Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Jobless Rate Holds Steady; Wall Street Reaction To Jobs Report; Romney Slams Obama's Economy; Syrian Government Accused of Killing Defectors; Fear, Devastation And Mystery In Syria; Two Dead, Seven Hurt In Hospital Shooting; Alabama Immigration Law Partially Blocked; Extreme Dive To Deepest Place On Earth; SXSW Festival Fires Up; GOP Attacks Obama over Jobs Report
Aired March 09, 2012 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: There's a hint of growing optimism in the job market this morning. New government figures show the unemployment rate held steady in February and in fact we saw more jobs created last month than experts had predicted.
Christine Romans breaks down these latest numbers and what they say about the overall economy. Alison Kosik looks at the ripple effect on Wall Street.
Christine, let's begin with you so give me the big headline.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: OK, the big headline is you have the private sector creating jobs now for two years. Carol, look at this. Where are the jobs? They are in the private sector, 223,000 private sector jobs created in February.
Six thousand public sector job losses and that's actually pretty good because the government, as you know, has been shedding jobs over the past year or so. So, this is important to see a small number here and a big number here, some 25 months in a row of private sector jobs creation.
When you look, it was health care jobs, Carol. It was leisure and hospitality. It was transportation and warehousing. And look at manufacturing, 31,000 jobs created here and in mining, 7,000 jobs created there. We lost some jobs in construction and also in retail.
There's another number I want to real show you here that I think it's pretty interesting and this is something I like to look at underemployment. These are the number of people that are discouraged.
They're not looking for work, but they could come back into the labor market quickly if they think things are getting better, 2.6 million people. It's one reason why we could see the unemployment rate actually begin to tick up a little bit.
Because so many people will be left behind by this nascent economic recovery that they could start to come back in because they're feeling more confident about things so that's kind of an important number to keep on watching too.
Overall about 14.9 percent is the underemployment rate even as we talk about 8.3 percent being the overall unemployment rate in the labor market -- Carol.
COSTELLO: At least we're headed in the right direction, though, right?
ROMANS: Yes.
COSTELLO: Christine, thank you.
Now let's head to the New York Stock Exchange and check in with Alison Kosik. So we expected the marks to go -- but really they're not.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Kind of a ho-hum response, right? Wall Street kind of a funny thing, Carol, you know, the good news as far as Wall Street sees it on jobs. The good news it's baked in, the 227,000 jobs that were created.
That was really close to what was expected so the way the market sees it, it was already priced in. You know, the number was really a blowout number and if it was 300,000 you would have seen an extra bang in the market.
Clearly you're not seeing that even though Wall Street does see this jobs report as solid even if it wasn't as solid as January's number, which came in at 284,000 jobs created, but this does mark the third straight month where you're seeing this 200,000 jobs or more being gained in the economy.
The way Wall Street sees it, it's a trend. Of course, the down side to that is when it comes to the markets. Wall Street is just going to want more. It's going to have higher expectations in the months ahead -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Alison Kosik, thank you.
President Obama hits the campaign trail later today and he's sure to boast about those encouraging jobs numbers, but his Republican opponents are not impressed.
Mitt Romney railed against the economy and Mr. Obama's handling of it just in the last hour in Mississippi.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You see that sign up there, it says more jobs, less debt, smaller government. That's what we want and that's not what we've got.
With this president we have fewer jobs. We have more debt and we have bigger government. That's what's wrong with this president. That's why we have to get him out of office.
(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: President Obama is due to talk about the economy in just a couple of hours when he visits a factory in Virginia.
In Syria, more bloodshed. The opposition says more than 60 people have been killed just today. They're also accusing government forces of chasing down and killing military defectors.
The Assad regime says weapons from Israel and Turkey are getting into the country and into the hands of terrorists. That's the word the government is using.
Of course, journalists are restricted in Syria. Some who have gotten in have died trying to report their stories. Others who made it back like CNN's Arwa Damon says there's so much more that needs to be told.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It hit us. It hit our house. There is something burning. The voice on the tape cries out. The media house in Baba Amr has been hit.
Turn off the live camera, someone shouts. They have discovered our position, but nothing, they swear, will shut them down.
NEIL HALLSWORTH, CNN SENIOR PHOTOJOURNALIST: There was one time when they were typing on the computer and a rocket hit the house and the lights went out and the place shook, and we just carried on typing like nothing had happened.
DAMON: We survey the damage.
(on camera): To get to the upper floors, you really have to hug the wall because there's the one window that's exposed, but this is where you really see the full impact of the damage that was caused by the incoming rounds. I mean, this right here, it just speaks for itself.
