Holding Schools Accountable For Bullying, Hutaree Update, Obama Allowing Offshore Drilling, And Investigating Scientology Part III
Hi everyone. I seem to have just developed the worst headache, so I'm going to breeze past some of this. Otherwise, it's just going to come out cranky. Well, crankier than usual. At this point I think we all know the drill for the top of the show: a Scientology preview/recap.
Then Anderson Cooper is at the Magic Wall to talk about bullying. Yesterday we learned of the suicide of Phoebe Prince. Tonight we're told that 13-year-old Jon Carmichael and 12- year-old Kimberly Linczeski also recently took their own lives due to harassment from classmates. I wonder if there's any significance to the fact that so many of these kids choose hanging. It's hard for me to imagine anything worse than a parent finding their child like that and then having to cut them down.
From here we go to an Alino Cho piece in which she tries to talk to the principal of Phoebe Prince's high school regarding whether or not they dropped the ball on this case. She gets him to answer a couple of general questions at the door and then he threatens to call the cops. Defensive much?
For discussion, we're joined by author Rosalind Wiseman, expert on all things "mean girls." So much better than Dr. Phil. Of note is the notion that upon witnessing an incident, officials should not go to the bullied student, but rather the bullier. Kids that get picked on will say they're okay even when they're not. Rosalind says we need to get kids to believe in adults. Good advice.
Next up, Anderson has an interview with Jon Carmichael's parents, Tami and Tim, about the bullying their son faced. And it is beyond sad. If sad were a location, this interview resides about five miles past that spot.
Something that hasn't really come up in the coverage yet is how ingrained the acceptance of bullying is in our culture. Recently I've been watching the 90's show Freaks and Geeks. The teenage son is constantly being bullied. In one episode he's even thrown naked out into the hallway. Yet none of it is treated all that seriously by anyone. You see this over and over in TV shows and movies. It's like many people just expect it to happen.
Bullying isn't a new phenomenon by any means. It makes me wonder if it's gotten worse recently or kids are reacting to it in more extreme ways now. Perhaps even these suicides have been going on for decades and they just never got this kind of national attention, so no one even identified a widespread problem. Whatever's going on, people are paying attention now. This needs to stop.
Transitioning now to Drew Griffin updating us on those Hutaree militia people. Turns out they're looking more like those yahoos in Miami who plotted to blow up the Sears Tower, than anyone, you know, competent. But they still had a lot of weapons so let's not dismiss them too much.
On now to a Tom Foreman piece on Obama's offshore drilling plan. We get played clips of Campaign!Obama dissing on the notion, but this isn't exactly a flip flop since he's always been down with the practice to an extent. The Sierra Club is not happy, I'll tell you that.
For discussion of this, we're joined by David Gergen...and WTF is going on with the graphics? I guess 360 is trying new things. They do know that it's not the visuals that are their problem, right? Anyway! There's talk about bargaining chips..and getting Republicans to come on-board on energy legislation...and I'm wondering what part of "The Party of No" the Gerg does not understand.
It's time for part three of the Scientology series and I have to admit, it's starting to wear on me. It's not the report itself, but the presentation. I'm guessing this might end up as a special, which is no doubt the best way to watch. The way we're currently watching (edited over the whole week) makes it feel like you're seeing the same thing over and over. I get why they do it this way though. At least they're being consistent. Too many times we'll hear of a "series" that ends up having half its days bumped.
So anyway, the new stuff tonight is Anderson talking to church members who border on yelling at him for having the gall to ask questions about why the police were never notified about the abuse. Good times. Our anchor was actually pretty impressive in this segment. Particularly this part:
The "shot" tonight is a kid climbing in one of those claw machine games. Eh. Not all that funny and actually probably dangerous. Bring back the cute animals! The show wasn't bad. That'll do it.
Then Anderson Cooper is at the Magic Wall to talk about bullying. Yesterday we learned of the suicide of Phoebe Prince. Tonight we're told that 13-year-old Jon Carmichael and 12- year-old Kimberly Linczeski also recently took their own lives due to harassment from classmates. I wonder if there's any significance to the fact that so many of these kids choose hanging. It's hard for me to imagine anything worse than a parent finding their child like that and then having to cut them down.
From here we go to an Alino Cho piece in which she tries to talk to the principal of Phoebe Prince's high school regarding whether or not they dropped the ball on this case. She gets him to answer a couple of general questions at the door and then he threatens to call the cops. Defensive much?
