Anderson Cooper 360 Reports Live From Haiti, The Louisiana Watergate, And More Stimulus Nonsense

Hi everyone. Tonight's broadcast begins with a focus on the Americans caught up in the Haiti disaster, an estimated 4500 to 5000 who are now listed as missing. This moves us into a very disturbing piece from Anderson Cooper. Though workers are still combing through the rubble of the Hotel Montana, a lot of debris throughout Port-au-Prince will simply have to be bulldozed. We're reminded of a man who had been looking for his American family member after the quake. It turns out that the woman's husband later found her corpse and was in the process of getting a coffin, when the Haiti government took her body away. Now he doesn't know where she's buried.

Our CNN friends talked with both the State Department and the U.S. Embassy about the situation, but no one seems to have any idea what's going on. This, unfortunately, is just one case. Unbelievably, the mass graves we saw after the quake still have not been sealed. Limbs haphazardly stick out of the ground. No respect for the dead. This clearly infuriates our anchor, as it should. After his piece, Anderson informs us that they called Haiti's Ambassador to the U.S., Raymond Joseph, as well as the Haitian government. No one is willing to come on the show.

I was going to make a Landrieu joke here, but Anderson's final words on the subject take away the desire: "... for a government to treat their own civilians or foreign civilians like this is simply unconscionable. The dead deserve better than that. And certainly so do the living." Below is Anderson's piece, along with the calling out of Joseph and the Haitian government. Warning: graphic.



Moving on now to an interview with Lauren Bruno, daughter of Richard Bruno, who is among the missing at the Hotel Montana. It's a sad conversation. We also learn that the man pulled out of the rubble today after allegedly 14 days may have actually only been trapped for an hour. That's quite a difference.

Next up, we have a piece from Christiane Amanpour on the garment industry in Haiti. The country produces t-shirts for popular American stores like the Gap. Low wages, high quality, you know the drill. Until recently, the industry had been crippled due to the country's checkered governmental history, as well as a U.S. embargo. But new U.S. legislation had resulted in a boom and things were thriving. Then came the earthquake. Capitalism is very unsympathetic, so now workers are scrambling to get the factories up and running before they find their jobs moved elsewhere. Good luck to them. You can view Christiane's report below.



Transitioning back to the states, where we find Ali Velshi surrounded by binders filled with stimulus projects. Oh my God, he built a binder fort! I know what someone's been doing during their commercial breaks. Paging Jon Stewart. Anyway! Ali then gives us a preview of a couple of projects he's going to talk about coming up in the show. I am totally on the edge of my seat.

Back to Haiti, and a meeting of the Live Shot Boys' Club. Karl Penhaul, Ivan Watson , and Gary Tuchman tell Anderson about the goings-on of their day. Disturbingly, Karl saw Brazilian forces pepper-spray Haitians who were seeking aid. Yes, things were chaotic, but did they really have to do that? They're desperate people; not animals. You can see Karl's report from earlier in the day below.



Ivan tells us he saw missionaries giving out food and things were calm. Gary is then in the middle of talking about an ignored village called Bourdon, when suddenly scary things happen. There's a noise, and Gary's all "what's that?" And for the next two seconds everyone--including viewers--is very alert. Everyone that is, except Anderson, who almost immediately says, "It's fine. It's fine." Apparently, there's been a power surge and a line went down. Will someone please inform our anchor that though he has recently added "awesome rescuer" to his resume, he is still not an electrician. Yeah, it's fine, it's fine. What does he know?!

What's hilariously sad is that if that were a frog? He sooo would have been out of that live shot. Oh Anderson, I do not understand you sometimes. Anyway! This is reminding Gary of that first night almost two weeks ago when everything got all scary behind them because people thought there was a tsunami. I think he was a tad freaked for a second there, with good reason. Then Anderson's all, "sit down." Dude. Okay, Live Shot Boys' Club, I love me some Anderson Cooper, but I think you all need to make a pact that when there is potential danger, he is not in charge. Just sayin.'

