
photos by Chuck Kirman
Hi all! Friday night at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Anderson spoke to a sold-out crowd estimated at 950 people. The evening began with Anderson escorting Nancy Reagan into the auditorium to a standing ovation. After a glowing introduction from the Executive Director of the Library, Anderson received another ovation as he stepped to the podium.He first joked about the last time he had been there, when he hosted one of the presidential debates there in 2008. He told the story of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger 'complimenting' his biceps, and also that he and Mrs. Reagan happened to be wearing exactly the same outfits as they had that night.
As usual, he started his talk with a bit of a biographical sketch of his career and how he became a journalist. We've heard the stories before -- his mother's advice to "wear vertical stripes" and "follow your bliss," the fake press pass, traveling to Rwanda and Somalia in search of people who "spoke the language of pain" in order to learn how to cope with his brother's suicide.
He then talked about Haiti, saying that every day there is a struggle, and quoting some of his "Reporter's Notebook" observations of his time there. If you follow Neil Hallsworth on Twitter, you know he caught the bug referred to by locals as 'Aristide's Revenge.' Well, Anderson caught it, too, of course... and he also said he thinks he's still coughing out the Kandahar Krud from his trip there in December! He talked about how the job of war correspondents has changed, how it is now necessary to have bodyguards and how easy it is to get stuck in that bubble of security and miss the real story.
Anderson also talked about the fact that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have vanished off TVs and his concern that the same will happen with Haiti. He compared it to Katrina, asking whether anyone remembered the name Ethel Freeman. (I did, thanks to Anderson's coverage...) He told the story of her death at the SuperDome, how her son had to leave her body in a wheelchair, covered by a blanket, when he was finally evacuated. How there is no marker on that spot to mark her passing -- he checks whenever he visits NOLA -- and said that while government failed after Katrina, citizens did not.
After his prepared remarks, Anderson took a few questions from the audience. Among the tidbits from those answers:
-- in the confusion at the Port au Prince airport right after the earthquake, the helicopter he was in nearly collided with a fixed-wing plane carrying another CNN crew
-- years ago he wanted to cover an outbreak of the Marsburg virus because he is fascinated by those kinds of stories, and he believes that someday he will get to do it
-- when asked which network is the best to watch for real news, he declined to make any recommendations but did say that viewers should look for who has people on the ground getting the stories first-hand
-- asked whether there was a question that he wished he had asked in an interview, he said that he is constantly disappointed in himself, and that one reason he enjoys reporting for 60 Minutes is because he is learning so much and becoming a better reporter
-- he reiterated that when he is in the field, it is "extraordinary," how privileged he felt to be able to report from Haiti, and how frustrating it was to not be able to convey it all
-- he was asked what ordinary people in the Middle East think of Americans and said that people are extremely receptive to Americans and then told a story I have never heard about before:
I was in Iran in 1994. I was there for four days and I was arrested for three of them. I didn't really get a great sense of Iran. But it's funny, I didn't really do anything wrong, I went out of my hotel without my government minder and I was videotaping kids playing badminton in the park or something, something totally innocuous. I was just talking to people. And this is when I was by myself. And really, there's nothing worse than getting arrested in Iran when you're by yourself. It's not the place you want to be arrested. But as I was being taken away to a police station, I'll never forget, a man grabbed my arm and whispered in my ear, "Viva America." And I was, like, "Oh, okay, thank you, bye!"
He spoke for 48 minutes, and was very engaging and both serious and funny. Afterwards, according to staff members, he went to an invitation-only dinner hosted by Mrs. Reagan for about 100 supporters of the Library.
(Thanks to Em for letting me interrupt her series on The Mole... she'll be back next Sunday!)
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All Things Anderson is a blog dedicated to CNN's AC360 and its host Anderson Cooper.