One of the neighbors was in, and she was there with her father and she was this 9-year-old girl and the rounds were impacting pretty closely and the guys were all on their computers and she was just kind of in the corner.
And at one point I called her to come sit on the couch, but she sat frozen, and I tried to go over to hug her, but she was so frozen she couldn't move. She just sat there like this and then tears were streaming down her face.
This floor has been on obviously completely trashed. The bombardment, you keep hearing it over and over again, the sounds of artillery firing and it's nothing like what they've been through before.
But this was once an ordinary home, an ordinary family lived here and we don't know what their story was. There's just bits and pieces of their lives that have been left behind including this children's toy.
What happened to that family? What exactly was it that made them flee? Are they alive? There's so much still that we don't know and so much that still needs to be told.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Arwa Damon reporting. CNN Sunday night at 8:00 Eastern, Syrians are under attack by their own government. Learn what it's like to be trapped for "72 Hours Under Fire" that's CNN Presents, Sunday night at 8:00 Eastern.
Legendary filmmaker, James Cameron is about to explore the deepest point on the earth, seven miles below sea. We'll tell you how he plans to get there next.
And some of the leading names in the tech industry and the people who put up money for new ideas are hitting Austin, Texas for the South by Southwest Festival. We'll take you there live. Ali Velshi will tell us what's on tap for this year.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Checking stories cross country now. Seven people injured in a shooting at a Pittsburgh psychiatric hospital are expected to survive.
Authorities say a gunman opened fire inside the hospital lobby killing one person before he was shot and killed by police. No word on the gunman's identity or motive.
A federal appeals court temporarily blocks two provisions of a controversial Alabama immigration law. One voided contract signed by illegal immigrants. The other prevented them from obtaining driver's licenses.
And in Florida, not one, but three good Samaritans come to the rescue. Surveillance video captures a Broward County deputy in a dangerous struggle at a fastfood restaurant with the crime suspect. The officer says he was in real trouble until three homeless men helped subdue the man. Everybody is OK today.
Filmmaker James Cameron is about to attempt a dangerous and unprecedented mission to the deepest on the point on the planet, a place only two people have ever set eyes on, the bottom of the Mariana Trench off the coast of Guam, nearly seven miles beneath the Pacific Ocean.
Yesterday, we told you about the uncharted territory he's attempting to explore. Today, we're going to tell you exactly how he's going get there onboard a high tech deep sea submersible.
CNN's Jason Carroll was the only news reporter invited on camera and shipped for a tour. He's back in New York and he joins us live. This is insane, Jason. That would be a scary thing to do. JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Cameron is used to deep sea exploration. So it's not so scary for him, for the rest of us, scary definitely.
You know, when you think about the submersible they had to design, there were so many things they had to really consider. You know, they had to consider the pressure.
So much pressure that the device would actually shrink by two and a half inches once it's down at those depths. So that's just one of the factors that had to be considered in designing this type of sub.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CARROLL (voice-over): In this story, James Cameron isn't the only character taking a voyage to the Mariana trenches deepest point, challenger deep.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want to see how we're going do it?
CARROLL: Yes. This, in Cameron's eyes, is the other. His submersible, Deepsea challenger. It took a team of scientists and the National Geographic Society more than seven years to make a sub able to withstand pressures at the trench's depths, 16,000 pounds per square inch.
(on camera): So it does stay vertical like a seahorse.
JAMES CAMERON, EXPLORER/DIRECTOR: See how it stays upright.
CARROLL: I want to tell you a little bit more about the "Deepsea Challenger" as it's docked and resting and being worked on here.
It weighs 12 tons and even though it's on its side it's actually 24 feet high. It's powered by these specially created lithium batteries.
And its body is made up of a syntactic foam that was developed by Cameron and his team of scientists and that color that you see there, Cameron calls that Kawasaki green.
CAMERON: I'm pretty used to climbing around this thing.
CARROLL (voice-over): It's a one-seater designed to have Cameron encased in a protective pod.
(on camera): How tall are you?
CAMERON: 6'2".
CARROLL: And it would be easier if it was built for me.
(voice-over): It is a tight fit.
CAMERON: I'm pretty much like this for about 10 hours. CARROLL: You're not worried about cramps or anything?
CAMERON: Not yet.
CARROLL (voice-over): Cameron expects time will pass as he captures 3D images and hopefully sea life from the trench's floor as he has already done on previous test dives.
CAMERON: I can actually slurp up little critters or I can suck on to an animal and pick him up and drop him on to a biobox.
CARROLL: If something goes wrong there is a failsafe system, a series of weights released with the flip of a switch. It brings little comfort to Cameron's mother who worries.
