Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
Mixed Reviews On Mel Gibson's "The Passion of Christ"; Pentagon Reviewing Policies On Sexual Assault; Democrats, Republicans use Greenspan Speech for Political Gain
Aired February 25, 2004 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again everyone.
We wade again tonight into that uncomfortable intersection of religion and public debate. Mel Gibson's movie on the death of Jesus opened today, Ash Wednesday, and I was struck by a line one of our guests wrote.
She writes reviews for "USA Today." She reviews movies and she gave Mr. Gibson's film three stars. She basically liked it. But she also wrote this. "This is not a movie that families could gather around and watch every Easter after brunch."
This movie, it seems, is many things, different things to different people but the one thing it is not, if I've read the reviews correctly, is entertaining. It is hard and difficult and draining, perhaps as it must be.
The reviewers have their say on the program tonight and so do the ticket buyers and it's where we begin. We start the whip with CNN's Maria Hinojosa, who has spent much of the day and evening talking to people going to the movies, Maria a headline.
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, there were reverends and rabbis, protesters and police, tears of sadness from some moviegoers, anger and dismay from others, but everyone who has seen it has an opinion about "The Passion."
BROWN: Maria, thank you. We'll get to you at the top tonight.
Next to the Pentagon and allegations the military has a growing sex abuse problem, Jamie McIntyre with us again, Jamie a headline.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, one member of Congress today put it this way. Female soldiers in the U.S. military have more to fear from their fellow soldiers than they do from the enemy. That might be a bit of an overstatement but, even though the data doesn't quite support it, the U.S. military does have a perception problem that there's a problem with sexual assaults.
BROWN: We'll take a look at that. Jamie, thank you.
A challenge to the president on Social Security and presidential candidates too by the sound of it. Our Senior White House Correspondent John King did the reporting, John a headline. JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPODNENT: Aaron, four years from now the first wave of the baby boomers will retire. The Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said today that unless the politicians make the tough choices, Social Security and probably Medicare too will bust the federal budget.
But ask the president or his leading Democratic rivals about that and they made crystal clear they don't want to deal with those tough choices until after the election.
BROWN: John, thank you.
And finally the Martha Stewart trial and a bold day for the defense. Allan Chernoff did the reporting here, Allan the headline tonight.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A 20-minute recipe for defense, Martha Stewart's lawyers call only one witness to the stand then rest their case. Closing arguments are scheduled to begin on Monday -- Aaron.
BROWN: Allan, thank you. We'll get back to you and the rest shortly.
Also coming up on the program tonight, a controversial bill that will protect gun manufacturers from lawsuits begins working its way through Congress.
In Segment 7 tonight, the fight heard round the world, the Cassius Clay, Sonny Liston Bout, which was more than a fight and took place 40 years ago today.
And the rooster, who is still paying off a bet he made that night, will deliver morning papers for Thursday, all that and more in the hour ahead.
We begin with the movie, certainly the movie of the moment but a movie just the same, a Hollywood movie with all it entails right down to a marketing campaign. As such, it is important to remember that to many people, religious or not, "The Passion of the Christ" is neither, strictly speaking, a work of history nor the gospel truth.
But because it lives for the moment at the intersection of both of deeply held faith and bitterly painful memories, different people will see it in very different ways. The only conclusion we can draw tonight is a simple one. People are seeing it.
Here's CNN's Maria Hinojosa.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HINOJOSA (voice-over): They lined up at noon on a work day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't mind waiting for it. It's Lent. You're supposed to suffer. HINOJOSA: The enthusiasm on this Ash Wednesday for "The Passion of the Christ," the movie, drawing reverence and rabbis, mostly the very religious but not your typical movie crowd just yet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the most awesome thing I've ever seen. I came Monday night to a private showing and came back again this morning. It's the way I wanted to start my Ash Wednesday off.
HINOJOSA: It released on 2,800 screens in this country from Texas to Miami to New York. The very devout were devout in their admiration.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the middle of it, I said this is the hardest movie I have ever watched because I couldn't control my emotions.
HINOJOSA: Jewish leaders saw it. Many came to denounce it.
ABRAHAM FOXMAN, ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE: From beginning to end, it was an unambiguous portrayal that the Jews were bloodthirsty, the Jews were angry, the Jews were vengeful and they were the ones that were directing the Romans what to do.
HINOJOSA: While Christian leaders largely defended it.
WILLIAM DONAHUE, CATHOLIC LEADER: I think there are other people who I think are hypersensitive about the subject of anti-Semitism and they are just looking for something.
HINOJOSA: And viewers one by one made their peace with "The Passion."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You realize how much your life is worth and that someone else gave up their life for you. It's just you value your life so much.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are a couple parts I thought were completely true to the Bible but it's Hollywood, so as a whole I thought it was fantastic.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HINOJOSA: Now, Aaron, this was not a typical night of any kind of premier. About an hour or two ago there were several protesters gathered here saying that the movie was anti-Semitic. They were wearing concentration camp uniforms and chanting "boycott Mel Gibson" but others have gotten into the fray.
Today, the New Black Panther Party, no relationship to the old, held a rally saying that they're upset because Christ is not depicted as black. And people from the Ethical Treatment of Animals issued a statement saying that animals mistreated today suffered the way Jesus Christ is depicted as suffering in the movie.
And finally, Aaron, Cardinal Egan here from New York reminding worshippers to remember on Sunday that Christ gave his life freely and that no one took it from him -- Aaron.
BROWN: Maria, thank you, Maria Hinojosa.
We'll have more on "The Passion" as we go along tonight.
First some of the other news of the day, starting with growing concerns about rape within the military. A Senate panel today heard allegations that more women are being victimized and the system is letting them down.
Here again, CNN's Jamie McIntyre.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE (voice-over): Since the U.S. went to war in Iraq, 88 American troops have reported they've been victims of sexual assault while deployed in the war zone.
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), SENATE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: And our women soldiers sometimes have more to fear from their fellow soldiers than from the enemy.
MCINTYRE: Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered a review of how victims are treated. And Congress wants answers as well.
SEN. WAYNE ALLARD (R), SENATE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: Many of the victims' stories were heart-wrenching and appalling. In some cases, I was utterly speechless and outraged.
MCINTYRE: Victims' complaints include poor medical care, little or no counseling and in some cases having to work side by side with the accused attacker.
Pentagon officials acknowledge that more needs to be done for victims but commanders bristled at the suggestion they don't take sexual assault cases seriously.
GEN. MICHAEL MOSELEY, AIR FORCE VICE CHIEF OF STAFF: For the notion that people get a free pass or that things are winked at or swept under the rug is outrageous.
MCINTYRE: The Pentagon also released a new study disputing the perception that rape is on the rise in the military.
DAVID CHU, UNDERSECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR PERSONNEL AND READINESS: The incidence of sexual assault in the military is down from 1995, approximately cut in half from the level that prevailed seven years earlier.
MCINTYRE: In 1995, six percent of the troops surveyed by the Pentagon said they'd been a victim of rape or attempted rape. By 2002, the rate had dropped to just three percent. But rape is an underreported crime and victims' rights advocates say the numbers don't tell the whole story. CHRISTINE HANSEN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, THE MILES FOUNDATION: So often we find that the victims may actually go underground for fear of what reprisals or retribution or, more specifically, the fear of adverse career impact and the impact to their security clearances that may occur when they do report a sexual assault in theater.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE: Pentagon officials concede they don't have the data to conclude whether troops deployed in a war zone are more likely to be victims of sexual assault; however, they say they're reviewing all the policies with an eye toward doing more toward prosecuting sexual offenders and more toward protecting their victims -- Aaron.
BROWN: This is an ongoing issue given what has gone on in the Air Force, at the Air Force Academy and the rest. What is it that they -- I guess what is it that victims' advocates say they aren't doing?
MCINTYRE: Well, I mean one of the chief complaints is that when women bring forth charges of rape against an accuser that often what happens is the women end up getting punished for some minor infraction while the accused rapist or sexual abuser goes unpunished, often because rape is a case of he-said or she-said and it's very hard to prove that case.
One of the things they did at the Air Force Academy, for instance, was to grant amnesty for minor infractions to students so that they wouldn't be, for instance, prosecuted for drinking in the dorm and then have the accused rapist go free.
So, the Pentagon says they're looking at all of the things involved in the treatment of victims of rape to see if they can't do a better job in making sure that they get fair treatment.
BROWN: Jamie, thank you, Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon tonight.
Also on the Hill today, Alan Greenspan did what someone once said all Fed chairmen have to do, which is take away the punch bowl when the party gets going good. Normally, that means raising interest rates or decrying the deficit. This time he issued a tough warning. When it comes to Social Security, the party is over, a splash of cold water at any time, decidedly so in an election season.
Here's our Senior White House Correspondent John King.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KING (voice-over): The Fed chairman put election year pressure on both political parties, warning that without difficult choices soon the looming retirement of the baby boomers will bust the federal budget.
ALAN GREENSPAN, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: We will eventually have no choice but to make significant structural adjustments in the major retirement programs. KING: By that, Chairman Greenspan means raising the Social Security retirement age and reducing annual cost of living increases. At the White House, quick proof there's a reason they call Social Security the third rail of American politics.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My position on Social Security benefits is this that those benefits should not be changed for people at or near retirement.