For discussion, we're joined by author Rosalind Wiseman, expert on all things "mean girls." So much better than Dr. Phil. Of note is the notion that upon witnessing an incident, officials should not go to the bullied student, but rather the bullier. Kids that get picked on will say they're okay even when they're not. Rosalind says we need to get kids to believe in adults. Good advice.
Next up, Anderson has an interview with Jon Carmichael's parents, Tami and Tim, about the bullying their son faced. And it is beyond sad. If sad were a location, this interview resides about five miles past that spot.
Something that hasn't really come up in the coverage yet is how ingrained the acceptance of bullying is in our culture. Recently I've been watching the 90's show Freaks and Geeks. The teenage son is constantly being bullied. In one episode he's even thrown naked out into the hallway. Yet none of it is treated all that seriously by anyone. You see this over and over in TV shows and movies. It's like many people just expect it to happen.
Bullying isn't a new phenomenon by any means. It makes me wonder if it's gotten worse recently or kids are reacting to it in more extreme ways now. Perhaps even these suicides have been going on for decades and they just never got this kind of national attention, so no one even identified a widespread problem. Whatever's going on, people are paying attention now. This needs to stop.
Transitioning now to Drew Griffin updating us on those Hutaree militia people. Turns out they're looking more like those yahoos in Miami who plotted to blow up the Sears Tower, than anyone, you know, competent. But they still had a lot of weapons so let's not dismiss them too much.
On now to a Tom Foreman piece on Obama's offshore drilling plan. We get played clips of Campaign!Obama dissing on the notion, but this isn't exactly a flip flop since he's always been down with the practice to an extent. The Sierra Club is not happy, I'll tell you that.
For discussion of this, we're joined by David Gergen...and WTF is going on with the graphics? I guess 360 is trying new things. They do know that it's not the visuals that are their problem, right? Anyway! There's talk about bargaining chips..and getting Republicans to come on-board on energy legislation...and I'm wondering what part of "The Party of No" the Gerg does not understand.
It's time for part three of the Scientology series and I have to admit, it's starting to wear on me. It's not the report itself, but the presentation. I'm guessing this might end up as a special, which is no doubt the best way to watch. The way we're currently watching (edited over the whole week) makes it feel like you're seeing the same thing over and over. I get why they do it this way though. At least they're being consistent. Too many times we'll hear of a "series" that ends up having half its days bumped.
So anyway, the new stuff tonight is Anderson talking to church members who border on yelling at him for having the gall to ask questions about why the police were never notified about the abuse. Good times. Our anchor was actually pretty impressive in this segment. Particularly this part:
You said that Marty Rathbun beat people more than a dozen times. You said Mike Rinder has beat people and that was known. Apparently, at the time, at least some of it was known at the time. And yet, that seemed to be acceptable behavior in the church and no charges were ever filed against any of these people. It seems remarkable if, in fact, that is really the truth, unless the opposite is true and their charges are true and it was the head of the church who was doing these beatings, in which case, it would make sense that no charges would be filed or no one would come forward.Remarkable indeed. And that's basically all I have to say.
The "shot" tonight is a kid climbing in one of those claw machine games. Eh. Not all that funny and actually probably dangerous. Bring back the cute animals! The show wasn't bad. That'll do it.
Labels: bullying, Hutaree, offshore drilling, Scientology
posted by eliza at 11:59 PM
2 Comments:
Yeah, seeing the same thing over and over again is really annoying. They could go on with out the preview. Wasting too much time. I want them to repeat that Ac deliver some smack downs or when the people from the church get aggressive and calling him names. Really, the silver fox is many thing but rude is not one of them.
Rarely do I see AC doing such a good job in an interview. Looking forward to more report like this. After all, I don't think he should do political in interview since the fake balance take out all the objectivity.
That interview was so sad. And to top it off, AC talk about his brother. God, too much angst for one segment.
OT: Did you see Stephen Colbert called out the "mainstream militia" segment?
@Sammy: Well, they're using the series to try to draw in viewers each night. For those of us who watch every night, it gets a little repetitive. It's a hard balance for them to strike.
No, I wouldn't ever call Anderson rude. Snarky, yes. On a rare occasion, dismissive. But never outright rude. I love to see him "on" and feisty like that. We need to see that more often. I'm a sucker for a well-researched interviewer who sticks to their guns. The last really exceptional interview that Anderson's done that I can think of was Scott McClellan. Been a while.
I can't imagine what it must be like for those parents. Yes, clearly the subject has especially touched Anderson.
I just Googled the segment up. Funny.
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