Worthy, I think, less for the unfortunate circumstance of a man dangling by his pants from a ski lift than from the impulse of several spectators to take his picture — and for NBC to run them on national television. Even Matt Lauer and Meredith Viera seem embarrassed to front this segment, which has all the news value of America’s Home Videos:

VIERA: Yeah, but a lot of people took pictures of his “ski bum” there, and they posted it, so … I think that’s obnoxious, actually. The guy is hanging there, probably freaked out.

LAUER: [Laughs] Yeah, but I think it’s obnoxious that we show it [laughter and crosstalk]…

VIERA: Yeah, but we have to show how obnoxious it is, over and over.

How bad did it get? Al Roker finishes it off with a “shrinkage” joke. And I used to think ABC was a little cruel for their old Wide World of Sports intro with the clip of the skier crashing off a jump.

But seriously, exactly when did NBC stop being a news organization? In the Age of Obama, is this what we can expect from the Peacock Network? It seems as though they have some shrinkage issues of their own.