Nine Soldiers Killed In Iraq, Virginia Tech Students Return, Raw Politics, Accused In Nicaragua, And Pet Food Recall Fallout (Monday's First Hour)

Hi everyone. I didn't do Friday's show because I missed half of it and I really didn't feel like it anyway. To be honest, I think I might be getting a bit burned out with the reviews and actually, with the show itself. Part of it is me, but I think 360 is in a bit of a slump themselves. As of now I'm not making any decisions to quit, but a fair warning, my blogging might become more inconsistent. Hey, just like the show itself, right? Anyway, we begin the hour with Michael Ware and the BREAKING NEWS that a suicide car bomb in Diyala killed nine US soldiers. I appreciate that they're beginning with Iraq; I really do, but what is up with CNN and BREAKING NEWS? I learned this two hours prior and I bet it wasn't breaking at that point either. When does BREAKING NEWS become just, well, news? I swear they've got their graphic up there half the time I'm watching CNN, which pretty much defeats the purpose, doesn't it? Pretty soon we'll need REALLY BREAKING NEWS alerts. Michael tells us that Diyala is the new front line in the war with al Qaeda, they even collect taxes there. Man, I guess that whole 'death and taxes' thing is true. You can't escape either anywhere. Iraq of course has the 'death' thing down pat.

Next up we have a Gary Tuchman piece on the Virginia Tech students going back to class. We learn that a bell tolled for those lost and balloons were released. Also anyone who didn't want to come back could have taken the grade they had at the time of the shooting. And what else more is there to say? I'm sorry, but the media really needs to move on. I mean, according to this item CNN even went around VA Tech's media rules to air the memorial service. If true, that's pretty disgusting. After Gary's piece we've got some discussion and then an Anderson piece on some of the funerals and Cho stuff. Following that there's a clip from Gary's EXCLUSIVE interview with Cho's suite mates, which they're running for the upteenth time. That leads into a new interview Gary did with one of the guys and in it they bring up the girls who didn't press charges for stalking. Anderson actually brought this up before too and it kind of annoys me because those girls probably feel guilty enough without the national news speculating that they could have prevented the shooting. Obviously they didn't ever think Cho was capable of something like this and they definitely aren't alone in that regard.

Transitioning now to Anderson intro-ing "Raw Politics," with the following: "As the president's top political adviser, Karl Rove prefers to stay in the shadows. He likes to keep a low profile, except when he's rapping." Ha! Oh, Anderson. Please don't remind me. Nighmares people, nightmares!!! Candy Crowley has the honors tonight and we begin with a veto threat from Bush over the bill with the Iraq time tables. Then we learn Chuck Schumer thinks Bush is in a bunker in regards to Gonzales. Dennis Kucinich is making steps to ride the impeachment roller coaster, ...but he's not tall enough to get on and Edwards has a sense of humor about his pretty, pretty hair. Lastly Rove and Sheryl Crow got in a global warming tussle, but we'll hear more about that later.

Moving on now to a Rick Sanchez piece on Eric Volz, an American accused of a murder in Nicaragua. Probably not the first place you'd want to be accused of murder. Anyway, Eric went to the country to start a magazine and while there he dated Doris Jimenez, who later turned up strangled to death. However, this was after they broke up and at the time he was no where near where she was murdered. He even has 10 witnesses to prove it. Unfortunately, a mob mentality outside resulted in a guilty verdict for murder AND rape, which might not even have occurred. Rick and crew tried to see Eric in prison, but weren't allowed in even though they had the proper documents. This reminds me of that movie "Brokedown Palace." The US legal system might suck, but man, you don't want to mess with some of these other places. Oh and thoughout this whole story I had major deja vu. So either this is a repeat or I've seen this same story done somewhere else. It drives me nuts that I can't remember. That dreadful sound effect is back too.

