Normally, I don't post this kind of diary twice in a row, but I'm Extremely Annoyed! I'm asking WTF? because there were three possible lede stories for NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, owned and operated by GE, the world's largest defense contractor. Any, and all, of these three are about real issues affecting real people. Also, last night's newscast is Williams' 53rd since the last one in which he aired a full report out of New Orleans.
But back to the lede--none of those three (which I'll go into detail on below the fold) was the lede last night. Instead, Brian Williams' lede was the crap about Barry Bonds being indicted. Again I ask, WTF? Why was this so important it had to be the lede? Who the hell cares? If I wanted to see dreck about sports and jocks, I'd watch ESPN.
I wonder what they'd been drinking or smoking when "Nightly" was in production, because after Brian Williams covered Bonds, he aired three full reports in succession on the following important, substantive stories, either of which would have a more suitable lede for "Nightly" than that Barry Bonds crap:
- The near-mid-air collision over Fort Wayne, Indiana. The distance between the two planes was less than the height of the Eiffel Tower.
- Bangladesh's answer to Katrina which has over 100,000 on the run. And Bush will probably send aid more quickly to Bangladesh than he did to New Orleans.
- The fatal common cold virus, which is scary. But Robert Bazell, who covered this last night, says the Centers for Disease Control says,
"No reason to panic."
Or as Bush might say,
"Go shopping!"
Speaking of shopping, Brian Williams in his second segment aired a boring crap piece about how people have started Christmas shopping. I mean, get real. We're getting close to Thanksgiving and then Christmas. People go shopping at this time of year. It happens every year. What's news about that?
And in the third segment, he aired more dreck--this time about the "average American." There's a good time for trivia like this--but in the final segment of the newscast, not the third which should be devoted to more substantive news. Like news out of New Orleans. And here's something interesting out of that city, which chigh posted yesterday:
The senior class of Newman created a Katrina federal levee failure cover up video that was very popular on You Tube, until they were forced to take it down by the ASCE via a cease and dissist letter. Their crony frat boy buddy Jindal is about to take over the state so these crooked engineer bullys are going after a bunch of kids, the school, the teacher, the principal.
http://www.nola.com/...
&coll=1
I understand the video can still be viewed at nolevee.com, a spoof site.
Brian Williams should cover something like that--not crap about Barry Bonds, Christmas shopping, or the "average American." And here's something suspicious "Nightly" should also look into--the way Netroots Nation selected the site for their convention, which is slated for the exciting cultural mecca of Austin, Texas, not New Orleans. Supposedly Netroots doesn't think New Orleans would have the facilities for such a convention. But I don't believe it for a minute. I think the fix was in because as noted in comments under my previous post New Orleans, which has hosted such events as JazzFest, the French Quarter Festival, and Mardi Gras, would obviously have plenty of room for Netroots Nation, which I imagine would require less space than any of those.
In fact, I'm going to say Netroots Nation is Extremely Annoying. Because--back to whoever selected the site for the convention--he, she or they is/are not only a blithering idiot or idiots, they're probably closet Bush Administration supporters, who just like BushCo, don't want to see New Orleans recover. New Orleans is scrounging for the convention business which will bring much-needed people and dollars into that fragile city. Netroots Nation, by rejecting her as a convention site and taking their money elsewhere, has shown themselves to be an enemy of New Orleans. New Orleans deserves better than to be discriminated against by Netroots Nation.
I am calling for anybody from New Orleans, or from elsewhere who loves and cares about that lovely city and her recovery, to boycott Netroots Nation and not attend their convention in Austin, Texas.
Now for Wolf Blitzer. He's also Extremely Annoying, because in last night's Democratic Debate, he didn't ask anything about Katrina or New Orleans. (I don't know much about CNN--I mean, do they, like NBC which is owned by GE, have any corporate ties that might be working hand-in-glove with BushCo? I am aware that CNN, which like NBC used to have a New Orleans bureau, has also closed this bureau.)
And, while I'm not going to dump on the candidates this time, I will say that it's more than a little disappointing that none of them brought New Orleans up of their own volition. And I am going to say that, the next time there's a Democrats' debate in which New Orleans isn't asked about and they don't bring her up themselves, I will include the whole bunch in a future Extremely Annoying People diary.
That's it for today's post. If you can thing of anything else Extremely Annoying or want to vent about anything I vented about above, feel free to vent!