Tony Hayward Gets His Life Back (And Lots Of Money), A Pointless Debate On Race, And Interview With Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange

Hi everyone. What is this place?! Is this one of those "studio" things I have heard so much about? Yes, after spending pretty much forever out in the field, Anderson Cooper has decided to come indoors. It's not his studio, but it is a studio nonetheless (perhaps his staff can use bread crumbs or something to lead him back to the right one). This means a suit and tie. Oh, I miss the tight black t-shirt already. Anyway! I think I'm just going to barrel through this thing, only pointing out the noteworthy. Ready? Your Monday bullet points await!

• Buh-bye, Tony Hayward. Yep, the BP CEO is stepping down, to the tune of $18 million. Must be nice! I hope he enjoys his life he's getting back after destroying so many others. That sentiment, by the way, is basically our anchor's opening commentary--douche bag walks away with millions, while the little guy still hasn't gotten what they're owed. Our anchor forgoes the term "douche bag" though. Pity!

• For discussion, we're joined by Billy Nungesser, Ed Markey, and Douglas Brinkley. Of note is the very end of the segment, when Nungesser says the Coast Guard is helping BP sneak equipment out of his parish. He lobs this pretty big accusation, which for all I know has no evidence to back it up, and what is literally the next thing Anderson says? "We're going to have to leave it there." What?! Okay, you guys have time constraints, I get that. But dudes, I think this needs a follow up. (Video below.)

• Drew Griffin had a piece on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, which you can watch below.

• After the piece, there's discussion with Drew and Douglas, the latter of who call BP chronic liars. Says Anderson regarding BP in Alaska: "But, Doug, I mean, just to play devil's advocate, there haven't been any major accidents there. There have been little spills and little accidents there." As I'm about to yell "WTF?" at my screen, Douglas gets an incredulous look on his face, and informs Anderson that, um, there was kinda a huge spill in 2006. It was pretty big news, Anderson. If a news junkie can remember it off the top of her head, I'm wondering what the hell just happened here. Preparation fail.
  

• Now we come to the dreaded segment of the night. I already knew an appearance with Erick Erickson was approaching because he tweeted it beforehand. It's one of those scenarios where you're like, "oh, really? Excuse me while I go jab something sharp in my eye." But anyway, let's back up a second. It never fails in politics. One side will have the facts pretty much on their side on an issue, but then someone connected to the party will say something just a tad hyperbolic, allowing the opposition to pounce. Then suddenly the news cycle is not about the original issue, but about "oh my God, can you believe what he/she said?" And the next thing you know, we have one of those lovely one side against the other "balanced" debates like the one that's about to take place (and that the media love so much). To be fair, mention of Howard Dean goes out the window fast, but so does coherency. The background here is that Dean went on Fox News to talk about Shirley Sherrod and ended up calling Fox News racist. Oh boy. This will end well.
  

• For the record, I'm not sure I would say Fox News is racist. However, I do think they pretty clearly engage in race-baiting, which the New York Times wrote about today. The network is about ideology and that ideology happens to be against President Obama. Some of their viewers are already wary of a black president--Fox News takes it to the next level, showing them they have something to fear. It's an extremely cynical game that they and the Republicans are playing. And now Howard Dean has very gracelessly stepped all up in it.

• Back to the debate, as I said, we have Erickson, and he's up against Michael Eric Dyson, who says Fox News has racist elements. Erickson is incredulous at the accusation: "Really?" Funny, that's my exact reaction to the idea that you could ever be invited on broadcast television. So there's that.

• What follows is a disaster. Dyson just goes off. I don't even have the lung capacity for how much he's saying and how fast it's being said. It all sounds very impressive, but he's all over the frickin' place, as is Erickson. In fact, I'm not entirely sure they were both even participating in the same debate. Neither one of them are talking all that much about Fox News. We did, however, take a nice detour where we learned Erickson's family is from Sweden and that...somehow means something. I don't know, people. For his part, our anchor apparently decided this was a good time to take a nap, because instead of moderating, he basically disappears off the face of the earth. It's actually Erickson that brings our anchor back into the conversation, and then there's this awkward pause before Anderson even says anything. Seriously, was he sleeping?
  

