Brian Williams Makes A Full Disclosure

On Thursday, Nightly News aired a story about how dogs may be able to use their sense of smell to detect tumors during the early stages of cancer. (This was the fourth Nightly News story featuring dogs in less than two weeks. Obviously, someone from the NBC News research department informed Brian Williams that dog stories test extremely well and deliver high ratings.) After the story, Brian told Nancy Snyderman, "Full disclosure--I'm a dog person." Full disclosure. That's an interesting phrase coming from Brian because he never actually offers the disclosures that he is ethically obligated to offer. People expect their news anchors to be forthright, honest and transparent. Brian is none of those. In fact, he is the opposite. He is always hiding or disguising his shady motives for reporting certain stories. Here are some things Brian Williams should be disclosing to his viewers:

*Brian frequently uses his anchor chair to promote products that advertise on Nightly News and other NBC shows. In fact, he will read a company's press release verbatim as if it's an actual news story. Recently, he has done this with McDonald's, Walmart, Starbucks, Subway, Heinz, Frito-Lay and Kraft--among others. Sometimes, Brian and his producers will do an entire news story--often lasting more than two minutes--about an advertiser's product. Recent examples include Pringles, Microsoft Bing, United Airlines, Chrysler, McDonald's, Cheerios, Boniva, Aleve and many GlaxoSmithKline products. Brian and his producers are also fond of helping out their sponsors by including product placements in news stories. They have done this with Chevy, Cheerios, McDonald's and Bayer. Despite all these promos and product placements, Brian has never once disclosed that a product featured in a Nightly News story was also a paid advertiser. For all we know, these products are paying to be featured in the news story. Conversely, Brian also protects NBC advertisers from bad publicity. If a product that advertises on Nightly News is involved in a recall or is proven to have harmful side effects, Brian will often bury the story by delaying it until the weekend or neglecting to report it altogether.
*Brian frequently inserts clips of NBC Universal shows into news stories in order to shamelessly promote those shows. The most frequently promoted shows are "Saturday Night Live", "30 Rock", "The Office" and NBC's late-night shows hosted by Jay Leno and Jimmy Fallon. He never discloses that these clips are promos.
*Brian and his producers regularly allow news segments (or the entire broadcast) to be sponsored by products whose industry is reported on by Nightly News. In some cases, the sponsored segment is directly related to the product that is sponsoring it. This is completely unethical. Are we supposed to believe that these sponsorships have no bearing on the way Nightly News covers a product or an industry? Brian has never once disclosed the relationship between segment sponsors and the way he covers the news.
*Brian often brags about high ratings for NBC shows (his and others)--and he often lies about these ratings. After Brian claims a certain rating for a show, information in a New York Times article or on the TV by the Numbers website will list a significantly lower rating for the program in question. And the Nightly News ratings are artificially inflated because Brian and his producers often submit their show to Nielsen intentionally misspelled as "Nitely News". This allows lower-rated Nightly News broadcasts to be counted separately so they don't bring down the ratings of the higher-rated broadcasts. I won't hold my breath waiting for Brian to disclose this.
*Brian frequently reports on the military and on Medal of Honor winners. But Brian has never once disclosed that he serves on the Board of Directors for the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. Using your newscast to promote your favorite charity is unethical. Failing to disclose your connection is downright sleazy.
*Several months ago, Nightly News became available as an iPad app. And as soon as that happened, Brian and his producers began showing parts of news stories as if they were appearing on an iPad. Clearly, this was only done as a shameless promotion. Of course, Brian offered no disclosure.
*A significant portion of Nightly News stories are put on the air not for their news value, but for their ability to attract viewers and boost the ratings. This includes entertainment stories, Will & Kate stories (and other Royal stories), animal stories, "Making A Difference" segments, weepy rah-rah gung-ho military stories--basically everything that airs in the second half of the broadcast. I have never once heard Brian Williams offer "full disclosure" that he is airing a story solely because it will boost his ratings.

So Brian may think it's amusing for him to say, "Full disclosure--I'm a dog person." But in reality it only serves to point out the huge ethical chasm that exists in the situations where he refuses to disclose his ulterior motives for reporting a story. Full disclosure. That's a joke.

