. They prove that on the air every single night.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Brian Williams: A Hypocrite Who Hates Snoopy
Last Thursday, the Nightly News producers treated us to a two-minute story about 40 beagles that had been rescued from a research testing lab in Spain. Apparently, the producers figured that Thanksgiving was a slow news day and there wasn't much to report. But the U.S. is the only country that celebrates its Thanksgiving on that particular day, so for the rest of the world, last Thursday was just a regular news day. So instead of showing us pointless stories devoid of any news value (Black Thursday shopping, the troops in Afghanistan eating turkey dinners, homeless veterans, a female football coach, beagles), the producers could have shown us actual news stories from Europe, Africa, South America, Asia and other regions of the world where it was not a holiday. But they didn't. Because the Nightly News producers don't roll that way. They're satisfied to show us garbage instead of news. So now we know all about the rescued beagles. Great job, guys.
But it didn't end there. On Friday, Brian Williams saw fit to spend another 40 seconds rehashing the beagle story. Did he have any new information to report? Of course not. But that didn't matter. Brian can do whatever he wants. However, he did end his story by shamelessly and inappropriately begging the viewers to donate money to the Beagle Freedom Project. Okay--first of all, it's not a news anchor's job to publicly promote his favorite charities or to beg his viewers to donate money to anything. An anchor's job is to objectively report news--nothing else. But there is a much more disturbing aspect to this story.
Question for Brian Williams: How much ad money does NBC Universal (and Nightly News in particular) accept each year from companies that test their products on dogs and other animals? $25 million? $50 million? $100 million? Let's just say it's a lot. That would certainly include cosmetics companies (like Revlon, Estee Lauder, Clinique, Lancome, L'Oreal and others), health and beauty aids manufacturers (like Unilever, Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble) and pharmaceutical companies (like GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Bayer). All of these NBC advertisers test their products on animals, perhaps even beagles. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the beagles in the story were rescued from a facility owned by one of these companies. I noticed that Miguel Almaguer did not mention the specific place the dogs came from. He was probably instructed not to divulge the name in order to protect an NBC advertiser.
So Brian Williams reported a story about rescuing beagles from a research lab when his own broadcast accepts millions of dollars each year from companies that test their products on animals! There's a word to describe someone like that: Hypocrite. It's obvious that Brian does not care the slightest bit that his sponsors are murdering animals. If he did, he would refuse to work for a network that accepts so much ad money from companies that test their products on animals. Here's an idea: Instead of begging his viewers to donate money, why doesn't Brian march into the office of NBC News president Steve Capus and demand that NBC News immediately stop accepting this blood money? And if NBC won't stop that practice, why doesn't Brian resign? You know when that will happen? When pigs fly.
Speaking of which--do you know when pigs actually do fly? When they're in the Bayer research labs. In order to test their many headache remedies (like Bayer aspirin and Aleve), the Bayer researchers first have to induce headaches in their lab animals. One way they do this is by launching pigs across the room head-first into a brick wall. That usually does the trick. Then they give them some aspirin or Aleve and monitor their pain response through the electrodes sticking out of their brains. After that, the researchers go home and pet their dogs or cats. They're hypocrites--just like Brian Williams. He has the blood of thousands of animals on his hands and he has the nerve to ask us to donate money to the Beagle Freedom Project!
P.S.--Immediately before Thursday's beagle story and immediately after Friday's beagle story, Nightly News aired ads for Aleve. Talk about adding insult to injury! So how many beagles gave their cute little lives so that Bayer could test Aleve before bringing it to the market? I'm guessing it was more than 40. And I'm guessing that one or two of them may have even been named Snoopy.
But it didn't end there. On Friday, Brian Williams saw fit to spend another 40 seconds rehashing the beagle story. Did he have any new information to report? Of course not. But that didn't matter. Brian can do whatever he wants. However, he did end his story by shamelessly and inappropriately begging the viewers to donate money to the Beagle Freedom Project. Okay--first of all, it's not a news anchor's job to publicly promote his favorite charities or to beg his viewers to donate money to anything. An anchor's job is to objectively report news--nothing else. But there is a much more disturbing aspect to this story.
Question for Brian Williams: How much ad money does NBC Universal (and Nightly News in particular) accept each year from companies that test their products on dogs and other animals? $25 million? $50 million? $100 million? Let's just say it's a lot. That would certainly include cosmetics companies (like Revlon, Estee Lauder, Clinique, Lancome, L'Oreal and others), health and beauty aids manufacturers (like Unilever, Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble) and pharmaceutical companies (like GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Bayer). All of these NBC advertisers test their products on animals, perhaps even beagles. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the beagles in the story were rescued from a facility owned by one of these companies. I noticed that Miguel Almaguer did not mention the specific place the dogs came from. He was probably instructed not to divulge the name in order to protect an NBC advertiser.
So Brian Williams reported a story about rescuing beagles from a research lab when his own broadcast accepts millions of dollars each year from companies that test their products on animals! There's a word to describe someone like that: Hypocrite. It's obvious that Brian does not care the slightest bit that his sponsors are murdering animals. If he did, he would refuse to work for a network that accepts so much ad money from companies that test their products on animals. Here's an idea: Instead of begging his viewers to donate money, why doesn't Brian march into the office of NBC News president Steve Capus and demand that NBC News immediately stop accepting this blood money? And if NBC won't stop that practice, why doesn't Brian resign? You know when that will happen? When pigs fly.
Speaking of which--do you know when pigs actually do fly? When they're in the Bayer research labs. In order to test their many headache remedies (like Bayer aspirin and Aleve), the Bayer researchers first have to induce headaches in their lab animals. One way they do this is by launching pigs across the room head-first into a brick wall. That usually does the trick. Then they give them some aspirin or Aleve and monitor their pain response through the electrodes sticking out of their brains. After that, the researchers go home and pet their dogs or cats. They're hypocrites--just like Brian Williams. He has the blood of thousands of animals on his hands and he has the nerve to ask us to donate money to the Beagle Freedom Project!
P.S.--Immediately before Thursday's beagle story and immediately after Friday's beagle story, Nightly News aired ads for Aleve. Talk about adding insult to injury! So how many beagles gave their cute little lives so that Bayer could test Aleve before bringing it to the market? I'm guessing it was more than 40. And I'm guessing that one or two of them may have even been named Snoopy.
More Mistakes At Nightly News
On Sunday's story about the Republican presidential candidates, the Nightly News producers spelled Former Governor Jon Huntsman's first name as "John". It is absolutely mind-boggling that the producers of a network news broadcast can't even manage to correctly spell the name of a presidential candidate. Of course, Huntsman isn't the first candidate to suffer this fate. The Nightly News producers have also recently misspelled the names of Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann (both her first and last names). If you misspell the name of a presidential candidate, you are not a professional news organization. And if you misspell the names of three candidates, you are a joke. It seems that every Republican candidate is taking a turn leading the polls. It also seems that every candidate will take a turn having their name misspelled by the Nightly News producers.
Also on Sunday: During a report about on-line public school education for children from kindergarten through 12th grade, Rehema Ellis told us that, "Thirty states offer a full-time on-line education to at least some students." But in the accompanying on-screen map, only 28 states were highlighted. So in a story about education, the Nightly News producers could not manage to accurately count to 30. Unbelievable.
Last Wednesday, Savannah Guthrie told us that, "Today in Washington, the President did what presidents have done for the last 64 years now--pardoned the national Thanksgiving turkey." So if the tradition started 64 years ago, then Pres. Truman would have been the first president to pardon a turkey, right? Wrong. There is not a single shred of evidence in the Truman Library (or anywhere else) that supports this. Every news source credits Pres. George H.W. Bush (in 1989) as being the first president to pardon a Thanksgiving turkey. Even MSNBC's own "First Read" blog states that, "President Harry Truman is often cited, incorrectly, as the first president to pardon a Thanksgiving turkey." Maybe Guthrie should have perused the "First Read" blog. Oh well, she was only off by 42 years. No big deal. Funny thing--every time Guthrie reports a story for Nightly News, Brian Williams makes a point of telling us that she's a lawyer (as if that has any bearing on her news reporting). Well, if Guthrie can't even manage to do basic research on something as simple as presidential turkey-pardoning, I sure wouldn't want her defending me in court.
Also on Sunday: During a report about on-line public school education for children from kindergarten through 12th grade, Rehema Ellis told us that, "Thirty states offer a full-time on-line education to at least some students." But in the accompanying on-screen map, only 28 states were highlighted. So in a story about education, the Nightly News producers could not manage to accurately count to 30. Unbelievable.
Last Wednesday, Savannah Guthrie told us that, "Today in Washington, the President did what presidents have done for the last 64 years now--pardoned the national Thanksgiving turkey." So if the tradition started 64 years ago, then Pres. Truman would have been the first president to pardon a turkey, right? Wrong. There is not a single shred of evidence in the Truman Library (or anywhere else) that supports this. Every news source credits Pres. George H.W. Bush (in 1989) as being the first president to pardon a Thanksgiving turkey. Even MSNBC's own "First Read" blog states that, "President Harry Truman is often cited, incorrectly, as the first president to pardon a Thanksgiving turkey." Maybe Guthrie should have perused the "First Read" blog. Oh well, she was only off by 42 years. No big deal. Funny thing--every time Guthrie reports a story for Nightly News, Brian Williams makes a point of telling us that she's a lawyer (as if that has any bearing on her news reporting). Well, if Guthrie can't even manage to do basic research on something as simple as presidential turkey-pardoning, I sure wouldn't want her defending me in court.
Friday, November 25, 2011
NBC Nightly News Show Notes--11/19 Through 11/25
On this Thanksgiving week, I think we should all give thanks for Nightly News. Because without this joke of a broadcast we wouldn't be truly able to appreciate some of the serious news broadcasts we see on PBS, BBC and Democracy Now. So without further ado, here's what happened on Nightly News this week:
Sat. 11/19--No Nightly News aired today because Notre Dame football is much more important (translation: profitable) than news to the clowns in the NBC executive offices. The Iranians could have launched a nuclear attack against Israel and the jokers at NBC wouldn't cut away from football. After all, nuclear attacks against Israel aren't very profitable.
Sun. 11/20--A story about the Republican candidates at an Iowa "Faith and Family" forum was just an excuse to show a clip of Jon Huntsman on the previous night's "Saturday Night Live". As always, one of the main functions of Nightly News is to promote NBC sports and entertainment programs. We also saw another story on Natalie Wood's death because Brian Williams knows that viewers prefer to see entertainment stories (even if they're 30 years old) instead of actual news. A story about people preparing to shop on Black Friday showed ad clips from Best Buy, Target and Walmart because the Nightly News producers do everything they can to help promote their sponsors. The final story of the night was another story about pandas (the last Nightly News panda story was less than two months ago on Sept. 29). The NBC News research department has obviously informed Brian and his producers that animal stories test very well with viewers and result in high ratings, so Nightly News makes a point of showing animal stories almost every night. More shameless pandering (or panda-ing) from Brian and his producers. Lester Holt introduced the panda story by telling us that, "They're cute, they're cuddly, they're adorable..." True, but that doesn't make them newsworthy. By the way, this story included old recycled panda footage that had previously been shown in the Sept. 29 story.
Mon. 11/21--Here's what Brian said to Richard Engel during Engel's report from Cairo: "So Richard...the last time you and I walked through [Tahrir Square], it was a sunny afternoon--we met and talked to a lot of people...." As always, Brian tries to turn every news story into a story about HIMSELF. His favorite expressions are "For those of us...", "If you're like me..."and "Most of us..." because they allow him to transform a story into a story about Brian Williams. Why would anyone care about the last time Brian walked through Tahrir Square? We don't. The story is supposed to be about the Egyptian people, not about Brian Williams. But it's Brian's show and he gets to do whatever he wants. Then Brian spent 40 seconds talking about NASCAR because the NBC research geeks have told him that a lot of Nightly News viewers are also NASCAR fans. So Brian pretends to like NASCAR. You know, for the ratings. After that, Brian read a 40-second obituary for financier Ted Forstmann. Seriously? He deserves an obit on Nightly News? I don't think so. The final story was a a 2:15 piece about military personnel who get reunited with dogs they were with in Afghanistan. Yet another pointless "news story" that's really just a shameless excuse to show dogs for ratings purposes. On Nightly News, it's dogs, dogs, dogs.
Tues. 11/22--Brian ended his chat with The Weather Channel's Jim Cantore by saying, "Thanks, pal." How many times a night does Brian describe someone as "my friend"? I have never seen anyone so desperate to make people think he is well-liked. Then, Brian spent a minute showing clips of Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone on CNBC's "Squawk Box" because it's Brian's job to use his broadcast to promote CNBC. There was no news value to this story--it was pure promotion. The final story of the night was something Brian introduced as, "A piece of video we thought you should see." Was it footage from the current uprising in Syria? Was it footage from the new country of South Sudan? Was it footage from the thawing political situation in Myanmar? No. It was YouTube video of a couple of kids messing up their living room with a bag of flour. Seriously. You probably think I'm making this up, but I'm not. This is what Brian felt merited two minutes of news time on his broadcast. And Brian ended the story by telling us that the mother and her kids would be guests on the next day's "Today" show. Even by the abysmally horrendous standards of Nightly News, this represents a new low. A story completely devoid of any news value whose only purpose was to promote "The Today Show"? You've got to be kidding me. It's hard for me to understand how people can tolerate something like this. Why aren't thousands of viewers marching up to 30 Rock with pitchforks and torches demanding that Brian Williams and NBC News president Steve Capus be replaced? If anyone needs further proof that Nightly News is a joke and should be taken off the air, this is it.
Wed. 11/23--In a very important news story, Savannah Guthrie informed us of the following: "Today in Washington, the President did what presidents have done for the last 64 years now, pardoned the national Thanksgiving turkey." So if the tradition started 64 years ago, then Pres. Truman would have been the first president to pardon a turkey, right? Wrong. There is not a single shred of evidence in the Truman Library (or anywhere else) that supports this. Every news source credits Pres. George H.W. Bush as being the first president to pardon a Thanksgiving turkey. Even MSNBC's "First Read" blog states that, "President Harry Truman is often cited, incorrectly, as the first president to pardon a Thanksgiving turkey." Maybe Guthrie should read the "First Read" blog. Oh well, she was only off by 42 years. No big deal. Then Guthrie spent 30 seconds promoting the Thanksgiving Day Parade, which would be televised the following day on...you guessed it...NBC. The broadcast ended with a "Making A Difference" piece about some people in Illinois who help a family harvest their crops. Wow, that's an important piece of news.
Thurs. 11/24--Here are some of the stories Nightly News brought us on Thanksgiving: Shopping on Black Thursday, the troops in Afghanistan eating their turkey dinners, homeless female veterans who have a hard time finding work and a boys' high school football team that is coached by a woman. I guess the producers ran these stories because Thanksgiving is a slow news day, right? Wrong. It may be a slow news day in the U.S., but everywhere else in the world it's a regular news day. So instead of airing these idiotic stories that have no news value, why didn't the producers show us the important news from around the world? Because this is Nightly News and they don't do things like that. The final story of the night was a two-minute piece about some beagles that were freed from a research lab in Spain and transported to the U.S. to be adopted. Okay, first of all that's not news. It's just another excuse to show dogs. Remember--viewers like dogs, so dog stories get high ratings. And that's what Nightly News is all about. Ratings. In the past two months, Nightly News has shown 21 stories about animals (dogs and whales are the most popular, but we also saw stories about pandas, penguins and bears). But I have a question for Brian Williams, Steve Capus and the Nightly News producers: How much money does NBC Universal (and Nightly News in particular) earn each year from companies that test their products on dogs and other animals? That would certainly include cosmetics companies like Revlon, Estee Lauder, Clinique, Lancome, Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, L'Oreal and a host of other NBC advertisers. And then there are pharmaceutical companies like GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Bayer. All of these companies test their products on animals, perhaps even beagles. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the beagles in the story were rescued from one of these companies. I noticed that Miguel Almaguer did not mention the specific company that they came from. He was probably instructed not to divulge the name in order to protect an NBC advertiser. So the Nightly News producers run a story about rescuing lab dogs, while they are accepting ad dollars from companies that test their products on animals. That is the very definition of hypocrisy.
