Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

Like Anderson Cooper we're also taking this Memorial Day 2010 off. We've dug deep into the ATA Archives to bring you a little 360 history lesson.

Back in the days of red 360 AC did a Nth Degree about all the 360's that popped up after his program came on the scene. Like AC360 some are still around......Microsoft XBox 360, Colgate 360, ESPN 360 and Perry Ellis 360. But some had less success than AC360 including NASCAR Drivers 360, YAHOO 360 and Dance 360. Take a look:

AC360 producers tweeted today that AC would be reporting from NOLA again this week. Things change quickly in the news business so we'll just have to wait and see. ~Phebe

All content, unless otherwise cited, is © All Things Anderson and may not be used without consent of the blog administrator.All Things Anderson is a blog dedicated to CNN's AC360 and its host Anderson Cooper.

Happy Memorial Day

Earlier this week we received some information about a new CNN.com site that honors our fallen troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. I immediately thought how convenient and timely for a Memorial Day post. But after taking some time to look through the newest addition I must say it is so much more than that. I'm not only blown away but the volume of work that went into this but also very moved by CNN's touching tribute. Please take a few minutes this Memorial Day weekend and navigate through the site as a way of honoring and paying tribute to those who have sacrificed their lives to protect our freedom. After all that is what Memorial Day is all about.

CNN Pays Tribute to Coalition Casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq Wars with Launch of “Home and Away”

Continuing to develop innovative ways to present its audience with news and information, CNN is combining the unparalleled strengths of its on-air and online platforms to honor every Coalition Forces casualty in Afghanistan and Iraq.
CNN.com has launched “Home and Away,” an immersive interactive which allows users to learn about and pay tribute to more than 6,000 fallen troops from more than 20 countries.
“Each of these casualties has an inspiring and moving story, and we wanted to find an exceptional way to honor the sacrifice every single one of them made,” said Susan Grant, executive vice president of CNN News Services. “We hope ‘Home and Away’ serves as an enduring memorial for those that made the ultimate sacrifice while also helping the CNN audience more personally connect with this deeply complex topic.”
“We were so moved by the powerful stories of these service members and those who loved them along the way,” said Michelle Jaconi, Executive Producer, John King, USA. “Our CNN.com colleagues have created a powerful tool that allows us to more deeply engage with our viewers, connecting them to personal tributes from the fallen's family and friends."
This extensive data visualization project began nearly 10 years ago at the start of the war in Afghanistan. A cross-divisional effort between the CNN Library and CNN.com, a team of researchers, producers, designers, user-experience specialists and developers have gathered information about the casualties of the wars. Evolving from two separate lists of casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq, “Home and Away” tells the story of where and how the lives of these troops began and ended, and is continually enhanced with personal memories from family and friends.
Users can search for casualties across several different criteria, including last name, age hometown, location of death and date of death. More detail about the life of each casualty is featured on a personal memorial page, as well as memories from family and friends shared through iReport, CNN’s user-generated news community. Users may share iReport tributes for any service member directly from their memorial page.

There are interactive maps of the US that list fatalities in both Afghanistan and Iraq. As you move your cursor over the States names of those who have passed are shown.
Here's the map for those that have died in Afghanistan:
And for those who lost their lives in Iraq:
There are also interactive maps of Afghanistan and Iraq that illustrate how many lives were lost in which districts/regions of the country.

Again, I urge you to take some time and navigate through 'Home and Away'. I don't think you will regret it. Have a safe Memorial Day. ~Phebe





All content, unless otherwise cited, is © All Things Anderson and may not be used without consent of the blog administrator.All Things Anderson is a blog dedicated to CNN's AC360 and its host Anderson Cooper.

Last Week in SHOTS ~ May 24th - May 28th

This week's puzzle is in honor of Anderson's trip to the Gulf Coast this week. Enjoy ~

Since this week was a little short on "Shots" I've added some clips of segments from the second hour you may have missed.

Monday:

Tuesday:

Tuesday extra: Irvin Mayfield

Wednesday: No "Shot" but here's a One Simple Thing from the second hour

Thursday: No "Shot" but a video from the 360 Blog

Friday: No "Shot" but the 2nd part of Abbie B0udreau's report on the ATF

A few extra's for tonight.

