TUBE TALK At NBC, it's apparently OK to dis but not Tom Brokaw. That's what ''West Wing'' creator Aaron Sorkin found out this week when The New Yorker magazine ran an interview in which Sorkin complained that the news media were abandoning objectivity and being too nice to the president. He was particularly upset with his own network's pre-''West Wing'' news special last month, ''The Bush White House: Inside the Real West Wing,'' which Sorkin called a ''valentine to Bush.'' He said, ''The White House pumped up the president's schedule to show him being much busier and more engaged than he is, and Tom Brokaw let it happen.''

''Obviously we respect Aaron's right to say whatever he thinks,'' said NBC Entertainment president Jeff Zucker. Where Zucker took exception, however, was in the Brokaw-bashing, noting that Brokaw had pointed out during the show that the president had padded his schedule for the occasion. As Brokaw noted in the Washington Post at the time, ''It goes without saying that [Bush's advisors] don't wake up and say, 'Oh, my God, NBC is coming!' They obviously arranged a very full day for him.'' ''Aaron and Tom spoke last night,'' Zucker said yesterday. ''Aaron apologized for getting that wrong.''

Destiny's Child are trying to recruit some new, very young fans. On Friday, the trio is appearing on ''Sesame Street.'' No word on whether they'll teach Big Bird and Elmo how to spell ''bootylicious.''...

For the second straight week, NBC owned the Nielsen ratings, with its seven nights of Olympic coverage taking the top seven places on the list of most-watched shows and the network taking an overall lead among viewers. NBC averaged 32.8 million viewers for the week, more than all the other networks put together. CBS was a distant second, averaging 8.7 million. Fox averaged 7.9 million for third place, followed by ABC (7 million), UPN (4.3 million), and the WB. The week's top show was Thursday's skating final, featuring future Wheaties cover girl Sarah Hughes.

Originally posted Feb 27, 2002
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