Fri. 11/25--The lead story--yet again--was Black Friday shopping. In this story, we saw five different shots of people with Dynex televisions (Dynex is the Best Buy house brand). We saw multiple shots of customers wearing Best Buy hats. We saw lots of people shopping in Best Buy stores. John Yang told us that, "Electronics stores like Best Buy seem to be early Black Friday winners." Do you see a pattern here? Obviously, Nightly News is promoting Best Buy (during the past week, they also promoted Walmart, Target, Kohl's and other retailers). How nice--Brian and his producers are helping out some Nightly News advertisers. What a friendly thing to do. Later, Brian spent a combined sixty seconds on obituaries for Maggie Daley (wife of former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley) and retired Four-Star General Ralph E. Haines. It must be great to have your own TV show--you can report on anything you want! After that, Brian spent another 40 seconds telling us about those beagles that were rescued. Apparently, the previous day's story wasn't comprehensive enough. Brian ended the story by begging the viewers to contribute money to the Beagle Freedom Project. Here's an idea: Before begging the viewers to donate money, why doesn't Brian, Steve Capus and the NBC executives agree that they will no longer accept advertising from companies that test their products on animals? That would have a far greater impact than the few thousand dollars the viewers could donate. I won't hold my breath waiting for that to happen. By the way--one of the commercials that ran right after the beagle story was from Aleve (a Bayer product). How many beagles were tortured or killed in order to allow Aleve to come to market? The final story of the night was a piece about all the great holiday movies for kids. The story ran 2:15, and 1:25 of that was devoted to movie clips, including 45 seconds of clips from the new "Muppets" movie and 20 seconds from "Hugo". We also saw clips from "Puss in Boots", "Happy Feet Two", "We Bought A Zoo" and "Arthur Christmas" (and that doesn't include the ten-second clip of the Muppets on Jimmy Fallon's show. After all, as long as they were promoting movies, why not also promote Fallon?). So on one level, this story was meant to satisfy the viewers' desire for more and more entertainment news at the expense of real news. But there's something else going on here. The five weeks from Thanksgiving through the end of the year are among the most lucrative and competitive for the movie studios. As such, they spend a disproportionate amount of money on advertising during those weeks. Obviously, the NBC advertising sales department got together with Brian Williams, Steve Capus and the Nightly News producers and figured out a way to include movie clips on Nightly News as a part of ad sales packages. Instead of simply buying straight commercials, the movie studios were offered the opportunity to buy a combination package that includes commercials and promotional clips as part of Nightly News stories. So the 45 seconds of "Muppets" clips we saw were actually part of a paid ad package that Disney purchased. Paying to have a movie promoted on Nightly News is quite attractive to a movie studio, since an appearance on a news broadcast adds a legitimacy that a commercial lacks. Remember--there are no coincidences on Nightly News. Everything you see on the broadcast is put there for a specific reason to promote a specific product. So happy holidays from your pals at Nightly News! Don't say they never gave us anything.
Sat. 11/19--No Nightly News aired today because Notre Dame football is much more important (translation: profitable) than news to the clowns in the NBC executive offices. The Iranians could have launched a nuclear attack against Israel and the jokers at NBC wouldn't cut away from football. After all, nuclear attacks against Israel aren't very profitable.
Sun. 11/20--A story about the Republican candidates at an Iowa "Faith and Family" forum was just an excuse to show a clip of Jon Huntsman on the previous night's "Saturday Night Live". As always, one of the main functions of Nightly News is to promote NBC sports and entertainment programs. We also saw another story on Natalie Wood's death because Brian Williams knows that viewers prefer to see entertainment stories (even if they're 30 years old) instead of actual news. A story about people preparing to shop on Black Friday showed ad clips from Best Buy, Target and Walmart because the Nightly News producers do everything they can to help promote their sponsors. The final story of the night was another story about pandas (the last Nightly News panda story was less than two months ago on Sept. 29). The NBC News research department has obviously informed Brian and his producers that animal stories test very well with viewers and result in high ratings, so Nightly News makes a point of showing animal stories almost every night. More shameless pandering (or panda-ing) from Brian and his producers. Lester Holt introduced the panda story by telling us that, "They're cute, they're cuddly, they're adorable..." True, but that doesn't make them newsworthy. By the way, this story included old recycled panda footage that had previously been shown in the Sept. 29 story.
Mon. 11/21--Here's what Brian said to Richard Engel during Engel's report from Cairo: "So Richard...the last time you and I walked through [Tahrir Square], it was a sunny afternoon--we met and talked to a lot of people...." As always, Brian tries to turn every news story into a story about HIMSELF. His favorite expressions are "For those of us...", "If you're like me..."and "Most of us..." because they allow him to transform a story into a story about Brian Williams. Why would anyone care about the last time Brian walked through Tahrir Square? We don't. The story is supposed to be about the Egyptian people, not about Brian Williams. But it's Brian's show and he gets to do whatever he wants. Then Brian spent 40 seconds talking about NASCAR because the NBC research geeks have told him that a lot of Nightly News viewers are also NASCAR fans. So Brian pretends to like NASCAR. You know, for the ratings. After that, Brian read a 40-second obituary for financier Ted Forstmann. Seriously? He deserves an obit on Nightly News? I don't think so. The final story was a a 2:15 piece about military personnel who get reunited with dogs they were with in Afghanistan. Yet another pointless "news story" that's really just a shameless excuse to show dogs for ratings purposes. On Nightly News, it's dogs, dogs, dogs.
Tues. 11/22--Brian ended his chat with The Weather Channel's Jim Cantore by saying, "Thanks, pal." How many times a night does Brian describe someone as "my friend"? I have never seen anyone so desperate to make people think he is well-liked. Then, Brian spent a minute showing clips of Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone on CNBC's "Squawk Box" because it's Brian's job to use his broadcast to promote CNBC. There was no news value to this story--it was pure promotion. The final story of the night was something Brian introduced as, "A piece of video we thought you should see." Was it footage from the current uprising in Syria? Was it footage from the new country of South Sudan? Was it footage from the thawing political situation in Myanmar? No. It was YouTube video of a couple of kids messing up their living room with a bag of flour. Seriously. You probably think I'm making this up, but I'm not. This is what Brian felt merited two minutes of news time on his broadcast. And Brian ended the story by telling us that the mother and her kids would be guests on the next day's "Today" show. Even by the abysmally horrendous standards of Nightly News, this represents a new low. A story completely devoid of any news value whose only purpose was to promote "The Today Show"? You've got to be kidding me. It's hard for me to understand how people can tolerate something like this. Why aren't thousands of viewers marching up to 30 Rock with pitchforks and torches demanding that Brian Williams and NBC News president Steve Capus be replaced? If anyone needs further proof that Nightly News is a joke and should be taken off the air, this is it.
Wed. 11/23--In a very important news story, Savannah Guthrie informed us of the following: "Today in Washington, the President did what presidents have done for the last 64 years now, pardoned the national Thanksgiving turkey." So if the tradition started 64 years ago, then Pres. Truman would have been the first president to pardon a turkey, right? Wrong. There is not a single shred of evidence in the Truman Library (or anywhere else) that supports this. Every news source credits Pres. George H.W. Bush as being the first president to pardon a Thanksgiving turkey. Even MSNBC's "First Read" blog states that, "President Harry Truman is often cited, incorrectly, as the first president to pardon a Thanksgiving turkey." Maybe Guthrie should read the "First Read" blog. Oh well, she was only off by 42 years. No big deal. Then Guthrie spent 30 seconds promoting the Thanksgiving Day Parade, which would be televised the following day on...you guessed it...NBC. The broadcast ended with a "Making A Difference" piece about some people in Illinois who help a family harvest their crops. Wow, that's an important piece of news.
Thurs. 11/24--Here are some of the stories Nightly News brought us on Thanksgiving: Shopping on Black Thursday, the troops in Afghanistan eating their turkey dinners, homeless female veterans who have a hard time finding work and a boys' high school football team that is coached by a woman. I guess the producers ran these stories because Thanksgiving is a slow news day, right? Wrong. It may be a slow news day in the U.S., but everywhere else in the world it's a regular news day. So instead of airing these idiotic stories that have no news value, why didn't the producers show us the important news from around the world? Because this is Nightly News and they don't do things like that. The final story of the night was a two-minute piece about some beagles that were freed from a research lab in Spain and transported to the U.S. to be adopted. Okay, first of all that's not news. It's just another excuse to show dogs. Remember--viewers like dogs, so dog stories get high ratings. And that's what Nightly News is all about. Ratings. In the past two months, Nightly News has shown 21 stories about animals (dogs and whales are the most popular, but we also saw stories about pandas, penguins and bears). But I have a question for Brian Williams, Steve Capus and the Nightly News producers: How much money does NBC Universal (and Nightly News in particular) earn each year from companies that test their products on dogs and other animals? That would certainly include cosmetics companies like Revlon, Estee Lauder, Clinique, Lancome, Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, L'Oreal and a host of other NBC advertisers. And then there are pharmaceutical companies like GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Bayer. All of these companies test their products on animals, perhaps even beagles. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the beagles in the story were rescued from one of these companies. I noticed that Miguel Almaguer did not mention the specific company that they came from. He was probably instructed not to divulge the name in order to protect an NBC advertiser. So the Nightly News producers run a story about rescuing lab dogs, while they are accepting ad dollars from companies that test their products on animals. That is the very definition of hypocrisy.
Fri. 11/25--The lead story--yet again--was Black Friday shopping. In this story, we saw five different shots of people with Dynex televisions (Dynex is the Best Buy house brand). We saw multiple shots of customers wearing Best Buy hats. We saw lots of people shopping in Best Buy stores. John Yang told us that, "Electronics stores like Best Buy seem to be early Black Friday winners." Do you see a pattern here? Obviously, Nightly News is promoting Best Buy (during the past week, they also promoted Walmart, Target, Kohl's and other retailers). How nice--Brian and his producers are helping out some Nightly News advertisers. What a friendly thing to do. Later, Brian spent a combined sixty seconds on obituaries for Maggie Daley (wife of former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley) and retired Four-Star General Ralph E. Haines. It must be great to have your own TV show--you can report on anything you want! After that, Brian spent another 40 seconds telling us about those beagles that were rescued. Apparently, the previous day's story wasn't comprehensive enough. Brian ended the story by begging the viewers to contribute money to the Beagle Freedom Project. Here's an idea: Before begging the viewers to donate money, why doesn't Brian, Steve Capus and the NBC executives agree that they will no longer accept advertising from companies that test their products on animals? That would have a far greater impact than the few thousand dollars the viewers could donate. I won't hold my breath waiting for that to happen. By the way--one of the commercials that ran right after the beagle story was from Aleve (a Bayer product). How many beagles were tortured or killed in order to allow Aleve to come to market? The final story of the night was a piece about all the great holiday movies for kids. The story ran 2:15, and 1:25 of that was devoted to movie clips, including 45 seconds of clips from the new "Muppets" movie and 20 seconds from "Hugo". We also saw clips from "Puss in Boots", "Happy Feet Two", "We Bought A Zoo" and "Arthur Christmas" (and that doesn't include the ten-second clip of the Muppets on Jimmy Fallon's show. After all, as long as they were promoting movies, why not also promote Fallon?). So on one level, this story was meant to satisfy the viewers' desire for more and more entertainment news at the expense of real news. But there's something else going on here. The five weeks from Thanksgiving through the end of the year are among the most lucrative and competitive for the movie studios. As such, they spend a disproportionate amount of money on advertising during those weeks. Obviously, the NBC advertising sales department got together with Brian Williams, Steve Capus and the Nightly News producers and figured out a way to include movie clips on Nightly News as a part of ad sales packages. Instead of simply buying straight commercials, the movie studios were offered the opportunity to buy a combination package that includes commercials and promotional clips as part of Nightly News stories. So the 45 seconds of "Muppets" clips we saw were actually part of a paid ad package that Disney purchased. Paying to have a movie promoted on Nightly News is quite attractive to a movie studio, since an appearance on a news broadcast adds a legitimacy that a commercial lacks. Remember--there are no coincidences on Nightly News. Everything you see on the broadcast is put there for a specific reason to promote a specific product. So happy holidays from your pals at Nightly News! Don't say they never gave us anything.
Monday, November 21, 2011
NBC Nightly News Show Notes--11/12 Through 11/18
Here's some of the exciting stuff that happened on Nightly News last week:
Sat. 11/12--Nightly News spent an astounding 10:35--nearly half the broadcast--on stories related to the Penn State sex abuse scandal. By contrast, they spent 15 seconds reporting on the situation in Syria. Great job, Nightly News producers! You really have your priorities straight.
Sun. 11/13--A story about the previous night's Republican Presidential debate included a clip from "Saturday Night Live" because one of the main functions of Nightly News is to promote NBC sports and entertainment programs. A story about how sugar affects heart disease in women spelled "triglycerides" as "tryiglycerides" because no one at Nightly News cares the slightest bit about getting things right. The final story of the night was a ridiculous 3:15 puff piece about New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. Of course, this was just a shameless and unethical way to promote that night's Patriots-Jets game, which was airing on NBC immediately after Nightly News. Did I mention that the main function of Nightly News is to promote NBC sports and entertainment programs? The producers can't spell "triglycerides", but they sure know how to promote Sunday Night Football.
Mon. 11/14--For the second time in a week, we saw a story about Patrick Witt, the Yale quarterback who has to choose between his Rhodes Scholarship interview and playing in the Harvard-Yale game (both of which take place on Nov. 19). Last Monday, the idiotic Anne Thompson spent two-and-a-half minutes fawning over Witt. The Harvard-Yale game will be televised by Versus, which is owned by NBC Universal. So the only reason Brian Williams and his producers are reporting this story (twice) is to promote a college football game on an NBC network. Slick. Brian then took 30 seconds to boast about how Chelsea Clinton is joining NBC News: "She's anxious to report stories of volunteerism and highlight the great works of ordinary humanity that we encounter every day." What a load of crap. Chelsea is joining NBC News because she wants to raise her profile and get her face on television. And NBC hired her to add to their collection of kids from famous parents. Chelsea, say hello to Jenna Bush Hager and Luke Russert. Of course, the truth is that Clinton, Bush Hager and Russert combined don't add up to one competent news correspondent. It's like a reality show at NBC News. If you have a famous last name, you can have a job at NBC News. Prediction: In about 20 years, NBC News will have at least five correspondents with the last name of Jolie-Pitt. The broadcast ended with a pointless "Making A Difference" piece (that's an oxymoron) about a 12-year-old girl who raises money for the victims of the Haiti earthquake. As is the case with every MAD piece, this one did not contain a shred of actual news. Rather, it's designed to generate high ratings by appealing to the viewers' emotions. These silly MAD pieces don't belong on a news broadcast, but seriously--when have Brian and his producers ever cared about that?
Tues. 11/15--Nightly News began with eight-and-a-half minutes of Penn State stories--including a rehashing of Bob Costas' interview with Jerry Sandusky from the previous night's "Rock Center". Is it ethical for a news anchor to use his broadcast to promote his prime-time show? But then again, when has Brian Williams ever been concerned with ethics? By contrast, Nightly News spent 35 seconds reporting on the situation in Syria. All together now: Great job guys! During one of the Penn State stories, a man (who was clearly not Nightly News correspondent Michael Isikoff) was identified in an on-screen graphic as Isikoff. So for the second time in a week, the Nightly News producers failed to correctly identify their own correspondent. (On Nov. 10, Nightly News correspondent Ron Mott was identified as "Ron Allen".) After that, Robert Bazell reported a story about the soon-to-expire patent on Lipitor. Other than Brian Williams, Bazell is the biggest shill at NBC News. So whenever Bazell reports a "news story" we should immediately start wondering what exactly he is promoting. In this case, Bazell was promoting Pfizer (a big Nightly News advertiser) as an all-around great company who will soon be doing us a huge favor by graciously allowing their cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor to be sold as a generic. Of course, Bazell never mentioned the lawsuit against Pfizer that accuses them of delaying the patent expiration on Lipitor and illegally keeping a generic version of the drug off the market. According to CourthouseNews.com (http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/11/08/41276.htm), "Lead plaintiff Chimes Pharmacy claims that after a patent dispute, Pfizer and [Indian drug company] Ranbaxy agreed to artificially extend Pfizer's Lipitor patents, previously set to expire in March 2010, until Nov. 30 this year, when Ranbaxy will get a 'risk-free' 180-day monopoly on the generic version. The pharmacies say Ranbaxy and Pfizer also made a deal to fix the price of the generic version at just slightly less than Pfizer's price." The website estimates that this delay earned Pfizer "approximately $18 billion dollars, which they would not have sold in the absence of the unlawful agreement with Ranbaxy." But Bazell isn't interested in those details. He just wants us to believe that Pfizer is eager to do us the big favor of allowing their Lipitor drug to be sold as a generic. Wow, what a great company Pfizer is! And what a huge shill Bazell is! Later, Brian spent 45 seconds reporting on Gabby Giffords' video message to her constituents--without ever once mentioning that Diane Sawyer interviewed Giffords on the previous night's "20/20"! I guess that's not surprising. Sawyer's "20/20" crushed Brian's "Rock Center" in the ratings so he was understandably ticked off. Promote "Rock Center", ignore "20/20"--that's Brian's philosophy. Then, Brian wasted sixty seconds of valuable news time telling us about Annie Leibovitz's photographic technique--excerpted from his interview with Leibovitz on the previous night's--you guessed it--"Rock Center". That's the second time that night that Brian has shown excerpts from "Rock Center" on Nightly News. Brian Williams is without a doubt the sleaziest self-promoter on NBC, and that's saying a lot for a network that also includes Donald Trump. Brian continued the broadcast with a 40-second obituary for Irving Franklin, who made his fortune manufacturing baseball batting gloves. This is news? Does Irving Franklin really deserve an obituary on an evening newscast? And even more alarming--Franklin's obit got more air time than the Syria situation! The broadcast ended with a "Making A Difference" piece about a woman on Block Island who helps needy people pay for things like heating bills or medical expenses. Riveting. In the interview with Jerry Sandusky that aired earlier, Sandusky told Bob Costas that he "is trying to make a difference in the lives of young people." Hey--that sounds like a great idea for a "Making A Difference" piece. Maybe it could be Chelsea's first Nightly News story.
