Brian Williams Gives His Broadcast High Marks

These are excerpts from Brian Williams's June 9 Daily Nightly Blog:

"It should also be noted that the members of our team down there [the Louisiana Gulf] have been warriors."

No. Warriors are people who actually put their lives on the line. Your correspondents, producers and tech staff are simply on an assignment. Big difference.

"Anne Thompson has been there for the majority of these 51 days. Mark Potter and Kerry Sanders are residents of the region. Every piece, every night, has been exemplary."

Is that your unbiased opinion? Make sure you inform the Peabody Evaluation Committee. In case you haven't noticed, the other networks are reporting this story exactly the same way that NBC is.

"And for each of them, it takes an army of producers and camera crews to put them on the air each night. Like with war coverage, we have employees down there who haven't seen their families for weeks."

So? That's their job. And they are very well paid for what they do.

"We have rented houses for our folks to stay in and we have hired local boat captains to help us get around (at least we're putting money into the struggling local economy)."

Big deal. So is BP.

"I just wanted to take a moment to recognize some of what you DON'T see on TV—which is the work and dedication that goes into what you DO see."

Here's what I don't see on Nightly News: Coverage of other events in the U.S. and around the world. I'm still waiting for Nightly News to report that Japan has a new Prime Minister.

Brian Williams And Helen Thomas

How ironic that Brian Williams would report that Helen Thomas resigned from her job at Hearst Newspapers because of insensitive comments she made about Israel. Last summer, while acting as emcee of the Nantucket Film Festival, Brian made some inappropriate Jewish jokes ("Welcome to the Nantucket Film Festival--where Jews come to be honored. Nantucket is actually a Yiddish word meaning where the WASPS live.") but he did not resign (nor was he asked to do so). Interesting. I guess there are different standards for columnists and anchors.

George Lewis--Basketball Fan

On Saturday's Nightly News story about the death of UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, George Lewis told us that Wooden had won 627 regular season games at UCLA. That's incorrect. Wooden actually won 620 games at UCLA. On Saturday, Wooden's name and stats were all over the internet and the newspapers. The New York Times printed Wooden's won-lost record on the front page of their sports section--in bold type. A google search for Wooden turns up more than 15 million hits, and it's likely that most of those sites list his correct win total. Did it ever occur to Lewis to check the L.A. Times website? It's unbelievable that Lewis could get this wrong. And it's unbelievable that the Nightly News producers, editors and other personnel who worked on this story would allow this error on the air. Nightly News broadcasts frequently contain spelling, grammar, math and factual errors. If we can't trust them to get the small stuff right, how can we possibly trust them with the big stuff?

It's Complicated

On Monday, Nightly News devoted almost five minutes to excerpts from commencement speeches given at various colleges. This was the biggest waste of network news time that I can imagine. How can the producers possibly justify putting this on the air when there was actual news to cover? This broadcast did not contain a single news report from Europe, Africa, South America or Eastern Asia. In fact, it contained only 20 seconds of news from outside the U.S. Yet the producers felt that it was important to devote 4:45 to commencement speeches? Unbelievable. This was just another excuse to pander to the viewers by showing celebrities. Look! It's Bill Cosby! And Alec Baldwin! And Meryl Streep! Cool! Actually, it's not surprising that the producers chose to include Baldwin and Streep. They both starred in the movie "It's Complicated", which was recently released on DVD--by Universal Studios. Universal is owned by the same parent company that owns NBC. So this is just a way of cross-promoting DVD sales. And let's not forget that Alec Baldwin also stars on the NBC show "30 Rock", so including Baldwin in this segment was also a way to promote that show (and its DVD sales) to Nightly News viewers. And it goes without saying that NBC Universal is still making money on "Cosby Show" reruns and DVDs, so that explains why Bill Cosby was included. Great job, Nightly News producers!

And how did the producers come to the conclusion that Brian Williams deserved to be included in this segment? Of the hundreds of hours of speeches they reviewed, was his really among the most inspiring? Maybe Brian instructed the producers to include him. Or perhaps he did some behind-the-scenes maneuvering to get his speech included. I understand--you can't say no to the boss. Especially when he has an ego like Brian's.