CAMERON: I love my family and my children and nothing I love more, but I also have to do this. It's like Jimmy Stewart, how the west was one. Sometimes you have to go see the critter.
CARROLL: The Challenger's frontier awaits.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: And though, Carol, there's nothing official in terms of a dive date, we are hearing that Cameron is expected to attempt the dive to challenger deep some time before March 26th.
COSTELLO: Now I wouldn't be concerned about cramps so much, but I would be concerned about becoming claustrophobic in there, because you're not only in that tiny space, but you're deep underneath the sea. I mean, how do you prepare yourself mentally for that?
CARROLL: You know, that's a great point, and I asked him about that. You think about James Cameron's size, he's 6'2" and that pod, he's got to really be in a sort of a crunch position.
He says he is so focused on the tasks of what he has to do when he's down there, finding sea life, taking samples and taking 3D imagery of what he's seeing down there. He says that's what really consumes his time.
The point where he does start to feel claustrophobic is actually once he's brought back to the surface and he's waiting for the divers and the team to get him out of the sub. And it's at that moment when he's not doing anything, that's where it starts to get a little tight.
COSTELLO: I just can't -- it would be fascinating, though. It really would be. I hope you have a follow up.
CARROLL: I have plenty.
COSTELLO: Good, I'm glad because I want to see more. Jason Carroll, thanks so much.
Mitt Romney says he likes a nice bowl of honey nut cheerio as a late-night snack. What about the other candidates. That's a very important question in our "Political Buzz."
And you'll find a lot of venture capitalists and tech industry leaders in one place today. That would be the South by Southwest Festival in Austin. Ali Velshi is there, too. So what's the buzz, Ali?
ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Did you say snack? I'm going to come back and tell you why South by Southwest in Austin, this great interactive music and film festival, what it's got to do with the steaming, delicious plate of Mac and cheese when I come back as soon as I finish eating.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: The South by Southwest interactive festival in Austin, Texas, combines fun with a futuristic look at the tech industry. Watching a time lapse video of the CNN grill going up, you get a relative idea of the pace set by the event.
It attracts entrepreneurs and venture capitalists and techies, all focused on start-ups and of course, there's music and a film festival, too.
Ali Velshi is there as part of the CNN team and at last check, you were eating a bowl of Mac and cheese. Where did it go?
VELSHI: Yes, that was totally a fake out, by the way. This has nothing to do with Mac and cheese. I was just looking for an excuse to put some food down my belly.
You know, a lot of people, Carol, don't really know what South by Southwest is so they think it's a music festival, which may have emerged into a bit of a film festival.
Well, it's also the largest interactive conference or festival in the world, quite possibly. Things like Four Square got started here. Twitter had been around for about eight or nine months. They got to South by Southwest a few years ago and this is where it exploded.
So it's a place you come if you're a start-up and you've got a great idea and looking for funding. In fact, last night, I got here with the CNN Express. And I got off the bus and this guy, the sort of hipster dude with open shoes comes up to me with flip-flops.
Comes up to me and says, dude, I have a swivel in my pocket. Do you want to see it? I'm like what is a swivel in your pocket and he showed it to me. It's a device that you put your iPad into and you wear a lanyard and you put the video on and it follows you around.
It uses Bluetooth and all that kind of stuff to follow you around. It's stuff like this. Just cool stuff.
COSTELLO: He had it in his pocket?
VELSHI: Well, it sounded like he was trying to sell me weed. I mean, that's how it is around here. People are just -- they have ideas. They want money for it. They want to hire people.
So I went to this thing called a start-up crawl and it has a little bit of a drinking element to it, but basically, it's a bunch of these start-ups looking for money with a bunch of venture capitalists looking for them in different venues around Austin.
And I talked to the guy who organized it. Listen to what he told me.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSHUA BAER, CAPITOL FACTORY: Austin is the center of the world right now with South by Southwest and we got a ton of start-ups here in this building and then about 50 of them total all around Austin. They're all throwing one simultaneous party.
VELSHI: Are you in the business of vetting these people to know whether they have viable ideas or is this just a public marketplace?
BAER: It's a little bit of both.
VELSHI: You could see when somebody comes and wants to here. You got some sense that this one is going to make it versus you've got to be kidding me.
BAER: Well, you know, everybody likes to think that they have a sense of that. You know, historically, nobody is that good at it, some people are better than others, but that's part of what makes it fun, too, right?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: So basically, Carol, that's why I'm here. I'm looking for the next big thing like everyone else is. The difference is I won't be investing in it and getting rich. I'll just be reporting on it.
COSTELLO: That's right. That would be a conflict of interest. Where do the organizers want to take this festival because it's become about so much more than music?
