The economy is tough all over...

As you can imagine, not a lot of international news during the "Road to Rescue" week, but there were a couple glimpses of how the world economy is faring. In this first one (which aired Thursday) we have Paula Hancocks reporting from Galilee about employment problems, Stan Grant from Abu Dhabi about the still-strong tourism industry, and Al Goodman from Madrid on the drop in divorce rates and increase in traffic accidents:

Friday we got this one, which has Matthew Chance reporting from Moscow about the expected drop in birthrate and rise in abortions, and Jim Boulden from London on the rise in internet dating:

Thursday also gave us this report from Barbara Starr that focuses on the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan:

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BookAsylum posted that wonderful interview about Jack Cafferty's new book yesterday, and last Monday Wolf Blitzer spoke to Jack about the book during TheSitRoom. It is heartbreaking to watch Jack's face as Wolf reads the excerpt about his late wife Carol. She sounds like an extraordinary woman, and it is easy to understand why he misses her so much:

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Where in the World...?

SATURDAY: Susan Roesgen was in the NewsRoom for Betty Nguyen.

SUNDAY: Stan Grant was in Islamabad reporting on the riots in Lahore, Pakistan; John Zarella was at the Kennedy Space Center to cover the launch of Discovery. Susan was in for Betty.

MONDAY: Rick Sanchez hosted his hour of NewsRoom from the campus of Georgia State University; Anderson Cooper hosted AC360 from outside the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

TUESDAY: Anderson hosted from New Orleans.

WEDNESDAY: Ali Velshi was in The Situation Room as he prepared to interview SecTreas Tim Geithner; Anderson was in Warren, Michigan. Don Lemon was in for Tony Harris.

THURSDAY: Recorded reports from Paula Hancocks in Galilee, Stan Grant in Abu Dhabi (above), and Al Goodman from Madrid; Ed Henry was in Los Angeles with President Obama; Anderson Cooper hosted from the campus of Hofstra University. Christine Romans was in for John Roberts (who was in Orlando for the Student Television Network Conference); Don was in for Tony; Lisa Sylvester was in for Lou Dobbs.

FRIDAY: Recorded reports from Matthew Chance in Moscow and Jim Boulden in London; Candy Crowley was in Trenton, NJ to look at how stimulus money is being spent; Rick hosted from the campus of Morehouse College; Anderson was back in the NY studio. Christine was in for John; TJ Holmes was in for Tony; Fredericka Whitfield was in for Kyra Phillips; Lisa was in for Lou.

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Now or Never

Alina Cho attended the New Yorkers for Children reception on March 5, 2009 at Valentino. (Photo: Astrid Stawiarz/ Getty Images)

Artist Peter Max, left and Larry King, right, pose for a photograph Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2009 at the Peter Max Studio in New York. The pop artist's work is on three floors of the museum part of the Clinton Presidential Center for a show that begins Monday and runs through May 25. (Photo credit: AP)

Jack Cafferty has a new book: Now or Never: Getting Down to the Business of Saving Our American Dream. Below is an excerpt from a recent interview from Fortune:

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- The American dream is in peril, and Jack Cafferty has something to say about it. In his new book, Now or Never: Getting Down to the Business of Saving Our Dream, CNN's irascible commentator takes on the economy, foreign policy, education, health care, immigration, energy, the Bush legacy and Obama's opportunity--nothing less than the future of the country. He even manages to tie in his life story, complete with a hardscrabble youth, alcoholism, and redemption in marriage and fatherhood. Fortune spoke with Cafferty about what he sees is wrong with the country--and what needs to be done about it. Below are excerpts from that discussion:

The title of your book says the American dream is in peril. Why is that?

Well, take a look around. Foreclosures, unemployment, debts and deficit, companies going out of business, bailouts. The evidence is pretty clear.

Who's to blame?

You can't assign blame to a person for the kind of cumulative gathering of storm clouds that we're dealing with right now, but mostly policies of not living within our means and in the case of Wall Street and the banks, a lack of proper supervision for these mortgage-backed securities and some of these other investment instruments that have led to the kind of horrific situation we've got in the financial sector. We've been running deficits and debt for years. George Bush doubled the national debt in the eight years he was in office. He accumulated more debt on his watch than all the previous U.S. Presidents before him combined.

The full interview is available here.

If you'd like to read an excerpt from the book, click here.

This video has also been made available from the book's publisher, Wiley:

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Shock & Awe

Hello, I'm filling in for Miss Sapphire today. And when I realized that I would be posting on the sixth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war -- a war that wasn't even supposed to last six weeks -- I thought it was important to mark the anniversary. 

Although we as a nation now have other priorities, the echoes of what we started still rings; the blood of dead and wounded Americans and Iraqis still stains; the shattered lives of the men and women we sent there as well as those who live there still need rebuilding.

The debt we owe those who served and those who still serve is enormous, whether we believed in the cause or not. Likewise the gratitude we owe to the reporters who were our eyes and ears in the midst of hell and without whom we would have remained ignorant of the sacrifice of our troops and the suffering of the innocent civilians.

