Cutting Anderson Cooper Just A Little Slack

CNN Pretty Boy Actually Has Some Journalistic Heft Under His Hair
So it's fashionable to dump on TV news It Boy Anderson Cooper. Sometimes, the silver-haired one makes it a little too easy, like during his fawning Angelina Jolie interview ,where he embarrassed himself asking questions about childbirth.
And, as The New York Observer's Rebecca Dana gleefully points out, all the hype hasn't translated into ratings for his two-hour newsfest on CNN. In fact, they slip most nights in comparison to his somnabulant predecessor, Aaron Brown.
http://observer.com/20060703/20060703_Rebecca_Dana_pageone_nytv.asp
For now, let's try to give the guy at least an eensy bit of credit. If he was all hair, blue eyes and empty-headed, he'd be interviewing hucksters on infomercials by now. Instead, he's hit the highway numerous times in search of a good story and has often come through. CNN isn't exactly blowing its travel budget on a bubble-head.
Covering the tsunami, Cooper found the right mix of gravitas and emotion. He may have gone off the rails at times during the Katrina coverage, but so did most of us as we watched the story unfold.
The Coop's also gotten down and dirty in Afghanistan and Pakistan, among other dubious ports of call. And his brief excursions to "60 Minutes" were solid to a fault, which bodes well for the five stories he's slated to do there in the coming season.
For now, let's forgive him his Jolie trespasses and see what happens next. You might be pleasantly surprised.