Puke away!
Posted on 07/02/2004 7:54:47 AM PDT by Grampa Dave
NBC Embarrassed by Saddam Court Appearance
Thu Jul 1, 5:27 PM ET
By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer
NEW YORK - NBC's "Today" show was embarrassed Thursday when it aired Katie Couric batting a badminton shuttlecock while its rivals showed the first footage of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s court appearance.
"We made a mistake," said executive producer Tom Touchet. "In retrospect, I'd do it completely differently."
The first footage of Iraq (news - web sites)'s former leader since his capture by the U.S. seven months ago came into newsrooms shortly after 8:30 a.m. EDT. ABC's "Good Morning America," CBS' "The Early Show" and the cable news networks all showed the pictures immediately.
NBC stuck with feature stories on a Robert Redford movie and badminton, showing Saddam at the 9 a.m. newscast that opens the third hour of "Today."
Touchet gave no further explanation of the error. "Today" changed the West Coast feed of the broadcast to lead with the Saddam pictures.
Meanwhile, ABC scored a coup when anchor Peter Jennings attended Saddam's court hearing. CBS' Dan Rather reported on the appearance from an outside location.
NBC's Tom Brokaw, who had traveled to Iraq for this week's handover of sovereignty, left Iraq for the United States before the hearing because he was told only a pool reporter would be allowed in, NBC News spokeswoman Allison Gollust said.
If Brokaw was allowed — like Jennings — "maybe we would have done it differently," she said.
ABC said Jennings was permitted in by Salem Chalabi, director of the Iraqi Special Tribunal. Jennings had specifically asked for permission in an interview with Chalabi earlier this week, a spokeswoman said.
CNN's Christiane Amanpour was also in the court hearing. Like Jennings, she received permission from Chalabi, the network said.
John Burns of The New York Times was the pool reporter, in charge of reporting details from the inside to fellow journalists who are not allowed in.
It was a good week for Jennings and Amanpour: both also attended Monday's surprise ceremony where Iraq reclaimed sovereignty.
Sadiq Rahim, working for the widely circulated Iraqi newspaper Azzaman, was called a day before to attend the trial but was refused entry minutes before the start of the hearing, said Ahmed Abdul-Majeed, the paper's editor in chief.
"It is a surprising situation which pleads a logical interpretation," Abdul-Majeed said.
British television stations gave heavy coverage to Saddam's court appearance. Most used it as their lead story, and some conducted an analysis with linguists and body language experts to examine Saddam's words and demeanor.
___
Associated Press Writer Robert H. Reid contributed to this report.
Katie, after this, probably really wishes that her buddy the $oddomite had escaped to Syria last year.
One of the greatest moments in TV history ... anything that upstages pouty Katie is all right by me.
The last thing that NBC, the NY Slimes and other elite media outlets wanted was this trial of their buddy the $oddomite to happen before the presidential election.
So apparently the left wing DNC operatives at NBC decided to ignore this incredible story, hoping that no one would notice.
NBC has sunk to new lows.
I would rather have oral surgery without anesthetics than watch Katie, the conservative hater!
Salem Chalabi can try and kiss up to Jennings, but I'd be surprised if it does any good.
It's different with Amanpour, since Eason Jordon confessed last year that CNN will agree to be bought in exchange for getting special access.
Oh and don't forget, they also felt it was more important to interview Robert Redford about his movie denegrating the United States. Yeah. This was waaaaayy more important than seeing Sa-DAMN in court.
Documenting a new low for the elite pro Islamo fascists in charge of NBC.
They spike/ignore the biggest story of the year, their buddy the $oddomite's Appearance at his trial.
The DNC/Whores at NBC are so arrogant, they believe that they are the news site in America. So they believe that they can ignore real news and pretend it didn't happen.
Well those days are over.
So the primma donnas got caught in a state of confusion. Two of them figured out that the guy to butter up is Salem Chalabi. One was in town for the transition, which he presumably missed because Bush pulled a bit of strategery.
These knee-pad presstitutes now have to deal with the Iraqi interim government. Either they can do reports that favor them, and therefore disfavor the terrorists, or they will be excluded from all the hot news. Even Christiane Amanpour evidently understands that. She knows which side her bread is buttered on.
Maybe Saddam could publish a Bush-Bashing book or produce an Anti-Bush documentary before the election. Then I'm sure the Today Show would give him a full hour.
Usually there is not a bit of difference between how low ABCNNBC BS can sink to spike the real news, lie or spin to help their Rat Buddies..
However, with this abortion, NBC in my opinion is now the lowest of the scum on the bottom of the phoney news pool.
Frankly, I think she hates everybody. She's that spiteful.
Did these two GW haters interview the world;s ugliest America Hater, the Watermelon Jihadist, Redford, while ignoring this real news?
Thanks for more insight to this incredible show of arrogance by NBC and its two morning pimps, Katie and Matty.
Embarrassed? I doubt it.
"Maybe Saddam could publish a Bush-Bashing book or produce an Anti-Bush documentary before the election. Then I'm sure the Today Show would give him a full hour."
I got an email from a younger relative yesterday after the appearance of Katie's beloved $odomite, and she said the same thing.
Maybe the signs that say "Don't trust the liberal media" that were shown 2 days ago behind Matt and Katie should be made permanent as we clearly can't trust them to present news.
This is hilarious. What a primadona! The media is showing itself for what it is--a bunch of spoiled brats with an agenda!
That is indicative of how the liberal media would try to cover the Saddam trial and try to cover up any video of his tortures.
In lieu of Saddam tortures, the lib media will probably substitute the Abu Ghraib abuses by Americans.
That photo should be become a standard email to NBC.
Their arrogance of reality is incredible.
Of course millions of the really dumb without any working brain cells love Katie and Matty.
Thanks for posting this.
Registered, you might be interested in this photo of the pouty Katie.
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