Censorship of Aaron Brown limits him to discussing personal agendas.

New look, outlook for Aaron Brown

By Neal Justin
Star Tribune
MINNEAPOLIS --

Aaron Brown's younger brother has just walked into the lobby of Minneapolis' WCCO Radio, which is a little weird because I'm here to take Aaron to lunch.

Wait, it is the former CNN anchor, looking a full decade younger than his 57 years, thanks to laser eye surgery and the fact that he no longer seems to be carrying the weight of the world news on his shoulders.

The Hopkins, Minn., native, who left the cable network in November after being replaced by two-decades-younger Anderson Cooper, doesn't have a "mad as heck, not going to take it anymore" attitude, despite the fact that he was dumped for a hipper model. Instead, he seems at peace, an approach that should serve him well when he begins teaching at Arizona State University next spring.

Brown can't talk about CNN until his contract expires in 2007, but he did open up about his new approach to life and his new look.

Q. Why the eye surgery?

A. I just got tired of wearing glasses, and, all of a sudden, I had the time and the freedom to do it. Peter [Jennings] used to say, "You look stupid without glasses." OK, so maybe it's not a great career move, but the TV Aaron wore glasses, and, maybe, at some level, the TV Aaron was in conflict with the other Aaron.

Q. What do you mean?

A. The TV Aaron was public and I'm very shy. My wife and I would go to a party and we'd have to take separate cars because there would always be a point where I'd get really anxious and have to leave early. I need to feel really comfortable with people. But I could put on the uniform and do the job of a reporter.

Q. Peter Jennings was your mentor at ABC. Why did you two hit it off?

A. I was never afraid of him. Peter could come out and say, "We need to do a story about monkeys driving the subway" and people would launch and I would look at him and say, "Come here a sec." We'd go into his office and I'd say, "That's really stupid." I was just this yokel who came in from Seattle. I didn't get that he was this anchor god, and I think Peter loved that give-and-take.

I understood it when I became the anchor. I was amazed how few people would come to me -- and my door was always open -- and say something was stupid.

Q. How did his death affect you?

A. It had a profound effect. I started thinking less and less about what I was accomplishing and more and more about what I'm missing. What had I sacrificed to become me? I had absolutely decided that once my CNN contract expired in 2007, I was going to do something else. To be honest, I wanted to walk away on my own terms, but when it went down, I was the calmest guy in the room.

I'm at peace now with all of it. I'm proud of what I've done and I'm content that I'll always be seen professionally in a certain way. You're taught along the way to never do anything to screw up the first line in your obituary, and mine is still going to say, "Aaron Brown, one of the anchors who helped the country through difficult days after 9/11. . . . " That's not a bad ending. Dan [Rather] is really the sad character right now. His obituary is going to say, "Dan Rather, who was forced to resign. . . . " That's a bad ending.

Q. You had lunch with Rather shortly after leaving CNN. What did you two talk about?

A. I took a lot of lunches with Dan. He's been a great supporter of mine, in good times and bad. Incredibly gracious. When I got the job, the first thing he said to me was, "You need to learn to say no. People are going to be pulling at you, every Bemidji radio station, and your inclination is going to be to want to do it all."

Q. The funny thing is that was probably Rather's Achilles' heel. He wanted to do it all.

A. I was going to say, I'm not sure Dan could ever say no. I did tell him at lunch that the only thing I was worried about was: What's it going to feel like the day the first big story goes down? We were talking post-Katrina, which was the first major story since we were both gone.
Q. And Rather would have loved that story.

A. That was particularly cruel.

Q. What do you want to do next?

A. I've been talking to some people about doing an interview program and maybe a couple of documentaries a year.

http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/tv/mmx-0606070404jun08,0,5579162.story?coll=mmx-television_heds