KING: Both leading Democratic presidential candidates rushed to rule out Social Security benefit cuts.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The wrong way to cut the deficit is to cut Social Security benefits. If I'm -- if I'm president, we're simply not going to do it.
SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The answer is not to cut Social Security benefits for those who need them and depend on them. The answer instead is to stop tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
KING: Chairman Greenspan has legendary status in Washington and both parties looked for election year advantage in his testimony. To the Democrats' delight, he said growing federal budget deficits eventually threaten long-term interest rates and living standards.
GREENSPAN: It's out there somewhere and it's out there in this decade.
KING: Republicans liked his recipe for reducing that red ink. Greenspan did not rule out tax increases but was adamant that Congress impose strict budget caps and cut spending first.
GREENSPAN: It's an easy solution to a problem where you have a deficit to increase taxes. It's not evident to me that over the long run that actually works.
KING: And Republicans nodded approvingly when Chairman Greenspan said the ten-year Bush tax cuts had helped the economy out of recession and, in his view, so long as spending is controlled that those tax cuts should be made permanent.
GREENSPAN: They should be continued because I think over the long run they will benefit this economy.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KING: On the issue of Social Security here at the Bush White House and leading Democratic budget voices in the Congress concede the chairman's point that something has to be done about Social Security but, Aaron, there is no bipartisan consensus and on both sides of the aisle they think it would be political suicide to talk much more about this before the election.
BROWN: The president four years ago campaigned in part on the notion of personal retirement accounts, setting aside some of your Social Security money to invest. This seems to be an opening for that, is it?
KING: It is in part but remember the president proposed that. He had the late New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan head a bipartisan commission that said that was a good idea and also said that Congress would need to debate those other issues, raising the retirement age, perhaps cutting back benefits, definitely reducing the cost of living increases.
The president was prepared to go forward with that plan early in the administration with a lot of time before an election and then the stock market went down in the recession and nobody, especially Republicans, wanted to touch it because of the mid-term elections.
There is no consensus now to do that, little time before this year's election, at least as the politicians view it, so nobody wants to deal with it until after the elections when they can try to have another bipartisan whack at it.
BROWN: John, thank you very much, John King tonight.
Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, we go back to the movie "The Passion." We'll see how Christian groups, one Christian group at least, hopes to make use of the film.
We'll also hear from a panel of film critics. What do they think of the movie?
Later still, another in our series on still photography segments. We'll look at the trouble in Haiti through stills, that and more as NEWSNIGHT continues from New York.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: More now on "The Passion of the Christ," which opened today with all the hype of "Jaws," including the death of a woman in Kansas. She apparently had a heart attack during the crucifixion scene.
In case you needed a reminder, this movie is rough stuff, one that some say portrays the suffering of Christ at the expense of the message of Christ, not in short a come-to-Jesus moment, if you will, yet that is precisely how others are treating it.
Here's CNN's Jeff Flock.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CHICAGO BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Giving out free tickets...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Upstairs and it's theater 11.
FLOCK: Sponsoring lecture series...
GARRY POOLE, EVANGELICAL DIRECTOR, WILLOW CREEK CHURCH: We're calling it "The Man Behind the Movie." FLOCK: Handing out literature, even running TV commercials.
PASTOR JERRY MCQUAY, CHRISTIAN LIFE CENTER: I'm Pastor Jerry McQuay.
FLOCK: Churches hoping darkened movie theaters could yield thousands of new converts to Christ.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's going to change lives.
FLOCK: Trying to capitalize on passions stirred.
MCQUAY: And I'd like to encourage you to experience "The Passion" in theaters and come worship with us at Christian Life Center.
It's creating a natural opportunities for Christians to talk to their non church friends and say, hey, would you like to go see this with me?
FLOCK: Pastor McQuay's suburban Chicago church rented out six 400-seat theaters, paying full price, $9 a ticket, for church members to take along a non-believer friend.
MCQUAY: The end result of that could certainly be that people would join the church.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it is now time to introduce "The Passion of the Christ."
FLOCK: This screening, sponsored by Relevant Radio, the country's largest Catholic radio network, hoping to entice Catholic listeners back to worship.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's been a while since I visited the church and seeing this movie, you know, I'm going back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to try and be a better person as a consequence.
FLOCK: "An historic event is about to take place. Will your church be ready" reads this advertisement for a discussion guide for churches? It was written by Garry Poole.
POOLE: I think that this movie will probably be one of the greatest opportunities for dialog about Christianity that we've seen in our lifetime.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whether I believe in God or Jesus, this man was a great man.
FLOCK: Churches hoping that spirit will help fill their hard wooden pews like the film is now packing the plush seats of the theaters.
I'm Jeff Flock, CNN, in Chicago. (END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Seeing a movie ought not be a test of faith, nor should writing about one we believe, yet this time it seems both are true. A critic we invited to the program tonight backed out late this afternoon after getting literally hundreds of e-mails, many of them hateful, some anti-Semitic, a few threatening his life.
It's a movie, a movie which is how we want to look at it now, even if untangling the movie and the message and all the rest isn't so easy. We're joined by three critics. First in Los Angeles, Claudia Puig of "USA Today." With us in New York Rene Rodriguez, who writes about movies for "The Miami Herald," and David Sterritt of "The Christian Science Monitor," and we are glad to have all of you.
Claudia, start us off here. Just in a sentence or two or a really short paragraph how did you like the movie?
CLAUDIA PUIG, "USA TODAY": Well, like might not be the most appropriate word. The unremitting and almost orgiastic violence put me off a little bit. There certainly was a power and a poetry and a beauty to it but I wish that I -- I would have preferred to have seen more of Jesus' humanity and more of the magnetism that drew followers to him and a little less of the lacerating and the flogging and just the gore, the gore and the bloodbath.
BROWN: Got it. Let me come back to that.
PUIG: Sure.
BROWN: Rene, too violent?
RENE RODRIGUEZ, "THE MIAMI HERALD": It probably is too violent in that after a while you kind of stop registering what you're watching on screen and you're almost waiting for the scene to be over so the movie can move on.
But what's interesting about that is that is the reason why Gibson made the movie. He wants to force you to focus on every lash, every nail, every bit of agony that Christ endured.
BROWN: And, in the end, you found it effective?
RODRIGUEZ: I think as a whole the movie has an undeniable power and I think whether you liked the movie or not, it certainly leaves an impression and it certainly stays with you.
You don't necessarily have to agree with the approach that Gibson takes and you don't necessarily have to find meaning in the areas that he finds meaning but as a work of art I think it's pretty undeniable that it works.
BROWN: David, where are you falling in the conversation so far?
DAVID STERRITT, "THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR": The movie has obviously a certain kind of power. It just pulls out all the stops. But what to m e is most important about it is that it is so relentlessly physical, so relentlessly material.
There are occasional flashbacks to Jesus' earlier life. We see a little bit, a few seconds almost, of the Last Supper, a little bit of the Sermon on the Mount but mainly it's all of this brutality as if the death and the torture and crucifixion of Jesus were the really important thing and not the fact that he then rose from the dead, which is what Easter is about and triumphed over death. That gets one minute at the end of the movie.
BROWN: Claudia, the question of anti-Semitism, did you see it in the movie?
PUIG: I saw, there were some portrayals I think of Caifus and some of the Jewish rulers, there was some sort of one-dimensional portraits of those particular characters. There was a kind Jewish person that helped him carry the cross.
BROWN: Yes.
PUIG: But I can certainly see where it would lend itself to people, you know, people would be concerned, particularly in the portrayal of Caifus and the Jewish leaders but to be fair it was the Romans that were doing, you know, the real physical abuse and the excessive flogging at the behest of the Jewish leaders.
BROWN: Rene, I'm sorry Rene you did not see the anti -- I think the line I remember from you is you really had to look for it to be...
RODRIGUEZ: I think -- I don't think the movie is anti-Semitic at all. I think where this is all coming from is that Gibson is the kind of artist who likes to paint in very, very broad strokes.
BROWN: In everything he does.
RODRIGUEZ: In everything he does. I mean you could draw comparisons between this movie and "Braveheart" and they're both very similar and they're both very broad. I don't think this movie is anti-Semitic at all.
I think his failing is that he paints the high priests who condemn Jesus in such, you know, villainous cartoonish terms that it's very easy to read anti-Semitism in there.
STERRITT: Yes, I agree with that.
PUIG: Yes.
BROWN: Do you think 30 years from now, 50 years from now that this movie will still be out there in a sort of powerful way or even in a month from now?
STERRITT: Yes. I think that a lot of people are going to see this movie today and I think a lot of people are going to be seeing this movie over the next week or so and then I think it's not going to have what the Hollywood people call legs. It's going to drop off a lot because it's a really unpleasant movie and unless you're interested in a particular strain of Christian thinking and tradition, unless you really fall right in there, you're just going to find this movie just too much, much too physical as I said before, not nearly enough metaphysical.
