Cooper went on about how awful it is that teachers don't respond to the use of gay slurs with the same alacrity as "the N-word," and then complained specifically about seeing a trailer for the Vince Vaughn comedy "The Dilemma," in which Vaughn's character says, "That's so gay." Though Cooper didn't actually name-check Vaughn or the movie (though it was clear what trailer he was talking about if you've been anywhere near a multiplex lately), he told DeGeneres that he was "shocked" that a movie studio considered a gay joke to be worthy preview fodder. But the segment was clearly inspired by the suicide of Rutgers freshman Tyler Clementi after his roommate secretly webcast video of him hooking up with another dude. Last Wednesday on her show, Ellen DeGeneres interviewed Cooper by satellite about bullying, a topic he's reported about a lot. And then also, most poignantly, because of "Ellen." That subtext has been rising and falling as a media meme for years now (Perez Hilton, Gawker and the Village Voice's Michael Musto have all been variously obsessed with Cooper's sexual orientation), but it's newly ascendant not only because of "60 Minutes," but also because of Cooper's in-depth CNN coverage of the bizarre anti-gay harassment of the University of Michigan's student body president by Michigan's assistant attorney general (who is now facing a disciplinary hearing). Specifically: "But, I mean, do you not like gay people? Do you not like me? Because I'm a gay, have you heard? Do you read blogs, Em? Because it's all over the Internet that I'm totally 'mo, in case you don't know."
The mildly electrifying subtext of The Anderson 'n' Marshall Show was that plenty of viewers wished that Cooper had phrased his question a little differently. Eminem's mushy, banal response - "No, I don't have any problem with nobody, you know what I mean? Like, I'm just whatever" - was sort of beside the point. "But, I mean, do you not like gay people?" Anderson Cooper asked Marshall "Eminem" Mathers on "60 Minutes" Sunday night in regard to the rapper's use of words like "faggot" in his lyrics.