Now that we enjoy have access to 24 hour cable news channels, talk radio, blogs, online news, and a myriad of locations to get our news and information, it’s getting harder to connect the dots. As a consequence, I still turn to CNN, NBC News, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times as trusted sources for my news.

Then NBC drops the ball.

Wells Fargo, with whom I’ve had my own issues which are now resolved, initially turned down the TARP money but, as TIME magazine said in this article, “Although Wells Fargo chairman Richard Kovacevich resisted, Paulson gave the bankers no choice“. 

Catching the first 15 minutes of NBC’s Today show this morning, I was quite surprised to view what was a highly unbalanced segment (embedded below) about the outrage over the “lavish” Las Vegas event that Wells Fargo was holding “with taxpayer money.”

Bullshit.

Look. I’m no fan of the bailout and certainly no cheerleader for Wells Fargo. In fact, I’m so stunned by the magnitude of our current economic mess, so clearly (like you) just along-for-the-ride and with nearly zero influence on any outcomes, that it’s difficult to live in a state of anger all the time, though I’d like to often.

But when NBC does a segment like this with no mention of the financial strength of Wells Fargo (one of the few surprisingly solvent banking institutions) and that this sort of corporate event has nothing to do with the bailout money,  I can’t sit idly by without calling it out.

NBC News needs to be bitch-slapped for simply fanning-the-flames of misplaced outrage and forgetting that — unlike most of us in the new media realm — they can afford to perform investigative journalism.