I think it's going to end up in the video stores where it's going to be just another movie and where people are going to look at it without really a lot of fuss and some of the people who look at it over the years are going to be people who are interested and feel called by that particular kind of Christian tradition.
And others are going to be cultists who are just into it as a kind of a horror movie and, in many ways, it works better as a horror movie than as a religious movie.
BROWN: Rene, let me give you the last word here. Do you think it is -- is it -- has it been worth all the fuss? There's been so much controversy and so much fuss about this. Is there a payoff there in that respect?
RODRIGUEZ: I think there is a payoff in the sense that, you know, my review in the paper today ran on the front page. You have a subject that is normally not in the news, which is religion and the differences between theologies and the difference between Jewish and Christians.
There is a lot of attention being focused on these differences and I think once the controversy dies down, I think what you're going to find is people who may not necessarily know a lot about the other person's faith having learned, even if it's just a little bit, having learned about it and I think that, I mean I know it sounds very kind of hand-holding Cumbaya but it's actually true.
BROWN: A little bit of that on a day like today is not a terrible thing. Thank you all, good to have you with us. Thank you. I expect we'll revisit this again.
Still to come on the program, more normal matters for us, Martha Stewart and an amazingly quick defense. We'll tell you that story and much more.
Around the world this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Blink and you might have missed it. Martha Stewart's lawyer today put on a defense that lasted barely longer than the closing credits to "Law and Order." But if you remember you "Law and Order," you'll also recall these lawyers are under no obligation to do anything more. Just the same after some pretty tough days of prosecution testimony, today would seem to be a gamble.
Here again, CNN's Allan Chernoff.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CHERNOFF (voice-over): A one witness defense for Martha Stewart lasting 21 minutes.
ROBERT MORVILLO, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: We called only one witness because we thought that was a sufficient way to deal with the quantity and the quality of evidence that the government had put in.
CHERNOFF: How would you characterize the quality of the evidence the government put in?
MORVILLO: You know I don't talk about the quality of the evidence outside the courtroom.
CHERNOFF: Do you think they've proven anything?
MORVILLO: I think that the witness that we called indicates what we thought about their case.
CHERNOFF: Attorney Stephen Pearl was the witness on the stand to rebut a charge that Martha Stewart lied by telling federal investigators she didn't know her stockbroker Peter Bacanovic called her on December 27, 2001, the day she sold her ImClone stock.
Pearl, who accompanied Stewart during her interview with the government testified his notes indicated the question to Stewart was not whether Bacanovic had called but what time Peter Bacanovic left a message to which she responded I don't know.
After Stewart's lawyers rested, prosecutors introduced a taped interview with broker Bacanovic to rebut testimony of Stewart's business manager. Heidi DeLuca had testified she discussed selling ImClone with Bacanovic, backing up Stewart and Bacanovic's claim that they had an agreement to sell ImClone if the stock fell below $60 a share.
Bacanovic on tape said that couldn't have happened.
PETER BACANOVIC INTERVIEW WITH SEC: "I don't get into that much detail with Heidi.
QUESTION: So, the issue of the stock at $60 didn't come up with Heidi?
BACANOVIC: No.
QUSTOIN: And Heidi never brought it up to you?
BACANOVIC: No. She only brought it up to me in terms of adding gains to the account."
JACOB ZAMANSKY, SECURITIES ATTORNEY: I do believe Martha Stewart and Bacanovic are going to be convicted of the obstruction charge, false statements and very likely conspiracy.
(END VIDEOTAPE) CHERNOFF: The judge has scheduled closing arguments for next Monday and Tuesday and indicated she's likely to give the case to the jury on Wednesday -- Aaron.
BROWN: Allan, thank you very much.
Still to come on the program, a very controversial gun bill, a bill that would protect manufacturers from certain lawsuits. Later, segment seven goes into the ring for one of the most famous fights of all time, Cassius Clay, Sonny Liston, and the mouth heard around the world.
As we go to break, a check of how the stock market did today.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: It is a familiar mantra of the gun industry: Guns don't kill people. People kill people. The slogan, of course, hasn't prevented a number of lawsuits from being filed, all aiming to hold gunmakers accountable for the crimes committed with the guns they make or sell.
The lawsuits in turn have sent the gun industry scrambling to lobby for protections against such suits. And now the Senate is poised to turn those protections into federal law. In a test vote today, 75 senators supported the proposal.
Here's CNN Joe Johns.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN CAPITOL HILL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Washington, D.C. sniper attacks. A Bushmaster rifle used in the killing spree was traced back to a store on the West Coast where more than 200 firearms had been reported missing. It's at the center of a Senate battle over limiting lawsuits against gunmakers and gun dealers.
SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D), CALIFORNIA: The store had no record of the purchase for the assault rifles used in the attacks and failed to report it stolen until after the ATF recovered the weapon from the snipers and traced it back to the store.
JOHNS: The bill being debated is aimed at stopping negligence lawsuits that proponents say threaten to cripple the gun industry, but could also prevent the sniper victims and their families from suing the gun store for negligence.
Gun rights supporters who back the measure say not all lawsuits would be cut off, for example, if the gun seller or maker violated a federal or state law.
SEN. LARRY CRAIG (R), IDAHO: If this licensed gun dealer violated current law, he will be shut down. What we're talking about here, again, is a narrow piece of legislation.
JOHNS: The gun lobby says lawsuits against the industry have been unsuccessful, but extremely expensive to defend in court.
WAYNE LAPIERRE, NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION: They are going to kill the American firearms industry. We're going to ship this whole industry overseas.
JOHNS: Quirky, high-stakes politics surround the debate. Senate Democratic leading Tom Daschle, who is up for reelection, helped write the measure. But now he's feeling the heat from fellow Democrats who are gun control advocates. So he's offered a number of changes, including one that would allow the sniper lawsuits to go ahead.
SEN. TOM DASCHLE (D-SD), MINORITY LEADER: The principle of equality before the law demands that everyone, individuals and businesses alike, be held accountable for their actions.
JOHNS: Adding to the drama is a proposal to renew the 1994 assault weapons ban, which expires this year. Gun control advocates say they will try to tack it on to the bill.
Joe Johns, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: On now to the Constitution.
The word we used yesterday to describe President Bush's support for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage was big. And it is a big story. Proposing to change a document as fundamental as the Constitution is a very big deal. But the distance between proposing and changing is hardly small. It's what we call a second-day story, after the big.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): When it comes to amending the Constitution, proposing is far easier than passing.
DAVID KYVIG, NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY: The last estimate I saw was that about 14,000 amendments have been proposed to the Constitution, and, of course, only 27 adopted.
BROWN: By requiring a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate and ratification by three-quarters of the states, the founding fathers ensured that changes to our fundamental social document would be possible but only on issues where there was an overwhelming national consensus.
KYVIG: You have to have a combination of North and South and East and West and urban and rural support for a proposal in order for it to have a chance of meeting that threshold of -- of the amending process. And that's not very easy to achieve.
BROWN: In fact, over the last quarter-century, only one amendment has been ratified. It puts limits on when congressman can raise their salaries, not exactly controversial and not exactly new. It was written by James Madison, first sent to the states in 1789. Since then, Congress has learned to put time limits on such things.
Other than that, only one amendment has even come close.
ALLAN LICHTMAN, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: There was a very strong national consensus back in the '70s, behind the Equal Rights Amendment. It got through Congress. But it bogged down in the states and it was never ratified. There is not that same kind of broad national consensus today for a constitutional amendment on gay marriage.
BROWN: In recent years, there have been plenty of proposals to amend the Constitution. Remember the amendment to ban the desecration of the American flag. It has yet to pass the Senate. A Balanced Budget Amendment never got to the states either, nor did term limits and school prayer. All had popular support. None made it to the Constitution.
KYVIG: Politicians have frequently found that proposing a constitutional amendment is a wonderful way of stating a position on an issue, but never having to accept responsibility for that proposal becoming law.
BROWN: Clearly, the founding fathers never could have anticipated a debate over gay marriage, but just as clearly, they knew exactly what they were doing so long ago, when they made the very idea of changing the Constitution so very hard to do.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Before we go to break, a few other stories that made news around the country today, starting with a possible setback for the 9/11 Commission. The speaker of the House, Republican Dennis Hastert, said today he will block a 60-day extension the commission requested to complete its work, which the White House had agreed to.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that Washington state and its scholarship plan which barred theology students from participating does not violate the constitutional ban on religious discrimination.
And after chalking up three more wins yesterday, Utah, Hawaii and Idaho, Democratic front-runner John Kerry campaigned in Ohio again today. His rival, John Edwards, launched a three-day swing through California. Both states hold primaries next Tuesday, Super Tuesday.
Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, trouble in Haiti, a look at life there through the lens of a still photographer.
A break first. This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: A quick look now at some of the stories that made news around the world today, starting on the West Bank. Israeli troops raided a number of Palestinian banks. They took close to $7 million, money the Israelis say was earmarked for funding terrorism. The Palestinians, as you imagine, would have a different take, a local paper headlining it: "The Occupation's Armed Robbery."
Survivors of yesterday's earthquake in northern Morocco are accusing the government of abandoning them. They say relief is slow in coming because they are Berbers, a minority in the Arab country.
