Of all the grotesquely narcissistic displays that Brian Williams has put on over the years (and that is a long, long list) nothing comes close to his fawning and obsequious two-part "interview" with Bruce Springsteen that aired on Nightly News this past Wednesday and Thursday.
Wednesday's segment consisted of one-minute-and-forty-seconds of Springsteen bloviating about the economy. I'm not really sure how a faded 80's rock star qualifies as an expert on this subject, but Brian seemed to hang on Springsteen's every word. So what's next on Nightly News? Vanilla Ice discussing the Pakistan-Afghanistan situation? MC Hammer on education? Howard Jones and Rick Astley engaging in a point-counterpoint debate about the relative merits of the bank bailout? I think it's time for the Nightly News producers to update their pop-star news experts. How about Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber discussing the upcoming mid-term elections?
But Thursday's segment was one for the ages. For more than three-and-a-half minutes, Brian was like a squealing fourteen-year-old girl at a Beatles concert. His fawning narcissism was revolting. As usual, much of his interview was about him. His "interview" contained a ridiculously high number of personal pronouns like "I", "me", "my", "us" and "we". Brian talked about HIS love of Springsteen. How HE followed Springsteen around from club to club in the 70's. What Springsteen meant to HIM. Here's how Brian began the interview: "When you grow up in New Jersey, you sometimes need a thick skin. You are often called upon to defend the Garden State. That is, until Bruce Springsteen came along. You see, he became everything to those of us growing up during that time at the Jersey Shore." Here are some more gems from the interview:
* "While we were chasing Bruce up and down the Shore every weekend trying to figure out where he was gonna play on a given Saturday night, he was in the town next to ours unbeknownst to us in a rented farmhouse making his masterpiece follow-up album."
* "Would it have killed you to call a buddy in Middletown? I was three miles away at most...Would it have killed you just to reach out to a brother and say, 'We're having trouble with some of these tracks--come on over we need you'?"
* "'Born To Run' comes out--cover of Time magazine--causes guys like me to say to people, 'Yes, I'm from New Jersey'--becomes a source of great pride..."
* "And a funny thing happened during the interview. I could tell something was bothering Bruce. It turned out he thought the wrong man was holding the guitar." So Brian takes the guitar and spews out a line from "Thunder Road": "I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk." Gross.
That interview is one of the most grotesque displays of narcissism I have ever seen. In what alternate universe does this belong on a network news broadcast? How many actual news stories were not covered on Wednesday and Thursday so Brian could air five minutes of his love-fest with Springsteen? Isn't there anyone at Nightly News who has the courage to stand up to Brian and tell him what is inappropriate for a newscast? Sadly, no. There isn't anyone with enough nerve to do that.
Of course, Springsteen's shameless promotion of "Darkness on the Edge of Town" is pretty sad, too. Springsteen is essentially an oldies act, a purveyor of greatest hits. He goes from town to town playing the same tired old songs he's been playing for a quarter-century or more, not unlike the members of Styx or Journey. His "Glory Days" are far behind him. By plugging "Darkness" now, he's shamelessly trying to squeeze a few extra bucks out of an album he released more than 30 years ago. That really is kind of sad.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
NBC Nightly News Show Notes--Friday, Oct. 8 2010
If you didn't see Nightly News on Friday, Oct. 8, here's what you missed:
1) You know that the cool weather is here when the Nightly News producers drag out their old stock footage of people waiting on line at the Work One job placement center to use in stories about the employment situation. Friday marked the first appearance of the season for the Work One footage (the people on line are wearing winter clothing, so it can be shown only in the cold weather months). Nightly News has been using this same Work One footage for around five years now. I think maybe it's time for some new footage of a different job placement center.
2) At the end of Savannah Guthrie's story about the economy, Brian Williams referred to her as "Samantha".
3) Andrea Mitchell did a story about professional actors who appear in political ads portraying "real people". The story included clips from "Saturday Night Live" and "Law & Order". It seems that this story was contrived solely as an excuse to plug these shows. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Brian once again introduced Mitchell as the NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent. She is actually the Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent.
4) Can someone please buy Kristen Welker a calculator? During her "Education Nation" story about the tough job market for recent college graduates, Welker told us that the 14.8% unemployment rate among adults aged 20-24 was "almost 50% higher than the national average" of 9.6%. Actually, it's 54% higher. Instead of saying "almost 50% higher", she should have said "more than 50% higher". Math is a very important part of education. Nightly News should get these things right.
