Welcome everyone to All Things Anderson 2008 Live Blog. For some of our readers you have already rung in 2009 and we offer you a huge Happy New Year. For the next few hours we can talk about what is happening on CNN (since we are starting at 10 we can include Tom Foreman's program but let keep it relatively nice :P) The fun will continue into the morning for our readers out in the West Coast as they await the beginning of 2009!!!
I will try to add clips and photos to the post as the night progresses as long as the blogger gods are nice to me.
With that let's get this party started!!!!
Erica Hill and Don Lemon in Times Square, Gary Tuchman in Central Park, Brooke Anderson in Las Vegas, Sean Callebs in New Orleans and John Zarrella in Key West, FL
Well, tonight certainly was a unique program... and there are so many clips I need to convert and upload, it will be a few hours. So I thought I would do something different: I'm going to just do screengrabs and throw open the page, and then upload the clips when they are ready. (I know: for many of you that means coming back a second time tomorrow... can you forgive me?)
First, Kathy Griffin was on Larry's show tonight. There are two segments where she talked about Anderson, and he joined in for one of them. So those clips are 'cooking' now.
Here's the first of the LKL clips:
And here's the second clip from LKL:
So the nuttiest governor in the country still thinks he's in charge, and can play the game. Sadly, if plays the political egos right, he may actually be able to pull it off. How quickly they can play the race card when it suits them.
The Digging Deeper duties were handled by Jeffrey Toobin and Roland Martin. Normally I like Roland, but I think he was well off the mark in this argument -- it was almost as though he was having a different discussion than the one Anderson and Jeffrey were part of. Perhaps he brought in some additional information from his radio program, but I definitely was confused and I don't think I was the only one!
There is a possibility of a cease-fire in Gaza, although Hamas is trying to set the terms, which is pretty amusing under the circumstances. And yet people want to blame Israel for not letting humanitarian aid in? How does that work?
Nic Robertson reports on the latest -- clip to come. The likelihood of a ground war becomes stronger every day, although it doesn't seem like the people on either side wants it. Sadly, since Hamas was elected into power, it is they who quite literally call the shots here.
Here's Nic's first report:
Karl Penhaul was trying to get into Gaza on board a ship trying to run the blockade with humanitarian aid. Not surprisingly, they were prevented from passing through.
"Peacemaker" ... yikes, no pressure there. How many have tried and failed? Well, here's hoping this time there might be some actual advances. Hope springs eternal, etc.
Ed Henry is still languishing on the beach in Hawaii, poor fella.
Second panel discusses Obama's challenges: Roland Martin, Ben Smith (Politico.com), and Ed Rollins.
A sad follow-up to the Jena 6 story, as plaintive Mychal Bell apparently attempted suicide. Sean Callebs reports. I certainly hope that young man gets a helping hand to clear his path.
Randi Kaye did the 360 Bulletin: a new report on the Columbia disaster; The New York Times sued by the lobbyist who was romantically linked to Senator McCain; stocks up today; Madoff assets released by a bankruptcy judge.
The final segments had Kathy Griffin in the studio, and she had Anderson in hysterics. The clips are priceless. I will post them ASAP.
The first of the KG clips from the end of the program:
And here is the second clip!
By the way, I forgot to mention that there was an article on CNN.com about The Drag Queen Drop! Of course, John Zarella and Sushi will be on tonight as part of the NYE coverage.
Anderson is back and diving right in to the latest Breaking News...
Nic Robertson is in Jerusalem to report on the start of the fourth day of the battle in Gaza:
Next up is a Jim Acosta piece about the fact that Obama is likely to inherit this war along with Iraq and Afghanistan. Because we wouldn't want the guy to have it to easy, you know...
The panel tonight is Ed Henry (still in Honolulu), Hilary Rosen, and Reza Aslan. Since it's been far too long since we heard from Reza, I clipped his segment of the conversation with Anderson:
Randi Kaye has the 360 Bulletin: the bodies of snowmobilers buried in an avalanche in British Columbia recovered; Bristol Palin has a son; Kirk Kerkorian sells his stake in Ford; Pennsylvania family finds man living in their attic...
...which gets this reaction from Anderson:
(Yeah, I'm with him on that one... )
So a guy who wants to run the RNC sends out a "holiday" CD of songs mocking Democrats... yep, same old crowd. If they vote him in, they have said all they need to say. Where in the world are the sane Republicans who understand that the ways of Lee Atwater and Karl Rove are done with? Paging sanity... your Party needs you.