Up next we have a Joe Johns "Keeping Them Honest" piece on the pet food recall. Yep, that's still going on. Remember when they told us that the contamination definitely would never get in the human food supply? Yeah, well, it's in the human food supply. Oh, like you're shocked. Don't freak though, it doesn't seem to be that much and no one's sick yet, so that's good. Apparently some pigs ate some of the contaminated feed. From Joe's piece we also learn that federal budget cuts have made it hard for the FDA to do its job and the Chinese are still being uncooperative. I caught a little bit of Lou Dobbs and he was all over this. It is pretty disturbing we import all this stuff, stuff we consume, and there's no cooperation.

After the piece we're joined by Senator Dick Durbin and Anderson basically asks what's up with China. Durbin doesn't know exactly, but he thinks the melamine was added to jack up the price, which would be economic fraud. Anderson notes he's getting emails everyday from people saying they have no confidence in the FDA. Oh Anderson, I've had no confidence in the FDA way before this thing. He then asks if we now have a handle on the situation and Durbin says we do not. According to him the FDA is the weakest link (goodbye!) in a weak chain and the whole system needs to change. Yeah, good luck with that. But seriously 360, if you want to look further, see who works at the FDA. I guarantee there's at least one "Brownie" in there. The Shot tonight is a raccoon loose in an Ohio house. That would totally happen to me. Too bad I don't have any film of the bird flying around my house. How did it get in?! Sigh. So I take it Anderson is not going back to Afghanistan-at least that's the impression from his latest blog. So he rushed back to stand on a campus for two days. How pointless. The show tonight was okay B.

Oh, I got a press release from CNN today. Vote for the AC360 fansite in the Webby Awards

Shooting At Virginia Tech: Day Four (Thursday's Show)

Hi all. Well once again the show was pretty sucky, so let's just speed through with another sort-of review, shall we? Anderson is still on the campus, and I'm still not quite sure why. We begin with a piece from him on Cho that informs us he purchased the handgun online. Then we move on to a John King piece that shows us new pictures of Cho's suite. I don't know why that's necessary, but they've stopped with the constant pictures of him with the guns, so I guess I'll just be happy. Next it's "expert" time! Dr. Helen Morrison seems to want to blame this on repressed homosexual urges. I swear, it alway falls on the gays, doesn't it? I mean, the guy was stalking girls, not guys. Anderson makes that point and she gives us some psycho babble, which might be true in this case or might be complete crap, but we'll never know. Dr. Gail Saltz takes the play angle and speculates he might have been abused since he wrote about molestation. And I've written about a woman who shoplifts, but I'm no thief. Although to be fair, she does basically state it might just be a delusion.

Next up we have a Tom Foreman piece on getting the mentally ill help in college and then there's an expert on what the university can do. Okay here's my question: what if next time it's not a student? We're going to have to think broader. Moving on to an interview with "Electroboy" author Andy Behrman about his struggle to get diagnosed and treated as bipolar. It's a really interesting story, but bipolar disorder is different I think that what Cho was suffering from. After that there's even more coverage on Cho and then we have a Matthew Chance piece on the reaction in South Korea. Yes, they actually did a piece from Korea. I mean, it made news there, so I guess that makes it legitmate news here, but it still boggles the mind. The hour ends with an Anderson piece that is a tribute to the victims. Now this they did a nice job on. Respectful at least. I especially like the way they went out to commercial-no annoying graphics or sound effects.

The second hour starts with a whole bunch more Cho stuff, most of it repeat I think. Next there's an author that I mostly missed (sorry, snack time), but it sounds like he was talking about some social issues that I'm interested in, like the fact that we have more mentally ill in jails and prisons than treatment centers. After that we have a Tom Foreman repeat and then OMG other news! In a Candy Crowley piece we learn that the Supreme Court made the landmark decision today to uphold the partial birth abortion ban. The previous court went the other way, so it's safe to say that Roe is now officially threatened. So that sucks. I'm actually not as pro-choice as one might assume, but banning abortion is just something we can't let happen. I really wish both sides of the debate could come together to work on preventing unwanted pregnancies before they happen, but I guess I'm just a dreamer. Anyway, the 2008 candidates are already all over it, playing to their bases. It looks like come election time this issue will be more important than ever.

