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American Morning
Day 3: Operation Odyssey Dawn; Libya Releases Four N.Y. Times Journalists; Blockbuster Wireless Deal; Crisis in Japan; Twitter Turns Five
Aired March 21, 2011 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: War in Libya. One hundred and twenty cruise missiles launched against Moammar Gadhafi's forces. A building in his compound nearly leveled. Question now, where is the dictator and what is the next move on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(MUSIC)
CHETRY: And good morning to you. So glad you're with us on this Monday. It is March 21st.
We're one day away from spring. It doesn't feel like it, though, in much of the country.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, some of the country is getting snow and sleet this morning.
New this hour, we've got new pictures of smoke rising from reactor two at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Reactors two and three are now both spewing smoke. Some plant workers have been evacuated. And that's causing a setback to effort to prevent a meltdown there. Officials do not know what is causing the smoke this time.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: His air defenses are crippled and a four-story building in his compound is in ruins. But where is Moammar Gadhafi? That's one of the big questions in Libya this morning after the coalition launched more than 120 cruise missiles, leaving Libya's air defenses neutralized.
Senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is live for us in Tripoli.
Nic, do we have any indication where Gadhafi is right now?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: At this moment, we don't. The compound that we were taken to last night where there was the damaged building hit by a missile -- well, two missiles indeed -- there was no indication then that he had been around that building in the immediate time leading up to it.
Government officials there told us that the people in the compound were families of people who work there. This is a large area, a couple square miles. They said families of people who work there and supporters of Moammar Gadhafi, a lot of the barracks for the soldiers who protect his compound there.
So, there was no indication for us that he was there at that time. The fact that he hasn't been seen on television since the air strikes began I think is a strong indication he wants to keep his location a secret. Whenever he speaks on television now, there's just a still photograph put up as an indication that it's him who is speaking. He really appears very much to have gone to ground and now with a strike on his compound perhaps with good reason, Christine.
ROMANS: Nic, what's the word from the opposition in the Benghazi stronghold? I mean, they managed to make some more -- make some more -- regain some territory if I'm not mistaken. What is -- what is the word from the opposition now?
ROBERTSON: Well, the popular word appears to be that they want to take back some of the ground that they lost to Gadhafi's forces over the past couple of weeks. That's the town of Ajdabiya. That's the town of Brega. These are important oil refinery towns -- even going farther towards a Gadhafi stronghold of Surt, about 300 miles -- 300 to 400 miles from the capital here. It's not clear if they will be able to do that, what's going to make the difference if they can -- if they can make those gains is if coalition forces strike all of Gadhafi's army so they are pushing it further back and back and back.
And at the moment, we're not clear over what the new front line between the two forces might be. Certainly, the international coalition right now will have a big deciding factor in that. The rebels won't able to do it just by themselves, Christine.
ROMANS: All right. Nic Robertson in Tripoli -- thank you, Nic, for that report.
VELSHI: And while those coalitions forces that Nic was just talking about, attacked Libyan targets from the sea and the air, President Obama and his national security team are working the phones behind the scenes to make sure opposition Odyssey Dawn, as they're calling, has the backing the Arab nations. Senior White House officials say the president personally called King Abdullah of Jordan this morning.
A secure conference call between President Obama and Secretary Clinton is planned. They're going to work out the next steps of this operation.
And while the U.S. played the lead role in Operation Odyssey Dawn over the weekend, that's not expected to last much longer. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is insisting that responsibility will be handed to the French or the British very shortly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT GATES, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: We expect in a matter of days to be able to turn over the primary responsibility to others. We will continue to support the coalition. We will a member of the coalition. We will have a military role in the coalition. But we will not have the pre-eminent role.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Meantime, here at home, it seems that the president can't win either way. He's taking some heat from Republicans. The House Speaker John Boehner criticized the president for not keeping him in the loop, he said. John Boehner demanded more information from the White House about the military operation in Libya. He says it's necessary so the American people will know more about the mission's goal and how it is planned to be achieved.
