Anderson Cooper commits an act of real journalism.

[dgibby]

If you have not been watching AC360 on CNN, do yourselves a favor and tune in. He's been reporting from the Gulf for several weeks now, and his coverage has been outstanding.

His reporting is comprehensive, he interviews the locals, getting the perspective from the people on the front lines, and he holds both BP and the govt. up for scrutiny.

Tonight, he reported that, after waiting weeks for barges with vacuums to arrive, they finally got there, only to be shut down promptly because the Coast Guard hadn't inspected them yet.

One can only imagine the frustration/anger of the locals with all the red tape. It's heartbreaking to watch. CG "hopes" to get the barges inspected in the next 2-3 days!

I'm really surprised there hasn't been violence there yet. Speaks well of the citizens of the Gulf.

[caledesi]

1. AC is a great journalist! nt

[Maru Kitteh]

22. +1. AC and the AC 360 team is the BOMB.

[Sheltiemama]

56. And he always looks great.

So call me shallow, heh, heh.

[old mark]

2. Anderson can really do it when he is pressed...one of the few TV "News"

persons who deserves the name.


mark

[ScarletFyre]

3. AC shines

When he's out in the field.

[dgibby]

17. Indeed he does!

Welcome to DU!:hi:

[Mimosa]

4. AC ought to get a Pulitzer for his work in Katrina, Haiti and now Gulf Coast

I watch each nights Anderson Cooper 360.

[malaise]

33. +1,000

Superb coverage

[Little Star]

34. Yes, he does deserve a Pulitzer.

[gauguin57]

45. He'll have to get some other kind of award ... Pulitzer is for print journalism.

(and photography and editorial cartooning) plus arts & letters/literature. The first online news organization to win, I believe, was ProPublica (this year), in cooperation with the NYT.

There are other awards for broadcasters (like the Emmy for broadcast journalism).

[gateley]

5. I became a fan when he covered Katrina. He was enraged by the injustice

and always has so much empathy with those who are hurting.

[jobycom]

6. That's not unusual. I love the man forever for his work after Katrina.

A lot of journalists just do what they are forced to do by their networks, yet when a real emergency happens, you can see the training and instinct kick in. Ashley Banfield was like that. If you watched her on 9-11, she was the best journalist on TV that day. She was rewarded by being given her own show, but the producers forced her to cover inane human interest stories--the kind of thing women are supposed to cover, apparently--and she fell flat on her face trying to repeat the nonsense they wanted her to repeat.

She was highly critical of the Iraq war coverage and the cheerleading of the US media for the way, and was tossed to the curb for her troubles. I hear she's on CourtTV now, but I haven't watched it.

Anyway, the point is, she was a helluva journalist, but the networks don't want journalists and make sure that they don't get real journalists, so they destroy the ones the do get. Anderson Cooper manages to play their game well enough to be around when a real story erupts, and then he gets to do the stuff he knows how to do.

He was one of the best after Katrina. He has my undying love for that.

[dgibby]

10. Agreed and agreed,

about both Anderson and Ashley.

Anderson has a genuine affinity for the people of the Gulf, especially NOLA, and he took the head honcho of BP apart for his "small people" comment tonight.

As for Ashley, she risked her life to get the story on 9/11, then got kicked to the curb. I really miss her, and would love to see her get her own show on CNN or MSNBC, but only if they let her run her show like Rachel, Keith, and Anderson do.

[jobycom]

15. They will only allow a limited number of smart women to have their own show.

It's not just the glass ceiling and the rampant misogyny of this country, it's also a marketing decision. Eye candy women who simply read cover are okay, but if they have too many women acting as independent thinkers, genuine journalists, and commentators, they fear the network will get labeled as a special interest network for women, or worse, a feminist network.

It's a shitty industry, isn't it? Entertainment, I mean.

[dgibby]

21. Sad, isn't it? n/t

[flyarm]

7. Anderson is the only one I have seen on the Gulf doing real journalism..excellent

reporting..the only one I can say is excellent other than our local news in the beginning of this disaster..

