Saturday, November 05, 2005

coop and aaron

I have never really like Aaron Brown, no, not for one minute, but I've always respected his thoughty, haughty style. And I've liked Anderson Cooper from the day he started on CNN (only partly for that great hair and upper-crust background), and saw him as a wave of the future type anchor, but never thought there wasn't plenty of room for both of them.

There's no question that FNC is currently the big winner in the TV News Channel Wars, and I saw Coop as CNN's attempt to develop their own Shepard Smith--couldn't blame them for trying. Both Shep and Coop did great reporting from the Katrina Zone, and while Shep is already a major star at FNC, one couldn't fault Klein (CNN's newbie big cheese) for trying to capitalize on the current Cooper buzz. Shep has already paid his dues both as reporter and anchor, and those who liked the passion and empathy he brought to his Katrina reporting had a framework of respect for his long term body of work at FNC on which to hang it. Coop too brought an emotional quality to Katrina days that we wouldn't have seen in your father's anchormen or reporters. The difference between Shep and Coop is that Cooper has been at CNN for only a few years, and has made 360 well worth watching, but has few basic anchoring and reporting credentials, beside his looks (Oh, I'm forgetting that reality show that he hosted). So boiled down to simplest (and highly subjective terms), Cooper has been given the keys to CNN because he can display emotion with the best of them. Well, being able to cry on command does not a successful anchor make, nor does that in itself make for continued solid reporting. Shep showed sadness, even indignation, for the victims of Katrina, but emoting is certainly not part of his normal palette of expressions as an anchor. Let's see what Anderson Cooper has beside the ability to cry on cue.

N.B. I couldn't provide you with CNN's link to Aaron Brown because it's already gone.
Posted by Kate :: 7:07 AM :: 0 Comments:   

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