I really don't how reporters move on after covering a story like this. With this special, Anderson and his team do an admirable job of trying to leave us with a measure of hope for the people of Haiti. In my opinion, the special was very well done and worth the wait.
Part 1 - The Rescue Effort
Part 2- The Doctors
Part 3 - Caring for the Children
Part 4 - CNN Heroes in Haiti
Part 5 - The People of Haiti
It doesn't seem right to talk about heroes without paying a small tribute to the reporters and CNN staffers who provided yeoman service in Haiti. Kudos to all those those in front of camera and behind the scenes. Your coverage of Haiti has been second to none.
Here are a few pictures of our favorite reporters in action.
I'll end tonight's post by leaving you with a jigsaw puzzle of four of my favorite reporters. Have a great week!
With Anderson staying an additional week in Haiti, newspapers and magazines are turning to him to answer questions about the situation down there. Here are some of the articles readers sent us this week with a snippet from the article.
Mediaite Speaks With Anderson Cooper: “The Rest Of The World Feels Extraordinarily Far Away”...It’s strange to talk about other topics – it feels strange when you’re here. The rest of the world seems extraordinarily far away. Obviously what’s happening here is life and death, and you’re confronted with that on an hourly basis. But there are other things people are interested in, other important things happening. We try to strike balance between where you are and other things. - Anderson
Anderson Cooper in Haiti: 'I can't imagine being anywhere else'...“I feel privileged to be here, lucky to be here. I can’t imagine being anywhere else. There are things that are extraordinarily horrific and signs of extraordinary strength, and that’s important for people to know.” - Anderson
Anderson Cooper From Haiti: 'The Camera Lens Is Too Small To Capture What Is Really Happening Here'...He had not heard about Pat Robertson's remark that Haiti was "cursed" by a "pact to the devil" and said no one he had spoken to on the ground had heard of it either. "To be honest, right now that sounds like it's coming from another planet," he said. "I think people here would probably appreciate if Mr. Robertson maybe came down and lent a hand."
Anderson Cooper in Brave New Territory...One of the Newtonian laws of television journalism is that anchors never willingly preempt their own airtime. But according to sources, it was Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow who led the charge, despite the fact that the event with Mr. Cooper and company would push them out of prime time.
Anderson Cooper Helps Aaron Jackson Help Haiti...The next day, at another hotel that didn't have any vacancies, Aaron saw an old friend. "Right as I was leaving, I saw Anderson Cooper. He was like, 'Aaron, what's going on, man?'" Aaron was one of the original CNN Heroes and has met Cooper several times. Aaron explained the reservation situation, and in a matter of minutes, the CNN anchor arranged for Aaron and his friend to have one of the CNN rooms.
Soledad O'Brien was in the anchor chair tonight, filling in for Anderson Cooper. We have lots of extras for you tonight, but first the 360 re-cap.
The first story of the night was on Haiti's Orphans. Soledad talked about her trip to an orphanage in Haiti and a flight out of Port-au-Prince with more than 100 orphans on board.
Soledad then spoke with Kim Harmon, a mom who's adopting a child on the flight, and Jill Dougherty, a CNN Foreign Affairs Correspondent.
Randi Kaye was in with the first 360 Bulletin
* 9/11 trial may not be held in NYC
* Congressman Steve Buyer of Indiana announced his retirement * Texting while driving does not reduce traffic accidents according to a new study
* Bill & Melinda Gates announced a record donation that could save 9 million lives
Next up was a segment by Anderson from the CNN Heroes Saving Haiti 360 Special, about Boby Duval, a 2007 CNN Hero.
Tonight's Crime & Punishment segment was on the guilty verdict handed down today to Scott Roeder for murdering abortion Dr. Geroge Tiller. Deliberations lasted only 37 minutes and Roeder was sentenced to life in prison, but with the possibility of parole. Roeder confessed to the killing and offered chilling testimony of the planned execution on the witness stand yesterday. Leroy Carhart, a practitioner of late-term abortion and a friend of Dr. Tiller's talked to Soledad about Dr. Tiller's murder and the verdict today.
The 360 Raw Politics segment tonight was about President Obama and his rare face-off with members of the GOP at a GOP retreat in Baltimore today. Ed Rollins sat down with Soledad to discuss the event. Three things caught my attention -- Ed felt POTUS came in and dominated the Republican show, he hopes everyone at the retreat recognized that President Obama is a formidable candidate, and he felt the invitation to POTUS to attend the event should not have been made. Extended cuts of the meeting today were to be aired at the top of the hour - Raw Politics - A Special 360 Hour.
Tom Foreman was at the "stimulus desk" in Atlanta. Tonight's segment looked at two projects -- money going to Antarctica for research projects and a program in DC helping young people get ready for jobs. I hit the Fast Forward button at this point, sorry.
Next Randi Kaye was in with a special report on a stimulus project in Florida called "Saving Turtles." De ja vue any one?
Looks like we have a new series to look forward to next week.