• But jumping back into the debate, I have a bone to pick with our anchor's non moderating because there was a moment when he absolutely should have spoken up. Dyson correctly notes that FoxNews.com reported the Sherrod story before she resigned. Erickson's response: "If you're going to quote from Media Matters, then we can't have this conversation, because Media Matters is nothing but a left-wing hit job." This is absolute bullshit. So that's where we are now? We just dismiss anything that comes from a partisan site? Yes, they have a bias, but they also meticulously research and back up all of their assertions, often doing a better job than the traditional media. Yes, Dyson is right--a fact, which can be verified by viewing the article screen shot in Media Matter's time line of the Sherrod incident. They had to use a screen shot because the article was taken down. However, the follow up article is still online, which references the original post. People are entitled to their own opinions; they are NOT entitled to their own facts.

• As I said, I pointed out that part in the debate, not just to slam Erickson, but to also give a severe demerit to Anderson. What Dyson brought up was a very basic part of the Sherrod timeline that every journalist covering the story should know off the top of their head. Our anchor claims to be about truth and facts, yet when Erickson uses partisanship to dismiss a fact away, Anderson let him. Now viewers at home are forced to view the incident as a he said/he said, when there really is a right answer. Was Anderson not the moderator? This is not how one practices objective journalism. I hope this was simply a bad day. They happen. No one's perfect. But after the atrociousness of his performance last week, I can't say I completely believe that. (Debate below.)

• There was also a segment on the big Wikileaks document drop. It wasn't bad. I really don't have much to add, other than that Anderson kept pronouncing it weird. Interview with Julian Assange is below:

• The show was okay. As you can probably tell, I'm still pretty pissed at Anderson (though I don't think I've been unfair). Maybe he's just having an off night due to illness or something. Though I think it was just the lighting, he didn't look all that great. A friend's theory? He has falsebalanceitis. I've heard that can get pretty nasty, so I hope he gets it taken care of soon.

• This bullet point contains a video (well, below) from the LA Press Club Awards Gala, where Anderson received an award for his work in Haiti. I love that even The Terminator is talking about the Silver Fox's tight t-shirts. And though I'm still mad at our anchor, that was an admittedly very impressive video put together by CNN of Anderson's career. Is it sad that I can identify the majority of those clips? Also, Charlie Moore in a towel! Okay, okay, I have cruelly lied. The video only contains the mention of Charlie Moore in a towel. We take what we can get, people.
  

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sean Penn and Anderson Cooper at LA Press Club Awards Gala from Diana Ljungaeus on Vimeo.

Day Two Of AC360's Coverage Of The Unfolding Disaster In Haiti

Hi everyone. Tonight CNN and the 360 kids produced another stellar broadcast. The magnitude of the situation in Haiti is still almost too much to really get a handle on. Anderson Cooper himself alluded to this today in an interview with the Huffington Post's Danny Shea. It's worth a read, especially the part about Pat Robertson's despicable comments. Our anchor is nothing if not classy and diplomatic.

Despite 360's minor technical problems at the top of the first hour, I've been impressed at their ability to keep things running smoothly. I know a lot of newsers have been having problems. CNN had a lot of issues earlier yesterday, and today Brian Williams had to do part of his Nightly News broadcast by talking into a satellite phone. So kudos to whoever are the technical whiz kids.

As far as the show goes, all the reporting stood out. But I guess if I had to pick one image that will stick with me, it's seeing the unidentified bodies literally dumped from a truck, as if they were just construction waste or something. Former human beings treated like trash. Sickening, yet understandable. People going to their grave forgotten is something that obviously especially bothers Anderson--it's a theme that's been evident in his prior reporting on other stories. His piece tonight was pretty heartbreaking.

Ivan Watson continues to impress me enormously. He needs to be on CNN Domestic more. I watched a lot of his reporting earlier today and couldn't turn away from his story about the trapped little girl. Another one of those kind of must-watch stories was Sanjay Gupta treating that 15 day old baby. We got to see the correspondent in Doctor Mode, and if you watched how sweet he was to that little girl, I'd guess we saw a little bit of Dad Mode too.

Thank God for Gary Tuchman bringing us some positive news. It was nice to see a rescue with no injuries. Also, though I know he was hesitant to bring it up, I very much appreciated the humor regarding the woman being trapped in the candy aisle. If I am ever God forbid trapped in a horrible disaster, the candy aisle would totally be one of my top location choices.

Anderson's piece from the prison was really interesting. I like how they went a little C.S.I. on us, determining by the hand prints and rope that prisoners had escaped down the side of the building. Finally, also notable in the broadcast was Joe Johns' "Keeping Them Honest" reporting about Haiti. It kinda made me dread where we'll be at with this story in the coming months. Will there be a political fight about aid? Will the country be abandoned once the cameras leave? Only time will tell.

