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CNN Talkback Live
Free-for-All Friday
Aired August 03, 2001 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(MUSIC)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You were always there for me, and I will try to be there for you. I love you, Harlem.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a terrible thing to lose a player that's 27 years old like that. It's a sad day for everybody.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was smart. She was cautious. She carried mace on her key chain. She would have been very happy if she had been pregnant with Gary Condit's child.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This president has reached out to everybody. I can't imagine any president ever has reached out to more people to get a particular proposal through the Congress.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOBBIE BATTISTA, HOST: It all happened this week. Now, let's talk. It's "Free for All Friday."
OK, everybody, welcome to "Free-for-All Friday." We will take a look at the "Talk" magazine article detailing the desires and the expectations and the private life as Chandra Levy. That's just one of our topics today.
First, though, let's meet our panel if we can. Let's roll that up a little bit so we can get to our panel. And there we go. Somebody on prompter's kind of taking a nap here, I think. All right. We do have lots to cover this week. let's go ahead and meet the panel because the prompter is completely lost on us. In New York, Sam Greenfield is with us. He is the host of WEVD, "The Sam Greenfield Show" 1050 AM in New York.
SAM GREENFIELD, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Finally I am back, yes, thank you.
BATTISTA: I don't know what's going on. We are off to a really great start.
GREENFIELD: He is off getting coffee.
BATTISTA: Blanquita Cullum, is with us, a conservative radio talk show host.
BLANQUITA CULLUM, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: And we are in the same room together.
GREENFIELD: Cullum and Greenfield, "Unchained."
BATTISTA: That could get bloody up there.
In Washington, Julianne Malveaux is with us, the syndicated columnist.
JULIANNE MALVEAUX, COLUMNIST: The voice of reason.
GREENFIELD: Wow.
BATTISTA: That'll be the day. And in Los Angeles, Paul McGuire is with us, a radio talk show host for Crawford Broadcasting. He is also co-author of "Heal Your Past and Change Your Marriage."
Before we talk about Lisa DePaulo had to say in the article in "Talk" magazine, let's listen to a couple of sound bites from King last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE")
LISA DEPAULO, COLUMNIST, "TALK" MAGAZINE: It's a little creepy the way it was described. Sven, the way he described it to me was that she would get angry, try to force a confrontation, usually about this desire she had to get this commitment from him, and he would placate her. And she would go from being angry to being placated, from being angry to being placated and I believe she was placated at the end.
Sven Jones mentioned that she told him right at the end that she had a female problem.
ROGER COSSACK, GUEST HOST: Let me ask you about that. She told Sven Jones that she had a female problem. It's not for me to say what that might have been, but what do you think it was?
DEPAULO: You know, women don't usually refer to pregnancy as a female problem, especially women who want to be pregnant, which she did. She would have been very happy if she was pregnant with Gary Condit's child.
So, I don't think it was pregnancy. That doesn't mean that she -- I have discounted totally the possibility that she could have been, but I think it was something else. I think it might have been some kind of sexually transmitted thing, which, by the way would have been extremely upsetting to this women.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BATTISTA: All right, you guys. The article didn't necessarily answer any more questions, but you can't help but come away from it, I think, with the feeling that the friends and the family of Chandra Levy do feel strongly there is a connection between her disappearance and the congressman.
GREENFIELD: If everybody noticed, that woman, Lisa DePaulo, she never said anything that wasn't accompanied by, "we heard that," or, "this could be," or, "there's a rumor that."
This is it like watching "JFK," the movie. There is nothing substantiated -- "I heard," "this could have been."
BATTISTA: Well, most it of came...
MALVEAUX: That's how it's been all along. All we hear is speculation. If you watch some of the talk shows, I was watching something yesterday, three different networks and I think the number of times that people said "maybe," if I had a dollar each time, Bobbie, I could fly down and hang out with you.
CULLUM: Also you could go to the Psychic Friend's Network. We could start trying to do some sort of meditation to levitate the body. Chandra, was it an STD? Were you pregnant, girl? What was wrong? Are we surprised that this woman wanted Gary Condit to commit? Give me a break!
BATTISTA: So -- go ahead, Paul.
PAUL MCGUIRE, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: I hate to see the focus taken off of Gary Condit. Whether Chandra was pregnant or not, that's an interesting fact. But the bad person here is not Chandra. She's disappeared. She may even be dead. The real person real person responsible is Gary Condit.
MALVEAUX: We don't know that at all. We don't know that Gary Condit is responsible. This is a rushed judgment. We know that Chandra Levy is missing. We know that Gary Condit probably lied about his relationship with her. The rest of that is...
GREENFIELD: Did lie!
MALVEAUX: ... is speculation and that's part of the problem, is all of this speculation.
CULLUM: The problem is that he held back. He did not want to able be able to make it easier for the family. GREENFIELD: He was not forthcoming.
MCGUIRE: Exactly right.
CULLUM: No matter what happens, he looks slimy because he was worried about himself.
GREENFIELD: "I barley know her."
MALVEAUX: He may look slimy but let's not say that he is responsible for her disappearance.
MCGUIRE: I am not saying that Gary Condit is responsible for his disappearance, but Gary Condit is responsible for lying and having a series of very questionable sexual relationships with a lot of women. That's what Gary Condit is responsible for.
CULLUM: The difference in the political context, is that there is a whole lot of difference there between Gary Condit has done and maybe other members of Congress.
(CROSSTALK)
BATTISTA: Despite the fact that you guys all took the high road at the top of the show on all the speculation and hearsay, nobody is letting go of the story. I would imagine that your listeners aren't either.
GREENFIELD: No, if you have the story that has the words, Washington, D.C., congressman and intern in it, and you think that it will go away, no, no, no.
(LAUGHTER)
CULLUM: No, it would go away if, I suspect, Gary Condit were a colorful character. He looks like a choir boy that could have potentially gone bad.
