Although I’m sure they didn’t know that it would be one of the last two episodes in the series or that MSNBC would end up burying the show at 5am in the morning, this morning’s Ethical Edge: Crime and Punishment was by far the best of the series. Aside from dissecting a necessary and frequently glossed over subject, this was the first show in the series to show a split panel at several points, the biggest being a back and forth between Father Thomas Williams and Rabbi Edward Cohn over hate as a crime while host Chris Jansing wisely sat back and let the discussion play itself out. One wonders how this morning’s June taped program would have played out if it had been taped in the past week given what happened with John Mark Karr and the Nancy Grace/Melinda Duckett incident.

I received an email from a viewer who apparently mistakenly thought ICN was part of the program and wanted to comment on the show…

I just happened to wake up early Sunday, September 25, 2006 and caught your segment on rehabilitating people who are serving in prison. It was an indepth, insightful, hopeful, and realistic look at the entire situation - from the unbelievable increase in prison populations (most of which represents young kids getting arrested for drug or paraphanalia-related crimes) to the day-to-day life of prisoners being told what to eat, when to sit, when to stand, when to sleep, etc. These kids come out of jail/prison thousands of dollars in debt to the “system,” which obviously does not work in the best interests of society and according to HUMAN standards/terms.

This is a show that has been long overdue.

Thank you for doing it.

Fox News Sunday will be repeated at 10pm tonight in addition to its regular 6pm repeat. FNC apparently got so much email on the Clinton interview its servers crashed.

UPDATE: Tonight’s repeat is due to numerous requests from people who missed the Fox Broadcast version to see the Bill Clinton interview.

The Buffalo News’ Thomas J. Dolan writes about the latest news in the story of the Amherst IDA that paid a production company to be featured on a HLN segment. Dolan has CNN responding to the matter…

In addition, the Florida producers of “Pulse on America” have no right to claim they are connected to CNN or CNN Headline News, CNN spokeswoman Laurie Goldberg said.

“We don’t do that,” she said, referring to the “Pulse on America” program.

CNN’s lawyers were checking into the matter, she said, following a story in The Buffalo News about the IDA’s purchase of time on CNN through the Florida producers.

“These are clearly advertisements. They have nothing to do with Headline News, and that is why we’re checking into it,” Goldberg said.