Flight 188 Mystery, More From Willingham's Attorney, Balloon Boy Hoax Confirmed (Shocker!), Fox News vs. The White House, And More On Ray

Hi everyone. Well, better late than never, huh? We begin with the BREAKING NEWS that, brace yourself, the Balloon Boy debacle was all just a hoax. Gasp! Okay, first of all, duh. Second, this isn't really "breaking news." And third, really, we're still doing this? You're kinda killing me here, 360. Anyway, Erica Hill has more about the sworn affidavit given by Mayumi Heene, and we're promised more info later. Meh.

Moving from one flight-related story to another, Tom Foreman has a piece on Northwest Flight 188. Carrying 144 passengers, the plane safely landed at its destination of Minneapolis, but not until after they had to whip back around because the pilots overshot by 150 miles. Um, whoops? Apparently no one in charge on the plane could be contacted for an hour and 18 minutes, which as you can imagine in this post-911 world, made people a tad bit antsy.

But check this: military officials say they weren't contacted by the FAA until AFTER the flight passed over its destination, so by the time they went to scramble jets, the whole thing was pretty much over. Um, what?! Forget about what the pilots were doing, I want to know WTF is up with that. But right now I guess all the focus is on the mystery. For their part, the pilots say they weren't sleeping, but rather having a "heated discussion." Yeah, okay. As I said on Twitter, my guess? Playing Twister.

For discussion of all this, we're joined by former pilot Jim Tilmon. He assures us that the plane was most likely on autopilot the whole time and therefore the passengers weren't in danger. Anderson Cooper asks if it's normal for pilots to fall asleep in the cockpit. Jim's very unsettling reaction? He laughs. Dude, not the way to alleviate fears. "I don't want to say that it's normal. It does happen from time to time," he tells us. Well, I feel safe, don't you? Why are they so tired? Also, according to Sully Sullenberger, it might help to stop slashing their salaries. I'm not going to argue with a hero.

Transitioning now to Randi Kaye live with the latest on the Cameron Todd Willingham case. Actually, a lot of this feels redundant, but we do learn that though an arson expert faxed his findings to Governor Perry's office on February 13, 2004, the governor wasn't told about it until four days later--the day of the execution. So there's definitely some more digging that can be done there. Also, Randi sits down with Willingham's attorney David Martin, who previously appeared on the show. He's sans cowboy hat this time and seems to have toned the crazy down a bit, but he still sounds more like a prosecutor and maintains that his client was guilty. So much for a right to a fair trial.

Erica brings us the "360 Bulletin" and we learn there is a new world Monopoly champion. "Isn't Monopoly for, like, little kids? Not to disparage his win, but isn't there sort of an age limit?" says Anderson. No there is not! I wonder about you sometimes, Silver Fox. Oh, and I like the top hat, in case you were wondering.

Transitioning now to...Balloon Boy. Oh joy. Erica has the time line and then we have a reunion with our snarky guests from last time: Jeffrey Toobin and Lisa Bloom. Anderson again teases Jeff for calling this so massively wrong (he had previously proclaimed it not a hoax). Our anchor better laugh it up while he can now--you know that reality show is coming. "I just thought they were an ordinary American family with a flying saucer in the backyard, OK?" says Jeffrey. "But, you and Lisa "Hang 'Em High" Bloom, you were right." Then he declares the case closed. Well good! Let's move on then, shall we? Yeah, not moving on.

Lisa gives us some legal lowdown, ending with: "P.S., no charges have been filed. No arrest has been made. We're still waiting for that. Where is that?" Anderson throws the question to Jeffrey, who replies with: "Why? Why not, Anderson? Why are these people still walking the streets? Why isn't this danger to the community -- I mean, can we just relax for a second?" Gotta love the Toob's flair for the snarky dramaz. He reminds us that the Heenes are not the most dangerous people in the world. No, I believe it goes Bin Laden and then the Heenes. "They could be building a balloon as we speak, Jeff Toobin," says Anderson. Eep! I'm totally clutching my pearls.

