The chief of NBC News offered some tough talk, much of it aimed at Donald Trump, during an appearance at a conference held by the IESE Business School in New York.
“NBC News Chairman Andrew Lack said on Tuesday that the president’s attacks on some media outlets won’t deter his organization from doing its job,” the AP reports. “NBC News was one of the organizations specifically cited by Trump last month in his tweet about the ‘fake news’ media that is the ‘enemy of the American people.'”
Lack, who oversees the NBC broadcast news operation along with MSNBC and digital, called Trump’s attacks a distraction and said: “We’re not the opposition party and we’re not in a popularity contest with this administration or any other administration.”
The report notes that Trump’s “enemy of the American people” tweet mentioned NBC along with ABC, CBS, CNN and The New York Times.
Said Lack: “This president has us focused every day more on temperament than we expected.”
The AP adds: “NBC News is trying to absorb the results of an election that the network, like many other news organizations, got wrong, he said. The network ‘relied too much on polls’ and is evaluating how to use them in the future, he said.”
Bunk. NBC is just as distracted by the “shiny things” (Trump tweets and outrageous statements) as the rest of them. How about some real in depth reporting of all of what the congress is doing in the meanwhile?
Andrew Lack: “We’re not the opposition party, and we’re not in a popularity contest with this administration OR ANY OTHER ADMINISTRATION.”
Your Honor, I submit exhibit “A” for the prosecution. The last 9 years of coverage of Barak Obama.
Judge: “This is indeed compelling and factual Mr. Prosecutor. Mr. Lack, you are guilty as charged and hereby sentenced to write ‘I will NOT be biased in my direction of the NBC news division any longer’ 1000 times each day for the next 8 years.”
Mr. Lack – If doing your job means putting a partizan spin on every report, sanitizing every misstep of the Democrats, amplifying and distorting anything the Trump administration does that can be twisted into a negative – well then I guess you will continue to do your job! But if you put a modicum of journalistic integrity back into the reporting on NBC you might start repairing the damage the bias reporting has caused. Some real news might just stop the hemorrhaging of audience.
Lack called Trumps attacks a distraction. Why haven’t they realized that is exactly his plan. The networks are still arguing about votes in the election and his public ratings for the economy have gone up to 55% positive. Keep the reporters focused on things that don’t matter anymore and he can continue working on the things that matter to the public. Instead of attacks on Trump, start reporting the news and examining his proposals without a biased position. The new organizations will be surprised at how quickly they begin to gain an advantage. But Trump will win if he can keep distracting the press with statements about wiretapping.