CODE OF ETHICS AND PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT RADIO-TELEVISION NEWS DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION
The Radio-Television News Directors Association, wishing to foster the highest professional standards of electronic journalism, promote public understanding of and confidence in electronic journalism, and strengthen principles of journalistic freedom to gather and disseminate information, establishes this Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.
PREAMBLE Professional electronic journalists should operate as trustees of the public, seek the truth, report it fairly and with integrity and independence, and stand accountable for their actions.
PUBLIC TRUST: Professional electronic journalists should recognize that their first obligation is to the public.
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Thursday, February 24, 2005
The Religious Bigorty of CNN NewNight's Morning Papers
Newspaper's Tonight leads with an endorsement of the War Mongering:
Christian Science Monitor
The Washington Times
The San Antonio Express
Reintroduced by 'oops' why did I do that?
The Christian Science Monitor
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The Chicago Sun Times
Christian Science Monitor
The Washington Times
The San Antonio Express
Reintroduced by 'oops' why did I do that?
The Christian Science Monitor
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The Chicago Sun Times
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
The Religious Bigotry of CNN NewsNight's Morning Papers
Morning papers after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(ROOSTER CROWING)
BROWN: OK, time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world, many to like today, I think.
"The Washington Times"
"The Times Herald Record,"
"The Christian Science Monitor,"
"The Des Moines Register."
"The Guardian," British. "
"The Chicago Sun-Times."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(ROOSTER CROWING)
BROWN: OK, time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world, many to like today, I think.
"The Washington Times"
"The Times Herald Record,"
"The Christian Science Monitor,"
"The Des Moines Register."
"The Guardian," British. "
"The Chicago Sun-Times."
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Television Sponsored Suicide
This had gone up on The Times Message Boards as a general warning to the public. CNN had been running for several weeks a TV Series on depression including suicide.
conti2005 - 4:51 PM ET February 19, 2005 (#684 of 3589)The Revolt and the Revolting - http://stopwarsaveearth.blogspot.com/ - In God I Trust, Everyone Else I Monitor It's troubling...
...a couple of years ago I did some research regarding the presentation of suicide on television. I researched fifty years of statistics.
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/315/
It is a known fact that when suicide is presented on television the rate escalates. There is a trend with the management of CNN to present the subject of suicide on a regular basis. They did in on the evening news under the guise of 'depression' as presented by Anderson Cooper on his 360. They are presenting it again today. They offer places to seek help but these people have to know there is well established factual evidence that points to 'permission' and 'mimicking' as a venue for people. I find the 'tone' of much of this program troubling and the mental health authorities with at least the city of New York should look at the subject as they present it and the repeated presentation. I know I am not wrong.
WHAT FOLLOWED were some high profiled deaths...now, where there are two such noted deaths there has to be a statistical increase across the populous. Those statistics aren't necessarily reported on a daily or monthly basis but in annual reviews of 'trends' in a nation.
Salon
The death of the poet Tatyana Bek has led to speculation that a falling-out with her fellow poets provoked her to commit suicide.
By Victor Sonkin
Published: February 18, 2005
Tatyana Bek, who died 10 days ago in Moscow, was one of those rare authors whose literary instincts were as much directed outwards as they were directed inwards. A keen lyrical poet, Bek authored several acclaimed collections of verse, taught at Moscow's Literary Institute and was also a keen journalist. Her journalism, though, was of a special kind: She would talk to her fellow poets and turn these long conversations into imaginative interviews that revealed the unique personalities of her interlocutors. Her last book, containing such interviews, as well as essays, memoirs and poems, was rather sadly titled "Good-bye, Alphabet" (Do Svidaniya, Alfavit).
Gonzo godfather Hunter S Thompson kills himself
Posted online: Tuesday, February 22, 2005 at 0123 hours IST
LOS ANGELES, FEBRUARY 21: Hunter Stockton Thompson, a renegade journalist whose “gonzo” style threw out any pretense at objectivity and established the hard-living writer as a counter-culture icon, fatally shot himself at his Colorado home on Sunday night, police said. He was 67.
Thompson’s son, Juan, released a statement saying he had found his father dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head at the writer’s Owl Creek farm near Aspen.
'I've gotta get my elephant tusks back'
Amid the guns, drugs and enormous expenses claims, Hunter S Thompson created a new style of writing - gonzo - and a generation of followers. Jon Ronson explains why he became one of them
Tuesday February 22, 2005
THE FREE FOR ALL after the death of Thompson in the media after it was pointed out how poisonous a public issue was can not be understated. It culminated in a front page expose' in The Washington Times, "From the CNN NewsNight Transcript: "They also put Hunter Thompson on the front page, "End of Story For Hunter Thompson." Yikes. "Gonzo Writer Takes His Own Life." I'm not sure why that's front page in Tuesday's paper. But maybe they had that early deadline yesterday." Keep them dropping like flies, right Aaron? Especially any in the immediate viewing network.
In a time when the media is under attack by the Bush Administration it choose to wrongfully assert it's power in a passive-aggressive way disconnecting it's responsiblity from the 'fallout.'
conti2005 - 4:51 PM ET February 19, 2005 (#684 of 3589)The Revolt and the Revolting - http://stopwarsaveearth.blogspot.com/ - In God I Trust, Everyone Else I Monitor It's troubling...
...a couple of years ago I did some research regarding the presentation of suicide on television. I researched fifty years of statistics.
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/315/
It is a known fact that when suicide is presented on television the rate escalates. There is a trend with the management of CNN to present the subject of suicide on a regular basis. They did in on the evening news under the guise of 'depression' as presented by Anderson Cooper on his 360. They are presenting it again today. They offer places to seek help but these people have to know there is well established factual evidence that points to 'permission' and 'mimicking' as a venue for people. I find the 'tone' of much of this program troubling and the mental health authorities with at least the city of New York should look at the subject as they present it and the repeated presentation. I know I am not wrong.
WHAT FOLLOWED were some high profiled deaths...now, where there are two such noted deaths there has to be a statistical increase across the populous. Those statistics aren't necessarily reported on a daily or monthly basis but in annual reviews of 'trends' in a nation.
Salon
The death of the poet Tatyana Bek has led to speculation that a falling-out with her fellow poets provoked her to commit suicide.
By Victor Sonkin
Published: February 18, 2005
Tatyana Bek, who died 10 days ago in Moscow, was one of those rare authors whose literary instincts were as much directed outwards as they were directed inwards. A keen lyrical poet, Bek authored several acclaimed collections of verse, taught at Moscow's Literary Institute and was also a keen journalist. Her journalism, though, was of a special kind: She would talk to her fellow poets and turn these long conversations into imaginative interviews that revealed the unique personalities of her interlocutors. Her last book, containing such interviews, as well as essays, memoirs and poems, was rather sadly titled "Good-bye, Alphabet" (Do Svidaniya, Alfavit).
Gonzo godfather Hunter S Thompson kills himself
Posted online: Tuesday, February 22, 2005 at 0123 hours IST
LOS ANGELES, FEBRUARY 21: Hunter Stockton Thompson, a renegade journalist whose “gonzo” style threw out any pretense at objectivity and established the hard-living writer as a counter-culture icon, fatally shot himself at his Colorado home on Sunday night, police said. He was 67.
Thompson’s son, Juan, released a statement saying he had found his father dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head at the writer’s Owl Creek farm near Aspen.
'I've gotta get my elephant tusks back'
Amid the guns, drugs and enormous expenses claims, Hunter S Thompson created a new style of writing - gonzo - and a generation of followers. Jon Ronson explains why he became one of them
Tuesday February 22, 2005
THE FREE FOR ALL after the death of Thompson in the media after it was pointed out how poisonous a public issue was can not be understated. It culminated in a front page expose' in The Washington Times, "From the CNN NewsNight Transcript: "They also put Hunter Thompson on the front page, "End of Story For Hunter Thompson." Yikes. "Gonzo Writer Takes His Own Life." I'm not sure why that's front page in Tuesday's paper. But maybe they had that early deadline yesterday." Keep them dropping like flies, right Aaron? Especially any in the immediate viewing network.
In a time when the media is under attack by the Bush Administration it choose to wrongfully assert it's power in a passive-aggressive way disconnecting it's responsiblity from the 'fallout.'
Monday, February 21, 2005
Rainstorms Cause Mudslides in Southern California; 'Simpsons' Character Comes Out
Aired February 21, 2005 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, HOST: Good evening again.When it comes to the forces of nature, Southern California is famous for being either heaven on earth or hell on earth, but rarely anything in between.Last Thursday, after weeks of heavy rain, it started raining yet again, and it hasn't stopped since, turning riverbeds into rivers and high desert into flood plains.This morning, rescuers had quite a time pulling a man from the rising waters around a trailer park in Thousand Palms. They got him out safely, but they've been busy.Stories of rain and rescue begin us now with CNN's Ted Rowlands.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Northbound 605.TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Los Angeles County Fire Urban Search and Rescue Team gets a call that a mudslide into a home has trapped at least one victim.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're about less than 10 out.ROWLANDS: They arrive to find mud and debris from floor to ceiling inside a condominium.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, bring a chainsaw and...
ROWLANDS: A woman is trapped against a bathroom wall.
CAPT. DON ROY, LOS ANGELES COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT: We had a whole mountain of mud from the hill had come through the house.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don, can you pull that?
ROWLANDS: Using saws, crowbars, and sledgehammers, firefighters cut through a dining room wall to get to the bathroom.ROY: This would be what they call a fluid. It's not a static. But what I mean by fluid, it's constantly moving. And if we had actually water flowing underneath that mud pile, which is a big concern for us, because once you get the mud flowing down, and it's static, now we got water actually filtering underneath it into the house, into the spot where she was at, was the path of that mud. And that is bad.
ROWLANDS: A human chain is used to move debris. Eventually, they get to the woman. She is in pain, but able to talk.
LEO IBARRA, LOS ANGELES COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT: The concern is with what's called a crush syndrome. When we have this pressure built up against our body parts over a period of time, lactic acid begins to build up in our system. And then once that pressure's released, all that acid goes to the major organs in our body.So the concern is, is that even though she's talking to us now, once we alleviate that pressure, she could, what we would call, bottom out. Then she would go into full arrest.ROWLANDS: The victim tells firefighters she can't feel the lower half of her body. Eventually, they're able to get her onto a stretcher.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can move her if she's strapped. We can go.
ROWLANDS: And into an ambulance. The victim is then taken by chopper to a local hospital.Ted Rowlands, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: There is, of course, a difference between really bad weather and the damage it causes, and natural disasters of the sort that hit South Asia. Southern California will recover in weeks. South Asia won't recover for years.Former presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton have wrapped up their three-day tour of the countries devastated by the tsunami, both visibly moved by what they saw and heard. They spent their final day visiting Sri Lanka and the Maldives.On March the 8th, they'll report on what they witnessed to the president.It's been nearly two months now since the tsunami hit, and we're starting to get some hard numbers on the magnitude of the destruction and the loss of life.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): This much we do know, the December 26 tsunami was one of the worst on record. Nearly 170,000 people confirmed dead, more than the entire population of Green Bay, Wisconsin. Tens of thousands more remain missing.Indonesia suffered the brunt of the devastation, more than 122,000 dead there. Sri Lanka, India, Thailand also hit hard, very hard.Catastrophe has many measures. More than a million people throughout Asia have lost their homes. Many are orphans. Aid officials estimate there may be as many as 35,000 orphans in Indonesia alone.Enormous loss has been matched by tremendous generosity. Relief donations have reached almost $4.5 billion. Some aid agencies, like UNICEF, have even turned money away, saying they have enough to do the job for now.In the days and weeks after the tsunami, the task seemed overwhelming.
DR. RICHARD BRENNAN, INTERNATIONAL RESCUE COMMITTEE: This should be oriented...
BROWN: It did to Dr. Richard Brennan on the ground in Banda Aceh.
BRENNAN: It always takes days to weeks to gear up on a large- scale relief effort. The scale of this relief effort is something that I haven't seen before. I mean, this is just enormous.
BROWN: Dr. Brennan recently returned from Indonesia, where he says now the focus is shifting.
BRENNAN: We're into the phase of moving out of the acute emergency response and really having to focus our strategies on helping the communities rebuild their lives and their livelihoods. And we're already talking about community regeneration now.BROWN: The cost of rebuilding will be steep. The United Nations estimates it may take as much as $12.5 billion, which would mean more money will have to be raised.As for the long-term losses, they may be harder to quantify. Whole economies have been decimated. In Maldives, the damage equals more than half of the country's gross domestic product.For those on the ground across South Asia, losses and steps forward are measured on a smaller scale.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Such as one brick at a time. In Banda Aceh in Indonesia, not far from the epicenter of the earthquake that spawned the tsunami, so much of the city was leveled by the water, it'll take a lot of bricks, stacked one on top of the other, to give people a sense that their city is alive once again.Tonight, Beth Nissen introduces us to a woman in Banda Aceh who has a message for her friends and neighbors as they rebuild. Remember what Francis Bacon said, knowledge is power.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Its walls withstood the violent shaking of the earth. But the Banda Aceh Public Library could not survive the huge waves of seawater, muck, and debris that followed. The ground-floor library was swamped, from the front steps to the back reading rooms.Just after the disaster, several bodies were collected from the front and back yards, but it was days before anyone ventured inside.
Ustidar (ph), a librarian who headed up the preservation department, was one of the first to return, one of the few librarians who survived. The library's director and some 20 members of staff died in the tsunami."
The references in the back, dictionaries, law books, the children's library, it's destroyed," she says. "There's nothing left. It's all gone."
Banda Aceh's only public library was a busy place, used by more than 800 people a day. They would come to read the periodicals, magazines, and newspapers from around the region, to wait their turn to get online, access the World Wide Web.
But mostly they came for the books, the heart of the library, of any library. Books on evolution and revolution, on city planning and village development, thrillers and mysteries, classic works by Tolstoy and Dickens, books that helped high school students with their term papers, and college students with their theses, books that were read to children and that children could learn to read by themselves.
The library housed 200,000 titles in all, says Ustidar, in several languages -- Indonesian, Arabic, English, Mandarin.Books in English were especially important. People would check them out to teach themselves English, or better English. "Everywhere in the world these days," she says, "the English language is essential.
"Since the tsunami, the sense of what's essential has shifted to new homes, clean water, restored livelihoods. In a city of ruined schools, clinics, and neighborhoods, rebuilding a library doesn't seem like a high priority.This veteran librarian insists it is. "Life is more than just food and shelter," she says. "A full stomach without knowledge means little. We need education. We need knowledge to expand." Knowledge in an information age to catch up, keep up.
Workers have salvaged what they can from the library's second floor offices and storage rooms. None of the books can be saved, not even the new ones still in their box that arrived the day before the tsunami. The collection will need to be rebuilt volume by volume. That will take great sums of money, years of time.
But Ustidar can already see it, she says, a place full of light and enlightenment, of information and knowledge and analysis and opinion, of civilization and hope, and the advancement of both. A library.
Beth Nissen, CNN, Banda Aceh.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Much more tonight, including a look at gays, God, and Homer Simpson. And an unholy mess at Harvard.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLAUDIA GOLDIN, HARVARD ECONOMICS PROFESSOR: He had a yellow pad, and it had, and I saw it had, exactly six words written on it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Talking points indeed. They landed Harvard in the headlines, and its president in the doghouse.From that president to this one, before he became president.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH (R), TEXAS (on phone): I wouldn't answer the marijuana question. You know why? Because I don't want some little kid doing what I tried.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BROWN: Candid moments with a friend he knew, and a tape recorder he didn't.Real life in Iraq. Let him paint you a picture.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Try to make the viewer see the cartoon in its real form, so he's shocked by the ideas, so at least he starts to realize that he cannot be neutral, that he has to take a side.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: And to top it all off, a very, very tall tale. But it's all true, and so is this.This is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Busy day for President Bush on the first full day of his European trip. In Brussels, Mr. Bush delivered a speech highlighting what he called a new era of transatlantic unity. The president is in Europe in part to mend fences with some longtime allies who did not support the war in Iraq, chief among them French President Jacques Chirac. Two leaders met this afternoon. Both stressed the importance of Franco-American relations, and they had dinner tonight at the residence of the U.S. ambassador.
Thousands of antiwar protesters took to the streets of Belgium's capital today, holding signs saying President Bush is not welcome there.
As the president works at a bit of diplomatic kiss-and-make-up in Old Europe, he might also be wondering about an old friendship back home. Doug Wead was a friend. We assume "was" is the right word here, for Mr. Wead secretly recorded then-candidate Governor Bush as he was preparing his first run for the White House.
From what we've heard in these tapes, there is little shocking in the talks. The then-governor talks about his faith, talks about politics in a way that leads you to believe he understands it's a rough business, and he talks about drugs, pot, specifically, in a way that makes you think he probably inhaled.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
BUSH: Well, Doug, but it's not, it doesn't matter, cocaine. It'd be the same with marijuana. I wouldn't answer the marijuana question. You know why? Because I don't want some little kid doing what I tried.
DOUGLAS WEAD: Yes, and it never stops, the question.
BUSH: But, but, but you got to understand, I want to be president, I want to lead. I want to set -- Do you want your little kid to say, Hey, Daddy, President Bush tried marijuana, I think I will?
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BROWN: In the tapes, Mr. Bush also disagrees with social conservatives who want him to take a stronger stance against gays.
The recording released by Mr. Wead are just a fraction of those he made over a two-year period that he's now turned into a book. Tonight, he told CNN's Anderson Cooper he's considering turning all nine hours of tape over to the White House.
Well, that is what he said. He also said he didn't think he was being disloyal, that he thought it was an act of preserving history.I suppose it dates me a bit. When I was growing up, nobody wasted a lot of brain cells wondering what the hidden messages were in "The Flintstones." Then again, the Flintstones weren't the Simpsons. "The Simpsons" have made it their business to grapple with and poke fun at as many hot-button issues as they can get their four-fingered hands on.
