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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
FAA Issues Emergency Order to Inspect Boeings; Baseball Strike Averted; 9-Year-Old Nicholas Farber Returns to Father
Aired August 30, 2002 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, GUEST HOST: Good evening again, everyone. It is the Friday before Labor Day and first and foremost we want to thank all our viewers who are watching, all 32 of you. We do appreciate it. The second thing I want to talk about is breaking the rules, as Larry just talked about.
Clearly, I've broken a whole lot of them this week. If you've been watching at all, you know that we here at NEWSNIGHT have been in hot pursuit of one of the most elusive characters in entertainment, the true artist of the millennium whose trademark moves and bold style have defined more than one generation. That, of course, would be Charles Nelson Reilly.
OK, it's been a pretty humbling week for me, I got to admit. We put out a personal challenge to CNR wanting to interview him. We have not heard back from him yet. We heard he's sailing somewhere in the Pacific, which sounds exotic enough, but somehow I think I failed in the whole CNR courtship.
And tonight we'll talk with the rules girls, as they call themselves, Ellen Fine and Sherry Schneider, the ones who give the guidelines for all others on how to meet and keep a partner. Ok sure, one of them got divorced but we're forgiving types at NEWSNIGHT. According to the girls behind the rules, I messed up the whole thing with Charles Nelson Reilly.
I broke Rule 2 by talking to him first, Rule 5 by calling him back a lot, and if he had picked up the phone, I definitely would have broken Rule 6. I would have never ended the phone call first. Rule 7, I would have broken too. I would have accepted an interview after Wednesday. Any day of the week would be fine, as a matter of fact.
So, I'm pretty down. We haven't heard from Charles Nelson Reilly, but I'll take Rule 30 to heart, which is don't let rejection get you down. Get back out there and that's what we will do tonight.
So, we begin the whip with the news and the news tonight is about the troubling story about airline safety. Kathleen Koch is on that tonight, Kathleen, a headline, please.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, the workhorses of the U.S. airline fleet, 737s, 47s, and 57s, have a potentially explosive problem in their fuel pumps, and the FAA has issued an emergency order to check it out. COOPER: We will check back with you in just a second. On to baseball, Keith Olbermann is following the story for us, Keith the headline.
KEITH OLBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And somewhere beer men are laughing and somewhere bankers shout for there is great joy in Mudville, the Player's Union did not walk out, and if you think that was bad, Anderson, wait until you hear the commissioner and the head of the Player's Association settle their differences by quoting the same Beatles song.
COOPER: All right, the fan reaction tonight, John Zarrella is in Miami, John the headline.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, by the looks of the size of the crowd in Florida, you would have thought the fans went on strike. Coming up, we'll take a look at who showed up at the old ballpark.
COOPER: All right, and a missing child found tonight, John Vause is on that for us, John the headline.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, after being taken at gunpoint, 9-year-old Nicholas Farber is back with his father tonight, but for this little boy who has been at the center of a most bitter custody dispute, it is very difficult to say that this is, in fact, a happy ending. Anderson.
COOPER: Back with all of you in a moment. Also coming up tonight, my own take on the gaudiest night in the music business, the MTV Video Music Awards, don't know if you caught it last night, but that will be in our Segment 7 tonight, all that in the hour to come.
We begin with the emergency inspection order that went out to U.S. airlines today. It covers a single part in the fuel tanks of more than 1,400 Boeing jets. While the possibility of danger is remote, the possibility is there for the kind of disaster that blew TWA Flight 800 from the sky six years ago. Here again, CNN aviation correspondent Kathleen Koch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KOCH (voice-over): The FAA says the planes, staples of the U.S. fleet, are safe to fly but it's all too aware of the dangers of center fuel tank explosions like the one that brought down TWA Flight 800 in 1996. That's why it's ordered airlines to inspect more than 1,400 Boeing 737s, 747s, and 757s, for a defective fuel pump that could cause sparking, igniting flammable vapors in the center fuel tank.
PETER GOELZ, FORMER MANAGING DIRECTOR, NTSB: They are checking these pumps. They're going to check them quickly.
KOCH: The problem was discovered when fuel pumps on three planes this month stopped working. Mechanics checking the Northwest, Easyjet, and China Southern jets discovered faulty or frayed wiring inside. The dangerous combination of sparks and empty center fuel tanks has been well known since the TWA investigation.
The pumps made by Hydro Air were installed on new aircraft starting in January, and mainly used as replacement parts in older planes. If found, airlines are being ordered to keep enough fuel in the center tank to keep the pumps submerged at all times, even when the plane is banking or experiencing turbulence.
GOELZ: There will be no vapors and there will be no explosive condition.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KOCH: The FAA assures passengers not though to be overly concerned because even without this directive, generally when the center fuel tank runs low, pilots turn off the fuel pump, thus eliminating the risk of any sparks.
