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Study Conducted to Test Oxycontin on Children; Viacom Channels Went Dark; Another Side of Syria, the Elite; Mitt Romney Addresses NAACP; A Mother Abandons Her Daughters Outside a Bar;

Aired July 11, 2012 - 11:00   ET

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

(LIVE FEED IN PROGRESS)

MITT ROMNEY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let me say that again. My agenda is not to put in place a series of policies that get me a lot of attention and applause. My policy will be, number one, create jobs for the American people. I do not have a hidden agenda.

And I submit to you this -- if you want a president that will make things better in the African-American community, you are looking at him. You take a look.

Finally, I will address the institutionalized inequality in our education system and I know something about this from my time as governor. In the years before I took office, our state's leaders had come together to pass bipartisan measures that were making a difference. In reading and in math, our student were already among the best in the nation. And during my term, they took over the top spot.

Those results reveal what good teachers will do if the system will let them. The problem was, this success wasn't shared. A significant achievement gap between students of different races remained. So, we set out to do our best to close it.

I urged faster interventions in failing schools and the funding to go along with it. I promoted math and science excellence in schools and proposed paying bonuses to our best teachers. I refused to weaken testing standards and instead raised them. To graduate from high school in Massachusetts, students now had to pass an exam in math and English and I added a science requirement, as well.

And I put in place a merit scholarship for all those students who excelled. The top 25 percent of students in each high school in Massachusetts were awarded a John and Abigail Adams Scholarship, four years tuition-free at any Massachusetts public institution of higher learning.

And, when I was governor, not only did our test scores improve, we also narrowed the achievement gap. Now, the teachers' unions weren't happy with a number of these reforms. They especially did not like our emphasis on choice through charter schools, which is a great benefit to inner city kids trapped in underperforming schools.

Accordingly, the legislature passed a moratorium on any new charter schools. As you know, in Boston and Harlem and Los Angeles and all across the country, charter schools are giving children a chance, children that otherwise could be locked in failing schools.

I was inspired just a few weeks ago by the students at one of Kenny Gamble's charter schools in Philadelphia. And right here in Houston is another remarkable success story, the Knowledge Is Power Program, which has set the standard, thanks to the groundbreaking work of the late Harriet Ball.

These charter schools are doing a lot more than closing the achievement gap. They are bringing hope and real opportunity to places where for years there has been none. Charter schools are so successful that almost every politician can find something good to say about them.

But as we saw in Massachusetts, true reform requires much more than talk. As governor, I vetoed the bill blocking charter schools, but my legislature was 87 percent Democrat and my veto could have been easily over written, so I joined with the black legislative caucus and their votes help preserved my veto, which meant that new charter schools, including some in urban neighborhoods, would be opened.

When it comes to education reform, candidates can't have it both ways, talking up education reform while indulging the same groups that are blocking reform. You can be the voice of disadvantaged public school students or you can be the protector of special interests like the teacher unions, but you can't be both.

I've made my choice. As president, I will be a champion of real education reform in America and I won't let any special interest get in the way.

I will give the parents of every low-income and special-needs student the chance to choose where their child goes to school. For the first time in history, if I'm president, federal education funds will be linked to a student, so that parents can send their student to any public or charter school they choose. And I'll make that a true choice because I'm going to ensure there are good options available for every child.

And should I be elected president, I'll lead as I did when I was governor. I'm pleased to be joined by the Reverend Jeffrey Brown who was a member of my "kitchen cabinet" in Massachusetts. That cabinet helped guide my policy and actions that have affected the African- American community, in particular.

I'll look for support wherever there's goodwill and shared conviction and I'll work with you to help our students attend better schools and help our economy create good jobs with better wages.

I can't promise you that I'll agree on every issue, but I do promise that your hospitality to me today will be returned. We will know one another. And we will work the common purpose. I will seek your counsel. And if I'm elected president and you invite me to next year's convention, I will count it as a privilege and my answer will be yes.

You know, the Republican party's record by the measures you rightly apply is not perfect. Any party that claims a perfect record doesn't know history the way you know it. Yet always in both parties, there have been men and women of integrity, decency, and humility who have called injustice by its name.

For every one of us, a particular person comes to mind, someone who set a standard of conduct and made us better by their example. For me, that man is my father, George Romney. It wasn't just that my dad helped write the civil rights provision for the Michigan constitution, though he did. It wasn't just that he helped create Michigan's first civil rights commission or that, as governor, he marched for civil rights on the streets of Detroit, though he did those things, too.

More than these acts, he was the kind of man he was in the way he dealt with every person, black or white. He was a man of the fairest instincts and a man of faith who knew that every person was a child of God.

