NBC “ Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams — under fire for falsely claiming to have been in a military helicopter hit by a grenade in Iraq, and also “conflating” other stories he reported on, including his award-winning coverage of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005 — is stepping aside from his No. 1- rated network news program “for the next several days” as NBC conducts an investigation into his news coverage and, it would seem, decides whether or not it is in the network’s best finan- cial interests to remove him permanently from the program.

BRIAN WILLIAMS COMES UNDER FIRE
FOR ‘CONFLATING’ HIS ACCOUNTS
OF NEWS EVENTS HE COVERED

The NBC anchorman seems to have become
more concerned with personal celebrity
and making the news than in reporting it

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO OBJECTIVITY
AND PROFESSIONAL DETACHMENT?
 
By David Maril
 
My reservations about NBC news anchor Brian Williams began months before the current controversy erupted over his fabrication of an Iraq War-coverage story he has been spinning since 2003.

Calls for NBC to either suspend or dismiss him have circulated since it has been established the helicopter he was flying in was not hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and was in no danger of crashing. Williams has apologized for his distortion of facts.

It remains to be seen whether or not NBC determines there’s a strong enough public demand to discipline or fire Williams. At the very least, their investigation should thoroughly evaluate his overall reporting, especially his on-the-scene work related to Hurricane Katrina.

It there’s a trend of inaccuracies and bad judgment, he should go. That probably, however, won’t happen.

NBC has been struggling to restore the luster of the legendary “Today Show,” which has fallen behind ABC’s morning entry.

Even worse for the news division, Sunday’s “Meet The Press” has fallen from being the informative news show everyone watched regularly, to an hour of babbling and pontificating that belongs more on cable than traditional network news.

With Williams keeping “Nightly News” on top, the network is going to be extremely hesitant about taking away his job.

But whether or not Williams survives, the focus should be on what caused this breach in credibility and why the networks are erasing the distinction between journalism and entertainment.

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Undeflated footballs notwithstanding, New England quar- terback Tom Brady was named the Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl XLIX as the Pats defeated the Seattle Sea- hawks by a score of 28-24 in a wild finish that featured
a goal-line interception and an outbreak of fist fights.

UNDEFLATED FOOTBALLS DON’T DEFLATE
SUPER BOWL XLIX, AS NEW ENGLAND
OUTLASTS SEATTLE SEAHAWKS, 28-24

NETANYAHU SHOULD NOT ADDRESS
JOINT SESSION OF U.S. CONGRESS
 
By David Maril
 
While wondering if controversy and negative head- lines actually increases, instead of reducing, the NFL’s popularity, it’s interesting to note the following:

  I’m not going to sit in judgment of whether Patriots Coach Bill Belichick took air out of his team’s footballs in the AFC Championship victory against the Indianapolis Colts. In Super Bowl XLIX, with game footballs that were scrutinized by NFL officials, the New England Patriots defeated the Seattle Seahawks 28-24.

However, I will say this: I’ve seen high school football coaches who have done far worse than what the Patriots were accused of, going into the Super Bowl, or the 2007 incident called Spygate when the team was disciplined by the league for videotaping Jets’ defensive coaches.

Decades ago, when high school coaches were expanding use of game films, and cable community-access TV stations started to televise games in local communities, I knew of at least one Massachusetts high school coach who regularly violated his league’s rule regarding how many tapes of opponents’ games he could secure.

To get around the limit placed on the number of games he could watch on film, he’d have people in different towns around the league record the locally televised football games and send him VCR tapes.

Another one of his tricks was to often send the wrong film to an opponent, instead of the one they asked for, when they were legally exchanging films the week before a game. By the time the “mistake” was corrected, several days of practice time had passed going into the game. Sometimes, when he did finally send the right film, certain plays were spliced out.
 
Some NFL observers believe Patriots quarterback Tom Brady gained an edge against the Colts with a better grip using footballs that had been deflated.

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Basketball superstar Wes Unseld, shown here in his rookie season (1968) with the erstwhile Balti- more Bullets, is a class act in humility even now.

THE BALTIMORE BULLETS/WASHINGTON
WIZARDS ICON IS IN A CLASS BY HIMSELF
WHEN IT COMES TO SUPERSTAR HUMILITY

21st CENTURY CELEBRITIES HAVE LESS AND LESS
IN COMMON WITH EVERYDAY PEOPLE NOWADAYS

Nationals must be counting on winning dispute with MASN
and the Orioles or they wouldn’t be so quick to pay
pitcher Max Scherzer’s $210 million contract
 
By David Maril
 
You can see why the Washington Nationals want their agreement with the Orioles and MASN renegotiated more in their favor.

Heck, if they keep up their spending spree with signing free agents, they may have to arrange for every word of their broadcasts to be sponsored by an advertiser. Can doubling the price of stadium hot dogs and sodas be very far away?