A second panel -- Ed and Hilary with Larry Elders. I can't even speak coherently about Elders' nonsense. If y'all feel inclined, be my guest. I'd much rather move on to the next segment, thanks.
It's the half-hour mark, and Nic is back with another update:
I really hate these cruise ship disappearances... it's nearly a perfect crime, if you want to kill someone and dispose of a body. And they rarely seem to be able to solve the mystery, despite cameras. I wish them well with this one.
This fake Holocaust story is so discouraging. Not because Oprah got fooled (although "again" is technically incorrect, since this was prior to James Frey; she's probably got better fact-checkers now) but because it feeds into the Holocaust deniers out there. The man said he wanted to spread love, blah-blah-blah... what the hell is the problem with writing fiction?
Tom Foreman has a special airing Wednesday night titled, "All the Best, All the Worst, 2008" -- seems like an hour is WAY too little time to cover all that, doesn't it? Anyway, Rosie's short-lived show is rated a "worst" and got this response from Anderson:
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Not a lot of extras tonight -- first... a couple of those unusual camera angles that... uh... *ahem* Hello, Anderson?
(Okay, come on... you laughed, too...)
And then near the end, the infamous white socks say hello:
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A new CNN promo that features Anderson, sort of:
Finally, Kristien sent us this clip of outtakes from Kathy Griffin's half of the NYE promo:
That's it for tonight. I'm on deck tomorrow as well, so I'll see you back here then.
For those of you who will be in Times Square this New Year's Eve, the Times Square Alliance has posted a schedule of events. This one caught my eye:
9:58 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Hourly Countdown with Anderson Cooper
As we approach the New Year, Anderson Cooper will appear on the Nivea Countdown Stage to wish the Times Square revelers “Happy New Year”, read some of the confetti wishes to be mixed into the confetti release at midnight, share his personal wish for the New Year and lead the revelers in counting down to the end of the hour
On December 5, 2008, Anderson Cooper spoke at Columbia University. The audio from the event has been posted to the university's website. You will need to have Quicktime installed in order to listen to the audio program.
Anderson talks for about 20 minutes discussing his career and then the remaining 40 minutes is a Q & A. The beginning of the audio requires a four letter word warning - Anderson is a bit frank when referring to the impact of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Some of the highlights from the Q & A include:
Handling trama as a correspondent
The elimination of the Science & Technology unit at CNN
The level of knowledge required for an anchor
Reporting from war zones (getting arrested in four different countries)
CNN's coverage of the Mumbai attacks
Coverage of Africa
Election coverage
No 360 in :60 review this week. Maybe better luck next week, but I'm not counting on it.
If you haven't seen it yet, a couple of old pictures of Anderson from his Dalton yearbook have been making the rounds on the internet this week.
This next pic has to be from his early teen years.
Here is an article along with a nice pic that Cyn found on the LA Times website written by Choire Sicha who used to be an editor at Gawker. Refreshingly, it isn't full of the usual stock answers he gives. Midway through he has a 2 minute "off the record" conversation. I wonder what that's all about?! Here's the article.
Anderson Cooper: It's news to him
The versatile CNN anchor-reporter says there aren't enough hours in the day to cover every story he'd like to go out on.
By Choire Sicha December 28, 2008
In addition to his duties hosting " Anderson Cooper 360°" on CNN from 10 p.m. to midnight, Cooper reports for " 60 Minutes." He is also CNN's Mr. New Year's Eve.
What's life like after the election?
I think it's maybe different for viewers, but it's not that different for us. It's kind of the same level of intensity. And with the economic collapse, that's something that's taken up a lot of our attention post-election.
You don't have to wrangle as many crowds.
I liked the wrangling. I miss our nightly meetings with 20 different analysts. I was joking with some of them that I feel like we should convene panels in my home on the weekends and go over polls that don't exist.
This year we saw the rise of Rachel Maddow and Campbell Brown -- very opinionated. You haven't succumbed too much. Do you have plans to?
I have no plans to, no. I think those people are really good at what they do. Rachel Maddow is an incredible talent -- she's funny, and smart, obviously well researched on subjects. I'm just not interested as a viewer in listening to anchors' opinions. It seems like there's an awful lot of yelling, and this year yelling's been replaced by sarcasm and snark-iness.