Lee Cowan Is The New Roger O'Neil

Is Brian Williams kidding me? (Part 1): For the lead story on Wednesday's Nightly News, Brian Williams reported that the school year in Joplin started on time. Really. The lead story. Three-minutes-and-twenty seconds. On a network newscast. Apparently, Brian felt that this was much more important than hearing the President talk about jobs or the thwarted Columbine-like attack that was planned in Tampa, Florida. The school year in Joplin started on time. That's the whole story. It could have been done in 15 seconds. And here's how Brian introduced the Joplin story: "Tonight a great story of triumph of the American spirit and the will to rebuild." Where on earth does Brian get this crap? From "The Big Book of Ridiculously Overused Anchor Cliches"? But without a doubt, my favorite part of the story was the old footage Brian used from his report from Joplin three months ago. I guess Brian feels like he doesn't get enough face time on Nightly News so he insists on using old footage of himself every chance he gets. I have honestly never seen anyone with such a laughably massive ego as Brian Williams.

Is Brian Williams kidding me? (Part 2): On Wednesday, we were treated to the third story about Rachel Beckwith's charity which brings fresh water to areas that don't have access to it. Seriously? She was the subject of a "Making A Difference" story on July 29 (and a follow-up story on Aug. 12). And now less than three weeks later, she's the subject of another MAD story (reported, of course, by Lee Cowan)? Clean water for people who need it. Great idea. I think we got it the first time. Naturally, the story ended with Brian begging us to donate to her charity. When is he going to realize that a news broadcast is supposed to report the news, not solicit money from the viewers? That is completely unethical. And did Nightly News really honor Rachel's memory by crassly allowing the story to be sponsored by Tums? Was Rachel also dedicated to bringing antacids to areas that suffer from heartburn? That was absolutely shameful.

And by the way, has Lee Cowan ever once reported a story that has the tiniest shred of news value? On Tuesday, Cowan reported on a San Diego police officer who bought cookies for a kid moments before the officer was gunned down. Does that story really deserve two-and-a-half minutes? Lee Cowan is the new Roger O'Neil. Previously, whenever Nightly News needed a sappy tear-jerker story without any news value, but with plenty of ridiculous cliches and a narration that sounds as if it was lifted from a bad Hallmark card, they would call on Roger O'Neil. Now those stories go to Lee Cowan. A perfect example: His cloyingly saccharine Aug. 2 story about how people in Tucson reacted to Gabby Giffords's surprise appearance on the House floor. Cowan's interview with Giffords's high school history teacher did not exactly rise to the level of Edward R. Murrow. Lee Cowan is a joke. And by the way, Lee, the 1970's called--they want their hairstyle back.

If You're Like Brian Williams...

Anyone who watches Nightly News knows that one of Brian Williams' favorite pastimes is to turn news stories into stories about him. He does this every night with carefully chosen phrases like "for those of us" or "if you're like me". That way, he's no longer talking just about the story's subject, he's talking about himself. This is how Brian feeds his massive ego--by making himself the subject of his stories. He did this several times on Monday's broadcast. During a story about last week's wild fluctuation in the stock market, he said, "That means it's now back to even after all those losses we went through last week." (Gosh, I hope Brian's fortune didn't take too big a hit.) A story about this weekend's Perseid meteor shower included, "For all of us who tried to take in the night sky...." Of course. Because for Brian Williams, the news is always about him. Which makes me curious. During the story Brian read about Warren Buffett's New York Times Op-Ed piece asking the president to tax wealthy people at a higher rate, why didn't Brian say, "For those of us who are super-rich..." or, "If you have an eight-figure income like me...."? Apparently, Brian is only interested in making the news about himself when it feeds into the fake image he's created as a common man of the people, just like his viewers. Yes folks, Brian Williams is a cigar-chompin', NASCAR watchin', beef jerky-eatin' reg'lar guy just like us! Except that he's worth millions and millions of dollars. So he's not really like us at all.

So next time you hear Brian say, "For those of us" or, "If you're like me", take a moment to think about how much like you Brian Williams really is. Or isn't.

Yet Another Reason Why Nightly News Is Sickening

There are so many reasons why Nightly News is sickening. At the top of the list, of course, is Brian Williams's shameful willingness (actually, eagerness) to use his broadcast to promote himself, his sponsors and NBC's sports and entertainment shows. Then there's the way Brian and his producers air stories not because they have any news value, but simply because they appeal to the viewers (example: the 24 minutes of Will & Kate stories that Nightly News aired during the July sweeps period). Brian has succeeded in turning a once-respected newscast into the fifth hour of the "Today" show (and the first half-hour of "Access Hollywood"). Some news, some sports, some weather, an anchor who thinks his jokes are funny, lots of cute animals, lots of entertainment stories, lots of human interest stories about people "Making A Difference". That's Nightly News.

