Cary Darling in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram writes about Anderson Cooper…

“I think there are moments in the news when you do wish there were greater emotional involvement on the part of the newcaster and, as a viewer, I appreciate that,” says Jeffrey Hyson, a history professor and pop-culture commentator at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, who was in Cooper’s class at Yale but didn’t know him. “The famous confrontation with Landrieu; it’s one of those great moments of realization that this is great TV and he’s saying what we want to say.”

Others remain unconvinced. “The problem I have with someone like Anderson Cooper is he’s paid his dues and worked his way up but not on the local level,” says Andrew Clark, an assistant professor in the communications department at the University of Texas at Arlington who specializes in broadcast and cable issues. “He becomes the news, instead of the story, and he has done nothing to downplay that . . . I would have to think he’s less sensationalist than Geraldo [Rivera] but it’s that sentimental aspect to what he’s doing. The tears on Katrina, I’m not going to say if it’s genuine or not, but it’s going over the top a little bit.”