The Religious Bigotry of CNN's NewsNight "Morning Papers"
Aaron is still not doing the pre-program ad for his news hour. Discriminatory. He has done that ad several times an evening for years. It is the Jew in him to reach his community that drives him and there was always that 'novelty' to watch him go from sleeves rolled to the elbow to suit at the news hour. He wanted his viewership to understand NewsNight was his dedication to them. He loves the people in the audience. They aren't taken for granted. It's bigotry and oppression. It's horrible for him and I know it.
The Time Allotment for Aaron is as follows:
June 29, 2005
Aaron 23 minutes - 9 minutes live
Others 21 minutes
Commercials 16 minutes
June 24, 2005
Aaron - 16 minutes - 4 minutes live
Commercials - 16 minutes
Others - 28 minutes
No Honor Segment to the USA Military Dead
June 27, 2005
Aaron 27 minutes - 14 minutes live - the BTK murders were extensively covered. Aaron has a great deal of experience covering the Green River Killer so it was a natural he did a majority of the show. It's the way it should be.
Others 18 minutes
Commercials 15 minutes
June 28, 2005
Aaron 16 minutes - 9 minutes live
Others 32 minutes
Commercials 12 minutes
No Honor Segment to the USA Military Dead
June 29
Aaron 23 minutes - 13 minutes live
Others 21 minutes
Commercials 16 minutes
No Honor Segment to the USA Military Dead
The overall 'tone' of the show is better. Aaron is enjoying his broadcast more. There are aspects of this that still in not right. The staff took over the e-mail AGAIN.
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Friday, June 24, 2005
Second Case of Mad Cow Disease Found in U.S.; When Politicians Apologize
Second Case of Mad Cow Disease Found in U.S.; When Politicians Apologize
Aired June 24, 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: Here's something to chew on, Larry, something more than just a second case of mad cow disease in the United States and all that could mean for the food supply and the economy. Consider now, the possibility that we might never have known about it at all, but for inspector general at the Department of Agriculture, who might have exceeded her authority. She ordered a third round of testing on a sick cow that was declared free of all disease, last fall. Standard procedure said otherwise. The cattle industry raised a fuss. That, of course, was yesterday. Today, the tests came back positive.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): It was the second confirmed case of mad cow in the U.S. The first in an animal actually raised in the country.
MIKE JOHANNS, U.S. AGRICULTURE SECRETARY: Results confirm the presence of BSE in this animal, an animal that was blocked from entering the food supply.
BROWN: BSE is mad cow disease by its formal name and the sick animal didn't just show up yesterday. It was first tested last winter in November and found clean. The retesting found something else. The U.S. Agriculture Department says the discovery shows its system of testing suspected animals works; that it keeps Americans safe.
JOHANNS: ... thanks to the fire walls that are in place. It is critically important to note that this animal was identified as a high risk animal. A sample was taken and the carcass was incinerated.
BROWN: So, while both the beef industry and the government believe that U.S. meat is safe from mad cow, foreign buyers may not be so certain. After today's announcement, the cattle futures market indicated a five to ten percent drop, come Monday morning.
GREGG DOUD, NATIONAL CATTLEMEN'S BEEF ASSOCIATION: About one- third of our exports or $1.4 billion in beef trade goes to Japan, that's our biggest market and it's a critical component of the value of our production for U.S. beef producers.
BROWN: The U.S. beef industry took a big hit from the Japanese in 2003, after a Canadian-born dairy cow transported to the United States was diagnosed with mad cow. Several dozen countries joined Japanese in banning U.S. beef, a nearly $4 billion business. Mexico, the United States' second largest beef customer and other importers lifted their ban last year and expect to stay open to U.S. products. Japan has kept its ban and only recently started talks to lift it. On cattle ranches and in giant feed lots in the United States tonight, the hope is that today's announcement will not affect those talks.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
BROWN: Which brings us to this: There's little doubt that as a practical matter, mad cow is a lot more harmful to ranchers and meat packers and cows, than it is to people. Which many would argue is not quite the same thing as saying what the government essentially did today: bon appetit.Here's CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: The government assured the public that despite the new case of mad cow disease, U.S. beef is safe to eat. The BSE threat to humans in this country is so remote that there is a better chance you'll get hurt crossing the street to get to the grocery store, than by the beef you buy. That's because after an outbreak of mad cow in Europe in the early '80s, the National Cattlemen and Beef Association, in 1996, voluntarily banned the use of feed containing animal parts that could harbor the infectious agents causing mad cow disease. In 1997, the FDA made that ban mandatory, to reduce or eliminate the risk to the human food supply. This animal probably became infected by eating parts of the nervous system of other animals before the ban went into place. The animal was a downer, meaning it was unable to walk. Even though mad cow was not confirmed at the time, it was suspected and the animal was slaughtered and immediately excluded from the food supply.
JOHANNS: This animal was blocked from both the human food supply and the animal feed supply. The carcass was incinerated to ensure it did not and could not pose any kind of threat to public health.
GUPTA: For now, younger cows are more likely to be slightly safer, especially ones born after 1997. Still, the problem is a cow could be infected with mad cow disease for several years before symptoms appear. So, some consumer advocates question whether infected cows to could still be entering the food supply unknowingly and the watchdog group Consumer's Union is concerned that there may be loopholes. For example, part of an animal known to carry mad cow-type disease could legally go into feed for pigs, chickens, maybe even pets. For the time being, the industry and its critics are at odds. The industry says U.S. beef is safe and today was an example of the system working. The animal never entered the food supply. Critics say it's another wakeup call to the USDA and the Food and Drug Administration that they need to adopt additional safeguards, like increased testing and mandatory tracking of cows from birth to slaughter. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Other news: beginning with Iraq. Now the new prime minister meeting with the president today. The visit comes just shy of a year since the return of sovereignty to Iraq, but far short of other things: A new constitution for one and then there's real security. In the year since the handover, thousands of Iraqis, nearly 900 American troops have died in Iraq, many hundreds of insurgents as well. Today was especially grim in how many were killed and who. From the Pentagon tonight, CNN's Jamie McIntyre.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Pentagon sources say of the six U.S. troops killed when a suicide car bomber hit their seven-ton truck in a convoy attack near Fallujah, at least three were women and of the 13 wounded in the powerful blast in the small arms attack that followed, 11 were women. That makes Thursday the deadliest day for American women in uniform since World War II, when a Japanese suicide plane hit the hospital ship "Comfort," killing six army nurses in 1945. Since the Pentagon opened most military jobs to women a decade ago, they've grown to 15 percent of the force and do everything from fly helicopters, to escorting convoys, to fixing tanks. Women are still barred from direct combat units like infantry, armor and special forces, but in Iraq, that doesn't keep them out of the line of fire. Medical personnel, for instance, are often close to the action. LT.
SHARON BATTISTE, U.S. NAVY NURSE: Should we get an injured Marine, they actually bring the Marine back to us. So, even though we are very close to the front line, we're not correctly within the firefight.
MCINTYRE: Currently, there are more than 11,000 American women serving in Iraq and before this attack, 36 had died; 24 as a result of hostile fire. That compares to only two women killed by hostile fire in all of World War I, 21 in World War II, none in the Korean War, one in Vietnam, and five in the first gulf war. Earlier this year, Congress debated new rules that would have moved women out of units that serve on the front lines, but the plan was rejected after the Army argued it would close some 22,000 support jobs to women, jobs in critical specialties like military police.
SGT. LEIGH ANN HESTER, SILVER STAR RECIPIENT: As MP.s, we're out there everyday, outside of the wire, sweeping for roadside bombs and dealing with insurgents. So, in my opinion, I think women do just as good a job as the men do here. MCINTYRE: Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester was awarded the Silver Star for her role in an operation in March that killed 26 insurgent in a fierce firefight, videotaped by one of the enemy fighters. In a war without clear front lines, it's another example of women facing the same dangers as men. (on camera): Sources say many of the Marines killed or wounded in this convoy attack were women serving in a so-called lioness team, an all-female unit specializing in searching and interacting with Iraqi female civilians, so as not to give offense. It's a role considered vital in winning over the Iraqi people. Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Coming up next: The upcoming political battle over the Supreme Court. But first, in a little early tonight to make up for all of the times we've been late, a look at some of the other stories that have made news today. Sophia Choi, at "HEADLINE NEWS" in Atlanta.
SOPHIA CHOI, CNN HEADLINE NEWS: Hi, Aaron. Well, a tragic end to the search for three missing boys in Camden, New Jersey. All three boys have been found dead in the trunk of a car parked near the yard where they were last seen. The father of one of the missing boys opened the trunk of the car and collapsed screaming. Police immediately cordoned off the area. The boys, Jesstin Pagan, Daniel Agosto and Anibal Cruz, vanished on Wednesday. Firefighters had to keep their distance from a massive fire at St. Louis industrial plant. Flames shot 50 feet into the air and the blaze sent huge fireballs shooting into the air with billowing black smoke. The Praxair plant packaged propane and other gases for industrial use. One witness said pieces of metal from exploding tanks were shooting from the scene like pieces of giant shrapnel. But so far, there have been no reports of injuries. In China, the death toll from record summer floods has now climbed to more than 500. Forecasters warn: More torrential rains may hit the Pearl River delta near Hong Kong and Macao. The official Chinese news agency says, "after two weeks of rain, the Pearl River is reaching its highest peak, ever and more than 1.5 million people have been evacuated.And Aaron, just a reminder of the new feature at CNN.com: If you click the video link, you'll be able to see the day's best news clips at your leisure and at no cost -- Aaron.
BROWN: Sounds like a fair price. Thank you very much. We'll check with you in a half an hour. Straight ahead on the program, all the ingredients of a major battle: big money, high stakes and passion to spare.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: On the right...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're not going to be caught unprepared.
BROWN: And on the left...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But the most important thing is getting out the message as to what's at stake, what could happen. BROWN: Bracing for the fight of their lives over the next Supreme Court nominee.
SEN. DICK DURBIN, (D) ILLINOIS: I sincerely regret if what I said caused anyone to misunderstand my true feelings.
BILL CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I deeply regret that.
RICHARD NIXON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In all of the decisions I have made in my public life, I have always tried to do what was best for the nation. BROWN: The politics of saying sorry.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I'm not looking for my family anymore. I don't have any hope of finding them.
BROWN: Six months after the tsunami, how the orphans are coping and who is helping them.
ROBERT KNIGHT, CONCERNED WOMEN FOR AMERICA: I think the people at PBS see themselves as social agents. BROWN: With Public Broadcasting under fire, a NEWSNIGHT conversation with Bill Moyers.
BILL MOYERS, JOURNALIST: Ideologues embrace a world view that can't be changed because they admit no evidence to the contrary.
BROWN: From New York on a Friday night, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)BROWN: There's no fountain of youth, but the U.S. Supreme Court comes pretty close. Still even there, there are limits. William Rehnquist, the chief justice is 80 and fighting cancer. His colleague, Justice Stephens is 85. Even if Mr. Rehnquist decides not to announce his retirement, as expected over the summer, time and the law of averages may soon produce an opening on the court. And when it does, look out, that food fight over filibusters and nuclear options, consider that an appetizer. Here's CNN's Joe Johns.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The battle over the Supreme Court is about to begin.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're not going to be caught unprepared. JOHNS: Activists are huddled in their war rooms plotting strategy, rallying the ground troops.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It'd be a good idea to go over this with the field. Actually, when you are done with it, we can e-mail it out to them, so they'll have it in front of them.
JOHNS: In the video editing bays, television attack ads are waiting for someone to push the play button.
ANNOUNCER: The president nominated George Washington. Democrats attacked Washington for his environment record of chopping down cherry trees
.JOHNS: Conservative activist Chris Myers and his group, Progress for America, are preparing to defend the president's nominee, whoever it is, against an expected onslaught from liberals. They have organizers in 21 states and an $18 million war chest.
CHRIS MYERS, PROGRESS FOR AMERICA: We do know that if there is a retirement, that it will be defined quickly, we know the kinds of patterns that the left exhibits based upon the things they've done in the past.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right! JOHNS: On the left, Ralph Neas, a 30 year veteran of these wars, sometimes called 101st senator for his civil rights advocacy.
RALPH NEAS, PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY: We're well-prepared for whatever happens, whether it's one, two or three possible, vacancies.
JOHNS: Neas and his group, People for the American Way, fear the president will nominate someone who will take a wrecking ball to civil liberties. They've already sent out a million pieces of mail with more to come once a nominee is named. And they're taking the fight to the Internet. NEAS: We have registered a number of domain names, both with respect to the name of the campaign. And we want to make sure that we're ready to go from the very first moment.
JOHNS: At the center of all this, 100 U.S. senators.
SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY, (D) MASSACHUSETTS: If the president submits an in-your-face nomination to flaunt his power, it takes time and effort, and sweat and tears before the truth about the candidate is fully discovered.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And over the last four years, this president's judicial nominees have been labeled kooks, Neanderthals, and even turkeys. Respected public servants and brilliant jurists have been called scary and despicable. JOHNS: Senator Arlen Spector, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, the primary battleground, warns it's a little early to get so worked up over a possible Rehnquist retirement.
SEN. ARLEN SPECTER, (R-PA) JUDICIARY COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: What he intends to do or what anyone else intends to do remains to be seen. But it is hardly the time, given the kind of confrontation in this body, which we have seen on the judicial nomination process, to be looking to pick a fight.JOHNS: But with the stakes this high and the troops this ready, a fight is the one thing sure to happen. Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: This has been another week of the apology: apologies either offered or demanded. Search apologies on Google news and you'll get more than 3,000 stories, even if a lot of them aren't worth the paper they're written on. That's a lot of apologies. And so with apologies to Ella Fitzgerald, some of them don't mean a thing if they ain't got that swing. Here's CNN's Jeff Greenfield.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Love means never having to say your sorry.
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Well love, maybe, but when it comes to politics, no way.
(MUSIC)
GREENFIELD: When Illinois Senate Durbin compared prison abuses in Guantanamo to the Soviet gulag and to the Nazis, the Republicans demanded an apology.
JOHN MCCAIN, (R) ARIZONA: I think that Senator Durbin owes not only the Senate an apology -- I don't know if -- not censure would be in order, but an apology.
GREENFIELD: He did. DURBIN: Some may believe that my remarks crossed the line. To them, I extent my heartfelt apologies.
GREENFIELD: When White House political guru Karl Rove took a swipe at the liberal response to 9/11...
KARL ROVE, WHITE HOUSE POLITICAL ADVISER: Liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding to our attackers.
KING: Some Democrats called for contrition or dismissal.
SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER, (D) NEW YORK: Karl Rove has said many things and we understand he's a political infighter. But there's a certain line that you should not cross.
GREENFIELD: White House said, forget about it. Earlier this month, the U.S. Senate apologized for not passing anti-lynching laws. Some 4,700 recorded lynchings of American blacks took place between 1882 and 1968.And earlier this spring, President Bush apologized for the Yalta Agreements after World War II that left much of Eastern Europe under Soviet control.(on camera): So why do politicians apologize? Well, sometimes it's because they recognize what history has already concluded, that an action or inaction was a serious wrong. Sometimes, it's because they realize they've made an actual misstatement. And sometimes, maybe most times, it's an attempt to save a political career. (voice-over): President Clinton did all of this. He apologized for medical experiments at Tuskegee Institute in the 1930s that left black subjects untreated for syphilis. In Africa, he apologized for the slave trade and the inaction in Rwanda that left hundreds of thousands massacred. And of course, he also apologized for more personal matters.
CLINTON: I deeply regret that.
GREENFIELD: President Nixon, who was once quoted as saying, "contrition is bull" -- that's the PG version -- did apologize for Watergate, but only after he resigned. Back in 1969, New York Mayor John Lindsay, facing a bleak reelection climate, won after acknowledging, "I've made mistakes," something New Yorkers really wanted to hear from their aristocratic mayor. And the first President Bush sought to win back disaffected conservatives in 1992 by saying he was wrong to go along with tax increases. That wasn't enough to win him a second term. (on camera): There are lots more fascinating examples of why and when politicians apologize, but we just don't have the time to show them all to you. And for that, I'm really, really, deeply sorry. Jeff Greenfield, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Coming up on NEWSNIGHT on this Friday, it's been six months as the wall of water smashed into houses and cities and lives across South Asia. We'll look at how or if aid has really reached those who need it. And later, public television under fire from all directions. We'll talk with Bill Moyers. But we'll take a break. First, around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Tonight, we return to a corner of the world that was nearly wiped clean by the tsunami last December, Aceh province in Indonesia. In the half year that has passed, the rebuilding has begun. It's slow work when you start from square one.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): Six months and nearly $2 billion later, the scope of the recovery effort, according to various relief agencies in Aceh, can be measured by the numbers. A half a million were left homeless after the tsunami; a quarter of a million are still living in tents; 150,000 in government barracks; 100,000 others are home or living with relatives. Housing reconstruction has moved very slowly. Three thousand to 4,000 homes have been rebuilt; 20,000 more should be completed in the next six months. But at least 100,000 more homes still need repair. Fresh water, on the other hand, is available to almost all who need it; 480,000 people needed fresh water restored, now all but 60,000 have it. Electrical power in Banda Aceh is at about 60 percent of the pre- tsunami level. UNICEF reports that 200 temporary schools opened just this week; 90,000 children have been immunized against measles, and major outbreaks of other diseases have been averted. The Indonesian government says 5,270 children lost one or both parents in Aceh. Another 56,000 were listed as missing or killed.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Rebuilding all that was lost will take an enormous amount of money. Global pledges for tsunami relief now total more than $10 billion. Good intentions, of course, are one thing. Making good on them is another. Here's CNN's Chris Huntington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From southern India to Indonesia, to Sri Lanka, lives that were wrecked by last year's tsunami are beginning to return to normal. But many are frustrated with the pace of reconstruction, and no one knows that better than Jan Egeland, the man in charge of disaster relief for the United Nations.
