Yes, I'm Biased, But Hear Me Out

TV Week's Tom Shales thinks that Anderson Cooper is the perfect candidate to replace Dan Rather permanently at "CBS Evening News". You won't be able to read that link unless you're a subscriber, but here's the pertinent part:

Probably the most criticized performer of the coverage so far has been Anderson Cooper, the insanely telegenic anchor of his own nightly CNN news hour. In the early stages of the coverage, when the incompetence of government officials and bureaucrats was becoming shamefully obvious, Cooper became openly emotional on the air, berating at least one such official for the lack of preparedness.

Maybe Cooper's involvement in the story became extreme at that point, but I, for one, was not offended. Indeed, if I were Leslie Moonves, I would right now be trying to entice Mr. Cooper over to CBS to anchor the remodeled "CBS Evening News," if such a thing ever does actually appear on the air. Ironically or not, Cooper's status as a newsman-with-a-heart makes him television kin to Dan Rather, whom Mr. Moonves coldly "nudged" out of the anchor chair earlier this year. (Ironically, too, Rather first made his name during coverage of a deadly hurricane, and marched bravely into many a storm long after becoming anchor. He has been greatly missed during coverage of Katrina.)

Beyond that, Cooper has a newness to him, a wry touch of attitude that he very effectively modulates on the air. It is something that, combined with his visual appeal, could help bring young viewers to news-thus bucking or perhaps even reversing a long and dismaying trend in the other direction. Cooper, uh, still, um, has, uh, trouble ad-libbing, but when reading, when talking into the camera and making viewer contact, he is all poise and polish without being slick. He's no Stepford Anchor, and he deserves a bigger and better chance than CNN can give him.

At first I disagreed with Shales. I think that Cooper has a huge chance to shine at CNN. After all, beyond hosting AC360, he's now cohosting "NewsNight with Aaron Brown", and appears on "Larry King Live" pretty much every night. Whether those will be temporary, I don't know. Cooper's ratings now beat Shephard Smith's on FNN. I could see them going higher if he ever gets moved into the 10pm EST slot, when the younger demographic can actually tune in.

But Shales is right. Ultimately, people will look for network news before switching to a cable channel, if they even have cable. And Cooper now has built a name and reputation that would carry over well to a network. But I don't think CBS is the right fit. But there is another network that's looking for a permanent lead anchor, whether they want to talk about it publically or not. Therefore...

Reasons Why Anderson Cooper Should Co-Host "ABC World News Tonight" w/ Elizabeth Vargas

(Note: This in no way reflect the views of my employer, or my coworkers, or anyone who knows me, etc. etc. etc. yaddayaddayadda)

1. Cooper's been at ABC before. Remember his stint at "World News Now"? I certainly do. And let's not forget his short-lived tenure on "The Mole", although I'm fairly sure he'd like for us to.
2. He's a better fit at ABC, which skews younger and edgier than CBS. And does he really want to singlehandedly revive the reputation of an entire network's news coverage? I don't think so.
3. He's more Peter Jennings than Peter Jennings. He prefers being out in the field (he's already stated that he doesn't want to come back from NOLA) and does amazing reports from places that most of the media hasn't touched (Zaire.) The common folk love him. And he's willing to ask the hard questions and isn't particularly afraid of angering anyone while doing it, much like Jennings was with Big Tobacco.
4. The demographics for a Cooper/Vargas team would be an ad-man's dream. Cooper is young, metrosexual (nope, not touching the rumors here) and charming. Vargas is young, female and Latina (and really good in her own right - sorry that I don't know enough about her to target her more specifically.)
5. Cooper works really well with Erica Hill, who does the CNN Headline News newsbreaks. In fact, their interplay is one of the more entertaining parts of AC360. Even as stern and stodgy as most network news shows are, this might be a nice time to actually test something you don't see a lot of there - chemistry.
6. Cooper downplays this big-time, but you can't really forget that yes, he is a Vanderbilt. And yes, that does open doors with New York power players. It's actually kind of entertaining to see him try to make us forget about that (the best segment I've ever seen on AC360 was when he interviewed his mom Gloria Vanderbilt about her car, and she was Chyron-ed as "Anderson's Mom".)
7. Cooper shares something else with Peter Jennings - a true love of the craft of news and a willingness to do whatever it takes to get the story. You know how he broke into the biz? He bought a camera and hopped on a plane to Somalia to film packages to submit to Channel One. Not many of us are willing to go out on such a limb to do what we love to do. That kind of single-minded dedication is what it takes to make things work.

So that's my useless media advice for the day. Stay tuned for "Why Paula Zahn Needs to Get Off My TV NownowNOW!"

EDIT: Just found this excellent New York article about Cooper. It made me a bit teary-eyed and drove my point on even more. I never knew that his dad was from rural Mississippi and wasn't wealthy, or how the deaths of his dad and brother shaped his career choice. But really, his natural empathy makes more sense now. That's what pain does to you.