For decades, CNN’s Anderson Cooper has been a steady presence in the broadcast journalism world. According to his official profile on the news channel’s website, he has worked in more than 40 countries and has covered nearly all major news events around the world since the start of his career in 1992.

That is a lot of tape.

In the leadup to the Poynter Institute’s Bowtie Ball on Nov. 18 — during which Cooper will receive the Poynter Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism — we wanted to list a few of his memorable on-air moments. This is not even close to an exhaustive list, but it captures a wide range of Cooper’s personality and reporting acumen.

A startling realization about an American taken hostage by Hamas

As part of CNN’s ongoing coverage of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Anderson Cooper conducted a live interview with the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a 23-year-old American who was wounded and kidnapped at an Israeli music festival. Cooper said Goldberg-Polin was believed to be a hostage in Gaza.

On “Anderson Cooper 360” the anchor recounted how Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin had told him their son’s arm had been partially blown off by Hamas gunmen who tossed grenades into the shelter he and others were hiding in after he escaped the festival.

“Eyewitnesses had told them that their son Hersh was put into a truck by gunmen and driven off. But they had no video of their son,” Cooper said. “So during that live interview a week ago, when we showed a picture of Hersh — this picture — I realized I actually had seen their son and had a video of their son on my phone.”

The video had been shown to the journalist by an Israeli soldier. Cooper said his team obtained permission to record the video off his phone. It had never been released publicly.

“I did not want to shock them during this live interview, so I waited until the interview was done and then I called Rachel and Jon immediately and I sent them the video,” he said. “And it was their son, Hersh.”

Cooper told the CNN audience that he had been in touch with the parents, who wanted everyone to see the video.

“They want you to know what has happened to their child, and they want the world to know that there are seriously wounded people who were taken by Hamas,” he said. “And this video is proof of that.”

Cooper then gave a content warning to viewers before airing the video. It showed a wounded and bloodied Goldberg-Polin being pushed into the bed of a truck along with a few other people who appeared wounded.

The show then aired a sitdown interview between Cooper and Goldberg-Polin’s parents.

“When I sent the video to you, what was your initial … ?” Cooper asked them.

“First of all, it’s a crazy sequence of events, that we talked to you through a computer screen and then get a phone call from you saying, ‘I have a video of your son,’” Polin said.

“I didn’t want to say on live television,” Cooper said.

“Of course,” Polin said.

“Which we so appreciated,” Goldberg said.

“Of course,” Polin said again.

“The way everything has unfolded, the gentleness that you used because at the end of the day, you’re a journalist,” Goldberg told Cooper. “And journalists want a story. And that could have been dealt with in many other ways that were not kind and gentle.”

Polin said first seeing the video gave the family a dose of optimism. “As horrible as it is as a parent to see your kid under gunpoint being pushed with one arm, the composure with which he’s walking on his own legs, pulling himself with his one weak hand,” Hersh’s father said. “He’s a leftie, and his left arm was blown off. Pulling himself with his one weak hand onto the truck gave me a real dose of strength that he’s handling a horrible situation and he’s doing it with composure.”

Goldberg said she thought their son walked out calmly due to shock.

“How are you able to get through each day?” Cooper asked.

“I personally feel like we have to keep running to the end of the Earth to save him,” Goldberg said. “And we have to try to go believing that somehow he got treatment, and he’s there. And he’s in pain and he’s suffering, but he’s alive and he’s there. And there are also the moments — in this universe that we now live — where you say, maybe he died on the truck. Maybe he bled out in that truck. Maybe he died yesterday. Maybe he died five minutes ago.”

The parents walked Cooper through their son’s room, filled with books and mementos. In a voice-over, Cooper said Goldberg made his bed. “She wants it ready for when he returns,” he said.

Goldberg explained to the anchor about a Friday night tradition of blessing children in Jewish homes. She said she had been on their porch facing south on a recent Friday night, screaming the blessing to her son — and hoping.