But with the TWA crash in mind, authorities are acting very quickly to avoid any incidents because of this problem. And, Anderson, it is expected that in a few weeks, airlines will be ordered to repair or replace those potentially defective pumps.
COOPER: Kathleen, just a couple questions. Do you know how many planes we are talking about?
KOCH: Well here in the United States it's just over 1,400. Worldwide we're talking about over 3,000.
COOPER: So people who are traveling this weekend, I mean is that going to be upsetting travel plans?
KOCH: It certainly will not. They're going to be able to accomplish these checks, Anderson, is just about three or four days. They won't have to take the planes out of service. They can check it by checking the paperwork on the plane or looking underneath on the fuselage. And again, the correction action at this point is just keep that center fuel tank relatively full of fuel so that no air vapors hit those potentially defective fuel pumps.
COOPER: So the danger really is the vapors hitting those - any defective pumps that might be there.
KOCH: Correct. Correct.
COOPER: It's not a full tank of fuel that's a danger?
KOCH: No, no, no. As a matter of fact it's the opposite. A full tank of fuel will submerge that pump so that any sparks that occur they won't catch fire. It's when they're exposed to air. You've got to have that oxygen to create the flame.
COOPER: All right, Kathleen Koch, thanks very much tonight.
KOCH: You bet.
COOPER: We'll take up the story again a little bit later on in the program when we're joined by Jim Hall who ran the TWA 800 investigation when he was director of the National Transportation Safety Board. That is coming up in about ten or 15 minutes or so.
We go now to baseball and a story today that would do an old newspaper editor proud. Hold the presses, man bites dog. Owners who have never shown much sense came to their senses. Players who, over the years, rarely passed up an opportunity to press for more, well they settled for somewhat less.
A business, and believe me baseball is a business that hasn't had a labor dispute in recent history without a strike or a lockout, instead today had neither. Keith Olbermann called it last night so he has the honor again. Mr. Olbermann, batter up.
OLBERMANN: It was really bad and it would have been really worse if they had gone out and here exactly is how far baseball would have fallen had the players gone on strike this afternoon.
Quietly, the Pfizer Company had revealed it would have immediately stopped running its television advertisements for Viagra, featuring first baseman Raphael Palmero of the Texas Rangers. Baseball would have been so tarnished that one of its most venerable players would no longer have been respectable enough to represent what is essentially a pharmacological aphrodisiac.
Thankfully, those commercials and the leaky roof of the free stadium they gave Bud Selig's Milwaukee Brewers, and the debate over who's the greatest hitter who was ever frozen, and all the other timeless traditions of the national pastime can continue uninterrupted.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OLBERMANN (voice-over): So, just like the All-Star game, Bud Selig presides over another tie.
BUD SELIG, COMMISSIONER, MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL: It represents for the first time in baseball history that we have reached a collective bargaining agreement without the loss of a single game.
OLBERMANN: The baseball owners got virtually everything they wanted structurally out of the labor settlement that prevented the strike, but clearly it was the players who got the financial terms that hang from that new structural skeleton.
The owners wanted a luxury tax that kicked in on payrolls of more than $102 million. Instead, they settled for $117 million. They wanted the tax to be 50 percent. It starts at 20 percent. They wanted the tax to affect six teams. They settled for three or four.
And to get this, they had to raise the minimum salary to $300,000 a year and to put off for at least four seasons Bud Selig's dream of eliminating two franchises. The union thus saved about 60 jobs for at least four years.
After nearly 24 hours of non-stop off again, on again bargaining, of shuttle diplomacy, admittedly a shuttle that only required negotiators to walk about two blocks, after all that neither side was sufficiently jaunty nor sufficiently conscious to declare victory.
DONALD FEHR, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL: The game is only over when the contract is reached and you only win and you both win when the contract is reached.
OLBERMANN: Fehr and Selig also agreed on song references.
SELIG: I'm fond of quoting the Beatles' song about a long and winding road, and this has been a long, very difficult, and winding road.
FEHR: We have been involved in traveling down many long and winding and difficult roads, and collective bargaining is often a process which is tortured and troubled and difficult.
OLBERMANN: Speaking of the road, at just before Noon Eastern, the Boston Red Sox finally got on their busses to go to Logan Airport and thence to fly to Cleveland. At almost the same hour, the St. Louis Cardinals player rep Steve Kline (ph) got a call in his Chicago hotel room telling him to round up his teammates and put them on a bus to Wrigley Field.
This was no coincidence. A high placed union source tells me that this was prescheduled, to mix sports metaphors, the labor equivalent of running out the clock. Once the union had dragged the owners' proposals inside a range where they were minimally acceptable, the plan was to keep trying to get a little more until the deadline for getting the players to the games and then right about Noon simply say OK.
