St. Mark's Last Saturday

CNN Anchor Anderson Cooper Urges Taking What Life Offers
By kathryn lehnhof - 18 Nov 2008

Anderson Cooper spoke at St. Mark's School in Salt Lake Saturday [Nov. 15] night as a part of the McCarthey Family Lecture Series in Praise of Independent Journalism.

Cooper is the primary anchor of the CNN News show Anderson Cooper 360.

Cooper told of the difficulty he encountered finding a job after graduating from Yale, and his unconventional route to success: he created a fake press pass, flew to Burma and crafted homemade news segments with a hand-held camera.

"My earliest rejection turned out to be my greatest blessing,” Cooper said. “When people don't give you a chance, you have to take one.”

Cooper went on to work for Channel One, ABC News and CNN.

Cooper has covered the War in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina extensively. He said he started out reporting in dangerous parts of the world because of the lack of competition but has since developed an affinity for war coverage. "You run to-wards what other people run away from," he said. "We need to look directly into the things which scare us the most.”

He said he likes to report how regular people deal with difficult circumstances. “In the hustle and bustle of daily life, we can easily forget the lives other people are living every day,” said Cooper. “All of us hang from delicate thread.”

Cooper encouraged aspiring journalists to "Follow your bliss," as his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, once told him. He cautioned reporters to check sources and set complete objectivity as the standard.

He also expressed his discouragement over the new media trend of anchors voicing personal opinions, and through repeatedly yelling them they often receive their own net-work show. He said accurate reporting is more devastating than yelling will ever be. "I'd rather go down with a product I’m proud of than the most watched product,” he said.

Cooper engaged in a lengthy question and answer session with audience members. When asked what the most amazing thing he has seen through his travels, he replied it was seeing the things that complete strangers will do for one an-other during tragic events like Hurricane Katrina.


Copyright Brigham Young University 18 Nov 2008

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Thanks to Rick Tulka for a great illustration of Anderson Cooper.
Visit Mr. Tulka's web page to view many other of his caricatures at: RickTulka.com