115 Rescued, 116 Dead

Does Brian Williams really think that he's "Making A Difference" by devoting 2/3 or 3/4 of each Nightly News broadcast to the Gulf oil spill? We get it. It's a horrible situation. Oil in the water. Oil in the marshes. Oil on the beaches. Oil on the birds. We get it. Really. But I don't think Brian gets it. He has 22 minutes each night to bring us all the news from across the country and around the world, and he's not doing that. On Friday, he spent two minutes on a story about how the crew of the ship Damon B. Bankston rescued 115 people when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded on April 20. First of all, this was just a promo for a longer piece that would be airing on "Dateline" later that night. So its purpose was to generate ratings (and ad dollars) for "Dateline". Meanwhile, also on Friday, 116 people died in a fire in Dhaka, Bangladesh. But Brian didn't report that story. Obviously, the tragedy in Bangladesh isn't important to Brian, because it doesn't help generate ratings for his broadcast. Oil spill equals ratings. Bangladesh tragedy does not. This past week, the Prime Minister of Japan resigned. The President of Germany resigned. But Brian didn't report either of those stories. He was too busy showing us the same images over and over of birds coated in oil. Although somehow, Brian managed to find time this week to air an obituary for Rue McClanahan (including 30 seconds of clips from "Golden Girls", which aired on NBC). Not coincidentally, the on-line NBC Universal Store is currently selling all 7 seasons of "Golden Girls" on DVD, as well as "Blanche Is My Nana" T-shirts, which prominently feature a picture of McClanahan (only $25 each or 3 for $65!). Using McClanahan's obituary to sell T-shirts is crass and shameful. Also this week, Brian found time to air a two-minute story about Al and Tipper Gore separating; a three minute story about a blown call that cost a pitcher a perfect game; a speech by Sonia Sotomayor in which she fondly remembers eating burgers at a White Castle in the Bronx; and footage of an asteroid hitting Jupiter. And on Thursday, Brian managed to spend 30 seconds showing us (and explaining all about) a picture of a rainbow that he took with his cell phone camera. But deaths in Bangladesh? Not important enough for Nightly News. Maybe if those 116 people were covered in dark, sticky oil, Brian would have reported it.

The Gulf oil spill is important news. But reporting on it shouldn't come at the expense of other stories. Nightly News has an obligation to report all the day's news. Brian and his producers are not fulfilling their obligation to the viewers.

Lightning The Load

On Friday's Nightly News broadcast, an on-screen transcription of comments by BP CEO Tony Hayward included the following statement: "I personally think it's right that I should be the lightening rod because it allows everyone else to get on with doing their job...." "Lightening" means to make something lighter, as in color or weight. A "lightning rod" is used to attract electrical lightning, or in Hayward's case, to attract criticism away from others. It would be so easy for the Nightly News producers to get these things right. But they don't.

The Brian Williams Show

It is appalling that Brian Williams devoted more than three minutes of last Thursday's Nightly News broadcast to the death of John Finn. Even by the broadest possible definition of the word, Finn's death was not news. Unfortunately, Brian doesn't understand the difference between a story that's important, and a story that's important to him. In fact, it seems that Brian doesn't really understand the function of an evening newscast, nor does he understand the role of an anchor/managing editor on such a newscast. The function of an evening newscast is to present the most important stories from across the country and around the world in the too-short time of 22 minutes each night. And it is the responsibility of the anchor/managing editor (along with the show's producers) to select the stories that are important enough to merit air time. But on a regular basis, Brian Williams fails to live up to that responsibility. Instead of airing the most important news stories, he chooses to air stories about people or things he likes, as well as stories that are specifically intended to attract a large audience (higher viewership translates to higher ad rates). The title of the program is Nightly News, not "The Brian Williams Show". If Brian wants to air stories about his departed friends (or about Springsteen, Bono, Bon Jovi, Will Ferrell, skateboarding bulldogs, pink dolphins, blind dachshunds, kazoos, dancing in high heels or how much students like to hug each other) he should get his own show on MSNBC. I'm sure NBC News President Steve Capus would give Brian his own show. In fact, that would be great. It would give Brian an outlet to show the dozens and dozens of hours of non-news material that Nightly News airs each year. That would free up a significant amount of space on the broadcast to carry actual news. Last Thursday, Nightly News did not report a single story from Asia, Europe, Africa, South America or anywhere outside the U.S. But we got three minutes on John Finn, because he was Brian's friend. Although Brian is the anchor, the broadcast is supposed to be for us. It's time he started treating it that way. Brian Williams needs to reevaluate his priorities.