Anderson Cooper 360 Returns To Haiti, Update On The American Missionaries, Sarah Palin Keynotes Tea Party Convention, & Who Dat?!

Hi everyone. Sorry about the lack of Friday review. Sometimes you feel like blogging; other times you feel like vegging. But it's a new week, and we find ourselves back in Haiti. I'm not sure if technically one is allowed to be proud of people they've never met, but if it is, I am totally proud of Team 360 right now. I knew they would return to the country. There was never any doubt in my mind (and it should be noted that CNN as an organization never left). But it's still nice to witness the dedication.

Anderson Cooper begins by addressing the question of why he returned, a question he also explored in a blog post. He explains that the people on the ground aren't asking him why he returned, but rather why he ever left. I'm guessing he probably feels guilty about that. He shouldn't. I don't see any other major anchor in the country. Last week, Brian Williams was on The Daily Show talking about the three days he spent in Haiti. Now, I love me some BriWi, but three days? That's your classic parachute in, do the disaster tour, sayonara.

As for the week break, quite frankly CNN would be stupid to let any of their people stay in those conditions for an extended period of time. They are there to perform a job. Getting worn down to the point that you become an infection magnet isn't exactly helpful. But anyway, the video below is Anderson talking about why he returned and some of things he's seen upon his re-arrival:



There was amazing news today. Maybe. Anderson and Sanjay Gupta talk about a 28-year-old man who was allegedly pulled from the rubble alive nearly a month after the quake. I have to say, I'm pretty skeptical about this one. So much so that I didn't feel comfortable tweeting the news. Obviously, if true, the man must have had access to water. Otherwise there's no way in hell he would have survived and even then...it seems a little fishy. We may never know for sure.

From that potential miracle, we move into an Anderson piece that just kind of summarizes what the situation continues to be like on the ground. People are living in the street. Bodies are still being found, and subsequently buried in old graves (if they're lucky). There's heavy equipment being used to clean up, but destruction remains all around. People find new ways to make money, such as a man they come across selling electricity. All in all, improvement has been made, but Haiti remains plunged in misery.

Karl Penhaul then joins us live to talk about the case of the American missionaries charged with kidnapping. Earlier, Anderson noted how much coverage this controversy has been getting and reiterated there is much more to the story of Haiti. I'm glad he said that. Last week I noticed that their post-quake coverage had suddenly become strangely focused, but I didn't want to complain just yet. That's not to say, of course, that they shouldn't cover the missionaries. Karl tells us that the Laura Silsby-led group actually tried to take a whole other group of children before the current group and were stopped. So, yes, they are in big trouble.

Then we bounce back to Idaho to get the angle that Dan Simon has been covering. We learned the other day that the men and women have been separated. Dan was actually able to sit down with Renee Thompson, wife of Paul Thompson, one of the men arrested. We learn that Thompson received an email from Silsby (who he did not know), basically recruiting him for this trip. He went on to recruit four other men himself. Paul's wife claims he was not in the loop on the details, but rather thought he was going to do good with his handyman skills. This is both sad and totally messed up.

Next, we're joined by Frances Robles of the Miami Herald live on-the-ground with Anderson and Sanjay to talk about the fallout from this missionary mess. Apparently, sick kids are now being denied their promised flights out of the country because pilots are freaking out over all the questions they're being asked. I guess suddenly everyone is extra suspicious of those transporting children and no one wants to be arrested for trying to do a good deed. The result? Sick kids become dead kids. There has to be a better way.

The subject of keeping this story in the news also comes up, an issue I depressingly blogged about over a week ago. It's apparent that Anderson is worried about it, and hey, he's seen it before--there's no reason he shouldn't be worried. Frances, on the other hand, is more worried about the staying power of the aid agencies currently lending a hand in Haiti. I guess that will partly be the media's responsibility as well. If the help leaves and no one reports it, well, I don't even want to think out that.

On a silly note, you know that whole "Text 360" thing that I think is pretty stupid? Well, my feelings haven't changed on that, but tonight my girl Vanessa got her text read. So...shout out! That's pretty much all I have to say on that. Below is video of discussion between Anderson, Frances, and Sanjay:



Transitioning now to politics. Can I get a woo hoo? No? Okay. So, as you might have heard, the big Tea Party Convention has taken the country by storm. By storm, people! All 600 of them. I am completely flummoxed by the media's complete newsgasm over a stupid convention that only drew 600 people. Hell, I went to a media reform convention back in 2005 that had well over a thousand attendees. I'm pretty sure CNN didn't even know it existed, even with the attendance of Bill Moyers, Al Franken, and various members of Congress. My point here is WTF is up with the drooling over this convention?