For discussion about this and Alberto Gonzales' testimony (in regards to attorney-gate) today, we're joined by Jeffrey Toobin. Anderson asks how big the Supreme Court decision was and Toobin says huge. He notes that the previous court said the ban was unconstitutional and now it seems Justice Kennedy sees this as an invitation to restrict other abortions too. See that's the thing, I might be okay with this ban, but it's a slippery slope. Toobin thinks one more vote and Roe is gone. Anderson seems a little shocked about this and asks if he's sure. Toobin's pretty sure. Let's hope Toobin's wrong. Next we're played a clip of Arlen Spector getting all up in Gonzales' grill and Gonzales answers just about every question with a version of, "I don't recall." Anderson asks if Gonzales will keep his job. "I don't recall, Anderson," says Toobin. Bwah! Aw, Anderson is no fun. He doesn't even crack a smile. Of course he is in the middle of a tragedy, so yeah, there's that. I thought it was funny, Toobin. Oh, and for the record, Toobin does not think our pal Alberto will make it. Pity. Actually out of a lot of them I don't mind Gonzales so much. Except for the whole torture thing. And Lord, you know you're way through the looking glass when the torture guy is looking okay to you. After this there's more Cho stuff and repeats. Anderson says he'll be there tomorrow. Argh. Go home, Anderson!

Shooting at Virginia Tech: Day Three (Wednesday's Show)

Hi everyone. We've got Anderson back tonight and he's wearing a suit. Hmm, was John King wearing a suit? I don't even remember. I guess they're trying to go for repectful, but if that's the case it would have been better if they went for respectful with their coverage, not just their clothes. Tonight I bring you a sort-of review. I'm fairly disgusted by the coverage, so I only halfway paid attention. The big news that came out today is of course the videos and pictures that Cho Seung-Hui sent to NBC. 360, BTW, shows the pictures continuously throughout the broadcast, which I find completely irresponsible. I agree with NBC's decision to release what they did, but then the news organization is suppose to be sensitive in how they use them. We're totally not seeing that here (and to be fair many other shows were way out of line too). In fact a lot of the time they run the pictures on a split screen. I can't imagine what this is doing to some of the people at Virginia Tech-not to mention it's giving Cho exactly what he wanted.

So anyway, in a Gary Tuchman piece we learn that Cho actually mailed the package in that two hour gap of his murder spree. That's pretty disturbing. Afterwards Gary says, "but you can imagine, for the parents at home who lost their children, watching this, this has to be so painful." You think? Then we're on to a Randi Kaye piece that goes more indepth on the stalker situation. We learn that two women actually contacted police over his behavior, but did not press charges. After that we're on to the requisite speculation with a couple of "experts," and Anderson becomes fixated on Cho's hat (or actually lack there of) in the pictures. In the center of what turns out to be an "expert" sandwich we have a piece from Anderson on Cho's treatment (or actually lack there of) and his hospital stay.

Moving on to a John King piece that explains that initially the police went after the wrong man, thus allowing Cho to roam free for that two hour gap. The guy that they actually went after was the first victim's boyfriend, which must have been devastating for him. I mean, his girlfriend is just murdered and then he's getting interrogated about it. For some reason John needs to be at all the places mentioned in this piece. See John at the shooting range. See John in front of the poor boyfriend's house (I'm sure he appreciates that, BTW). See John knocking on the boyfriend's door and getting ignored. Love you John, but I wouldn't answer either. Can we not leave people alone? After John's piece we have a piece from David Mattingly all about Cho's second killing spree. There's even a computer animation. Is this necessary?