Wed. 11/16--Yet again, Brian told us that a Nightly News correspondent is reporting from "State College P-A", rather than actually saying "Pennsylvania". Is it really too much trouble for Brian to pronounce the state's name in full? He doesn't verbally abbreviate the names of any other states, so why does he do it with Pennsylvania? Brian then spent 40 seconds on an obituary for Karl Stover, the last surviving munchkin from "The Wizard of Oz". Because Brian is first and foremost about reporting hard news. And speaking of hard news, the "Making A Difference" story this night was about two guys who walked across the country picking up garbage. I wonder how many Nightly News broadcasts they picked up.
Thurs. 11/17--In a story about congress's decision to allow pizza to be classified as a vegetable, Anne Thompson took ten seconds to plug McDonald's, telling us that, "McDonald's got the message--reducing french fries and adding fruit to its Happy Meals." (While she was saying this, a huge McDonald's logo appeared to her left.) This nugget of info had nothing to do with the story, it was just a gratuitous product placement. But if there's anything Brian and his crew love doing, it's plugging McDonald's. And why not--they spend a boatload of money advertising on NBC Universal networks every year. Brian's just showing a little love to his pals at the Golden Arches. In a story about a pilot who got locked in his plane's restroom mid-flight, a transcript of a second pilot's conversation with the control tower spelled the word "oughtta" (as in "you guys oughtta declare an emergency and just get on the ground") as "outta". Then Brian spent 30 seconds on the obituary for Lee Pockriss (who wrote "Johnny Angel") because apparently Brian gets to do whatever he wants. That was followed by a story about a Secret Santa gift exchange that will be starting in the U.S. Senate. I think they should have attached a "breaking news" banner to that one. Finally, we were treated to a "Making A Difference" story about...oh, who cares.
Fri. 11/18--The lead story was the murder of Natalie Wood because Brian would rather show us 30-year-old entertainment news than current world or national news. This was just an excuse to show clips from Wood's movies because NBC research shows that viewers like movie clips on the news and it keeps the ratings up. After all--why make viewers wait for "Access Hollywood" to get their fill of entertainment news? Then we saw Chuck Todd's interview with Hillary Clinton which included a discussion of Chelsea's new job at NBC News. It's obvious that one of the main reasons NBC hired Chelsea was in order to get access to Bill and Hillary (Bill Clinton was featured in an exclusive interview on Nov. 7--obviously he gave the interview to NBC out of gratitude for hiring Chelsea). After that, we were treated to yet another story on climate change from the idiotic Anne Thompson. Thompson reports on climate change every few weeks (the last time was on Nov. 1) and the stories are all the same with no new information. I guess the NBC News research department has informed Brian and his producers that it's okay to repeat a story after two weeks because by that time the viewers will have forgotten about the previous story. The broadcast ended with a riveting 2:10 story about a First Ladies exhibit at the Smithsonian because it's easier than reporting real news. What a great week it was at Nightly News!
Sat. 11/12--Nightly News spent an astounding 10:35--nearly half the broadcast--on stories related to the Penn State sex abuse scandal. By contrast, they spent 15 seconds reporting on the situation in Syria. Great job, Nightly News producers! You really have your priorities straight.
Sun. 11/13--A story about the previous night's Republican Presidential debate included a clip from "Saturday Night Live" because one of the main functions of Nightly News is to promote NBC sports and entertainment programs. A story about how sugar affects heart disease in women spelled "triglycerides" as "tryiglycerides" because no one at Nightly News cares the slightest bit about getting things right. The final story of the night was a ridiculous 3:15 puff piece about New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. Of course, this was just a shameless and unethical way to promote that night's Patriots-Jets game, which was airing on NBC immediately after Nightly News. Did I mention that the main function of Nightly News is to promote NBC sports and entertainment programs? The producers can't spell "triglycerides", but they sure know how to promote Sunday Night Football.
Mon. 11/14--For the second time in a week, we saw a story about Patrick Witt, the Yale quarterback who has to choose between his Rhodes Scholarship interview and playing in the Harvard-Yale game (both of which take place on Nov. 19). Last Monday, the idiotic Anne Thompson spent two-and-a-half minutes fawning over Witt. The Harvard-Yale game will be televised by Versus, which is owned by NBC Universal. So the only reason Brian Williams and his producers are reporting this story (twice) is to promote a college football game on an NBC network. Slick. Brian then took 30 seconds to boast about how Chelsea Clinton is joining NBC News: "She's anxious to report stories of volunteerism and highlight the great works of ordinary humanity that we encounter every day." What a load of crap. Chelsea is joining NBC News because she wants to raise her profile and get her face on television. And NBC hired her to add to their collection of kids from famous parents. Chelsea, say hello to Jenna Bush Hager and Luke Russert. Of course, the truth is that Clinton, Bush Hager and Russert combined don't add up to one competent news correspondent. It's like a reality show at NBC News. If you have a famous last name, you can have a job at NBC News. Prediction: In about 20 years, NBC News will have at least five correspondents with the last name of Jolie-Pitt. The broadcast ended with a pointless "Making A Difference" piece (that's an oxymoron) about a 12-year-old girl who raises money for the victims of the Haiti earthquake. As is the case with every MAD piece, this one did not contain a shred of actual news. Rather, it's designed to generate high ratings by appealing to the viewers' emotions. These silly MAD pieces don't belong on a news broadcast, but seriously--when have Brian and his producers ever cared about that?
Tues. 11/15--Nightly News began with eight-and-a-half minutes of Penn State stories--including a rehashing of Bob Costas' interview with Jerry Sandusky from the previous night's "Rock Center". Is it ethical for a news anchor to use his broadcast to promote his prime-time show? But then again, when has Brian Williams ever been concerned with ethics? By contrast, Nightly News spent 35 seconds reporting on the situation in Syria. All together now: Great job guys! During one of the Penn State stories, a man (who was clearly not Nightly News correspondent Michael Isikoff) was identified in an on-screen graphic as Isikoff. So for the second time in a week, the Nightly News producers failed to correctly identify their own correspondent. (On Nov. 10, Nightly News correspondent Ron Mott was identified as "Ron Allen".) After that, Robert Bazell reported a story about the soon-to-expire patent on Lipitor. Other than Brian Williams, Bazell is the biggest shill at NBC News. So whenever Bazell reports a "news story" we should immediately start wondering what exactly he is promoting. In this case, Bazell was promoting Pfizer (a big Nightly News advertiser) as an all-around great company who will soon be doing us a huge favor by graciously allowing their cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor to be sold as a generic. Of course, Bazell never mentioned the lawsuit against Pfizer that accuses them of delaying the patent expiration on Lipitor and illegally keeping a generic version of the drug off the market. According to CourthouseNews.com (http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/11/08/41276.htm), "Lead plaintiff Chimes Pharmacy claims that after a patent dispute, Pfizer and [Indian drug company] Ranbaxy agreed to artificially extend Pfizer's Lipitor patents, previously set to expire in March 2010, until Nov. 30 this year, when Ranbaxy will get a 'risk-free' 180-day monopoly on the generic version. The pharmacies say Ranbaxy and Pfizer also made a deal to fix the price of the generic version at just slightly less than Pfizer's price." The website estimates that this delay earned Pfizer "approximately $18 billion dollars, which they would not have sold in the absence of the unlawful agreement with Ranbaxy." But Bazell isn't interested in those details. He just wants us to believe that Pfizer is eager to do us the big favor of allowing their Lipitor drug to be sold as a generic. Wow, what a great company Pfizer is! And what a huge shill Bazell is! Later, Brian spent 45 seconds reporting on Gabby Giffords' video message to her constituents--without ever once mentioning that Diane Sawyer interviewed Giffords on the previous night's "20/20"! I guess that's not surprising. Sawyer's "20/20" crushed Brian's "Rock Center" in the ratings so he was understandably ticked off. Promote "Rock Center", ignore "20/20"--that's Brian's philosophy. Then, Brian wasted sixty seconds of valuable news time telling us about Annie Leibovitz's photographic technique--excerpted from his interview with Leibovitz on the previous night's--you guessed it--"Rock Center". That's the second time that night that Brian has shown excerpts from "Rock Center" on Nightly News. Brian Williams is without a doubt the sleaziest self-promoter on NBC, and that's saying a lot for a network that also includes Donald Trump. Brian continued the broadcast with a 40-second obituary for Irving Franklin, who made his fortune manufacturing baseball batting gloves. This is news? Does Irving Franklin really deserve an obituary on an evening newscast? And even more alarming--Franklin's obit got more air time than the Syria situation! The broadcast ended with a "Making A Difference" piece about a woman on Block Island who helps needy people pay for things like heating bills or medical expenses. Riveting. In the interview with Jerry Sandusky that aired earlier, Sandusky told Bob Costas that he "is trying to make a difference in the lives of young people." Hey--that sounds like a great idea for a "Making A Difference" piece. Maybe it could be Chelsea's first Nightly News story.
Wed. 11/16--Yet again, Brian told us that a Nightly News correspondent is reporting from "State College P-A", rather than actually saying "Pennsylvania". Is it really too much trouble for Brian to pronounce the state's name in full? He doesn't verbally abbreviate the names of any other states, so why does he do it with Pennsylvania? Brian then spent 40 seconds on an obituary for Karl Stover, the last surviving munchkin from "The Wizard of Oz". Because Brian is first and foremost about reporting hard news. And speaking of hard news, the "Making A Difference" story this night was about two guys who walked across the country picking up garbage. I wonder how many Nightly News broadcasts they picked up.
Thurs. 11/17--In a story about congress's decision to allow pizza to be classified as a vegetable, Anne Thompson took ten seconds to plug McDonald's, telling us that, "McDonald's got the message--reducing french fries and adding fruit to its Happy Meals." (While she was saying this, a huge McDonald's logo appeared to her left.) This nugget of info had nothing to do with the story, it was just a gratuitous product placement. But if there's anything Brian and his crew love doing, it's plugging McDonald's. And why not--they spend a boatload of money advertising on NBC Universal networks every year. Brian's just showing a little love to his pals at the Golden Arches. In a story about a pilot who got locked in his plane's restroom mid-flight, a transcript of a second pilot's conversation with the control tower spelled the word "oughtta" (as in "you guys oughtta declare an emergency and just get on the ground") as "outta". Then Brian spent 30 seconds on the obituary for Lee Pockriss (who wrote "Johnny Angel") because apparently Brian gets to do whatever he wants. That was followed by a story about a Secret Santa gift exchange that will be starting in the U.S. Senate. I think they should have attached a "breaking news" banner to that one. Finally, we were treated to a "Making A Difference" story about...oh, who cares.
Fri. 11/18--The lead story was the murder of Natalie Wood because Brian would rather show us 30-year-old entertainment news than current world or national news. This was just an excuse to show clips from Wood's movies because NBC research shows that viewers like movie clips on the news and it keeps the ratings up. After all--why make viewers wait for "Access Hollywood" to get their fill of entertainment news? Then we saw Chuck Todd's interview with Hillary Clinton which included a discussion of Chelsea's new job at NBC News. It's obvious that one of the main reasons NBC hired Chelsea was in order to get access to Bill and Hillary (Bill Clinton was featured in an exclusive interview on Nov. 7--obviously he gave the interview to NBC out of gratitude for hiring Chelsea). After that, we were treated to yet another story on climate change from the idiotic Anne Thompson. Thompson reports on climate change every few weeks (the last time was on Nov. 1) and the stories are all the same with no new information. I guess the NBC News research department has informed Brian and his producers that it's okay to repeat a story after two weeks because by that time the viewers will have forgotten about the previous story. The broadcast ended with a riveting 2:10 story about a First Ladies exhibit at the Smithsonian because it's easier than reporting real news. What a great week it was at Nightly News!
Saturday, November 19, 2011
NBC Nightly News Show Notes--11/5 Through 11/11
Here's some of the exciting things that happened on NBC Nightly News from 11/5 through 11/11:
Sat. 11/5--Nightly News spent two-and-a-half minutes telling us about non-retail tenants in malls. Trampolines! Aquariums! A science museum! Awesome. This was a story on a network newscast. Really. We also saw a tribute to Andy Rooney. Some clips of Rooney were presented as if they were being shown on a television--a Dynex television. That's right, ladies and gentlemen--Nightly News has a new sponsor. Dynex is manufactured by Best Buy, so obviously Best Buy paid NBC to have their product appear on Nightly News. That's called product placement. Is there anything NBC won't so for a few dollars?
Sun. 11/6--We saw an important story about an experimental technique that slows down the aging process in lab mice. How wonderful--if there's one thing we've all been praying for, it's younger-looking mice. The story included clips of commercials for Neutrogena and RoC skin care products. More product placements. I wonder how much those brands paid NBC to appear on Nightly News. We were also treated to yet another story about Will & Kate--this time a two-minute piece about the couple moving into their new Royal digs. This is the 16th Will & Kate story Nightly News has shown since July 1. That's thirty minutes of Will & Kate--the equivalent of more than an entire Nightly News broadcast. Good thing there wasn't any actual news to report. Naturally, Lester Holt ended the broadcast with a plug for the Ravens-Steelers game coming up on NBC. Because what's the point of having a sham news broadcast if you can't use it to plug your NFL games.
Mon. 11/7--We saw Kate Snow's thrilling 3:10 interview with Bill Clinton. Let me tell you, that Kate Snow is a real intellectual heavyweight. It's obvious that the reason NBC News hired Chelsea Clinton was to ensure they would have constant access to Bill and Hillary. Brian then reported yet another story about the asteroid that was on track to miss earth. I don't really need to know about asteroids that will miss earth. Tell me about the ones that are going to hit us. In the final story, the idiotic Anne Thompson told us all about the Yale quarterback whose Rhodes Scholarship final interview is the same day as the Harvard-Yale game on Nov. 19. Oh, by the way--that game is being televised by the Versus network. Which is owned by NBC Universal. So this story was just a two-and-a-half minute promo for a college football game airing on an NBC network. Using a news broadcast to underhandedly promote a sporting event is just unbelievably sleazy. In other words, business as usual at NBC.
Tues. 11/8--Brian read a thirty second obituary for Ed Pauls, the inventor of the NordicTrack exercise system. Really, Brian? You think Pauls' death is important enough to report on Nightly News? The final 2:20 of the night was all about--you guessed it--the asteroid that missed earth.
