The Anti-Anchor’s “Media-Sensation Thing”

Presenting the 5 best lines from Rebecca Dana‘s must-read dissection of the Anderson Cooper myth:

#5: 60 Minutes EP Jeff Fager says “it’s hard to explain why Anderson’s so big. A big part of it is because he’s very talented. As for the ratings? I don’t know what to say about that.”

#4: “The Jolie interview brought up a natural parallel. She gets two hours in prime time to talk about the plight of refugees because she is famous. He gets two hours in prime time to talk to Angelina Jolie for essentially the same reason.”

#3: “‘I just don’t get it,’ said one cable news executive. ‘I watch the show, and there’s nothing there for me. All of a sudden, I’m looking at the upfront for CBS, and he’s one of the faces of 60 Minutes. One of the three faces of 60 Minutes! How did that happen? It keeps rolling along, this media-sensation thing.'”

#2: Cooper is “aesthetically ill-suited to television. The silver hair and piercing blue eyes make him all light and no contrast, a human green screen. ‘He’s wispy,’ said the head of one cable news network. ‘I don’t know how to describe it.'”

#1: “CNN president Jon Klein calls Mr. Cooper ‘the anti-anchor.’ If an anchor is someone people regularly watch host a news program, Mr. Klein may be onto something.”