Anderson Cooper's 360 degree spin

By Lee Russ

Saturday, August 20, 2005 at 07:23 AM

For those who didn't catch the CNN show Anderson Cooper 360 on Wednesday night, it was all devoted to Cindy Sheehan in Crawford.  The whole premise of "360" is that it takes in all angles.  But that surely wasn't the picture that I saw.

I saw at least four people who think Sheehan is wrong interviewed, with no questioning of their motives or attachment to "far right" groups or causes.  I saw Sheehan interviewed in two contexts, both times asked about her support from "far left groups like moveon.org."  Both times confronted with: but Cindy surely you know the president isn't going to come out to see you, is that really what this is about? How exactly does Cooper arrive at the conclusion that moveon is a "far left" group?  Does his show, or any other MSM show, point out the nature of the Heritage Foundation, or the Free Congress Foundation, when they interview people who
actually represent these "far right" groups?  Are "experts" who belong to the Council on Foreign Relations asked why they belong to a group which has at least one member on record as favoring  permanent war, and using foreigners to fill out the American military, with US citizenship as the payment? That's Max Boot, a "senior fellow" at CFR.

The only time the show exhibited any spine was when the White House spokeswoman once AGAIN blurred the distinction between the people who flew planes into buildings on 9/11 and the war in Iraq.  Cooper pointed out that 9/11 was not related to Iraq.  But when the WH spokeswoman launched into the latest version of blur, saying that the terrorists of 9/11 and the Iraqi insurgents represent the same values and
mindset that hates freedom, etc., Cooper didn't respond.

It appears that the "360" in the show's name refers to spin (whether intentional or not), not to breadth of coverage.