Britney Spears (No, really!), A Possible Splintering Of The GOP, Raw Politics, Elissa Walls Interview, And Clarence Thomas Speaks (Monday's Show)
Hi guys. Hey, you know how I'm all cynical and not very shockable? Well, tonight I was shocked. It never even occurred to me that the most trusted name in news would lead off their primetime show with coverage of a has-been pop star losing custody of her children. In retrospect, I suppose I should have known. Really, there's not much to say except, what the hell, 360? You guys are killing me. I try to be a good little fan and recommend the show to people, but then they tune in to find crap, which makes me look stupid. It's embarrassing. The quality of the show is so unbelievably inconsistent that I feel like I need to preview every broadcast before I can recommend it to someone, and that's completely ridiculous.
Anyway, we kick things off with Anderson admitting that Britney actually isn't the most important news story of the day. She's not even a news story! She's entertainment news. Is there no line anymore? We then get a Randi Kaye piece that basically recaps the pop princess's career. I've always been grateful that my formidable teen years leaned more towards the Nirvana part of the 90's, than the bubble gum groups that came later in the decade. But enough about that. Next we've got some legal analysis from Jeffrey Toobin. Oh, Toobin. What are you doing, man? This is your week. You've got a best-selling book that's getting great reviews. Couldn't you tell them to suck it? Be a diva. You know you want to.
On now to discussion about Britney with Dr. Gail Saltz, psychiatrist. Oh boy. "Is this bottom?" asks Anderson. At this point I'm not sure if he's talking about Britney or the show. You know, when I heard she was having her kids taken away, I just felt sad. This is a person who obviously has a lot of problems and now there are people who don't even know her discussing her life on national television. How does this help? It's sickening. Suicide is mentioned and I honestly wouldn't be surprised if we hear of an attempt in the future. And the media will bear some responsibility.
Transitioning now to a John King piece on how conservatives hate Giuliani. It's the abortion and gay rights thing. I was wondering when this was going to happen. They're threatening to create their own party if he gets the nomination. Good! The country went down the toilet when the GOP was united, so the party in shambles can only mean good things. To talk about that possibility, we're next joined by Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council. Anderson asks if he's worried about the plan backfiring and the democrats going home with the prize. Tony then says that they're not creating this new third party now, only if Giuliani gets nominated. So it's a threat then. And my guess is an empty threat at that. Anderson points out that people care more about domestic issues than social issues anyway. But Tony's all about stopping abortion and he calls the other side "pro-abortion," which is really annoying and unfair because people who believe in choice are not for abortions. Tony also thinks that in a Giuliani/Hillary Clinton battle, Clinton's the one who will end up picking out the White House drapes.
Next up we've got Tom Foreman with our "Raw Politics" and it seems the Democrats are kicking Republican butt when it comes to fund raising. Poor GOP. You should make yourself feel better by wasting a lot of time talking about a bad pun. Joe Johns has the headlines tonight, but perhaps someone forgot to tell him that included doing "What Were They Thinking?" because there's a moment where he and Anderson kind of awkwardly stare at each other before Joe is basically like, "oh yeah, I gotta do that thing." And Anderson almost started laughing, but he quickly swallowed it down and gave us his Larry-King-has-just-said-something-really-weird-but-I'm-not-going-to-react face. Oh, so what's the segment about tonight? Well, apparently in order to teach about racism and the "Jena 6", some school decided to put a noose around a couple of kid's necks. So . . . wow. Yeah, not much thinking there.
Moving on now to the case of Warren Jeffs and the story of Elissa Walls the woman that was forced by Jeffs to marry her cousin when she was 14 years old. We begin the polygamy coverage with a Gary Tuchman piece that kind of recaps everything. We also see Gary getting shunned. Again. Poor Gary. Then Anderson has an interview with Elissa and her current husband that she loves. They discuss why she decided to come forward and pretty much for her it's all about the child abuse. She doesn't believe any child should be abused, whether under the umbrella of religion or not. Amen. BTW, she's only 21 now--barely an adult, but oh so brave.
We've got Toobin back again now, but he's going to talk about something a little more worthy this time: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. I said more worthy, not fun or likeable. From Toobin we learn that Thomas is angry. Oh and you won't like him when he's angry. You know, mostly because he takes away your rights and stuff. Apparently this guy has some sort of massive chip on his shoulder and furious is his default state. He was on 60 Minutes and we're played a clip of him speaking about Anita Hill. Anderson notes that he dismisses all those charges, but doesn't address the details. Toobin points out that he actually wasn't asked about the details. Anderson then has to stick up for his 60 Minutes colleague by asking whether or not they knew for sure he didn't ask, as opposed to the questions just not airing. Toobin admits he doesn't know, but um, the difference means nothing to those of us watching at home. Sounds like Thomas got a softball.
Toobin says that, actually, all evidence points to Anita Hill being the truthful one. And after reading David Brock's Blinded by the Right, I completely believe that. Brock is a recovering Republican who is the founder of mediamatters.org., current nemesis of Bill O'Reilly. He wasn't just a Republican, he was an Ann Coulter Republican, and his hit piece and book on Anita Hill (which he has admitted are full of lies) were instrumental in her smearing. But Brock has since left the darkness and works for the good guys now. Hey, maybe there's hope for Ann yet.
