TVSquad

It's never a good sign that an argument in favor of someone involves tearing someone else down. If Cooper's reporting resume is as extensive as you claim, you shouldn't need to minimize Aaron Brown's career as you attempt to do.

But just because you're ignorant of Brown's reporting experience doesn't mean he doesn't have any:

"Brown has over twenty-six years of experience in journalism...Brown gained esteem and renown for his compelling coverage of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 from Ground Zero and areas surrounding the remains of the World Trade Center in New York City...Brown reported for World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, Nightline and other ABC news broadcasts...Brown played a lead role in covering many news stories, including the British return of Hong Kong to the Chinese government, the Columbine High School shootings, the trial of O.J. Simpson, and Nelson Mandela's historic election as president of South Africa. He also reported on the restoration of Jean-Bertrand Aristide to the head of Haiti's government, the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, the trial of Susan Smith in Union, South Carolina, and the California earthquake in 1994."

And this is what I found after a 1-minute wikipedia search.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Brown

Couldn't you have done the same?

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Anderson is fine, he is a good reporter, altho he goes a bit over the top at times.
Aaron Brown is like inviting a friend into your home. Altho I would enjoy talking with Anderson, I am not quite as comfortable with him.
I really like the attitude of Aaron Brown. He is able to get more from those he interviews by being polite and listening and being interested than some of the others who badger their guests and keep trying to force them to say what the "reporter" wants from them. Anderson at least does not quite badger and does seem to listen.
I don't blame Anderson for taking over the time, he was in a boat in water when all that happened.
I just miss Aaron. I hope he finds something soon so we can see his warm and personal approach again.
Thanks for your time,
Dara

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If both Aaron Brown and Anderson Cooper are good journalists, why did it have to be an either-or proposition? Is there only room for one considerate, thoughtful journalist per network? Granted, I get my news online and am not very familiar with cable news reporters, but when I do watch, I see a lot of badgering and a lot of spin--and I turn off TV.

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I like watching Anderson Cooper for his intelligence, earnestness and sense of humour. I can relate to him.
I tried liking Aaron Brown, but something about him bothered me.

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Thank you. You're post was very well informed. I've always thought highly of Anderson Cooper for the exact reasons you stated. He didn't have to do anything he's done. he could have lived off the Vanderbilt trust fun of his and never worked a day in his life. He's worked hard to get where he's at and I've never thought it was at the expense of someone else. I highly doubt he went to CNN just so he could secretly plan this whole plot to overthrow Aaron Brown (who I like by the way) and take his show. I have a feeling Aaron Brown understands what happened and doesn't blame Anderson. Blame the powers that be, but most anchors have very little control over their own show (I know)and none at all over network decisions. Just my two cents.

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Who could not like Anderson Cooper? He is like the cool kid on prom night.
There is something genuine that resonates from him.

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Anderson is smart, funny, self-deprecating, wise, sober when appropriate, tough when necessary; he gives his audience the benefit of both sides of every story and allows us to make up our own minds. I will miss Aaron Brown’s wry, witty reporting style and the Morning Papers segment and hope he is able to snap up one of the network anchor job. But I have been watching AC360 for as long as it has been on the air (taping it when I am at work) and I have complete confidence in AC. As long as he is not affected by the swirl of critics & controversy over AB’s exit, he will succeed in bringing his unique style of reporting to a larger audience.

Besides, Fox News totally sucks!

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Don’t compare apples and oranges. News anchors and reporters have two related but distinct roles. CNN and Anderson Cooper can’t seem to decide which role he should be in.

Aaron Brown is an intelligent, well read, highly competent, perceptive, balanced news analyst, anchor, commentator, and interviewer. He is a credit to journalism.

Anderson Cooper is a reporter, period. His oft-cited passion for his job does not make him good at it, but apparently it is good for ratings. He is brash, confrontational, sometimes downright rude, and a show-off who apparently does not know enough to come in out of the rain even in a hurricane.

If you look to CNN to be entertained and stimulated rather than informed, and if you find Anderson Cooper entertaining (which evidently a lot of people do), then by all means tune in at 10 PM/9 Central. You will help keep Anderson’s ratings up. Which clearly is CNN’s prime motivation — much to its discredit.

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Myron, No disrespect meant to you but have you watch Anderson Cooper 360 prior to hurricane Katrina? Quite a few people have commented that he is confrontational (brash and rude?) and I really disagree with that comment. In general, he is NOT that way at all. I have only seen him become confrontational on several occasions in his time at CNN. When he has it's been because he has been passionate about something. I really think people are taking what happened during Katrina and saying that's always the way Anderson is.

