Tag: cooper

Lemon acknowledges he’s not a straight news anchor, instead he talks “to people about the news”

by Allan, posted in CNN

lemonIn an interview on Medium, CNN Tonight anchor Don Lemon spoke candidly about the differences he sees between himself and NBC anchor Lester Holt, who is another high-profile black news journalist.

“We’re both news anchors, but our jobs are different. Lester does a straight newscast every night. I do two hours of mostly just talking to people about the news. Some people are not going to like what I have to say. If I was just sitting there every night, tossing to reporters and packaged stories and then saying good night at the end, there would not be this criticism of me. There would not be so much fodder and people talking about me all the time.”

He added, “But I have the most editorial freedom of anyone [at CNN], considering the time of night and the kind of person that I am.”

Lemon revealed he quit following President Trump on Twitter (the president previously called Lemon “the dumbest man on television”).

He noted he doesn’t generally respond to most of the hate about him. “I have a show that’s on CNN every night. If I have an issue with something, I am free to respond to it there or not. And most of the time I choose not to.”

On the tension between himself, fellow primetime hosts Anderson Cooper and Chris Cuomo, he said: “There’s competition, but it’s not a secret. Everybody is competitive. Everyone wants to put on a good show. Everyone wants the best show and the big story, and everyone wants to be first, but more than first, we want to be accurate and everyone wants to have the higher ratings. I mean, there’s competition amongst siblings. Right. Do you have sisters and brothers? Were you guys competitive? Are they competitive? Do they love each other? Of course.”

CNN bumps Anderson Cooper’s Hurricane Katrina special for Trump

by Allan, posted in CNN

CNN made the decision last night to bump Anderson Cooper’s special, Katrina: The Storm That Never Stopped to air coverage of GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump.

It will air instead tonight at 9pm ET.

You can safely bet that whoever set their DVRs for Cooper’s special were less than pleased when they discovered it was instead a special hour of CNN Tonight hosted by Don Lemon.

Jeanne Meserve returns to CNN on Sunday

by Allan, posted in CNN

Veteran correspondent Jeanne Meserve left CNN in late 2011, but she will be returning to the network tomorrow for an appearance on Brian Stelter’s Reliable Sources to discuss Hurricane Katrina, ten years later.

CNN will air a special report hosted by Anderson Cooper on August 25 at 9pm, Katrina: The Storm That Never Stopped, and Cooper will be live from New Orleans for AC360 on August 28.

Anderson Cooper returns to the Gulf Coast

by Allan, posted in CNN, Video

Returning to New Orleans for a special described as a “deeply personal journey” for CNN’s Anderson Cooper, the network will air a special the veteran CNN anchor taped about Hurricane Katrina, marking the 10th year since the storm devastated the region.

Cooper’s special, Katrina: The Storm That Never Stopped, will air on CNN at 9pm on August 25.

In addition, Cooper will be in New Orleans to live anchor Anderson Cooper 360 on August 28 at 8pm.

Watch:


(H/t NOLA)

Coop talks about Baltimore

by Allan, posted in CNN

Asked what it’s like for him out in Baltimore, AC360 news anchor Anderson Cooper responded:

“As you see on television, it’s obviously an extremely stressful time for people here. Tensions are high. There’s a huge variety of people here. We’ve seen, particularly in the last 24 to 36 hours, large numbers of community groups and pastors, moms, dads and men in the community who’ve come out to try to tamp down the violence and who have been very effective in standing between police and some of the crowds. I think that’s made a huge difference. Certainly today is very different than yesterday and yesterday is very different than it was the day before. It’s hard to describe. People are coming at this from a lot of different perspectives and a lot of different experiences. But there’s certainly a lot of tension, there’s a lot of anger and it’s understandable.”

When asked a question about Cooper would say to those who claim that when things got bad in Baltimore, the journalists were dining at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, he replied:

“I didn’t go the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. I went once 10 years ago and vowed never to go back. It’s not my kind of thing. That being said, it’s simply untrue to say that CNN has not been covering the death of Freddie Gray. From the moment the video was released, I’ve been leading off my broadcast on many nights with it. To say that nothing was done until Monday night when the violence erupted is simply not true… I certainly understand the frustration of people who maybe wanted to tune in Saturday and ended up seeing the White House Correspondents’ Dinner but I don’t have a hand in those decisions. I don’t have the logistics of how those decisions are made.”

Coop, for his part, was at an event in Phoenix, Arizona, where he was speaking about race.

You can read the Q&A at The Wrap.