Anderson Cooper Signs New Multiyear Deal with CNN

Now all speculation my be set away. He is staying with CNN

By Ben Grossman -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/19/2007 12:05:00 PM

Anderson Cooper has inked a new multiyear pact with CNN, according to sources inside the all news network. Under the terms of the new deal, the host of the CNN primetime show Anderson Cooper 360 can continue as an occasional contributor to 60 Minutes.

Although the network would not comment directly on the matter, CNN President Jon Klein said, "Anderson Cooper is an exceptional journalist, and his dedication in going after important stories wherever they occur makes him a natural fit for CNN. We look forward to more of his groundbreaking work in the years to come."

Cooper’s previous contract with CNN was worth around $2 million a year, according to sources, and his new pay is more than double that amount. CNN has also made Cooper the center of an unprecedented multimillion-dollar promotional campaign.

Last December his newscast was up more than 30% in the key 25-54 news demo.

Cooper’s new CNN deal comes in the wake of months of speculation that he might make a full-time leap to CBS. The 39-year-old Cooper had been courted by CBS to take over the reins of the network’s ratings-challenged morning newscast The Early Show.

CBS News brass has wanted to make over The Early Show for some time, but with Cooper now not available, the news division is struggling to come up with what talent to turn to next. For the time being, the show is staying with the co-host trio of Harry Smith, Hannah Storm and Julie Chen, along with news anchor Russ Mitchell. Co-host Rene Syler left last December.

The Dangers of Keeping them honest

The Armenian - American, Hrant Dink, who had received death threats from nationalists for questioning Turkey's denial of an Armenian genocide, was shot in the head and killed today in front of his office in Turkey.

Last October, Russian Anna Politkovskaya, a leading investigative journalist and critic of President Vladimir Putin, was shot, contract-style, in her Moscow apartment building.

“When an internationally renowned reporter can be gunned down in her own apartment building and the perpetrators walk away free, it has a devastating effect on the press. Fewer tough questions are asked, fewer risky stories are covered, Her case shows why impunity is such a serious threat to press freedom, not only in Russia but in nations such as the Philippines, Colombia, Mexico, and Pakistan.”

Large corporations and powerful groups would do anything to just keep their dirt under their rugs. Could you imagine any media outlet daring to expose the real contracts and conditions of a powerhouse like Halliburton while Cheney is still the VP?

Paul Klebnikov, Forbes Russia
July 9, 2004
Moscow
Klebnikov, 41, editor of Forbes Magazine who exposed the workings of the country's shadowy billionaire tycoons, was killed outside his Moscow office. An American of Russian descent, he was struck several times by shots fired from a passing car.

Over the years, experience has demonstrated, that the attacks are done where the journalists are more vulnerable: their homes or office. Their families are often victims of hostilities, harassment and even abduction. Journalists are not celebrities. The more exposed they are in that matter, the more vulnerable and less capable they are to do their job without the added burden.

Many might be thinking, that doesn't´t happen in the USA. WRONG. More journalist are jailed here, companies threatened with losing their licenses or simply denying access to information. Something Rumsfield, Cheney and González have never doubt of doing and force.

After Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and the Gulf states on August 29, the Federal Emergency Management Agency urged news organizations not to photograph dead bodies. Numerous bodies were left in public areas for days after the hurricane amid a government recovery effort that was widely criticized for being slow and ineffective. The Washington Post reported that in at least one instance state authorities echoed the demand not to photograph the dead.

New Orleans police adopted an aggressive stance in several reported cases. On September 1, city police ripped a camera from the neck of Lucas Oleniuk of the Toronto Star and removed the camera's memory cards, robbing the photographer of more than 350 images. The seized images included "officers delivering a fierce beating to two suspects," the Toronto Star reported. The same day, Gordon Russell of the New Orleans–based Times-Picayune wrote that he and another photographer were slammed against a wall and had their gear thrown to the ground by police. On September 7, NBC News anchor Brian Williams reported that he and his crew were ordered to stop filming a National Guard unit securing a downtown store. "I have searched my mind for some justification for why I can't be reporting in a calm and heavily defended American city and cannot find one," Williams told The Washington Post.

On October 18, a New Orleans police officer was caught on film harassing an Associated Press Television News producer whose crew was filming two other officers beating a man suspected of public intoxication. Two of the officers were fired and one was suspended.

Maybe the pressure of the US government towards the media outlets is the main reason the international press call US Media "soft wimps", that have left the hard questioning to Jon Stewart of the Daily Show. And with the added disadvantage of the celebrity cult that persists in the USA, where TV journalists draw attention to the verge of invasion of privacy or simple good old stalking.

So please keep in mind, that the next time you come across of an image of Anderson Cooper´s apartment, his home address, his family´s whereabouts, his personal life, you are not only enjoying a piece of entertainment gossip, you are supporting his vulnerability and mining his capability to access information, and by that silencing one of the few voices that ¨keeps them honest¨.

