Homophobic Pastor Accused Of Coercing Young Followers Into Homosexual Acts, World Unsurprised

Hi everyone. You might have noticed the non-blog post last night. I couldn't handle it, people. The show was, what's the word? Oh yes: bad. Plus I was very disappointed in our Anderson Cooper. When it comes to moderating panels, he doesn't exactly have the best track record (no secret here--ask around). But! Lately I had noticed an improvement in this area.

Whereas before I sometimes pondered whether he still had a pulse, suddenly he was all like, "game on, bitches!" (Perhaps not an exact quote. Ahem.) I was proud of the little Silver Fox. But last night he went back to his pulseless ways--a relapse! Now I feel like I have to take his chip away. Sad face.

Anyway. I suppose he'll just have to earn it back. Tonight we are blissfully without any mention of Christine O'Donnell. Don't get me wrong, yay for keeping her honest, but Delaware ain't the only game in town--and she's pretty behind in the polls. So! Let's get on to the new bit of fun: an anti-gay pastor turning out to maybe be kinda gay. We are shocked by this. Shocked!

• At this point, I think I've lost track of how many times we've heard this song, but the most recent hypocrite is Bishop Eddie Long of Birth Missionary Baptist Church. You guessed it--a megachurch where anti-gay rhetoric is not out of the norm. The story goes like this: three male followers (or "spiritual sons") of Long are suing him for allegedly enticing them with money and gifts in exchange for sexual favors. Part of the evidence includes some creepy muscleman pictures the minister apparently took of himself and sent to another spiritual son.
  

• Would you like a sampling of Long's spiel? Sure you would. "And the problem today and the reason why society is like it is, is because men are being feminized and women are becoming masculine." Another--quite possibly my favorite: "And everybody knows it's dangerous to enter an exit." I can't even. What is there to say to that?

• Our anchor stresses that right now everything is just allegations. I hope it's all true, not just for the schadenfreude, but because I'd hate to see homophobia being combatted in such a dishonest way. Not exactly helpful.
  

• To discuss all this, we're joined by the disgraced Ted Haggard and Pastor Troy Sanders. I've kinda surprised myself in that I think I have a soft spot for Haggard. I just can't bring myself to hate him. He's pretty clearly gay (or at least has gay tendencies), and he pretty clearly thinks that's a sin, which probably means he hates himself enough for the both of us. Doesn't mean I won't call out his bullshit though!

• Haggard on pastors who struggle with gayness: "It's just like any ideal. We have police officers that get speeding tickets. We have people in Congress that write our tax legislation that don't pay their taxes." Dude, minding your own business and living your life the way you were born is not equivalent to a speeding ticket. Back me up on this, Anderson. "But Pastor Ted, there is a difference between, you know, somebody saying you should obey the law and you get a speeding ticket and somebody preaching something which is completely antithetical to a deeply-held, something that is intrinsic." Okay, I cleaned up our anchor's quote there a bit since he took forever to spit it out. ZOMG, how do I word this to maintain my balance cred?

• Then we get into this Battle of the Bible Verses, with Pastor Troy acknowledging that we already pick and choose what we want to believe, and Haggard acknowledging that his church would really like to believe that being gay is a sin. So...yeah. This is pretty much what it comes down to with religion: you have to choose an interpretation. Personally, I choose not to impose torment and pain on an entire group of people, but you know, I'm kooky that way.

• Pastor Troy: "As preachers of the gospel, we stand up and we present a gospel that is either inclusive or exclusive. We make that choice"

• Haggard: "Well, that's what you're saying, and that will work for your church and your congregation. But there may be a congregation down the street that wants to apply some different verses." Yeah, Pastor Troy. Love and acceptance? What kind of crap are you preaching? Why are you so intolerant of intolerant churches, hmm?
  

