TV News, Blog-Style: Anderson Cooper and Advocacy Journalism

The post-Hurricane Katrina aftermath in New Orleans was first made chillingly real by CNN's Anderson Cooper, whose relentless reporting and persistent search for answers brought the horrifying debacle into homes around the world.

In an infamous, live exchange with US Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) who, obviously unaware of the extent of human suffering, was cheerfully thanking various federal politicans, Cooper emotionally interjected "Excuse me, Senator...to listen to politicians thanking each other and complimenting each other....there are a lot of people here who are very upset and very angry....

It just, you know, kind of cuts them the wrong way right now, because literally there was a body on the streets of this town yesterday being eaten by rats because this woman had been laying in the street for 48 hours."

New York magazine viewed Cooper's startled reaction as an "honest expression" and "a breakthrough for the future of television news."

Anderson Cooper, 38 years old, is an impassioned and energetic journalist and anchor of CNN's 360 Degrees since its inception in September 2003, and in 2005, became co-anchor of CNN's Newsnight with Aaron Brown.

With his taste for covering disasters and wars, Cooper embodies what the New York Times dubs a new style of "confrontational advocacy journalism." His reporting style, choice of stories and talent for touching authenticity creates a program akin to a broadcast blog.......with emotion, facts and a touch of personal indignation.

Like Cooper's reporting, his family background and entry into journalism is surprising and unusual. The son of designer and heiress Gloria Vanderbilt and her 4th husband writer Wyatt Cooper, Anderson started working at age 11 so he could "earn my own money and be financially independent."

After 1989 graduation from Yale, Cooper, unable to find a reporting job with any news organization, secured a fake press ID, bought a video camera and headed to Africa on his own to cover the devastation in Somalia.

Be sure to read my Profile of Anderson Cooper, Journalist and CNN Anchor, the journalist who one ABC producer says, "He's really intense. He could care less how he looks, his hair and makeup....He's all human. He's not putting it on."
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