And in doing so, they've earned not only enemies and laughs, but also the grudging admiration of -- would you believe it -- more than a few evangelical Christians.The sacred in a moment. First the profane.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): It's not politics but profit that leads Springfield to take up the cause of gay marriage.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE SIMPSONS," FOX)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to bring tourism back to Springfield. As usual, I will open the floor to all crazy ideas that jump to people's minds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stronger beer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gladiator fights.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Poetry slam.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Giant rats.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why don't we legalize same-sex marriage? We can attract a growing segment of the marriage market, and strike a blow for civil rights.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Springfield goes for the dollar, offering a sanctuary for gay and lesbian wedded bliss.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE SIMPSONS," FOX)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): Gay-o, come stay-o...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): Gay-o, come stay-o...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): Gay-o, come stay-o...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Not everyone embraces the change. Religious leaders refuse to conduct same-sex ceremonies, which gives Homer Simpson an opportunity to cash in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE SIMPSONS," FOX)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Reverend Simpson...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: If you think "The Simpsons" was coming to an easy conclusion about the morality of gay marriage, think again. Marge Simpson's sister, Patty, announces she will marry the woman she loves, and Marge has trouble coming to terms with her sister's sexual orientation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP., "THE SIMPSONS," FOX)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whoa. Save something for your wedding night.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Marge, are you sure you're OK with this?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Of course. Everyone should do whatever they want, take a bear to church, read a book with your feet, change your name to Gubelglab.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Even Homer has his doubts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE SIMPSONS," FOX)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, Lord, please help me say the right words this afternoon, as I consecrate another gay union that angers you so.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: And the wedding doesn't quite come off as planned, because Patty's bride-to-be turns out to be a man in disguise, trying to score big on the ladies' pro golf tour.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE SIMPSONS," FOX)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Patty, will you marry the real me?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hell, no. I like girls.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Well, safe to say not everyone is thrilled. Just the same, there's a lot to see in "The Simpsons." not all of it irreverent, dangerous, corrupting, or evil. Not that there's anything wrong with that.Mark Pinsky is the author of "The Gospel According to the Simpsons," and he joins us this evening from Orlando, Florida.It's nice to have you with us.Evangelicals went after Spongebob for less than this. Why would they embrace a cartoon program that is as irreverent on so many levels as "The Simpsons"?
MARK PINSKY, AUTHOR, "THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THE SIMPSONS": I think because they recognize that they have really a friend in this show. It's -- on the surface, it's critical and satirical, but underneath it really -- it respects faith. Here's a family that goes to church on Sundays, that prays, that says grace at meals, that prays, that reads the Bible, and that believes in God, and they make fun of organized religion, but they don't mock sincere faith.
BROWN: In the program, and as people just saw, seems to struggle with the issue, perhaps as a lot of Americans are struggling with the issue.
PINSKY: I think that's part of the genius of "The Simpsons." Springfield, where it takes place, is undetermined where it is geographically, but it's clearly in a red state. And here's a family where the dad works at a nuclear power plant, the mom stays at home. These are people who are -- they live in a suburban tract house. This is middle America grappling with an issue that really middle America is grappling with, and they do it in a fair and honest way, I think.
BROWN: If they had -- I guess to me, as I watched it, it was that it wasn't preachy that made it work. If it's preachy, then it becomes just another TV show preaching, if you will.
PINSKY: Yes. I think the genius of "The Simpsons" is that they take two steps forward, and then one-and-a-half steps back. You think they're predictable in what they're going to do, and then they fool you by looking at the other side of a question in the next joke.
BROWN: Have you ever talked to the people who write the program about how they see religion? They put the next-door neighbor, who is an evangelical, a born-again Christian, who is often the butt of a lot of jokes.
PINSKY: He is. But it's funny, the writers, the ones that I spoke with, really have fallen in love with Ned Flanders, the next- door neighbor. On the surface, he's kind of a doofus, but underneath, he's a really sincere and loving guy. And because of that, many evangelical Christians have really adopted Ned as their mascot, almost.
When I asked the writers about this favorable portrayal of religion, at first they were kind of embarrassed. Here was this show that had a reputation for being cutting-edge and antiauthoritarian. And I kept giving them examples of all this favorable stuff about sincere belief.
And they finally said, Well, it was an act of creative desperation. They never thought the show would last this many seasons, and so they ran out of ideas for a family sitcom, and because commercial television had ignored religion for so many years for fear of offending people or for watering it down, this was a whole area that they could use that hadn't been plowed to death by, you know, two dozen other sitcoms.
BROWN: Is it possible that a sitcom cannot do what a cartoon program can?
PINSKY: Absolutely. I think when people go into a sanctuary, when they go into a lecture hall to hear a talk about religion, a sort of veil of skepticism descends over their brains. But when they're on their family couch watching a cartoon on the TV, I don't think that filter is in place, and so really, some challenging and serious issues can get through to them, because they're not on guard the way they are when they're in church or in class.
BROWN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), have you ever tried to figure out sort of how large or how grand is the embrace among evangelicals? Clearly, some people, even at the mention of, are going to be offended by.
PINSKY: I think the recognition on the part of evangelicals that "The Simpsons" is really good for faith took a long time to build, and probably around four or five, maybe six years ago, discerning evangelicals, which is a code word for evangelicals with a sense of humor, began noticing it wasn't what people thought for so many years, that the series was changing, that there was something really valuable there.
And when I went on the radio to promote my book on Christian stations, particularly, host after host said, I'm glad you wrote this book, because I can come out of the closet as someone who's a supporter and a fan of "The Simpsons."
BROWN: You know, I think one of the things the program does, it makes a distinction between poking fun at organized religion or churches, as opposed to believers.
PINSKY: Absolutely. "The Simpsons," without prejudice, attacks every institution of modern American life, and that includes the organized -- the church. The church, the preacher, Reverend Lovejoy, who doesn't really love joy very much, all come in, all take their whacks.But sincere belief, and there's a separation there, sincere belief is never mocked, and God is never mocked. The cartoon characters, ever since Disney, have had four fingers, by tradition. But when God appears on "The Simpsons," God has five fingers. A little wink to say the Simpsons aren't real, but God really is real.
BROWN: Mark, nice to meet you. Thanks for coming with us tonight.
PINSKY: Thanks for having me.
BROWN: Thank you.Coming up on the program, a gentle debate. This is not a schoolyard donnybrook over speech and sex and science that could cost the president of Harvard his job.And later, remembering one of America's sweethearts, Sandra Dee.Take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Henry Kissinger is famous for saying that academic infighting is so bitter because the stakes are so low.Perhaps he hasn't been back to Harvard lately, where both the bitterness and the stakes seem off the charts. Tomorrow, faculty members are scheduled to hold an emergency meeting. First, second, and last on the agenda, what President Lawrence Summers said last month about women and the sciences, and what it might mean for the future of Harvard -- his future, that is.
Reporting tonight from Cambridge, CNN's Bill Schneider.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST (voice-over): What did Harvard President Larry Summers say to provoke so much controversy? Let's reconstruct the scene with Harvard economics professor Claudia Goldin, a Summers defender who was there.
CLAUDIA GOLDIN, HARVARD ECONOMICS PROFESSOR: When Lawrence Summers got up from a seat over here to address the group, he brought with him a pad of paper. It was a yellow pad. And it had -- and I saw it had -- exactly six words written on it. I have no idea what the words were. But that is what guided his talk. That is, there was no script. There was no formal speech.
SCHNEIDER: Why are women underrepresented in science? Summers asked. He offered three hypotheses. One, willingness to commit to a high-powered job.
GOLDIN: Individuals, men versus women, might make different choices.
SCHNEIDER: But to Harvard physics professor Lisa Randall, that raises a red flag.
LISA RANDALL, HARVARD PHYSICS PROFESSOR: To say that it's just the women's choice not to be serious about their work, that's a bit of an overstatement, and also that obviously has a lot of cultural issues behind it.
SCHNEIDER: Two, aptitude, intrinsic differences between men and women. What intrinsic differences? asks Professor Randall, who has voiced her concerns directly to Summers.
RANDALL: There's no way to establish the kind of intrinsic differences at this point. So having a debate about it is just a debate about prejudices.
SCHNEIDER: Three, socialization and discrimination. Girls are discouraged, and women face barriers.Their importance probably ranks in exactly the order that I just described, Summers said.Summers said his aim was to be provocative.
GOLDIN: He said not once, but I think three times in the discussion, I could be wrong. Prove me wrong.
SCHNEIDER: OK, Professor Randall responds.
RANDALL: The real issue is that these statements just are factually incorrect. And that's pretty important.
SCHNEIDER: A purely academic argument? Not quite. Lawrence Summers is president of the most prestigious university in the world, as this physics student noted.
MARIANGELA LISANTI, WOMEN IN SCIENCE AT HARVARD-RADCLIFFE: His words are going to be heard not only by the students on campus, but also by people all around the country, all around the world, including young girls.
SCHNEIDER: Which makes this academic debate far more than academic.Bill Schneider, CNN, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Quick look now at some other news around the country.In Texas, the search continues for a pregnant woman from Fort Worth and her 7-year-old son. Today, police said the woman's sports- utility vehicle was found in a creekbed north of Dallas. The mother and son reported missing on Saturday.
In Mississippi, a 20-year employee of Northrup Grumman Ship Systems is in custody tonight after opening fire at the company's shipyard in Pascagoula. Two employees wounded, both in stable condition.Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney today proposed raising death benefits for National Guard members killed in action to $100,000 from $5,000. Payments would be retroactive to October 2001 to cover Massachusetts guardsmen killed in Afghanistan as well as Iraq.
Douglas Wilder, the former governor of Virginia, owns a page in the history books, not only in his native state, but in the history of the country as well. His story is the focus of tonight's edition of CNN's anniversary series, Then and Now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Lawrence Douglas Wilder has earned a reputation exploring uncharted territory, politically as well as racially. He graduated from the private all- black Virginia Union University after being turned away from all-white schools in his native Virginia. Doug Wilder went on to become a celebrated criminal lawyer, state senator, lieutenant governor, and in 1990, the first black governor ever elected in the U.S.
DOUGLAS WILDER, FORMER VIRGINIA GOVERNOR: The people of Virginia have spoken tonight!
PHILLIPS: To demonstrate distaste for his state's history of slavery, Wilder chose to take his oath of office outside Virginia's capitol, a building that had served as the Confederate capital during the Civil War. Now at 74, he's beginning a new phase of public service. Last November, following a historic change in the city charter, he became the first mayor elected by the people, rather than the council, in his hometown Richmond.
WILDER: What is it that we are to do? And who are you there for? You're there to represent the people.
PHILLIPS: Today, Mayor Doug Wilder is a common sight on the streets of Richmond, and Virginia Commonwealth University, where he teaches political science.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Three more American soldiers were killed today in Iraq, a roadside bombing in Baghdad, eight other soldiers wounded in the attack. Insurgents have turned up the campaign of violence over the last few days to coincide with a major Shiite religious holiday. Dozens of Iraqis have been killed. CNN's Nic Robertson is in Baghdad tonight with the story of one man who is taking on the insurgents, but not with a gun, his weapon, a pen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's painful and provocative. And that's exactly what this cartoon is supposed to be. "The most painful thing I've ever drawn," newspaper cartoonist Muayyad Nima tells me. So many Iraqis have been killed by insurgents, he explains, that their bodies are like a sea. But Iraqis are determined to sail across to a better place.
MUAYYAD NIMA, CARTOONIST (through translator): Try to make the viewer see the cartoon in its real form, so he's shocked by the ideas, so at least he starts to realize that he cannot be neutral, that he has to take a side.
ROBERTSON: But his pictures, like this one of a family watching TV, reveling in the bloodshed by insurgents, or this, where Iraqis simply ignore insurgents on a killing spree, are not just a wakeup call to Iraqis. They are a direct challenge to the insurgents.
NIMA (through translator): I try to make my style as one of a stand. That is black cartoon, which gives a sense of toughness after all these events and this atmosphere that is full of killing and terrorism. I have to be tough.
ROBERTSON: And Muayyad's message does seem to be getting through. "His cartoons go deep into the true reality," this reader says. "It really is stinging criticism."
Such critique, though, is a new and rare phenomenon. Saddam Hussein banned dissent. And today, few cartoonists dare risk the insurgents' wrath and possible death.
NIMA (through translator): It seems I am not feeling the fear. It is not heroism. I feel that I am presenting a work that enlightens people.
ROBERTSON: Some of his pictures need no explanation, for this grandfather who made a living teaching ceramics during Saddam Hussein's rule, years of artistic frustration finally being released.
NIMA (through translator): I have to be like this. When I implement an idea, I really feel that some people are being moved by the idea, which means that I am on the right path.
ROBERTSON: These days, though, the gun is mighty. And keeping his pen on his chosen path will likely prove a challenge. Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Still to come on the program the man who invented gonzo journalism is gone, the legacy of Hunter S. Thompson. And the rooster will bring no fear or loathing, just the morning's news. A break first. Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: It is a strange weekend, indeed, when on one side of the obituary page is the poster child for the all-American girl and on the other side is the poster child for '60s excess. But that's where we find ourselves, remembering two people tonight who, despite the fact they lived at the same time on the same planet, seemed to have nothing in common. Sandra Dee and Hunter S. Thompson both died over the weekend. They lived differently, and they died differently. Ms. Dee first.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "GIDGET")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: See, this beach is for surfers only. It's too dangerous for dames.
SANDRA DEE, ACTRESS: Dames? Oh, no, I'm no dame.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Oh, well, what do you know?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: It has all the earmarks of a dame.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: She was anything but a dame. Sandra Dee was the all- American girl, the quintessential teenager. If Jackie Kennedy was American royalty, Sandra Dee was our reigning prom queen.
ANDREW COHEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF PROGRAMMING, BRAVO: Sandra Dee was pure. She was everybody's wholesome idea of what a teenager was about in the early '60s.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "GIDGET")
DEE: You've got to. It's delicious.
(END VIDEO CLIP);
BROWN: Before she became Gidget, Sandra Dee was born in Bayonne, New Jersey, in 1942 as Alexandra Zuck. Talent shows and modeling propelled her into the movies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "A SUMMER PLACE")
DEE: I'm afraid.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Of me? Of yourself?
DEE: Yes, that and some other new feelings that I can't explain.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: She was the girl every guy wanted to fall in love with, and she was what so many girls hoped to be. After a whirlwind courtship, Sandra Dee married teen idol Bobby Darin in 1960. They soon had a son, Dodd. And those who know Sandra Dee well said motherhood was the role she loved best.
STEVE BLAUNER, FORMER BOBBY DARIN MANAGER: Dodd is the apple of her eye, and he is a testament to what a good mother she was. The two loves of her life were her son and Bobby Darin. BROWN: But her marriage to Darin was tumultuous and capsized after seven years, part of that pain recounted in the new movie "Beyond the Sea."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "BEYOND THE SEA")
KEVIN SPACEY, ACTOR: All the slaps and the smiles, and, in the meantime, I'm a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) joke out there.
KATE BOSWORTH, ACTRESS: Not as big of a joke as you are right now. SPACEY: Warren Beatty is there with Leslie Caron, who is nominated for best actress. And I'm there with Gidget.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Dodd Darin and director Kevin Spacey talked about the film recently with Larry King.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE")
LARRY KING, HOST: Was it difficult for you to see them play out arguments between your father and mother?
DODD DARIN, SON OF SANDRA DEE: Sure.
KING: Your father and his temper, your mother and her drinking.
DARIN: Absolutely. I mean, that's one of the beautiful things of the film, is, it's very real. And it was difficult. I mean, my mom, you know, went through a lot with him. He could be difficult. She could be difficult. And it was painful to see that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: In later years, she revealed the reality behind the dream. She said she'd been sexually abused as a child, suffered from anorexia, but she battled back. And shortly before her death, she went to see the movie "Beyond the Sea."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE")
DARIN: Well, she went with her assistant to watch it privately. I wasn't there. Kevin wasn't there. That's how she wanted it. And she came over right afterwards to my house. And she's a good actress, but she ain't that good. She was speechless. She was just moved and touched. And she came in and she said, you know, I'm so proud to have been part of his life, to have, you know, spent those years with them. I wouldn't trade it for anything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: And those who knew and loved Sandra Dee felt exactly the same way about her.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: It is hard, on the other hand, to imagine what some of his friends must have thought of Hunter S. Thompson at times. Sandra Dee, he was not. Or, so the legend went, and so the caricature was drawn. The reality may be something else entirely, or at least something more complex. There was a gentle, courtly side to the man. But the legend grew to gobble up great chunks of our attention and perhaps a bit of the man as well. Hunter S. Thompson killed himself yesterday. He was 67.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): Call it a coincidence, but on the last night of Hunter Thompson's life, millions of Americans were watching a television show celebrating a body of work whose peak was reached some 30 years ago, "Saturday Night Live." Like this first startling burst of energy from a satirical voice anchored in the counterculture, Hunter Thompson's journalistic voice was rooted in the sensibility of the late '60s rebellion. Authority was suspect. Insight was better fueled by mind-altering chemicals. And the conventions of a straight-ahead, neutral narration were inadequate to the facts. Only the vision of a slightly mad reporter, Thompson seemed to say, could really convey the madness of the times.
So, when the Kentucky-born Thompson, with years of mainstream journalistic experience behind him, arrived in Las Vegas in the early '70s, he took everything he knew about journalistic do's and don't's and threw them away. His vision of Vegas, the playground of the American id, was filtered through booze and drugs. He didn't just insert himself into the story. He hurled himself into it at real risk to body and mind, the result, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," a unique blend of fact and fancy.
And when "Rolling Stone" magazine sent Thompson on the campaign trail in 1972, the result was campaign coverage that appalled many and enthralled many others. Richard Nixon," he wrote, was like the monstrous Mr. Hyde. He spoke for the werewolf in all of us. "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail" was another enduring work.
Two first-rate actors, Bill Murray and Johnny Depp, have tried to capture Thompson on film, but he seemed to inhabit neither the movies, nor the decades that followed the '70s. He ran for sheriff of his adopted home of Aspen, Colorado, found himself in a fair share of scrapes, found his attempts at fiction lacking an audience. And, on Sunday night, after years of affection for firearms, he made one final use of one. The arc of Hunter Thompson's life and work may not have been what he or we would have wished. But if his friends and admirers seek consolation, they can know that future generations will not be able to grasp the nature of his time without listening to that gifted, if demented voice.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: We began the program with the forces of nature. And that's where we go next, nature as exemplified by trees. Did you know that some trees are the largest living things on Earth? Some date back centuries, others thousands of years. And that's just the trees in this country, captured in a new book entitled "Tree: A New Vision of the American Forest," created by photographer James Balog.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAMES BALOG, PHOTOGRAPHER, "TREE: A NEW VISION OF THE AMERICAN FOREST": I started out doing the series with one original idea, namely, that I would put backgrounds behind the trees and light them, basically bringing a portrait studio to the forest.
