Thu, June 22, 2006
How Book Design Works—10:02 AM
Anderson Cooper was on The Daily Show last night to promote his new book, Dispatches from the Edge. (The edge of what? TV news? It's a sad state when the part of journalism with the actual stories and real interviews is referred to as the fringe.)
I've never been much a fan of Coop, perhaps because he seemed like a smug know-it-all on Channel One when I was in high school – although if that hadn't done it, The Mole would have. He seems to have modeled himself in the Stone Phillips "gravitas makes it so" fashion, which I find irritating. He was funny in those CNN promo spots a year or so ago, but he has a laugh like a weasel in a clothes dryer, which hampers his appearances on Stewart or Colbert.
I admit, he's doing better journalism than anyone else at CNN (or cable news in general), but that's not a high bar. The problem is, for every Katrina rant, there's a two-hour exclusive with Angelina Jolie. (Don't get me wrong; I love her, but let Matt Lauer handle the celebrity gabfests. He wouldn't know real news if it bit him in his spiky head.) Coop has done a good job building a brand for himself – one which is within CNN but also separate from it. He doesn't want to muddy that up with puff pieces.
This is important because CNN can't suddenly become its old self again (serious analysis, minimal punditry, hard-hitting news) – if it did, its viewers and interview subjects would bail over to FNC or MSNBC. It's too big a ship to steer. But Coop can infuse research, facts, and tough questions into his show because he's becoming well enough known that he can't be ignored. The key is to focus on maintaining that brand; if he dilutes it, he diminishes his strength and autonomy, and without them he has no hope of saving CNN from the inside.
Anyway, the cover of his new book is stupid.
Brandon — Fri, 6/23/06 5:17pm
Is it wrong that I want to have his hair? As a fellow early-grayer, he's definitely out there fighting the good fight.