This just in, Anderson Cooper, the star of airport departure lounges across the country, is gay. Now there’s a shock. As the Frugal Cafe blog responds (in a post where I’m cribbing several of the following links), “So?”
What’s fascinating though, is the method Cooper used to come out — in an email to fellow gay liberal journalist Andrew Sullivan, at rival publication Newsweek/The Daily Beast. This couldn’t have played well at CNN, the Wizbang blog notes:
CNN has to be a little pissed off at Cooper for coming out to a blogger. Their ratings are so low [more on that here — Ed] that they could use the boost in viewership an big announcement might have brought. It will be interesting to monitor how heavily they cover the story. More coverage = ratings desperation.
Or write a cover story for Time magazine, which owned by the same conglomerate that owns CNN. And then there’s this request from Cooper, as noted by the Daily Caller:
Cooper penned an open letter to personal friend and Daily Beast blogger Andrew Sullivan, in response to a recent Entertainment Weekly story about gay public figures.
“The fact is, I’m gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud,” said the long time CNN host and reporter.
Cooper has always refused to comment on the matter in the past, saying “as long as a journalist shows fairness and honesty in his or her work, their private life shouldn’t matter.”
In the letter, Cooper said his reason for coming out publicly was to dispel the insinuation that he was hiding his sexual orientation out of shame, fear or discomfort. Cooper emphatically refuted the implication.
Cooper gave Sullivan permission to publish the article. “I still consider myself a reserved person and I hope this doesn’t mean an end to a small amount of personal space. But I do think visibility is important, more important than preserving my reporter’s shield of privacy,” said Cooper.
Cooper’s email to Sullivan began on this note:
Andrew, as you know, the issue you raise is one that I’ve thought about for years. Even though my job puts me in the public eye, I have tried to maintain some level of privacy in my life. Part of that has been for purely personal reasons. I think most people want some privacy for themselves and the people they are close to.
Because yeah, nobody respects a public figure’s need for privacy like Andrew Sullivan.
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