5) One of the recent college graduates profiled in Welker's story was a young woman named Heidi Cristensen. At one point during the story, we see a close-up of Cristensen's resume, clearly revealing her home address, telephone number and email address. That is completely inappropriate. The producers should take steps to safeguard the personal information of people that appear in Nightly News stories. How would Welker or her producers feel if their addresses and phone numbers were given out on the air?
1) You know that the cool weather is here when the Nightly News producers drag out their old stock footage of people waiting on line at the Work One job placement center to use in stories about the employment situation. Friday marked the first appearance of the season for the Work One footage (the people on line are wearing winter clothing, so it can be shown only in the cold weather months). Nightly News has been using this same Work One footage for around five years now. I think maybe it's time for some new footage of a different job placement center.
2) At the end of Savannah Guthrie's story about the economy, Brian Williams referred to her as "Samantha".
3) Andrea Mitchell did a story about professional actors who appear in political ads portraying "real people". The story included clips from "Saturday Night Live" and "Law & Order". It seems that this story was contrived solely as an excuse to plug these shows. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Brian once again introduced Mitchell as the NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent. She is actually the Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent.
4) Can someone please buy Kristen Welker a calculator? During her "Education Nation" story about the tough job market for recent college graduates, Welker told us that the 14.8% unemployment rate among adults aged 20-24 was "almost 50% higher than the national average" of 9.6%. Actually, it's 54% higher. Instead of saying "almost 50% higher", she should have said "more than 50% higher". Math is a very important part of education. Nightly News should get these things right.
5) One of the recent college graduates profiled in Welker's story was a young woman named Heidi Cristensen. At one point during the story, we see a close-up of Cristensen's resume, clearly revealing her home address, telephone number and email address. That is completely inappropriate. The producers should take steps to safeguard the personal information of people that appear in Nightly News stories. How would Welker or her producers feel if their addresses and phone numbers were given out on the air?
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Brian Williams--A Sensing Man
From Brian Williams's Sept. 27 Daily Nightly blog: "As far as I can tell, the world is divided into two basic groups: Those who are sensing and those who are intuitive. Intuitive people notice big things: Feelings, moods, themes. Sensing people (like me) notice the details, and can often be preoccupied with them. This brings us to 'continuity errors' in film and television. Put simply, we've all seen the movie scene where it cuts back and forth between a character, and their position or clothes may be different on a shot-to-shot basis—the background might be different—we know something is amiss. The web is full of them, and there are some remarkable continuity errors in major motion pictures.
Here's how closely I watch for such things: On last night's 'Mad Men' (this is NOT a spoiler), during a meeting between Roger Sterling and the man from Lucky Strike, the dandruff on Sterling's suit appeared—then disappeared—then appeared again. Being sensing can be such a burden."
Amen, Brian. I hear you, brother. Much like Brian, I am also a sensing person. I notice small details and errors in TV shows, too. For example, here are some errors I noticed in Nightly News broadcasts and blogs over the past few years:
* 11/7/08--On his blog, Brian misspelled Paul Volcker's last name as "Volker".
* 2/9/09--On his blog, Brian misspelled "Alison Krauss" as "Allison Kraus".
* 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 misspelled the names of Gen. Petraeus (as "Patreus") and Gen. McChrystal (as "McCrystal") on the same blog post.
* 5/25/10--In his blog, Brian misstated the name of former oil exec John Hofmeister's book. Brian referred 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 referred to Richard Engel as the NBC News "Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent". 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 spelled Nelson Mandela's last name as "Mandella" on his blog (it was subsequently corrected).
* 7/16/10--On his broadcast, Brian announced that, "Overseas tonight, a deadly first in Mexico's deadly drug war--a car bomb." 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.
*7/24/10--A story on Hurricane Bonnie spelled "Hispaniola" as "Hispanola".
*7/29/10--In his blog, Brian mentioned Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds", but he misspelled the first word as "Inglorious".
*8/5/10--A Nightly News graphic spelled Metairie (Louisiana) as "Metarie".
*8/14/10--Deborah Hersman was identified as the NTSB "Chairman". A day earlier, she was identified as the NTSB "Chairwoman".
*8/21/10--Karin Rosander was identified as being from the Swedish "prosecuter's" office. The correct spelling is "prosecutor".
