Heckuva Job Brownie Returns, All About Faisal Shahzad, & Nashville Is Underwater But Apparently We're Not Talking About That

Hi everyone. My blogging malaise continues, so as do my bullet points. Away we go:

• Holy Scary Lighting Batman! Tonight Anderson Cooper was coming at us live from Chicago, where it seems the studio needs some practice. I'm not a big noticer of things. Tie color on a given night? Couldn't tell you. But when I flipped over to 360 I found myself immediately asking Screen Anderson why he looked so different. Makes you appreciate the New York studio.
  

• Today Michael Brown was brought back into our lives because someone on the TeeVee inexplicably thought he was the right guy to ask about emergency management. (Can you guess which network sought his advice? Can you?!) Aside from heading Arabian Horse Associations, Brownie is apparently also skilled at reading minds, because he knows the Obama administration had their little hearts set on this oil spill disaster so that they could use it to shut down drilling. He's really used these past five years to work on his character, hasn't he? You stay classy, Brownie!

• Anderson pretty much squashed Brown like a bug, though I don't think it was that hard. Basically the whole interview was Anderson asking Brown to back up his statements and Brown, of course, being unable to do so.
  

• Anderson: "As a former government official, I would think you would choose your words carefully." Um, has our anchor met government officials?

• You gotta love the irony of a former Bush administration official accusing someone else of using a disaster for political gain.

• A nice touch from Brown at the end when he makes sure to shirk all blame off himself and onto Bush.

• Anderson's face when they cut back to him live after the taped interview was pretty funny. It's like he couldn't quite believe that conversation actually happened.
  

• Anderson told us they would put more of the interview on the website. So I went to the website and...nope. In fact, what was there was even less of the interview. What the hell, 360? It's the little things that add up and hurt credibility. (Update: It looks like they put it up Wednesday morning. I still think it should have been up Tuesday night if the anchor is directing people to the site.)

• Don't forget to set your DVR! (I still do not understand these promos.)

• I'm embarrassed to say I'd never even heard of Chandeleur Island, Louisiana. Gary Tuchman said it was the most remote live remote he's ever done. And he's done a lot of live remotes, so that's saying something.
  

• It's so sad to think about what the oil is going to do--is doing--to the wildlife.

• Less than 24 hours after Faisal Shahzad's arrest and we know a crazy amount of info on him. Yes, I am skeptical. Almost seems too easy. But maybe these guys really are just that sloppy, which, if that's the case, yay for us! I'm guessing this story will change at least somewhat with the passage of time.

• There should be no "partisan debate" about Miranda rights. Shahzad is a U.S. citizen. U.S. citizens have rights. Period. We are a country of laws. Even Glenn Beck admits this fact. It's going to be okay, conservatives. Unclench.
  

• The anti-gay white supremacist may have been secretly gay? I'm shocked. Shocked I tell you!
  

• So I guess Nashville drew the short straw when it comes to national coverage. Media missed the boat big time. No pun intended.

• The "shot" was clearly chosen just so Anderson would have an excuse to again watch Rick Sanchez getting tasered. Oh, I'm on to you, Silver Fox! I've always considered our anchor a bit of a masochist, but now it's dawning on me that he's also kinda a sadist. The man definitely enjoys watching a good tasering.
  

• That's it from me. This bullet point may or may not contain a unicorn.

Interview With Superintendent Gus Sayer, RNC Gets Even More Hilarious, Investigating Scientology Part IV, & April Fool's 360-Style

Hi everyone. I hope you all made it through April Fool's Day without too much annoyance. I'm not really a fan of April overall, so there's that. We're kicking things off tonight, as usual, with Anderson Cooper giving us a preview of the forthcoming Scientology piece. Then we're on to our real top story: bullies and the heartbreaking suicide of Phoebe Prince.

Strangely, Anderson begins by somewhat defending their coverage of the story: "Now, I know some people say look there's always been bullying and kids just have to suck it up." Who's saying suck it up? Please tell me people aren't emailing that. He goes on to say that the advent of the Internet age has made bullying all that more intense, which is a good point, and one I didn't think of in my muddled headache-y state last night when I blogged some ponderings.

Also, remember last night how I said I wasn't sure I could think of anything worse than for a parent to find their child hanging? Says our anchor: "Phoebe hung herself in the stairwell of her family's apartment building. Her younger sister found her, if you can imagine the horror of that." I stand corrected. God almighty.