I realize these blog posts might be a bit of a disappointment to my regular readers, but I just can't fathom doing a review right now. I'm actually finding Twitter to be a more desirable medium when it comes to covering this story. I've been doing a lot of Haiti-related tweeting, so give me a follow if you're not already (@newsjunkie365). I've also set up a special Twitter List of journalists and a few others on-the-ground in Haiti. And as always, check out CNN Impact to learn how to help.

Most of us have probably already heard a variation on this, but here's Anderson talking to Charlie Rose. Below are some of Thursday's most noteworthy videos, beginning with Sanjay Gupta treating a baby with a severe head laceration:



Ivan Watson reports live on the attempted rescue of a young girl trapped under rubble. We learn on 360 that the rescue had finally occurred:



Anderson Cooper's piece on the cemetery, as well as Gary Tuchman's live report about the rescues he witnessed and his interview with rescue workers:



Finally, at the risk of up-ending the universe, I'm posting a clip from Fox News--yes, Fox News (ZOMG!)--that I think you should see. I've always liked Shepherd Smith, and Steve Harrigan's reporting here is pretty incredible to watch:



That's all for now. Let's hope tomorrow is a little bit better for Haiti.

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.

The White House Goes After Fox News, Limbaugh Wants To Buy The Rams, Anatomy Of A Company Bankruptcy, Animals Taking Over Florida, & More H1N1

Hi everyone. Sorry about skipping Friday. I just couldn't handle blogging all those talking heads bickering about Obama's Nobel Peace Prize win. As for this post, I think I'm going to be doing mostly the abbreviated version (of the segments, anyway) because, well, the show just wasn't all that great. Truthfully, I barely got through simply watching the broadcast.

Anyway, over the weekend, White House communications director Anita Dunn went on CNN's Reliable Sources and gave Fox News quite the smack down, saying the organization "often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party

." And this is now apparently our top story. Hmm.

This seems to me to be one of those stories that is huge in media circles, but barely on the radar of the average American. But we all know how much the media loves to talk about, well, the media. Meta alert! I suppose this is a particular win-win for 360 since they get to go trolling for viewers who love a good partisan food fight, all the while maintaining the appearance of being above the fray--with a little promotion of CNN's Sunday show thrown in for good measure.

Regardless of what they're telling themselves, I expect this from MSNBC--CNN is supposed to be better. Our first piece of the night is from Tom Foreman, who breaks down the situation and ponders whether this is a good strategy by the White House. Um, probably not. But does it matter that much? Fox News viewers were never going to be fans anyway.

Before I bring on the talking heads, I want to hit on a related story. Following that same broadcast of Reliable Sources, TIME's Michael Scherer made a blog post calling out the irony of Anita Dunn's claim that Fox News is not "a news network the way CNN is." His evidence of irony? According to Scherer, that morning CNN was airing a new ad for 360, one that featured a woman pitching the show as "essentially a liberal alternative to Fox News."

Yes, that would be prettying damning and ironic...if it were true. Upon reading the story, I was confused. It definitely didn't sound like the show I'd been watching for over four years. And Anderson Cooper often acts like he'd rather be jabbed with something sharp, rather than give his opinion on major news stories. Given that I hadn't seen the ad myself, I started asking around to other CNN viewers and was eventually pointed to the first comment to this Inside Cable News post.

Apparently, it was all just a technical error, which is explained in this post on Mediate (video of ad included). As for the man who started all the controversy, Scherer corrected, but blamed the situation on his television, which I'm sorry, is just total, total crap. You work for TIME and you don't even watch the ad that you blogged about? Talk about shoddy journalism.

It was also disheartening to see how many people jumped on the go-after-CNN bandwagon, all without having seen the ad. I'm not even talking about just random commenters. Shortly after Scherer's post hit the Internets, Jay Rosen was on Twitter pondering how Jon Klein would spin the situation. I don't understand why people can't wait to comment on something until after they've seen it. Or at least use caveats, you know?

Anyway, apparently some of the commenters on the media sites are still suspicious that this was all intentionally done by CNN. To them I say, I've been watching the network a long time and have seen them do many, many moronic things. They are simply not diabolical enough to pull something like that off. You are giving them way too much credit.

Okay, so back to the show and the pundits. Oh joy. Rocking the house tonight we've got David Gergen, Errol Louis, and K.T. McFarland. You don't exactly need to be a brain surgeon to know the gist of what they're going to say. As a classic villager, the Gerg obviously thinks attacking Fox News was a bad move by the White House because it only elevates them. Errol is all for going after the network, and K.T. thinks it's insulting to viewers. So there you go.

