From Brian Williams's July 27 Daily Nightly blog: "Okay, as promised: 'Mad Men' this past Sunday. Not that anyone asked. First of all, I read that viewership amounted to 2.9 million (estimated), which is interesting—and proof that this really is a niche show, that not everyone 'gets' or likes or is excited about it. And just for comparison, our broadcast this time of year averages just north of 7 million viewers an evening, while during the dead of winter, we were north of 11 million viewers earlier this year."
This is truly unbelievable. What an arrogant, intolerable, insufferable, pompous ass he is. In a blog about "Mad Men", Brian actually makes a point of bragging about his ratings!
Brian continues: "Again, mostly small potatoes, known as 'continuity errors' in the trade. There are a slew of websites devoted to the art form of picking them out. My personal favorites include Nicole Kidman calling Tom Cruise by his real name in Days of Thunder, when he was playing a character named 'Cole'. Then there's the scene from 'It's Complicated,' where Alec Baldwin is tying a necktie in front of a mirror. It's all over the place...and Brad Pitt's bow tie and tux in 'Inglorious Basterds.' These are great finds."
Here's a great find: the actual title of the movie is "Inglourious Basterds". What a joke! In his condescending, I'm-so-much-smarter-than-you blog about errors in "Mad Men", Brian misspells the name of "Inglourious Basterds". Nice going. He spends every moment of his time desperately trying to show how much smarter he is than everyone else. It's hard to imagine that anybody could spend more than thirty seconds with him before feeling the need to leave the room. Has he no shame? By the way, since Brian has so much fun pointing out errors in movies and TV shows, here are some errors from his own past blogs and broadcasts:
* 11/7/08--On his blog, Brian misspells Paul Volcker's last name as "Volker".
* 2/9/09--On his blog, Brian misspells "Alison Krauss" as "Allison Kraus". He gets both her names wrong!
* 4/22/09--After Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Pakistan's continuing instability a "mortal threat" to the U.S., Brian reported on the air that she had called it a "moral threat".
* 10/30/09--Brian misspells the names of Gen. Petraeus (as "Patreus") and Gen. McChrystal (as "McCrystal") on the same blog post.
* 5/25/10--In his Daily Nightly blog, Brian misstates the name of former oil exec John Hofmeister's book. Brian refers to it as "Why People Hate the Oil Companies". The actual title is "Why We Hate the Oil Companies". * 6/22/10--On the air, Brian refers to Richard Engel as the NBC News "Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent". Wrong. Engel is actually NBC's Chief Foreign Correspondent. Andrea Mitchell is the Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent (on 2/20/10, Brian introduced Mitchell as the "Chief Foreign Correspondent").
* 7/12/10--Brian spells Nelson Mandela's last name as "Mandella" on his blog.
* 7/16/10--On his broadcast, Brian announces that, "Overseas tonight, a deadly first in Mexico's deadly drug war--a car bomb." News flash--Mexico is not overseas. Also on that broadcast, Brian referred to Malia Obama as the President's "eldest" daughter. Eldest is used when there are three or more parties involved. Malia is the President's elder daughter.
Maybe Brian should spend less time searching for errors in "Mad Men" and spend more time correcting the errors on his broadcast.
From Brian's July 29 blog: "All in all, a busy week for our humble blog and your humble blogger!"
I guess if there's one word to describe Brian Williams, it would be "humble".
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
IS BRIAN WILLIAMS FREAKIN' KIDDING US?
From Brian Williams's July 26 Daily Nightly blog: "It was a big Sunday night on television. While I'm still sorting out my feelings on 'Mad Men' (and compiling a list of continuity errors), I can sum up my reaction to 'Entourage' in one sentence: Turtle, did you really think you were invited to Mexico for your vast business knowledge, rapier wit, crackling intelligence and skills as a raconteur? And just today, driving to the City from the Jersey Shore, I saw a billboard for the same brand of vodka. It was all a product placement stunt. We were all victims. Same as Turtle."