Lost in the saving of the season, the irony of the saving of the Expos, the Montreal team had been virtually killed off by the 1994 strike. Now because of the no contraction provision, it has been saved by the 2002 averted strike, saved if not for Montreal then for another city, presumably Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
OLBERMANN: Where it would presumably get the politicians off Bud Selig's back. And there was another blast from the labor past hidden in today's announcement. The New York Hotel ballroom in which peace broke out was the same one in which in 1994 Commissioner Selig announced that because of that strike the World Series had been cancelled for the first time in nine decades. No need to worry about that this year because we all live in a yellow submarine.
COOPER: Were you aware that they were such Beatles fans?
OLBERMANN: No, and it's made me rethink 35 years of being a Beatles fan, in fact.
COOPER: So really, I mean, who wins out of this? Obviously the Expos.
OLBERMANN: Or whoever the Expos become.
COOPER: Right.
OLBERMANN: Yes, clearly and I think really it is, I mean it is a tie. The structures that the owners said they needed to make the game, the business at least if not the game on the field, more equitable between the small markets and the large markets were all put in place.
The union philosophically agreed to them but when they were put in place, those final numbers look an awful lot more like the numbers we were talking about from Tuesday night that the player were at. The owners moved almost up to them at the deadline, so I think there really is a question of no winner in this situation.
COOPER: Do you really think the Expos are going to move? I mean, what's the deal?
OLBERMANN: Well, there are only two options. They're not going to stay there as a ward of Major League Baseball, sort of "The Night of the Living Dead," which is what they've been the last couple of years. Either maybe some push will be made to restore that franchise, get them a real stadium, get them a real owner, or they will be moved presumably to Washington. That would be the best location.
The same thing could happen in Florida. Now there's a possibility you could buy a ballpark or build a ballpark with some of this revenue sharing money and get a Miami franchise that's up and going again. There are a lot of little, you know, hypodermic needles set around the major leagues that could improve individual franchises and just therefore raise the whole economics of the game and the fan interest again.
COOPER: Right. All right, cool. Keith Olbermann thanks very much.
OLBERMANN: You're welcome.
COOPER: We go now to the fans and to Florida. A man sitting in a bar across the street from Wrigley Field summed it up pretty well today. "America needs this" he said, not to see this or that team win. He was talking about the Cubs after all, but to see the game played, to have something of the old normal to hold onto as we approach the birth date of the new normal. We go now to Florida, CNN's John Zarrella.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA (voice-over): The boys of summer and their dads are back but the strike averting deal came so late, fans showing up for a day game in Chicago arrived not knowing whether they'd see a game or not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's fantastic. Me and my friend Frank, my brother, everybody, we came from New Jersey, 13-hour road trip, long trip to come to see a cancelled game but we're all glad. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Strike or no strike, baseball has still got a lot of problems it needs to fix, but as long as they play, you know, I'm happy.
ZARRELLA: It appears the deal may have addressed some of those problems and word is no teams will be eliminated, contracted out of existence for at least four years. That kind of news is as sweet as the sound of the crack of the bat to Florida Marlins ownership. The new bargaining agreement may save teams like the Marlins on the verge of taking an economic called third strike.
DAVID SAMPSON, FLORIDA MARLINS PRESIDENT: We did it. I mean we're not being contracted. We knew it but now everyone knows it. That's such an important point. We're not relocating. We knew it. Everyone knows it now.
ZARRELLA: But whether fans are buying it is another story.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think they should think about the sport itself instead of money all the time. The kids want to enjoy the game and that's why we're here.
ZARRELLA: But hardly anyone else was. The Marlins have the worst attendance in the game. There may have been more players on the field than fans in the stands when they took the field against the Pirates.
In New York, Mets fans turned out in respectable numbers despite the fact the team is out of the pennant race.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you keep the fans interested in the game you got them in the game. Once they leave the game, who knows if they'll all come back. They're much better off not striking.
ZARRELLA: But the happiest baseball fan was in Boston's Fenway Park. With the team out of town, Dennis Giyo (ph) got married on the field. Now that's hitting a homer in your first at bat.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA: Now baseball attendance is down five percent nationwide but now, at least, with the specter of a strike out of the way, it's possible for Major League Baseball to start rebuilding that fan base, and we hear things like the players have to begin getting more fan friendly. Well, Anderson, we've heard that the last time they went on strike too. Anderson.
COOPER: Well, John, the people who were there, did they say that they had planned long in advance to go to that game or were they holding off to make a decision? I'm wondering if, you know, few people were there because they thought there was going to be a strike or are they turned off by baseball?
ZARRELLA: I think it's a combination down here of a lot of things. First of all, south Florida has always been and always will be a football town. They announced the attendance tonight at 4,900. If there were 1,000 in there, that was a lot. A lot of people did not come because they didn't think there would be a game today. Those that did come were either Pirates fans or die-hard Marlins fans. This franchise has a huge way to go, Anderson, to rebuild any semblance of a fan base.