Randi Kaye was back with the second 360 Bulletin
* President Obama today called on congress to approve a bill that would provide $33 billion in tax breaks for small businesses that hire new workers and give pay raises
* The economy grew faster that expected, 5.7%, in the last quarter - the fastest pace in 6 years
* In London, former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, defended his position to support the US led war in Iraq
* In NC, John Edward's mistress wants a very "private and personal" video tape back from a former Edward's aide
Instead of airing the Anderson Cooper 360 Special - CNN Heroes Saving Haiti as originally planned, there was a Special Raw Politics Edition of 360 tonight. The special will air over the weekend - Saturday & Sunday night at 8ET and we will cover it for you.
Here are a couple of videos I found on the 360 Blog today -- a preview of tomorrow's special.
Lots of extras tonight: Adam Goldberg was on The Late Show with Craig Ferguson last week and talk turned to The Situation Room, Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper's Abs! Given the past 2+ weeks discussion of Mr. Cooper and the men of CNN reporting from Haiti in T-shirts, I thought you might enjoy this!
Jon Stewart had this to say about CNN's BPTOT on Thlast night.
And David Gergen was on The Colbert Report last night.
Paul Begala was on The Colbert Report Wednesday night. If you missed it, click here for the link to the All Things CNN post.
That's it for me tonight. I hope you all have a great weekend! -- Wonz
I'm in for Julie tonight, who is under the weather. We hope she's feeling better soon.
While I was ready to have a few days off it is nice to have one more night to blog about Anderson Cooper reporting from Haiti. Come next week I'm guessing we'll be back to the same old, same old from NYC. I must say even though these last few weeks have been some of the busiest blogging days we've ever had at ATA I've really found it personal rewarding to document the excellent work Anderson and his fellow journalists and crew have done while covering the Haiti earthquake disaster.
RescueThursday's AC360 opened with Gary Tuchman, Sanjay Gupta and AC discussing the 16 year old girl who was rescued today, day 15 after the earthquake.
Mass Graves
Anderson has again picked up the story of the disrespectful treatment the deceased are receiving in Haiti. Here's his report and interview with a Haitian official.
Newborns Dr. Sanjay Gupta took a look at newborns in Haiti and the low level of treatment available to them.
Orphans
Dr. Jane Aronson, a pediatrician and adoption expert, joined Cooper for a look at the Haiti orphans and what is best for them in the long run.
The Boys Ivan Watson and Karl Penhaul joined Cooper to discuss Haiti's failed attempt to distribute food today and other stories they've been reporting on.
TheOthers • Tom Foreman was in the studio with some news on CNN's Stimulus project.
• Randi Kaye took a look at the train in CA at the center of a Stimulus battle.
• Randi Kaye was at the 360 Bulletin desk.
• AC talked with John Avlon about the reaction of Independents to Obama's SOTU address.
• Jeffrey Toobin talked with Anderson about Justice Alito's faux pas at Wednesday's SOTU speech. It was a fascinating discussion, take a look:
Julie sent along a few new Flickr pictures of AC in Haiti.
That's it for me tonight. ~Phebe
Anderson Cooper is a man on a mission. He talked to Campbell Brown tonight about his efforts to track down why the missing in Haiti are being dumped in mass graves, but not buried.
Take a close look at this first clip. It's 17 seconds long and just about the only thing Anderson Cooper said on Wednesday's AC360.
No great surprise that most of tonight's AC360 was dedicated to dissecting the President's SOTU speech. What was surprising to me was there were no new reports about Haiti. Wolf and Campbell hijacked the program and it was not the AC360 I had hoped for. There was only one time when the program turned to AC. He and Dr. Gupta were asked what they took away from the address. Here's their response.
Because I had a feeling Wednesday's AC360 would be heavy on politics and Haiti light I saved an earlier conversation Anderson and Sanjay's had with Wolf Blitzer on The Situation Room for my post tonight. Wolf asks the men what has changed since they've been in Haiti and what is the most important change that needs to begin.
There was a full house in CNN's NYC studio this evening. Campbell Brown and Wolf kept the conversation moving while Gloria Borger, Candy Crowley, David Gergen were the supposed politically neutral component in the discussion. Roland Martin, Paul Begala and James Carville represented the Democrats and for the conservatives we had Erick Erickson (managing editor RedState.com), Alex Castellanos,and Mary Matalin. The Independents were represented by John Avlon (The Daily Beast).
John King was at the magic wall catching us up on instantaneous responses to the SOTU. Soledad O'Brien gave us the polling percentages. And Jessica Yellin was with the focus group.
Except for Mary Matalin, her husband James Carville and Paul Begala I was bored to tears with the discussion. Too many people and too little Anderson to hold my attention.
I'm sure most of you saw the Google Alerts today about Mr. Cooper buying a property in NYC. This has been in the rumor mill for quite a while now, but today's news articles made it sound definite. I don't doubt that he bought it but I won't be convinced that he's making it into a home for himself until I see him carrying boxes in the door. For now color me a skeptic.
Another 360 special this weekend. AC tweeted on Wednesday night that this will be new material, not repeated segments. Here's his tweets from today, thanks to Wonz.
That's it for my regular blogging week. The ATA team will be monitoring CNN throughout the coming days and posting AC's live spots until he heads home. Have a great weekend everyone.~Phebe
Men of CNN Jigsaw Puzzle