How do you like your slot?
My time slot? I've never really thought much about it, honestly.
But often it seems as if you end up with news that's not really breaking. You end up with day-end stuff, and I feel that it doesn't necessarily serve you.
When there's breaking news we try to have it be something that's occurred within the last two, three hours. If you notice on a lot of other networks, they have something called "breaking today." Which, to me, I think that's called news? I don't quite understand how people get away with "breaking today," but that's become a mainstay of MSNBC and others.
Can I say something off the record?
Yeah, sure!
[Two minutes later.] But you don't have a Twitter feed yet.
I think I do have a Twitter feed! I'm not as Twitter-friendly as [CNN anchor/correspondent] Rick Sanchez. He seems to be tweeting and twittering. I'm hoping he'll give me a lesson on it someday.
And your blog goes un-updated because you have a job.
Frankly, I've not blogged as much this past couple of months. But there are days when you have time, there's days when you don't. The biggest mistake you can possibly make is having someone write something as if it's you, and we would never do that. There are some of these things I read elsewhere and I'm like really, huh, OK.
Oh, that is Puff Daddy, don't worry, it's not an impersonator.
Is he Puff Daddy still? I think you're in early 2006.
Why don't you quit your job and start a website?
I'm not that computer-savvy. And, uh, I dunno! I like the immediacy of television. I like going to a frontline, I like going to a story. I like the immediacy and impact of it. There's a real global impact with CNN.
You do have mass distribution, which is nice. Fair enough.
It's not really about mass distribution. It's more about just telling stories that affect people's lives. . . . There's a lot of opportunities at CNN that if I had a little website somewhere I don't think I could take part in.
Arianna and Tina would tell you different.
I don't have the energy of Arianna Huffington or Tina Brown.
No one does, they're psychotic. What's the most under-covered story of '08?
I think the war in Afghanistan. It's very difficult, very dangerous, costs a lot of money to cover it. For myself, I've been planning trips to Afghanistan this past year, and each time it's gotten canceled or postponed because of the election.
It'll still be going on.
I also am obsessed with the situation in the Eastern Congo. Not many people are. It's the deadliest conflict since World War II. It's up to 5 1/2 or 6 million people who've died in the last 10 years. And virtually no one has covered it. . . . The mass rapes in the Congo. . . . I just can't help but believe that if that people knew about it there'd be a huge uproar. Tens of thousands of women have been raped, and the majority of them have been gang-raped.
That's why I'm saying, quit your job. You can do all that -- and no election.
There's plenty of blogs that write about Eastern Congo, and how many of them have you actually read? You're citing Arianna Huffington and Tina Brown -- both have huge money behind them and a staff of great writers and they're both incredibly talented people. But I actually like going to stories.
I thought I'd end my post with a couple of smilin' Anderpics...
I really had no intention of blogging Friday’s AC360. After all Anderson Cooper was officially on vacation and unofficially so was I. But I had the program on in the background while packing for my official vacation and found it too good to ignore. Erica Hill was at the helm, which for me is always enjoyable. Lucky for us whoever produced Friday’s AC360 got all the politics, economy and bail out news out of the way early and gave us some extras that made it a great program.Tom Foreman gave us the skinny on holiday spending….the percentages of what was up (not much) and what was down (most everything).Joe John’s covered the bailout. (Are you beginning to see the 360 formula....economy, bailout, transition of power. Every night, same old…same old.) Ed Henry covered the transition…including the Blago situation, and then both men were joined by The Gerg to further hash out the non-events of the day. Gotta love David for saying if it wasn’t such a quiet news day no one would be discussing the Blago story. There was a light moment at the end of the panel when Erica showed Ed on Waikiki beach on Christmas Day.
Thelma Gutierrez filed a report on the horrific story from California about the holiday massacre that killed 9 people and Chad Myers gave us the news on the severe winter weather that much of the nation is experiencing. There was also a story on the Presidential and Vice Presidential dogs (I'm so over this) and Randi Kaye did the 360 Bulletin.
It’s been forever since we’ve had news on our troops in the Middle East and although we didn’t get much of it in Nic Robertson's report he did catch us up on the situation between India and Pakistan. Here is the clip:
After Nic’s report we were lucky enough to get Peter Bergen’s perspective on the situation in a special Strategy Session (note to AC360 time to come up with some new catch phrases…..Strategy Session, Transition of Power, etc. is so last year).
