Anderson Cooper 360 Review: Week Four Of Live Coverage From Louisana Of The BP Oil Disaster

Hi everyone. Day 56 of the oil disaster, week four of the 360 kids live from the field. Their stick-to-it-ness is about to rival how long they stayed for Katrina or Israel. Good for them. Well, shall we do this thing? The bullet points await:

Anderson Cooper: "Now, I know it seems like we have been talking about this oil for a long time. And maybe you're getting tired of hearing about it. And I understand that, but this oil is not keeping track of days." Nope, I'm good. But thank you for your concern. Seriously, this is 360/Anderson at their best. This is the kind of reporting that built their base of viewers. And the ratings are showing it too, with a pretty consistent solid second most nights they've been in the Gulf.

Well, what a surprise, more evidence that BP sacrificed safety to save a quick buck. I swear, at this point all of the company's executives should have twirly mustaches because they are becoming cartoonishly evil.

After taking a shortcut, one BP official actually wrote in an email, "Who cares? It's done. End of story. We will probably be fine." We'll probably be fine? That's like the horror movie equivalent of "I'll be right back." They're not going to be right back; they're going to get stabbed by the scary murderer! And now the Gulf is full of oil.

Billy Nungesser and Douglas Brinkley stopped by for their nightly BP bashing. You can watch the entire first segment of the broadcast including the first part of their discussion below (quality is bad, but beggars can't be choosers):

Ed Henry joined us (looking uncharacteristically sweaty) to talk about President Obama's speech tomorrow and his dwindling poll numbers. The prez will be coming at us from the Oval Office, which Ed implies is a Big Deal, or as the vice president might say, a Big F*cking Deal. As for those poll numbers, 71 percent of respondents think Obama hasn't been tough enough on BP. Wow, that's bad. Except for, not really. Hell, I still pretty much have his back on this and even I'm probably one of those 71 percenters. Let's face it, we humans are pretty childish. We want this thing fixed. Now! And since Obama's our leader and BP is the supposed fixer, obviously he's not being tough enough, right? Yeah, things are more complicated than that, people. I want Obama to be tough too. I want him to tie BP up, lift them by their ankles, and repeatedly dunk them in the oily Gulf until they cry. But as far as actual things Obama could be doing to them right now? Beats me. I suspect many of those 71 percenters aren't as down on the president as your average pundit might like you to believe. That being said, Obama is not in an enviable position--not by a long shot.

You know how I've been having a coronary over our press's coronary about Obama's lack of coronary over the oil disaster? Enter Fareed Zakaria who is so far this week's winner of the Internets. So reasonable! And yet James Carville is all over my TeeVee screen. (I actually probably support more federal intervention on this than Zakaria does, but still, reasonableness stands.)

Now the British are mad at us for being mad? What the hell? When did the stiff upper lip turn into a whine?

Still. STILL. BP will not come on 360. Seriously Tony, you're just being a wuss at this point. As always, if you think BP needs to be interviewed by Anderson, show your support by joining the Facebook group. Below is the montage of our anchor repeatedly requesting an interview:

I missed a lot of the interview with Drew Wheelan, but sounds like disturbing stuff.

Tonight 360 began a new (yet strangely familiar) series called Culprits of the ~~Collapse~~ Catastrophe. Good for them, calling out the names. It'll be interesting to see how brave they get. Going after BP isn't exactly hard at this point. That's where they started; former CEO Lord John Browne to be exact. Yes, he's a frickin' lord. You can watch Randi Kaye's piece below:

I'm guessing that Kevin Costner knows his stuff, yet I still can't help being disturbed that we are currently so far down the rabbit hole that talking to the guy from Waterworld seems like a good option. I wait with baited breath to find out how Mel Gibson would stop the oil.

Finally tonight, Gary Tuchman talks to General Russel Honore, who apparently wants to declare World War III on the oil disaster. We must invade the ocean! The fish will greet us as liberators and present us with flowers and candy! Hm. I know the General kicked ass during Katrina and all and I really do appreciate the moxie, but I kinda don't get this. He wants to move troops from Iraq and Afghanistan to the Gulf? Okay, yay, but to do what? Clean blades of grass? Gary asks him if he can draw out a battle plan and dang if he doesn't do so right there. I found that fairly amusing, and not just because he makes Florida look like a penis (oh, like I'm the only one who noticed). So anyway, the General's plan is to "find the oil and kill it." Which, um, okay. He does know the oil is not alive, right? I could see me using this kind of rhetoric because I would be doing so ironically, but Honore doesn't seem like a guy who gets ironic, like, ever. But hell, maybe we do need his plan. I mean, the best thing we got going for us right now seems to be Kevin Costner, so there you go. You kill that oil, General! You kill it with fire!