And hours after President Bush warned citizens of Haiti not to try and escape the political turmoil in their country by fleeing to the United States, the Coast Guard intercepted two ships off the coast of Miami -- or, rather, one off the coast of Miami, the other near Haiti. Together, they were carrying more than 100 Haitians who will now be sent home. The Coast Guard says it is watching several other small boats off the coast of Haiti tonight.
The backdrop for all of this, the mess in Haiti, which got worse today. Rebels who launched an uprising three weeks ago now control half the country. And today, looting erupted in the capital of Port- au-Prince. With pressure mounting for international intervention, the United Nations Security Council has called a meeting for tomorrow.
When the fighting broke out earlier this month, photojournalist Peter Andrew Bosch of "The Miami Herald" returned to this tiny country he has covered for the past 20 years. Last Sunday, a tip led him to Cap-Haitien in the north. He was there with his camera when the city fell to the rebels.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETER ANDREW BOSCH, "THE MIAMI HERALD": My name is Peter Andrew Bosch. I've worked for "The Miami Herald" for the past 21 years. And, right now, I'm in Haiti. I've been on the road the whole time following the rebels.
I went up to Hinche on the 17th, February the 17th. And Hinche was already taken by the resistance front. In light of the recruits that they have recruited from town to town, they are very camera-shy. They are moving with the movement, but they don't want their faces to be photographed.
That person was standing next to another person that had a gas mask on. They did not want their faces to be identified.
Right now, I'm in Cap-Haitien. I couldn't sleep on Saturday night. And (INAUDIBLE) said I needed to be there. So I got up at 5:00 that morning. And there was a small plane coming up here that morning at 7:00. And probably about 11:00 they took the police station. And that's when they started securing the area and gunfire all over.
The only resistance that they had had already fled. A couple of people had been killed, left in the streets and left in some of the buildings. People proceeded to loot the police station. And then they burned it down to the ground. And then they went out looking for any Aristide supporters. The police stations are generally the first things that they take. They take the police stations and then they free the prisoners. They have received a lot of their weapons from the police stations that they raided. And then they generally let the public loot it and then they burn it down.
That evening, they proceeded to loot the World Food Program warehouse, which was full of lentil beans. The resistance front the next day secured the port and started securing the whole city and arresting all the looters that they could get.
That was down by the port. Apparently, this gentleman had displayed aggressive acts towards one of the resistance soldiers. And he was shot. There's a lot of uncertainty of what is going to happen, whether Aristide is going to resign and leave the country.
I would like my photographs to educate people of what really is going on.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: A number of stills.
Ahead, segment seven goes to the fights for a look at one of the defining moments in professional boxing and a moment that said a fair amount about the country, too. Cassius Clay, Sonny Liston, 40 years ago today.
This is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: More than occasionally, the program takes a look at yesterday's news, because, sometimes, yesterday tells us a lot about today.
The yesterday in this case was 40 years ago. Civil rights was the issue of the day. And that day 40 years ago featured two black men, one a tough guy, owned, many people believed, by powerful white men, the other young and uppity, to use a word of the time, who had come to be owned by on one. In a story, one seemed to represent the past, the other the future, and it all played out, past and future, in a boxing ring in Miami.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CASSIUS CLAY, BOXER: Here's the eighth round exactly as it will happen. Clay comes out to meet Liston and Liston starts to retreat. If Liston goes back (INAUDIBLE) he'll end up in a ringside seat.
BROWN (voice-over): The boxing world, not to mention the rest of America, had never seen anything quite like him or anything quite like this.
CLAY: Clay plays with his left. Clay plays with his right. Look at young Cassius carry the fight.
BROWN: Twenty-two-year-old Cassius Marcellus Clay of Louisville, Kentucky, the mouth of the South, taunting, reciting poetry, guaranteeing to defeat the heavyweight champion of the world, big bad Charles Sonny Liston.
ALLEN BARRA, SPORTS JOURNALIST: I don't think you could go back far enough to find a heavyweight that was as highly regarded and scary as Sonny Liston.
BROWN: Cassius Clay, outwardly, at least, was very clearly not afraid. But, far more importantly, he was establishing a pattern, one that, in just a very few years, would make him the most recognizable sports figure on the planet.
ANGELO DUNDEE, FORMER TRAINER: He changed the whole innovation of boxing. He was the first available superstar.
BROWN: And in that fight, in a smoky, steamy Miami auditorium, he was the very best over an older, slower Sonny Liston.
BARRA: To take the years of abuse, of drinking, lack of training, take this with -- in combination with underestimating Cassius Clay and you can see that there's no real surprise as to what happens in the ring. What happens in the ring when you watch the tape seems, I think, in retrospect, inevitable.
BROWN: Clay won the fight when Liston did not appear for the start of the seventh round. He couldn't lift his left arm. His biceps, doctors would say later, was torn, probably because he swung at Cassius Clay so often and missed.
DUNDEE: Cassius Clay, peripheral vision, sharp, he's looking over my shoulder. He's looking over my shoulder. And he comes up. We win.
BROWN: In many ways, it was far more than just a boxing match, of course. It marked the end of an era in both attitude and style. The very next day, there were hints that Cassius Clay would embrace Islam.
BARRA: By the next fight, he was Muhammad Ali. He was more dedicated, more focused, bigger, stronger and faster. And everything that happened after that, of course, is history.
BROWN: Ali is still a figure larger than life, but a man who four decades ago changed the landscape of sports and in a way of the culture itself.
CLAY: You know how great I am. I don't have to tell you about my strategy. I'll let my trainer tell you. Bodina (ph), come here. Bodina, tell him, what are we going to do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are going to flight like a butterfly and sting like a bee. Rumble young man, rumble.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Forty years ago. Tomorrow morning's papers next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(ROOSTER CROWING)
BROWN: OK, time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world. And I'm not sure why I'm laughing, except that the stack is a big mess, and that may be the reason.
We'll start with "The Washington Times," which in many respects leads differently than most other newspapers. So we'll spend a little time here. Up in the corner over here on the side, "Bush Seeks Protection For Gun Dealers. Senate Measure Targets Lawsuits." We told you about that. "Bush Warns Haitians Not to Flee to U.S." I think this is a very good story today. "Radio Host to Pay for Lewdness. Shock Jocks Will Risk Jobs." Clear Channel, the largest owner of radio stations in the country, suspended Howard Stern today from its radio stations and said it's not going to tolerate the fare that makes morning radio morning radio in much of the country. That's "The Washington Times."
"Philadelphia Inquirer." This is the lead I think in most papers, one way or another. "Greenspan: Cut Future Benefits, Social Security and Medicare Targeted." Also on the front page, "Passionate Reactions to the Movie." And they highlight two reactions, quite different. "It bothered me. I'm Jewish. It was too much," says this woman. And says Kim Graham (ph), a Philadelphia minister, "The film isn't anti-Semitic. It's anti-sin." And that's the lead. Those are the leads in "The Philadelphia Inquirer."
Across the state in Pittsburgh, "The Pittsburgh Tribune Review." I haven't heard this story. I like it. "FBI Horded, Destroyed Oklahoma City Evidence. A White Supremacist Gang May Have Aided Timothy McVeigh." We'll read more about that story. It's an AP story reported by John Solomon. So we'll take a look at that and perhaps you will as well.
"The Atlanta Journal-Constitution" has Haiti on the front page, and also the Clear Channel story. But this is a good local story for them. "Jamal Lewis Indicted by Feds." I think he plays in Baltimore, but the indictment came up, was handed up in Atlanta. "NFL Star is Charged With Conspiracy to Buy Cocaine in the Year 2000." That's an unfortunate story. We'll see how it plays out in court.
How we doing on time, please? Fifty.
"Greenspan: Cut Social Security, U.S. Can't Afford Promised Benefits," he says. The lead in "The San Francisco Chronicle."
I wanted to get to the Detroit paper, if I can, if I can find it here. Just play along with me. Oh, let's do this one, actually. This is "The Amelia Bulletin Monitor," Amelia County, Virginia. And this is the story that they wanted us to note. And we do. "VMI Cadets Called up For Active Duty." Five Virginia Military Institute cadets, who are also part of the Virginia Army National Guard, have been called to active duty.
"Chicago Sun-Times" leads thusly. "Greenspan: Social Security Must Be Cut. Fed Chairman Says Country Can't Afford Benefits Promised to Baby Boomers." That would be us, wouldn't it? The whether tomorrow, "dreamboat."
Here is Soledad O'Brien with a look at what is coming up tomorrow on "AMERICAN MORNING."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Aaron.
Tomorrow on "AMERICAN MORNING," the Academy Awards ceremony is this Sunday. What are the most memorable moments from Oscar night? We have got the best and the worst of everything, from the hosts, the special performances, and those acceptance speeches.
That's tomorrow, 7:00 Eastern -- back to you, Aaron.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Thank you. Will we -- let's do that again. Thank you. We will be with you tomorrow, but not until 10:30. But to make up for that, we'll go to midnight Eastern time. We hope you'll join us for that.
"LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" next for most of you. Good night for all of us.
