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Maybe they should call it "NBC Nightly Olds"?

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

NBC Nightly News had a piece on Saturday, 26 January 2008 on a Chinese guest teacher
in Elberta, Alabama. There was even a reference to the Roadkill Cafe in Elberta.

This was not exactly a newsflash. The linguafranca on 14 November 2007 had noted an AP article:

ELBERTA, Ala. (AP) - A small school in south Baldwin County has become the only one in Alabama and the first Catholic elementary school in the country to be chosen for a guest teacher program designed to teach students Chinese.

The program at St. Benedict Catholic School brings in a guest Chinese teacher and is co-sponsored by the College Board and Hanban, China?s Office of Chinese Language Council International.

St. Benedict, which has 158 students in pre-kindergarten through eight grade, decided to add Chinese to its foreign language curriculum, augmenting a Spanish program that launched a few years ago.

A further discussion of the Chinese guest teacher program may be found
at 51sat.

If you are wondering, NBC filmed the story in December 2007. From the Press-Register on 9 Dec. 2007:

Big things are happening at a tiny Catholic school in this hamlet, and the rest of the world will soon know about it.

A crew from "NBC Nightly News" visited St. Benedict School on Thursday to film a report about the school's new Chinese program, taught by Wang Zhenghai. The crew -- correspondent Michelle Kosinski, sound technician Dave Barnes, videographer Lynn Rabren and producer Denise Baker -- spent the day with Zhenghai, visiting classes and attending an evening lecture in Lillian.

Baker said it's unclear when the report will air, although she estimated it would be broadcast "sometime in the next two weeks." The crew conducted interviews with St. Benedict Principal Kendall McKee, parents, teachers, students and Zhenghai, before heading to Lillian for the second installment in the school's Chinese lecture series.

Another example of a poor report on NBC Nightly News may be found at
http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2008/01/who-is-turning-loose-hyacinth-macaws.html

Full post as published by IPBiz on January 27, 2008 (boomark / email).