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American Morning

The Attack on Alito; Outrage in New Orleans

Aired January 12, 2006 - 07:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Miles O'Brien.
The attack on Alito. The nominee remains nonplus, but his better half bears the better part of the burden. What prompted Mrs. Alito to leave the hearing room in tears?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Soledad O'Brien. The line between fact, fiction and a fortune.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A memoir is within the genre of nonfiction. I don't think it's necessarily appropriate to say i've conned anyone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: Author James Frey, defending his "A Million Little Pieces" in a Larry King exclusive, and guess who is on the line? Oprah. Hear what she had to say about a book she called a must read.

Outrage in New Orleans over a controversial new plan for rebuilding the city. We've got more on that ahead.

M. O'BRIEN: And a would-be robber -- well, that's more about New Orleans. A would-be robber learns what it's like to be a baseball. The battering of a burglar, ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

S. O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome back, everybody.

M. O'BRIEN: Good to have you with us.

The stage is set for yet another day of drama in the Senate hearing room as Samuel Alito heads for the hot seat once again. The final round of questioning for the Supreme Court nominee begins in about two hours. Yesterday's action got very heated, a nasty exchange between senators, and questions that made the judge's wife leave the hearing room in tears.

AMERICAN MORNING's Bob Franken live on capitol Hill once again for us near the hearing room.

Bob, that was quite a scene.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATL. CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes, it's really kind of astounding to put the words emotional and Samuel Alito hearing together, but that's exactly what we had, and ironically, the toughest emotions came under friendly questioning, friendly but albeit let's say sarcastic question.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: Are you really a closet bigot?

JUDGE SAMUEL ALITO, SUPREME COURT NOMINEE: I'm not any kind of a bigot.

GRAHAM: No, sir, you're not.

FRANKEN: That question so upset Samuel Alito's wife that she left the room for a short while. Already, the longstanding Senate tradition of politeness at all costs had been overtaken, at least for a few minutes, by fraying tempers.

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: And we're going to have votes in this committee again and again and again until we have a resolution.

SEN. ARLEN SPECTER (R), JUDICIARY CMTE. CHAIRMAN: Well, Senator Kennedy, I'm not concerned about your threats to have votes again and again and again.

FRANKEN: Republican Committee Chairman Arlen Specter was telling Democrat Edward Kennedy he wasn't ruling on Kennedy's request to subpoena a file regarding Alito's membership in the Concerned Alumni of Princeton. That was the group that during the 1980s vigorously resisted increasing the number of women and minorities at their alma mater.

SPECTER: We're in the middle of a round of hearings. This is the first time you have personally called it to my attention, and this is the first time that I have focused on it, and I will consider it in due course.

Now we'll move to Senator Grassley for 20 minutes.

FRANKEN: Kennedy had cited a 1983 essay in the group's magazine which includes this quote, "People nowadays just don't seem to know their place." It went on to sharply criticize "blacks and Hispanics, the physically handicapped, homosexuals."

ALITO: They're not my views now. They never were my views. They represent things that I deplore.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRANKEN: Republicans are saying that their opponents are engaging in desperation, but the Democrats are saying what this is really about is a right-wing agenda, they charge, that Samuel Alito wants to bring it to the Supreme Court -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, let's see what lies ahead here, Bob. Today, as I understand it, is the last round of questioning for Judge Alito, although the hearings don't end, correct? FRANKEN: No, there's going to be this collection of panels, panels of lawyers, and law professors and the like who are favorable or unfavorable to Samuel Alito, and then the most notable one is a panel of judges and ex-judges who have been colleagues of Samuel Alito, and there are some raised eyebrows over that. There's a possibility that some Democrats may object to their appearance, saying that there's really an inherent conflict of interest.

M. O'BRIEN: So even that, even the people who are part of the panel becomes part of debt bait, doesn't it?

FRANKEN: Who would have thought that day one people were having trouble staying awake.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, comity it isn't.

FRANKEN: No.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much. Bob Franken, it's comity a 't.' And maybe a 'd,' too, depending on how you look at it. Live coverage of the hearings coming up 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time. We get an hour off this morning. Wolf Blitzer will pick up the baton at that point. A special edition of THE SITUATION ROOM with Jeff Greenfield. Jeff Toobin with him, and others. Also, CNN Pipeline subscribers always can say see things gavel to gavel, as well as see the running replans of highlights as the day progresses. That's at CNN.com/pipeline -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: President Bush is off to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast today. Later he's going to head to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. This will be his first visit to the region in three months.