“What do you want people to know about Hersh?” Cooper asked the parents.

Goldberg said he is a “super curious kid” with a wanderlust. He’s always asked for maps, globes, and atlases. She said he has a ticket for a big trip on Dec. 10. He was planning to go to India and all points east, Goldberg added.

Interviewing the father of a Uvalde shooting victim

Cooper was one of many journalists who traveled to Uvalde, Texas, to report on the Robb Elementary School shooting that occurred on May 24, 2022. While on the scene, Cooper spoke with the grieving stepfather of one of the victims. It was an early glimpse into the anguish felt by loved ones of the young victims and two teachers.

“You’re holding a picture of your daughter,” Cooper told Angel Garza, the stepfather of Amerie Jo Garza. The broadcaster noted that she had recently made honor roll.

Head bent forward, Garza cradled the framed photo.

“Yeah,” Garza said, struggling to speak.

Cooper then reached out to touch Garza’s shoulder. The camera panned close to the photo of a beaming Amerie holding an honor roll certificate.

“What do you want people to know about her?” Cooper asked.

“That she was just trying to do the right thing,” Garza answered tearfully. “She was just trying to call the cops.”

Garza recounted how he found out his daughter was killed. A med aid, Garza had rushed to assist at the scene. He met one little girl who was covered in blood from head to toe. “She said she was OK — she was hysterical, saying that they shot her best friend, that they killed her best friend and she’s not breathing,” Garza said.

He said he had asked the girl for her friend’s name. She said Amerie.

“That’s how you learned,” Cooper said, his hand again on Garza’s arm to comfort him. Garza nodded. A few seconds of silence sat between the journalist and source.

Garza then lifted his head.

“She was so sweet, Mr. Cooper. She was the sweetest little girl who did nothing wrong,” he said between sobs. “She listened to her mom and dad. She always brushed her teeth. She was creative. She made things for us. She never got in trouble at school. Like, I just want to know what she did to be a victim.”

“And she loved being a big sister,” Cooper said. “You have a 3-year-old son named Zayne.”

Garza nodded his head. He said Zayne asks for his sister every morning when he wakes up. He shook his head.

“He doesn’t know at this point, I assume,” Cooper said. Garza said they informed Zayne that his sister is now with God, and that she’ll no longer be with them. He said Zayne cried.

Cooper appeared to be at a loss for words. Then Garza revealed that Amerie had just turned 10 years old. She wanted a phone for so long, and they had finally gotten her one.

“She just tried to call the police,” Garza said, weeping again.

“She tried to — she actually tried to call,” Cooper said, reaching out again to comfort Garza.

Garza said he got confirmation from two of Amerie’s classmates, that she tried to call authorities. Cooper removed his glasses and wiped his eyes.

“How do you look at this girl and shoot her?” Garza said, sobbing again. “Oh, my baby. How do you shoot my baby?”

Cooper asked Garza if there was anything else he wanted people to know about Amerie.

“I just want people to know that she just died trying to save her classmates,” Garza said. “She just wanted to save everyone.”

“I’m so sorry for your loss,” Cooper said. “I wish you peace in the days ahead.”

Remembering the Pulse shooting victims

On June 12, 2016, a man shot and killed 49 people and wounded more in a mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Cooper remembered the lives lost.

“They were more than a list of names. They were people who loved and were loved,” he said. “They were people with families and friends and dreams. And the truth is we don’t know much about some of them, but we want you to hear their names and a little bit about who they were.”

He began with Edward Sotomayor Jr., who had worked at a travel agency that catered to the gay community. “His family said he was witty, charming …” Cooper said, his voice trailing. “And that he always left things better than he found them. He was 34 years old.”

He listed the names of the remaining victims, with information about some of them.

Many thanked Cooper for saying their names. On Facebook, one user wrote, “I always remember this segment of yours and how emotional you were saying all of the names of these innocent people. I know how hard it was for you to do so. But thank you!!! Love will always win no matter what who why where when. May all of them rest in peace.”