The Shot tonight is the Great Pumpkin Regatta. Pumpkins float. Who knew? The show tonight started out surreal and the rest was okay. C-
Anyway, we kick things off with Anderson admitting that Britney actually isn't the most important news story of the day. She's not even a news story! She's entertainment news. Is there no line anymore? We then get a Randi Kaye piece that basically recaps the pop princess's career. I've always been grateful that my formidable teen years leaned more towards the Nirvana part of the 90's, than the bubble gum groups that came later in the decade. But enough about that. Next we've got some legal analysis from Jeffrey Toobin. Oh, Toobin. What are you doing, man? This is your week. You've got a best-selling book that's getting great reviews. Couldn't you tell them to suck it? Be a diva. You know you want to.
On now to discussion about Britney with Dr. Gail Saltz, psychiatrist. Oh boy. "Is this bottom?" asks Anderson. At this point I'm not sure if he's talking about Britney or the show. You know, when I heard she was having her kids taken away, I just felt sad. This is a person who obviously has a lot of problems and now there are people who don't even know her discussing her life on national television. How does this help? It's sickening. Suicide is mentioned and I honestly wouldn't be surprised if we hear of an attempt in the future. And the media will bear some responsibility.
Transitioning now to a John King piece on how conservatives hate Giuliani. It's the abortion and gay rights thing. I was wondering when this was going to happen. They're threatening to create their own party if he gets the nomination. Good! The country went down the toilet when the GOP was united, so the party in shambles can only mean good things. To talk about that possibility, we're next joined by Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council. Anderson asks if he's worried about the plan backfiring and the democrats going home with the prize. Tony then says that they're not creating this new third party now, only if Giuliani gets nominated. So it's a threat then. And my guess is an empty threat at that. Anderson points out that people care more about domestic issues than social issues anyway. But Tony's all about stopping abortion and he calls the other side "pro-abortion," which is really annoying and unfair because people who believe in choice are not for abortions. Tony also thinks that in a Giuliani/Hillary Clinton battle, Clinton's the one who will end up picking out the White House drapes.
Next up we've got Tom Foreman with our "Raw Politics" and it seems the Democrats are kicking Republican butt when it comes to fund raising. Poor GOP. You should make yourself feel better by wasting a lot of time talking about a bad pun. Joe Johns has the headlines tonight, but perhaps someone forgot to tell him that included doing "What Were They Thinking?" because there's a moment where he and Anderson kind of awkwardly stare at each other before Joe is basically like, "oh yeah, I gotta do that thing." And Anderson almost started laughing, but he quickly swallowed it down and gave us his Larry-King-has-just-said-something-really-weird-but-I'm-not-going-to-react face. Oh, so what's the segment about tonight? Well, apparently in order to teach about racism and the "Jena 6", some school decided to put a noose around a couple of kid's necks. So . . . wow. Yeah, not much thinking there.
Moving on now to the case of Warren Jeffs and the story of Elissa Walls the woman that was forced by Jeffs to marry her cousin when she was 14 years old. We begin the polygamy coverage with a Gary Tuchman piece that kind of recaps everything. We also see Gary getting shunned. Again. Poor Gary. Then Anderson has an interview with Elissa and her current husband that she loves. They discuss why she decided to come forward and pretty much for her it's all about the child abuse. She doesn't believe any child should be abused, whether under the umbrella of religion or not. Amen. BTW, she's only 21 now--barely an adult, but oh so brave.
We've got Toobin back again now, but he's going to talk about something a little more worthy this time: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. I said more worthy, not fun or likeable. From Toobin we learn that Thomas is angry. Oh and you won't like him when he's angry. You know, mostly because he takes away your rights and stuff. Apparently this guy has some sort of massive chip on his shoulder and furious is his default state. He was on 60 Minutes and we're played a clip of him speaking about Anita Hill. Anderson notes that he dismisses all those charges, but doesn't address the details. Toobin points out that he actually wasn't asked about the details. Anderson then has to stick up for his 60 Minutes colleague by asking whether or not they knew for sure he didn't ask, as opposed to the questions just not airing. Toobin admits he doesn't know, but um, the difference means nothing to those of us watching at home. Sounds like Thomas got a softball.
Toobin says that, actually, all evidence points to Anita Hill being the truthful one. And after reading David Brock's Blinded by the Right, I completely believe that. Brock is a recovering Republican who is the founder of mediamatters.org., current nemesis of Bill O'Reilly. He wasn't just a Republican, he was an Ann Coulter Republican, and his hit piece and book on Anita Hill (which he has admitted are full of lies) were instrumental in her smearing. But Brock has since left the darkness and works for the good guys now. Hey, maybe there's hope for Ann yet.
The Shot tonight is the Great Pumpkin Regatta. Pumpkins float. Who knew? The show tonight started out surreal and the rest was okay. C-
posted by eliza at 11:46 PM
2 Comments:
Is it wrong of me to sometimes hope for a bad night on 360 just because I want to read your blistering review the next day? Although I suppose I don't need to really "hope" for a bad show, they pretty much serve it up on a plate at times.
There's no way Britney Spears should be any serious news program's top story; I guess we've reached the point where we're going to be forced to hear about celebrities on the news but don't put it at the top of the hour as if it's on a par with reports about Iraq and Iran. At least it was kept short and I'd like to think a certain blue-eyed, gray haired anchor laid down the law about that.
I hope we won't be hearing more about Warren Jeffs. Clarence Thomas is creepy and should've been grilled thoroughly by 60 Minutes; it was interesting when AC immediately jumped in to give the benefit of the doubt about the questions.
The look on Anderson's face after Joe Johns' gaffe was pretty funny, you could see he was trying not to bust out laughing, it was a teeny enjoyable moment in the show.
@anonymous-Heh. I suppose it's not wrong of you. Sometimes ripping them is fun, but I'd rather just watch a quality show. Having Britney be the top story is just mind boggling and kind of shameful.
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