END
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Pentagon Reviewing Policies On Sexual Assault; Democrats, Republicans use Greenspan Speech for Political Gain>
Aired February 25, 2004 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again everyone.
We wade again tonight into that uncomfortable intersection of religion and public debate. Mel Gibson's movie on the death of Jesus opened today, Ash Wednesday, and I was struck by a line one of our guests wrote.
She writes reviews for "USA Today." She reviews movies and she gave Mr. Gibson's film three stars. She basically liked it. But she also wrote this. "This is not a movie that families could gather around and watch every Easter after brunch."
This movie, it seems, is many things, different things to different people but the one thing it is not, if I've read the reviews correctly, is entertaining. It is hard and difficult and draining, perhaps as it must be.
The reviewers have their say on the program tonight and so do the ticket buyers and it's where we begin. We start the whip with CNN's Maria Hinojosa, who has spent much of the day and evening talking to people going to the movies, Maria a headline.
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, there were reverends and rabbis, protesters and police, tears of sadness from some moviegoers, anger and dismay from others, but everyone who has seen it has an opinion about "The Passion."
BROWN: Maria, thank you. We'll get to you at the top tonight.
Next to the Pentagon and allegations the military has a growing sex abuse problem, Jamie McIntyre with us again, Jamie a headline.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, one member of Congress today put it this way. Female soldiers in the U.S. military have more to fear from their fellow soldiers than they do from the enemy. That might be a bit of an overstatement but, even though the data doesn't quite support it, the U.S. military does have a perception problem that there's a problem with sexual assaults.
BROWN: We'll take a look at that. Jamie, thank you.
A challenge to the president on Social Security and presidential candidates too by the sound of it. Our Senior White House Correspondent John King did the reporting, John a headline. JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPODNENT: Aaron, four years from now the first wave of the baby boomers will retire. The Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said today that unless the politicians make the tough choices, Social Security and probably Medicare too will bust the federal budget.
But ask the president or his leading Democratic rivals about that and they made crystal clear they don't want to deal with those tough choices until after the election.
BROWN: John, thank you.
And finally the Martha Stewart trial and a bold day for the defense. Allan Chernoff did the reporting here, Allan the headline tonight.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A 20-minute recipe for defense, Martha Stewart's lawyers call only one witness to the stand then rest their case. Closing arguments are scheduled to begin on Monday -- Aaron.
BROWN: Allan, thank you. We'll get back to you and the rest shortly.
Also coming up on the program tonight, a controversial bill that will protect gun manufacturers from lawsuits begins working its way through Congress.
In Segment 7 tonight, the fight heard round the world, the Cassius Clay, Sonny Liston Bout, which was more than a fight and took place 40 years ago today.
And the rooster, who is still paying off a bet he made that night, will deliver morning papers for Thursday, all that and more in the hour ahead.
We begin with the movie, certainly the movie of the moment but a movie just the same, a Hollywood movie with all it entails right down to a marketing campaign. As such, it is important to remember that to many people, religious or not, "The Passion of the Christ" is neither, strictly speaking, a work of history nor the gospel truth.
But because it lives for the moment at the intersection of both of deeply held faith and bitterly painful memories, different people will see it in very different ways. The only conclusion we can draw tonight is a simple one. People are seeing it.
Here's CNN's Maria Hinojosa.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HINOJOSA (voice-over): They lined up at noon on a work day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't mind waiting for it. It's Lent. You're supposed to suffer. HINOJOSA: The enthusiasm on this Ash Wednesday for "The Passion of the Christ," the movie, drawing reverence and rabbis, mostly the very religious but not your typical movie crowd just yet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the most awesome thing I've ever seen. I came Monday night to a private showing and came back again this morning. It's the way I wanted to start my Ash Wednesday off.
HINOJOSA: It released on 2,800 screens in this country from Texas to Miami to New York. The very devout were devout in their admiration.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the middle of it, I said this is the hardest movie I have ever watched because I couldn't control my emotions.
HINOJOSA: Jewish leaders saw it. Many came to denounce it.
ABRAHAM FOXMAN, ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE: From beginning to end, it was an unambiguous portrayal that the Jews were bloodthirsty, the Jews were angry, the Jews were vengeful and they were the ones that were directing the Romans what to do.
HINOJOSA: While Christian leaders largely defended it.
WILLIAM DONAHUE, CATHOLIC LEADER: I think there are other people who I think are hypersensitive about the subject of anti-Semitism and they are just looking for something.
HINOJOSA: And viewers one by one made their peace with "The Passion."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You realize how much your life is worth and that someone else gave up their life for you. It's just you value your life so much.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are a couple parts I thought were completely true to the Bible but it's Hollywood, so as a whole I thought it was fantastic.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HINOJOSA: Now, Aaron, this was not a typical night of any kind of premier. About an hour or two ago there were several protesters gathered here saying that the movie was anti-Semitic. They were wearing concentration camp uniforms and chanting "boycott Mel Gibson" but others have gotten into the fray.
Today, the New Black Panther Party, no relationship to the old, held a rally saying that they're upset because Christ is not depicted as black. And people from the Ethical Treatment of Animals issued a statement saying that animals mistreated today suffered the way Jesus Christ is depicted as suffering in the movie.
And finally, Aaron, Cardinal Egan here from New York reminding worshippers to remember on Sunday that Christ gave his life freely and that no one took it from him -- Aaron.
BROWN: Maria, thank you, Maria Hinojosa.
We'll have more on "The Passion" as we go along tonight.
First some of the other news of the day, starting with growing concerns about rape within the military. A Senate panel today heard allegations that more women are being victimized and the system is letting them down.
Here again, CNN's Jamie McIntyre.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE (voice-over): Since the U.S. went to war in Iraq, 88 American troops have reported they've been victims of sexual assault while deployed in the war zone.
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), SENATE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: And our women soldiers sometimes have more to fear from their fellow soldiers than from the enemy.
MCINTYRE: Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered a review of how victims are treated. And Congress wants answers as well.
SEN. WAYNE ALLARD (R), SENATE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: Many of the victims' stories were heart-wrenching and appalling. In some cases, I was utterly speechless and outraged.
MCINTYRE: Victims' complaints include poor medical care, little or no counseling and in some cases having to work side by side with the accused attacker.
Pentagon officials acknowledge that more needs to be done for victims but commanders bristled at the suggestion they don't take sexual assault cases seriously.
GEN. MICHAEL MOSELEY, AIR FORCE VICE CHIEF OF STAFF: For the notion that people get a free pass or that things are winked at or swept under the rug is outrageous.
MCINTYRE: The Pentagon also released a new study disputing the perception that rape is on the rise in the military.
DAVID CHU, UNDERSECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR PERSONNEL AND READINESS: The incidence of sexual assault in the military is down from 1995, approximately cut in half from the level that prevailed seven years earlier.
MCINTYRE: In 1995, six percent of the troops surveyed by the Pentagon said they'd been a victim of rape or attempted rape. By 2002, the rate had dropped to just three percent. But rape is an underreported crime and victims' rights advocates say the numbers don't tell the whole story. CHRISTINE HANSEN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, THE MILES FOUNDATION: So often we find that the victims may actually go underground for fear of what reprisals or retribution or, more specifically, the fear of adverse career impact and the impact to their security clearances that may occur when they do report a sexual assault in theater.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE: Pentagon officials concede they don't have the data to conclude whether troops deployed in a war zone are more likely to be victims of sexual assault; however, they say they're reviewing all the policies with an eye toward doing more toward prosecuting sexual offenders and more toward protecting their victims -- Aaron.
BROWN: This is an ongoing issue given what has gone on in the Air Force, at the Air Force Academy and the rest. What is it that they -- I guess what is it that victims' advocates say they aren't doing?
MCINTYRE: Well, I mean one of the chief complaints is that when women bring forth charges of rape against an accuser that often what happens is the women end up getting punished for some minor infraction while the accused rapist or sexual abuser goes unpunished, often because rape is a case of he-said or she-said and it's very hard to prove that case.
One of the things they did at the Air Force Academy, for instance, was to grant amnesty for minor infractions to students so that they wouldn't be, for instance, prosecuted for drinking in the dorm and then have the accused rapist go free.
So, the Pentagon says they're looking at all of the things involved in the treatment of victims of rape to see if they can't do a better job in making sure that they get fair treatment.
BROWN: Jamie, thank you, Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon tonight.
Also on the Hill today, Alan Greenspan did what someone once said all Fed chairmen have to do, which is take away the punch bowl when the party gets going good. Normally, that means raising interest rates or decrying the deficit. This time he issued a tough warning. When it comes to Social Security, the party is over, a splash of cold water at any time, decidedly so in an election season.
Here's our Senior White House Correspondent John King.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KING (voice-over): The Fed chairman put election year pressure on both political parties, warning that without difficult choices soon the looming retirement of the baby boomers will bust the federal budget.
ALAN GREENSPAN, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: We will eventually have no choice but to make significant structural adjustments in the major retirement programs. KING: By that, Chairman Greenspan means raising the Social Security retirement age and reducing annual cost of living increases. At the White House, quick proof there's a reason they call Social Security the third rail of American politics.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My position on Social Security benefits is this that those benefits should not be changed for people at or near retirement.