• Then we get into talk about living your life truthfully and whatnot, with Haggard I think feeling a bit of pressure: "But here's what I'm saying. Those who independently chose to call me on the carpet were not helpful. It was those who loved me, helped me, comforted me. And this type of broad-based, generalized analysis of people outside your group is not what's helpful to him or to the process." Um, Ted? Exposing your hypocrisy really wasn't about helping you.

• Pastor Troy: "And what I'm saying is, it didn't take a scandal for me to come out and walk in truth. I called myself on the carpet and others." Oh, snap.
  

• That was about it. A pretty good segment. Would have liked Anderson to jump in more, but oh wells. Also, a bit of rough editing at the end there. Anyway, this will no doubt be discussed on the interwebs tomorrow. Because, well, because. Segment below:
  

• Republicans have recently unveiled their fancypants new Pledge to America and guess what. Party like it's 1994! Yeah, this is basically Contract with America 2.0: Still Sucky. So! Even though Obama was at the UN today, we're apparently using this segment to hear from Paul Begala, Erick Erikson, and J.D. Hayworth. Great. A beltway democrat, tea partier, and crazy person. Glad to see I'm represented again! You know what? Screw this. Just watch Jon Stewart, y'all. He tackled this subject much better.

• Sanjay Gupta finished up his series on medical mysteries. There was both good news and bad. Sally got a diagnosis (amyloidosis), but now she has to deal with the disease. As for little Kylie, they still don't know. Admittedly, when I heard the first few notes of "Wonderful World," my schmaltz flag went up, but since it was related to a quote, I will stand down. It was a well-done series. I don't actually see the video for this last part (CNN sucks at this sometimes), but I'll try to add it if they put it up later.

• Today the top ten CNN Heroes of 2010 were announced. Now, normally I would say that I respect the network for putting effort into a quality program because it's the right thing to do, and not necessarily because it's a ratings bonanza. But I am not saying that, because the last time I said that about a special (Planet in Peril), they stopped making them. So there. Our anchor gives us a little tutorial on how to vote for the heroes because...we're not smart enough to work the interwebs? I don't know. Below you will find an update on how last year's hero, Doc Hendley of Wine to Water, is helping Haiti.
  

• The "shot" tonight is Katy Perry being too scantily clad for Sesame Street. Elmo will never be the same. What's that Joe John's? Are you trying to do that thing where they play footage of Anderson in the hopes of getting a reaction out of him? Oh Joe. Erica Hill you ain't. But points for the effort--the awkward effort. For those who haven't seen it, here's our anchor in all his grouch glory. (Another panel!)

• The show was better tonight. Only the politics panel made me want to stab my eyes out. Improvement! Everything else was actually pretty good. Okay 360, can you please just do fact-y political coverage? Please? There's a whole mess of races you could be tackling. Like, you know how you always do the whole shiny horse-race thing? Maybe do the opposite of that this time, and actually inform your viewers of the facts that they need to know before stepping into the voting booth. Just a suggestion! XOXO
  

I Guess Delaware Is The Only State Holding An Election In November

Hi everybody. Do you find my headline cutting? It's not that focusing on Christine O'Donnell is bad, but the media is doing that whole swarm/tunnel-vision thing. Again. Perspective, people. As for the show, I kinda feel like I watched it already--last night. Also? Anderson Cooper somewhat annoyed me. I guess consider yourself warned. On to the bullet points!

• We begin with the quest to try to keep Christine O'Donnell honest, which is a bit thwarted by the fact that she won't talk to anyone--well, anyone besides Fox News (shocking!).

• Anderson: "Now, there are plenty of liberal media outlets out there that probably want Christine O'Donnell to fail, but I just want to make it very clear, I'm not one of them. We're not trying to beat up on Christine O'Donnell." Sweetie? Nobody cares. I don't understand why he keeps making these defensive statements. People who think he's biased are not going to be swayed by...him saying he's not biased. (I'm not even going to touch on his huge-ass assumption, because quite frankly I'm just too tired of this.)