*8/25/10--A Nightly News map of Iraq identified the city of "Basra". A minute later, a different map spelled the city as "Basrah".
*8/28/10--An on-screen caption omitted the hyphen in Melissa Harris-Lacewell's name.
*9/15/10--An on-screen Nightly News caption identified Michael Steele as the "Repulican National Chairman", rather than the "Republican National Chairman".
*9/16/10--On his Daily Nightly blog, Brian spelled Meredith Vieira's last name as "Viera", and Jon Hamm's first name as "John". (Does that count as a "Mad Men" find?)
*9/19/10--On his Daily Nightly blog, Lester Holt spelled Sarah Shourd's name as "Sarah Shroud".
*9/20/10--A story about the economy showed six different calendar pages. Five of the pages had errors, including two with the incorrect number of days.
*9/22/10--During a story about Bob Woodward's new book, Andrea Mitchell read a quote by Joe Biden about Richard Holbrooke: "He's the most egotistical bastard I've ever met. Although the right guy for the job." But in the accompanying on-screen transcript, the second sentence appeared as, "But maybe he's the right guy for the job."
*9/26/10--An "Education Nation" story included the on-screen phrase "african americans". Proper nouns are always capitalized--it should have read "African Americans". Also on that day, a story about the Charlotte school system profiled a fourth grader identified as "Jevon" Dixon. A close-up of his report card clearly showed that his name is actually spelled "Jevo'N".
*9/27/10--A story about BP's underestimation of the oil spill in the Gulf included a clip of a Florida State University oceanography professor, who was identified on screen as "Ian McDonald". His name is actually Ian MacDonald.
*9/30/10--A transcript of statements by a Maine gubernatorial candidate spelled the governor's name as "Lepage". It is actually LePage.
*10/1/10--In a story about mortgage foreclosures, Peter Alexander told us that three of the largest banks have suspended foreclosure evictions in 23 states. In the accompanying map, 24 states were highlighted. A few minutes later, a story about education identified two different people as "Professor Larry Cuban" from Stanford University.
I agree with Brian--being a sensing person can be such a burden. We're always finding errors. What makes these errors even more egregious is that many of them occurred during the week when NBC News was presenting their "Education Nation" summit. I think all the math, spelling, grammar and geography errors on Nightly News demonstrate that the need for education reform is even more dire than the "Education Nation" summit indicated.
Here's how closely I watch for such things: On last night's 'Mad Men' (this is NOT a spoiler), during a meeting between Roger Sterling and the man from Lucky Strike, the dandruff on Sterling's suit appeared—then disappeared—then appeared again. Being sensing can be such a burden."
Amen, Brian. I hear you, brother. Much like Brian, I am also a sensing person. I notice small details and errors in TV shows, too. For example, here are some errors I noticed in Nightly News broadcasts and blogs over the past few years:
* 11/7/08--On his blog, Brian misspelled Paul Volcker's last name as "Volker".
* 2/9/09--On his blog, Brian misspelled "Alison Krauss" as "Allison Kraus".
* 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 misspelled the names of Gen. Petraeus (as "Patreus") and Gen. McChrystal (as "McCrystal") on the same blog post.
* 5/25/10--In his blog, Brian misstated the name of former oil exec John Hofmeister's book. Brian referred 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 referred to Richard Engel as the NBC News "Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent". 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 spelled Nelson Mandela's last name as "Mandella" on his blog (it was subsequently corrected).
* 7/16/10--On his broadcast, Brian announced that, "Overseas tonight, a deadly first in Mexico's deadly drug war--a car bomb." 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.
*7/24/10--A story on Hurricane Bonnie spelled "Hispaniola" as "Hispanola".
*7/29/10--In his blog, Brian mentioned Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds", but he misspelled the first word as "Inglorious".
*8/5/10--A Nightly News graphic spelled Metairie (Louisiana) as "Metarie".
*8/14/10--Deborah Hersman was identified as the NTSB "Chairman". A day earlier, she was identified as the NTSB "Chairwoman".
*8/21/10--Karin Rosander was identified as being from the Swedish "prosecuter's" office. The correct spelling is "prosecutor".
*8/25/10--A Nightly News map of Iraq identified the city of "Basra". A minute later, a different map spelled the city as "Basrah".
*8/28/10--An on-screen caption omitted the hyphen in Melissa Harris-Lacewell's name.