VELSHI: Yes, so they've divided up, the interactive part is now the film starts today and then it moves into this music festival, so it's -- I've got to tell you, Carol, it doesn't have that easy, relaxed counter culture vibe that it used to.
This thing is set up like the Olympics. We have this big operation here at CNN with our CNN Express. It's hard to get into. The credentials are hard to get now, but it is still the best place if you've got great ideas.
By the way, at that start up thing, anybody trying to get money for their idea was also saying we're looking to hire software developer. There is a critical shortage of software developers. The top end, really experienced ones can get about $150,000 a year -- Carol. COSTELLO: Wow! OK, let's talk about star power because we must. I know Matthew McConaughey just moved to Austin. Have you spotted him yet?
VELSHI: I haven't. I haven't. I mean, I've seen the roster of a whole bunch of superstars that are going to be here because obviously, the film part of it and even the tech part of it, these Hollywood types do like the tech side, but I haven't seen him yet. If I see him, do you have any message for him?
COSTELLO: Tell him I love him -- no, just kidding. No, I don't have a message. I'm too shy.
VELSHI: I'll send him your greetings.
COSTELLO: Thank you, Ali. I appreciate that.
Mitt Romney says his preferred late-night snack is a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerio's. I wonder what the other candidates are munching on at midnight. That's just one question I'll ask our "Political Buzz" panel that's coming your way next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Checking our top stories now. The job market keeps growing. The Labor Department says employers added 227,000 jobs in February. Not as much as January's numbers, but more than analysts expected.
The last of 214 pardoned convicts could be released today in Mississippi. Four convicted murderers have remained free since their release in January. The Supreme Court has upheld the controversial pardons made by the former Governor Haley Barbour. So they will remain free.
A GOP measure sponsoring the much disputed Keystone oil pipeline has died in the Senate. It will bypass the Obama's administration's decision to delay construction on the pipeline. Opponents say the line could leak creating an environmental disaster. Backers called the project an important jobs creator.
Time for your "Political Buzz," it's your rapid-fire look at the best political topics of the day. Three questions, 30 seconds on the clock.
Playing today, CNN contributor, Maria Cardona, Jason Johnson, he is a professor at Hiram College and the chief political correspondent for Politics 365 and Republican strategist, Ron Bonjean. I'm sorry.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's all right.
COSTELLO: OK, first question, the supposedly scandalous video through the late Andrew Breitbart shows Barack Obama as a Harvard student embracing a professor considered to be a socialist. David From at the "Daily Beast" asked the question, is this a big story? We decided to ask that, too. So let's start with you, Ron?
RON BONJEAN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Yes, you know what? I got to tell you. I'm not sure it is a big story because we already know that President Obama's a very left-wing leader.
You know, last night he was calling -- yesterday he was calling senators, Democratic senators trying to defeat the Keystone pipeline that would have created thousands of jobs.
That's why the House majority went to Republicans in 2010 because he keeps going left. And I don't think this is a surprise that he in college was hanging around communists and socialists.
COSTELLO: Maria?
MARIA CARDONA, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: When I saw this clip, Carol, I had to avert my eyes. I thought it was the most scandalous thing I'd ever seen. We should call for impeachment right now.
I can't take this. I can't do this anymore, Carol. My God, this is so ridiculous. A Harvard law student introducing a Harvard law professor, I don't think the American people will be able to handle that, Carol, seriously.
COSTELLO: Jason.
JASON JOHNSON, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, POLITIC365: You know, the most scandalous thing about this video is Obama was still rocking an afro in 1990. That was the weirdest thing I saw in the video.
There was nothing strange about this whatsoever. He's doing something political. He's chatting with a bunch of people. To be honest, the sad part of this and not to speak ill of the dead, but this is a legacy of Andrew Breitbart.
The idea of promoting these scandalous videos that will change the landscape of American politics and it's not that big of a deal. I wasn't shocked except for the haircut.
COSTELLO: OK, let me ask this question straight up, what will it take for Newt Gingrich to drop out of the race? Maria?
CARDONA: Well, it's probably going to take Godfather Edelson to cut him off because it's really the only reason now that Newt Gingrich can go on is because he's got maybe a little bit of money.
But even if that happens, Carol, I don't know that there really is anything that anybody can do because it's new. Newt's not going to listen to anybody except himself.
And he wants to go on apparently, until the convention. He wants to be a spoiler, but you know what? That's the democratic process. COSTELLO: Ron?
BONJEAN: Yes. He's going to keep going, I think, throughout this process, you know? I think at the end though, he's going to get guaranteed a prime spot on "Dancing with the Stars" after the photos of he and Calista dancing in a hotel ballroom.
