On Friday's Anderson Cooper 360, during a discussion of revelations that Spokane NAACP leader Rachel Dolezal is a white woman who has spent years pretending to be black, liberal CNN commentator Marc Lamont Hill oddly asserted that her actions constitute "the ultimate exercise in white privilege."

Ironically, after enumerating several reasons why blacks may want to pretend to be white for gain instead of the reverse, Hill ended up fretting that Dolzal may have deprived the university that hired her of being able to discriminate against her for being white if they wanted to hire an actual African-American to teach African-American studies.

The New York Times Book Review interviewed the controversial author Ayaan Hirsi Ali – too anti-Muslim for Brandeis to allow speak at commencement – for their “By The Book” feature appearing this Sunday and asked about her taste in books and writers.

When asked to name the best writers/journalists, she worked in Megyn Kelly, Anderson Cooper, and Charlie Rose. (Fox, CNN, and CBS/PBS.)

Anderson Cooper spotlighted The Atlantic's Graeme Wood's thorough article on ISIS on his Wednesday program. Cooper wondered, "President Obama...said we're at war with people who have perverted Islam. The question, though, is: is that really true?" The anchor asked Wood about Mr. Obama's statement, and he gave a blunt reply: "Well, you know, he doesn't really have the authority to say that. I don't think any non-Muslim, really, has the authority to say that, or to convince others that that's the case."

Liberal author Douglas Brinkley did his best on Wednesday's Anderson Cooper 360 to excuse Brian Williams's "embellishment" regarding his reporting of the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina – mere moments after the CNN program spotlighted examples of the NBC anchor's questionable claims. Despite this reporting, host Anderson Cooper never confronted his guest over his own role in boosting Williams's statements in his Hurricane Katrina book.

Earlier today (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), I posted on the establishment press's apparent determination to punish anyone who dares to mention the existence — in their view, the "myth" — of "no-go zones" in France and other European countries.

The tactic seems to be working. The Washington Post's Erik Wemple, who criticized CNN for allowing guests to use the term and failing to challenge them after the Charlie Hebdo massacre, is now praising the network, particularly Anderson Cooper, for backing away, even though one of those guests was a "former CIA official" who, it would seem, would have been asserting his position about their existence based on job experience and other acquired knowledge. Before the term completely disappears down the memory hole, readers should be reminded that it was being used even before the 2005 riots in Europe.