Oh wait, I know what's up. And her name is Sarah Palin: Media Magnet. Ms. Maverick-y gave the keynote, and while she made sure to rag on Obama's use of the teleprompter, she failed to see the irony in using her hand as a crib sheet to remind herself to "lift American spirits." No, I'm not kidding. I wish I were kidding. So, to recap, the favored leader of the conservative movement likes to use her hand as a cheat sheet for hard words like "tax," and predominantly uses Facebook to communicate. Good lord, they're trying to elect a 14-year-old. It's like America is trapped in a scene from a really warped version of Freaky Friday.

That train wreck all came to us via a Randi Kaye piece, by the way. After covering the convention, I figure she deserves the credit. For discussion, we're next joined by Mary Matalin. Um, yeah, I don't think so. Even Anderson looks downright thrilled to be having this conversation. Yes, yes, I'm sure it'd be the same with a Democrat, but whatev.

Finally tonight,...who dat???!!! Yes, the New Orleans Saints won the Superbowl, which just so happens to have been the most-watched television program evah! In full disclosure, I should note that I neither like nor understand the game of football. But! My heart was totally rooting for New Orleans. I just, you know, didn't actually watch any of it. Hey man, ABC had Modern Family on. Don't judge me. Anyway! James Carville and Mary Matalin then join us to gloat. They're decked out in their Saints gear too. They're being, dare I say, almost enjoyable? Now see, why can't they be like this all the time? I mean, c'mon, is that whole politics thing really that necessary?

The "shot" tonight is a weatherman freaking the eff out over snowmageddon. SnOMG! Good times.

The show was pretty good. Obviously, they just got there and haven't had much time to really zero in on specific stories (besides the missionaries). As Anderson noted earlier, it's going to get harder to keep the reports fresh and find new angles. I tend to hang onto stories forever. (Wanna do a follow up on Katrina? I'll watch.) But most viewers aren't like me. Again, I really admire that Team 360 is back.

Racism In The Tea Party Movement (With More Craziness From Mark Williams), Joe Wilson Gets Pwned By Congress, And Investigating Medical Malpractice

Hi everybody. We begin once again with the sense-assaulting "breaking news" graphic. Since that seems to be their default show opening now, regardless of what's actually "breaking," I think it would be more productive if I only noted it when they didn't use the thing. Way to make something utterly useless, huh? Anyway, Anderson Cooper tells us we're awaiting a police conference on Annie Le, but we'll get to that in a bit.

Right now we're talking race and politics, with a former president thrown in for good measure. Apparently Jimmy Carter did a little chatting with Brian Williams (BriWi to the cool kids) and he thinks a lot of these tea party people who we've been seeing get their crazy on have an issue with our prez's skin color. Ruh roh. Don't get me wrong, he totally has a case here, but mix racial accusations and a former Democratic president, and you've got all the ingredients needed for a full on news cycle freak out.

To begin said freak out, we're joined by Roland Martin and, oh look, tea partier Mark Williams is back. His appearance last night was quite popular. Given 360's new tendency to ratings pander, and the fact that Mark is clearly a fame whore, you should see my totally shocked face that he is once again on my television screen. Oh well. Buckle up kids, it's gonna get bumpy.

Anderson first gives the floor to Mark, who has to get in his requisite Carter diss. He of course denies the racial accusation, but does admit there is a fringe to his movement. I guess that would be fringe-fringe. Roland, not surprisingly, agrees with Carter, and starts name checking all the people in the conservative movement who have recently said or committed racist acts. Example: Glenn Beck saying Obama has a hatred of white people. It's also noted that threats against Obama are up 400%. I'm actually not sure if that number is accurate, but I would believe it.

Mark thinks that's it's not race that's different about this administration, but that Obama is a big old thief. Taking all our money AND borrowing from China. Wait, how is that different from the last guys? He's also got his undies in a twist over Obama supposedly bowing to the Saudi king or whatever. Um, hello, Bandar Bush ring a bell? All this nonsense goes on while Anderson, I dunno, takes a nap or something. Wake up, Cooper! Finally our anchor cuts in to tell them to stop talking over each other.

Roland then gives a long explanation as to why this is all racist, but I'm not really sure he's selling his point. I suppose that's okay though since Mark is back to freaking out about the socialist gardening he brought up last night. I don't even know what the hell we're talking about anymore. Earth to Anderson. Bueller? Roland asks Mark if he would denounce the witch doctor signs and he says he would. But dude, you called him an "Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug," on your own blog!