I can say honestly..I was never a great fan of Anderson..but he has made me respect him and he has now earned my respect in every way!

Anderson Cooper has been the best telling the truth!

I thank him for that!

From a Gulf resident.

[dgibby]

12. Anderson shines at telling the story from the local perspective.

He has a great deal of empathy for the victims, whether it's Haiti, or the Gulf, etc., and he always lets them tell their own story. It's an art, and he's very good at it, but he couldn't pull it off if he didn't care about the people involved.

[WCGreen]

8. He seems to be letting the people on the ground show their outrage...

Really a refreshing change from watching desk jockey's summon up their outrage safely in the studio.

Remember, Rachel was one of the first cable people to get down there and report.

[dgibby]

13. She and Anderson are very much alike,

in that they genuinely care about the people they're reporting on, and they're not afraid to express their own outrage/frustration re: the situation.

[Cetacea]

9. With respect to other good journalists, I think he deserves a Pulitzer

[dgibby]

20. I'd love to see him get a Pulitzer.

He's very deserving. Rachel, too.

[FedUpWithIt All]

11. AC is the journalist who risked injury to save the boy with the head injury in Haiti.

I have great respect for him after that and his handling of Katrina.

Edited to add that i wish he would find that boy and do a followup. It was heartbreaking to see how badly injured he was.

[Jennicut]

30. I forgot about that. He does seem to really care.

[Poboy]

14. Yes, I cannot thank Cooper and Maddow enough.

Their reporting is outstanding, and I will be forever grateful.

Cooper has been kicking ass though. Calling everyone who needs it to the mat.

[dgibby]

16. Yep!

He's definitely NOT taking any prisoners!:evilgrin:

Welcome to DU!:hi:

[Missy Vixen]

18. There is no end to how great he is

I follow him on Twitter. His Tweets from Haiti were heartbreaking, as was the televised coverage. He had to go home for a few days after the first few weeks in Haiti. He said all he wanted was to go back.

It's just plain sad that those without cable don't get to watch Cooper and Rachel Maddow.

[dgibby]

19. I understand he goes back to NOLA often.

One of his collegues on CNN mentioned it one day in passing. Something about how much he loved NOLA, IIRC.

[jeanpalmer]

23. Thanks for the heads up

Hadn't watched CNN in a while. Just turned it on. It was very informative. He had a couple of executives from a parish? on the LA coast. They said there's no cleanup effort in their area. Oil is coming ashore and there are no clean up people in sight. A few booms floating unattended. The ships that arrived recently to vacuum the oil were grounded by the CG. They describe a bureucratic seize up. They also were critical of the use of Corexit, said it took the oil under water which then washed up on shore. They want an end to its use.

[dgibby]

27. You're welcome.

I watch him every night, but rarely see anything posted about him, so just wanted to remind everyone about his program. It's nice to see he has so many viewers here.

[intheflow]

24. "Speaks well of the citizens of the Gulf."

Not to speak ill of the GC folks, but I think it's just as likely that they're beat down from barely surviving disaster time and again, then having to pick themselves up and start all over again. That region has taken a hell of a beating in the last 5 years.

[cwydro]

25. wow

good god.

[grantcart]

26. He does really well in disaster situations.

[JDPriestly]

28. If this is the way our military runs our wars, it's no wonder that

we don't seem to ever be able to end them. Too slow. Too heavy. We need to get light-footed folks to command our soldiers and our community efforts. They seem to spend more time worrying about how things work, about public relations, than on getting their work done.

[dgibby]

29. Way too many bosses in the gulf.

You can't run a war by committee and you sure as hell can't run a disaster by committee!

The time for a committee is BEFORE the disaster strikes, during the emergency planning stage, not in the middle of the damn thing.

I cannot even begin to tell you how many disaster planning committees I was on when I was in the Navy. We "planned the work and worked the plan",trying to anticipate everything that could possibly go wrong. We ran drill after drill after drill, noted what worked, what didn't, tweaked the plan accordingly, then drilled again.

