It's Jesus Day On 360, Pakistan Being A Bad Friend, And Car Chases (Monday's First Hour)
Hey folks. I guess Anderson is recovering from an Oscar bender because we've got John Roberts and Kiran Chetry holding down the fort tonight. We begin with the news that James Cameron has found Jesus! Literally. Well, sort of. So okay, in 1980 this ancient tomb was discovered that people think held Jesus and now Cameron's doing a documentary on it. Why is this the top story? Well, God gets good ratings. No, really. Apparently everytime Time or Newsweek puts Jesus or something Jesus-like on their covers they sell like hotcakes. And for all intents and purposes we'll just assume that hotcakes sell really well. I guess we're suppose to be on pins and needles as to whether this discovery will change Christianity as we know it, but I'm pretty much feeling meh. We learn in a Tom Foreman piece that the tomb is suppose to contain not only Jesus but his wife Mary Magdalene and their child. Ooh scandal! Critics point out that even if the markings on the tomb are names, "Jesus" and "Mary" were pretty common. I'm a Christian, but I can't say that I'm interested in this at all. This is something that can't be proven, that's why it's called faith. I don't really get the hoopla.
John then has an interview with Bruce Feiler, author of "Walking the Bible" and "Where God Was Born." Bruce is pretty much with me in that he thinks this is all BS for publicity. John wonders how it would shake up the Christian faith if this was all true. Eh, we'd get over it. Seriously though, the only way for this to be confirmed true would be if Jesus himself came down and told us, which I think would be the bigger story. At least I hope if would get more coverage than Anna Nicole Smith. BTW, an interview with Jesus would be a huge "get," though I'm sure Fox News assumes they have automatic dibs. Our Faith and Values Correspondant Delia Gallagher then pipes up that Christians are used to people saying Jesus was married, but what would be troubling in this case is that bone residue is in the tomb. Christians believe Jesus arose and did not leave any bones behind. I'm wondering what CNN does with Delia when nothing's going on. I mean, does the poor woman just sit around waiting for the Pope to tick off Muslims or what?
Next Kiran interviews forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs for a little Jesus CSI. I can see the spin off now. So apparently they tested the bone residue and Jesus and Mary don't match and...I kind of wasn't paying attention. They may have said, but how do they even know what residue belongs to who? One interesting tidbit is that for some reason they didn't test the child. Hmm. Anyway, I'm done with this so moving onto a John Roberts piece about Noah's Ark. I'm sensing a theme here. Some believe it's on Mount Ararat in Turkey and others think its carcass is in the mountains of Iran. After the piece we get Bruce back and he tells us that we're not going to find Noah's Ark. He thinks we're asking too much of the Bible. Exactly. It's called faith for a reason, people. You're not going to find the real stuff. I'm looking at you too, Indiana Jones.
Up next we've got a Randi Kaye piece about...Jesus! Like you're surprised. This time we're focusing on the shroud that he was suppose to have been wrapped in before being placed in the tomb. Apparently it just showed up in the middle of the 14th century and nobody really knows where it came from and where it was before then. There are a few problems here. First off, forensic tests have found that the "blood" on the shroud is most likely some kind of paint. Also, the shroud has been dated at about 700 years old and if you've read your Bible you know that we're missing over 1,000 years. This is some other dude's shroud. Or drop cloth. After the piece Delia notes that it's not really about the shroud, but what the shroud represents. Okay. Is that why people freakout when they find Mary on their toast? And does Jesus approve of ebay? This concludes the Jesus coverage and I am happy. I have a church. I don't necessarily want CNN telling me this stuff.
Transitioning now to what should have been our top story. The VP made a surprise visit to Pakistan to put the smackdown on Musharraf since he's not doing the best job fighting terror in his country. I have to say, if the idea is to scare someone, Cheney was a most excellent choice. The guy makes flowers die and puppies cry. One of the scary things Cheney brought with him, besides his sneering face, is a threat to cut off aid if Musharraf doesn't get his act together. Peter Bergen then joins John to discuss all this. He states that Pakistan sent 7,000 troops to fight al Qaeda and the Taliban and that didn't work. And then they tried peace agreements and that clearly didn't work, so now they don't seem to know what to do. Pakistan is of course downplaying the whole thing, but Peter thinks it's a huge security issue for everyone and of course we all know a bloody spring offensive is coming. John wonders why we don't just send in some special forces to take these guys out. Of course it's not that simple. Peter notes that the camps are very small and then John brings up the fact that if the US pushed Musharraf too hard they could push him off the edge. However, he doesn't mention that this is important because if Musharraf falls the country will most likely go to a radical. And why would that be really, really bad? Because Pakistan has nukes. Say a little prayer for Musharraf.