Wed. 11/9--Robert Bazell began and ended his report on weight loss with clips from NBC's "The Biggest Loser". Unfortunately, Nightly News viewers are the biggest losers because they are constantly forced to watch news stories that are contrived to promote NBC entertainment and sports programs. In a story about Gabby Giffords' new book, Brian made sure to show footage of himself reporting about Giffords' shooting from Tucson last January. Because there's nothing Brian likes reporting on more than himself. Brian ended a story about a snowstorm in Alaska by saying, "They don't scare easily up there." Is there any group of people that Brian won't shamelessly pander to? Apparently not. Brian then read a twenty-second obituary for Heavy D because he was one of the great musicians of the past quarter-century. A true innovator. A musical genius. A legend. Brian also made sure to spend valuable time telling us that Eddie Murphy will not be hosting the Oscars. I've got to give Brian credit, though. He managed to plug "30 Rock" by showing photos of Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin despite the fact that they had absolutely nothing to do with Eddie Murphy. The final story was a 2:25 piece about whales--the seventh whale story Nightly News has done in the past two months. As always, Brian's philosophy is to find a topic that's popular with viewers (as in gets high ratings) and repeat it over and over and over again. Whales, whales, whales. Ratings, ratings, ratings.
Thurs. 11/10--At the end of a story about the sexual abuse scandal at Penn State, correspondent Ron Mott was identified in a Nightly News graphic as "Ron Allen". Apparently, the producers can't tell their own correspondents apart. Later, Brian reported a 2:10 story about more things Richard Nixon said on tape, because it's easier (and cheaper) than reporting current news. After that, Brian read another story about Will & Kate, and a story about Billy Crystal stepping in to host the Oscars. Talk about breaking news!
Fri. 11/11--In a story about births and weddings on 11/11/11, we saw an interview with "Glynis McCants--Numerologist to the Stars". Seriously? This is someone who is given air time on Nightly News? The final story was a "Making A Difference" piece about veteran-owned businesses. Because, apparently this is news. To someone. I don't know who.
Sat. 11/5--Nightly News spent two-and-a-half minutes telling us about non-retail tenants in malls. Trampolines! Aquariums! A science museum! Awesome. This was a story on a network newscast. Really. We also saw a tribute to Andy Rooney. Some clips of Rooney were presented as if they were being shown on a television--a Dynex television. That's right, ladies and gentlemen--Nightly News has a new sponsor. Dynex is manufactured by Best Buy, so obviously Best Buy paid NBC to have their product appear on Nightly News. That's called product placement. Is there anything NBC won't so for a few dollars?
Sun. 11/6--We saw an important story about an experimental technique that slows down the aging process in lab mice. How wonderful--if there's one thing we've all been praying for, it's younger-looking mice. The story included clips of commercials for Neutrogena and RoC skin care products. More product placements. I wonder how much those brands paid NBC to appear on Nightly News. We were also treated to yet another story about Will & Kate--this time a two-minute piece about the couple moving into their new Royal digs. This is the 16th Will & Kate story Nightly News has shown since July 1. That's thirty minutes of Will & Kate--the equivalent of more than an entire Nightly News broadcast. Good thing there wasn't any actual news to report. Naturally, Lester Holt ended the broadcast with a plug for the Ravens-Steelers game coming up on NBC. Because what's the point of having a sham news broadcast if you can't use it to plug your NFL games.
Mon. 11/7--We saw Kate Snow's thrilling 3:10 interview with Bill Clinton. Let me tell you, that Kate Snow is a real intellectual heavyweight. It's obvious that the reason NBC News hired Chelsea Clinton was to ensure they would have constant access to Bill and Hillary. Brian then reported yet another story about the asteroid that was on track to miss earth. I don't really need to know about asteroids that will miss earth. Tell me about the ones that are going to hit us. In the final story, the idiotic Anne Thompson told us all about the Yale quarterback whose Rhodes Scholarship final interview is the same day as the Harvard-Yale game on Nov. 19. Oh, by the way--that game is being televised by the Versus network. Which is owned by NBC Universal. So this story was just a two-and-a-half minute promo for a college football game airing on an NBC network. Using a news broadcast to underhandedly promote a sporting event is just unbelievably sleazy. In other words, business as usual at NBC.
Tues. 11/8--Brian read a thirty second obituary for Ed Pauls, the inventor of the NordicTrack exercise system. Really, Brian? You think Pauls' death is important enough to report on Nightly News? The final 2:20 of the night was all about--you guessed it--the asteroid that missed earth.
Wed. 11/9--Robert Bazell began and ended his report on weight loss with clips from NBC's "The Biggest Loser". Unfortunately, Nightly News viewers are the biggest losers because they are constantly forced to watch news stories that are contrived to promote NBC entertainment and sports programs. In a story about Gabby Giffords' new book, Brian made sure to show footage of himself reporting about Giffords' shooting from Tucson last January. Because there's nothing Brian likes reporting on more than himself. Brian ended a story about a snowstorm in Alaska by saying, "They don't scare easily up there." Is there any group of people that Brian won't shamelessly pander to? Apparently not. Brian then read a twenty-second obituary for Heavy D because he was one of the great musicians of the past quarter-century. A true innovator. A musical genius. A legend. Brian also made sure to spend valuable time telling us that Eddie Murphy will not be hosting the Oscars. I've got to give Brian credit, though. He managed to plug "30 Rock" by showing photos of Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin despite the fact that they had absolutely nothing to do with Eddie Murphy. The final story was a 2:25 piece about whales--the seventh whale story Nightly News has done in the past two months. As always, Brian's philosophy is to find a topic that's popular with viewers (as in gets high ratings) and repeat it over and over and over again. Whales, whales, whales. Ratings, ratings, ratings.
Thurs. 11/10--At the end of a story about the sexual abuse scandal at Penn State, correspondent Ron Mott was identified in a Nightly News graphic as "Ron Allen". Apparently, the producers can't tell their own correspondents apart. Later, Brian reported a 2:10 story about more things Richard Nixon said on tape, because it's easier (and cheaper) than reporting current news. After that, Brian read another story about Will & Kate, and a story about Billy Crystal stepping in to host the Oscars. Talk about breaking news!
Fri. 11/11--In a story about births and weddings on 11/11/11, we saw an interview with "Glynis McCants--Numerologist to the Stars". Seriously? This is someone who is given air time on Nightly News? The final story was a "Making A Difference" piece about veteran-owned businesses. Because, apparently this is news. To someone. I don't know who.
Friday, November 18, 2011
NBC's Anne Thompson Shills For McDonald's
On Thursday's Nightly News, right in the middle of a story about Congress's decision to categorize pizza as a vegetable, correspondent Anne Thompson took a ten-second break to read a McDonald's commercial. With a huge McDonald's logo next to her, Thompson told us that, "McDonald's got the message--reducing french fries and adding fruit to its happy meals." This had absolutely nothing to do with the story about pizza being a vegetable--it was just another opportunity for a Nightly News correspondent to shill for the Golden Arches. It's also interesting to note that right before Thompson read her McDonald's commercial, she said, "First Lady Michelle Obama is on a mission to change that--urging America's kids to exercise and encouraging healthy eating." Thompson's statement was accompanied by video of Mrs. Obama. This is no accident. Showing Mrs. Obama right before a McDonald's product placement is actually a very calculated and crafty move by the Nightly News producers to imply that Mrs. Obama endorses McDonald's. This has happened before. On the July 26 Nightly News, Brian Williams read this 30-second promo for McDonald's: "McDonald's said today that it's taking steps to make Happy Meals healthier. The company is cutting the size of the french fry portion in half for starters and adding apple slices to every meal. The new meals will have about 20% fewer calories--coming in at under 600 calories total. First Lady Michelle Obama, who campaigns, of course, for better nutrition, put out a statement today calling this a good step." Again--it was clearly the intent of Brian and his producers to imply that Mrs. Obama was endorsing McDonald's. (As Brian read this, the McDonald's logo was onscreen for the entire thirty seconds, along with the words "Healthy Choices" and a picture of a Happy Meal.)
Brian Williams and his producers and correspondents have a history of promoting and endorsing McDonald's on Nightly News. This isn't surprising. With the recent acquisition of NBC Universal by Comcast, the new Comcast/NBC Universal mega-conglomerate controls more than twenty national (or regional) networks and cable channels. In addition to NBC, MSNBC and CNBC, they own Bravo, Chiller, Oxygen, Sleuth, Syfy, Telemundo, Mun2, The Weather Channel, USA, E!, SportsNet New York, Exercise TV, G4, The Golf Channel, PBS Kids Sprout, The Style Network, Versus and New England Cable News. And those are only the ones I know about. I can only imagine how much money McDonald's spends each year advertising on all these Comcast/NBC stations. Is it $50 million? $75 million? $100 million? Who knows. Let's just say it's a lot. So with McDonald's spending all this money with Comcast/NBC, it makes perfect sense that Brian Williams would act as a shill for McDonald's. It's obvious that Brian and the Nightly News producers work closely with the NBC News ad sales department and the McDonald's ad agency to find the most advantageous ways to promote the burger franchise on their broadcast. I would not be at all surprised to learn that the McDonald's press releases Brian reads on the air are actually part of paid commercial packages purchased by McDonald's. For a certain amount of money, McDonald's gets ten commercials and one news story that portrays their products in a positive light. Here are some other examples of how McDonald's has been promoted (or protected from negative publicity) on Nightly News:
5/18/11--Brian personally defended McDonald's against criticism from parenting organizations and nutritional advocacy groups that accused McDonald's of unfairly using Ronald McDonald to attract children to their high sodium, high cholesterol, high fat food. In the story, Brian said that this criticism "seems a little harsh". So much for anchor neutrality.
5/9/11--Brian took thirty seconds to tell us that McDonald's is spending more than $1 billion to upgrade their restaurants. "Look for wooden tables, muted colors and faux leather seats coming soon to a Mac's near you. And you can get fries with that." Is it just me, or is that a commercial?
3/8/11--During a story promoting Subway Sandwich Shops (you didn't think McDonald's was the only fast food restaurant Brian promoted, did you?) as now having more U.S. outlets than McDonald's, Brian was quick to tell us that McDonald's still makes more money annually--$24 billion to $15 billion.
12/7/10--A story about how San Francisco is banning toys that come with children's fast food meals began with a cute segment about a woman who collects Happy Meal toys. The rest of this 2:30 "news story" (which was really just a commercial for McDonald's) contained clips of actual McDonald's commercials and non-stop footage of the McDonald's logo, restaurants and food.
11/8/10--The lead story on The CBS Evening News was a study released by the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity detailing the inappropriate ways that fast food chains market their unhealthy food to children. Nightly News did not report this story as a courtesy to their pals at McDonald's.
9/3/10--The CBS Evening News reported that Consumer Reports rated 53 different fast food and chain restaurant hamburgers on taste and attractiveness, and McDonald's came in dead last. Needless to say, Nightly News did not report this story, either.
7/2/10--A Nightly News profile of LeBron James included clips from his McDonald's commercials.
6/14/10--Lester Holt gave us the important news that McDonald's will now be offering free Wi-Fi at their restaurants.
2/4/10--While reading a 25 second promotional piece about Heinz Ketchup's exciting new packaging, Brian also threw in a gratuitous plug for McDonald's.
10/22/09--During a piece about women in the workplace, Nightly News spent 75 seconds profiling Jan Fields, the Chief Operating Officer of McDonald's USA. The story gave her ample time to talk about things like McDonald's "world famous fries". Ms. Fields is now the president of McDonald's USA--no doubt thanks in part to her ability to manipulate NBC News into allowing her to plug her greasy burgers and fries.
5/5/09--In what may be the most shameless and blatant plug ever, Nightly News did a two-minute story whose sole purpose was to announce the launch of McDonald's new gourmet coffees to compete with Starbucks. Ann Curry called McDonald's coffee a "delicious brew".
So if anyone thinks that Anne Thompson's plug for McDonald's was anything other than a paid advertisement, then there's a bridge across the East River I'd like to sell you.
Brian Williams and his producers and correspondents have a history of promoting and endorsing McDonald's on Nightly News. This isn't surprising. With the recent acquisition of NBC Universal by Comcast, the new Comcast/NBC Universal mega-conglomerate controls more than twenty national (or regional) networks and cable channels. In addition to NBC, MSNBC and CNBC, they own Bravo, Chiller, Oxygen, Sleuth, Syfy, Telemundo, Mun2, The Weather Channel, USA, E!, SportsNet New York, Exercise TV, G4, The Golf Channel, PBS Kids Sprout, The Style Network, Versus and New England Cable News. And those are only the ones I know about. I can only imagine how much money McDonald's spends each year advertising on all these Comcast/NBC stations. Is it $50 million? $75 million? $100 million? Who knows. Let's just say it's a lot. So with McDonald's spending all this money with Comcast/NBC, it makes perfect sense that Brian Williams would act as a shill for McDonald's. It's obvious that Brian and the Nightly News producers work closely with the NBC News ad sales department and the McDonald's ad agency to find the most advantageous ways to promote the burger franchise on their broadcast. I would not be at all surprised to learn that the McDonald's press releases Brian reads on the air are actually part of paid commercial packages purchased by McDonald's. For a certain amount of money, McDonald's gets ten commercials and one news story that portrays their products in a positive light. Here are some other examples of how McDonald's has been promoted (or protected from negative publicity) on Nightly News:
5/18/11--Brian personally defended McDonald's against criticism from parenting organizations and nutritional advocacy groups that accused McDonald's of unfairly using Ronald McDonald to attract children to their high sodium, high cholesterol, high fat food. In the story, Brian said that this criticism "seems a little harsh". So much for anchor neutrality.
5/9/11--Brian took thirty seconds to tell us that McDonald's is spending more than $1 billion to upgrade their restaurants. "Look for wooden tables, muted colors and faux leather seats coming soon to a Mac's near you. And you can get fries with that." Is it just me, or is that a commercial?
3/8/11--During a story promoting Subway Sandwich Shops (you didn't think McDonald's was the only fast food restaurant Brian promoted, did you?) as now having more U.S. outlets than McDonald's, Brian was quick to tell us that McDonald's still makes more money annually--$24 billion to $15 billion.
12/7/10--A story about how San Francisco is banning toys that come with children's fast food meals began with a cute segment about a woman who collects Happy Meal toys. The rest of this 2:30 "news story" (which was really just a commercial for McDonald's) contained clips of actual McDonald's commercials and non-stop footage of the McDonald's logo, restaurants and food.
11/8/10--The lead story on The CBS Evening News was a study released by the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity detailing the inappropriate ways that fast food chains market their unhealthy food to children. Nightly News did not report this story as a courtesy to their pals at McDonald's.
9/3/10--The CBS Evening News reported that Consumer Reports rated 53 different fast food and chain restaurant hamburgers on taste and attractiveness, and McDonald's came in dead last. Needless to say, Nightly News did not report this story, either.
7/2/10--A Nightly News profile of LeBron James included clips from his McDonald's commercials.
6/14/10--Lester Holt gave us the important news that McDonald's will now be offering free Wi-Fi at their restaurants.
2/4/10--While reading a 25 second promotional piece about Heinz Ketchup's exciting new packaging, Brian also threw in a gratuitous plug for McDonald's.
10/22/09--During a piece about women in the workplace, Nightly News spent 75 seconds profiling Jan Fields, the Chief Operating Officer of McDonald's USA. The story gave her ample time to talk about things like McDonald's "world famous fries". Ms. Fields is now the president of McDonald's USA--no doubt thanks in part to her ability to manipulate NBC News into allowing her to plug her greasy burgers and fries.
5/5/09--In what may be the most shameless and blatant plug ever, Nightly News did a two-minute story whose sole purpose was to announce the launch of McDonald's new gourmet coffees to compete with Starbucks. Ann Curry called McDonald's coffee a "delicious brew".
So if anyone thinks that Anne Thompson's plug for McDonald's was anything other than a paid advertisement, then there's a bridge across the East River I'd like to sell you.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Diane Sawyer CRUSHES Brian Williams In The Ratings
On Sunday's Nightly News story about the relationship between sugar and heart disease in women, the producers spelled "triglycerides" as "tryiglycerides". Perhaps the geniuses at Nightly News weren't sure if the word began with "tri-" or "try-", so they decided their best option was to spell it both ways at once. Great thinking, guys. If the Nightly News producers can't spell basic words that are in any dictionary, how can we trust them to report important facts? We can't.
Every time Brian Williams introduces a story about the Penn State sex abuse scandal, he tells us that the correspondent is reporting from "State College, P-A". Why is he verbally abbreviating Pennsylvania as "P-A"? He doesn't abbreviate any other state names. He never says "Houston, T-X" or "Detroit, M-I". It's ridiculous that he does this only with Pennsylvania. I guess Brian thinks it sounds nifty.
Once again, Nightly News ended their Sunday broadcast with a story about the NFL. They do this in order to promote NBC's Sunday Night Football, which follows Nightly News. Sunday's story was about Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots--one of the teams that would be playing later on NBC. This is, to say the least, unethical. Ignoring real news so they can serve their own self-interests by promoting football is not in the best interests of the viewers. Is there one person out there who thinks that a 3:15 story on Robert Kraft in any way qualifies as a news story? The FCC should revoke NBC's right to air a news broadcast.
On Monday, Brian reported for the second time about the Yale quarterback who was forced to decide between applying for a Rhodes scholarship and playing in the Harvard-Yale game, both of which take place on Nov. 19. This was just another shameless way for Brian to plug the Harvard-Yale game, which will be televised on Versus, an NBC network. The only reason Brian mentioned this story (and the only reason Nightly News ran their original 2:30 story on it on Nov. 7) was to promote college football on Versus.
Also on Monday, Brian took thirty seconds to brag about the fact that Chelsea Clinton would be joining NBC News. Here's some of what he said: "She's anxious to report stories of volunteerism and highlight the great works of ordinary humanity that we encounter every day." What a load of crap. Obviously, Brian (and Chelsea) drank the NBC Kool-Aid. Does Brian (and his pal NBC News president Steve Capus) really believe that hiring daughters of former presidents and other celebrities is a substitute for seasoned news correspondents? There are probably dozens of tried-and-tested network reporters out there looking for jobs, and many more local reporters who are ready to move up to the big leagues. But instead, NBC News handed the microphone over to the Mickey Mouse Club. Chelsea Clinton, Jenna Bush Hager and Luke Russert combined do not add up to one network-quality news reporter. I don't know about you, but I want my news to be reported by Lois Lane, not Jimmy Olsen. Obviously, NBC's hiring of Clinton, Bush Hager and Russert is nothing more than a cheap ratings stunt designed to make people tune in to satisfy their curiosity. In other words, business as usual at NBC News.
I'd like to heartily congratulate to Diane Sawyer. Her "20/20" special with Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly made mincemeat out of "Rock Center" Monday night. According to the website TV By the Numbers (http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/11/15/abcs-2020-with-diane-sawyers-gabrielle-giffords-interview-scores-big-ratings/110749/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Tvbythenumbers+(TVbytheNumbers), "ABC’s 20/20 CRUSHED NBC’s competing Rock Center with Brian Williams in the hour, nearly tripling the NBC newsmagazine in Total Viewers (+198%) and more than doubling its Adult 18-49 delivery (+115%)." (I added the bold and capitals to "crushed" just to piss off Brian.) Way to go, Diane!
Meanwhile, on Tuesday's Nightly News, Brian spent 45 seconds telling us about Giffords' video message to her constituents--without ever once mentioning Sawyer's "20/20" interview with Giffords! Of course, Brian spent the first six minutes of his Tuesday broadcast rehashing Bob Costas' "Rock Center" interview with Jerry Sandusky--including a 4:15 chunk of the interview followed by Brian's 1:15 interview with Costas about his interview with Sandusky. Later in the broadcast, Brian spent a minute replaying his interview with photographer Annie Leibovitz from--you guessed it--the previous night's "Rock Center". So Brian spent more than seven minutes of Nightly News recapping what happened Monday night on "Rock Center", but he refused to even acknowledge Diane Sawyer's interview with Gabby Giffords! As always, Brian's favorite job is reporting the news about Brian Williams. Has there ever been a more conceited, self-promoting asshole on TV than Brian Williams?
Every time Brian Williams introduces a story about the Penn State sex abuse scandal, he tells us that the correspondent is reporting from "State College, P-A". Why is he verbally abbreviating Pennsylvania as "P-A"? He doesn't abbreviate any other state names. He never says "Houston, T-X" or "Detroit, M-I". It's ridiculous that he does this only with Pennsylvania. I guess Brian thinks it sounds nifty.
Once again, Nightly News ended their Sunday broadcast with a story about the NFL. They do this in order to promote NBC's Sunday Night Football, which follows Nightly News. Sunday's story was about Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots--one of the teams that would be playing later on NBC. This is, to say the least, unethical. Ignoring real news so they can serve their own self-interests by promoting football is not in the best interests of the viewers. Is there one person out there who thinks that a 3:15 story on Robert Kraft in any way qualifies as a news story? The FCC should revoke NBC's right to air a news broadcast.
On Monday, Brian reported for the second time about the Yale quarterback who was forced to decide between applying for a Rhodes scholarship and playing in the Harvard-Yale game, both of which take place on Nov. 19. This was just another shameless way for Brian to plug the Harvard-Yale game, which will be televised on Versus, an NBC network. The only reason Brian mentioned this story (and the only reason Nightly News ran their original 2:30 story on it on Nov. 7) was to promote college football on Versus.
Also on Monday, Brian took thirty seconds to brag about the fact that Chelsea Clinton would be joining NBC News. Here's some of what he said: "She's anxious to report stories of volunteerism and highlight the great works of ordinary humanity that we encounter every day." What a load of crap. Obviously, Brian (and Chelsea) drank the NBC Kool-Aid. Does Brian (and his pal NBC News president Steve Capus) really believe that hiring daughters of former presidents and other celebrities is a substitute for seasoned news correspondents? There are probably dozens of tried-and-tested network reporters out there looking for jobs, and many more local reporters who are ready to move up to the big leagues. But instead, NBC News handed the microphone over to the Mickey Mouse Club. Chelsea Clinton, Jenna Bush Hager and Luke Russert combined do not add up to one network-quality news reporter. I don't know about you, but I want my news to be reported by Lois Lane, not Jimmy Olsen. Obviously, NBC's hiring of Clinton, Bush Hager and Russert is nothing more than a cheap ratings stunt designed to make people tune in to satisfy their curiosity. In other words, business as usual at NBC News.
I'd like to heartily congratulate to Diane Sawyer. Her "20/20" special with Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly made mincemeat out of "Rock Center" Monday night. According to the website TV By the Numbers (http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/11/15/abcs-2020-with-diane-sawyers-gabrielle-giffords-interview-scores-big-ratings/110749/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Tvbythenumbers+(TVbytheNumbers), "ABC’s 20/20 CRUSHED NBC’s competing Rock Center with Brian Williams in the hour, nearly tripling the NBC newsmagazine in Total Viewers (+198%) and more than doubling its Adult 18-49 delivery (+115%)." (I added the bold and capitals to "crushed" just to piss off Brian.) Way to go, Diane!
Meanwhile, on Tuesday's Nightly News, Brian spent 45 seconds telling us about Giffords' video message to her constituents--without ever once mentioning Sawyer's "20/20" interview with Giffords! Of course, Brian spent the first six minutes of his Tuesday broadcast rehashing Bob Costas' "Rock Center" interview with Jerry Sandusky--including a 4:15 chunk of the interview followed by Brian's 1:15 interview with Costas about his interview with Sandusky. Later in the broadcast, Brian spent a minute replaying his interview with photographer Annie Leibovitz from--you guessed it--the previous night's "Rock Center". So Brian spent more than seven minutes of Nightly News recapping what happened Monday night on "Rock Center", but he refused to even acknowledge Diane Sawyer's interview with Gabby Giffords! As always, Brian's favorite job is reporting the news about Brian Williams. Has there ever been a more conceited, self-promoting asshole on TV than Brian Williams?
Saturday, November 12, 2011
NBC Nightly News Show Notes--10/29 Through 11/4
Nightly News was packed with hard news last week. Here are some of the highlights:
Saturday 10/29--Nightly News didn't air because obviously college football was more important (that's NBC weasel-speak for "more profitable").
Sunday 10/30--Janet Shamlian reported the riveting breaking-news story that the price of peanut butter was about to go up. This is news? Incredibly, this is the second story that Nightly News has reported on the rising price of peanut butter (Brian Williams earnestly told us about it back on Oct. 13). Obviously, the producers' goal was to get people to panic and stock up on peanut butter so NBC sponsors like Jif, Peter Pan and Skippy (manufactured respectively by Smucker's, ConAgra and Unilever) would get a nice sales bump. And it certainly didn't hurt to give some free publicity (like plenty of gratuitous close-up shots) to brands owned by those food industry giants--all of whom advertise heavily on NBC stations. Then we saw 22 seconds of the President and Michelle Obama handing out treats on the White House lawn. The NBC News research department has obviously informed the Nightly News producers that stories featuring Michelle Obama get high ratings, so we see her on Nightly News several times a week. And Lester Holt made sure to tell us that the kids walked away with "handfuls of M&M's" because at Nightly News, every story is an opportunity to promote an NBC advertiser. The final story of the night was a ridiculous two-and-a-half minute piece about the horror TV shows filmed in Atlanta. It was just an excuse to show clips from shows like "The Walking Dead", "Teen Wolf" and "The Vampire Diaries" because the Nightly News producers love to pander to the viewers with entertainment stories. It's good for the ratings, and vampires, werewolves and zombies are especially appealing to the coveted 18-25 age group. This is what Brian and his producers think about--ratings, ratings, ratings. And of course, Lester ended the broadcast with plugs for "Rock Center" and the Cowboys-Eagles football game.
Monday 10/31--Brian introduced Harry Smith's story about the boom town of Williston, ND by saying, "Now to a story almost unheard of in this economy, a place where they are in the middle of a boom and where they are hiring." Unheard of? Not quite. Brian Shactman reported the exact same story about Williston for Nightly News on Sept. 4. So this is the second time in less than two months that we are seeing this story. But it doesn't end there. The Nightly News version of the Williston story was a condensed promo piece for that night's "Rock Center" premier, where an expanded version of the story was being featured. So it was actually being shown three times in less than two months. That's just ridiculous. Next, we saw a story about professional women who are less ambitious and as such are forgoing promotions in order to have more time to spend by themselves or with their families. That's great, but this is not a news story. Then we saw a "Making A Difference" story about NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon. Apparently, Gordon had seen a 10/24 MAD piece about a 7-year-old go-kart racer nicknamed Mini who races to raise money for pediatric cancer charities. So Gordon invited the kid to watch him race and donated money to his charity. Anne Thompson (with her usual idiotic grin) told us that, "Gordon was touched by Mini's story last week on Nightly News." Let's be clear. This is not news. This does not even resemble news. The original MAD piece did not belong on a news broadcast and the follow-up piece most certainly did not belong there either. But Brian loves NASCAR, and he gets to air whatever he wants. Naturally, the follow-up piece showed a clip of Brian introducing the original story, because there's nothing Brian likes reporting on more than himself (although he also really likes reporting on NASCAR and kids with cancer because those stories get high ratings. So here he got to report on three of his favorite subjects.). But wait--there's more. Jeff Gordon was profiled in a lengthy piece (more than four minutes) on the Feb. 18 Nightly News. So this is the second Jeff Gordon story this year. It must be great to be an FOB (Friend Of Brian) like Jeff Gordon, Jon Bon Jovi or Bono because you get featured in Nightly News stories over and over and over again. Let's recap: Two stories on the price of peanut butter. Two (actually three) stories on Williston, ND. Two stories on a seven-year-old go-kart racer. Two stories on Jeff Gordon. Nightly News is showing reruns. Of course, Brian didn't have time to mention that Palestine was admitted to UNESCO. That's kind of an important story, don't you think? But at least we know all about peanut butter, Williston, ND and Jeff Gordon. And of course we know all about the premier of "Rock Center" later that night because Brian has been hyping it relentlessly for weeks. Great job, Brian.
Tuesday 11/1--Anne Thompson--who has mastered the art of taking two-and-a-half minutes to say absolutely nothing--reported yet another story on climate change. Thompson trotted out all the usual cliches for this story that contained not a shred of new information. "The weather is going to extremes," she tells us. Really? You don't say. Thanks, Anne. In a story about the Herman Cain controversy, Lisa Myers was identified as an "NBC News Investigative Correspondent." Wait a second--for years Myers has been identified as the NBC News Senior Investigative Correspondent. What happened? Was she demoted? Inquiring minds want to know. Then Brian spent 40 seconds telling us that NASCAR owner Rick Hendrick was in a minor plane crash. How great--another NASCAR story. News? Of course not. But again--Brian loves NASCAR and he gets to report whatever he wants. Brian still didn't mention Palestine being admitted to UNESCO, but at least we know all about Rick Hendrick.
Wednesday 11/2--In her story about Herman Cain, Lisa Myers was identified as the "NBC News Senior Investigative Correspondent", so I guess her demotion was only temporary. In a story about sexual harassment in the workplace, we were shown a clip from "Mad Men". This is the seventh time in the past year that a "Mad Men" clip was featured in a Nightly News story. That's no surprise, since it's one of Brian's favorite shows. And we all know that Brian gets to do whatever he wants. The clip was credited to "Lionsgate Televison [sic]". That's right--the geniuses at Nightly News actually managed to misspell the word "television". Later, an Education Nation story about schools in Shanghai informed us that U.S. students ranked 14th in reading among all the world's students. I think that's pretty obvious from the constant misspellings on Nightly News. I'm sure the producers of Shanghai's evening newscast would never misspell "television". Brian then spent 35 seconds telling us that Filene's Basement was filing for bankruptcy, as was its parent company, Syms. I guess Brian considers that news. He also had to remind us of Syms' slogan--"An educated consumer is our best customer." Brian previously quoted the Syms slogan on 11/19/09, when he read an obituary for the company's founder, Sy Syms. Hearing an anchor read that line once is bizarre. Twice is just inexplicable. What is Brian's obsession with Syms? Maybe that's where he buys his suits. Later, Brian told us about an asteroid that's going to miss earth. Here's an idea: you don't need to tell us about the asteroids that will miss us. Just tell us about the ones that are going to hit us. And then he showed us some photos of humpback whales--the same photos he showed us on Oct. 27. This is the fifth whale story Brian has done in the past two months. I'm surprised that Brian didn't don a whaler's hat and yell, "Thar she blows!" It's shameful that Brian will pander to the audience with stories like this that are designed solely to get ratings. But of course, when it comes to ratings, Brian has no shame. Still no mention of Palestine joining UNESCO.
Thursday 11/3--GlaxoSmithKline agreed to pay a record $3 billion settlement to the U.S. government for deceptive sales and marketing practices that included manipulating research of its diabetes drug, Avandia. Brian never mentioned the story, because one of his main responsibilities as Nightly News anchor is to protect major sponsors like Glaxo from negative publicity. Meanwhile, Scott Pelley reported the story on The CBS Evening News. That's the difference between Brian Williams and Scott Pelley. Pelley has integrity. Later, Brian reported a story about the 100th anniversary of Chevy, which included plenty of vintage TV ads and shots of gleaming current models. So Brian refused to report a negative story about Glaxo, but he's happy to provide Chevy with lots of free advertising. Good old Brian--always looking out for the best interests of his sponsors. What a guy. And just for good measure, he brought us another story about a whale that almost swallowed a surfer. That's the sixth Nightly News story on whales in two months. In case anyone's counting. The final story of the night was about some giant sequoia trees that fell in California. Because apparently, that's news. But the Glaxo settlement--not news. At least to Brian.
Friday 11/4--Brian told us it was Friday five times during the broadcast. Okay--we get it. It's Friday. Once would have been enough. And he told us again about the asteroid that will miss earth. Just in case we didn't hear him when he told us about it on Wednesday. And then he told us again about the sequoia trees that fell. Just in case we didn't hear him when he told us on Thursday. Here's how Brian ended the broadcast: "It was another busy week around here and while we were busy covering the big stories as always happens, a few things got by. So in the waning minutes remaining in our broadcast week as we go right down to the wire on a Friday night, tonight we look at what else we learned in this first week of November." Covering the big stories? I guess he means stories about whales, peanut butter, NASCAR, asteroids, Chevy and sequoia trees. So here are the important stories that Brian absolutely had to tell us about before the week ran out:
***Research shows that the "freshman 15" weight gain theory is a myth. The entire 30-second visual of this story was comprised of clips from "Animal House"--a movie that was released by Universal Studios, NBC's sister company. This was just a way for Brian to promote the movie, sell DVDs, and earn money for Universal.
***We were shown a photo of a dog with big ears. This was actually a story that Brian reported on Nightly News.
***The field from "Field of Dreams" was sold. "Field of Dreams" was--you guessed it--a Universal picture, so for the second time in less than a minute, Brian was using a sham story on Nightly News to promote a Universal movie.
***Brian then spent 10 seconds promoting the new JFK book written by MSNBC's Chris Matthews. Brian's third promotion in less than two minutes.
***We saw obituaries for Oscar producer Gil Cates and Tom Keith, who did sound effects for Garrison Keillor's "Prairie Home Companion" show. With all due respect, neither of these men deserved obits on a network news show.
***Brian told us that sitting around can increase your chances for getting certain types of cancer, so we shouldn't sit around, except to watch Nightly News. Really, he said that.
***Brian spent 20 seconds telling us that fingernails on a blackboard is a really grating sound. We also got to see a demonstration of this. Thanks.
***Then Brian told us that, "In a related story, we made it through the week without mentioning Kim Kardashian."
So Brian spent more time this week on Kim Kardashian than he did on Glaxo's $3 billion settlement or Palestine's admission to UNESCO. For Brian Williams, that sounds about right.
Saturday 10/29--Nightly News didn't air because obviously college football was more important (that's NBC weasel-speak for "more profitable").
Sunday 10/30--Janet Shamlian reported the riveting breaking-news story that the price of peanut butter was about to go up. This is news? Incredibly, this is the second story that Nightly News has reported on the rising price of peanut butter (Brian Williams earnestly told us about it back on Oct. 13). Obviously, the producers' goal was to get people to panic and stock up on peanut butter so NBC sponsors like Jif, Peter Pan and Skippy (manufactured respectively by Smucker's, ConAgra and Unilever) would get a nice sales bump. And it certainly didn't hurt to give some free publicity (like plenty of gratuitous close-up shots) to brands owned by those food industry giants--all of whom advertise heavily on NBC stations. Then we saw 22 seconds of the President and Michelle Obama handing out treats on the White House lawn. The NBC News research department has obviously informed the Nightly News producers that stories featuring Michelle Obama get high ratings, so we see her on Nightly News several times a week. And Lester Holt made sure to tell us that the kids walked away with "handfuls of M&M's" because at Nightly News, every story is an opportunity to promote an NBC advertiser. The final story of the night was a ridiculous two-and-a-half minute piece about the horror TV shows filmed in Atlanta. It was just an excuse to show clips from shows like "The Walking Dead", "Teen Wolf" and "The Vampire Diaries" because the Nightly News producers love to pander to the viewers with entertainment stories. It's good for the ratings, and vampires, werewolves and zombies are especially appealing to the coveted 18-25 age group. This is what Brian and his producers think about--ratings, ratings, ratings. And of course, Lester ended the broadcast with plugs for "Rock Center" and the Cowboys-Eagles football game.
Monday 10/31--Brian introduced Harry Smith's story about the boom town of Williston, ND by saying, "Now to a story almost unheard of in this economy, a place where they are in the middle of a boom and where they are hiring." Unheard of? Not quite. Brian Shactman reported the exact same story about Williston for Nightly News on Sept. 4. So this is the second time in less than two months that we are seeing this story. But it doesn't end there. The Nightly News version of the Williston story was a condensed promo piece for that night's "Rock Center" premier, where an expanded version of the story was being featured. So it was actually being shown three times in less than two months. That's just ridiculous. Next, we saw a story about professional women who are less ambitious and as such are forgoing promotions in order to have more time to spend by themselves or with their families. That's great, but this is not a news story. Then we saw a "Making A Difference" story about NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon. Apparently, Gordon had seen a 10/24 MAD piece about a 7-year-old go-kart racer nicknamed Mini who races to raise money for pediatric cancer charities. So Gordon invited the kid to watch him race and donated money to his charity. Anne Thompson (with her usual idiotic grin) told us that, "Gordon was touched by Mini's story last week on Nightly News." Let's be clear. This is not news. This does not even resemble news. The original MAD piece did not belong on a news broadcast and the follow-up piece most certainly did not belong there either. But Brian loves NASCAR, and he gets to air whatever he wants. Naturally, the follow-up piece showed a clip of Brian introducing the original story, because there's nothing Brian likes reporting on more than himself (although he also really likes reporting on NASCAR and kids with cancer because those stories get high ratings. So here he got to report on three of his favorite subjects.). But wait--there's more. Jeff Gordon was profiled in a lengthy piece (more than four minutes) on the Feb. 18 Nightly News. So this is the second Jeff Gordon story this year. It must be great to be an FOB (Friend Of Brian) like Jeff Gordon, Jon Bon Jovi or Bono because you get featured in Nightly News stories over and over and over again. Let's recap: Two stories on the price of peanut butter. Two (actually three) stories on Williston, ND. Two stories on a seven-year-old go-kart racer. Two stories on Jeff Gordon. Nightly News is showing reruns. Of course, Brian didn't have time to mention that Palestine was admitted to UNESCO. That's kind of an important story, don't you think? But at least we know all about peanut butter, Williston, ND and Jeff Gordon. And of course we know all about the premier of "Rock Center" later that night because Brian has been hyping it relentlessly for weeks. Great job, Brian.
Tuesday 11/1--Anne Thompson--who has mastered the art of taking two-and-a-half minutes to say absolutely nothing--reported yet another story on climate change. Thompson trotted out all the usual cliches for this story that contained not a shred of new information. "The weather is going to extremes," she tells us. Really? You don't say. Thanks, Anne. In a story about the Herman Cain controversy, Lisa Myers was identified as an "NBC News Investigative Correspondent." Wait a second--for years Myers has been identified as the NBC News Senior Investigative Correspondent. What happened? Was she demoted? Inquiring minds want to know. Then Brian spent 40 seconds telling us that NASCAR owner Rick Hendrick was in a minor plane crash. How great--another NASCAR story. News? Of course not. But again--Brian loves NASCAR and he gets to report whatever he wants. Brian still didn't mention Palestine being admitted to UNESCO, but at least we know all about Rick Hendrick.
Wednesday 11/2--In her story about Herman Cain, Lisa Myers was identified as the "NBC News Senior Investigative Correspondent", so I guess her demotion was only temporary. In a story about sexual harassment in the workplace, we were shown a clip from "Mad Men". This is the seventh time in the past year that a "Mad Men" clip was featured in a Nightly News story. That's no surprise, since it's one of Brian's favorite shows. And we all know that Brian gets to do whatever he wants. The clip was credited to "Lionsgate Televison [sic]". That's right--the geniuses at Nightly News actually managed to misspell the word "television". Later, an Education Nation story about schools in Shanghai informed us that U.S. students ranked 14th in reading among all the world's students. I think that's pretty obvious from the constant misspellings on Nightly News. I'm sure the producers of Shanghai's evening newscast would never misspell "television". Brian then spent 35 seconds telling us that Filene's Basement was filing for bankruptcy, as was its parent company, Syms. I guess Brian considers that news. He also had to remind us of Syms' slogan--"An educated consumer is our best customer." Brian previously quoted the Syms slogan on 11/19/09, when he read an obituary for the company's founder, Sy Syms. Hearing an anchor read that line once is bizarre. Twice is just inexplicable. What is Brian's obsession with Syms? Maybe that's where he buys his suits. Later, Brian told us about an asteroid that's going to miss earth. Here's an idea: you don't need to tell us about the asteroids that will miss us. Just tell us about the ones that are going to hit us. And then he showed us some photos of humpback whales--the same photos he showed us on Oct. 27. This is the fifth whale story Brian has done in the past two months. I'm surprised that Brian didn't don a whaler's hat and yell, "Thar she blows!" It's shameful that Brian will pander to the audience with stories like this that are designed solely to get ratings. But of course, when it comes to ratings, Brian has no shame. Still no mention of Palestine joining UNESCO.
Thursday 11/3--GlaxoSmithKline agreed to pay a record $3 billion settlement to the U.S. government for deceptive sales and marketing practices that included manipulating research of its diabetes drug, Avandia. Brian never mentioned the story, because one of his main responsibilities as Nightly News anchor is to protect major sponsors like Glaxo from negative publicity. Meanwhile, Scott Pelley reported the story on The CBS Evening News. That's the difference between Brian Williams and Scott Pelley. Pelley has integrity. Later, Brian reported a story about the 100th anniversary of Chevy, which included plenty of vintage TV ads and shots of gleaming current models. So Brian refused to report a negative story about Glaxo, but he's happy to provide Chevy with lots of free advertising. Good old Brian--always looking out for the best interests of his sponsors. What a guy. And just for good measure, he brought us another story about a whale that almost swallowed a surfer. That's the sixth Nightly News story on whales in two months. In case anyone's counting. The final story of the night was about some giant sequoia trees that fell in California. Because apparently, that's news. But the Glaxo settlement--not news. At least to Brian.
Friday 11/4--Brian told us it was Friday five times during the broadcast. Okay--we get it. It's Friday. Once would have been enough. And he told us again about the asteroid that will miss earth. Just in case we didn't hear him when he told us about it on Wednesday. And then he told us again about the sequoia trees that fell. Just in case we didn't hear him when he told us on Thursday. Here's how Brian ended the broadcast: "It was another busy week around here and while we were busy covering the big stories as always happens, a few things got by. So in the waning minutes remaining in our broadcast week as we go right down to the wire on a Friday night, tonight we look at what else we learned in this first week of November." Covering the big stories? I guess he means stories about whales, peanut butter, NASCAR, asteroids, Chevy and sequoia trees. So here are the important stories that Brian absolutely had to tell us about before the week ran out:
***Research shows that the "freshman 15" weight gain theory is a myth. The entire 30-second visual of this story was comprised of clips from "Animal House"--a movie that was released by Universal Studios, NBC's sister company. This was just a way for Brian to promote the movie, sell DVDs, and earn money for Universal.
***We were shown a photo of a dog with big ears. This was actually a story that Brian reported on Nightly News.
***The field from "Field of Dreams" was sold. "Field of Dreams" was--you guessed it--a Universal picture, so for the second time in less than a minute, Brian was using a sham story on Nightly News to promote a Universal movie.
***Brian then spent 10 seconds promoting the new JFK book written by MSNBC's Chris Matthews. Brian's third promotion in less than two minutes.
***We saw obituaries for Oscar producer Gil Cates and Tom Keith, who did sound effects for Garrison Keillor's "Prairie Home Companion" show. With all due respect, neither of these men deserved obits on a network news show.
***Brian told us that sitting around can increase your chances for getting certain types of cancer, so we shouldn't sit around, except to watch Nightly News. Really, he said that.
***Brian spent 20 seconds telling us that fingernails on a blackboard is a really grating sound. We also got to see a demonstration of this. Thanks.
***Then Brian told us that, "In a related story, we made it through the week without mentioning Kim Kardashian."
So Brian spent more time this week on Kim Kardashian than he did on Glaxo's $3 billion settlement or Palestine's admission to UNESCO. For Brian Williams, that sounds about right.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Robert Bazell Is Still A Scumbag
Has Robert Bazell ever reported a story that was not somehow intended to promote an NBC sponsor? Whenever the Nightly News producers want to use a sham "news story" to promote a medical or pharmaceutical product from Glaxo, Pfizer or Bayer, they give the job to Bazell. On May 12, 2009, he even did an entire two-minute story whose sole purpose was to extol the benefits of Cheerios, a major Nightly News advertiser. And now Bazell is branching out even further, into the realm of promoting NBC entertainment, which had heretofore been the domain of NBC news-shills like Kristen Welker, Tom Costello, Kerry Sanders and Anne Thompson. On Wednesday, Bazell started a story about a weight loss drug with a 12-second clip from NBC's "The Biggest Loser". Here's how Bazell began his story: "The popularity of the show 'The Biggest Loser' is one of the countless examples of people's desire to lose weight." So not only did Bazell shamelessly use a clip from an NBC entertainment show, he also made sure to tell us that the show was popular. And just for good measure, Bazell ended his story with another "Biggest Loser" clip. Let's be clear: Nightly News only aired this story because it presented an opportunity to plug "The Biggest Loser", a reality show that currently airs Tuesday nights on NBC. Obviously, Bazell, Brian Williams and the Nightly News producers work closely with the marketing and promotions staff at NBC entertainment (and NBC sports) to figure out ways to use Nightly News to promote NBC entertainment and sports shows (remember the 160 minutes of Olympic-related stories than Nightly News aired during the Vancouver Olympics?). Which news reports air on Nightly News is determined by the extent to which a particular report can be used to promote an NBC sports or entertainment show or an NBC sponsor. I would estimate that 70%-80% of all the stories that air on Nightly News have some sort of hidden promotional agenda. The NBC prime time schedule is currently mired in fourth place among the networks (and would be in much worse shape without Sunday Night Football). So it's hardly surprising that the NBC executives are using Nightly News in a desperate attempt to promote their prime time schedule. (There was an excellent article on NBC's prime time woes in Monday's New York Times business section. You can link to it at: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/07/business/media/nbc-struggles-for-its-footing.html?pagewanted=all.) So I guess it's no surprise that Robert Bazell is now shilling for NBC entertainment, in addition to his usual shill-work for Glaxo, Pfizer and Bayer.
On Thursday's Nightly News, the lead story was the sexual abuse scandal at Penn State University. The story was reported by Ron Mott. However, at the end of Mott's report, he was identified in a Nightly News graphic as "Ron Allen". Both Mott and Allen are African American males. I don't want to jump to any rash conclusions here, but I think we have to at least consider the possibility that some of the Nightly News producers are challenged when it comes to differentiating between African American men. Whatever the reason, it's appalling that the Nightly News producers could not correctly identify their own correspondent. This is a professional news broadcast?
Thought for the day: If you air seven stories about whales in a two-month period (as Nightly News did) then you are not a professional news broadcast. If you air seventeen stories about Will & Kate (totalling more than 30 minutes) since July 1 (as Nightly News did--a full two months after their wedding), you are not a professional news broadcast.
On Thursday's Nightly News, the lead story was the sexual abuse scandal at Penn State University. The story was reported by Ron Mott. However, at the end of Mott's report, he was identified in a Nightly News graphic as "Ron Allen". Both Mott and Allen are African American males. I don't want to jump to any rash conclusions here, but I think we have to at least consider the possibility that some of the Nightly News producers are challenged when it comes to differentiating between African American men. Whatever the reason, it's appalling that the Nightly News producers could not correctly identify their own correspondent. This is a professional news broadcast?
Thought for the day: If you air seven stories about whales in a two-month period (as Nightly News did) then you are not a professional news broadcast. If you air seventeen stories about Will & Kate (totalling more than 30 minutes) since July 1 (as Nightly News did--a full two months after their wedding), you are not a professional news broadcast.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Brian Williams Protects Glaxo. Again.
On last Thursday's CBS Evening News, Scott Pelley reported this story: "The drug company GlaxoSmithKline agreed today to pay the U.S. government a record $3 billion to settle investigations of its sales and marketing practices. Federal prosecutors had accused Glaxo of manipulating research to promote Avandia, the diabetes drug that has been linked to heart attacks. Under the settlement, Glaxo will not admit wrongdoing." Did Brian Williams report this story on Nightly News? Of course not. One of Brian's main responsibilities as Nightly News anchor is to promote NBC's sponsors and, conversely, to protect them from negative publicity. Glaxo is one of NBC's (and Nightly News's) most frequent advertisers, and Brian has a history of refusing to report bad news about them--specifically with regard to Avandia.
Of course, when the news is good for Glaxo, Brian loves to report it. On the 3/31/10 Nightly News, Robert Bazell (who frequently acts as Brian's main stand-in shill) took more than two minutes to tell us that Avodart (manufactured by Glaxo) may soon be approved to reduce the risk of prostate cancer, in addition to its currently approved use for shrinking non-cancerous enlargements of the prostate. Good news for Glaxo gets reported, bad news gets ignored.
So Brian didn't have time to report the Avandia story last Thursday. But here are a few stories he managed to report on Friday:
***Research shows that the "freshman 15" weight gain theory is a myth. The entire 30-second visual of this story was comprised of clips from "Animal House"--a movie that was released by Universal Studios, NBC's sister company. This was just a way for Brian to promote the movie, sell DVDs, and earn money for Universal.
***We were shown a photo of a dog with big ears. This was actually a story that Brian reported on Nightly News.
***The field from "Field of Dreams" was sold. "Field of Dreams" was--you guessed it--a Universal picture, so for the second time in less than a minute, Brian was using a sham story on Nightly News to promote a Universal movie.
***Brian then spent 10 seconds promoting the new JFK book written by MSNBC's Chris Matthews. Brian's third promotion in less than two minutes.
