Controversy Over Amazon Selling A Pedophilia Guidebook, Deepwater Drilling Report Edited, And Elizabeth Smart Testifies

Hi everyone. Wow, I think this week the bookers have made it their goal to make me cry sad tears. I'll be okay, people. Why? Because I have the bullet points of awesomeness!

• The 360 kids kicked us off with a controversy over a pedophilia guidebook being sold on Amazon. I'm pretty torn on this story. First of all, obviously, ew--that's outrageous. But...isn't the coverage and curiosity over the outrage just increasing this perve's sales? If Gawker is to be believed, that's exactly what's happened. On the other hand, at the time of this blogging, it appears that Amazon took the book off the site. Still. Books have already been downloaded. There are a lot of outrages in this life that deserve light, but I can't help but think that this was probably one of those problems that really would have just gone away if ignored. We'll never know now.

• As it turns out, there must be a little bit of a free market supporter inside of me after all because initially I was leaning toward backing Amazon (and I would likewise support anyone who wanted to boycott Amazon). But they have a ban on porn? You have to be consistent with your policies, yo! Otherwise you just look stupid, which is how you're looking right now.
  

• Okay, admittedly I have a bias against Dr. Phil, but I still see absolutely no reason why he was interviewed for this segment. In fact, a lot of this was ridiculous. Anderson Cooper even started out asking him if it made sense that Amazon would be selling a guide for pedophiles. Is there more than one way to answer that question? And why is he asking it to Dr. Phil? What expertise does Dr. Phil have related to Amazon?
  

• Half of what he says can be summed up as: "Pedophiles are bad; kids should be protected." Um, duh? This is part of the reason I don't like Dr. Phil. Most of what he says is so simplistic and obvious, I just want to ask America: why is he famous?! Anyway. Eventually he does get around to talking about his professional experiences with pedophiles, but the thing is, he very much implies he didn't read the book (and Anderson flat out says he didn't). WTF? A segment with two people discussing something they haven't read. Awesome.

• Anderson: "During the interview, when I talked to Dr. Phil a short time ago, I hadn't read the book. I actually have subsequently read the book, so now I want to talk about it with Jeffrey Toobin." Later we learn that the book is more of a pamphlet, which cracked me up, because at the time our anchor said this quote, I was like, "Holy crap! How fast does Anderson read?!"

• Toobin actually contributes valuable information (and good points!) and is really the only person we needed for this story. As he notes, this is more of a business problem. Segment below.
  

• Next up, we learn that, surprise, surprise, a Pentagon study group has determined that getting rid of DADT won't hurt troop morale or the war efforts. To talk about this we're joined by Paul Begala and Erick Erickson. Hm. I realize there's a political aspect here, but I still couldn't care less about what either of them has to say. At least Toobin stuck around too.

• The segment on the BP oil spill report was pretty good. It sounds like the editing was probably a mistake, but I'm still glad it's being pointed out. The Bush administration used to edit reports to their liking all the time. We know the drilling moratorium was unpopular in the Gulf. Being able to say it was supported by experts certainly would have been a plus.

• We were joined by Louisiana Republican Congressman Steve Scalise and James Carville, the former being much more relevant than the latter in my opinion, but it was still fairly good. And Anderson did a pretty nice job as well. The whole thing can be watched below.

• The night wrapped up with a Randi Kaye piece about Elizabeth Smart, and then an interview with John Walsh. Some of you already know that I have issues with Walsh (sixth paragraph), but this appearance actually made sense.
  

• That'll do it. The show was better than last night, but still...eh. Even putting aside your blogger's biases, the booking has been less than desired in terms of relevancy. And it sorta feels like they're stretching with their KTH segments these past two nights. The Amazon thing didn't really feel like lead story material. Your mileage may vary. Also? I blame the Silver Fox for the Dr. Phil appearance. His feelings on the matter were pretty clear and me thinks he wanted a segment to vent, so to speak.