COOPER: All right, John Zarrella thanks very much. Next on NEWSNIGHT, a missing boy is found. His mom is in custody.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: ...that motor home after receiving a tip from someone in that campground that they moved in. Law enforcement officials arrested the mother, Deborah Rose, and another unidentified man. Now her photo had been on local television news almost every hour and Deborah Rose, it seems, had cut and died her hair black and it appears she had done the same thing to her son Nicholas as well.
Now they were brought here, mother and son were brought here to the Palm Desert Sheriff's Department, Deborah Rose obviously distraught. She sat in the back of a patrol car repeatedly kissing her son's head and then finally mother and son were separated.
Now, Nichols has been at the center of a custody battle. He was placed in temporary care of his father about a week ago after his mother was arrested for allegedly violating a restraining order, which involved another ex-husband.
Now next week there was to be a hearing to grant Michael Farber, Nicholas' father, permanent custody. Now, all this ordeal it all began in the early hours of Wednesday morning when two men broke into Michael Farber's home.
They beat him and then they made off with his son. So far there has been no sign of those two armed men but police do say they are, in fact, talking with five other people either relatives or friends of Deborah Rose, who they say were involved by either providing money to these kidnappers or helping them acquire weapons to take part in this abduction -- Anderson.
COOPER: Thanks very much, John. Before we get a break a few other items making news around the nation tonight; first, Boca Raton, Florida, the former offices of the National Enquirer where the first anthrax letter was sent. Investigators in bio-hazard suits today, setting up newer, more sensitive devices to sample for the bug. They hope to find enough new spores to compare to the anthrax in letters sent to Senators Leahy and Daschle.
On to Charleston, South Carolina flooding there today, that's the video we're showing you. Flash flood warnings are up tonight in low- lying areas along the coast. About three inches of rain fell there today and there is more expected over the weekend.
The Masters Golf Tournament is going commercial free, no IBM spots, no Coke commercials, no ads for Citibank, nothing. That was the announcement today from Hootie Johnson the Chairman of Augusta National Country Club where the tournament is held. Augusta is embroiled in a battle over its policy of not allowing female members. A woman's group had been pressuring the sponsors, so Augusta simply decided no sponsors.
And coming to a college campus near you from the research labs of IBM, E-suds (ph), apparently Big Blue wants to make sure your whites stay white and your socks don't run. The company wants to wire 9,000 dormitory washers and dryers to the Internet so college students can spend less time in the laundry room and more time studying computer science, or I suppose downloading porn.
Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, what to do and not to do about dating in cyberspace. And up next what today's FAA announcement about airliner fuel tanks and what it means to you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: We've been taking your proposals for what to do with the 16 acres in Lower Manhattan. We've been accepting them for more than a month now. We've got thousands of them. We would still like to get some more. You can go to cnn.com/newsnight and follow the links for information.
This one came from Athens, Greece, a broad theme we've seen more than a few times, something that's somewhat reminiscent of the original towers. Jason from Texas sent us this, a glass structure with water pumped up from the ground. At night, there would be a light from the bottom. And this one from Yves in San Francisco, he wanted to capture what he calls the scar in the sky.
Also keep an eye out for "CNN PRESENT, 16 ACRES." Aaron Brown is hosting the hour all about the debate over how to rebuild Ground Zero. Here's a quick look at what some of the families think should be done.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MONICA EICHEN (ph): I want to create the most beautiful memorial the world will ever see, one that is peaceful, something that honors the lives of the lost, that we all know who they were, what they were. We never see the faces of these lives that went to work one day and never came home. My gift back to my husband is to make sure he's honored.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Monica Eichen once a schoolteacher, now a widow, at 31.
EICHEN: Actually I was trying to get pregnant and Michael kept saying it was going to happen in September.
ANTHONY GARDNER: I think they are all civilian casualties of war. They died in an attack on this country.
BROWN: Anthony Gardner lost his brother, his brother Harvey, computer technician to his boss, role model to his baby brother.
GARDNER: He was more like a father to me. He was ten years older than me and helped to raise me. Our relationship changed. He was a dad. Then he was a brother. Then he was a friend.
BROWN: Gardner and Eichen turned to the people of Oklahoma City because the people of Oklahoma City know better than most how to turn great sorrow into an appropriate memorial.
DORIS JONES: Don't be in a big hurry. We didn't get ours built overnight. It was five years before the outside memorial was built.
BROWN: Doris Jones has been involved from the beginning. Her pregnant daughter, Carrie (ph), was one of the 168 fatalities from Tim McVeigh's truck bomb.
JONES: We have a common bond, that feeling that no one can have until you've been in that situation.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: You can see "16 Acres" on Saturday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN and Sunday at 7:00 p.m. and most importantly "16 Acres" is airing Monday as a special NEWSNIGHT at the usual time, 10:00 p.m. Eastern, 1:00 a.m. Pacific.