CNN's Elaine Quijano is live for us at the White House. Oh my goodness, look at all that fog behind you. You could be in New Orleans and we wouldn't know it.

Good morning, Elaine.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad, from a very foggy North Lawn at the White House here.

The president's message today is really going to be that he has not forgotten about Hurricane Katrina victims, and that the federal government will be there to help them with their recovery.

Now the last time the president was in the region was back on October 11th. On this trip, he's going to be traveling with the man in charge of helping to coordinate the federal recovery efforts, Donald Powell.

Now in New Orleans, the president is going to sit down with a group of small business owners in a roundtable discussion of sorts. They'll discuss things like tax and economic incentives to help with rebuilding, among other things. Then the president is going to head to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and it's there that he's going to visit a private boy's school, he'll make some remarks, and we expect the president to summarize essentially what has taken place so far with respect to the rebuilding. We also expect him to highlight the economic importance of rebuilding the Gulf Coast, not just for the immediate area, but for the entire country. And this will be the president's ninth visit to the region, Soledad, since the hurricane struck -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: But he hasn't been there for a couple of months. So why do you think he's going now, Elaine?

QUIJANO: Well, this month is a chance for the president to basically lay out his priorities for the rest of the year. He's got the State of the Union Address less than three weeks away. Yesterday he was talking about Iraq, and today really is a chance for him to focus the spotlight on the Gulf Coast, to remind Americans there's still a lot of work that needs to be done there. At the same time, a chance for him to say that the federal government is going to be there to help 00 Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Elaine Quijano, as she mentioned, a very foggy North Lawn of the White House this morning. Thanks, Elaine -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: It's kind of surreal out there.

S. O'BRIEN: Isn't it?

M. O'BRIEN: Now to fear and loathing in New Orleans. Residents angry about a blueprint for rebuilding their devastated city. The plan revealed yesterday is really do or die for some neighborhoods. We'll get more on the story from CNN's Susan Roesgen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our folks are ready. We have the means to help ourselves, so don't get in our way and prevent us from doing that.

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One by one, angry homeowners blasted the new blueprint for the city's future. The plan calls for teams of experts to go into neighborhoods hardest-hit by the hurricane and estimate how many people plan to come back. Based on that number, the city will consolidate some neighborhoods and eventually abandon others, offering government-funded buyouts to home owners living in neighborhoods the city determines it can no longer support.

Joe Canizaro, a banker, led the group that drafted the plan.

JAN CANIZARO, BRING NEW ORLEANS BACK COMM.: We have a small city with less revenue, so we're giving our people the opportunity to make that determination by committing to return and by participating in the planning process that will make up their future neighborhood.

ROESGEN: Canizaro says the process will help people decide if they should come back. But some angry residents say Canizaro's committee has already made the decision for them. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Joe Canizaro, I don't know you, but I hate you. I hate you, because you've been in the background, trying to scheme and get our land.

ROESGEN: The frustration comes from this, houses sitting empty, while people wait for the city to restore basic services like power and water. The city says it won't restore those services until people return.

But Fred Yoder, who has been fixing up his home in the city's flooded Lakeview neighborhood, says the city has it backwards. People need the city's help before they commit to coming back.

FRED YODER, LAKEVIEW HOMEOWNER: This is a big audacious plan that was put together by obviously very brilliant people, but guess what? You missed the boat. What we need is, we're in the mud. We're cleaning our own homes, and all we're asking for is a little help and a little support. If you can't give us direction, get the hell out of the way.

ROESGEN: The committee got an earful, but now the ball is in the mayor's court. Since he chose committee members, he isn't likely to reject their plan, but he may change it.

Susan Roesgen, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: In about 20 minutes' time we'll talk with two former New Orleans mayors about that controversial rebuilding plan -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Much ado about nothing. That pretty much sums up how Oprah Winfrey feels about the controversy surrounding "A Million Little Pieces." You might recall that Winfrey endorsed the memoir for her book club. Critics say many parts are exaggerated, some parts just made up. In an exclusive interview last night on "LARRY KING LIVE," Frey defended his work.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES FREY, AUTHOR, "A MILLION LITTLE PIECES": I've acknowledged that there were embellishments in the book, that I've changed things, that in certain cases things were toned up, in certain cases things were toned down, that names were changed, that identifying characteristics were changed. You know, there's a great debate about memoir and about what should be most properly served, the story or, you know, some form of journalistic truth, you know. Memoirs don't generally come under the type of scrutiny that mine has.

LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": But people reading a memoir expect it to be the true story, whether it's Alan Alda doing a memoir of his life or James Frey doing a memoir of his, that the facts are written down as they happened, or their perception of their happening.

FREY: It's an individual's perception of what happened in their own life. This is my recollection of my life. You know, a lot of the events I was writing about took place between 15 and 25 years ago. A lot of the events took place while I was under the influence of drugs and alcohol. You know, I still stand by my book.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: Then toward the end of the show, a surprise phone call, and it's Oprah.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OPRAH WINFREY: I feel about "A Million Little Pieces" that although some of the facts have been questioned, and people have a right to question, because we live in a country that lets you do that, that the underlying message of redemption in James Frey's memoir still resonates with me, and I know that it resonates with millions of other people who have read this book, and will continue to read this book.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: "LARRY KING LIVE" live airs weeknights at 9:00 p.m. Eastern. In just a few minutes, we're going to talk to Larry about his exclusive interview with James Frey.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: It has been the week for surveillance camera capturing of interesting robberies.

S. O'BRIEN: So true and so weird.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, it's one of those weeks. Listen, we had the Vegas robbery yesterday, remember that? Guns blazing as he goes out. We had the check cashing robber, thwarted, thwarted; she kept talking and out he goes.

Here's another one, sort of in the same vein as the Vegas check cashing deal. Guy comes in the convenience store, this is Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Gimme the money! Gimme the money! This is the owner, Jimmy Sing (ph), ouch, comes with the Louisville slugger, and he makes some serious contact there, wailing on him, and he says, you know, "I don't want the money no more." That was a quote. Off he went, and this is the fifth time in a month it had been robbed. No wonder Jimmy was, a, angry, and, b, ready with the bat.

S. O'BRIEN: Exactly, wow!

M. O'BRIEN: Now apparently, the cops got a tip on where the suspect. They were waiting for him when he came home, and they identified him by the bruises and lumps undoubtedly on his head.

S. O'BRIEN: They really got him on the head huh?

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, the Louisville slugger brand on his forehead.

(CROSSTALK) S. O'BRIEN: The way he was swinging that bat he could have killed that guy, because he really -- he was angry.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, the robber was stupid, but not too stupid to stay there and continue to ask for money.

S. O'BRIEN: No, he took off.

Ahead this morning, we've been telling you all morning about the plan for rebuilding New Orleans. We've got our first look at it on Wednesday. We're going to check in with a couple of former mayors and ask them what they think. One will say it stinks. We're going to ask him why. That's ahead.

M. O'BRIEN: And Judge Samuel Alito's wife. There she is, upper left of your screen, in tears at her husband's confirmation hearing. Were the Democrats a little too hard on Judge Alito?

S O'BRIEN: Later this morning, Star Jones-Reynolds will join us live. She's got a new book, a new love. She's going to talk getting her life in tiptop shape. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MARKET REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, the scoop on the James Frey controversy from CNN's Larry King last night. Larry talked to Frey about his memoirs, got a surprise phone call, too, from Oprah herself. But does Larry buy Frey's story?

And then later this morning, Star Jones-Reynolds will join us. She's going to talk about her new book. It's called "Shine," talk about all that weight she's lost, and also talk about that man right there, the love of her life.

Those stories ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. We're back after this short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Embattled author James Frey speaks out for the first time about his best-selling memoir. Critics are charging that Frey's exaggerated and even just made up parts of "A Million Little Pieces." Last night in an exclusive interview on CNN's "LARRY KING LIVE," Frey defended his work.

My side is that I wrote a memoir. You know, I never expected the book to come under the type of scrutiny that it has. I don't think it's necessarily appropriate to say I've conned anyone. You know, the book is 432 pages long. The total page count of disputed events is 18, which is less than five percent of the total book. You know, that falls comfortably within the realm of what's appropriate for a memoir.

What did Larry think? Larry King joins us by phone.

Hey, Larry, good morning. Thanks for talking with us.

KING: Good morning, Soledad. Thanks you for having me. Sorry I couldn't be with you, but it's a bit early.