As time went on, the project evolved into a lot of different styles, black and white with a little $16 plastic camera, very high- tech with all these digital images, and then a lot of points in between. I went from Key West to the Pacific Northwest, from Arizona to New England, and lots and lots of points in between. What I was trying to do was make portraits of the largest, oldest, strongest trees in America.
These bristlecone are so old that the great pyramids of Giza were being built when these trees were rooted. They are bristlecone pines in the White Mountains of California in the desert. They're living at 10,000 feet. And they grow to be 4,733 years old. That's the age of the very oldest one.
This is a fantastic old cedar growing on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington all by itself out in a big clear-cut. This is one of the first times I decided that one frame just wasn't enough. I stood at the bottom of this thing and just -- one picture just didn't do it. There's this fabulous aspen grove in Fish Lake, Utah. It's 106 acres. It weighs 13 million pounds, because there's 47,000 trees all coming out of the same root system. I walked through the aspen grove. And this panel shows me looking forward and looking backwards at the same time as I'm moving through the grove itself.
This redbud had this very oriental, soft feeling to it. It's so soft and so romantic and so sweet, I almost didn't put it in the book.
This is the Mount Everest of the plant kingdom. It's a coast redwood named Stratosphere Giant. It's 370 feet tall. I shot this by repelling down through the forest. In the course of going down there, I photographed 815 frames, and then I later assembled the mosaic on a computer.
People help to give the pictures a sense of scale and monumentality of the subjects. This is the beautiful cottonwood tree that I have in my back yard. It's not one of the national champions by any means. But to me, it gave me such joy over the years watching this tree in its annual evolution.
Photography is an amazing act. It forces you to contemplate and slow down and just be there and consider things much more carefully. I learned that these trees have incredible individuality, incredible character, incredible individual personality.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Morning papers printed on recycled paper after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(ROOSTER CROWING)
BROWN: Okeydoke, time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world. We'll start with "The International Herald Tribune." The president is overseas. Seems like a good way to start. Newspapers struggled a little bit to find the right lead on the president, but this one most often the case. "Bush Warns Russia on Rule of Law.
"But down here, thumbs, if you can. "Open Minds on Open Seas. British Royal Navy Woos Gays and Lesbians." Different countries, different policies I guess the way to look at that, British Royal Navy looking for more recruits.
"The Washington Times" on the president's trip. "Bush, Chirac Tell Syria to Leave Lebanon, Call For Pullout of 14,000 Troops, Per U.N. Resolution." They also put Hunter Thompson on the front page, "End of Story For Hunter Thompson."
Yikes.
"Gonzo Writer Takes His Own Life." I'm not sure why that's front page in Tuesday's paper. But maybe they had that early deadline yesterday.
"Stars and Stripes" or -- today that would be, wouldn't it? "Prison Riot in Iraq Reveals Risks For U.S. Recent Uprising Exposes Increasingly Violent Inmate Population." That's comforting. Also, they put Hilary Swank on the front page. "Oscar Winner Has Good Shot at Second Statue."
You bet.
I love this headline. I don't know about the story. "Conspiracy Theory, Representative Maurice Hinchey's, Claims White House Planted CBS Memos." Well, let's just say they did. It doesn't mean CBS shouldn't have checked them out, does it? Also, by the way, new tips for potty training, if you're interested.
"The Press of Atlantic City," haven't done this in a long time. "Bush Appeals to E.U. For Mideast Peace Help," different lead, same trip.
The weather in Chicago tomorrow, according to "The Chicago Sun- Times," "listless."We'll wrap it up in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Good to have you with us tonight. "AMERICAN MORNING," 7:00 a.m. Eastern time. "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" next for most of you. We'll see you tomorrow at 10:00. Good night for all of us at NEWSNIGHT.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 21, 2005 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, HOST: Good evening again.When it comes to the forces of nature, Southern California is famous for being either heaven on earth or hell on earth, but rarely anything in between.Last Thursday, after weeks of heavy rain, it started raining yet again, and it hasn't stopped since, turning riverbeds into rivers and high desert into flood plains.This morning, rescuers had quite a time pulling a man from the rising waters around a trailer park in Thousand Palms. They got him out safely, but they've been busy.Stories of rain and rescue begin us now with CNN's Ted Rowlands.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Northbound 605.TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Los Angeles County Fire Urban Search and Rescue Team gets a call that a mudslide into a home has trapped at least one victim.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're about less than 10 out.ROWLANDS: They arrive to find mud and debris from floor to ceiling inside a condominium.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, bring a chainsaw and...
ROWLANDS: A woman is trapped against a bathroom wall.
CAPT. DON ROY, LOS ANGELES COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT: We had a whole mountain of mud from the hill had come through the house.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don, can you pull that?
ROWLANDS: Using saws, crowbars, and sledgehammers, firefighters cut through a dining room wall to get to the bathroom.ROY: This would be what they call a fluid. It's not a static. But what I mean by fluid, it's constantly moving. And if we had actually water flowing underneath that mud pile, which is a big concern for us, because once you get the mud flowing down, and it's static, now we got water actually filtering underneath it into the house, into the spot where she was at, was the path of that mud. And that is bad.
ROWLANDS: A human chain is used to move debris. Eventually, they get to the woman. She is in pain, but able to talk.
LEO IBARRA, LOS ANGELES COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT: The concern is with what's called a crush syndrome. When we have this pressure built up against our body parts over a period of time, lactic acid begins to build up in our system. And then once that pressure's released, all that acid goes to the major organs in our body.So the concern is, is that even though she's talking to us now, once we alleviate that pressure, she could, what we would call, bottom out. Then she would go into full arrest.ROWLANDS: The victim tells firefighters she can't feel the lower half of her body. Eventually, they're able to get her onto a stretcher.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can move her if she's strapped. We can go.
ROWLANDS: And into an ambulance. The victim is then taken by chopper to a local hospital.Ted Rowlands, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: There is, of course, a difference between really bad weather and the damage it causes, and natural disasters of the sort that hit South Asia. Southern California will recover in weeks. South Asia won't recover for years.Former presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton have wrapped up their three-day tour of the countries devastated by the tsunami, both visibly moved by what they saw and heard. They spent their final day visiting Sri Lanka and the Maldives.On March the 8th, they'll report on what they witnessed to the president.It's been nearly two months now since the tsunami hit, and we're starting to get some hard numbers on the magnitude of the destruction and the loss of life.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): This much we do know, the December 26 tsunami was one of the worst on record. Nearly 170,000 people confirmed dead, more than the entire population of Green Bay, Wisconsin. Tens of thousands more remain missing.Indonesia suffered the brunt of the devastation, more than 122,000 dead there. Sri Lanka, India, Thailand also hit hard, very hard.Catastrophe has many measures. More than a million people throughout Asia have lost their homes. Many are orphans. Aid officials estimate there may be as many as 35,000 orphans in Indonesia alone.Enormous loss has been matched by tremendous generosity. Relief donations have reached almost $4.5 billion. Some aid agencies, like UNICEF, have even turned money away, saying they have enough to do the job for now.In the days and weeks after the tsunami, the task seemed overwhelming.
DR. RICHARD BRENNAN, INTERNATIONAL RESCUE COMMITTEE: This should be oriented...
BROWN: It did to Dr. Richard Brennan on the ground in Banda Aceh.
BRENNAN: It always takes days to weeks to gear up on a large- scale relief effort. The scale of this relief effort is something that I haven't seen before. I mean, this is just enormous.
BROWN: Dr. Brennan recently returned from Indonesia, where he says now the focus is shifting.
BRENNAN: We're into the phase of moving out of the acute emergency response and really having to focus our strategies on helping the communities rebuild their lives and their livelihoods. And we're already talking about community regeneration now.BROWN: The cost of rebuilding will be steep. The United Nations estimates it may take as much as $12.5 billion, which would mean more money will have to be raised.As for the long-term losses, they may be harder to quantify. Whole economies have been decimated. In Maldives, the damage equals more than half of the country's gross domestic product.For those on the ground across South Asia, losses and steps forward are measured on a smaller scale.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Such as one brick at a time. In Banda Aceh in Indonesia, not far from the epicenter of the earthquake that spawned the tsunami, so much of the city was leveled by the water, it'll take a lot of bricks, stacked one on top of the other, to give people a sense that their city is alive once again.Tonight, Beth Nissen introduces us to a woman in Banda Aceh who has a message for her friends and neighbors as they rebuild. Remember what Francis Bacon said, knowledge is power.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Its walls withstood the violent shaking of the earth. But the Banda Aceh Public Library could not survive the huge waves of seawater, muck, and debris that followed. The ground-floor library was swamped, from the front steps to the back reading rooms.Just after the disaster, several bodies were collected from the front and back yards, but it was days before anyone ventured inside.
Ustidar (ph), a librarian who headed up the preservation department, was one of the first to return, one of the few librarians who survived. The library's director and some 20 members of staff died in the tsunami."
The references in the back, dictionaries, law books, the children's library, it's destroyed," she says. "There's nothing left. It's all gone."
Banda Aceh's only public library was a busy place, used by more than 800 people a day. They would come to read the periodicals, magazines, and newspapers from around the region, to wait their turn to get online, access the World Wide Web.
But mostly they came for the books, the heart of the library, of any library. Books on evolution and revolution, on city planning and village development, thrillers and mysteries, classic works by Tolstoy and Dickens, books that helped high school students with their term papers, and college students with their theses, books that were read to children and that children could learn to read by themselves.
The library housed 200,000 titles in all, says Ustidar, in several languages -- Indonesian, Arabic, English, Mandarin.Books in English were especially important. People would check them out to teach themselves English, or better English. "Everywhere in the world these days," she says, "the English language is essential.
"Since the tsunami, the sense of what's essential has shifted to new homes, clean water, restored livelihoods. In a city of ruined schools, clinics, and neighborhoods, rebuilding a library doesn't seem like a high priority.This veteran librarian insists it is. "Life is more than just food and shelter," she says. "A full stomach without knowledge means little. We need education. We need knowledge to expand." Knowledge in an information age to catch up, keep up.
Workers have salvaged what they can from the library's second floor offices and storage rooms. None of the books can be saved, not even the new ones still in their box that arrived the day before the tsunami. The collection will need to be rebuilt volume by volume. That will take great sums of money, years of time.
But Ustidar can already see it, she says, a place full of light and enlightenment, of information and knowledge and analysis and opinion, of civilization and hope, and the advancement of both. A library.
Beth Nissen, CNN, Banda Aceh.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Much more tonight, including a look at gays, God, and Homer Simpson. And an unholy mess at Harvard.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLAUDIA GOLDIN, HARVARD ECONOMICS PROFESSOR: He had a yellow pad, and it had, and I saw it had, exactly six words written on it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Talking points indeed. They landed Harvard in the headlines, and its president in the doghouse.From that president to this one, before he became president.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH (R), TEXAS (on phone): I wouldn't answer the marijuana question. You know why? Because I don't want some little kid doing what I tried.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BROWN: Candid moments with a friend he knew, and a tape recorder he didn't.Real life in Iraq. Let him paint you a picture.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Try to make the viewer see the cartoon in its real form, so he's shocked by the ideas, so at least he starts to realize that he cannot be neutral, that he has to take a side.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: And to top it all off, a very, very tall tale. But it's all true, and so is this.This is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Busy day for President Bush on the first full day of his European trip. In Brussels, Mr. Bush delivered a speech highlighting what he called a new era of transatlantic unity. The president is in Europe in part to mend fences with some longtime allies who did not support the war in Iraq, chief among them French President Jacques Chirac. Two leaders met this afternoon. Both stressed the importance of Franco-American relations, and they had dinner tonight at the residence of the U.S. ambassador.
Thousands of antiwar protesters took to the streets of Belgium's capital today, holding signs saying President Bush is not welcome there.
As the president works at a bit of diplomatic kiss-and-make-up in Old Europe, he might also be wondering about an old friendship back home. Doug Wead was a friend. We assume "was" is the right word here, for Mr. Wead secretly recorded then-candidate Governor Bush as he was preparing his first run for the White House.
From what we've heard in these tapes, there is little shocking in the talks. The then-governor talks about his faith, talks about politics in a way that leads you to believe he understands it's a rough business, and he talks about drugs, pot, specifically, in a way that makes you think he probably inhaled.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
BUSH: Well, Doug, but it's not, it doesn't matter, cocaine. It'd be the same with marijuana. I wouldn't answer the marijuana question. You know why? Because I don't want some little kid doing what I tried.
DOUGLAS WEAD: Yes, and it never stops, the question.
BUSH: But, but, but you got to understand, I want to be president, I want to lead. I want to set -- Do you want your little kid to say, Hey, Daddy, President Bush tried marijuana, I think I will?
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BROWN: In the tapes, Mr. Bush also disagrees with social conservatives who want him to take a stronger stance against gays.
The recording released by Mr. Wead are just a fraction of those he made over a two-year period that he's now turned into a book. Tonight, he told CNN's Anderson Cooper he's considering turning all nine hours of tape over to the White House.
Well, that is what he said. He also said he didn't think he was being disloyal, that he thought it was an act of preserving history.I suppose it dates me a bit. When I was growing up, nobody wasted a lot of brain cells wondering what the hidden messages were in "The Flintstones." Then again, the Flintstones weren't the Simpsons. "The Simpsons" have made it their business to grapple with and poke fun at as many hot-button issues as they can get their four-fingered hands on.
And in doing so, they've earned not only enemies and laughs, but also the grudging admiration of -- would you believe it -- more than a few evangelical Christians.The sacred in a moment. First the profane.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): It's not politics but profit that leads Springfield to take up the cause of gay marriage.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE SIMPSONS," FOX)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to bring tourism back to Springfield. As usual, I will open the floor to all crazy ideas that jump to people's minds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stronger beer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gladiator fights.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Poetry slam.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Giant rats.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why don't we legalize same-sex marriage? We can attract a growing segment of the marriage market, and strike a blow for civil rights.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Springfield goes for the dollar, offering a sanctuary for gay and lesbian wedded bliss.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE SIMPSONS," FOX)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): Gay-o, come stay-o...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): Gay-o, come stay-o...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): Gay-o, come stay-o...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Not everyone embraces the change. Religious leaders refuse to conduct same-sex ceremonies, which gives Homer Simpson an opportunity to cash in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE SIMPSONS," FOX)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Reverend Simpson...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: If you think "The Simpsons" was coming to an easy conclusion about the morality of gay marriage, think again. Marge Simpson's sister, Patty, announces she will marry the woman she loves, and Marge has trouble coming to terms with her sister's sexual orientation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP., "THE SIMPSONS," FOX)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whoa. Save something for your wedding night.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Marge, are you sure you're OK with this?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Of course. Everyone should do whatever they want, take a bear to church, read a book with your feet, change your name to Gubelglab.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Even Homer has his doubts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE SIMPSONS," FOX)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, Lord, please help me say the right words this afternoon, as I consecrate another gay union that angers you so.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: And the wedding doesn't quite come off as planned, because Patty's bride-to-be turns out to be a man in disguise, trying to score big on the ladies' pro golf tour.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE SIMPSONS," FOX)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Patty, will you marry the real me?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hell, no. I like girls.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Well, safe to say not everyone is thrilled. Just the same, there's a lot to see in "The Simpsons." not all of it irreverent, dangerous, corrupting, or evil. Not that there's anything wrong with that.Mark Pinsky is the author of "The Gospel According to the Simpsons," and he joins us this evening from Orlando, Florida.It's nice to have you with us.Evangelicals went after Spongebob for less than this. Why would they embrace a cartoon program that is as irreverent on so many levels as "The Simpsons"?
MARK PINSKY, AUTHOR, "THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THE SIMPSONS": I think because they recognize that they have really a friend in this show. It's -- on the surface, it's critical and satirical, but underneath it really -- it respects faith. Here's a family that goes to church on Sundays, that prays, that says grace at meals, that prays, that reads the Bible, and that believes in God, and they make fun of organized religion, but they don't mock sincere faith.
BROWN: In the program, and as people just saw, seems to struggle with the issue, perhaps as a lot of Americans are struggling with the issue.
PINSKY: I think that's part of the genius of "The Simpsons." Springfield, where it takes place, is undetermined where it is geographically, but it's clearly in a red state. And here's a family where the dad works at a nuclear power plant, the mom stays at home. These are people who are -- they live in a suburban tract house. This is middle America grappling with an issue that really middle America is grappling with, and they do it in a fair and honest way, I think.
BROWN: If they had -- I guess to me, as I watched it, it was that it wasn't preachy that made it work. If it's preachy, then it becomes just another TV show preaching, if you will.
PINSKY: Yes. I think the genius of "The Simpsons" is that they take two steps forward, and then one-and-a-half steps back. You think they're predictable in what they're going to do, and then they fool you by looking at the other side of a question in the next joke.
BROWN: Have you ever talked to the people who write the program about how they see religion? They put the next-door neighbor, who is an evangelical, a born-again Christian, who is often the butt of a lot of jokes.
PINSKY: He is. But it's funny, the writers, the ones that I spoke with, really have fallen in love with Ned Flanders, the next- door neighbor. On the surface, he's kind of a doofus, but underneath, he's a really sincere and loving guy. And because of that, many evangelical Christians have really adopted Ned as their mascot, almost.
When I asked the writers about this favorable portrayal of religion, at first they were kind of embarrassed. Here was this show that had a reputation for being cutting-edge and antiauthoritarian. And I kept giving them examples of all this favorable stuff about sincere belief.
And they finally said, Well, it was an act of creative desperation. They never thought the show would last this many seasons, and so they ran out of ideas for a family sitcom, and because commercial television had ignored religion for so many years for fear of offending people or for watering it down, this was a whole area that they could use that hadn't been plowed to death by, you know, two dozen other sitcoms.
BROWN: Is it possible that a sitcom cannot do what a cartoon program can?
PINSKY: Absolutely. I think when people go into a sanctuary, when they go into a lecture hall to hear a talk about religion, a sort of veil of skepticism descends over their brains. But when they're on their family couch watching a cartoon on the TV, I don't think that filter is in place, and so really, some challenging and serious issues can get through to them, because they're not on guard the way they are when they're in church or in class.