We've been trying to re-air some very moving pieces produced soon after September 11th. Our NEWSNIGHT Producer Sarah Coyle and Katherine Mitchell, victims of 9/11, remembered by those who loved them, tonight Ray Rocha remembered by his girlfriend.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: From the first night I met Ray, we were connected and together. We were coming up on our three-year anniversary. We moved to New York for his job with Cantor Fitzgerald. He has a million friends in the city and Ray's phone was constantly ringing off the hook with people saying "where are you going to be? I'll be there." I mean he just kept everyone together.
We had a lot of fun. He actually made his birth day into a national holiday practically. Everyone who knew him knew that on March 27th that it was Ray Day. That's what he called it Ray Day. We shared all the same interests and movies to us were so special. Most couples have a favorite that's, you know, their song. We actually had a favorite movie that our movie and it was "True Romance."
There are just so many things that I can't imagine doing without him. The last thing we said to each other that morning was "I love you." I said "I love you, Ray" and he said "I love you babe" and that was it. I mean it couldn't have been left any better but that was so out style.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: So, it's Friday night. The whole NEWSNIGHT staff is hold up here. Bunch of lonely Sad Sacks, stuck in a control room, gorging on cold pizza and jugs warm Chianti. It's not a pretty picture. We thought we could use some tips, some dating tips. Up to now our ideas on dating come from a half-century-old educational film called "Are You Popular?" Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Popularity? What is it made of? How does a person get to be popular with lots of people and have a few close friends, too? Let's watch and see what makes people like one person and not another.
BOY: Now there's a girl that would really get my vote.
GIRL: Let's ask her over, huh?
BOY: OK.
BOY: Go ahead, Ellen.
BOY: Why not?
ANNOUNCER: Now, why do they invite Carolyn to join their group when Jenny wasn't welcome. Is it because they like the way she looks and dresses. Because she seems as interested in girls as in boys?
[PHONE RINGING]
GIRL: Hello? Oh, hello, Wally.
BOY: Hi, I was wondering if you would like to go to the Strand to see a movie Saturday night then go over to Teen Town, maybe?
GIRL: Well, yes. I...
BOY: Or if you'd rather go with the gang on a skating party and wienie roast. We'd have to leave earlier for that though, but we'd get home at a decent time.
GIRL: Oh, the skating sounds like loads of fun.
ANNOUNCER: Wally has used a lot of common sense in putting the invitation this way. It shows he has thought about what Carolyn might like. And he has implied his price range, so she will have some idea of what he can afford when she makes her choice.
Carolyn likes it better this way, too. It's doing the girl no favor to leave it entirely up to her. It puts her on the spot.
GIRL: All right, Wally on Saturday at 5, then. Goodbye.
ANNOUNCER: Well, that phone call didn't go on for hours. A pretty sensible attitude toward telephone conversations.
BOY: Folks know when we will be home?
GIRL: We'll be home before 11, Mother. ANNOUNCER: Wally and Carolyn are saving the embarrassment of the argument about coming in at night. That was settled before Wally arrived. The hour was decided after considering such things as where Carolyn and Wally are going on their date, whether tomorrow is a school day and how many dates she has had recently.
He's proud to be with Carolyn because she looks well. Is friendly with everyone and is considerate of their feelings. She likes him for these same reasons. And also because he is fun to be with.
Home, parents, personality, all help boys and girls to be popular.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: They certainly do. So we ask, are the rules that much different these days? Want to talk about that with Sherrie Schneider, the rules expert, but also the co-author of "Rules Online Dating".
Thanks for being with us.
SHERRIE SCHNEIDER, CO-AUTHOR, "RULES FOR ONLINE DATING": Thank you.
COOPER: So, you saw that?
SCHNEIDER: Yes.
COOPER: I mean, are the rules that different? The rules you talk about in your books it sounds kind of like that stuff.
SCHNEIDER: Yes it is. The only difference is we are not mopping floors. We're doctors, lawyers, anchor women. But we are not chasing men and we are ending phone calls first.
COOPER: For those who have been living in a cave and maybe haven't read or heard about your books in the last four years. Basically, succinctly, what are the rules?
SCHNEIDER: The rules are: Men love a challenge. We don't pursue them. And we play hard to get. We don't call them. In cyberspace land, we don't e-mail them; they e-mail us first. We wait 24 hours to respond. Women are responding in seconds to men's e-mails.
COOPER: In a way, I mean, it's -- just -- and I haven't read all the books. I've just been reading a lot of the stuff -- that I mean it sounds kind of like you are tricking the guy. It seems -- it kind of depressed me, frankly.
SCHNEIDER: No we're actually leaving them alone. They like to be left alone.
COOPER: Uh, huh?
SCHNEIDER: When you e-mail men, when you call them too much, you are bothering them.
COOPER: Right?
SCHNEIDER: Men love, like potato chips and a football game. We wait until they call, until they are good and ready. Because when you call a man, you may call him when he's paying his bills or watching a football game. And then he gets off quickly. And you have to call a therapist, because you are so upset.
