NEW YORK – During this brutal news year, Lester Holt has concluded that telling stories isn't enough.The “NBC Nightly News” anchor frequently ends his broadcasts now with commentaries, an unusual departure for network evening newscasts that have more than a half century's track record of playing it straight.Holt's essays, many of them pleas for unity in troubled times, can seem mild to viewers used to the rhetorical warfare of cable news.
He says he's filling a need for voices of empathy in public life. “The days of dispassionate journalism are long gone,” he said. “We have to acknowledge our audience and validate what we're all seeing.”On the day of the first U.S.