JAN EGELAND, U.N. UNDERSECRETARY GENERAL: Those who lost everything on the 26th of December are understandably impatient now, but it's a long, uphill battle to rebuild those thousands and thousands of destroyed communities.
HUNTINGTON (on camera): According to U.N.'s own accounting, global pledges for tsunami aid now total more than $10 billion. Nearly $6 billion from governments, and $4.5 billion from private and corporate donors, but soliciting pledges has been the easy part. The real trick now is to get those who promised to contribute to send in the money. (voice-over): More than half of the government pledges have yet to be collected. The United States government, for instance, has made good on less than 40 percent of the more than $900 million pledged. That's worse than Japan and Great Britain, but better than Germany and France. But American companies and private citizens lead the world with contributions of more than $1.5 billion. Still, according to the nonprofit group Interaction, less than 20 percent of that $1.5 billion has reached the tsunami disaster zone. Roberta Cohen tracks international aid funding.
ROBERTA COHEN, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: It isn't happening fast enough. That's for sure. The money is taking a long time, because of local policies and local red tape and local ineptitude.
HUNTINGTON: There are increasing reports of bureaucratic roadblocks. Last month, hundreds of shipping containers filled with relief supplies piled up in an Indonesian port, stranded by paperwork. The international aid group Oxfam was forced to pay 500,000 pounds to Sri Lankan customs officials to import 25 trucks. The money has since been refunded, but it slowed Oxfam's efforts. Perhaps the biggest problem is sorting out land ownership in areas where the tsunami washed away almost all the landmarks, and where property records are spotty at best. Aid worker Elizabeth Stevens just returned from Banda Aceh.
ELIZABETH STEVENS, OXFAM AMERICA: What we need here is a full- court press on the part of governments to resolve the land issues.
HUNTINGTON: Still, Stevens and others familiar with the reconstruction effort are optimistic, and say patience and persistence will pay off.
EGELAND: It takes five to 10 seconds for a tsunami to destroy thousands of communities. It could take five to 10 years to rebuild and build back better, which is our whole ambition. HUNTINGTON: An ambition these children can only hope is fulfilled. Chris Huntington, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: The numbers and the damage seem almost as shocking as the earthquake that caused them. But sometimes the biggest numbers, the hardest hitting are ones and twos -- mothers and fathers, children who don't have them anymore. CNN's Atika Shubert reports on the orphans of the tsunami.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are the children of the tsunami, many of them without homes or parents. It's tough for kids, but no less difficult for those leaving childhood behind -- not quite adults, but no longer children. Teenagers are forced to grow up fast in the wake of this disaster.International aid group World Vision has set up child play areas, but now say youth programs are also needed to deal with he large number of adolescents stranded in the disaster.
MASRAWATI SINAGA, WORLD VISION: The difficult things with the teenagers is at the beginning, but once you can -- especially the difficult things are building trust.
SHUBERT (on camera): Few families want to adopt a rebellious teen, but imagine trying to maneuver through the confusion of adolescence without a mother or father, in fact, without knowing a single relative left alive. (voice-over): Buhari and Hundani (ph) are 18 and 15-years-old. They're not related, but they're brothers, of a sort. When their families were swallowed by the tsunami, they found each other huddled in a mosque with thousands of other survivors yet, utterly alone. "I'm not looking for my family anymore," he says. "I don't have any hope of finding them. If they are still alive, with luck, perhaps they'll find me. We're on our own now." Instead, the boys created their own family when they met Madun Achmad a father who lost his wife and two teenage sons in the tsunami. They live together in a one-room temporary shelter.
MADUN ACHMAD, LOST WIFE AND SONS: I'm alone. He's alone. Bucari (ph) is alone. We're all lonely. He says. We thought how are we going to find a home on our own? So, we banded together and ended up here.
SHUBERT: Madun looks for work during the day unsuccessful most of the time and cooks in the evenings. There's enough money for rice and a single egg, split between the three of them. The burden of raising two teenagers clearly wears on him. Asked if the boys will stick together as a family, at first, Madun is hesitant. We probably shouldn't get any closer, he says jokingly, but the youngest Hamdani (ph) is reluctant to let go of the only family he has left. The thing is, we, me and Buchari (ph) will stick together, he interrupts. We don't have anybody else. Madun nods in agreement, resigned to another evening at his temporary home with his temporary family. Atika Shubert, CNN, Banda Aceh.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, a NEWSNIGHT conversation with legendary journalist Bill Moyers of PBS. And the problems of PBS too. We take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: The Public Broadcasting Corporation dodged a bullet this week when lawmakers rejected in the House a 25 percent cut, $100 million in its funding. Republicans say the reason for the proposed cutbacks was money. Democrats say it's all about politics. These are not easy days for Bert and Ernie. The fight on Capitol Hill isn't the only threat to its future. PBS is also taking fire from within. Here's CNN's Tom Foreman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Out in the suburbs on the edge of D.C., the Rosenbergs are public TV fans. Hannah and her mother have spent hours watching PBS fair.
HANNAH ROSENBERG, 11-YEARS-OLD: I think I watch Barney and Sesame Street and Arthur.
MELISSA ROSENBERG, PBS VIEWER: I think for the kids, it's respectful of their innocence, and educational.
FOREMAN: Not too many commercials.
M. ROSENBERG: Right, not too many commercials. And not the sort of screaming, yelling kinds of cartoons that you often see these days.
FOREMAN: Since National Public Television started in the '60s, it has gathered this kind of ardent supporter, people who admire the educational, cultural and social programming. Robert Knight, however, is not one of them.
ROBERT KNIGHT, CONCERNED WOMEN FOR AMERICA: I think PBS has infused its programming with subtle messages that forward the liberal agenda. FOREMAN: Knight is with Concerned Women for America, a conservative group that says PBS pushes liberal values in shows like this one on the lesbian lifestyle.
ANNOUNCER: Join WETA us as we recognize gay and lesbian pride throughout the month of June.
KNIGHT: I think the people at PBS see themselves as social agents. They see themselves as having this great forum, this great platform to push what they think will be the good society. And I don't think there are enough Christians and conservatives there to keep them in check.
FOREMAN: That may be changing. PBS gets its federal funding through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is led by Kenneth Tomlinson, a Republican. He hired a consultant to look for political bias on the PBS show, "Now" when it was hosted by Bill Moyers. The newly appointed president of PBS, Patricia Harrison used to work with an official at the Republican National Committee. And this week Congress tried to slash a quarter of the PBS budget. Democrats howled
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON, (D) NEW YORK: Days like this, where we have to fight the Republican budget ax from targeting programs that are not only near and dear to children's hearts, but near and dear to parent's hearts.
FOREMAN: The bill was scrapped. But that infuriated many conservative critics who now want all taxpayer funding eliminated. They point out unlike the days when PBS started, today most homes have dozens of channels with shows about nature, art, culture, education. And they say the popular PBS shows draw big corporate donors. They'll be fine.
KNIGHT: It's time they went out on their own. And if the good programs are there they'll draw support. If it's bad programming why should they get taxpayer money to go on air with it?
FOREMAN (on camera): Do you think as a liberal that public television should be more sensitive to conservative views?
M. ROSENBERG: I guess it's something we're going to have to look at. For me, sometimes it feels uncomfortable to hear those viewpoints. But I know that they're out there and I respect that.
FOREMAN: Lyndon Johnson launched PBS, saying television has revolutionary power to change our lives, and neither party should control it. Almost 40 years later, however, the battle over control continues. Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: For more than 30 years the name and reputation of journalist and author Bill Moyers has been linked with PBS. Mr. Moyers retired from his public television show "Now" last December. As a young congressional aide in the '60s, he witnessed the birth of PBS. From then to now has been quite a journey. We spoke with him the other day. Is
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Is there a moment, when you became two organized conservative groups? Because I'm not sure it's true of people who are conservative politically necessarily, but organized conservative groups essentially journalistic Satan?
BILL MOYERS, JOURNALIST: There must be. Because suddenly I did sprout horn. They saw it. I didn't see it. I think it's because they didn't -- they weren't hearing what they wanted to hear from somebody who knows them very well. I tracked the conservatives for 40 years. I was in the Johnson campaign against Goldwater. I watched them grow. I did many documentaries about them when they emerged into power. I was the -- I offered Ronald Reagan the first hour on public broadcasting before he was a presidential candidate. I know these guys, and I don't buy their party line, and I don't spout their party line. And so there was a point at which they didn't like -- they weren't hearing what they wanted to hear, and I became their bad boy.
BROWN: John Leo, the columnist, was once talking about this question I think we're all living with now, sort of what media is. And he said, the problem with journalists is not their politics so much, is that they like certain kinds of stories. They like the little guy versus the big corporation. They like the underdog. And that then translates into or can be seen as political. And there's some truth to that, don't you think, that we do, in fact, like the story of the underdog, the little guy?
MOYERS: It was especially true when journalists had bookers and brokers -- I mean, instead of brokers, you know, when they made their bets instead of investing in the stock market. There's not a whole lot of reporting about it -- but yes, this -- I think anyone who grows up in a small town like I do, whose father never made more than $100 a year -- as mine -- $100 a week as mine did, I think we do -- we are concerned about the impact of policies on ordinary people. In my own case, I've spent a lot of time, Aaron, reporting -- my first book was called "Listening to America." I've spent a lot of time listening to people talk about their struggles and listen to them define their hopes and dreams. And 80 million people in this country right now live in households making less than $25,000 a year. There's a big story, not a dramatic story, but an important story.
BROWN: If you look at this sort of body of your life, it's been an extraordinary body of work. You know, the one thing I need to get done is, whatever it is, I need to learn to play tennis or I need to write one more book or shoot one more film or write a novel. Is there one thing unfinished that -- more than anything else?
MOYERS: I've often thought of doing the book of life in progress, of trying to figure out what is it that makes us who we are. What choices do we -- we come to what's called that crucial moment in our lives -- a crucial moment is defined in the Oxford book of dictionary as a moment when you choose between two hypothesis. And I'd like to know why I chose that instead of this. I mean, I'd like to do I guess a book of self-reflection, but there's so much going on, and I have so many opportunities to continue to do some television specials, to do a book on the '60s, when I was a young man, under Kennedy and Johnson. I've got to still, as we all do, make some choices. BROWN: Are you uncomfortable right now -- you have become in this grand debate over what public television is and ought to be -- and that's actually an interesting question about the degree in which we need public television in -- in a mass -- with so much media out there. But are you uncomfortable at the center of this storm, because you were there? Or is that OK?
MOYERS: It's OK with me, because it's unfortunate that the present fight has been cast as a feud between Kenneth Thomas, the chairman of CPB, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and Bill Moyers. It's bigger than that. It's about how much government should influence journalism, how much government should control programming. But I'm not uncomfortable, because I'm defining myself in this. You're often defined by those who disagree with you, and I found in this that I'm better able than ever to articulate why we do need public broadcasting. I ran a two-page ad in "The Washington Post" on Tuesday of this week, called
(INAUDIBLE)
Moyers about what public -- I was present at the creation. I was a young White House policy aide in 1964, attending my first meeting on the future of educational television at the Department of Education. I've watched this thing grow. It's flawed, but you know, I like the way you talk about television as a democracy, people vote every time they spin that remote or click that button. I think one of those choices on which they should be free to vote is a choice that is free of commercials and free of commercial values. We started public broadcasting 40 years ago to provide an alternative to what the market was providing, a channel that was free of commercials and free of commercial values. We don't always honor that. Some of the promotions on public broadcasting smack of commercializing, and some of our programs can dumb down just like commercial television. But as people vote on how they want to spend their leisure time, where they want to get their information, they are voting for public broadcasting in sufficient numbers to justify the very small amount of money that we get from the taxpayer.
BROWN: People can say a lot of things about you, and do, but dumbing down anything is not one of them. It's nice to see you. And...
MOYERS: Thank you.
BROWN: (INAUDIBLE) talk to you.
MOYERS: I think this is the most serious and informative program in prime-time, and if that's flattery, then so be it.
BROWN: It is -- I am deeply appreciative of that. Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Bill Moyers. We talked with him the other day. We'll check some of the day's other headlines after the commercials.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: At about a quarter to the hour, time for one last look at the headlines. Sophia Choi in Atlanta, good to see you again.
CHOI: Hey, nice to see you, too, Aaron. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy thinks lawyers need to start defending judges. In a speech today in Florida, Justice Kennedy said, there's nothing wrong with criticizing cases, but lawyers should explain the judicial process when judges come under attack, and he said, criticism should not be aimed at individual judges or the judiciary as a whole. Eric Robert Rudolph is now online, writing about how he survived on the run from police after the Olympic bombing in 1996. Rudolph is waiting sentencing after pleading guilty to the Olympic bombing and the bombing of abortion clings. In an article on an anti-abortion Web site, he says he survived by eating corn, wheat and soy beans he stole from farm silos. The House of Representatives has voted more than two to one to ban Medicare and Medicaid payments for erectile dysfunction drugs like Viagra. A Congressional Budget Office report said without the ban, the government could have spent $2 billion on the anti-impotence drugs over the next 10 years. Well, barely a word was said, but two famous statues in Washington at the Department of Justice are bare again. The statues were quietly unveiled as blue drapes came down. The statues have been there since the 1930s, but former Attorney General John Ashcroft ordered blue drapes in 2002 to cover the bare breast of the Spirit of Justice statue and the bare-chested male statue called Majesty of Law. With the drapes, there was no danger of photographers catching him in an embarrassing pose.And Aaron, it's pretty hard not to say that this is just an end of another Washington cover-up. And a reminder right here, again tonight: The new feature at CNN.com -- if you click the video link, you'll be able to see the day's best news clips at your leisure, as often as you want and at no cost -- Aaron?
BROWN: Thank you. I can afford that. Have a good weekend.
CHOI: You, too.
BROWN: Eighteen years ago, she was a miracle toddler who defied the odds at the bottom of the well: As part of our anniversary series "Then and Now" tonight we look back at Jessica McClure and where she is today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Baby Jessica was everyone's baby, back in October of 1987. The 18-month-old fell 22 feet into an abandoned well shaft just eight inches wide, while playing in her aunt's back yard in Midland, Texas.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE; With the Lord's help and with your prayers, we know that little girl's going to make it.
ZAHN: The world watched, as hundreds of rescuers drilled, hammered and chiseled. She was finally pulled to safety, three days later. Since then, Jessica McClure has had more than a dozen surgeries and still bears scars from her ordeal on her forehead and thigh. Her parents, who divorced after the rescue, have gone to great lengths to keep Jessica out of the media spotlight. She quietly graduated from Greenwood High School in Midland, last year. She's now 19 years old and attends Midland Community College. Public donations went into a trust fund, which is reportedly in excess of $1 million, that she'll receive when she turns 25. The well she fell into is still there, albeit capped, in the back yard of a now vacant home. Rescuers put a small plaque on it, shortly after Jessica's rescue.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It says: For Jessica, 10-16-87, with love from all of us.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: OK, time to check morning papers from around the country, around the world. Iraq -- I almost hurt myself taking off my glasses. "Chattanooga Times Free Press:" Bush refuses to set troop pullout date -- president not giving up on Iraq mission. The president goes on national television on Tuesday night from Fort Bragg to talk about Iraq. I don't think he'll be coming there in a flight suit this time, no mission accomplished sign. I think this will be a more sober talk.
"Dallas Morning News:" Lotto chief says prizes exaggerated -- director agreed to advertising bigger jackpots to boost sales. That's dishonest, not only are the odds about as likely as getting struck by lightning twice, but then you find out you get shortchanged. This is a good story, down in Dallas: Report on air traffic cover up, details close calls over Dallas-Ft. Worth airport. Self-reporting, hmmm.
A sign of summer -- the "Des Moines Register:" Ten things not to miss at the arts festival. I don't think you should miss anything at the arts festival.
"Rocky Mountain News:" Mingling with the masses -- U.S. woman's golf open is there. Michelle Wei proving she belongs, just a shot or two off the pace.
"The Daily News:" -- we told about this story last night -- The news gets action -- nutty 9/11 art nixed. Governor Pataki bans anti- American drawings from ground zero site. That seems reasonable.
