New year, same old morning shows

This is the first post for 2011. If you follow my blog, you know I am not happy with the way the network morning news shows are run.

Well already in 2011, NBC's Today show did the same trick on New Year's Day that I mentioned they did last year where they show a taped episode from a day or so earlier and then put in a few live news/weather spots to make the whole show appear to be a live broadcast. Good Morning America on ABC also did the same thing on New Year's Day by airing several segments recorded earlier in the week or month.

I would really appreciate it in the future if the networks are going to do this kind of program with mostly pre-recorded segments on New Year's Day or on other holidays that they mention it at the beginning and throughout the show that it is not live. News programs are supposed to be about reporting facts, not trying to intentionally mislead the public about when the interviews they are conducting actually happened.

Things are bad over at "The Early Show" on CBS too. Their new morning team is just totally bland to me. I don't see a breakout star in the bunch. I have to admit that Harry Smith is a much better fit than any of the four they have now. Even Julie Chen is a much better fit than any of them. All 4 of the new people look like they should be substitutes or weekend anchors and do not look like they belong on Weekday morning network TV news programs which focus mostly on entertainment than news these days.

Hopefully, morning news programs will get better in 2011. We will have to wait and see.