Anderson Cooper's coming out gay has
been described as a “desperate” ratings ploy by the New York
Post.
The 45-year-old Cooper
discussed his sexual orientation for the first time in a lengthy
e-mail published Monday on Andrew Sullivan's blog The Dish,
which is hosted by The Daily Beast. Cooper said he was proud
and gay.
In a story titled Decline and gall
of CNN, the Post described Cooper's coming out as
“desperate for attention.”
“Left-leaning cable network CNN has
dropped to a 21-year rating low making Anderson Cooper so desperate
for attention, he surprised no one by coming out as gay.”
The paper wrote about CNN's ratings
woes: “Network suits want to point a finger of blame for Soledad
O'Brien's 37 percent loss of eyeballs, Piers Morgan's 29 percent
ratings decline, and Cooper's abysmal 19 percent loss of viewership,
compared with last year.”
“CNN could always hire Ann Curry, who
was scapegoated for the Today show's rating dip, then fire
her.”
Mediaite.com
noted that the story was not printed in the paper's opinion pages.
Remarking on Cooper's coming out, Star
Jones earlier in the week said that “There were times that you
generate information for ratings …”