At this point we're at the hour mark, so they repeat Gary's piece. Then Anderson talks with an FBI profiler and asks him the question I've been wondering: "...who is the "you" he's referring to? Is it just society as a whole? " The profiler says yes, but I'm still wondering. Not to go all Bill Frist or anything, but Cho definitely rings schizophrenic to me. We've already been told he had an imaginary girlfriend. Assuming he really did believe he had a girlfriend (and wasn't just saying bizarre things to say them), it's not a stretch to assume there might have been other "people" in his life and maybe he's talking to them in the video. Of course I'm only speculating, which I hate, but whatever. Then FBI guy (actual name: Gregg McCrary) says, "And I think it's -- the responsible thing to do is to back off on showing these videos and these pictures. You can certainly report the story and that needs to be done, but I think the danger here is that we're energizing some other killer and that we may have some other events that follow in the wake of this." Exactly. Speaking of copycats, there was a shooting near the brother's university today, but it was reported as at the university. This caused the mother to immediately think "copycat" and thus freakout. I learned this all separately and called him because he does live near the unversity. Besides being asleep at six at night (slacker!!!), he's fine. So anyway, 360, please listen to FBI guy. Because a copycat false alarm is scary enough.

Next up we've got more pieces about Cho and then a lawyer women. Gary even has a whole piece that ponders the meaning of the phrase Cho scrawled on his arm. Sigh. Then we've got Candy Crowley with a piece on the gun control debate, which started up mere hours after the shooting broke news. Classy. Hey, remember how a couple days ago I said we would be seeing talking heads shout at each other about gun control. Well, here they are! Joining us is Erich Pratt from Gun Owners of America and Paul Helmke of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Erich goes off about how gun control is the problem and blah blah blah. Yeah, well other countries with stricter laws don't have our gun violence. Paul thinks we need to prevent people like Cho from getting guns in the first place. Then Erich implies that Cho chose the university over downtown Blacksburg because he knew people would be defenseless. What the hell? Yeah, and I guess the fact that he was a student there had nothing to do with it. Then Erich states that England has a gun ban and their crime rate is the highest in the western world. I could be wrong, but that sounds like total crap to me. Anyway, there's arguing and Anderson weakly tries to jump in, but he pretty much never had control to begin with. Probably shouldn't have on the loud people when the anchor no doubt has the mother of all jet lag.

Moving on to some new video shot by two guys visiting the campus from Sweden. Man. Welcome to the US! We're usually an okay country, I swear. After talking with them we get some headlines where we learn that other stuff actually happened in the world, such as some massive chipping away at Roe vs. Wade and Baghdad imploding. BTW, the 30 minute evening broadcast by NBC went into both of these stories longer than the two hour broadcast of 360. Just saying. After the headlines there's a piece about one of the victims who was shot in the leg and at the end of the show Anderson, as if prompted by an email (ahem), notes that one of Cho's writings that they mentioned was actually lines from "Romeo & Juliet". There were blog comments somewhere in there too and I have to wonder if 360 notices that it's the same people over and over again. I mean, I don't even read the comments the majority of the time and I'm noticing.

I'm going to hold off on grading until some normalcy takes hold, but let's just say if I was grading it wouldn't be pretty. Watching tonight I have no idea why we needed Anderson Cooper for this. John was doing fine and it will be a really big shame if they don't get to go back to Afghanistan now. I hope Anderson at least moves back to the studio soon because the campus needs to be left alone. I also really hope 360 tones down their coverage because I actually found myself watching Lou Dobbs tonight and realized I'd rather be watching that than 360. I guess we'll see what happens.

Shooting At Virginia Tech: Day Two (Tuesday's Show)

Hi everyone. We've got John King anchoring for us again because Anderson is apparently still stuck in limbo. I guess it takes two days to travel from Afghanistan to the states. That must be one frustrated reporter. I still can't quite believe he turned right around. It seems like a crazy decision. But whatever. It does, however, beg the question: Is the most immediate always the most important? Last week Don Imus was the most important thing in the world, now it's as if he never existed.

