NBC, a division of General Electric (NYSE: GE), is under fire from John Hockenberry, a former correspondent for the news magazine Dateline NBC. In his lengthy rant in MIT's Technology Review, Hockenberry talks about how the network declined to do some heavy-duty reporting on al Qaeda, and instead sent him off to do feel-good stories about firefighters, a pattern of ignoring real news that he claims was routine at NBC.

Hockenberry tells the story of a video montage from Baghdad, showing pictures of real people who had been affected by bombs and war. The story never made it to the air, and he wonders if it was because the footage may have promoted an idea (war is bad) that conflicted with the message NBC was sending at the time.

He details several disappointments with NBC. Hockenberry says he and others worked on finding ways to enhance journalism with the help of the internet. NBC did not really act on any of the ideas, instead focusing on programming that got high ratings, such as the To Catch a Predator shows in which pedophiles are caught trolling the internet for new victims and meeting up with them in secret.