And somewhere in the middle of the program was vintage Anderson and a look back at the tsunami of 2004 in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. How long have we been waiting for a follow up on this tragic event and others? I really, really appreciated this 360 Dispatch.
Some odds and ends to squeeze in as 2008 comes to an end: I have finished ATA's 2009 calendar. It features photos of Anderson Cooper from this year's political conventions, debates and the Election Center. To download your free calendar just follow the link.
We will be live blogging during the NYE broadcast on Wednesday night. Our live blog event will begin around 10 PM Eastern and run into the wee hours of the morning. If you miss the live broadcast but want to watch the repeat we will still be posting comments.
While on the topic of NYE we want to thank Kristien, who sent us this from AC's Facebook page.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper will host live coverage of the New Year’s Eve celebration at New York City’s Times Square on Wednesday, Dec. 31, from 11 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. (ET).For “New Year’s Eve Live with Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin,” which will air in HD, CNN anchors and correspondents will provide reports from celebrations across the country and around the world. •Anderson Cooper 360 co-anchor Erica Hill joins Cooper in New York’s Times Square. •CNN correspondent Gary Tuchman is live from Central Park in New York for the annual Midnight Run. •Correspondent Sean Callebs reports from New Orleans, Louisiana •CNN correspondent John Zarrella from Key West, Florida •HLN’s “Showbiz Tonight” Hollywood co-host Brooke Anderson from “Club CNN” in Las Vegas •Musical performances include: Lil Wayne from Atlanta, Georgia; Lynyrd Skynyrd from Pikeville, Kentucky; My Morning Jacket from New York; Coolio from Las Vegas; 3 Doors Down from Duluth, Georgia; and Hinder from Dayton, Ohio. •CNN will solicit viewers to “Show Us Your Party” using iReport contributions from its global audience. •CNN will post and broadcast video, images and other submissions about celebrations around the world
This will be my last night blogging for a while. My family and I are heading North to spend some time in the frozen tundra. Isn't it funny that so many of you who live in cold weather climates long for a vacation somewhere warm, while we who live in the desert seek out the cold? We have a beautiful A-frame home near the slopes to enjoy for the week and the young among us plan on skiing and snowboarding. We're taking the Flexible Flyer for some sledding and I may even venture out on the snowmobile once or twice. There is no Internet or cell phone service at the 'cabin' so I'll be ATA-less for the week. But we do have satellite television so I shouldn't miss Anderson, Erica and Kathy on NYE. I leave you in the good hands of the ATA team and hope to be back blogging on January 6th (if I return in one piece). Happy New Year everybody. ~ Phebe
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to celebrating the New Year with All Things Anderson. We have a few belated Christmas presents for you, sorry I didn't get around to gift wrapping them. Remember when Anderson looked right into the camera on Live with Regis and Kelly and told a viewer, who was having a bad day, that everything would be OK? I thought some of you might like to have your own personal copy of that to listen to when you are having a bad day. Here's the clip and the link to the sitewhere you can download the file for free.
And I've pulled a clip from the ATA Archives from December 23, 2002. Anderson was subbing for Aaron Brown on Newsnight and this piece is the night's Segment 7. AC interviews a Jim Nader, a Chicago disc jockey who specializes in collecting the worst music of all time. Enjoy!
For those of you who celebrate Boxing Day have a good one. Since Ms. Sapphire will be spending Boxing Day with her family I will be back blogging on Friday night. Until then. ~ Phebe
For Christmas 2005 I wrote a poem to post at ATA, giving the famous Clement Moore's 'The Night Before Christmas' a bit of a Anderson update. In it I addressed the then recent departure of Aaron Brown from CNN and Anderson's move into his time slot. The next year Quitty found an Nth Degree that had Anderson reading his version of the same poem. From that coincidence came the tradition of posting both versions at ATA on every Christmas.
We wish all of you a Merry Christmas full of love, peace, and happiness.
~Phebe, Quitty, Book Asylum, Sapphire, Cynand Tedi B.
THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
with acknowledgment to Clement Moore 'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the loft, not a creature was stirring, 'twas all quiet and soft. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.
Anderfans were nestled at home, in their beds, while visions of Anderson danced in their heads. And Andy in his PJ's with Molly on his lap had just settled in for a long winter's nap.