Technorati tags: Anderson Cooper, Keeping them Honest, Danger, Journalism, Killed Journalists, Vulnerability, Stalkers.

Some eerie images

A friend sent me this images of a young Wyatt Cooper. The more I read about him, the more I like him. Recently I came across with an article about an anti Vietnam Rally he organized leading the cultural NY scene back in the 60s. He was, without doubt, a great gentleman.
The resemblance with Anderson is very strong. If only Anderson would gain a little weight.

And sorry if I'm slurring my words ... wine and the hour... wine and the hour!

She also sent me this image of her collection - she is a GV freak- of a very young Anderson with his mom:

Thinking of Michael Ware

It is going to be near two months since the last time we saw Michael on air. I hope he is well, healthy and in the company of his loved ones. God knows he deserves a long vacation. It is not easy to live and work in hell. In his last live transmission from Baghdad he looked wired, tired, stressed. He must have the worst working hours ever. Work all day and stay awake for the Satellite... a 9 hour difference? Personally I don't know. But he must be tired. Things in Iraq are far from being resolved. I don't know if he is going back, CNN have several reporters there after all, and the amount of journalists killed over there is simply alarming. For me it is extreamly sad to see how people get all hyped, obsessed with pity dumb stories while people literally die in order to gain access to the truth. Maybe it is just America.

From the people from the Committee to Protect Journalists:


New York, December 20, 2006—Violence in Iraq claimed the lives of 32 journalists in 2006, the deadliest year for the press in a single country that the Committee to Protect Journalists has ever recorded. In most cases, such as the killing of Atwar Bahjat, one of the best-known television reporters in the Arab world, insurgents specifically targeted journalists to be murdered, CPJ found in a new analysis.

Worldwide, CPJ found 55 journalists were killed in direct connection to their work in 2006, and it is investigating another 27 deaths to determine whether they were work-related. Detailed accounts of each case are posted on CPJ’s Web site. The figures reflect increases from 2005, when 47 journalists were killed in direct relation to their work, while 17 others died in circumstances in which the link to their profession was not clear. CPJ, founded in 1981, compiles and analyzes journalist deaths each year.

Afghanistan and the Philippines, with three deaths apiece, were the next most dangerous datelines in 2006. Russia, Mexico, Pakistan, and Colombia each saw two journalists killed. All are traditionally dangerous countries for the press, CPJ research shows.

But for the fourth consecutive year, Iraq was in a category all its own as the deadliest place for journalists. This year’s killings bring to 92 the number of journalists who have died in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003. In addition, 37 media support workers—interpreters, drivers, fixers, and office workers—have been killed since the war began.

Only four journalists died in Iraq in 2006 as a result of crossfire or acts of war, CPJ’s analysis found. The other 28 were murdered, half of them threatened beforehand. Three were kidnapped and then slain, CPJ found.

“The deaths in Iraq this year reflect the utter deterioration in reporters’ traditional status as neutral observers in wartime,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “When this conflict began more than three and half years ago, most journalists died in combat-related incidents. Now, insurgents routinely target journalists for perceived affiliations—political, sectarian, or Western. This is an extraordinarily alarming trend because along with the terrible loss of life, it is limiting news reporting in Iraq—and, in turn, our own understanding of a vital story.”

The viciousness of the onslaught in Iraq was shown on October 12 when masked gunmen attacked the Baghdad offices of the fledgling satellite TV channel Al-Shaabiya and executed 11 people, five of them journalists. It was the deadliest single assault on the press since the 2003 invasion.

Here are other trends about Iraq that emerged in CPJ’s analysis:

• Thirty of 32 journalists killed were Iraqis, continuing a two-year trend in which local journalists have made up an overwhelming proportion of the casualties. CBS cameraman Paul Douglas and soundman James Brolan, both London-based, were the only foreign journalists killed in Iraq in 2006. Among the Iraqi victims was Bahjat, correspondent for the satellite channel Al-Arabiya and former reporter for Al-Jazeera. CPJ honored Bahjat posthumously in November with its International Press Freedom Award.

• Murder now accounts for 61 percent of deaths in Iraq since the war began. The incidence of murder began to increase 20 months ago and accelerated in the past year. Crossfire and combat-related incidents had been a more frequent cause of media deaths in the first two years of the war.

• The 2006 toll jumped 45 percent from the 22 deaths recorded in 2005.

• The war in Iraq is the deadliest conflict CPJ has documented. Iraq has far surpassed the Algerian civil conflict of the 1990s, which took the lives of 58 journalists.

• The 2006 tally in Iraq is the highest in a single country since CPJ was founded in 1981. The second deadliest years were 2004 in Iraq and 1995 in Algeria, both of which saw 24 journalists killed.

Worldwide, murder was the leading cause of journalist deaths in 2006, accounting for about 85 percent of cases. (About 11 percent died in combat incidents and 4 percent while covering dangerous assignments such as protests.) CPJ research found that little progress was reported in investigations into the vast majority of cases, reinforcing long-term research showing that less than 15 percent of journalist murders result in convictions.