But one of the most sickening things about Nightly News is the way they shamelessly and blatantly pander to the viewers with their rah-rah gung-ho God-bless-America pseudo-patriotism. Brian Williams, NBC News President Steve Capus and the Nightly News producers have obviously ripped a page (or a whole chapter) right out of the Fox News playbook. Their theory is that you can't go wrong by trying to position yourself as the news broadcast that loves America the most. A news broadcast is supposed to report the news in a fair and objective manner. Brian doesn't do that. Instead, he shamelessly panders to his NASCAR-lovin' football-rootin' American-car-buyin' dog-lovin' viewers. Does anyone really buy this act? And of course, Brian has appointed himself as the propagandist-in-chief for the U.S. Military. Instead of simply reporting on military matters, as he should be doing, Brian makes a point of enthusiastically promoting the military to the point of nausea. His sycophancy for all things military is grotesque and hideous. And he feeds his personal fantasy by surrounding himself with people like Jack Jacobs and Barry McCaffrey, as if he can somehow become an officer-by-osmosis. Brian will put anyone on Nightly News as long as they're wearing a military uniform. He constantly uses technical terminology to (laughably) show off how much he thinks he knows about the military. I almost busted a gut last Tuesday when Brian told Gen. Barry McCaffrey, "You've flown in thousands of these Chinook dual rotor helicopters, I've flown in far fewer...." Yes, of course he had to insert himself into the equation--because Brian is just like Gen McCaffrey! They're two peas in a pod. Instead of reporting in a professional manner, he uses loaded, subjective (and highly inappropriate) terms like "wounded warriors" and "fallen heroes". It's truly sad to see how desperate Brian is to appear as if he is somehow related to the military.

Nightly News should be covering military matters by telling us the facts of the stories. Instead, Brian turns every military story into an emotional sap-fest. We are constantly seeing stories about soldiers who miss their families. As if that's news. And even more sickening are the stories about the families at home who have a relative in the military. Also not news. On Thursday, Brian wasted a minute-and-a-half on a frivolous story about a woman who threw out the first pitch at a minor league baseball game, only to discover that the catcher was her husband who had just returned from Afghanistan. Is he kidding us? Nightly News airs a father-surprises-kids story or a husband-surprises-wife story like this around once a month. What a joke. I can only imagine how much real news Brian could cover if he got rid of these ridiculous stories. But of course, no one at Nightly News is interested in reporting real news. Least of all Brian Williams. He just wants to promote the military. Over and over and over. One can only guess at the origins of Brian's obsession. Maybe his parents wouldn't let him have a G.I. Joe doll when he was a kid.

One of Brian's favorite pastimes is to make an announcement every time a Medal of Honor winner dies (he did this most recently on Friday). Since Brian serves on the Board of Directors of the Medal of Honor Foundation, he's really just using his anchor's chair to promote an organization on whose board he serves. Not only is that self-promotional, it's also unethical. It's no different than promoting McDonald's or Chrysler (which Brian also does quite often). No other news broadcast notes the passing of MOH winners. I wonder why. By the way, Brian Williams doesn't care the slightest bit about MOH winners. It's just something he made a calculated decision to attach himself to because the NBC research department told him that glomming onto MOH winners would boost his image with viewers and increase his ratings. It's just business--nothing more.

And then there are the flags. Every night, Nightly News shows flag after flag after flag. There they are at disaster sites. There they are on the street behind the correspondents. There they are in animated form waving behind Brian and Lester. It's obvious that this is a planned strategy. When the Nightly News team arrives at at the site of a flood, tornado or hurricane, the first thing the supervising producer does is tell the camera operators to go out and get lots of shots of flags. The more tattered, the better. I suspect that the producers bring their own flags with them and plant them to get the shots they want. Every story about the stock market features the giant flag outside the NYSE. Every story about Gabby Giffords features a flag in the shape of Arizona. Why? Do we need reminding that Giffords is an American? The psycho that shot her is also American. Hey Brian, how about a flag for Jared Lee Loughner? Samuel Johnson indicted false patriots and false patriotism when he said, "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel." Although Johnson made his famous statement more than 200 years ago, it sounds eerily as if he could have been talking specifically about Brian Williams. Brian uses hyper-patriotic imagery for the sole purpose of pandering to his audience and increasing his ratings. And that is disgusting.