First, I found this picture of Anderson and a fan on Twitter today, along with this "tweet" --Awesome moment tonight. Walking along river walk with my students we got to meet and talk with Anderson Cooper.

And Regis & Kelly posted this picture of Kelly, Kristin Davis and Anderson to their Twitter page.

And last, but not least, it came to our attention last night that Sean Penn will be presenting Anderson with the "Los Angeles Press Club - President's Award" on June 27th.

I hope you are all enjoying your Memorial Day weekend and I will be back on Friday. Wonz~

All content, unless otherwise cited, is © All Things Anderson and may not be used without consent of the blog administrator.All Things Anderson is a blog dedicated to CNN's AC360 and its host Anderson Cooper.

We Just Want You To Help Us

Anderson Cooper opened tonight’s AC 360 with story of President Obama’s visit and an alleged oil cleanup sham by BP. Today on Grand Isle, the same day as President Obama’s visit, 300-400 workers showed up instead of the usual 12. Once President Obama left, so did the additional workers. BP is trying to spin this as the workers were just leaving their regular shift. When approached the worker’s said they were under orders not to talk. BP had agreed to come on 360 this morning, but when this story broke, they suddenly quit returning phone calls.

Chris Roberts, a Councilman from Jefferson Parish joined Anderson to talk about the alleged oil clean up sham. He’s the one bringing the allegations and broke down the events of the day. He said that on a normal day there were about a dozen workers on the beach in Grand Isle, and today he was surprised to see 300-400. Oil has been washing up on the beach for two weeks and this is the first day they’ve seen any level of worker’s there to clean up the beach and he doesn’t feel it was a coincidence that it was the same day as the President’s visit. He doesn’t blame the Federal Government, but rather thinks it’s insulting to all levels of government for BP to pull this scam leading everyone to believe they were on top of things. Roberts also talked about the clean up effort to date by BP. He said efforts have gotten better by the government, but is upset at what BP did today. I guess the real test will be if the 300-400 workers show up tomorrow. They also talked about how local fisherman who would like to be employed by BP to help with the clean up effort.

Ed Henry gave tonight’s “Raw Politics” report on local reaction to President Obama’s visit and Anderson interviewed Billy Nungesser today about his face-to-face meeting with President Obama. Apparently POTUS told Billy to call him, before he called AC360! Here’s the clip.

James Carville was with Anderson in NOLA and David Brinkley was in a box, but both joined Anderson to discuss President Obama’s visit and the frustration with BP. While Carville feels President Obama said the right thing today – he won’t abandon Louisiana, he’s really mad at BP because they lie all the time. Brinkley said President Obama’s visit today was important and it was good to see the picture of him on the beach, but he’s disappointed he didn’t spend the night. That said, he did say the crisis in the Gulf is not going anywhere anytime soon, and he can come back. BP is a different story. Brinkley feels BP has about three days to get the well capped before they face further outrage. Carville thinks they really do want to stop the leak, but wants President Obama to order a criminal investigation against BP. The interview continued into a second segment where Carville talked about the culture of the Gulf being unique and what they have endured, but made it clear they are not going away. He told the President not to be mad, “We just want you to help us.” Anderson closed the segment by saying NOLA is open for business and tourists should come! If you didn’t watch the show, I would suggest you watch the clips. It was an informative and touching interview.

I know there were feelings that President Obama should have spent the night or the weekend in the Gulf. Because I live in the area, I happen to know that POTUS and his family are in Chicago for the Memorial Day weekend. It’s their first trip home since February 2009 and he flew from Chicago to NOLA and back to Chicago today. It was my understanding that his visit was scheduled for two hours, but it appears he stayed a little longer. Personally, I can’t fault him for not staying overnight; but that being said, I hope he returns to the Gulf soon, spends more time and visits the marshes and the local people impacted by this disaster.

Oystermen are in jeopardy. While the oysters remain untainted by oil at this time, their is fear that could change very soon and a way of life could be wiped out. The oystermen, when offered to help with the clean up, were told by BP that there is not enough work to go around. Here’s Anderson’s report of the time he spent with the oystermen today.