Moving on now to a Sanjay Gupta piece on Haiti's doctors in training. The country only has 2000 doctors for nine million people, so to say that they are understaffed would be an understatement. Now the quake has demolished the medical schools. More problems and hardship on the horizon.

On now to some domestic news with Joe Johns. Remember that asshat James O'Keefe who posed as a pimp in order to discredit ACORN? He just got arrested for worming his way into Senator Mary Landrieu's office and trying to tamper with the phones Watergate-style. Schadenfreude! For the record, ACORN did nothing illegal (though the doormat Dems still pulled their funding), while this guy's crimes might cost him 10 years in prison. Maybe justice really isn't blind.

The approaching State of the Union address is also brought up, with our anchor noting that he doesn't think anyone ever even remembers them after a day or two. Not true! C'mon, SOTU 2006 was a classic. Bush pledged to save the world from the scourge of animal-human hybrids. That's some good stuff there. Now that we have a sane president, these speeches are not nearly as fun. But it's a price I'm willing to pay.

Back at Anderson's shot, there seems to be some sort of spontaneous religious procession going on. It's a bizarre and stark contrast to the politics we were just talking about,which suddenly seem a world away.

Transitioning to Ali again, and he tells us about a couple of stimulus projects...and it's all pretty context-free and pointless. I think I've figured out what's going on here though. CNN always does this. All their shows have to be focusing on the same thing. This is their "stimulus week" or whatever. Fine and dandy, except 360's kinda ocupado at the moment with the whole horrible earthquake thing. So, in order to be able to check off the box noting that they have in fact participated in this project, we get these very pointless segments with Ali.

True contextualized stimulus reporting is going to take time. Yesterday, I was pretty hard on CNN's economic reporting from last year. But to be fair, it wasn't all bad. Actually, there was some good information online. In fact, while I railed against the television counterpart, some of the online reporting actually contradicted what was being said on the TeeVee. I suspect that when this stimulus project is over, there will be a decent report online, and perhaps even an okay hour long special. But these segments they're trying to throw into every show are just stupid.

After Ali, we have a Randi Kaye piece, which I thought was pretty good. She looked into the issue of some states (specifically Ohio) using stimulus money to pay for signs that point out projects being built with stimulus money. Maybe I just like irony. Anyway! Lots of money wasted, and while I sympathize with the transparency defense, there's got to be a better way to do this.

The hour ends with an update on little Monley. He has an aunt in Florida who wants to adopt him, so that's great news. I don't have any extra video for you tonight, but Anderson did an interview with Mediaite's Steve Krak. It's worth a read. Anderson still isn't giving a date to come home. It sounds like the team will probably have to be ordered to do so. Hopefully this weekend, especially if everyone is getting sick. The reporting has been phenomenal, but they need a break. They can always go back, and I hope that they will.

That'll do it. Don't forget to follow me on Twitter (@newsjunkie365) and check out my Haiti Twitter List.

Anderson Cooper 360 Reports Live From Haiti And CNN Gets Stimulated

Hi everyone. Welcome to the new week. As 360's coverage slowly becomes more normalized, I guess this is as good a time as any to return to my regular reviews. It should go without saying that the snark factor is still going to be lacking a bit, but I'm eager to at least get back to my present-tense format. So, away we go.

The broadcast begins with Anderson Cooper apologizing for any coughing he might do in the near future. They've just burned dead bodies near his live shot and now the "air is thick with the smell of the dead; the air is thick with their ashes." Not even a minute into the show and already a brutal slap in the face by the cold hand of reality. Our anchor goes on to give a general update: a man rescued over the weekend, no one today. At this time there are 4,000 missing Americans. There is a new video from the aftermath of the earthquake.

Anderson has the first piece of the night, with the focus being Haiti's orphans. Security has become a major issue, as there is a palpable fear of the children being kidnapped for trafficking. Besides that horror, workers are having to deal with a situation that is beyond confusing. There are many people back in the states who would love to adopt these children, but first they must determine that every presumed orphan actually is an orphan. The last thing anyone wants to do is take these kids away from family members in Haiti.