Like clockwork, we're taken to the Magic Wall where we find a timeline of the events surrounding the bullying that Phoebe endured. I have to say, it's a little creepy. I can also tell you that I know I am not the only person who had that initial reaction. This is one of those times where I think our CNN friends got too caught up in the mechanics of their job and didn't really stop to think about what they were doing. It was very off-putting.

Moving on to a live interview with Gus Sayer, superintendent of South Hadley Public Schools, which is where Phoebe Prince attended. This is one of those 'what did they know and when did they know it' kind of situations. Anderson presses pretty damn hard, but this guy is all over the place. I'm not even going to bother picking out all the contradictory statements, but at one point he denies seeing the district attorney's report (an investigation of the incident was performed) and then goes on to talk about what the report contains.

Maybe the guy is just a really poor interview and doesn't explain himself well. I don't know. I found it pretty distasteful to speculate that Phoebe didn't kill herself due to bullying. I'm not going to completely deny the possibility, but you can't tell me he didn't throw that out there just to save his own ass. Skeezy. Also of note is Anderson pointing out that the school's investigation was done by the principal...who would be the guy who would be directly at fault. That's a page from the Bush Administration playbook there.

For his part, the superintendent is not happy with this line of questioning. He accuses Anderson both of not letting him finish and of being unfair to the principal. For a second I thought our anchor was going to apologize, but when the defensive rant from Sayer ends, he just wraps up the interview. Good for him. He did a really good job here. After this interview there's discussion with Lisa Bloom and anti-bullying consultant Barbara Coloroso.

Transitioning now to a huge bizarre graphic accompanied by a voice booming: "Dispatches From Planet Washington." Oh, WTF? Are they kidding me here? So anyway, what comes next is some hilariousness courtesy of Congressman Hank Johnson, who is apparently very concerned about Guam becoming so overpopulated that it will tip over and capsize. Now, normally I would never believe that someone could say something quite so stupid, but this a member of Congress, so no, I am not shocked.

For his part, Johnson claims he meant he was concerned that adding marines to the island could result in a tipping point for its infrastructure. Right. Yeah, that is totally what you meant. By the way, when they were playing that clip, they had it split screened and Anderson was for some reason scribbling random numbers on the Magic Wall. Don't go Glenn Beck on us, Silver Fox. After this train wreck, we get that loud big-ass graphic again. Seriously, that was an April Fool's joke, right?

Keeping on our Washington theme, we move on to the news that the RNC is getting more and more hilarious by the day. Remember how I was a bit underwhelmed by their bondage-themed strip club scandal and was hoping for a little something more to up the amusement? Well, ask and ye shall receive! Now one of their fund-raising mailings directs people to a sex line. Awesomeness. Although to be fair, sex line mishaps can be bipartisan. Hillary Clinton knows what I'm talking about.

Even worse for the RNC and head Michael Steele, their troubles don't begin and end with the subject of sex. They've got bigger fish to fry, like being shunned by Sarah Palin and Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council. Not the Family Research Council!! For discussion of all this, we're joined by James Carville and Michael Gerson. Nothing hugely of note here, though James does accuse Tony Perkins of being a hypocrite because he endorsed David Vitter and now he's clutching his pearls over the bondage club.

Vitter, you might remember, had a bit of an infidelity problem. Less widely reported is the rumor that he likes to wear diapers in front of his prostitutes. Oh yes. I actually checked out the sourcing of this rumor back in the day and found it to be a bit sketchy, so I've always been hesitant to do any repeating. Carville is not so hesitant and totally throws Vitter under the bus. Dayum. Also, Anderson starts to ask a question that he says he's asked of "a lot of people," but then Carville interrupts and suddenly the segment is over. Well, great. Thanks, James. Now we will never know what he was going to ask!

Scientology time! See my prior posts for all the background. Tonight's segment mostly focuses on what happens when one leaves the church. Anderson speaks with Jeff Hawkins, who claims he was abused by leader David Miscavige and subsequently left in 2005. I've been trying not to be ultra judgy up to this point, but what he's describing sounds soo much like a cult. When he left Scientology he had no job, friends,...he even divorced his wife.

Plus he was given the label of "suppressive person," which is how church members describe Scientology enemies. According to Hawkins, the church has a policy of "disconnection," meaning to basically break ties with anyone deemed to be suppressed. His ex-wife calls this an "absolute, utter, total lie." She should really try not to be so subtle. The church calls it a lie too, but adds that a Scientologist wouldn't want to be around anyone who disparages their religion anyway. Another former member, Chrisy Collbran describes it more as a manipulation than any official policy. Like I said, culty.

