Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid. (First Hour)
Well folks, looks like we've got John Roberts for the rest of the week. Don't despair, Anderson will be back on Monday...live from Afghanistan. The opening tonight, like always, is over-the-top. "Meeting of Death"? C'mon.
We begin the coverage with the new to us but old in reality Bin Laden tape. A piece by Nic Robertson shows us some clips and gives us a summary. I have to wonder why we go nuts about these things every time they ship one out. Doesn't making a big deal about these tapes give the terrorists a feeling of importance that maybe they shouldn't have? Anyway, Peter Bergen (author of "The Osama Bin Laden I know") is back again tonight live from Kabul and frankly he's not surprised this came out now since it's anniversary time. In fact, he believes there'll be another one in another couple weeks or so and like me, he's not really (seemingly) all that impressed. John Roberts thinks it's a really big coincidence that one of the main terrorists Bush was just talking about yesterday is suddenly showing up on this tape. He wonders if this was an Al Qaeda misstep. It is quite convenient for Bush and if I were one who was partial to tin foil hats I might think a little too convenient. I'm just saying things are Orwellian lately is all.
Next we've got a piece where John Roberts explores Bin Laden's softer side. Apparently he wasn't always an evildoer. There's also a focus on Osama's father who had a lot of ties with western contractors, but was killed in a plane crash when Osama was 10. That might have had an affect on the future doer of evil except he had like over 50 brothers and sisters. I hope they had more than one bathroom! Actually, they were quite well off. We go back to Peter and John wants to know if any of the Bin Ladens still do business in America, but Peter doesn't really seem to know. He mentions the infamous Caryle Group as a possiblity, which probably rings a bell with viewers of Farenheit 911. John then gives us some facts or "Raw Data". He pronounces it "dayta". This is NOT how Anderson pronounces it and my pal connor addict cries foul, "Not correct." Tough audience.
Now we're off to Iraq and a recap of the bloodshed. Another day, another whole bunch of people killed. God, I hate this war. Michael Holmes is live in Baghdad and he relays the news of today's transfer of the military command structure to the Iraqis. As he explains, this sounds really good, but in reality about 90% of the Iraqi military still isn't ready. It seems they're never going to be "standing up so we can stand down". Michael also brings us the word on the Iraqi street regarding Bush's latest speeches. You might be shocked, but they're not thrilled. Bush likes to talk about the terrorists in Iraq, but the Iraqis counter that they weren't there until we invaded them. It seems some people just don't appreciate freedom. Bloody, explosive, non electricity having freedom. The Iraqis are in disbelief about a new poll that states over 40% of Americans think Saddam was behind 9-11. They must think we're idiots and with numbers like that, you can't really argue.
Transitioning now to a Keeping Them Honest segment with Tom Foreman. Funny story. See, there's this Taliban leader guy named Mohammad Omar and he's wanted for harboring Bin Laden. They've got his picture up on the State Department website and everything. Except...um, a bunch of analysts think the picture they've got isn't even him. Isn't that hilarious? And it's been on the website for years. Doesn't that just make you want to laugh out loud? A Taliban leader wanted for harboring the man that killed 3,000 Americans and we can't even get his picture right. As Jon Stewart has said, "It's not that you can't make this stuff up, it's that you wish you had to."
We're really transitioning now to...a serial killer! Oh, yay. I'm sorry, but I don't think things like this should get indepth national news coverage. Make it a headline sure, but leave the further coverage to the locals. Anyway, for those interested, the serial killer in question is called the Baseline Killer and there is now a suspect in custody. We get not one, but two pieces on this. First by Dan Simon and then by David Mattingly. I guess I should be thankful we're off the John Karr.
In an interesting, but I guess unsurprising developement, last night's Shot becomes tonight's story. John Roberts delves deeper with a piece on John Mattes, the reporter who totally got beat down by some guy not happy with a story he was doing. And then we've got Mattes in the studio who summarizes his various cuts and bites marks. Bite marks?! Good Lord. I've got a couple issues with this story. First of all, people get assaulted by wackos everyday, so why is this on the national news? Okay, that was a rhetorical question. You know why. It's because they have super cool sensational video that they can show over and over and over. No video, no story. And I know Mattes (he actually seems a little wacky himself) is spinning it that having the video is a good thing for his story, but that is not the story CNN just played. The story CNN is playing is "hey, look at this guy get beat down!" My second issue is what the hell happened to the cameraman? He kept rolling?! How would he feel if it ended up that he rolled on the last minutes of that reporter's life? I'm going to channel Bill Maher here and say, New Rule: If your reporter is getting the crap kicked out of him you should probably, I don't know, help!! Are you hearing this Neil Hollsworth? Okay, enough of that. Well, at least until the second hour.
