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American Morning
Imus and his Contract; Iraq War Funding: President, Congress Negotiating; Change to Antidepressant Labels; Questions About May Day Melee
Aired May 03, 2007 - 06:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): Violent night. Wind, rain and lightning lash Texas.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It shook my whole house.
CHETRY: Trees down, roads flooded. More extreme weather roaring east now.
Plus, the LAPD under fire. Riot police clash with marchers at an immigration rally. The chief answers our questions live on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: And welcome. It's Thursday, May 3rd.
I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm John Roberts.
Stories on our AM radar this morning.
We've got an exclusive for you regarding Don Imus' contract. Apparently, a very, very sharp attorney designed it for controversy.
Our legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin is going to join us in the next couple of minutes. Does Imus have a case to make for the $40 million still remaining on his contract? Jeff Toobin seems to think he does.
CHETRY: It will be interesting to hear more from Jeff. He had a chance to look at it, look at some of those clauses.
Also, the FDA expanding warnings for antidepressants. Now it includes young adults. We're going to be talking to Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Do the benefits of antidepressants outweigh some of these risks?
But we begin this morning with breaking news in Texas. It's the third day of deadly storms pushing across the state. Some storm cells are just incredibly intense. And here is an example of what we're talking about.
Parts of the Dallas-Ft. Worth area under water. Our affiliate KDAF shot this video. It's cars almost completely submerged. You see downed trees there. A lot of people's roofs ripped right off. And one woman died when her car was overtaken by the rising waters.
We also received this I-Report video from a viewer named Tom Eaton. It gives you an idea of just how strong the winds have been. Nearly 80 miles an hour in some places. Power lines are down, and there are almost 300,000 people who have no electricity.
We're going to bring in severe weather expert Chad Myers now with the very latest.
(WEATHER REPORT)
ROBERTS: Three minutes after the hour now.
Could a clause in Don Imus' contract allow him to collect $40 million even though he was fired by CBS?
CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin has seen that contract exclusively and joins us now to talk about it.
Overall -- we've got a couple of clauses we'll read in a second -- but overall, what was your impression of his contract? Does it put him in a pretty good position?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: It puts him in a much better legal position certainly than I expected. It's a very unusual provision like nothing I have ever seen in an employment contract before which allows him to say, how can you fire me? All I was doing is what you wanted me to do.
ROBERTS: OK. Let's read a couple of clauses from that contract.
CBS Radio "... acknowledges its familiarity with the program conducted by Imus..." and its familiarity with the "... reviews and comments, both favorable and unfavorable..." concerning Imus and his material by critics, reviewers and writers of the various media, both in New York and nationally. So it knows that he's going to get...
TOOBIN: Bad press.
ROBERTS: Bad press.
TOOBIN: Bad press is not grounds for firing him.
ROBERTS: And then here's another clause. And this is probably the money clause.
TOOBIN: This is the big one, yes.
ROBERTS: Yes.
"CBS Radio acknowledges that Imus' services to be rendered hereunder are of a unique, extraordinary, irreverent, intellectual, topical, controversial and personal character. And the programs of the same general type and nature containing these components are desired by CBS Radio and are consistent with company rules and policies."
His attorney, Martin Garbus, did he -- do you know if he wrote this contract?
TOOBIN: Martin Garbus is only involved now.
ROBERTS: OK.
TOOBIN: He was not -- he is the lawyer who...
ROBERTS: Whoever wrote that contract, though, was pretty shrewd. But it looks like a contract designed to protect him in just such an occasion.
TOOBIN: Well, you know, Imus has been in trouble before. He's got -- he's said controversial things before. He's had various dustups.
So the people who negotiated his contract, they apparently wanted to build in some protection for him. It says, hey, if I say something controversial, if I say something irreverent, not only is that permissible, but in that extraordinary word in the contract, it's desired by CBS.
ROBERTS: Desired, right.
TOOBIN: So now he's been fired. CBS's argument will be, presumably, that the statement about the Rutgers basketball team was so beyond the pale, was so different from anything else he said that it doesn't -- it's not protected under that clause of the contract.
ROBERTS: There's also a clause in there that he would have to be warned before being fired.
TOOBIN: Which he was not. Which he was not warned.
I mean, several things about this contract suggest that in the negotiations over settling this contract, Imus is in a very strong position.
ROBERTS: So do you think he's going to get the money?
TOOBIN: Well, I think he'll probably get some of it. I doubt he'll get all of it. And we'll see if he actually files a lawsuit. He hasn't filed the lawsuit yet.
You know, most lawsuits, even if they're filed, don't go to trial. They end in settlement. But the question is, who has the leverage? And this contract gives Imus a lot more leverage than I would have expected he would have had.
And there's a lot of money at stake here.
ROBERTS: Yes. TOOBIN: He was in the first year of a five-year contract, $8 million a year.
ROBERTS: Right. Well, good on you for getting this exclusive stuff.