*9/15/10--An on-screen Nightly News caption identified Michael Steele as the "Repulican National Chairman", rather than the "Republican National Chairman".
*9/16/10--On his Daily Nightly blog, Brian spelled Meredith Vieira's last name as "Viera", and Jon Hamm's first name as "John". (Does that count as a "Mad Men" find?)
*9/19/10--On his Daily Nightly blog, Lester Holt spelled Sarah Shourd's name as "Sarah Shroud".
*9/20/10--A story about the economy showed six different calendar pages. Five of the pages had errors, including two with the incorrect number of days.
*9/22/10--During a story about Bob Woodward's new book, Andrea Mitchell read a quote by Joe Biden about Richard Holbrooke: "He's the most egotistical bastard I've ever met. Although the right guy for the job." But in the accompanying on-screen transcript, the second sentence appeared as, "But maybe he's the right guy for the job."
*9/26/10--An "Education Nation" story included the on-screen phrase "african americans". Proper nouns are always capitalized--it should have read "African Americans". Also on that day, a story about the Charlotte school system profiled a fourth grader identified as "Jevon" Dixon. A close-up of his report card clearly showed that his name is actually spelled "Jevo'N".
*9/27/10--A story about BP's underestimation of the oil spill in the Gulf included a clip of a Florida State University oceanography professor, who was identified on screen as "Ian McDonald". His name is actually Ian MacDonald.
*9/30/10--A transcript of statements by a Maine gubernatorial candidate spelled the governor's name as "Lepage". It is actually LePage.
*10/1/10--In a story about mortgage foreclosures, Peter Alexander told us that three of the largest banks have suspended foreclosure evictions in 23 states. In the accompanying map, 24 states were highlighted. A few minutes later, a story about education identified two different people as "Professor Larry Cuban" from Stanford University.
I agree with Brian--being a sensing person can be such a burden. We're always finding errors. What makes these errors even more egregious is that many of them occurred during the week when NBC News was presenting their "Education Nation" summit. I think all the math, spelling, grammar and geography errors on Nightly News demonstrate that the need for education reform is even more dire than the "Education Nation" summit indicated.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
I Hate Time Warner Cable--Part 2
Approximately 13 months ago, Time Warner Cable of New York City unceremoniously changed over from the Passport operating system to the Mystro operating system. Time Warner customers were not consulted on this change, we were simply forced to accept it. Unfortunately, this change represented a significant downgrade in service (for details, see my 8/18/09 blog "I Hate Time Warner Cable" at http://nightly-daily.blogspot.com/2009/08/i-hate-time-warner.html). The following January, Time Warner raised their rates by 7%. So within the space of five months, they downgraded their service and raised their rates.
Now they're at it again. One of the channels on the Time Warner cable system is Prime Time On Demand (Time Warner channel 1009). This is where viewers can go to watch new prime time shows a day or two after they initially air on the networks. It includes shows from CBS, NBC, FX, USA, Discovery, Bravo, AMC and a few others (ABC and Fox do not currently participate). As is the case with all on-demand shows, viewers can use the fast-forward, pause and rewind features on their remote controls (I'm not sure if these features are available to all viewers, or just to viewers who have a DVR cable box). This week, I watched a number of on-demand shows, and I noticed that all of the NBC OD shows began with a message stating that fast-forward has been disabled (this was only the case with NBC--the fast-forward function remained usable for all other network on-demand shows). Obviously, NBC wants fast-forward disabled in order to prevent viewers from zipping through all the promos for their crappy new Fall shows. This is a shitty thing for NBC to do, but it's hardly surprising. Of all the networks, NBC is the sleaziest when it comes to self-promotion. They will do anything to try to attract viewers, no matter how desperate. And disabling fast-forward is just one bullet in their arsenal. But NBC is not completely to blame. After all, they don't have the power to unilaterally disable the fast-forward mechanism on Time Warner's cable system. All NBC can do is make the request of Time Warner. Time Warner were the ones who agreed to do it. This is outrageous. Like many Time Warner subscribers, I pay good money each month for my cable service and I expect to get what I pay for. One of the things I pay for is fast-forwarding for on-demand programs. But Time Warner doesn't care about us. Time Warner only cares about serving the networks. This is a horrible thing for Time Warner to do to their customers. The appropriate response from Time Warner to NBC should have been, "We're sorry, but we can't do that to our customers. One of the features our customers enjoy is fast-forwarding for on-demand programs, and we're not going to disable that feature just so your Fall season promos get seen. If you no longer want to carry NBC shows on our Prime Time On Demand channel, we understand. But we won't inconvenience our customers by depriving them of a regular feature they enjoy." Obviously, Time Warner didn't say that to NBC. Instead, they said, "Sure. No problem. We can do that." They acquiesced like the French Vichy government did with the Nazis during World War II. Did it even occur to Time Warner to stand up for their customers instead of caving in to NBC? I doubt it. Time Warner and NBC are two scumbags who deserve each other, like a pimp and a whore. Unfortunately, the customers are the ones who suffer. I can only wonder what features Time Warner will decide to remove from their system next. This is why I hate Time Warner. This is why everyone hates Time Warner.
