Subpoena Approval, Cambodia Sex Trafficking, Al Gore And Global Warming, Bartender Attack, And UFOs (Wednesday's First Hour)
Hello all. We're in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, tonight, but Anderson begins by throwing it back to John Roberts in New York for a piece John did on attorney-gate. Today a House committee approved subpoenas and John tells us that the democrats see Karl Rove as a political pinata. They want to whack him until all his secrets come out. I'd watch that. Bush is of course resisting because the White House believes his executive power is being eroded. We get to see Tony Snow getting hammered, which is always fun, though interestingly we don't see any Ed Henry. I say that because MSNBC of all places played a long clip of an exchange between Ed and Snow. One thing he questioned Snow on was all the pages that are apparently missing from the documents, which you think would be a big angle in their coverage tonight, but no. Hmm.
Next up Jeffrey Toobin (who they're keeping very busy) joins John for discussion. John wonders who has the upper hand in all this. It's not clear to Toobin, but he seems to think it's the democrats since Bush is looking like he has something to hide. They then go into some talk on executive privilege and John asks if the document dump itself could be seen as a waiver. Toobin points out that that's exactly what the democrats will most likely argue. John mentions a couple of cases where privilege was denied, but in those cases there was a crime. So far there doesn't seem to be a crime in attorney-gate, but Toobin notes that might not matter because courts don't like privileges. I guess we'll see. Bring on the subpoenas!
Transitioning now to Anderson Cooper walking around a red-light district. I'll forego the joke.
He then intros into a piece he did on Cambodian sex slavery. We learn that in the capital alone there are 10,000 to 20,000 prostitutes and at least 25% are children. The prostitutes are often uneducated, poor, abused, and forced to work long hours. Nicholas Kristoff of the "New York Times" points out that there is a belief there that sleeping with a virgin can cure AIDS and Cambodia now has the highest HIV rate in Asia. We then move on to a Dan Rivers piece about how Cambodia is a pedophile haven. He introduces us to Amit Gilboa, an author who wrote a book about sex-crazed expatriates, or sex-pats as he calls them. One of these sex-pats is Graham Cleghorn, who was actually convicted in 2004 of raping five teenagers. Unfortunately conviction of sex-pats is rare. Also, during Dan's piece there was this really annoying graphic that took up like a fifth of the screen. Seriously 360, why must you do that?
Next up we have a Candy Crowley piece, which is basically about how Al Gore is cool now. Today he returned to his old Capitol Hill haunt in order testify about global warming. Last time he was there he was certifying the 2000 election. I'm guessing this time was better for him. The will he or won't he run question is bantered about, but Gore remains coy. After the piece Anderson tells us, "You have probably heard or read reports that downplay the threat, and even question whether it's happening at all. It can be confusing. And what often gets lost in the debate is a simple fact: The vast majority of scientists believe, without a doubt, that global warming is real." Thank you! 360 has actually been pretty good with the global warming stuff (when they cover it) since I've been watching. I know it used to drive me crazy when shows would have debates between an actual scientist and some guy working for an Exxon-Mobil backed think tank.
And this segways us nicely into a Joe Johns "Keeping Them Honest" piece on how people have been trying to cloud the global warming debate. This info is old, but always worth a mention. You see, Philip Cooney was hired by the White House to muddle up the facts. He's not a scientist, but that didn't stop him from editing scientific reports to make it look like warming was not a big problem. We get to see some of these documents in the piece (good job guys). I'm pretty sure Cooney had a hand in the Kyoto decision too, but that's not mentioned. Cooney isn't with the White House anymore. Where did he go? Exxon-Mobil of course. For great coverage on how the global warming debate has been purposefully muddled, see Mother Jones.
On now to a repeat of the Jeff Corwin piece from the other day and afterwards he's live with Anderson. Jeff is very disturbed about the tiger furs he saw and he notes there are many more endangered species in southeast Asia than other places. After this we go back to New York and John Roberts tells us all about this woman who was attacked by an off duty cop while she was tending bar. There's a tape of course and I'm wondering if they just released it today or something because apparently this attack took place a month ago. So...why are we talking about it now? John then interviews the woman and her lawyer and I still don't get the point here. Whatever.
Next up we have a Gary Tuchman piece on, well, UFOs. Back in 1997 there were unexplained lights over the sky in Phoenix and we're talking about it again now because the governor at the time has come forward and admitted he saw them. At the time he tried to humorously downplay the lights in order to prevent panic. Now that he's out of office he's not only publicly acknowledging what he saw, he thinks the lights came from aliens. Ooookay. Well, it would be comforting to know there's intelligent life somewhere. The Shot tonight is of two cops who pull a man out of a burning van. And he's on fire. Oh! We end the hour with a ringing phone. Apparently John was expecting a call.