Jeff Toobin, thanks very much. Terrific.
CHETRY: Well, Democrats appear to be backing down from their demand that troop deadlines be tied to the war spending bill. President Bush is sending top aides to Capitol Hill to negotiate that new bill.
And CNN's Elaine Quijano is live at the White House for us this morning.
Hi, Elaine.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Kiran. That's right.
Now, after yesterday's meeting here at the White House, all sides were talking about finding common ground. And today, as you noted, the president is going to be dispatching his chief of staff, Josh Bolten, to Capitol Hill.
He's going to be sitting down with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, as well as the minority leader, Senator Mitch McConnell. And there has been talk of legislation, including benchmarks as a way possibly that these sides can come together. But President Bush is not budging on a major point of contention, and that is the issue of timetables. He has made clear, Kiran, he's not backing down on that point -- Kiran.
CHETRY: You know, as this debate is going on, we've heard an interesting shift, it seems, in the president's view of success in Iraq. Is that changing?
QUIJANO: Yes, absolutely. It seems an attempt by the president to try to lower -- to lower down the expectations, to ratchet down the expectations, if you will.
Take a listen, for instance, to what the president had to say yesterday at a speech here in Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Either we'll succeed, or we won't succeed. And the definition of success, as I described, is, you know, sectarian violence down.
Success is not no violence. There are parts of our own country that, you know, have got a certain level of violence to it. But success is a level of violence where the people feel comfortable about living their daily lives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUIJANO: Now, later, Tony Snow had difficulty explaining what exactly the president meant by that. And also, how an acceptable level of violence might be defined.
Now, a year ago, President Bush defined success in Iraq as an Iraq that can one day govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself. Now, despite the continued violence, the White House still insists that that, indeed, is the measure. But clearly what we heard yesterday from President Bush, an attempt to try to change the expectations, the definition of success in Iraq -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Elaine Quijano, thanks so much.
ROBERTS: There's news out of the conference on Iraq going on right now in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. Just this morning, CNN has learned that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet with her counterparts from Iran and Syria at the Iraq conference. Secretary Rice will meet with the Syrian foreign minister today in the first high-level talks between the two countries in years. A U.S. official said the focus will be on Iraqi security and broader issues related to Iraq.
CHETRY: The FDA wants drug makers to expand the warning labels on antidepressants. Since 2005, drug labels have highlighted the increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior for children and teens taking the drugs. Well, now the FDA says that young adults should be warned about this, too.
For more on this now, we're paging Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who joins us live from Atlanta today.
Good to see you, Sanjay.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran.
This is a story we've been following for some time, talking about these antidepressants and what is known as a paradoxical, or almost opposite effect of what you would expect from actually using them. People have been following this for some time, especially in kids, saying, could this possibly increase suicidal thoughts or ideations in children? The answer was yes, which is why for children antidepressants carry a black box warning.
What's at issue now is, should that warning be expanded to other age groups? The answer seems to be yes.
Yesterday, the FDA announced that antidepressants will now carry a warning that could -- that say that they could cause an increase in suicidal thinking and behavior for children, teens and young adults up to 24. So that's different, Kiran, than before. It's expanding the age range.
That is a black box warning. Again, that's the highest level possible. That means that it's highlighted at the top of the insert that you have in there.
People don't always read that, but you will see that black box insert if you actually look at the label. And it's going to be on there for teens, kids and young adults now -- Kiran.
CHETRY: So, if your doctors want to prescribe antidepressants, what should you do?
GUPTA: Well, there's a couple things to keep in mind. Still, for the vast majority of people, antidepressants are going to be a good medication in terms of actually treating clinical depression.
The best advice, really, though, is to keep in mind at the time, the initial time medications are prescribed, or also at any dosing changes, to really monitor those patients very closely. You are looking for certain things.
Obviously, you're looking for the mood to actually worsen, but you're also looking for someone whose mood doesn't improve at all but just their energy improves. That can be a concern as well. So, really close monitoring at the time of initial prescription, at the time of any dosing changes.
What was also interesting to me is, the antidepressant class of medications might also be prescribed for other things other than depression. They can have some effects in other disease processes as well. Those patients need to be watched closely at the time that the antidepressant is given.
CHETRY: And to be clear, suicide is extremely rare, still, among people who take antidepressants.
GUPTA: Very rare, and we are talking about suicidal thoughts was what they were specifically talking about. People who start talking about the ideations, start thinking of plans for suicide. Those sorts of things were specifically targeted. But the numbers are small.
You know, in this group, out of every thousand patients between the ages of 18 to 24, five cases of additional suicidal thinking. And the reason they say additional, Kiran, as you might guess, is because depression itself can be a risk factor for suicidal thoughts.
CHETRY: Right.
GUPTA: I should point out as well, in children younger than 18 it was actually a bit higher. About 14 additional cases of suicidal thoughts. So that's why the black box warning came into play.