Now they're at it again. One of the channels on the Time Warner cable system is Prime Time On Demand (Time Warner channel 1009). This is where viewers can go to watch new prime time shows a day or two after they initially air on the networks. It includes shows from CBS, NBC, FX, USA, Discovery, Bravo, AMC and a few others (ABC and Fox do not currently participate). As is the case with all on-demand shows, viewers can use the fast-forward, pause and rewind features on their remote controls (I'm not sure if these features are available to all viewers, or just to viewers who have a DVR cable box). This week, I watched a number of on-demand shows, and I noticed that all of the NBC OD shows began with a message stating that fast-forward has been disabled (this was only the case with NBC--the fast-forward function remained usable for all other network on-demand shows). Obviously, NBC wants fast-forward disabled in order to prevent viewers from zipping through all the promos for their crappy new Fall shows. This is a shitty thing for NBC to do, but it's hardly surprising. Of all the networks, NBC is the sleaziest when it comes to self-promotion. They will do anything to try to attract viewers, no matter how desperate. And disabling fast-forward is just one bullet in their arsenal. But NBC is not completely to blame. After all, they don't have the power to unilaterally disable the fast-forward mechanism on Time Warner's cable system. All NBC can do is make the request of Time Warner. Time Warner were the ones who agreed to do it. This is outrageous. Like many Time Warner subscribers, I pay good money each month for my cable service and I expect to get what I pay for. One of the things I pay for is fast-forwarding for on-demand programs. But Time Warner doesn't care about us. Time Warner only cares about serving the networks. This is a horrible thing for Time Warner to do to their customers. The appropriate response from Time Warner to NBC should have been, "We're sorry, but we can't do that to our customers. One of the features our customers enjoy is fast-forwarding for on-demand programs, and we're not going to disable that feature just so your Fall season promos get seen. If you no longer want to carry NBC shows on our Prime Time On Demand channel, we understand. But we won't inconvenience our customers by depriving them of a regular feature they enjoy." Obviously, Time Warner didn't say that to NBC. Instead, they said, "Sure. No problem. We can do that." They acquiesced like the French Vichy government did with the Nazis during World War II. Did it even occur to Time Warner to stand up for their customers instead of caving in to NBC? I doubt it. Time Warner and NBC are two scumbags who deserve each other, like a pimp and a whore. Unfortunately, the customers are the ones who suffer. I can only wonder what features Time Warner will decide to remove from their system next. This is why I hate Time Warner. This is why everyone hates Time Warner.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Nightly News Producers Manipulate Stories To Highlight Sponsors
It is outrageous that Nightly News has once again used the premise of a news story as an excuse to feature a product placement for one of their regular sponsors. Friday's story about how American shoppers are relying less on credit cards (and more on debit cards and cash) was little more than a commercial for Cheerios.
The story begins in a Target store as Kristen Welker tells us that, "Every cent counts when Sarah and David Winfrey go shopping." As she says this, the Winfreys are in the cereal aisle in front of a massive wall of Cheerios. By my count there are at least 50 facings of Cheerios cereals. Now, I have been in my share of Targets in my life, but I have never, ever seen one displaying 50 facings of the same brand of cereal. It's obvious what's going on here. The Nightly News producers staged this scene to promote Cheerios. They arranged with (and possibly paid) Target management to clear out other brands of cereal and stock the shelves entirely with Cheerios. This is even more apparent when Sarah takes a box off the shelf, revealing that the boxes are stocked only one or two deep. This is a classic retail trick to make shelves appear more full than they really are. So why would the Nightly News producers rearrange the shelves to have 50 facings of Cheerios? Because Cheerios advertises regularly on Nightly News, sometimes twice a night. And in the past three months, Cheerios has been an in-show sponsor of Nightly News five times, including twice as the broadcast's sole sponsor (the partial sponsor dates were 9/1, 8/4, and 7/20; the sole sponsor dates were 6/24 and 6/21). The producers staged the supermarket scene to thank General Mills for all the ad dollars they have spent with NBC over the years. Or perhaps this is a paid sponsorship. Maybe the Nightly News advertising sales department approached General Mills and said that for a fee, they would prominently include Cheerios in a Nightly News story. Maybe it's part of a package deal that comprises commercials, broadcast sponsorship and inclusion in a news story.
