Let's utilitize this. NBC has actually been doing pretty good coverage of Cindy, but here's our chance to tell them what we like and don't like.
www.nightly.msnbc.com
********
An Anchor by Evening, a Blogger Any Time
By JACQUES STEINBERG
Published: August 25, 2005
He was the first anchor to take over a network evening newscast in the 21st century, so it was probably inevitable that Brian Williams would begin channeling his inner Gawker by getting his own daily blog.
While Mr. Williams is careful not to traffic in gossip or observations that might breach his journalistic objectivity on matters like the course of the war in Iraq, his dispatches for what is known as "The Daily Nightly" (on nightly.msnbc.com) are striking in two main respects. One is the light he periodically sheds, in real time, on deliberations among his "NBC Nightly News" colleagues, including their disagreements on the evolving lineup of that night's newscast. The other is the criticism he occasionally levels at himself and the program when he feels either has come up short.
- snip -
For several years, newscasts - on both the broadcast networks and cable - have sought to stoke the interest of viewers with mass messages sent via e-mail describing that night's program. As a logical extension, CBS News will introduce a new Web site next month that will feature an ombudsman charged with, among other tasks, answering viewer questions about the workings of the news division.
-snip-
But none of the Big 3 anchors who dominated network news for more than two decades - including Peter Jennings of ABC, who occasionally defended an editorial decision by mass e-mail - sought to do what Mr. Williams has been attempting since his blog went up, with little fanfare, on May 31: to communicate with his audience more informally, sometimes several times a day, in a voice that is effectively unfiltered.
"There is no better way to say this than to whip out a cliché from the old cliché bag or drawer," Mr. Williams said in an interview. "We are trying to lift the veil. We're trying to expose ourselves as a collection of humans grappling with how to spend our precious 22 minutes each night."
-snip-
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/25/arts/television/25will.html