It’s been real, but after two attacks from angry pro-government mobs on the streets of Cairo Anderson Cooper is officially done covering the crisis in Egypt.
Anderson is among dozens of Western journalists who was savagely attacked by supporters of embattled President Hosni Mubarak as they covered the political unrest in Cairo last week. Nightly news anchors Katie Couric of CBS and NBC’s Brian Williams left the country as attacks on the American press continued Thursday. Despite being knocked to the ground and repeatedly punched when his car was attacked by demonstrators in an attack last Wednesday, Anderson remained in the Middle East, where he reported from an undisclosed location.
On Friday, the Committee to Protect Journalists said that 30 journalists had been detained and 26 assaulted during the uprising. There have also been eight incidents in which journalists’ equipment was either damaged or seized, leaving Anderson with little choice except to hightail it back to The Big Apple.
“It is with a heavy heart that I have decided to leave Egypt,” the host of CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 Tweeted on Saturday. “CNN continues to have many teams in place. It was a hard decision to leave,” he added.
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