If you're in Chicago tomorrow, dress with as little as possible, because the weather tomorrow in Chicago will be twice baked. We'll wrap it up for the week, in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Good to have you with us, tonight and this week. Stay cool over the weekend, it's hot in a lot of the country. We'll see you on Monday.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 June 24, 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: Here's something to chew on, Larry, something more than just a second case of mad cow disease in the United States and all that could mean for the food supply and the economy. Consider now, the possibility that we might never have known about it at all, but for inspector general at the Department of Agriculture, who might have exceeded her authority. She ordered a third round of testing on a sick cow that was declared free of all disease, last fall. Standard procedure said otherwise. The cattle industry raised a fuss. That, of course, was yesterday. Today, the tests came back positive.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): It was the second confirmed case of mad cow in the U.S. The first in an animal actually raised in the country.
MIKE JOHANNS, U.S. AGRICULTURE SECRETARY: Results confirm the presence of BSE in this animal, an animal that was blocked from entering the food supply.
BROWN: BSE is mad cow disease by its formal name and the sick animal didn't just show up yesterday. It was first tested last winter in November and found clean. The retesting found something else. The U.S. Agriculture Department says the discovery shows its system of testing suspected animals works; that it keeps Americans safe.
JOHANNS: ... thanks to the fire walls that are in place. It is critically important to note that this animal was identified as a high risk animal. A sample was taken and the carcass was incinerated.
BROWN: So, while both the beef industry and the government believe that U.S. meat is safe from mad cow, foreign buyers may not be so certain. After today's announcement, the cattle futures market indicated a five to ten percent drop, come Monday morning.
GREGG DOUD, NATIONAL CATTLEMEN'S BEEF ASSOCIATION: About one- third of our exports or $1.4 billion in beef trade goes to Japan, that's our biggest market and it's a critical component of the value of our production for U.S. beef producers.
BROWN: The U.S. beef industry took a big hit from the Japanese in 2003, after a Canadian-born dairy cow transported to the United States was diagnosed with mad cow. Several dozen countries joined Japanese in banning U.S. beef, a nearly $4 billion business. Mexico, the United States' second largest beef customer and other importers lifted their ban last year and expect to stay open to U.S. products. Japan has kept its ban and only recently started talks to lift it. On cattle ranches and in giant feed lots in the United States tonight, the hope is that today's announcement will not affect those talks.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
BROWN: Which brings us to this: There's little doubt that as a practical matter, mad cow is a lot more harmful to ranchers and meat packers and cows, than it is to people. Which many would argue is not quite the same thing as saying what the government essentially did today: bon appetit.Here's CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: The government assured the public that despite the new case of mad cow disease, U.S. beef is safe to eat. The BSE threat to humans in this country is so remote that there is a better chance you'll get hurt crossing the street to get to the grocery store, than by the beef you buy. That's because after an outbreak of mad cow in Europe in the early '80s, the National Cattlemen and Beef Association, in 1996, voluntarily banned the use of feed containing animal parts that could harbor the infectious agents causing mad cow disease. In 1997, the FDA made that ban mandatory, to reduce or eliminate the risk to the human food supply. This animal probably became infected by eating parts of the nervous system of other animals before the ban went into place. The animal was a downer, meaning it was unable to walk. Even though mad cow was not confirmed at the time, it was suspected and the animal was slaughtered and immediately excluded from the food supply.
JOHANNS: This animal was blocked from both the human food supply and the animal feed supply. The carcass was incinerated to ensure it did not and could not pose any kind of threat to public health.
GUPTA: For now, younger cows are more likely to be slightly safer, especially ones born after 1997. Still, the problem is a cow could be infected with mad cow disease for several years before symptoms appear. So, some consumer advocates question whether infected cows to could still be entering the food supply unknowingly and the watchdog group Consumer's Union is concerned that there may be loopholes. For example, part of an animal known to carry mad cow-type disease could legally go into feed for pigs, chickens, maybe even pets. For the time being, the industry and its critics are at odds. The industry says U.S. beef is safe and today was an example of the system working. The animal never entered the food supply. Critics say it's another wakeup call to the USDA and the Food and Drug Administration that they need to adopt additional safeguards, like increased testing and mandatory tracking of cows from birth to slaughter. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Other news: beginning with Iraq. Now the new prime minister meeting with the president today. The visit comes just shy of a year since the return of sovereignty to Iraq, but far short of other things: A new constitution for one and then there's real security. In the year since the handover, thousands of Iraqis, nearly 900 American troops have died in Iraq, many hundreds of insurgents as well. Today was especially grim in how many were killed and who. From the Pentagon tonight, CNN's Jamie McIntyre.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Pentagon sources say of the six U.S. troops killed when a suicide car bomber hit their seven-ton truck in a convoy attack near Fallujah, at least three were women and of the 13 wounded in the powerful blast in the small arms attack that followed, 11 were women. That makes Thursday the deadliest day for American women in uniform since World War II, when a Japanese suicide plane hit the hospital ship "Comfort," killing six army nurses in 1945. Since the Pentagon opened most military jobs to women a decade ago, they've grown to 15 percent of the force and do everything from fly helicopters, to escorting convoys, to fixing tanks. Women are still barred from direct combat units like infantry, armor and special forces, but in Iraq, that doesn't keep them out of the line of fire. Medical personnel, for instance, are often close to the action. LT.
SHARON BATTISTE, U.S. NAVY NURSE: Should we get an injured Marine, they actually bring the Marine back to us. So, even though we are very close to the front line, we're not correctly within the firefight.
MCINTYRE: Currently, there are more than 11,000 American women serving in Iraq and before this attack, 36 had died; 24 as a result of hostile fire. That compares to only two women killed by hostile fire in all of World War I, 21 in World War II, none in the Korean War, one in Vietnam, and five in the first gulf war. Earlier this year, Congress debated new rules that would have moved women out of units that serve on the front lines, but the plan was rejected after the Army argued it would close some 22,000 support jobs to women, jobs in critical specialties like military police.
SGT. LEIGH ANN HESTER, SILVER STAR RECIPIENT: As MP.s, we're out there everyday, outside of the wire, sweeping for roadside bombs and dealing with insurgents. So, in my opinion, I think women do just as good a job as the men do here. MCINTYRE: Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester was awarded the Silver Star for her role in an operation in March that killed 26 insurgent in a fierce firefight, videotaped by one of the enemy fighters. In a war without clear front lines, it's another example of women facing the same dangers as men. (on camera): Sources say many of the Marines killed or wounded in this convoy attack were women serving in a so-called lioness team, an all-female unit specializing in searching and interacting with Iraqi female civilians, so as not to give offense. It's a role considered vital in winning over the Iraqi people. Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Coming up next: The upcoming political battle over the Supreme Court. But first, in a little early tonight to make up for all of the times we've been late, a look at some of the other stories that have made news today. Sophia Choi, at "HEADLINE NEWS" in Atlanta.
SOPHIA CHOI, CNN HEADLINE NEWS: Hi, Aaron. Well, a tragic end to the search for three missing boys in Camden, New Jersey. All three boys have been found dead in the trunk of a car parked near the yard where they were last seen. The father of one of the missing boys opened the trunk of the car and collapsed screaming. Police immediately cordoned off the area. The boys, Jesstin Pagan, Daniel Agosto and Anibal Cruz, vanished on Wednesday. Firefighters had to keep their distance from a massive fire at St. Louis industrial plant. Flames shot 50 feet into the air and the blaze sent huge fireballs shooting into the air with billowing black smoke. The Praxair plant packaged propane and other gases for industrial use. One witness said pieces of metal from exploding tanks were shooting from the scene like pieces of giant shrapnel. But so far, there have been no reports of injuries. In China, the death toll from record summer floods has now climbed to more than 500. Forecasters warn: More torrential rains may hit the Pearl River delta near Hong Kong and Macao. The official Chinese news agency says, "after two weeks of rain, the Pearl River is reaching its highest peak, ever and more than 1.5 million people have been evacuated.And Aaron, just a reminder of the new feature at CNN.com: If you click the video link, you'll be able to see the day's best news clips at your leisure and at no cost -- Aaron.
BROWN: Sounds like a fair price. Thank you very much. We'll check with you in a half an hour. Straight ahead on the program, all the ingredients of a major battle: big money, high stakes and passion to spare.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: On the right...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're not going to be caught unprepared.
BROWN: And on the left...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But the most important thing is getting out the message as to what's at stake, what could happen. BROWN: Bracing for the fight of their lives over the next Supreme Court nominee.
SEN. DICK DURBIN, (D) ILLINOIS: I sincerely regret if what I said caused anyone to misunderstand my true feelings.
BILL CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I deeply regret that.
RICHARD NIXON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In all of the decisions I have made in my public life, I have always tried to do what was best for the nation. BROWN: The politics of saying sorry.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I'm not looking for my family anymore. I don't have any hope of finding them.
BROWN: Six months after the tsunami, how the orphans are coping and who is helping them.
ROBERT KNIGHT, CONCERNED WOMEN FOR AMERICA: I think the people at PBS see themselves as social agents. BROWN: With Public Broadcasting under fire, a NEWSNIGHT conversation with Bill Moyers.
BILL MOYERS, JOURNALIST: Ideologues embrace a world view that can't be changed because they admit no evidence to the contrary.
BROWN: From New York on a Friday night, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)BROWN: There's no fountain of youth, but the U.S. Supreme Court comes pretty close. Still even there, there are limits. William Rehnquist, the chief justice is 80 and fighting cancer. His colleague, Justice Stephens is 85. Even if Mr. Rehnquist decides not to announce his retirement, as expected over the summer, time and the law of averages may soon produce an opening on the court. And when it does, look out, that food fight over filibusters and nuclear options, consider that an appetizer. Here's CNN's Joe Johns.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The battle over the Supreme Court is about to begin.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're not going to be caught unprepared. JOHNS: Activists are huddled in their war rooms plotting strategy, rallying the ground troops.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It'd be a good idea to go over this with the field. Actually, when you are done with it, we can e-mail it out to them, so they'll have it in front of them.
JOHNS: In the video editing bays, television attack ads are waiting for someone to push the play button.
ANNOUNCER: The president nominated George Washington. Democrats attacked Washington for his environment record of chopping down cherry trees
.JOHNS: Conservative activist Chris Myers and his group, Progress for America, are preparing to defend the president's nominee, whoever it is, against an expected onslaught from liberals. They have organizers in 21 states and an $18 million war chest.
CHRIS MYERS, PROGRESS FOR AMERICA: We do know that if there is a retirement, that it will be defined quickly, we know the kinds of patterns that the left exhibits based upon the things they've done in the past.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right! JOHNS: On the left, Ralph Neas, a 30 year veteran of these wars, sometimes called 101st senator for his civil rights advocacy.
RALPH NEAS, PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY: We're well-prepared for whatever happens, whether it's one, two or three possible, vacancies.
JOHNS: Neas and his group, People for the American Way, fear the president will nominate someone who will take a wrecking ball to civil liberties. They've already sent out a million pieces of mail with more to come once a nominee is named. And they're taking the fight to the Internet. NEAS: We have registered a number of domain names, both with respect to the name of the campaign. And we want to make sure that we're ready to go from the very first moment.
JOHNS: At the center of all this, 100 U.S. senators.
SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY, (D) MASSACHUSETTS: If the president submits an in-your-face nomination to flaunt his power, it takes time and effort, and sweat and tears before the truth about the candidate is fully discovered.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And over the last four years, this president's judicial nominees have been labeled kooks, Neanderthals, and even turkeys. Respected public servants and brilliant jurists have been called scary and despicable. JOHNS: Senator Arlen Spector, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, the primary battleground, warns it's a little early to get so worked up over a possible Rehnquist retirement.
SEN. ARLEN SPECTER, (R-PA) JUDICIARY COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: What he intends to do or what anyone else intends to do remains to be seen. But it is hardly the time, given the kind of confrontation in this body, which we have seen on the judicial nomination process, to be looking to pick a fight.JOHNS: But with the stakes this high and the troops this ready, a fight is the one thing sure to happen. Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: This has been another week of the apology: apologies either offered or demanded. Search apologies on Google news and you'll get more than 3,000 stories, even if a lot of them aren't worth the paper they're written on. That's a lot of apologies. And so with apologies to Ella Fitzgerald, some of them don't mean a thing if they ain't got that swing. Here's CNN's Jeff Greenfield.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Love means never having to say your sorry.
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Well love, maybe, but when it comes to politics, no way.
(MUSIC)
GREENFIELD: When Illinois Senate Durbin compared prison abuses in Guantanamo to the Soviet gulag and to the Nazis, the Republicans demanded an apology.
JOHN MCCAIN, (R) ARIZONA: I think that Senator Durbin owes not only the Senate an apology -- I don't know if -- not censure would be in order, but an apology.
GREENFIELD: He did. DURBIN: Some may believe that my remarks crossed the line. To them, I extent my heartfelt apologies.
GREENFIELD: When White House political guru Karl Rove took a swipe at the liberal response to 9/11...
KARL ROVE, WHITE HOUSE POLITICAL ADVISER: Liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding to our attackers.
KING: Some Democrats called for contrition or dismissal.
SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER, (D) NEW YORK: Karl Rove has said many things and we understand he's a political infighter. But there's a certain line that you should not cross.
GREENFIELD: White House said, forget about it. Earlier this month, the U.S. Senate apologized for not passing anti-lynching laws. Some 4,700 recorded lynchings of American blacks took place between 1882 and 1968.And earlier this spring, President Bush apologized for the Yalta Agreements after World War II that left much of Eastern Europe under Soviet control.(on camera): So why do politicians apologize? Well, sometimes it's because they recognize what history has already concluded, that an action or inaction was a serious wrong. Sometimes, it's because they realize they've made an actual misstatement. And sometimes, maybe most times, it's an attempt to save a political career. (voice-over): President Clinton did all of this. He apologized for medical experiments at Tuskegee Institute in the 1930s that left black subjects untreated for syphilis. In Africa, he apologized for the slave trade and the inaction in Rwanda that left hundreds of thousands massacred. And of course, he also apologized for more personal matters.
CLINTON: I deeply regret that.
GREENFIELD: President Nixon, who was once quoted as saying, "contrition is bull" -- that's the PG version -- did apologize for Watergate, but only after he resigned. Back in 1969, New York Mayor John Lindsay, facing a bleak reelection climate, won after acknowledging, "I've made mistakes," something New Yorkers really wanted to hear from their aristocratic mayor. And the first President Bush sought to win back disaffected conservatives in 1992 by saying he was wrong to go along with tax increases. That wasn't enough to win him a second term. (on camera): There are lots more fascinating examples of why and when politicians apologize, but we just don't have the time to show them all to you. And for that, I'm really, really, deeply sorry. Jeff Greenfield, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Coming up on NEWSNIGHT on this Friday, it's been six months as the wall of water smashed into houses and cities and lives across South Asia. We'll look at how or if aid has really reached those who need it. And later, public television under fire from all directions. We'll talk with Bill Moyers. But we'll take a break. First, around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Tonight, we return to a corner of the world that was nearly wiped clean by the tsunami last December, Aceh province in Indonesia. In the half year that has passed, the rebuilding has begun. It's slow work when you start from square one.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): Six months and nearly $2 billion later, the scope of the recovery effort, according to various relief agencies in Aceh, can be measured by the numbers. A half a million were left homeless after the tsunami; a quarter of a million are still living in tents; 150,000 in government barracks; 100,000 others are home or living with relatives. Housing reconstruction has moved very slowly. Three thousand to 4,000 homes have been rebuilt; 20,000 more should be completed in the next six months. But at least 100,000 more homes still need repair. Fresh water, on the other hand, is available to almost all who need it; 480,000 people needed fresh water restored, now all but 60,000 have it. Electrical power in Banda Aceh is at about 60 percent of the pre- tsunami level. UNICEF reports that 200 temporary schools opened just this week; 90,000 children have been immunized against measles, and major outbreaks of other diseases have been averted. The Indonesian government says 5,270 children lost one or both parents in Aceh. Another 56,000 were listed as missing or killed.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Rebuilding all that was lost will take an enormous amount of money. Global pledges for tsunami relief now total more than $10 billion. Good intentions, of course, are one thing. Making good on them is another. Here's CNN's Chris Huntington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From southern India to Indonesia, to Sri Lanka, lives that were wrecked by last year's tsunami are beginning to return to normal. But many are frustrated with the pace of reconstruction, and no one knows that better than Jan Egeland, the man in charge of disaster relief for the United Nations.
JAN EGELAND, U.N. UNDERSECRETARY GENERAL: Those who lost everything on the 26th of December are understandably impatient now, but it's a long, uphill battle to rebuild those thousands and thousands of destroyed communities.
HUNTINGTON (on camera): According to U.N.'s own accounting, global pledges for tsunami aid now total more than $10 billion. Nearly $6 billion from governments, and $4.5 billion from private and corporate donors, but soliciting pledges has been the easy part. The real trick now is to get those who promised to contribute to send in the money. (voice-over): More than half of the government pledges have yet to be collected. The United States government, for instance, has made good on less than 40 percent of the more than $900 million pledged. That's worse than Japan and Great Britain, but better than Germany and France. But American companies and private citizens lead the world with contributions of more than $1.5 billion. Still, according to the nonprofit group Interaction, less than 20 percent of that $1.5 billion has reached the tsunami disaster zone. Roberta Cohen tracks international aid funding.
ROBERTA COHEN, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: It isn't happening fast enough. That's for sure. The money is taking a long time, because of local policies and local red tape and local ineptitude.
