Maybe it's just me, but I think I witnessed a hat trick

HLN is slowly but surely becoming a network that I try to avoid. Last year (pre-MJ's death), I watched their primetime programs fairly regularly, although I barely remember what shows I watched back then. But then, primetime became an estrogen block: Jane Velez-Mitchell, Nancy Grace, and Joy Behar. Actually, it's more like PMS lane, but who am I to quibble.

But late last night, I was up and I caught a bit of Nancy Grace and Behar's show and marveled at how, despite their best efforts to control and manipulate their particular messages, that the home truths tumbled out. I smiled at Nancy Grace, something I haven't done in like... ever, when she was talking about the runaway mom case. She had the woman's father, a pastor, on the show, and she was so emphatic that she was sure that the woman may have ran afoul with some miscreant, since she couldn't imagine the woman abandoning her one year old daughter. Obviously, the episode was one filmed earlier last week, since we did find out that, indeed, the woman DID abandon the one year old daughter, staged a crime scene and ran off with some loser dude to Florida. So much for Nancy Grace's 'instincts'. But then again, Grace's 'instincts' are usually colored by her particular political leanings, not on sheer gut feeling. I'm armchair quarterbacking it, but even I knew that the chick was okay, and I was hardly paying attention to the story. Score one, for following one's own instinct versus some shrieking shrew's.

Next... Behar. Her Friday edition was reran last night, which happened to be a rehash of her week's highlights. She had a panel discussing various subjects like Sandra Bullock, Scott Baio and other stuff; a panel consisting of Nancy Giles, that dude who used to host TV Guide Network's TV Watercooler, and a playwright I have never heard of, but one I now want to know about. The subject was Roman Polanski and his sending a letter to France's president to give to President Obama about his long delayed (and denied) trial regarding the rape of a 13 year old girl. Naturally, Joy wanted the discussion to remain on her level - righteous indignation and general resignation - but the playwright said something that I would never forget. He essentially said that talk about the Polanski case by the media (read: yes, you, Joy Behar) is useless, because this is supposed to be between Polanski and the court of law. And my next question is 'Where were you during the Michael Jackson trial, dude?' Because that should've been said back then when it was absolutely clear that the press was trying to impede the investigation and influence the verdict.

And finally... this one didn't involve HLN or any of their anchors/rags, but it involved an everpresent guest on the show. On this morning's Today Show, Robi Ludwig was on, discussing how the whole community has to support 'mothers by choice', which made me wonder if that is the consensus of opinion within the psychiatric community. Or maybe, the psychiatric community had a 'coming to Jesus' moment after Michael Jackson's death, because as many remembered, he didn't get support from the community when he became a 'father by choice'. If anything, psychiatric buttinskys like Carole Liebermann made his attempts at parenting a talking point for her insatiable need to park her botoxed butt in front of a camera.

So the point of this post? Well, I hope that many who have been on the fence about things dictated to us by the persistent and often over presently, learned a lesson. Agendas and not necessarily bipartisan-dictated agendas, are what drives these people who are placed in a position of authority and respectability. But every once in a while, the truth escapes from the vice grip that these wenches have on it. Or in other words, trust your instincts, distrust anyone working overly hard to persuade you otherwise, and keep an eye out for anyone who play both ends against the middle.