Much as I loathe Dr. Phil, news that a whole slew of major media are coming together to highlight America’s bullying epidemic is a pretty stellar development. Today Dr. Phil will air a show about teen torment; on Friday he’ll also appear on Anderson Cooper‘s town hall bullying special; People magazine’s issue that hits newsstands Oct. 8 will feature a special package on teen bullying; Nickelodeon this week aired “Sticks, Stones and CyberSlams,” which featured real life bullying victims sharing their stories; and even the Cartoon Network has launched its “Stop Bullying: Speak Up” campaign, with PSAs airing on TV and its website. There’s the obvious “it’s terrible it took so many tragedies to get the media to pay attention to the problem,” but let’s give credit where it’s due: this is the responsible reaction we should expect.
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Theo
Time to come out Anderson…Time to come out Anderson if you want this effort to really means something positive. Please come out or you are a terrible spokesman who would do more harm in your apparent shame about your sexuality.
Kim
Don’t mention you are gay Anderson your message will be diluted if Middle America if they think you have a “Gay agenda”. I live in Houston and people are already writing and saying this anti bullying stuff is a way for the gays to get America to acccept their “lifestyle”. One guy said don’t do stuff if its going to make you killed yourself if it becaomes public. Anderson has never denied being gay but I think becoming Gay Cnn anchor Anderson Cooper will be problematic. He will be accused of playing the “gay “card . Just my opinion.Its great that he talks about this topic every day, though
ait10101
I don’t think his sexuality (or lack of it) has anything to do with his message. The two are separate issues. This is also true of Christian folks. Their arguments should be evaluated on their own grounds. The fact that they seem to think that their religious beliefs give their ideas a special status is absurd. Their arguments are otherwise very weak.
fifi
Listening last night I noticed Anderson used “we” and then corrected himself to say “they” when talking about gay activists.
I was hoping the new management at CNN would be more comfortable with Anderson coming out.
Fitz
I am a very pro-outing person 99% of the time for public figures.. but in this case, let it play out… because while he is still ambiguous to middle America, he still has a chance of getting into their living room. Do you think some kid from Utah or North Dakota could watch an Anderson Cooper piece AFTER he comes out. I am SURE he will come out eventually, but this is a tiny window of time that he has to reach people who wouldn’t even let him get two words in edgewise if they knew how much he likes sucking dick.