COOPER: So, like, some of the rules though are -- for phone calls?
SCHNEIDER: Yes.
COOPER: You don't call the person first.
SCHNEIDER: No.
COOPER: If it's a date Saturday night, if they haven't called by Wednesday you don't accept a date, right.
SCHNEIDER: Right, yeah.
COOPER: Uh, huh.
SCHNEIDER: Because we have to be courted, you know if a man calls you Friday for Friday night, then he's treating you last minute. We don't, we have self-esteem and boundaries. We don't accept that.
COOPER: But isn't there something to be said for just speaking your mind, and being honest and saying what's really going on? If you like someone, just saying it? And -
SCHNEIDER: Yes, but you can say it, and they will say, wow! I love a girl that tells me how she feels about me. But then they won't marry you.
COOPER: They won't marry you.
SCHNEIDER: Yeah.
COOPER: So, that's really depressing, isn't it?
SCHNEIDER: You know what? There's a lot of things, I wish it would be different. I wish I can go up to a guy at a bar and say, you are very nice looking guy. I'd love to go out with you. I wish I could do it. And women do. And there's nothing wrong with it. But it won't work.
COOPER: Why won't it work? Why won't a guy marry you?
SCHNEIDER: Because men love a challenge. Biologically, men and women are different. Feminism gave us equal opportunity and equal salaries, which is great, but women took that to mean that they could also men out, pay for lunch. And they tried it and it didn't work. That's why they bought 2 million copies of our first book. Because it didn't work.
COOPER: So, now you have written this book on online dating?
SCHNEIDER: Yes.
COOPER: And are the rules -- the same rules apply, I suppose.
SCHNEIDER: The rules apply. The reason we wrote it, is women were calling us saying, or e-mailing us and saying, we don't know how they apply. What do we do? They didn't realize that e-mails are phone calls. To e-mail a man is to call him, which is to pursue him, which is to ruin it.
COOPER: So, don't e-mail a guy.
SCHNEIDER: No. He has to e-mail you first. And then you wait 24 hours, not 24 seconds, 24 hours to e-mail him back, because you are busy. You have a career.
COOPER: So, even if you're not, you know, you still -- you lie?
SCHNEIDER: Even if you're not busy. You're washing your hair, you're doing something. When you e-mail a man back in seconds, he knows you like him and the challenge is over.
COOPER: Is online dating good thing? I mean, for woman?
SCHNEIDER: It's absolutely fantastic. Because so many women, especially when in your 30's and 40's, I don't know if you know any women. All your friends are married. You are not meeting any men at work. Everybody is hooked up. You can't go to the Hamptons one more summer. You are tired of the bar scene. You're too tired. You don't have the money to go to club med or the time.
Online dating, you're in your pajamas, you're doing it and you meet men online and then eventually meet them in personal. But it's an easy way to meet men that would normally never come into your life.
COOPER: Besides e-mail, in this book, what are different than the old ways?
SCHNEIDER: Well, one thing that is happening online, is that men are chitchatting with you endlessly for months and not asking you out.
COOPER: Let me guess, that's unacceptable.
SCHNEIDER: That's -- because they may be married. And they may be wasting your time.
COOPER: So, open-ended, free-wheeling discussion, forget about it?
SCHNEIDER: No. Four e-mails -- No. Four e-mails, if he doesn't ask you out or get your number within the fourth e-mail, you never e- mail him again.
COOPER: Wash that man, right out of your hair.
SCHNEIDER: He's a time waster.
COOPER: Really!
SCHNEIDER: Yes.
COOPER: Wow! What about like downloading porn? That's like -- are there any rules on that.
SCHNEIDER: Out. Well, we're writing this book for women. Men can do whatever they want. There are no rules for men. You are off the hook.
COOPER: OK, all right. No, but -- well, I won't even get into that then. Does this stuff really work? I mean, you're -
SCHNEIDER: Yeah. Ellen and I just went to a wedding last month, of this friend who, 51. She said that's it Sherrie, I'm never doing anything again. I did the Hamptons, I did this and that, I'm done!
We said put your photo and an ad on line.
COOPER: Is being married that great? I mean, isn't it more important to be honest and live like true to your heart? As opposed to --
SCHNEIDER: Every woman, very few women don't want to get married.
COOPER: Right?
SCHNEIDER: Most women I know, they want a career, they want a dog, they want an apartment. But they want to be married. They want children.
COOPER: Right.
SCHNEIDER: Even if they don't want to get married, they want a companion. They want a man that they can go to holiday weekends with. Spend their birthday with. They want a companion.
COOPER: So, what else is different about online dating? I mean, what else are some of the rules.
SCHNEIDER: You don't fly to him. He has to come to you, if you're in a long-distance relationship.
COOPER: Can you trust someone you meet online?
SCHNEIDER: Yeah.
COOPER: I mean, it sounds really sketchy.
