Late Sunday, Anderson Cooper and fellow part-time hero / full-time correspondent Sanjay Gupta tweeted that they were going back to Haiti. Almost a month after a major quake destroyed the capital, most news crews and their high profile reporters have long since packed up and left. Haiti is no longer front page news and that makes Cooper's return all the more interesting.
It's no secret that CNN sees a spike in viewing during disasters, so is the network just milking the tragedy for ratings? Is it a genuine plea for a people forgotten by the news cycle? Or is it just good journalism?
I don't know who else is mesmerized by the news coverage of Haiti, but I imagine that many people are still watching the devastating footage blanketing the news networks. As much as I want to turn it off, I can't. I'm compelled to look. A part of me thinks that it's my responsibility to bear witness to the horror.
Anyway, with all my CNN viewing, it's becoming clear that CNN reporters are slowly becoming part of the story, rather than just covering it. Yesterday, on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, 3 reporters put aside their journalistic hats and pitched in to help the quake victims.
Yeah, I'm obsessed with CNN right now. After days of being glued to Anderson Cooper 360, it's becoming clear that he's seriously coming off the rails. During last night's broadcast, Cooper seemed to do little reporting and a lot of "ranting" (his words) about the lack of supplies and aid getting to Haiti.
It's honestly riveting. Not only is he airing his frustration at the red tape hindering the process, but he seems to be approaching Katrina levels of pissed off.
Not according to our friends over at PopEater. They say that insiders have revealed that CNN has banned Griffin from all future New Year's Eve shows. For the record, the network says that they have not discussed who will or won't be on the next New Year's Eve show.
So, should Griffin be banned? I'm all for outrageous humor, blah, blah, blah, but I think there has to be a common-sense limit to what she says on a live show. Her Bravo stand-up specials are one thing, but she says the F word on live TV after she says something equally risque' the year before? What do you think?
Update: CNN says that reports that Griffin has been banned are false because no decision has been made on next year's show yet.
This was probably expected, but last night Kathy Griffin said the F-word while co-hosting New Year's Eve coverage on CNN with Anderson Cooper. Here's the video. I guess you can't have a time delay in a show that has a live countdown to New Year's Eve.
More of our best of the decade coverage, which started earlier today. You can read the other posts at the link above. Here, we talk about our favorite reality contestants and participants.
Whether we like it or not, the '00s introduced us to a new form of celebrity: the reality star. In previous decades, the closest we got to this were especially entrancing personalities from MTV's Real World. These people gained fame for acting like well-crafted exaggerations of their real selves.
Faster than you can say, "I didn't come here to make friends," networks picked up on the public's fascination with reality TV like Survivor and they pushed it to the popularity that it has reached today. Now, reality shows barely reflect what happens in normal people's lives but are generally more like high-concept game shows or extremely scripted improvs. But people keep watching, because the personalities are big and captivating.
Yup. Strategic footage editing does wonders. Here are some of our personal favorites from the genre, but feel free to comment with your own worthy additions!
I've never noticed how often the hosts at CNN - almost all of them - say the phrase "we'll have to leave it there" when they run out of time when interviewing a guest. But The Daily Show noticed it, and last night they were all over CNN about it.
If you haven't seen our game before, we give you a picture from a recent episode of a TV series and you provide the caption! Last week's winner is Man with this:
"Yes, I'm staring at the spinach stuck in your teeth. That is effing amazing since all you made today was brownies."
This week's picture is from Live with Regis & Kelly. Anderson Cooper guest hosted and caused some controversy with his questions for Bachelorette Jillian.
Bob Sassone already did a post on how the amazing Anderson Cooper caused a little bit of an accident on the set of Live with Regis and Kelly yesterday morning when he subbed for the Reege. As funny as that -- and really, the entire "host chat" segment was -- it was not my favorite thing that happened on the show yesterday.
That honor goes to Cooper's interview with The Bachelorette's Jillian Harris. Harris was on the show with her "fiance," doing the post-finale press tour and shilling for the jeweler who provided the diamond ring that Ed bestowed upon her on Monday's season-ender.
While Kelly stuck to the script and asked the common, "when did you know he was the one?" questions, Anderson wasn't having any of it. He's Anderson freakin' Cooper, and as he demonstrated with his swift takedown of the Lohan clan, he doesn't have time for the shenanigans of D-list reality stars (except Kathy Griffin). So Cooper, always trying to get to the bottom of the story, flat-out asked Jillian how many dudes she boned in the Bachelorette mansion.
When a guest host subs for the regular host on a talk show, it's often a real letdown. But that's not the case when Anderson Cooper sits in for Regis on Live with Regis & Kelly. You can be guaranteed at least one very funny moment. Like yesterday, when he made Kelly laugh so hard something terrible happened. (He's co-host today, too.)
This isn't just the week for prime time Emmy nominations, we also have the nominations for news.
Here's the list of news and documentary Emmy nominations. There are many categories, including several for the cable news channels, but a few of the big nominations include Charlie Gibson's interview with Sarah Palin for Outstanding Interview (really?), NBC Nightly News coverage of Tim Russert's death for Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking News Story, 60 Minutes taking three of the four nominations in the Outstanding Feature Story in a News Magazine category (Primetime took the other), and three nominations for The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WOULD YOU PLEASE STOP WITH THE SHOWS ABOUT MICHAEL JACKSON?!
Honestly, what else can you possibly say? You've already interviewed every Jackson lawyer (past and present), interviewed his dermatologist, talked to his friends, talked to Jermaine Jackson, given a live tour of Neverland Ranch (complete with ghosts), had Marlon Brando's son on almost every night, interviewed Jackson's former nurse, and you actually went to the memorial service itself and reported from there. What else can you possibly do? Are you going to have an exclusive interview with Michael Jackson's nose? Talk to his mailman?
All that white hair and he's two years younger than I am.
Anderson Cooper's birthday was June 3 (mine's June 9 - I like money and DVDs!), and he was surprised on the set the other night by two special guests: Keith Olbermann and Bill O'Reilly. Just kidding! Actually, it's a woman who hasn't made the A-list of celebs yet and a woman who is sure you can't afford anything.
Of all the networks, CNN probably had the stupidest election coverage trickery (unless you count all of the stupid things people said on MSNBC). For example, will.i.am being interviewed via hologram (that wasn't even really a hologram) instead of just appearing via satellite or in the studio, and that goofy hologram graphic that Anderson Cooper had to hold. The Daily Show took that on in their "Moment of Zen" last night, while talking about CNN's Peabody Award win. (Video also here or here.)
I don't know who else is mesmerized by the news coverage of Haiti, but I imagine that many people are still watching the devastating footage blanketing the news networks. As much as I want to turn it off, I can't. I'm compelled to look. A part of me thinks that it's my responsibility to bear witness to the horror. 
Yeah, I'm obsessed with CNN right now. After days of being glued to 
In 2008, 
More of our 
If you haven't seen our game before, we give you a picture from a recent episode of a TV series and you provide the caption! 
If you haven't seen our game before, we give you a picture from a recent episode of a TV series and you provide the caption! 
This isn't just the week for prime time 
Dear Larry,
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