The moment Cooper helped a Haitian boy amid looting

In January 2010, Cooper was reporting on the unrest in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, in the wake of the catastrophic earthquake that struck the Caribbean country. According to a transcript on the CNN website, the anchor first cast a wide view for the network’s audience on the death toll at the time, and what kind of aid was available to Haitians affected by the natural disaster.

Then, in a downtown area of Port-au-Prince where many businesses were destroyed, the CNN broadcaster found himself in the middle of a chaotic scene. He reported that Haitian police fired into the air in an attempt to scare off looters.

“You can just see a chunk of concrete or rock thrown by one of the looters from the roof,” Cooper said in a voice-over. “A young boy is hit in the head. That’s him there on the ground captured on my D.V. camera. If he stays there, he might get killed.”

The CNN camera followed Cooper as he picked up the boy in a striped shirt and carried him away from the scene. When they stopped, the boy rubbed a hand over his face. His head was covered in blood.

Cooper extended his arm to try to comfort the boy.

“He’s clearly stunned and can’t walk,” the anchor said in his voice-over.

Cooper then led the boy to a barricade, and helped carry him over it.

“In the end, the store is emptied. The looters move on just down the street,” the journalist said. “We don’t know what happened to that little boy. All we know now is, there’s blood in the streets.”

The move by the anchor to help a boy in need gained a lot of attention. Ellen DeGeneres later interviewed Cooper on “The Ellen Show” about that moment. Still in Haiti, Cooper told the talk show host that he was “just lucky to be there.”

“I mean, anybody would have done the same thing,” he said. “For people here, there are so many people who are finding themselves in need and just caught up in situations. And it’s hard to describe what it’s like.”

A few years later, Cooper recounted that day as part of a project from the nonprofit Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation. He said his first instinct was to film the boy. The journalist recalled feeling it was a “horrific image” and “part of what’s happening.”

Cooper said he took two steps toward the boy and then thought to himself, What am I doing? In a split second, he recalled, it “just seemed inappropriate.”

The anchor then went and helped the boy.

Cooper’s giggle fest

Cooper has earned fans not just through his serious reporting. The anchor is also known for his sillier moments, perhaps most notably his New Year’s Eve coverage with Andy Cohen. If you haven’t heard Anderson Cooper’s giggle, do yourself a favor and do a quick search on YouTube. You may even find a compilation.

One of the anchor’s funniest on-air moments came in 2012 during “The RidicuList,” a segment toward the end of “Anderson Cooper 360” that features absurd stories. Cooper added anyone who missed out on a holiday called Dyngus Day to the RidicuList.

“Dyngus Day isn’t some totally fake holiday cooked up by a ‘Seinfeld’ writer like Festivus. Dyngus Day is a real thing. Obscure, but real,” Cooper said before introducing the Polish-American tradition celebrating the end of Lent.

The show featured b-roll footage of people celebrating the holiday tradition.

One could argue Cooper was doing a fine job until producers aired a clip of a story about Dyngus Day from WIVB-TV, a television station in Buffalo, New York. In it, a journalist says the holiday’s “quirky little rituals include boys sprinkling girls that they fancy with water. And the girls striking back with a tap from a pussy willow branch.”

Cooper’s eyes widened and he tilted his head. He fidgeted, appearing to try to keep a straight face. He tried to speak but devolved into a fit of giggles. He then stood up and told someone off-camera that he wasn’t going to let them do this.

Cooper cleared his throat and returned to his chair. The giggling continued.

“It’s really so stupid,” he said while laughing. “Oh, come on. This is torture.”

He cleared his throat again, the giggles erupting.

“You just gotta let it out,” he said about his laughing fit.

Try to watch it without laughing.

We’ll leave you with another treat — a second RidicuList segment from more than a decade ago about another Cooper case of the giggles, featuring clips of other on-air personalities losing it to laughter.