KING: Both leading Democratic presidential candidates rushed to rule out Social Security benefit cuts.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The wrong way to cut the deficit is to cut Social Security benefits. If I'm -- if I'm president, we're simply not going to do it.
SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The answer is not to cut Social Security benefits for those who need them and depend on them. The answer instead is to stop tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
KING: Chairman Greenspan has legendary status in Washington and both parties looked for election year advantage in his testimony. To the Democrats' delight, he said growing federal budget deficits eventually threaten long-term interest rates and living standards.
GREENSPAN: It's out there somewhere and it's out there in this decade.
KING: Republicans liked his recipe for reducing that red ink. Greenspan did not rule out tax increases but was adamant that Congress impose strict budget caps and cut spending first.
GREENSPAN: It's an easy solution to a problem where you have a deficit to increase taxes. It's not evident to me that over the long run that actually works.
KING: And Republicans nodded approvingly when Chairman Greenspan said the ten-year Bush tax cuts had helped the economy out of recession and, in his view, so long as spending is controlled that those tax cuts should be made permanent.
GREENSPAN: They should be continued because I think over the long run they will benefit this economy.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KING: On the issue of Social Security here at the Bush White House and leading Democratic budget voices in the Congress concede the chairman's point that something has to be done about Social Security but, Aaron, there is no bipartisan consensus and on both sides of the aisle they think it would be political suicide to talk much more about this before the election.
BROWN: The president four years ago campaigned in part on the notion of personal retirement accounts, setting aside some of your Social Security money to invest. This seems to be an opening for that, is it?
KING: It is in part but remember the president proposed that. He had the late New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan head a bipartisan commission that said that was a good idea and also said that Congress would need to debate those other issues, raising the retirement age, perhaps cutting back benefits, definitely reducing the cost of living increases.
The president was prepared to go forward with that plan early in the administration with a lot of time before an election and then the stock market went down in the recession and nobody, especially Republicans, wanted to touch it because of the mid-term elections.
There is no consensus now to do that, little time before this year's election, at least as the politicians view it, so nobody wants to deal with it until after the elections when they can try to have another bipartisan whack at it.
BROWN: John, thank you very much, John King tonight.
Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, we go back to the movie "The Passion." We'll see how Christian groups, one Christian group at least, hopes to make use of the film.
We'll also hear from a panel of film critics. What do they think of the movie?
Later still, another in our series on still photography segments. We'll look at the trouble in Haiti through stills, that and more as NEWSNIGHT continues from New York.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: More now on "The Passion of the Christ," which opened today with all the hype of "Jaws," including the death of a woman in Kansas. She apparently had a heart attack during the crucifixion scene.
In case you needed a reminder, this movie is rough stuff, one that some say portrays the suffering of Christ at the expense of the message of Christ, not in short a come-to-Jesus moment, if you will, yet that is precisely how others are treating it.
Here's CNN's Jeff Flock.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CHICAGO BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Giving out free tickets...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Upstairs and it's theater 11.
FLOCK: Sponsoring lecture series...
GARRY POOLE, EVANGELICAL DIRECTOR, WILLOW CREEK CHURCH: We're calling it "The Man Behind the Movie." FLOCK: Handing out literature, even running TV commercials.
PASTOR JERRY MCQUAY, CHRISTIAN LIFE CENTER: I'm Pastor Jerry McQuay.
FLOCK: Churches hoping darkened movie theaters could yield thousands of new converts to Christ.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's going to change lives.
FLOCK: Trying to capitalize on passions stirred.
MCQUAY: And I'd like to encourage you to experience "The Passion" in theaters and come worship with us at Christian Life Center.
It's creating a natural opportunities for Christians to talk to their non church friends and say, hey, would you like to go see this with me?
FLOCK: Pastor McQuay's suburban Chicago church rented out six 400-seat theaters, paying full price, $9 a ticket, for church members to take along a non-believer friend.
MCQUAY: The end result of that could certainly be that people would join the church.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it is now time to introduce "The Passion of the Christ."
FLOCK: This screening, sponsored by Relevant Radio, the country's largest Catholic radio network, hoping to entice Catholic listeners back to worship.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's been a while since I visited the church and seeing this movie, you know, I'm going back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to try and be a better person as a consequence.
FLOCK: "An historic event is about to take place. Will your church be ready" reads this advertisement for a discussion guide for churches? It was written by Garry Poole.
POOLE: I think that this movie will probably be one of the greatest opportunities for dialog about Christianity that we've seen in our lifetime.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whether I believe in God or Jesus, this man was a great man.
FLOCK: Churches hoping that spirit will help fill their hard wooden pews like the film is now packing the plush seats of the theaters.
I'm Jeff Flock, CNN, in Chicago. (END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Seeing a movie ought not be a test of faith, nor should writing about one we believe, yet this time it seems both are true. A critic we invited to the program tonight backed out late this afternoon after getting literally hundreds of e-mails, many of them hateful, some anti-Semitic, a few threatening his life.
It's a movie, a movie which is how we want to look at it now, even if untangling the movie and the message and all the rest isn't so easy. We're joined by three critics. First in Los Angeles, Claudia Puig of "USA Today." With us in New York Rene Rodriguez, who writes about movies for "The Miami Herald," and David Sterritt of "The Christian Science Monitor," and we are glad to have all of you.
Claudia, start us off here. Just in a sentence or two or a really short paragraph how did you like the movie?
CLAUDIA PUIG, "USA TODAY": Well, like might not be the most appropriate word. The unremitting and almost orgiastic violence put me off a little bit. There certainly was a power and a poetry and a beauty to it but I wish that I -- I would have preferred to have seen more of Jesus' humanity and more of the magnetism that drew followers to him and a little less of the lacerating and the flogging and just the gore, the gore and the bloodbath.
BROWN: Got it. Let me come back to that.
PUIG: Sure.
BROWN: Rene, too violent?
RENE RODRIGUEZ, "THE MIAMI HERALD": It probably is too violent in that after a while you kind of stop registering what you're watching on screen and you're almost waiting for the scene to be over so the movie can move on.
But what's interesting about that is that is the reason why Gibson made the movie. He wants to force you to focus on every lash, every nail, every bit of agony that Christ endured.
BROWN: And, in the end, you found it effective?
RODRIGUEZ: I think as a whole the movie has an undeniable power and I think whether you liked the movie or not, it certainly leaves an impression and it certainly stays with you.
You don't necessarily have to agree with the approach that Gibson takes and you don't necessarily have to find meaning in the areas that he finds meaning but as a work of art I think it's pretty undeniable that it works.
BROWN: David, where are you falling in the conversation so far?
DAVID STERRITT, "THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR": The movie has obviously a certain kind of power. It just pulls out all the stops. But what to m e is most important about it is that it is so relentlessly physical, so relentlessly material.
There are occasional flashbacks to Jesus' earlier life. We see a little bit, a few seconds almost, of the Last Supper, a little bit of the Sermon on the Mount but mainly it's all of this brutality as if the death and the torture and crucifixion of Jesus were the really important thing and not the fact that he then rose from the dead, which is what Easter is about and triumphed over death. That gets one minute at the end of the movie.
BROWN: Claudia, the question of anti-Semitism, did you see it in the movie?
PUIG: I saw, there were some portrayals I think of Caifus and some of the Jewish rulers, there was some sort of one-dimensional portraits of those particular characters. There was a kind Jewish person that helped him carry the cross.
BROWN: Yes.
PUIG: But I can certainly see where it would lend itself to people, you know, people would be concerned, particularly in the portrayal of Caifus and the Jewish leaders but to be fair it was the Romans that were doing, you know, the real physical abuse and the excessive flogging at the behest of the Jewish leaders.
BROWN: Rene, I'm sorry Rene you did not see the anti -- I think the line I remember from you is you really had to look for it to be...
RODRIGUEZ: I think -- I don't think the movie is anti-Semitic at all. I think where this is all coming from is that Gibson is the kind of artist who likes to paint in very, very broad strokes.
BROWN: In everything he does.
RODRIGUEZ: In everything he does. I mean you could draw comparisons between this movie and "Braveheart" and they're both very similar and they're both very broad. I don't think this movie is anti-Semitic at all.
I think his failing is that he paints the high priests who condemn Jesus in such, you know, villainous cartoonish terms that it's very easy to read anti-Semitism in there.
STERRITT: Yes, I agree with that.
PUIG: Yes.
BROWN: Do you think 30 years from now, 50 years from now that this movie will still be out there in a sort of powerful way or even in a month from now?
STERRITT: Yes. I think that a lot of people are going to see this movie today and I think a lot of people are going to be seeing this movie over the next week or so and then I think it's not going to have what the Hollywood people call legs. It's going to drop off a lot because it's a really unpleasant movie and unless you're interested in a particular strain of Christian thinking and tradition, unless you really fall right in there, you're just going to find this movie just too much, much too physical as I said before, not nearly enough metaphysical.
I think it's going to end up in the video stores where it's going to be just another movie and where people are going to look at it without really a lot of fuss and some of the people who look at it over the years are going to be people who are interested and feel called by that particular kind of Christian tradition.