IS HE FREAKIN' KIDDING US? Is this some sort of sick joke? Brian Williams railing against product placement? Nightly News is one big product placement repository! Virtually every night, Brian (or someone else on Nightly News) goes to great lengths to plug a product that regularly advertises on the broadcast. Three days ago, on this very blog, I pointed out a number of specific times this has happened. Chrysler, Requip, Aleve, Chevy, Lifewater, Smith & Nephew knee replacements, McDonald's, Starbucks, Heinz ketchup, Kraft Foods, the University of Phoenix, United Airlines, Boniva--these are all Nightly News advertisers that someone on the broadcast (usually Brian) has gone out of their way to plug in a "news story". And that list doesn't include all the past and present NBC Universal shows or properties that are regularly plugged. That list includes The Tonight Show, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, Saturday Night Live, Seinfeld, Law & Order, 30 Rock, The Today Show, Dateline, Chuck, Celebrity Apprentice and The Biggest Loser. Every time a former NBC star dies, Nightly News uses their obituary to promote old NBC shows, whose DVDs are still for sale at the NBC Universal online store. Recent examples include Merlin Olsen (Little House on the Prairie, Father Murphy), Pernell Roberts (Bonanza), Fess Parker (Daniel Boone), Robert Culp (I Spy), Gary Coleman (Diff'rent Strokes) and Rue McClanahan (Golden Girls). Bill Cosby has been gratuitously featured in two recent Nightly News stories (Cosby Show DVDs are, of course, for sale at the NBC Universal store). Recently, Nightly News has done "news stories" about Universal Studios and the 30th anniversary of The Blues Brothers (a Universal property). Because NBC is partnered with Microsoft in MSNBC, Nightly News makes a point of plugging Microsoft products like Bing or Connect (and regularly disparaging Apple products like the iPhone 4). Whenever NBC is planning to air a sporting event, Nightly News does one or more "news stories" about that event (the Super Bowl, Sunday Night Football, golf, the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness). Last February, Nightly News turned itself into a promotional arm for NBC's Olympic coverage. Nightly News correspondents are often required to mention one or more sponsors in a story just so that the producers have an excuse to put the sponsors' logos up on the screen (Walmart is a frequent beneficiary of this practice). In the past two years, advertisers' products have sponsored a Nightly News segment (or even the entire broadcast) a whopping 126 times. On the very night Brian wrote his blog complaining about product placement, Nightly News was partly sponsored by Total cereal. A giant Total logo filled our TV screens right before the first commercial break! Brian Williams complaining about product placements would be like Mark McGwire complaining about steroid use in baseball. And by the way, product placements in entertainment shows may be undesirable, but they are not nearly as unethical as product placements in news broadcasts. People don't hold Turtle to any high ethical standards. But news anchors and correspondents are supposed to be conveying information, not peddling wares. It is impossible to trust Brian Williams when we suspect he has ulterior motives for mentioning Boniva or Heinz ketchup.
And what was it that Brian said about finding continuity errors in Mad Men? Here's a suggestion: Brian should spend his time trying to correct all the spelling, grammar, math and factual errors on Nightly News instead of looking for errors in other shows.
Finally, there was this pearl of wisdom from Brian: "I can sum up my reaction to 'Entourage' in one sentence: Turtle, did you really think you were invited to Mexico for your vast business knowledge, rapier wit, crackling intelligence and skills as a raconteur?" Well, I can sum up my reaction to Nightly News in one sentence: Brian, did you really think you were invited to anchor Nightly News for your vast business knowledge, rapier wit, crackling intelligence and skills as a raconteur? Of course not. It was because of your hair.
IS HE FREAKIN' KIDDING US? Is this some sort of sick joke? Brian Williams railing against product placement? Nightly News is one big product placement repository! Virtually every night, Brian (or someone else on Nightly News) goes to great lengths to plug a product that regularly advertises on the broadcast. Three days ago, on this very blog, I pointed out a number of specific times this has happened. Chrysler, Requip, Aleve, Chevy, Lifewater, Smith & Nephew knee replacements, McDonald's, Starbucks, Heinz ketchup, Kraft Foods, the University of Phoenix, United Airlines, Boniva--these are all Nightly News advertisers that someone on the broadcast (usually Brian) has gone out of their way to plug in a "news story". And that list doesn't include all the past and present NBC Universal shows or properties that are regularly plugged. That list includes The Tonight Show, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, Saturday Night Live, Seinfeld, Law & Order, 30 Rock, The Today Show, Dateline, Chuck, Celebrity Apprentice and The Biggest Loser. Every time a former NBC star dies, Nightly News uses their obituary to promote old NBC shows, whose DVDs are still for sale at the NBC Universal online store. Recent examples include Merlin Olsen (Little House on the Prairie, Father Murphy), Pernell Roberts (Bonanza), Fess Parker (Daniel Boone), Robert Culp (I Spy), Gary Coleman (Diff'rent Strokes) and Rue McClanahan (Golden Girls). Bill Cosby has been gratuitously featured in two recent Nightly News stories (Cosby Show DVDs are, of course, for sale at the NBC Universal store). Recently, Nightly News has done "news stories" about Universal Studios and the 30th anniversary of The Blues Brothers (a Universal property). Because NBC is partnered with Microsoft in MSNBC, Nightly News makes a point of plugging Microsoft products like Bing or Connect (and regularly disparaging Apple products like the iPhone 4). Whenever NBC is planning to air a sporting event, Nightly News does one or more "news stories" about that event (the Super Bowl, Sunday Night Football, golf, the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness). Last February, Nightly News turned itself into a promotional arm for NBC's Olympic coverage. Nightly News correspondents are often required to mention one or more sponsors in a story just so that the producers have an excuse to put the sponsors' logos up on the screen (Walmart is a frequent beneficiary of this practice). In the past two years, advertisers' products have sponsored a Nightly News segment (or even the entire broadcast) a whopping 126 times. On the very night Brian wrote his blog complaining about product placement, Nightly News was partly sponsored by Total cereal. A giant Total logo filled our TV screens right before the first commercial break! Brian Williams complaining about product placements would be like Mark McGwire complaining about steroid use in baseball. And by the way, product placements in entertainment shows may be undesirable, but they are not nearly as unethical as product placements in news broadcasts. People don't hold Turtle to any high ethical standards. But news anchors and correspondents are supposed to be conveying information, not peddling wares. It is impossible to trust Brian Williams when we suspect he has ulterior motives for mentioning Boniva or Heinz ketchup.
And what was it that Brian said about finding continuity errors in Mad Men? Here's a suggestion: Brian should spend his time trying to correct all the spelling, grammar, math and factual errors on Nightly News instead of looking for errors in other shows.
Finally, there was this pearl of wisdom from Brian: "I can sum up my reaction to 'Entourage' in one sentence: Turtle, did you really think you were invited to Mexico for your vast business knowledge, rapier wit, crackling intelligence and skills as a raconteur?" Well, I can sum up my reaction to Nightly News in one sentence: Brian, did you really think you were invited to anchor Nightly News for your vast business knowledge, rapier wit, crackling intelligence and skills as a raconteur? Of course not. It was because of your hair.
Vancouver Trumps Haiti
Can someone please buy the Nightly News producers an atlas? Twice in the first two minutes of Saturday's broadcast, a graphic showing the path of tropical storm Bonnie misspelled the island of Hispaniola as "Hispanola". Of course, the irony here is unmistakable. Hispaniola is comprised of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Back in January, Brian Williams and his producers spent about a month pretending that they cared about the earthquake that devastated Haiti. Until the Vancouver Olympics began, that is. Once the Olympics started, Haiti virtually disappeared from Nightly News. Apparently, the death of one Georgian luger was far more important than the estimated quarter of a million people who died in the Haiti earthquake. And spelling Hispaniola correctly is obviously of no importance to the Nightly News producers. Haven't the Haitian people suffered enough without this added indignity?
Of course, ignoring Haiti in favor of Vancouver made perfect sense to Brian and his producers. One reason Nightly News exists is to promote other NBC properties, and there is no NBC property more important and more valuable (and more expensive) than the Olympics. Even before the Olympics began, NBC knew they were going to lose money (the final loss total for NBC was $223 million. Funny thing--I never heard Brian report that on Nightly News.). That's why Nightly News devoted 160 minutes of February news time to Olympic-related stories. That's the equivalent of more than seven entire Nightly News broadcasts (a broadcast runs 22 minutes without commercials). By turning Nightly News into a promotional vehicle for the Olympics, NBC hoped they could increase Olympic viewership and offset some of their expected losses. The importance of the Haitian earthquake paled in comparison to NBC's desire to promote the Olympics.
There was another consideration in Brian's decision to ignore Haiti once the Olympics began: Because they represent a smaller percentage of the U.S. population, African Americans (as both news subject and viewer demographic) are less important to Brian than are whites. (African Americans comprise only about 13% of the U.S. population, while non-Hispanic whites account for about 66% of the U.S. population.) The people affected by the Haitian earthquake were overwhelmingly black and poor. The viewers watching the Olympics were largely white and affluent. Brian's primary goal for Nightly News, of course, is to attract the most viewers so his broadcast can have the highest ratings (and charge the highest ad rates). So for Brian and his producers, it simply makes economic sense to devote his broadcast to stories that appeal to the larger white population, rather than to stories that appeal to the smaller African American population. If the majority of the country was populated by purple people with green polka dots, Brian would contrive Nightly News to appeal to that demographic. Of course Brian would like African American viewers to watch his broadcast, but it just makes more sense to devote his show's limited resources towards attracting the larger racial demographic of whites. If one particular animal is five times more abundant than another animal, it makes sense to hunt the abundant animal, if both will sustain you equally. Vancouver trumps Haiti. For Brian, it's all about the ratings, all the time.
