This A list news anchor with A+ list name recognition and hair has been slowly Brian Williams-ing his story about how he got started in the business.

His version of events is a lot different than reality.

Source: http://www.crazydaysandnights.net

Anderson Cooper

Our crack research team has found that CNN anchor and debate moderator Anderson Cooper has a big “Brian Williams” problem: he lied about his experiences in Africa, misrepresented his first supposed gig as a journalist, and possibly completely made up the first year of his career.

We’re not kidding. Keep reading.

Brian Williams is the former NBC news anchor who was fired for “misrepresent[ing] events which occurred while he was covering the Iraq War in 2003.”

Anderson Cooper has a similar problem with his story, which he has told all over the place. His story goes a little something like this:

Young kid out of college want to be a reporter. Has no experience so can’t get hired. Craftily makes a fake press pass, borrows a camera, and buys a ticket to a warzone. Starts filming, gets hired, later becomes a TV star.

Pretty simple, right?

Well, there are a ton of discrepancies in that story.

This could take a while, but it’s good. Really good. So strap yourself in and listen closely.

To get a good sense of Anderson Cooper’s backstory, watch the first 10 minutes of his talk at Columbia University:
This is the most common version of his story. Key points:

Africa trip in high school.
Borrowing a camera, faking a press pass, then sneaking into Burma.
Studying in Vietnam after Burma.
Flying to Somalia on his own to cover the famine there.
Being hired by Channel One News thanks to his Somalia work.

Anderson Cooper has repeated this story countless times on video and in print over the years.

His basic story is pretty consistent: he wanted to be a foreign news reporter so he borrowed or faked what he needed himself, then went off to Southeast Asia and started reporting.

What’s wrong? Now here comes the “Brian Williams” problem.

Anderson Cooper Lied About And Embellished His High School Africa Trip

Anderson Cooper claimed on at least 2 separate occasions in 2009 that he “talked his way through” roadblocks in Africa in 1985 as a 17-year-old kid, and even implied he drove himself.

For example at Columbia University:

I left high school a semester early and driven in a truck across sub-saharan Africa for about 4 or 5 months. You know I’d talked my way through roadblocks before, had guns pointed at me before, and had been in some hairy sort of situations on my own…

Or at the University of California, Los Angeles:

I’d actually left high school a semester early and driven in a truck across sub-saharan Africa, and Africa really opened my eyes and quickened my pulse. It was the first time I had to talk my way through a roadblock, had someone point a gun at me. ..

What really happened?

Read more here


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