Of note is Anderson wondering if it's fair that Obama still goes on MSNBC, which is also partisan. It's a weird line of questioning since it pretty much misses the whole point. Not to mention the fact that Rachel Maddow (and maybe the others too) have been pretty hard on Obama lately. Then when Errol brings up the Fox News producer that coached the crowd at the 9/12 protest, Anderson cuts in with the following: "I'm not in the position to be defending them. But, for accuracy's sake, they did discipline that producer. They said she was a young producer just new to the job."

Okay, dully noted, but it's sorta ridiculous to bring that up and fail to acknowledge that Fox News was a promoter of the tea parties and the 9/12 protests. I mean, good lord, from what I understand, the 9/12 Project was conceived by Glenn Beck. So, you know, for accuracy's sake, that's context we could have used.

Transitioning now from one partisan mostly-non story to another: Rush Limbaugh wants to buy the St. Louis Rams. Being a St. Louisan, this all feels like deja vu to me because the national media is about a week behind the local conversation. Personally I'm against the buy because of the ick factor, but I guess it should be noted that I'm pretty much already boycotting the team because 1) the Rams suck and 2) I don't like football.

Anyhoo! The big to-do here is that some of the players on the team are against the buy because of prior statements from Rush, like comparing players to gang members. Race is brought up and if we're talking about race, well, Al Sharpton appearance in 3...2...1...

Sharpton and the other dude that joins him (yes, he really was a guest), say nothing of note, but looking back over this, I'm sorta confused as to the slant of the segment. 360 definitely implies the issue is primarily about race, whereas Sharpton claims the letter he sent to the NFL never mentions race. So...whatever. Racist statements are just one factor of Limbaugh's all-around douchebaggery.

Transitioning now to a well done piece by Randi Kaye that takes a look at the 130-year-old company Simmons Bedding, and analyzes how equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners essentially borrowed it into bankruptcy. It's amazing--and fairly scary--how these firms can make a fortune by buying up companies and borrowing against their assets.

On now to a John Zarella piece about animals on the attack in Florida. Dun dun dun! Pythons, iguanas, and poisoned toads--oh my!! Apparently, lately the Sunshine State has turned into Animal Planet, without the awesomeness of Jeff Corwin. After John's piece, we're joined by zoologist Ron McGill and a python friend via satellite. But there's no mention of the third party for about a minute of conversation. Then from Anderson: "You do know you have a snake around your neck, don't you?" He just wants to be sure, people.

Next up, Sanjay Gupta is back for more H1N1 discussion. This was actually some pretty good information. Myth debunking! One thing I found interesting is that the vaccines for seasonal flu are essentially made the same way this swine flu one is being made--in that every year's strain of flu is different, so every year it's a new vaccine. I guess I hadn't thought about it like that before. But that's not an endorsement. There are still so many unknowns, and I'm not going to just blindly trust Sanjay--even if he does have a 1000-watt smile.

The "shot" tonight is Jesse McCartney forgetting the words to the National Anthem. Oh, muy embarrassing! "I guess the good news is that being in a boy band is no longer the most embarrassing thing he has done," says Anderson. Our anchor then admits he has no idea who Jesse McCartney is. Gotta say, probably not a big loss for him. Also? I didn't think Anderson was right about the boy band thing, but I used the Google, and zoh my God, he was! Dream Street? What the hell is that?

Anyway, the only thing I know about Jesse McCartney (and yes, the fact that I have this knowledge is embarrassing) is that he starred in that WB show Summerland with Lori Loughlin of Full House fame. Check this: the premise of the show is that these three kids tragically lose their parents in a flood...and then move to California to live a light and summer-y existence with their aunt. Seriously. Three kids suddenly losing their parents is the stuff of five-hanky dramas, yet the show was all about their new world of sun and surf. WTF? Yeah, cancellation came quickly.

But I digress. Heh. Back in the show, Anderson and Erica Hill are having fun running other National Anthem performances gone wrong, such as Roseanne's infamous rendition, and hockey girl. That poor woman not only forgot the words, she then fell on the ice. Anderson asks to see the fall again because he is a meanie, and he then has the audacity to blame it on Erica. Well! You are shunned, Mr. Cooper. Shunned!

Back to the serious, wow, not their best broadcast. Was there no other news today? Health care or Afghanistan troop developments? The march on Washington over the weekend? Bueller? Anyway, if you didn't see the Daily Show tonight, make sure you watch tomorrow. Their entire first block was all about CNN and it was spot on. I'll try to remember to blog it tomorrow when the video is available-or at least tweet. As for now, that'll do it.