Cautiously Optimistic News From The Gulf, An Update From Haiti, And More Puppies!!! (Seriously, There Should Always Be Puppies)

Hi everyone. This blog post actually contains kinda-sorta-almost good news! I know, I'm shocked too. There is no more oil leaking into the Gulf! But--and there's always a but--as Anderson Cooper says, no one down there is celebrating just yet. We still don't if this latest operation is going to work, and even if it does, it will only really mark the ending of the first phase of the disaster. This is going to go on a long, long time and will probably eventually involve some repercussions we may not have even thought of yet. For now though, let's savor the good news. And hey, let's savor the bullet points as well:

• Anderson during Chad Myers' explainer: "We should caution the information we have often is a little bit old because BP doesn't put out real-time information." Then adding, "... until BP narrates this stuff in real time, which we have been suggesting they do now for more than two months, and they said they were going to do about two weeks ago, which they still haven't done, we don't know what is happening in real time." The passive aggressiveness cracks me up. Oh BP, why won't you take the Silver Fox's suggestions?

• I'm going to run over a lot of this coverage because I'm tired, but I'll put the video below. After Chad, we had discussion with Douglas Brinkley, Billy Nungesser, and Ed Markey. I completely forgot about the existence of Douglas Brinkley! Where's he been lately?

• Ed Henry joined us to talk about Obama and the question he apparently shouted at him. Is that behavior fitting of a WHCA president?!
  

• We had James Carville as well (obviously), and he launched into an odd battle analogy that I actually thought was never going to end. He and Patrick Fitzgerald should start an analogy club.

• It was good to see Robert Young on the show to give a different opinion on the berms. As I have noted previously, the show has been a little one-sided on this issue. I demand all of those angles that Anderson frequently promises! Don't short me on any of those 360 degrees, dudes. As to who is right, hell if I know. Anderson says they'll continue to follow it, and I'm going to hold them to that. More context is needed. Like, what is "a lot of scientists" (roughly) and how does that number compare to those scientists who support the berms (if there are any)?
  

• Anderson to Young: "Do you think this is a case of, you know, politicians basically wanting to be seen doing something, the governor, local officials, and therefore pushing this berm project, even though you're saying the science isn't really there?" This might be just me, but all the previously coverage with Nungesser and Jindal (basically unopposed in their viewpoints) makes this feel off. Nungesser especially is practically a show contributor at this point, and now Anderson is suddenly going to jump back five steps and refer to "politicians," as if he's disconnected and objective? Like I said, it feels off. But that doesn't speak to a problem with tonight; it speaks to too much emphasis on one viewpoint previously.

• Gary Tuchman joined us live from Haiti with the great news that Prime Minister Jean- Max Bellerive has decided to let 154 NGOs bring their supplies into the country immediately and deal with the customs paperwork later. Woo! You see 360, this is why I yell at you when you use your airtime for stupid stories. Look at what an important difference you can make! Okay, in fairness it probably wasn't all 360. Anderson tells us some guy named Bill Clinton has been working on the issue too, so there's that. Video below.

• Randi Kaye updated her piece from last night and we are brought even more puppy adorableness! At one point she was holding two of the little critters at once, and I don't think I've ever seen her look so happy. Aw. Double the cute! Apparently hundreds of people all over the country called and emailed about the animals that 360 featured last night, which is great.
  

• Thing is though, you probably don't have to look much further than your own city to find an animal in desperate need of adoption. Though what's happening in the Gulf is more acute and pronounced, the bad economy is hurting people (and pets) everywhere. I wonder if there's any way to cover this overall story. They'd need a better angle than just "this is really sad." But there's probably one of those special week-long series in there somewhere. I can see it now: The Big 360 Interview: Bob Barker! (Actually, he'd make more sense than some of the people they've had.)

• Find more info at the Facebook group Gulf Coast Dogs and Cats and the Louisiana SPCA.
  

• Is it just my imagination or did they promo "Text 360" at least twice and then never even follow through? I think it's stupid in the first place; that kinda makes it worse.

• The show was fairly good, though if we're going to be honest, I zoned out for a good portion of the beginning of the broadcast.

• Congrats to 360 and especially Gary Tuchman on their Emmy nomination!
  

• This bullet point contains gratuitous adorableness courtesy of the Louisiana SPCA's Twitter account: