CNN Rings in the New Year...

…As only they can. Another year, another train wreck debacle featuring Kathy Griffin and the public face of CNN, Anderson Cooper:

No matter what vulgar thing Kathy Griffin does on CNN’s live New Year’s Eve broadcast, the folks at the supposedly most trusted name in news continue to invite her back on.

On Monday night’s program, after first telling co-host Anderson Cooper “I’m going to tickle your sack,” she shortly after midnight actually kissed his crotch (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

 [Click over to Newsbusters for the video — Ed]

Roughly eleven minutes into the program which began at 10 PM, Cooper commented about how on Twitter folks were suggesting that there should be a game that whenever he giggles nervously during the show, contestants have to take a drink.

Then, completely out of the blue, Griffin said, “I’m going to tickle your sack. You can say sack. That’s not bad.”

An obviously nervous Cooper responded, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I have no sack of gifts here.”

Griffin then suggested the camera pan lower so the audience can see her “naughty gestures.”

* * * * * * *
As Tuchman finished his report, Griffin in the left split-screen bent down and kissed Cooper’s crotch.

* * * * * * *
“I’m going down,” she said. “You know you want to.”

“Believe me, I really don’t,” said Cooper as he once again pulled her upright.

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As Noel Sheppard writes at Newsbusters:

Consider that during the 2009 show, Griffin dropped an F-bomb. The year before she directed a vulgar oral sex reference to a heckler. Last year she stripped down to her underwear.

Yet CNN keeps inviting her back.

Boggles the mind, doesn’t it?

Not at all — why else would we be talking about the network today?

Say what you will about the myriad biases of Walter Cronkite — which became increasingly out there as he aged, and even more so after he left the airwaves — but at least in terms of tone, he acted the part of senior newsreader to perfection. I don’t recall him ever having an annual on-air debacle that embarrassed himself and his network. But hey, at least CNN has set the bar as low as possible to begin the new year, both for themselves and Jeff Zucker, their incoming new boss.

Meanwhile, regarding Piers Morgan, CNN’s wannabe Bible amender and Constitutional scholar, Kathy Shaidle proffers “No Tears for Piers”:

Shortly after Morgan joined CNN, fellow broadcaster Adam Carolla was asked to assess King’s replacement, whose new show was already faltering. Carolla’s instant-classic rant became a minor YouTube hit and is more entertaining than anything Morgan’s ever done.

Carolla bellowed:

Who’s Piers Morgan? We should’ve run you outta here….Who decided we had ‘Chubby-Guy-In-His-50s-From-England-Who-We’ve-Never-Heard-Of’ Fever?’

Carolla then served up an eerily prescient modest proposal that would likely attract far more than 100,000 signatures, not to mention rare bipartisan enthusiasm:

We need to send Ted Nugent to London to annoy them.

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Carolla’s comments about society’s rampant malignant narcissism dovetail well not just with Morgan, but with last night’s debacle at the network:

Update: Heh. Oh, and never let it be said that the struggling network is anathema to change; an experimental new content delivery system is demonstrated in the video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVE41Yh2rp4

More: Matt Drudge has a little juxtaposing fun:

And here at PJM, Michael Walsh adds:

CNN should pay a high price for this little stunt, as indeed it’s already doing; were it not for its monopoly on airport TV screens and its dominance, via CNN International, of overseas hotel television, it might already be out of business.

Dr. Helen posited a related ethical dilemma recently:

I thought people were watching less TV, but maybe this is at home where they have the choice. Or are people just turning to other gadgets and devices to give them something to do constantly? Is it too much to ask just to be able to sit quietly, ride the treadmill without the mayhem, or just read or stare into space in a public place? Apparently so. I often think about getting one of those TV-B-Gone remote controls that allow me to turn those darn things off. They give me a headache.

Am I the only person left in America who doesn’t want a running negative news report everywhere I go?

Should you use TV-B-Gone yourself? Its use is doubleplusungood for Outer Party members, but officially sanctioned for the Inner Party. Crimethink accordingly.

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