GREENFIELD: He keeps busy.
MALVEAUX: I don't know what choirs you have been singing in, Blanquita but he doesn't look like a choir boy to me.
(CROSSTALK)
CULLUM: And he's from your side of the isle. He's was pretty quiet, non de script. Looked like an old beach guy.
GREENFIELD: But he votes with Bush a lot. He's a conservative.
(CROSSTALK)
MCGUIRE: Wait,. Gary Condit is a Democrat. Let's not portray him as a conservative.
(CROSSTALK) BATTISTA: One at a time.
(CROSSTALK)
MALVEAUX: He is a conservative. He was a leader of the gang of five, that (UNINTELLIGIBLE) off Willie Brown. And Willie Brown...
(CROSSTALK)
BATTISTA: Let me ask you this, he may not be leaning one way or the other come a year from November...
CULLUM: Bobbie, what I think that Julianne is trying to say in that one and we so seldom agree, but that is, if you -- just having an R behind your name or a D behind your name doesn't mean that you vote liberal. You can vote liberal conservative and moderate.
GREENFIELD: Look at this Congress, for example.
MCGUIRE: I love the spin control in all of this, but the reality is a Democrat.
(CROSSTALK)
GREENFIELD: That's the ninth time that you said that Gary Condit is a Democrat. That doesn't mean that he is a liberal or conservative. That means he comes from a certain party. But if you are going to reduce it to a political stereotype then you are being silly.
MALVEAUX: His party has nothing to do with his morality. You have got sleaze on both sides of the isle.
MCGUIRE: True.
MCGUIRE: You can holler Democrat until you are blue in the face, how do you spell Newt Gingrich, Mr. Spellmeister?
(APPLAUSE)
CULLUM: What you are talking about is bad behavior. And the fact of the matter is that bad behavior doesn't know a political party.
MCGUIRE: I agree.
CULLUM: And what I think is very interesting is that now Dianne Feinstein has decided to take the guy on and say that he lied to her, and I think part of that is now it's safe they probably have someone that is going to run in his place from the Democratic side of the aisle, so now he may become more expendable. I think that it's interesting that they don't try to...
GREENFIELD: Neither side went after him. The Democrats did not go after him because he was a Democrat -- wait a minute -- and the Republicans didn't go after him because he voted conservative most of the time. So neither party went after him. Now that he is teetering, everybody is coming up to blow him off of the road.
(CROSSTALK)
BATTISTA: Hold on. Julianne, go.
MALVEAUX: Dianne Feinstein has known this guy for a couple of decades. He was in the California assembly. When she called him and he said he had nothing to do with Chandra Levy, the Democratic women in California came out in his favor. They do feel betrayed. They should feel betrayed. He did lie, Blanquita. It's not that they are kicking him while he is down, it's that he basically let them down.
CULLUM: Well, if the Democrats took that position, why didn't they take that position with Bill Clinton? He lied a lot.
GREENFIELD: I can't believe that you would drag Clinton's name into this.
(CROSSTALK)
GREENFIELD: ...it's unbelievable. There he is, there he is.
BATTISTA: Let's go to the audience here quickly. Up to the audience, up to the top row -- Danny.
DANNY: Yeah I would just like to say that it doesn't really matter what platform Condit is. I mean, the bottom line is Chandra Levy is missing. He has got to do what he can to help speed up the process of finding her. I mean all of this talk about the platform and everything else, needs to take the back seat right now.
And the point is, he is in a public position where he needs to do what he can to help out, and he hasn't done that. What he has done, he has basically slowed down the process and he needs to help out and get off of his, you-know-what.
(APPLAUSE)
(CROSSTALK)
MCGUIRE: Both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party need to police their own parties. And whether he's a Republican or a Democrat, in this case, he just happens to be a Democrat. He should be asked to step down.
GREENFIELD: Yeah, that's going to happen real soon. They are going to start wagging their fingers at each other over bad behavior? Yeah, that is happening today.
MALVEAUX: There is no reason for people to ask people to step down. As I said earlier, if you want to do a roll call through this Congress of who has been an adulterer. You will not have a forum when you are finished.
(BELL RINGING)
BATTISTA: We will take the bell on that one. Time to move on.
In just a moment, a good week for President Bush as he logs a House win on energy and a patients' bill of rights. Meanwhile, Bill Clinton back in the spotlight. Will he be good for Harlem?
Take the TALKBACK LIVE, online viewer vote at CNN.com/talkback, AOL keyword: CNN. While there, check out my note and send us an e- mail. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BATTISTA: Welcome back. Well, who is the comeback kid? This week, former President Bill Clinton was back in form, smiling, shaking hands, meeting new neighbors as he proclaimed Harlem his new home.
Of course it is just a business office, but it sure brought Mr. Clinton back into the limelight. Meanwhile, President Bush is basking in victory as the House passes the patients' bill of rights and an energy bill that he said that he can live with. Victory in hand, he will head for a month long working vacation at his Texas ranch in Crawford tomorrow.
Julianne, who was the real comeback kid this week?
MALVEAUX: Well, I actually have to give it to Mr. Bush. Although I think that Mr. Clinton looked really well. But Mr. Bush was able to get some things through that he didn't think he was going to get through. He looks good right now in Washington. He has decent numbers.
Bill Clinton's trip to Harlem, I am an African-American Clinton fan, but frankly, Harlem was his second choice, No. 1. So I am not jumping up and down that he's there. No. 2, the gentrification aspect of his being there, rising rents for everyone, raised a lot of questions. I am glad it see him out there, and he is the same old Bubba that we have all came to know and love. I am not sure what this means from a policy perspective.
GREENFIELD: Listen, if he wants to be a good neighbor as he said he wanted to be, you know what he should do? He should spring for the moving vans that are going to come and take the people out of their apartments when the rents triple.