Of course, ignoring Haiti in favor of Vancouver made perfect sense to Brian and his producers. One reason Nightly News exists is to promote other NBC properties, and there is no NBC property more important and more valuable (and more expensive) than the Olympics. Even before the Olympics began, NBC knew they were going to lose money (the final loss total for NBC was $223 million. Funny thing--I never heard Brian report that on Nightly News.). That's why Nightly News devoted 160 minutes of February news time to Olympic-related stories. That's the equivalent of more than seven entire Nightly News broadcasts (a broadcast runs 22 minutes without commercials). By turning Nightly News into a promotional vehicle for the Olympics, NBC hoped they could increase Olympic viewership and offset some of their expected losses. The importance of the Haitian earthquake paled in comparison to NBC's desire to promote the Olympics.
There was another consideration in Brian's decision to ignore Haiti once the Olympics began: Because they represent a smaller percentage of the U.S. population, African Americans (as both news subject and viewer demographic) are less important to Brian than are whites. (African Americans comprise only about 13% of the U.S. population, while non-Hispanic whites account for about 66% of the U.S. population.) The people affected by the Haitian earthquake were overwhelmingly black and poor. The viewers watching the Olympics were largely white and affluent. Brian's primary goal for Nightly News, of course, is to attract the most viewers so his broadcast can have the highest ratings (and charge the highest ad rates). So for Brian and his producers, it simply makes economic sense to devote his broadcast to stories that appeal to the larger white population, rather than to stories that appeal to the smaller African American population. If the majority of the country was populated by purple people with green polka dots, Brian would contrive Nightly News to appeal to that demographic. Of course Brian would like African American viewers to watch his broadcast, but it just makes more sense to devote his show's limited resources towards attracting the larger racial demographic of whites. If one particular animal is five times more abundant than another animal, it makes sense to hunt the abundant animal, if both will sustain you equally. Vancouver trumps Haiti. For Brian, it's all about the ratings, all the time.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Brian Williams Will Plug Your Product On Nightly News
Once again, Brian Williams has shown his willingness (eagerness?) to plug a sponsor's product on Nightly News. Here's what Brian said on Wednesday's broadcast:
"Turning to health news briefly--We've noticed this week a new sponsor on this broadcast is a certain type of replacement knee. Knee surgery is suddenly a multi-billion-dollar-a-year business in this country--especially among us aging warriors--and a new study out that followed some amateur soccer players with ACL injuries says they fared no better with ACL surgery than they did with rehab and physical therapy."
It's obvious what's going on here. Brian and his producers wanted to plug a new sponsor (Smith & Nephew Replacement Knees) so they came up with a contrived a "news report" that would allow Brian to mention the sponsor. He didn't mention them by name, but he didn't have to. Just discussing them as "a new sponsor" undoubtedly caused many Nightly News viewers to take notice and to pay attention to their commercial (which aired only 13 minutes after Brian's plug). Let's be clear: The only reason Brian read this "news report" about knee surgery was so that he could mention the sponsor's product. He would have read a "news report" about knee surgery in pink elephants if it allowed him to make a gratuitous plug. Of course, this isn't the first time Nightly News has used a contrived "news report" to plug a sponsor's product. Here are a few other times (this list is by no means complete):
7/18/07--Nightly News airs a story about Restless Leg Syndrome. The sole purpose of the story is to establish the legitimacy of RLS because many doctors do not acknowledge it as a legitimate medical condition. One of the main drugs used to treat RLS is Requip, a frequent Nightly News advertiser (Requip was specifically mentioned in the story). And in addition to their regular advertisements, Requip (manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline) sponsored nine "Making A Difference" segments from April 2007 to January 2008 (the dates were 4/20/07, 5/25/07, 6/22/07, 7/6/07, 7/27/07, 8/3/07, 9/14/07, 1/11/08 and 1/18/08). There is absolutely no doubt that the story on Restless Leg Syndrome was done as a special favor to Nightly News's pals at Glaxo.
