Weekly Wrap-Up

The Week's Wrap-Up Buzz ...

From Friday’s AC 360°: It was disappointing, but not totally surprising, to see a report that there was some backlash to the previous day’s rallies for the Jena 6. A noose has absolutely no place anywhere – and it’s not a “prank” – ever. I hope that the belief that civil rights must be protected isn’t deterred by those who – and I’m being very diplomatic here – hold an opposite viewpoint. We, as a society, simply can’t allow regression back into a time of “tolerated” discrimination. I don’t remember who coined this phrase, but it’s one that I find myself referring to more and more these days:

“Mistakes forgotten are mistakes repeated”
And as for the Jeffs trial, I think I commented on Thursday that I didn’t think there would be a conviction, and after Friday’s report from Gary Tuchman, I’m more certain of that outcome. What a travesty that’ll be.




And what’s the deal with Rudy Giuliani answering a call from his wife during his NRA speech? I think I’m with Soledad O’Brien (who was filling in once again) – it was ‘staged’, although I’d never be able to figure out why? First, it’s just plain rude. And second, as Chris Matthews asked on his weekend show, “Who’s in charge here – Judith or Rudy?” And as a quick aside, Chris also welcomed back Andrew Sullivan as a panelist (yay!) and congratulated him on his recent wedding, as we also did at the AC360° Yahoo group a few weeks ago!


These are my favorite screen caps from this week:

DA BEARS!!

And ... “Hello, Mr. Mayor? Tom Foreman here. You do realize that you’ve just dissed a room full of guys with guns, right?”

SCREEN CAPTION CONTEST!!!

This is my favorite pic from this past week – if you can come up with a winner of a caption, post it on the blog (or you can e-mail it to me directly) - before next weekend – and if it’s extraordinarily funny or witty, I’ll send you a copy of the "25 Hours" Daily News insert from April 2005 with the article entitled, "In The Office with Anderson Cooper":


And – speaking of 25 Hours – if anyone reading the blog is the winner of any of the AC charity auctions from last week – congratulations! And thank you, thank you, thank you - the auctions went much better than I expected – and you’ve helped to support the ACORN Recovery Program in New Orleans!

Just one very quick "OT-type" note - about Thursday night's "Colbert Report" - for those who saw it - will you ever be able to look at a jar of mayonnaise the same way again?? AND - "Barry Whiter"??? Are you serious??? It's all more fun than should be allowed ...

Thanks for visiting – updates will be posted as needed – have a great “rest of the weekend” (or beginning of the week, depending on when you're reading this)!

Maybe Theraflu doesn’t always work??

Today’s Buzz ...

** Tonight on Anderson Cooper 360°:


** From last night’s program: Well, we had an MIA namesake anchor last night, but that’s OK – unless this was pre-planned time off, I would imagine that it’ll be the same tonight, and that’s OK too – colds happen and recovery is needed – so we had Soledad O’Brien filling in! And what a relief to have a comparatively “OJ-free” hour of news ...

Not sure if anyone else was in this situation, but there were “Jena 6” demonstrations even in California yesterday! All very peaceful, I might add – but I guess it’s really sinking in for me as to the extent of this event. I’m debating about whether to blog more about it over the weekend ... but nonetheless, I wish I could have watched more of the “live” coverage. The reports and interviews last night on 360° were good – even though it was mostly “after-the-fact”. If you saw the “Judgment in Jena” SIU report and would like to comment, please feel free to do so. I was able to listen to a few minutes on satellite radio, but I’ll have to check out my recording sometime tomorrow.

A quick “plug” for the upcoming Ken Burns film to debut on PBS this Sunday, September 23rd – “The War”. It’s about World War II and is unique because in all of the battle scenes, dramatic historical footage and photographs are combined with extraordinarily realistic sound effects to give the film a visceral sense of immediacy. Also – in this current day and age where the realities of war have many times been sanitized or ignored in order to advance certain political agendas, this film will hopefully “bring home” the physical and emotional trauma that is inflicted upon those who serve in battle. Check out the PBS web site (here) for more information.

Also – the AC charity auctions on eBay (see Monday’s post for info) will be ending tomorrow (Saturday) – it looks almost like a bidding war on a couple of the items – and I hope it continues – because this is to raise money for the ACORN Recovery Program in New Orleans!

