An open letter to Anderson Cooper
Dear Anderson Cooper,
I’ve watched you on CNN for years, mostly because you’re always on, you’re charismatic, good looking, and you talk smart stuff. Like a good journalist, you rushed to Haiti and were one of the first on the scene. You’re fairly thorough in your reporting and you seem to try and bring in the human aspect of crisis stories, which is admirable. Tonight, however, I watched in horror as you talked at the camera as family members of a young girl desperately dug her out of a collapsed building just inches behind you. They dug with one shovel and their own hands. There you stood like some talking head, reciting the events as they unfolded. At one point, you put the microphone INTO the opening in which these men were digging so that we at home could hear this girl’s muffled cries.
What the fuck is the matter with you? I understand that due to the nature of your career, one might need to grow a thick skin and close themselves off to human suffering. In order to do your job, you have to shut out the cries of children and report like a disaffected robot. You have to get the story. I understand that. It’s your job and it’s why you get paid the big bucks. However, how cold do you have to be to stand there and watch while others frantically work to save a life? How far have you buried your emotions? Where is your humanity?
Over the course of the evening, I heard you relate that many people there are asking for your help. You are but one man and can only do so much. You can’t help everyone so you don’t help anyone. I understand you’re there to do a job and you probably think it’s best to leave the humanitarian work to those better qualified. You might even think that you’re providing a valuable service. Regardless, this isn’t about you quitting your job and joining the Red Cross. It’s what you didn’t do in that moment when when you chose to sensationalize pain rather than get your manicured hands dirty. What did you think you were doing? Did you think you were helping? You were getting in the way.
When it comes down to it, you and your kind capitalize on the suffering of human beings. It’s what you and the other media whores do. You offer nothing in regards to making the world a better place. You report about the bad things and you only watch as horrors evolve. You are a sadist. Did it not occur to you that you had crossed a line? As I watched this, I quite honestly thought (because you come off as such a nice guy on TV) that you might actually help dig. No, you just stood there, talking.
Reporter or not, you’ve shown the world that your ratings are more important than a human life. Your emotions are, like the unfortunate people of Haiti, buried under rubble, trapped and dead. You are an automaton and you have no soul.
Sincerely,
Kristen
P.S. I don’t know what you do in your free time. Maybe you volunteer at a soup kitchen or something, but tonight was reprehensible. You should be ashamed of yourself.
5 Responses to “An open letter to Anderson Cooper”
What do you think he could do, help digging?? Have you seen the site where the little girl was under? There was space for only 2 people to be under and dig the rubbles with their hands. There are a lot of Haitian people standing around the site could not do anything still. What in the world are you thinking? Do you think all those people just watching away did not want to do anything? They could not!! Anderson did the best he could. He did so great with his job and help in anyway he could. Sorry you could not see that.
Awe so the Son of Gloria Vanderbuilt couldn’t get his Armani’s dusty to help out in a catastrophe. Sadly this isn’t the 1st disgusting thing Ive heard out of the power elite today.
Pat Robertson saying that Haiti made a pact with the devil to get rid of the French and that’s why they have so many difficulties. And Rush Limbaugh saying yesterday re: Bill Clinton being appointed special envoy to Haiti “I’m just gonna tell you, if I was named envoy to Haiti, “I’d quit government. Envoy to Haiti? You can’t even pick up a prostitute down there without genuine fear of AIDS.” And to keep your wallet closed, because, “We’ve already donated to Haiti. It’s called the U.S. income tax.”
These people aren’t human, they’ve been consumed whole by their own greed and ambition decades ago or groomed to be that way. Doesn’t surprise me that they can be so cruel. It saddens me, since they’re allowed venue to espouse this bile and represent humanity in that despicable way.
And even though bastards like Anderson, Rush & Pat have taken up the airwaves and our time with their filth, the Real concrete and true facts that you wont see on the news is that millions of people and dollars all over the world are being mobilized right now, this minute to help those in need. And those people dont need a soapbox in order to speak louder than Rush because they have something more valuable, powerful and enduring than temporary ratings or money and that’s a human heart.
Danielle, excellent points all around. I heard about Pat, but haven’t actually read anything about it.
He helped out plenty of times during Katrina. He wept too for that matter and it brought him a certain amount of mockery and the label “emo anchor” (which has to be especially embarrassing for a gay anchor who, like female anchors, will have to always have to fight preconceptions he must be too weak or emotional for the tough work). Aside from poise developed over years of experience as a combat and distaster reporter, he’s also got the motivation of not being known as “that crybaby gay guy who can’t keep his shit together” to keep him from getting emotional on air again now like he did during Katrina.
If you paid attention to the Haiti report you would notice that the girl’s grown brother was standing clear although he was obviously desperate for his sister and would have wanted to help. The men were also arguing and unsure whether their attempts to shift the concrete material could save the girl without killing her by disturbing other material. It would make no sense for a reporter to get in there to join an effort that might well result in nothing but crushing someone to death, especially when he doesn’t understand the language enough to know what the people he would be trying to work with were saying should they give urgent instructions.
“I understand that.” I don’t think you do. Anderson Cooper is doing his job as a journalist. That IS important. How do you know how he feels about this? How do you know what’s going on off camera, that you judge him on a 4-minute report? A report that was showing people what is going on in Haiti, bringing the need and information out to the world, which is helpful, and what journalists are for. He’d be doing all of Haiti a disservice to drop reporting and maybe help one or two people by digging with his hands, while he can be much more useful getting the information to the rest of the world as he’s supposed to. But I’m sure that you’re work for Haiti is much more important that you feel qualified to write him off as a sadistic, useless, capitalizing media whore for this, no?
Dani: Yes, what Anderson, Rush and Pat are doing is exactly the same. *eyeroll* Cooper has more than earned his chops, starting off by going to war-zones with no backup and just a hand-held camera, the sneer about his background is unearned and unnecessary.
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