It was rainy yesterday and I was home early and tuned in to NBC Nightly News. After his greeting, Brian Williams said something to the effect that, "everyone is fascinated with the British Royal Family..." and went into NBC's opening story, the royal engagement.
I'm not saying that the segment isn't news, but the top news story of the day? Brian, there may not be a whole lot of us left who aren't fascinated with the royal family, but I'm not. I'm also not enchanted with the mainstream's curious devotion to celebrity (see prior post, "Who's it all about, anyway" from 8-30-10). I turned the channel to CBS news which was actually reporting news.
I turned back to NBC in a few minutes and they were still on the "story."
I tried to imagine Chet Huntley or David Brinkley opening with such tripe, but couldn't. I tried it with Tom Brokow, and although not quite the same stretch, still couldn't.
When Brian came back on, he had that right eyebrow famously cocked into its most sincere or most ironic position (I can no longer tell the difference).
NBC nightly news, like all network news, is transforming into the Today Show, little by little, abandoning any resemblance to real news. When they hired Jenna Bush I thought I'd throw up, but the effort was rewarded with one of the first interviews with George W. Bush on his book tour, so there.
Not that Matt Lauer was going to really ask real questions of W, or try to pin him down on any of his non sequiturs, but there was W nonetheless, in all of his empty-headed glory, you know, deciding stuff.
Some years ago, my sister, Karen and I thought of writing a couple of dozen books, titled something like "The ABC's of _______," (lets say, "infidelity" for one), then, when Biker Bob is caught running around on his lovely movie star wife, we could run to our local tv station for a video hookup with the Today Show host/hostess and be the expert panelists.
We are convinced you don't have to know squat about anything, but if your name is attached to a book, you're book-able. While on the panel, I could opine that maybe starlet didn't treat Biker Bob well, then Karen could say what a scoundrel he is. We could publish books on any subject, what the hell does it matter?
When you gotta fill in hours of air time, most anything goes.
NBC (real) news is headed there in a hurry. Cast aside your journalistic integrity, forget the hard work of exposing some real story, just cock that eyebrow and give us that humorous one-liner.
I used to try and catch the news at 6:30, now its pretty much a waste of time, I'd much rather watch the PBS Newshour, despite its changing formats.
Whats next for NBC news, a "page 6" girl between commercial breaks? A laugh track?
Brian, as I watch our nation descending into an abyss of total ignorance (25% of Americans believe Obama is a muslim) I would hope that you would see your job as helping to educate. But with decreasing staff and money for real news stories, just keep picking that low-hanging fruit.
Oh, well, anyone else less than spellbound over a royal wedding?
Its over, Brian. Sorry, I really tried to make this thing work, but we've just grown too far apart.
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