Gentrification is on its way and he is the beach head for that in Harlem.
CULLUM: And you know the funny thing about that is, he was going to Harlem, as Julianne says, choice No. 2.
GREENFIELD: We don't know if it was two.
CULLUM: No, no, it was choice No. 2, and the thing is, he was going to go there because it was going to save us more money. And now we look at his pension that's almost going to be $1 million. It's incredible, but you know, he's good theater, and someone wrote that Clinton makes you smile -- he does -- you kind of laugh, when your life if not dependent upon it, you can laugh about it.
BATTISTA: He's like a bad dog, do you know what I mean?
(CROSSTALK)
MALVEAUX: The pension is not the issue. Clinton wanted to go to Fifth Avenue, it was $800,000.
GREENFIELD: We are paying for all of their pensions.
(CROSSTALK)
MCGUIRE: It's the same old Bill Clinton. It's all posturing, it's all P.R. Bill Clinton doesn't love Harlem. Bill Clinton loves Bill Clinton. He doesn't love Hillary, he doesn't love Monica, He loves Bill. (CROSSTALK)
BATTISTA: What are you saying, Paul, do you think that he is -- what sort of a -- what sort of thing do you think that he is launching in Harlem? Do you think that he is trying to get back into control?
MCGUIRE: This is a P.R. to say, I feel your pain. I love everybody. Bill Clinton doesn't love Harlem. He doesn't have any affinity to the culture there. Bill Clinton is only concerned about himself and possibly his wife's ratings. That is Bill Clinton strategy.
(CROSSTALK)
MALVEAUX: Why don't you give bill Clinton a chance?
MCGUIRE: We gave Bill Clinton a chance for nine years!
(CROSSTALK)
BATTISTA: Hold on, let me go to the audience on this one. I have to break you guys up. To the audience. Go ahead, Aaron.
AARON: Hi, I just think that it's important to consider that the rents in Harlem were going up regardless of whether Bill Clinton moved there or not. It is the new hot area in New York, and...
GREENFIELD: He's right but he is the beach head for that. He is absolutely the beach head.
CULLUM: Bill Clinton should have moved to Broadway.
MCGUIRE: Exactly, or Hollywood.
(CROSSTALK)
GREENFIELD: That is where he is, with a beautiful view of Central Park.
(CROSSTALK) BATTISTA: I will tell you what would be a problem for me as a member of the press is that one month vacation in Crawford, Texas.
(CROSSTALK)
GREENFIELD: Not politically, the press was hoping Gore would win because he likes to vacation at the beach. This is Waco, Texas. They have mosquitoes this big, this big in Waco.
CULLUM: I the Texan here, and I will tell you, have you ever had the barbecue in Crawford, Texas?
(CROSSTALK)
BATTISTA: Blanquita -- Blanquita, let me ask you this, what do you do in Crawford, Texas, other than swap mosquitoes eat barbecue?
CULLUM: They do a lot of things. They watch the ice melt, and they kid around...
GREENFIELD: It's action central.
CULLUM: I will tell you what they really do, if you go to Crawford, Texas, they are just very nice people.
GREENFIELD: Yeah, sure, they are hydrated.
CULLUM: And they care about you, they will say howdy on the street. Have you ever been out there and done the Texas two-step?
GREENFIELD: Yes, when I ate some bad chile. That place is too hot.
BATTISTA: Let me ask Julianne and Paul. Is anybody concerned that he is taking a month off? Usually presidents only take a couple weeks.
(CROSSTALK)
BATTISTA: One at a time, one at a time, Julianne first.
MALVEAUX: The average American gets two weeks off. And so I mean this president has already had the image of Mr. Leisurely. When someone was coming into the back gate of the White House trying to break in, he was upstairs working out while Cheney was working.
This is type three laid-back president and this just proves it.
BATTISTA: Paul, Paul?
MCGUIRE: I think it sends a very bad message to the American people to be president of the United States, be in office for six months and take a one month vacation. I would love a one-month vacation.
CULLUM: Let me tell you that I think that Mr. Bush is out there...
GREENFIELD: Yes he is!
CULLUM: ... and having an opportunity to be able to meet with some of the advisers on these issues that are very delicate. Now look...
MCGUIRE: Let him do it in Washington, D.C.
CULLUM: Why?
GREENFIELD: Yeah, let's do it at the White House.
CULLUM: Why can't he do it in Texas?
(CROSSTALK)
CULLUM: What do you think he went to Camp David for?
GREENFIELD: They went to Camp David for R&R. That's why they went.
(CROSSTALK)
MALVEAUX: His whole presidency is R&R.
BATTISTA: Let me go to Jackie into the audience, quickly -- Jackie.
JACKIE: For my job, I travel a lot, and I visit New York a lot. And Harlem is a beautiful place. When I go with my non-African- American friends, they will invite me to Soho, to the Village; I say Harlem, and no, no one wants to go. So I would like it, and I hope that Bill Clinton coming to Harlem will put an emphasis on the cultural Harlem.
Harlem is a great place. You hear about the bad things, but bad things happen on the East Side of Manhattan.
MCGUIRE: I am from New York City. The last time I went to Harlem, I almost got mugged. It may be wonderful for you, but I have to take my life in my hands.
(CROSSTALK)
BATTISTA: That could happen anymore in New York.
(CROSSTALK)
MCGUIRE: Walk down 125th Street.
(CROSSTALK)
MALVEAUX: Harlem is being gentrified with or without Clinton. But it's a beautiful place, there is wonderful culture, and this notion -- you would get mugged anywhere you went, with your mouth. MCGUIRE: If I was to say that to you -- that kind of reversed racist statement -- you wouldn't like it.
MALVEAUX: Please, there is no race in here at all.
