Anderson Cooper somehow equates some imaginary figure on the left with Andrew Breitbart.

Adm. Thad Allen has issued a directive further restricting media access. This comes days after the ACLU of Louisiana wrote a letter urging an end to blocking of the press and censorship of information.

On Gulf cleanup: instead of ICE raids, we need to ensure that all oil spill cleanup workers and volunteers have protective equipment. We need to make sure the cleanup efforts have proper expertise and leadership behind them. We need to get our priorities straight. Just what is going on?

It’s becoming nearly impossible for me to watch television news these days of any sort. Where has Bernard Shaw gone? And I don’t mean the man Bernard Shaw; I mean the Journalist Bernard Shaw. Try as I might, I can’t see him. I used to rely on him for news, religiously. There was something about his demeanor and the steadiness of his voice, his willingness to ask razor-bladed questions without apologizing, and his refusal to waste time on bedazzled “news” that made him “trusted”, that made CNN the most trusted news source in the world. With Shaw, there was none of the circus act, just news delivered in as respectful a manner as possible.

Yesterday CNN broadcast a panel discussion moderated by Anderson Cooper called “Extreme Challenges” featuring one of Washington’s most bi-partisan icons, David Gergen, among others. There were many things during the discussion that didn’t compute from where I sit. One of them was the reporting and commentary on some recent CNN poll results. Another was a comment by Gergen to the effect that there’s no way the American people will ever accept a single-payer system in which there’s Government run health care for all. First to the poll results.