Or if the federal government made a chairman of the board position because he's probably not going to be president of the United States. That would probably be the only way they would be able to get him out of the race.
COSTELLO: Jason?
JOHNSON: Look, I've said all along, Newt Gingrich is angry. He wants revenge. He's like Liam (inaudible) old man, anger. He wants revenge on Romney.
He's not getting out of this race. He's won all the time with little or no money. So money his campaign will be pulled from his cold, dead hands sometime in August when the convention happens.
And that's the only way you're going to get Newt Gingrich to stop and even then he may make a lot of noise at the Republican convention.
COSTELLO: OK, third question is your buzzer beater, 20 seconds each. Mitt Romney was asked about his late night snack of choice. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
FORMER GOV. MITT ROMNEY (R-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, you know, I like Honey Nut Cheerios.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There you go.
ROMNEY: And I like Honey Nut Chex. And let's see, I like Crispix. I mean, I'm -- I like of course anything with sugar in it, I like the most, you know sugar pops and honey smack and all of that but I -- I don't eat as much of that as the Honey Nut Cheerios.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Honey smacks? Is that still for sale? I don't know. Well anyway, we want to know what you guys think would it be the late- night snack of choice for the other candidates?
Jason?
JOHNSON: Look I would say, you know Ron Paul probably has like a flag and a meat and mutton. He's such a constitutionalist he wants to eat what the founding fathers eat. Newt Gingrich -- the man probably eats charcoal for dinner. I mean, he spits fire every single time he talks. I don't know what Rick Santorum has for his late night snack, and then he'll probably picks it for his wife because he doesn't believe women have the right to choose.
So you know for most of these candidates, I think their late night snacks reflect their politics.
COSTELLO: Ron.
BONJEAN: Yes, I think Newt Gingrich although he did give up desserts for lent I think he'd pour Guinness all over his bowl of Cheerios. In terms of Santorum, I think Rick Santorum probably eats a bowl of Cheetos; he's that kind of guy who get all the orange stuff all over his fingers. And Ron Paul -- Ron Paul get -- would probably a big bowl of ice cream because he deserves it. He's been in this race, he hasn't really picked up many delegates or won any states.
COSTELLO: Times up. Maria?
CARDONA: I think Rick Santorum's going try to say that he eats grits, maybe some (INAUDIBLE), maybe some sweet pea. He's got to continue to appeal to the southern states which are coming up. I think Ron Paul probably will have a couple of bowls and maybe some special brownies, perhaps and then -- and then Gingrich, I'm going say he's going to stick to Fig Newtons.
COSTELLO: Ok. Look, thanks for playing today. It was quite enjoyable. Maria, Ron, Jason, I hope to have you back.
CARDONA: Thanks Carol.
BONJEAN: Thanks so much.
COSTELLO: Just a couple of hours ago we learned that the nation's jobless rate held steady in February at 8.3 percent and in fact we saw more jobs created last month than experts expected, but millions of unemployed Americans are still waiting for that good news to trickle down on them.
CNN Money spoke to some job seekers battling frustration and despair at a Manhattan jobs fair.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, I don't know exactly what's going on with the whole rest of the country, but for me, it's just that I -- I'm just finding it more difficult to find work at this point.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: February '09 the company down-sized and I've been looking. I've been sending my resumes online, going to job fairs, putting myself out there. The money that you're bringing in is pretty much like half of what your rent is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For the first few months I wasn't really serious. I was just kicking back, but now after a while six months in you start saying like I've got to find a job.
JANET LENNOX, UNEMPLOYED: Sometimes you go for the minimal job, the minimal job that doesn't require a degree and you still don't get it.
JIM MOYER, UNEMPLOYED: My skills need to be updated so right now what I'm working on is doing that, but for now I need to get some work. I've been looking for like two months.
ROGER MOORE, UNEMPLOYED: It's time to learn how to do things for yourself. You start going as far as cutting -- sometimes cutting my own hair, cutting down on the dry cleaning bill. You don't eat as much and you go on special diets and do what you have to do to survive.
LENNOX: Well, sometimes it's very discouraging coming to these job fairs because you see the same recruiters every time you come.
MOYER: I do have confidence that I will get something, though. A good chance that I'll get something over the next few weeks. That I'm going to make it. And I know I will.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Well, that's the spirit. CNN Money's Poppy Harlow joins us from New York.
So Poppy, the jobless numbers I guess were fairly strong today, but the long-term unemployed, they are really struggling still.
