Due to having been busy diarying more important matters, I haven't written any Brian Williams diaries lately, but that doesn't mean he and NBC Nightly News haven't been Extremely Annoying in the past couple of weeks.
First of all, celebrity-happy NBC Nightly News--which about two months ago aired a full report on Ellen DeGeneres crying over a dog and devoted close to a week's worth of reports to the scandal at Oprah's South Africa girls' school, hasn't aired anything about Brad Pitt lately. Even though Pitt made a big announcement on Monday. More below the fold....
Could this lack of coverage on NBC Nightly news be because Brad Pitt made this big announcement in New Orleans (SeePolicyLinkDan's diary for more details) and Brian Williams, owned and operated by GE, the world's largest defense contractor, has imposed a news blackout of his own on New Orleans? So Brad Pitt's plan to build 150 new houses in the Lower 9th has gone un-noticed by Williams--even though it's far more important and will benefit far more people than Ellen's dog story or the news of the sex scandal at Oprah's school.
The interesting thing about Brad Pitt's announcement is the fact that it broke on NBC's Today Show Monday--which means not all NBC newscasts have been practicing self-censorship regarding New Orleans. So Brian Williams obviously has imposed his own news blackout on New Orleans on his newscast--and that's Extremely Annoying.
Last night's, by the way, was Brian Williams' 65th newscast since he last aired a full report out of New Orleans.
And here's something else Extremely Annoying that Williams did on his newscast of Tuesday, Nov. 27th. He interviewed John Edwards--but would you believe the only substantive question he asked him was something like,
What international problem most keeps you from falling asleep at night?
In response to which Edwards replied "Pakistan," and then went into his fears about that country.
But the rest of the interview was a total substance-free waste, with the journalistic equivalent of empty calories, and I imagine wasted Edwards' time--he was asked all sorts of "style" questions having to do with Hillary Clinton. And Williams, in keeping with his self-censorship on this issue, did not bring up New Orleans or the fact that she was rejected for a presidential debate, even though Edwards has been the candidate who's been doing the most on this issue. Brian Williams' Extremely Annoying news blackout on New Orleans has been that pervasive....