You’ll be missed, Aaron Brown.
Aaron Brown is out and Anderson Cooper is moving up. I don’t mind Cooper, but I’ve always like Aaron Brown, from the days I first watched him doing the overnight show on ABC. While Cooper showboats in hurricanes and empathizes incessantly with victims of one tragedy or another, Brown brings a quiet, calming assuredness to television news. Where Cooper is the one who feels, however smart he may be, Brown is the one who thinks. Cooper is the rising star with the hot ratings, Brown is the writer and intellectual who lifts television news to a higher plane. Cooper has his place, to be sure, but so does Brown — even if it’s no longer at CNN, which is trying so desperately to compete with the Fox News and its debasing sensationalism.
For more of my reaction to Brown’s departure from CNN, see here.