A Word from Anderson Cooper

Of course there had to be a question about the tea-bagging remark.

"On April 15th, as many as 700,000 Americans gathered to protest government spending in what were called tea parties," a young man in the audience begins. "Now, you dismissed these voices with a crude sexual joke saying, and I quote...."

We don't really need to repeat the joke, now do we?

Anderson Cooper, the globetrotting anchor of CNN (or, as my daughter prefers to call the dapper journalist, "The Silver Fox") is fielding questions from some students at UCLA. Cooper uttered the infamous line in a conversation with David Gergen one night. And the journalist, who, in addition to his nightly anchoring duties, also reports from vacation spots like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq, has been getting flak ever since.

Is that kind of tasteless remark really the best way to promote discussion, the young man wants to know.

Cooper says he wasn't trying to belittle the tea-baggers or discourage them from protesting. And he's sorry if anyone got that impression. Or took offense at his "stupid, silly one-line aside." When you're on TV as much as he is, sometimes you say things you regret.

On the other hand.

"I do think, in this case, it's odd and mildly humorous that this one phrase happened to be adopted. And if a group is going to adopt a term that has an alternate meaning already established, it's not completely out of the norm that you would comment on the fact that there is an alternate meaning to the phrase."

Well! And with that the audience bursts into applause.

Cooper is at UCLA giving the 7th annual Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture, in honor of the Wall Street Journal reporter who was brutally slain in Pakistan in 2002. The Daniel Pearl Foundation, the Burkle Center, and Hillel, a student group devoted to Jewish culture, are sponsoring the event.

Cooper actually has a photo of the late journalist on his bulletin board at work. As he talks, that same iconic image of Pearl appears behind him on two screens. It's the one where he's wearing a dreamy beige suit, white shirt and gold tie. And smiling.

"I've been made a different person because of Daniel Pearl," Cooper tells the crowd, "because of his life and his strength, and his ability to love and laugh and to seek out understanding wherever it may be."

About 900 people are packed into the auditorium. Ruth and Judea Pearl, who invited Cooper to speak, are sitting in the front row. LA's media-happy mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is here too, introducing Cooper. (Not to nitpick, but why not a journalist? Especially considering that Villaraigosa thinks the show is called Anderson Cooper Three Hundred Sixty Degrees!)

Needless to say the 41-year-old Cooper is quite popular with the young people. (Last year's event with the smart but notably un-hip David Brooks didn't draw half as many.) At a reception before the lecture, when the small, slender journalist strolls in wearing a dark pinstriped suit, you'd think he was Jon Stewart. The students swarm him. Snapping their cell phone cameras. Begging to take their pictures with him. When he comes to the podium, they shower him with hoots and hollers. "You're gonna go there already?" Cooper quips.

He pokes fun at himself, too. When Cooper recently interviewed President Obama, it was his first time in the Oval Office. Which apparently the president likes to keep as humid as Miami. Within minutes the impeccably groomed anchor was "more drenched in sweat than Albert Brooks in Broadcast News."

Then there's his famous mom, Gloria Vanderbilt. Who is a "remarkable lady, and a very talented lady, but practical she is not," he says. When he asked her what he should do after graduating from college, she told Cooper "follow your bliss." A phrase that was actually coined by Joseph Campbell, and which his mother had heard on a Bill Moyers special.

"So basically my mom's big life advice was cribbed from some guy on television," Cooper jokes. "I'm thankful she wasn't watching, you know, Montel Williams."

But Cooper isn't all witty repartee. He despairs over how the decline of newspapers and the closing of foreign bureaus means that many stories aren't being told. For instance. Did you know that one of every five children in Niger dies of malnutrition before the age of 4? "It's not the kind of thing that make headlines anymore. But it's the kind of thing we ought not to accept."

Or that more than 5 million people have died in Congo in the last decade, making it the deadliest conflict since World War II? Or that in the last few months hundreds of thousands of Congalese have had to flee their homes? Or that tens of thousands of women have been violently raped? Including girls? "Virtually no one in the media or in Washington has paid much attention to this horror," says Cooper, who did a little-watched special on the rape story for CNN.

"It's very easy I think in this day and age to look the other way, very tempting to ignore the sadness of others, the reality of their lives. But I think it's very important that we not turn away."

Sure, it's not as exciting as watching the finals for American Idol. Or covering Lindsay Lohan. But, people, can we at least try?

