NBC Hires Anti-War Anchor

Is NBC now run by Michael Moore and Jimmy Carter? The peacock network is actively taking a hard-left appoach to their newsgathering operation...from Drudge, we learn a bit about Meredith Vieira, who will be taking over Katie's spot on the Today Show:

Meredith Vieira, the replacement for Katie Couric as co-host of NBC's Today this fall...marched in an anti-Iraq war protest back in August of 2004.

On the Monday, August 30, 2004 edition of the ABC daytime show she quad-hosts, The View, the former CBS 60 Minutes reporter told viewers that she attended the anti-Bush protest held in New York City on the Sunday before the Republican convention opened...

Earlier in 2004, she declared of the Iraq war: "Everything's been built on lies. Everything! I mean the entire pre-text for war." And, with war impending in March of 2003, Vieira argued that anti-war protests "should be consistent and repeated every day, I believe."

So much for media impartiality - certainly Vieira is within her rights to march in any protest she wants, but it is questionable why NBC would put someone who has taken hard postions on some of the key issues of the day into an AM anchor spot. Unless, of course, those are the positions that NBC intends to drill into its viewing audience...

Apparently, this is a continuing effort to alienate middle America. It's fairly well known by now that Dateline is sending Muslim ringers into NASCAR races to try to provoke some outrage from the "rednecks" (as NBC sees it), to then broadcast as proof of Red America's racist tendencies. NASCAR seems pretty irked, and I don't think these are the right guys to hack off...Michelle Malkin reports:

I spoke this afternoon with Ramsey Poston, managing director of corporate communications at NASCAR. He's on his way down to Texas for the NASCAR race this weekend, and he responded to NBC Dateline's undercover Muslim stings, which I first reported on yesterday morning.

"This is outrageous for a news organization with the reputation of NBC to stoop to the level of attempting to create news instead of reporting it. Any legitimate journalist should be ashamed."
Poston told me NASCAR contacted NBC, which confirmed they are doing the story (also reported here yesterday).
"It's hard to even call it journalism," Poston told me. I asked him why he thought NBC was targeting NASCAR fans for the racism sting. Poston vigorously defended the NASCAR fan base as "diverse, from every background in America."
Poston expressed dismay at NBC's "attempt to provoke a reaction from our fans" and said his organization was "confident they would not fall for it."

The mainstream media can't ignore NBC's news-staging anymore. The Associated Press follows the story here:

"NASCAR said it was "outrageous" that "Dateline NBC" targeted one of its race tracks last weekend for a possible segment on anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States.
NASCAR said NBC confirmed it was sending Muslim-looking men to a race, along with a camera crew to film fans' reactions. The NBC crew was "apparently on site in Martinsville, Va., walked around and no one bothered them," NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said Wednesday."

NASCAR has more money, and fans, than any other sport in America. The NBC suits who never stray off the coasts have no clue as to the massive popularity of the sport, and they are in for quite a shock if the tremendous buying power of the average NASCAR fan is turned against them.

What is next in the NBC crusade to demonize middle America? Well, they already tried a show about a drug-addicted priest (Book of Daniel; cancelled after three episodes...) - maybe Dateline can do a special about the horrors of Friday Night Football ?