But, hey, an anniversary? What's that? Stock footage, a chance for anchors to act knowing and pompous? Cheap and feeds into the anchors vanity. How could it miss?
Well it missed the viewers. You could have watched NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams Monday evening or ABC World News with Diane Sawyer or CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley or all three and you never would have seen Iraq. You might hear "Iraq" because a service member in Afghanistan had allegedly shot dead civilians and, before he was in Afghanistan, he served in Iraq. But to actually get a story on Iraq?
No.
Well there must have been major stories, right? Major breaking news that prevented any coverage of Iraq.
Brian Williams yammered on about Brian Lamb. (Half of America just asked, "Who?") Williams told audiences Lame would be leaving CSPAN and "as the founder of CSPAN, Brian Lamb changed television." Yeah, he was kind of the Lucille Ball of public affairs programming. (That was sarcasm.) And Lamb was "stepping down as CEO after running the place for 33 years."
And of course there was Kate Middleton . . . and what she wore. Who? She's married to a British prince and -- get this -- she gave a speech -- a three minute speech.
"It has been extremely rare that we've heard Kate's voice at all!" gushed a beaming NBC correspondent enthusing from London. NBC, ABC and CBS, they were all concerned with Kate and what she wore. For this 'big' speech, she wore a dress that was her mother's. CBS explained she was speaking at the hospice she was named patron of and played her 'speaking' in front of people, "You have all made me feel so welcome."
Damn, that is news. How will we be able to make the rent now? And think about what that means -- what "You have all made me feel so welcome" -- means for global warming.
It was news, we were told, because it's so "extremely rare" that we hear Middleton. Though not "extremely rare," Diane Sawyer assured us that it was rare, the news she was bringing us, from England. It was "a rare sighting" of "the living legend" Margaret Thatcher. A lot of time was wasted on the elderly woman visiting a public park where she spoke to no one but did pet a dog.
Besides, if Iraq had been included in the day's line up, Diane Sawyer might not be able to provide a historial 'report.'
"And something big happened fifty years ago today," Diane declared all hushed and breathless with photos of Bob Dylan flashing behind her, "a 20-year-old released his first album. Do you remember the album? If you don't remember it, you're forgiven."
You know who's not forgiven? The broadcast network news. They are an embarrassment. No where was that more obvious than with the news program Nightline. March 19, 2003, the full show was devoted to the start of the Iraq War -- and the program expanded beyond 30 minutes, giving 56 minutes on Iraq. And Monday night? The bulk of the 17 minute broadcast was devote to a story on orgasms which left five minutes for a Las Vegas gun shooting range and 5 minutes for Ashley Judd discussing her new ABC TV series Missing.
Nine years ago, they couldn't stop pimping the war. Last Monday, they acted as if it never happened -- not just their cheer leading the war but even the war itself.
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