I first saw Anderson Cooper’s interview with Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman in segments – a two-minute clip here, a seven-minute clip there – after her city began trending on Twitter. So I clicked on it, only to be inundated with a bunch of tweets about how crazy she was.
Perhaps all of that prejudiced my opinion of her before I ever saw any video of the interview. Then I saw the video clips…and well, her personality didn’t do much to prove her critics wrong. She came across as comedic, a little loopy, almost Carol Channing-esque. That, coupled with Anderson’s reactions when she didn’t answer his questions to his satisfaction, made for quite the entertaining pastime for me. The whole thing just kinda played like a Saturday Night Live skit, prompting me to tweet the following…
Lord please forgive me for watching this video for entertainment. I know this is a serious issue, but this mayor is some character… https://t.co/xuCNbUyxHe
— Shescribe (@Shescribe) April 22, 2020
As the interview got more buzz — it was discussed on Jimmy Kimmel and The View among other shows — nobody seemed to have anything good to about her. That’s when I decided to take a second look.
I went on YouTube a couple of days ago and watched the full 25 minute and 46 second interview, which completely changed how my thoughts on the interview. This mayor’s getting an unfair bad rap.
Granted there was several things she said that understandably rubbed folks the wrong way. Offering Las Vegas residents and visitors up as a Covid control group in which they would be the ones getting a placebo, comes to mind. That and wanting to open the casinos but refusing to be willing to go on a casino floor herself, is another. There were also a couple more I think I didn’t agree with, though I can’t think of them right now.
But the point is, even if you don’t agree with someone you don’t have to be rude about it. Clearly what she was saying doesn’t align with the nation’s prevailing view that nonessential businesses are not ready to open. But, instead of letting her have her say, Anderson was cutting her off at every turn, making it seem like she was an idiot for her beliefs, rather than trying to shed more light on why she believes as she does.
While the viewpoint to open places like casinos, barbershops and tatoo parlors may not be the most popular, from what we’ve seen from protests happening across the country, there are people who agree. It’s not totally inconceivable that people want to reopen given what experts have told us about the virus so far: most people who succumb to the virus are older adults with preexisting conditions, or anyone with preexisting conditions period. As such, I can understand how younger, healthier people may be willing to take that risk. I don’t agree with it, but I can at least try to understand where they are coming from. That’s what was missing from that interview.
That’s how President Trump is able to call organizations like CNN “fake news.” Because so many of these journalists seem more interested in promoting their own agendas and asking gottcha questions to go viral than they are in being a conduit of objective information.
I miss the days of journalists like Peter Jennings, Ted Koppel and Barbara Walters, where they weren’t unnecessarily injecting their opinions into the mix, they were just getting answers.
I mean it’s one thing if you’re going to be an opinion journalist, or a commentator, but when you are a reporter or an interviewer and your job is to get the facts – just get the facts.
Let us form our opinions ourselves.
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