Brian Williams drama

It is interesting to see Brian Williams in trouble for lying about his Iraq experience. The big three network news anchors--Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings, and Dan Rather--all held their posts from the earlier 1980s until 2004 or 2005. But only Brokaw's exit was a planned one. Peter Jennings died and Dan Rather was fired. Tom Brokaw retired willingly and handed the anchor desk over to Brian Williams, who had been groomed for the position for several years. So it is odd to see Williams get himself into a mess like this. It is almost like President Nixon, with unnecessary insecurity, committing unneeded crimes, since he would go on to be reelected in an historic landslide.

I actually am a viewer of NBC Nightly News. Well, more of a listener, actually. I sometimes listen to the 20-minute audio podcast of the show. I find it to be a quick and clear rundown of the day's national and international news. But of the three current network anchors, my preference is for CBS's Scott Pelley. I like how he is plain and boring, rather than folksy and flashy. Also, CBS seems to still be somewhat serious about journalism, with aging but respectable 60 Minutes. CBS News seems to me to be almost PBS-NPR quality.

So I don't know what happens to Brian Williams if he loses his job. He is wired to be a news anchor.

University of Phoenix Stadium

This is the weirdest case of corporate naming rights of a stadium that I can think of. Sure, I understand that the University of Phoenix Stadium is the home field of the Arizona Cardinals, and its name it really just an advertisement for a massive for-profit college.

But doesn't it symbolize that something is off in higher education? A college has a football stadium that bears its name, but it doesn't have a football team. What's up with that?