Stingrays And Hitler And Opium, Oh My! (First Hour)

Hi everybody! The 360 Team has given me some great material to work with for my debut review. And no polygamy! However, I do have one complaint up front. Can we please get rid of the over-the-top intro? "Was the crocodile hunter a disaster waiting to happen?" Please. It's like a trailer for a bad action movie. If you don't want to fire announcer man at least tell him to chill out and nix the music. It's too much.

Okay, on with the show. We begin with the shocking and untimely death of Steve Irwin. I have to admit I never watched Steve's show, but I did really like the guy and was kind of surprised at how sad I was to hear of what happened. Even though it seemed like he was always trying to get himself killed he also had this invincibility about him. Sure, you might joke about him meeting an early demise, but you never thought it would actually happen. The saddest part is the two small children he leaves behind.

The first interview tonight is with Jeff Corwin and Anderson wants to know if Steve pushed things too far and how does one stay safe in the field. I have to laugh a little at Anderson's complete obliviousness to the pot calling the kettle black situation he is in. Or maybe that was some other gray haired anchor I saw running around Israel as rockets fell. What bugs me about this angle is that it was a freak accident. Erwin wasn't done in by a wacky stunt or going too far. It just happened. Really, I guess it could have happened to anybody.

We then move on to the requisite stingray expert. This particular expert is named Mark Faulkner and he is really not all that enthused about being on television. Actually on the excitement scale this guy is on the exact opposite end as Steve Irwin. Fitting in a warped way I guess.

Transitioning now to the latest nonsense Bush is spouting regarding Iraq and the War on Terror. Apparently we're up against the likes of Hitler and Lenin and well, whoever else you got. Do I even need to go into the ridiculousness of this? Ed Henry gives us a piece regarding the speech and this is where I'm going to have to hand out a demerit. It's a good piece, but it's missing a very important quote. Does this March 2002 press conference ring a bell?

Terror is bigger than one person. And he's just -- he's a person who's now been marginalized. His network, his host government has been destroyed. He's the ultimate parasite who found weakness, exploited it, and met his match. He is -- as I mentioned in my speech, I do mention the fact that this is a fellow who is willing to commit youngsters to their death and he, himself, tries to hide -- if, in fact, he's hiding at all.

So I don't know where he is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him, Kelly, to be honest with you. I'm more worried about making sure that our soldiers are well-supplied; that the strategy is clear; that the coalition is strong; that when we find enemy bunched up like we did in Shahikot Mountains, that the military has all the support it needs to go in and do the job, which they did.

Anderson sort of touches on this, but this is tv and we need to see the clip. Next, we get an in studio interview with Joe Klein. Now, I'm not a big Klein fan, but he does make some good points. If we're fighting the equivalent of the Nazis why aren't we raising taxes, having war bond drives, increasing our military presence? Oh, maybe it's because they like to talk but not actually do. After the nice bout of sanity Klein moves into the stay the course BS, but Anderson does a nice job countering.

At the 30 minute mark we get a Candy Crowley piece concerning how much trouble republicans are in. Then Candy chitchats live, which surprises me. She's had a long day. I know I'm not exactly all that coherent at 5:30 AM when I get up for work, but I could have sworn I saw her on American Morning. William Schneider continues with the polls and congressional issues with his own piece.

It is at this point that we get what you've all been waiting for: the Suri picture! I know I've been sleepless with anticipation. She looks, um, well...I'm not going to diss on a baby (If that is in fact what was in the picture), so I'll just leave it at that. Anderson is just as enthralled as I am, "Can we move on now?"

The last topic of this first hour is Afganistan and I have to say it's about time. The "other war" (Or is it the other other war at this point?) hasn't been going all that great for a while now and it's nice to see CNN catch up. Jamie Mcintyre gives us a piece with the nuts and bolts and then we move on to a live interview with Peter Bergen from Kabul. Peter is the author of "The Osama Bin Ladin I Know" and I mention it because that fact has been absolutely drilled into my head by CNN. Peter gives us the not so great news that the Taliban have been adapting Al Qaeda's techniques. He also says that the Taliban pay more than the Afgan government. Maybe it's just me, but that kind of seems like a big problem. Oh, and opium is out of control. Yay?

Well, that's all for hour one. I'll get hour two up as soon as possible, but I won't leave you hanging for tonight's grade: A-