Anderson Cooper Rightly Calls Out Rep. Steve Cohen On His Hypocrisy Regarding Inflamed Rhetoric, Fails To Touch The Facts Of The Actual Issue

Hello readers! It seems Anderson Cooper and the 360 kids are intent on driving me insane. But let's step back a bit first. See, this random Congress dude, Steve Cohen, is none too happy about the House Republicans' little health care reform repeal stunt vote. Everything's good so far, right? Well, he goes on the House floor and gets his vent on about the GOPers: "They say it's a government takeover of health care, a big lie..." Dude is speaking truth to power, woo! Go him! "...just like Goebbels." Wait, what? Ohhh noeees.

Really? REALLY, Steve Cohen? You pull this crap right after everyone's calling for a new civility? Apparently, the Congressman is not familiar with Godwin's law. Anyway, this always happens. At this point, I could write the script in my sleep. A Democrat has the facts completely on their side, they inexplicably say something extreme, the GOP freaks out (ZOMG, he's calling us Nazis!), and the media latches onto the controversy, completely brushing by the substance of the argument (welcome to your first segment on AC360).

Honestly, after watching the interview twice, Cohen doesn't come off all that badly. The show was right to call him out on his hypocrisy, and I agree with the notion that bringing up anything related to Nazi Germany is never helpful (and offensive to many), but he made a very clear distinction that his comment was about tactics, and there's some validity there. I wish he would have found another way to make his point.

But what really makes this a big fail on the 360 kids' part is that we had an entire discussion that was essentially about GOP lies regarding health care reform, and not once did Anderson, you know, talk about those lies. Can a viewer get a little fact-checking up in this segment that is supposing to 'keep 'em honest'? What lies? Doesn't that sound like a question our anchor maybe should have asked? Then he could have checked to see if they are actually lies.

Maybe Cohen is accusing them of lying about some things that are actually true. Wouldn't that be an interesting thing to find out? And if Cohen is right about the lying, that means the Republican's reasoning for trying to repeal landmark legislation is one big snow job. Maybe it's just me, but that seems like a rather big news story, no? Not for this news show, apparently! The irony? If Cohen had made his argument with more civility, you think he would have been invited on 360 to discuss? Yeah, that's what I thought. Lies can be just as poisonous as any inflamed rhetoric--maybe even more so.

After the interview with the Congressman, there was discussion with Dana Bash and Cornell Belcher. Anderson did his whole false equivalency thing, which, yeah, annoying. I'm not sure if he does it because he thinks it's a good way to position himself as neutral, or if he really is just naive. But anyway, how much are we loving Cornell these days? He's like the new Gerg, all calm and rational. I want to clone him and spread him all over cable news.



By the way, for a lesson in how it's done, I think Representative Cohen needs a pointer or two from the awesomeness that is Anthony Weiner.

School Board Member Attacks MLK, Sarah Palin Always The Victim, And Baby Doc Returns to Haiti

Hi everyone. I think I'm going to give myself some space to spread out and mostly forgo the bullet points tonight. They will no doubt be back shortly. Raise your hand if you're shocked that the broadcast didn't contain an Oprah/Piers Morgan segment. I know, right? Aw, is Anderson Cooper not an Oprah fanboy anymore? As for how the Piers dude did, I watched, and I will give him a resounding 'meh.' Trust me, this is way better than my reaction to Parker/Spitzer, which was to gawk in horror at my television before turning it off five minutes later, never to watch again.

But this here blog post is about the 360 kids. Tonight, in keeping with the holiday, they kicked us off with some Martin Luther King related news. Colorado school board member Brett Reese has been broadcasting attacks on King (via a small radio station) for the past two weeks. Some of what he says is true, but most? Not so much, and the information in fact comes from a white supremacist's website. Because those guys are always so accurate when it comes to information on African Americans.

After more explanation, Anderson tells us they had booked Reese on the show, but then decided they didn't want to give his nonsense the exposure. I'm torn on this whole segment. It sounds like they saw something controversial, immediately jumped into coverage mode, had second thoughts, and finally just split the difference between being sensational and responsible. So...yay? Good on them for re-evaluating, but should this have been covered at all? They said it was a small radio station and these smears are not new. I don't know. Anyway, below is the segment, which is followed by discussion with Bryan Wright, the principal of the Greeley West High School, and Professor Eddie Glaude Jr., chair of African-American studies at Princeton University.