CHETRY: And is there any clear theory about why it seems to be that age? I mean, do we just -- these risks significantly lower when somebody hits 25?
GUPTA: It does seem to be. And it seems to get lower as you get older. In 65 and older, you know, there appears to be no additional risk whatsoever. Unclear what the mechanism there is exactly. You know, is depression -- clinical depression, is it the same exact disease process? They're not sure why it would have this paradoxical effect, but it does. And now that's why the FDA is carrying this warning.
CHETRY: Well, thanks, Sanjay.
And Sanjay will be with us throughout the morning. If you have a question about antidepressants, you can go to cnn.com/americanmorning, e-mail your questions. Sanjay will answer them later on AMERICAN MORNING.
ROBERTS: Twelve minutes after the hour now.
What started as an immigration protest ended in chaos. And the Los Angeles Police Department is now under fire.
Up next, there is -- Chief William Bratton joins us live to give us his side of what happened. We'll talk to him in just a couple of minutes.
And it can break up a couple as quickly as infidelity. Does your spouse know the truth about one of the most damaging personal secrets that you can hold?
You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: A closer look now at the incident that took place in Los Angeles that marred an otherwise peaceful day of immigration rallies. The city's police chief is now demanding a full inquiry after riot police moved in and used rubber bullets, tear gas and batons on the crowd.
Chief William Bratton joins us now from Los Angeles.
Chief, thanks for being with us.
CHIEF WILLIAM BRATTON, LAPD: Good morning.
CHETRY: You had a couple of days now to review the tapes and to talk to officers. In your opinion, what went wrong here?
BRATTON: Well, that is what the investigations that I have ordered will seek to determine. It's still much too early in that investigative process to draw conclusions. But quite obviously, something went wrong. And my concern is to ensure the public that we will have a comprehensive set of investigations to answer the many questions.
Was the force appropriate to the threat? Was the force random or targeted? Were police giving appropriate notice to the crowd to disperse? In terms of the videotape assaults on the media, what was that about? All of these things, questions we're asking, and questions that we will be seeking to have answered.
CHETRY: You did speak out yesterday, though, and appeared to say that you were disturbed by what you saw. Is that...
BRATTON: Oh, I think anybody that viewed those videos would be disturbed by what they say. Police use of force is always disturbing, force of any nature. That's the unfortunate nature of police, when we have to use force.
But is it appropriate? Is it lawful? And in this case here, was it appropriate to the threat that the officers were facing/ And those are the issues that we will seek to investigate.
CHETRY: And what was the plan as to how you guys were going to handle the crowds at this rally?
BRATTON: Well, that's a good question. There's a phenomenal amount of planning that goes into events of this size with many thousands of demonstrators, almost a thousand police officers.
So, the after-action report which is one of two investigations we've ordered will seek to determine what was the planning, what was the actual implementation of that plan, was the command and control work appropriate, controls in place? What orders were given?
All of the elements of that plan will be reviewed with the after- action report. A separate investigation will be conducted by our internal affairs division into the use of force.
Was the force appropriate to the threat? Was it random? Was it targeted?
A great concern is that there were almost 240 rounds fired by our officers during that event, but there were no arrests during that particular event. And that's a question that I have serious concerns about.
CHETRY: And as we look, I mean, it's disturbing to see, because in this video you see people, and they're running with their children, and there's a lot of fear there.
You said 240 rounds of these rubber bullets, and we saw some of the injuries from it. Nobody, I guess, had to be admitted to the hospital, but they were pretty painful looking.
There were immigration rallies five times the size in some of these other big cities. They had no big problems there. Yet this one, only about 35,000 people, and this is -- this is the outcome.
Why?
BRATTON: Well, what you need to understand is that the vast majority of people there were peaceful. In our case, in Los Angeles -- and I can't speak for Chicago, with 150,000 -- we had a group here, 50, 75 to 100 agitators.
These are individuals that show up at all of these rallies. They seek to provoke the police. And unfortunately in this instance, several squads of our officers responded to that provocation.
And our job now is to determine if that response, one, was it appropriate? And two, was the use of force used during it, was it excessive?
And quite apparently, looking at the videos, the force being used in many minds does appear to be excessive. My job is to make that final determination, make the recommendations to my police commission that I report to. And that's what we are doing.
And I promise the public and the police commission and the mayor that that report will be comprehensive, detailed, and it will be transparent.
CHETRY: Right. I mean, should we all be speaking out about it before we know about the investigation? Because in defense of the police officers, I mean, they -- they also put their lives on the line when they're trying to, you know, keep things orderly and protect people.
BRATTON: That's correct. Well, the idea of reporting on it, the idea of expressing an opinion in terms of the public, you in the media, that is appropriate. That's what you do.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: I mean, you, too -- you, too, as well. Because you told the reporters from city hall, you know, "The treatment you received from the LAPD, we can't tolerate, we won't tolerate." So you also were weighing in yesterday before the full investigation about not tolerating what happened.