Switching back to Kiran and she tells us that today the Supreme Court took up a case on a high speed police chase. Apparently one of the cops bumped the driver and sent him down an embankment. He's now paralyzed and claiming his civil rights were violated with unreasonable use of deadly force. This intros us into an old Randi Kaye piece about a 15 year old girl that was killed when another teenager slammed into her family van while being pursued by cops. The whole issue here is that people think these police chases are getting out of hand. They question whether the risk of a chase is greater than just letting the suspect get away. The family of the girl have been fighting to get Christy's Law passed in California, which would "restrict police chases to violent felons posing an immediate threat and make it a felony to flee police." However, they have yet to be successful.
Kiran then speaks with Jeffrey Toobin about the case the Supreme Court just took up. Well Toobin, it's not exactly the Libby trial, but it is better than Anna Nicole Smith. Toobin notes that usually the court is just working with paper, but in this case they actually have a tape to watch. Kiran wonders if the guy has a case. Toobin points out that obviously the fault is with him because he fled, but then again, he was fleeing for a minor offense. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Hey check it out! Anna Nicole Smith has been moved to the headlines! Hooray! Now watch, we'll get 30 minutes tomorrow since I just said that. The Shot tonight is a bunch of creatures off the coast of Antarctica, which is strange since it's suppose to be frozen right now. John tells us "So you lose a little, you gain a little because of this global warming thing." Um, no. I know you're just bantering, but don't make me call Al Gore. Do you have an Oscar? No, I don't think you do. The show wasn't all that great. I'm sure some people loved the Jesus stuff, but it's just not newsworthy because it's unproveable. C
So did they really find Jesus? Does the car chase guy have a case?
John then has an interview with Bruce Feiler, author of "Walking the Bible" and "Where God Was Born." Bruce is pretty much with me in that he thinks this is all BS for publicity. John wonders how it would shake up the Christian faith if this was all true. Eh, we'd get over it. Seriously though, the only way for this to be confirmed true would be if Jesus himself came down and told us, which I think would be the bigger story. At least I hope if would get more coverage than Anna Nicole Smith. BTW, an interview with Jesus would be a huge "get," though I'm sure Fox News assumes they have automatic dibs. Our Faith and Values Correspondant Delia Gallagher then pipes up that Christians are used to people saying Jesus was married, but what would be troubling in this case is that bone residue is in the tomb. Christians believe Jesus arose and did not leave any bones behind. I'm wondering what CNN does with Delia when nothing's going on. I mean, does the poor woman just sit around waiting for the Pope to tick off Muslims or what?
Next Kiran interviews forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs for a little Jesus CSI. I can see the spin off now. So apparently they tested the bone residue and Jesus and Mary don't match and...I kind of wasn't paying attention. They may have said, but how do they even know what residue belongs to who? One interesting tidbit is that for some reason they didn't test the child. Hmm. Anyway, I'm done with this so moving onto a John Roberts piece about Noah's Ark. I'm sensing a theme here. Some believe it's on Mount Ararat in Turkey and others think its carcass is in the mountains of Iran. After the piece we get Bruce back and he tells us that we're not going to find Noah's Ark. He thinks we're asking too much of the Bible. Exactly. It's called faith for a reason, people. You're not going to find the real stuff. I'm looking at you too, Indiana Jones.