Screencap by stillife.
Next up Jeffrey Toobin (who they're keeping very busy) joins John for discussion. John wonders who has the upper hand in all this. It's not clear to Toobin, but he seems to think it's the democrats since Bush is looking like he has something to hide. They then go into some talk on executive privilege and John asks if the document dump itself could be seen as a waiver. Toobin points out that that's exactly what the democrats will most likely argue. John mentions a couple of cases where privilege was denied, but in those cases there was a crime. So far there doesn't seem to be a crime in attorney-gate, but Toobin notes that might not matter because courts don't like privileges. I guess we'll see. Bring on the subpoenas!
Transitioning now to Anderson Cooper walking around a red-light district. I'll forego the joke.
He then intros into a piece he did on Cambodian sex slavery. We learn that in the capital alone there are 10,000 to 20,000 prostitutes and at least 25% are children. The prostitutes are often uneducated, poor, abused, and forced to work long hours. Nicholas Kristoff of the "New York Times" points out that there is a belief there that sleeping with a virgin can cure AIDS and Cambodia now has the highest HIV rate in Asia. We then move on to a Dan Rivers piece about how Cambodia is a pedophile haven. He introduces us to Amit Gilboa, an author who wrote a book about sex-crazed expatriates, or sex-pats as he calls them. One of these sex-pats is Graham Cleghorn, who was actually convicted in 2004 of raping five teenagers. Unfortunately conviction of sex-pats is rare. Also, during Dan's piece there was this really annoying graphic that took up like a fifth of the screen. Seriously 360, why must you do that?Next up we have a Candy Crowley piece, which is basically about how Al Gore is cool now. Today he returned to his old Capitol Hill haunt in order testify about global warming. Last time he was there he was certifying the 2000 election. I'm guessing this time was better for him. The will he or won't he run question is bantered about, but Gore remains coy. After the piece Anderson tells us, "You have probably heard or read reports that downplay the threat, and even question whether it's happening at all. It can be confusing. And what often gets lost in the debate is a simple fact: The vast majority of scientists believe, without a doubt, that global warming is real." Thank you! 360 has actually been pretty good with the global warming stuff (when they cover it) since I've been watching. I know it used to drive me crazy when shows would have debates between an actual scientist and some guy working for an Exxon-Mobil backed think tank.
And this segways us nicely into a Joe Johns "Keeping Them Honest" piece on how people have been trying to cloud the global warming debate. This info is old, but always worth a mention. You see, Philip Cooney was hired by the White House to muddle up the facts. He's not a scientist, but that didn't stop him from editing scientific reports to make it look like warming was not a big problem. We get to see some of these documents in the piece (good job guys). I'm pretty sure Cooney had a hand in the Kyoto decision too, but that's not mentioned. Cooney isn't with the White House anymore. Where did he go? Exxon-Mobil of course. For great coverage on how the global warming debate has been purposefully muddled, see Mother Jones.
On now to a repeat of the Jeff Corwin piece from the other day and afterwards he's live with Anderson. Jeff is very disturbed about the tiger furs he saw and he notes there are many more endangered species in southeast Asia than other places. After this we go back to New York and John Roberts tells us all about this woman who was attacked by an off duty cop while she was tending bar. There's a tape of course and I'm wondering if they just released it today or something because apparently this attack took place a month ago. So...why are we talking about it now? John then interviews the woman and her lawyer and I still don't get the point here. Whatever.
Next up we have a Gary Tuchman piece on, well, UFOs. Back in 1997 there were unexplained lights over the sky in Phoenix and we're talking about it again now because the governor at the time has come forward and admitted he saw them. At the time he tried to humorously downplay the lights in order to prevent panic. Now that he's out of office he's not only publicly acknowledging what he saw, he thinks the lights came from aliens. Ooookay. Well, it would be comforting to know there's intelligent life somewhere. The Shot tonight is of two cops who pull a man out of a burning van. And he's on fire. Oh! We end the hour with a ringing phone. Apparently John was expecting a call.
Screencap by stillife.
posted by eliza at 7:19 PM
2 Comments:
In my opinion, UFOs in the Bible are angles and are referred to as a cloud, fire, star, etc.
I am truly surprised at the reaction towards Gore on Global Warming. It has become a political issue instead of an environmental concern. More time is spent on arguing over it instead of how we should deal with it.
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