SCHNEIDER: Well, you know, if he doesn't give you a home number, then he's probably married. That's a detector right there. COOPER: One of the things I read, which I didn't quite understand. It was like be -- you're, be create -- be?
SCHNEIDER: Be a creature unlike any other?
COOPER: Yes! Be a creature unlike any other.
SCHNEIDER: That means that you, you know, let's say your last relationship didn't work out, and not the prettiest girl in your neighborhood. You don't think -- you don't treat yourself like a loser and say, well, I'm 39, I'm not married, I'm not that pretty. My boss just fired me. I'll just go out with anybody. I'll accept crumbs. Go out Friday for Friday night. You know what I mean?
COOPER: Right?
SCHNEIDER: You say, no, I'm a creature unlike any other. Any man would be lucky to e-mail me. Any man would be lucky to know me, you pump yourself up.
COOPER: Well, whether or not this works, I mean, what does it tell us about our society, that so many people want to read this kind of book?
SCHNEIDER: It says that women still want to get married, despite the career gains, and that they should have the best opportunity to do it. And they should do it the right way. We think "The Rules" is the right way.
COOPER: All right. Sherrie Schneider, thanks very much.
SCHNEIDER: Thank you.
COOPER: Interesting.
NEWSNIGHT continues in a moment. When we come back, aviation safety expert Jim Hall on the emergency inspections of 100s of Boeing airliners. This is NEWSNIGHT from New York.
(COMMERCIAL/NEWS BREAK)
COOPER: Want to talk some more about the top story. FAA's inspection order involving fuel pumps in 1400 Boeing airliners. To help us make some sense of what it is, we are pleased to talk to Jim Hall, the former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.
We are doubly pleased, because we normally only hear from him after an accident. He joins us from Memphis tonight.
Welcome to the program. Thanks for being with us.
JIM HALL, FRMR. CHRMN. NTSB: Thank you, Andersen. I'm actually in Chattanooga.
COOPER: Oh, I'm sorry, Chattanooga.
Give us a sense of how important this is, what the FAA said today. How frightening is this?
HALL: Well, this is very important safety issue. I compliment Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration for being on top of this safety concern so rapidly and putting out this emergency directive with instructions to pilots on how to operate these aircraft until these corrections are made.
COOPER: A lot of people are going to be flying this weekend, this Labor Day weekend. You know, people here, there's 1400 aircraft. They have four days to inspect it. Is it safe to fly?
HALL: Well, it's safe to fly, Anderson. But my main concern is, many of the recommendations that the board made after TWA 800, specifically the recommendation to inert these fuel tanks on these large commercial airliners, similar to what is done in the military, has not been acted on by the FAA and the aviation industry. There is no reason --
COOPER: Explain. I'm sorry, before you go further. Will you explain what you mine by inert these fuel tanks.
HALL: The problem here, of course, is the center fuel tank. We did many tests as part of the TWA 800 investigation. We found out when there are low quantities of fuel in that tank, there can be vapors that come up that are explosive. And a spark from something like this fuel pump could set that off and explode, cause an explosion, and another catastrophe like TWA 800.
The board recommended, after that, that we inert the tank. In other words, that we use a procedure similar to the military or find another procedure to replace those vapors, put either gas in the tank, and nitrogen in place of the oxygen, or take steps to make that tank where it is not explosive.
This is not just a safety issue any more. This is a security issue after 9/11. And obviously --
COOPER: And you are saying that's not being done?
HALL: That has not been addressed. We should not have aircraft today, both Boeing and Airbus, the head of the Office of Homeland Security ought to pull in the head of Boeing, the head of Airbus. And say, gentlemen, we can't have aircraft flying now, full of our civilian passengers, where a shoe bomb similar to the one in Paris, small explosive, in a shoe, and a passenger over a seat where the fuel tank is, can explode the aircraft. We need to get.
COOPER: So, what's interesting, to me, which I hadn't realized before, is that it's the vapors - it's basically an empty fuel tank, which is incredibly dangerous because of the vapors. Is that correct? Not just talking about -- go ahead.
HALL: No, that's exactly right. It's the vapors that are the real danger. And it takes a very small spark of energy to ignite those vapors. The design concept had been, obviously, to not design out of the tank any possibility of explosions, but to protect the various apparatuses in the tank. Here we have a failure that is potentially catastrophic, such as TWA 800.
COOPER: Let me try to understand. What is currently being done, when a plane, when the center fuel tank gets low or when it runs out of fuel, in the center fuel tank? What is currently being done? If are they are not inerting it, what are they doing. I imagine they just switch to other fuel tanks, but what happens? That fuel tank just remains empty and full of vapors?
HALL: Well, there is a period of time, of course, during the climb out, that depending on the various temperatures the tank is potentially explosive. And that is why the great concern with this directive here, where they found three incidences of fuel pumps that evidently they had shown some sort of electrical discharge on the outside of the pump itself.
