Anderson Cooper tells Andrew Sullivan: "I'm gay"

Sometimes the lack of audience understanding on this board blows my mind. Yes, Erin Andrews leaving ESPN is news. Yes, Anderson Cooper confirming his homosexuality is news. Yes, every one of Tiger Woods' mistresses' names was news.

Your news organization may not find it news fit to publish, but you're only costing yourself clicks in doing so. Readers are way more interested in this stuff than 99% of city council meetings. Get over it.

 

Working in musical theatre is like living in Bizarro world. It's news when a guy is straight.

 

NYT story shows another reason it's important:

Mr. Cooper, according to his colleagues, was bothered by news reports of bullying and other forms of discrimination against gays — reports that he has covered extensively on his shows. Those incidents, along with the fact that being publicly gay “just isn’t a big deal anymore,” contributed to his decision to speak publicly about his sexuality, one of his former producers said.

Because of his stature on television, “he feels that it will make a difference,” the person added. “He wanted to help.”

Mr. Cooper’s sexual orientation was known to his colleagues, just as it was to friends and other journalists. Network publicists sometimes tried to impose ground rules on interviews of Mr. Cooper to ensure that he wasn’t asked what he called on Monday “the gay question.” But he was asked occasionally, nonetheless, and wasn’t willing to answer directly until now.

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/02/anderson-cooper-says-the-fact-is-im-gay/?hp

 

Well, you've got me curious...

 

It's one of the lead stories on aol's homepage as well as that of yahoo. I know we're talking web vs. print but to me that's the equivalent of front-page news, 72 point headers. There again, with all the cuts in the industry, front-page lead headlines are 54 point because of the big-ass ad on the bottom of the page.

 

Again, it's under the topic of so what? His coming out or staying in doesn't solve anything, except in his mind.
Let's put it another way, does it make a difference to you that he's gay?

 

Your argument can be applied to just about every sports story ever.

 

Anderson should be a role model to aspiring journalists. Speaking of Anderson's journalism, he had the Utah polygamists who at one time had a reality show..not sure if they still do...I'm curious if Anderson thinks polygamists should be entitled to marriage rights.

 

Most news these days out of Washington doesn't SOLVE ANYTHING.

 

I guess he must have taken my advice?

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/90767/

Anyway, here he more or less parrots what I was saying in defending my original post:

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2012/07/weekend_desk_clearing_5.php

"I have always been very open and honest about this part of my life with my friends, my family, and my colleagues. In a perfect world, I don't think it's anyone else's business, but I do think there is value in standing up and being counted. I’m not an activist, but I am a human being and I don't give that up by being a journalist."

 

Anderson's a good journalist. The rest I could care less about. Won't make me watch any more or any less.

 

It's not an argument. It's called common sense.