Odds are, you saw the picture: shot from an aircraft window, a passenger, Stefanie Gordon, caught a perfect, brilliantly unique perspective of the liftoff of the space shuttle Endeavour on its final mission. In the picture, the shuttle’s contrail rising from a deck of clouds as the shuttle climbed toward space. Posted to the web, the photo went viral, and ended up on TV, including NBC Nightly News, whose anchor Brian Williams wrote about the picture–and its photographer–in his pre-show blog, The Daily Nightly.

NBC News confirmed Sunday a prime time newsmagazine is in active development for Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, with plans to add the show to the network’s fall lineup “as soon as it’s ready.” The Hollywood Reporter quotes NBC entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt saying the show will be designed to showcase the wide range of BriWi talents. “It’s about being relevant and engaging and also entertaining, which is what Brian uniquely does,” Greenblatt told reporters during a conference on Sunday. “It’s his sensibility, personality and skill that can inform this.”

As The New York Times reported, it was a banner year for G.E.–$14.2 billion in worldwide profits last year, including $5.1 billion in the United States, and a federal tax bill of exactly zero dollars. Pretty interesting story, and it’s sparked a lot of debate (even a Twitter feud between G.E. and The Times), but somehow it didn’t quite fit the bill when the folks at NBC News sat down to pick stories for the network’s flagship newscast, NBC Nightly News.

The February finishing order for the network evening newscasts didn’t look much different, with Brian Williams‘ NBC Nightly News taking top honors, followed by Diane Sawyer‘s ABC World News and Katie Couric‘s CBS Evening News finishing last.

But at ABC, news execs point to promising signs World News is making progress. It was the best ratings ABC’s best February performance in three years, and compared to February 2010, World News grew its total audience by one percent, the only network evening news program to grow (CBS was down by 4% and NBC dropped by 10%).

NBC’s Nightly News will finish 2010 as the top performer in the evening news race, according to 4Q Nielsen ratings released today.

The Brian Williams-led newscast dominated the key ratings metric of adults 25-54, beating ABC’s World News by 424,000 viewers and the CBS Evening News by 756,000.

There’s no question NBC News had an impressive, gripping scoop last night: the last U.S. combat troops are leaving Iraq. NBC News’ Richard Engel was embedded, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow was in Baghdad, the all-star line-up anchored – and the other networks played major catch up.

But this fantastic coverage also showed a cooperation at least on some level between NBC and MSNBC and elements in the Obama administration.

Which reporter logged the most minutes of air time during from 2000-2009? The honor goes to Andrea Mitchell of NBC, according to the invaluable resource that is Andrew Tyndall‘s TyndallReport.com. Here’s a full breakdown.

As the face of media evolves, it’s important to honor the figures who helped define, shape and set the standards in their industries. These are some of the most prominent members of the media who passed away over the past 10 years. Take a look back with some snippets from their respective New York Times obituaries.

President Obama’s speech to the gay community on Saturday night was nevertheless well-received, and Obama’s reaffirmed commitment to end “don’t ask, don’t tell” was a historic occasion. Less than 24 hours later, the blogosphere is aflame over a set of remarks attributed to an unnamed White House adviser to the effect that the White House views the National Equality March as “part of the Internet left fringe” and not to be taken too seriously.