“CBS Evening News” Anchorman Scott Pelley attempts to convey a “team” feeling by delivering and directing the weekday nightly news… standing literally on his feet.

AS NBC PULLS PLUG ON BRIAN WILLIAMS,
CBS PULLS THE CHAIR ON RIVAL PELLEY

THERE’S NO LIMIT TO THE
EXPLOITATION OF THE KIDS
IN LITTLE LEAGUE BASEBALL
BY CONTROLLING ADULTS
 
By David Maril
 
While wondering if someone at CBS has stolen Scott Pelley’s chair behind the anchor desk, it’s interesting to note the following:

  For over a week, Pelley has been delivering and directing the “Evening News” on his feet, wandering around the set as he reads stories and introduces reports from correspondents.

The thinking, according to a CBS online behind-the-scenes report, is to convey a “team” feeling, drawing in more images from different parts of the newsroom.

The effect, however, is more a distraction than adding anything positive to the broadcast. It is a bit unsettling seeing a news anchor constantly moving around as if unable to sit still.

When you watch a prime-time news broadcast providing coverage of the day’s events, you expect a sense of poise, focus and concentration on story content. Instead, you have Pelley looking as if he arrived late and either didn’t have a chance to sit down or someone else grabbed his seat.

You might even wonder if he injured his back, perhaps shoveling snow, and is unable to sit.

Perhaps CBS, sometimes alternately praised and criticized for being too traditional, stressing substance over style, is attempting to modernize its look to keep up with the showbiz on other networks and cable.

What’s next? Perhaps Pelley will add some tap-dancing between stories. Networks will try anything to keep the short-attention spans of TV viewers occupied.

  NBC deserves praise for putting its first-place evening news ratings lead in jeopardy by suspending anchor-entertainer-host Brian Williams for six months.

Williams came under fire because of his continual distortion of facts relating to his personal on-the-scene reporting from Iraq in 2003. He had been fabricating the notion that a helicopter he was flying in had been hit by heavy grenade fire, when in fact it was nowhere near the helicopter that was actually struck.

‘EMBELLISHED’ COVERAGE OF HURRICANE KATRINA

He also apparently “embellished” his award-winning coverage of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

While the serious, low-key and respected Lester Holt occupies the “Nightly News” anchor chair for six months, NBC will have plenty of time to investigate and evaluate whether charges of other exaggerations by the once popular news host have any validity.

If it turns out he does have a track record of inaccuracies, destroying his credibility, the network, in the name of maintaining its standards of journalism, will have a legitimate reason to permanently replace him.

However if NBC retains its first-place lead with Williams missing in action, he has two chances of returning: Slim and none.

  Just a wild thought, but would NBC jump at the chance to let Williams out of his 10-year contract so he could pursue the host position of the “Daily Show” Jon Stewart is vacating after 15 years on Comedy Central?

This would get NBC off the hook as far as making a decision to fire Williams, and allow the celebrity anchor to assume a job where he could utilize his humor and personality as an entertainer.

  Apparently there’s no limit to Little League Baseball’s reach in exploiting 11- and 12-year-olds.

Despite having been stripped of its national championship title because the adults that run the Chicago-based Little League team “Jackie Robinson West All-Stars” recruited ringers, the players will be awarded title rings by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel at a City Council hearing next month.  A mayoral source told the Chicago Sun-Times that Emanuel “believes it is unfair for the [Little League] organization to have punished the children who did nothing wrong.”  The all-black team won the Little League World Se- ries last summer by defeating Las Vegas, 7-5, after having vanquished by a lopsided score of 43-2, a rival team that demanded the league strip JRW All-Stars of the title.

It’s bad enough that young kids — who should be playing strictly for fun, and learning skills, fundamentals, sportsmanship and team play — are driven to qualify for pressurized, nationally televised Little League World Series games. The sport has a history of adults, who coach and manage the teams, breaking rules of eligibility so their teams can win.

The latest sorry example of this disgraceful lack of ethics is the current story of Little League International having to take away Chicago Jackie Robinson West’s national championship.

It was recently discovered that team officials had violated the rules by including players who live outside the team’s territory. The Chicago team also tried to get adjacent leagues to help cover this up.

Everyone is in agreement that the kids are not to blame. They didn’t knowingly plan to break the rules and it’s the scheming adults who are at fault.

But the worst part of this story is that the adults, who broke the rules, continue to exploit these youngster by hiding behind them as shields, garnering sympathy to avoid the team punishment handed down by Little League International.

Instead of apologizing for their misdeeds and taking the blame, the adult leaders are encouraging the youngsters to speak out about how the punishment isn’t fair because they earned the championship on the field by the way they played.

According to published reports, team officials have even gone so far as to hire a high-profile attorney to look into the possibility of getting their championship back.

What kind of lesson are these team officials teaching the kids? That it’s OK to break rules to gain success as long as you don’t get caught until after the fact?

Embattled Episcopal Suffragan Bishop Heather Elizabeth Cook, center, is flanked by Maryland Bishop Eugene Sutton, left, and Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori at her ordination and consecration last September.  Rev. Cook is facing criminal charges in connection with a drunk-driving accident that killed a bicyclist on Roland Ave. in North Baltimore in December, following which she fled the scene, returning some 30 minutes later after being followed, to “take responsibility” for her actions.

  Why is there so much surprise being raised by the Episcopal Church over the possibility that Rev. Heather Elizabeth Cook may have lied about having an alcohol problem when she was being considered for the position of No. 2 Bishop in the Diocese of Maryland a year ago?

One of the challenges of helping people who have problems with alcohol is to get them beyond the state of denial and admit they need treatment.

Cook is facing criminal charges from a drunken driving fatality that cost the life of a bicyclist in December.

  Call me a cynic, but I can’t help think it’s no coincidence that Maryland’s top transportation official has ordered immediate inspections of the state’s 27 oldest state-owned bridges as Gov. Larry Hogan takes office with his reputation of favoring highway refurbishing over funding for public transportation.

Even before a piece of concrete recently fell from a bridge onto a car traveling along Interstate 495, there was no doubt that Maryland’s roads and bridges need to be repaired and maintained.

The question is whether this all will be done at the expense of improving public transportation and encouraging its use.

  Isn’t everyone tired of the typical public blustering that takes place whenever any type of government budget cuts are proposed?

Hogan ran on a campaign of reining in taxes and was elected Governor after hammering away that government spending was out of control. Does anyone expect him not to attempt some trimming?

Voters would be better served if elected officials were more focused on responsible negotiating and less grandstanding.

A SECOND TERM FOUR YEARS FROM NOW

Hogan is a smart enough guy to know that if he has any hope of being elected for a second term four years from now, he needs to follow a moderate path of tax reform in a state that historically votes for Democrats and liberal social programs.

And if you really think about it, what is so drastic about proposing cuts in certain areas as low as one or two percent while not increasing funding in other places?

I’m not against big government or social programs that help people. But does anyone actually doubt that some of these programs can be more efficiently run and do even greater good if they are managed better?

Adding extra funding isn’t always the best answer to make up for administrative ineptitude. Sometimes a little belt-tightening forces better managing at the top so people are served, goals are met and things get done.
 
davidmaril@voiceofbaltimore.org
 
“Inside Pitch” is a weekly opinion column written for Voice of Baltimore by David Maril.
 
CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S “INSIDE PITCH” COLUMN:  click here
…and read archived Dave Maril columns  by clicking here.