NBC's Superbug Supergoof

The continuing demise of network television news was front and center last night when the NBC Nightly News made an astounding error in the frequently teased "Superbug deaths could surpass AIDS" report that led the half-hour Brian Williams-anchored broadcast.

The "superbug," Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus ("MRSA"), was reported by Robert Bazell and chyroned on the TV screen transposed into "MSRA."

Every high school athlete (where the infection is reportedly rampant) knows what every physician knows; its initials are "MRSA."

Williams, in the "Nightly News Links and Extras" has admitted the error. Bazell fell on the sword stating that he, "transposed the letters to get them wrong. Sometimes the most simple mistakes are the ones you miss. My apologies."

Now that news has become a commodity ("Get me the ROI on last night's broadcast Jones)" have fact checkers, desk people, editors and others disappeared? Didn't anyone see the tape being edited, read the script, etc. and say, "Hey, this is wrong?" Or did NBC realize too late and decide to run the package anyway?

One day will we see a stand-up by a reporter in front of Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters with"BFI" on the screen? Did I watch the news on NCB last night?

If I remember to watch the NBC broadcast tonight (marking the second time in six months I will have watched network TV news) will the correction lead the broadcast? Will the boo-boo even make it onto the airways or is the Williams blog the broadcast journalism equivalent of hiding a correction back on page 74?