Then there's the problem of covering the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Which has gotten a bit more challenging what with bombs exploding and journalists being targeted and needing big beefy guys with guns to guard them. It's hard to wander around Kabul or Baghdad and interview people unnoticed when you've got a security team in tow. Or to get out much at all.

To wit: "You can't eat in a restaurant. You can't see a movie or hail a taxi or go out at night. You can't stand in a crowd. You can't stand in one spot too long. Or use the same route or get stuck in traffic. "

You get the picture.

As for Cooper's chatty colleagues and the rise in cable news of liberal and conservative anchors to attract viewers, don't get Cooper started. He thinks it's an awful, awful trend. Not only because it divides people and slants the news and encourages, say, right-wing viewers to believe that Nancy Pelosi is a socialist. But because he believes in the quaint notion we used to call facts.

And really. "The last thing this country needs is more overpaid, blow-dried anchors screaming at the top of their lungs."

Amen!

With new media taking over the world, Cooper says he doesn't know where journalism is headed. He thinks the economics of newspapers don't make sense anymore. Though he's not sure what will replace them.

Lest you forget, the anchor's not one for giving advice. "That's Sean Hannity's job," he quips, "and he does it very well."

But in this age where we're confronting unfamiliar ideas in other parts of the world, it would be good if we were all more open to various points of view. Even those of our enemies.

"That of course is something Daniel Pearl lost his life trying to do," Cooper says. "Trying to understand. Trying to help us all understand."

Comments

[joebiz]

Leave Anderson alone . . .

[WilliamL]

Cooper has gotten way too campy to take seriously.

He is a good man and all that but comes of as a TV game show host and the son of a wealthy fashion designer.

CNN has become comical esp. with Blitzer and his mouth-recently cutting off the Queen of Jordan as she explained the situation in her region of the world-"can't talk about that now."

We are told what they want us to know, no more, no less.

[CentralVA]

The big problem with Cooper's coverage of the Tea Parties was not that he made a lame joke. It was that he failed to report the news. Friends of mine who watched CNN came away with an inaccurate, distorted understanding about who attended the protests and what they were about.

Anderson Cooper is a talented reporter and writer, and I know he can do better.

[BluePrideStephen]

He's adorable and his heart is in the right place. I get a feeling he wants to not be rude or impudent to anyone he interviews. He 'hosts' rather than probes. He doesn't insist with follow-up questions, although bright and well versed. I wish he'd have broken down and danced on Ellen... You can always tell a great deal by the way they dance (or, don't).

[nyc251]

All Liz Cheney did during that interview with Anderson Cooper was what most conservatives do when faced with facts--lie repeatedly and loudly. Anderson referenced a report which completely debunked many of her claims and pressed her on areas where she was obviously ignoring the truth, but she continued to lie in the face of that. She has no credibility.

[buckbuck11]

I like AC. He's intelligent, witty and thoughtful. Unfortunately, his "examine all angles" style validates and puts on equal footing those who live in a fact-free universe. He lets lie after lie go unchallenged. Rachel Maddow is much better at putting facts together and letting the facts speak for themselves.

[DeloresT]

Anderson Cooper did a good job in New Orleans....thanks for the reminder! But 2 days/nights ago during an "interview" with Dick Cheney's daughter, he was totally inept....she chewed him up and spit him out. It was embarrassing to watch.

[meede]

Anderson was horrible on that show. I don't like him anyways -- Keeping Them Honest -- BS. Other than Katrina, the coal mines, he throws those words one many times a show but never does a follow or push the person or company he is referring to `Keeping Them Honest`. He`s another two-bit anchor.

[robotfog]

A lot of caring people understand the horrors occurring around the world. It can be painful tuning into it too often. The feeling of helplessness that a person gets can be overwhelming. Most of us can't do any more than what we do already, which is to hope for solutions and contribute when possible to causes that seem to be doing good works.

At least Cooper has a level head about it. He attempts to make people aware of events that many news outlets just ignore. It's entirely possible that one day the right person will see one of these reports and have the will or the power to make a real difference.

[peterg76]

Anderson Cooper works for CNN - he has not worked in journalism for a while.

[springsm]

Snipe! Anderson Cooper did a very real bit of reporting when he went to New Orleans during the Katrina tragedy. He also got angry and what was not happening. I have to give him credit for not being a 'Blitzer or a Sanchez or a Brown. I think his specials are fairly good.