Following his piece, Anderson speaks with Deb Barry of "Save the Children" about security concerns. He points out that in the past, rumors of child trafficking haven't always been true. Deb admits that their reports are preliminary. One can't be too cautious, I suppose. Especially with the Restavek situation the country already has.

Next up, a Sanjay Gupta piece explores the trauma that quake survivors have experienced. It's hard to imagine that there's not going to be country-wide PTSD. Many people now live in tents--not because they don't have a home--but because they're terrified of the aftershocks. How do you restore the confidence of a nation?

Transitioning now back to the states, where we find Ali Velshi hanging with a stack of binders that is almost as tall as him. CNN has decided to get themselves stimulated (yes, I stole part of my title from TVNewser). I'll refrain from the Viagra joke. The whole idea here is that they're going to look into how the stimulus money has been spent. We're given a beyond meaningless poll that shows a good percentage of Americans believe the money is being used for political purposes. Now, there are no actual facts involved in their poll--this is just what people think are the facts.

The irony that these very opinions are shaped by media outlets is apparently lost on CNN. Annnnd because the media is usually skipping along about five paces behind public opinion, I'm not going to bother getting my shocked face out if this new round of reporting reinforces the beliefs of that poll. To be clear, I'm not exactly a stimulus cheerleader, and I do very much support investigations such as this one, BUT after surviving last year's atrocious reporting on the economy (seriously, so bad!), I've got pretty much no faith that this little project they're doing is going to produce anything worth writing home about. Fingers crossed that they surprise me.

We're jumping back to Haiti now, where Gary Tuchman has a piece on the demolished presidential palace. In fact, all their main governmental buildings are gone, forcing officials--including president Rene Preval--to work out of the police station. This might be a stupid question, but, like, what are they doing in there? Specifically what governmental work are they getting done? Maybe they're doing very important things, but we're certainly not seeing evidence of that on our TV screens.



After Gary's piece, we're joined by him, Ivan Watson, Anderson, and Christiane Amanpour for discussion. Christiane! The Live Shot Boy's Club has been infiltrated! I've been loving the guys (don't take away the guys!), but it's nice to have a little gender representation. Plus, c'mon, it's Christiane Frickin' Amanpour. Just her mere presence makes things feel more newsy. But going back to the Boy's Club, 360, some of your regular viewers have a request: We want you to adopt Ivan. It's not fair that he gets hogged by CNNi. We want to learn about Turkey, we swear!

In seriousness, I have advocated several times on this blog for the inclusion of more international reporters. I follow all these great people on Twitter and I never get to see their work unless they put the piece online (or something horrible happens in the part of the world they cover.) Anyway! The live shot gang talks about governmental corruption and the possibility of another big earthquake. Scary.

Transitioning back to the stimulus stuff. Ali tells us about a stimulus project where it sounds like the funds have been wasted. But, uh, he doesn't know because they're not done investigating it yet. Okay then. This being CNN, if they don't balance that sucker out the place will apparently catch on fire, so, yes, then he tells us about a good stimulus-y project. Yawn.

After that, we go to a Drew Griffin piece about Aggregate Industries, a recipient of stimulus cash. I think I'm going to have to pass on this one. My regular readers are well aware of my bias against this reporter. This might be a completely accurate piece, and Aggregate Industries might be evil incarnate, but at this point I can't even get past Drew's near unprofessional delivery. He never just reports the facts; he makes them fit into whatever narrative will make a better story. Remember his report on the stimulus money used for that Missouri bridge? I mean, good lord. I was flabbergasted that even make it to air.

Moving on now to Anderson talking politics with David Gergen and Candy Crowley. It's a little weird given that he's standing near bodies being burned. The news tonight is that Obama is proposing a discretionary spending freeze. I'll need more facts to give a full opinion, but my initial reaction was that of Nate Silver: seems a little tone deaf. Another thing for the pundits to idiotically chatter about. Oh joy.

The hour wraps up with updates on a couple of the children we've met in Haiti. First we see new video of the rescue of little Monley. As for his current condition, he apparently has pneumonia and a fever, but doctors think he'll be okay. Hm, still a little troubling though. Anderson also talks with Bea, the little girl he witnessed being rescued. She's lost 10 members of her family, but she's staying strong.