Joe John’s was in with the 360 Bulletin:
- WH admitted today they offered Rep Sestak an unpaid position to encourage him to drop out of the PA Senate primary
- House okays DADT repeal and it heads to the Senate where opposition is expected
- Worst May for the Dow in 70 years; Europe’s economic crisis to blame?
- Gary Coleman died today. He was 42 years old.

The show ended tonight with “Reporter’s Notes” – David Mattingly, Carol Costello and Rob Marciano joined Anderson to discuss what they have witnessed covering the crisis. They have all been covering various aspects of the story and shared their experiences. Here’s what they had to say –

Anderson closed the show by saying CNN would continue to cover the story. (I received a “tweet” tonight that Gary Tuchman is back from Haiti and headed to NOLA.)

A couple of extra's for tonight.

First, Anderson is once again scheduled to co-host Live with Regis & Kelly - Thursday, 6/10. Bradley Cooper and Christina Aguilera are the scheduled guests. Anderson's appearance on Live with Regis & Kelly today was posted earlier. Click here if you missed it.

John King's show tonight referred to an article in the Washington Post where the White House pushes back against James Carville's criticism of President Obama and the Administration. If your interested in an interesting read, here's the link.

Please remember to click on the photos to enlarge.

That's it for me tonight. I hope you all have a great Memorial Day Weekend! Wonz~

All content, unless otherwise cited, is © All Things Anderson and may not be used without consent of the blog administrator.All Things Anderson is a blog dedicated to CNN's AC360 and its host Anderson Cooper.

Anderson Calls The Situation Room

Anderson Cooper called in to Wolf Blitzer in the last few minutes of Friday's TSR. The discussion centered on the impact of the President's visit and what's happening on on the ground.

All content, unless otherwise cited, is © All Things Anderson and may not be used without consent of the blog administrator.All Things Anderson is a blog dedicated to CNN's AC360 and its host Anderson Cooper.

"You Have To Love My Glasses" - Anderson Cooper Co-Hosts Live with Regis & Kelly

Anderson Cooper Co-Hosted Live with Regis & Kelly today. He taped his last segment Tuesday before heading to the Gulf Coast. His trip may account for him being MIA during a couple of segments that featured only Kelly. Here's the run down on this morning's show and yes, we did get to see his new glasses! Please check out the extras at the end of the post.

Here's the clip of Host Chat ~

Next up was Spring Fling Trivia-A-Go-Go ~

Kristen Davis stopped by t0 chat with Anderson & Kelly about her new movie, Sex & The City 2 ~

And here's part 2 of her interview ~

While this segment featured Kelly at Soul Cycle, Anderson was in for the intro ~



Today began Live's Grilling Friday's "Fire House Cook-Off." Kelly taped the segment with this week's cook, but Anderson was in for the audience voting, modeling some different glasses, and announcing the contenders to appear on next Friday's edition of Live ~

For today's extras -- Anderson modeled his glasses for the audiencce and asked Kelly's opinion. He apparently has two pair. The looked to be the same frame to me, just a different color?

Kelly thought the frames were all wrong for him and offered to go with him to pick out different frames. Gellman suggested that maybe that could be a future Live segment? Throughout the show they had Anderson trying on different styles of glasses, beginning with Art's!

And ending with Kelly's!

In the end, Anderson seemed to prefer the one's he picked out.

Opinions?

I'll be back later, to bring you the run down on tonight's edition of AC360. Wonz~

All content, unless otherwise cited, is © All Things Anderson and may not be used without consent of the blog administrator.All Things Anderson is a blog dedicated to CNN's AC360 and its host Anderson Cooper.

Anderson Cooper Call's Rick's List

After the President's speech about what he saw while in Louisiana Anderson Cooper had a discussion, by phone, with Rick Sanchez and Candy Crowley.

All content, unless otherwise cited, is © All Things Anderson and may not be used without consent of the blog administrator.All Things Anderson is a blog dedicated to CNN's AC360 and its host Anderson Cooper.

Live from the Gulf Coast - Day 3

It’s Wonz, in for Julie tonight.


Anderson Cooper opened tonight’s show with the news that for 16 hours BP stopped pumping drilling mud into the leak but apparently didn’t find it necessary to inform anyone! Mr. Cooper was rather feisty in his opening ~ enjoy the clip!