NBC News Producers Would Like To Buy A Consonant, Pat!

During Wednesday's story about Lee Grace Dougherty and her gun-toting bank-robbing police-evading brothers, a Nightly News graphic identified an FBI spokesman as "Phil Niedringhausm". His last name is actually "Niedringhaus". Minutes later, a promo for "Meet the Press" spelled Michele Bachmann's first name as "Michelle". With all the attention she has received over the past few months, I would guess that most fifth-graders probably know how to spell Ms. Bachmann's name. Too bad NBC News doesn't have a fifth grader on their staff. It's also too bad that they don't give a damn about accuracy. I guess they just like adding letters to people's names. They should talk to Pat Sajak about buying consonants in bulk.

On Thursday's broadcast, Brian Williams told us that Chuck Todd was reporting from Ames, Iowa when Todd was actually reporting from Des Moines. Maybe someone should buy Brian a GPS device to help him keep track of his correspondents.

Meanwhile, here's what passes for news at Nightly News. Friday's final story was--as Brian put it, "Some of the news we didn't get to during this very busy week." So what stories, pray tell, were included in this "news" wrap-up?

*A mocking story about the Flying Wing plane crashing--complete with animation and wacky sound effects.
*A woman who paid for an aerial banner "thanking" S & P for the downgrade.
*Two space shuttles passing each other on a NASA runway while the song "Reunited" plays.
*Brian's reassurance that Bert & Ernie are not gay. Obviously, the only reason Brian did this story was to promote the PBS Kids Sprout network which is owned in part by Comcast--NBC's parent company ("Sesame Street" airs on PBS Kids Sprout).
*Gratuitous shots of Vladimir Putin performing feats of strength. Brian derisively criticizes Putin's ego, seemingly without a shred of irony or self-awareness of his own massive ego.
*An obituary for Johnny Cash's bass player.
*A shameless plug for a song that Brian likes by the group Foster the People.
*A story about how the French came up with a vending machine that dispenses baguettes.
*Fifteen seconds of Mishka the talking Husky saying, "I Love You".

That's right--these were the important stories that Nightly News didn't have time for this week. Apparently, they were too busy bringing us stories about Lucille Ball (on three consecutive days), the death of Don Imus's brother, dogs that help people testify in court (obviously Mishka could do her own testifying) and a woman who threw out the first pitch of a minor league baseball game without knowing that the catcher was her husband who was just home from Afghanistan. Of course, the funniest part of this final story was when Brian flat-out lied to us. He said, "So in our last two minutes of the week here, let's get caught up." Actually, the story lasted 3 1/2 minutes, but who's counting. Is it possible that Brian intentionally misstated the time of the story because he felt embarrassed for passing off this pointless load of drivel as news? Nah, he probably just got befuddled when he heard Mishka's dulcet tones.

NBC Nightly News. Shameful.

London is burning. The stock market is on a terrifying roller coaster ride. The Middle East is boiling and ready to explode. People are starving in Africa. So what does Nightly News choose to spend two-and-a-half minutes on during its Tuesday broadcast? Service dogs that help witnesses testify in court. Is that time well spent? Is that a story that really deserves to be on a network newscast? Of course not (but at least the producers managed to work in a "Law & Order" plug by using that show's familiar "da-dum" music). Just like Sunday's story about people that bring fresh fruits and vegetables to Chicago's inner-city neighborhoods. And Monday's story about the Boys & Girls Clubs who donate toys to kids who have a parent in the military (actually, Nightly News has done variations of this same story over and over and over). Not one of these stories contained even the smallest shred of news. Yet night after night, Brian Williams and his producers waste our time with these ridiculous stories whose only purpose is to pander to the viewers. Brian and his producers air these wishy-washy goody-goody human interest stories because the NBC News Research Department tells them it's what the viewers want to see. That way, they get higher ratings than if they aired actual news. After all, who wants to see a half-hour of news on a news broadcast? That is the very definition of pandering--padding the broadcast with pointless non-news stories just because they will attract a large audience. News is not supposed to be about what the viewers want to see. It should be about real events that are happening in our world. Sorry, but courtroom service dogs are not an important event. Not even close. I thought the broadcast was called "NBC Nightly News". The FCC should revoke NBC's right to air a news broadcast. Shameful.

