From tanning with Snooki to bravely tasting spinach, we’ve already seen that Anderson Cooper’s daytime persona is a letdown from the journalist we all fell in love with. But that’s nothing compared to the behind-the-scenes disaster that’s unfolding: Gawker alleges that a teenager is in a coma after one of the show’s producers encouraged the kid to record his own reckless behavior.
Details are sketchy, but we hear the show booked a teenager to appear on a show about how the adolescent mind works. In advance of his appearance, a source says, a producer “encouraged [the] kid to go out and ‘film the crazy stuff you do.'” In the course of following those instructions, the teen filmed himself skateboarding adventurously and fell, sustaining a severe head injury. We are told he is comatose, and that Cooper is “distraught.” The show never aired.
Teenagers do stupid things that could give them serious head injuries every day, and it’s not Cooper’s fault that someone who works on his show said something that could maybe be tied to an accident. Let’s not assign blame, and instead focus on the tragedy. The tragedy of not getting to watch that gnarly skateboarding crash.