How many times can you count him as being rude? Just curious, because I, in general, I've seen him be nothing but considerate even to the biggest jackasses of them all out there. That is not to say that on one or two occasion he hasn't been but he's no Mike Wallace!

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To all those massing in defense and support of Aaron Brown, especially Brian and the surprisingly off the mark Wikipedia information, i.e. "compelling coverage of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001" sorry, but not much of it adds up. Compelling? That word an Aaron Brown are oxymoronic to say the least. Always thought Aaron was on lithium and his comments were invariably predictable, tired and hackneyed to the extreme. Also, wasn't he the one who couldn't make it in to CNN from a golf outing to cover the Sunami? I mean, Anderson Cooper may still have a long way to go, but holding him up to the supposed higher standard represented by Brown, who ain't no Edward R. Murrow by a long shot, is ludicrous. Everyone please take a breath and get a clue in that order.

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The way we get our news is changing. I was born in 1936 and for most of my life the news of the day came at 630 ET and we sat down to watch or listen for 1/2 hour and did not even consider news until the next day at the same time. Now there are TV news programs, internet news programs and radio news programs all day long and I get my news on the Internet. So in defense of Anderson Cooper, and in my opinion, his program is not intended to be all hard news and is not for those who want only hard news. It is meant to be a mixture of news, pop culture and entertainment. I have watched AC/360 for a year and a half and look forward to the program each night. Anderson has paid his dues, and is only 38, and has plenty of time to carve out a very successful career in whatever he wants to do when he grows up. JS

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I don't think Anderson Cooper plotted to have Aaron Brown removed from CNN. But unfortunately the backlash against Anderson from some could be as a result of Mr Klein shoving him down everyone's throats everytime you turn around. Both men have their strengths and weaknesses and at a network the size of CNN there should have been room for both.

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Quite a few people have commented that he is confrontational (brash and rude?) and I really disagree with that comment.

Heh - I think the people saying this are the Bush cultists who don't like it when reporters won't accept their spin as truth.

I loved it when Cooper did the story on the FDA's politicization of Plan B, and the Concerned Woman for America was trying to get out of saying she objected to it because she thought it was an abortifacient. Cooper asked her FOUR times (I counted), politely and respectifully, was it her position that Plan B induced abortions. She finally came out with some weak little admission to the effect that women should be INFORMED that Plan B prevented implantation - ie, yes.

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NewsNight with Aaron Brown was my rock. I could always count on an hour of information delivered in a way that I could connect with. Well-written, informative, well-delivered and I always tuned in. It was my nightly ritual. Now I don't. Uh, nothing against Cooper. I uh just see him uh as a "more words per minute" uh guy, delivering the news in a rushed, hurried and almost breathless style that fits with our cultural obsession -- uh speed!

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NewsNight with Aaron Brown was my rock. I could always count on an hour of information delivered in a way that I could connect with. Well-written, informative, well-delivered and I always tuned in. It was my nightly ritual. Now I don't. Uh, nothing against Cooper. I uh just see him uh as a "more words per minute" uh guy, delivering the news in a rushed, hurried and almost breathless style that fits with our cultural obsession -- uh speed!

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JC, after reading your comments about Aaron Brown, I found some mis-information. Aaron Brown was on the air for hours and hours on 9/11 and that rocketed CNN's ratings. He did cover the Sunami(sp), if you watched NewsNight you would have seen him in Banda Ache covering it.

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Although some of the previous comments are quite thought provoking, I'm not quite sure what (if any) relevance they may have in terms of either reporters competencies. I was a 'charter-member' of the original Anderson Cooper 360 Hour. Needless to say, I was drawn to his energy and his enthusiastic style. His recent sojourn to the Gulf States to cover Hurricane Katrina was nothing short of award-winning. However, his family background has absolutely 'zero' relevance in forming my opinion on his performance.
Further, don't mistake Cooper's refreshingly candid and eager persona as being brash and/or rude. Likewise, any reference towards Brown wallowing in a catatonic-state is simply an observation born out of ingnorance. His unique style has 'always' been proportioned and deliberate... similar to the likes of Cronkite, Reasoner, Jennings, and Koppel.
Any percieved anamosity between Brown and Cooper is primitively speculative. I'd 'bet-the-farm' that they'll be hitting the links (aka golf) together, once the transitional hype has subsided.
Speaking of which... how paradoxal has the ill-fated Columbia Flight /golf-tournament controversy been for Brown? On February 1st 2003, he's revered as the 'one' and 'only' esteemed CNN network anchor capable of broadcasting the tragedy. By November 2nd 2005, he's fallen from Jon Klein's grace and become another media commodity. Huh! Did I miss something?
As a retired businessman, I've experienced the phenomenon of one who was expected to be available 24/7. Consequently, I find it completely irrelevant whether Brown was golfing, spending time with his family or simply relaxing. Speaking from experience, I respect his decision not to capitulate and surrender his personal time to the endless demands of corporate America/Canada. The entire incident should have been relatively inconsequential and not worthy of the media-hype that it gathered.