Beginning on Saturday, Nightly News reported the story about the 30 U.S. military servicemembers who were shot down by an RPG in Afghanistan. On Saturday and Sunday, the deceased were listed as "22 U.S Navy Seals", "5 U.S Army Aircrew" and "3 U.S Airmen". Both days, the Nightly News producers omitted the period after the "S" in U.S. And no one even noticed the mistake for more than 24 hours. It wasn't until Monday that they finally corrected this error. Does it really matter that the producers left out one tiny period? Absolutely. It is yet another example of their lack of attention to detail and their inability to get the simplest things right. On Tuesday's broadcast, a video clip of Texas Governor Rick Perry carried the captions "Yesterday" and "Gilbert, Arizona". Wrong on both counts. The video was actually from Gov. Perry's prayer rally that took place in Houston on Saturday. The producers were off by two days and around 1,000 miles. But they don't care. No one cares at Nightly News. These appalling mistakes don't happen on ABC World News or the CBS Evening News. Only on Nightly News. Shameful.

Starting precisely on June 30 (and running through July 23), Nightly News brought us Will & Kate stories on 11 different days (totalling more than 24 minutes). June 30 also happened to be the first day of the July ratings sweeps period (which ran through July 27). Are we supposed to believe this was a coincidence? Of course it wasn't. Brian and his producers made sure to pad their broadcast with plenty of Will & Kate stories during the sweeps period because that's what the viewers want to see. And if the viewers keep tuning in, that means higher ratings and more ad dollars. Shameful.

On Monday's broadcast, Brian read an obituary for Fred Imus, Don Imus's brother. But Brian never mentioned the death of former New York Governor Hugh Carey, who is widely credited with saving New York City from financial default. As far as Brian is concerned, Fred Imus was much more important than Hugh Carey. Because on Nightly News, entertainment always trumps politics. I guess that's why Nightly News aired stories about Lucille Ball on three consecutive days. Shameful.

But at least there's some comic relief on Nightly News. On Monday, when Brian was talking with David Faber about the stock market plunge, he began by saying, "I'm not a historian...." That's hilarious! Because, as everyone knows, Brian really does think of himself as a historian. He's always saying things like, "For those of us who are students of presidential history," or, "For those of us who closely follow the Supreme Court". He thinks he's a scholar. False modesty is really not one of Brian's strong suits. And on Tuesday, when Brian was talking with Gen. Barry McCaffrey about the loss of the 30 U.S. military members in Afghanistan, he said this: "You've flown in thousands of these Chinook dual rotor helicopters, I've flown in far fewer...." What a riot! Brian is actually mentioning his measly exploits in the same sentence as a U.S. Army Four-Star General! He's comparing himself to Gen. McCaffrey! That would be like a baseball player on his first day in the majors claiming that he and Alex Rodriguez have combined for 626 home runs. True, except they all belong to A-Rod. Just another example of Brian's pathetic desperation to try to glom on to anything military. Shameful.

Finally, I have a question for Brian Williams: What is the definition of "life-infirming"? He used that term on Monday to describe Diana Nyad's attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida. I've never heard that term. I guess I'll have to buy a better thesaurus.

Did Brian Williams Really Say That?

From Brian Williams's Aug. 4 Daily Nightly blog: "And the relentless drumbeat of news continues from overseas -- very little of it good. So: please forgive me -- I've been reading all the comments and the emails, and we hope you can join us on the broadcast tonight."

Obviously, the horrible news Brian is referring to from overseas is the famine taking place in the Horn of Africa. Sadly, Brian's use of the word "drumbeat" to indicate the conveyance of news from Africa shows that his views of that continent and its methods of communication are woefully mired in the biased mindset of the 19th century. Is it really necessary for Brian to perpetuate the myth that drums are the preferred method of communication for the people of Africa? Brian might be surprised to learn that current and emerging technology in Africa includes cell phones, Wi-Fi, iPads and Twitter. The drumbeat of news from Africa, indeed. Maybe Brian also thinks they communicate with vuvuzelas.