I've been having some difficulty watching a lot of the television coverage (specifically cable) of the shooting because quite frankly it's making me feel a little dirty. The tasteless graphics. The tragedy theme music. It's a massacre packaged for a viewing audience. It's obvious a lot of the students want to tell their stories and they should definitely get the opportunity, but I'm sure many just want to be left alone. I can't imagine what the media circus must look like. CNN alone apparently has 120 people there. And over and over again we're told that this is the worst shooting in US history. Now obviously that's true, but should people really be making such a big deal about that fact? What if there are copycats? And I'd rather not give the next wacko any motivation to break the record.

As you've probably guessed by now I'm not doing a regular review. I don't know why I thought coverage might be anywhere near normal today. After all, I clearly remember the Columbine coverage still going strong three days after the shooting happened. So this is going to go on a while. Plus information is still coming to light and other information is changing. For example, yesterday we were told that we shouldn't compare this shooting to Columbine because the shooters were nothing alike. Today we learn that-scratch that-we should totally compare the two shootings because they were a lot alike. The shooter was actually a South Korean student at Virginia Tech named Cho Seung-Hui who had been in the country since he was eight, and not a Chinese National as some had reported. It seems he was a loner. Shocking I know.

A majority of 360's coverage tonight was an EXCLUSIVE interview Gary Tuchman did with Cho's roommates. In this EXCLUSIVE interview we learn that Cho was a pretty weird and messed up guy who stalked girls and caused people to actually notify the authorities. Gary's EXCLUSIVE interview also informs us that Cho hardly ever talked and had an imaginary girlfriend. Did I mention the interview was EXCLUSIVE? I wouldn't want to shortchange CNN in their sole claim over a part of a, you know, tragedy. Okay that lack of tact aside, I actually thought Gary did a really good job. Though I am a bit biased. I loves me the Gary. So what else do we learn about this mass murderer? Well, it seems he was a big fan of the song "Shine Down" from Collective Soul. Apparently poor Collective Soul is the new (or would that be old?) Marilyn Manson.

One thing that bugged me about this interview is that they nickpicked this guy's life apart. Don't think I mean that in sympathy to the shooter; I'd just like to point out that if you look at anyone that closely they're going to look crazy. When these things happen we always are looking for a reason. Sometimes I think there isn't a reason and I'd hate for any of the freaky little irrelevant things he did (like leaving the lights on at bedtime) to suddenly become warning signs or whatever. Now the stalking? That was definitely something to be concerned about. Big red flag there. But sometimes quiet kids are just quiet.

Another thing we learned about Cho is that he wrote plays. Very bad and disturbing plays. So disturbing in fact that the professor pulled him out of class. Obviously she was right in that this guy was definitely dangerous, but I'm trying to decide how I feel about the overall idea of scrutinizing people's writing. People write disturbing things all the time and they don't go out and kill 32 people. Hell, I remember reading a story in my college writing class in which a whole extended family of children was abused and/or murdered-each in a different and twisted way. And this was in an anthology. I myself write fiction and have been known to kill a character or several, though not all violently. Creative writing is suppose to be, well, creative. I really hope there's not going to be a chilling effect on what people write because they're afraid of being referred for counseling now.

Ultimately, hindsight is 20/20. A terrible thing happened. Could it have been prevented? Maybe. Maybe not. Sometimes bad things just happen. However, we're wired to need a reason. Because reasons make us feel safer. If there's a reason we can stop it from happening again. And maybe this will cause schools to put more precautions into place that really do stop the next school shooting. Of course that will be of no help when the next big shooting is in a mall. Or in a park. Or...you get the picture. For now we have to sit though all the "experts" who are unapologically certain about what was going on in Cho's head and his motivations for doing what he did. In reality, only one person can ever know that. And he's dead. So now we're left with that unanswerable question we're always left with: why?

I'll post something at my usual time on Thursday evening, but whether it's an indepth review or not remains to be seen. Thoughts on the whole situation?