Politics And War, What Are They Good For? (Second Hour)

We kick off the second hour with a rerun of the Ed Henry piece and then move into a round table discussion with Candy Crowley, Joe Klein, and Bill Schneider. They basically trash Bush a bit here and I've loving it. "Can the president say with a straight face this is not a political speech?" Anderson wants to know. Well Bush is always doing something retarded with his face, so I'm going to say that's a no. My only beef here is really a beef with the media as a whole regarding political coverage. Why must they always cover the horse race, but never the issues? Yeah, they tell us so and so is up in this poll and down in that one, but where do their actual votes fall? Information like that would be a great help to the public. We need the meat and potatos, but all we get is the diet dessert.

Next we have a Kelly Arena piece that focuses on why Bin Ladin is suddenly a big threat again. Is it politics? The London plane plot? I'm putting my money on Rove. Peter Bergen then returns to answer the question of whether or not Al Qaeda is now weak. And well, they are and they aren't. This really is not helpful to me Peter. Apparently they've taken some hits, but have regrouped They're the Energizer Bunny of the terrorism world. In the ensueing discussion Anderson chimes in that this War on Terror seems to be a war without end. To which I'm going to have to lie down a big old Duh!!! Nice of you to join us Anderson. Also, Peter informs us that Pakistan has not arrested a Taliban leader since 2001. This boggles Anderson's mind and I couldn't be happier. Not about the Taliban thing-that sucks. I'm talking about mind boggling. Fans of 360 know that this is one of Anderson's favorite phrases. However, recently the boggling had disappeared and I began to fear that Anderson's mind would be permanently unboggled. I don't know what I was so worried about. Anway, back to Pakistan, that wonderful ally of ours who hasn't caught anybody big in five years. Doesn't make you feel good. Oh and then there's this. Awesome.

Now we're back to Steve Irwin again and we get a Larry King clip with Irwin's distraught manager. John Zarella continues on the subject with a piece entitled "Grappling With Gators" where we get to see a guy put his head in a gator's mouth. Ooookay. I like John, but this is filler plain and simple. The best part of the piece is some excellent snark from Anderson regarding a dude who blew off his fingers with a shotgun and still felt the urge to go gator wrestling (Or is it wrastling?). Ted Rowlands then gives us a piece about people going too far with animals and he reveals that dangerous/sensational footage gets huge ratings. Really? I'm shocked. And here I thought the John Karr marathon was actually news I could use.

As we wind down, the coverage turns to first responders from ground zero who are now grappling with health problems. Approximately 7 out of 10 are sick, which is infuriating, but predictable. Randi Kaye goes in depth with a piece about two sick cops. One of these cops informs us that for the first two to three weeks after the attacks he was given no mask and after that he found out that the mask he had had the wrong filters. On the flip side, she interviews a doctor that acts as a total apologist for the government and I want to throw something at my tv. Where did they get this guy? What do you wanna bet with a little digging you can find he has connections to the administration? Meanwhile, the poor cops have to wait for the federal government to fund a study that will prove that their conditions were caused by ground zero air. Uh, good luck getting those funds guys. Anyway, the fact that the doctor she interviewed was kind of a jerk is not Randi's fault, but I am mad she mentioned nothing about how after 9-11 the EPA lied about how safe things were down there. Infuriating.

Finally, we close the night with a requisite piece on Katie and Rosie's new gigs. The piece is done by Jeanne Moos and really, there could be no one else. I for one and so glad Katie is finally on so people can just shut the hell up about it. Who cares? I was actually going to sneak a peak at her first show, but completely forgot even though I had just heard more news coverage about it the hour before. Oh well. I'm a Brian Williams' girl, so CBS will have to look elsewhere for new viewers. I am disappointed I missed Morgan Spurlock though. One thing I do have to say is I really hope this new hip newscast Katie seems to be sporting doesn't bring down the standards of network news as a whole. It's one thing for a 2 hour cable news show to show a picture of the TomKat spawn (and brought some much needed snark), but it's something different for a 30 minute network show to do it and the fact that she presented it as news and not something to mock was also disturbing. I guess we'll just have to see how it goes.

And now I come to the end of reviewing. It was fun, but time consuming. Forthcoming posts might not be so indepth. We'll see. Also, I have a crazy work schedule, so I won't always be posting at the same time every day. Be patient. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. Please leave me suggestions and criticisms in the comments.