And criticism not just coming from Republicans -- the president is taking some heat from the left as well. Michael Moore, he took to Twitter, right, when this --
VELSHI: Right.
CHETRY: -- the bombings were reported to have started. He was tweeting on and on and on about his criticism of the attack in Libya. One of the tweets, "May I suggest a 50-mile evacuation zone around Obama's Nobel Peace Prize." Moore has been a frequent critique of the president's war policies. In 2009, in fact, he wrote a critical letter to President Obama, warning him against sending additional troops to Afghanistan.
ROMANS: Oil prices spiked more than $2 a barrel. Analysts are blaming that job on escalating violence in Libya. Gas prices shot up another 6 cents, putting the nationwide average of $3.57 a gallon.
Libya, as you all know, is Africa's third largest oil producer but sits on the largest proven reserves in Africa. Traders worry that unrest will spread further throughout this region. Already, you got protests and violence breaking out in six OPEC member countries and this, of course, the entire region is 60 percent of the world's oil.
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: Right. I'm actually surprised with everything we've seen that we haven't seen gas prices up even higher over the weekend.
VELSHI: Yes. Well, I mean, they have gone up -- oil prices are up 25 percent since this all began. We'll see. I don't think this is over yet.
ROMANS: Yes.
VELSHI: All right. Smoke is coming out of two reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan. Up next: we're going live to Japan as workers try to avert -- continue to try to avert this nuclear disaster.
CHETRY: Also, the U.S. military giving our troops in Japan potassium iodide pills. Remember, we talk about those last week. They sold out of drug stores because of fears of radiation from those damaged nuclear plants.
ROMANS: In a little later, get ready for a new phone giant. AT&T set to buy T-Mobile. If everything goes right, making it the largest cell phone company in the country. What this deal means for you and your phone bill. That's coming up right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Understandable not to have a full grasp of what's going on at that Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant because it keeps changing. We've got photos -- new photos showing smoke spewing from the plant.
Smoke is now rising from two separate reactors there. These are photos of reactor number three where gray smoke was spotted. Nearby, workers were evacuated. White smoke is now rising from reactor two. Officials do not know what is causing that smoke.
Anna Coren joins us live from Tokyo.
You know, this is really rattling people, Anna. It's working into people's greatest fears. I mean, this is beyond a movie script as to how to get this thing under control.
What's the latest that you have?
ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It certainly raising alarm bells here, Ali, I got to say. The reason being is we don't know what is actually in that smoke and what is causing this to burn. Reactors two and three have been reports that smoke has been coming from both those facilities in the last couple of hours.
TEPCO, the company that runs the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, confirmed that. But that was pretty much all they said.
Of course, the workers at that site, all 430, not just reactors two and three but everybody on that site has actually been evacuated into a main building. We have no reports of, you know, how many have been exposed to severe levels of radiation or whether there have been injuries.
TEPCO, I must say, Ali, is being very tight-lipped about what is taking place.
But, as you say, smoke billowing from both those reactors and it's alarming people not just on the plant itself but obviously within Fukushima, within that area. There's an exclusion zone set up, some 20 to 30 kilometers from that plant. Then, of course, you know, wider areas here in Tokyo. There's obviously, you know, grave concern about what is going to happen if there is a meltdown -- Ali.
VELSHI: So, they've got an exclusion zone going up to about 30 kilometers. Americans have been warned to stay 50 miles from the place. But here's the problem, they've now found traces of radiation in water and food far beyond those zones.
COREN: That's exactly right. This is -- this is a problem that just keeps on developing. Food products like milk and spinach, they were found to have high levels of radiation yesterday and the government then issued a ban saying that those items will not be sold or shipped from that area. It's not just within Fukushima but also south of that area and that's what is causing grave concern because, you know, people are wondering how far is this stuff carrying? How much -- you know, how many other products are being affected by high levels of radiation?