Billy Nungesser and Douglas Brinkley joined AC to discuss BP’s actions today and President Obama’s press conference. Billy thought BP’s actions today were par for the course. He is willing to give President Obama the benefit of the doubt. He met with POTUS’s assistants this evening and a lot of equipment for the clean up seemed to show up overnight. He’s seeing efforts put forth today, so he’s hopeful. There still is confusion, but he’s hopeful that the chain of command is improving. Brinkley said that BP is not transparent and that Thad Allen (who did a great job during Katrina) is being compromised by BP. BP cannot be trusted and a command structure needs to be set up in LA. He felt the President’s press conference was important and it was a big day for POTUS. He thinks that tomorrow’s visit can’t be an in-and-out visit, but rather he should spend a few days to show the people he cares in order to turn the message around.

Up next was Ed Henry with the Raw Politics. The President’s message today was “I’m in Charge,” but there seems to be a disconnect as his aids have repeatedly been saying that BP’s in charge. President Obama said that the Federal Government is in charge; BP is responsible, but operating at the Federal Government’s direction. There was confusion today over the ouster of Liz Burnbaum, the head of the agency in charge of drilling permits. Instead of it being a moment to show the WH was taking charge, the President seemed out of the loop. Ed Henry joined Anderson for further discussion. The WH knew about BP stopping the flow of the mud, but President Obama probably didn’t know. They didn’t think it was important, because although the mud had stopped flowing other things were still being done – the operation had not been aborted. There still seems to be a lot of confusion about the chain of command and who knows what.

James Carville and Mary Matalin spoke with Anderson earlier concerning POTUS’s press conference. Carville didn’t feel it was necessarily a good press conference. He doesn’t feel the people in Washington understand the way the local people feel. He feels when President Obama comes down tomorrow he will better understand - You need to experience it to understand it. Mary feels the President is not an emotive guy and was glad that he did acknowledge people were hurting. People are frustrated, but willing to give him the benefit of the doubt – but tomorrow is a big day for him. James wants BP prosecuted! Mary wants the damage stopped – today! No one trusts BP anymore, there’s outrage and confusion, emotions are running high and there’s a lot riding on President Obama’s visit tomorrow.

Ed Lavandera was in next with a report on the local fisherman and the money they are still waiting for from BP. Here’s a clip of his report and follow up discussion with Anderson.

Grieving families of the 11 worker’s killed in the explosion testified on Capitol Hill today. Keith Jones, father of Gordon Jones, was one of those who testified. Keith and Gordon’s brother, Chris, joined Anderson to talk about Keith and the “Death on the High Seas” Act – an act enacted in the 20’s in reaction to the sinking on the Titanic and how that Act is still being used today. Here’s the clip of the heart wrenching testimony and Anderson’s interview with Keith and Chris Jones.

Anderson traveled to Venice, LA (not Italy) today to interview Coast Guard Admiral, Thad Allen about the coastal clean up efforts as that’s where the frustration seems to be. Anderson asked, among other things, if they were dealing with this as a worse case scenario from the beginning, why are more people suddenly being brought in and who’s in charge? Here’s the interview.

Joe Johns was in with the 360 Bulletin
-House votes on DODT
-Gary Coleman hospitalized in critical condition
-Big rally on Wall Street today

And the show ended with a report by Rob Marciano regarding the toll the spill is taking on the wildlife. BP seems to be trying to maybe hide information of the numbers involved. Imagine that! Here’s Rob’s report. I will warn you, the images are upsetting.

Anderson closed the show by saying he would be in NOLA again tomorrow night, and I will be back, too!

Remember to set your DVRs for Anderson’s Co-Hosting stint on Live with Regis and Kelly tomorrow. We will bring you the full report of that tomorrow, as well.

A couple of extra's for tonight. Remember to click on the photo to enlarge.

ACAnderFan found this photo on Flickr today and passed it along. (Please click to enlarge.)

Photo courtesy of Governor Jindal’s Office.

That's it for me tonight. Hope you all have a good Friday and I'll see you tomorrow night! ~ Wonz

All content, unless otherwise cited, is © All Things Anderson and may not be used without consent of the blog administrator.All Things Anderson is a blog dedicated to CNN's AC360 and its host Anderson Cooper.