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Wine Country Takes Hit from Quake; Where is Officer Darren Wilson; Cable vs. Cord Cutters

Aired August 26, 2014 -   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Checking some top stories for you now at 10:30 Eastern time. It is official. Burger King is taking its headquarters north of the border. The fast food chain has announced a multi-billion dollar merger with Canadian doughnut and coffee maker Tim Hortons. While the deal won't affect what you pay for a Whopper it will help lower the company's tax bill.

Home prices continue to rise but the pace seems to be slowing. Home prices from every city measured by the S&P Case Schiller Home Price Index showed slower gains. The first time that's happened in more than six years and the data continues to be mixed with new home sales dropping and existing home sales rising in the month of July.

New drone video shows building facades crumbling in downtown Napa. After Sunday's earthquake, will winemakers' profits also be crumbling in this famed grape-growing region? And what about the cost of your favorite bottle of Merlot?

CNN's Kyung Lah takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESONDENT: Across Napa Valley, forklifts recover wine barrels and winemakers like Mike Drash are getting the first look at the damage. We're warned to move fast and get out.

Here's why. Barrel after barrel, entire stacks of them, precariously tilting.

JAY SCHUPPERT, WINEMAKER: There's a big pile that's stacked up back there where they have fallen off the racks.

LAH: This is Drash's precious 2012 vintage.

MIKE DRASH, WINEMAKER: Yes, that's my barrel line.

LAH: Each of these worth $10,000 to $24,000.

DRASH: These are full. That's really dangerous right there. LAH: There's some white wine on the ground but until he can get all

the barrels out and see them, Drash just won't know what he's lost. It took him two years to go from grape to wine; now, in the balance after the short but powerful quake.

DRASH: It's unbelievable. Just in ten seconds, right, 15 seconds. Yes, yes. It's making me nervous here too.

LAH: Drash isn't just a winemaker in Napa Valley. This is the historic home he owns near downtown Napa dating back to the 1800s.

DRASH: Pretty much everywhere you look there's a crack -- (inaudible) crack.

LAH: How Drash recovers from all this and as well as everyone in his neighborhood and city -- like everything in Napa, it comes down to the wine. There is spotty damage across the city to what's already been bottled, like in this Ahmed Couscous (ph) wine storage room.

How many bottles are we talking about here?

AHMED, WINEMAKER: Hundreds and hundreds. I would say maybe over a thousand bottles.

LAH: Vineyards like Sebastiani Winery and Sonoma saw 19 of its wine tanks damaged. But in many vineyards like Cuvaison Winery, they are optimistic they can absorb this earthquake's damage and it won't have a lasting impact on California's wines.

SCHUPPERT: It hurts, but you know, we're in agriculture. We're dealing with these things vintage by vintage. We only have one shot at making wine every year and then we move on. And Mother Nature sometimes plays a role.

LAH: 90 percent of the wine in the United States is produced right here in California. So will this disaster affect the price of your wine? Well it depends what you want to drink. The bigger wineries will probably be able to absorb the cost. It's the smaller ones -- the independent ones that could truly struggle. Kyung Lah, CNN, Napa, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: So just where is the police officer who pulled the trigger killing Michael Brown back on August 9th? Despite all the protests and media coverage, very little is known about who Officer Darren Wilson is or where he is. CNN's Ted Rowlands has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS: As Darren Wilson remains in hiding -- supporters for the 28-year-old Ferguson police officer are getting more vocal. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We want to again declare that we steadfastly

believe that Officer Darren Wilson's actions on August 9 were warranted and justified.

ROWLANDS: Over the weekend, dozens of people showed up to two rallies outside Barney's Irish Sports Pub in St. Louis. Support online has been even bigger. Financial contributions for Wilson's legal fees have reached around $400,000.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right, wrong, and indifferent, he has to be afforded due process. We can't just throw him to the wolves.

ROWLANDS: Wilson served with the Ferguson Police Department for four years. He started his career in the city of Jennings, another St. Louis suburb that in 2011 disbanded its entire police force, in part because of racial tensions between white officers and black residents.

Wilson was born in Texas but spent most of his life here near in St. Louis and by all accounts, he had a difficult childhood. His mother who was divorced twice was also convicted of forgery for stealing thousands of dollars when he was just a teenager. And then she died of natural causes when Wilson was just 16 years old.

Jake Shepard is a friend of Darren Wilson's.