The video below is from the program Backstory. Host Michael Holmes talks with Sanjay Gupta, producer Danielle Dellorto, and photographer Jonathan Schaer about the night the doctors abandoned their patients at that field hospital. From Sanjay: "For a while, my faith in humanity was trashed."



This next video was taken of Team Gupta actually working on patients that night. We've seen part of this via Anderson's end, but it's really worth a viewing to see what it was like for them.



That'll do it. Don't forget to follow me on Twitter (@newsjunkie365) and check out my Haiti Twitter List.

Where We're Headed In Afghanistan, Republicans Are Spiteful, The Safety Of The H1N1 Vaccine, And An Army Deserter With PTSD

Hi everybody. We begin with the solemn news that on Saturday the US lost eight soldiers in Afghanistan, the worst single-day loss since the war began. With the eighth anniversary of the war upon us, and the current decision afoot of whether or not to send more troops, Afghanistan has finally made its way front and center in the news.

In an Anderson Cooper piece (yes, he actually did a piece and he's not in the field), we learn more about Saturday's attack, which occurred in eastern Afghanistan's Nuristan Province. The troops were in a remote section of the country and very outnumbered. We're reminded that a similar incident occurred last year in Wanat, and are subsequently shown some video of the very scary firefight that was obtained by CBS News.

Speaking of that network, the CBS Evening News is committing about half of each of their broadcasts this week to the subject of Afghanistan. I just watched some of it online and they've got some good pieces. I recommend that you check them out.

To talk about the situation, we're joined by Peter Bergen and Christiane Amanpour, who has just interviewed Secretaries Gates AND Clinton. Christiane always ups the awesome quotient of any discussion. We learn from her that although Gates feels the Taliban now has the momentum in the war, he did not explicitly advocate for more troops.

Anderson and Peter then talk a bit about how the timing of this latest attack was most likely not a coincidence. The Taliban aren't stupid. They're playing US public opinion. It's also noted that these troops sitting on remote bases are essentially sitting ducks. I'm actually confused about this. In Iraq, that was the strategy--get troops out of the big bases and among the people to build trust. But if the Afghanistan troops on these bases are only doing security operations, it's ridiculous they're so exposed.

We get an old clip now of Nic Robertson in Nuristan, huffing and puffing over the rough terrain. I'm pretty sure I blogged this when it first aired.

Back to the discussion, they talk a bit about General McChrystal and how he's basically speechifying his agenda now. I'm sorry, I think he needs to zip it and let Obama weigh all the options. They don't call him Commander in Chief for nothing. Christiane brings up the interesting point that maybe McChrystal is trying to make up for the mistakes of the last generals who blindly followed Bush. Maybe. But I think Obama deserves the benefit of the doubt. For now.

We all know Peter is in support of a commitment with more troops, but Anderson asks him to make the best case for the drone strategy, which he does. Christiane then points out that drones kill civilians and when that happens we lose trust and...that's pretty much one of the main things were going for right now. So...yeah. I'm telling you, people, I feel for Obama because this is not simple. At all.

Anderson then drills in his favorite point--that being that we're really nation building. Christiane admits that, yes, that's a big part of what both McChrystal and Obama have said we're going to do. I don't think the American people fully understand what that's going to entail. We're talking decades of commitment here. And in the short term, the soldiers are not trained for this.

PBS's Frontline has a new special on Afghanistan premiering later this month, but they have a rough cut up now. There's a scene where you can see a young soldier become very frustrated as he tries to communicate with a group of locals. I think it really encompasses one of the main problems of nation building using a fighting force--again, they're just not trained for this.

Moving on to a question that Anderson has been repeating throughout a good number of teases: "Has Obama lost his mojo?" See, our prez has taken a few hits lately, most notably the loss of the Chicago Olympics. Then this past weekend, Saturday Night Live's cold open didn't show Obama in the warmest light, and now we've got Anderson--with a completely straight face--asking about Obama's mojo. As a friend said to me while watching the show, "If you're going to ask a stupid question, at least make sure you don't *sound* like an idiot."