• Our anchor: "I'm not making a big deal out of 11-year-old witchcraft comments or the stuff she said about touching yourself years ago." This literally made me do a spit-take. Unbelievable absurdity delivered with such serious earnestness. Only in America.

• Gary Tuchman is clearly not having fun anymore, thank you very much. In fact, I think he would very much like to stop chasing after candidates who refuse to talk to him. About that Sean Hannity interview that O'Donnell did? Says Gary, "Well, it is a delicious irony that she went on the national media to say she didn't want to talk to the national media." Oh, snap. Sing it!

• Our intrepid correspondent then takes the Hannity appearance and lays down a fact-check. Booyah.

• Oh, is it panel time already? Tonight's pontificators include Erick Erickson, John Avlon, and John Ridley. Joy.

• Anderson: "I think bias is something that certainly I'm obsessed with and try to eradicate it, to the extent that it's possible." Um, being 'obsessed' with bias makes you a ping pong ball--paddled back and forth by whoever is screaming loudest at the moment (hint: usually conservatives). Silver Fox, if you keep bending backwards you're going to slip a disc. I've said on this blog on more than one occasion that I don't think this show has a partisan bias, but do I think they sometimes overreact to criticism and swing towards the conservative viewpoint? Absolutely. Absolutely. (I touched on this significantly during the Sherrod debacle.) Call it liberal guilt. I'm not even presuming that they are liberals, but they know damn well that's how they're perceived by conservatives. Sometimes I wish they'd stop navel-gazing, tell all their accusers to go screw themselves, and just do their jobs to the best of their ability.

• Erickson: "But the humor here and the irony is that the media now and even Republicans are so focused on Christine O'Donnell, they're not focusing anymore on Sharron Angle or Ken Buck or Rand Paul or Linda McMahon or any of these other candidates, all of whom are breathing a sigh of relief." I'm not sure there's humor or irony, but Erick's point ties in with the title of this blog post. Agreeing with Erickson? Now I feel scared inside and want to go home.

• Melanie Sloan, the corruption-slaying ninja, returned because the O'Donnell camp is accusing her of libel. Also, CREW is apparently a liberal group (pay no mind to the Republicans they go after!) and funded by the devil himself, George Soros. Not George Soros! Boogity boogity boo! They might take away my commie pinko card for this, but I don't really know anything about Soros, other than the fact that conservatives are seemingly petrified of him.

• Okay, having Melanie respond to the libel charge seems legitimate. I don't, however, understand why our anchor continuously night after night makes her justify her group's nonpartisan credentials. It's getting annoying. We're past devil's advocacy at this point. Anderson, if you don't believe her, do your own investigation (and stop letting yourself be pushed around by conservatives). Just remember you're pretty much in the same boat.
  

• As for why CREW is going after O'Donnell now, um, the same reason all the news orgs are investigating her now. She won the nomination and could become senator. It's not like CREW has unlimited resources to throw at every nobody who isn't going anywhere. Just like the news, they go after the big fish.

• Good fact-check from Tom Foreman on Chris Coons (unfortunately name, no?).

• MORE panel? Good lord.
  

• Anderson on Sarah Palin: "You've got to give her props, whether you like her or not, and you know, the country is clearly divided on her. But she really took a gamble on the people that she backed. It wasn't like she was kind of waiting to see which way the wind blew. She reached out, picked up some people and really elevated them." Um, no, we do not have to "give her props." Exactly how is she taking a gamble? She's not running for anything right now. She doesn't hold an office anymore. If people in punditry-land actually got fired for being wrong, none of them would have jobs.

• Tonight was part two of Sanjay Gupta's medical mystery series. Interesting stuff, and very sad.