BROWN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), have you ever tried to figure out sort of how large or how grand is the embrace among evangelicals? Clearly, some people, even at the mention of, are going to be offended by.
PINSKY: I think the recognition on the part of evangelicals that "The Simpsons" is really good for faith took a long time to build, and probably around four or five, maybe six years ago, discerning evangelicals, which is a code word for evangelicals with a sense of humor, began noticing it wasn't what people thought for so many years, that the series was changing, that there was something really valuable there.
And when I went on the radio to promote my book on Christian stations, particularly, host after host said, I'm glad you wrote this book, because I can come out of the closet as someone who's a supporter and a fan of "The Simpsons."
BROWN: You know, I think one of the things the program does, it makes a distinction between poking fun at organized religion or churches, as opposed to believers.
PINSKY: Absolutely. "The Simpsons," without prejudice, attacks every institution of modern American life, and that includes the organized -- the church. The church, the preacher, Reverend Lovejoy, who doesn't really love joy very much, all come in, all take their whacks.But sincere belief, and there's a separation there, sincere belief is never mocked, and God is never mocked. The cartoon characters, ever since Disney, have had four fingers, by tradition. But when God appears on "The Simpsons," God has five fingers. A little wink to say the Simpsons aren't real, but God really is real.
BROWN: Mark, nice to meet you. Thanks for coming with us tonight.
PINSKY: Thanks for having me.
BROWN: Thank you.Coming up on the program, a gentle debate. This is not a schoolyard donnybrook over speech and sex and science that could cost the president of Harvard his job.And later, remembering one of America's sweethearts, Sandra Dee.Take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Henry Kissinger is famous for saying that academic infighting is so bitter because the stakes are so low.Perhaps he hasn't been back to Harvard lately, where both the bitterness and the stakes seem off the charts. Tomorrow, faculty members are scheduled to hold an emergency meeting. First, second, and last on the agenda, what President Lawrence Summers said last month about women and the sciences, and what it might mean for the future of Harvard -- his future, that is.
Reporting tonight from Cambridge, CNN's Bill Schneider.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST (voice-over): What did Harvard President Larry Summers say to provoke so much controversy? Let's reconstruct the scene with Harvard economics professor Claudia Goldin, a Summers defender who was there.
CLAUDIA GOLDIN, HARVARD ECONOMICS PROFESSOR: When Lawrence Summers got up from a seat over here to address the group, he brought with him a pad of paper. It was a yellow pad. And it had -- and I saw it had -- exactly six words written on it. I have no idea what the words were. But that is what guided his talk. That is, there was no script. There was no formal speech.
SCHNEIDER: Why are women underrepresented in science? Summers asked. He offered three hypotheses. One, willingness to commit to a high-powered job.
GOLDIN: Individuals, men versus women, might make different choices.
SCHNEIDER: But to Harvard physics professor Lisa Randall, that raises a red flag.
LISA RANDALL, HARVARD PHYSICS PROFESSOR: To say that it's just the women's choice not to be serious about their work, that's a bit of an overstatement, and also that obviously has a lot of cultural issues behind it.
SCHNEIDER: Two, aptitude, intrinsic differences between men and women. What intrinsic differences? asks Professor Randall, who has voiced her concerns directly to Summers.
RANDALL: There's no way to establish the kind of intrinsic differences at this point. So having a debate about it is just a debate about prejudices.
SCHNEIDER: Three, socialization and discrimination. Girls are discouraged, and women face barriers.Their importance probably ranks in exactly the order that I just described, Summers said.Summers said his aim was to be provocative.
GOLDIN: He said not once, but I think three times in the discussion, I could be wrong. Prove me wrong.
SCHNEIDER: OK, Professor Randall responds.
RANDALL: The real issue is that these statements just are factually incorrect. And that's pretty important.
SCHNEIDER: A purely academic argument? Not quite. Lawrence Summers is president of the most prestigious university in the world, as this physics student noted.
MARIANGELA LISANTI, WOMEN IN SCIENCE AT HARVARD-RADCLIFFE: His words are going to be heard not only by the students on campus, but also by people all around the country, all around the world, including young girls.
SCHNEIDER: Which makes this academic debate far more than academic.Bill Schneider, CNN, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Quick look now at some other news around the country.In Texas, the search continues for a pregnant woman from Fort Worth and her 7-year-old son. Today, police said the woman's sports- utility vehicle was found in a creekbed north of Dallas. The mother and son reported missing on Saturday.
In Mississippi, a 20-year employee of Northrup Grumman Ship Systems is in custody tonight after opening fire at the company's shipyard in Pascagoula. Two employees wounded, both in stable condition.Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney today proposed raising death benefits for National Guard members killed in action to $100,000 from $5,000. Payments would be retroactive to October 2001 to cover Massachusetts guardsmen killed in Afghanistan as well as Iraq.
Douglas Wilder, the former governor of Virginia, owns a page in the history books, not only in his native state, but in the history of the country as well. His story is the focus of tonight's edition of CNN's anniversary series, Then and Now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Lawrence Douglas Wilder has earned a reputation exploring uncharted territory, politically as well as racially. He graduated from the private all- black Virginia Union University after being turned away from all-white schools in his native Virginia. Doug Wilder went on to become a celebrated criminal lawyer, state senator, lieutenant governor, and in 1990, the first black governor ever elected in the U.S.
DOUGLAS WILDER, FORMER VIRGINIA GOVERNOR: The people of Virginia have spoken tonight!
PHILLIPS: To demonstrate distaste for his state's history of slavery, Wilder chose to take his oath of office outside Virginia's capitol, a building that had served as the Confederate capital during the Civil War. Now at 74, he's beginning a new phase of public service. Last November, following a historic change in the city charter, he became the first mayor elected by the people, rather than the council, in his hometown Richmond.
WILDER: What is it that we are to do? And who are you there for? You're there to represent the people.
PHILLIPS: Today, Mayor Doug Wilder is a common sight on the streets of Richmond, and Virginia Commonwealth University, where he teaches political science.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Three more American soldiers were killed today in Iraq, a roadside bombing in Baghdad, eight other soldiers wounded in the attack. Insurgents have turned up the campaign of violence over the last few days to coincide with a major Shiite religious holiday. Dozens of Iraqis have been killed. CNN's Nic Robertson is in Baghdad tonight with the story of one man who is taking on the insurgents, but not with a gun, his weapon, a pen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's painful and provocative. And that's exactly what this cartoon is supposed to be. "The most painful thing I've ever drawn," newspaper cartoonist Muayyad Nima tells me. So many Iraqis have been killed by insurgents, he explains, that their bodies are like a sea. But Iraqis are determined to sail across to a better place.
MUAYYAD NIMA, CARTOONIST (through translator): Try to make the viewer see the cartoon in its real form, so he's shocked by the ideas, so at least he starts to realize that he cannot be neutral, that he has to take a side.
ROBERTSON: But his pictures, like this one of a family watching TV, reveling in the bloodshed by insurgents, or this, where Iraqis simply ignore insurgents on a killing spree, are not just a wakeup call to Iraqis. They are a direct challenge to the insurgents.
NIMA (through translator): I try to make my style as one of a stand. That is black cartoon, which gives a sense of toughness after all these events and this atmosphere that is full of killing and terrorism. I have to be tough.
ROBERTSON: And Muayyad's message does seem to be getting through. "His cartoons go deep into the true reality," this reader says. "It really is stinging criticism."
Such critique, though, is a new and rare phenomenon. Saddam Hussein banned dissent. And today, few cartoonists dare risk the insurgents' wrath and possible death.
NIMA (through translator): It seems I am not feeling the fear. It is not heroism. I feel that I am presenting a work that enlightens people.
ROBERTSON: Some of his pictures need no explanation, for this grandfather who made a living teaching ceramics during Saddam Hussein's rule, years of artistic frustration finally being released.
NIMA (through translator): I have to be like this. When I implement an idea, I really feel that some people are being moved by the idea, which means that I am on the right path.
ROBERTSON: These days, though, the gun is mighty. And keeping his pen on his chosen path will likely prove a challenge. Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Still to come on the program the man who invented gonzo journalism is gone, the legacy of Hunter S. Thompson. And the rooster will bring no fear or loathing, just the morning's news. A break first. Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: It is a strange weekend, indeed, when on one side of the obituary page is the poster child for the all-American girl and on the other side is the poster child for '60s excess. But that's where we find ourselves, remembering two people tonight who, despite the fact they lived at the same time on the same planet, seemed to have nothing in common. Sandra Dee and Hunter S. Thompson both died over the weekend. They lived differently, and they died differently. Ms. Dee first.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "GIDGET")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: See, this beach is for surfers only. It's too dangerous for dames.
SANDRA DEE, ACTRESS: Dames? Oh, no, I'm no dame.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Oh, well, what do you know?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: It has all the earmarks of a dame.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: She was anything but a dame. Sandra Dee was the all- American girl, the quintessential teenager. If Jackie Kennedy was American royalty, Sandra Dee was our reigning prom queen.
ANDREW COHEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF PROGRAMMING, BRAVO: Sandra Dee was pure. She was everybody's wholesome idea of what a teenager was about in the early '60s.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "GIDGET")
DEE: You've got to. It's delicious.
(END VIDEO CLIP);
BROWN: Before she became Gidget, Sandra Dee was born in Bayonne, New Jersey, in 1942 as Alexandra Zuck. Talent shows and modeling propelled her into the movies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "A SUMMER PLACE")
DEE: I'm afraid.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Of me? Of yourself?
DEE: Yes, that and some other new feelings that I can't explain.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: She was the girl every guy wanted to fall in love with, and she was what so many girls hoped to be. After a whirlwind courtship, Sandra Dee married teen idol Bobby Darin in 1960. They soon had a son, Dodd. And those who know Sandra Dee well said motherhood was the role she loved best.
STEVE BLAUNER, FORMER BOBBY DARIN MANAGER: Dodd is the apple of her eye, and he is a testament to what a good mother she was. The two loves of her life were her son and Bobby Darin. BROWN: But her marriage to Darin was tumultuous and capsized after seven years, part of that pain recounted in the new movie "Beyond the Sea."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "BEYOND THE SEA")
KEVIN SPACEY, ACTOR: All the slaps and the smiles, and, in the meantime, I'm a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) joke out there.
KATE BOSWORTH, ACTRESS: Not as big of a joke as you are right now. SPACEY: Warren Beatty is there with Leslie Caron, who is nominated for best actress. And I'm there with Gidget.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Dodd Darin and director Kevin Spacey talked about the film recently with Larry King.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE")
LARRY KING, HOST: Was it difficult for you to see them play out arguments between your father and mother?
DODD DARIN, SON OF SANDRA DEE: Sure.
KING: Your father and his temper, your mother and her drinking.
DARIN: Absolutely. I mean, that's one of the beautiful things of the film, is, it's very real. And it was difficult. I mean, my mom, you know, went through a lot with him. He could be difficult. She could be difficult. And it was painful to see that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: In later years, she revealed the reality behind the dream. She said she'd been sexually abused as a child, suffered from anorexia, but she battled back. And shortly before her death, she went to see the movie "Beyond the Sea."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE")
DARIN: Well, she went with her assistant to watch it privately. I wasn't there. Kevin wasn't there. That's how she wanted it. And she came over right afterwards to my house. And she's a good actress, but she ain't that good. She was speechless. She was just moved and touched. And she came in and she said, you know, I'm so proud to have been part of his life, to have, you know, spent those years with them. I wouldn't trade it for anything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: And those who knew and loved Sandra Dee felt exactly the same way about her.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: It is hard, on the other hand, to imagine what some of his friends must have thought of Hunter S. Thompson at times. Sandra Dee, he was not. Or, so the legend went, and so the caricature was drawn. The reality may be something else entirely, or at least something more complex. There was a gentle, courtly side to the man. But the legend grew to gobble up great chunks of our attention and perhaps a bit of the man as well. Hunter S. Thompson killed himself yesterday. He was 67.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): Call it a coincidence, but on the last night of Hunter Thompson's life, millions of Americans were watching a television show celebrating a body of work whose peak was reached some 30 years ago, "Saturday Night Live." Like this first startling burst of energy from a satirical voice anchored in the counterculture, Hunter Thompson's journalistic voice was rooted in the sensibility of the late '60s rebellion. Authority was suspect. Insight was better fueled by mind-altering chemicals. And the conventions of a straight-ahead, neutral narration were inadequate to the facts. Only the vision of a slightly mad reporter, Thompson seemed to say, could really convey the madness of the times.
So, when the Kentucky-born Thompson, with years of mainstream journalistic experience behind him, arrived in Las Vegas in the early '70s, he took everything he knew about journalistic do's and don't's and threw them away. His vision of Vegas, the playground of the American id, was filtered through booze and drugs. He didn't just insert himself into the story. He hurled himself into it at real risk to body and mind, the result, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," a unique blend of fact and fancy.
And when "Rolling Stone" magazine sent Thompson on the campaign trail in 1972, the result was campaign coverage that appalled many and enthralled many others. Richard Nixon," he wrote, was like the monstrous Mr. Hyde. He spoke for the werewolf in all of us. "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail" was another enduring work.
Two first-rate actors, Bill Murray and Johnny Depp, have tried to capture Thompson on film, but he seemed to inhabit neither the movies, nor the decades that followed the '70s. He ran for sheriff of his adopted home of Aspen, Colorado, found himself in a fair share of scrapes, found his attempts at fiction lacking an audience. And, on Sunday night, after years of affection for firearms, he made one final use of one. The arc of Hunter Thompson's life and work may not have been what he or we would have wished. But if his friends and admirers seek consolation, they can know that future generations will not be able to grasp the nature of his time without listening to that gifted, if demented voice.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: We began the program with the forces of nature. And that's where we go next, nature as exemplified by trees. Did you know that some trees are the largest living things on Earth? Some date back centuries, others thousands of years. And that's just the trees in this country, captured in a new book entitled "Tree: A New Vision of the American Forest," created by photographer James Balog.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAMES BALOG, PHOTOGRAPHER, "TREE: A NEW VISION OF THE AMERICAN FOREST": I started out doing the series with one original idea, namely, that I would put backgrounds behind the trees and light them, basically bringing a portrait studio to the forest.
As time went on, the project evolved into a lot of different styles, black and white with a little $16 plastic camera, very high- tech with all these digital images, and then a lot of points in between. I went from Key West to the Pacific Northwest, from Arizona to New England, and lots and lots of points in between. What I was trying to do was make portraits of the largest, oldest, strongest trees in America.
These bristlecone are so old that the great pyramids of Giza were being built when these trees were rooted. They are bristlecone pines in the White Mountains of California in the desert. They're living at 10,000 feet. And they grow to be 4,733 years old. That's the age of the very oldest one.
This is a fantastic old cedar growing on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington all by itself out in a big clear-cut. This is one of the first times I decided that one frame just wasn't enough. I stood at the bottom of this thing and just -- one picture just didn't do it. There's this fabulous aspen grove in Fish Lake, Utah. It's 106 acres. It weighs 13 million pounds, because there's 47,000 trees all coming out of the same root system. I walked through the aspen grove. And this panel shows me looking forward and looking backwards at the same time as I'm moving through the grove itself.
This redbud had this very oriental, soft feeling to it. It's so soft and so romantic and so sweet, I almost didn't put it in the book.
This is the Mount Everest of the plant kingdom. It's a coast redwood named Stratosphere Giant. It's 370 feet tall. I shot this by repelling down through the forest. In the course of going down there, I photographed 815 frames, and then I later assembled the mosaic on a computer.
People help to give the pictures a sense of scale and monumentality of the subjects. This is the beautiful cottonwood tree that I have in my back yard. It's not one of the national champions by any means. But to me, it gave me such joy over the years watching this tree in its annual evolution.
Photography is an amazing act. It forces you to contemplate and slow down and just be there and consider things much more carefully. I learned that these trees have incredible individuality, incredible character, incredible individual personality.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Morning papers printed on recycled paper after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(ROOSTER CROWING)
BROWN: Okeydoke, time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world. We'll start with "The International Herald Tribune." The president is overseas. Seems like a good way to start. Newspapers struggled a little bit to find the right lead on the president, but this one most often the case. "Bush Warns Russia on Rule of Law.
"But down here, thumbs, if you can. "Open Minds on Open Seas. British Royal Navy Woos Gays and Lesbians." Different countries, different policies I guess the way to look at that, British Royal Navy looking for more recruits.
"The Washington Times" on the president's trip. "Bush, Chirac Tell Syria to Leave Lebanon, Call For Pullout of 14,000 Troops, Per U.N. Resolution." They also put Hunter Thompson on the front page, "End of Story For Hunter Thompson."
Yikes.
"Gonzo Writer Takes His Own Life." I'm not sure why that's front page in Tuesday's paper. But maybe they had that early deadline yesterday.
"Stars and Stripes" or -- today that would be, wouldn't it? "Prison Riot in Iraq Reveals Risks For U.S. Recent Uprising Exposes Increasingly Violent Inmate Population." That's comforting. Also, they put Hilary Swank on the front page. "Oscar Winner Has Good Shot at Second Statue."
You bet.
I love this headline. I don't know about the story. "Conspiracy Theory, Representative Maurice Hinchey's, Claims White House Planted CBS Memos." Well, let's just say they did. It doesn't mean CBS shouldn't have checked them out, does it? Also, by the way, new tips for potty training, if you're interested.
"The Press of Atlantic City," haven't done this in a long time. "Bush Appeals to E.U. For Mideast Peace Help," different lead, same trip.
The weather in Chicago tomorrow, according to "The Chicago Sun- Times," "listless."We'll wrap it up in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Good to have you with us tonight. "AMERICAN MORNING," 7:00 a.m. Eastern time. "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" next for most of you. We'll see you tomorrow at 10:00. Good night for all of us at NEWSNIGHT.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Saturday, February 19, 2005
Sharon von Zwieten's Tirades
After an evening of Aaron's favorite subjects (2.18.04) during NewsNight, Ms. von Zwieten awoke to my posting on "The Revolt and the Revolting" (www.stopwarsaveearth.blogspot.com) in celebration of legislation from 1986 passed by the USA after 37 years of delay to make Genocide a crime.
She hated the assertion and had a 'conniption fit.' She took all the normally back page 'banner ads' that reflect bigotry and put them on the front page.