(CROSSTALK)
MALVEAUX: You are about as paranoid as you could be. You are paranoid. Where's the race?
MCGUIRE: I don't know any white person in New York City that feels comfortable walking on 125th Street in Harlem at night.
(CROSSTALK)
BATTISTA: Let me ask Sam.
Hold on.
MALVEAUX: I know white people who live on 127th Street. Come on!
(CROSSTALK)
BATTISTA: Sam is a white guy who lives in New York. Let me ask Sam.
(CROSSTALK)
GREENFIELD: I am the white guy who lives in New York, and let me tell you something. There are neighborhoods in Harlem where I feel safer than African-Americans might feel in certain white neighborhoods in New York.
(CROSSTALK)
MCGUIRE: Beautiful, politically correct mantra.
(CROSSTALK)
MCGUIRE: You should continue to chat your beautiful, politically correct mantra. It means nothing.
(CROSSTALK)
MALVEAUX: Harlem has become so gentrified that on 127th Street, you have brownstones going for $800,000, and many African-Americans can't afford them. So if I don't know what this guy is talking about, if he's walking around with a chip on his shoulder, call that racial, if you want to...
(CROSSTALK)
BATTISTA: Let me go to Michelle.
(CROSSTALK) BATTISTA: There's a Michelle in the audience, you guys, who lives in New York.
You live where, Michelle?
MICHELLE: I live in Washington Heights, a few blocks away from Harlem. So I think that, basically, of course, it's a little bit of a dangerous area, but there are so many parts of it that are so beautiful, so rich in culture, and I think it's so embedded in that area that Clinton moving there is never going to alter the whole flavor of the community. And if anything, maybe it will improve security and make other people appreciate other aspects of it.
But I think completely to criticize the area for being violent and unsafe is totally unwarranted.
BATTISTA: That will be the last word on that. We're moving on.
Up next, football and heat stroke. It has happened a couple of times in recent weeks -- most notably to Vikings star Korey Stringer, who died on Wednesday. Who is to blame? We'll talk about that. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BATTISTA: Radio talk show industry magazine "Talkers" lists the patients' bill of rights, energy policy, Korey Stringer's death, the Chandra Levy case, and Clinton in Harlem as the top five topics of the week.
Minnesota officials are investigating the death of Vikings tackle Korey Stringer. The 27-year-old player died Wednesday from heat stroke. Vikings coaches say they followed all of rules and precautions during team practices.
You guys, we had a discussion on this yesterday with a couple of former pro football players and a sports columnist, and it got heated as to who they felt was to blame. I realize that Korey's funeral is today, and we're talking about blame, but at the same time, there is an investigation now into his death and whether or not the team might have been negligent.
I don't know what they would prosecute them for, other than having this attitude that these guys have to go to the limit in order to survive in pro football.
Excuse me, Sam, but Bobbie, look at this. It's different in high school. In high school, the coach is responsible for the team. To those kids, they say drink water, practice, do whatever. But these guys are professional athletes; these are million-dollar machines. They go to training, and sometimes they arrive at training, and they are not in shape. They have this little bit of machismo that they don't want to let people know that they are overheated or tired.
IN some ways, when they are megastars, they're getting paid to be in the top shape of their lives, and some of that responsibility -- a big priority on that responsibility should go to the athlete himself.
(CROSSTALK)
BATTISTA: Is Korey Stringer less than a machine?
MCGUIRE: I don't agree at all.
(CROSSTALK)
BATTISTA: I think what she is saying, though, is that -- I understand going back out on the field and playing with a broken finger or a pulled muscle or something like that, but when you start getting ridiculed by other teammates because you took water in the middle of practice or you threw up...
GREENFIELD: He let them know he was sick. He had thrown up three times. When you say you don't want to let them know. I promise you that what happened to Korey Stringer happens every day in this country, during this kind of heat. They play indoors -- this is what I don't understand -- they play indoors. Why weren't you practicing indoors in 110 degrees? I know, to lose the weight. Then you shouldn't be in a business where you could almost die.
(CROSSTALK)
MCGUIRE: Nobody gets paid enough money to die.
MALVEAUX: There were 18 people who have died of these kinds of heat strokes since 1995. This was the first pro football situation, but this has happened before. I do think that there is some liability on the part of the industry, for pushing people in this way and treating them, really, like machines. After you have vomited, there's a doctor that takes them off the field and lets them rest.
BATTISTA: I would think that everyone would agree that once is once is one too many times.
MCGUIRE: Absolutely.
BATTISTA: Because this is a preventable death.
MCGUIRE: Too much pressure on athletes.
MCGUIRE: Once is too many.
GREENFIELD: Do you know what it's going to be? In 1982, the Redskins won a Super Bowl with one guy over 300 pounds on the offensive line. Now at 300, you are the lightest guys. These people cannot shed enough water without that engine inside of them exploding. What you are going to have to do is either get smaller guys or start practicing indoors and at night. These people.
(CROSSTALK)
GREENFIELD: These people -- when the Houston Astros were the Houston Colt .45s, they never played a baseball game in Houston when it was outdoors during the daytime. There's a reason for that.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Excuse me, but they're professional athletes who make incredible money. These are guys who are making $1 million and $2 million a year.
MCGUIRE: But $1 million doesn't pay for somebody's death.
BATTISTA: And the point is?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At some point, they are responsible.
(CROSSTALK)
MALVEAUX: They are making millions, but that doesn't mean that they are not human beings. It doesn't mean that they can't be affected by heat.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't disagree with that.
(CROSSTALK)
BATTISTA: Let me get some audience.
(CROSSTALK)
MALVEAUX: Don't threw the $1 million in there as if it means that they are subhuman.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It means that if they are supposed to be in shape when they show up for the game, they need to be in shape.
GREENFIELD: No, they are not.
