Digital Journal Presents: 10 Rebels With a Cause — Anderson Cooper

EMPATHETIC ANCHOR / AGE: 39

Digital Journal — Sure, he’s the Yale-educated WASP son of Gloria Vanderbilt, millionaire and socialite extraordinaire. And yes, he hosted that trashy reality show The Mole. But the CNN anchor and host of Anderson Cooper 360 has grown up to be a tough journalist who can get gutsy in a snap, injecting opinion into spots like he did during his Hurricane Katrina coverage.

When he interviewed Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana senator, and she deflected his questions with lame non-answers, his anger boiled over: “Literally there was a body on the streets of this town yesterday being eaten by rats, because this woman had been laying in the street for 48 hours. And there’s not enough facilities to take her up. Do you get the anger that is out here?” Landrieu looked like she’d been slapped, and rightly so: Here was this hothead reporter actually saying something with feeling.

Cue the Anderson Cooper fandemonium. Bloggers posted hurray-for-Cooper congrats while other reporters admired his courage to speak his mind. Anderson’s passion for the story propelled him up CNN’s ranks to finally replace Aaron Brown in the coveted prime-time weeknight slot.

Not content to sit still, Cooper is also branching outside the 24/7 news network. He’ll contribute as many as five reports a year to CBS News’ 60 Minutes, and he recently released his debut book, Dispatches from the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters and Survival.

Check out Digital Journal‘s Other Rebels: Dave Chappelle Creators of South Park Pamela Anderson Lewis Lapham Stephen Colbert Ora Ito Anna Netrebko Johnny Depp Howard Stern Top 10 Overhyped Celebs

Cooper’s success has come with its share of heartache: He lost his father at the age of 10 and then his brother committed suicide a decade later, jumping to his death from his mother’s balcony; working for Channel One, the classroom news network, Cooper reported from tragedy hotspots such as Bosnia, Vietnam and Rwanda; and at CNN, one of his first jobs was a correspondent from post-9/11 Afghanistan. No wonder he’s already gone grey.

As much as his work is about death and loss, it’s also about removing the filter. A classic Cooper moment will feature all the raw emotion reporters are taught to stifle. Even his inflection often hints at his true feelings about a story.

Forget Blitzer, King and Soledad: this grey-haired wunderkind actually makes CNN worth watching.

SUPER COOPER

• Cooper modelled for Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and Macy’s until age 13
  
• In light of several fans stalking him at the CNN headquarters in New York, Cooper is now escorted in and out of the building by a bodyguard
  
• According to New York magazine, Cooper earned $2 million (US) in 2005

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This article is part of Digital Journal’s national magazine edition. Pick up your copy of Digital Journal in bookstores across Canada and the United States! Or subscribe to Digital Journal now, and receive 8 issues for $29.95 GST ($48.95 USD)!