BRATTON: My comments are focused on early impressions, but final decisions will have to rest with the investigations, the very comprehensive investigations.
We had over 600 officers at this specific location. Approximately 30 to 40 were engaged in the skirmish line that is the subject of so much of the video footage. So, in terms of interviewing each of those officers, interviewing the hundreds of witnesses, interviewing a number of people that were struck by the bullets, by the batons, that's all going to take time. You take that information and you collate it, you crosscheck it, and then we make final determinations.
Officers are in power to use force, but they have to be able to articulate the reason for that use of force. And so in this instance, each officer, we're going to have to determine what was in front of that officer that they were responding to in terms of the decision to use the baton, the decision to fire a pellet?
All of these questions, in some instances, they can be justified. Others, they may not. We'll just have to wait until the investigation is done to make those final determinations.
At the same time, there is no getting around the fact that at that demonstration there were a large number of rounds fired. And the fact that there were no arrests, that is not the normal process that we go through here.
CHETRY: I got you.
BRATTON: And so these are questions that -- they're internal questions as to our tactics and procedures, our leadership, chain of command, that have to be addressed.
CHETRY: OK.
BRATTON: There's public issues of concern, but there's internal issues, also.
CHETRY: Well, we appreciate you coming on to give your side and talk a little bit about it.
BRATTON: OK.
CHETRY: Thank you so much.
Chief William Bratton.
BRATTON: You're welcome.
ROBERTS: Coming up now to 22 minutes after the hour.
The Dow is in the middle of its hottest streak in more than 50 years. But are you personally feeling it?
Ali Velshi is "Minding Your Business" coming up next.
And imagine a deep night's sleep in seconds. What could literally be the scientific breakthrough of your dreams coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: All right. Well, if you're up at this hour and you're already at work, this new contraption could be very promising for you in the future.
It's a sleep machine. How cool is that?
Researchers say they found a way to use magnetic pulses to alter the brain's activity and produce an instant deep sleep. So you can cram it all into a couple of hours, perhaps. They say that one day it could be used to treat insomnia or even allow you to get a full night's sleep in two or three hours.
ROBERTS: Wouldn't that be great? No more tossing or turning.
CHETRY: No more tossing and turning. They just put -- who knows what they do to get you to fall into this deep sleep? And who knows what you're like when you wake up?
ROBERTS: Exactly.
CHETRY: It's all part of the research.
ROBERTS: Well, this is all stuff to be investigated.
Twenty-five minutes after the hour.
A lot of people sleeping very well with the Dow as high as it is. But other people waiting for a dip to buy in on.
How do you approach this?
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is the question. This is the question.
Another record on the Dow, it's the longest streak we've seen in some 50 years. But the question is, buy, sell, hold, or as Kiran says, smile? Or average in?
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: Yes. I mean, first of all, you should be logging in to your 401(k) and seeing whether -- your portfolio is doing.
But take a look at that. You saw this Dow going up from about 12,500. That big dip was February 27th. I remember that day telling people, because I had been calling everybody I could get my hands on on Wall Street. And everybody told me the same thing on Wall Street -- don't sell, we don't know what's going on. If we could, we'd buy.
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: I was telling my guy, let's wait for it to go down just before 12,000 and then buy.
VELSHI: And you and I were talking that week about where you think it's going.
ROBERTS: And I missed it. I missed it.
VELSHI: So a lot of folks...
CHETRY: Timing the market, is that smart?
VELSHI: Right. I was talking to professionals. If you're not a professional, the fact of the matter is, you only have those three choices: buy, sell, hold -- and smile -- or average in.
Average in means you just keep putting the same money in on a regular basis, every paycheck or every month, regardless of where the market is. And over time, if you're a long-term investor, that has proven to be a good strategy.
What that means is that you don't sell when the markets are down. You know, you don't do the wrong thing. It's a discipline. The idea is about having discipline.
However, if you believe this trend continues, this trend of earnings, Americans continuing to shop and interest rates remaining low, there's no reason this market won't go up. The fears are gas prices, more housing problems, and interest rates.
ROBERTS: I think it's -- my personal feeling is it's a bubble.
VELSHI: So you think hold on to that cash. It means you've got a lot of cash in your bank account.
ROBERTS: Not a lot, but I've got some.
CHETRY: Yes. How much do you have in there?
ROBERTS: I've got what I didn't put into the market.
VELSHI: Yes. If you think like that and there is a dip, you might take that as an opportunity to buy. So, I guess...
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: No, as long as you are investing, though, right?
VELSHI: Yes. You do need to be investing one way or another. You've got to have your money -- bank accounts don't pay you enough.
CHETRY: All right. Thank you.
VELSHI: All right.
CHETRY: Good advice.
Still ahead, we have news from Baghdad about the man believed responsible for the kidnapping of journalist Jill Carroll last year.
A live report coming up on that.
Also, new pictures in from Texas. Extremely deadly weather. And the storm's moving east now. Chad Myers will give us an update.