Up next we've got a Randi Kaye piece about...Jesus! Like you're surprised. This time we're focusing on the shroud that he was suppose to have been wrapped in before being placed in the tomb. Apparently it just showed up in the middle of the 14th century and nobody really knows where it came from and where it was before then. There are a few problems here. First off, forensic tests have found that the "blood" on the shroud is most likely some kind of paint. Also, the shroud has been dated at about 700 years old and if you've read your Bible you know that we're missing over 1,000 years. This is some other dude's shroud. Or drop cloth. After the piece Delia notes that it's not really about the shroud, but what the shroud represents. Okay. Is that why people freakout when they find Mary on their toast? And does Jesus approve of ebay? This concludes the Jesus coverage and I am happy. I have a church. I don't necessarily want CNN telling me this stuff.
Transitioning now to what should have been our top story. The VP made a surprise visit to Pakistan to put the smackdown on Musharraf since he's not doing the best job fighting terror in his country. I have to say, if the idea is to scare someone, Cheney was a most excellent choice. The guy makes flowers die and puppies cry. One of the scary things Cheney brought with him, besides his sneering face, is a threat to cut off aid if Musharraf doesn't get his act together. Peter Bergen then joins John to discuss all this. He states that Pakistan sent 7,000 troops to fight al Qaeda and the Taliban and that didn't work. And then they tried peace agreements and that clearly didn't work, so now they don't seem to know what to do. Pakistan is of course downplaying the whole thing, but Peter thinks it's a huge security issue for everyone and of course we all know a bloody spring offensive is coming. John wonders why we don't just send in some special forces to take these guys out. Of course it's not that simple. Peter notes that the camps are very small and then John brings up the fact that if the US pushed Musharraf too hard they could push him off the edge. However, he doesn't mention that this is important because if Musharraf falls the country will most likely go to a radical. And why would that be really, really bad? Because Pakistan has nukes. Say a little prayer for Musharraf.
Switching back to Kiran and she tells us that today the Supreme Court took up a case on a high speed police chase. Apparently one of the cops bumped the driver and sent him down an embankment. He's now paralyzed and claiming his civil rights were violated with unreasonable use of deadly force. This intros us into an old Randi Kaye piece about a 15 year old girl that was killed when another teenager slammed into her family van while being pursued by cops. The whole issue here is that people think these police chases are getting out of hand. They question whether the risk of a chase is greater than just letting the suspect get away. The family of the girl have been fighting to get Christy's Law passed in California, which would "restrict police chases to violent felons posing an immediate threat and make it a felony to flee police." However, they have yet to be successful.
Kiran then speaks with Jeffrey Toobin about the case the Supreme Court just took up. Well Toobin, it's not exactly the Libby trial, but it is better than Anna Nicole Smith. Toobin notes that usually the court is just working with paper, but in this case they actually have a tape to watch. Kiran wonders if the guy has a case. Toobin points out that obviously the fault is with him because he fled, but then again, he was fleeing for a minor offense. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Hey check it out! Anna Nicole Smith has been moved to the headlines! Hooray! Now watch, we'll get 30 minutes tomorrow since I just said that. The Shot tonight is a bunch of creatures off the coast of Antarctica, which is strange since it's suppose to be frozen right now. John tells us "So you lose a little, you gain a little because of this global warming thing." Um, no. I know you're just bantering, but don't make me call Al Gore. Do you have an Oscar? No, I don't think you do. The show wasn't all that great. I'm sure some people loved the Jesus stuff, but it's just not newsworthy because it's unproveable. C
So did they really find Jesus? Does the car chase guy have a case?
posted by eliza at 12:43 AM
10 Comments:
Anderson was doing an interview with Walter Cronkite in California last night, hence his absence.
While I didn't enjoy all the Jesus stuff, I was highly entertained by Kiran's complete cluelessness during her interview with Kathy Reichs. She didn't seem to be able to grasp the concept of mitochondrial DNA. Guess she's not a big fan of CSI.
(By the way, what's with the Batgirl boots?)
Another moment of note was seeing Peter Bergen's attempt at imitating Michael Ware, going so far as saying "I mean" twice. Nice try, Pete, but those glasses and that tie will have to go, a couple of games of rugby should take care of those nice regular features, and you still need a bit of practice with that accent...
The Jesus stuff was making me roll my eyes. I don't care, either.
