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I had a chance to meet Anderson Cooper last week, and I didn’t share that experience here in lieu of so many other things going on. With some time to sit back and think upon it, I’ll now share a little of the experience.

So who is Anderson Cooper? He is the news anchor for CNN’s 360° , a show that I have yet to really watch. You see, I’m falling critic to broadcast journalism. In the pace of news and news now, I am starting to wonder how broadcast news stands to raise credibility with such an emphasis on releasing the newest information now.

It’s a conflict of interest. You can publish accurate data slowly or mostly correct information quickly, but it is a hard reality that accuracy requires time. This comes from the perspective of print journalism, where several layers of editors have a chance to question what the story hopes to accomplish and tell. Add to that a list of people who are paid fact checkers, and print starts to show why it can be fairly reliable.

Anderson Cooper actually started as a fact checker. In some regards, I find that interesting. But not many of you have met the types of people who ‘want’ to become broadcast anchors and reporters. Then again, most of you haven’t met the type of people who want to become paper newsies either. I’ll be careful with my opinions because I have respected colleagues in both industries. To that end, I’d be graciously thankful if any journalist posted a response to these notions.

A lot of broadcast journalists start with a desire to be on television. A lot of paper journalists start with a desire to see their name in print. The beginnings of both careers have a fair share of ego hounds seeking rank as a primary mission, not the retrieval of news. I’ve also come to realize that a great deal of broadcasters start with an interest in sports, which dissolves in the face of vicious competition for sports anchor desks. In other words, it takes me back, just a bit, when I meet an anchor who seems genuinely interested in the issues.

I’m not sure what got Cooper going, to be sure, but he spent time reflecting a bit on his war story beginnings. He started with Channel One news working on war stories. When I say working on war stories, I mean hitching planes over to dangerous war zones and videotaping with a camcorder. He said it was basically like shooting a home video in the war field. Often, the ‘real’ reporters already had filled any local safe hotels, leaving Cooper to seek safety in less structured routes.

Really, I felt I could get a sense of his character from the way he was answering questions during the press conference. Let me set the seen before giving you the link to the videos I took of the conference.

I went strictly as a videographer with Neil Mulka, a Kansan reporter. Mulka wasn’t particularly aware of Cooper as he’d simply been ‘assigned’ the story and, as I’ve admitted already, I’m not huge into broadcast news. We had discussed a bit of a plan when we met, but we were ultimately relying on the greater knowledge other reporters would have at the conference for good question material. While my ultimate role was videographer, I think I’ll better prepare for any meeting based of this experience. Not that Mulka didn’t have questions, but I felt we could have really sharpened our pencils for this guy.

When we arrived, we were first on the scene. The Governor’s Room housed a long board room table with about 20 blue chairs encircling it. Pictures of governors who had supported KU in some small way lined a wall. I set up the camera and Mulka took a seat.

About 15 minutes later, Mulka and I are the only souls waiting in the room. I start to feel curiously out of place and anxious about talking to Cooper directly with no one else around. Channel 6, Lawrence’s local station, has a crew lost somewhere in the Union building and we’ve been told that Cooper is checking his e-mails before he heads up.

When he arrives, he seems no more important than anyone else around him. He’s unassuming and friendly and gladly shakes the hands of students and staff. Oddly, I notice he looks exactly as he does on television and any picture I’ve seen of him. Usually, I notice a trace difference, something perhaps hidden by photography or make-up, perhaps a perceptual difference in size. He asks where he’s supposed to sit and Mulka offers the seat across the table from him.

Cooper sits right in front of him and hunches slightly forward in the seat, his shoulders narrowed from his hands and arms resting in his lap. As Neil warms into some questions, Cooper huddles even farther forward to listen intently over some of the chatter now in the room.

Cooper uses a mix of humor and candor in answering questions. You’ll see that quite obviously when Mulka asks about convergence journalism (which CNN doesn’t really do), and blogs. After Cooper points out that ultimately, it is really important to get news from all different sources, Mulka asks what other sources Cooper gets his news from. Cooper starts the beginnings of a smile.

“Well really CNN is all you need,” Cooper replies, obviously joking and even I chuckle at this blatant advertisement.

As the Channel 6/Lawrence Journal-World team finally arrives, they delve into what he is going to talk about, where it becomes obvious they don’t know him extremely well either. He indicates he is going to talk on some stories he has been working on lately and I never heard a question that indicated anyone knew what Cooper had worked on.

It shouldn’t be so shocking, Cooper has only recently become visually known to most of us. If you’ve seen the recent bout of CNN commercials featuring the gentleman at his computer with Cooper waiting in the seat, that’s about the first most of us have seen of him. “How do you know all this stuff.”

“I’m a reporter, that’s my job,” Cooper replies.

Though the commercial sparks a sense of humor as we don’t always agree that reporter’s know anything, I’m fairly impressed with how Cooper carries himself. That’s something that motivates me in this business. Not just meeting the people you know, but having an excuse, a need to have access to very unique personalities.

When Cooper describes his war experiences, he describes an interest in the human story, not the military numbers. He was more interested in the strife and anguish which is really more the mark of war than military strategy. While it could all be well done PR, I tend to think he was genuinely a brash and naive young reporter with a sincere interest in human stories.

If I can grab the clip, there is video of a girl saying she has a crush on Cooper. His response is boyish before he recomposes himself and addresses the question in which this lady snuck in her little remark. His human awkwardness to this response seems a silly testament to the humble nature that really describes my impression of him.

“You want the headlines or the weather?” “Just the weather.”
I’ll be looking for this guys headlines from here on out.