So, obviously, there's a thorough investigation underway. We also know that high levels of iodine have been found in the drinking water.
The government telling people to refrain from drinking water but they can bathe with it. So, it's a little bit confusing for people. But, obviously, Ali, you would err on the side of caution.
VELSHI: All right. Anna Coren, thanks very much. We'll stay on top of it with you.
CHETRY: Meantime, the military -- U.S. Navy officials now beginning to distribute potassium iodine pills, giving these out to military families and their dependents in Japan today in an effort to protect them from radiation exposure should things worsen. They'll be handed out at four military facilities and anyone who got the pills will be told not to take them unless they're instructed to do so. So, they have side effects of their own.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: Right.
CHETRY: So, it's not that you pop them unless there's a real threat. Military officials say there is enough potassium iodide on hand for all U.S. military personnel in Japan.
ROMANS: And they have to be taken with a certain amount of time of exposure to radiation.
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: So, you can't just take them and prevent something that's going to happen in a week or something.
VELSHI: Well, obviously, there's been a run on those here in the United States -- people trying to be cautious about it, overly cautious.
ROMANS: Meantime, a new phone merger. AT&T set to buy T- Mobile. It's a massive deal that could reshape the wireless industry. Anybody with a cell phone in your purse or pocket, this could affect you. We'll tell you how, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: And the uprising in Syria is escalating. Thousands of people demonstrated in the streets over the weekend in the wake of Friday's attack against protesters by government security forces. Five people died in that clash. The Japanese government is asking residents near the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant not to drink tap water. Water near the plant has tested positive for high levels of radioactive iodine. Officials are also banning sales of milk and spinach produced in the area. High levels of radiation were found in both. Medical experts say little is known about the effects of radioactive food on humans.
VELSHI: And that's a big problem.
CHETRY: You hear about this and you get nervous. Even if people tell you the levels are undetectable, it's 20 miles radius, no, it's a 30 mile radius. You still wonder could it happen here.
VELSHI: The problem is whether it is real or not is that we get worried about this. We simply don't know enough about the effects of radiation and nuclear fallouts. Could we be affected here in the United States? What about food that's imported from Japan?
Let's talk to Elizabeth Cohen, our senior medical correspondent on this story as we hoped you would be, because whether or not there's any reality to it, people are concerned.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: They are. I think it's human nature when you hear the word radiation and food in the same sentence to get concerned. But the people who can hear me right now are in the United States and there is no reason to be concerned about our food.
The amount of radiation that hit the west coast from Japan are so miniscule and so diluted by the thousands of miles they traveled that even if they did get into the food, and that's an if, they would be so small that it would not matter. It would not affect our health. With he don't live near this plant. It's a totally different situation.
CHETRY: We know the situation in Japan isn't stable yet as days go on. How will we know troublesome are concerning level of radiation make their way here?
COHEN: The U.S. government actually monitors milk and water for radiation, not having to do with this event but even before. They have got dozens of these monitors around the country and they'll put in even more if they need to monitor the food supply. They will know if levels reach dangerous heights.
ROMANS: In this country to make our meat safe sometimes we use radiation to kill other things. So it's a helpful tool in food safety. The fear of radiation because of this nuclear disaster is a different story and may be irrational. Should consumers avoid this food to be careful and safe?
COHEN: We export a small amount of food from Japan. We asked experts would you eat it? He said I wouldn't seek out foot from Japan, but if ended up on my plate I wouldn't worry about it, but because, is there more in there than we like, yes, but eating it once would not do anything for you. You would have to eat it day after day after day for a year and you wouldn't have radiation that's in a CT scan.
CHETRY: You have to keep it in perspective. You look at what risks are. We're exposed to radiation every day from the sun, from flying, from x-rays, dental work.
COHEN: We're exposed right now just sitting here and we're not getting our teeth x-rayed or anything. A dental CT scan is more than you would get from eating food in Japan. Warnings about tap water and milk in spinach et cetera in Japan are very different from here. The radiation here is in much weaker amounts.
