Anderson Cooper – CNN’s world-traveling investigative war-correspondent recently stepped in to Haiti and broached the #1 ethical debate by his heroic actions. Just a quick disclaimer – the video below verges on graphic content so if you are easily offended and don’t like reality, then don’t watch the below.

Now, the reason that I am quite intrigued by this particular video is that Cooper has dived in and made a very very big statement; by assisting the boy Cooper changed the news. He stepped in and altered his position in the Haiti situation. He is no longer simply an objective journalist, he is no a participant in the news and the one who altered the course of events that he was reporting on.

It’s not very often that journalists themselves become the news by their own choices. For Cooper to have stepped in he must have felt that the boy was in dire straights and needed assistance that he wasn’t receiving from anyone else at the scene.

Personally I completely respect and admire him for stepping in. I made the decision a while back that I refuse to be an observer. I am a doer and people who want to do things have to get involved and not just report the news. I cannot do this. So it’s very interesting to me that a journalist of Cooper’s quality, experience and standing chose to step in, instead of waiting for the news headline to create itself.