The mitochondrial DNA? Yes, I was explaining that to someone at the time. It's not very useful, except in proving that people don't have the same mother. They could be half-siblings and you really wouldn't be able to tell, because mitochondrial DNA doesn't have the full scheme.
@dannie- yeah, the boots. I wasn't sure what I was hating more- the boots, or the fact that her shirt did not fit right. The color was great...
anyway.
That police thing irks me in ways that it probably doesn't irk most, because I was a police officer. It really bugs me when the public attempts to make mandates on police behavior when they have no idea what it's like to be one. Now, I'm going to add to that, that I don't think the police should have entirely free reign, but geez- that particular guy (the paralyzed one)- RAN from police. And so they chased him. People usually are running because they've got a reason too, like a felony or something. Sometimes they're just terrified to get pulled over and running makes it worse and they don't know how to stop! It's a big mess.
I'm very interested to see whatever Anderson was up to last night. I'm not voting for "Oscar Bender" :) lol. It was most likely the Cronkite interview, which I'm curious about....
Police chases are a catch-22 situation. If an officer goes after a driver and that driver has an accident, the police gets sued. If the officer doesn't go after the driver and that driver causes an accident, the police gets sued. So basically, cops have to choose who they'd rather have suing them: a criminal, or the family of an innocent bystander.
I could hardly watch the show last night. They must have stept 20 minuts on real news in 2 hours combined. Why spent half an hour on Jesus tomb? it was not breaking news, they already knew it's not provable, why start the show with it and cover it for so long?? There were A LOT of developments to talk about in depth. Wolf had hard news over the first 30 minutes (and animated Michael reporting), there's plenty going on. Plus repeat in 2nd hour. JR and Kiran together were too much for my taste. With Anderson's absense it's pretty clear he has nothing to do with the show's poor content.
360 producers, wake up! You can't outdo Fox in their territory, even with Kiran's short skirts, but you'll lose regular viewers and random ones who are looking for serious coverage real soon.
@dannie -Bergen has his own nice accent -) And don't forget, he was cnn producer, he didn't always have that professors look --)
@dannie-Yeah, I know about the Cronkite thing. An Oscar bender just sounds so much more interesting though, don't you think? ;)
Heh. I really don't think Peter was trying to imitate Michael. Peter's cool-just in a different way.
@sharla-What's with you guys and the boots? I didn't even notice what she had on her feet. Poor Kiran. 360 fans are tough. :)
I get what you're saying about the police, but really, there are mandates on a lot of professional's behavior. It does seem overly risky to go tearing through communites after somebody who's only committed a minor offense.
@Ivy-Yeah, there was a whole bunch of stuff they could have been covering instead. I was, however, pleasantly surprised to see Sy Hersh in the second hour.
@ivy & eliza: My remarks about Bergie were meant to be humourous. Well, that was a dismal failure! I just thought it was funny that he used Ware-isms during his piece... I really like him and his quirks, and he's monstruously smart — if only he didn't always look so serious!
And I agree the Oscar bender sounds like enormous fun!
I'm all up for an Oscar bender! Someone pass me a Cosmopolitan!
heh.
Anyhow, the boots? Well, it's just that they screamed in my face when they did the full shot, that's why. Couldn't help but see them. I actually liked the boots, but, not for the show!!
And as for "the guy committing a minor offense"- last I checked, you really can't see who is in the car, so for all you know they could be a dangerous armed felon with three stolen babies in the trunk. Seeing as they ran from you, you've got to chase them. I think though, that people are either going nuts lately, or, we've just got better coverage of it.
And according to John Gibson, Anderson is a news-snob. Really? I never noticed that.....
@eliza -Sy Hersh was interviewd on Wolf, they pspent a lot of time on that. I was glad they had him on 360 too. Police should be responsible for not hurting innocent people.
@sharla -- accusing of being a news snob for a news journalist should be a compliment, especially coming from Faux -) Gibson said more today, look on thinkprogress.
@dannie -- what a surprise, Bergen did a report for 360 today! did you see it? I agree with eliza, he has his own style and he is incredibly smart and charming.
@ivy: Yes, I saw Bergie's report. He's a very smart and interesting man. For some reason, I always find myself mesmerized by that scar on his chin — it looks like it was a bad injury...
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