Anderson Cooper opened AC360 with a rundown of tonight's program highlights: 'Clearly a Bully' - should the Michigan Assistant States Attorney be fired? Rutgers Suicide - Dr. Phil to weigh in and Doctor Detectives - a follow up with Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
KEEPING THEM HONEST, "CLEARLY A BULLY": A report by Anderson Cooper
MICHIGAN A.G. PRESSED TO FIRE ASST., GOV. SAYS SHE'D HAVE FIRED HIM BY NOW: Follow up discussion with Jeffrey Toobin and Jim Tierney,Columbia School of Law & Former Attorney General of Maine
TO TELL THE TRUTH: Palin "Refudiated" - A discussion of Palin's tweet about Grayson's ad with Dana Loesch, Co-organizer, St. Louis Tea Party Coalition & Roland Martin
360 BULLETIN: Randi Kaye
TRAGIC RUTGERS SUICIDE, CYBERBULLIED STUDENT JUMPED OFF BRIDGE: Anderson Cooper's discussion with Dr. Phil McGraw, Host of "The Dr. Phil Show"
DOCTOR DETECTIVES: Replay of Sanjay's report on Sally Massagee and a follow up interview with Sanjay and Sally.
EXTRAS: From Twitter today. Apparently, the taping of the Town Hall on Bullying Special took place today and Crystal Bowersox stuck around the newsroom for a bit and entertained the staff.
Ellen has taken up the bullying cause along with Anderson Cooper and others in the media who hope to make a difference. AC360 aired her impassioned plea to those suffering in Thursday's AC360 and AC added a personal aside. Here's the clip:
Ellen added some links for those who need help in the press release we received:
I want anyone out there who feels different and alone to know that I know how you feel. There is help out there. You can find support in your community. If you need someone to talk to or if you want to get involved, here are some organizations doing great work:
The Trevor Project at 866 4U TREVOR. It's a 24 -hour national help line for gay and questioning teens.
Angels and Doves is a nationwide anti-bullying non profit organization. Their website is http://www.angelsanddoves.com/
Earlier this week we received a press release about the combined CNN/People Magazine/Cartoon Network anti-bullying campaign that will happen next week.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360°, PEOPLE Magazine and Cartoon Network Team up for Anti-Bullying Initiative
Town Hall, Special Series Titled Bullying: No Escape AC 360 Special Report
with PEOPLE Magazine and Cartoon Network
As part of a larger commitment to the anti-bullying efforts across various Time Warner divisions, CNN, PEOPLE Magazine and Cartoon Network will team up for a special multi-platform report on the bullying epidemic facing young people in America.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who has covered numerous stories about the rise of bullying, will recognize October’s Bullying Prevention Month by presenting a one-hour special town hall on Anderson Cooper 360°. The town hall, titled Bullying: No Escape; an AC 360 Special Report with PEOPLE Magazine and Cartoon Network, will air Friday, October 8th at 10pm ET on CNN.
The town hall participants will include author and psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw, and Rosalind Wiseman, author of the best-selling book “Queen Bees and Wannabees”, which inspired the movie “Mean Girls”. American Idol finalist Crystal Bowersox will share how being bullied fueled her creative passion and how she plans to protect her son from experiencing what she did. Also, families struggling with this painful and important issue will discuss how bullying has become so prevalent and what parents and children can do to stop it. Cartoon Network Bullying Prevention Board members Kevin Jennings, Assistant Deputy Secretary of Education for the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, and Dr. Susan Limber of the Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life, Clemson University, also will participate with the AC 360 town hall to discuss the latest understandings and response options for bystanders, who represent 75-85% of students in schools considered witnesses to bullying. Cooper will explore who bears the responsibility to stopping bullying.
PEOPLE Magazine has dedicated significant coverage to the bullying epidemic over the last several years. The magazine will run a bullying package in the October 18 issue which hits newsstands on October 8. This special editorial section will feature interviews with residents of South Hadley, MA, Phoebe Prince’s hometown, confessions of a former bully, stories from students who were tormented in school and much more.
Cartoon Network recently announced its long-term commitment to a multi-platform bullying prevention initiative Stop Bullying: Speak Up, scheduled to launch on Monday, Oct. 4 in coordination with National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month. In partnership with Boys & Girls Clubs of America, The Anti-Defamation League, The U.S. Dept. of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, and the U.S. Dept. of HHS’s Health Resource
Service Administration’s “Stop Bullying Now” campaign, on-air PSAs will direct young viewers and parents to visit CartoonNetwork.com for key online resources developed in coordination with the network’s recently established Bullying Prevention Advisory Board.
Across the CNN Platforms, programming can also be seen on CNN’s American Morning in a special series, “Back to School=Back to the Bullies”, and on a special section of CNN.com (www.CNN.com/Bullying ), iReport, HLN and CNN Student News.
“Anderson Cooper and his team have dedicated time and resources to bring this problem the attention it deserves for several years,” said Jim Walton, President, CNN Worldwide. “We are pleased to be able to join with cartoon Network and PEOPLE Magazine to continue to raise awareness of this issue through our various platforms and networks.”
“After the unprecedented reader response to our Phoebe Prince coverage, we realized that the bullying epidemic has affected most of our 45 million weekly readers in some way,” said Larry Hackett, Managing Editor, PEOPLE. “We were thrilled that our partners at CNN and Cartoon Network agreed to join us in shining a light on this important issue and offering help and resources to our audience.”
“Through more than a year’s work with bullying prevention experts, we learned there are proven tactics that kids as bystanders can use to interrupt and possibly put an end to a bullying situation,” said Stuart Snyder, president and chief operation officer of Cartoon Network. “Our goal, which I know is shared by our CNN and PEOPLE Magazine partners, is to help spread awareness of many resources kids, parents and educators can turn to should they find themselves caught in a bullying situation.”
Leading up to the town hall, Anderson Cooper 360° , in conjunction with PEOPLE Magazine will air a week-long series on bullying, beginning Monday, October 4th at 10 pm ET. The reports will include interviews with Debbie Witsell, the mother of Hope Witsell who killed herself after becoming the victim of sexting bullying. The reporting will look into the world cyber-bullying, how deadly comments on the web can be for some children. Dr Sanjay Gupta will explore the different techniques used to increase empathy to stop bullying amongst kids. The series will also update the latest in the Phoebe Prince case, another teen suicide as a result of bullying. Also, families struggling with this painful and important issue will discuss how bullying has become so prevalent and what parents and children can do to stop it.
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