While the boys are having their fun, Lisa, bless her heart, is still trying to do her job, and gives us a bunch more legal information. When she stops speaking there is dead silence and it is totally clear the other two weren't listening to a word she said. I would cyber-slap them both upside the head right now, except, uh, I wasn't really listening either. Sorry, Lisa! "Your knowledge of this case, Lisa, scares me a little bit," says our anchor. "This is my job, Anderson," replies Lisa. Ha! Comical snap!

The Silver Fox then informs us "for the record" that he has officially lost interest in this story. Way ahead of you on that. But thanks for keeping us posted on your interest level. Anyway, there's some more serious discussion with sporadic snarking from Jeffrey, before Anderson wraps the segment up by playing us the "Who the hell is Wolf? clip. And at that point, Toobin is completely in stitches. If they're going to talk about this stupid story, I suppose I wouldn't have it any other way.

Transitioning to the newest political controversy: The White House versus Fox News. Dun dun dun! Personally, I think this is much ado about nothing, but Paul Begala and Mark McKinnon are here and we're going to talk about it, dagnabbit. Paul and I seem to be on the same page and he sums it up nicely: "I mean, no serious person thinks FOX News all the time is a news network." The network is simply not the same as its competitors, I don't care what any journalist says (I'm looking at you, Jake Tapper).

Anyway, Paul then brings up some of Fox's talent and tries to be cute with our anchor. "There's one guy. I don't think you've ever heard of him. His name's Glenn Beck," says Paul. Obviously the goal here is to get some sort of reaction out of Anderson, who of course is well aware of Glenn Beck. For his part, the Silver Fox attempts to stay stone face, but doesn't quite succeed. That's right, I saw that split-second smirk there, mister!

Anderson asks Mark if it's hypocritical to shun Fox News and embrace MSNBC, noting that MSNBCers were invited to the White House for an off-the-record chat. Yes, but so were other people, including CNN's own Gloria Borger. And I guess we all have amnesia now and have forgotten about Bush hosting conservative radio hosts. One of the perks of winning the White House is you get to control the invite list.

Paul thinks the Fox News attacking is better left up to the strategists. "This is why God created James Carville," he tells us. Mystery solved! He also thinks that if the White House is going to freeze out Fox News they should stop talking about it and just do it. "If you're going to seduce a girl, you don't say, 'Now I'm going to blow in your ear, honey. Then I'm going to put my hand on you' -- you just blow in her ear." I'm almost positive I have heard Paul say this before. I'm not sure if I'm more disturbed that he apparently has a "line" about blowing in a girl's ear, or the fact that I know this at all.

"Mark, is that your advice for dating a girl, as well?" asks Anderson. Ha. Well, we're really off the rails now, aren't we? But bottom line here, people? This isn't even really about Fox's opinion shows. This is about the network as a whole, which no, is not objective and is not the equivalent of MSNBC. Yes, the latter network has liberal hosts in prime time. They also have a Republican on for three hours in the morning. They are not an arm of the Democratic party. Fox News and Republicans, however? One big family.

Moving on now to a Gary Tuchman piece on James Arthur Ray. Gary finally gets the opportunity to sit down with former follower Danielle Kaprowski and her husband John. They tell us that they really became disillusioned with Ray during a challenge in which he instructed followers to break concrete blocks with their bare hands, which left about a dozen people with broken bones. The injuries weren't even acknowledged by Ray. But the Kaprowskis still went to a sweat lodge because they had already paid. John became ill and left halfway through, but Danielle stayed and witnessed others become sick, including one woman who was unconscious. As for the guru? "James Ray came out of the lodge. He smiled. And he hopped on his golf cart and rode back to his room," says Danielle. Unbelievable.

Next up, Anderson interviews Jill Borsos, a Ray follower who is still a believer. I was sort of confused throughout this as to her exact relationship with Ray. She kept defending him by providing information concerning things she did or knows, but then quickly played ignorant when Anderson turned up the heat. Seemed too convenient, but who knows.

I think I'm just going to skip the "shot." The show was fairly good, for a Friday anyway. Will this be the last we hear of Balloon Boy? Eh, don't hold your breath.