***We saw obits for Oscar producer Gil Cates and Tom Keith, who did sound effects for Garrison Keillor's "Prairie Home Companion" show. With all due respect, neither of these men deserved obits on a network news show.
***Brian told us that sitting around can increase your chances for getting certain types of cancer, so we shouldn't sit around, except to watch Nightly News. Really, he said that.
***Brian spent 20 seconds telling us that fingernails on a blackboard is a really grating sound. We also got to see a demonstration of this. Thanks.
***Then Brian told us that, "In a related story, we made it through the week without mentioning Kim Kardashian."
So Brian had time to promote two Universal movies and Chris Matthews's book, show us a dog with big ears and fingernails scraping on a blackboard, read two gratuitous obits, plug his own broadcast and mention Kim Kardashian. But he didn't have time to report Glaxo's record $3 billion settlement. For Brian Williams, that's just business as usual.
Of course, when the news is good for Glaxo, Brian loves to report it. On the 3/31/10 Nightly News, Robert Bazell (who frequently acts as Brian's main stand-in shill) took more than two minutes to tell us that Avodart (manufactured by Glaxo) may soon be approved to reduce the risk of prostate cancer, in addition to its currently approved use for shrinking non-cancerous enlargements of the prostate. Good news for Glaxo gets reported, bad news gets ignored.
So Brian didn't have time to report the Avandia story last Thursday. But here are a few stories he managed to report on Friday:
***Research shows that the "freshman 15" weight gain theory is a myth. The entire 30-second visual of this story was comprised of clips from "Animal House"--a movie that was released by Universal Studios, NBC's sister company. This was just a way for Brian to promote the movie, sell DVDs, and earn money for Universal.
***We were shown a photo of a dog with big ears. This was actually a story that Brian reported on Nightly News.
***The field from "Field of Dreams" was sold. "Field of Dreams" was--you guessed it--a Universal picture, so for the second time in less than a minute, Brian was using a sham story on Nightly News to promote a Universal movie.
***Brian then spent 10 seconds promoting the new JFK book written by MSNBC's Chris Matthews. Brian's third promotion in less than two minutes.
***We saw obits for Oscar producer Gil Cates and Tom Keith, who did sound effects for Garrison Keillor's "Prairie Home Companion" show. With all due respect, neither of these men deserved obits on a network news show.
***Brian told us that sitting around can increase your chances for getting certain types of cancer, so we shouldn't sit around, except to watch Nightly News. Really, he said that.
***Brian spent 20 seconds telling us that fingernails on a blackboard is a really grating sound. We also got to see a demonstration of this. Thanks.
***Then Brian told us that, "In a related story, we made it through the week without mentioning Kim Kardashian."
So Brian had time to promote two Universal movies and Chris Matthews's book, show us a dog with big ears and fingernails scraping on a blackboard, read two gratuitous obits, plug his own broadcast and mention Kim Kardashian. But he didn't have time to report Glaxo's record $3 billion settlement. For Brian Williams, that's just business as usual.
Some Things Brian Williams Might Not Tell You About NBC
On Monday, The New York Times ran an article titled "NBC Struggles for Its Footing" (by Bill Carter and Brian Stelter) on page one of its business section. I doubt that Brian Williams will report anything from this article anytime soon on Nightly News, since he makes it a point never to report bad news about NBC. This is fascinating stuff, so I thought it was worth reprinting:
Coming into a new television season, about the only solace for the new management regime at NBC was that the network’s prime-time fortunes had been so bad for so long, things could not get much worse.
Oh yes they could — and they have. In a year in which NBC’s new corporate owner, Comcast significantly increased the budget for fall shows, the ratings have continued to slide even as competitors have had success.
How bad are NBC’s prime-time ratings? Bad enough that most of the hours on NBC’s schedule, other than the potent “Sunday Night Football” package, have regressed in ratings this season. While every other network has generated a new hit, NBC, which needs hits the most, has not.
The already fourth-place rating in the financially crucial area of viewers ages 18 to 49 has dropped on average 11 percent, to a 2.5 (3.1 million) this year, from 2.8 (3.57 million viewers) last year. NBC has also lost more than 800,000 total viewers from last season. Several new shows never got off the ground, like “The Playboy Club” and “Free Agents,” both of which have been canceled.
It’s bad enough that without the big ratings supplied by the N.F.L. (which costs NBC more than $600 million a year to buy) NBC would be struggling to stay out of fifth place in the ratings. Without football, NBC is now tied with the Spanish-language network Univision in those 18-49 ratings.
To make the grim matters even worse, the only prime-time shows NBC previously owned that posted consistently good numbers, the comedy “The Office,” the drama “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and the reality show “The Biggest Loser” are all down significantly this season. Not coincidentally, important cast members have left all three shows.
NBC was not the crown jewel in Comcast’s $13.75 billion purchase of NBC Universal early this year, but there were hopes inside the company and among investors that the new owners might begin to revive the once-mighty network’s moribund prime-time schedule and attract more ad dollars.
So far at least, the opposite has happened. In September, the new chief executive of NBC, Stephen B. Burke, told a media conference in California, “No network has ever been as far behind financially as NBC is,” citing prices for prime-time commercials that are consistently 20 percent less than what its competitors can charge advertisers.
Comcast’s chief executive, Brian L. Roberts, did not even mention the network on Comcast’s earnings call with investors last week. Instead he raved about the health of the NBC Universal cable channels, which drive the profitability of the division. Those cable assets increased revenues by 12 percent, to $2.1 billion.
Robert Seidman, the co-editor of TV by the Numbers, a ratings Web site, said Comcast “knew what it was buying and knew what it was getting with the broadcast network.”
But the network Comcast bought had several pillars outside of prime time — the “Today” show, “The Tonight Show” and “Nightly News” — that had weathered the storm. Lately, there have been concerns inside the network that even those stalwarts might finally be subject to fallout from prime time’s underperformance. One senior news executive, who asked not to be identified commenting on the entertainment division, said, “Prime time is painful.”
But for the moment at least, those concerns are more about shrinking leads over competitors than shrinking audiences. “Today,” which hasn’t lost a week in the ratings in almost 16 years, has maintained its audience (even adding to it slightly) this season, though the No. 2 show, ABC’s “Good Morning America” had added more viewers and closed what was once a yawning gap to just a sizable one. ABC has also inched closer in the evening news ratings, though NBC has added viewers to that top-rated program as well.
In late night, which traditionally has a closer relationship to prime-time ratings, some impact is noticeable. “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno, which enjoyed more than 15 years of dominance over CBS’s “Late Show With David Letterman” (not counting the period of upheaval when Conan O’Brien replaced Mr. Leno), has fallen behind CBS four weeks out of the first six this season in those 18-49 ratings — the first time that has happened since 1994.
Of course, Mr. Leno was infamously exiled for a time to the 10 p.m. hour where his show was pummeled — particularly by NBC’s own affiliates — for low ratings. But this year two new NBC 10 p.m. shows have fared even worse. The Monday drama “The Playboy Club” was an instant flop. A new entry on Thursday, “Prime Suspect,” has been more highly regarded and is still on the air, but last week averaged a puny 1.2 rating (about 1.5 million viewers in the 18-49 group).
NBC’s new leadership made clear internally that the rebuilding process would take time and that extreme patience would be required. One senior NBC executive, who asked not be identified discussing the network’s internal strategy, said, without disclosing specific figures, that the budget for developing new shows was significantly increased last spring, to the same levels as the other networks, after years of cutbacks. (NBC’s previous owner, General Electric, had pared budgets in preparation for selling the company.)
Mr. Burke has been stressing patience through the dismal start of this season, the senior executive said, and has told people his chief job now “is to keep everybody in the company from driving the development people crazy” in expecting some kind of quick turnaround.
One sign of the patience NBC is trying to apply was the decision to withhold from the fall the one breakthrough show it has programmed in the past five years, the singing competition “The Voice.” Some NBC executives have conceded they urged the new programming chief, Bob Greenblatt, to rush that show back on the air in September after its success in the spring and summer.
He resisted, both because the show needed more time to find suitable contestants, and because holding it back meant it could be reintroduced in February, when NBC broadcasts the Super Bowl. For the same reason NBC held back its most anticipated pilot, a drama about the making of a Broadway show called “Smash,” hoping to pair it with “The Voice” this winter.
But NBC has done little to help itself this fall — and it has been a very good fall for its competitors. Both Fox and CBS are up in the ratings this fall and ABC is flat, an unusual development in a business where erosion has become a way of life. All three of the others have also added at least one significant new hit, while NBC’s best offerings have been a modestly rated but promising comedy “Up All Night,” and the horror drama “Grimm.”
Still, program executives who have been in NBC’s position — if not quite as far down — endorse the idea that a comeback is still possible. Warren Littlefield, who was at NBC during two previous down cycles, said of the potential for a revival, “I do think it’s possible. Last year ‘The Voice’ had a significant effect on their performance each week in ratings and revenue. They just have so many holes to fill and not enough arrows in their quiver.”
Susan Lyne, now chairwoman of the Gilt Groupe, the online luxury retailer, recalled being almost exactly where NBC is now when she was president of ABC Entertainment, starting in 2002.
Ms. Lyne said NBC can’t possibly hope to revive by making wholesale changes.
“The mistake I made my first season was thinking, ‘I’ve got so many time periods that are a disaster, I need eight shows,’ ” Ms. Lyne said in a telephone interview. “And you just can’t launch that much. In our second development season we said the name of the game here is: one hit. Get something that is going to be appointment programming so you begin to get people back into the nest.”
Ms. Lyne, who was working at the time with Lloyd Braun, managed to develop three huge hits the next season, and ABC was on its way back. Her advice to NBC: Pay attention to what cable networks do.
“They launch a show, one show,” she said. She acknowledged that the challenge is made much harder because more and more people use DVRs and access shows on Hulu or Netflix or other sources.
“You find that one piece of programming and you stick with it,” Ms. Lyne said. “You make sure it’s good, that you genuinely believe in it, and you just keep running it until it finds an audience. Once you’ve got that building block, you keep adding to it.”
Coming into a new television season, about the only solace for the new management regime at NBC was that the network’s prime-time fortunes had been so bad for so long, things could not get much worse.
Oh yes they could — and they have. In a year in which NBC’s new corporate owner, Comcast significantly increased the budget for fall shows, the ratings have continued to slide even as competitors have had success.
How bad are NBC’s prime-time ratings? Bad enough that most of the hours on NBC’s schedule, other than the potent “Sunday Night Football” package, have regressed in ratings this season. While every other network has generated a new hit, NBC, which needs hits the most, has not.
The already fourth-place rating in the financially crucial area of viewers ages 18 to 49 has dropped on average 11 percent, to a 2.5 (3.1 million) this year, from 2.8 (3.57 million viewers) last year. NBC has also lost more than 800,000 total viewers from last season. Several new shows never got off the ground, like “The Playboy Club” and “Free Agents,” both of which have been canceled.
It’s bad enough that without the big ratings supplied by the N.F.L. (which costs NBC more than $600 million a year to buy) NBC would be struggling to stay out of fifth place in the ratings. Without football, NBC is now tied with the Spanish-language network Univision in those 18-49 ratings.
To make the grim matters even worse, the only prime-time shows NBC previously owned that posted consistently good numbers, the comedy “The Office,” the drama “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and the reality show “The Biggest Loser” are all down significantly this season. Not coincidentally, important cast members have left all three shows.
NBC was not the crown jewel in Comcast’s $13.75 billion purchase of NBC Universal early this year, but there were hopes inside the company and among investors that the new owners might begin to revive the once-mighty network’s moribund prime-time schedule and attract more ad dollars.
So far at least, the opposite has happened. In September, the new chief executive of NBC, Stephen B. Burke, told a media conference in California, “No network has ever been as far behind financially as NBC is,” citing prices for prime-time commercials that are consistently 20 percent less than what its competitors can charge advertisers.
Comcast’s chief executive, Brian L. Roberts, did not even mention the network on Comcast’s earnings call with investors last week. Instead he raved about the health of the NBC Universal cable channels, which drive the profitability of the division. Those cable assets increased revenues by 12 percent, to $2.1 billion.
Robert Seidman, the co-editor of TV by the Numbers, a ratings Web site, said Comcast “knew what it was buying and knew what it was getting with the broadcast network.”
But the network Comcast bought had several pillars outside of prime time — the “Today” show, “The Tonight Show” and “Nightly News” — that had weathered the storm. Lately, there have been concerns inside the network that even those stalwarts might finally be subject to fallout from prime time’s underperformance. One senior news executive, who asked not to be identified commenting on the entertainment division, said, “Prime time is painful.”
But for the moment at least, those concerns are more about shrinking leads over competitors than shrinking audiences. “Today,” which hasn’t lost a week in the ratings in almost 16 years, has maintained its audience (even adding to it slightly) this season, though the No. 2 show, ABC’s “Good Morning America” had added more viewers and closed what was once a yawning gap to just a sizable one. ABC has also inched closer in the evening news ratings, though NBC has added viewers to that top-rated program as well.
In late night, which traditionally has a closer relationship to prime-time ratings, some impact is noticeable. “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno, which enjoyed more than 15 years of dominance over CBS’s “Late Show With David Letterman” (not counting the period of upheaval when Conan O’Brien replaced Mr. Leno), has fallen behind CBS four weeks out of the first six this season in those 18-49 ratings — the first time that has happened since 1994.
Of course, Mr. Leno was infamously exiled for a time to the 10 p.m. hour where his show was pummeled — particularly by NBC’s own affiliates — for low ratings. But this year two new NBC 10 p.m. shows have fared even worse. The Monday drama “The Playboy Club” was an instant flop. A new entry on Thursday, “Prime Suspect,” has been more highly regarded and is still on the air, but last week averaged a puny 1.2 rating (about 1.5 million viewers in the 18-49 group).
NBC’s new leadership made clear internally that the rebuilding process would take time and that extreme patience would be required. One senior NBC executive, who asked not be identified discussing the network’s internal strategy, said, without disclosing specific figures, that the budget for developing new shows was significantly increased last spring, to the same levels as the other networks, after years of cutbacks. (NBC’s previous owner, General Electric, had pared budgets in preparation for selling the company.)
Mr. Burke has been stressing patience through the dismal start of this season, the senior executive said, and has told people his chief job now “is to keep everybody in the company from driving the development people crazy” in expecting some kind of quick turnaround.
One sign of the patience NBC is trying to apply was the decision to withhold from the fall the one breakthrough show it has programmed in the past five years, the singing competition “The Voice.” Some NBC executives have conceded they urged the new programming chief, Bob Greenblatt, to rush that show back on the air in September after its success in the spring and summer.
He resisted, both because the show needed more time to find suitable contestants, and because holding it back meant it could be reintroduced in February, when NBC broadcasts the Super Bowl. For the same reason NBC held back its most anticipated pilot, a drama about the making of a Broadway show called “Smash,” hoping to pair it with “The Voice” this winter.
But NBC has done little to help itself this fall — and it has been a very good fall for its competitors. Both Fox and CBS are up in the ratings this fall and ABC is flat, an unusual development in a business where erosion has become a way of life. All three of the others have also added at least one significant new hit, while NBC’s best offerings have been a modestly rated but promising comedy “Up All Night,” and the horror drama “Grimm.”
Still, program executives who have been in NBC’s position — if not quite as far down — endorse the idea that a comeback is still possible. Warren Littlefield, who was at NBC during two previous down cycles, said of the potential for a revival, “I do think it’s possible. Last year ‘The Voice’ had a significant effect on their performance each week in ratings and revenue. They just have so many holes to fill and not enough arrows in their quiver.”
Susan Lyne, now chairwoman of the Gilt Groupe, the online luxury retailer, recalled being almost exactly where NBC is now when she was president of ABC Entertainment, starting in 2002.
Ms. Lyne said NBC can’t possibly hope to revive by making wholesale changes.
“The mistake I made my first season was thinking, ‘I’ve got so many time periods that are a disaster, I need eight shows,’ ” Ms. Lyne said in a telephone interview. “And you just can’t launch that much. In our second development season we said the name of the game here is: one hit. Get something that is going to be appointment programming so you begin to get people back into the nest.”
Ms. Lyne, who was working at the time with Lloyd Braun, managed to develop three huge hits the next season, and ABC was on its way back. Her advice to NBC: Pay attention to what cable networks do.
“They launch a show, one show,” she said. She acknowledged that the challenge is made much harder because more and more people use DVRs and access shows on Hulu or Netflix or other sources.