Anderson also interviewed Stevie Wonder about King:



After six people lost their lives in Arizona, you know who the biggest victim was? Sarah Palin that's who! At least, that's the impression she's been giving lately. Anderson began the segment by reminding us that accusations of blame began to fly as soon as the shooting occurred. He played us examples of those on the left engaging in such behavior, which is a perfectly legitimate thing for him to do (and actually encouraged over vague statements). I would like to point out that according to this, Palin apparently immediately went into defense mode before all the fingers started pointing. Strange that a person would think to do that.

Honestly, I think there is a lot being missed here by conservatives, the media, and even liberals. Personally I feel there has been way too much focus on that map. If it were just the crosshairs, I would feel sorry for Palin. Even coupled with the tweet, it would be irresponsible, but not worthy of all this blame. Thing is, it's not just the crosshairs and the tweet (those are just symptoms); it's her entire political philosophy. Sarah Palin and her cohorts in the media don't just disagree with this president and this government, they consistently attempt to delegitimize them.

They want to take back America. Talk of tyranny runs rampant, gun culture is practically fetishized. When it comes to policy, there is no rational debate offered. Instead there are death panels, and proclamations of a government takeover. Lurking around every corner is the implication that something sinister is a-foot. Glenn Beck gets out his chalkboard and points the Tea Partiers to the latest conspiracy. He's not directly accusing, mind you, but he's just saying...with a wink and a nod.

Did Sarah Palin's crosshairs cause this shooting? No. There is absolutely no evidence of that. But this shit doesn't happen in a vacuum. She's mainstreamed a culture that breeds anti-government resentment. You don't even need to be a Palin follower or Fox News watcher to be affected by what's happening--we've all become immersed. And not only the stable are listening. Did Loughner get caught up in this monster Palin and her cohorts have brought to the forefront? I don't know. But it's absolutely despicable that she won't even consider changing her rhetoric.

The discussion with Cornell Belcher and Dana Loesch was ridiculous. Mostly they focused on Palin's use of 'blood libel,' which I don't even care that much about. Actually, I think it just shows how unoriginal she is, since it looks like she had to go running to the Wall Street Journal's opinion page to get her response.

Loesch did not disappoint, in that she proved herself a total hypocrite in less than five seconds. Ever since the shooting, she's been mocking the calls for a more toned-down rhetoric, yet the first thing she mentions is a death threat that occurred, according to her, "because of all of the things that are being said about conservatives and being said about Tea Partiers and Sarah Palin." And you know what? She's probably right. Yes, Dana, as some of us have been saying, words matter.

Pretty sad that Cornell had to actually ask Anderson to keep her honest. I guess when it comes to these segments, the rest of us have to do his job for him. At least he noted that Palin never ever backs off. I had to laugh at Dana's claim that upwards of a million private citizens were "absolutely persecuted without any evidence because of this tragedy." Persecuted? Really? And she says it on MLK day no less. Good lord. Oh, and here's that Media Curves study she mentioned. She is, of course, spinning like a top.



Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier returned to Haiti. John Zarrella reports:



Also, I wanted to share this great Haiti piece from 360 kids Vladimir Duthiers and Hannah Yi. They visited a camp for the deaf, reporting on the struggles of people who rarely if ever get coverage. It's a sad, yet fascinating watch.



Isha Sesay is now an official 360 kid! Remember when we had that petition to get her on the show? I'm totally taking partial credit. And that's not deluded thinking at all! No sir. Below is Anderson's SNL digital short cameo, which was tonight's "shot." Oh, that Pee Wee Herman...



Starbucks is on the RidicuList tonight due to the trenta, their new 31 ounce size. That's a lot of caffeine. I actually don't drink coffee, so my main takeaway from this is I really need to see the movie "Role Models," because Paul Rudd is adorable and that scene was hilarious. "Congratulations, you're stupid in three languages." Ha!



That's going to do it for me. The show was okay. They're killing me with these Loesch bookings.