Ms. van Zwieten cannot handle her hatred and it is reflected in revenge on CNN's Main E-Page today.
I don't know where her hatred ends but somehow she actually thinks I am not supposed to have opinion beyond what she preceives as appropriate to her political aspirations for her party affiliations and possible personal affiliations that go beyond same. It's outrageous to believe there is a way of controlling my behavior based on her hatred. She isn't rational in her desire to control not just me by the outcome of elections and thought of people who are different outside her Christian directives.
It's a darn shame to realize a woman with such potential to do 'good' only wants to 'use' an entire news network to control a populous and bring about enthusiasm for a regime of war mongering.
I feel sorry for her. I don't think she has her own mind about her.
She hated the assertion and had a 'conniption fit.' She took all the normally back page 'banner ads' that reflect bigotry and put them on the front page.
Ms. van Zwieten cannot handle her hatred and it is reflected in revenge on CNN's Main E-Page today.
I don't know where her hatred ends but somehow she actually thinks I am not supposed to have opinion beyond what she preceives as appropriate to her political aspirations for her party affiliations and possible personal affiliations that go beyond same. It's outrageous to believe there is a way of controlling my behavior based on her hatred. She isn't rational in her desire to control not just me by the outcome of elections and thought of people who are different outside her Christian directives.
It's a darn shame to realize a woman with such potential to do 'good' only wants to 'use' an entire news network to control a populous and bring about enthusiasm for a regime of war mongering.
I feel sorry for her. I don't think she has her own mind about her.
Thursday, February 17, 2005
A Look at Cox-2 Inhibitors; Negroponte Nominated to Become Nation's First National Intelligence Director
Aired February 17, 2005 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again.When Vioxx and Celebrex first hit the market in the late '90s it was easy to imagine them as the first two members of a whole new class of wonder drugs, super aspirins they were called. Scientifically they're known as Cox-2 inhibitors, painkillers that weren't also stomach killers, chemical heroes.
Tonight, after studies and hearings and headlines you might imagine the Cox-2 drugs as villains instead plain and simple, except that it's neither plain nor simple. In December, Pfizer, for example, stopped advertising Celebrex to consumers but it hasn't stopped selling it. In fact, you'll find a statement on Pfizer's Web site standing behind the drug, which leaves a patient exactly where?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): David Pollinger will turn 78 next week and he looks at risk with a rational eye.
DAVID POLLINGER, CELEBREX USER: I don't think it's been proven to me yet that I should cease taking this drug. If I have to and I'm told to and my doctor advises me to, well then I will but until that time I think I'm going to continue to take it.
BROWN: He continues to take Celebrex even as many people are switching to other medications, even though he has a history of heart disease. He takes it for a simple reason. It improves his life.
DAVID POLLINGER: Well, the first thing that Celebrex has provided was, of course, lesser discomfort and pain. The second thing is it improves my golf game. I can probably hit the ball a little better and swing a little better and score a few strokes better than if I were not taking it.
BROWN: Pollinger, who suffers from arthritis, started taking Celebrex five years ago after surgery on his shoulder. When recent studies linking the Cox-2s to heart attacks and strokes began surfacing he sat down with his cardiologist and his wife Donna.
DONNA POLLINGER, SPOUSE: We figure out, my husband and I and the doctor and we all discussed this, that if it's going to make him feel comfortable and he's not in so much pain that, you know, why not try it?
BROWN: Dr. Stephen Paget, a rheumatologist in New York, doesn't treat Mr. Pollinger but he does treat many others with disabling chronic pain including some who remain on the Cox-2 drugs.
DR. STEPHEN PAGET, PHYSICIAN IN CHIEF, HOSP. FOR SPECIAL SURGERY: They have severe pain that's incapacitating and stops them from living the life that they want to lead.
BROWN: Prescribing medication, Dr. Paget says, is a careful balancing act.
PAGET: And what you want to factor into it is a safety formula for that individual person.
BROWN: And now the equation has changed.
PAGET: There's no doubt that the formula that's used now is different from 1999 and 2000 because when you add into it death from cardiovascular disease or stroke that ups the ante tremendously.
BROWN: So, patients and doctors will continue to weigh the pros and cons of the Cox-2 drugs and people, being who they are, different patients will have different comfort levels when it comes to risk.
POLLINGER: I've heard the risks and in the whole scope of life on earth before we go to our future life this is -- it wasn't a big decision at this moment to make.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: That is one side of the story. Now another contradiction, another drug, today Merck, the maker of Vioxx, said it's considering putting the drug back on the market despite the risk of heart attack and stroke. So, again two sides of the equation, risk and benefit.Here's CNN's Elizabeth Cohen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's why it's really awesome.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE.)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, we had one come back after the Army. That was a little rough or a while there but, yes, they're on their own and they're doing OK and now we can play.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE.)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Well, we have a technical problem there. We'll try and sort that out and we'll try and sort out some other things as well. Dr. Elizabeth Tindall joins us now from Washington. She's the president of the American College of Rheumatology in Boston; Dr. Jerry Avorn, professor of medicine at Harvard and the author of "Powerful Medicines," and it's good to see you both.
DR. ELIZABETH TINDALL, AMERICAN COLLEGE OF RHEUMATOLOGY: Thank you.
BROWN: There's a little bit of, I think, Cox-2 inhibitor 101 we need to do because there's been so much out there over the last couple of months. Jerry, do we know that these drugs relieve pain any better than aspirin or ibuprofen?
JERRY AVORN, M.D., AUTHOR, "POWERFUL MEDICINES": No, Aaron, we don't and what's striking and what sometimes gets forgotten about in the course of all this debate is that there are no studies out there showing that these drugs are stronger pain relievers than aspirin or Motrin or Naproxen or any of the other drugs that have been around for years.
Their one claim to fame had been that they'd be somewhat gentler on your stomach but if there had been a study that showed that Vioxx or Celebrex was stronger than Motrin or aspirin, I'm sure Merck and Pfizer would have shown it to us on commercials every night and we haven't seen those data because they don't exist.
BROWN: I want to come back to that question in a second. Dr. Tindall, nevertheless patients, some patients certainly believe that these Cox-2 inhibitors do relieve pain that the Motrin and the aspirins did not, correct?
TINDALL: That is correct, Aaron, and I think it has to do with each individual patient trying different medications. Sometimes they work for a while. Sometimes they don't. And when you have people with arthritis who have pain for years they can go through a lot of different medications before they find one that works well for them.
And, although it's true there is not an improvement over pain say over traditional non-steroidals, nonetheless all these medications had to do to be approved was to say they were equal in potency. So, we have sort of changed the standard. Now we're asking them to be better as far as pain relief.
BROWN: OK. I'll go back against Jerry on this. Do we ever -- does the industry or the government or you guys at universities do you ever take two drugs and compare them? Do you ever say put aspirin next to Vioxx and run tests on those or is it always a placebo?
AVORN: Well, that's exactly the point, Aaron. Those are the exact kinds of studies that we need, that patients need, the doctors need, where you do a randomized trial. It's controlled and people don't know what they're getting and you have patients like the kind that we just saw in that segment getting drugs for weeks to months and you see how is their pain relief doing? We don't have those studies because the companies don't like to do those studies.
BROWN: And the government doesn't do those studies at all?
AVORN: Exactly right. The FDA and the National Institutes of Health don't do the studies. Almost all the studies that we see about drug effects are done by the manufacturers and they would rather not compare their drug against other drugs if they can avoid it. The FDA standard is to compare it against a placebo. Sometimes you're lucky and you get some head-to-head studies but they're rare.
BROWN: Dr. Tindall, do you think the Cox-2 inhibitor drugs will even be on the market in a year?
TINDALL: Excuse me, could you repeat that?
BROWN: Do you think these drugs, the Cox-2 inhibitor drugs, will even be on the market available in a year?
TINDALL: Yes, I do believe there is a place for these medications and I heard the testimony today and I've heard some of the criticisms that have been laid out there. But one of the things that has not come out is the incredible benefit that all of the patients who spoke today gave before the panel and I think that can't be overstated that patients need these medications. These medications are not for everybody, even though the marketing I agree was aimed at as wide an audience as possible and if I might say something about the double blind placebo trials.
BROWN: Sure.
TINDALL: With arthritis patients you really can't use a placebo because they're in pain and the studies that came out of long use placebo use compared to the Coxibs were in patients who didn't have pain. They were in polyp prevention or Alzheimer's prevention. So, it's very difficult to come up with a placebo trial when the patient is going to know after a few weeks I'm not really probably taking anything.
BROWN: All right, one more area for both of you and I want to try mine here and that's this whole question of what is and how we decide acceptable risk here? If you had any history in your family of heart disease, for example, is that an -- based on what we know today is that an unacceptable risk, Jerry, to take any of the Cox-2 drugs?
AVORN: I think I would agree with Dr. Tindall that it does need to be individualized for each patient and one's cardiac history is important but we don't really have the data that shows that these drugs are free of problems even if you don't have cardiac disease. So, it is a combination of facts and unfortunately even here in 2005, we don't have all the safety risk factors that we'd like to know about.
BROWN: Dr. Tindall, how do you tell patients to evaluate risk?
TINDALL: Well, I try to go through what the risk factors are for known cardiovascular or cerebral vascular disease and that would be diabetes, smoking, post menopausal, family history, elevated cholesterol, overweight, all of the usual parameters that you would use in assessing a patient's risk and then a use of a Coxib may be another independent risk factor.And that was sort of asked to Dr. Graham and some of the members of the panel today and no one could really come up with when do you finally cross that line where the risk is unacceptable? No one really knows.
BROWN: Great, terrific. Thanks for that. We're working on it I guess. Hopefully at least a year from now we'll know more about it. Thanks.
TINDALL: I think so.
BROWN: Thank you both very much.
TINDALL: Thank you.
BROWN: If the Cox-2 saga is part blessing and part curse, this next story tonight is 100 percent blessing. The story takes place in northern California where Jerrick De Leon is recovering tonight from open heart surgery. His case will be one for the medical journals because even the smallest stack of medical journals vastly outweighs the patients. That's the headline of the story. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes us beyond the headline of one of the most delicate heart operations ever done.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARIA LOURDES, JERRICK'S MOTHER: What if I just pray hard that my baby reaches two pounds?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Baby Jerrick was born weighing around just a pound and he also had a life- threatening heart defect. Doctors told his mother Maria, who is also a pediatrician, to abandon hope.
LOURDES: I told him, you know, like so you're not giving me any options here, you know. What is it that you want to -- what's the plan for the baby? It was very difficult. I was blocking a lot and I was just saying, you know, like I was just surrendering whatever comes.
GUPTA: But there was one option left and his name Dr. Mohan Reddy, a pediatric heart surgeon at Stamford and the only one willing to do the operation. In a last ditch effort, Jerrick was airlifted up the California coast. He was just a week old.Jerrick suffered from what the surgeons call transposition of the great arteries. Simply, the large blood vessel that is supposed to take oxygenated blood to the body was switched with the blood vessel that takes blood to the lungs and the body was literally starving for air. Fixing it would be risky but the alternative was almost certain death.
DR. MOHAN REDDY, LUCILE PACKARD CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: Just to give you an idea we just took a picture of the baby with a finger next to the chest and the whole baby's chest is pretty much the size of my finger and the incision is probably the tip of my finger. That's how big the chest -- whole chest is.
GUPTA: And the heart?REDDY: I would say probably the size of a, you know, moderate sized grape maybe even smaller.
GUPTA: Still, after six hours, Dr. Reddy and his team completed a medical first. They switched the arteries back on what they believe is the smallest baby ever to survive this procedure and, at the same time, push back even further the boundaries of life and death.
REDDY: When you do cardiac surgery in children you are always living on the edge and unless you take risks you're not going to advance the field and you're not going to make progress.
GUPTA: In this case, progress is measured in a healthy baby and a happy mother.
REDDY: It's very joyous in the sense it's very satisfying that we can help this little tiny baby.
LOURDES: I'm a mother. I think I was always looking for the good side of it.GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: More to come tonight, starting with a chilling turn of a romantic phrase, getting to know you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): This guy is getting to know all about you.
JAY PATEL, FOUNDER, ABIKA.COM: Why do we need privacy? That's the question like why do people need privacy?
BROWN: Meet a pioneer in the next gold rush. He's mining for data, maybe even your data. Interested in knowing what he knows? Meet another pioneer, the first national intelligence director but director of what actually and of whom and with how much clout?
RICHARD FALKENRATH, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: I don't think it's a powerful job. This is a miserable job. This is one of the hardest jobs in Washington.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would say this is the most extreme example of this kind of culture where everyone mistrusts everyone else.
BROWN: And this is the happiest place on earth, Michael Eisner and the battle for Disney.OK, maybe this is a happier place, we'll look at the stories behind the cover and talk with the model on the cover, tan lines and all because this is NEWSNIGHT.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: It's possible that the most personal information on tens of thousands of Americans has been stolen. The database of an information collection company called Choice Point was essentially duped by thieves who now know everything from credit cards and driver's license and Social Security numbers to credit ratings and much, much more.Most states don't require that you be told if you're one of the people at risk. The scam it turns out was pretty sophisticated but in many ways finding out the most detailed parts of people's lives is easy, very easy, just ask Jay. Here's CNN Technology Correspondent Daniel Sieberg.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You might think of Wyoming as the perfect place in which to get lost. It's the tenth largest state in the union yet it's dead last in population, a haven for anonymity. However, the cowboy state is where a lot of people are found, specifically the basement of this house on the outskirts of Cheyenne. This is the home of Jay Patel, founder of an Internet background search service called Abika.
PATEL: I don't even believe in privacy too much but first like most people when they discuss privacy why do we need privacy? That's the question like why do people need privacy?
SIEBERG: He says most people agree privacy isn't important. In fact, he says the world would be a better place if everyone knew everything about each other.
PATEL: Do you know the root cause of hatred or intolerance is because people don't know about other people.
SIEBERG: And Jay Patel says he's here to help. His company can track down a name from an e-mail address or instant message screen name, find an unlisted or blocked phone number, verify a person's salary. In fact, Abika has more than 300 ways for you to snoop on others and more than 300 ways for them to snoop on you.(on camera): Do you ever worry that this information could fall into the wrong hands? People these days talk about terrorism or criminal activity do you worry about that?
PATEL: See but for us it's not something which anyone cannot find it by going directly to the source, so it's not something which is like exclusive to us. It's right there, so we are only searching it. We don't create this information and we don't access anything which is restricted. We are just a small company in the basement here.
SIEBERG (voice-over): When Jay and his staff receive a request for information they often get nothing more than a name and last known address. They send that information to private investigators, court researchers and keepers of various databases.Abika will even create a psychological profile of a person, all this usually without the subject knowing he or she is being investigated. So, I decided to request a search on myself, at least I'd know about it.(on camera): So, I mean you have my Social Security number. Is there the possibility that someone could steal my identity because this information is so easy to get?
PATEL: If you see, we don't release the Social Security number. The last four digits are X'd out so in your whole profile...
SIEBERG (voice-over): Right.
PATEL: ...you would see that it's not released to anyone.
SIEBERG: But could someone else find that as easily as you did?
PATEL: Social Security numbers are the easiest thing to find as such.
SIEBERG: A scary thought but Jay says Abika releases Social Security numbers only to qualified customers; however, we also ordered a general background search on another person and did get his Social Security number because it was the same as his driver's license number and that's just one of the things that has privacy advocates concerned about services like Abika.
MARC ROTENBERG, ELECTRONIC PRIVACY INFO. CTR.: These new information brokers that have sprouted up on the Internet are really operating in the wild, wild west. There is no regulation or control. Information that these companies provide becomes the basis for decisions about whether you get a job, about whether you clear a background check, about whether you're able to lease an apartment, maybe even whether you get a home loan. So, the risk is very tangible but a mistake will be made that you'll be turned down for an opportunity that you really are entitled to.
SIEBERG: Still, these data brokers have a lot of fans. Software executive Steve Kirsch uses Abika and other services to sue the senders of junk faxes.
STEVE KIRSCH, PROPEL SOFTWARE: Propel will get lots of unsolicited faxes and the only identification -- there will be no identification of the company on the faxes and so the only thing we'll have is an 800 number that we should dial, so we've used Abika to look up who owns the 800 number because when we call the 800 number, of course, they just give us a phony company name and a phony location.
SIEBERG (on camera): As proof that Jay's approach to privacy can work for some people, Jay actually points to his own situation. Before moving here to Wyoming, he lived in South Dakota and one day he was at a store there and he saw a girl and read her name tag. He then went home and did a background search on her and when he returned to the store he told her some things about her that he had found. Now, surprisingly she didn't slap him. Instead three weeks later they were married.(voice-over): But not all background checks have a happy ending. In 1999, in New Hampshire, Liam Youens used another Internet data broker called Docusearch to find out where a former high school classmate worked. He then shot and killed the woman, 20-year-old Amy Boyer (ph) as she left work. He also killed himself. Boyer's family sued Docusearch saying it should have told the woman she was being investigated.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She went to work not knowing that her personal private information was given by Docusearch, the defendants, to someone who had no legal right to have it.
SIEBERG: But Docusearch argued it has no duty to check a customer's background.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He premeditated his crime and he killed her. Telling him where she worked didn't foreseeably increase the risk of anything. It didn't proximately cause anything. It had nothing to do with Amy Boyer's death.
SIEBERG: The suit was settled out of court last year with the Boyer family getting $85,000 but the background search industry is still going strong. As Youens wrote on his personal Web site, as he was planning his quest to kill Boyers, "It's actually obscene what you can find out about a person on the Internet." Comments like that have many people searching for the balance between openness and the obscene.Daniel Sieberg CNN, Cheyenne, Wyoming.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Still ahead tonight a picture of Disney that certainly doesn't resemble a magic kingdom.And authorities weigh in on some lurid allegations against the comedian Bill Cosby.We'll take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Well, the country now has its first director of national intelligence. Today the president nominated John Negroponte, currently the ambassador to Iraq. If confirmed by the Senate, and that appears likely, Ambassador Negroponte will oversee 15 intelligence agencies and control the purse strings of all of them, well sort of.Like so many other things in Washington and in life nothing is that simple and Congress and the president made sure the real power of the DNI isn't that simple either, more from our National Security Correspondent David Ensor.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Power in Washington flows to those with access to the president and those with control of budgets and personnel. Mr. Bush sought to make clear the new director of national intelligence will have both.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He will have access on a daily basis in that he'll be my primary briefer.ENSOR: On the estimated $40 billion intelligence budget spanning 15 different agencies, the president said Negroponte will determine who gets what.BUSH: People make their case. There's a discussion. But ultimately, John will make the decisions on the budget.