Signing former Tigers’ ace Max Scherzer to a seven-year $210 million contract is a reality slap to anyone who hoped there was still a chance professional athletes would maintain some connection to regular, ordinary working people.

When celebrities earn that kind of money, most hire armies of agents, advisers and lackeys to address their off-field tasks and responsibilities and, most importantly, rescue them from dealing with realities in the real world.

Even with the inflated television revenue figures that teams in the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball receive, there will always be a need to raise ticket prices as long as fans keep squeezing into stadiums and arenas to watch these high-priced celebrities perform.

Who would have ever figured the minimum salary in the NFL would rise so quickly to $420,000?
 
Celebrity athlete contracts are going up in monetary value faster than the national debt. The market place for Major League Baseball, NBA and NFL stars, driven by the power of the celebrity market, has established an upper-class social group of athletes who are different from the type of sports heroes fans followed through the 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s and even the 1990s.
 
Most pro athletes today make so much money, many feel they no longer have to deal with the public.

If you are putting on a charity or nonprofit function and want to have an athlete with a recognizable name appear, you should probably forget it unless you are willing to pay a not-so-small fortune. With high salaries and unlimited marketing opportunities, they can afford to isolate themselves.
 
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Does Baltimore really need to tear down and rebuild its 1960s vintage “Civic Center” for the 2020 Inner Harbor?

CHARM CITY’S ‘ARENA OF DREAMS’:
IF WE BUILD IT, WILL AN NBA OR NHL
TEAM COME TO BALTIMORE TO PLAY?

Hogan would gain bipartisan popularity
if he supports public transportation
and cleaning up Chesapeake Bay

AN APPEARANCE BY OBAMA IN PARIS
IN SUPPORT OF FREEDOM OF THE PRESS
WOULD HAVE BEEN DISINGENUOUS
 
By David Maril
 
While wondering what century is being referenced in the new biography on Bob Hope entitled Hope: Entertainer of the Century, it’s interesting to note the following:

 On the Martin O’Malley book trail, you’d have to figure unless he’s offering his proposed manuscript-autobiography as a cure for insomnia, the outgoing Maryland Governor must be a more engaging book author than he is a speechmaker.

Even though O’Malley is certainly no Richard “I Am Not a Crook” Nixon, thinking of the Maryland Governor’s long-plotted plan to run for president, I can’t get John Dean’s book title, “Blind Ambition,” out of my mind.

One certainty, unless Hillary Clinton picks him as her running mate, O’Malley will have plenty of time to tune up his manuscript.

 Let’s see, Baltimore doesn’t have any prospects for getting an NHL or NBA franchise and we still have the so-called obsolete Royal Farms Arena, which, according to The Sun, continues to be profitable, holding 130 events a year.

So why do we need a $450 million showcase arena built in the Inner Harbor? And, what happens to the existing facility, which we old Baltimore Bullets fans still refer to as the Civic Center?

Or does someone have inside information that a pro basketball or hockey team would come here if we only had a first-class, modern facility?

 The incoming Larry Hogan promises to offer a refreshing change of pace as Governor.

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Pete Rose:  “Charlie Hustle” has morphed into “Charlie Hustler.”

BONDS, CLEMENS, McGWIRE & SOSA
SHOULD BE VOTED IN OR OUT
BASED ON THEIR RECORDS,
NOT THEIR CHARACTER

Mike Mussina gets shortchanged,
as ‘Charlie Hustle’ (Pete Rose)
morphs into ‘Charlie Hustler’

ROSE, FOUND GUILTY OF GAMBLING,
DESERVES HIS LIFETIME BAN
 
By David Maril
 
One of the rewards from my having covered Major League Baseball for 25 years is becoming one of only 549 voters participating in the annual Hall of Fame balloting.

This year, we elected four new inductees, the most voted in since 1955.

However, it should have been even more.

Former Orioles pitcher Mike Mussina, in his second year of eligibility, was named on just 135 of the ballots, a slight increase from last year but way below the required 75 percent minimum. Voters are allowed to vote for just 10 and the players remain on the ballot for only 10 years.

There’s still hope for Mussina, who pitched for the Orioles from 1991 to 2000, in future elections, in years when there are fewer marquee former players becoming eligible. This year, Pedro Martínez, Craig Biggio, John Smoltz and Randy Johnson drew most of the attention.

Mussina’s election, however, should be a no-brainer. To put it in perspective, he has almost the same career record as Jim Palmer, considered the greatest pitcher in Orioles history . Mussina’s major league won-lost mark is 270-153 while Palmer’s is 268-152.

No question, Palmer achieved a higher class of brilliance and had a much better earned run average, seven 20-win seasons and three Cy Young Awards.

But don’t forget the fact that Mussina was, for the most part, pitching for some pretty mediocre Orioles teams and spent a good portion of his Baltimore stay towing the mound at Camden Yards, a launching pad for home runs.

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