S. O'BRIEN: It certainly is, isn't it?

Listen, I thought the show was great last night, and I thought it was really interesting to finally hear from James Frey. What did you think of his defense, sort of his math that the 18 pages out of 400- some-odd pages is five percent. That falls comfortably under the memoir under guidelines. What'd you think?

KING: Well, I've never had a major discussion about memoir before, as to facts in a memoir. As I said, I always assumed, I don't know about you, if I get a memoir that it's factual. I'm trying to divide the difference between memoir and biography. And usually I think memoir is shorter, or that memoir contains a phase of someone's life, or an aspect of someone's life, but as Oprah said there's a whole new definition. Now that we're looking at memoirs. To me, I'd expect a memoir to be factually correct.

And one of the aspects of it, I think one of the key things he said last night was that they did pitch it as a novel. They sent it to many publishers as a novel, even gave a choice to Nan Solice (ph), a very famous imprint publisher who published the book, as to whether to do it as novel, and she chose to do it as a memoir. So that was pretty significant to me that it was only a five percent error. Why pitch it as fiction?

However, I think Oprah probably changed it all with that call at the end, which was a complete surprise. I mean, I've known Oprah for years, and she had not made a statement previously on this, and then to call in and back the book, and also say that that even if there are some doubts about certain aspects that helped so many people, it's such a good book that she let it go, and therefore, her feelings about it stand.

S. O'BRIEN: We actually have a clip of that Larry. Let me run a little chunk. This is when Oprah calls in, complete surprise to you, and gives her support. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WINFREY: The underlying message of redemption in James Frey's memoir still resonates with me, and I know that it resonates with millions of other people who have read this book, and will continue to read this book.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: Here she's saying at the end of the day, it touched her and it made it a good read for her, and that made it a book that she would continue to recommend.

KING: Right, and her credibility is so high, that I think it scored for him. I think -- I mean, Anderson Cooper told me at the end, they were checking last night, it was back to number one on Amazon, and that sales are reported very brisk.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, we checked this morning, too. You had an interesting, in fact, crosstalk with Anderson last night, where you were talking about your own memoirs, and you said that you write about maybe what you thought was your first interview with Bobby Darrin, and instead it's really Danny Thomas, and you know, is that just a misremembering or is that a mistake? And I'd be curious to know, because some of the mistakes are really just in some cases fabrications to extend that, like if you wrote about how you interviewed James Dean, you know, and what an important interview it was in your career, and someone said but that never happened. Does that make a difference, that that five percent error, even though it's a tiny percentage, it's sort of what a lot of the book is based on, if that makes a difference to readers?

KING: That would make it highly different to me, if I said I interviewed James Dean and never interviewed or met James Dean, because that would be an outright lie. Now, he's skirting it like when he said the car went up on the street and hit the cop and the cop said, and the cop said they arrested him on a minor infraction and the car didn't go up on the street and hit him.

Now, I'll give him an allowance there. He may have been under the influence, and his memory was that the car went up and hit him. I don't see a James Dean story in the thing.

S. O'BRIEN: Ye, you know what, though? He said that, in fact he ends the story in rehab, that he's got, he has three years in the state pen, that he's going to, and I guess the smoking gun documents show that actually because of minor infraction, that infraction that he talks about, there was no melee, there was recorded, at least in their documents, that he never was really facing time in the state pen, that he spent time, you know, minimal, a couple hours in jail.

KING: What does one make of all of this?

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, it's fascinating, isn't it?

KING: First of all, he's a terrific writer.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, that's true.

KING: So you're faced with, if Hemingway had said it was the truth, would we think less of Hemingway, you know, because the guy can really write. I'll tell you a story, in the makeup room, there were five different people, two makeup artists, a producer, a couple other people, all of whom came over to him for autographs. All of -- this was after the story broke, naturally, all of whom were praising him, all of whom had bought the second book.

S. O'BRIEN: It's a great book, is what you're saying. And you know, I got to tell you, I agree with you. Whether it's fiction or fact, it's a really good read.

Larry, we're out of time. Thanks for talking with us this morning so early. We appreciate it. KING: Thank you, Soledad.

Good to be with you. And Eric Menendez tonight.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, great. We'll watch. LARRY KING LIVE, we should mention, airs weeknights, 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

Short break. We're back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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