Aaron Brown: "I Just Got Older And Stopped Giving A Shit"

Low-key CNN anchor Aaron Brown was bumped aside in 2005 for Anderson Cooper. Now his CNN contract is up, and he'll resurface next month as host of a PBS documentary series. He's also pitching a public-radio show, appearing in an upcoming Kevin Costner movie as himself ("My worst nightmare," he says), and teaching journalism at the University of Arizona. He spoke to Michael Martin.

Why PBS?
I pretty much burned through the other networks. And I like the concept of a PBS audience. TV people like to think the audience has a stake in the program, but they don't. A PBS audience literally does.

Do you have psychic scars from CNN?
Mostly I laugh about it. In my time there, they paid me to go away, they paid Connie Chung probably a lot to go away, they paid Paula Zahn to go away....

You've let your hair go gray.
I think I just got older and stopped giving a shit. On the other hand, the first thing I did when I left CNN was have Lasik surgery.

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