When the REAL disaster hit (Hurricane Hugo), we were as ready as we could be, but even then things still went wrong at the last minute.

For example, even though we had anticipated that our patient load at the Charleston Navy Hospital would increase significantly, we had to scramble to make more room when we were tasked to take on several flooded out nursing homes and all the ventilator patients from the local VA hospital, as well as patients from a psych hospital in the area.

We were able to respond because the rest of our plan was in place, running smoothly, thus leaving us free to react to the unexpected.

When the back up power system went down, we had enough personnel on hand to manually ventilate patients on respirators.

When the toilets wouldn't automatically flush because we'd lost power and water, we formed bucket brigades, using the plastic trash cans we had on hand, and used the water from the large fountain in front of the hospital.

I'm not saying it wasn't a mess(especially the overflowing toilets-ugh!). It was, but it was controlled chaos because we had a plan, we executed the plan, but first and foremost, we had a well-delineated chain of command, and the buck stopped at the CO's desk. We had absolutely NO doubt about who was in charge (and neither did he).

The damage being done to the Gulf is 90 due to piss poor planning and execution, and lack of clearly defined LEADERSHIP.

My disgust over this knows no bounds.

[JDPriestly]

42. I grew up in a good-sized family.

I do not understand people who are not team-players. I think you are right.

But, to have leadership, you have to have teamwork. All that planning work you did in the Navy built the team. It built a sense of ownership and belonging to the team. Participating in the preparation and the practice training, you became confident in the ability of your fellow teammates to get the job done.

Nowadays, kids don't grow up in large families. Some of them grow up in families that are fighting and working against each other, not toward the same goals.

I played in orchestras and string quartets and sang in choirs as a kid. Nowadays, if you are good at sports, you get some experience on a team. But for nerdy, short people like me who never, never get chosen for the sports team, now that so many schools do not teach music, there are very few group activities where you learn to pull together.

Ah, the good old days.

[dgibby]

43. Sounds like we were separated at birth!

We've definitely led parallel lives, except I was in the high school band, and did get to warm the bench on the girl's basketball team (but I think it was because my dad would drive us to out of town games, not because I had any athletic ability).:rofl:

You hit the nail on the head about teamwork, too. It's like horses pulling a wagon. If they're pulling in different directions, the wagon's either going to stay put or tip over.

[treestar]

31. What was the "red tape" and the reasoning behind it?

If he's such a great journalist, why not try to explain the rules and regulations that caused the hold up and give that a fair hearing? Rather than just give into the low frustration tolerance of Americans.

You know I'm getting pretty sick of "anger." It's destructive and we seem to celebrate it and indulge in it at first opportunity.

[dgibby]

35. He did.

I didn't go into all the details in the post. I suggest you go to his site and view the videos, then decide for yourself about his journalistic skills.

As for the "low frustration tolerance of Americans", if you're "getting sick" over all the anger being expressed by the victims, I suspect having to personally endure what they've been through with Katrina and now this catastrophe would put you in ICU on a ventilator.

As for getting "sick", your obvious lack of empathy for the people experiencing this hell makes me want to :puke:

I have family and friends in the Gulf region. Please don't use them and their "low tolerance levels" and "anger" to advance your personal agenda here. Start your own thread. I'm sure it will be much better received than it is here.

[treestar]

36. I have family and friends in the Gulf Region

They can deal with adversity without getting frustrated immediately and just lashing out blaming the nearest convenient scapegoat and worshipping "journalists." They can handle adversity without indulging in useless "anger and frustration."

You didn't go into "details." :puke: Of course not. The whole point of the post was to worship a journalist.

Now go do a thread shilling Rachel Maddow as President.

[dgibby]

39. I'd love to stay around and toy with you,

but my personal code of ethics won't allow it. High standards can be a curse.

[malaise]

32. Anderson is the best disaster coverage journalist

by some distance.

[Daphne08]

37. Anderson Cooper's father was from the South, so he may

have a special attachment to that area.

No matter, he has done a great job during this crisis. I watch his show regularly these days as I did during Katrina.

