I rarely watch TV news, but last night the TiVo, for some reason, recorded the NBC Nightly News.

Since they were broadcasting from Baghdad — something that’s surprisingly rare, except for short, stand-up talking-head shots — I gave it a try.

After a while, I saw this:

This was the best picture they could find of Bush? A few seconds later, they launched into a promotion of Sunday morning’s Meet The Press, and switched — directly from the picture of Bush — to this:

More than a little bit different, eh? I am once again reminded of why I do not watch TV news. This is a comically minor thing, particularly since everyone watching the news is likely to already have an opinion of both John Kerry and George Bush. And yet the NBC Nightly News — which is allegedly journalism, ladies and gentlemen — picks a picture that makes the President look like a stoke victim, while John Kerry is looking off into the distance toward the Bright Socialist Future.

I generally — remember, I don’t watch much TV news — find NBC and MSNBC to be the least blatantly biased of the TV news operations, so I’m surprised to see this. My guess is that some young liberal PA (or whoever puts together those shots; I’ll bet it’s someone low on the totem pole, though) thought that this was a perfect opportunity to Stick It To The Man.

Well, congratulations: you have nurtured the Seed of Doubt in my mind — doubt about the extent to which I can rely on your employer for good information.

Once again, life imitates The Simpsons:

Kent Brockman talking about The Leader before the Movementarians buy KBBL broadcasting:

Kent Brockman talking about The Leader a moment later, after being handed a note that the Movementarians have bought his TV station:

In the TV news business, whenever you discover yourself doing something even vaguely and tangentially similar to anything that Kent Brockman has ever done, maybe you should stop.