And others are going to be cultists who are just into it as a kind of a horror movie and, in many ways, it works better as a horror movie than as a religious movie.
BROWN: Rene, let me give you the last word here. Do you think it is -- is it -- has it been worth all the fuss? There's been so much controversy and so much fuss about this. Is there a payoff there in that respect?
RODRIGUEZ: I think there is a payoff in the sense that, you know, my review in the paper today ran on the front page. You have a subject that is normally not in the news, which is religion and the differences between theologies and the difference between Jewish and Christians.
There is a lot of attention being focused on these differences and I think once the controversy dies down, I think what you're going to find is people who may not necessarily know a lot about the other person's faith having learned, even if it's just a little bit, having learned about it and I think that, I mean I know it sounds very kind of hand-holding Cumbaya but it's actually true.
BROWN: A little bit of that on a day like today is not a terrible thing. Thank you all, good to have you with us. Thank you. I expect we'll revisit this again.
Still to come on the program, more normal matters for us, Martha Stewart and an amazingly quick defense. We'll tell you that story and much more.
Around the world this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Blink and you might have missed it. Martha Stewart's lawyer today put on a defense that lasted barely longer than the closing credits to "Law and Order." But if you remember you "Law and Order," you'll also recall these lawyers are under no obligation to do anything more. Just the same after some pretty tough days of prosecution testimony, today would seem to be a gamble.
Here again, CNN's Allan Chernoff.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CHERNOFF (voice-over): A one witness defense for Martha Stewart lasting 21 minutes.
ROBERT MORVILLO, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: We called only one witness because we thought that was a sufficient way to deal with the quantity and the quality of evidence that the government had put in.
CHERNOFF: How would you characterize the quality of the evidence the government put in?
MORVILLO: You know I don't talk about the quality of the evidence outside the courtroom.
CHERNOFF: Do you think they've proven anything?
MORVILLO: I think that the witness that we called indicates what we thought about their case.
CHERNOFF: Attorney Stephen Pearl was the witness on the stand to rebut a charge that Martha Stewart lied by telling federal investigators she didn't know her stockbroker Peter Bacanovic called her on December 27, 2001, the day she sold her ImClone stock.
Pearl, who accompanied Stewart during her interview with the government testified his notes indicated the question to Stewart was not whether Bacanovic had called but what time Peter Bacanovic left a message to which she responded I don't know.
After Stewart's lawyers rested, prosecutors introduced a taped interview with broker Bacanovic to rebut testimony of Stewart's business manager. Heidi DeLuca had testified she discussed selling ImClone with Bacanovic, backing up Stewart and Bacanovic's claim that they had an agreement to sell ImClone if the stock fell below $60 a share.
Bacanovic on tape said that couldn't have happened.
PETER BACANOVIC INTERVIEW WITH SEC: "I don't get into that much detail with Heidi.
QUESTION: So, the issue of the stock at $60 didn't come up with Heidi?
BACANOVIC: No.
QUSTOIN: And Heidi never brought it up to you?
BACANOVIC: No. She only brought it up to me in terms of adding gains to the account."
JACOB ZAMANSKY, SECURITIES ATTORNEY: I do believe Martha Stewart and Bacanovic are going to be convicted of the obstruction charge, false statements and very likely conspiracy.
(END VIDEOTAPE) CHERNOFF: The judge has scheduled closing arguments for next Monday and Tuesday and indicated she's likely to give the case to the jury on Wednesday -- Aaron.
BROWN: Allan, thank you very much.
Still to come on the program, a very controversial gun bill, a bill that would protect manufacturers from certain lawsuits. Later, segment seven goes into the ring for one of the most famous fights of all time, Cassius Clay, Sonny Liston, and the mouth heard around the world.
As we go to break, a check of how the stock market did today.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: It is a familiar mantra of the gun industry: Guns don't kill people. People kill people. The slogan, of course, hasn't prevented a number of lawsuits from being filed, all aiming to hold gunmakers accountable for the crimes committed with the guns they make or sell.
The lawsuits in turn have sent the gun industry scrambling to lobby for protections against such suits. And now the Senate is poised to turn those protections into federal law. In a test vote today, 75 senators supported the proposal.
Here's CNN Joe Johns.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN CAPITOL HILL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Washington, D.C. sniper attacks. A Bushmaster rifle used in the killing spree was traced back to a store on the West Coast where more than 200 firearms had been reported missing. It's at the center of a Senate battle over limiting lawsuits against gunmakers and gun dealers.
SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D), CALIFORNIA: The store had no record of the purchase for the assault rifles used in the attacks and failed to report it stolen until after the ATF recovered the weapon from the snipers and traced it back to the store.
JOHNS: The bill being debated is aimed at stopping negligence lawsuits that proponents say threaten to cripple the gun industry, but could also prevent the sniper victims and their families from suing the gun store for negligence.
Gun rights supporters who back the measure say not all lawsuits would be cut off, for example, if the gun seller or maker violated a federal or state law.
SEN. LARRY CRAIG (R), IDAHO: If this licensed gun dealer violated current law, he will be shut down. What we're talking about here, again, is a narrow piece of legislation.
JOHNS: The gun lobby says lawsuits against the industry have been unsuccessful, but extremely expensive to defend in court.
WAYNE LAPIERRE, NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION: They are going to kill the American firearms industry. We're going to ship this whole industry overseas.
JOHNS: Quirky, high-stakes politics surround the debate. Senate Democratic leading Tom Daschle, who is up for reelection, helped write the measure. But now he's feeling the heat from fellow Democrats who are gun control advocates. So he's offered a number of changes, including one that would allow the sniper lawsuits to go ahead.
SEN. TOM DASCHLE (D-SD), MINORITY LEADER: The principle of equality before the law demands that everyone, individuals and businesses alike, be held accountable for their actions.
JOHNS: Adding to the drama is a proposal to renew the 1994 assault weapons ban, which expires this year. Gun control advocates say they will try to tack it on to the bill.
Joe Johns, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: On now to the Constitution.
The word we used yesterday to describe President Bush's support for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage was big. And it is a big story. Proposing to change a document as fundamental as the Constitution is a very big deal. But the distance between proposing and changing is hardly small. It's what we call a second-day story, after the big.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): When it comes to amending the Constitution, proposing is far easier than passing.
DAVID KYVIG, NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY: The last estimate I saw was that about 14,000 amendments have been proposed to the Constitution, and, of course, only 27 adopted.
BROWN: By requiring a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate and ratification by three-quarters of the states, the founding fathers ensured that changes to our fundamental social document would be possible but only on issues where there was an overwhelming national consensus.
KYVIG: You have to have a combination of North and South and East and West and urban and rural support for a proposal in order for it to have a chance of meeting that threshold of -- of the amending process. And that's not very easy to achieve.
BROWN: In fact, over the last quarter-century, only one amendment has been ratified. It puts limits on when congressman can raise their salaries, not exactly controversial and not exactly new. It was written by James Madison, first sent to the states in 1789. Since then, Congress has learned to put time limits on such things.
Other than that, only one amendment has even come close.
ALLAN LICHTMAN, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: There was a very strong national consensus back in the '70s, behind the Equal Rights Amendment. It got through Congress. But it bogged down in the states and it was never ratified. There is not that same kind of broad national consensus today for a constitutional amendment on gay marriage.
BROWN: In recent years, there have been plenty of proposals to amend the Constitution. Remember the amendment to ban the desecration of the American flag. It has yet to pass the Senate. A Balanced Budget Amendment never got to the states either, nor did term limits and school prayer. All had popular support. None made it to the Constitution.
KYVIG: Politicians have frequently found that proposing a constitutional amendment is a wonderful way of stating a position on an issue, but never having to accept responsibility for that proposal becoming law.
BROWN: Clearly, the founding fathers never could have anticipated a debate over gay marriage, but just as clearly, they knew exactly what they were doing so long ago, when they made the very idea of changing the Constitution so very hard to do.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Before we go to break, a few other stories that made news around the country today, starting with a possible setback for the 9/11 Commission. The speaker of the House, Republican Dennis Hastert, said today he will block a 60-day extension the commission requested to complete its work, which the White House had agreed to.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that Washington state and its scholarship plan which barred theology students from participating does not violate the constitutional ban on religious discrimination.
And after chalking up three more wins yesterday, Utah, Hawaii and Idaho, Democratic front-runner John Kerry campaigned in Ohio again today. His rival, John Edwards, launched a three-day swing through California. Both states hold primaries next Tuesday, Super Tuesday.
Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, trouble in Haiti, a look at life there through the lens of a still photographer.
A break first. This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: A quick look now at some of the stories that made news around the world today, starting on the West Bank. Israeli troops raided a number of Palestinian banks. They took close to $7 million, money the Israelis say was earmarked for funding terrorism. The Palestinians, as you imagine, would have a different take, a local paper headlining it: "The Occupation's Armed Robbery."
Survivors of yesterday's earthquake in northern Morocco are accusing the government of abandoning them. They say relief is slow in coming because they are Berbers, a minority in the Arab country.