VELSHI: Good to see you.
Wyclef Jean was clipped by a bullet in Haiti this weekend. This is the presidential elections there. The musician was treated on Sunday in Port-au-Prince. He's not running, by the way. A spokesman says he's doing fine. The bullet grazed his hand after he stepped out of his star. He would not say whether he thought he was a target. He was in the country during the presidential elections which were held on Sunday. We're expected to hear results not before April 16th they tell us.
CHETRY: We all remember Newt the polar bear in 2007. He was found dead under mysterious circumstances in his compound on Saturday. He was just four years old. They say he was found dead in a pool of water in his compound. There's still no word on how he died. An investigation is underway.
Zookeepers say he loved the limelight and he was a very happy -- every year they celebrated for his birthday and would make a big show of eating his frozen icicle fish cake. Not what we would love to eat on our birthdays, but we're not polar bears. He was only four. That's sad.
ROMANS: It's test time for millions of students across the country. Elementary students taking standardized tests for reading and math today. But some parents are opting out saying these tests are not accurate measures of their kids' accomplishments and they are used to punish the schools. Are these standardized tests a waste of time? CNN's education contributor Steve Perry has that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: The number two pencils, dozens of those tiny circles, timer ticking down -- you remember standardized tests. It's a rite of passage or stressful and unfair depending on how you look at it.
A group of parents in state college, Pennsylvania, the opted out of the test in protest saying they are inaccurate and used to punish schools. We wanted our education contributor Steve Perry to weigh in on this. Welcome to the program.
So some of these parents found this loophole for using religious grounds so they could opt their kids out of standardized testing. They didn't think it was fair and punished the school. Is it the right thing to do to opt your kids out? STEVE PERRY, CNN EDUCATION CONTRIBUTOR: No. In fact, it hurts the school. If I was the principal of that school I would be pretty upset. It makes the school not meet adequate yearly progress which puts them on the list. It's actually hurting the school in doing this.
If they wanted to help, because many people malign No Child Left Behind, so the purpose of saying every single child in the school matters so every subgroup, African-Americans, Latinos, poor students, and special-ed students all should be able to perform at or above level. That's what an education in America is supposed to be. You receive an education in America and every single child should perform at or above level.
So they need the test as a method, not the only method, as a method of determining the school is produce education that the community is paying for.
ROMANS: Millions of kids will take these tests today. Park Forest Elementary was put on a warning after the school's special-ed students didn't progress like the state wanted. Parents felt like their children were unfairly blamed for this. Can you blame them?
PERRY: Yes, I can because if they understood what the test is supposed to measure, the test is supposed to measure basic skills. If anyone takes the opportunity to look at what's on these standardized tests, you would say, that's all they need to know. Exactly. There's not -- it's not as if it's high order thinking that's being expected.
That's one of the complaints is that it's not high order thinking. But the expectation of the examinations is these are basic skills. It doesn't say it's the only thing you can teach in the school. It says you must teach at least this. And that which is determined has been determined by educators within the state of Pennsylvania.
ROMANS: Let's talk about the president recently saying he had a $300 million grant to revamp these tests. What would help us understand how schools are progressing?
PERRY: All of the tests wouldn't happen now. Right now we're in testing. It wouldn't happen in one month. I think that doesn't work. I would have it happen more along the year.
Another thing it would do is it would allow more than just the written paper test to determine whether or not a child can be proficient in something. It would allow the child to show their performance whether it be through project-based learning or something even more performance-based learning.
And then we would allow the child to be able to show something that they are actually good at. Simply because someone can write and read really well doesn't mean they are good at everything. And simply because a child doesn't have those assurances doesn't mean they are unintelligent. We need to find tests that are fair.
I don't think we found the fairest test but it's what we have to date and having your children opt out only takes the school in the end.
ROMANS: Here's the thing about parents. Parents see these results and think it's a reflection of the kids. You make a point it's a reflection of the school, the administrators, teachers, environment and how they are being taught.