HUNTINGTON: There are increasing reports of bureaucratic roadblocks. Last month, hundreds of shipping containers filled with relief supplies piled up in an Indonesian port, stranded by paperwork. The international aid group Oxfam was forced to pay 500,000 pounds to Sri Lankan customs officials to import 25 trucks. The money has since been refunded, but it slowed Oxfam's efforts. Perhaps the biggest problem is sorting out land ownership in areas where the tsunami washed away almost all the landmarks, and where property records are spotty at best. Aid worker Elizabeth Stevens just returned from Banda Aceh.
ELIZABETH STEVENS, OXFAM AMERICA: What we need here is a full- court press on the part of governments to resolve the land issues.
HUNTINGTON: Still, Stevens and others familiar with the reconstruction effort are optimistic, and say patience and persistence will pay off.
EGELAND: It takes five to 10 seconds for a tsunami to destroy thousands of communities. It could take five to 10 years to rebuild and build back better, which is our whole ambition. HUNTINGTON: An ambition these children can only hope is fulfilled. Chris Huntington, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: The numbers and the damage seem almost as shocking as the earthquake that caused them. But sometimes the biggest numbers, the hardest hitting are ones and twos -- mothers and fathers, children who don't have them anymore. CNN's Atika Shubert reports on the orphans of the tsunami.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are the children of the tsunami, many of them without homes or parents. It's tough for kids, but no less difficult for those leaving childhood behind -- not quite adults, but no longer children. Teenagers are forced to grow up fast in the wake of this disaster.International aid group World Vision has set up child play areas, but now say youth programs are also needed to deal with he large number of adolescents stranded in the disaster.
MASRAWATI SINAGA, WORLD VISION: The difficult things with the teenagers is at the beginning, but once you can -- especially the difficult things are building trust.
SHUBERT (on camera): Few families want to adopt a rebellious teen, but imagine trying to maneuver through the confusion of adolescence without a mother or father, in fact, without knowing a single relative left alive. (voice-over): Buhari and Hundani (ph) are 18 and 15-years-old. They're not related, but they're brothers, of a sort. When their families were swallowed by the tsunami, they found each other huddled in a mosque with thousands of other survivors yet, utterly alone. "I'm not looking for my family anymore," he says. "I don't have any hope of finding them. If they are still alive, with luck, perhaps they'll find me. We're on our own now." Instead, the boys created their own family when they met Madun Achmad a father who lost his wife and two teenage sons in the tsunami. They live together in a one-room temporary shelter.
MADUN ACHMAD, LOST WIFE AND SONS: I'm alone. He's alone. Bucari (ph) is alone. We're all lonely. He says. We thought how are we going to find a home on our own? So, we banded together and ended up here.
SHUBERT: Madun looks for work during the day unsuccessful most of the time and cooks in the evenings. There's enough money for rice and a single egg, split between the three of them. The burden of raising two teenagers clearly wears on him. Asked if the boys will stick together as a family, at first, Madun is hesitant. We probably shouldn't get any closer, he says jokingly, but the youngest Hamdani (ph) is reluctant to let go of the only family he has left. The thing is, we, me and Buchari (ph) will stick together, he interrupts. We don't have anybody else. Madun nods in agreement, resigned to another evening at his temporary home with his temporary family. Atika Shubert, CNN, Banda Aceh.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, a NEWSNIGHT conversation with legendary journalist Bill Moyers of PBS. And the problems of PBS too. We take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: The Public Broadcasting Corporation dodged a bullet this week when lawmakers rejected in the House a 25 percent cut, $100 million in its funding. Republicans say the reason for the proposed cutbacks was money. Democrats say it's all about politics. These are not easy days for Bert and Ernie. The fight on Capitol Hill isn't the only threat to its future. PBS is also taking fire from within. Here's CNN's Tom Foreman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Out in the suburbs on the edge of D.C., the Rosenbergs are public TV fans. Hannah and her mother have spent hours watching PBS fair.
HANNAH ROSENBERG, 11-YEARS-OLD: I think I watch Barney and Sesame Street and Arthur.
MELISSA ROSENBERG, PBS VIEWER: I think for the kids, it's respectful of their innocence, and educational.
FOREMAN: Not too many commercials.
M. ROSENBERG: Right, not too many commercials. And not the sort of screaming, yelling kinds of cartoons that you often see these days.
FOREMAN: Since National Public Television started in the '60s, it has gathered this kind of ardent supporter, people who admire the educational, cultural and social programming. Robert Knight, however, is not one of them.
ROBERT KNIGHT, CONCERNED WOMEN FOR AMERICA: I think PBS has infused its programming with subtle messages that forward the liberal agenda. FOREMAN: Knight is with Concerned Women for America, a conservative group that says PBS pushes liberal values in shows like this one on the lesbian lifestyle.
ANNOUNCER: Join WETA us as we recognize gay and lesbian pride throughout the month of June.
KNIGHT: I think the people at PBS see themselves as social agents. They see themselves as having this great forum, this great platform to push what they think will be the good society. And I don't think there are enough Christians and conservatives there to keep them in check.
FOREMAN: That may be changing. PBS gets its federal funding through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is led by Kenneth Tomlinson, a Republican. He hired a consultant to look for political bias on the PBS show, "Now" when it was hosted by Bill Moyers. The newly appointed president of PBS, Patricia Harrison used to work with an official at the Republican National Committee. And this week Congress tried to slash a quarter of the PBS budget. Democrats howled
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON, (D) NEW YORK: Days like this, where we have to fight the Republican budget ax from targeting programs that are not only near and dear to children's hearts, but near and dear to parent's hearts.
FOREMAN: The bill was scrapped. But that infuriated many conservative critics who now want all taxpayer funding eliminated. They point out unlike the days when PBS started, today most homes have dozens of channels with shows about nature, art, culture, education. And they say the popular PBS shows draw big corporate donors. They'll be fine.
KNIGHT: It's time they went out on their own. And if the good programs are there they'll draw support. If it's bad programming why should they get taxpayer money to go on air with it?
FOREMAN (on camera): Do you think as a liberal that public television should be more sensitive to conservative views?
M. ROSENBERG: I guess it's something we're going to have to look at. For me, sometimes it feels uncomfortable to hear those viewpoints. But I know that they're out there and I respect that.
FOREMAN: Lyndon Johnson launched PBS, saying television has revolutionary power to change our lives, and neither party should control it. Almost 40 years later, however, the battle over control continues. Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: For more than 30 years the name and reputation of journalist and author Bill Moyers has been linked with PBS. Mr. Moyers retired from his public television show "Now" last December. As a young congressional aide in the '60s, he witnessed the birth of PBS. From then to now has been quite a journey. We spoke with him the other day. Is
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Is there a moment, when you became two organized conservative groups? Because I'm not sure it's true of people who are conservative politically necessarily, but organized conservative groups essentially journalistic Satan?
BILL MOYERS, JOURNALIST: There must be. Because suddenly I did sprout horn. They saw it. I didn't see it. I think it's because they didn't -- they weren't hearing what they wanted to hear from somebody who knows them very well. I tracked the conservatives for 40 years. I was in the Johnson campaign against Goldwater. I watched them grow. I did many documentaries about them when they emerged into power. I was the -- I offered Ronald Reagan the first hour on public broadcasting before he was a presidential candidate. I know these guys, and I don't buy their party line, and I don't spout their party line. And so there was a point at which they didn't like -- they weren't hearing what they wanted to hear, and I became their bad boy.
BROWN: John Leo, the columnist, was once talking about this question I think we're all living with now, sort of what media is. And he said, the problem with journalists is not their politics so much, is that they like certain kinds of stories. They like the little guy versus the big corporation. They like the underdog. And that then translates into or can be seen as political. And there's some truth to that, don't you think, that we do, in fact, like the story of the underdog, the little guy?
MOYERS: It was especially true when journalists had bookers and brokers -- I mean, instead of brokers, you know, when they made their bets instead of investing in the stock market. There's not a whole lot of reporting about it -- but yes, this -- I think anyone who grows up in a small town like I do, whose father never made more than $100 a year -- as mine -- $100 a week as mine did, I think we do -- we are concerned about the impact of policies on ordinary people. In my own case, I've spent a lot of time, Aaron, reporting -- my first book was called "Listening to America." I've spent a lot of time listening to people talk about their struggles and listen to them define their hopes and dreams. And 80 million people in this country right now live in households making less than $25,000 a year. There's a big story, not a dramatic story, but an important story.
BROWN: If you look at this sort of body of your life, it's been an extraordinary body of work. You know, the one thing I need to get done is, whatever it is, I need to learn to play tennis or I need to write one more book or shoot one more film or write a novel. Is there one thing unfinished that -- more than anything else?
MOYERS: I've often thought of doing the book of life in progress, of trying to figure out what is it that makes us who we are. What choices do we -- we come to what's called that crucial moment in our lives -- a crucial moment is defined in the Oxford book of dictionary as a moment when you choose between two hypothesis. And I'd like to know why I chose that instead of this. I mean, I'd like to do I guess a book of self-reflection, but there's so much going on, and I have so many opportunities to continue to do some television specials, to do a book on the '60s, when I was a young man, under Kennedy and Johnson. I've got to still, as we all do, make some choices. BROWN: Are you uncomfortable right now -- you have become in this grand debate over what public television is and ought to be -- and that's actually an interesting question about the degree in which we need public television in -- in a mass -- with so much media out there. But are you uncomfortable at the center of this storm, because you were there? Or is that OK?
MOYERS: It's OK with me, because it's unfortunate that the present fight has been cast as a feud between Kenneth Thomas, the chairman of CPB, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and Bill Moyers. It's bigger than that. It's about how much government should influence journalism, how much government should control programming. But I'm not uncomfortable, because I'm defining myself in this. You're often defined by those who disagree with you, and I found in this that I'm better able than ever to articulate why we do need public broadcasting. I ran a two-page ad in "The Washington Post" on Tuesday of this week, called
(INAUDIBLE)
Moyers about what public -- I was present at the creation. I was a young White House policy aide in 1964, attending my first meeting on the future of educational television at the Department of Education. I've watched this thing grow. It's flawed, but you know, I like the way you talk about television as a democracy, people vote every time they spin that remote or click that button. I think one of those choices on which they should be free to vote is a choice that is free of commercials and free of commercial values. We started public broadcasting 40 years ago to provide an alternative to what the market was providing, a channel that was free of commercials and free of commercial values. We don't always honor that. Some of the promotions on public broadcasting smack of commercializing, and some of our programs can dumb down just like commercial television. But as people vote on how they want to spend their leisure time, where they want to get their information, they are voting for public broadcasting in sufficient numbers to justify the very small amount of money that we get from the taxpayer.
BROWN: People can say a lot of things about you, and do, but dumbing down anything is not one of them. It's nice to see you. And...
MOYERS: Thank you.
BROWN: (INAUDIBLE) talk to you.
MOYERS: I think this is the most serious and informative program in prime-time, and if that's flattery, then so be it.
BROWN: It is -- I am deeply appreciative of that. Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Bill Moyers. We talked with him the other day. We'll check some of the day's other headlines after the commercials.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: At about a quarter to the hour, time for one last look at the headlines. Sophia Choi in Atlanta, good to see you again.
CHOI: Hey, nice to see you, too, Aaron. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy thinks lawyers need to start defending judges. In a speech today in Florida, Justice Kennedy said, there's nothing wrong with criticizing cases, but lawyers should explain the judicial process when judges come under attack, and he said, criticism should not be aimed at individual judges or the judiciary as a whole. Eric Robert Rudolph is now online, writing about how he survived on the run from police after the Olympic bombing in 1996. Rudolph is waiting sentencing after pleading guilty to the Olympic bombing and the bombing of abortion clings. In an article on an anti-abortion Web site, he says he survived by eating corn, wheat and soy beans he stole from farm silos. The House of Representatives has voted more than two to one to ban Medicare and Medicaid payments for erectile dysfunction drugs like Viagra. A Congressional Budget Office report said without the ban, the government could have spent $2 billion on the anti-impotence drugs over the next 10 years. Well, barely a word was said, but two famous statues in Washington at the Department of Justice are bare again. The statues were quietly unveiled as blue drapes came down. The statues have been there since the 1930s, but former Attorney General John Ashcroft ordered blue drapes in 2002 to cover the bare breast of the Spirit of Justice statue and the bare-chested male statue called Majesty of Law. With the drapes, there was no danger of photographers catching him in an embarrassing pose.And Aaron, it's pretty hard not to say that this is just an end of another Washington cover-up. And a reminder right here, again tonight: The new feature at CNN.com -- if you click the video link, you'll be able to see the day's best news clips at your leisure, as often as you want and at no cost -- Aaron?
BROWN: Thank you. I can afford that. Have a good weekend.
CHOI: You, too.
BROWN: Eighteen years ago, she was a miracle toddler who defied the odds at the bottom of the well: As part of our anniversary series "Then and Now" tonight we look back at Jessica McClure and where she is today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Baby Jessica was everyone's baby, back in October of 1987. The 18-month-old fell 22 feet into an abandoned well shaft just eight inches wide, while playing in her aunt's back yard in Midland, Texas.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE; With the Lord's help and with your prayers, we know that little girl's going to make it.
ZAHN: The world watched, as hundreds of rescuers drilled, hammered and chiseled. She was finally pulled to safety, three days later. Since then, Jessica McClure has had more than a dozen surgeries and still bears scars from her ordeal on her forehead and thigh. Her parents, who divorced after the rescue, have gone to great lengths to keep Jessica out of the media spotlight. She quietly graduated from Greenwood High School in Midland, last year. She's now 19 years old and attends Midland Community College. Public donations went into a trust fund, which is reportedly in excess of $1 million, that she'll receive when she turns 25. The well she fell into is still there, albeit capped, in the back yard of a now vacant home. Rescuers put a small plaque on it, shortly after Jessica's rescue.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It says: For Jessica, 10-16-87, with love from all of us.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: OK, time to check morning papers from around the country, around the world. Iraq -- I almost hurt myself taking off my glasses. "Chattanooga Times Free Press:" Bush refuses to set troop pullout date -- president not giving up on Iraq mission. The president goes on national television on Tuesday night from Fort Bragg to talk about Iraq. I don't think he'll be coming there in a flight suit this time, no mission accomplished sign. I think this will be a more sober talk.
"Dallas Morning News:" Lotto chief says prizes exaggerated -- director agreed to advertising bigger jackpots to boost sales. That's dishonest, not only are the odds about as likely as getting struck by lightning twice, but then you find out you get shortchanged. This is a good story, down in Dallas: Report on air traffic cover up, details close calls over Dallas-Ft. Worth airport. Self-reporting, hmmm.
A sign of summer -- the "Des Moines Register:" Ten things not to miss at the arts festival. I don't think you should miss anything at the arts festival.
"Rocky Mountain News:" Mingling with the masses -- U.S. woman's golf open is there. Michelle Wei proving she belongs, just a shot or two off the pace.
"The Daily News:" -- we told about this story last night -- The news gets action -- nutty 9/11 art nixed. Governor Pataki bans anti- American drawings from ground zero site. That seems reasonable.
If you're in Chicago tomorrow, dress with as little as possible, because the weather tomorrow in Chicago will be twice baked. We'll wrap it up for the week, in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Good to have you with us, tonight and this week. Stay cool over the weekend, it's hot in a lot of the country. We'll see you on Monday.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 CNN's NewsNight "Morning Papers"
The International Herald Tribune
The Christian Science Monitor
The Washington Times
Daily News
More later.
A review of recent time allotments.
This evening was a rather nice hour as Aaron did most of his camera time live. It's his forte. He got us through the horrible day of September 11th when everyone else and buildings were crumbling. He thinks on his feet and supports those around him before he thinks of himself. His actions WHEN LEFT TO HIS OWN RESOURCES and not scripted are almost far to humble but always generous of spirit. He adds a lot of emotional content to things when he is left to do that. It doesn't really come across on videotape because the 'voice' isn't ALL of Aaron's broadcasting.
So the time distribution goes like this:
June 21st
Aaron - 15 minutes (6 live)
Others - 29 minutes
Commercials - 16 minutes
June 22nd
Aaron - 18 minutes
Others - 24 minutes
Commercials - 18 minutes
June 23rd
Aaron - 25 minutes, I think all but 5 minutes were live.
Other - 15 minutes, and by the way the 'others' were primarily MINORITES. Wow.
Commercials - 20 minutes
There was a big improvement tonight and they even showed all socially responsible commericals with Tom Cruise, too. Dare I hope it continues.
The Christian Science Monitor
The Washington Times
Daily News
More later.
A review of recent time allotments.
This evening was a rather nice hour as Aaron did most of his camera time live. It's his forte. He got us through the horrible day of September 11th when everyone else and buildings were crumbling. He thinks on his feet and supports those around him before he thinks of himself. His actions WHEN LEFT TO HIS OWN RESOURCES and not scripted are almost far to humble but always generous of spirit. He adds a lot of emotional content to things when he is left to do that. It doesn't really come across on videotape because the 'voice' isn't ALL of Aaron's broadcasting.