When outside the loft there arose such a clatter, Andy sprang from his bed to see what was the matter. Thinking a news story was about to be broken, He knew what to do, no words need be spoken.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow gave just enough light to broadcast a show, he'd need a film crew, there must be a way, But wait, what was that, a miniature sleigh?
With a little old driver, so lively and quick, Andy thought for a moment it must be St. Nick. But he knew he was wrong the closer they came, Who was that whistling and shouting out names? "Now Miles! Now Larry! Now, Erica you vixen! On, Rob! On, Chad! On Sanjay, Wolf Blitzen! To the top of the porch! To the top of the wall! Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, Anderson knew what to do from watching the sky so up to his penthouse the coursers they flew, with the sleigh full of toys, and oh my God, Aaron Brown, too!
And then, in a twinkling, Andy heard on the roof the prancing and pawing of each little hoof. As he drew in his head and was turning around, down the chimney Aaron came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot, and his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot. A bundle of resumes he had flung on his back, and he looked like an unemployed newscaster just opening his sack.
His eyes--how they twinkled! His dimples, how merry! His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry! Aaron asked if newspaper headlines were still being read , AC said no, that and Nth degree are gone, buried, dead. The bump music has changed, as have the sets, Aaron smiled and said "All is good, I've no regrets".
My golf game is aces since I've been put on the shelf, and Andy laughed when Aaron said that, in spite of himself. A wink of his eye and a twist of his head Let Anderson know he had nothing to dread.
Aaron said with a sigh "I'm still out of work, but don't you feel bad, it's Klein that's a jerk." And laying his finger aside of his nose, and giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, And away they all flew like the down of a thistle. But I heard him exclaim, 'ere he drove out of sight, "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"
This past weekend was the 3rd annual ATA Christmas Party, as per usual it was quite the night. If you are new to ATA you might want to take a few minutes to read about our previous Christmas parties (first& second). It might help you make sense of this one, but then again it might not!
With the recession in full swing this year ATA opted for a Christmas party that was a little less grand. Just the six of us, the Anderblue martini fountain, a few invited guests and of course that requisite visit from Santa.
We began the evening by donning some borrowed choir robes and heading out to do some Christmas caroling. I think we look so very festive with tinsel in our hair, don’t you agree? We had just finished the last carol (and not a moment too soon since the first round of liquid libation was wearing off) and were headed back to the ATA offices we noticed a glow in the sky. Nothing will get this group running faster than the thought of the pump on the martini fountain malfunctioning and starting a fire. To our great relief we found the CNN Express parked in front of ATA all decked out for the holidays and glowing a bright red and green. The martini fountain was intact, our guests had arrived…..let the party begin. First off the bus was Sapphire’s main squeeze Bill Schneider. I could see it in her eyes that she was a bit disappointed with his chapeaux choice this year. It’s pretty hard to run your fingers through a straw hat. Anyone know where we can buy a replacement….cause we owe Mr. Bill one. In the course of a year Ms. Quitty still hasn’t moved on from the nipple ring fetish, so lucky for us the 360 crew brought along Corey. Remember him from ‘The Shot’ AC aired back in January? We’re batting a thousand so far, who is next out of the bus? What’s a Christmas party without an elf? John Roberts is a lot shorter in person and a bit of a surly elf at that. At least Santa didn’t make him wear a tie! As we expected Anderson could not join us this year, but he sent his wonderful crew to entertain us with some carols and a little dancing. Lucky for us we have the video to share so all of you can get into the Christmas spirit too.
It was at this point, when we thought we had seen it all, the guys told us there was one more little surprise (we prayed that it wasn’t Lou Dobbs playing Santa again). The room began to glow red and a shimmery shape began to appear. Could it be, was it Santa? Even better, it was hologram Anderson wishing us a very Merry Christmas.
Well at least we think it was hologramed Anderson. By this time the Anderblue martini bar had almost run dry and none of us were seeing to straight. But our hearing was just fine since we all were hearing loud noises outside the office windows. Finally! Santa and his sleigh pulled by eight little reindeer had arrived. No such luck, it was just the CNN Express signaling that it was time to load ‘em up and move ‘em out. They had a long drive ahead of them if they were to get back to work by Monday morning.
So there you have it, the details of the 3rd Annual ATA Christmas party. What’s that you’re asking? Did Santa ever show? Pretty sure he did since when reviewing our videos we came across this.
Merry Christmas to everyone from the crew at All Things Anderson.
Anderson and Kathy Dancing