ENSOR: Former Deputy Director of Central Intelligence John McLaughlin, who has joined CNN as an analyst, says Negroponte will have his work cut out for him.
JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN NATL. SECURITY ADVISER: It's the legislation that empowers him. It's not as precise as everyone would like it to be in authorizing his powers. The legislation is, after all, the result of compromises during a difficult and contentious time in our country and therefore the language in many cases is what I would call kind of spongy.
ENSOR: Critics charge that the intelligence reform law that sets up the DNI job contains too much ambiguity about budget and personnel power. They predict trouble between Negroponte and the Pentagon.
FALKENRATH: I don't think a powerful job. This is a miserable job. This is one of the hardest jobs in Washington and it is so undefined that authorities are so ambiguous and the expectations are so high that it's unlikely to be a successful, fun experience for this person.
ENSOR: But the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee disagrees.
SEN. JAY ROCKEFELLER (D), VICE CHMN., INTELLIGENCE CMTE.: If we had prescribed in Congress every relationship between each of the agencies, I think that would have been an enormous mistake and would have rendered this person more useless. This person can exercise power and I think that's good.
ENSOR: As ambassador in Iraq and before, Negroponte has been a consumer of intelligence but he has no intelligence experience. His new deputy, however, General Michael Hayden, head of the National Security Agency, is a seasoned hand. Many present and former intelligence professionals are praising the president's choice of Negroponte.
JAMES PAVITT, FMR. CIA SPY CHIEF: I think he will be a first rate leader of this organization.
ENSOR (on camera): Negroponte called it his most challenging assignment in 40 years and that may be putting it mildly. Being the first at anything is always harder but the ambassador has been good at setting up and leading teams in a number of jobs in government. CIA regulars, present and former, are promising him their full support.David Ensor, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Late word tonight concerning the comedian Bill Cosby. An investigation into a young woman's allegations that Mr. Cosby fondled her last year is now closed, no charges filed. Prosecutors say they found insufficient evidence. No would that Michael Eisner's tenure as head of the Walt Disney Company -- and he's run the company for almost a generation -- has been anything but remarkable, remarkable in its successes early on, remarkable in its struggles more recently. Most anyone who has ever met him who describe him as smart, tough and often funny. Some who work for him would describe him in more colorful ways. James Stewart has written about Disney and Mr. Eisner. The book is called "DisneyWar." We talk with Mr. Stewart in a few moments. But, first, as they say in Hollywood, the dish. Here is CNN's Allan Chernoff.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): James Stewart originally pitched Disney a book about the company's influence on American culture. But after a management shakeup, it turned into a look at Eisner's dirty laundry, enough so that author James Stewart has delivered a 534-page laundromat of a book, "DisneyWar."
Stewart depicts Disney CEO Eisner as a paranoid, backstabbing corporate titan. Behind the Magic Kingdom facade lies a corporate battleground, well documented in public scandals, like Jeffrey Katzenberg's lawsuit claiming Disney reneged on a promised bonus. The company settled for $280 million, or Eisner's ousting of Michael Ovitz, a close friend he recruited as president and soon fired with a reported $140 million exit package. But after interviewing the key players, Stewart offers new details of Eisner's tactics. Only months after hiring Michael Ovitz, the book says, Eisner wrote to confidants on the board of directors: "Michael does not have the trust of anybody. I do not trust him. Michael Ovitz is simply not a corporate executive."
At about that time, Eisner, sitting next to Ovitz, told a different story on CNN's "LARRY KING LIVE."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE")
LARRY KING, HOST: So, Michael Eisner, you would hire Michael Ovitz again today? MICHAEL EISNER, DISNEY CEO: Yes. Are you offering him again?
KING: No, all things being -- in other words...
(LAUGHTER)
EISNER: Yes. The answer is yes. The answer is yes.
KING: That would certainly clear up any rift stories.
(CROSSTALK)
EISNER: ... just all baloney.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHERNOFF: Within weeks, Eisner fired Ovitz. Eisner also tried to undermine Robert Iger, his next pick as Disney president. The book says Eisner told several board members, "Iger can never succeed me."
Though Eisner denies it in the book, Stewart reports, Eisner calls his theme park executives "monkeys who don't have any brains." Stewart has written in a narrative style without direct sourcing for specific events. Eisner has refused to comment, but Disney's public relations department calls the book "one-sided depiction of past events largely told through the eyes of those with a clear bias and personal agendas."(on camera): After former board member Roy Disney led a revolt, Michael Eisner last year lost nearly half the shareholder vote for reelection. He gave up his position as chairman and said he will step down as chief executive when his contract expires in 2006. Allan Chernoff, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Up next on the program, the author himself. We talk with James Stewart about his book "DisneyWar." Also ahead, "Sports Illustrated"'s swimsuit issue. No kidding. We'll take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: James Stewart is no stranger to the world of the rich and the infamous. He wrote "Den of Thieves," a look at insider trading on Wall Street. He also won a Pulitzer Prize for his work as a reporter and an editor at "The Wall Street Journal." We talked with Mr. Stewart this afternoon about "DisneyWar".
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: You've written a lot of business books. This is not hardly your first. Is there something about Hollywood and show business that, as a business, makes it unique to write about and I guess unique to read about?
JAMES STEWART, AUTHOR, "DISNEYWAR": Well, I have never encountered a sort of Machiavellian culture like I discovered when I went to Disney. Now, I knew it wasn't going to be the happiest place on Earth, as it likes to proclaim as part of its brand image. But I thought it would be a fairly happy place. And it was like a dysfunctional family. Now, I've written about Wall Street. I've written about Washington. And I would say this is the most extreme example of this kind of culture where everyone mistrusts everyone else, where there's lying going on constantly, betrayals and backstabbing. And I did wonder, is there something endemic in the entertainment industry? I think part of it may be that the objective measures of success, other than the box office, are so difficult to gauge.
BROWN: Do we see Eisner, at least as you see him, as he is? Is he a success? Is he a great -- did he have a great 20 years? Nobody is perfect? What is he in the end?
STEWART: Well, I think, in any good story, a character changes through time. But Eisner -- and you see Eisner change over the years. He starts out. He is a great success, tremendous success, amazing success by Hollywood standards. He consolidates power. And with power comes a certain amount of hubris. And then you begin to see that great trajectory taper off and at some point begin to plunge downward.
BROWN: So, he doesn't get to walk out the way I guess we would all like to walk out, without being pushed?
STEWART: No. I mean, he doesn't -- he hates the idea that he was stripped of his title, but he was stripped of his title. He was repudiated. He did hang on too long. I think you can argue that, in the entertainment industry, nobody should run Disney or any of these companies for 20 years. But I thought of the recent -- reading the obituaries of Johnny Carson recently about he walked out at the top of his game, ceded the spotlight, retired gracefully, said nothing more, didn't try to have another act. That was really a classy way to go. That's not the Eisner way. I don't think Eisner can really see a future when he is not running Disney.
BROWN: Is that right?
STEWART: Well, in all of his conversations with me. For example, he intimates rather strongly that he would be quite happy to be restored as the chairman, if the board would ask him to do that, and remain as some kind of chief creative officer into the indefinite future. Now, I think that's very unlikely to happen, and it probably shouldn't happen. But, to me, it shows how much the identity of the company and his own personality have fused into one.
BROWN: But it's just a hard thing, generally, for people to do, to walk off the stage at the top of their game in any -- you know, it doesn't happen in my business. It doesn't happen in sports very often. It certainly doesn't happen in big corporations. It's a really hard thing for people to do.
STEWART: Well, and it's really hard in Hollywood. I mean, Eisner I think to this day is haunted that he is going to be a nobody overnight. I don't think he will, but that's his fear. There are a couple stories in the book where, after he was fired by Paramount, he couldn't get a reservation at the hot restaurant Morton's (ph), and so he had to ask Michael Ovitz. Michael Ovitz called and Michael Ovitz immediately got a table. And when Joe Roth was leaving, Eisner says, well, you don't want to leave. Nobody is going to return your phone calls. And Joe Roth said to Michael, Michael, that's called projection. People will return my phone calls. But, obviously, Eisner is very insecure about that.
BROWN: It's nice to see you. Good luck with the book. It's one of those books -- and partly I think because it's Disney, something about Disney and something about Hollywood -- people are talking about. So good for you.
STEWART: Well, thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: James Stewart. We talked with him this afternoon. Still ahead, spring is getting close. It must be. Pitchers and catchers have reported and the swimsuit issue is out as well. And the rooster always joins us. Morning papers will wrap up the hour.We'll take a break. Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Like most men my age, I learned about sex the old- fashioned way, in one of the February issues of "Sports Illustrated." Trust me. At 12, it was pretty hot stuff. At 56, it's still worth a discrete glance.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): It was born to fill a practical need, bridging the gap between the end of football and the time when anyone really cares about winter sports, the playoffs. At least that's their story over at "Sports Illustrated," and they're sticking to it.
DIANE SMITH, EDITOR, "SPORTS ILLUSTRATED" SWIMSUIT ISSUE: The image that I'm trying to capture is something that is a confident, wholesome, sexy, secure woman who looks great, has fun, feels great in a bathing suit and, you know, is healthy. I mean, I look for curves, obviously.
BROWN: She looks for curves. And so did the millions of, well, sports fans who read it each year. It's the most popular issue of "Sports Illustrated." And the magazine estimates that 60 million people will see it. That's about one in four Americans. Let's just say the swimsuit issue is a bigger draw than hockey.
SMITH: It's hard to realize or to believe how revolutionary that was, to have a bathing suit model on the cover of "Sports Illustrated." So, it had such a great response that it just grew, grew, grew to what it is now.
BROWN: Ms. Smith, we suspect, will not deny they are selling cheesecake here, but she insists it's a wholesome cheesecake, the sort of cheesecake dads and sons can enjoy together.
SMITH: It's a magazine that embodies like a great American tradition. It's totally innocent when you look at what's going on today.
BROWN: And we suppose that is a standard. It's not as racy as an ABC AFL promo.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICOLETTE SHERIDAN, ACTRESS: Terrell, wait.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: And that is, we learned, the art, after all. The swimsuit issue is all about the tease.
SMITH: I have an instinct. They have an instinct. We know where to stop and how to keep it still totally acceptable and wholesome.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Carolyn Murphy is on the cover of "Sports Illustrated"'s swimsuit issue this year. Sammy Sosa, she is not. She joins us from Los Angeles. It's nice to see you.
CAROLYN MURPHY, "SPORTS ILLUSTRATED" SWIMSUIT COVER MODEL: It's nice to see you, too. Thank...
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: So, are you upset about the NHL players strike?
MURPHY: No. You know, I wish I could say that I was. I'm not as up to date on it as I should be.
BROWN: Do you even like sports?
MURPHY: I do like sports. I grew up around sports. My father was a really big Redskins fan. I come from Virginia. I was a swimmer competitively for 11 years. And I'm a surfer. I love hiking, one of the reasons I live in California. I mean, I follow them as much as I can. But I've been very busy the past few days.
BROWN: I'll bet you have. Is it -- in the world of modeling, is it -- is it a big deal to be the cover of "Sports Illustrated"? Is it a bigger deal than being the cover of "Glamour" or something?
MURPHY: Well, you know, personally, it's a very big deal. But, of course, in my career, it's huge. It's like the pinnacle of my career, besides getting in a contract with Estee Lauder. What every model aspires to is to be on the cover of magazines, to be out there, to be in the face of every household and become a household name. And I think, with "Sports Illustrated," it targets a whole other demographic, which is why I was so proud when I found out about it. I was really excited, because it's not only just a woman's magazine. It's men as well.
BROWN: It's a men's magazine, actually, that some women read I think would be a fairer way to describe it, don't you think?
MURPHY: It's probably a better way to describe it, but I have to tell you, quite honestly, I've been looking at "Sports Illustrated" since I was a little girl. I mean, it wasn't just my brother that was pinning the pictures on his walls. I remember looking at pictures of Rachel Hunter and Elle Macpherson saying, wow, I want to look like that. How great does that woman look? She has a healthy body. She's beautiful and she's glowing. And I think that every woman out there cannot deny the fact that they're going to be looking at the issue, too, for those reasons. BROWN: The -- the issue I think has always been edited by women or a woman. Does that change how the issue comes out because of that?
MURPHY: Well, I think, you know, it takes two to make a great magazine like this. Of course, most of the time, yes, it is for men. It's a sports-oriented magazine. But how great is it to have an issue like this, to have these beautiful women on the covers and the inside? Because it sells. And it's -- we have women athletes in this issue. If you did not have a woman editor, it would just be all for the men. I think it's a perfect balance to have Diane Smith editing the magazine. She's great at it. She knows what also men want to see, but what women want to see. And that's important. BROWN: Do they want to see different things?
MURPHY: Of course. I mean, they want to see different ethnicities. They want to see different body types. They want to see girls that are in a photo laughing and smiling. And they want to see women that are being sexy. And that's the fun of it.BROWN: No, do men and women want to see different things? Will men and women see..
(LAUGHTER)
BROWN: I'm serious, actually.MURPHY: No.BROWN: When they look at the picture, will they -- are women looking at something different from what men are looking at?
MURPHY: You know what? I think that it's really on an individual basis. Of course, I know that, when I look at a picture of a woman, I like when she looks sexy. I like when she's having fun, you know, playing volleyball. Of course, the men have a different vision of that. I'm not a man, so I can't answer that.
BROWN: No, but you have a rough idea.
MURPHY: I have a rough idea.
BROWN: Yes, I think you do, too. Next week or the week after, because this happens every year, "Sports Illustrated" will run five letters to the editor from people either threatening to cancel their subscription or objecting one way or another. What is it they don't get?
MURPHY: Well, what do you mean, what they don't get? They have -- they have -- I guess the ratio is less than 1 percent of people opt out. It's 98 percent subscription readers to this magazine. So, it's really -- I'm not sure what you're asking.
BROWN: I guess the question -- what I'm asking is, people who are offended by it, people who find it inappropriate for whatever reasons, what is it they're not seeing that everyone else sees?
MURPHY: You know, again, it's -- there's always going to be people there to stir the pot. You know, you -- there's always going to be people that are unhappy with something. Generally, I would like to think that, overall, people love it. Again, the ratio of people that opt out of this, because they do have the choice, is less than 1 percent.
BROWN: Congratulations.
MURPHY: Thank you.
BROWN: It's a beautiful picture and it's a nice honor for you.
MURPHY: Thank you.
BROWN: And we're glad to have you on the program. Thank you.
MURPHY: Thank you. I'm proud. Thank you.
BROWN: Thank you, Carolyn Murphy. We'll take a break. Morning papers when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(ROOSTER CROWING)
BROWN: OK, time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world. Let's just set those over there. And we'll work with these tonight. Here we go. The glasses over there, Aaron.
"The Washington Times" leads it off, because it's on top. No other reason.
"House Approves Class-Action Act. Measures Target -- Measure Targets Frivolous Lawsuits."
Actually, the measure targets all class-action lawsuits, some of which are perhaps frivolous and some of which are not, but it moves them all into federal court, which is a tougher venue, lawyers say. That's an interesting headline, huh?
"Richmond Times-Dispatch," down here, if you will, please.
"Senate Panel Rejects Abortion Measures. Fetal Anesthesia, Clinic Regulations Bill Defeated and Other Proposal Withdrawal" in the Virginia Senate. So that remains a front-page issue in the state of Virginia. I guess it's a front-page issue anywhere.
The two competing papers in Detroit. They used to have a hockey season. Now they just have the two newspapers competing.
"The Detroit News" starts it off. "College Aid Changes Hurt the Poor. Governor's Merit Scholarship Proposal Means Less Federal Money For Some." I think that's unfortunate. People who -- it would nice if people who want to go to college can go to college.
"The Detroit Free Press." "FDA to Rule on Fate of Pain Pills." We obviously like this story a lot, since it was our lead tonight. "State Bills For Taxes on Web and Cigarettes. At Least $1.7 Million Owed By Smokers Who Bought Online." Oh, I get it. I'm sorry. "State Bills For Taxes on Web Cigarettes."
"Attack of the Crows" in "The Des Moines Register." "The birds are leaving a mess across Iowa. Is there anything that can stop them?" What the heck ever happened to scarecrows? Wasn't that the whole point of scarecrows? Did crows figure that out and now they're not scared of scare crows anymore? This article will explain it. How we doing on time?
"Rebuilding the Army" is "The Stars and Stripes" headline. "U.S. Forces Tasked With Training Iraqi Troops Report Progress, But No Definite End in Sight."The weather in Chicago tomorrow -- do it with my right hand tonight -- "deceitful." We'll wrap it up in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Time to plan the early morning. Here is Bill Hemmer with a look at "AMERICAN MORNING."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Aaron, thanks. Tomorrow on "AMERICAN MORNING," a burning controversy has landed on the frozen outer reaches of the solar system. Is the planet Pluto really just a planet wanna-be? Neil deGrasse Tyson, the director of the Hayden Planetarium here in New York is -- he calls Pluto a pretender. It turns out Pluto has a lot of friends out there, too. We'll talk with Neil on that tomorrow morning starting at 7:00 a.m. Eastern time. Hope to see you then -- Aaron.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Going to boost our numbers in Pluto tomorrow. Good to have you with us tonight. We're all back tomorrow around the world and perhaps around the universe 10:00 Eastern. Until then, good night for all of us.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 17, 2005 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again.When Vioxx and Celebrex first hit the market in the late '90s it was easy to imagine them as the first two members of a whole new class of wonder drugs, super aspirins they were called. Scientifically they're known as Cox-2 inhibitors, painkillers that weren't also stomach killers, chemical heroes.
Tonight, after studies and hearings and headlines you might imagine the Cox-2 drugs as villains instead plain and simple, except that it's neither plain nor simple. In December, Pfizer, for example, stopped advertising Celebrex to consumers but it hasn't stopped selling it. In fact, you'll find a statement on Pfizer's Web site standing behind the drug, which leaves a patient exactly where?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): David Pollinger will turn 78 next week and he looks at risk with a rational eye.