Also ahead, there's news about Don Imus and the contract that could mean he gets millions of dollars.
And a drug to treat osteoporosis that you only take once a year? Wow.
You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: Killer storms, heavy wind and high water turn deadly in Texas. Homes damaged, roads closed, thousands of people without power. Plus funnel clouds spin to life in the southwest. The latest pictures and the new threat for extreme weather on this AMERICAN MORNING. And good morning to you. It's Thursday, May 3rd. I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: And I'm Kiran Chetry. We have a lot of stories on our radar this morning. One of them could be the possible huge multimillion dollar pay day for Don Imus. There's something in his contract that could mean CBS still has to pay him despite the fact that he was fired. And it's a little clause that says CBS radio desires him to be controversial.
CHETRY: And to make irreverent comments, etcetera. So we're going to talk to radio host Roland Martin about what he thinks about his take on it.
ROBERTS: Osteoporosis a problem for people slightly older than you are, but everybody's got to face it one of these days. What can do you to try to maintain that bone density? There's a new drug out there and unlike others which you have to take every day or maybe even once a month, this is an injection once a year. We're paging Dr. Sanjay Gupta to help you here to explain it all for you.
CHETRY: And also the secrets and lies in marriage. We're not talking about infidelity here. We're actually talking about spouses debt. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It becomes a vicious cycle of denial and spending and leading to more denial and more hiding. It just becomes unmanageable, completely unmanageable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Greg Hunter found out something that is really interesting is that this affects far more people than you think. One in three people say that they hide their debt from their spouse and it's tearing apart some marriages. So he's going to give us some tips and talk more about that a little later.
ROBERTS: And money I think the number one reason why couples have arguments.
CHETRY: And I think divorce.
Well now a developing story in Texas. The third day of deadly and intense storm cells pushing across the state. Parts of Dallas/Ft. Worth under water. Our affiliate KDAF (ph) shot this video of cars almost completely submerged, trees down, roofs just ripped off. One woman was killed when her car was overtaken by the rising waters. And also got an I-report from viewer Tom Eaton, gives you idea of just how strong the winds have been, 80 miles an hour in some places. Power lines down, almost 300,000 people without electricity right now. We are going to bring in severe weather expert Chad Myers from the CNN weather center with the very latest on that. Hi, Chad. CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning Kiran. It was a bow echo and the front part of the bow, think about it like a bow like you shoot a bow and arrow. You can see the arc of it. As this arc begins to push into the air, the point -- the eastern part of this, the point is the area that has the worst winds, the worst wind damage with some gusts over 80 miles per hour. Look at the time stamp here. Here is 4:00, 5:00, 6:00 last night and then right through Ft. Worth and they obviously right through Dallas. It was a very difficult rush hour. A lot of cars were stranded by the high water but it did keep moving. This was not a storm that put down seven or eight inches of rain in Dallas Ft. Worth. The flooding was actually urban flooding caused mainly because the concrete doesn't really soak in the water very well does it. So it runs off and it goes up and then people get caught in it. John?
ROBERTS: Not as porous as we would like it to be sometimes. Chad, thanks very much.
Good news this morning for commuters in the San Francisco bay area. A freeway ramp that was damaged in Sunday's tanker crash and fire will not have to be rebuilt from scratch and could reopen in get this 10 days. They were talking about months earlier. But, here's the big but though, the overpass that collapsed on to that ramp near the bay bridge was destroyed and obviously it's going to have to be replaced.
CHETRY: Were Don Imus' offensive comments in his job description? His contract with CBS called for him to be controversial and irreverent and now Imus apparently wants the $40 million left on his contract when he was fired for making racist and sexist remarks about the Rutgers women's basketball team. CNN contributor Roland Martin joins us from his radio show this morning. Hey there Roland..
ROLAND MARTIN, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: How are you doing Kiran?
CHETRY: How about these radio contracts. Yours is slightly more than Imus' was, I'm sure in terms of dollar amounts.
MARTIN: Yeah, right.
CHETRY: But you guys do peddle in controversy. So what do you make of this?
MARTIN: Well obviously Don Imus is a little bit different than me. I'm on a news/talk station. He was definitely a shock jock and I certainly wouldn't do a lot of things that he did. But you are controversial. You are expected to be sort of irreverent, outlandish and to elicit controversy. Having people call in. That is expected. So in this case, I think with CBS, clearly we know what the contract says. CBS radio, they could not allow him to stay on the air because they were going to lose more money by having him on the air. I think the bean counters made a smart decision. They say, wait a minute. We're going to look at how much we would lose in radio advertising, potentially television advertising compared to how much we're paying him. Look, it is just too much heat, he has to go. More than likely they pay a settlement. CHETRY: That is interesting. So you are saying it all comes down to money, that if the advertisers weren't threatening to leave, this comment would not have sparked him getting booted.