So the time distribution goes like this:
June 21st
Aaron - 15 minutes (6 live)
Others - 29 minutes
Commercials - 16 minutes
June 22nd
Aaron - 18 minutes
Others - 24 minutes
Commercials - 18 minutes
June 23rd
Aaron - 25 minutes, I think all but 5 minutes were live.
Other - 15 minutes, and by the way the 'others' were primarily MINORITES. Wow.
Commercials - 20 minutes
There was a big improvement tonight and they even showed all socially responsible commericals with Tom Cruise, too. Dare I hope it continues.
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Aaron is being denied his rights within his capacity as anchor.
For as long as there has been a NewsNight; Aaron Brown has announced the program to the viewership. He has personally written the e-mail every evening he anchored. All that is changing. He is now prohibited for over a week of appearing personally before the show to introduce the highlights of the way things are rounding out. There have been several evenings now where Aaron has not written his e-mail. These are all oppressive moves by the executive production staff who want to control 'the message' rather than trusting reporting of the news to a 'TRUST' anchor who was exactly that from the time of 9/11 when he and David Bohrman held the rutter of the Ship USA steady from the roof of a building.
This is completely objectionable and suspicious to motives. I find it an insult.
This is completely objectionable and suspicious to motives. I find it an insult.
Paul Van Der Sloot Arrested; China Bids for U.S. Oil Company
Paul Van Der Sloot Arrested; China Bids for U.S. Oil Company
Aired June 23, 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 everyone. As if the disappearance weren't enough to endure, Natalee Holloway vanished far from home. So now, in addition to everything else, her parents are watching the investigation unfold as strangers in a strange land. Different laws, different customs. The son of a local VIP, now the focus of it all. And today the focus widened to the father.Reporting from Aruba tonight, CNN's Karl Penhaul
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Last weekend, investigators said they were questioning Judge Paul Van Der Sloot simply as a possible witness. Now, in an unexpected twist, prosecutors have had him arrested, saying he's suspected of involvement in Natalee Holloway's disappearance. His 17-year-old son was arrested two weeks ago. Paul Van Der Sloot went to the police station with his wife, Anita, Thursday afternoon, after neighbors notified him of police cars close to his home. Police then detained him. Mrs. Van Der Sloot said police, then detained him.She says she feels like she's trapped in a crazy nightmare, but is convinced her husband and son are innocent.
ANITA VAN DER SLOOT, SUSPECT'S WIFE: I will hold up. I will be strong. I have to. Because I believe in my husband. I believe in my son. I believe in my family. And I know it all comes right.
PENHAUL: Her husband, Paul, is 53-years-old. The family came from Holland about 15 years ago. Before becoming a judge, he was an official in Aruba's prosecution service. Joran Van Der Sloot, 18-year-old Satish Kalpoe and his brother Deepak, 21, were seen leaving a bar with Natalee in the wee hour of May 30. She's not been seen since. Police say, the three boys originally said they dropped Natalee off at the Holiday Inn. But under investigation, police say the boys have changed their stories. The Kalpoe brother's mother visited Satish in prison for the first time Tuesday. And she says he admitted lying to her. She describes her sons as two, good Hindu boys. Who share a love of TV wrestling shows, Indian movies and the Internet. She said, Satish and Deepak prayed every morning with the rest of the family, in front of this Hindu shrine in a room at their home and rarely partied.
NADIRA RAMIREZ, SUSPECT'S MOTHER: We don't have party, never. We are a simple family. We just cook, eat, drink something at home with our kids or we go to dinner.
PENHAUL: Across the island, Anita Van Der Sloot knows about no change in the Kalpoe brother's story, but Anita Van Der Sloot is angry.
VAN DER SLOOT: I think it's ridiculous. But, of course, it -- it hurts. It hurts because my husband gave 15 years of his integrity to this island. And that this could happen is so bizarre.
PENHAUL; She says her husband was calm after his arrest and that Joran is holding up well.
VAN DER SLOOT: He's already doing exercises again. And he played soccer this morning. And he's -- I mean, he's not happy. He says every morning when he wakes up, he feels like if a bad dream. And he misses us.
PENHAUL: She says she's praying the crazy nightmare ends soon. Karl Penhaul, CNN, Palm Beach, Aruba.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: As Karl reported at the top, the judge is being held on suspicion, which the law in Aruba permits for 48 hours. And another 48 hours after that, after request of a prosecutor. For the Holloway family, it must be a horribly mixed blessing to have this happening at the center of a media storm. There's frequently no waiting to get the latest information and no escaping it, either. That part of the story tonight from CNN's Chris Lawrence.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Natalee Holloway's mother waited a week for any real development in her daughter's disappearance. We were the only ones riding with Beth Holloway Twitty when she and a friend got a call: Paul Van Der Sloot has been arrested.
BETH HOLLOWAY TWITTY, MOTHER: They're showing it on CNN right now. The arrest. How can they show it on CNN?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's CNN? TWITTY: CNN's showing it. The arrest. CNN is showing it right now.
LAWRENCE: No one expected that an hour earlier, especially Beth.
TWITTY: OK, honey. No new news. I just think you need to be here tomorrow. OK?
LAWRENCE: She was making plans to welcome more of her family.
TWITTY: You're going to fly in just for the weekend, because I want you to come.
LAWRENCE: And saying good-bye to a friend who had to fly home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How long have you been here? Beth has been so frustrated for nearly four weeks now, devoting every minute to her daughter's disappearance.
TWITTY: Start early, end late. Go all day.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought we ate dinner at 12:00 a.m.
LAWRENCE: Beth was surprised and smiled when she got the call about Judge Van Der Sloot's arrest. She immediately called her husband.
TWITTY: OK. I love you, Jug.LAWRENCE: When we got back to the hotel where Natalee had been staying, Beth rushed in to meet with investigators having nothing to say on Judge Van Der Sloot's arrest.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you surprised at all, like, at that coming so soon after you spent time with him? You know, just spent that hour with him?
TWITTY: I don't want to make any comment. LAWRENCE: And with that, she walked inside, hoping she's one step closer to finding her daughter. Chris Lawrence, CNN, Palm Beach, Aruba.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: The Natalee Holloway story tonight. This story lives like many other aspects of it in normal, at the intersection of the public and the private. By law, the U.S. military is not allowed to gather private information, sensitive information on civilians, let alone civilian teenagers. But it has, just not directly. Which is where a company just outside Boston comes in.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): Working with the private company, the Pentagon has for a year, been gathering private information about the country's young people. Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses, ethnicity, even grade point averages and until today, without telling anyone, which privacy advocates claim was a clear violation of the law.
MARC ROTENBERG, PRES. ELECTRONIC PRIVACY INFORMATION CENTER: Well, this a very serious. The Privacy Act is the major federal law in the United States to protect the privacy rights of American citizens. The Department of Defense has obligations to follow that law. And one of the clearest obligations is to notify the public before it creates a new database of personal information.
BROWN: By buying the information from a private company, the data broker, Be Now, of suburban Boston, the Pentagon was able to get around another law from forbids the government from doing the actual gathering. The military can already gather information from students' driver's licenses. And the No Child Left Behind Law, allows the services to collect home addresses and telephone numbers of students at public high schools.
LAURENCE KORB, FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: It will get people upset about these aggressive techniques. Many schools are already upset, because of the fact that the No Child Left Behind Act requires the schools to give some information to recruiters. This is so much more that they're giving, that I think in the long run, it's going to make a bad situation even worse.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And most importantly, your mouth is shut.
BROWN: Today, the Pentagon formally acknowledged what it has been doing for a year. And the not surprising reason it has been doing it. The information will be provided to the services, the Pentagon says, in its official listing on the federal register, to assist them in their direct marketing recruiting efforts. Recruiting efforts, that haven't been going very well.
MAJ. GEN. MICHAEL ROCHELLE, U.S. ARMY RECRUITING COMMAND: Today's conditions represent the most-challenging conditions we have seen, certainly in recruiting, in my 33 years in this uniform. BROWN: As for the secretary of defense, he said today his department is always concerned about privacy.
DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: We always worry about privacy issues. And certainly, as you know, we've put together a panel on that subject.
ROTENBERG: What is happening now is that the military seems to be saying that they can disregard the federal privacy law. They can create secret profiles on high school students in the United States, including grade paint average and ethnicity.
BROWN: Tonight, Pentagon officials acknowledge they made a mistake in filing public notice so late. But there are those in Washington who want the process stopped.
ROTENBERG: I think it's clear -- absolutely clear at this point -- that Congress simply tells the Department of Defense, that this database cannot be established.
BROWN: But with war raging in Iraq, there is no sign that that will happen.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: And in Iraq, there were four bombings today in Baghdad alone. Five yesterday. That's the way it's been going there, of late. So much so that the daily news seems to get lost in the sameness of it all. The polls tell us the country is restless where the war is concerned. Growing less sure it was the right thing to do, not sure exactly what to do about it now. Painfully aware that casualties are mounting. The administration is concerned about public support, as well. But not always playing the same tune. Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, General John Abizaid here with his boss Donald Rumsfeld stopped short of endorsing Vice President Cheney's claim the other say that the insurgency is in its last throes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. JOHN ABIZAID, COMMANDER, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: In terms of the overall strength of the insurgency, I'd say it's about the same as it was.
SEN. CARL LEVIN, (D) MICHIGAN: So, you wouldn't agree with the statement that it's in its last throes.
ABIZAID: I don't know that I would make any comment about that, other than to say there's a lot of work to be done against the insurgency
.(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: As for the secretary of defense, he got into a bit of a go around with a familiar opponent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Mr. Secretary, I'm talking about the misjudgments and the mistakes that have made -- the series which I've mentioned, the disarming of the Iraqi army. Those were judgments that were made. And there's been a series of gross errors and mistakes. Those were on your watch. Those were on your watch. Isn't it time for you to resign?
RUMSFELD: Senator, I've offered my resignation to the president twice. And he's decided that he would prefer that he not accept it. And that's his call.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Secretary also made it plain he doesn't believe the country's in a quagmire in Iraq. And he said his generals agree. Straight ahead on NEWSNIGHT, one of China's largest oil companies makes a hostile bid for a U.S. oil company, setting off a major storm.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHERMAN KATZ, INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS ANALYST: Of course, when it's China, which, under certain circumstances, could pose a security threat to the United States, you bet your bottom dollar there's going to be a backlash.
BROWN (voice-over): What will it mean if the deal goes through? And what are the odds?
CARLO BOCCIA, DIR. BOSTON HOMELAND SECURITY: This is a very, very dangerous time we live in. And there are people that are looking to do us harm. BROWN: At Boston's Logan Airport, practicing to prevent another 9/11.
SUZETTE KELO, NEW LONDON, CT HOMEOWNER: It was like I'd been here all my life. It was just -- it was just a warm and inviting feeling.
BROWN: She found her dream house. And now, the Supreme Court says the government can take it away.
KELO: They'll have to drag me. BROWN: Growing up without a family. And thrown into the real world.
THOMAS HUDSON, FORMER FOSTER YOUTH: I didn't have any preparation for independence. No one told me you need to learn how to pay bills. You need to learn how to budget your money.
BROWN: What happens to foster kids when they outgrow the system. From New York and around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(END VIDEOTAPE)(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: That's night here in the city. Still to come, what China's takeover of the oil company, the giant oil company Unocal might mean. But first, quarter past the hour, time to check the headlines. Sofia Choi joins us from Atlanta. Good evening to you.
SOPHIA CHOI, CNN HEADLINE NEWS ANCHOR: Hi there, Aaron. The White House has rejected requests that Karl Rove apologize or resign for his recent remarks about 9/11. Rove had described the liberals' response to the attacks as "offering therapy for the terrorists." The House of Representatives voted to restore $100 million in funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for next year. The Republican-dominated Appropriations Committee had tried to reduce the budget, which affects 1,000 TV and radio stations. If approved by the Senate later this summer, the annual funding will remain at $400 million. It's wildfire season again. In Tonto Hills, Arizona, just outside of Phoenix, 35,000 acres burned and forced the evacuation of 250 homes.
In California, in the Mojave Desert, near the Joshua Tree National Monument, 3,000 acres burned and 600 homes were destroyed. The fires were fueled by the grass that has thrived in this unusually rainy spring.After a manufacturer of bullet-proof vests announced that nearly 100,000 of its vests may not offer full protection, several lawsuits are now in the works. Suites have been filed against both the Japanese supplier of a fabric called zylon, and the Michigan-based vest manufacturer, Second Chance Body Armor, which filed for bankruptcy last year.
And for the first time, the Food and Drug Administration has approved a medication specifically for the benefit of one racial group. Tests of the heart failure drug Bidil showed positive results among blacks, reducing both deaths and hospitalization. But the results did not hold true for the rest of the population. And Aaron, just as a reminder about the new feature at cnn.com. Click on the video link, and you'll be able to see the day's best news clips at your leisure and at no cost, and we are featuring tonight Wolf Blitzer's exclusive chat with Vice President Dick Cheney. Some interesting comments coming from a man who doesn't give too many sit- down interviews, Aaron.
BROWN: Well, yes, there are some interesting moments in that. We'll talk to you again in about a half an hour. Very interesting moments.In America, your home, they say, is your castle. But if it lies in the path of a riverfront shopping mall, the government can take it away and knock it down. That's, in effect, what the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today. The government has long had the right to take your home for a public project. The court today added private projects, as well. Here's CNN's Alina Cho.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Suzette Kelo moved into her charming home in New London, Connecticut, seven years ago...
SUZETTE KELO, NEW LONDON RESIDENT: It was like I had been here all my life. It was just -- it was just a warm and inviting feeling.
CHO: ... a little slice of heaven on the water, the best house she could find for her money. Seven months after moving in, though, Kelo was told she had to move out.
KELO: I was thinking I had a really big problem.CHO: She learned the city of New London wanted to buy her home, and nearly 100 others, tear them down, and make room for a new aquarium, a hotel, upscale condos and offices, including a pharmaceutical research center. The U.S. Supreme Court sided with the city's plan.
THOMAS LONDREGAN, CITY ATTORNEY: This case was never about the taking of property from one person and giving it to another. This case was not some type of a land grab. This case was about the city of New London, its six square miles and its economic survival.
CHO: That is not how Matt Derry sees it.
MATT DERRY, NEW LONDON RESIDENT: The property went to my father. And now it's come full circle to me.
CHO: Derry's family has owned property here for more than a century. It is where he grew up, where he now shares a home with his wife. The Derrys call this an eight-year nightmare that has even affected decisions like painting their house.
DERRY: We went like two years, and we said, you know, "The heck with this." We had the house painted, but we only put one coat on it, because we don't know if we're going to be here or not.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've been living a life of not knowing.
DERRY: Yes.CHO: Ninety other homeowners took the city's offer to sell at market value, but the Derrys and Kelos say no amount of money can compensate for losing their homes.
KELO: I don't think walk will be the word. They'll have to drag me.
CHO: The Supreme Court decision means the city can now evict the remaining homeowners and begin demolishing their homes this fall.Alina Cho, CNN, New London, Connecticut.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Whatever each new individual chapter brings, China is one of those stories that's going to touch all of us for generations to come. Right now, China is swimming in dollars, dollars we spend each day, on Chinese-manufactured goods at Wal-Mart and the rest. And like anyone burning -- anyone with money burning a hole in his pocket, the country, China, is shopping. Shopping for technology. Now, for oil. Twenty years ago, Japan went on a buying spree. Mostly Americans got richer and Japan got a movie studio and a lot of overpriced real estate out of the deal. So, other than national pride, is it any different this time? Here's CNN's Mary Snow.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With its economy booming, China is looking west to fuel its growth. The state owned oil giant CYNOC is bidding $2 billion more than Chevron/Texaco for California-based Unocal. But politics, not price, could be the deciding factor.
SHERMAN KATZ, INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS ANALYST: Of course, when it's China, which, under certain circumstances could pose a security threat to the United States, you bet your bottom dollar there's going to be a backlash. SNOW: On Capitol Hill...
SEN. RON WYDEN, (D) OREGON: Do you intend to review the Chinese bid to buy Unocal?
SNOW: Questions about the deal are just starting. The treasury secretary and the chairman of the federal reserve heard them today. The Chinese have been busy buying American. A Chinese company bought the PC division of IBM, another Chinese company wants Maytag.
MICHAEL WESSEL, US CHINA ECON & SEC REVIEW COMMITTEE: They have hundreds of billions of dollars in their banks that they're going to now use to buy assets from the U.S. and from other nations. In part, they want to buy U.S. brand names as they did earlier this year with IBM, because it gives them instant access to consumers here.
SNOW: But washing machines are one thing, oil another.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To have a U.S. oil company be bought out by the Chinese national oil company, puts them in control of one of our greatest assets that drives our economy. The cost of energy is one of the biggest factors in our economy. And it's also a big national security issue.
SNOW: But now, with loads of dollars in Chinese banks, they seem to have an insatiable appetite.
ALAN GREENSPAN, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: You're getting a former Communist system, which is still, politically, a Communist system recognizing that market capitalism is where they want to be.
SNOW: And when the neophyte takes on the master, there is a crossroads.
KATZ: But here we are, confronted with a case where there's a finite amount of resources in the world. We need them. China needs them. Are we going to look at China as our friend or as our foe?
