Lara Logan Discussion Drifts to Anderson Cooper, The “Sex Symbol”

The Lara Logan “making headlines” segment on yesterday’s Reliable Sources focused on the National Enquirer and New York Post stories from last week. Keli Goff and Jonah Goldberg joined Howard Kurtz and discussed…whether it should be discussed at all. Then the conversation did a total 180 360.

“Anderson Cooper is sort of portrayed as sort of an Esquire-sex-symbol kind of guy,” said Goldberg. “And when you sexualize your media spokespeople, your reporters, you’re going to get the same kind of coverage you’d get for Paris Hilton.” (He later corrected that CBS had not sexualized her, but she has become a star and thus part of the paparazzi culture.)

Goff agreed. “I think Jonah tapped into something when he mentioned Anderson Cooper,” she said. “It helps to be good looking, and people tend to focus on that and their personal life.”

News networks touting good looks? That never happens.

Kurtz brought up the idea of sexism. “If you made a list of male foreign correspondent who had had affairs at one time or another, probably would take the rest of the program to read the list,” he said. Really, Howard? Do tell…

Click continued to see the clip, including how Kurtz noted (without mentioning the name of) the CNN correspondent in the Post story…

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