DAVID POLLINGER, CELEBREX USER: I don't think it's been proven to me yet that I should cease taking this drug. If I have to and I'm told to and my doctor advises me to, well then I will but until that time I think I'm going to continue to take it.
BROWN: He continues to take Celebrex even as many people are switching to other medications, even though he has a history of heart disease. He takes it for a simple reason. It improves his life.
DAVID POLLINGER: Well, the first thing that Celebrex has provided was, of course, lesser discomfort and pain. The second thing is it improves my golf game. I can probably hit the ball a little better and swing a little better and score a few strokes better than if I were not taking it.
BROWN: Pollinger, who suffers from arthritis, started taking Celebrex five years ago after surgery on his shoulder. When recent studies linking the Cox-2s to heart attacks and strokes began surfacing he sat down with his cardiologist and his wife Donna.
DONNA POLLINGER, SPOUSE: We figure out, my husband and I and the doctor and we all discussed this, that if it's going to make him feel comfortable and he's not in so much pain that, you know, why not try it?
BROWN: Dr. Stephen Paget, a rheumatologist in New York, doesn't treat Mr. Pollinger but he does treat many others with disabling chronic pain including some who remain on the Cox-2 drugs.
DR. STEPHEN PAGET, PHYSICIAN IN CHIEF, HOSP. FOR SPECIAL SURGERY: They have severe pain that's incapacitating and stops them from living the life that they want to lead.
BROWN: Prescribing medication, Dr. Paget says, is a careful balancing act.
PAGET: And what you want to factor into it is a safety formula for that individual person.
BROWN: And now the equation has changed.
PAGET: There's no doubt that the formula that's used now is different from 1999 and 2000 because when you add into it death from cardiovascular disease or stroke that ups the ante tremendously.
BROWN: So, patients and doctors will continue to weigh the pros and cons of the Cox-2 drugs and people, being who they are, different patients will have different comfort levels when it comes to risk.
POLLINGER: I've heard the risks and in the whole scope of life on earth before we go to our future life this is -- it wasn't a big decision at this moment to make.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: That is one side of the story. Now another contradiction, another drug, today Merck, the maker of Vioxx, said it's considering putting the drug back on the market despite the risk of heart attack and stroke. So, again two sides of the equation, risk and benefit.Here's CNN's Elizabeth Cohen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's why it's really awesome.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE.)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, we had one come back after the Army. That was a little rough or a while there but, yes, they're on their own and they're doing OK and now we can play.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE.)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Well, we have a technical problem there. We'll try and sort that out and we'll try and sort out some other things as well. Dr. Elizabeth Tindall joins us now from Washington. She's the president of the American College of Rheumatology in Boston; Dr. Jerry Avorn, professor of medicine at Harvard and the author of "Powerful Medicines," and it's good to see you both.
DR. ELIZABETH TINDALL, AMERICAN COLLEGE OF RHEUMATOLOGY: Thank you.
BROWN: There's a little bit of, I think, Cox-2 inhibitor 101 we need to do because there's been so much out there over the last couple of months. Jerry, do we know that these drugs relieve pain any better than aspirin or ibuprofen?
JERRY AVORN, M.D., AUTHOR, "POWERFUL MEDICINES": No, Aaron, we don't and what's striking and what sometimes gets forgotten about in the course of all this debate is that there are no studies out there showing that these drugs are stronger pain relievers than aspirin or Motrin or Naproxen or any of the other drugs that have been around for years.
Their one claim to fame had been that they'd be somewhat gentler on your stomach but if there had been a study that showed that Vioxx or Celebrex was stronger than Motrin or aspirin, I'm sure Merck and Pfizer would have shown it to us on commercials every night and we haven't seen those data because they don't exist.
BROWN: I want to come back to that question in a second. Dr. Tindall, nevertheless patients, some patients certainly believe that these Cox-2 inhibitors do relieve pain that the Motrin and the aspirins did not, correct?
TINDALL: That is correct, Aaron, and I think it has to do with each individual patient trying different medications. Sometimes they work for a while. Sometimes they don't. And when you have people with arthritis who have pain for years they can go through a lot of different medications before they find one that works well for them.
And, although it's true there is not an improvement over pain say over traditional non-steroidals, nonetheless all these medications had to do to be approved was to say they were equal in potency. So, we have sort of changed the standard. Now we're asking them to be better as far as pain relief.
BROWN: OK. I'll go back against Jerry on this. Do we ever -- does the industry or the government or you guys at universities do you ever take two drugs and compare them? Do you ever say put aspirin next to Vioxx and run tests on those or is it always a placebo?
AVORN: Well, that's exactly the point, Aaron. Those are the exact kinds of studies that we need, that patients need, the doctors need, where you do a randomized trial. It's controlled and people don't know what they're getting and you have patients like the kind that we just saw in that segment getting drugs for weeks to months and you see how is their pain relief doing? We don't have those studies because the companies don't like to do those studies.
BROWN: And the government doesn't do those studies at all?
AVORN: Exactly right. The FDA and the National Institutes of Health don't do the studies. Almost all the studies that we see about drug effects are done by the manufacturers and they would rather not compare their drug against other drugs if they can avoid it. The FDA standard is to compare it against a placebo. Sometimes you're lucky and you get some head-to-head studies but they're rare.
BROWN: Dr. Tindall, do you think the Cox-2 inhibitor drugs will even be on the market in a year?
TINDALL: Excuse me, could you repeat that?
BROWN: Do you think these drugs, the Cox-2 inhibitor drugs, will even be on the market available in a year?
TINDALL: Yes, I do believe there is a place for these medications and I heard the testimony today and I've heard some of the criticisms that have been laid out there. But one of the things that has not come out is the incredible benefit that all of the patients who spoke today gave before the panel and I think that can't be overstated that patients need these medications. These medications are not for everybody, even though the marketing I agree was aimed at as wide an audience as possible and if I might say something about the double blind placebo trials.
BROWN: Sure.
TINDALL: With arthritis patients you really can't use a placebo because they're in pain and the studies that came out of long use placebo use compared to the Coxibs were in patients who didn't have pain. They were in polyp prevention or Alzheimer's prevention. So, it's very difficult to come up with a placebo trial when the patient is going to know after a few weeks I'm not really probably taking anything.
BROWN: All right, one more area for both of you and I want to try mine here and that's this whole question of what is and how we decide acceptable risk here? If you had any history in your family of heart disease, for example, is that an -- based on what we know today is that an unacceptable risk, Jerry, to take any of the Cox-2 drugs?
AVORN: I think I would agree with Dr. Tindall that it does need to be individualized for each patient and one's cardiac history is important but we don't really have the data that shows that these drugs are free of problems even if you don't have cardiac disease. So, it is a combination of facts and unfortunately even here in 2005, we don't have all the safety risk factors that we'd like to know about.
BROWN: Dr. Tindall, how do you tell patients to evaluate risk?
TINDALL: Well, I try to go through what the risk factors are for known cardiovascular or cerebral vascular disease and that would be diabetes, smoking, post menopausal, family history, elevated cholesterol, overweight, all of the usual parameters that you would use in assessing a patient's risk and then a use of a Coxib may be another independent risk factor.And that was sort of asked to Dr. Graham and some of the members of the panel today and no one could really come up with when do you finally cross that line where the risk is unacceptable? No one really knows.
BROWN: Great, terrific. Thanks for that. We're working on it I guess. Hopefully at least a year from now we'll know more about it. Thanks.
TINDALL: I think so.
BROWN: Thank you both very much.
TINDALL: Thank you.
BROWN: If the Cox-2 saga is part blessing and part curse, this next story tonight is 100 percent blessing. The story takes place in northern California where Jerrick De Leon is recovering tonight from open heart surgery. His case will be one for the medical journals because even the smallest stack of medical journals vastly outweighs the patients. That's the headline of the story. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes us beyond the headline of one of the most delicate heart operations ever done.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARIA LOURDES, JERRICK'S MOTHER: What if I just pray hard that my baby reaches two pounds?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Baby Jerrick was born weighing around just a pound and he also had a life- threatening heart defect. Doctors told his mother Maria, who is also a pediatrician, to abandon hope.
LOURDES: I told him, you know, like so you're not giving me any options here, you know. What is it that you want to -- what's the plan for the baby? It was very difficult. I was blocking a lot and I was just saying, you know, like I was just surrendering whatever comes.
GUPTA: But there was one option left and his name Dr. Mohan Reddy, a pediatric heart surgeon at Stamford and the only one willing to do the operation. In a last ditch effort, Jerrick was airlifted up the California coast. He was just a week old.Jerrick suffered from what the surgeons call transposition of the great arteries. Simply, the large blood vessel that is supposed to take oxygenated blood to the body was switched with the blood vessel that takes blood to the lungs and the body was literally starving for air. Fixing it would be risky but the alternative was almost certain death.
DR. MOHAN REDDY, LUCILE PACKARD CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: Just to give you an idea we just took a picture of the baby with a finger next to the chest and the whole baby's chest is pretty much the size of my finger and the incision is probably the tip of my finger. That's how big the chest -- whole chest is.
GUPTA: And the heart?REDDY: I would say probably the size of a, you know, moderate sized grape maybe even smaller.
GUPTA: Still, after six hours, Dr. Reddy and his team completed a medical first. They switched the arteries back on what they believe is the smallest baby ever to survive this procedure and, at the same time, push back even further the boundaries of life and death.
REDDY: When you do cardiac surgery in children you are always living on the edge and unless you take risks you're not going to advance the field and you're not going to make progress.
GUPTA: In this case, progress is measured in a healthy baby and a happy mother.
REDDY: It's very joyous in the sense it's very satisfying that we can help this little tiny baby.
LOURDES: I'm a mother. I think I was always looking for the good side of it.GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: More to come tonight, starting with a chilling turn of a romantic phrase, getting to know you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): This guy is getting to know all about you.
JAY PATEL, FOUNDER, ABIKA.COM: Why do we need privacy? That's the question like why do people need privacy?
BROWN: Meet a pioneer in the next gold rush. He's mining for data, maybe even your data. Interested in knowing what he knows? Meet another pioneer, the first national intelligence director but director of what actually and of whom and with how much clout?
RICHARD FALKENRATH, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: I don't think it's a powerful job. This is a miserable job. This is one of the hardest jobs in Washington.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would say this is the most extreme example of this kind of culture where everyone mistrusts everyone else.
BROWN: And this is the happiest place on earth, Michael Eisner and the battle for Disney.OK, maybe this is a happier place, we'll look at the stories behind the cover and talk with the model on the cover, tan lines and all because this is NEWSNIGHT.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: It's possible that the most personal information on tens of thousands of Americans has been stolen. The database of an information collection company called Choice Point was essentially duped by thieves who now know everything from credit cards and driver's license and Social Security numbers to credit ratings and much, much more.Most states don't require that you be told if you're one of the people at risk. The scam it turns out was pretty sophisticated but in many ways finding out the most detailed parts of people's lives is easy, very easy, just ask Jay. Here's CNN Technology Correspondent Daniel Sieberg.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You might think of Wyoming as the perfect place in which to get lost. It's the tenth largest state in the union yet it's dead last in population, a haven for anonymity. However, the cowboy state is where a lot of people are found, specifically the basement of this house on the outskirts of Cheyenne. This is the home of Jay Patel, founder of an Internet background search service called Abika.
PATEL: I don't even believe in privacy too much but first like most people when they discuss privacy why do we need privacy? That's the question like why do people need privacy?
SIEBERG: He says most people agree privacy isn't important. In fact, he says the world would be a better place if everyone knew everything about each other.
PATEL: Do you know the root cause of hatred or intolerance is because people don't know about other people.
SIEBERG: And Jay Patel says he's here to help. His company can track down a name from an e-mail address or instant message screen name, find an unlisted or blocked phone number, verify a person's salary. In fact, Abika has more than 300 ways for you to snoop on others and more than 300 ways for them to snoop on you.(on camera): Do you ever worry that this information could fall into the wrong hands? People these days talk about terrorism or criminal activity do you worry about that?
PATEL: See but for us it's not something which anyone cannot find it by going directly to the source, so it's not something which is like exclusive to us. It's right there, so we are only searching it. We don't create this information and we don't access anything which is restricted. We are just a small company in the basement here.
SIEBERG (voice-over): When Jay and his staff receive a request for information they often get nothing more than a name and last known address. They send that information to private investigators, court researchers and keepers of various databases.Abika will even create a psychological profile of a person, all this usually without the subject knowing he or she is being investigated. So, I decided to request a search on myself, at least I'd know about it.(on camera): So, I mean you have my Social Security number. Is there the possibility that someone could steal my identity because this information is so easy to get?
PATEL: If you see, we don't release the Social Security number. The last four digits are X'd out so in your whole profile...
SIEBERG (voice-over): Right.
PATEL: ...you would see that it's not released to anyone.
SIEBERG: But could someone else find that as easily as you did?
PATEL: Social Security numbers are the easiest thing to find as such.
SIEBERG: A scary thought but Jay says Abika releases Social Security numbers only to qualified customers; however, we also ordered a general background search on another person and did get his Social Security number because it was the same as his driver's license number and that's just one of the things that has privacy advocates concerned about services like Abika.
MARC ROTENBERG, ELECTRONIC PRIVACY INFO. CTR.: These new information brokers that have sprouted up on the Internet are really operating in the wild, wild west. There is no regulation or control. Information that these companies provide becomes the basis for decisions about whether you get a job, about whether you clear a background check, about whether you're able to lease an apartment, maybe even whether you get a home loan. So, the risk is very tangible but a mistake will be made that you'll be turned down for an opportunity that you really are entitled to.
SIEBERG: Still, these data brokers have a lot of fans. Software executive Steve Kirsch uses Abika and other services to sue the senders of junk faxes.
STEVE KIRSCH, PROPEL SOFTWARE: Propel will get lots of unsolicited faxes and the only identification -- there will be no identification of the company on the faxes and so the only thing we'll have is an 800 number that we should dial, so we've used Abika to look up who owns the 800 number because when we call the 800 number, of course, they just give us a phony company name and a phony location.
SIEBERG (on camera): As proof that Jay's approach to privacy can work for some people, Jay actually points to his own situation. Before moving here to Wyoming, he lived in South Dakota and one day he was at a store there and he saw a girl and read her name tag. He then went home and did a background search on her and when he returned to the store he told her some things about her that he had found. Now, surprisingly she didn't slap him. Instead three weeks later they were married.(voice-over): But not all background checks have a happy ending. In 1999, in New Hampshire, Liam Youens used another Internet data broker called Docusearch to find out where a former high school classmate worked. He then shot and killed the woman, 20-year-old Amy Boyer (ph) as she left work. He also killed himself. Boyer's family sued Docusearch saying it should have told the woman she was being investigated.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She went to work not knowing that her personal private information was given by Docusearch, the defendants, to someone who had no legal right to have it.
SIEBERG: But Docusearch argued it has no duty to check a customer's background.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He premeditated his crime and he killed her. Telling him where she worked didn't foreseeably increase the risk of anything. It didn't proximately cause anything. It had nothing to do with Amy Boyer's death.
SIEBERG: The suit was settled out of court last year with the Boyer family getting $85,000 but the background search industry is still going strong. As Youens wrote on his personal Web site, as he was planning his quest to kill Boyers, "It's actually obscene what you can find out about a person on the Internet." Comments like that have many people searching for the balance between openness and the obscene.Daniel Sieberg CNN, Cheyenne, Wyoming.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Still ahead tonight a picture of Disney that certainly doesn't resemble a magic kingdom.And authorities weigh in on some lurid allegations against the comedian Bill Cosby.We'll take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Well, the country now has its first director of national intelligence. Today the president nominated John Negroponte, currently the ambassador to Iraq. If confirmed by the Senate, and that appears likely, Ambassador Negroponte will oversee 15 intelligence agencies and control the purse strings of all of them, well sort of.Like so many other things in Washington and in life nothing is that simple and Congress and the president made sure the real power of the DNI isn't that simple either, more from our National Security Correspondent David Ensor.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Power in Washington flows to those with access to the president and those with control of budgets and personnel. Mr. Bush sought to make clear the new director of national intelligence will have both.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He will have access on a daily basis in that he'll be my primary briefer.ENSOR: On the estimated $40 billion intelligence budget spanning 15 different agencies, the president said Negroponte will determine who gets what.BUSH: People make their case. There's a discussion. But ultimately, John will make the decisions on the budget.
ENSOR: Former Deputy Director of Central Intelligence John McLaughlin, who has joined CNN as an analyst, says Negroponte will have his work cut out for him.
JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN NATL. SECURITY ADVISER: It's the legislation that empowers him. It's not as precise as everyone would like it to be in authorizing his powers. The legislation is, after all, the result of compromises during a difficult and contentious time in our country and therefore the language in many cases is what I would call kind of spongy.
ENSOR: Critics charge that the intelligence reform law that sets up the DNI job contains too much ambiguity about budget and personnel power. They predict trouble between Negroponte and the Pentagon.
FALKENRATH: I don't think a powerful job. This is a miserable job. This is one of the hardest jobs in Washington and it is so undefined that authorities are so ambiguous and the expectations are so high that it's unlikely to be a successful, fun experience for this person.
ENSOR: But the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee disagrees.
SEN. JAY ROCKEFELLER (D), VICE CHMN., INTELLIGENCE CMTE.: If we had prescribed in Congress every relationship between each of the agencies, I think that would have been an enormous mistake and would have rendered this person more useless. This person can exercise power and I think that's good.
ENSOR: As ambassador in Iraq and before, Negroponte has been a consumer of intelligence but he has no intelligence experience. His new deputy, however, General Michael Hayden, head of the National Security Agency, is a seasoned hand. Many present and former intelligence professionals are praising the president's choice of Negroponte.
JAMES PAVITT, FMR. CIA SPY CHIEF: I think he will be a first rate leader of this organization.
