Anderson Cooper 360 Review: Gary Tuchman Goes Grape Picking And A Defense Contractor Steals Millions

Hi everyone. I'm not feeling all that bloggy, so parts of this will be brief. Away we go:

Dear 360, if I knew hours ago that Judge Susan Bolton blocked provisions of Arizona's immigration law, it is not "breaking news." It's already "broken." *Sigh*

Anderson Cooper did a pretty good job with Sheriff Joe Arpaio. No WTF moments. Well, on our anchor's end anyway. Arpaio on the other hand...

Gary Tuchman's piece in which he spent the day grape picking with Mexican workers was probably the highlight of the broadcast for me. I like that he actually had to do a good job too--no slacking just because it's for a story! I can't imagine doing that work six days a week. Gary tells us the worst part for him was the boredom, which surprised me a little. I would have guessed the heat. Of course, after working as a cashier in high school and college, I too am familiar with the clock stare-down. Gary's piece is below:

Soledad O'Brien reported on the training tape for police officers regarding Arizona's law. Is this the tape that The Daily Show mocked a few weeks back?

Anderson: "Well, just a week after the story of Shirley Sherrod, we have a new story tonight involving race and gender. The controversy this time involves the leading fashion and lifestyle magazine for African-American women, "Essence", which is, we should point out, a Time publication, which is a corporate cousin to CNN." I'm a sucker for a good disclosure. Nice job.

As for the debate between Roland Martin and Michaela Angela Davis regarding the hiring of the white editor, I don't know, I can see both sides. But I sorta felt like 360 only did the story because it involves race and we all know that's a controversial subject that gets people watching. There were some African Americans on Twitter kinda mocking the fact that CNN was doing the segment. Your mileage may vary.

Alina Cho's piece on David Brooks really caught my interest, and no, not because of the jewel- encrusted belt buckle, race horses, and bizarre fact that the dude's plan to get away with his crimes was to devise a pill to wipe out people's memories. What really made me do a double-take was one word: Interceptor. It's body armor made for the military by the company Brooks founded.

What you might not know is that a few years back, whispers that Interceptor was NOT the best armor out there started bubbling up into the political blogosphere from military blogs. They said that the best armor was something called Dragon Skin, which had been banned by the Army. As per usual, the traditional media was out to lunch on this story, so at first it didn't go anywhere. I remembered that Lisa Myers of NBC had recently done a story on an Israeli anti-RPG device that we were for some reason not using. The Dragon Skin story was similar, so I emailed her. Others must have done the same (or perhaps she was keeping up with the military rumblings) because she did the story, and she did a damn good job. NBC even commissioned their own testing and found out that Dragon Skin did in fact out perform Interceptor. Not only that, Myers confirmed that while the armor was banned by the military, it was used by soldiers who protected VIPs in Iraq and Afghanistan. Officials told her that Dragon Skin was seen as a threat to the funding of Interceptor and other Army programs. Following Myers' story, three Democratic senators called for an investigation.

I guess nothing really came of that investigation (if it occurred) given that we're still using Interceptor. I don't know, it just all seems a little strange, doesn't it? I sorta feel like there's more there; I just have no idea what.

Raise your hand if you think 360 would have still covered this story if Brooks didn't blow the money so extravagantly? Yeah, me neither. Alina's piece is below: