He had some amazing, yet heartbreaking coverage, last night on AC360 – I was truly brought to tears
(and I rarely ever cry!)
And he’s such a trooper…..he flew in at 10am yesterday, worked straight through till 10pm, did his 2 hour live show…and then came back on the air at 6am for American Morning.

It was a riviting moment; I was surprised he could report it and not throw down the mike and help with digging the young girl out.

Anderson does do very well in this environment; it’s when he starts moving from journalist to commentator (which he does regularly on AC360) that he gets himself in trouble (teabagging).

I think Rachel is doing a pretty good job as well, staying on set and being live instead of her normal repeat. And there is Steve Harrigan on FNC who also does excellent reporting.

Anderson Cooper does a great job covering these types of events. It is what he does best. Cooper is a likeable, good looking guy. I enjoy him on Regis and Kelly. My problem with him, and most journalists now, is that they report the news through their blue colored lenses.

I learned during the primary, after living in my Democratic bubble for my entire life, that the media does indeed deliver the news through their liberal bias. It took me years to believe it, but I saw it time and time again during the campaign, in their support of Obama, and I no longer trust the media.

I liked Brian Williams, George, Katie, Charlie, etc. They are seemingly nice people, who I used to watch and count on to deliver the news. I used to think, naively, that they actually delivered the “news”. I have since learned that they deliver the news via their own bias (and corporate controls). And as long as they continue to do that, I can’t trust anything they say. If they report the news through their own agendas and bias, they are reporting twisted lies. That’s how I see it. Anderson Cooper, when he resorted to the *teabagging* jokes lost all respect. (How can we trust anything they say, regarding something like the health care reform, and the actual costs associated, and what this will mean, if they are promoting it only to serve their liberal beliefs and supporting Obama, meanwhile ignoring the reports of increased taxes, and the lack of transparency?)

That’s why I, and many others, turned to FOX. While some, like Hannity, provide commentary as a Republican, you at least know you are getting Republican skewed commentary. As much as O’Reilly has ticked me off in the past, I do find him relatively fair and balanced. Beck, the liberals favorite punching bag, aside from Palin, delivers entertaining commentary. As for as straight forward news, like Bret Baier on FOX, I find them quite good. I used to be a religious msnbc viewer, but now find them to be a complete joke, except Morning Joe – I like that show (although could do with a lot less O’Donnell, and more Dan Abrams.) What the hell happened? They have become so vile – Matthews, Olbermann, snarky Maddow, and Shultz and O’Donnell come across like rabid dogs. blech. Were they always like that, and I am finally realizing it, having exited my liberal bubble?

In my opinion, Jake Tapper and Major Garrett are two of the best journalists out there. I think David Gregory is a pretty stand up guy as well. But, as for all the others, and their obvious love affair with Obama, and their obvious liberal bias, I just can’t watch them any more. How can you trust someone to deliver the “truth” when they deliver the news as they see it and filter it?

“Some have expressed concern that the rise of opinion media as a commercially dominant programming strategy has come at the cost of traditional news programs, and perhaps more importantly, the journalistic chops to tell a story both comprehensively and objectively.”

Honestly, I think that is how most people view *straight news* now. What once, years ago, used to be *news* is now biased commentary, dressed up to look like news. Reporters aren’t journalists anymore – people pounding the pavement, searching for the truth – they are talking heads, reporting certain facts, to support their own agendas. So…the result is, people are abandoning the faux journalists and heading to commentary. At least they know what they are getting with commentary.

CNN was a joke during the primary as well. Wolf with his panel including Donna Brazile… Heck, CNN even banned Carville and Begala during the primary because they were Hillary supporters! Anything to protect Obama! The mainstream news fell in love with Obama, and in my opinion, tossed away their careers and respect. (I know there are many on the Right who came to those conclusions years ago…I was a little slow to wake up to the reality.)

Anderson Cooper was born to do this kind of work… while he’s fine in the studio, he excels with a sense of effortless grace in stories like this. I was blown away by his work last night–and the work of the rest of CNN’s team, particularly Sanjay Gupta. Each time I’d feel pain at watching CNN’s graphic images, I’d flip to MSNBC and find the Brian Williams/Today Show gang hanging at the airport talking about cracks in the walls at the terminal building, and which support aircraft had been the most recent to land. It was stunning–as if the two nets were covering two vastly different stories.

Anderson Cooper, is doing a great job here, but he has shown he’s just as capable of descending to the level of an Olbermann. Coooper is, after all, infamous for his rude and crude ‘teabag’ commentary.

More importantly, it”s a little disappointing, but not surprising, that mediaite is tacky enough to use the suffering of the Haitian people as a platform for a jab at your own personal hobby horse.

The reporting by Anderson and CNNs team of reporters in Haiti was fantastic and as a long time viewer of AC360, it was a perfect example of why I’ve continued to watch. Anderson Cooper is simply an amazing reporter when he’s able to go directly into a situation and bring viewers a first-hand report.

This clip is why I used to watch television news. I haven’t for a few years now – wish networks would do more of this.

sarahinitaly – you should be ashamed of yourself for putting that pathetic diatribe in this thread.
Disgusting and unclassy.

In a breaking news post, about the earthquake, you made this comment:
http://www.mediaite.com/online/7-0-magnitude-earthquake-hits-haiti-tsunami-warning-issued/

personwhomakescomments says:
January 12, 2010 at 6:52 pm
To say CNN is owning this story would be an understatement…

and I posted:
sarainitaly says:
January 13, 2010 at 5:52 am
the videos are so upsetting. the devastation is unbelievable. i feel so bad for them. i hope they are able to assess the damage to the airport, and provide aid asap. it was just awful.
FOX has a link up on how you can send aid. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,582902,00.html

In a post about the media coverage, and the outstanding job Cooper is doing, I discussed the media and their coverage of the news. I don’t consider my post pathetic, or a diatribe. It was a discussion on topic. And it was a comment about my true feelings on the media.

Was your comment, as I posted above, classy, in response to a tragic earthquake?

In a breaking news post, about the earthquake, you made this comment:

personwhomakescomments says:
January 12, 2010 at 6:52 pm
To say CNN is owning this story would be an understatement…

and I posted:
sarainitaly says:
January 13, 2010 at 5:52 am
the videos are so upsetting. the devastation is unbelievable. i feel so bad for them. i hope they are able to assess the damage to the airport, and provide aid asap. it was just awful.
FOX has a link up on how you can send aid.

In a post about the media coverage, and the outstanding job Cooper is doing, I discussed the media and their coverage of the news. I don’t consider my post pathetic, or a diatribe. It was a discussion on topic. And it was a comment about my true feelings on the media.

Was your comment, as I posted above, classy, in response to a tragic earthquake? I didn’t think so.

“Anderson Cooper reminded viewers what real journalism is all about.”

Colby, Great post today. Anderson, Gary Tuchman, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and the rest of the CNN crew did a fabulous job last night reporting from Haiti. This is the type of reporting Anderson built his career on and last night he showed viewers that he can still be an objective and passionate journalist, reminding us why we started watching him in the first place.

I think you are right, we did need to get away from the “gotcha” politics that have filled the news programs in order to help us remember what great journalism is all about.

It is too bad that it took a tragedy of this scale to remind us.

Anderson Cooper, is doing a great job here, but he has shown he’s just as capable of descending to the level of an Olbermann. Coooper is, after all, infamous for his rude and crude ‘teabag’ commentary.

He was not showing political bias by making a double entendre joke with the word “tea bagging”. He had previously participated in a skit that poked fun at Code Pink protesters on the Daily Show. The tea partiers had also totally brought ridicule on themselves by being the first ones to refer to what they were doing as “tea bagging”, and there is nothing biased about joking when a group does something blatantly laughable. Early tea party organizers used slogans like “tea bag Obama!” (there was loads of this from early organizers but here’s some examples http://www.zazzle.co.uk/tea_bag_obama_mug-168863860633021272 http://teabagobama.blogspot.com/ ) and were photographed with signs like “tea bag the liberal dems before they tea bag you”. They unintentionally made themselves look ridiculous in a way that made jokes inevitable even from onlookers with no counter political agenda. They also attached the label “tea bagging” to their activities themselves so there is no room for complaint against anyone but early tea party organizers when the label is applied to their activities by others.

Anderson Cooper is only known for the tea bagging joke at all among the right wing (liberals are aware he didn’t invent the label, many other people made jokes about it before him on the web and on cable news, and his joke was small and subtle compared to what others were doing) and the infamy is mainly because the right wing press and conservative blogs have made him into a fall guy for the tea partiers’ own bungle by using his sexuality against him and exploiting bigotry to convince people he must be to blame for the “tea bagging” label and phenomenon since he’s gay and he thus has special knowledge of perversions.

If a liberal group had accidently made themselves look ridiculous by using unintentionally sexually dirty slogans like “blow Bush” or “we’re going to give the republican elephant a donkey punch” you people who are complaining about bias over the “tea bagging” jokes now would have just been saying the left wing group brought it on themselves when both conservative commentators and neutral people like Cooper cracked some jokes about the debacle.

Anyway, if we can put away the petty partisan complaints and refusal to acknowledge one’s own side’s bumbles, it has to be said Cooper and his team really are doing a great job in Haiti.