Unfortunately, the placement doesn't end there. Welker continues, "The young parents...are always looking for discounts and learning to live within their means." By saying this (and her previous statement about how "every cent counts"), Welker is reinforcing to the viewers that Cheerios are a good value. After they leave the cereal aisle, we see the Winfreys walking through the store with their box of Cheerios prominently sticking out of their shopping basket. Then, at the checkout, the cashier grabs the Cheerios box first (of course) and holds it at just the right angle for the camera to get a good shot of it. The Winfreys then exit the store with the yellow Cheerios box clearly showing through their Target bag. The first 45 seconds of this story is a non-stop product placement for Cheerios. In fact I wonder: Did the Nightly News producers instruct the Winfreys to buy Cheerios? Are the Winfreys even a real couple, or are they actors hired by the producers for the purpose of advertising Cheerios. And just in case we didn't get the point, the second-to-last shot of the story is an extreme close-up of Sarah feeding Cheerios to her baby. It is mind-boggling that the producers have the audacity to include Cheerios as part of a news story.
Of course, this isn't the first time that Nightly News has promoted Cheerios in a this way. On 5/12/09, they did an entire story on Cheerios. The premise of the story was to refute some FDA accusations regarding health claims General Mills made about Cheerios. In fact, Nightly News used this as an excuse to run an entire story praising Cheerios. Here's how Robert Bazell began the story: "It is one of America's iconic products--Cheerios." We are then shown 20 seconds of vintage Cheerios commercials while Bazell tells us that, "Soluble oat fiber--a key component--can help reduce cholesterol." In other words, Bazell makes a claim that the FDA has expressly forbidden General Mills from making. As Bazell says this, he is sitting at a table with a bowl of Cheerios in front of him, and at least six boxes of Cheerios neatly stacked next to him. He looks like he's in a Cheerios commercial. Bazell continues, "In a statement, General Mills said, 'The science is not in question and we look forward to discussing this with the FDA and reaching a resolution.'" Bazell does not question the General Mills statement--he simply accepts it as fact. The General Mills statement also appears on-screen alongside a pleasing graphic of a breakfast table with a bowl of Cheerios, a box of Cheerios and a glass of orange juice. We then see a close-up of milk being poured into a bowl of Cheerios. Bazell then tells us that, "Food industry experts say there is no question that Cheerios is a healthy product but the FDA seems to be paying more attention to the claims that companies make." Bazell's commercial--I mean news story--ends with boxes of Cheerios going by on a conveyor belt, a slow pan down a box of Cheerios, and a mother pouring some Cheerios for her toddler. That is unbelievable. The actual point of the story--the FDA's reprimand of General Mills--is completely dwarfed by the positive images and Bazell's unabashed praise of Cheerios. In fact, there are so many positive images of Cheerios in this story that a viewer could not be blamed for missing the point that General Mills has been reprimanded by the FDA for misleading consumers. Bazell treats General Mills' violation as if it were nothing more than a minor paperwork error, while relentlessly championing the positive aspects of the product. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that General Mills collaborated with the Nightly News producers on that story. Nightly News also featured Cheerios in a 3/3/09 "We The People" story about Spanish-language advertising, during which they showed 15 seconds of a Cheerios commercial.