PERRY: Right. This is not determining whether the child is smart or dumb. It's whether or not we as educators, in this building, my staff and I are in fact providing you, your children, with the education we're promising you.
When I as a principal hand that child a diploma I say the child has all the rights and privileges granted to someone who completed the expectations. If I give it out and they haven't done that, it's not the family's fault, it's not the child's fault. It's mine.
ROMANS: Steve, what's your number one piece of advice for keeping your kids focused and on track? A lot of this is theory and it's all academic arguing, but if you have a kid getting ready for school, what do you need to do for them?
PERRY: What we do is tell them to chill out. Parents and grown people around them run around like chickens with their heads cut off. Relax. It's a test. Move on.
ROMANS: Steve Perry, thank you.
PERRY: Thank you.
CHETRY: The storm is coming, rain and even snow to parts of the northeast today. When will it get out of here? Better get out of here by tomorrow because tomorrow is spring. Reynolds Wolf joins us coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Oh are we on?
VELSHI: Excellent.
CHETRY: I'm sorry.
VELSHI: That was excellent.
CHETRY: That brings me back.
VELSHI: That is beautiful, Pittsburgh. And there are no smudges on that lens. This is why I can see very clearly that it is cloudy and 58 degrees. I can't actually see that it's 58 degrees. I've been told that.
There will be thunderstorms rolling in, however. It's going to get to a high of 66 and as Kiran seems to be reminding us this morning, I think she has relatives in either upstate New York or the Poconos because she keeps telling us that there's going to be snow and/or sleet somewhere.
(CROSS TALK)
CHETRY: That's right. The good old, the good old Whole Merchant P.A., the home of this now defunct Vick Company (ph).
VELSHI: Yes, there you go.
CHETRY: I have relatives up there.
VELSHI: And to confirm, Kiran's musings about the weather --
ROMANS: Reynolds Wolf.
VELSHI: Here is Reynolds Wolf. Is she right, because she's talking about it a lot?
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely.
CHETRY: And speaking of the radio, at the car radio at the same time.
VELSHI: Yes.
WOLF: She's on it. She's absolutely on it. She's accurate as could be. And I'll tell you it looks like a good part of the New York, a good part of the northeast is going to be dealing with the rain, the sleet, the snow. The snow mainly is going to the highest elevations.
If you happen to be in New York, it's mainly going to be a rain event for you. It's going to taper off later tonight and then tomorrow you're going to get a break. But then into Wednesday and Thursday more rain and maybe even some snow flurries mixed in.
Heavy snowfall we're seeing in parts of the region as I mentioned in the highest elevations. You are -- you already going to see the winter storm watches and warnings indicated by the purple, the blues and the pinks. Pinks and parts of Maine and back into New Hampshire, Vermont, could see anywhere from five to nine inches of snowfall.
Back out to the west we're seeing even more rain and snow. The same situation, at high spots is where you're going to see heaviest snow. Some but not far from L.A. at all and in fact, in the San Gabriel mountains, the highest peaks were at 7,000 feet it or higher it could get anywhere from one to three feet of snowfall.
One to two for the Sierra Nevada and the other issue we have is the rain. It's been heavy over the last couple of days. Today no exception, no break can be expected until later on this evening. But still with all the rain that's been coming down in some places have had close to a foot of rainfall there is the potential, the real threat of mud slides in days perhaps -- perhaps even weeks to come. Another issue for the day is going to be some snowfall in parts of the northern Rockies, scattered showers on much of the West Coast and Pacific. Meanwhile for the upper plains, it looks pretty good. A mix of sunshine and clouds. A little more sunshine into the afternoon, plenty of sunshine in the southeast, a mix of sun and clouds for much of Texas.
Now, in terms of your temperatures: 50 the high in Minneapolis; 80 in Kansas City; warming up into the 80s for Dallas and Houston; 81 in New Orleans, the Crescent City, a beautiful day there; and mainly into 70s and 80s, for parts of Florida; San Francisco with 54; 57 in Billings; 40 in Boston; 55 in New York.