11/13/07--Brian Williams anchors Nightly News from a Chrysler plant in Detroit. This broadcast is a thinly-disguised 30-minute commercial for Chrysler, a frequent Nightly News and NBC advertiser. At the end of the broadcast, Brian interviews Chrysler executive Jim Press. Brian's interview is made up of softball questions that allow Press to talk about how great his cars and trucks are (Brian even gets in on the act of praising Chrysler products: "This is going to make some buyer somewhere very happy."). Less than three months later (2/5/08), Chrysler sponsored the entire Nightly News broadcast.
1/31/09--A story about 3-D ads during the Super Bowl prominently featured Lifewater beverages--a product that advertised on the following day's Super Bowl (which aired, of course, on NBC).
2/23/09--Nightly News features a "news story" about how thoroughly United Airlines cleans their planes. United is a frequent Nightly News advertiser. This story is just a big thank-you from NBC to United.
5/5/09--Nightly News airs a "news story" about McDonald's new gourmet coffees. McDonald's is a major advertiser on Nightly News and other NBC shows. Ann Curry introduces the story by calling McDonald's coffee a "delicious brew". More than a third of this story is comprised of excerpts from McDonald's commercials and interviews with McDonald's spokespersons. This story is simply a commercial for McDonald's new gourmet coffees.
5/12/09--Robert Bazell's story about FDA claims regarding Cheerios' health claims turns into a two-minute commercial for Cheerios.
7/13/09--The entire Nightly News broadcast is sponsored by the University of Phoenix, an online university. Four days later, Nightly News airs a report about Western Governors University (also an online university). This story featured a gratuitous plug for the University of Phoenix as well as a prominent graphic displaying their logo. This is no coincidence. University of Phoenix's July 13 sponsorship also bought them a plug on the July 17 broadcast.
9/6/09--A story about search engines becomes a story about Bing. Bing is a Microsoft product, and Microsoft is NBC's partner in MSNBC. This story is just a plug for one of NBC's corporate partners.
2/4/10--Brian reads a 30-second story about the new Heinz ketchup packages (he also manages to mention McDonald's in the story). This is just a plug for Heinz.
3/17/10--Brian reads a 30-second story about how Kraft Foods will be reducing the sodium in their products. Another plug for a regular advertiser.
5/14/10--Brian Williams spends 90 seconds interviewing Sally Field solely about her Boniva commercial (Boniva advertises on Nightly News every night). Three days later, Brian again interviews Field and again mentions Boniva. An interesting sidebar to the Sally Field interview--Brian mentions all of her early TV roles--Gidget, The Flying Nun, Sybil--but he never once mentions her current Emmy-winning role in "Brothers & Sisters". The following night, a profile of Eva Longoria Parker makes no mention of her role on "Desperate Housewives". This is truly unbelievable. Brian and his producers refuse to allow any mention of "Brothers & Sisters" and "Desperate Housewives" because they are on ABC. The are actually scared that mentioning these shows will result in lower ratings for the NBC shows airing opposite them. So it's okay for Nightly News to use Field and Parker to try to increase the broadcast's ratings during a sweeps period, but they won't allow any mention of those ABC shows because they don't want those shows to get plugged...during a sweeps period. That is pure hypocrisy.
6/8/10--Nightly News airs a report about an obscure Danish medical study that concluded that Aleve can reduce the risk of heart attacks. Aleve (and its parent product Bayer) advertise every night on Nightly News. A week later, Campbell's recalled 15 million pounds of Spaghettios because undercooked meatballs could pose a health risk to children. Nightly News didn't mention the recall because they didn't want to offend Campbell's, a regular sponsor.
6/10/10--Brian introduces a ridiculous "news story" about whether or not Chevys should be referred to as Chevrolets. Clearly, this is a two-minute-and-ten-second thank-you to the Chevy people for all the advertising dollars they have given NBC over the years.
6/14/10--Lester Holt reads a "news story" about how Starbucks and McDonald's are now providing free Wi-Fi in their stores. Interestingly, this is the second time Nightly News has paired these two companies in a fake news story whose sole purpose is to promote them as sponsors.
6/22/10--Nightly News shows a 30-second clip of Jimmy Fallon playing Microsoft's new Kinnect video game. Again, since Microsoft is a partner of NBC, this is just a plug for one of NBC's corporate friends.
If your product advertises on Nightly News and you want Brian Williams to mention your product in a "news story", just ask Brian. He'll be glad to do it.