Nightly News certainly likes to promote their favorite sponsors in news stories. But they also like to protect their sponsors from negative publicity. On the 11/3/09 broadcast, Tom Costello reported on harmful BPA levels in plastic bottles and canned food liners. Costello told us that the chemical was present in "brand name foods from vegetable soup to tuna fish, green beans to corn and chili." But the accompanying graphic showed only generic cans labeled "chili", "vegetable soup", "green beans" and "tuna". Where are the name brands? There were none--the producers obscured them all. Meanwhile, ABC's World News reported the same story on the same night. The ABC story showed canned goods from Del Monte, Progresso, Campbell's, Hormel, Hunt's, Bush's and Chef Boyardee. Clearly, Nightly News refrained from showing brand names as a favor to the many food companies that advertise on NBC shows. Over the years, Nightly News's sponsors have included Bush's Beans, Progresso, Swanson and Chef Boyardee. And any regular Nightly News viewer knows that Campbell's is a heavy advertiser.
How many more times are the Nightly News producers going to feature Cheerios (or Chrysler, McDonald's, United Airlines, Aleve, Boniva, Requip, Microsoft, etc.) in news stories before they understand that it is completely inappropriate to do so? This practice clearly crosses an ethical line and should stop immediately. In fact, I think the Nightly News producers owe the viewers an apology for intentionally bombarding us with advertising images in news stories.
The story begins in a Target store as Kristen Welker tells us that, "Every cent counts when Sarah and David Winfrey go shopping." As she says this, the Winfreys are in the cereal aisle in front of a massive wall of Cheerios. By my count there are at least 50 facings of Cheerios cereals. Now, I have been in my share of Targets in my life, but I have never, ever seen one displaying 50 facings of the same brand of cereal. It's obvious what's going on here. The Nightly News producers staged this scene to promote Cheerios. They arranged with (and possibly paid) Target management to clear out other brands of cereal and stock the shelves entirely with Cheerios. This is even more apparent when Sarah takes a box off the shelf, revealing that the boxes are stocked only one or two deep. This is a classic retail trick to make shelves appear more full than they really are. So why would the Nightly News producers rearrange the shelves to have 50 facings of Cheerios? Because Cheerios advertises regularly on Nightly News, sometimes twice a night. And in the past three months, Cheerios has been an in-show sponsor of Nightly News five times, including twice as the broadcast's sole sponsor (the partial sponsor dates were 9/1, 8/4, and 7/20; the sole sponsor dates were 6/24 and 6/21). The producers staged the supermarket scene to thank General Mills for all the ad dollars they have spent with NBC over the years. Or perhaps this is a paid sponsorship. Maybe the Nightly News advertising sales department approached General Mills and said that for a fee, they would prominently include Cheerios in a Nightly News story. Maybe it's part of a package deal that comprises commercials, broadcast sponsorship and inclusion in a news story.
Unfortunately, the placement doesn't end there. Welker continues, "The young parents...are always looking for discounts and learning to live within their means." By saying this (and her previous statement about how "every cent counts"), Welker is reinforcing to the viewers that Cheerios are a good value. After they leave the cereal aisle, we see the Winfreys walking through the store with their box of Cheerios prominently sticking out of their shopping basket. Then, at the checkout, the cashier grabs the Cheerios box first (of course) and holds it at just the right angle for the camera to get a good shot of it. The Winfreys then exit the store with the yellow Cheerios box clearly showing through their Target bag. The first 45 seconds of this story is a non-stop product placement for Cheerios. In fact I wonder: Did the Nightly News producers instruct the Winfreys to buy Cheerios? Are the Winfreys even a real couple, or are they actors hired by the producers for the purpose of advertising Cheerios. And just in case we didn't get the point, the second-to-last shot of the story is an extreme close-up of Sarah feeding Cheerios to her baby. It is mind-boggling that the producers have the audacity to include Cheerios as part of a news story.