These clips are from last year's special AC360 presentation 

"Shock and Awe Five Years Later"

March 2003 -- Nic Robertson is in Baghdad as the bombing campaign begins:

November 2004 -- Michael Ware (then with Time magazine) and Yuri Kozyrev embed with an Army unit going in to recapture the city of Fallujah, which has become home to the insurgency; Yuri shoots stills for print while Michael films the battle with his handheld video camera:

Late 2005 through 2006 -- Nic recounts the gradual increase in armor needed to protect the troops; Michael discusses the bombing of the Golden Dome mosque in Samara; Christiane Amanpour talks about the civil war between Sunni and Shia; Nic looks at IEDs, a new and horribly effective weapon against our military; John King reflects on the political issues in this country; Candy Crowley shows some of the reasons the American public turned against the war:

January 2007 -- Nic and Michael look at the Surge, which in addition to adding 30,000 American troops to Baghdad, was an entire new way to fight the war, including arming the Sunnis and letting them fight al Qaeda while the political process was pushed forward:

March 2008 -- Michael reflects on why soldiers fight ... and why reporters go to war:

If you missed this special and would like to see the entire program,

 it is available here.

Also, Michael Ware did a 30-minute special for International last year 

called Inside the Surge.

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Out of the Box for March 18th

Dr. Sanjay Gupta:

Congratulations to Dr. & Mrs. Sanjay Gupta on the birth of their third daughter, Soleil Asha, who was born on Monday night. The Gupta's have two other daughters, Sage 3 and Skye 2. Our best wishes to the the entire family.
Soledad O'Brien:Soledad will speak at the Power Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan on March 31st at 4 PM. The topic, "A Conversation with Soledad O'Brien, CNN Special Correspondent," is part of the Francis and Sydney Lewis Lecture series sponsored by the University of Michigan Center for the Education of Women. To register call 734-764-6005.

On April 3rd Soledad will kick off the 40th Anniversary of AF-LAT-AM Society, an organization that provides support and mentorship for students of African and Latino decent. The event will be held at 7:30 in the Phillips Academy’s Cochran Chapel in Andover, Maryland and admission is free and open to the public.

TJ Holmes:

The International Society of Africans in Wine are having a fundraiser on Friday, March 20th, at 6:30 in Atlanta at the Atlanta History Center. The event is being hosted by TJ Holmes. Along with bubbles, wine, and multi-course dinner, there will be both a live and silent auction. Tickets are $100 per person.

Anderson Cooper:

AC will be talking with the students at Hofstra University in Hempstead, Long Island in the John Cranford Adams Playhouse on Thursday March 19th at 3 PM.

As always much thanks to Julie for the research and have a great week everybody. ~Phebe

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Ratings At A Glance- Weeks of March 2, 2009 & March 9, 2009

Ratings for the weeks March 2, 2009 - March 6, 2009

	8PM^Adults 25-54 March 9 - 13 March 2 - 6 FOX 771,400 763,400 CNN 257,000 222,200 MSNBC 395,400 465,000 HLN 404,200 407,800
	9PM^Adults 25-54 March 9 - 13 March 2 - 6 FOX 591,600 675,400 CNN 280,400 290,200 MSNBC 315,200 348,800 HLN 194,600 248,600
	10PM^Adults 25-54 March 9 - 13 March 2 - 6 FOX 453,400 485,600 CNN 302,200 318,000 MSNBC 264,600 265,000 HLN 287,400 296,800

FOX won every hour of prime time demographic ratings between 8PM and 10PM during the weeks of March 2nd and March 9th. CNN came in fourth at 8PM, third at 9PM and second at 10PM during both weeks. Both the 9PM and 10PM hours bounced between second, third, and fourth places last week. MSNBC at 8PM during the week of March 2nd came in second place and third place the week of March 9th. MSNBC landed in second place at 9PM and fourth place at 10PM both weeks. For the week of March 2nd, HLN came in third place during the 8PM hour and during the week of March 9th came in second place. Over both weeks, HLN was fourth at 9PM and third at 10PM.

^{^} Courtesy Nielsen Media Research; Demographics where noted; Live + Same Day (LS) Fast Track Nationals.

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The latest news about Iran/Iraq, Pakistan, and Mexico

Nic Robertson reported this morning that an Iranian drone was shot down over Iraq a couple weeks ago. Certainly makes you wonder exactly what (or who) they were spying on...:

Stan Grant reported from Islamabad about the anti-government protests going on in Lahore:

Saturday, Fredericka Whitfield spoke to Michael Ware about the situation with the Mexican drug cartels as she prepared to host an hour-long discussion on the topic:

Michael was one of the participants on the panel, and addressed questions on whether it is safe for Americans to travel to the country:

Later in the day, Don Lemon spoke to Michael about the latest recording from Osama bin Laden:

That's it for me, have a great week...

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John Roberts Followup

Hi everyone, I'm in for Book Asylum today. She'll be back from her vacation on Tuesday to do her weekly ratings column.

If you've been following the blog you'll remember I covered John Roberts induction into the Canadian Broadcast Industry Hall of Fame in my Thursday night post last week. Video of the ceremony was shown on Friday's American Morning with Kiran Chetry and Rob Marciano. They also included some vintage footage that we haven't seen before and discussion of Robert's mullet and his welling up during his acceptance speech.

I also came across so video from our local station CityTV.

John blogged about his experience for the American Morning blog.

We've also got some pictures of John Roberts at the festivities, and it looks like fellow CNN anchor Kyra Phillips made the trip to Toronto with him. If you want to read more about the after party and the couple check out HoundsTV.com.








Thanks to Cyn for embedding the video. That is it for me this week. I will see you all again soon ~ Sapphire



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