UPDATE (Aug. 31)--On the Aug. 26 Nightly News, Brian read a "news story" about a recall of Johnson & Johnson hip replacement implants. Once again, this story was planted on Nightly News for the sole purpose of helping Smith & Nephew--a regular sponsor who also make artificial hips. If it were not for the fact that Smith & Nephew are regular Nightly News sponsors, Brian never would have mentioned the Johnson & Johnson recall. Brian's obvious goal was to steer people away from J & J artificial hips and towards those made by Smith & Nephew.
"Turning to health news briefly--We've noticed this week a new sponsor on this broadcast is a certain type of replacement knee. Knee surgery is suddenly a multi-billion-dollar-a-year business in this country--especially among us aging warriors--and a new study out that followed some amateur soccer players with ACL injuries says they fared no better with ACL surgery than they did with rehab and physical therapy."
It's obvious what's going on here. Brian and his producers wanted to plug a new sponsor (Smith & Nephew Replacement Knees) so they came up with a contrived a "news report" that would allow Brian to mention the sponsor. He didn't mention them by name, but he didn't have to. Just discussing them as "a new sponsor" undoubtedly caused many Nightly News viewers to take notice and to pay attention to their commercial (which aired only 13 minutes after Brian's plug). Let's be clear: The only reason Brian read this "news report" about knee surgery was so that he could mention the sponsor's product. He would have read a "news report" about knee surgery in pink elephants if it allowed him to make a gratuitous plug. Of course, this isn't the first time Nightly News has used a contrived "news report" to plug a sponsor's product. Here are a few other times (this list is by no means complete):
7/18/07--Nightly News airs a story about Restless Leg Syndrome. The sole purpose of the story is to establish the legitimacy of RLS because many doctors do not acknowledge it as a legitimate medical condition. One of the main drugs used to treat RLS is Requip, a frequent Nightly News advertiser (Requip was specifically mentioned in the story). And in addition to their regular advertisements, Requip (manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline) sponsored nine "Making A Difference" segments from April 2007 to January 2008 (the dates were 4/20/07, 5/25/07, 6/22/07, 7/6/07, 7/27/07, 8/3/07, 9/14/07, 1/11/08 and 1/18/08). There is absolutely no doubt that the story on Restless Leg Syndrome was done as a special favor to Nightly News's pals at Glaxo.
11/13/07--Brian Williams anchors Nightly News from a Chrysler plant in Detroit. This broadcast is a thinly-disguised 30-minute commercial for Chrysler, a frequent Nightly News and NBC advertiser. At the end of the broadcast, Brian interviews Chrysler executive Jim Press. Brian's interview is made up of softball questions that allow Press to talk about how great his cars and trucks are (Brian even gets in on the act of praising Chrysler products: "This is going to make some buyer somewhere very happy."). Less than three months later (2/5/08), Chrysler sponsored the entire Nightly News broadcast.
1/31/09--A story about 3-D ads during the Super Bowl prominently featured Lifewater beverages--a product that advertised on the following day's Super Bowl (which aired, of course, on NBC).
2/23/09--Nightly News features a "news story" about how thoroughly United Airlines cleans their planes. United is a frequent Nightly News advertiser. This story is just a big thank-you from NBC to United.
5/5/09--Nightly News airs a "news story" about McDonald's new gourmet coffees. McDonald's is a major advertiser on Nightly News and other NBC shows. Ann Curry introduces the story by calling McDonald's coffee a "delicious brew". More than a third of this story is comprised of excerpts from McDonald's commercials and interviews with McDonald's spokespersons. This story is simply a commercial for McDonald's new gourmet coffees.
5/12/09--Robert Bazell's story about FDA claims regarding Cheerios' health claims turns into a two-minute commercial for Cheerios.
7/13/09--The entire Nightly News broadcast is sponsored by the University of Phoenix, an online university. Four days later, Nightly News airs a report about Western Governors University (also an online university). This story featured a gratuitous plug for the University of Phoenix as well as a prominent graphic displaying their logo. This is no coincidence. University of Phoenix's July 13 sponsorship also bought them a plug on the July 17 broadcast.
9/6/09--A story about search engines becomes a story about Bing. Bing is a Microsoft product, and Microsoft is NBC's partner in MSNBC. This story is just a plug for one of NBC's corporate partners.
2/4/10--Brian reads a 30-second story about the new Heinz ketchup packages (he also manages to mention McDonald's in the story). This is just a plug for Heinz.
3/17/10--Brian reads a 30-second story about how Kraft Foods will be reducing the sodium in their products. Another plug for a regular advertiser.