JAKE SHEPARD, FRIEND OF DARREN WILSON: It makes me sad, you know. I'm obviously sad for the family of Michael Brown, but I'm sad for Darren and his family too. Every law enforcement officer dreads the time then they are forced to make that split-second decision whether or not they have to take someone's life.

ROWLANDS: In February of this year, Wilson was commended for his work after managing to arrest a man allegedly in the midst of a drug deal. Now as he faces the possibility of criminal charge for killing Michael Brown, supporters inside Barney's say they are worried he may not get a fair shake.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's gone as far as his career is concern and everybody is wondering why we're raising money for him because he has to live and he has to survive.

ROWLANDS: Ted Rowlands, CNN, St. Louis Missouri.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: The Anne Arundel County, Maryland police union has also kicked in about $1,000 to help with Officer Darren Wilson's defense. Other police unions have opted not to publicly support Wilson because they don't want to jeopardize relations with their communities. If you want an example of why they think that way, take a look at what happened when Jake Tapper interviewed a dozen Wilson supporters in Ferguson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: -- has to be supported. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't care. It's our neighborhood. We don't want here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't want (inaudible) -- I understand the justice and we understand that --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't want any controversy. A lot of black people live around here, and I want for the peace.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's my First Amendment right. I'm a United States citizen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm a United States citizen too.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Speak English.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm speaking English. Do you understand that? Do you (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Do you understand that? Do you understand that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Ok. That was ugly. So what to make of all of this, let's talk. With me now CNN political contributor and Huff Post live host, Marc Lamont Hill; and Will Cain, CNN political analyst and contributor to "The Blaze". Welcome to the both of you.

MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning. So Will, I just want you to comment for a moment on what we just saw because it was disturbing.

WILL CAIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, I mean it is disturbing, Carol, but it's largely irrelevant to what's important in this case. I think that word "relevance" is so important to remember. Are there important conversations to have about race, about the relationship between the black community in America and law enforcement? There is. Are they applicable to this particular case? Well, there's not evidence yet that that should be had in regard to this case. What about excessive force? Also an important conversation How does it apply to this case? It may not yet.

The point I'm making is if we have these conversations on top of this case, it leads to conclusions, and conclusions deprive individuals of their right of reasonable doubt, a right to innocence until proven guilty while those conversations are worthy, we need to be responsible about where we have them because we embed conclusions in people's minds.

COSTELLO: And Marc, I want to talk a little bit about this police union in Anne Arundel County who chose to contribute $1,000 to the defense of Officer Wilson. Other unions say we're not touching that. The Ann Arundel county police chief refused the union that gave him money. Is it really wrong for a union to support its members? LAMONT-HILL: It's not -- I mean it's almost a different question, but

yes, is it wrong for union to support its members as a general rule, no. Is it wrong for people who know Darren Wilson and believe his story or trust him or just want him to have a fervent and zealous defense to support him and donate money? No. People should vote and donate their consciences.

But for many of us who are on the outside watching this and as someone who was down in Ferguson talking to people, who were advocating for Darren Wilson, supporting Danny Wilson, many of them weren't thinking about his legal defense, many of them weren't thinking about his rights. They were actually paying him a kind of proxy reward for killing Michael Brown. That's not my analysis. That's what I heard people say.

That's what people talk about. Many people there were marching and demonstrating not in favor of Darren Wilson but against Michael Brown. So that's the kind of weird racial reasoning that I think is making some people uncomfortable with the fund.

And to Will's point, I sort of reject the idea that we can't have a complicated nuanced conversation about race as an adjunct to this case in particular without somehow muddying the waters or biasing the jury pool. Jury pool's area already biased.

Jury pools already want to know this story. It's an international story. But we do have an opportunity here to talk about issues of race, issues of excessive police force, issues of white supremacy, issues of police brutality and all these issues I think are directly connected to this case. Whether this direction is connected to the shooting or not is one thing but surely in the last two weeks we've seen those issues --

CAIN: But that's what the story is about in the end -- Marc. I'm sorry -- that's what the story is about in the end. It's about the investigation into a potential criminal shooting between Officer Darren Wilson and Michael Brown. And you said if we take this as an opportunity to have these other conversations, that word opportunity, I think is key.

Those are worthy conversations but they certainly pollute the potential conclusion of whether or not Darren Wilson is innocent or guilty. We are embedding in every viewer who is watching, everybody in that county, we're embedding in their minds conclusions. If you want to have a conversation about black America and its relationship with law enforcement and excessive force, you are starting to make the audience or the jurors think that's exactly what happened in this case and the only point I'm making is we don't know.