SNOW: A capitalist China has been an American goal for decades. But their oil imparts have doubled in the last five years. China now ranks only behind the United States as the world's biggest oil consumer. The question is how to strike a balance between healthy economic competition and national security. Mary Snow, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Coming up on the program tonight, trying to put the care back in foster care. And how one airport is working to avoid a repeat of what happened there on 9/11. We'll take a break first. Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: For many, if not most young people, turning 21 is a rite of passage that is celebrated, a birthday that marks the first chapter of life in the real world, a time to spread your wings, knowing full well that the nest isn't far away if your flight plan goes off-course. But for children that grow up in foster care, turning 21, in some states 18, is something altogether different.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): Most certainly Thomas Hudson did not grow up like you. Most certainly, he grew up like no child should.
THOMAS HUDSON, FORMER FOSTER YOUTH: I would see my uncle beating up his girlfriend. I would see my mother and her friends doing drugs in front of me. I learned at an early age how to cook crack-cocaine.
BROWN: Born to a drug-addicted mother, a father he's never known, by 13 he'd had it.
HUDSON: I was just so full of hate and hurt, knowing the fact that she'll never be the mother that I wanted her to be, because you can't love something that I don't think you never really wanted. You just can't.
BROWN: Thomas was placed in faster care. Over the next eight years, he lived in five foster homes and two group shelters -- about average for foster children in the country. His longest stay in one home, just 2 1/2 years. And then, as if my magic, he turned 21. And aged out of the system. Thomas Hudson was on his own.
HUDSON: I'm like, OK, I'm free from this stuff. All the restrictions of the system and of the law don't apply to me anymore. Because now, I'm older. Oh, yes. I'm going to hit the clubs. I'm going to party and all of that. And it was just a big, rude awakening. Because it wasn't anything like that.
BROWN: No, it wasn't. It was something else. Homeless, he slept in cars and churches, apartments crawling with mice and bugs. No job. No money. Little food. There were gangs. There was drugs and alcohol. He sold his body for rent.
HUDSON: That was the most demeaning thing I think I've ever done. I was in a situation where I didn't have anybody to turn to.
BROWN: Roughly 20,000 Thomas Hudsons age out of foster care in the country each year. Some states it's at 18, others 21, many know little of what it means to be on their own.
HUDSON: I didn't have any preparation for independence. No one told me you need to learn how to pay bills. You need to know how to budget your money.
MARK COURTNEY, CHAPIN HALL CENTER FOR CHILDREN: Young people are not out on their own at the age of 18. In fact, people go to and from home well into their late 20s, early 30s. So, why do we treat society's youth, who actually have more challenges to transition, different than that?
BROWN: Here is the cost -- the Child Welfare League of America says of those who age out, one-quarter become homeless, 56 percent unemployed, 27 percent of the males end up in jail. Others studies show up to 60 percent of the women are pregnant within two years. Transition programs are available, sometimes. But they vary widely by state, sometimes even by county.
COURTNEY: The Child Welfare Agency knows as soon as that dependency order, that legal order that makes them care for this child is dismissed, they can provide services if they'd like to. But if they do not, nobody is going to hold them accountable for that.
HUDSON: Carlio, connect 4.
BROWN: Today, Thomas is 23 and has a job, part-time, at the Boys and Girls Club of Chicago -- 10 bucks an hour. A start. He also has a sense of purpose.
HUDSON: When you're working with one of -- a kid with a bad attitude and you constantly telling that kid, you're going to be somebody. You are somebody special. And you slowly watch all that negative wall break down, that's rewarding right there.
BROWN: But what Thomas Hudson needs most is not a job, though a job matters. Thomas Hudson needs a family. Virtually no one adopts 23-year-olds. Of the 52,000 adoptions in the year 2002, just 42 were 19 years old or older.
COURTNEY: What we need to do is craft policies and practices and really an attitude toward these young people on the part of the child welfare system, and I think the community and the society as a whole that we're going to create and maintain other places for them to go, other people that will be there for them. In some cases, ideally, another permanent family. I mean, a lot of these young people would like to be adopted.
BROWN: Thomas certainly would.
HUDSON: Yeah. I would. But I would let them know all my flaws up front. That way -- and I give them a chance -- do you still want to adopt me? And go from there.
BROWN: Does he expect that to happen? No. Not really. 23 tough years have taught him to be a realist. Thomas Hudson got a bad break at birth. And all those foster homes and group shelters later, that basic fact of his life hasn't and will never change.
HUDSON: There are days when I don't want to wake up. When I think about having a family that, you know them by name but you don't know them emotionally because you don't have that connection with them. When I think about all of that stuff and how it just makes me feel like, well, what am I here for?
BROWN: But don't give up on Thomas Hudson just yet. He hasn't, not completely. He thinks about college someday. About becoming a child psychologist, maybe. He thinks about getting a break. Finally.
HUDSON: I'm going to move forward. I think it's going to start with one person in a high place, recognizes that I -- that I deserve a chance. That I'm worthy of a chance. All I need is that one chance to just shine
.(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: In the world of foster care, Thomas Hudson did not catch any breaks. Many children in the system do not. The system, fair to say, has earned a checkered reputation. And New Jersey has had its share of problems. That part of the story, from CNN's Jason Carroll
.(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CINDY BRENNAN, NJ FOSTER PARENT: Move your ball so she can throw it
.JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is where Cindy Brennan spends most of her time these days, at home with her children.
BRENNAN: Get out of the crate now.
CARROLL: Brennan and her husband took Eliana (ph) and Jason (ph) in as foster children, when they were just toddlers and have adopted both. Finally getting them out of a foster care system Brennan says is badly in need of repair.
BRENNAN: You can get caught up in being frustrated, calling caseworkers, having them not call back. Wanting something to happen and it doesn't happen. And you have to keep your eye on what's important and not let it frustrate you.
CARROLL: Brenna's children are lucky. New Jersey's Division of Youth and Family Services, DYFS, came under fire in 2003, after the death of a child in their care. Seven year-old Fahim Williams (ph). His body found in a plastic bin. An investigation found that Fahim had been neglected and starved. Caseworkers had been to the house but never reported seeing anything wrong. Shortly after Fahim's death, Kevin Ryan was named New Jersey's first child advocate.
KEVIN RYAN, NJ CHILD ADVOCATE: The system was so bad is. And it got that way over such a long period of time that making it better was not something that could possibly happen overnight. There was no magic wand here.
RYAN: DYFS promised to overhaul its system. So did the governor at the time.
JAMES MCGREEVEY, FORMER NJ GOVERNOR: We will demand personal accountability at every level.
CARROLL: This month, Ryan's watchdog group reported DYFS still has serious problems despite a $350 million overhaul underway. Including a lapse in routine medical care for children. And inadequate supervision. It also found DYFS is still housing foster children in juvenile detention centers, a practice they had vowed to stop.
RYAN: It's frustrating for me. But it's not nearly as frustrating for me as it is for the kids, who are sitting in those juvenile jails, waiting for care and services that they need. How can they not be slowly, painfully, coming apart?
CARROLL: DYFS' current director says the problems will be fixed -- soon.
EDWARD COTTON, NJ DIVISION OF YOUTH AND FAMILY SERVICES: We're changing it. Not piece by piece. But all pieces at the same time, at various levels of quickness.
CARROLL: The Brennan's are confident things will change. In fact, they took in another foster child. 20-month-old Victoria.
BRENNAN: I think it can be fixed because I think that it has to be fixed. You have all these kids out there that have nowhere to go.
CARROLL: She says it's up to DYFS to make sure they all end up in the right home. Jason Carroll, CNN, New Milford, New Jersey
.(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Up next on the program, you'll meet another young man who aged out of the system when he turned 19. That was after 30 different foster care homes. His life, now.Also -- the final word in the Mississippi trial that rewrote history this week. The judge did not go easy on Edgar Ray Killen.We'll take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Few know better than Chris Brooks what it's like to have a sense of home. From the age of five, he lived in more than 30 foster homes. He aged out of the system when he turned 19. And it hasn't always been easy since then. He was homeless for a while but eventually he got his GED. He's attending college now and also works at the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth. And he joins us tonight from Las Vegas.Good to see you.Everybody somewhere has family. Aunts. Uncles. Cousins. Do you have any sense that you have family anywhere?
CHRIS BROOKS, NV PARTNERSHIP FOR HOMELESS YOUTH: My family is now my best friends. The people I've grown up with over the years. And the people that helped me get by when things were tough. Those are my family now.BROWN: But you have no cousins that you know of? No uncles? No aunts, anywhere?
BROOKS: Just like everybody else, I have family. The only thing is, I don't know most of them. I met my dad and his side of the family about two years ago. And we stay in contact every now and then. But it's -- after not living with someone 18 years, I don't know what it's -- it's kind of disturbing to have family. I'm so used to not having family.
BROWN: Actually, you said to us earlier today, that when you grow up the way you grew up, that you tend to shut down. That you become very inward. I think you said I don't let anyone in, or I don't let anyone in. What did you mean?
BROOKS: Well, what happens is, in my situation, I was shuffled through over 30 different foster homes, group homes and institutions. And so, I would start to get attached to people and then, I would lose them. I would get attached, lose them. I would get close to someone that I would think was a father, and then I would lose them. So what happened was, I got tired of being hurt. So I stopped letting people in.
BROWN: Are you able to let people in now?
BROOKS: It's getting easier. It's still a long road. But it's getting a lot easier.
BROWN: Do you see yourself at some point, falling in love? Getting married? Having kids?
BROOKS: Of course. Of course.
BROWN: Have you fallen in love?
BROOKS: Many times.
BROWN: Okay. That's pretty normal to fall in love many times, I think. You reached -- there was a point you actually had to make a remarkable choice. You were approaching high school graduation, which meant more to you than -- or at least different things to you than it did to most. Kind of walk through that scenario.
BROOKS: In the state of Nevada at the time, when I aged out of the foster care system, which was about five years ago, the law stated that the state was to cut all financial ties to me when I turned 19 or graduated, whichever came first. So as I was approaching, 18 1/2, this news was brought to me that I was either to go out on my own and pay my own rent and graduate or not graduate and still be able to live in the foster care system. I had to put off my dreams of graduating that I worked so hard -- going through 30 different foster homes means you go through 30 different schools. You go through 30 different doctors. You go through 30 different neighbors. Thirty different friends. So after all that, I accomplished, I was about to graduate. I got back on track. And I had to decide whether I wanted to be homeless or graduate.
BROWN: And you chose?
BROOKS: I chose to not to be homeless.
BROWN: Yeah. Was there a moment do you think in your life when, if you would have made one decision, you would have gone one way and we wouldn't be talking about someone who is on a positive track? Was this a decision moment? Or is it something that just happened?
BROOKS: There was a -- there was a couple decisions. There was a couple points in my life that were very effective. One I actually -- my best friend got murdered in front of me. My few friends I had at that time, we decided if we were going to continue to live the lifestyle we were living, that we were all going to end up dead, in prison or jail. And I didn't want that lifestyle.And then, after I experienced homelessness, there were a few mentors that came into my life and dramatically changed it. Basically, if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be sitting in this chair right now talking to you.
BROWN: You're still in touch with them?
BROOKS: Of course. Those are my family. Those are my parents.
BROWN: 20 years from now, what do you think you'll be doing?
BROOKS: Probably president of the United States.
BROWN: Not a bad gig. I hear it's full-time work, though.
BROOKS: I'm up for it.
BROWN: Thank you. I suspect you are. Good to meet you. Good luck.
BROOKS: You too. Thanks.
BROWN: Thank you. Ahead on the program, simulating -- That's a good kid, huh? Simulating terrorist attacks to prevent the next terrorist attack. And at the age of 23, he's now the most academically accomplished member of the entire British royal family. Well, yeah., but someone had to be, didn't they? Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Simulating a terrorist attack at an airport in hopes of preventing a real one. That's coming up. But first, at nearly quarter of the hour. Time to check some of the other news of the day. Sophia Choi in Atlanta with that. Good evening, again.
CHOI: Hi there, Aaron. Well, it's 60 years in prison for 80- year-old Edgar Killen. That was the judge's sentence for the Ku Klux Klan member, convicted of manslaughter in the 1964 deaths of three civil rights workers. Killen was given 20 years for each crime.The nation's most popular Internet site, Yahoo! has shut down all of its user-created chat rooms, in the concerns that adults were using them to seduce minors. The chat rooms had names like "girls 13 and under for older guys." The shut down occurred shortly after advertisers withdrew their ads from that part of the Web site.And finally, Prince William is now the most-academically accomplished member of the British royal family. The 23-year-old prince was awarded an upper second class honors degree from St. Andrews in Scotland. He will split his first working summer between London's financial sector and a mountain rescue team.And Aaron, for our viewers with a Web connection, don't forget the new video link at cnn.com. Click on video to see today's best clips whenever you want, over and over if you like. And all for free. And as you see there, one of the main stories we're featuring is the exclusive interview Wolf had with Vice President Dick Cheney.
BROWN: He did. He aired that today. Thank you. I hope the prince gets a job.
CHOI: Yeah, well ...
BROWN: Hope he's able to get a job.
CHOI: With the media circus around him now, now that the deal's off. Because remember, they had that deal if he was in school, they kind of had to stay away. That's all -- all bets are off now.
BROWN: Boy. What a life. Just one stress after another. Thank you. Just a regular guy.In the new normal, terror drills have become almost as common as long lines at the airports. The challenge, of course, is making the drills realistic, turning a commercial airliner into a practice field seems pretty real. What happened in the air over Boston, the focus of tonight's "Security Watch." Here's CNN's Dan Lothian.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On a mission to confront the threat of terrorism in the sky.
CARLO BOCCIA, DIR. BOSTON HOMELAND SECURITY: This is a very, very dangerous time we live in. And there are people that are looking to do us harm.LOTHIAN: As the head of homeland security in Boston, Carlo Boccia is on high alert. Two of the planes hijacked on 9/11 took off from Boston Logan International Airport. And the Transatlantic flight carrying shoe bomber Richard Reed was diverted to here.
BOCCIA: The threat and the vulnerability, still there.
LOTHIAN (on camera): That's why Boccia, along with dozens of state and federal agencies, and a major airline, are now closely analyzing a simulated hijacking exercise conducted here earlier this month. Trying to identify what worked and what different. Officials realize that even minor mistakes in a real attack could have deadly consequences.(voice-over): The elaborate drill, dubbed Operation Atlas, was the first of its kind. It began thousands of feet in the air, on an imaginary United Airlines flight from Paris to Chicago. Five armed terrorists tried to hijack this plane. And air marshals fought back. The pilots sent out a coded alert. And two if-15 fighter jets scrambled to intercept the commercial 757 and escort it down.
GEORGE NACCARA, FEDERAL SECURITY DIRECTOR: We raised the alert level from yellow to orange. And then it went to red.
LOTHIAN: Even though this is all staged, homeland security officials try to keep it as realistic as possible. From the equipment to the distractions. There's a careful assessment of the threats, before armed FBI agents and state police on the ground move in. A dummy is dumped from the plane's rear door, simulating a young passenger shot by the hijackers. With a situation this unstable, even the pilots are under suspicion.
BOCCIA: This drill tested all our capabilities.
LOTHIAN: Every step is carefully observed as teams eventually neutralize a terrorist. And release the 160 people acting as passengers. If this is the test, Boccia has the score.
BOCCIA: There were some glitches which is what -- and a lot of people got upset about the glitches because they didn't believe what we said beforehand. Listen, we intend to make some mistakes so we can improve.
LOTHIAN: For example, officials say that because of confusion, some emergency vehicles weren't brought in fast enough. There were other glitches. But no one is giving this exercise a failing grade.
NACCARA: The only failure in an exercise is the failure to learn. And that's why we have this opportunity
.LOTHIAN: Boccia says this kind of realistic training is the best way to protect passengers and people on the ground.
BOCCIA: Exercises certainly don't minimize the risk. The potential for an incident is still there. What it does is increases our ability to respond more timely, save more lives, be more effective in our recovery.
LOTHIAN: In the event that another group of terrorists slips through the security net. Dan Lothian, CNN, Boston.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Dumb statements make the front page. Morning papers next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Okay. Quick review of morning papers from around the country and around the world. Iraq on many of them."Rebels in Iraq not weaker, U.S. general says" -- that's the lead story in the "International Herald Tribune," or a front page story in the "International Herald Tribune."U.S. image abroad, even China's better. Doesn't sound like much good news. But there is. Hostilities not as bad as it was a year ago. And zombies on the rise. People clicking hoping to get nudes of Jennifer Lopez got a surprise instead. Their computer was taken over.The last crusade -- a last crusade in a career that reshaped American religion. "Christian Science Monitor" story on Billy Graham who opens a crusade in New York. Probably the last time he'll come to the city. "The Washington Times," "Rove's mockery of 9/11 liberals riles Democrats." Karl Rove making, I thought, some silly comments.And in a week of silly comments, the dumb Dick Durbin comments for which he apologized. Mr. Rove will not apologize, I guarantee you."Draw the line." Governor Pataki allowing museum that exhibits anti-American art to display its work at ground zero. "Daily News" not happy about that. The weather in Chicago tomorrow -- Sweatshop. We'll wrap it up."A Day in History" in a moment
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: On June 21st, 1964, three civil rights activists were murdered in Mississippi by a group of Klansmen. On the same day 41 years later, a breakthrough in the case as one of the accused, Edgar Ray Killen, was convicted of manslaughter for all three killings.In 1982, John Hinckley, Jr. was found innocent by reason of insanity in the shooting of President Reagan.And nearly 40,000 people were killed as an earthquake and a series of aftershocks rocked northern Iran on June 21st, 1990 and that is "This Week In History."