5/14/10--Brian Williams spends 90 seconds interviewing Sally Field solely about her Boniva commercial (Boniva advertises on Nightly News every night). Three days later, Brian again interviews Field and again mentions Boniva. An interesting sidebar to the Sally Field interview--Brian mentions all of her early TV roles--Gidget, The Flying Nun, Sybil--but he never once mentions her current Emmy-winning role in "Brothers & Sisters". The following night, a profile of Eva Longoria Parker makes no mention of her role on "Desperate Housewives". This is truly unbelievable. Brian and his producers refuse to allow any mention of "Brothers & Sisters" and "Desperate Housewives" because they are on ABC. The are actually scared that mentioning these shows will result in lower ratings for the NBC shows airing opposite them. So it's okay for Nightly News to use Field and Parker to try to increase the broadcast's ratings during a sweeps period, but they won't allow any mention of those ABC shows because they don't want those shows to get plugged...during a sweeps period. That is pure hypocrisy.
6/8/10--Nightly News airs a report about an obscure Danish medical study that concluded that Aleve can reduce the risk of heart attacks. Aleve (and its parent product Bayer) advertise every night on Nightly News. A week later, Campbell's recalled 15 million pounds of Spaghettios because undercooked meatballs could pose a health risk to children. Nightly News didn't mention the recall because they didn't want to offend Campbell's, a regular sponsor.
6/10/10--Brian introduces a ridiculous "news story" about whether or not Chevys should be referred to as Chevrolets. Clearly, this is a two-minute-and-ten-second thank-you to the Chevy people for all the advertising dollars they have given NBC over the years.
6/14/10--Lester Holt reads a "news story" about how Starbucks and McDonald's are now providing free Wi-Fi in their stores. Interestingly, this is the second time Nightly News has paired these two companies in a fake news story whose sole purpose is to promote them as sponsors.
6/22/10--Nightly News shows a 30-second clip of Jimmy Fallon playing Microsoft's new Kinnect video game. Again, since Microsoft is a partner of NBC, this is just a plug for one of NBC's corporate friends.
If your product advertises on Nightly News and you want Brian Williams to mention your product in a "news story", just ask Brian. He'll be glad to do it.
UPDATE (Aug. 31)--On the Aug. 26 Nightly News, Brian read a "news story" about a recall of Johnson & Johnson hip replacement implants. Once again, this story was planted on Nightly News for the sole purpose of helping Smith & Nephew--a regular sponsor who also make artificial hips. If it were not for the fact that Smith & Nephew are regular Nightly News sponsors, Brian never would have mentioned the Johnson & Johnson recall. Brian's obvious goal was to steer people away from J & J artificial hips and towards those made by Smith & Nephew.
Luke Russert Is Christopher Moltisanti
The Nightly Daily editors would like to offer our sincere gratitude to Congressman Charlie Rangel for his dressing-down of MSNBC's Luke Russert. While Russert was questioning the congressman Thursday about the House Ethics Committee's decision to try him for alleged ethics violations, the following exchange took place:
Luke Russert: Are you concerned about losing your job?
Charles Rangel: What are you talking about? You just trying to make copy? What job? The one I got?
LR: Yeah--these are potentially serious violations.
CR: How do you think I got my job? I was elected, right? How do you think I'd lose it?
LR: There's two ways--you could lose it if your colleagues voted you out of here because of ethics violations, or if your constituents--
CR: What station are you from?
LR: NBC--MSNBC.
CR: Well, you're young--I guess you do need to make a name for yourself but basically you know it's a dumb question and I'm not going to respond.
LR: How is it a dumb question?
CR: They're allegations made by some people--
LR: You did not file taxes on properties in the Dominican Republic allegedly--if that's true, is that not a problem?
CR: It doesn't really sound like NBC--asking these dumb questions--it just shows what has happened to a channel that did have some respect.
Luke Russert has absolutely no skill or aptitude as a network (or even a cable) interviewer. It's clear that he got his job because of his father (Tim Russert) and his mentor/protector (Brian Williams). Luke Russert is Christopher Moltisanti. For those not familiar with "The Sopranos", here's a synopsis: When Tony Soprano's close friend Dickie Moltisanti died, Tony took Dickie's son Christopher under his wing. Christopher became Tony's protege, and Tony did everything he could to teach Christopher the ways of the (under) world. Unfortunately, Christopher was a screw-up. He was often too strung out on drugs to do what Tony asked him to do, and the rest of the time he was just too lazy or too incompetent. Luke Russert is Brian Williams's Christopher Moltisanti. Brian hero-worshipped Tim Russert so much that after Tim's death, he vowed to give Luke a career on MSNBC, despite Luke's obvious lack of talent for the job. Let's just hope that the Brian Williams-Luke Russert relationship ends better than the Tony Soprano-Christopher Moltisanti relationship.
