<\/a>More than forty years ago, Washington Post<\/em> journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein taught us to \u201cfollow the money.\u201d Those words of wisdom certainly apply to the current troubles that NBC News anchor Brian Williams is having. It is clear that Williams broke journalistic ethics, and some sort of punishment, including financial sacrifice on his part, is appropriate.<\/p>\n

But what do we learn if we follow NBC\u2019s money? Williams has been extremely profitable for the network. For the week ending on Friday, Feb. 6<\/a> (Williams\u2019 last night), NBC had 10,177,000 viewers; ABC had 9,460,000, and CBS had 7,853,000.<\/p>\n

But at the same time as Williams has been cashing in with his $10 million per annum salary, so has NBC. Often,the network uses the very techniques for which Williams is now being criticized. It embellishes its descriptions of all of its shows. Their entertainment division coined the phrase, \u201cCan\u2019t Miss TV.\u201d Really, you can\u2019t miss it, or what? They have not yet applied that tag line to their Nightly News, but there is a certain irony in NBC’s most recent tag line about Williams and Nightly News, \u201cHe\u2019s been there. He\u2019ll be there.\u201d Here is one of the most recent promotion pieces for the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams.<\/p>\n