MARTIN: Keep in mind he initially was suspended for two weeks. First of all, they first offered, he offered an apology, they offered an apology. Then CBS and MSNBC came back and talked about, CBS saying he would be suspended. Then when the pressure continued, it was only then and then when the advertisers pulled out, when they said hey man, we've got to cut this guy loose and that's what happens. So you see this happen all the time. These radio stations, they say let's push the envelope. Let's push it, push it and if there's a response, if there's a reaction, we'll apologize. We'll take some corrective measures. When the heat gets too hot, they say we have to cut you loose. And so I'm not surprised he's suing. I'm not surprised at all. Not only that, he's a 66-year-old guy. You don't have many $8 million a year jobs just sitting around.
CHETRY: That's right and so the question is what will that settlement be and what are some of the factors that would go into it? One would be I assume if this is talking about wanting to be controversial and irreverent. They have to make the determination did he say anything in the past - which we know he called (INAUDIBLE) a quote cleaning lady. He referred to quote Jewish management of CBS radio as money-grubbing bastards. He said other things that some would argue were just as inflammatory.
MARTIN: But here is the difference and we make this point right here on AMERICAN MORNING. Did they discipline him before? He is contending, according to Jeffrey Toobin who saw the contract, that he first and foremost had not been suspended, had not gotten a reprimand. So we raise the point, had CBS reprimanded him before? He said they were supposed to warn him first. Apparently they didn't. That's what he is riding on and so you are absolutely right. Wait a minute, you didn't follow your own procedures, so obviously if you didn't think those previous comments were controversial or warranted a reprimand, then why this one?
CHETRY: And then really quickly before we have to go, could Imus have done himself harm in terms of this by coming out so publicly and apologizing over and over again?
MARTIN: Well, look, any crisis management person will say that's exactly what you are supposed to do because you want to put it behind you. Unfortunately he couldn't. I will say this Kiran, the one thing I do want, I want to know who was the lawyer who put that contract language in so I can hire him because that was a smart move.
CHETRY: Call Roland if you are listening this morning. I'll get you the information right after the show.
MARTIN: Sounds good.
CHETRY: Thanks Roland. Good to talk to you.
ROBERTS: It was a pretty shrewd move no doubt. Now to breaking news from Baghdad this morning, the U.S. military announcing minutes ago that it has killed a senior member of al Qaeda in Iraq. The man is tied to the kidnapping of American journalist Jill Carroll. CNN's Arwa Damon is working the story joins us now live from Baghdad. Arwa, they're describing this fellow as the senior chief of information for al Qaeda in Iraq. Who is he? What do we know about him?
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: According to Major General William Caldwell, his name is (INAUDIBLE). He has been identified as the minister of information, the senior figure in al Qaeda, an Iraq minister of information in fact of the Islamic state of Iraq, an insurgent umbrella group that has been responsible for a number of high profile kidnappings as well as attacks against coalition forces here. They say that he was killed in operations that took place west of Taji (ph). That's north of the capital of Baghdad. They had his body in custody for two days, conducted DNA tests and have in fact confirmed that he is Mohammed Abuji (ph). Let's take a listen to what Major General Caldwell had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAJ. GEN WILLIAM CALDWELL, SPOKESMAN, MULTINATIONAL FORCES IRAQ: As result of that operation, that is when we in fact did kill the senior minister of information for al Qaeda in Iraq. (INAUDIBLE) was in fact killed on a target set on the first of May, at about 2:00 a.m. in the morning. What we do know is that he had been previously captured by coalition forces sometime in 2003 and released sometime in 2004. He had been in Syria for a while. We assessed his family still is residing there at this time. We do know that he is a close associate with AAM (INAUDIBLE) al Masri. We also know that Muharaf (ph) was involved in both the Jill Carroll and the Tom Fox kidnappings.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DAMON: Now John, after they positively identified his body, the U.S. military says that they released two members of his tribe and the Iraqi police apparently at dawn at a checkpoint stopped the vehicle that was carrying his body and now have his body in their custody. They are claiming that he is Omar al Badati (ph), Omar al Badati is the head of the Islamic state of Iraq. So some confusion as to specifically whom this individual could be. John.
ROBERTS: Any more information on Abu Ayoub (ph) al Masri who was the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq? There were reports at the beginning of the week that he had been killed by rival Sunni militants.
DAMON: That's right John and in fact there is no confirmation, neither from the Iraqi side who initially put out that claim that al Masri had been killed. They are saying that they do not in fact have a body in their custody. The U.S. military also coming out in that very same press conference saying that they had absolutely no confirmation of his death, no information of his whereabouts, essentially setting a fair amount of skepticism over claims that al Masri had been killed. But we know there had been a number of operations specifically going after senior al Qaeda operatives here John.
ROBERTS: Is also interesting Arwa that Major General Caldwell called al Jaberi (ph) quote the minister of information for the Islamic state in Iraq. That's conferring a certain sort of legitimacy on this organization that the military doesn't formally recognize. What is the game there?