Of course, the most bizarre part of the Russert-Rangel exchange is that Brian chose to air it on Thursday's Nightly News. Rangel completely humiliated Russert and NBC News. He took Russert to the woodshed, yet Brian thought it would be a great idea to put it on his broadcast. Maybe Brian wasn't smart enough to realize exactly what was happening in the interview (he always reminds us that he never graduated college), or maybe he just wanted to give his protege some prime space on Nightly News. Like the PR saying goes--there's no such thing as bad publicity.
Although Rangel later apologized to Russert, he shouldn't have. He got it exactly right about NBC News.
Luke Russert: Are you concerned about losing your job?
Charles Rangel: What are you talking about? You just trying to make copy? What job? The one I got?
LR: Yeah--these are potentially serious violations.
CR: How do you think I got my job? I was elected, right? How do you think I'd lose it?
LR: There's two ways--you could lose it if your colleagues voted you out of here because of ethics violations, or if your constituents--
CR: What station are you from?
LR: NBC--MSNBC.
CR: Well, you're young--I guess you do need to make a name for yourself but basically you know it's a dumb question and I'm not going to respond.
LR: How is it a dumb question?
CR: They're allegations made by some people--
LR: You did not file taxes on properties in the Dominican Republic allegedly--if that's true, is that not a problem?
CR: It doesn't really sound like NBC--asking these dumb questions--it just shows what has happened to a channel that did have some respect.
Luke Russert has absolutely no skill or aptitude as a network (or even a cable) interviewer. It's clear that he got his job because of his father (Tim Russert) and his mentor/protector (Brian Williams). Luke Russert is Christopher Moltisanti. For those not familiar with "The Sopranos", here's a synopsis: When Tony Soprano's close friend Dickie Moltisanti died, Tony took Dickie's son Christopher under his wing. Christopher became Tony's protege, and Tony did everything he could to teach Christopher the ways of the (under) world. Unfortunately, Christopher was a screw-up. He was often too strung out on drugs to do what Tony asked him to do, and the rest of the time he was just too lazy or too incompetent. Luke Russert is Brian Williams's Christopher Moltisanti. Brian hero-worshipped Tim Russert so much that after Tim's death, he vowed to give Luke a career on MSNBC, despite Luke's obvious lack of talent for the job. Let's just hope that the Brian Williams-Luke Russert relationship ends better than the Tony Soprano-Christopher Moltisanti relationship.
Of course, the most bizarre part of the Russert-Rangel exchange is that Brian chose to air it on Thursday's Nightly News. Rangel completely humiliated Russert and NBC News. He took Russert to the woodshed, yet Brian thought it would be a great idea to put it on his broadcast. Maybe Brian wasn't smart enough to realize exactly what was happening in the interview (he always reminds us that he never graduated college), or maybe he just wanted to give his protege some prime space on Nightly News. Like the PR saying goes--there's no such thing as bad publicity.
Although Rangel later apologized to Russert, he shouldn't have. He got it exactly right about NBC News.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Brian Williams Teaches BP How To Clean Up
On his July 12 Daily Nightly blog, Brian Williams spelled Nelson Mandela's last name as "Mandella". A week later, the spelling has been corrected and there is no acknowledgment of the mistake (and no apology to Mandela or the blog readers). My blog post pointing out the error has been deleted. It's as if it never happened. It's like one of those suspense movies where someone finds a dead body but by the time they summon the police, the body is gone and the crime scene has been scrubbed spotless. What an amazing clean-up! Brian Williams could teach BP a thing or two.
Those Hacks At BBC News
On Monday, BBC World News America conducted an interview with Hillary Clinton, and they didn't even ask her about Chelsea's wedding! They call themselves professional newspeople? On Sunday, Nightly News aired a 2:10 interview Andrea Mitchell conducted with Mrs. Clinton--the sole topic of which was the upcoming wedding. Now THAT'S what we want to see on the news!
Meanwhile, Brian Williams's Monday interview with former Shell Oil President John Hofmeister was so inconsequential that I'm surprised he didn't ask Hofmeister if he had been invited to Chelsea's wedding.
Meanwhile, Brian Williams's Monday interview with former Shell Oil President John Hofmeister was so inconsequential that I'm surprised he didn't ask Hofmeister if he had been invited to Chelsea's wedding.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