“You find that one piece of programming and you stick with it,” Ms. Lyne said. “You make sure it’s good, that you genuinely believe in it, and you just keep running it until it finds an audience. Once you’ve got that building block, you keep adding to it.”
NBC Nightly News Show Notes--10/22 Through 10/28
Here are some things you may have missed recently on Nightly News:
Saturday 10/22--Nightly News aired yet another story on the death of IndyCar racer Dan Wheldon. This is the fourth story (totalling more than eight minutes) they have done on Wheldon in the past week. Everyone knows how much Brian Williams likes racing (because he tells us about it constantly). So obviously Brian's overreporting of the Wheldon story (and insistence that Lester Holt also continue to report it) is just another example of Brian giving lots of air time to stuff he likes. Lester also told us that, "Another defunct satellite's hurtling toward the atmosphere...." Yeah, we know because Kate Snow told us about the satellite the night before. Do we really need to hear about it again? Unfortunately, one of the main jobs of the Nightly News anchors is to scare and alarm the viewers so they'll tune in each night for more information on the latest piece of falling space junk. The final story was a 2:20 piece about blue penguins in New Zealand who are living near an oil spill. People have been knitting sweaters for the penguins to wear so that when they preen, they won't be able to ingest any oil that's on their bodies. That's nice. But how is this news? Actually, it isn't. This is the second penguin story Nightly News has done in six weeks (the last one was on 9/4). Obviously, the NBC News research department has informed the Nightly News producers that penguins are good for ratings.
Sunday 10/23--We were treated to a 2:05 story on a shark attack in Australia--the second consecutive day Nightly News has reported this story. Apparently, hurtling satellites and shark attacks merit multiple days of coverage on Nightly News. Be afraid--be very afraid. While reporting on the Conrad Murray trial, Kristen Dahlgren told us that one witness had called another witness a "scumbag". Thanks for sharing, Kristen! The final story was a 2:30 "Making A Difference" piece about an Ohio farmer who brings pumpkins to pumpkinless kids in Paterson, NJ. Wow, he really is making a difference. This story just reinforces the fact that Nightly News is first and foremost about reporting hard news.
Monday 10/24--Brian read a 40 second obituary for Paul Leka, who had co-written the song "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye". Really? This is the most important story Brian could find to spend 40 seconds on? I find that hard to believe. But once again, when you're Brian Williams and you have your own entertainment and variety show (AKA Nightly News), you can report whatever you want. Brian then spent 45 seconds giving us a tour of the new Nightly News studio, which of course turned into a plug for "Rock Center". And finally, we were treated to a 2:30 "Making A Difference" story about a 7-year-old kid who races go-karts to raise money for kids with cancer. There is no subject Brian likes reporting on more than kids with cancer. Clearly his pals in the research department have told him that these types of stories score very high with viewers. So Brian uses kids-with-cancer stories to boost his ratings. What other reason could there be for the abundance of these stories on Nightly News? They certainly aren't newsworthy. It's just exploitation. Real nice, Brian.
Tuesday 10/25--During a story about President Obama, Kristen Welker made sure to plug the President's appearance on The Tonight Show that night. She will shamelessly plug anything (some of her past plugs have included Meet the Press, America's Got Talent and Cheerios). Brian then spent 35 seconds reporting an important story about how Necco is abandoning their attempt to use all-natural ingredients in their wafers. Good thing, because I must have missed this story when the PBS NewsHour reported it. Listen--I used to live near the Necco factory in Cambridge, MA. Every time I walked by, it smelled awesome. But that doesn't make it news, okay? After that, Brian reported a story about blue whales. I guess the blue penguin story went so well that he decided to try blue whales. This is the third whale story that Brian has reported in the past month. You know why--people like them...high ratings...blah blah blah. While reporting this story Brian told us, "(The whale) passed very close to the glass bottom boat then came back for a second pass just in case anyone missed the money shot the first time." Now, I don't know the origin of the phrase "money shot", but I do know that it is most closely associated with the porn industry. And I know that Brian knows that, too. Why is Brian intentionally using a porn term on Nightly News? Shouldn't he be saving that for "Rock Center"? Later, Brian spent 30 seconds showing us video of a wedding in Arizona that was disrupted by a dust storm. Great. The final story was about the 40th anniversary of the book "Our Bodies, Ourselves". Brian called it a book about "sex, plumbing and menopause". That doesn't seem particularly sensitive or appropriate. But then again, Brian is a guy's guy who likes to throw around terms like "money shot" on Nightly News. So I guess it's okay to say "plumbing".
Wednesday 10/26--Brian reported that from 1979-2007, the share of income for the top 1% of U.S. earners grew by 275%. He ought to know--with his 8-figure salary, he's definitely in the top 1% of earners. That's known as first-hand experience. The "Making A Difference" story this night was about a man who is running 42 miles a day to raise money for Parkinson's research. That's great. But why is this on a network newscast? Wasn't there any real news to report?
Thursday 10/27--The lead story was the health benefits of aspirin as a cancer-fighting drug. The story featured shots of only one national brand--Bayer. It also featured shots of some old-time Bayer print ads and a clip from a current Bayer TV commercial. Bayer (and their other products like Aleve, One A Day vitamins and Alka-Seltzer) is one of the biggest advertisers on Nightly News. They advertise up to four times on a broadcast. Clearly, this was just a big product placement for Bayer products. It was a way for Brian (and Robert Bazell, the professional shill who reported the story) to give a big "thank you" to the great folks at Bayer for all the ad money they've spent with Nightly News over the years. What a good friend Brian is. Then Ron Allen reported a story on Ruth Madoff and made sure to tell us that Mrs. Madoff would be appearing on The Today Show the next day. Great job, Ron. Plug, plug, plug. After that, Brian spent 30 seconds on a breaking news story about a black lab puppy who was found riding on top of a train. And another 30 seconds on a story about a humpback whale. The fourth whale story in a month! Nightly News loves those whales! Nightly News--your source for important information all the time. The final story was a "Making A Difference" piece about a company that bakes elaborate birthday cakes that go to children in crisis. That's a nice thing to do. And this story has zero news value. It does not belong on a news broadcast. But as far as Brian is concerned, kids in crisis are almost as good as kids with cancer for generating high ratings.
Friday 10/28--The final story of the night was an extremely important 2:15 report about the change in the British law of succession that would allow a first-born daughter to eventually become monarch. Obviously, this was just another excuse to show footage of Will & Kate. Because Will & Kate are good for ratings. During the July sweeps period, Nightly News showed eleven Will & Kate stories (totalling a whopping 24:02). So is it any surprise that they would air this story? Of course not. Just wait until Will & Kate visit a pediatric cancer ward. Brian will devote an entire broadcast to that.
Saturday 10/22--Nightly News aired yet another story on the death of IndyCar racer Dan Wheldon. This is the fourth story (totalling more than eight minutes) they have done on Wheldon in the past week. Everyone knows how much Brian Williams likes racing (because he tells us about it constantly). So obviously Brian's overreporting of the Wheldon story (and insistence that Lester Holt also continue to report it) is just another example of Brian giving lots of air time to stuff he likes. Lester also told us that, "Another defunct satellite's hurtling toward the atmosphere...." Yeah, we know because Kate Snow told us about the satellite the night before. Do we really need to hear about it again? Unfortunately, one of the main jobs of the Nightly News anchors is to scare and alarm the viewers so they'll tune in each night for more information on the latest piece of falling space junk. The final story was a 2:20 piece about blue penguins in New Zealand who are living near an oil spill. People have been knitting sweaters for the penguins to wear so that when they preen, they won't be able to ingest any oil that's on their bodies. That's nice. But how is this news? Actually, it isn't. This is the second penguin story Nightly News has done in six weeks (the last one was on 9/4). Obviously, the NBC News research department has informed the Nightly News producers that penguins are good for ratings.
Sunday 10/23--We were treated to a 2:05 story on a shark attack in Australia--the second consecutive day Nightly News has reported this story. Apparently, hurtling satellites and shark attacks merit multiple days of coverage on Nightly News. Be afraid--be very afraid. While reporting on the Conrad Murray trial, Kristen Dahlgren told us that one witness had called another witness a "scumbag". Thanks for sharing, Kristen! The final story was a 2:30 "Making A Difference" piece about an Ohio farmer who brings pumpkins to pumpkinless kids in Paterson, NJ. Wow, he really is making a difference. This story just reinforces the fact that Nightly News is first and foremost about reporting hard news.
Monday 10/24--Brian read a 40 second obituary for Paul Leka, who had co-written the song "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye". Really? This is the most important story Brian could find to spend 40 seconds on? I find that hard to believe. But once again, when you're Brian Williams and you have your own entertainment and variety show (AKA Nightly News), you can report whatever you want. Brian then spent 45 seconds giving us a tour of the new Nightly News studio, which of course turned into a plug for "Rock Center". And finally, we were treated to a 2:30 "Making A Difference" story about a 7-year-old kid who races go-karts to raise money for kids with cancer. There is no subject Brian likes reporting on more than kids with cancer. Clearly his pals in the research department have told him that these types of stories score very high with viewers. So Brian uses kids-with-cancer stories to boost his ratings. What other reason could there be for the abundance of these stories on Nightly News? They certainly aren't newsworthy. It's just exploitation. Real nice, Brian.
Tuesday 10/25--During a story about President Obama, Kristen Welker made sure to plug the President's appearance on The Tonight Show that night. She will shamelessly plug anything (some of her past plugs have included Meet the Press, America's Got Talent and Cheerios). Brian then spent 35 seconds reporting an important story about how Necco is abandoning their attempt to use all-natural ingredients in their wafers. Good thing, because I must have missed this story when the PBS NewsHour reported it. Listen--I used to live near the Necco factory in Cambridge, MA. Every time I walked by, it smelled awesome. But that doesn't make it news, okay? After that, Brian reported a story about blue whales. I guess the blue penguin story went so well that he decided to try blue whales. This is the third whale story that Brian has reported in the past month. You know why--people like them...high ratings...blah blah blah. While reporting this story Brian told us, "(The whale) passed very close to the glass bottom boat then came back for a second pass just in case anyone missed the money shot the first time." Now, I don't know the origin of the phrase "money shot", but I do know that it is most closely associated with the porn industry. And I know that Brian knows that, too. Why is Brian intentionally using a porn term on Nightly News? Shouldn't he be saving that for "Rock Center"? Later, Brian spent 30 seconds showing us video of a wedding in Arizona that was disrupted by a dust storm. Great. The final story was about the 40th anniversary of the book "Our Bodies, Ourselves". Brian called it a book about "sex, plumbing and menopause". That doesn't seem particularly sensitive or appropriate. But then again, Brian is a guy's guy who likes to throw around terms like "money shot" on Nightly News. So I guess it's okay to say "plumbing".
Wednesday 10/26--Brian reported that from 1979-2007, the share of income for the top 1% of U.S. earners grew by 275%. He ought to know--with his 8-figure salary, he's definitely in the top 1% of earners. That's known as first-hand experience. The "Making A Difference" story this night was about a man who is running 42 miles a day to raise money for Parkinson's research. That's great. But why is this on a network newscast? Wasn't there any real news to report?
Thursday 10/27--The lead story was the health benefits of aspirin as a cancer-fighting drug. The story featured shots of only one national brand--Bayer. It also featured shots of some old-time Bayer print ads and a clip from a current Bayer TV commercial. Bayer (and their other products like Aleve, One A Day vitamins and Alka-Seltzer) is one of the biggest advertisers on Nightly News. They advertise up to four times on a broadcast. Clearly, this was just a big product placement for Bayer products. It was a way for Brian (and Robert Bazell, the professional shill who reported the story) to give a big "thank you" to the great folks at Bayer for all the ad money they've spent with Nightly News over the years. What a good friend Brian is. Then Ron Allen reported a story on Ruth Madoff and made sure to tell us that Mrs. Madoff would be appearing on The Today Show the next day. Great job, Ron. Plug, plug, plug. After that, Brian spent 30 seconds on a breaking news story about a black lab puppy who was found riding on top of a train. And another 30 seconds on a story about a humpback whale. The fourth whale story in a month! Nightly News loves those whales! Nightly News--your source for important information all the time. The final story was a "Making A Difference" piece about a company that bakes elaborate birthday cakes that go to children in crisis. That's a nice thing to do. And this story has zero news value. It does not belong on a news broadcast. But as far as Brian is concerned, kids in crisis are almost as good as kids with cancer for generating high ratings.
Friday 10/28--The final story of the night was an extremely important 2:15 report about the change in the British law of succession that would allow a first-born daughter to eventually become monarch. Obviously, this was just another excuse to show footage of Will & Kate. Because Will & Kate are good for ratings. During the July sweeps period, Nightly News showed eleven Will & Kate stories (totalling a whopping 24:02). So is it any surprise that they would air this story? Of course not. Just wait until Will & Kate visit a pediatric cancer ward. Brian will devote an entire broadcast to that.
Anne Thompson Bamboozles Nightly News Viewers
On Monday, Nightly News aired a story about Yale quarterback Patrick Witt and the choice he has to make between attending the interview for a Rhodes Scholarship and playing in the Harvard-Yale game, both of which take place on Nov. 19. Make no mistake--the ONLY reason Nightly News aired this story is because the Versus network (owned by NBC Universal) will be televising the Harvard-Yale game. Neither Brian Williams nor Anne Thompson (who reported the story) care the slightest bit about Patrick Witt or the choice he has to make. They are just promoting an NBC property. On Monday, the Nightly News website asked viewers to weigh in on Witt's choice, and hundreds of people have already responded. What Brian Williams and Anne Thompson have actually done is tricked the Nightly News viewers into participating in a discussion about athletics vs. academics, when their real goal is to get us to watch a college football game on an NBC network. This "news story" was nothing more than a two-and-a-half minute commercial for the Harvard-Yale game on Versus. Please be vigilant. Every story that airs on Nightly News comes with some sort of hidden agenda. Every night, every viewer should be wondering exactly what it is that Brian and his producers and correspondents are promoting or selling. Because the fact is, they are always promoting something.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Nightly News Misspells The Word "Television"!
On Wednesday, a Nightly News story about sexual harassment in the workplace featured a clip from "Mad Men". This is the seventh time in the past year that Nightly News has used a "Mad Men" clip and the 90th time this year that they have used a television or movie clip as part of a news story. Was that clip really relevant to the story? Of course not. In fact, not one of these clips has ever done anything to clarify or explain a news story. They are featured solely to pander to the audience and drive up the ratings. The NBC News research department has informed Brian Williams and his producers that movie and television clips attract viewers and make them more likely to tune in to future broadcasts. And since "Mad Men" is one of Brian's favorite shows, he has obviously ordered his producers to include "Mad Men" clips on Nightly News as frequently as possible. It's just another example of how Brian Williams and NBC News President Steve Capus have turned Nightly News into the fifth hour of "The Today Show" and the first half hour of "Access Hollywood". If you pack your news broadcast with extraneous entertainment clips, people will tune in. And of course, higher ratings mean more ad dollars. It's all about money.
But here's the astonishing thing. When the Nightly News producers displayed the credit for the "Mad Men" clip on screen, they attributed it to "Lionsgate Televison [sic]". Televison! They actually misspelled "television"! NBC is in the television industry, and they misspelled the word "television"! How incredible is that? Do we need any further proof that Nightly News is a joke and that their producers are morons? It's obvious where the producers' priorities lie. Show the gratuitous clips and don't worry about spelling. Unbelievable. This is a news broadcast?
Ironically, that night's broadcast featured an Education Nation report about the school system in Shanghai. During the report, Rehema Ellis informed us that U.S. students rank 14th in the world in reading. That's hardly surprising--after all, the Nightly News producers misspell words practically every night.
But here's the astonishing thing. When the Nightly News producers displayed the credit for the "Mad Men" clip on screen, they attributed it to "Lionsgate Televison [sic]". Televison! They actually misspelled "television"! NBC is in the television industry, and they misspelled the word "television"! How incredible is that? Do we need any further proof that Nightly News is a joke and that their producers are morons? It's obvious where the producers' priorities lie. Show the gratuitous clips and don't worry about spelling. Unbelievable. This is a news broadcast?
Ironically, that night's broadcast featured an Education Nation report about the school system in Shanghai. During the report, Rehema Ellis informed us that U.S. students rank 14th in the world in reading. That's hardly surprising--after all, the Nightly News producers misspell words practically every night.
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