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: They are. So if you dig into this report you've got 12.8 million Americans, 12.8 million that are still unemployed and of that you have 5.4 million that have been out of a job for six months or longer. All the data shows that when you are out of work six months or longer, you're considered long-term unemployed and it is much harder for you to get a job.
You lose those skills and whether some companies want to admit it or not, there is some discrimination. Many people tell me in their own experience when they've been out of work so long trying to get that job.
You also have to look at the number of part-time workers that are involuntarily working part-time they want full time jobs. That number is 8.1 million Americans. And then you have to consider discourage workers, people that have given up looking for work, they're not counted in the unemployment rate that's still about one million Americans.
So all told it is a strong number but you've got this persistent problem with the long-term unemployed.
Some of the folks that we met at the jobs fair said they were frustrated because the jobs being offered were these contracting jobs, sales job, commission-based jobs, jobs that do not offer a steady pay check.
One woman told our producer Jordan Alter who shot that piece said look, all I want is a job that will pay the rent, something I can count on, Carol. So you have a strong headline number but we've got a long way to go and the job market has changed dramatically, it is not that steady work that so many people were used to.
COSTELLO: Poppy Harlow, live in New York for us.
Point-shaving scandals is the dark side of sports; now Auburn's basketball program may be under that cloud. We're going to talk about that in 10 minutes.
And coming up next we'll tell you which TV program has been called the most influential ever. Can you guess which one it is? "All of the Family", "Seinfeld", "Hill Street Blues", "MASH", "The Jeffersons." We'll have the answer in "Showbiz Headlines".
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Whitney Houston's sister-in-law opens up to Oprah and said she worried drugs would kill Whitney Houston. "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT'S" correspondent Kareen Wynter has more on the Oprah interview. She is in Los Angeles. What more can you tell us Kareen?
KAREEN WYNTER, HLN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well Carol, Oprah snagged the exclusive with members of Whitney Houston's family including Houston's sister-in-law who opened up about the singer's drug addiction. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OPRAH WINFREY, TALK SHOW HOST: Did you think that drugs would end up taking her? Did you think that?
PATRICIA HOUSTON, WHITNEY HOUSTON'S SISTER-IN-LAW: I -- the writing was kind of on the wall. I would be kidding myself to say otherwise.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WYNTER: Carol there's been so much talk following Houston's death about whether drugs actually led to her demise. So many people within her camp spoke out saying Houston had been clean for years. So this certainly offers an interesting glimpse into what may have happened here. We're of course still awaiting those toxicology results that will determine the cause of death.
Oprah also sat down with Houston's daughter, Bobbi Kristina. So many people are anxious to hear that young woman in her own words. It airs this Sunday on the Oprah Winfrey Network -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Ok let's move on to another topic that might actually generate some dispute but shall we hear the theme music first?
WYNTER: Let's listen.
COSTELLO: Do you all remember that show? "Hill Street Blues."
WYNTER: Oh Carol that takes you back.
COSTELLO: It does but I can't believe -- I cannot believe it was named the most influential TV show ever. Like, says who?
WYNTER: You're not alone. You're not alone. So here's the deal. There's a panel of TV critics and college professors who were contacted by CNN, Carol. Not sure if this show is one of your past favorites but it doesn't sound like it is.
But they say the ground breaking 1980s drama with one of the best theme songs in TV history changed the direction of television programming. Critics say the shows serious complex view of the inner city crime really paved the way for so many drams to have that more substantive content over time.
This wasn't a popularity contest, though. "Hill Street Blues" -- it never even cracked the Top 20 in the ratings. But you could see its influence on shows that followed like "NYPD Blue". The critics said, "I Love Lucy" was tied for the second most influential show, and I'm sure some would argue that Lucy deserves the top spot here since it basically invented the sitcom as we know it.
Lucy was tied with HBO's "The Sopranos" which the critics said was the first show to make the protagonists actually evil and not just unsympathetic.
But I think a lot of people are with you. This is surprising. But I love that theme song. I can just listen to it all day.
COSTELLO: I know.
WYNTER: It will probably be playing in my head all day after that.
COSTELLO: So these are shows that had an effect on the industry, not necessarily on our popular culture.
WYNTER: Yes. Right, right.
COSTELLO: Ok. You know, "Hill Street Blues" is also responsible for that cinema they're taping where it's the shaky camera that makes you kind nauseous when you're watching television.
WYNTER: And you see that still -- you're still seeing that in some crime shows today. So they haven't exactly gotten rid of that.
COSTELLO: And in movies.
WYNTER: Great observation. Yes. Yes.
COSTELLO: Ok. Maybe I'll bite, then.
WYNTER: Happy Friday Carol.
