The Media Research Center replayed its CBS anchor-attack playbook — in which it bashed outgoing anchor Norah O’Donnell, bashed her replacements in John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois, then whined that they weren’t sufficiently interesting — on the anchor change at the NBC Nightly News. Curtis Houck gloated in a Feb. 24 post:
In a move first predicted by Puck’s Dylan Byers back on July 31, 2024 (and then on September 27), NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt told staff in an e-mail he’d be stepping down “around the start of the summer” after a decade at the weekday show while both remaining and expanding his role as lead anchor of Dateline NBC.
The announcement came nearly a month to the day after competitor Norah O’Donnell left the CBS Evening News to continue as a special network correspondent.
Holt said the “big decision” will allow for “a future that I’m happy to say will keep me here for years to come and doing what I love” with the Dateline NBC role allowing him to spend more time “crafting Dateline hours on subjects I care deeply about.”
Upon Holt’s actual departure, Nicholas Fondacaro cranked up the partisan attacks on him, particularly over his show’s pandemic coverage, in a May 30 post:
Ahead of anchor Lester Holt’s final sign off from NBC Nightly News later that evening, NBC’s Today put on a special segment to bid their friend farewell as he left to host Dateline full time. But amid all their gooey praise and tribute video showing highlights of his career from presidential debates to mass shooting to the COVID pandemic, Holt’s more infamous moments where obviously omitted.
[…]As NewsBusters had previously documented, NBC Nightly News under Holt was despair porn. They would constantly push for ineffective lockdowns while also lamenting and gawking at their harmful effects. Even as late as February 2022, Holt was fearful that for many people the pandemic “feels like it’s over.”
Fondacaro didn’t explain why it was a bad thing for a TV anchor to express concern in the middle of a pandemic.
After that came the ritual bashing of the new guy, Tom Llamas. Geoffrey Dickens kicked that off in a June 2 compilation post of Llamas’ supposed “worst moments”:
On Monday, Tom Llamas takes over the reins of NBC Nightly News from departed anchor Lester Holt and a look at his career at NBC and ABC shows he will maintain the leftist tilt in the evenings.
Back in March, then-senior national correspondent Llamas wondered if President Donald Trump’s “super power”will come from not running for re-election. Llamas pressed former White House press secretary J. Hogan Gidley will there be a “temptation” for Trump to be “incredibly reckless?”
In 2020 Llamas seemed less worried about the property damage done by Wisconsin rioters and more concerned about how it might affect the presidential race as he asked if there was a “danger” that it could help re-elect Trump.
[…]It doesn’t look like NBC Nightly News will be any less slanted with Llamas at the helm.
Tim Graham served up more whining about Llamas in his podcast that day:
Tom Llamas, the new NBC Nightly News anchor, is telling people NBC is straight down the middle. We at NewsBusters love the concept of fair and balanced news. But that doesn’t mean NBC News has achieved it nightly.
In an interview with Jeremy Barr, a Stelter disciple of sorts at the Washington Post, Llamas took a stand for neutrality.
[…]When pressed further on restoring public trust in the media in a Deadline interview, Llamas hailed his predecessor Lester Holt as “the most trusted news anchor in America. He insisted “You got to be tough but fair. So if you’re tough on the Republicans, you got to be tough on the Democrats, but fair. NBC News has always done that. And then you have to report the news without fear or favor. And then at the end of the day, I think you earn the viewers’ trust by making sure they know that even though I work for NBC News, I really work for them, and I believe that. I’m there to help them. I’m there to make sure that their questions are answered.”
It sounds good, but they don’t live up to it. On June 10, 2024 fill-in anchor Tom Llamas began: “For the first time, the child of a sitting president facing a potential criminal conviction. Right now, a jury deliberating the fate of Hunter Biden, the sole surviving son of the president.” Hunter Biden was 54 and network anchors refer to him as a “child.”
Of course, if Graham and the rest of his MRC co-workers really do “love the concept of fair and balanced news,” they would call out Fox News’ rampant right-wing bias. But they don’t.