Finally tonight, Anderson throws it to Tom Foreman to give us some headlines before the "shot, but who does he find instead? Rick Sanchez! "Oh, my good lord. Rick Sanchez," exclaims our anchor. Bwah! Exactly. That is how everyone should react to unexpected Sanchez. I actually had a slight inkling that something like this was coming since a little birdie made a tweet, though no details were given. Anyway, Mr. Twitter King is here because he has a beef with the Silver Fox--that beef being the absolute glee our anchor gets playing the taser video over and over. Also? Rick Sanchez is very bad at acting mad. Yeah, you know what's coming: April Fool's! (Update: video!)

I enjoyed the little trip down memory lane that Sanchez gave us: "You sent me on all these wild and crazy stories. I went out in the middle of the ocean. I went in a boat. I got sunk in a canal. I did the tase thing. And now you make fun of me." Don't forget about the time you were in the fire! For those unaware, Rick actually used to regularly contribute reports to 360 and they made him do some massively messed up things, leading to this bit of awesomeness from Jon Stewart back in 2006.

I cannot tell you how much time other long-time viewers and I spent mocking him in those days. Our theory was that CNN was secretly--or not so secretly--trying to kill him. But if it wasn't for Rick I wouldn't know that a single candle can heat a freezing car to 50 degrees. So there's that I guess. Anyway! Back to the Silver Fox, his trauma of the night is more than just having to endure Rick's presence. It's time for clips of Anderson looking stupid! The whole time this is going on, Sanchez is bizarrely trash talking him in this over-the-top accent, causing a puzzled look on our anchor's face that is pretty clearly saying, "WTF is going on right now?"

The clips start with Anderson's big Indiana fail, where he can't identify the state on a map. "Duh," says Rick. Dude, you thought the Galapagos Islands was Hawaii. I wouldn't be getting on that Geography high horse. Our anchor once again claims he was tired. At least he's sticking to his story. The next clip is the Silver Fox's momma stopping by to embarrass him on his birthday. I like her ability to make him go from 40 to 12 in under 30 seconds. Finally, there is Anderson's recent Jeopardy disaster. "Cheech, Cheech. I hear that in my sleep," says our anchor. Yeah, I'm not touching that one.

So...that was fun and hopefully not too traumatic for the Silver Fox. For those who actually wanted to see the "shot" that was previewed and subsequently never shown, you can check it out here. Single Ladies devastation! Aww! I love the look on the middle girl's face. It totally says, "oh way to go, dad." But he was very sweet about his blunder and not "horrible" at all.

I found the show pretty engaging tonight throughout, which these days can sometimes be a rarity. It really does make a difference when the anchor is actually invested in what he's reporting. There are still clear problems with the show overall (as with the network), but it'd be a lie to say they're not making any changes. There is a noticeable difference from where 360 was last year at this time when it resided in Suck Town.

Regarding the network overall, they haven't had a good week press-wise. Everyone and their mother is writing about their ratings problems and how to fix them. Many of these links you can find on my Twitter page if you're interested. Tonight The Daily Show did another rather brutal take-down, giving CNN a new slogan: "CNN: We have no idea what the fuck we are doing." Ouch. I'll try to remember to tweet the link tomorrow. That'll do it.

Republican Incitement Results In Threats Against Democrats, Continuation Of Kids In Peril Series On Obesity, And Juarez Mayor Targeted

Hi everyone. We're kicking things off with the news that things are getting ugly out there over the passage of health care reform. The "breaking news" graphic has returned to assault our senses, even though I'm pretty sure the majority of the information we're being told is at least hours old. *Sigh*

From Dana Bash we learn that Democratic lawmakers have been meeting over safety concerns due to a series of threats. Examples: vile phone messages left for Bart Stupak, a brick through the window of Louise Slaughter's office, and various other scary incidents. Why is this happening? Well, as I've said before, look to the leaders.

Dana notes that right now Sarah Palin has a map on her Facebook page that identifies top political targets with rifle crosshairs. In her piece, she also mentions blogger Mike Vanderboegh, who is encouraging readers to break windows. Not to mention Steve King, a congressman who was caught on video egging on protesters by slapping a picture of Pelosi. When Dana tried to ask him about it, he brushed it off as an exaggeration.