BROWN: Good to have you with us. We will see you tomorrow, 10 Eastern Time. Until them, good night from 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 June 23, 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 everyone. As if the disappearance weren't enough to endure, Natalee Holloway vanished far from home. So now, in addition to everything else, her parents are watching the investigation unfold as strangers in a strange land. Different laws, different customs. The son of a local VIP, now the focus of it all. And today the focus widened to the father.Reporting from Aruba tonight, CNN's Karl Penhaul
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Last weekend, investigators said they were questioning Judge Paul Van Der Sloot simply as a possible witness. Now, in an unexpected twist, prosecutors have had him arrested, saying he's suspected of involvement in Natalee Holloway's disappearance. His 17-year-old son was arrested two weeks ago. Paul Van Der Sloot went to the police station with his wife, Anita, Thursday afternoon, after neighbors notified him of police cars close to his home. Police then detained him. Mrs. Van Der Sloot said police, then detained him.She says she feels like she's trapped in a crazy nightmare, but is convinced her husband and son are innocent.
ANITA VAN DER SLOOT, SUSPECT'S WIFE: I will hold up. I will be strong. I have to. Because I believe in my husband. I believe in my son. I believe in my family. And I know it all comes right.
PENHAUL: Her husband, Paul, is 53-years-old. The family came from Holland about 15 years ago. Before becoming a judge, he was an official in Aruba's prosecution service. Joran Van Der Sloot, 18-year-old Satish Kalpoe and his brother Deepak, 21, were seen leaving a bar with Natalee in the wee hour of May 30. She's not been seen since. Police say, the three boys originally said they dropped Natalee off at the Holiday Inn. But under investigation, police say the boys have changed their stories. The Kalpoe brother's mother visited Satish in prison for the first time Tuesday. And she says he admitted lying to her. She describes her sons as two, good Hindu boys. Who share a love of TV wrestling shows, Indian movies and the Internet. She said, Satish and Deepak prayed every morning with the rest of the family, in front of this Hindu shrine in a room at their home and rarely partied.
NADIRA RAMIREZ, SUSPECT'S MOTHER: We don't have party, never. We are a simple family. We just cook, eat, drink something at home with our kids or we go to dinner.
PENHAUL: Across the island, Anita Van Der Sloot knows about no change in the Kalpoe brother's story, but Anita Van Der Sloot is angry.
VAN DER SLOOT: I think it's ridiculous. But, of course, it -- it hurts. It hurts because my husband gave 15 years of his integrity to this island. And that this could happen is so bizarre.
PENHAUL; She says her husband was calm after his arrest and that Joran is holding up well.
VAN DER SLOOT: He's already doing exercises again. And he played soccer this morning. And he's -- I mean, he's not happy. He says every morning when he wakes up, he feels like if a bad dream. And he misses us.
PENHAUL: She says she's praying the crazy nightmare ends soon. Karl Penhaul, CNN, Palm Beach, Aruba.
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BROWN: As Karl reported at the top, the judge is being held on suspicion, which the law in Aruba permits for 48 hours. And another 48 hours after that, after request of a prosecutor. For the Holloway family, it must be a horribly mixed blessing to have this happening at the center of a media storm. There's frequently no waiting to get the latest information and no escaping it, either. That part of the story tonight from CNN's Chris Lawrence.
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CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Natalee Holloway's mother waited a week for any real development in her daughter's disappearance. We were the only ones riding with Beth Holloway Twitty when she and a friend got a call: Paul Van Der Sloot has been arrested.
BETH HOLLOWAY TWITTY, MOTHER: They're showing it on CNN right now. The arrest. How can they show it on CNN?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's CNN? TWITTY: CNN's showing it. The arrest. CNN is showing it right now.
LAWRENCE: No one expected that an hour earlier, especially Beth.
TWITTY: OK, honey. No new news. I just think you need to be here tomorrow. OK?
LAWRENCE: She was making plans to welcome more of her family.
TWITTY: You're going to fly in just for the weekend, because I want you to come.
LAWRENCE: And saying good-bye to a friend who had to fly home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How long have you been here? Beth has been so frustrated for nearly four weeks now, devoting every minute to her daughter's disappearance.
TWITTY: Start early, end late. Go all day.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought we ate dinner at 12:00 a.m.
LAWRENCE: Beth was surprised and smiled when she got the call about Judge Van Der Sloot's arrest. She immediately called her husband.
TWITTY: OK. I love you, Jug.LAWRENCE: When we got back to the hotel where Natalee had been staying, Beth rushed in to meet with investigators having nothing to say on Judge Van Der Sloot's arrest.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you surprised at all, like, at that coming so soon after you spent time with him? You know, just spent that hour with him?
TWITTY: I don't want to make any comment. LAWRENCE: And with that, she walked inside, hoping she's one step closer to finding her daughter. Chris Lawrence, CNN, Palm Beach, Aruba.
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BROWN: The Natalee Holloway story tonight. This story lives like many other aspects of it in normal, at the intersection of the public and the private. By law, the U.S. military is not allowed to gather private information, sensitive information on civilians, let alone civilian teenagers. But it has, just not directly. Which is where a company just outside Boston comes in.
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BROWN (voice-over): Working with the private company, the Pentagon has for a year, been gathering private information about the country's young people. Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses, ethnicity, even grade point averages and until today, without telling anyone, which privacy advocates claim was a clear violation of the law.
MARC ROTENBERG, PRES. ELECTRONIC PRIVACY INFORMATION CENTER: Well, this a very serious. The Privacy Act is the major federal law in the United States to protect the privacy rights of American citizens. The Department of Defense has obligations to follow that law. And one of the clearest obligations is to notify the public before it creates a new database of personal information.
BROWN: By buying the information from a private company, the data broker, Be Now, of suburban Boston, the Pentagon was able to get around another law from forbids the government from doing the actual gathering. The military can already gather information from students' driver's licenses. And the No Child Left Behind Law, allows the services to collect home addresses and telephone numbers of students at public high schools.
LAURENCE KORB, FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: It will get people upset about these aggressive techniques. Many schools are already upset, because of the fact that the No Child Left Behind Act requires the schools to give some information to recruiters. This is so much more that they're giving, that I think in the long run, it's going to make a bad situation even worse.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And most importantly, your mouth is shut.
BROWN: Today, the Pentagon formally acknowledged what it has been doing for a year. And the not surprising reason it has been doing it. The information will be provided to the services, the Pentagon says, in its official listing on the federal register, to assist them in their direct marketing recruiting efforts. Recruiting efforts, that haven't been going very well.
MAJ. GEN. MICHAEL ROCHELLE, U.S. ARMY RECRUITING COMMAND: Today's conditions represent the most-challenging conditions we have seen, certainly in recruiting, in my 33 years in this uniform. BROWN: As for the secretary of defense, he said today his department is always concerned about privacy.
DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: We always worry about privacy issues. And certainly, as you know, we've put together a panel on that subject.
ROTENBERG: What is happening now is that the military seems to be saying that they can disregard the federal privacy law. They can create secret profiles on high school students in the United States, including grade paint average and ethnicity.
BROWN: Tonight, Pentagon officials acknowledge they made a mistake in filing public notice so late. But there are those in Washington who want the process stopped.
ROTENBERG: I think it's clear -- absolutely clear at this point -- that Congress simply tells the Department of Defense, that this database cannot be established.
BROWN: But with war raging in Iraq, there is no sign that that will happen.
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BROWN: And in Iraq, there were four bombings today in Baghdad alone. Five yesterday. That's the way it's been going there, of late. So much so that the daily news seems to get lost in the sameness of it all. The polls tell us the country is restless where the war is concerned. Growing less sure it was the right thing to do, not sure exactly what to do about it now. Painfully aware that casualties are mounting. The administration is concerned about public support, as well. But not always playing the same tune. Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, General John Abizaid here with his boss Donald Rumsfeld stopped short of endorsing Vice President Cheney's claim the other say that the insurgency is in its last throes.
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GEN. JOHN ABIZAID, COMMANDER, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: In terms of the overall strength of the insurgency, I'd say it's about the same as it was.
SEN. CARL LEVIN, (D) MICHIGAN: So, you wouldn't agree with the statement that it's in its last throes.
ABIZAID: I don't know that I would make any comment about that, other than to say there's a lot of work to be done against the insurgency
.(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: As for the secretary of defense, he got into a bit of a go around with a familiar opponent.
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SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Mr. Secretary, I'm talking about the misjudgments and the mistakes that have made -- the series which I've mentioned, the disarming of the Iraqi army. Those were judgments that were made. And there's been a series of gross errors and mistakes. Those were on your watch. Those were on your watch. Isn't it time for you to resign?
RUMSFELD: Senator, I've offered my resignation to the president twice. And he's decided that he would prefer that he not accept it. And that's his call.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Secretary also made it plain he doesn't believe the country's in a quagmire in Iraq. And he said his generals agree. Straight ahead on NEWSNIGHT, one of China's largest oil companies makes a hostile bid for a U.S. oil company, setting off a major storm.
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SHERMAN KATZ, INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS ANALYST: Of course, when it's China, which, under certain circumstances, could pose a security threat to the United States, you bet your bottom dollar there's going to be a backlash.
BROWN (voice-over): What will it mean if the deal goes through? And what are the odds?
CARLO BOCCIA, DIR. BOSTON HOMELAND SECURITY: This is a very, very dangerous time we live in. And there are people that are looking to do us harm. BROWN: At Boston's Logan Airport, practicing to prevent another 9/11.
SUZETTE KELO, NEW LONDON, CT HOMEOWNER: It was like I'd been here all my life. It was just -- it was just a warm and inviting feeling.
BROWN: She found her dream house. And now, the Supreme Court says the government can take it away.
KELO: They'll have to drag me. BROWN: Growing up without a family. And thrown into the real world.
THOMAS HUDSON, FORMER FOSTER YOUTH: I didn't have any preparation for independence. No one told me you need to learn how to pay bills. You need to learn how to budget your money.
BROWN: What happens to foster kids when they outgrow the system. From New York and around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
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BROWN: That's night here in the city. Still to come, what China's takeover of the oil company, the giant oil company Unocal might mean. But first, quarter past the hour, time to check the headlines. Sofia Choi joins us from Atlanta. Good evening to you.
SOPHIA CHOI, CNN HEADLINE NEWS ANCHOR: Hi there, Aaron. The White House has rejected requests that Karl Rove apologize or resign for his recent remarks about 9/11. Rove had described the liberals' response to the attacks as "offering therapy for the terrorists." The House of Representatives voted to restore $100 million in funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for next year. The Republican-dominated Appropriations Committee had tried to reduce the budget, which affects 1,000 TV and radio stations. If approved by the Senate later this summer, the annual funding will remain at $400 million. It's wildfire season again. In Tonto Hills, Arizona, just outside of Phoenix, 35,000 acres burned and forced the evacuation of 250 homes.
In California, in the Mojave Desert, near the Joshua Tree National Monument, 3,000 acres burned and 600 homes were destroyed. The fires were fueled by the grass that has thrived in this unusually rainy spring.After a manufacturer of bullet-proof vests announced that nearly 100,000 of its vests may not offer full protection, several lawsuits are now in the works. Suites have been filed against both the Japanese supplier of a fabric called zylon, and the Michigan-based vest manufacturer, Second Chance Body Armor, which filed for bankruptcy last year.
And for the first time, the Food and Drug Administration has approved a medication specifically for the benefit of one racial group. Tests of the heart failure drug Bidil showed positive results among blacks, reducing both deaths and hospitalization. But the results did not hold true for the rest of the population. And Aaron, just as a reminder about the new feature at cnn.com. Click on the video link, and you'll be able to see the day's best news clips at your leisure and at no cost, and we are featuring tonight Wolf Blitzer's exclusive chat with Vice President Dick Cheney. Some interesting comments coming from a man who doesn't give too many sit- down interviews, Aaron.
BROWN: Well, yes, there are some interesting moments in that. We'll talk to you again in about a half an hour. Very interesting moments.In America, your home, they say, is your castle. But if it lies in the path of a riverfront shopping mall, the government can take it away and knock it down. That's, in effect, what the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today. The government has long had the right to take your home for a public project. The court today added private projects, as well. Here's CNN's Alina Cho.
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ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Suzette Kelo moved into her charming home in New London, Connecticut, seven years ago...
SUZETTE KELO, NEW LONDON RESIDENT: It was like I had been here all my life. It was just -- it was just a warm and inviting feeling.
CHO: ... a little slice of heaven on the water, the best house she could find for her money. Seven months after moving in, though, Kelo was told she had to move out.
KELO: I was thinking I had a really big problem.CHO: She learned the city of New London wanted to buy her home, and nearly 100 others, tear them down, and make room for a new aquarium, a hotel, upscale condos and offices, including a pharmaceutical research center. The U.S. Supreme Court sided with the city's plan.
THOMAS LONDREGAN, CITY ATTORNEY: This case was never about the taking of property from one person and giving it to another. This case was not some type of a land grab. This case was about the city of New London, its six square miles and its economic survival.
CHO: That is not how Matt Derry sees it.
MATT DERRY, NEW LONDON RESIDENT: The property went to my father. And now it's come full circle to me.
CHO: Derry's family has owned property here for more than a century. It is where he grew up, where he now shares a home with his wife. The Derrys call this an eight-year nightmare that has even affected decisions like painting their house.
DERRY: We went like two years, and we said, you know, "The heck with this." We had the house painted, but we only put one coat on it, because we don't know if we're going to be here or not.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've been living a life of not knowing.
DERRY: Yes.CHO: Ninety other homeowners took the city's offer to sell at market value, but the Derrys and Kelos say no amount of money can compensate for losing their homes.
KELO: I don't think walk will be the word. They'll have to drag me.
CHO: The Supreme Court decision means the city can now evict the remaining homeowners and begin demolishing their homes this fall.Alina Cho, CNN, New London, Connecticut.
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BROWN: Whatever each new individual chapter brings, China is one of those stories that's going to touch all of us for generations to come. Right now, China is swimming in dollars, dollars we spend each day, on Chinese-manufactured goods at Wal-Mart and the rest. And like anyone burning -- anyone with money burning a hole in his pocket, the country, China, is shopping. Shopping for technology. Now, for oil. Twenty years ago, Japan went on a buying spree. Mostly Americans got richer and Japan got a movie studio and a lot of overpriced real estate out of the deal. So, other than national pride, is it any different this time? Here's CNN's Mary Snow.
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MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With its economy booming, China is looking west to fuel its growth. The state owned oil giant CYNOC is bidding $2 billion more than Chevron/Texaco for California-based Unocal. But politics, not price, could be the deciding factor.
SHERMAN KATZ, INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS ANALYST: Of course, when it's China, which, under certain circumstances could pose a security threat to the United States, you bet your bottom dollar there's going to be a backlash. SNOW: On Capitol Hill...
SEN. RON WYDEN, (D) OREGON: Do you intend to review the Chinese bid to buy Unocal?
SNOW: Questions about the deal are just starting. The treasury secretary and the chairman of the federal reserve heard them today. The Chinese have been busy buying American. A Chinese company bought the PC division of IBM, another Chinese company wants Maytag.
MICHAEL WESSEL, US CHINA ECON & SEC REVIEW COMMITTEE: They have hundreds of billions of dollars in their banks that they're going to now use to buy assets from the U.S. and from other nations. In part, they want to buy U.S. brand names as they did earlier this year with IBM, because it gives them instant access to consumers here.
SNOW: But washing machines are one thing, oil another.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To have a U.S. oil company be bought out by the Chinese national oil company, puts them in control of one of our greatest assets that drives our economy. The cost of energy is one of the biggest factors in our economy. And it's also a big national security issue.
SNOW: But now, with loads of dollars in Chinese banks, they seem to have an insatiable appetite.
ALAN GREENSPAN, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: You're getting a former Communist system, which is still, politically, a Communist system recognizing that market capitalism is where they want to be.
SNOW: And when the neophyte takes on the master, there is a crossroads.
KATZ: But here we are, confronted with a case where there's a finite amount of resources in the world. We need them. China needs them. Are we going to look at China as our friend or as our foe?
SNOW: A capitalist China has been an American goal for decades. But their oil imparts have doubled in the last five years. China now ranks only behind the United States as the world's biggest oil consumer. The question is how to strike a balance between healthy economic competition and national security. Mary Snow, CNN, New York.
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BROWN: Coming up on the program tonight, trying to put the care back in foster care. And how one airport is working to avoid a repeat of what happened there on 9/11. We'll take a break first. Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
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BROWN: For many, if not most young people, turning 21 is a rite of passage that is celebrated, a birthday that marks the first chapter of life in the real world, a time to spread your wings, knowing full well that the nest isn't far away if your flight plan goes off-course. But for children that grow up in foster care, turning 21, in some states 18, is something altogether different.
