Yellow Journalism at NBC
Dear Mr. Drudge,
Howie Carr and The Howie Carr Show had an interesting experience
with NBC's Nightly News with Tom Brokaw on Tuesday.
NBC called us and asked if we would discuss the topic of the
effect of the Littleton shootings on our listener’s attitudes
towards gun ownership. Lisa Myers had a piece scheduled for that
night’s news broadcast and she wanted popular reaction footage to
complete her piece.
We agreed. In the first hour of the show Howie asked the
listeners how they were effected if at all while the NBC cameras
rolled. We took 33 calls.
30 of those calls said the effect of the shootings was to make
them want to own a gun for protection and not tighten up the
laws.
When the story aired on NBC that night Lisa Myers said that
according to polls (which ones she never identified) and popular
reactions on talk shows most people were in favor of stricter gun
laws and were against gun ownership. She went on to play one of
the 3 anti-gun phone calls from our show completely ignoring the
30 calls which did not agree with her premise.
This manipulation and skewing of the actual poll results from our
show has caused quite a stir among our listeners who [had] heard
the gun hour
and then witnessed the blatant misrepresentation of what the
majority response was on NBC news. It has left much of our
audience feeling mistrustful and angry with network news in
general and NBC specifically.
(By the way, this gun control feature led the news while China
and the Cox report was buried 11 minutes into the broadcast.)
Thanks for letting us vent.
Nancy Shack---Executive Producer
The Howie Carr Show
Dear Mr. Drudge,
Howie Carr and The Howie Carr Show had an interesting experience
with NBC's Nightly News with Tom Brokaw on Tuesday.
NBC called us and asked if we would discuss the topic of the
effect of the Littleton shootings on our listener’s attitudes
towards gun ownership. Lisa Myers had a piece scheduled for that
night’s news broadcast and she wanted popular reaction footage to
complete her piece.
We agreed. In the first hour of the show Howie asked the
listeners how they were effected if at all while the NBC cameras
rolled. We took 33 calls.
30 of those calls said the effect of the shootings was to make
them want to own a gun for protection and not tighten up the
laws.
When the story aired on NBC that night Lisa Myers said that
according to polls (which ones she never identified) and popular
reactions on talk shows most people were in favor of stricter gun
laws and were against gun ownership. She went on to play one of
the 3 anti-gun phone calls from our show completely ignoring the
30 calls which did not agree with her premise.
This manipulation and skewing of the actual poll results from our
show has caused quite a stir among our listeners who [had] heard
the gun hour
and then witnessed the blatant misrepresentation of what the
majority response was on NBC news. It has left much of our
audience feeling mistrustful and angry with network news in
general and NBC specifically.
(By the way, this gun control feature led the news while China
and the Cox report was buried 11 minutes into the broadcast.)
Thanks for letting us vent.
Nancy Shack---Executive Producer
The Howie Carr Show