At 8:00 pm PST, Rachel Maddow dumped her whole scheduled show and covered the Haitian earthquake. She interviewed an American in Haiti via telephone, the Haitian ambassador, and a woman from UNICEF. While she was doing this, MSNBC kept putting up graphics of the 800 number people could use to call to find about relatives and loved ones on the island, and later the contact information for UNICEF and the Red Cross to assist with donations.
On the Fox channel, Bill O’Reilly used this time to interview Fox’s latest “News Analyst.” She had a nice “down” hair style tonight. Since she is a “news analyst” they of course spent time rehashing her response to the 60 Minutes interview which, by the way, she didn’t see. Why do people call them Faux News? She said it was BS that she didn’t know there were 2 Koreas. O’Reilly helpfully asked her if Steve Schmidt was lying. (Note: To my knowledge, Schmidt never said Palin didn’t know there were two Koreas–he said she didn’t understand why there were two Koreas.)
Rachel Maddow inerviewed someone who suggested people not try to come to Haiti to help, not yet. There is no power in the country’s capital, which was very close to the epicenter, and the air traffic tower at the airport is one of damaged buildings. “Keep your feet where they are, and send us your prayers,” he said.
A little bit later Fox News did provide some information, including Secretary of State Clinton’s remarks and the same footage MSNBC had been showing for half an hour (which is courtesy of the New York Times).
Rachel Maddow explained the presence of UN Peacekeepers in Haiti and how that might help address the immediate rescue and recovery needs, told us the Coast Guard was sending four cutters, and reminded us how to donate, including the ability to text Haiti to 90999 and automatically give the Red Cross a $10 donation (It shows up on your cell phone bill).
Bill O’Reilly hawked goods from the Bill-O’Reilly-dot-com store in the last 3 minutes of his show.
Why do I love liberals?