Live From Nashville

Hi everyone. It was great to see the people of Nashville finally get their due. Hopefully Anderson Cooper's presence will cause other outlets to take notice and result in even more coverage. As for this post, the bullet points continue:

• Our anchor's live shot was set up in front of a furniture-strewn lawn in Bellevue. Residents are trying to air out their flooded belongings. Lives turned inside out.
  

• Anderson's piece on Danny Tomlinson, a man who has been missing since his car was swept away about five days ago, was beyond sad. I hope his family eventually gets their closure (video here).
  

• Betty Belle Nicks owns the home where Team Anderson had set up the live shot and her story is simply amazing. I figured that she was just going to talk about her house flooding, which she did, but then she went on to say that they had tried to move their cars out and ended up becoming trapped by the water. She was forced to cling to a tree before she was able to swim back. Damn. Scary!

• Betty and her husband (of only one week!) ended up on their roof with their three small dogs, but their large dog, Ben, swam away and now she's looking for him. Anderson dashed off camera to grab a picture for us. Poor Ben. People losing their animals is so upsetting.

• Betty reminded us that they're still going to need help and attention a month from now and it made my heart drop a little. Nashville had to beg for coverage at the height of the disaster. I'm not going to hold my breath for a month from now. Please prove me wrong, media.

• Anderson noted that most people in the area don't have flood insurance and then Betty said something that almost gave me chills: "Well, thanks to President Obama, who signed the relief effort, if you make sure you sign up, we will be one of the victim numbers, and when they declare our home a disaster, then we will be able to get help." Thanks to President Obama. I know, all he did was sign something and this could very well turn out to be FUBAR, but I can't even express how nice it is to feel that maybe, just maybe, competency will again one day rule the land. What a difference a vote makes.

• Apparently I couldn't pick Brad Paisley out of a lineup. I guess I'm severely lacking in country music cred. Very cool that Obama called him. More evidence that there will be no Heckuva Job Brownie incidents (video here).

• Gary Tuchman had a piece on the search-and-rescue operation and my first thought was, now Gary's in Nashville?! He's been everywhere lately. Someone is very deserving of an epic vacation. Dear Jon Klein, more reporters like Gary, less pundits, kthxbai.

• Gary also explained to us that floods aren't usually gradual. Yeah, you don't mess with that. I remember being stuck in traffic once, wondering what the hold up was, when suddenly all the cars in front of me started abruptly pulling partially off the road to turn around. I was totally confused until the car directly in front of me moved and I could see. Water. Coming quickly. As I frantically whipped my own car around, out of the corner of my eye I could see EMS workers tending to a truck that had flipped over when it tried to drive through a large flooded dip in the road. You don't mess with flash floods.

• The conversation with David and Will Perkins was very cute (video here).

• The show kept promoting the interview with Tim McGraw and Faith Hill (video here), but I thought the segments with the average Nashville residents were more compelling. Last night I sorta pre-complained about the interview. I still don't understand the focus on celebrities, but it occurs to me that I don't know anything about Nashville culture, so perhaps their public presence is a comfort to other residents. I dunno. So I'll just save my complaining for when they have on Dr. Phil again (heh).
  

• What happened to the Grand Ole Opry tour?

• The comparisons between Nashville and New Orleans in regards to cleanup made me a little uncomfortable. I was glad that Tim McGraw added a bit of context (the water stayed longer, covered a greater area). I would think it's pretty insulting to New Orleans residents to equate the two.

• The two websites mentioned on the show: TNFloodFund.com and CoolPeopleCare.org. Please help!

• That's it from me. This bullet point may be redeemed for a free snarky comment of your choice.
  

And Then We All Hated BP

Hi everybody. I know I've been scarce around these parts lately. I just haven't been in the blogging mood, and to be honest, I'm still not. So, I figured I'd split the difference: bullet points!

• The show kicked off with the attempted bombing in Times Square, but since that time we've had some actual breaking news. Authorities have arrested Shahzad Faisal, a Pakistani-born naturalized U.S. citizen. Avoiding cable news tomorrow might be a good recommendation. It's not that this story isn't uber-important, but theses things tend to make the news peeps go, well, stupid. And you know how much I love speculation.

• That's not to say 360's coverage of the story was particularly terrible. There was speculation, yes, but they kept it fairly reasonable, and perhaps more important, short. Would this have been the case with the absence of the other big stories? I have my doubts.

• Randomness: Does this mean that Times-Square-Shirt-Changing-Guy was not an evil terrorist, but just a dude who decided he needed to immediately be wearing another shirt?
  

• Did you guys catch that new promo where they pimp out the "Big 360" interview and instruct us to set our DVRs? Gotta say, I don't think most people's hearts would be breaking over missing a Dr. Phil appearance. Or Shakira. Or basically anyone in the commercial.

• Continuing with the promo, once again, I completely do not understand CNN. Ask them about their ratings compared to their competitors and they're all like, "we do the REAL news!" But you turn on the TV and their promos are telling you, "hey, we have Dr. Phil! We have Shakira!"
  

• Nice job on the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 and the reporting from Gary Tuchman on the waivers that volunteers were initially forced to sign.
  

• Randomness: Anderson Cooper's use of the phrase "rogue attorneys" amused me. I'm not quite sure why.

• Good segment with Douglas Brinkley and Riki Ott. I always appreciate BS (in this case from Rush Limbaugh and Congressman Gene Taylor) being knocked down. I'm telling you, 360, create a nightly segment called "This is BS" and you might make a little ratings headway. Okay, we can talk about the name.

• I also liked that Anderson brought up the unbelievably stupid Obama's Katrina meme. I suppose some might argue that it shouldn't even be mentioned, but he knew full well that Douglas was going to squash it down like a bug. I see what you did there, Silver Fox. You know, I try to be a nice person, fair, try not to insult. But then you hear someone say this is Obama's Katrina and you think, "my God, why are you so stupid?" Of course, in reality, most of them aren't stupid, but just that cynical. I'll let you decide what's worse. Also? Jason Linkins for the win.

• While I enjoyed watching our friends at 360 hold BP accountable, I'm afraid at this point I have basically zero hope of the company actually being held accountable. It's like that concept doesn't exist in this world anymore. Oh sure, maybe they'll even get hauled up to Capitol Hill. And maybe our Congresscritters will put on their VERY ANGRY faces and make them answer hostile questions. But in the end? Nothing will happen. The people will pay the bill and scrub off the animals while BP continues making their billions. It's depressing, but true. I'd love for someone to prove me wrong.

• How come Tom Foreman can operate the Magic Wall live, but Anderson Cooper can't? (Sanjay Gupta didn't either, for those playing at home.)
  

• Tennessee just gets a headline? Sucks to be them.

• Gary's priest story was so infuriating. Speaking of the world's lack of accountability, huh?

• I like how Anderson discovered on live TV that the "shot" was nothing but a fake video. You'd think that someone would maybe, like, check that.
  

• Sanjay Gupta did a good job when he subbed. I feel a little guilty about not blogging any of it. I still love you, Sanjay!

• I was going to blog about Michael Ware leaving, but now he's not...I think. The whole situation is pretty bizarre. I wish him well.

• That's it for me. Put this bullet point in your pocket and save it for later.