The anchors compete

Further to the post before last here, NBC's Brian Williams self righteously led off an NBC nightly news story a few minutes ago about junkets in Las Vegas by TARP receipients. It was a high toned indictment by Williams and his correspondant. How repulsive is this, they intoned with their words, body language and inflections, as they attacked Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley.

The story told on itself. Their proof was that Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley paid $35,000 for a sponsorship at this securitization industry panel event. They pointed out that Freddie Mac paid $17,500 for their sponsorship. These amounts are just advertising at an event like this. They pay for next to nothing and were likely subscribed to a year ago. They neither run nor plan the event. Freddie apparently negotiated down from the standard "your logo is in the brochure fee" to get their lower amount after world finance cratered.

This kind of television media is inexcusable, driven apparently by the need of some like Williams to be as hateful and self righteous as Lou Boggs of CNN and Bill O'Reilly of Fox and the increasingly dim Charles Gibson of ABC. With all of this, it's odd that Katie Couric may be a survivor, becoming an anchor with stature.