DAMON: John, the Islamic state of Iraq has formed this shadow government. They've got ministries of information, minister of war. Al Masri for example is their minister of war. The U.S. has acknowledged to a certain degree the sophistication of the Islamic state of Iraq, the fact that it is able to form itself into the sort of shadowy government ministries. They have established a fair amount of credibility. For example, following the announcement of al Masri's death by the Iraqi government, the Islamic state of Iraq put out a claim saying that he was in fact not killed and they have proven to be reliable in their information in the past. This is also an indication of sort of the morphing of the insurgency here, morphing into various levels of sophistication that the U.S. military is in fact acknowledging.
ROBERTS: And it certainly plays into this idea too that the military is trying to build up this idea of al Qaeda becoming a greater presence in Iraq as well. Arwa Damon, as always, good to see you. Thanks very much.
Coming up, a drug to help millions of people. And you only need to take it once a year. We are paging Dr Gupta on Reclast (ph). What is it and is it right for you?
And for richer or for poorer, until debt do us part. How much do you know about your spouse's debt. The financial secrets that can ruin your relationship. You are watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is on CNN.
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ROBERTS: A possible major step forward in the fight against osteoporosis this morning, a new drug that seems to help prevent fractures, and it comes in a shot that patients only need to take once a year. Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now live from Atlanta with a look at the benefits and the risks of Reclast. What is this Sanjay and how does it work and who is it right or wrong for?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's interesting John. A lot of people at some point will go to their doctor's office, women especially and are told they have weak bones and they need to take a medication either daily or monthly. A lot of times, this has happened to a lot of people I know. They start taking it. It doesn't work that well or in terms of giving them GI upset or they just forget to take it and they stop which is why there's so much excitement potentially about a once a year injection called Reclast.
The cells that attack your bone are called osteoclasts. That's where the name Reclast comes from. Osteoporosis itself basically means you have porous bones. The bones just become brittle and weak, so brittle and weak they can become John, I've seen this, just coughing alone can actually cause fractures, most commonly in the spine, the hip or the wrist. We know that typically osteoporosis is associated with low calcium, low phosphorus and some other low minerals as well. Novartis is the maker of this drug Reclast. They did the studies on this and they showed that you can actually decrease fractures a significant amount, in the spine, by about 70 percent.
Hip fractures reduced about 41 percent. Other fractures about 25 percent. Conventional drugs and drugs that are approved right now reduce fractures by about 50 percent across the board. The good John here is that it's once a year and it's a pill so you don't get the GI upset. I'm sorry, it's a shot so you don't get the GI upset. The bad is that in about one in 77 people or so they can get serious atrial fibrillation which is a heart rhythm problem. Right now the FDA is taking a look. Novartis tells us they expect that they might get approval later on this year.
ROBERTS: Atrial fibrillation Sanjay is a pretty benign conditions, but it can lead to other problems.
GUPTA: It can. Basically your heart is beating at an uncoordinated rhythm and you can form blood clots within your heart and those clots can sometimes go off possibly cause stroke. Rare, you're right John, but still something to consider.
ROBERTS: When we talk about this being beneficial to women, because they are the main focus of research into osteoporosis, but what about men as well? As we age, do we lose bone the same way women do?
GUPTA: We asked that same question and not quite as profound as in women. The surgeon general's report said that by the year 2020, over half the people, over 50 in the United States will have some sort of bone loss. That includes men and women. Novartis actually doing the studies on men as well. This could be approved for them at some point as well.
ROBERTS: All right, Sanjay, thanks very much for that. By the way, Sanjay is going to stay with us throughout the morning. In our next hour, he's going to be answering your e-mail questions that you have been sending in. We want to get some more for him. Send them our way. Log on to cnn.com/americanmorning and just follow the links.
CHETRY: Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, husbands hiding a secret. A big one. It's not a girl friend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: God, I hope today is not it the day she finds out how much in the hole we really are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: That's right. It's about money, being unfaithful to your spouse when it comes to lying about how much you owe. It can wreck a marriage. We're going to tell you how you can tell if your spouse is hiding financial secrets or if you're the person that's doing it, what are some tips on getting out of debt? Next on AMERICAN MORNING.
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ROBERTS: Fifty one minutes after the hour. A recall this morning for a brand of baby bibs. This seems to keep happening for some reason, that have at least 16 times the amount of lead that's supposed to be allowed in paint. The bibs were sold exclusively at Wal-Mart under the Baby Connection brand name and have pictures of "Sesame Street" characters on them. They were sold from 2004 until last month. That's something you really have to be aware of, because if your baby ingests lead, it could lead to developmental problems, particularly cerebral development problems. It's very important to make sure that you don't have that around your baby's neck.
CHETRY: You got to check the bibs now. You're right. Thanks John.
It's a troubling trend for married Americans. More and more couples are finding out that their spouse is actually hiding a big secret about how much money they owe. Our Greg Hunter has been talking with couples about it and you found this is a problem that hits one in three couples.