COSTELLO: You too, Kareen. Thank you. Want information on everything breaking in the entertainment world, A.J.'s got it tonight on "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT"; that's at 11:00 Eastern on HLN.
On the eve of March Madness. a college basketball program makes news for the wrong reason. After the break, we talk about point- shaving allegations at Auburn.
And Coke is changing its formula again and this time so is Pepsi. Stay with me. I will explain why it has nothing to do with taste.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Now to a football player making her mark. That's right, I said "her". Mo Isum is the homecoming queen at Louisiana State University. She's also the goalie on the LSU's women's soccer team and she once scored a 90-yard goal. Now she's trying out to be the kicker on the nationally-ranked Tiger football team. And she says she's not scared about taking a hit on the field either.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MO ISUM, TRYING OUT FOR THE TIGER FOOTBALL TEAM: Do you see my size? Everyone thinks I'm the average size and weight of a female. I am 6-foot-one almost, and weigh about 190 pounds. Yes, I just said that on camera. It is all muscle.
I'm working on becoming an avatar. That is the goal with the body type. I can take a hit. I'm just fearless. I'm not bound by fear, and I think I can handle a hit just fine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Don't you love her? Isum's been seen booting 40- and 50-yard field goals in workouts. LSU football coach Les Miles says he has no problems with Isum being on the team if she proves she is good enough. We will keep you posted.
Point-shaving scandals are rare and it's an ugly side of the sports world. Now one college basketball program may be under such a cloud.
Mike Pesca covers the sports stories for NPR. Welcome.
MIKE PESCA, NPR SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hi.
COSTELLO: Thanks for being here. So can you explain to us exactly what's going on at Auburn?
PESCA: Right. So federal investigators are looking at their point guard Varez Ward, who allegedly shaved points, and what this means is shaving points technically means you don't play as well as you can, you score fewer points than you can so that your team doesn't cover the point spread and that bettors who have paid you off are able to make money on the fact that your team isn't playing as best as it can. Federal investigators are looking at a couple of games: one against Arkansas and one against Alabama. The odd thing is that Ward himself did not play really significant minutes; in one of those games he got hurt. It was really terrible in another game.
But it doesn't matter what the outcome was. What matters is if he actually was on the take to shave points and the important thing to note in terms of the program is by all accounts and we should credit Yahoo! for really being on top of this story. By all accounts, Auburn itself is fully cooperating and as soon as they got wind of it, they turned it over to investigators who are now looking into it. And this is a federal -- this isn't an NCAA violation. If you shave points you can, and people have done federal jail time for this.
COSTELLO: What could happen to the program itself at Auburn? Anything?
PESCA: Well, yes. Because it seems that they were pretty quick to say we have a situation here and call in federal investigators. They themselves might be off the hook. This year they're not even a 500 team and they're not going to the NCAA tournament. They're years over; they haven't been a very good team for a while. This is, of course, a setback, but as far as sanctions, they might avoid those.
COSTELLO: Ok. Let's talk about the good side of sports, shall we? College basketball, March Madness is almost upon us and I was actually checking out this tip from bracketeering author Andrew Clark. He wrote that book.
He says to pick the teams for your bracket, you should look at the scoring margins. Is he right? He says that is the most important factor.
PESCA: Well, what he's saying is if you -- if a team is 20 and 10, but there are ten losses all came by a point or two, that's actually pretty significant. Some of the factors I look at are a little more esoteric. I look at the shooting -- what's called true shooting percentage which is how well you shoot the ball and you get extra credit for shooting three-pointers. I also look at something called turnover by rate of play, so sometimes teams have a lot of turnovers but they just have a fast rate of play up and down. And I look at offense and rebounding percentage.
It's not that exciting, but I'm telling you one of the reasons why teams do well in the tournament.
COSTELLO: How many times have you won?
PESCA: Every time. Of course, I only let myself into the pool. Maybe I'll let my 4-year-old join me, too, who picks by mascot.
COSTELLO: Sometimes the 4-year-old can win, too.
I know it's early and we don't know which teams are in the dance until Sunday night, but is there a final four you would love to see? PESCA: Oh, yes. There's a final four I'd love to see. There's a final four I'd pick. a couple of the teams I'll name I think we will see. I think Kentucky will be a name that every pontificator will mention because they're a great team top to bottom. They have Anthony Davis who's going to be the player of the year, the defensive player of the year. He might win the Nobel Prize in literature. He's just going to win every award and be the number one pick in next year's draft. But everyone's going to pick Kentucky.
And another team that's going to be popular to pick is Syracuse. I talked about turnovers a second ago. They are great at forcing turnovers and they themselves don't turn the ball over and both of these teams will be number one seeds so that means they're likely or at the favorites in their brackets to make the final four.
