Spending Bill Yanked, Birther Sentenced, Checking In On Afghanistan, And Playing Tribute To Larry King

Hi everyone. Quite the historic night for CNN! Larry King will be missed. But we'll talk about that later. The bullet points first have other business to attend to, so pop on your solidarity suspenders and let's get this show on the road.

• Hey, raise your hand if you hate Congress. It seems that these days our legislators aren't effective at anything...except sucking. See, they were supposed to get this spending bill passed (you know, to fund the government--important!), but Harry Reid had to yank it because some Republicans are going back on their word to vote for the thing because they're in a tizzy over earmarks. Sigh. Also? Senator Jim DeMint is kinda being a dick. I mean, I'm just sayin'.

• Anderson Cooper: "We should point out that Senator DeMint was the star of tonight's game-playing, but there has been plenty of blame to go around on both sides of the aisle. What's amazing, though, is how many politicians on both sides of the aisle can stand up, that is when they're not playing games and speak out against -- wait for it -- all the game-playing." Balance! But the latter part of this statement was backed up with a montage showing legislators from "both sides of the aisle" talking about game playing. Good job. In this case they proved their balance-y statement. That's all I'm ever asking for.
  

• For discussion, we were joined by Erick Erickson, Gloria Borger, and Steve Kornacki of Salon.com. Despite my rather strong dislike of Erick, this panel wasn't too bad. Well, it didn't make me want to jab something sharp in my eye, anyway. Improvement!
  

• Our anchor: "This is probably a naive question, but, I mean, when it comes down to it, what's wrong with letting a bill come up for a vote?" Oh, honey...

• Actually, there's nothing wrong with that happening. That would be great! But unfortunately, the Silver Fox is using the reasoning of a moral sane person, and, well, we're talking about the senate. Remember when you learned about Congress in your ninth grade civics class and you thought it was this noble institution? If you're a political junkie, eventually you learn how things really work...and you cry sad tears.
  

• Anderson responding to Gloria's statement that the White House wants to get it all: "Yes. Well, I want a pony for Christmas. I don't think I'm going to get it. So, we will see." I don't know. I think you have a better shot at that than the rest of us.
  

• Tonight we learned that Lieutenant Colonel Terrence Lakin--a birther previously humiliated by our anchor--was sentenced to six months in military prison for defying orders. Basically his distinguished career is now over, his pension gone. All because of a batshit conspiracy theory. Since feeling the heat, Lakin has done a 180, expressing his regrets regarding the entire thing.
  

• This whole story is just sad. It's pretty obvious he was used by the birther movement, but it's hard to feel sorry for him. As Anderson said to his lawyer during that weird and contentious interview, "the guy's an adult."
  

• We were joined by Jeffrey Toobin and JAG officer Thomas Kenniff for the legal lowdown.

• Toobin: "Well, you know, you asked at the beginning, was he a pawn or he did get what he deserved? I think the answer is yes to both of them. I mean, he was a pawn. But I'm sorry. You know, this is not some 18- year-old private who had his head turned by some fancy lawyer. This is a doctor, 18 years in the military. He has to know that, in the military, you have to follow orders." Bingo.

• We were then shown a clip of Mike Jones, the security officer who took down school board shooter Clay Duke. He sounds like a pretty humble and awesome guy. As for the 360 kids, they get points for foregoing airing the video during the teases as they had been doing the past couple days, but they still ran it too much as Mike was talking.

• The "shot" tonight was a video that contained the Pope, and half-naked men eagerly demonstrating their flexibility. I gotta say, the watchful eye of His Holiness is a total buzzkill when you're trying to enjoy some good old fashioned softcore porn.

• Afghanistan coverage! Is it my birthday? A new strategic review says things are not so bright and sunny in the country, and really, we didn't need a report to tell us that. To keep Obama honest, the 360 kids hit us with a montage that shows the Commander in Chief continuously talking about the war's progress. That was very finely edited, so I guess we'll just have to trust that he was really talking about Afghanistan in every one of those clips. Because seriously, in one clip he simply said, "I would add that." Um, okay. This isn't exactly a criticism, but more like a word of caution: don't fall into the trap of making the clips fit the agenda, 360. It might someday get you into trouble. Still love those montages though!

• Great discussion with Peter Bergen and Sebastian Junger. I want to see "Restrepo."

• Michael Vick earned himself a spot on the RidicuList tonight after expressing his desire to once again be a dog owner. Um, what? Yeah, that's not happening. The 360 kids suggested that he maybe start out with a goldfish or a Pepperidge Farm goldfish cracker. ("Friends" fan on staff? "That's not a fish. That's a goldfish cracker." Oh, Chandler.) They then introduced us to a German toy called the Cackle Dackle, and hilarity ensued. It's a toy dog that, well, does his business. "You see that? See that?" asked Anderson. The look on his face was priceless. Yes, we saw. And you are 12. Hilarious.
  