So it's very important, but what we are doing now is addressing, of course, a safety issue. But we are not addressing the ultimate solution, of course, which is the inerting of these tanks so they are not explosive.
COOPER: All right. Jim Hall, thank you very much for being with us tonight. It's a complex issue. I appreciate you clarifying it a little bit for us tonight.
HALL: It's a complex issue, but it's an important safety and security issue for the citizens of this country.
COOPER: Absolutely is. Thank you very much for being with us, Jim.
A few other items making news from around the world tonight. Starting in the skies of Ankara, Turkey, something went wrong during a military parachute exhibition. Look at this video. Thousands of people watched as two the jumpers got tangled up sending one of them spiraling onto the concrete. It looks worse than it was...it looks worse than it was. The parachutist escaped with a broken leg.
Rescue off the coast of Australia: Divers managed to free a 43- foot Humpback whale that was stuck in a shark net. Would have drowned, if not for their speedy knife work. The whale is now on his way to his feeding ground off Antarctica.
And no comment needed here, just a guy in India on his way to build a chimney. Who needs a wheel-barrel when you have facial hair, I always like to say. There you go.
Next on NEWSNIGHT, some important thoughts about the MTV Music Video Awards. And OK, OK, I promise not to mention the Olson twins.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Ah, "Segment 7". Did you see the MTV Music Video Awards last night? Now, as a service to our loyal viewers, who choose to watch our show, instead of the awards, all four of you, I thought I offer a little review of the happenings last night. Now, I love award shows. Where else do you get to see stars at the apex of their narcissism? Babbling unintelligibly, reading awkwardly from tele-prompters, and dressing absolutely ridiculously.
Award shows prove to me that no matter how much money you have or how good your dermatologist is, you can still make a fool of yourself. Somehow that comforts me. I don't know why. I haven't watched MTV regularly since they stopped playing Duran Duran and the Buggles. I'm more the VH1 demographic now.
No matter how many times I watch "Stevie Nicks: Behind the Music" I never get bored. The throat nodes, the nose collapse, the tambourines. It does not get much better than Stevie Nicks.
MTV puts together great award shows, though, admittedly, I don't know who most of the celebrities are. But it doesn't really matter.
Last night awards got off to a bumpy start when Michael Jackson wobbled onto the stage. His outfit sort of a New Age, hockey goalie, meets ringmaster for Barnum & Bailey Circus. Believe me, this is what happens when your style is just 10 years old. You know what I'm talking about.
Jackson was presented with a birthday cake by Britney Spears. She was dressed like Nurse Diesel, although, I admit, at first I thought it was Anne Coulter. I did. Yeah, sorry, Anne.
Jackson is just 44, but thanks to the hatchet work of some sleazy celebrity surgeon he looks as creepy as ever. God bless him. You can just see why the kids are drawn to him, can't you? Jackson was there to get a birthday cake, but came to believe he was being given an award. Something he called the artist of the millennium award. Gave even an acceptance speech, take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL JACKSON, POP SINGER: When I was a little boy in Indiana, if someone had told me that one day I would be getting, as a musician the Artist of the Millennium Award, I wouldn't have believed it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Yeah, yeah. Don't believe it, because it's not true. There is no artist of the millennium award, Michael just kind of came up with that one on his own.
Now, the other thing I like, about last night, is that just about every performer took time to thank God. No matter what profanity they may peddle to earn some cash, God is apparently behind it all. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to thank God; I want to thank the fans. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Praise you, Father. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord because we are alive right now. Thank you for this, right here.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: That's right, amen. You don't get this kind of devotion at the Academy Awards. Although, frankly, I'd kind of like to see Gwyneth Paltrow fall to the floor, hands raised, screaming into a mic. I want to give a shout out to Jesus and my management company for making my role in "Shallow Hal" possible. I'd like to see that, wouldn't you?
Now, Mary J. Blige, she was my favorite award winner, last night. Now for a woman who's CD is titled, "No More Drama," she was pretty dramatic.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARY J. BLIGE, SINGER: I got a chance to vent for people all around the world how they felt on the inside.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Amen! I fell asleep before the end of the awards. So, now, I'm just going to have to wait for my other favorite award show, which is the World Music Awards in Monaco. Now I watched that show for 19 years now. I still cannot figure out what the hell is it?
I think it's something Prince Albert dreamed up one day while sniffing brandy and playing Baccarat (ph). I don't know if they offer free booze to the stars, or free prostitutes or what, or combination of both. But they sure do get a lot of celebrities to show up and believe me, that's not easy considering most of them don't have a clue where Monaco is. In fact, most of them think Monaco is a former intern in the Clinton White House. It's true, that's what I'm told.
That's about it for NEWSNIGHT, this week. I appreciate Aaron Brown for letting me sit in and try to fill his big shoes. I'm Anderson Cooper. Have a great night. Aaron will be back next week. Good night.
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