MALVEAUX: This guy was in better shape than he had been in much of his career. He was 338.
(CROSSTALK)
BATTISTA: Let me get the audience in on this one really quickly. A couple of e-mails. Tom says I hope coaching staffs will learn from the Korey Stringer tragedy. I hope the players will heed the warning signs of heat stroke if they are overcome. We don't need to see another tragedy like this again.
David in Arkansas says, My sympathy goes out to Korey's family and the Vikings. It's my opinion that practices should be held inside, because of the heat.
Let me take Bibi on the phone, in Texas -- Bibi.
BIBI: Am I on?
BATTISTA: Yes. BIBI: Three points. No. 1, you can't put a dollar amount on anyone's life. This is really tragic. I think that the NFL needs to take some responsibility. He was taken off the field Monday. He was taken off the field Monday. He shouldn't have been allowed to get back on the field.
BATTISTA: Yesterday, Chuck Smith was here, and we were talking with him. He talked a lot about the pressure that these players are under, Paul, which I think you were alluding to, a few moments ago, and saying it comes all the way from the top. And actually, he felt it started with the fans. The fans expect that.
GREENFIELD: How many of us have seen that thermometer on a field, especially when it's Astroturf, in a baseball game, and you'll see it's 125 degrees on the field -- on the field -- and these guys are playing and sweating, and this is just something I am amazed that doesn't happen more. It's a tribute to the fact they're in shape it doesn't happen more.
MCGUIRE: There's too much pressure -- I agree with you, Bobbie, totally -- there's too much pressure on athletes. There shouldn't be deaths; $1 million doesn't compensate for the fact that Korey's dead.
CULLUM: I agree.
MALVEAUX: And he's got a young son -- he's got a young son, and a wife -- a widow now. And so all the speculation -- the fact is that the coaches should be far more humane. But I know that humane and NFL are -- that's like oxymoronic.
(CROSSTALK)
GREENFIELD: There's tons of water there. That's not always true, Julianne. There's tons of water; there's tons of Gatorade. Those guys have all the water they want. He's too big. You can't expend the water out...
(CROSSTALK)
BATTISTA: ... they did talk about that.
(CROSSTALK)
MALVEAUX: ... if you're out Monday, how come you can't take out Tuesday as well? I mean, pressures notwithstanding, there could be rules that say, if you're that sick, don't come back to work.
(CROSSTALK)
(BELL RINGING)
(CROSSTALK)
BATTISTA: Janet in the audience -- you get the last word Janet, go ahead.
JANET: All right.
Hi, guys, I just want to say I think -- I mean, granted this is a very sad time for Mr. Stringer and his family and teammates. But I think it points to a larger issue. Not to place blame, but really that we live in this culture where we really just glamorize this kind of hyper-competition. And by the time we get to the NFL it is too late. And we need to teach our boys, especially -- female athletes, too, of course -- but there is tremendous pressure.
Anyone who's -- even at high school sports understands that competition. And it's not about water, it's not the money. It's I mean, you know, we need to equip our boys with the ability to say no and to say it's too much, it's too hot, and that be OK.
BATTISTA: All right. We'll take a break.
Coming up next: Those prying eyes are watching you. Are you ready for cameras spying on you at red lights? We'll be back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BATTISTA: All right. Cameras at red lights: Will they help catch the bad guys who run them and cut down on accidents? Is the intrusion on your privacy worth it?
Just a little too Big Brother for you, Paul.
MCGUIRE: Absolutely. I want Big Brother out of the streets. I don't want my e-mails monitored, my faxes; I don't want cameras aimed at me. Get Big Brother out of this country. Let's restore freedom.
GREENFIELD: Paul, you're forgetting one thing: this will cure smoking, because if you're driving by and the ash falls off and the camera gets you with your hand down here...
MCGUIRE: Exactly.
(CROSSTALK)
GREENFIELD: .. that's right. Put the butt out.
CULLUM: I had a very interesting experience that happened to me in Washington, D.C. about -- almost a month ago. I was driving on 14th Street close to the White House, and I saw a little lady coming out who was in a wheelchair. And she was almost a paraplegic -- she could barely move the wheelchair with one hand. And this van was coming around the corner, and he hits her.
Now, the light has turned yellow. I mean, this guy hits her, she falls over, he leaves her. I'm sitting there looking at this thinking, do I try to help her or do I go get him? Well, I saw people coming to her so I -- I mean, I went through the light to get the guy. And I told him to go back and help her and I was going to call the cops.
And I thought about it. The camera wouldn't have caught him. They would not have caught him. So I'm sitting there thinking, well, what good is it? It's good for revenue. I mean, you know, it really increases the revenue there. But it wouldn't have caught him.
And the other part of that was trying to call the police in Washington, D.C., it took me two hours to get them. I tried every which way...
MALVEAUX: Oh girl, stop.
(CROSSTALK)
MALVEAUX: Blanquita, Blanquita, I'm a District resident. If you dial 911 you would have gotten the police.
(CROSSTALK)
CULLUM: ... that is not true.
(CROSSTALK)
BATTISTA: ... what I don't understand from that...
(CROSSTALK)
BATTISTA: ... you say the camera wouldn't have gotten him because it was a yellow light, right?
(CROSSTALK)
BATTISTA: I almost got broadsided last week by a car that ran a red light. I mean, I feel like if there had been a camera, that guy would have gotten caught, and he almost killed me.
(CROSSTALK)
MALVEAUX: But you know what, Bobbie, my concern about this is this: I don't drive very much. I leave my car in my garage and friends borrow it. My car gets flagged, I'm paying somebody else's ticket. I don't think that's fair either.
(CROSSTALK)
GREENFIELD: Everybody here on another segment said there's no price tag on someone's life. What are you doing as you run a light that you could be...
(CROSSTALK)
GREENFIELD: ... besides running the light? Nothing.