Among those slain was Russian Anna Politkovskaya, a leading investigative journalist and critic of President Vladimir Putin. She was shot, contract-style, in her Moscow apartment building on October 7.

“When an internationally renowned reporter can be gunned down in her own apartment building and the perpetrators walk away free, it has a devastating effect on the press. Fewer tough questions are asked, fewer risky stories are covered,” Simon added. “Her case shows why impunity is such a serious threat to press freedom, not only in Russia but in nations such as the Philippines, Colombia, Mexico, and Pakistan.”

Politkovskaya was among eight female journalists killed in 2006. In the Central Asian nation of Turkmenistan, reporter Ogulsapar Muradova of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty was killed in prison under unexplained circumstances in September. Muradova was a critic of President Saparmurat Niyazov. And in southern Lebanon, an Israeli missile killed freelance photographer Layal Najib in July as she was traveling by taxi to cover civilians fleeing north.

The deadliest nations include such disparate places as the Philippines and Afghanistan. Two of the victims in the Philippines were radio commentators, continuing a trend CPJ has documented over several years. In strife-ridden Afghanistan, two German radio journalists were among the three casualties.

In Latin America, two nations with long histories of violence against the press appeared on the 2006 list of dangerous places. In Colombia, two provincial journalists known for tough reporting on paramilitary activities were slain. In Mexico, a local crime reporter was murdered in the eastern city of Veracruz, and a U.S. freelance journalist was shot to death during civil unrest in the southern state of Oaxaca. CPJ is investigating the disappearance of a northern Mexican journalist and the slayings of five others in circumstances that are not yet clear.

In sub-Saharan Africa, one journalist was killed in direct connection to his work in 2006. Martin Adler, an award-winning Swedish photojournalist, was shot while filming a June demonstration in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu.

CPJ applies strict standards for each entry on its annual list of journalists killed; researchers independently investigate and verify the circumstances behind each death. CPJ considers a case as work-related only when its staff is reasonably certain that a journalist was killed in direct reprisal for his or her work; in crossfire; or while carrying out a dangerous assignment.

If the motives in a killing are unclear, but it is possible that a journalist died in direct relation to his or her work, CPJ classifies the case as “unconfirmed” and continues to investigate. CPJ’s list does not include journalists who are killed in accidents—such as car or plane crashes—unless the crash was caused by hostile action (for example, if a plane were shot down or a car crashed trying to avoid gunfire). Other press organizations using different criteria cite higher numbers of deaths than CPJ.

Larry King Sticks Up for Katie Couric

Good morning Freaks! Just a few things before you read Larry's remarks...Today is Martin Luther King Day. Actually it's his birthday and MLK has the distinction of being one of three individuals to have a day commemorated in his honor. Let's just say it's not an honor that Bush will ever receive. Did anyone happen to catch Scott Pelley's interview with Bush on 60 Minutes last night? Bush actually believes his own line of bullshit. Interesting, but scary.

Also, the Betty Ann/Lorie Ann/Gotta Be an Ann saga continues. In the beginning, the "360" blog was groundbreaking. Now, it's becoming a joke. I publicly ask the blog producers at CNN to clean up this mess now! They have the power to decide who gets posted and who doesn't. They are seriously lacking a measurable accountability. We are not the only blog who has noticed the pattern and it is discussed on other forums and sites. In a recent post, I counted 15 responses from "fangirls" that I know by name, real or fake. Perhaps this is the reason Cooper doesn't post more often.

And for those of you fascinated by the glamour (or the lack) of the movie business, the Awards season kicks off tonight in Hollywood with the Golden Globes. Yes, sadly, I will be watching. And on a personal note, if you have a chance to see "A Painted Veil", I would highly recommend this movie. Edward Norton and Naomi Watts in a beautiful love story set in horrible conditions in 1920's China. Enjoy your Monday.

Count Larry King among Katie Couric's fans. The venerable CNN host watches the new anchor of the CBS Evening News and thinks her ratings struggles have more to do with gender than with journalism.

"It might still be hard for a woman to anchor the evening news," King says. "And that's sad."

Couric, whom King calls "smart and certainly attractive," will commandeer the host's chair on Larry King Live in April to interview King as part of a special week of shows honoring his 50th year in broadcasting.

King also believes Couric suffers from the stigma of representing a network news division that is trailing in the ratings.

"Maybe you just can't change the way you are branded," he says. "CBS can't do well in the morning, either. [ The Early Show] is a good show. If they moved Katie to the morning, would it help? Maybe not. They may just be branded [as unsuccessful in the mornings]."

As others have suggested, it may take a major news event to help the former Today host shed her "perky" image, says King: "Hurricane Katrina made Anderson Cooper. It could happen to Katie that way."

Speaking of Cooper, King says he has no problem with the way CNN has been marketing the anchor and other rising stars at the network.

"I would be promoting Anderson, too," he says. "He has a bright future. I hope they don't lose him."

Copyright The Associated Press 2006. All Rights Reserved.