LAMONT-HILL: I don't think they pollute our conclusions, I think they inform our analysis. I mean that there's an antagonistic relation ship between blacks and law enforcement matters. Or between law enforcement and blacks -- maybe both directions matters knowing that there de facto and de jure laws in place that criminalize young black people in public space for like jaywalking or crossing the street or -- walking in the streets. CAIN: Marc, it matters. Those are good points. It matters but we're

not sure yet. It matters in this case.

LAMONT-HILL: No, no. But what I'm saying Willard is that does give it the context for this case in particular. It's not just an abstract ideation here. It actually matters for this case in particular. It helps us understand.

CAIN: That's worst than circumstantial. That's worst than circumstantial Marc, would never make it into this course. It would never make it into any part of evidence into this particular incident.

LAMONT-HILL: But I'm not making an evidentiary argument. I'm making a contextual argument about how we make sense of this case. If you're talking about potential jurors, they're all going to have to keep an arms length to everything they've read. Everything they've heard. Everything they've seen. That's the job of a juror but I don't think that we should not have a national conversation about this case because we're worried about polluting a jury pool that is already going to be wrestling with all his stuff that they purged for two weeks.

COSTELLO: All right. We're going to have to leave it there. I wish we could on because it's an interesting and important conversation. Thanks to you both, Marc Lamont-Hill, Will Cain.

CAIN: Pleasure.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM. All of the big names showed up for last night's Emmy's but with changing viewer habit, is the award show at all relevant?

Nischelle Turner is live in Los Angeles.

NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: There are people in Hollywood who would say Carol, how dare you ask that question and people in the business world who's saying that's a very good one. We'll debate it all coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COSTELLO: Oh, the Emmys on a school night. And by now you know that if you watched last year, you pretty much know who won this year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And the Emmy goes to "Breaking Bad".

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Breaking Bad".

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "Breaking Bad".

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "Modern Family".

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Modern Family".

(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: Oh, yawn, surprisingly Netflix which entered the Emmys with 31 nominations including "Orange is the New Black" and "House of Cards" went home empty handed but that is hardly a sign of things to come. Less than two minutes into the program, the jokes about streaming taking over were flying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SETH MYERS, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": We're doing this show on Monday in part because MTV aired the Video Music Awards last night. That's right, MTV still has an award show for music videos even though they no longer show music videos. That's like network TV holding an award show and giving all the trophies to cable and Netflix. That would be crazy. Why would they do that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Crazy, he's right. Netflix may not be cuddling up to the Emmys this morning, but that's ok. It can cuddle up to the 1.7 million subscribers it added since just this past spring. So let's talk about this.

Joining me now, CNN's entertainment correspondent, Nischelle Turner; our chief business correspondent, Christine Romans; and our senior media correspondent and host of "RELIABLE SOURCES", Brian Stelter. Welcome to all of you.

NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Hi Carol.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN HOST: Thank you.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hello, good morning.

COSTELLO: So Nischelle, I want to start with you so I can vent. I tried to watch the Emmys last night. Couldn't they think of another actor in "Modern Family" to give an award to?

TURNER: Well, you know what -- I actually the actor that did the best work this season was shut out and that's Eric Stonestreet. So I'm kind of with you on that. But Brian and I have this argument earlier while in past years I thought maybe "Modern Family" got a pass. I thought this year was a very strong year for the show. I thought they deserved the award this year and I know some people are like come on, five years in a row. This year, they actually deserved this. I got to take up for them this time around.

COSTELLO: Oh, whatever. I'll turn the conversation to you because I thought "Orange is the New Black" had a stellar second season. It was excellent and it was shut out. I had to wonder about that because I thought about that. It was a set up. Because network TV knows it's dying.

STELTER: I don't know if network TV knows it's dying. There might be some people in denial about that. I do wonder how the Emmy voters approached Netflix. Because on the one hand, (inaudible) has a halo effect; he gets the benefit of being new and being exciting and innovative.

COSTELLO: And creative and good and --

STELTER: On the other hand it might get penalized. It might get (inaudible) by this who are concerned about the way it's disrupting the industry. So there's a positive and there's a negative maybe. I was surprised "Orange is the New Black" didn't win last night.