Paycuts For Top TARP Recipients, More On Cameron Todd Willingham, Immigration Debate, And James Arthur Ray Story Gets More Disturbing

Hi everyone. My Internets have not been playing nice tonight, so I think this is going to have to be one of those semi-abbreviated blogs. You may send your complaints to AT&T. Anyway, we're kicking off the broadcast an hour later tonight due to "Latino in America." Sorry CNN, I did not watch. Nothing personal, but this Gleek had other TV programming calling. Besides, it's not like you won't rerun it five billion times.

But enough about that. We've got money to worry about. Yesterday, we did some WTFing over all these company executives still living the high life after taking our tax dollars. Names? Oh, they were named. Now we learn from Ali Velshi (yeah, he's at the wall) that the Obama administration is taking away the toys--or, essentially ordering pay cuts--of executives at the top seven TARP receiving companies. Booyah!!! Of course, Anderson Cooper notes that this isn't actual reform of the financial system...and Ali tells us it doesn't address the underlying problems, sooo...booyah?

Time now to get our politics on with James Carville and Kevin Madden. Kevin thinks the salary slash is good politics, but as a worshiper of the invisible hand, he's not happy. James' basic viewpoint is that they took our money, so now they can take our orders. Then Kevin starts talking about how the government has good intentions, but always screws things up, and how we need to build partnerships. Okay, uh, let's be clear here: Wall Street doesn't even have good intentions. They don't want to be our partner; they want to make money. Period. And that's the problem. Culture of greed.

As an aside, hey, you know that whole conversation we just had here? The one about whether or not the government should control aspects of compensation regarding private companies? Um, haven't we already done this? I mean, seriously. I seem to remember a House bill imposing a 90% tax on bonuses. I guess down the memory hole it went.

Back to the discussion, apparently there's a new meme being floated by the Republicans: Obama is just like Nixon! I'll pause a second while you laugh. So, it seems Congresscritters like Lamar Alexander are implying our prez has an enemies list, which is just so...what is there even to say to that? I think there's a bit of amnesia going on, because not only did the last administration target specific news outlets much more than the Obama camp has gone after Fox News, they also outed a friggin CIA agent for political purposes. But Obama is Nixon.

We're also shown a poll that says more people now disagree with the president on the issues that matter to them. Wow. That might be damning...if it had any meaning whatsoever. Okay, who were the people polled? What issues? How are they interpreting Obama's stand on these issues? And so on and so on. Seriously, if you're going to throw up a poll, can it at least have a tad bit of relevancy?

Transitioning now to a Randi Kaye piece that brings us more info on the Cameron Todd Willingham case. She talked with Gerald Hurst, an arson expert joining the chorus of those saying what occurred was not arson. Actually, he's not just joining--he wrote a memo to Governor Perry regarding his finding before the execution. Perry's office states the report was just an opinion. This story is starting to make me nauseous. The state of Texas most likely killed an innocent man, and the Governor is trying to cover it up.

For the legal low down, we're next joined by Jeffrey Toobin who tells us that the law does not say Perry had to read the memo, or do anything with it really. He and Anderson then talk the politics of the case, but then Toobin moves to the most important point: the huge moral issue. Again, the state of Texas most likely killed an innocent man. Due to the new revelations about junk science, this case could blow the death penalty debate wide open. I'm guessing a lot of these "experts" and officials are going to be digging in their heels for that very reason.

Moving on to a Soledad O'Brien piece on Araceli Torres, an undocumented 26-year-old who was brought into the country illegally by her parents when she was a child. One day her place of employment was raided and officials discovered she had been using a fake ID. She was detained for five months and separated from her daughter, a US citizen. Worse, she faces deportation even though she doesn't know a soul in Mexico. I don't understand why we're wasting our energy on going after people like this woman. If someone was brought over as a child--meaning not their choice--and they've been here almost their whole life, they should get to stay.

I think it's about time for a debate, don't you? In one corner, we have Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio--whip cracker when it comes to illegal immigrants. On the other side, we're got Araceli's attorney, Isabel Garcia. Okay, so I start out clearly rooting for Isabel, but things get weird pretty quick. Joe says he has sympathy for people like Araceli, but then he moves right into the "they're taking our jobs!" meme. This leads Isabel to go off on the economy of Arizona, as well as start talking about how this is like "post slavery" and "black codes." Um, what?

