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Anderson Cooper is an enormously popular newscaster, a leader in a breed that has made news anchors the new celebrities. He has several jobs, the first one being the news anchor on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360”, he has his own afternoon talk show “Anderson Live”, and he is a correspondent on “60 Minutes”. Mr. Cooper also co-hosts CNN’s New Year’s Eve show every year, with his friend, Kathy Griffin. Several celebrities have referred to Anderson Cooper as their friend, but Kathy Griffin is clearly a close friend.

Educated at Yale, Anderson was still unable to obtain even so much as an interview with ABC News that he wanted. The desire to be a reporter had begun in college. He did land a job as a fact-checker at Channel One, but that was unsatisfying. In December 1991 he took a fake press pass and borrowed camera to Thailand and filmed a story about Burmese refugees trying to overthrow a dictatorship. Channel One did buy the video, and that was the beginning of an illustrious career. He states in his memoir that he called his Mom and said “I think I’ve found my bliss.”

Finally in 1995 Anderson Cooper landed a job at ABC news as a correspondent. Then in 1999 he became co-anchor of “World News Now” on ABC. Then he took an odd turn and became host on a reality show, “The Mole”. He also substituted for Regis Philbin on “Live with Regis and Kelly.

It is 9/11 that motivated Mr. Cooper back into news. He began with CNN in 2001. By 2002 he was the prime-time weekend news anchor. “Anderson Cooper 360” began in 2003. By anyone’s yardstick, that is a meteoric rise. He has covered many important stories and won at least 11 awards, including Emmys and a Peabody Award for his coverage of Katrina.

Everyone knows by now that he is the son of Gloria Vanderbilt, heiress to the Cornelius Vanderbilt fortune. She was known as “the poor little rich girl” when she was a child. She has appeared as a guest on his afternoon talk show, “Anderson Live”, and is obviously proud of him, as he is of her. They seem very warm and close and have fun together. They have shared the tragedy of his brother’s suicide, which Mr. Cooper admits in his memoir he was slow to come to terms with and accept in his heart and mind.

Mr. Cooper is the subject of many jokes made by late night talk show hosts as well as news send-off comedy shows. He never responds in a negative way to these, and in fact, indulges sometimes in humor about himself, with his own unique, funny laugh. It is this openness and charm that adds to his appeal. Juxtaposed to that is an obvious professionalism that he displays, as well as a driving interview style. He will relentlessly pursue a question with an interviewee that is trying to be evasive. Thus, the title of one segment of “Anderson Cooper 360”: “Keeping Them Honest”.