The Shot rounds out the first hour tonight and it is just saturated in adorableness. An eight year old with cancer is reunited in his hospital bed with his little dog who had been dognapped from the hospital parking lot. Awwwwwww. Well, that's all. Second hour will hopefully be up sometime tomorrow. Tonight would have rated higher if it wasn't for the blatant use of that video to whore for ratings. C+
We begin the coverage with the new to us but old in reality Bin Laden tape. A piece by Nic Robertson shows us some clips and gives us a summary. I have to wonder why we go nuts about these things every time they ship one out. Doesn't making a big deal about these tapes give the terrorists a feeling of importance that maybe they shouldn't have? Anyway, Peter Bergen (author of "The Osama Bin Laden I know") is back again tonight live from Kabul and frankly he's not surprised this came out now since it's anniversary time. In fact, he believes there'll be another one in another couple weeks or so and like me, he's not really (seemingly) all that impressed. John Roberts thinks it's a really big coincidence that one of the main terrorists Bush was just talking about yesterday is suddenly showing up on this tape. He wonders if this was an Al Qaeda misstep. It is quite convenient for Bush and if I were one who was partial to tin foil hats I might think a little too convenient. I'm just saying things are Orwellian lately is all.
Next we've got a piece where John Roberts explores Bin Laden's softer side. Apparently he wasn't always an evildoer. There's also a focus on Osama's father who had a lot of ties with western contractors, but was killed in a plane crash when Osama was 10. That might have had an affect on the future doer of evil except he had like over 50 brothers and sisters. I hope they had more than one bathroom! Actually, they were quite well off. We go back to Peter and John wants to know if any of the Bin Ladens still do business in America, but Peter doesn't really seem to know. He mentions the infamous Caryle Group as a possiblity, which probably rings a bell with viewers of Farenheit 911. John then gives us some facts or "Raw Data". He pronounces it "dayta". This is NOT how Anderson pronounces it and my pal connor addict cries foul, "Not correct." Tough audience.
Now we're off to Iraq and a recap of the bloodshed. Another day, another whole bunch of people killed. God, I hate this war. Michael Holmes is live in Baghdad and he relays the news of today's transfer of the military command structure to the Iraqis. As he explains, this sounds really good, but in reality about 90% of the Iraqi military still isn't ready. It seems they're never going to be "standing up so we can stand down". Michael also brings us the word on the Iraqi street regarding Bush's latest speeches. You might be shocked, but they're not thrilled. Bush likes to talk about the terrorists in Iraq, but the Iraqis counter that they weren't there until we invaded them. It seems some people just don't appreciate freedom. Bloody, explosive, non electricity having freedom. The Iraqis are in disbelief about a new poll that states over 40% of Americans think Saddam was behind 9-11. They must think we're idiots and with numbers like that, you can't really argue. Transitioning now to a Keeping Them Honest segment with Tom Foreman. Funny story. See, there's this Taliban leader guy named Mohammad Omar and he's wanted for harboring Bin Laden. They've got his picture up on the State Department website and everything. Except...um, a bunch of analysts think the picture they've got isn't even him. Isn't that hilarious? And it's been on the website for years. Doesn't that just make you want to laugh out loud? A Taliban leader wanted for harboring the man that killed 3,000 Americans and we can't even get his picture right. As Jon Stewart has said, "It's not that you can't make this stuff up, it's that you wish you had to."
We're really transitioning now to...a serial killer! Oh, yay. I'm sorry, but I don't think things like this should get indepth national news coverage. Make it a headline sure, but leave the further coverage to the locals. Anyway, for those interested, the serial killer in question is called the Baseline Killer and there is now a suspect in custody. We get not one, but two pieces on this. First by Dan Simon and then by David Mattingly. I guess I should be thankful we're off the John Karr.
In an interesting, but I guess unsurprising developement, last night's Shot becomes tonight's story. John Roberts delves deeper with a piece on John Mattes, the reporter who totally got beat down by some guy not happy with a story he was doing. And then we've got Mattes in the studio who summarizes his various cuts and bites marks. Bite marks?! Good Lord. I've got a couple issues with this story. First of all, people get assaulted by wackos everyday, so why is this on the national news? Okay, that was a rhetorical question. You know why. It's because they have super cool sensational video that they can show over and over and over. No video, no story. And I know Mattes (he actually seems a little wacky himself) is spinning it that having the video is a good thing for his story, but that is not the story CNN just played. The story CNN is playing is "hey, look at this guy get beat down!" My second issue is what the hell happened to the cameraman? He kept rolling?! How would he feel if it ended up that he rolled on the last minutes of that reporter's life? I'm going to channel Bill Maher here and say, New Rule: If your reporter is getting the crap kicked out of him you should probably, I don't know, help!! Are you hearing this Neil Hollsworth? Okay, enough of that. Well, at least until the second hour.
The Shot rounds out the first hour tonight and it is just saturated in adorableness. An eight year old with cancer is reunited in his hospital bed with his little dog who had been dognapped from the hospital parking lot. Awwwwwww. Well, that's all. Second hour will hopefully be up sometime tomorrow. Tonight would have rated higher if it wasn't for the blatant use of that video to whore for ratings. C+
posted by eliza at 12:38 AM
3 Comments:
I admire your ability to sit through 360 when John Roberts (or anyone else for that matter) is anchoring. If Anderson's not anchoring, I'm not watching!
No doubt. I have the show on in the background when AC isn't on but the only words I hear are, "Blah, blah, blah, Anderson, blah, blah, Peter."
LOL.
Well, there is a certain guest host that I probably wouldn't be able to sit through. LOL. John Roberts does okay and while Anderson is definitely a draw, the news is still most of the reason I watch. Don't think I'm not dying for Anderson to come back though. :)
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