Andy Vanderbilt: Hey, Guess What? That Tea-bagging Crack Was Pretty Stupid of Me, Huh?

Yeah, I guess when you're the subject of endless ridicule and you continue to scrape the bottom of the ratings barrel, a little introspection never hurt.

CNN's Anderson Cooper spoke at UCLA Sunday as part of the Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture Series, and was asked about his "teabagging" comment last month during the Q&A portion.

Here is a video of his response, taken by an audience member.

Calling it a "stupid, silly, one-line aside," he touched on the attention it received. "I think it's an incorrect statement to say I was, in any way, trying to disparage legitimate protests," said Cooper. "I don't think it's my job to disparage, or encourage, which oddly other networks seemed to be doing. Protest is the great right of all Americans, and it's not my job in any way to make fun of people or disparage what they're doing."

He still can't resist a jab at Fox for heavily covering the tea parties, which only helped FNC's ratings. Conversely, CNN (as well as MSNBC) went out of their way to disparage the events, which earned them mockery. Does he not remember the name Susan Roesgen, by any chance?

I guess this wasn't disparaging?



Speaking of Roesgen, has this hack returned from her "vacation" yet?