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Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news , world news , and news about the economy I have been complaining for more than a year about what a journalistically bankrupt decision NBC News made in hiring Chelsea Clinton as a special correspondent for Brian Williams "Rock Center. " I have reviewed each of her performances chronicling the downward arc of her learning curve. NBC's make-believe correspondent really did keep getting worse. But this is too embarrassing to even talk about.

Just when it was starting to look like cable news might have actually learned something from its rush-to-judgment sins in covering the Newtown massacre, John King, CNN and Fox News showed Wednesday how shaky and journalistically confused even the genre's biggest dogs are these days when confronted with a major, ongoing news story. It doesn't get much worse than it did for CNN Wednesday afternoon when quoting unnamed sources it reported that police had arrested a suspect in the Boston marathon bombings.

Last Sunday, I wrote about the way in which British tabloid values had already taken root in American media and corroded the soul of our press. I was challenging the conventional wisdom here that our journalistic standards are somehow vastly superior to those of the British. I think too many analysts are using the News of the World scandal to support that false belief. I am hoping we can use the discussion to help us pull back from the values Rupert Murdoch had helped import.

I was going to be nice and NOT write about the NBC newsmagazine "Rock Center" moving to 9 p.m. tonight after a failed run at 10 Mondays with Brian Williams at the helm. But then, NBC News sent out a press release calling special correspondent Chelsea Clinton and the rest of the newsmagazine team "the Cooperstown of NBC News. " Remember the quote about Clinton having "prepared all her life" for this job? More on that in a second. How failed has this Brian Williams ego trip been so far?

In reviewing "Savage U,"  MTV's  sex advice show featuring Dan Savage, I predicted that it was going to be a culture-wars lightning rod at some point. The show debuted with an episode set at the University of Maryland April 3. Well, it didn't take long. On April 7, Brent Bozell, publisher of the right-wing media watchdog website NewsBusters went absolutely off the rails with a column attacking MTV and Savage as merchants of "smut. " Here's how Bozell started his column, and he was only warming up: MTV is now trying to lure young viewers with a saucy sex show in the “advice” category.

After spending 15 hours Friday locked on coverage of the manhunt in Boston, here are my picks for the highs, lows and deeper media stories of this remarkable day and night. The best moment belonged to Diane Sawyer and ABC News for a phone interview Friday night with George Pizzuto, a next-door neighbor to the man who discovered a wounded and bloody Dzhokhar Tsarnaev lying under a tarp in a boat in his backyard and called police. The interview started at 8:02 p.m., and was the first clear explanation of how the police found the 19-year-old bombing suspect in Watertown Friday night.

Paul Ryan being selected as Mitt Romney's GOP running mate was big news late Friday night, and no one on television did a better job of covering it on the fly than MSNBC. I can't believe I typed those words either. MSNBC had become such a joke in its commitment to prison documentaries and lack of coverage on breaking news, that I rarely bothered to even make it part of the mix any more when news broke. But Friday night, MNBC did something that could allow for the channel to regain some serious news credibility: It ditched the docs, kept the ideologue clowns off the air and handed coverage over to the grown-ups at NBC News.

I told myself I wasn't going to go here -- I wasn't going to weigh in on the pasting Matt Lauer was taking on Twitter Thursday and Friday for his less-than-stellar performance as TV host for NBC's coverage of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. But where there is vitriol like this, there is definitely something deeper happening -- something worth thinking about. Actually, I think there are several things going on. I wouldn't call it a perfect storm, but there are some ill cultural winds blowing Lauer's way -- and it could mean some rough weather ahead for him and the "Today" show in the battle with ABC's "Good Morning America.

NBC News President Michael Gartner yesterday announced his resignation, saying it was for the network's good and something that had been planned for several months. In recent weeks, a firestorm of criticism has surrounded NBC since it admitted rigging the test crash of a GM pickup truck on its "Dateline NBC" newsmagazine.But others involved behind the scenes at NBC said yesterday that Gartner was forced to resign. Among the warning signs: Top NBC management had isolated him in recent weeks.

In a move that surprised and delighted NBC News staffers, the network yesterday chose respected CBS producer Andrew Lack to replace embattled Michael Gartner as president of NBC News.The news division has been in turmoil in the aftermath of the "Dateline NBC"-General Motors scandal. In February, the network admitted that its "Dateline NBC" newsmagazine had rigged a crash test for a November segment on the safety of GM pickup trucks. The admission, coupled with NBC's apology, settled a defamation lawsuit filed by GM.Mr.