Aaron Brown Ousted From CNN

Posted on November 3, 2005

Jonathan Klein, the president of CNN, continues his mission to totally turn CNN upside down and inside out. His latest victim: Aaron Brown, the stalwart anchor that so many of us watched on 9/11 and on the days afterward, as well as during the lead-up and opening months of the Iraq War. Klein got rid of Aaron Brown to make way for rising star Anderson Cooper, which really makes no sense at all. I like Anderson Cooper, no question. But there is a need for an anchor who has gravitas, who has actually lived through a number of presidents, wars and national disasters and reported on them. Brown had an empathy and a sometimes quirky sense of humor that was refreshing. He was a calming presence after 9/11 and, in fact, seemed to be channeling Walter Cronkite with his steady, reassuring demeanor.

There is a place for Anderson Cooper at CNN, no question. But should he be the senior anchor for breaking news? Not yet. A network needs a senior anchor who is older than 50 to balance out the perspective of the younger anchors. Because without context, news can be misunderstood.

Klein is quoted in a The New York Times article as saying that one of the reasons that he knows Cooper is a rising star is because he's been parodied on Saturday Night Live. Really? Newsflash to Jonathan Klein: the anchor parodied on the October 29, 2005 episode of Saturday Night Live was -- you guessed it -- Aaron Brown.