In the face of disaster, small acts of heroism can add up. Even sending a simple SMS can lead to more than $20 million raised for relief efforts surrounding the Haiti earthquake.

Enter another small act of heroism, this time on the part of CNN anchor Anderson Cooper. While filming in Haiti, Cooper was in the vicinity when a store fight reportedly broke out and left a boy wounded after suffering a blow to the head from a concrete block. In the video below (Warning: It's on the graphic side), Cooper extricates the boy from the confrontation to relative safety.

The footage enters into a larger dialogue surrounding the role of journalists as impartial observers in dire situations like the Haiti disaster. As medical correspondents become field doctors and newscasters rescue children from the crossfire, it's a timely ethical debate perhaps without a clear-cut solution.

What's your take: Do journalists have a duty to provide aid in life-threatening situations or does that level of emotional engagement impact the independence required for good journalism?









[img credit: Jonathan Torgovnik/Reportage by Getty Images for CNN]

[via BuzzFeed]