BRANDWEEK's Michael Appelbaum offers a "dissenting voice" about Anderson Cooper:

"Media critics have attributed the 38-year-old anchor's rise to prominence at CNN, most recently at the expense of departed Aaron Brown, to the notion that cachet and charisma carry more weight than grit and gravitas."

But Appelbaum says Brown relished the spotlight -- "his commentary came littered with pregnant pauses, feigned introspection, chin-holding gestures and other 'look at me' devices. His questions to guests were often longer than the answers."

And "Cooper is far less distracting. He has a quieter, less affected style -- laced with a bit of smarm, perhaps, but couched in a just-the-facts-ma'am approach. Nonetheless, it was his not-so-quiet moral outrage in the aftermath of Katrina that turned him into a news celebrity."