There are a couple of teams. You want to talk about who I'd like. I'd love to see Wichita State do well. Wichita State has a seven-footer. They have scoring that's spread throughout the team. And their nickname is The Shockers and their mascot is a piece of wheat or wheat shaft, anthropomorphised (ph). I think that's worth like two or three points a game when the opponents looks at the side line and a piece of wheat is shaking his fist at you.
And then the last team I'd mention maybe is Belmont, which is a school in Nashville, Tennessee. Brad Paisley went there. And this is a real dark horse. But they have a lot of those subtle little things that -- I mean if they went to the final four, they've only been playing Division 1 basketball for ten years. It will be a huge upset but why not? We love upsets and that's why we love March Madness.
COSTELLO: We love the underdog. Mike Pesca, it was a lot of fun. Thank you so much.
PESCA: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: Selection Sunday, just two days away. We want you to join the bracket challenge. Go to CNN.com/bracket and see if you can pick the NCAA winners better than any of the folks here at CNN.
California was ready to slap a warning label on some Coke and Pepsi products. Ahead on daily dose, I'll tell you how they got out of it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: In Today's "Daily Dose", Coke is changing its formula again and this time so is Pepsi. Nothing to do with taste. It's all about avoiding having to slap a cancer warning label on their product.
California has added a chemical called 4MI to its list of carcinogens. Both companies have been using that compound in their caramel coloring. Even though the warning label would only have applied in California, the formulas are changing across the country.
Sarah Palin's PAC pushes back against the HBO movie "Game Change". Your political ticker is coming your way next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: The new jobs report, red meat for Republicans. Hey, Mark Preston, the attacks on the President came pretty quickly le. Didn't waste a minute.
MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes. They didn't waste a minute. You wonder if these were actually written the night before, and I have to tell you, our viewing audience, in fact, many of these statements are written the night before. They just wait for the numbers to come out, both Democrats and Republicans and they hit "Send".
Let's take a quick look at what the House Speaker John Boehner said once the jobs report was released. This is part of his statement right here, Carol. He said "Today's report provides some encouragement for millions of families and small businesses, who continue to struggle in this economy. But unemployment remains far too high." He goes on to say in that statement, Carol, that in fact, it is really the American worker who should be applauded for the turnaround, so to speak, in our job problem that we're facing right now and not the Administration who is really weighing things down with regulations.
But politically, Carol, it just shows you that this jobs report, the economy is a political football as we're heading into November. The fact of the matter is we talk about this in numbers, and I think you and Christine have been doing a great job this morning talking about how we discuss this in numbers, but unemployment is really a very, very personal thing.
COSTELLO: That's right. It's all in how you feel about the economy, too and if most Americans have a positive outlook on the economy. And I'm not sure the numbers fare so well when you ask Americans that kind of question. Let's switch topics now though Mark and talk about this HBO movie "Game Change" because people will get to see it on Saturday night.
We got a chance to talk to Julianne Moore who stars as Sarah Palin and we wondered what she thought of Sarah Palin, so let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JULIANNE MOORE, ACTRESS: It really is about our system and the way we choose our candidates, we choose our leaders, actually. I think this campaign was notorious for being a difficult one and one that was pretty disorganized. I think anyone will tell you who was involved in the campaign.
That to me was a real surprise. It's almost like working in an independent movie where you have no budget and 30 days to shoot it. I think that the ground was shifted under them every single day. They weren't always prepared for what happened. It was a real eye-opener for me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: So, Mark, what is Palin's camp saying? Did she come out and say anything new recently?
PRESTON: Well, I've got to tell you, they've already gone on the offensive and just last week they released a two-minute video, her political action committee did which says that "Game Change" is actually distorting history. In fact, let's just take a quick look at what they put out to try to counter the debut of this movie on Saturday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We plan events for 5,000 6,000 7,000 people and we've had 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000, 60,000 people. She gets that kind of reception everywhere she goes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PRESTON: Yes. So there you have it. You know, that is just a little clip of the two-minute and 30-second video that her political action committee put out where they tried to say that in fact, Sarah Palin was a jolt to John McCain and really helped his campaign out. I have to tell you, at the time that is, in fact, true. She really was the burst of energy to a McCain campaign that was lagging.
In addition to that Carol, and I've just seen this in just the last few minutes, her political action committee had sent out an e- mail to all of us saying people should watch "The Undefeated" which is a movie about her.
COSTELLO: Thanks, Mark Preston. We appreciate it, as always. Time to go two floors down and check in with Kyra Phillips.
KYRA PHILLIPS: Thanks so much, Carol.