• Tonight an icon left his chair. I've had my issues with Larry King (softball questions, occasional shocking tactlessness, promotion of unsavory figures, etc.), but you cannot deny that the man has had an amazing career. It seems that 360 had plans to go to Larry live at the party he was attending, though that apparently didn't work out. Instead they played this look back:

• His last broadcast, like the man himself, contained a lot of awkwardness, but was ultimately pretty charming. Loved BriWi, Katie Couric's poem, and Cannon's impression. Also, our anchor succeeded in expertly sucking the snark right out of me. God damn, Silver Fox. God damn. Below is Anderson's very touching thank you to Larry, including words from his own father:
  

• Still no Gary Tuchman in Haiti. Sad face.

• The show was pretty good. Honesty-keeping. Variety. Some humor. No Loesch. Ahem. Yes, I'm fairly pleased.
  

When Package Copy Goes Horribly Wrong

Update 5/15/10: Hey guys. If you're wondering, yes, I plan on doing a post about 360 Friday. Look for it tomorrow or early Monday.

Hi everybody. When I sat down to watch tonight's broadcast I had no intention of doing a post. My plan was to have a little fun live-chatting with some friends and then go to bed. But sometimes you see something on the TeeVee that just screams "blog me!" and such was the case tonight.

The show kicked off with the latest on the oil spill, while my friends and I discussed how cable has absolutely destroyed the concept of "breaking news" (and how we're a little bitter about that). Soon 360 transitioned to the subject of the craziness going on in Arizona. A worthy topic, though not something that personally interests me a great deal.

My chat buddies and I instead talked about the extremely disturbing viral video of a drug raid that recently took place in Columbia, Missouri, in which family dogs were shot in the presence of a seven-year-old. This is your drug war in action. More info can be found here.

From there, 360 had discussion with Alex Castellanos and Paul Begala. What did they discuss? I honestly couldn't tell you, nor do I care. As I said on Twitter, at this point I don't even hear the pundits anymore. It's just all Charlie Brown's teacher to me. I wish CNN would listen to Donna Brazile and her suggestion of getting rid of the pundits. Unfortunately, not only are they not listening; they're hiring more. Le sigh.

But enough about all that. It's time to talk about what caused me to blog tonight: the story of Larry King, a gay 15-year-old who was relentlessly bullied and then allegedly shot to death by another student. A truly horrible situation. The show has actually reported extensively on the case previously. The piece that ran tonight from Randi Kaye was more of a summary and update. And in terms of copy, it was bad. Very bad. Seriously, check this out:

More than two years ago in February 2008, the bullying suddenly stopped, not because Larry was finally accepted but because he was dead. Murdered, police say, by a fellow student.

And this:

On Larry's final day, he left his make-up and high heels at home and went to school wearing his uniform, just like everyone else. It's unclear why. But if he had decided to try and blend in, he never had a chance.

Before the piece had even ended, my friends had made a flurry of comments, all with basically the same sentiment: WTF? I get that our news peeps have a job to do, but the paragraphs I've highlighted could have been relayed in a much more appropriate manner. Yes, this is a news story--it's also the life of a 15-year-old boy. This reminds me of when they used the Magic Wall to extensively document the days before Phoebe Prince killed herself. There's some stuff you just shouldn't do.

For anyone out there thinking of hating on Randi Kaye, the fact of the matter is we just don't know who the responsible party is here. Her copy could very well have been written by a producer. You would've hoped that someone would have said, "hey, that reads rather insensitive," but I guess not. To add insult to injury, this was all followed up with discussion with Dr. Phil. How he merits the "Big 360 Interview" is beyond me. Also, raise your hand if you were absolutely creeped out by him talking about those little girls performing the Single Ladies dance.

So...yeah. Not much praising from me tonight. You win some, you lose some. Tomorrow they're scheduled to run the first special show in the new format. Should be interesting. Maybe? I'm pretty skeptical that this is going to work out for them, but never say never.

CT Scans And Cancer, The Latest On Health Care Reform, Earmark Reporting Sans Context, And Talking To Larry King About "Nine"

Hi everyone. We're going a tad unconventional tonight and kicking things off with health news. The skinny? ZOMG, CT scans will give you cancer! Okay, actually, no. Well, maybe. Basically what researchers have found is that no one really knows how much radiation you're getting when you undergo a CT scan, and that could possibly lead to 15,000 deaths per year. It's obviously a legitimate story, but I still can't help hearing "Dun dun dun!" in my head. Why? Well, because 72 million CT scans are performed in this country every year, some of them no doubt saving lives. I wouldn't say the risks outweigh the benefits.

