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NBC has lagged behind CBS (although ahead of ABC) so far this year in its coverage of the gun control debate. So its series Flashpoint: Guns in America helps to play catch-up. Former anchor Tom Brokaw decided to profile a huntin'-&-skeet-shootin' congressman looking for ways to preserve gun rights yet moderate gun violence. Brokaw strolled through the hills of the Napa Valley district of Rep Mike Thompson while, oddly, refraining from telling us which political party Thompson belongs to. I can only imagine that Brokaw was trying to imply by this omission that grappling with this problem was a bipartisan -- or even a non-partisan -- concern. If so, it surely would have been better journalism for Brokaw to have asserted that view outright, rather than hinting at it by leaving out information.
By the way, Thompson's a Democrat.
All three networks had a correspondent in Vatican City for Pope Benedict's Ash Wednesday services, presumed to be his final public mass as Pontifex Maximus. NBC's Anne Thompson also filed on Tuesday; CBS' Allen Pizzey also filed on Monday. ABC is spreading around the desirable assignment of a trip to the Eternal City: first London-based Jeffrey Kofman, then Los-Angeles-based David Wright, now New-York-based Dan Harris.
CBS has yet to assign a reporter to cover the crippled, stinking, sewage-soaked Triumph as she is dragged towards Mobile with 4,200 souls on board. NBC's Janet Shamlian and ABC's Matt Gutman are on the job. Gutman made the mistake of identifying all of those occupants as passengers. Obviously, almost a third are crew.
Remember last month when ABC's Real Money series publicized SaveLoveGive.com, the Website that helps cellphone customers save money by customizing their contracts? Back then Paula Faris offered us the example of Phil Barry, who saved $1,368 a year: "Holy Mammajamma!" Now for Faris' follow-up. She tells us that her report drove so much traffic to SLG that it crashed its server. As a result, 40,000 new users have saved an annual $2.5m. That averages to $62 savings per contract, not even close to $1,368. Smells more like Bait & Switch than News You Can Use.
Yes, Nick Watt: those canines can be cute. But are they news? Admittedly the affenpinscher may have been news, albeit of the softest sort, but surely Banana Joe was not worth an entire package, was it Katy Tur? This is how Westminster has been followed in previous years.
UPDATE: Watt's story was not only not news, it was also, according to Chris Ariens at TVNewser, not kosher. The fix was in.
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