Anderson Cooper's Haiti Reporting
Blog Opinion:
Anderson Cooper and Dr. Gupta have been at times the only major TV media on the ground bringing the stories and images to America. And when they have gone off script and offered opinions and critiques of the ineptness and often callous approach they have seen by the US and UN they have done what few in the TV news media have done - they provided a real point of view to what they have witnessed.
Blog Opinion:
Anderson Cooper and Dr. Gupta have been at times the only major TV media on the ground bringing the stories and images to America. And when they have gone off script and offered opinions and critiques of the ineptness and often callous approach they have seen by the US and UN they have done what few in the TV news media have done - they provided a real point of view to what they have witnessed.
Case in point when Anderson Cooper looked in the camera one night in the first week or so and said that medical personnel could help by getting on planes to DR and travel into Haiti with as much medical supplies as they could carry. It was a moment that summed up the disaster: the US and international response was so terrible that a newscaster had to make a direct call to action to anyone watching. I have no doubt that this reverberated on some level with people and helped contribute to the grassroots actions we have seen by medical personnel in the US getting to Haiti.
And when Dr Gupta took a hand-truck into a US military tent at the airport and retrieved antibiotics and painkillers for a hospital he had visited earlier, he showed clearly how mis-managed the US response was - one which lacked a heart and a mind. On that day the CNN medical correspondent was doing a better job than the entire response ordered by the President.
I wish Cooper and Gupta had conveyed this kind of urgency when they had the chance on high profile stages such as the George Clooney telethon. I wish they had let their guards down then and told the American people the truth at that time. Given the suffering that was surrounding them it would have been right and just if they had spoken plainly and with more conviction about what they had been witnessing. It would have done more for the Haitian people than Justin Timberlake and the other celebs singing songs.
I wish Cooper and Gupta had conveyed this kind of urgency when they had the chance on high profile stages such as the George Clooney telethon. I wish they had let their guards down then and told the American people the truth at that time. Given the suffering that was surrounding them it would have been right and just if they had spoken plainly and with more conviction about what they had been witnessing. It would have done more for the Haitian people than Justin Timberlake and the other celebs singing songs.
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