The decision by Anderson Cooper to accept an award from the president of Haiti for his reports from the country are being criticized by some journalists. The St. Petersburg Times 's TV/media critic, Eric Deggans, said that his acceptance of the award puts "a question on the table again about Cooper's reporting style, which has become a kind of misery advocacy that can veer too much about promoting his own brand as a reporter for comfort." Cooper, Deggans wrote, "offers news coverage as a morality play -- where victims are given a voice and 'they' are held accountable." Liz Cox Barrett wrote on the Columbia Journalism Review website, "To my mind, Anderson Cooper declining the award and standing in the press gallery with everyone else covering the event would have better served the Anderson Cooper brand." Cooper himself later told the Associated Press, "I thought a long time about not accepting it. We finally came to the opinion that it was recognition by the country for all journalists."

14/07/2010