Riddle: Why did NBC run an infomercial for a competitor’s programming during its Nightly News with Brian Williams on April 1st?
With all due respect to Dr. Martin Luther King, outtakes from the History Channel’s new documentary, “King,” are neither breaking news, nor a substitute for actual NBC reporting. So why did NBC editors deem it worthy of a 4 minute segment? And why would NBC shill another channel’s product?
The troubling answer – an obvious conflict of interest – was not disclosed by Williams or NBC at the beginning of the segment. Nightly news programming has apparently become, as evidenced by this debacle, just another non-journalism format and a forum for advertising assets the broadcast company owns.
The History Channel only appears to be a competitor with a different financial interests than NBC Nightly News. However, the fact is that General Electric owns NBC, MSNBC and, you guessed it, the History Channel, too. Go to one of many charts online that details undisclosed Media ownership interests and see for yourself.
I have a dream!
Brian Williams could have simply pointed out at the beginning of the segment that “GE owns both NBC and the History Channel. Now on to our, er, the History Channel’s new documentary, ‘King…’ ”
Media companies counter that disclosures like these are too cumbersome to reveal. Nonsense.
Indeed, such a statement would have set off alarm bells. News viewers would be prompted that a commercial is coming and they could take necessary precautions (like finding the remote). Having to make proper disclosures of conflicts of interest might also serve as an incentive for big media to produce material that fits the bill for bona fide journalism.
NBC may think they are fooling the public, but the joke is on them. We need real news . . . even on April’s Fools Day
After writing my article above, I went to the NBC site. There is a place where viewers post their comments where Brian Williams responds, called newsvine "Nightly News with Brian Wiliams Discussion Club."
It turns out this has been a busy week for cross marketing products. Out of ten posted comments, two complained about the news shows shilling.
Mon Mar 31, 2008 6:57 PM EDT, Ric Murray wrote:
"On Monday night’s segment with Suze Orman, please, please do not hold up books for sale on the Nightly News. The integrity of the useful advice she offered on rethinking allocation of payments was completely lost when the book was flogged (poorly I will add). That was truly despicable."
Er, that’s no good….
Then Tue Apr 1, 2008 9:16 AM Tiffany wrote:
"Brian, I realize part of your job is to generate revenue for NBC/GE, but please try to avoid cross marketing during the broadcast. Monday’s Suze Orman and Newsweek cover story derailed the entire show. I watch Nightly for the integrity of the reporting, writing, and production and not for commercials."
StinkyJournalism has reported (and complained) about NBC’s close, undisclosed ties to Newsweek (MSNBC hosted Newsweeks’ website up until recently) and its measurable effect upon Newsweek’s reporting of the presidential race . (NBC asset Fred Thompson won the largest amount of coverage by a county mile) See for yourself...
Now we read here that Newsweek’s recent cover story is hawked on MSNBC evening news along with a book…
What do you think? Please write in with your observations and complaints regarding conflicts of interests…