CULLUM: What happens is you're going to have a lot of invasion of privacy like you have in Tampa, where they're looking at pictures of people and checking to see if they're criminals. We are still a country that is innocent until proven guilty.
GREENFIELD: And if you're not a criminal, what you are worried about?
CULLUM: And, you know, listen, why not get cops on those corners? Why...
(CROSSTALK)
MCGUIRE: Well, why not just tattoo numbers on our foreheads...
(CROSSTALK)
MCGUIRE: We're going to lose all our freedoms in this country.
(CROSSTALK)
MALVEAUX: I could argue both sides of this thing, because the flip side of it is you do have so many people who are running lights, and this does cause major loss of life. I mean, as I said, I could argue either side of it. But people should not run lights, and we should penalize them...
(CROSSTALK)
GREENFIELD: You know what's a great freedom? A great freedom is...
(CROSSTALK)
MCGUIRE: ... we're turning America into a Big Brother state...
CULLUM: That's true.
MCGUIRE: We don't need cameras. We don't need government monitoring e-mails. We don't need Echelon surveillance. This is supposed to be a free country, we have to keep it that way.
MALVEAUX: What would do you about people running lights, sir -- whatever? What would you do about people running lights?
MCGUIRE: Well, what you're tying to do is corner me into saying there should be a camera in every bathroom and every street corner...
(CROSSTALK)
MALVEAUX: I'm just asking you a question.
MCGUIRE: You're not asking me a question. You're baiting me with a manipulative statement.
(CROSSTALK)
MALVEAUX: You can't even take a question. Like I said, you've got a chip on your shoulder, man.
(CROSSTALK)
BATTISTA: ... audience. (CROSSTALK)
MCGUIRE: ... issue so you have to do the manipulation dance. The bottom line is...
(CROSSTALK)
BATTISTA: Let me go to the audience and get Shamale -- Shamwell.
SHAMWELL: I'm for it because, first of all, I read something about it -- about those -- the little Big Brother -- the cameras. That a statistic proved that it has helped with finding people that have done the hit-and-runs, who have hit people. And it does slow down those drivers.
CULLUM: We're a country that still believes -- we still believe that you are innocent until proven guilty.
(CROSSTALK)
BATTISTA: Well, if a camera catches you running a red light, you're guilty, aren't you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, the idea that if you aren't breaking the law you have nothing to worry about is ludicrous. I still believe that we have a legal right to face our accusers in a courtroom, and I'd like to see how a video camera can be a true accuser in a crime. A policeman standing on the corner watching you go through is a human making a judgment...
(CROSSTALK)
GREENFIELD: Excuse me, there are cops all over this country that have VCR cameras mounted when they pull over drunk drivers all the time...
MCGUIRE: That's totally different.
(CROSSTALK)
MCGUIRE: ... making a recording of a specific incident for legal reasons. That's totally different.
(CROSSTALK)
MALVEAUX: Does anybody think that publicizing putting cameras out there might deter people from running lights?
(CROSSTALK)
MCGUIRE: Well why don't we are have a camera in every office, in every hallway, in every bedroom in America?
(CROSSTALK)
CULLUM: Why should we have a society that is based on fear, that we're afraid that we're going to do something wrong?
GREENFIELD: Can i explain why? I can explain why. Because -- I'll tell you why: the law is not for you, Blanquita.
CULLUM: Of course, it is.
GREENFIELD: It's for the -- no, no, no. It's for the idiots. It is. You drive fine. You drive very well. You don't run...
CULLUM: Well...
(CROSSTALK)
BATTISTA: Let me go to -- let me go to Beverly here in the audience. Beverly, go ahead.
BEVERLY: I think it's a very good law that they enact. Now, I think we should get it really proactive, that people are held responsible for their actions. And I'm sure that (UNINTELLIGIBLE) a lot of people from breaking red lights.
CULLUM: But why do we have to...
(BELL RINGING)
BATTISTA: That's it. Still ahead, you wanted your MTV and you got it for 20 years now. Can you believe that? I feel so old. We'll talk about that and Mariah Carey's call for help -- back after this.
Mariah Carey is of Venezuelan, African-American and Irish descent. Before making it big as a pop star, she worked as a coat- check girl, a beauty salon janitor and a back-up singer. She has since married and divorced music mogul Tommy Mottola, sold millions of albums and won over 30 awards.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BATTISTA: We'll get to Mariah in just a minute. Wednesday night, MTV celebrated its 20th birthday, an aging network with an eye toward youth that launched the video era and has consistently worked to keep ahead of the curve, introducing us to reality TV, for example, with "The Real World," and currently wooing the youngest now with its "Total Request Live."
Twenty years of MTV, it's hard to believe. Sam, is it something to celebrate?
GREENFIELD: Sure, if you have stock in MTV. I think MTV has been one of the -- and god, I feel old saying this -- but I think MTV is one of the most irresponsible networks that has ever been on this planet. They didn't have...
MCGUIRE: Amen.
GREENFIELD: ... African-Americans on the show until they had Michael Jackson a year after they debuted. When they show African- Americans in rap records, they will window out, erase the marijuana leaf but they will show a 9 millimeter Glock in his back pocket.
They have TV shows that purport -- they show African-American males in "The Real World" who always seem to be in trouble and getting kicked out of the group. They have a woman who's Polynesian who always winds up dead drunk. The music today sucks.
There's a reason that 19-year-olds know who Led Zeppelin is today, because today's music bites. There's nothing new and original.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you know...
GREENFIELD: Rock'n'roll is four chords and we've played them. It's over.
BATTISTA: There's a bunch -- there's a bunch of 13-year-old boys in this audience. They're all like (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
GREENFIELD: And I know he disagrees with me and thinks I'm an old gas bag, but I'm right.