AND – GOOD LUCK to the AC 360° staff this coming Monday night (September 24th) – they’re up for two News & Documentary Emmy awards (Outstanding Live Coverage of a Breaking News Story: Long Form – Sago Mines and Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Lighting Direction & Scenic Design – High Rise Crash). And Anderson is part of a group nomination in the same category (Outstanding Live Coverage of a Breaking News Story: Long Form – Election Night), and since these are the only two nominations in this category, it’s an automatic CNN win! You can see the full list of nominees here.

Last minute update before posting – Anderson has a busy week ahead – he’ll also be hosting “An Enduring Vision” for the Elton John Aids Foundation on Tuesday night (September 25th) in NYC – you can read more about THAT here as well!!


Thanks for visiting ... updates posted as needed ... have a terrific weekend!







Update # 1

Anderson to be an Edward R. Murrow Award presenter on October 15th ...

From the Radio Online site: The Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) has confirmed its lineup of presenters to honor the winners of the Edward R. Murrow Awards and the RTNDA/UNITY Awards on October 15 in New York. Awards presenters include: Anderson Cooper, CNN; Natalie Morales, NBC News; David Muir, ABC News; Michele Norris, NPR; and Harry Smith, CBS News.

Among those accepting awards who are expected to make brief remarks are NBC News president Steve Capus, who will accept the network's award for Overall Excellence, and CBS producer Michael Radutsky, who worked with the late Ed Bradley on the Duke Rape Case story for "60 Minutes," which is being honored in the News Documentary category.

RTNDA's Edward R. Murrow Awards, now in its 37th year, honor excellence in electronic journalism. In all, 52 news organizations are being honored with 79 awards out of an initial pool of 3,150 entries from 580 news organizations. You can check out the list of 2007 National Winners here.

Another day, another OJ (hour, that is …)

Today's Buzz ...

** tonight on Anderson Cooper 360° (subject to change):


** About last night's program: Considering that there will be probably another 30 – 45 minutes devoted to this topic on tonight’s 360° because of today’s scheduled court appearance, I wanted to further comment on my concerns from yesterday. It’s not that I don’t think this story should be covered – I’d just like to see it done in proportion to the relevance of the other events that arguably should be covered in the course of an hour long news program.

It’s no surprise that this latest saga now has all kinds of questionable characters coming out of woodwork. I’m not an attorney or a police officer, but how could the Las Vegas police grant immunity to someone like Thomas Riccio so soon in the proceedings? And what about this less-than-reputable licensing agent (Mike Gilbert) who helped OJ scam his way into millions of dollars through cash-only memorabilia sales? Wouldn’t it be so ironic at this point if OJ managed to weasel his way out of all of these pending felony charges, only to be finally jailed for tax fraud by the IRS? Wasn’t that the way that gangster Al Capone was finally taken down (if I’m remembering the “Untouchables” movie correctly)?

Anyway – I’m also baffled as to why this “tasered” student is getting so much coverage. I’m hearing that it was all some kind of pre-planned publicity stunt. The tape that keeps getting shown over and over seems suspicious. Oh well – just “don’t taser me, bro” – right??

And justice is once again in the balance – the Phil Spector jury is deadlocked and will now be able to consider a lesser charge of manslaughter.

Remember to watch the Cafferty Files special tonight at 8:00 PM ET!! And tomorrow night at 8:00 PM – check out a new SIU special – “Judgement in Jena” – you can read more about it here – “CNN's Kyra Phillips gets to the heart of a racial crisis gripping a small southern town. A can’t miss hour of justice in black and white.” I know that I wouldn’t have been as aware as I was about this issue as soon as I was – without the 360° coverage – it was one of the first programs to bring this story to light.

And in that same line of thought – Anderson gave what seemed to be a typically humble speech yesterday when accepting the Mickey Leland Humanitarian Award – you can read more about it here – I’ll see if any more can be found – and I know that (relatively) no one will see this, but in response to one item in the speech - without any question whatsoever and without any doubt whatsoever – Anderson’s stories DO make a difference – which is probably why some of us bristle so uncomfortably when he’s obligated to spend inordinate amounts of time on totally and completely useless coverage of, well, too many topics to list here. Enough said (for now) ...

And – not to leave on a completely “down” note – but I’m staging my own tiny protest by posting no screen caps from last night – although I WILL go back and get one of the bears in the hammock for later – they were just too cute!! But here’s one for something that I’m definitely looking forward to!

Thanks for visiting – updates posted as needed – have a terrific day!



Update # 1 - another day, another conference ...

Anderson will be presenting the "Planet in Peril" documentary at the CMJ07 Music Marathon & Film Festival in NYC - it runs from October 16th thru October 20th - here's the CMJ press release and you can read more about the marathon here as well.