ANOTHER SINKING SHIP – AT 11:41 P.M. ET:  NBC News is in trouble.  Once the house of Huntley and Brinkley, and the source of fine documentaries called NBC White Paper, the brand has slipped considerably.  The Brian Williams scandal; the Matt Lauer scandal; the Joy Reid scandal; and almost anything that happens at MSNBC, a total scandal. 

The public is responding, as it almost always does.  From Fox:   

Faced with cratering ratings and serious questions about whether he can hang on to his job, NBC anchor Lester Holt has embarked on what one NBC insider called a “desperation tour,” hosting his broadcast from different cities where NBC’s audience research experts believe he can score some new viewers.

NBC has billed the promotional venture as “NBC Nightly News: Across America,” and Holt is scheduled to broadcast from five cities in five days. He kicked things off on Monday in Portland, followed up with Tuesday’s episode in Denver and anchored Wednesday night from Chicago. Holt is in Pittsburgh for Thursday’s broadcast, then in Raleigh, N.C. for Friday. The NBC anchor also has stopped at a variety of local affiliates along the way to promote his suffering program.

“On the surface, it's a smart move to visit cities outside of Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington. But their ongoing ratings fight with ABC and this fraud of a report about their conduct concerning Matt Lauer has really made this big PR push fall off the ledge and lose any significance that such a move might normally have,” NewsBuster managing editor Curtis Houck told Fox News.

COMMENT:  The most important thing a news organization has is its credibility.  The left-wing slant at NBC News is obvious, it lacks journalistic heavyweights, and it sometimes seems as much an entertainment  operation as a news service.

It will take years to get back the luster, if anyone over there cares.

May 10, 2018