I saw that unfold live, and if you think you were stunned, you should have seen Anderson Cooper.

Apparently someone on the search team said something about finding twelve people on an open comm line, and it got misunderstood up above at the command center as “live people.” There was no explanation for why it took several hours for that to be contradicted, though.

I saw it unfold live, too.  I couldn’t imagine being in the shoes of those people during the agonizing wait alone.  The horror that unfolded after is just too appalling for words. 

I don’t generally have much good to say about CNN, but Anderson Cooper impressed me last night.  He was a compassionate human being, not just a newshound, and it made for a nice change.

I was similarly impressed with Anderson Cooper right after Hurricane Katrina. His outrage, anger, and disgust were genuine and he didn’t mince words throughout. He was among the first to express anger and show what was really going on.

I wonder how he manages to not become a raging activist after witnessing things like this. It has to have some kind of effect.

You begin to get the feeling—or have the realization—that some authority figures have internalized the feeling that life is cheap and some lives are cheaper than others. And it seems as if the attitude is more blatant than it used to be. Compassion just doesn’t get wasted on *some* people. I’m glad there are still a few in the media who recognize that this is terribly wrong.