Henry The Intern watches Tina Brown's Sunday night TV show because, well, none of you will. I'm afraid this assignment is making him bitter beyond his tender teen years. Aren't there laws to protect children from work hazards like this? After the jump, his full report.

"Topic A with Tina Brown" was a real downer, beginning with an exclusive interview with documentary filmmaker Don North. Tina said the segment will get us "into the psyche of Saddam Hussein." North's new film, "Remembering Saddam," brought six Iraqis to Abu Ghraib prison where their hands were severed under orders of Saddam Hussein. "They wanted to see if their hands were buried under an oak tree, as they had been told," North said. The victims were shown a tape of their amputations. "Even a butcher wouldn't do that. For what reason? And why?" one victim said. "This little incident was really incredibly planned," North explained, noting the men were chosen from a range of locations and across economic classes. "Map of pain. . . that is unbelievable," Tina responded.

Dr. Jerrold Post, author of Leaders and Their Followers in a Dangerous World, was along for the ride. Loyalty to Saddam, he said, was "loyalty at the barrel of a gun or at the scalpel of a surgeon." Post said Saddam thought "the family that slays together stays together" and his actions were "justified by revolutionary expediency." Post does not think Saddam was psychotic. He feels childhood traumas were the root of Saddam's problems: "You can't imagine a worse beginning to his life." Post said, "I was absolutely awe struck by watching Saddam being captured. . . this is where Saddam began his life, in a mud hut."

Next, Tina sat down with Bernard-Henri Levy, author of War, Evil, and the End of History (and husband of actress Arielle Dombasle, "said to have the smallest waist in Paris," according to Tina). Levy argued the world is divided into "two different kinds of humanities," the rich countries (including the Arab world) and countries "out of history" such as Sudan. In Sudan, "you have whole people who were really exterminated," he said. "Nobody cares, nobody hears." He said "we are paying a moral and political price" and "we cannot afford this idea of a humanity cut in two." In the other humanity, he said there is an "Abu Ghraib every day," a "World Trade Center of every week," and "all of these politicians do not mean anything." Levy said the genocide is preventable with financial pressure: "We have the means, we have the tools. . . We can fix it without troops, without quagmire." Tina was hopeful: "This book will raise our consciousness."

In an awkward transition to a lighter topic (and a pointless segment), Tina asked for "a quick gallop" through the "dog and pony show" of the television upfronts. Sharon Waxman, of The New York Times, said NBC's Jeff Zucker was "prancing" and ABC's presentation was like a wake (or, Tina thought, like the Seven Year War). TV Guide's Stephen Battaglio said ABC's new wife-swap reality show "has more to do with vacuuming than sex." Tina was charmed: "vacuuming and sex - that's what life is."

New York Times media reporter David Carr, author Gail Sheehy, syndicated columnist Deroy Murdock, and Princeton professor Sean Wilentz sat around for the editor's desk roundtable. Tina's attempt to pick apart the 9/11 hearings as evidence of a "great culture of blame" fell flat except for Carr's declaration that The New Yorker's Seymour Hersh was investigating Abu Ghraib "like a dog on a meat bone." All agreed journalism is playing a critical role - but of course they would.

Books recommended to President Bush: Lincoln and His Generals, The Wealth of Nations, Capitalism and Freedom, A Bright, Shining Life, The Things They Carried, and Dispatches by Michael Herr. Tina recommended Who Moved My Cheese?

For their hot picks, Carr saved an otherwise-geriatric-oriented segment by choosing Esopos Magazine, "Spanish for you got me," he joked. Sheehy picked MoveOn.org's 50 Ways to Love Your Country, Murdock liked "I Can't Stop" by Al Green and Wilentz recommended "Bob Dylan Live 1964." Tina raved about My Father's Fighter by Ronald Fried, a senior producer of "Topic A."

And that's another noteworthy, memorable, groundbreaking edition. Thanks, Tina.

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