And in terms of your delays, one spot for the time being that we do have some delays will be in New York at LaGuardia, at about a 45- minute wait. We may see that extend as we get into the afternoon. More rain, more wind, could cause some backups also out towards the West Coast. SFO, San Francisco, Oakland and perhaps even in LAX before the day is done -- guys.
ROMANS: All right, it sounds good.
WOLF: You bet.
ROMANS: I guess.
WOLF: Sort of good.
ROMANS: We'll take it, we'll take it.
WOLF: Yes.
VELSHI: Thanks, Reynolds.
WOLF: You bet.
CHETRY: So after the royal wedding where the heck are these two royals madly in love going to go on their honeymoon?
VELSHI: I'm going to assume people are really interested in this.
(CROSS TALK)
VELSHI: Because we've been talking about every -- ok.
CHETRY: People are in -- you're not, Ali?
VELSHI: I -- I'm -- I wish them the best. I'm sure they'll go somewhere. And they'll be real fancy. And if you are the royals you can go anywhere you want in the world.
CHETRY: And it maybe in Terrence, Australia, by the way, Prince William was there. He went to visit areas affected by last month's cyclone and the Prince said that he preferred the weather down under to the greyer skies back home. And he added maybe you'll be seeing me again soon, saying he always wanted to scuba dive in the Great Barrier Reef which set all the locals of course, abuzz hoping that indeed they would honeymoon there.
VELSHI: I -- I -- I think it would sort of be a little disruptive if you enjoyed the beach and then the royals showed up for their honeymoon.
ROMANS: Not to mention you honeymoon suddenly you've got the country following you around with the cameras.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: So --
CHETRY: It' so romantic.
Well, the royal couple is opting out of a gift registry. Instead they are saying they want charitable donations given instead of gifts. One of the organizations that Kate Middleton shows holds a significant meaning for her.
She included the charity Beat Bullying after she says she was a victim of bullies. So much so in her middle school years that she actually had to change schools to get away from the bullies.
Well, from the dress to the guest, you can watch all the royal wedding unfold right here on AMERICAN MORNING. Ali will be live out there. So you better care, Ali.
VELSHI: I -- I took -- I've got time to grow into care.
ROMANS: Yes, ok good you have about --
VELSHI: The wedding is when?
CHETRY: Yes you have about a month.
VELSHI: I got a month. Oh I'm so going to be into this thing.
ROMANS: April 29th.
CHETRY: April 29th, Friday, 6:00 a.m. Eastern.
VELSHI: Watch guys I'm going to be so into this thing. I'm going to be all about the royal wedding.
ROMANS: You'll be tweeting about it.
VELSHI: I'll be tweeting about it. I'm going to be -- yes.
ROMANS: Speaking of Twitter, five years ago the global phenomenon known as Twitter was born. Twitter back then, five years ago a Twitter was the noise little bird made. Today, it's a 140 million of these things a day. People thought it would never get off the ground. How our lives have changed because of it.
That's coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: All right. It's gone from relative obscurity as part of our every day, our every minute lexicon. Five years ago today, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey posted the first ever message inviting co-workers but by now gosh, God things have really changed.
Poppy Harlow is here. And a lot of people might wonder what the name Twitter is. But you know, it was really kind of up in the air in the beginning.
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Yes.
ROMANS: And Jack Dorsey was the best Twitter handle at Jack.
(CROSS TALK)
HARLOW: I mean, that's pretty great.
ROMANS: And they have a great name.
HARLOW: They almost called it Jitter.
ROMANS: Jitter.
HARLOW: So we would have been jeeting. Velshi would have been the king.
VELSHI: I -- I enjoy -- I enjoy tweeting.
HARLOW: They -- they almost called it that. You know, the -- the co-founder was an ambulance dispatcher. So he could always see the ambulances everywhere. And he said what's missing here is people. So that's actually how the idea came up is locating people and having people talk about where they are, et cetera.
