We’ll look at him from both sides now: Anderson Cooper wants you to know that he can play the cosmic fool too—just in case you hadn’t noticed from watching his CNN program.
On CNN, Cooper gets an hour. In August, large chunks of that time were devoted to “tot mom” down in Florida. Recently, he has been all tangled up with the latest missing person in Aruba.
Now, Anderson Cooper wants you to know that he can be even dumber! In this morning’s New York Times, we learn about his other side—the side of himself he’ll let us see on his syndicated, daytime program. The stupid new program starts this week, with Snooki as an hour-long guest.
Bill Carter does the report about this new side to Cooper:
CARTER (9/12/11): Beyond Snooki, Mr. Cooper’s first-week lineup includes an interview with Sarah Jessica Parker about her new movie, a chat with the cast of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” in the wake of the suicide of one of the husbands, and, in his opening episode on Monday, an interview with the family of the recently deceased pop singer Amy Winehouse.We do think there’s something wrong with it. In fairness, Cooper will be augmenting his $10 million CNN salary, Carter reports. That’s an important consideration in these difficult times.
These topics are not likely to be addressed on his CNN program, and that is one of the reasons Mr. Cooper wanted to expand into daytime talk. “Everybody has different sides to them,” he said in an interview by phone. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting to work different jobs that show different sides of you.”
The down side? Presumably, Cooper will be even less well prepared to conduct intelligent discussions on his CNN program.
Cooper has a major platform in news. He still wants to spend an hour with Snooki. The sheer stupidity—and the greed—define the death of the culture.
Hey Howler -- This is not a new thing, though, right? Murrow did "Face To Face" with Liberace the same time he was taking down McCarthy on "See It Now." Of course, he wasn't making 10 mil, either.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't forget Hedda Hopper. There has always been a bit of vapidity in American culture...probably coming out of the Puritan influence. William Randolph Hearst made a fortune via sensationalism. The examples go right back through our history.
ReplyDeleteWhat's new is the extent to which such tripe now pervades and dominates the news environment. I think that's partly due to the immensely greater opportunities now; back in the olden days there were simply less venues for the airing of such gossipy dreck. Now there are a bazillion cable channels and the infinite Internet yearning to be filled, and the easiest thing to produce is crap.
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting to work different jobs that show different sides of you.”
ReplyDeleteSo I guess at CNN, showcasing the aspects of their newsfaces is relevant?
They simply haven't figured out that doing news and doing it well will serve them well in the ratings wars.
Plus . . . Wolff Blitzer makes my teeth hurt.
@pierce (as I beleive Eric Alterman used to call you in an Ed McMahon kind of way "h-e-r-e-'-s Pierce!" - I miss those days):
ReplyDeleteIsn't it true that in the days of Murrow, the population got most of their news from daily newspapers and TV was still mostly an entertainment medium? Isn't that different?
Pierce,
ReplyDeleteMurrow did "Face to Face," but did he do it to explore his other side or because it was part of the miserable price he had to be pay to put things like "Shame of a Nation" on the air?
Oops. Make that "Harvest of Shame."
ReplyDeleteOops. Make that "Person to Person."
ReplyDeleteHeck, I remember when Johnny Carson used to have Beverly Sills on the Tonight show. I have watched Youtube videos of "What's My Line", where it was assumed that panelists on a successful prime time TV show would know who Helen Traubel was.
ReplyDelete