GREG HUNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It hits one in three couples. It's a big problem. It's on the rise according to the guy you are about to meet. Not only are people in denial about their own debt, that's a big problem. But sometimes they lie to their significant other. Yes, according to some, it's a nationwide problem that's going right up with peoples' debt.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I still have this constant problem of, you know, wanting to hide my, my credit cards and bills and things like that from my husband.
HUNTER (voice-over): Dave Ramsey hosts a daily radio show that deals with debt. Today he's talking about a problem that can rip marriages apart.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He didn't know we were six months behind on this bill and three months behind on this bill. That was the scary part, you know, saying, I have been negligent with the finances.
HUNTER: Ramsey sees a troubling nationwide trend, couples so deep in debt they lie to each other about it.
DAVE RAMSEY, HOST, "THE DAVE RAMSEY SHOW": They just feel incompetent, like I've screwed up the money and the last person I want to tell is my wife. Or the last person I want to tell is my husband. He was counting on me to pay the bills and I screwed it up.
HUNTER: We found a man in Seattle who hid big credit card bills from his wife.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I guess I just didn't want to face up to the fact that I was -- I had a problem with spending.
HUNTER: He wishes to remain anonymous because of the size of his debt. How much do you have?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A little over $70,000, $70,317 to be exact. Very often I had that feeling of God, I hope today is not the day she finds out how much in the hole we really are.
HUNTER: So the higher your debt got, the more secretive you got?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It becomes a vicious cycle of denial and spending and leading to more denial and more hiding. It just becomes unmanageable, completely unmanageable.
HUNTER: Eventually, he says the debt and the lies contributed to the end of his marriage. Now he started a website, dollarbydollar.com, where his debtometer will track payments on his $70,000 balance.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know what? A couple years from now that will be down to zero.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I made all the big mistakes, lying to my husband about finances for many years.
HUNTER: Dave Ramsey's advice for couples is quite simple.
RAMSEY: Turn off the television, take both their hands in your hands and say here's what's going on and come clean. Do not wait 24 more hours. Don't put it off. Don't rationalize it. Deal with your deal now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HUNTER: Dave Ramsey, tough love. Three tips from Dave Ramsey that your debtor half may be lying about your family finances -- one, if the spouse won't show the other the bills or the books. The other, if they're even touchy talking about finances. They say when you have a sore and you touch it, you're touchy right. And he says also if things just start appearing around the house, extravagant golf clubs or really nice clothes or also receipts for really fancy meals. He says that both spouses should really understand what is happening with the family finances.
CHETRY: Honey, where did we get that Porsche that's just sitting in the garage now?
HUNTER: Usually debt though happens with little incremental mess- ups. It is a cumulative error. It's a cumulative debt.
CHETRY: And what does Dave say is the secret, if there is one to getting out of it when you're in -- like the guy $70,000. HUNTER: This guy, Dave Ramsey, is a guy that went bankrupt years ago in bad real estate, millions of dollars so he knows firsthand. He talks - he's got a seven-step process. But one of the things he says, you have to identify it. The other thing is, it's like he says you have to start eating rice and beans. You have to cut back. This is like tough love. It's not some magical or beautiful way of getting yourself, climbing out of debt. He tells people about getting their income up. He tells people first and foremost, stop spending. And it's not pretty. But he's got three million listeners across the country. He's on five days a week. He's on 300 some odd radio stations. He talks nothing but about debt and he's got people in the church of Dave Ramsey, that's my term that believe in what he is saying. It's hard to go against his advice. Stop spending, live within your means. You know, he gets people to first and foremost identify you got a problem.
CHETRY: That's right. A lot of people are forgetting that. He seems to have really struck a nerve.
HUNTER: He is on every day. He's got a very successful show. It's a reflection of pop culture.
CHETRY: You're right and thank you for bringing it to our attention. Thanks Greg.
ROBERTS: Coming up, you're not going to save money on gas this summer but you can save on hotels. Ali Velshi is going to tell us how. You are watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is on CNN.
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ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. I'm Ali Velshi and I'm minding your business. The government told us that by May, the national average price for a gallon of gasoline would be about $2.87. It's $2.99 right now as we head into the summer driving season. Those of you thinking about driving to your next vacation need to think not only about that but in some parts of this country, it's going to be hard to get a hotel room. Here in New York, at Chicago for instance, hotel rooms are almost full. The occupancy at those hotel rooms is very high but there are places in the country where they want to try and preserve your business. So a little search on the Internet suggests that people will have offers for you to drive to their bed and breakfast or their hotels. One study out that says if gas reaches $3.50 a gallon this summer, Americans will change their driving plans. Remember, the highest we've ever had is $3.05. That was back as hurricane Katrina hit, $2.99, we're almost there. The next hour of AMERICAN MORNING begins right now.
Deadly wash-out. Heavy winds and pounding rain slam Texas.
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