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.