Brian Williams: Football Uber Alles

It's hard to imagine a more shameless and grotesque display than the one put on by Brian Williams during Tuesday's Nightly News. Beginning at minute nine (before the first commercial break, which is considered prime news space), Brian spent an incredible 5:45 talking about that night's Eagles-Vikings game--first with Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (nattily attired in a Comcast jacket) and then with NBC Sports commentator Bob Costas. Obviously, the only reason for this segment was to promote NBC's coverage of the game, which would air later that night. (A similar Rendell interview had already aired on Monday.) Is this news? Does anyone in the world really believe that Brian would have spent even ten seconds talking about the Eagles and Vikings if the game was airing on a different network? Sadly, this sort of shameless promotion for NBC's football coverage has been going on for months, ever since Sept. 9, when Brian moved his entire broadcast to New Orleans for the sole purpose of promoting that night's Saints-Vikings game on NBC. Actually, it's been going on a lot longer than that. Remember the 160 minutes that Nightly News devoted to covering last February's Vancouver Olympics? That's the equivalent of seven entire broadcasts. Using a newscast to relentlessly promote a network's sports coverage is beyond shameless. It's a betrayal of the viewers' trust. People expect Nightly News to bring us actual news, not shameless promotions for NBC's football coverage. When you factor out commercials, the 5:45 that Brian spent promoting the Eagles-Vikings game represents 25% of the entire broadcast.

Shorter, but no less shameless, was Brian's 30-second commercial for Frito-Lay that came at the 22-minute mark of Tuesday's broadcast. Here's how Brian began his pitch: "Coming soon to grocery store shelves near you, snacks we've always considered junk food with a new label saying 'All Natural'. It's the work of Frito-Lay--they're removing chemical additives from some Tostitos, Sun Chips, Lays, Rold Gold pretzels." (Extra credit goes to Brian for mentioning four specific Frito-Lay brands.) As Brian narrated this commercial, the Frito-Lay logo was prominently displayed over his left shoulder. But it wasn't just the Frito-Lay logo. Below the logo were the words "Good Fun!" and "ALL NATURAL". Did the Frito-Lay advertising department write Brian's copy? I guess it never occurred to Brian to mention the fact that sodium, fat, and cholesterol are "natural" ingredients, and thus will continue to be found in Frito-Lay products. Of course, it's no surprise to find Brian Williams using his anchor chair to promote a product that advertises heavily on NBC. Over the years, Brian and other Nightly News correspondents have plugged products or companies such as Boniva, Kraft, McDonald's, Starbucks, Bayer (and their other brands like Aleve and Alka-Seltzer), Requip, Microsoft, Heinz, Cheerios, Chrysler, Chevy, Scott Paper and Spam (the luncheon meat, not the internet annoyance). And Nightly News viewers are certainly familiar with the way in which Brian and Robert Bazell constantly promote GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer products (and also protect them from negative publicity). My only question is: Did Frito-Lay pay NBC for this 30-second commercial, or was it a gift from NBC to one of their most valued sponsors? There's no doubt that NBC earned a tremendous amount of good will from Pepsi (Frito-Lay's owner) by running this commercial-masquerading-as-news.

At the beginning of Monday's "special coverage of the Blizzard of 2010" (those were Brian's words describing the thirteen minutes that he apparently felt were necessary to report on a winter snowstorm in New York), a Nightly News graphic informed us that 6,000 airline flights in the New York area had been "Canceled". Five minutes later, an additional set of graphics told us exactly how many Delta, US Airways and American Airlines flights had been "Cancelled". In the space of five minutes, Nightly News managed to spell the same word two different ways. Bravo, Nightly News producers. Well done.

As part of Wednesday's "Blizzard 2010" coverage, Jeff Rossen told us that, "Unable to leave home, a (Brooklyn) woman gave birth in the lobby of her building. It took paramedics nine hours to show up and her newborn died." Not exactly. This didn't happen in the lobby of her building. The woman left her home and attempted to walk to the hospital to deliver her baby, but because the streets were so filled with snow, she was forced to seek refuge in the lobby of a building she was passing by. That's where the events took place. Not in her building. Does anyone at Nightly News bother to check the facts?

Finally, I would like to thank Brian for the twenty seconds of footage he showed us on Monday of him walking back into the 30 Rock studios after anchoring the first part of the broadcast outside. Nightly News still hasn't run a single story about the continuing election dispute currently going on in Ivory Coast, but twenty seconds of Brian walking into 30 Rock is deemed newsworthy. Here are a few other stories that the Nightly News producers thought were more important than what's going on in Ivory Coast: Will and Kate won't have any servants in their home after they are married (25 seconds) and a video of a dancing penguin (20 seconds). This is why I love Nightly News.