[lonestarnot]

38. Janet Napalitano doesn't know shit about water. She's from AZ.

[JPZenger]

40. After College, he borrowed a camera and became a freelanser in war zone

After he graduated from Yale, he wanted to get hired by TV network news, but couldn't even get a job as a gopher. So he decided that he would go where no one else wanted to go. He borrowed a camera and went to horrible war zones in Africa and sold his stories to various news outlets. He was mainly working for Channel One, which was broadcasting news into high schools.

He had a few days off for a vacation, and spent it at the Genocide Museum in Rwanda.

One moment that really affected him was when his brother jumped to his death in front of his mother, in Manhattan.

[dgibby]

41. Thanks for sharing that.

I had no idea he'd done all that.

I admire him, not only for his skill as a journalist, but also for the fact that he eschewed the rich playboy lifestyle in favor of a more worthwhile endeavor.

[gauguin57]

44. AND ... not only is he doing his job magnificently as a journalist ...

... he does it while wearing "crisis casual" (he and Dr. Gupta and all of those guys).

They're so cute in their black T-shirts. Hey ... I can look AND listen at the same time!

[dgibby]

46. +1 n/t

[BrklynLiberal]

47. Saw the video of him with Edward James Olmos, on a samll boat. It was heartbreaking..

[dgibby]

48. The last time I was this sad and outraged was during Katrina,

and for the same reasons: response is too little, too late, and we've been lied to from the very start. It would seem we never learn.

[NNN0LHI]

49. Have you noticed he always says he has invited representatives from BP on but none accepted?

But he never says he has invited representatives from Halliburton on but none accepted? Matter of fact he never even mentions one of the main co-conspirators in this case. Halliburton.

Wonder why that is?

Don

[MadMaddie]

50. He is a great journalist and he is doing a great job.

On the Coast Guard needing to inspect the ships...Remember expediency does not always mean it's the right thing to do. This is how the Gulf was turned into the dead zone by BP. Let's make sure the ships are safe and in good shape and then we can at least have a measure of confidence that some other major issue will crop up.

[mzteris]

51. Barges were cleared -

they were stopped due to safety concerns.

"HOUMA, La. – The vacuum barges in Louisiana have been deemed safe to re-join the fight against the oil spill in the Gulf. The vacuum barges were temporarily removed from service after safety concerns occurred including stability and the lack of lifesaving and firefighting equipment.

The Coast Guard Incident Commander in Houma, responsible for the safety of more than 10,000 response workers in Louisiana, and the Coast Guard Captain of the Port of New Orleans, responsible for general vessel safety and inspections in Louisiana, consulted on the safety issues of the shallow water barge vacuum vessels. They are satisfied that all concerns have been addressed and the vessels are safe for all crewmembers aboard.

“The Coast Guard supports the Louisiana vacuum barge project - fighting the oil is our priority. However, we will never compromise the safety of all the men and women working so hard out in the field,” said Capt. Roger Laferriere, Coast Guard Incident Commander in Houma. "


So what would the headline have read if the Coast Guard had let them through - UNCHECKED - and some other disaster happened.

COAST GUARD KILLS! or maybe XX LIVES LOST DUE TO COAST GUARD FAILURE TO INSPECT!!

Damned if you do and damned if you don't. . .

[mzteris]

52. cleared story posted at 05:21:40 CST

What time did that scintillating story appear??

[TheKentuckian]

53. Glad to hear he is coming through in the clutch though I usually don't

think much of him because he'll bulldog dumb questions and does the false equivalence framing bullshit.

He seems to be much better in the field than discussing issues or getting answers to serious problems in the studio.

[jeffrey_X]

54. I like AC except when he pulls a Larry King or follows celebrity bullshit.

he has his moments, but he can be too mainstream and soundbite driven.

[GeorgeGist]

55. Kinda makes one scratch their head in wonder ...

at the geniuses who are benefitting from this disaster.

One thing's for sure, though, Human Greed is kicking Nature's ass in the Gulf of Mexico.