It's difficult in an age as media-savvy as the current one not to be jaded by seeming examples of nobility or courage on the part of journalists.
Given the way that everyone seems to see themselves as their own brand and to calculate their every action for the purpose of brand-promotion, it's hard to take those examples at face value as truly being courageous or noble.
And certainly, someone as aware of the history of American journalism as Anderson Cooper is probably has a poster commemorating Edward R. Murrow's take-down of Joe McCarthy on See It Now (more on that here) hanging on his bedroom wall. Indeed, Cooper's just got to be on the lookout for opportunities to channel Murrow -- what else is the source of Cooper's whole "keeping 'em honest" persona?
Still, to see Cooper's calm, implacable demolition of Rep. Louie Gohmert's McCarthy-esque terror baby nonsense, one can't help but be impressed.
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