My guess is this is our lede tonight because Anderson Cooper saw the report and got a wee bit freaked out. Our anchor notes that he's undergone these scans due to a history of heart disease on his father's side. In fact, the Big Wall is employed to show us one of his scans performed in 2004. Weird. Then we talk with Sanjay Gupta, because this is a medical story, so it's required. I actually join Anderson in the crappy my-dad-had-heart-disease club, and have had more than my share of tests, yet I'm still not the least bit freaked about this. It's always something. Good to know, but not something I'll be losing sleep over.

Transitioning now back to the Big Wall to take a look at how President--excuse me--Senator Lieberman took down health care reform. The math is done. You know the deal here, people: 60 votes needed. The Dems had 58, which left two more votes to get from a pool of Lieberman, Ben Nelson, and Olympia Snowe. Now party leadership is trying to buy Joe-mentum's vote by ditching all the best parts of the bill. If you're looking to join the "I hate Joe Lieberman" club, raise your hand. I get to be president.

Dana Bash actually sat down with the current most hated man in D.C. for a short interview. Lieberman claims this isn't a vendetta against the Left, which I think is crap. We all know he felt burned when he was primaried out of the party. And yes, he is that petty. This guy was hated long before health care reform (hence the primarying). Whenever the Republicans needed a Democrat to provide bi-partisan support to whatever idiotic legislation they had cooking, Joe was there. Standing on principles? Puhleese. Love of attention, more like it. Lieberman tells Dana that he doesn't enjoy being hated. Well, there's a real simple solution for that: stop being such a dick.

For discussion of this, Dana sticks around and we're joined by Michael Gerson and Tanya Acker. One point brought up is that Lieberman just left the door open to run as a Republican. After everything he's putting the Democrats through. See what I mean about being a dick? Can't say I'm surprised though. From what I understand, he won his seat as an Independent by getting the Republican vote. Anyway, this whole thing has left me with a strong urge to throw my shoe at the television. Definitely not the first time, won't be the last. Best to move on now before I have to self-impose another cable news ban like the one I had after my 2005 Robert Novak-inspired incident. Ahem.

Next up, earmarks! Oh joy. See, when it comes to reporting on the little buggers, CNN has a history of being...oh, what's the word I'm looking for? Bad. That's it. They have a history of being bad. But they're persistent (and consistent) about it, as they've been on the story for years. Back in 2007, there was no transparency with earmarks, which is a legitimate issue and I supported their reporting at the time. But now the rules have changed, yet our 360 peeps are still pretty much going, "ZOMG, earmarks!"

Joe Johns takes us to the Big Wall for a breakdown of some of the pork in the new omnibus spending bill. One item mentioned is $655,000 for equipment at the Institute for Irritable Bowel Syndrome Research in Los Angeles. As someone with a family member who is having a horrific time dealing with IBS, I fail to see how this is outrage-inducing or laughable. That's the thing about earmarks; one person's unnecessary spending is a Godsend to someone else. I could go on and on about my problems with this coverage, but actually, been there, done that.

Earlier this year, my friend Arachnae did a guest post about the subject, which is unfortunately just as relevant today. Give it a read if you're so inclined. After Joe, Anderson has an interview with Senator Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) who is advocating that Obama veto the omnibus bill due to the spending. Good luck with that.

Transitioning now to Larry King sitting with Anderson in studio to talk about the interview he just did with the cast of "Nine." No, really! I'm not complaining, but it's a little strange. To make it stranger, Anderson asks which of the ladies caught Larry's eye. Says the suspendered-one: "Fergie ain't bad." Oh, now that's just disturbing. Dude, you're like 157-years-old. Don't be the creepy old man. I'm just sayin'.

Then there's discussion about the singing by the actors and how they hadn't done that before (except Nicole Kidman has, but hey, who's counting). Next thing I know, they're talking about the Johnny Cash movie "Walk the Line" and Anderson is telling us he bought the soundtrack, which features Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix. This was one of the very rare nights where I was watching with someone else. Said my viewing partner to Anderson: "Why don't you just buy a Johnny Cash album?" Yes Anderson, why?

The "shot" tonight is our anchor being his charming self on Live with Regis and Kelly. There's confuzzlement over eyebrows, an impersonation of a botoxed lip-injected person in denial...oh, the fun was had. You can watch the host chat here. And hey, bonus inbox! Just because. Don't say I never get you anything.

The show was okay. I found the top story choice and the Larry King segment both to be a little odd, but not bad. Can't be as charitable about the earmark coverage. And the Lieberman stuff makes me want to pull my hair out, though I suppose I can't really blame 360 for that one. That'll do it.