Wednesday, June 10, 2009

NBC: More rock, less talk

Who let the dogs out?

Why, the NBC Nightly News, which has started adding music beds of all the popular hits to its last segment on the show, which is usually the good-news part, like the "Making a Difference" segment.

NBC Nightly News is probably my favorite U.S. evening newscast - you can't beat that Brian Williams and his wry delivery, lemme tell you - but "Making a Difference" and (even worse) this clip about Obama's dog are this newscast at its most horrible, and a perfect example of why "there isn't more good news on TV."

As for the music beds: CBC Radio has been playing the hits to rock up its news for years, and it does seem to suit the radio medium a bit better; however, I once attended a CBC open house at the University of Winnipeg, where a viewer let program director John Bertrand have it for all of the "terrible music" used in the CBC news clips.

Bertrand asked him, "Could you be more specific? What don't you like about it?" The man replied, "Everything!"

I guess if you're going to play the hits, the news segment about the Obama's dog is the place to do it. But does it affect the credibility of the rest of the newscast, and is it a slippery slope between doing this and, say, playing "Leaving on a Jet Plane" during a story about a plane crash.

One thing for sure, it's not as bad as this clip from FOX news, posted on Chris D dot ca.

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