NBC Nightly News Show Notes--Dec. 18-Dec. 20

Here's what you missed if you didn't see Nightly News this weekend:

Saturday--During a story about the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", a Nightly News graphic misspelled Sen. Lindsey Graham's first name as "Lindsay". Funny thing--Nightly News never misspells Lindsay Lohan's first name.
* Footage of Barack Obama from the 2008 presidential campaign was accompanied by a Bruce Springsteen song. Springsteen is shoehorned into several Nightly News stories each week because Brian Williams idolizes him. Credibility? Who cares about that?
* A story about Amelia Earhart included 20 seconds of footage from last year's "Amelia" movie (starring Hilary Swank). Although there is no shortage of film of the actual Amelia Earhart, the producers included the movie footage because Nightly News is trying to be more of an entertainment show than a news show.
* In yet another story about Prince William and Kate Middleton, Lester Holt described in detail what Kate was wearing on a night out--her dress ("a black and white dress with a fancy neckline"), jacket, shoes ("black pumps")--even her clutch. They should have attached a "breaking news" tag to that story. Meanwhile, Lester said nothing about what William was wearing. That is extremely sexist.

Monday--Brian spent all of 20 seconds reporting on the latest terrorist plot in Great Britain. That's the same amount of time he spent reporting on Tracy Morgan's kidney transplant. Of course, reporting on Tracy Morgan allowed Brian to plug SNL and "30 Rock" (twice). Brian then spent 50 seconds on the Vikings-Bears game to be played Monday night. Brian frequently reports on football stories, because any football story helps to promote NBC's Sunday Night Football coverage.
* Yet again Robert Bazell helped to promote a Bayer product. On Dec. 6, Bazell did a story about the health benefits of aspirin. But the only name brand aspirin Bazell included in the story was Bayer. On June 8, he did a story about how Aleve (a Bayer product) can reduce the risk of heart attacks. And tonight, he did a story debunking the herbal supplement Echinacea as a cure for the common cold. Six minutes after that story, we saw a commercial for Alka-Seltzer Plus cold medicine--manufactured by Bayer. Clearly, the point of Bazell's story was to discourage people from using Echinacea so they would buy Alka-Seltzer Plus. Of course, Bayer isn't the only product Bazell promotes in his "news stories". In the past, he has done stories favorable to Cheerios and Avodart (from GlaxoSmithKline)--heavy Nightly News sponsors. And Bazell is equally happy to discredit a drug to benefit a Nightly News sponsor (as he did with Echinacea). On Sept. 15, he trashed the diet drug Meridia in a "Lifeline" story sponsored by Toviaz (a Pfizer product). The purpose of this story was to benefit Pfizer at the expense of Meridia. And by the way, it was completely unethical of Nightly News to allow Pfizer to sponsor a story about the pharmaceutical industry--an industry in which they are a major player. But that's just business as usual at Nightly News.

Robert Bazell Has No Credibility

It's official. NBC News Chief Science Correspondent Robert Bazell is a shill. A snake oil salesman. He has no credibility. Whenever one of Bazell's "news reports" appears on Nightly News, the viewers need to ask themselves, "What is his ulterior motive for reporting this story? What product is he trying to promote?" On Monday, the answer was obvious. Bazell's story about the benefits of aspirin was little more than a 2:15 commercial for Bayer. The "news report" began with a five second clip from a Bayer commercial. Then there were three close-ups of Bayer aspirin: A box on a shelf in a Walgreens, a pill in someone's palm and a bottle of Bayer. No other name brand was shown in the story (the only other aspirin bottles/packages shown were generic and store brands). Even an animated graphic of a bottle simply labeled "aspirin" was brown and yellow--Bayer's traditional colors on their aspirin bottles (some Bayer varieties still use those colors) and the main colors on their website! This is beyond blatant. So why would Bazell and his producers do a story that promotes Bayer? Because Bayer is one of Nightly News's best advertisers. Their commercials run almost every night (Bayer's Aleve brand advertises nightly as well). This is brazen, appalling and deceitful. Bazell is supposed to be reporting on matters of health and science, not endorsing a particular product. And this isn't even the first time Bazell has used a news story to promote a Bayer product. On June 8, Bazell spent two-and-a-half minutes reporting about an obscure Danish medical study that concluded that Aleve can reduce heart attacks. This is way past inappropriate. This is sleazy. Believe it or not, some people actually rely on the evening news for information about health matters. But on Nightly News they don't get unbiased information, they get contrived "news reports" specifically designed to promote NBC's best advertisers. When is the FCC finally going to revoke NBC's license to air a newscast?

By the way, during Bazell's story, we saw an interview with Dr. Charles Fuchs, who was described in a Nightly News graphic as being from the "Dana Farber Cancer Institute". Meanwhile, behind Dr. Fuchs's right shoulder was a plaque that clearly read "Dana-Farber Cancer Institute". Obviously, Bazell and his producers were too busy orchestrating Bayer product placements to care about the hyphen.