And hours after President Bush warned citizens of Haiti not to try and escape the political turmoil in their country by fleeing to the United States, the Coast Guard intercepted two ships off the coast of Miami -- or, rather, one off the coast of Miami, the other near Haiti. Together, they were carrying more than 100 Haitians who will now be sent home. The Coast Guard says it is watching several other small boats off the coast of Haiti tonight.
The backdrop for all of this, the mess in Haiti, which got worse today. Rebels who launched an uprising three weeks ago now control half the country. And today, looting erupted in the capital of Port- au-Prince. With pressure mounting for international intervention, the United Nations Security Council has called a meeting for tomorrow.
When the fighting broke out earlier this month, photojournalist Peter Andrew Bosch of "The Miami Herald" returned to this tiny country he has covered for the past 20 years. Last Sunday, a tip led him to Cap-Haitien in the north. He was there with his camera when the city fell to the rebels.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETER ANDREW BOSCH, "THE MIAMI HERALD": My name is Peter Andrew Bosch. I've worked for "The Miami Herald" for the past 21 years. And, right now, I'm in Haiti. I've been on the road the whole time following the rebels.
I went up to Hinche on the 17th, February the 17th. And Hinche was already taken by the resistance front. In light of the recruits that they have recruited from town to town, they are very camera-shy. They are moving with the movement, but they don't want their faces to be photographed.
That person was standing next to another person that had a gas mask on. They did not want their faces to be identified.
Right now, I'm in Cap-Haitien. I couldn't sleep on Saturday night. And (INAUDIBLE) said I needed to be there. So I got up at 5:00 that morning. And there was a small plane coming up here that morning at 7:00. And probably about 11:00 they took the police station. And that's when they started securing the area and gunfire all over.
The only resistance that they had had already fled. A couple of people had been killed, left in the streets and left in some of the buildings. People proceeded to loot the police station. And then they burned it down to the ground. And then they went out looking for any Aristide supporters. The police stations are generally the first things that they take. They take the police stations and then they free the prisoners. They have received a lot of their weapons from the police stations that they raided. And then they generally let the public loot it and then they burn it down.
That evening, they proceeded to loot the World Food Program warehouse, which was full of lentil beans. The resistance front the next day secured the port and started securing the whole city and arresting all the looters that they could get.
That was down by the port. Apparently, this gentleman had displayed aggressive acts towards one of the resistance soldiers. And he was shot. There's a lot of uncertainty of what is going to happen, whether Aristide is going to resign and leave the country.
I would like my photographs to educate people of what really is going on.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: A number of stills.
Ahead, segment seven goes to the fights for a look at one of the defining moments in professional boxing and a moment that said a fair amount about the country, too. Cassius Clay, Sonny Liston, 40 years ago today.
This is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: More than occasionally, the program takes a look at yesterday's news, because, sometimes, yesterday tells us a lot about today.
The yesterday in this case was 40 years ago. Civil rights was the issue of the day. And that day 40 years ago featured two black men, one a tough guy, owned, many people believed, by powerful white men, the other young and uppity, to use a word of the time, who had come to be owned by on one. In a story, one seemed to represent the past, the other the future, and it all played out, past and future, in a boxing ring in Miami.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CASSIUS CLAY, BOXER: Here's the eighth round exactly as it will happen. Clay comes out to meet Liston and Liston starts to retreat. If Liston goes back (INAUDIBLE) he'll end up in a ringside seat.
BROWN (voice-over): The boxing world, not to mention the rest of America, had never seen anything quite like him or anything quite like this.
CLAY: Clay plays with his left. Clay plays with his right. Look at young Cassius carry the fight.
BROWN: Twenty-two-year-old Cassius Marcellus Clay of Louisville, Kentucky, the mouth of the South, taunting, reciting poetry, guaranteeing to defeat the heavyweight champion of the world, big bad Charles Sonny Liston.
ALLEN BARRA, SPORTS JOURNALIST: I don't think you could go back far enough to find a heavyweight that was as highly regarded and scary as Sonny Liston.
BROWN: Cassius Clay, outwardly, at least, was very clearly not afraid. But, far more importantly, he was establishing a pattern, one that, in just a very few years, would make him the most recognizable sports figure on the planet.
ANGELO DUNDEE, FORMER TRAINER: He changed the whole innovation of boxing. He was the first available superstar.
BROWN: And in that fight, in a smoky, steamy Miami auditorium, he was the very best over an older, slower Sonny Liston.
BARRA: To take the years of abuse, of drinking, lack of training, take this with -- in combination with underestimating Cassius Clay and you can see that there's no real surprise as to what happens in the ring. What happens in the ring when you watch the tape seems, I think, in retrospect, inevitable.
BROWN: Clay won the fight when Liston did not appear for the start of the seventh round. He couldn't lift his left arm. His biceps, doctors would say later, was torn, probably because he swung at Cassius Clay so often and missed.
DUNDEE: Cassius Clay, peripheral vision, sharp, he's looking over my shoulder. He's looking over my shoulder. And he comes up. We win.
BROWN: In many ways, it was far more than just a boxing match, of course. It marked the end of an era in both attitude and style. The very next day, there were hints that Cassius Clay would embrace Islam.
BARRA: By the next fight, he was Muhammad Ali. He was more dedicated, more focused, bigger, stronger and faster. And everything that happened after that, of course, is history.
BROWN: Ali is still a figure larger than life, but a man who four decades ago changed the landscape of sports and in a way of the culture itself.
CLAY: You know how great I am. I don't have to tell you about my strategy. I'll let my trainer tell you. Bodina (ph), come here. Bodina, tell him, what are we going to do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are going to flight like a butterfly and sting like a bee. Rumble young man, rumble.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Forty years ago. Tomorrow morning's papers next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(ROOSTER CROWING)
BROWN: OK, time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world. And I'm not sure why I'm laughing, except that the stack is a big mess, and that may be the reason.
We'll start with "The Washington Times," which in many respects leads differently than most other newspapers. So we'll spend a little time here. Up in the corner over here on the side, "Bush Seeks Protection For Gun Dealers. Senate Measure Targets Lawsuits." We told you about that. "Bush Warns Haitians Not to Flee to U.S." I think this is a very good story today. "Radio Host to Pay for Lewdness. Shock Jocks Will Risk Jobs." Clear Channel, the largest owner of radio stations in the country, suspended Howard Stern today from its radio stations and said it's not going to tolerate the fare that makes morning radio morning radio in much of the country. That's "The Washington Times."
"Philadelphia Inquirer." This is the lead I think in most papers, one way or another. "Greenspan: Cut Future Benefits, Social Security and Medicare Targeted." Also on the front page, "Passionate Reactions to the Movie." And they highlight two reactions, quite different. "It bothered me. I'm Jewish. It was too much," says this woman. And says Kim Graham (ph), a Philadelphia minister, "The film isn't anti-Semitic. It's anti-sin." And that's the lead. Those are the leads in "The Philadelphia Inquirer."
Across the state in Pittsburgh, "The Pittsburgh Tribune Review." I haven't heard this story. I like it. "FBI Horded, Destroyed Oklahoma City Evidence. A White Supremacist Gang May Have Aided Timothy McVeigh." We'll read more about that story. It's an AP story reported by John Solomon. So we'll take a look at that and perhaps you will as well.
"The Atlanta Journal-Constitution" has Haiti on the front page, and also the Clear Channel story. But this is a good local story for them. "Jamal Lewis Indicted by Feds." I think he plays in Baltimore, but the indictment came up, was handed up in Atlanta. "NFL Star is Charged With Conspiracy to Buy Cocaine in the Year 2000." That's an unfortunate story. We'll see how it plays out in court.
How we doing on time, please? Fifty.
"Greenspan: Cut Social Security, U.S. Can't Afford Promised Benefits," he says. The lead in "The San Francisco Chronicle."
I wanted to get to the Detroit paper, if I can, if I can find it here. Just play along with me. Oh, let's do this one, actually. This is "The Amelia Bulletin Monitor," Amelia County, Virginia. And this is the story that they wanted us to note. And we do. "VMI Cadets Called up For Active Duty." Five Virginia Military Institute cadets, who are also part of the Virginia Army National Guard, have been called to active duty.
"Chicago Sun-Times" leads thusly. "Greenspan: Social Security Must Be Cut. Fed Chairman Says Country Can't Afford Benefits Promised to Baby Boomers." That would be us, wouldn't it? The whether tomorrow, "dreamboat."
Here is Soledad O'Brien with a look at what is coming up tomorrow on "AMERICAN MORNING."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Aaron.
Tomorrow on "AMERICAN MORNING," the Academy Awards ceremony is this Sunday. What are the most memorable moments from Oscar night? We have got the best and the worst of everything, from the hosts, the special performances, and those acceptance speeches.
That's tomorrow, 7:00 Eastern -- back to you, Aaron.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Thank you. Will we -- let's do that again. Thank you. We will be with you tomorrow, but not until 10:30. But to make up for that, we'll go to midnight Eastern time. We hope you'll join us for that.
"LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" next for most of you. Good night for all of us.
END
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Pentagon Reviewing Policies On Sexual Assault; Democrats, Republicans use Greenspan Speech for Political Gain>
