:: Part of former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan's job description ::
Wow – better late than never (I hope) ...
I had a wonderful and very busy four day holiday weekend and hope that everyone else did as well (at least the ‘wonderful’ part) ... a chance to visit with family & friends, share some great classic homemade dishes, get a little shopping done (I’m not a mall fan), get a few projects done around the house, etc. etc. :-)
Last Wednesday’s 360° seems kind of far away now, especially with the very busy week ahead – so I’ll give just a brief recap:
Natalee Holloway: I guess I’m just as curious as anyone else about this new “evidence” that the Aruba authorities seem to have uncovered regarding her disappearance – that would include attorneys representing Natalee’s father, Dave Holloway (Vinda De Sousa) and ongoing suspect Joran van der Sloot (Joe Tacopina). John King spoke with both individuals, and they both had the typical ‘spins’ on this development.
For all those concerned, and particularly for the Holloway family, I do hope that this mystery is solved one way or another sooner rather than later.
Scott McClellan: As I mentioned on Wednesday, Scott has a book that will be published in April, and is apparently raising some eyebrows long before it hits the bookstores. John King interviewed David Gergen about the claims made that there were five individuals “involved” in misleading Mr. McClellan about the leaking of Valerie Plame’s identity – Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, VP Dick Cheney and President George Bush. Allegations not to be taken lightly. But I sense the ‘back-pedaling’ beginning already – no interviews are being granted by Mr. McClellan about this “leak” (ironic as it seems) – and his publisher is tap dancing around the question of whether or not the claim is being made that the President actually lied to Scott about what he knew regarding this situation. I wrote on Wednesday about not crossing the "Texas Mafia" ... now I’m a bit more certain of it. Time will tell how this all ends up playing out.
Glenn Beck interview: Since Anderson interviewed Glenn on his own Headline News show Wednesday night, I’m going to write up a quick summary of that – except to say now that I think Anderson & GB are of similar minds when it comes to having open dialogues among citizens, regardless of political affiliation. It was a very strong theme in Anderson’s recent speech at Claremont College.
Accidental medicine overdoses: When you get a prescription filled, before you take the first dose, do you ever wonder – I hope that they’ve given me the right medication?? In the right strength, and with the right instructions? I always run through that little scenario in my head. I don’t know why - maybe it’s because I rarely take any to begin with, so I start out being suspicious ? But to be given something that is potentially dangerous or deadly, either in and of itself, or in the wrong dosage – that’s a very scary situation. Particularly if you’re in the hospital, and the medication is being given intravenously – there’s no “spot check” that can be done for anyone to say something like – “hey, the last pills were blue instead of green – are you sure these are mine?” This came to light most recently with the Heparin overdose of Dennis Quaid’s newborn twins – and in David Mattingly’s piece, we once again came back to basic common sense procedures – one Heparin manufacturer commented that “there is still no substitute for careful reading of the labels”. What a concept.
OK – enough about 360° for the pre-Thanksgiving show – let’s move on to Wednesday night’s “Glenn Beck” show. Anderson spent the hour interviewing Glenn about his new book, “An Inconvenient Book”. Wonder where he got the idea for that title? All right – in the interest of ‘full disclosure’, I’ve never watched even a moment of this show – although I do hear that GB is a conservative with what has been reported are obscure (IMHO) views about some topics. But fair is fair – especially if it means Anderson gets to grill a neo-con (again, IMHO) – so I watched, truly wanting to hear what he had to say. He lost me at “building a wall around our borders”. And I won’t buy the book, but I did make a mental note that Anderson specifically stated that he wasn’t going to discuss the book’s section on poverty because he couldn’t buy into the solutions presented, again, said with humor, but it left me wondering if he was actually serious or not. But I did watch the whole hour. And I don’t know Glenn’s sense of humor, so I could be way off on this, but he at least sounded like there was some genuine ‘disdain’ for much of his colleague's success. Masked as it was, of course. It made me wonder if Anderson did this interview as a courtesy and for the sake of being a ‘team player’, or if this was truly the kind of ‘friendly banter’ they have. I’m hoping for the latter, because I have no problem with being wrong on what I interpreted. Maybe I just don’t know if Glenn is serious or not (a la Stephen Colbert satire?) about his “solutions”? Ah well – there are many more important things to keep my brain cells active in the near future ...
THIS WEEK: Where do we start? Let’s start at the beginning, and hope that Anderson returns to 360° on Monday – no offense to John King, of course, as he did a terrific job during a week when not many really want to be at work in the first place!
There is SO much discussion at the AC360° Yahoo group about Anderson’s upcoming appearance on Ellen this coming Tuesday – it’s great!! The preview clip seems to show that it’s a taped interview that was done a couple of weeks ago when Anderson was in the LA area, and since Ellen has mentioned the subject of NOLA in the week’s preview calendar, perhaps that will be one of the discussion topics? Check here for your local time and channel listing!
Wednesday will bring us the CNN / You Tube Republican debate – the mud has started to be flung around in that race as well since the last time CNN broadcast one of their debates – I’m interested in seeing if any of them can possibly get away from their standard ‘stump speeches’ and ‘talking points’ for just a small amount of time – and relate to the average American and what they’re truly concerned about in their everyday lives, and for the future of this country, both domestically and internationally. Oh wait – that’s right – this is the Republican debate ... (sorry, that was again much too easy) ... here’s one of the latest articles at CNN.com about what the debate preparations are like. And to be “360°” about it – the Dems aren’t doing much (if any) better on accomplishing what I wished for above!!!!
Tonight (Sunday, 11/25/07) on 60 Minutes – Anderson’s segment broadcast tonight was entitled “Awakening”, about minimally conscious patients who, after receiving certain medications such as Ambien, regain some level of their consciousness and mental capacity. This treatment is still in an experimental stage, as it’s difficult to locate patients who have been even correctly diagnosed to test them and see if this regimen will improve their conditions. If you missed the segment, you can watch the video here.
And tomorrow – don’t forget - Part 1 of my interview with Soledad O’Brien – exclusive info and insights you haven’t read elsewhere!!!
Thanks for visiting – hope you’re ready for a very intense week ahead!! :-)
1 comment:
Newsblooz: I am finally getting around to voice my opinions on the Glenn Beck interview and Anderson’s “60 Minutes” piece.
First, the Beck interview and I will try to be kind, to Beck that is. I have to admit I have watched “portions” of his show just until I start to scream at the TV and then I have to turn it off. I think you were trying to be kind about Glenn’s “disdain” for Anderson’s success, so I’ll say it; Glenn was green with envy! I sensed a bit of hypocrisy as well. On one hand he tells Anderson that he doesn’t allow fashion magazines in his home because they could have a negative effect on how his children see themselves, but then he turns the camera on Anderson and says that Anderson is skinny and that he is fat! Not only that, but then he went on to say that God was mean to him and very good to Anderson. My message to Glenn is this, maybe if he hadn’t been so much of a lush he would not look the way he does. God wasn’t mean to him; he was “mean” to himself! That felt strangely satisfying!
“Awakening” was a brilliant report! It was nice to see Anderson have the lead story on “60Minutes” for a change. I hate to say it, but it sounds like some of these misdiagnosed cases are the result of not enough time and money. I only hope that these new drug therapies will force doctors to take a closer look at patients who would otherwise be written off as being in a vegetative state and allow more of them to live a better life. I cannot imagine what it must be like to be trapped in a body without being able to communicate with the outside world.
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