ENSOR (on camera): Negroponte called it his most challenging assignment in 40 years and that may be putting it mildly. Being the first at anything is always harder but the ambassador has been good at setting up and leading teams in a number of jobs in government. CIA regulars, present and former, are promising him their full support.David Ensor, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Late word tonight concerning the comedian Bill Cosby. An investigation into a young woman's allegations that Mr. Cosby fondled her last year is now closed, no charges filed. Prosecutors say they found insufficient evidence. No would that Michael Eisner's tenure as head of the Walt Disney Company -- and he's run the company for almost a generation -- has been anything but remarkable, remarkable in its successes early on, remarkable in its struggles more recently. Most anyone who has ever met him who describe him as smart, tough and often funny. Some who work for him would describe him in more colorful ways. James Stewart has written about Disney and Mr. Eisner. The book is called "DisneyWar." We talk with Mr. Stewart in a few moments. But, first, as they say in Hollywood, the dish. Here is CNN's Allan Chernoff.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): James Stewart originally pitched Disney a book about the company's influence on American culture. But after a management shakeup, it turned into a look at Eisner's dirty laundry, enough so that author James Stewart has delivered a 534-page laundromat of a book, "DisneyWar."
Stewart depicts Disney CEO Eisner as a paranoid, backstabbing corporate titan. Behind the Magic Kingdom facade lies a corporate battleground, well documented in public scandals, like Jeffrey Katzenberg's lawsuit claiming Disney reneged on a promised bonus. The company settled for $280 million, or Eisner's ousting of Michael Ovitz, a close friend he recruited as president and soon fired with a reported $140 million exit package. But after interviewing the key players, Stewart offers new details of Eisner's tactics. Only months after hiring Michael Ovitz, the book says, Eisner wrote to confidants on the board of directors: "Michael does not have the trust of anybody. I do not trust him. Michael Ovitz is simply not a corporate executive."
At about that time, Eisner, sitting next to Ovitz, told a different story on CNN's "LARRY KING LIVE."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE")
LARRY KING, HOST: So, Michael Eisner, you would hire Michael Ovitz again today? MICHAEL EISNER, DISNEY CEO: Yes. Are you offering him again?
KING: No, all things being -- in other words...
(LAUGHTER)
EISNER: Yes. The answer is yes. The answer is yes.
KING: That would certainly clear up any rift stories.
(CROSSTALK)
EISNER: ... just all baloney.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHERNOFF: Within weeks, Eisner fired Ovitz. Eisner also tried to undermine Robert Iger, his next pick as Disney president. The book says Eisner told several board members, "Iger can never succeed me."
Though Eisner denies it in the book, Stewart reports, Eisner calls his theme park executives "monkeys who don't have any brains." Stewart has written in a narrative style without direct sourcing for specific events. Eisner has refused to comment, but Disney's public relations department calls the book "one-sided depiction of past events largely told through the eyes of those with a clear bias and personal agendas."(on camera): After former board member Roy Disney led a revolt, Michael Eisner last year lost nearly half the shareholder vote for reelection. He gave up his position as chairman and said he will step down as chief executive when his contract expires in 2006. Allan Chernoff, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Up next on the program, the author himself. We talk with James Stewart about his book "DisneyWar." Also ahead, "Sports Illustrated"'s swimsuit issue. No kidding. We'll take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: James Stewart is no stranger to the world of the rich and the infamous. He wrote "Den of Thieves," a look at insider trading on Wall Street. He also won a Pulitzer Prize for his work as a reporter and an editor at "The Wall Street Journal." We talked with Mr. Stewart this afternoon about "DisneyWar".
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: You've written a lot of business books. This is not hardly your first. Is there something about Hollywood and show business that, as a business, makes it unique to write about and I guess unique to read about?
JAMES STEWART, AUTHOR, "DISNEYWAR": Well, I have never encountered a sort of Machiavellian culture like I discovered when I went to Disney. Now, I knew it wasn't going to be the happiest place on Earth, as it likes to proclaim as part of its brand image. But I thought it would be a fairly happy place. And it was like a dysfunctional family. Now, I've written about Wall Street. I've written about Washington. And I would say this is the most extreme example of this kind of culture where everyone mistrusts everyone else, where there's lying going on constantly, betrayals and backstabbing. And I did wonder, is there something endemic in the entertainment industry? I think part of it may be that the objective measures of success, other than the box office, are so difficult to gauge.
BROWN: Do we see Eisner, at least as you see him, as he is? Is he a success? Is he a great -- did he have a great 20 years? Nobody is perfect? What is he in the end?
STEWART: Well, I think, in any good story, a character changes through time. But Eisner -- and you see Eisner change over the years. He starts out. He is a great success, tremendous success, amazing success by Hollywood standards. He consolidates power. And with power comes a certain amount of hubris. And then you begin to see that great trajectory taper off and at some point begin to plunge downward.
BROWN: So, he doesn't get to walk out the way I guess we would all like to walk out, without being pushed?
STEWART: No. I mean, he doesn't -- he hates the idea that he was stripped of his title, but he was stripped of his title. He was repudiated. He did hang on too long. I think you can argue that, in the entertainment industry, nobody should run Disney or any of these companies for 20 years. But I thought of the recent -- reading the obituaries of Johnny Carson recently about he walked out at the top of his game, ceded the spotlight, retired gracefully, said nothing more, didn't try to have another act. That was really a classy way to go. That's not the Eisner way. I don't think Eisner can really see a future when he is not running Disney.
BROWN: Is that right?
STEWART: Well, in all of his conversations with me. For example, he intimates rather strongly that he would be quite happy to be restored as the chairman, if the board would ask him to do that, and remain as some kind of chief creative officer into the indefinite future. Now, I think that's very unlikely to happen, and it probably shouldn't happen. But, to me, it shows how much the identity of the company and his own personality have fused into one.
BROWN: But it's just a hard thing, generally, for people to do, to walk off the stage at the top of their game in any -- you know, it doesn't happen in my business. It doesn't happen in sports very often. It certainly doesn't happen in big corporations. It's a really hard thing for people to do.
STEWART: Well, and it's really hard in Hollywood. I mean, Eisner I think to this day is haunted that he is going to be a nobody overnight. I don't think he will, but that's his fear. There are a couple stories in the book where, after he was fired by Paramount, he couldn't get a reservation at the hot restaurant Morton's (ph), and so he had to ask Michael Ovitz. Michael Ovitz called and Michael Ovitz immediately got a table. And when Joe Roth was leaving, Eisner says, well, you don't want to leave. Nobody is going to return your phone calls. And Joe Roth said to Michael, Michael, that's called projection. People will return my phone calls. But, obviously, Eisner is very insecure about that.
BROWN: It's nice to see you. Good luck with the book. It's one of those books -- and partly I think because it's Disney, something about Disney and something about Hollywood -- people are talking about. So good for you.
STEWART: Well, thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: James Stewart. We talked with him this afternoon. Still ahead, spring is getting close. It must be. Pitchers and catchers have reported and the swimsuit issue is out as well. And the rooster always joins us. Morning papers will wrap up the hour.We'll take a break. Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Like most men my age, I learned about sex the old- fashioned way, in one of the February issues of "Sports Illustrated." Trust me. At 12, it was pretty hot stuff. At 56, it's still worth a discrete glance.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): It was born to fill a practical need, bridging the gap between the end of football and the time when anyone really cares about winter sports, the playoffs. At least that's their story over at "Sports Illustrated," and they're sticking to it.
DIANE SMITH, EDITOR, "SPORTS ILLUSTRATED" SWIMSUIT ISSUE: The image that I'm trying to capture is something that is a confident, wholesome, sexy, secure woman who looks great, has fun, feels great in a bathing suit and, you know, is healthy. I mean, I look for curves, obviously.
BROWN: She looks for curves. And so did the millions of, well, sports fans who read it each year. It's the most popular issue of "Sports Illustrated." And the magazine estimates that 60 million people will see it. That's about one in four Americans. Let's just say the swimsuit issue is a bigger draw than hockey.
SMITH: It's hard to realize or to believe how revolutionary that was, to have a bathing suit model on the cover of "Sports Illustrated." So, it had such a great response that it just grew, grew, grew to what it is now.
BROWN: Ms. Smith, we suspect, will not deny they are selling cheesecake here, but she insists it's a wholesome cheesecake, the sort of cheesecake dads and sons can enjoy together.
SMITH: It's a magazine that embodies like a great American tradition. It's totally innocent when you look at what's going on today.
BROWN: And we suppose that is a standard. It's not as racy as an ABC AFL promo.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICOLETTE SHERIDAN, ACTRESS: Terrell, wait.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: And that is, we learned, the art, after all. The swimsuit issue is all about the tease.
SMITH: I have an instinct. They have an instinct. We know where to stop and how to keep it still totally acceptable and wholesome.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Carolyn Murphy is on the cover of "Sports Illustrated"'s swimsuit issue this year. Sammy Sosa, she is not. She joins us from Los Angeles. It's nice to see you.
CAROLYN MURPHY, "SPORTS ILLUSTRATED" SWIMSUIT COVER MODEL: It's nice to see you, too. Thank...
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: So, are you upset about the NHL players strike?
MURPHY: No. You know, I wish I could say that I was. I'm not as up to date on it as I should be.
BROWN: Do you even like sports?
MURPHY: I do like sports. I grew up around sports. My father was a really big Redskins fan. I come from Virginia. I was a swimmer competitively for 11 years. And I'm a surfer. I love hiking, one of the reasons I live in California. I mean, I follow them as much as I can. But I've been very busy the past few days.
BROWN: I'll bet you have. Is it -- in the world of modeling, is it -- is it a big deal to be the cover of "Sports Illustrated"? Is it a bigger deal than being the cover of "Glamour" or something?
MURPHY: Well, you know, personally, it's a very big deal. But, of course, in my career, it's huge. It's like the pinnacle of my career, besides getting in a contract with Estee Lauder. What every model aspires to is to be on the cover of magazines, to be out there, to be in the face of every household and become a household name. And I think, with "Sports Illustrated," it targets a whole other demographic, which is why I was so proud when I found out about it. I was really excited, because it's not only just a woman's magazine. It's men as well.
BROWN: It's a men's magazine, actually, that some women read I think would be a fairer way to describe it, don't you think?
MURPHY: It's probably a better way to describe it, but I have to tell you, quite honestly, I've been looking at "Sports Illustrated" since I was a little girl. I mean, it wasn't just my brother that was pinning the pictures on his walls. I remember looking at pictures of Rachel Hunter and Elle Macpherson saying, wow, I want to look like that. How great does that woman look? She has a healthy body. She's beautiful and she's glowing. And I think that every woman out there cannot deny the fact that they're going to be looking at the issue, too, for those reasons. BROWN: The -- the issue I think has always been edited by women or a woman. Does that change how the issue comes out because of that?
MURPHY: Well, I think, you know, it takes two to make a great magazine like this. Of course, most of the time, yes, it is for men. It's a sports-oriented magazine. But how great is it to have an issue like this, to have these beautiful women on the covers and the inside? Because it sells. And it's -- we have women athletes in this issue. If you did not have a woman editor, it would just be all for the men. I think it's a perfect balance to have Diane Smith editing the magazine. She's great at it. She knows what also men want to see, but what women want to see. And that's important. BROWN: Do they want to see different things?
MURPHY: Of course. I mean, they want to see different ethnicities. They want to see different body types. They want to see girls that are in a photo laughing and smiling. And they want to see women that are being sexy. And that's the fun of it.BROWN: No, do men and women want to see different things? Will men and women see..
(LAUGHTER)
BROWN: I'm serious, actually.MURPHY: No.BROWN: When they look at the picture, will they -- are women looking at something different from what men are looking at?
MURPHY: You know what? I think that it's really on an individual basis. Of course, I know that, when I look at a picture of a woman, I like when she looks sexy. I like when she's having fun, you know, playing volleyball. Of course, the men have a different vision of that. I'm not a man, so I can't answer that.
BROWN: No, but you have a rough idea.
MURPHY: I have a rough idea.
BROWN: Yes, I think you do, too. Next week or the week after, because this happens every year, "Sports Illustrated" will run five letters to the editor from people either threatening to cancel their subscription or objecting one way or another. What is it they don't get?
MURPHY: Well, what do you mean, what they don't get? They have -- they have -- I guess the ratio is less than 1 percent of people opt out. It's 98 percent subscription readers to this magazine. So, it's really -- I'm not sure what you're asking.
BROWN: I guess the question -- what I'm asking is, people who are offended by it, people who find it inappropriate for whatever reasons, what is it they're not seeing that everyone else sees?
MURPHY: You know, again, it's -- there's always going to be people there to stir the pot. You know, you -- there's always going to be people that are unhappy with something. Generally, I would like to think that, overall, people love it. Again, the ratio of people that opt out of this, because they do have the choice, is less than 1 percent.
BROWN: Congratulations.
MURPHY: Thank you.
BROWN: It's a beautiful picture and it's a nice honor for you.
MURPHY: Thank you.
BROWN: And we're glad to have you on the program. Thank you.
MURPHY: Thank you. I'm proud. Thank you.
BROWN: Thank you, Carolyn Murphy. We'll take a break. Morning papers when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(ROOSTER CROWING)
BROWN: OK, time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world. Let's just set those over there. And we'll work with these tonight. Here we go. The glasses over there, Aaron.
"The Washington Times" leads it off, because it's on top. No other reason.
"House Approves Class-Action Act. Measures Target -- Measure Targets Frivolous Lawsuits."
Actually, the measure targets all class-action lawsuits, some of which are perhaps frivolous and some of which are not, but it moves them all into federal court, which is a tougher venue, lawyers say. That's an interesting headline, huh?
"Richmond Times-Dispatch," down here, if you will, please.
"Senate Panel Rejects Abortion Measures. Fetal Anesthesia, Clinic Regulations Bill Defeated and Other Proposal Withdrawal" in the Virginia Senate. So that remains a front-page issue in the state of Virginia. I guess it's a front-page issue anywhere.
The two competing papers in Detroit. They used to have a hockey season. Now they just have the two newspapers competing.
"The Detroit News" starts it off. "College Aid Changes Hurt the Poor. Governor's Merit Scholarship Proposal Means Less Federal Money For Some." I think that's unfortunate. People who -- it would nice if people who want to go to college can go to college.
"The Detroit Free Press." "FDA to Rule on Fate of Pain Pills." We obviously like this story a lot, since it was our lead tonight. "State Bills For Taxes on Web and Cigarettes. At Least $1.7 Million Owed By Smokers Who Bought Online." Oh, I get it. I'm sorry. "State Bills For Taxes on Web Cigarettes."
"Attack of the Crows" in "The Des Moines Register." "The birds are leaving a mess across Iowa. Is there anything that can stop them?" What the heck ever happened to scarecrows? Wasn't that the whole point of scarecrows? Did crows figure that out and now they're not scared of scare crows anymore? This article will explain it. How we doing on time?
"Rebuilding the Army" is "The Stars and Stripes" headline. "U.S. Forces Tasked With Training Iraqi Troops Report Progress, But No Definite End in Sight."The weather in Chicago tomorrow -- do it with my right hand tonight -- "deceitful." We'll wrap it up in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Time to plan the early morning. Here is Bill Hemmer with a look at "AMERICAN MORNING."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Aaron, thanks. Tomorrow on "AMERICAN MORNING," a burning controversy has landed on the frozen outer reaches of the solar system. Is the planet Pluto really just a planet wanna-be? Neil deGrasse Tyson, the director of the Hayden Planetarium here in New York is -- he calls Pluto a pretender. It turns out Pluto has a lot of friends out there, too. We'll talk with Neil on that tomorrow morning starting at 7:00 a.m. Eastern time. Hope to see you then -- Aaron.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Going to boost our numbers in Pluto tomorrow. Good to have you with us tonight. We're all back tomorrow around the world and perhaps around the universe 10:00 Eastern. Until then, good night for all of us.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
The Religious Bigotry of NewsNight's Morning Papers Segment
The dog will bring in morning papers after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (ROOSTER CROWING)
BROWN: Okeydokey, time to check morning papers around the country and around the world, a lot of good ones today, so I need to move sort of briskly.
"The Christian Science Monitor." ... "States Shore Up Support For Troops. From Life Insurance to Utility Bills and Tuition, There's a Surge of Support For Part-Time Soldiers,"
says "The Christian Science Monitor."
DOUBLE BILLING.
And out West in Portland, Oregon there seems evidence that that is in fact true, not that
"The Christian Science Monitor"
TRIPLE BILLING.
"The Washington Times"
"San Antonio Express-News"
"The Des Moines Register"
"The Detroit News."
"The Philadelphia Inquirer."
(The Chicago Sun Times) Weather tomorrow in Chicago is "rude."
Wrap it up in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (ROOSTER CROWING)
BROWN: Okeydokey, time to check morning papers around the country and around the world, a lot of good ones today, so I need to move sort of briskly.
"The Christian Science Monitor." ... "States Shore Up Support For Troops. From Life Insurance to Utility Bills and Tuition, There's a Surge of Support For Part-Time Soldiers,"
says "The Christian Science Monitor."
DOUBLE BILLING.
And out West in Portland, Oregon there seems evidence that that is in fact true, not that
"The Christian Science Monitor"
TRIPLE BILLING.
"The Washington Times"
"San Antonio Express-News"
"The Des Moines Register"
"The Detroit News."
"The Philadelphia Inquirer."
(The Chicago Sun Times) Weather tomorrow in Chicago is "rude."
Wrap it up in a moment.
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Producer Shift at CNN
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: February 16, 2005
CNN, which has been retooling its programming in a bid to close the ratings gap with Fox News, has replaced the senior executive producer of the prime-time program "NewsNight With Aaron Brown," a spokeswoman said last night.
The senior producer, Sharon Van Zwieten, who held the post for about a year, was succeeded by Wil Surratt, executive producer of CNN's morning show, "American Morning," said Christa Robinson, a CNN senior vice president.
In informal remarks yesterday to the network's employees, Jonathan Klein, president of CNN's domestic operations, said, "This move puts us in a better position to win," Ms. Robinson said. CNN is a unit of Time Warner.
Published: February 16, 2005
CNN, which has been retooling its programming in a bid to close the ratings gap with Fox News, has replaced the senior executive producer of the prime-time program "NewsNight With Aaron Brown," a spokeswoman said last night.
The senior producer, Sharon Van Zwieten, who held the post for about a year, was succeeded by Wil Surratt, executive producer of CNN's morning show, "American Morning," said Christa Robinson, a CNN senior vice president.
In informal remarks yesterday to the network's employees, Jonathan Klein, president of CNN's domestic operations, said, "This move puts us in a better position to win," Ms. Robinson said. CNN is a unit of Time Warner.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)