CULLUM: But Sam, you make a point. The other part of it is when MTV started doing that, television was pretty tame. Television didn't have outrageous facts. It didn't have, you know, programs that were reality-based. They didn't have kind of off-color, semi-off-color sitcoms. Now, they're just kind of (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and boring.
(CROSSTALK)
BATTISTA: Let me get Paul in here. Paul, go ahead.
(CROSSTALK)
MCGUIRE: Look, look, instead of celebrating their 20th anniversary, we ought to fall down on our faces and be ashamed. MTV has promoted irresponsible, promiscuous sex. It's promoted violence, degrading of women in its images. MTV is poison to America's youth. Why are we celebrating their 20th anniversary?
CULLUM: Well, based on that -- based on that...
BATTISTA: Let me get Julianne...
CULLUM: No, wait a minute.
BATTISTA: Julianne, do you want to comment on this?
(CROSSTALK)
MALVEAUX: ... my turn. It's my turn Blanquita.
BATTISTA: Julianne...
MALVEAUX: Blanquita, my turn. Thank you, sis.
(LAUGHTER) You annoy what, I actually agree with Paul on the imagery of women. I don't think there's a whole heck of a lot to celebrate with MTV. It was old for me and I was in my 20s when it came out, and it's old for me now. I mean, it just is like "Ugh!"
I think that it's basically the soft-porn aspects of it...
MCGUIRE: Yes.
MALVEAUX: ... combined with the imagery of women have led us down a slippery slope where you cannot see a woman full-clothed in any of these music videos. They're half-clad, rolling around a couch, espousing values that are horrible.
MCGUIRE: Yes.
MALVEAUX: I'm going to beat you up because you took my man. No, beat the man up, he's the dog. I mean, you've...
(LAUGHTER)
You know, put these values -- you have people walking down the street to go, you know, go beat someone up or something. It's just ridiculous.
BATTISTA: You guys, hold up just a minute. I'm going to talk to parents and kids in the audience who are -- some of these young people are about to rise up. Tracy, go ahead. You're a mom?
TRACY: Yes, I am. I have teenage children, and though I don't like the music we have now, I do think that MTV has done a fantastic job of being dynamic and changing in 20 years to what the kids today want.
We're all sounding like our parents sounded when they didn't like our music.
(CROSSTALK)
MCGUIRE: I'm glad you're not raising my kids. I'm glad you're not the mom of my kids. God forbid you should be raising my kids.
(CROSSTALK)
BATTISTA: Let me go -- you guys...
(CROSSTALK)
Let me go to some young folks in the audience. Everett, go ahead.
EVERETT: Umm, about degrading women, I mean, these women choose to be on these videos and wear that kind of stuff. I mean...
MCGUIRE: That's no excuse.
EVERETT: ... there's nothing wrong with...
(CROSSTALK)
MCGUIRE: That's no excuse. That's no excuse.
EVERETT: ... they choose to do this.
MCGUIRE: That is no excuse.
CULLUM: Well, you know, you make a very good point. And let me tell you why you make a good point, and I agree and I disagree. Yes, they do make a choice to be on that video, and people are going to see them be degraded. They've made a bad choice.
But the other point is that I think those music videos, they've become hackneyed. They've become boring. It's not -- you know, when they first started showing MTV videos, it was something different and novel. Now, the only thing they can do is not become good but become more outrageous, because they think that will get ratings. But you know, frankly, it should be good. It's just boring now.
GREENFIELD: Twenty years from now there will be people...
(CROSSTALK)
MCGUIRE: MTV -- MTV glorifies the sexual exploitation of women.
BATTISTA: Let me go -- you guys, let me go Pam in the audience. She's been watching since day one.
GREENFIELD: Sure, you bet.
PAM: I have watched it since it first came on, and I've watched it off and on since then, and I think it reflects society today, not the opposite.
MCGUIRE: But that doesn't -- that doesn't...
(CROSSTALK)
MALVEAUX: That's a sad commentary. That may well be the case, but it's a very sad commentary.
CULLUM: Right.
MALVEAUX: And I think that, you know, the young man's comment about the women making choices, I mean, we can connect it to some of the things...
(BELL RINGING)
BATTISTA: I'm going to segue quickly into the fact that Grammy winner Mariah Carey was supposed to be a headliner at Wednesday's MTV bash. Instead, she's under psychiatric care for what's described as a complete emotional and physical breakdown. You know, we were talking about the pressure on football players. This is kind of the same thing. You know, she's 31 now and facing -- what? -- the pressures of the Britney Spears.
GREENFIELD: A football player can be overweight. She can't. The pressure on her -- she's 32. In that business, she might as well be 72.
BATTISTA: Well, I have to...
(CROSSTALK)
GREENFIELD: Come on, come on.
MCGUIRE: We need compassion toward Mariah Carey.
(CROSSTALK)
Mariah Carey has been under a lot of pressure. We need to look at Mariah Carey. She's under a lot of pressure.
GREENFIELD: I'd love to.
MCGUIRE: It's a very difficult job she has, and I think she needs our prayers and encouragement, not our condescension or criticism.
MALVEAUX: At the same time, these are choices that she's made. She's made choices to run the money train, to pack her schedule, not to have balance in her life.
GREENFIELD: It's a high-pressure business.
MALVEAUX: I don't think that we need to be condescending to her...
GREENFIELD: You don't make that kind of money...
MALVEAUX: But I think that we need to raise questions about the way that people choose to live their lives in terms...
MCGUIRE: I agree.
CULLUM: Why, why?
MALVEAUX: ... of issues of balance.
CULLUM: Why, why, why?
(CROSSTALK)
MALVEAUX: If she could have the same month off...
CULLUM: Why, why, why?
MALVEAUX: ... that baby Bush could have... (CROSSTALK)
BATTISTA: Blanquita, why are you saying why?