So then Joe starts muttering about a pinata, leading me to think he's being a jerk, and possibly racist. But no! There's video of a pinata in Joe's likeness being beheaded by children (oh, yes) and paraded around. And the kicker? Isabel totally defends this. Even Anderson has to note that if it had been Obama, people would flip out. So...there's that. Not really doing her cause any favors, is she?

Kinda reminds me of that debate a couple years ago with that incredibly annoying immigration rights activist. Any other long time viewers remember that? I simultaneously agreed with her side and wanted to smack her. Even Anderson got so mad he (admittedly quietly) threw down his pen. And you don't see that everyday. The Silver Fox is usually so mellow, it was like his equivalent of "We'll do it live!"

Speaking of live, we transition now to Gary Tuchman who is standing in front of the hotel where James Arthur Ray is holding one of his seminar deals, or whatever he calls them. Trying to make a buck, is what Ray's doing. All the while not talking to officials or the family members of those who died in his sweat lodge. Earlier, Gary talked on the phone with Beverly Bunn, a woman who was there the night the incident occurred. We hear their conversation and the picture she paints is nothing short of horrific: people throwing up, passing out, being chided by Ray for wanting to leave or pointing out the condition of others.

Beverly is CPR trained and states she was prevented by "Dream Teamers" from helping to save lives. If this is remotely true, people need to go to jail. On another note, Team Gary is staying at the same hotel to try to get close to Ray, but security is tight. Not quite tight enough, however, for producer Ismael Estrada, who managed to not only get into the seminar, but also stood up and asked Ray a question. "This is not a press conference," was the guru's reply and Ismael was met with attendee boos until security took him away. So, unfortunately nothing gained there, but still, kinda badass.

The "shot" tonight is office workers getting their Backstreet Boys on. The hook here is that it was all done simultaneously. I love the non participating woman. Anyway, then Anderson has to play the Falcon Heene "Who the hell is Wolf?" clip because, hey, why not? Yeah, we're going to be seeing a lot of that one. Anderson wants to put the phrase on t-shirts. I would totally buy that. Remember those fangirly heart-shaped 360 shirts they used to sell (and maybe still do)? I always wanted them to make some for Blitzer. Because I wanted to buy one. You know, for the hilarity. The show was good. That'll do it.

Boyless Balloon Flight Results In Cable Newsgasm, A Defense Attorney Who Isn't Big On That Whole "Defense" Thing, And NOLA Gets Thrown A Coverage Bone

Hi everyone. Balloon boy lives! Good gravy, this was one wacked-out news day. The story that unfolded in Colorado this afternoon had everything: a sympathetic figure in peril, suspense, mystery, and oh yes, cable news anchors awkwardly trying to fill airtime with little to no information. A complete and total spectacle of a story that some believe was totally blown by the media.

So anyway, in case you've been living under a rock or just awoken from a coma, today the nation became transfixed by a runaway experimental balloon hurtling through the air in Colorado, because we were all led to believe there was a terrified six-year-old boy inside. Turns out? Not so much. Balloon landed sans kid, who was later found safely in his own home--specifically hiding in a box in the attic. So yeah...

Except for the two minutes I turned on CNN to see what the balloon looked like, I followed the whole thing via Twitter. Why? Well, first I have that whole life and job thing. But also because at the time, everyone thought there was a very real chance a six-year-old was going to die, and I wasn't about to watch it all unfold on live television like some morbid voyeur--tape delay or not. Plus Twitter really helps filter out all that previously mentioned anchor awkwardness.

Anyway, in an Erica Hill piece we learn the details of what went down. Like, the kid's name is Falcon Heene, the dad is a storm chaser, and the parents had previously been on the reality show "Wife Swap." You really can't make this stuff up.

Next comes the part where we hear from someone who is somehow tangentially connected to the major players of the story, no matter if they have anything relevant and/or interesting to say or not. Hm, will it be a cousin? Co-worker? Teacher? Neighbor it is! Throw in a balloon expert dude and we're good to go. Meh.