• The "shot" tonight was fun with mascots, but I think I'm going to skip that and instead present you OK Go's latest bit of awesomeness. Just watch:

• The show was okay. Too much panel! And Anderson's being weird with the bias stuff. And they need to spread out from just O'Donnell. But other than THAT...heh. It's strange, they finally do seem to be moving towards more fact-checking and less "balance," but now they're in this weird phase where they're always trying to justify their jobs. It's gonna be okay, guys. Do your jobs well; do your jobs objectively--screw everyone else. Yes, that includes me.
  

Double, Double Toil And Trouble: More On Christine O'Donnell

Hi peoples! It's a new week, and new people to be kept honest. Well, actually, sorta the same people. But anyhoo, let's do this thing:

• I thought Tea Partiers were supposed to be the so-called Real Americans, with the values and the non corruption. Not so for Christine O'Donnell, apparently. Corruption? Check. Values? Did we mention she might be a witch!? It seems it's okay by her to dabble in witchcraft, but not to dabble yourself. Ahem!

• I actually couldn't care less about the witchcraft thing. She's right, she was in high school. So what? Bigger fish to fry. Thankfully, despite playing witch-related video (required?), the 360 kids seem to be on my page here. Says Anderson Cooper: "Well, we're not focusing tonight on the witchcraft. We're focusing on her finances."

• Getting to the bottom of those finances is our own intrepid Gary Tuchman and team. He explains a mess of stuff that I don't have time to blog, but you can watch in the video below. Having had more doors either literally or metaphorically shut on him than he can probably count (it's true, I've seen it!), Gary has a strategy: one little specific question for O'Donnell. How'd that go? Fail! It's a blameless fail on Team Gary's part though. And good on him for letting her know that she did not in fact already answer that question.
  

• Anderson: "So, Gary, the question -- by the way, you were not rude. You were respectful." Nobody said he was rude. What's with the push polling, Silver Fox? Gary is never rude.

• Love Melanie Sloan of CREW. She slays corruption like a ninja. Yes, a nonpartisan ninja.
  

• Tonight's contestants of the latest mind-numbing panel are Eliot Spitzer (gotta get him out there!), Dana Loesch, and Joe Johns. Dana is a particularly bitter pill for me to swallow. It's like, hey look, someone from St. Louis on the national teevee station. And then she opens her mouth and it's like, oh, yay?

• Case in point of why panels are useless: Spitzer and Loesch arguing about the Patients' Choice Act. Obviously one of them is right. Which one, I do not know--hence the pointlessness. If 360 really wanted to keep 'em honest, they'd fact-check this tomorrow.
  

• CNN keeps playing that clip of the town hall attendee who's tired of defending Obama, but they never show Obama's reply! Twice I witnessed this today. I guess I have to use the Google. Ridiculous. I don't care what the panel has to say about it, CNN.

• At least Dana admitted it's fair that O'Donnell is getting media focus.
  

• Good on Anderson for challenging Dana about CREW, but really, he shouldn't care what she thinks. CREW is a non partisan group. Period. Plus, they're not really a new group. Hell, I remember them dogging John Murtha for years (he's since passed, FYI). Anyone who thinks they have an agenda is looking at things through a partisan lens.

• Tom Foreman's fact-check was a little better this time. But WTF with that font? Guys, I know you're trying to be entertaining, but at least make sure it remains easily readable, mmkay?
  

• Sanjay Gupta has an interesting new series this week on an undiagnosed disease program at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. I hope Sally and Kiley get their happy ending.
  

• For the "shot," parrot dance-off! Want to hear something really pathetic? I actually own that Haddaway CD (it's somewhere). But! It's not because I like that song. It's because I like the song "Shout" by Tears For Fears, and I thought the "Shout" on that CD was the "Shout" I was looking for. So, yeah. Shut up. I was like 14. I'm a more informed music-purchaser now.
  

• The show was pretty good. I will basically always hate the panel. About this whole Christine O'Donnell thing? I really like that they're keeping her honest and all, but, um, everyone realizes there's a bunch of other races, right? Let's not get bogged down with the shiny ones. That'll do it.