Seriously, his mojo? And seriously, SNL is the go-to for analysis now? This brings back memories of the media doing an about-face on Hillary Clinton following SNL's skits during the primaries. I'm not saying the show is wrong even in this instance, but the media's reaction to it is so, so pathetic. And why is 360 letting themselves get caught up in stupid media narratives again? I thought they got over that. Like a bad cold.

The only good thing about all this is that we get to hear from Paul Krugman, who I love. Of course, my excitement is tempered by the fact that we're also going to hear from Mary Matalin, who I really, really...don't love. So anyway, Krugman has a new column out that rightly calls out the Republicans for having the "emotional maturity of a bratty 13-year-old." One specific example is their absolute glee in America losing the 2016 Olympic bid.

Anderson is still using his stupid "mojo" question. For the record, no, Paul does not think Obama has lost his mojo--he even thinks we'll get health care reform. Shocker upon shockers, Mary disagrees. Bleh. This whole thing is an exercise in idiocy. I mean, what did we think she was going to say? She obviously never thought he had "mojo" in the first place. And that's the last time I'm using that word in this post.

Mary goes on to rightly note that what has stopped health care reform so far has been the Blue Dog Democrats. Anderson then asks Paul the following: "Do you think the opposition that the Republicans are throwing up now is different than what the Democrats threw up against President Bush?" I wasn't aware the Democrats ever threw up anything against Bush. Isn't rolling over pretty much their MO? Anyway, yes, yes, of course the opposition is different. The Republicans just oppose to oppose. I mean, seriously, the Olympics? They opposed the Olympics?

Then for some reason Mary brings up Rush Limbaugh, who she apparently reveres. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little. She then goes on to say that people like to listen to Rush and Rush knockoffs because they can hear info that doesn't demonize them or call them anti-American. She's got to be kidding. Liberals were called anti-American throughout all of the Bush years for simply questioning his strategies, and now conservatives just literally rooted against America. Disgusting.

So...that segment was fairly pointless. Hell, I probably could have written their lines for them. At least give us some David Gergen next time to make things more thoughtful. Also, Paul is clearly sick. Hope it's not the swine flu!

With that segue, we move on to Dr. Mehmet Oz talking about the H1N1 vaccine. You see what I just did there? Okay, so, the vaccine will start to become available soon and children, pregnant women, and health care professionals will be first in line. Concern about the vaccine is also brought up, and I have to say, Dr. Oz here doesn't really alleviate any fears. Yes, the vaccine is new, yes, there is always a risk. But what really gets me is when he tells us that his wife won't get it or let their children get it. And he seems perfectly fine with this. Mixed messages there, doc.

Moving on to a Randi Kaye piece on the Erin Andrews peephole scandal. I'm think I'm going to skip most of this, but I do want to point out a bit of discussion that Anderson has with Randi after the package runs. They're talking about how the dude just stood outside the hotel door. "He was allegedly just standing there outside the door," says Anderson. "Recording this just by putting his thing up to the door." Tee hee. Putting his thing up to the door? Yes, I'm 12.

Next up, we have a Gary Tuchman piece on an Iraq war deserter who surrendered today. Don Gartin is from a military family, but spent about the last six months on the run because he felt he was mentally unfit to serve. He says he attempted to get treatment for PTSD, but was unsuccessful and feared someone would die if he didn't desert.

According to Gary, Don is now possibly facing a dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of pay, and up to five years in a military lockdown. The Pentagon is not responding to inquiries. Obviously we're mainly only getting Don's side of the story, but it seems like a pretty sad situation. If he has PTSD he should be getting help, not being locked up.

The Letterman scandal was relegated to the "360 Bulletin" tonight. Good job, 360!

The "shot" tonight is a kid rocking out...on the accordion. I knew that instrument would have its day at some point! That about does it for the show, which I thought was pretty good tonight. I hope they keep up the Afghanistan coverage and stay away from going overboard on the celebrity/tabloid crap.