Minority leader Boehner wouldn't talk to Dana, but he did put out a statement that very weakly called the threats unacceptable. Not good enough. He needs to get his own people under control (King, Bachman, etc., I'm looking at you). This is not a game.

After Dana's piece, she sticks around and we're also joined by centrist guy John Avlon. Anderson Cooper points out that Steve King was simply factually incorrect when he stated that it was an exaggeration he was inciting protesters, given that he's on tape slapping the picture. Exactly. They talk about Palin, Mike Vanderboegh, and militia movements. To John's credit, he characterizes this as clear incitement.

For the Republican's part, Dana tells us that GOPers are crying foul because House majority whip Jim Clyburn said Republicans who don't condemn these threats are aiding and abetting terrorism. Personally, I wouldn't have called it that for this very reason--Republicans always project onto the Democrats. But if families of representatives are scared to answer their phones or let their kids walk outside their house, what exactly do you call that?

Watching these first couple segments, I was ready and waiting with my can of whoop-ass, but luckily it remained unopened. The 360 kids didn't do a bad job with this like I feared they would, though admittedly Rachel Maddow's segments were better. As I've previously stated, this isn't new. We shouldn't be shocked this is happening. There has been a history of incitement by Republicans that has been clearly evident since the 2008 campaign. Surely we haven't forgotten already.

At the time, I was very frustrated with the coverage on the show, and particularly with Anderson himself. I know at this point I must sound like a broken record when it comes to my fake balance pet peeve, but to use it with regards to violence is particularly egregious. Thankfully we didn't get too much of that tonight. To try to equate the two parties on this subject would be ridiculous. And dangerous.

There will always be crazies, but the majority of the current problem can attributed to Republican/conservative leadership, both in Congress and in the media. These people need to be called out. Unfortunately for us, instead of holding the inciters accountable, CNN has decided to hire them. Your media at work.

Transitioning now to Anderson at the Magic Wall to break down polling. It seems that all demographics except for seniors overwhelming think the passage of health care reform was a good thing. Hm. Our anchor implies it's because of Medicare (probably mostly because he has a related piece to segue into). Call me ageist, but has anyone considered it's because seniors are often more easily manipulable? I know your grandma sends you all those false email forwards. I mean, the former VP candidate did kind of imply the bill would kill them.

I'm running out of time, so I'm going to kick it into high gear now. Next up, we have a Tom Foreman piece on a badly needed Medicare fix that was not included in the bill, though it has been promised. Then we have a Sanjay Gupta piece on the lack of primary doctors in this country. We've actually already seen this (cheaters!), but it is updated to include info from the legislation.

Then we continue with the Kids in Peril series on obesity. In another Sanjay piece, the good doctor goes to the home of Tiger Green, a 12-year-old who weighs 250 pounds. He used to eat a steak and drink five Sprites for lunch. Yes, his parents are obese as well. Now Tiger is on a diet and has already lost 30 pounds, which is good. Most notable about this piece is they take the kid to a hospital and do all these scans, and then proceed to surely scare the crap out of him by showing him all the stuff that's wrong. I could see doing that with an adult, but a 12-year-old?

Finally, Gary Tuchman is still reporting from Juarez, and his piece tonight focuses on Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz, law and order badass. See, the mayor has made it his mission to go after the drug cartels, and they in turn, well, are not pleased. He's been threatened with assassination, emphasized with a bloody animal head. Yeesh. But the mayor is not backing down. He has, however, hired mad security, yo. I hope they're able to protect him. I'm pretty sure we've seen this guy profiled before--either by Michael Ware or Anderson. By the way, where is Michael Ware?

The "shot" tonight is a Japanese reporter willingly allowing herself to be tasered. This is so obviously just an excuse to yet again play that video of Rick Sanchez. And I fully support that. Because it's never not funny. Speaking of funny, you know how anchors--specifically our anchor--will often making generic comments just to end a conversation/segment. How many times have we heard Anderson call something "fascinating"? He cannot always be that fascinated!

Well! After playing the clip where Rick says, "It hurts. It's painful. But no one's dead," Anderson quips: "But no one's dead. There you go. Something to think about as you go to bed tonight." Um, what? The truly hilarious part is directly after, when he repeats what he's just said, obviously realizing how bad it sounds, all the while knowing the broadcast is over and this awkward moment of hilarity is what he is leaving the viewers. His banter partner for the night, Christine Romans, was left laughing hysterically, as was I. The perils of going off prompter. Good times.

The show was okay. Nothing horrible; nothing extremely impressive. That'll do it.