We're shown a clip of the dad in "Wife Swap," I guess, I dunno, because they can, and Anderson tells us what's sad is he actually saw that episode of the show. Ohhh duuuude. The Silver Fox needs a reality show intervention STAT!

Still clip-happy, we next get one from Larry King Live. Wolf Blitzer was filling in for the suspender-ed one and apparently the whole Heene family found time in their very trying day to fame-whore this whole thing out. Speaking of that, when asked why he didn't come out when he heard his parents calling him, young Falcon replies that, "“You said…that…we did this for a show.” Let cable newsgasm part II begin.

Okay, before everyone starts screaming "publicity stunt!" I'd like to remind people that the kid is six. Have you ever spoken with a six-year-old? They say weird things that have no real meaning. That being said, the dad's weird reaction to Wolf's follow up didn't exactly put any suspicions to rest. Also? Hey, Wolf, just because you're filling in for Larry doesn't mean you have to emulate his style. A little more pressing might have been nice. Just sayin'.

Anderson Cooper notes that about 90 percent of the live-bloggers are suspicious of Heene's story, and when he tells this to Tom Foreman, he's all, "reeeally?" Cracked me up for some reason. Tom is here to tell us about costs of the rescue and whatnot, but I'm done with this story. Please Newsgods, do not go wall-to-wall with this crap tomorrow.

Next up, Randi Kaye gives us some info on that Texas execution arson case that 360 has been covering. Then we're joined by Cameron Todd Willingham's defense attorney David Martin and Steve Mills of the "Chicago Tribune." David begins by apologizing for his attire because he was apparently out checking cows or something. Um, okay. The hilarious thing is that there's nothing unusual about what he's wearing, other than a big old cowboy hat, and I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure those are easily removed.

Anyway, there's a whole lot of craziness that goes down here because the defense attorney is a piece of work. First of all, he's convinced Willingham was guilty and completely dismisses all the scientific reports that say the fire wasn't arson. How's he so sure he's right? Because he burned some carpet himself and it looked the same. Man. With defense attorneys like this, who needs a prosecution?

Also, he gives Anderson a schooling regarding the role of defense attorneys, which according to him, is not actually to defend. So hmm. Then he starts bringing up how Willingham allegedly bought people drinks after his kids died. Um, the guy's dickishness was not on trial. Anderson starts to note that, and is shut down by David, but Steve quickly picks the point up. Then David has the gall to be all, "you're way off topic." Wha? Anderson then reiterates that being a jerk does not equal being a murder.

Well, that was a hot mess, wasn't it? You can watch it all here. I think Anderson actually did pretty well with calling out the BS. It's looking more and more like an innocent man was put to death. Sickening.

Transitioning now to Obama in New Orleans. Well, briefly in New Orleans. He only stayed less than four hours, which has resulted in some criticism. We're joined by Candy Crowley live to give us the low down of all that, but this whole segment is basically slanted toward politics and perception. Pretty disappointing. For a show that's all about "keeping them honest," a fact-check on Obama's speech and what's he's actually done kinda seems like a no-brainer.

Of course, who has time for that kind of research when there's an empty balloon to watch for two hours? I'm a little sad to say this given how dedicated they've been to the story in the past, but I've pretty much given up on 360 when it comes to covering New Orleans. I'm not saying they've changed and don't care now. I'm just saying they're no longer doing better coverage than everyone else.

Hey, didja happen to hear that Sanjay Gupta has a new book out? It's called "Cheating Death," and it is time to pimp that bad boy! We get a piece from him about a woman who technically died in icy water, but they were able to bring her back. These kind of stories are both amazing and freaky. Anybody read the book? Anderson was a good little soldier today and even tweeted about it. Kinda sweet.

No "shot" again. It was noted that the arson discussion went over, so I suppose that could be why, but I'm really beginning to wonder. The show was...well, definitely not what I would have liked. I guess I couldn't expect them not to lead with balloon boy though. Hopefully it at least got them some ratings because their October numbers have been...bad. Here's hoping for newsier news tomorrow.