There's no doubt that Mr. Brown's exit will be temporary. Countless appreciative viewers eagerly await his re-emergence and trust that his sabatical will be brief.
Let's hope that if the ratings don't support Mr. Cooper in his new format and time-slot, that he doesn't become the proverbial 'scape-goat' and take the rap for Jon Klein's controversial decision.

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I used to watch Aaron Brown regularly when he worked for decade at a NBC network affiliate in Seattle. Then he worked a year or two for a CBS affiliate in Seattle. I thought he was the best local anchor in the Northwest. I wondered what had happened to him...then I discovered him at his new gig on ABC's over night/early morning news program. I was ecstatic when CNN picked him up. For me, he epitomized all that is good in an anchor.....something that has been missing nationally since the retirement of Walter Cronkite etc. Now that Aaron Brown is gone, I only watch CNN a fraction of the time that I used to. Cooper does not impress me in the least. The fact that he has spent time out in the field moves me little, as literally hundreds of reporters have done the same. As far as the present state of news is concerned,I find so much pretentiousness in how the networks treat news now. The kindest words I think of to describe it, is....It is sad and pathetic.

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I first came across Aaron Brown in 1991 while traveling in the Pacific Northwest, when he was an anchor in Seattle. I immediately liked the guy and thought he was far too good to ‘just’ be on a local station. I was in Seattle for all of two weeks, and might have caught three or four of his shows. But I remembered him ever since, and, as others have also stated, I was happy to see he’d finally landed a national position with ABC, albeit in a rotten time slot when no one but insomniacs and third-shifters could tune in.

When CNN snatched him up, I was really glad to be able to regularly catch his show. I happened to be watching CNN the morning of 9/11. Hastily set up atop a nearby building in Manhattan within minutes of the first plane slamming into the WTC, Aaron’s calmness and thoughtfulness amidst the chaos and devastation that morning was nothing short of stunning. For myself and countless other viewers, his ability to maintain composure helped us to retain some shred of composure ourselves, and he was sadly comforting, to the extent any comforting was possible in such a situation. I already considered him the best news anchor around, but even if 9/11 was the first time I’d ever laid eyes on him, my opinion would have been the same. He should have earned a permanent position of honor within CNN for that morning alone.

I like Anderson Cooper, and don’t wish to put him down. I do consider him a better reporter than an anchor, though. CNN’s been tabloidizing itself for quite some time now, going for controversy over substance, opinion over fact, vitriol over balance (Crossfire, Talk Back Live, Jack Cafferty, etc.), and they’ve been progressively losing my respect (though I do like Jack). But, at least when you’re watching Jack Cafferty, you EXPECT bias, controversy and infotainment. Anderson’s sort of a pseudo-anchor, though, and blurs the distinction between being an anchor and entertainer. And, yes, he does what he does well. But to call him an anchor is, to me, a stretch, and misleading.

I’m not sure why Anderson’s the main focus of Aaron groupie’s irritation, though. Jon Klein, not Anderson Cooper, is the genius that silenced Mr. Brown, for simple personal dislike, by some accounts. And Wolf Blitzer’s face time has also benefited from Aaron’s axing. Now, him, I’ll criticize! He’s the most self-serving pompous poor excuse for a news anchor that CNN has. He’s dripping with disingenuousness, for starters. I’ve never sensed that he cares about any story. He’s quite rude, also. Not in a mean-spirited way, but just uncaring. In virtually every interaction with someone else, he just starts talking over them while they’re in mid-sentence, and he’s an equal opportunity sort, interrupting colleagues and interviewees alike. I can’t even watch him anymore. Now, HERE are two guys that ought to be getting their walking papers.

Yep, CNN’s all about ratings these days, trying to cater to the lowest common denominator – hey, it worked for arch-enemy Fox, right? But, to paraphrase Ben Franklin, those who would sacrifice integrity for ratings deserve neither. And, with no high ground to turn to, the lowest common denominator becomes lower, and commoner. America’s collective IQ suffers as a result. If they keep going as they are, in ten years CNN will just look like a 24/7 Jerry Springer Show.

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All I can say is Anderson Cooper's reporting style on CNN has this 30 something Canadian watching news a la American everynight. Its refreshing and spontaneous. I don't find him rude but honest and direct, but speaking his mind as I would. Wish we have reporters like him in Canada.

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