Anderson Cooper The Journalist

10:00 PM – Anderson opened up the show from Marine Patrol Base Jaker in southern Afghanistan. He reviewed his day’s activities and previewed the show to come, then referenced Obama’s speech and ran an extended excerpt. It was actually a bit surreal to watch Anderson in Afghanistan report on a speech given in Washington, DC. Thankfully, he deferred to the stateside news team to cover the speech in greater detail. For a few minutes, the show became John King 360.

10:11 PM – Anderson calls the mission in Afghanistan a deteriorating mission.

10:11:PM – More footage from the President’s speech

10:12:PM – Back to John King. John mentions Senator Joe Wilson heckling the President over illegal immigrants.

10:15:PM - I’m having TV déjà vu; it’s like I was just watching this speech a few hours ago.

360 Bulletin #1

* A Bolivian man is the sole suspect for a plane hijacking in Mexico.
* Fred is the second major Atlantic hurricane of this season. Also the most boring hurricane name in history.
* President Clinton speaks at Cronkite’s funeral
* Ellen DeGeneres is going to be a judge on American Idol

10:24 PM Lt. Mike McCarty, from Iowa, says hi to his family and wishes them a happy birthday.  This is the first in a series of messages from soldiers to their families back home.  These messages will be archived on ac360.com.

10:27 PM Anderson shows video of the firing of illumination flares. He says that he woke up to this noise, due to increased activity in the surrounding area.

Amazingly brief coverage of the rescue of Steven Farrell,  NYT reporter.  More time throughout the show was dedicated to Dr. Gupta’s bunk than to this story.

10:28 PM Segue to Sanjay Gupta.

Battlefield Doctors – Dr. Sanjay Gupta

Dr. Sanjay Gupta reported from Camp Dwyer, in Kandahar.  He was speaking with Sgt. Nate Dabney, a leading field medic with the dustoff (rescue) team.  They spoke about the golden hour.  Once someone has been critically injured, the rescue team has 60 minutes to rescue that person or death is imminent.  Today, the dustoff team was called in to rescue two Afghan civilians.  Both men lived.

Anderson then asked Dr. Gupta about Malik, a boy featured on an earlier episode.  Malik is up and walking, even though his doctors thought that he might have been paralyzed.

10:34 PM – Lt. Jg Sarah Tverdosi, from U.S. Navy, says hello to her family in New Jersey.

10:36 PM - We get a shot of Anderson in a helmet in a jeep.  He says the caravan is moving very slowly to look out for potential Taliban fighters.  It seems like he’s hinting at the destabilization or deterioration of the mission in Afghanistan, a message that he revisits later in the show.

10:37 A few shots of the base and Anderson’s living quarters.  Anderson might have included a shot here of Dr. Gupta’s quarters, which were the unspoken highlight of tonight’s show.

Far From Home

Life on the frontlines for U.S. Marines

Anderson reported on the living conditions in Patrol Base Jaker, in southern Afghanistan.  Patrol Base Jaker is nothing like the mega-bases that some U.S. viewers are used to.  Temperatures can peak at 120 degrees.  The whole place is covered in a thin layer of dust that the Marines call moondust.  Anderson spoke with a few soldiers, including one who was clearing the latrines.  It turns out that this job is not earned by inciting the wrath of a superior, but just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.   Another Marine summarized his existence by saying, “Do your job.  Go to bed.  Wake up. Do your job.”

After a brief mention of MREs and exercise equipment, Anderson went back to the latrine area to report on the #1 and #2 situations in Patrol Base Jaker.  Number one is made using pipes fixed in the ground and number 2 is made in a communal 4-hole outhouse.  This was honest reporting at its best.

This done, Anderson turned his attention to a brief interview with Peter Bergen, CNN National Security Analyst.  It was here that Anderson seemed to get very skeptical about the US mission.  He asked Bergen if the money spent in Afghanistan was well-spent.  Bergen replied that the US did not invest enough money right after 9/11 and is now reaping the fruits of that decision.  Both men seemed relieved that Afghanistan would not cost as much as Iraq.

10:45 – “The situation here on the ground is deteriorating.”

City Under Siege — Michael Ware

Michael Ware, who used to live in Kandahar and spent the first minute of this segment in the back of a transport vehicle comparing today’s city with the one he remembered.  His first impressions were about the new streets, new trees, and new Taliban.

He interviewed shopkeepers and the overwhelming message was one of fear.  The shopkeepers said that they felt like they were surrounded by the Taliban.  All these men, in their faded clothes and long beards, all stood squinting into the sun as they lamented the current state of affairs.  Ahmed Wali Karzai, brother to the Afghan president, even said a few words.

Michael reported on something that I found very interesting.  He said that the new Taliban is using old commanders: the same ones who fought the Russians in the Soviet-Afghan War.  Then he moved on to the rubble of a truck bombing in the heart of Kandahar.  Right in the heart of the city, buildings lay in ruins and forty Afghan civilians were dead.  The city is still cleaning up a week after.  Less than a mile away is a Taliban-controlled district.

The “Taliban war machine, ” Ware said, would continue churning out new soldiers as long as the situation on the ground remains the same: National political limbo.  They don’t even know who their president is due to corrupt elections.  The American military is not doing much to help the situation, according to Ware.  It is also in limbo.  The military needs more troops and needs to rethink the war strategy.  All eyes are on the whitehouse.  Is the President ready to fight this war?

10:51 PM – Lt JG Aaron Ojard says hi to his family in Minnesota.

360 Bulletin #2

Republican senator Joe Wilson apologizes for heckling the President.

Michael D. Duvall resigns for inappropriate sexual activities (including an audio clip!!)

New photos from the Hubble telescope.

Oudin’s U.S. Open run ends

The Shot

10:59 – The long awaited video of a supine  Sanjay Gupta.  I, for one, am expecting backlash later on in the week.

-Aaron Fowles