They had 5,000 tweets per day in 2007, folks. Now it is 140 million tweets every single day --
(CROSS TALK)
VELSHI: Wow.
HARLOW: -- and we took a look back on Twitter's fifth birthday at how it went from relative obscurity to an addiction, and obsession, whatever you want to call it. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID LETTERMAN, HOST, "LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LATTERMAN": Let me just say a couple words about that Twitter nonsense.
HARLOW (voice-over): Remember when you first heard about Twitter? Did you think it was just crazy? Some comedians did.
LETTERMAN: Have you hooked yourself up to the Twitter thing? It's -- it's -- it's stupid. It's just crap. I'll tell you --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tweet, tweet, tweet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, let's tweet these twatters, tweeting their twinks. Twitter.
HARLOW: But then came Ashton Kutcher.
ASHTON KUTCHER, ACTOR: If I beat CNN to a million followers, I will literally go and ding-dong ditch Ted Turner's house.
LARRY KING, CNN ANCHOR: You think you can take on an entire network? Do you know how big we are? Do you know what CNN is? CNN will bury you.
HARLOW: Let's just say we didn't win and the queen of media got hooked proving the power of celebrity.
A.J. HAMMER, HLN HOST: Look at who has the most followers on Twitter. You have Gaga. You've got Bieber. You've got Britney. And then you have Barack Obama. I think that says a whole lot.
HARLOW: Speaking of our tweeting commander-in-chief.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Obama was with the Russian president and he actually called Twitter Twitters pulling a President Bush moment.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: During his visit to Silicon Valley this week he visited the headquarters of Twitters.
HARLOW (on camera): Well, Twitter is now five years old and this is where it made its public debut, here at music and media festival, South by Southwest.
What did you think when you first heard of Twitter?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That it sounded ridiculous.
HARLOW: What is Twitter?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a little silly but addictive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't really know what it was at all.
HARLOW: What do you think about it now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's pretty big. I use it every day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought nobody is going to publicly announce short messages about irrelevant stuff and now everybody is doing it.
LAURE SEGALL: When the plane went down in Hudson, the first actual picture came from a Twitter user who was at a ferry nearby. So, all the media, you know, they were all posting this picture that came straight from Twitter.
HARLOW: And then history was marked in 140 characters.
IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Messages coming from Twitter not only from inside Iran but from outside.
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What's being said across the Twitter verse today?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to tell that you we are Twittering tonight.
HARLOW: Revolutions were born and dictators overthrown.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Demonstrations that began over Facebook and Twitter taking on life of their own.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That connection to people halfway around the world. You're paying attention to that now in a way that you wouldn't have done before.
HARLOW: But is Twitter here to stay and is it really worth billions?
SEGALL: Now, they have over 200 million users. People are tweeting, people get it. The big question is how do you turn those tweets into profits?
DICK COSTOLO, CEO, TWITTER: We're not profitable right now. We have plenty of time to take this model and grow it.
SEGALL: There were recent reports that it's between 8 billion and $10 billion. I mean let's be honest, like they haven't really even hashed out a business plan.
PETE DOMINICK: People will try to replicate, recreate. There is only one Twitter. It will not die the way MySpace went. Twitter will live on forever.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW: Ok. And Ali asked us why he was not in this piece because he is, of course, the tweeting master. So Velshi, this one is for you.
VELSHI: I'm going to tweet about un-following you.
CHETRY: Your last guest interview said that Twitter is going to live on forever. Aren't they archiving? I mean they are collecting all of this.
HARLOW: Beware. Whatever you tweet will be in the tweetosphere forever.
VELSHI: All right. Great to have you here. Great spending time at South by Southwest with you. Wonderful morning with the two of you. Let's do it again tomorrow.
CHETRY: We will.
ROMANS: You got it.
VELSHI: All right. "CNN NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello and Isha Sesay, up next after this break.
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