(CROSSTALK)
BATTISTA: Hold on, hold on.
GREENFIELD: ... pressure.
BATTISTA: Blanquita, go ahead.
CULLUM: Why do we -- why do we have to be involved in the choices that she makes as an individual?
GREENFIELD: Yeah.
CULLUM: That's ridiculous. But you know, she's in a very high- pressure gig where age is very -- very, very sensitive. I mean at 32 she looks great, but I'm sure that somewhere she's seeing the younger women coming up. Also, she didn't have a big success with her last record, so she's got to try to keep current. It's very hard to maintain when you're on the top like that.
GREENFIELD: I was talking to (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the other day and...
CULLUM: But, well, you know what, I -- I tell you maybe the rest will help her be able to reconfigure where she has to go. The great artists that we've all loved, the reason they've maintained so well is they keep refreshing themselves, coming back. That's why people like Madonna have been so successful. That's why we like guys like Frank Sinatra, who did radio and television and did music, because they were multifaceted...
GREENFIELD: Or Elton John, who still...
(CROSSTALK)
MCGUIRE: Look, there's a similarity between...
(CROSSTALK)
MCGUIRE: ... what happened to Korey and what happened to Mariah. They're tied together. What happened to Korey is similar to what happened to Mariah. There's too much pressure on celebrity athletes, celebrity musicians...
CULLUM: But that's why they're at the top. That's why they're...
(CROSSTALK)
BATTISTA: Whoa, hold on, hold on, hold on. Let me do a couple of e-mails here. John in Utah says: "The fact that a network like MTV has lasted for 20 years is a sickening thing. Few institutions in our country have done more to undermine the principles of traditional family values. They flaunt immorality to our impressionable youth."
Cobb in Florida says: "These people are too old to talk about MTV."
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
MALVEAUX: I confess, I confess.
BATTISTA: And David -- we all take offense at that. David in New York says: "There are some very pressing issues in the forefront of the news. Do we really have time to concern ourselves with the mood swings of an egotistic self-described diva?"
(APPLAUSE)
All right. Time for the bell.
(CROSSTALK)
GREENFIELD: Let me say this real quick. She's under a lot of pressure...
BATTISTA: She is under a lot of pressure.
GREENFIELD: But that's where the big money is. You know something, the guy who serves you a burger...
(CROSSTALK)
BATTISTA: Well, why does she have to make such big money?
(CROSSTALK)
You have a choice, Sam, about how much money you make.
GREENFIELD: And she knew that with that came pressure.
CULLUM: And all of the people that would love to have the opportunity...
(CROSSTALK)
MALVEAUX: ... she could do it.
BATTISTA: Just say no. Just say no occasionally.
CULLUM: But Bobbie, but Bobbie, there are people who would love to have the opportunity to have that chance. She got there. She's had the shot. And so yes, there's pressure, but there's pressure when you want to be a star.
GREENFIELD: Take the money and run.
CULLUM: There's pressure when you want to be a CEO. There's pressure...
MCGUIRE: Mariah still needs our compassion.
(CROSSTALK)
CULLUM: ... TV hosts like you, Bobbie, there's pressure.
MCGUIRE: Mariah still needs our compassion and our prayers.
BATTISTA: There's pressure on me to end this segment.
MALVEAUX: Well, she may need compassion and prayers, but at the same time, I think we need to look at the issue of balance, because there are so many young people who aspire to positions like hers -- think about issues of balance, think about the ups and downs of getting off the merry-go-round.
GREENFIELD: No one that successful...
MALVEAUX: That's the message here. That's the lesson.
(BELL RINGING)
BATTISTA: All right. That's the lesson, that's the bell. We'll have the results of our online viewer vote when we come back.
Meanwhile, Chris has something really cool to tell you about.
CHRIS: Yes, really, really cool. If you guys ever watched our show and wondered how we managed to put this show together each and every day, well, you can find out if you go to our Web site and check out our brand-new behind-the-scenes video for TALKBACK LIVE.
Just in case you can't wait, here's a quick peek.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BATTISTA: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Friday, free- for-all Friday.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BATTISTA: It can get kind of crazy when I'm trying to listen to the comment the guest is making and I'm trying to read your e-mails and I've got another eye on you because you're -- you're trying to find me good comments in the audience, and suddenly the producer in my ear says, "I've got a phone call."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BATTISTA: Let me take a phone call from Tony in Kentucky.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BATTISTA: And I'm like "OK, where do I go first?" It's all the elements that come together to make the show unpredictable and fun.
TOM GAUL, DIRECTOR: It's like -- unlike any other TV show that we do. With TALKBACK LIVE, I do the whole show, you know, basically from the hip.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BATTISTA: "Mama" Mary Thompson of DeWitt, Arkansas turned 119 years old yesterday. According to Social Security records, Thompson was born on August 2nd, 1882, making her unofficially the oldest person in the world. Mama Thompson, who has an affinity for chewing gum and whiskey -- hopefully, not at the same time -- received a case of Juicy Fruit Gum from Wrigley's and several pints of Crown Royal.
You go, Mama.
Let me give the last word here to Justin in the audience. We've only got about 30 seconds.
Go ahead, Justin.
JUSTIN: Yeah, I was wondering, I remember watching MTV once, and I was thinking: Would I want my kid to be watching an Eminem video or Dr. Dre? And I was just thinking, of course, I may -- I may or may not enjoy it, but I would not want my kid learning about drugs and alcohol and to look down on gay people and all, and all, to look down on everyone else. But...
BATTISTA: That's a mature attitude for someone your age.
All right, Sam Greenfield, Blanquita Cullum, Julianne Malveaux and Paul McGuire, thank you all very much for joining us. It's been fun, as always.
And we -- we will see you Monday at 3:00 Eastern for more TALKBACK LIVE. Join us then.
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