Anderson Cooper The Journalist

No one ever went broke misunderstanding the intelligence of the American people. – H. L. Mencken You betcha – Sarah Palin         -posted by George Curcio

Sarah Palin, go away Please don’t come back another day. Here it is Wednesday, and for yet another day, AC360 remains obsessed with Sarah Palin, giving tremendous gratis publicity to her new memoir.  It’s a funny thing about Sarah.  The more you see her, the less you care that you do, unless you are in [...]

In one of the best summaries today of American politics, it is safe to say the following:  Sarah Palin actually has very little of relevance to say, but everyone wishes she did.  Monday night’s AC360 took a look at the unveiling today of Palin’s newly-written memoir, Going Rogue:  An American Life. According to public reviews [...]

Perhaps it was coincidence, or perhaps it was some producer’s idea of a witty joke.  Just moments after airing a report on members of Congress being pressured by the Catholic Church, among others, to oppose abortion rights within the health-care reform bill, Thursday’s AC360 aired a report about a wayward father in the Midwest. Evidently, [...]

Barack Obama is faced with some serious issues about the war in Afghanistan, and it is reported that he is unhappy with the four options that have been prepared and presented to him by those within the administration, as reported on Wednesday’s AC360.   The options range from sending 40,000 more American troops at a [...]

report aired during Tuesday’s AC360 focused on radical Muslims who are preaching hatred outside a non-participatory mosque in New York City, much to the dismay of the Imam there.  They are openly contemptuous of the United States and its people, and they say it stems ultimately from what they are being told in the Koran, [...]

For some reason, it is just difficult for Americans to take anything anymore at face value.  Perhaps it has something to do with the society’s preoccupation with spinning, putting a public relations front on everything, regardless of what the truth may be.  The truth, it seems, is no longer valued in American society.  Rather than [...]

Americans, by and large, are a funny people.  Since I have never lived in another country, I do not know how it is elsewhere, but here in America, we have some funny ideas.  This was brought out by the recent mass shootings of the past two days that occurred at Fort Hood and in Orlando. [...]

  It would be easy to dismiss the widespread shootings Thursday at the Fort Hood military base in Texas as the work of a single madman who had gone over the edge and unjustly took out his frustrations on other innocent people.  In one sense, that is exactly what happened, and if looked at only [...]

Both major political parties in the United States continue to play their game of political ping-pong with the general electorate, doing all they can to repel voters and then proclaiming victory when the other side is more adept about it.  The political spinning, meanwhile, continues to go on, distorting the truth – indeed, ignoring the [...]

It would be easy, and indeed there are already traces of evidence that it has already happened, for both entrenched political parties to read too much into Tuesday’s election results in the United States.  Focus on the returns preempted the regular showing of Monday night’s AC360, and, despite the endless rhetoric that came forth from [...]

There are many American voters who simply want one thing:  competent, responsible behavior from their elected officials.  The Republican and Democrat parties, however, are doing their best to send these voters rebounding from one party to the other, with no actual place to land.  Rather than embracing these voters and speaking to their needs, both [...]

Years ago, while working at a news/talk radio station, I remember the night something incredible happened, touching off a chaotic groundswell of activity as everyone rushed to cover the breaking news.  As newsmen rushed in every direction, a petite female producer came running down the hallway, mumbling aloud to herself and no one else in particular, “Why [...]

President Obama has been schmoozing high-profile donors by granting them invitations to the White House, letting them use the bowing alley or watch a movie in the White House theater.  Big deal.  That’s what presidents do.  Bill Clinton did it.  George W. Bush did it.  It’s nothing major.  It’s just politics as usual.  In Barack [...]

Build it and they will come.  Don’t build it and you will be sorry.  Maybe.  If you really care.  One has to wonder whether the leadership of American Samoa really does. The U. S. territory was hit on September 29 by a tsunami that left 34 people dead.   Now, as part of an exclusive report aired [...]

There is no such thing as being a little bit pregnant.  American banks, however, do not seem to understand that concept, as evidenced by the lead story on Monday evening’s AC360. American banks have greatly benefited from the American bailout attempt of the economy.  Two of the largest recipients, cited on Monday’s show, have been Citicorp and [...]

What a week it has been.  A look at Friday evening’s AC360 clues you in on all that has been happening. Pilots overshoot an airport in Minneapolis, their destination, and no one knows what was happening within the cockpit for an hour and a half.  No one heard a word from them during that time and the [...]

The question of “Whom do you trust?” has become a basic one for many Americans as they deliberate whether they should get a vaccination to fight the H1Ni virus, or swine flu, as evidenced by the question being front-and-center on Thursday evening’s AC360. Arguments pro and con were put forth by Lorna Patterson, a New [...]

Poor Kevin Madden.  Sometimes the TV news business dictates that its members have to defend positions that are largely indefensible, and such was Madden’s plight on Wednesday evening’s edition of AC360, leaving Madden with nonsensical rejoinders to Democrat strategist James Carville‘s defense of the latest move by the Obama administration. The Obama administration will soon [...]

The air came rushing out of Balloon Boy’s mode of transport and he has now been transformed from a symbol of desperate attempts at rescue to one of conspiracy and deceit.   A few days ago, we were all worried about his survival.  Now, the frenzy is to punish the boy’s family, specifically his parents, for what was apparently [...]

A while ago, we mentioned to you the issue of race relations being a generational one in America:  younger people in cosmopolitan areas are more accepting of interracial relations than older persons.  This opinion was buttressed by a story reported on Friday’s AC360 about a justice of the peace in Louisiana refusing to marry an interracial couple. [...]

Two weeks ago, we told you about a case in Texas that may affect next year’s attempt for reelection by Governor Rick Perry.  The case involves the execution in 2004 of  Cameron Todd Willingham for arson in a 1991 fire that claimed the lives of Willingham’s three children. At the time and since, there has [...]

You live by the sword, you die by the sword.  Rush Limbaugh has now done both. For two decades, Limbaugh has amassed a sizable personal fortune through making inflammatory political remarks that are designed to incite, inflame and enthrall.  Does he truly believe everything he has said over the years?  Probably not, but he has [...]

A long-ago forgotten story came to mind while watching Tuesday’s debate on AC360 about  health-care reform between Democrat Paul Begala and Republican Ari Fleischer. A relative was working in a local office where, each Christmas, they held a food drive to benefit lower-income citizens in the area.  Donations were many, and the drive was an overwhelming [...]