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?