You'll be missed, Aaron Brown

Aaron Brown is out and Anderson Cooper is moving up. I don't mind Cooper, but I've always like Aaron Brown, from the days I first watched him doing the overnight show on ABC. While Cooper showboats in hurricanes and empathizes incessantly with victims of one tragedy or another, Brown brings a quiet, calming assuredness to television news. Where Cooper is the one who feels, however smart he may be, Brown is the one who thinks. Cooper is the rising star with the hot ratings, Brown is the writer and intellectual who lifts television news to a higher plane. Cooper has his place, to be sure, but so does Brown -- even if it's no longer at CNN, which is trying so desperately to compete with the Fox News and its debasing sensationalism.

Perhaps it says something about Brown that he's not what CNN wants anymore. Yet how does CNN justify keeping the likes of the bombastic Wolf Blitzer, the xenophobic Lou Dobbs, the superficial Paula Zahn, and the senile Larry King on the air? Cooper stands out in that crowd, but is that really much of a compliment? Two truly intelligent men, Cooper and Brown complemented and balanced each other -- action and contemplation. Now we're left with Cooper, who needs to contemplate more and act less, as the sole stand-out in a line-up of unwatchables.

I'll miss Aaron Brown's soothing and reassuring presence on CNN. Let's hope he turns up again soon -- on a network that truly appreciates what he brings to television news.

(Joe Gandelman, who knows a think or two about journalism, has more at The Moderate Voice.)