COSTELLO: I was stunned. So Christine --

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all there was a lot of back lash as well with orange is the new block because people were kind of upset because they put themselves in the comedy category because no one knows if it's really a comedy or a drama. So I think that might have had a little bit of effect -- and halo effect on the voters -- because nobody really knew. Is it really a comedy?

STELTER: I do wish there were more categories. I wish there were chances for more winners because there's so much good TV, we want to celebrate it all.

COSTELLO: Let's get back to our original conversation about network TV possibly dying. So Christine, when you look at the number of subscribers added just since last spring to Netflix and Huluu, it's amazing.

ROMANS: it is amazing but it's interesting because the whole idea of the core cutters and now Brian and I really agree on this. It's that a lot of these people are doing this in addition to their pay TV. So we love our television. Americans love their television and they are waiting for something to really disrupt the industry but they haven't gotten it there. The only thing that keeps happening is their cable bills keep going up a little bit and customer going down and we complain about it. We talk about the disruption of how we get the CD that we love. I don't where all there yet.

STELTER: I think it's surprising how resilient the cable industry has been a $100 million Americans households pay for some form of Comcast, or DirecTV or Fios. There's about 15 million household who don't and some of them rely on Netflix and Huuluu but it's been surprisingly stable. It hasn't been but of course

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: I think at some point I think the cable companies are going to have to adjust. For example, I had to get cable because I just moved to New York City, Right. I'll watch anything on that work television now. I do want cable and CNN which is the only reason -- the only reason -- but some day, perhaps, it will be an ala carte system where I can pick and choose what I want to watch on cable television. Nischelle -- your thoughts.

TURNER: I think you are kind of on the money there and I think that the networks are starting to adjust because I think number one for the television we consume, it's really great stuff out there right now. The I think of course, the cable systems led the way on that but networks have really had to step it up. If you look at what we're seeing on network television right now, especially with the hour long dramas, they are pushing the envelope like never before with "Scandal", with the "Good Wife". Look at the arc on the "Good Wife" right now; killed off a main character in dramatic fashion with a shot to the head in the courtroom and it showed a lot. We saw a lot more, I think, from network television in the way of creativity and pushing the boundaries than we've ever seen. They are starting to do that and they were rewarded for that last night at the Emmys.

STELTER: I'll grant you Carol that the cost and price keeps going up and the quality is going up too. That's why I think people remain addicted to TV.

ROMANS: That's arguable.

TURNER: I'm sorry that is arguable.

STELTER: No.

TURNER: Well, we can argue that because I agree with (inaudible).

STELTER: Well, we were just talking about you know, sometimes you want fast food, sometimes you want gourmet. Some times I want to watch (inaudible). Sometimes I want to want "Anthony Bourdain, Parts Unknown". I love the diversity on TV today at least. Available.

ROMANS: All right.

TURENER: You want fries with your foie gras.

COSTELLO: Christine, Brian and Michelle, thanks to all of you. You can catch Christine by the way on "CNN MONEY" on cable. Sunday at 11:00 eastern right here on CNN. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: King Kong, climb down and step aside. Apparently you are not the only one who has a love of both bananas and scaling skyscrapers. CNN's Jeanne Moos explains the selfie craze.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No explanation for how these three got on top of Hong Kong's fifth tallest building to take what's being described as the world's scariest selfie.

That's photographer Daniel Lao (ph) holding a selfie stick that's holding the camera on top of the 73-story building known as The Center.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It would make me dizzy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow. MOOS: The video ends when Daniel seems to get a text message.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He probably got great reception up there.

MOOS (on camera): But maybe, just maybe, there are more layers to this story than meet the eye.

(voice-over): Who eats bananas 1,135 feet in the sky? This is an anti-racism message.

This past spring, Spanish soccer fans threw bananas at Brazilian players they perceived as black. When it happened again during a Spanish league match, defender Dani Alves picked up the banana and took a bite. It turns out the players had already consulted with an ad agency and thus was born #WeAreAllMonkeys campaign, featuring players and regular folks tweeting photos of themselves eating bananas to make their anti-racism point.

So, was this a high altitude snack or a message?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That feels like a long way up to go eat a banana.

MOOS: Hope they didn't just drop the peels.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Didn't you wonder why the woman was eating a banana on top of that skyscraper? I did. Now, you know the answer as do I.

Thank you. Thank you, Jeanne Moos.

Thank you for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

"@THIS HOUR WITH BERMAN AND MICHAELA" starts now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: Hello everyone, I'm John Berman.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN HOST: And I'm Michaela Pereira. Welcome to Tuesday.