Then Mark tries to act like he bears no responsibility for inciting all these wackjobs. Oh, and he implies Roland is a race-baiter. That about wraps it up. "Good discussion," says Anderson. Dude, what have you been watching? So, um, yeah. That was fairly dumb. I take back my comment from yesterday that they should have this joker on to hang himself with his own rope. This is just about sensationalism now. More reporting, less idiocy please. Here's the video, if you're interested.

Speaking of idiocy, today Congress took out their big ruler and smacked Representative Joe Wilson on the wrist. Joe Johns has the latest: Okay, we all remember the "you lie!" incident, right? Well, today the idiot got formally punished. But was it all a waste of time? Joe's semi-snarky copy would imply that it was. I'm pretty meh about the situation. Was it a fairly pointless thing to do when they should be working on more important things? Yes. But I've seen them to do worse. You know, like that whole war thing.

For discussion of this, we're joined by Alex Castellanos and Paul Begala. I'm just going to cut to the good stuff. Alex actually tries to claim that if we're going to censure Wilson, we should also censure Obama, since he also used the word "lie" during his address. Oh. My. God. He can't be serious. Anderson is a bit more awake during this segment and is sporting his trademark "even I can't take this BS" smirk. He points out that, um yeah, Obama was talking about allegations about death panels, which uh, were factually inaccurate. "Are you equating that to some guy, a congressman yelling out at the president?" asks Anderson.

But Alex seems to deny that what Obama said was accurate. This is the problem, nobody can even agree on what's a fact. "Alex is entitled to his own opinion. He's not entitled to his own facts. There are no death panels," says Paul. Booyah! Just keep saying it. Later Paul brings up how Kanye West said Bush didn't care about black people and how Democrats distanced themselves from that statement. Man, that guy is coming up everywhere these days.

Anyway, Alex tries to claim that none of this racial subtext was around before the election, which leads Paul to be all, uh, did you see the Sarah Palin rallies? Seriously, have these Republicans suffered some kind of collective head injury? Next they all talk about the asshattiness of Mark Williams. The segment wraps up with Alex talking fiscal conservatism, a legitimate issue to disagree with the president on. Too bad most of the opposition insists on focusing on insanity.

Transitioning now to Tom Foreman talking about the latest in the Annie Le murder case. He tells us that the police have a person of interest in custody. (The suspect has since been arrested.) For discussion of all this, we're then joined by forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht and criminologist Jack Levin. Why, I'm not quite sure. These kind of things continually frustrate me.

This is a show that defines and prides itself on being fact-based, yet here we are with two segments of speculation. Cyril even goes as far as to peg this as an "if I can't have her, no one can," crime of passion. And he could be right. Or he could be widely widely off the mark. That's the funny thing about spouting shit when you don't know all the facts. The show is better than this, or at least they pretend to be.

From one missing girl to another, we're next joined by Dan Simon, who tells us the cops are searching the Garrido property where Jaycee Dugard was held. They're looking for a link to two other child abductions in the area. One girl looked a lot like Jaycee and was her age, so of course everyone goes, "ah ha!" About 15 years ago two young girls went missing in the St. Louis area and later turned up dead. They were almost the same age with the same blue eyes and blond hair. Parents were freaked that there was a serial kid killer on the loose. There wasn't. The cases weren't connected. Let's not jump the gun here.

Our final piece of the night is from the always awesome Gary Tuchman. He's tackling the subject of medical malpractice and does so by sitting down with two of the nation's top trial lawyers: Les Weisbrod and Todd Smith. The attorneys aren't very big fans of capping malpractice settlements and they don't think it would help costs anyway. I am not shocked that I am hearing this from trial lawyers. Apparently punitive damage malpractice verdicts are way less common than everyone thinks. In fact, Weisbrod claims he's had seven or eight over a 30 year period. What? That doesn't seem right, but wow.

Gary reminds us, however, that settlements are often paid before cases get to a judge. Doctors claim this leads to defensive medicine. Gary brings up his orthopedist friend who "takes care of (his) broken bones." Just how many broken bones has it been? This is because of the roller-blading, isn't it? Anyway! Ortho friend's main sentiment is that sometimes life just sucks even when everyone does their job right. Amen, ortho friend, amen.

My opinion? Um, I agree with everyone! As someone who's seen way more than her share of doctors, I can tell you that sometimes they suck. Like, a lot. And I sure as hell want to retain my right to sue them for everything they're worth (no, I never have). I can also tell you that they do put patients through expensive invasive procedures just to cover their asses. Yes, I've had this happen. So...quite the pickle. Uh, good luck with that, guys.

That'll do it. The show was okay. It's getting pretty clear they're ratings pandering. I wish they'd stop.