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CNN Live At Daybreak

International News Desk

Aired January 29, 2003 - 05:52   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.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We want to keep it global now. I'm now strolling up to our international desk to check in with senior international editor David Clinch.
And, of course, a lot of the focus is on the president's State of the Union address last night.

DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Right. Absolutely. We're looking for reaction to the speech. But before we get to the reaction from the speech, as journalists, a lot of the things that we have to do are to look at the speech and distinguish between what's newsworthy and what's news, internationally, of course. And really when you look at it, there's a lot that's newsworthy. But only very few things are actually new, very new, factual...

COSTELLO: OK, so explain what you mean by that.

CLINCH: Well, for instance, the fact that he's announcing that Secretary Powell will go to the United Nations on February the fifth. That is new. We didn't know that before. That's a specific thing that we can react to.

COSTELLO: And I do have a question about that. I mean why is he waiting until February 5th to present this evidence of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction?

CLINCH: Right, well, that's a...

COSTELLO: Why not do it in his State of the Union address?

CLINCH: Well, that's a good question and I'm not sure that we know the answer. And we'll wait to see. And, again, there will be the question on February the fifth of whether it is evidence or proof, and obviously there's a very big difference between those two things. But, again, we can deal with that as a fact. The rest is newsworthy and we can deal with it, but it doesn't really add or change to what we already know.

COSTELLO: You have to believe that Iraq will come out with an official statement on the president's speech soon.

CLINCH: Right. We're looking for that and obviously we also are getting reactions from officials around the world, from France and Russia and everywhere else. But the other thing that we're doing in getting reaction from individuals, from people in Iraq and Europe and Africa and everywhere else, is trying to distinguish between those people who are reacting to having heard the speech themselves and those people who are reacting to what they've heard about the speech, what they've read in the papers...

COSTELLO: Because Rym Brahimi just told us satellites are banned in Iraq.

CLINCH: Absolutely.

COSTELLO: So those people don't have any idea what the president really said.

CLINCH: Sure. Right. Some people, though, we did hear, actually listened to it on the radio and we're prepared to say that. That's interesting. That in itself is newsworthy, that people are listening to it. Not a lot, but some people. But in Europe in particular, and elsewhere, where people have strong opinions and the media have strong opinions about Iraq in particular, we have to be careful to distinguish between people who are reacting to the speech on their own and those that are reacting to what they've read or been told.

COSTELLO: And you're talking about countries like Moscow, where some of the press is controlled.

CLINCH: Right. Sure. Or, well, also in Britain, where it's not controlled. It's out of control in Britain, but very opinionated and so the filter of that opinion is important. We need to know that people are getting it direct or through the papers.

COSTELLO: Got you.

David Clinch, we'll let you get back to work.

CLINCH: OK.

COSTELLO: Thanks very much.

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 January 29, 2003 - 05:52   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We want to keep it global now. I'm now strolling up to our international desk to check in with senior international editor David Clinch.
And, of course, a lot of the focus is on the president's State of the Union address last night.

DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Right. Absolutely. We're looking for reaction to the speech. But before we get to the reaction from the speech, as journalists, a lot of the things that we have to do are to look at the speech and distinguish between what's newsworthy and what's news, internationally, of course. And really when you look at it, there's a lot that's newsworthy. But only very few things are actually new, very new, factual...

COSTELLO: OK, so explain what you mean by that.

CLINCH: Well, for instance, the fact that he's announcing that Secretary Powell will go to the United Nations on February the fifth. That is new. We didn't know that before. That's a specific thing that we can react to.

COSTELLO: And I do have a question about that. I mean why is he waiting until February 5th to present this evidence of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction?

CLINCH: Right, well, that's a...

COSTELLO: Why not do it in his State of the Union address?

CLINCH: Well, that's a good question and I'm not sure that we know the answer. And we'll wait to see. And, again, there will be the question on February the fifth of whether it is evidence or proof, and obviously there's a very big difference between those two things. But, again, we can deal with that as a fact. The rest is newsworthy and we can deal with it, but it doesn't really add or change to what we already know.

COSTELLO: You have to believe that Iraq will come out with an official statement on the president's speech soon.

CLINCH: Right. We're looking for that and obviously we also are getting reactions from officials around the world, from France and Russia and everywhere else. But the other thing that we're doing in getting reaction from individuals, from people in Iraq and Europe and Africa and everywhere else, is trying to distinguish between those people who are reacting to having heard the speech themselves and those people who are reacting to what they've heard about the speech, what they've read in the papers...

COSTELLO: Because Rym Brahimi just told us satellites are banned in Iraq.

CLINCH: Absolutely.

COSTELLO: So those people don't have any idea what the president really said.

CLINCH: Sure. Right. Some people, though, we did hear, actually listened to it on the radio and we're prepared to say that. That's interesting. That in itself is newsworthy, that people are listening to it. Not a lot, but some people. But in Europe in particular, and elsewhere, where people have strong opinions and the media have strong opinions about Iraq in particular, we have to be careful to distinguish between people who are reacting to the speech on their own and those that are reacting to what they've read or been told.

COSTELLO: And you're talking about countries like Moscow, where some of the press is controlled.

CLINCH: Right. Sure. Or, well, also in Britain, where it's not controlled. It's out of control in Britain, but very opinionated and so the filter of that opinion is important. We need to know that people are getting it direct or through the papers.

COSTELLO: Got you.

David Clinch, we'll let you get back to work.

CLINCH: OK.

COSTELLO: Thanks very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com