I was checking my Twitter timeline on the train to NYC when all of a sudden a Gawker tweet changed my whole day.
"Anderson Cooper is gay now," it said. At first, I thought it was another rumor — after all, he'd never addressed his sexuality before. Then I read it: an eloquent email from the man himself.
I was amazed! I understood his reluctance to address his sexuality because as a journalist, objectivity is of the highest importance, but I was proud. My boss was brave.
He wasn't in the office that day. Actually, he wouldn't be in for the rest of that week. He was in Botswana covering a story for 60 Minutes. So I knew there was no chance we'd address his email on the show.
It was an interesting day at work that day, mostly because I was shadowing our digital producer, Ella, who manages the show's web presence, and I was on Twitter duty. By the show's 8 p.m. airtime, Anderson Cooper had been a trending topic for 10 hours.
The tweets ranged from support from celebrities, fans and show staff to tweets that insisted that the world already knew about his sexuality.
When AC came back, he came to the show's editorial meeting and asked the staff if they had any questions: none except from one of our senior producers. Would he address it on the show? He said no. He said he had said everything he had to say.
It was cool to see the public react to a message from someone I work with every day!
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