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BROWN (voice-over): Most certainly Thomas Hudson did not grow up like you. Most certainly, he grew up like no child should.
THOMAS HUDSON, FORMER FOSTER YOUTH: I would see my uncle beating up his girlfriend. I would see my mother and her friends doing drugs in front of me. I learned at an early age how to cook crack-cocaine.
BROWN: Born to a drug-addicted mother, a father he's never known, by 13 he'd had it.
HUDSON: I was just so full of hate and hurt, knowing the fact that she'll never be the mother that I wanted her to be, because you can't love something that I don't think you never really wanted. You just can't.
BROWN: Thomas was placed in faster care. Over the next eight years, he lived in five foster homes and two group shelters -- about average for foster children in the country. His longest stay in one home, just 2 1/2 years. And then, as if my magic, he turned 21. And aged out of the system. Thomas Hudson was on his own.
HUDSON: I'm like, OK, I'm free from this stuff. All the restrictions of the system and of the law don't apply to me anymore. Because now, I'm older. Oh, yes. I'm going to hit the clubs. I'm going to party and all of that. And it was just a big, rude awakening. Because it wasn't anything like that.
BROWN: No, it wasn't. It was something else. Homeless, he slept in cars and churches, apartments crawling with mice and bugs. No job. No money. Little food. There were gangs. There was drugs and alcohol. He sold his body for rent.
HUDSON: That was the most demeaning thing I think I've ever done. I was in a situation where I didn't have anybody to turn to.
BROWN: Roughly 20,000 Thomas Hudsons age out of foster care in the country each year. Some states it's at 18, others 21, many know little of what it means to be on their own.
HUDSON: I didn't have any preparation for independence. No one told me you need to learn how to pay bills. You need to know how to budget your money.
MARK COURTNEY, CHAPIN HALL CENTER FOR CHILDREN: Young people are not out on their own at the age of 18. In fact, people go to and from home well into their late 20s, early 30s. So, why do we treat society's youth, who actually have more challenges to transition, different than that?
BROWN: Here is the cost -- the Child Welfare League of America says of those who age out, one-quarter become homeless, 56 percent unemployed, 27 percent of the males end up in jail. Others studies show up to 60 percent of the women are pregnant within two years. Transition programs are available, sometimes. But they vary widely by state, sometimes even by county.
COURTNEY: The Child Welfare Agency knows as soon as that dependency order, that legal order that makes them care for this child is dismissed, they can provide services if they'd like to. But if they do not, nobody is going to hold them accountable for that.
HUDSON: Carlio, connect 4.
BROWN: Today, Thomas is 23 and has a job, part-time, at the Boys and Girls Club of Chicago -- 10 bucks an hour. A start. He also has a sense of purpose.
HUDSON: When you're working with one of -- a kid with a bad attitude and you constantly telling that kid, you're going to be somebody. You are somebody special. And you slowly watch all that negative wall break down, that's rewarding right there.
BROWN: But what Thomas Hudson needs most is not a job, though a job matters. Thomas Hudson needs a family. Virtually no one adopts 23-year-olds. Of the 52,000 adoptions in the year 2002, just 42 were 19 years old or older.
COURTNEY: What we need to do is craft policies and practices and really an attitude toward these young people on the part of the child welfare system, and I think the community and the society as a whole that we're going to create and maintain other places for them to go, other people that will be there for them. In some cases, ideally, another permanent family. I mean, a lot of these young people would like to be adopted.
BROWN: Thomas certainly would.
HUDSON: Yeah. I would. But I would let them know all my flaws up front. That way -- and I give them a chance -- do you still want to adopt me? And go from there.
BROWN: Does he expect that to happen? No. Not really. 23 tough years have taught him to be a realist. Thomas Hudson got a bad break at birth. And all those foster homes and group shelters later, that basic fact of his life hasn't and will never change.
HUDSON: There are days when I don't want to wake up. When I think about having a family that, you know them by name but you don't know them emotionally because you don't have that connection with them. When I think about all of that stuff and how it just makes me feel like, well, what am I here for?
BROWN: But don't give up on Thomas Hudson just yet. He hasn't, not completely. He thinks about college someday. About becoming a child psychologist, maybe. He thinks about getting a break. Finally.
HUDSON: I'm going to move forward. I think it's going to start with one person in a high place, recognizes that I -- that I deserve a chance. That I'm worthy of a chance. All I need is that one chance to just shine
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BROWN: In the world of foster care, Thomas Hudson did not catch any breaks. Many children in the system do not. The system, fair to say, has earned a checkered reputation. And New Jersey has had its share of problems. That part of the story, from CNN's Jason Carroll
.(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CINDY BRENNAN, NJ FOSTER PARENT: Move your ball so she can throw it
.JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is where Cindy Brennan spends most of her time these days, at home with her children.
BRENNAN: Get out of the crate now.
CARROLL: Brennan and her husband took Eliana (ph) and Jason (ph) in as foster children, when they were just toddlers and have adopted both. Finally getting them out of a foster care system Brennan says is badly in need of repair.
BRENNAN: You can get caught up in being frustrated, calling caseworkers, having them not call back. Wanting something to happen and it doesn't happen. And you have to keep your eye on what's important and not let it frustrate you.
CARROLL: Brenna's children are lucky. New Jersey's Division of Youth and Family Services, DYFS, came under fire in 2003, after the death of a child in their care. Seven year-old Fahim Williams (ph). His body found in a plastic bin. An investigation found that Fahim had been neglected and starved. Caseworkers had been to the house but never reported seeing anything wrong. Shortly after Fahim's death, Kevin Ryan was named New Jersey's first child advocate.
KEVIN RYAN, NJ CHILD ADVOCATE: The system was so bad is. And it got that way over such a long period of time that making it better was not something that could possibly happen overnight. There was no magic wand here.
RYAN: DYFS promised to overhaul its system. So did the governor at the time.
JAMES MCGREEVEY, FORMER NJ GOVERNOR: We will demand personal accountability at every level.
CARROLL: This month, Ryan's watchdog group reported DYFS still has serious problems despite a $350 million overhaul underway. Including a lapse in routine medical care for children. And inadequate supervision. It also found DYFS is still housing foster children in juvenile detention centers, a practice they had vowed to stop.
RYAN: It's frustrating for me. But it's not nearly as frustrating for me as it is for the kids, who are sitting in those juvenile jails, waiting for care and services that they need. How can they not be slowly, painfully, coming apart?
CARROLL: DYFS' current director says the problems will be fixed -- soon.
EDWARD COTTON, NJ DIVISION OF YOUTH AND FAMILY SERVICES: We're changing it. Not piece by piece. But all pieces at the same time, at various levels of quickness.
CARROLL: The Brennan's are confident things will change. In fact, they took in another foster child. 20-month-old Victoria.
BRENNAN: I think it can be fixed because I think that it has to be fixed. You have all these kids out there that have nowhere to go.
CARROLL: She says it's up to DYFS to make sure they all end up in the right home. Jason Carroll, CNN, New Milford, New Jersey
.(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Up next on the program, you'll meet another young man who aged out of the system when he turned 19. That was after 30 different foster care homes. His life, now.Also -- the final word in the Mississippi trial that rewrote history this week. The judge did not go easy on Edgar Ray Killen.We'll take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.
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BROWN: Few know better than Chris Brooks what it's like to have a sense of home. From the age of five, he lived in more than 30 foster homes. He aged out of the system when he turned 19. And it hasn't always been easy since then. He was homeless for a while but eventually he got his GED. He's attending college now and also works at the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth. And he joins us tonight from Las Vegas.Good to see you.Everybody somewhere has family. Aunts. Uncles. Cousins. Do you have any sense that you have family anywhere?
CHRIS BROOKS, NV PARTNERSHIP FOR HOMELESS YOUTH: My family is now my best friends. The people I've grown up with over the years. And the people that helped me get by when things were tough. Those are my family now.BROWN: But you have no cousins that you know of? No uncles? No aunts, anywhere?
BROOKS: Just like everybody else, I have family. The only thing is, I don't know most of them. I met my dad and his side of the family about two years ago. And we stay in contact every now and then. But it's -- after not living with someone 18 years, I don't know what it's -- it's kind of disturbing to have family. I'm so used to not having family.
BROWN: Actually, you said to us earlier today, that when you grow up the way you grew up, that you tend to shut down. That you become very inward. I think you said I don't let anyone in, or I don't let anyone in. What did you mean?
BROOKS: Well, what happens is, in my situation, I was shuffled through over 30 different foster homes, group homes and institutions. And so, I would start to get attached to people and then, I would lose them. I would get attached, lose them. I would get close to someone that I would think was a father, and then I would lose them. So what happened was, I got tired of being hurt. So I stopped letting people in.
BROWN: Are you able to let people in now?
BROOKS: It's getting easier. It's still a long road. But it's getting a lot easier.
BROWN: Do you see yourself at some point, falling in love? Getting married? Having kids?
BROOKS: Of course. Of course.
BROWN: Have you fallen in love?
BROOKS: Many times.
BROWN: Okay. That's pretty normal to fall in love many times, I think. You reached -- there was a point you actually had to make a remarkable choice. You were approaching high school graduation, which meant more to you than -- or at least different things to you than it did to most. Kind of walk through that scenario.
BROOKS: In the state of Nevada at the time, when I aged out of the foster care system, which was about five years ago, the law stated that the state was to cut all financial ties to me when I turned 19 or graduated, whichever came first. So as I was approaching, 18 1/2, this news was brought to me that I was either to go out on my own and pay my own rent and graduate or not graduate and still be able to live in the foster care system. I had to put off my dreams of graduating that I worked so hard -- going through 30 different foster homes means you go through 30 different schools. You go through 30 different doctors. You go through 30 different neighbors. Thirty different friends. So after all that, I accomplished, I was about to graduate. I got back on track. And I had to decide whether I wanted to be homeless or graduate.
BROWN: And you chose?
BROOKS: I chose to not to be homeless.
BROWN: Yeah. Was there a moment do you think in your life when, if you would have made one decision, you would have gone one way and we wouldn't be talking about someone who is on a positive track? Was this a decision moment? Or is it something that just happened?
BROOKS: There was a -- there was a couple decisions. There was a couple points in my life that were very effective. One I actually -- my best friend got murdered in front of me. My few friends I had at that time, we decided if we were going to continue to live the lifestyle we were living, that we were all going to end up dead, in prison or jail. And I didn't want that lifestyle.And then, after I experienced homelessness, there were a few mentors that came into my life and dramatically changed it. Basically, if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be sitting in this chair right now talking to you.
BROWN: You're still in touch with them?
BROOKS: Of course. Those are my family. Those are my parents.
BROWN: 20 years from now, what do you think you'll be doing?
BROOKS: Probably president of the United States.
BROWN: Not a bad gig. I hear it's full-time work, though.
BROOKS: I'm up for it.
BROWN: Thank you. I suspect you are. Good to meet you. Good luck.
BROOKS: You too. Thanks.
BROWN: Thank you. Ahead on the program, simulating -- That's a good kid, huh? Simulating terrorist attacks to prevent the next terrorist attack. And at the age of 23, he's now the most academically accomplished member of the entire British royal family. Well, yeah., but someone had to be, didn't they? Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Simulating a terrorist attack at an airport in hopes of preventing a real one. That's coming up. But first, at nearly quarter of the hour. Time to check some of the other news of the day. Sophia Choi in Atlanta with that. Good evening, again.
CHOI: Hi there, Aaron. Well, it's 60 years in prison for 80- year-old Edgar Killen. That was the judge's sentence for the Ku Klux Klan member, convicted of manslaughter in the 1964 deaths of three civil rights workers. Killen was given 20 years for each crime.The nation's most popular Internet site, Yahoo! has shut down all of its user-created chat rooms, in the concerns that adults were using them to seduce minors. The chat rooms had names like "girls 13 and under for older guys." The shut down occurred shortly after advertisers withdrew their ads from that part of the Web site.And finally, Prince William is now the most-academically accomplished member of the British royal family. The 23-year-old prince was awarded an upper second class honors degree from St. Andrews in Scotland. He will split his first working summer between London's financial sector and a mountain rescue team.And Aaron, for our viewers with a Web connection, don't forget the new video link at cnn.com. Click on video to see today's best clips whenever you want, over and over if you like. And all for free. And as you see there, one of the main stories we're featuring is the exclusive interview Wolf had with Vice President Dick Cheney.
BROWN: He did. He aired that today. Thank you. I hope the prince gets a job.
CHOI: Yeah, well ...
BROWN: Hope he's able to get a job.
CHOI: With the media circus around him now, now that the deal's off. Because remember, they had that deal if he was in school, they kind of had to stay away. That's all -- all bets are off now.
BROWN: Boy. What a life. Just one stress after another. Thank you. Just a regular guy.In the new normal, terror drills have become almost as common as long lines at the airports. The challenge, of course, is making the drills realistic, turning a commercial airliner into a practice field seems pretty real. What happened in the air over Boston, the focus of tonight's "Security Watch." Here's CNN's Dan Lothian.
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DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On a mission to confront the threat of terrorism in the sky.
CARLO BOCCIA, DIR. BOSTON HOMELAND SECURITY: This is a very, very dangerous time we live in. And there are people that are looking to do us harm.LOTHIAN: As the head of homeland security in Boston, Carlo Boccia is on high alert. Two of the planes hijacked on 9/11 took off from Boston Logan International Airport. And the Transatlantic flight carrying shoe bomber Richard Reed was diverted to here.
BOCCIA: The threat and the vulnerability, still there.
LOTHIAN (on camera): That's why Boccia, along with dozens of state and federal agencies, and a major airline, are now closely analyzing a simulated hijacking exercise conducted here earlier this month. Trying to identify what worked and what different. Officials realize that even minor mistakes in a real attack could have deadly consequences.(voice-over): The elaborate drill, dubbed Operation Atlas, was the first of its kind. It began thousands of feet in the air, on an imaginary United Airlines flight from Paris to Chicago. Five armed terrorists tried to hijack this plane. And air marshals fought back. The pilots sent out a coded alert. And two if-15 fighter jets scrambled to intercept the commercial 757 and escort it down.
GEORGE NACCARA, FEDERAL SECURITY DIRECTOR: We raised the alert level from yellow to orange. And then it went to red.
LOTHIAN: Even though this is all staged, homeland security officials try to keep it as realistic as possible. From the equipment to the distractions. There's a careful assessment of the threats, before armed FBI agents and state police on the ground move in. A dummy is dumped from the plane's rear door, simulating a young passenger shot by the hijackers. With a situation this unstable, even the pilots are under suspicion.
BOCCIA: This drill tested all our capabilities.
LOTHIAN: Every step is carefully observed as teams eventually neutralize a terrorist. And release the 160 people acting as passengers. If this is the test, Boccia has the score.
BOCCIA: There were some glitches which is what -- and a lot of people got upset about the glitches because they didn't believe what we said beforehand. Listen, we intend to make some mistakes so we can improve.
LOTHIAN: For example, officials say that because of confusion, some emergency vehicles weren't brought in fast enough. There were other glitches. But no one is giving this exercise a failing grade.
NACCARA: The only failure in an exercise is the failure to learn. And that's why we have this opportunity
.LOTHIAN: Boccia says this kind of realistic training is the best way to protect passengers and people on the ground.
BOCCIA: Exercises certainly don't minimize the risk. The potential for an incident is still there. What it does is increases our ability to respond more timely, save more lives, be more effective in our recovery.
LOTHIAN: In the event that another group of terrorists slips through the security net. Dan Lothian, CNN, Boston.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Dumb statements make the front page. Morning papers next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Okay. Quick review of morning papers from around the country and around the world. Iraq on many of them."Rebels in Iraq not weaker, U.S. general says" -- that's the lead story in the "International Herald Tribune," or a front page story in the "International Herald Tribune."U.S. image abroad, even China's better. Doesn't sound like much good news. But there is. Hostilities not as bad as it was a year ago. And zombies on the rise. People clicking hoping to get nudes of Jennifer Lopez got a surprise instead. Their computer was taken over.The last crusade -- a last crusade in a career that reshaped American religion. "Christian Science Monitor" story on Billy Graham who opens a crusade in New York. Probably the last time he'll come to the city. "The Washington Times," "Rove's mockery of 9/11 liberals riles Democrats." Karl Rove making, I thought, some silly comments.And in a week of silly comments, the dumb Dick Durbin comments for which he apologized. Mr. Rove will not apologize, I guarantee you."Draw the line." Governor Pataki allowing museum that exhibits anti-American art to display its work at ground zero. "Daily News" not happy about that. The weather in Chicago tomorrow -- Sweatshop. We'll wrap it up."A Day in History" in a moment
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: On June 21st, 1964, three civil rights activists were murdered in Mississippi by a group of Klansmen. On the same day 41 years later, a breakthrough in the case as one of the accused, Edgar Ray Killen, was convicted of manslaughter for all three killings.In 1982, John Hinckley, Jr. was found innocent by reason of insanity in the shooting of President Reagan.And nearly 40,000 people were killed as an earthquake and a series of aftershocks rocked northern Iran on June 21st, 1990 and that is "This Week In History."
BROWN: Good to have you with us. We will see you tomorrow, 10 Eastern Time. Until them, good night from all of us.
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