Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Some Nukes, Some Congress Corruption, and Some More Anger At CNN (Tuesday's First Hour)

Hi everyone. We kick off the show with real news tonight. Feels good, doesn't it? North Korea is at it again. We get the lowdown from Barbara Starr who informs us that while North Koreans are partying it up tonight over, uh, how great they are or something, US spy satellites have detected small structures going up at two different sites. This is similar to activity observed before the first test. Right now our best hope is for China to use its influence. With more, Suzanne Malveaux joins us live to talk about the sanctions. She cautions that if we push too hard the whole alliance might fall apart. And on the flip side, if additonal test occur it might actually embolden the Bush adminstration's case that North Korea's neighbors need to get tough. Normally I'm not down with anything related to Bush being emboldened, but I think I'm on board with other countries being the tough ones for once. In the line of fire, we have Dan Rivers live in Seoul to give us the scoop on what Secretary Rice is going to say to the South Koreans. Apparently she's going to talk about shipping. Booring. You have to liven that speech up, Condi. Dan then mentions that shipping issues could lead to naval battles. Okay, not so boring. Sheesh. I'm sure it'll be all good with her there though. I mean, when has she ever failed before? It's not like she let an August 6, 2001 PDB entitled "Bin Laden Determined To Strike Inside US" get by her or anything. Oh, right.

On now to an interview with Anne-Marie Slaughter, Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. She states that there are no good options with North Korea. Its neighbors don't want sanctions with teeth because Kim Jung Il could see it as an act of war and a destabilized country without Jung Il could be worse than what we've got now. Slaughter believes we must allow Jung Il to save face and engage in direct talks with him. Unfortunately that would mean Bush would have to give face and not only does it sound weird, it's also never going to happen. The man won't even change course on Iraq and we expect him listen to a little crazy guy? When pigs fly above a frozen hellscape, baby. When Anderson asks about being tough verus diplomacy, Slaughter urges we do both, saying we need to "talk and carry the big stick." I wonder what Teddy Roosevelt thinks about that.

Transitioning now to politics and a piece from Dana Bash on problems for Harry Reid. Apparently he bought some land and didn't disclose something and then he gave his doorman a big tip with campaign money that he later reinbursed and...yeah, that's pretty much it. Seriously, this is the big democratic scandal? On the other side of the aisle we've got predators, vote buyers, Congress ruiners (Tom Delay), CIA agent outers, and bribe takers. Jack Abramoff had to testify in a case where a guy got wacked for Pete's sake! To even begin to explain all the republican scandals I would need a powerpoint presentation. And yet, here's CNN throwing Harry Reid in there as if he is a "balance" to everything on the republican side. Look 360, I know you're probably getting hatemail from completely desperate righties, but that's no reason to shirk your journalistic responsibility. Stop it. Now money in the freezer guy? He's another story.

To continue with the political we next have a Joe Johns piece on Curt Weldon who is being investigated by the justice department on charges of steering contracts to his daughter. He, of course, blames the democrats. Because what other course of action would he take, really? I'm sure next we'll be hearing about Clinton and his evil penis and then Chris Shays can bring up Chappaquiddick again. Except there's a teensy little problem. You know that evil justice department that's running the investigation? Yeah, it's republican controlled. Oops. After the piece we have some politics speak with The Gerg and I have to say it's kind of freaky looking at little Anderson standing before this ginormous Gerg head. If I was some sort of science fiction geek I could probably come up with a good joke here, but I'm not, so no go. Anyhoo, this was kind of a let down because The Gerg goes into no specifics. Basically he just says it looks like a wave is coming, but the house republicans do enjoy a lead by two to one in cash. Stupid money.

And now we move on to my most favorite topic evah: John Karr. Seriously 360, you are KILLING ME. Before running a piece, Anderson gives us this disclaimer: "I'm about to whore myself out right now and air a non newsworthy sensational waste of time and energy so that my employers can get high ratings from brain dead Americans who eat this stuff up. Those of you that have standards and care about journalistic integrity might want to hit the mute. I say hit the mute and not turn it off because even though I'm serving you a plate of crap, you know I still look perty." First of all, Anderson that was a really long disclaimer. And second, yeah, he didn't really say that, but he should have. Instead we get the standard, "some may find this material disturbing" type of disclaimer. And I have to say, the piece can pretty much be summed up as, "Ew!!!" Excuse me while I go bleach my brain. After the piece we have the honor of seeing a Larry King clip and then we get Fred Berlin (from yesterday) and Jeffrey Toobin in a taped interview. Oh Toobin, not you too! I thought you were keeping away from this. For those keeping score at home, they wasted over 15 minutes on this story this hour.

On now to something lighter, we have a Jeanne Moos piece on Hillary's (Clinton) name. It (the piece) actually was better than it sounds. See, Hillary was told she was named after Sir Edmund Hillary, this dude who climbed Mount Everest, but as it turns out, Hillary was born in 1947 and the climbing occurred in 1953. Apparently mommy lied. I'd be annoyed if my parents lied about my name. Of course I'm named after nobody, so I guess it doesn't matter. After the piece Anderson informs us that he bears his grandmother's Maden name. Yes Anderson, we all know you're a blue blood. No need to rub it in. I kid. The Shot tonight is fighting babies. Okay, not literally, but apparently there are three different sets of parents claiming their child was actually the 300 millionth born. Uh, I've got news for them, seeing as though it's a statistical estimation, there's a good chance none of them are the actual 300 Millionth American. The show was better tonight, but I'm peeved we still have Karr coverage. C+

Screencaps by liberation337.

Are you as annoyed as I am with the media's tendency to try to "balance" all the republican scandals with anything they can find on the democrats?

10 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

loved your disclaimer-so true.

8:49 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm wondering if they're keeping this creepster in the news so authorities and everyday people know where he is and can make sure he's not around kids. That's the ONLY reason I can think of for all these top anchors reporting this drivel so much, Surely they're allowed to have some say about content and how long on that subject. And that psychiatrist they had on is just starting his own TV show so obviously he's pushing ratings. Maybe when they see nobody cares they will all QUIT it!!

10:49 AM  
Blogger eliza said...

The only reason, anon? Sorry, I'm going to have to disagree with you. There's a big reason for this coverage, but the public good has nothing to do with it. Did you see the ratings from Tuesday night? Unfortunately, there's an audience for this crap. A pretty big audience actually. People would rather watch an hour of John Mark Karr than an hour of what their government is really doing. And we wonder why things are so screwed up in this country right now.

11:31 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You're thinking of Star Trek - giant screen where they stood there and talked to ALIENS *lol*.

PS it's Sharla

1:06 PM  
Blogger eliza said...

Ooooh. I knew the screen was reminding me of something. Maybe The Gerg is an alien. And what's with the "anon" moniker? Are you on the down low today?

1:25 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

AC is channeling Jean-Luc Picard

1:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

*heehee* no. When I comment from my phone, I can't fill out all the boxes. It's retarded like that.

3:03 PM  
Blogger eliza said...

Wow. You like my blog so much that you comment from your phone? I feel so honored. ;)

3:08 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

*lol* I have eight websites programmed into my phone- CNN.com, the ac360 Blog, Mapquest.... my OWN blog :) and yours!

5:14 PM  
Blogger Sheryn said...

Eliza, you and I think alike don't we! Well, the country bought the Swiftboat campaign, why not try it again, right?

And are you not loving Anne-Marie Slaughter? She is a great addition to the program!

1:46 AM  

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