In the past -- "standing on a rooftop in Baghdad, say, during last year's Iraqi elections, or heading into the teeth of past hurricanes with his logo rain slicker" -- Anderson Cooper's reports could seem like grandstanding. "But in New Orleans he has hit a different stride," Paul Brownfield writes.

"To watch him on Anderson Cooper 360 these days is to sense a reporter nearing existential crisis. The story is in the weary, grim expression on his face, in the way he seems to have claimed first position on the misery and suffering and danger in New Orleans' flooded 9th Ward. He slouches back toward me-ism every now and then (going on "Oprah" to talk about the impact covering the hurricane has had on him), but he seems hunkered down in the story more than himself."