Of course, this isn't the first time that Nightly News has promoted Cheerios in a this way. On 5/12/09, they did an entire story on Cheerios. The premise of the story was to refute some FDA accusations regarding health claims General Mills made about Cheerios. In fact, Nightly News used this as an excuse to run an entire story praising Cheerios. Here's how Robert Bazell began the story: "It is one of America's iconic products--Cheerios." We are then shown 20 seconds of vintage Cheerios commercials while Bazell tells us that, "Soluble oat fiber--a key component--can help reduce cholesterol." In other words, Bazell makes a claim that the FDA has expressly forbidden General Mills from making. As Bazell says this, he is sitting at a table with a bowl of Cheerios in front of him, and at least six boxes of Cheerios neatly stacked next to him. He looks like he's in a Cheerios commercial. Bazell continues, "In a statement, General Mills said, 'The science is not in question and we look forward to discussing this with the FDA and reaching a resolution.'" Bazell does not question the General Mills statement--he simply accepts it as fact. The General Mills statement also appears on-screen alongside a pleasing graphic of a breakfast table with a bowl of Cheerios, a box of Cheerios and a glass of orange juice. We then see a close-up of milk being poured into a bowl of Cheerios. Bazell then tells us that, "Food industry experts say there is no question that Cheerios is a healthy product but the FDA seems to be paying more attention to the claims that companies make." Bazell's commercial--I mean news story--ends with boxes of Cheerios going by on a conveyor belt, a slow pan down a box of Cheerios, and a mother pouring some Cheerios for her toddler. That is unbelievable. The actual point of the story--the FDA's reprimand of General Mills--is completely dwarfed by the positive images and Bazell's unabashed praise of Cheerios. In fact, there are so many positive images of Cheerios in this story that a viewer could not be blamed for missing the point that General Mills has been reprimanded by the FDA for misleading consumers. Bazell treats General Mills' violation as if it were nothing more than a minor paperwork error, while relentlessly championing the positive aspects of the product. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that General Mills collaborated with the Nightly News producers on that story. Nightly News also featured Cheerios in a 3/3/09 "We The People" story about Spanish-language advertising, during which they showed 15 seconds of a Cheerios commercial.
Nightly News certainly likes to promote their favorite sponsors in news stories. But they also like to protect their sponsors from negative publicity. On the 11/3/09 broadcast, Tom Costello reported on harmful BPA levels in plastic bottles and canned food liners. Costello told us that the chemical was present in "brand name foods from vegetable soup to tuna fish, green beans to corn and chili." But the accompanying graphic showed only generic cans labeled "chili", "vegetable soup", "green beans" and "tuna". Where are the name brands? There were none--the producers obscured them all. Meanwhile, ABC's World News reported the same story on the same night. The ABC story showed canned goods from Del Monte, Progresso, Campbell's, Hormel, Hunt's, Bush's and Chef Boyardee. Clearly, Nightly News refrained from showing brand names as a favor to the many food companies that advertise on NBC shows. Over the years, Nightly News's sponsors have included Bush's Beans, Progresso, Swanson and Chef Boyardee. And any regular Nightly News viewer knows that Campbell's is a heavy advertiser.
How many more times are the Nightly News producers going to feature Cheerios (or Chrysler, McDonald's, United Airlines, Aleve, Boniva, Requip, Microsoft, etc.) in news stories before they understand that it is completely inappropriate to do so? This practice clearly crosses an ethical line and should stop immediately. In fact, I think the Nightly News producers owe the viewers an apology for intentionally bombarding us with advertising images in news stories.
Nightly News Disrespects James Clyburn. Again.
Yet again, Nightly News has disrespected House Majority Whip James Clyburn. Thursday's story about the Republicans' Pledge to America included a response from Rep. Clyburn. In the clip, the caption identified Clyburn only as a Democrat from South Carolina, not as the House Majority Whip. As Majority Whip, Clyburn is the third most powerful person in the House, behind only the Speaker and the Majority Leader. The Nightly News producers routinely identify white members of Congress by their prestigious House leadership posts, but they refuse to do the same for Clyburn, who is African American. (On Sunday's broadcast, a clip from "Fox News Sunday" carried a Nightly News caption identifying Steny Hoyer as the House Majority Leader.) This is at least the third time in the past year that the producers have failed to properly identify Clyburn. Why? Is there a racial component to this omission? I would like the Nightly News producers to explain their actions.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Pass The Barf Bag
This was Brian Williams's Daily Nightly blog post for Sept. 24: "I'm sitting in my office watching the in-house closed circuit feed of SNL rehearsals for tomorrow night's season premiere, with guest host (and returning SNL veteran) and all-around great person Amy Poehler. Suddenly, all seems right with the world. I will be watching, along with fans of the show everywhere, when showtime arrives on Saturday night. In the meantime, what apears to be a respiratory illness is sweeping through our newsroom -- those of us who aren't sick are paranoid, and those of us who are left here...are working like dogs. So off I go, while wishing you a good weekend. We hope you can join us tonight."
Does Brian write or say anything that does not have some promotional value either to him, to Nightly News or to an NBC show? Shameless.
And someone should tell Brian how to spell "appears".
Does Brian write or say anything that does not have some promotional value either to him, to Nightly News or to an NBC show? Shameless.
And someone should tell Brian how to spell "appears".
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