NBC's Hot Air

At the Macy's Day parade in Manhattan Thursday, the M&M balloon crashed into a light pole, hurting an 11-year-old girl and her older sister. You wouldn’t know it watching NBC. The M&M balloon crossed the finish line, blown and healthy, while Katie Couric, Matt Lauer and Al Roker, the day's three stooges of journalism (it's regrettable to say), told their jokes and gushed cheer all the way, never once mentioning the slightest mishap. How? NBC spliced in last year's footage of the M&M balloons crossing the finish line. Piling lies on injuries, Couric did tell the audience that NBC had briefly moved to tape, but only "because of today's windy conditions." The others' repartees are too revolting to reproduce, though Lauer ended with a crowning deception: "It's obvious the three of us have had a great time today, and we hope all of you did as well." Never a mention of the accident and the injuries. The only thing missing was a Jessica Lynch float. And the networks wonder why their credibility is nosediving as fast as their ratings.