I'm grateful to him for so many things and, above all, for the knowledge of God whose ways are not always our ways, but whose justice is certain and whose mercy endures forever. Every good cause on this earth relies in the end on a plan bigger than ours. Without dependence on God, Dr. King said, our efforts turn to ashes and our sun rises into darkest night. Unless His spirit pervades our lives, we find only what called G.K. Chesterton called "cures that don't cure, blessings that don't bless, and solutions that don't solve." End of quote.

Of all that you bring to the work of today's civil rights cause, no advantage counts for more than this abiding confidence in the name above every name. Against cruelty, arrogance, and all the foolishness of man, this spirit has carried the NAACP to many victories. More still are up ahead.

So many victories are ahead and with each one of them we will be a better nation. Thank you so much and God bless every one of you. Thank you.

(END LIVE FEED)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": Hello, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield in Atlanta. You've been listening to presumptive Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, there at the NAACP convention in Houston, proposing to promote more free enterprise.

Receiving lots of applause on that, but then receiving boos when he talked about pushing to repeal ObamaCare if elected president and that he would create jobs, that in his word, Obama has failed to do and, once again, receiving some boos on that. Just take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: Now, I want you to know that if I did not believe that my policies and my leadership would help families of color and families of any color more than the policies and leadership of President Obama, I wouldn't be running for president.

In order to do that, I'm going to eliminate every non-essential expensive program I can find. That includes ObamaCare and I'm going to work and reform to save ...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, Mitt Romney hearing from the audience there at the NAACP. Again, hearing lots of boos. Also, hearing some applause on some of the points that he was making.

Jim Acosta has been following this speech that Mitt Romney has been making there in Houston and, you know, this was a very interesting thing because we heard from Mitt Romney who says this is very bold for him to be there, particularly addressing an audience, trying to appeal to an audience that polls will show in large part are in great support of President Obama and at a time when Mitt Romney has been supporting those states that have put in place some new restrictions on voter registration which many people believe makes it much more difficult for blacks and Hispanics to actually vote come November.

How did his words resonate in that room, Jim?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Actually, I have to tell you. I've been covering the Romney campaign for a good portion of a year now and I talked to some of my fellow reporters with the other news outlets that are covering this campaign and actually have to tell you I have not heard that kind of sustained booing for Mitt Romney during the course of this campaign up until what happened today at the NAACP.

I don't think it really is sort of overstating it. This was, perhaps one of the most negative reactions Mitt Romney has had in the course of his 2012 presidential campaign. That booing that went on, after he said he would repeal the president's health care law, went on for nearly ten seconds.

He used the term ObamaCare, which, by the way, you know, that's fine in Republican circles, but there are a lot of Democrats who sort of bristle at using the term ObamaCare. We at CNN use the term "the president's health care law," at least in our news reporting.

And, so to come into an audience that is very friendly to the president and use the term "ObamaCare" and say you would repeal is almost sort of inviting a confrontation.

Now, if you go on social media right now, actually, you will see that there are a lot of Republicans out there who are applauding Mitt Romney for coming into this audience and saying what he will do as president of the United States. And this message, actually, may be designed not just for the NAACP, but to go out across the country, obviously, because it's being carried live in all sorts of places and go to those independent/moderate sectors of, you know, suburban areas, swing states, battleground states where, perhaps, seeing Mitt Romney going after ObamaCare in front of the NAACP might be an effective message.

So, you know, it's interesting to see the different takes on what happened here today, but no question about it, this was a very negative reaction to what Mitt Romney had to say here earlier this morning.

WHITFIELD: And it will be interesting to hear, Jim, what Romney himself thought about the reception there, what his own camp -- how they might spin this appearance by Mitt Romney there in Houston, NAACP.

Jim, thanks so much. We'll check back with you a little bit later on.

Let's discuss this further, however, with GOP strategist and CNN contributor, Ana Navarro, and with Democratic strategist and CNN contributor, Donna Brazile. All right, ladies. Good to see both of you.

Ana, let me begin with you. Was this mission accomplished for Mitt Romney? Did he accomplish that goal that he set out to do by trying to say that the Republican party by his very presence there is much more inclusive?

ANA NAVARRO, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I think it does send a very strong message of inclusiveness. Look, Fredricka, it's not easy to go into a tough crowd and Mitt Romney is showing that he can reach out to a tough crowd, to a skeptical audience.

He will go in and say the same things to different groups, even if it's not popular. So, I think even all of those boos are not a bad thing because it shows that he is not pandering.

It is not easy to go into a crowd like the NAACP and say that you are going to repeal ObamaCare, but he's saying it there the same way he's saying it everywhere else. So, he gets points for consistency.

And I agree that this helps a lot with swing voters, with moderates, with people that like to see the big tent, that like to see inclusiveness and he absolutely in my books gets Brownie points, gets all sorts of kudos for showing up for a very tough audience.

WHITFIELD: Donna, how did you assess things?

DONNA BRAZILE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, first of all, I thought the audience was very polite. I mean, yes, of course, they would boo the derogatory terminology used by an intolerant group of Americans who believe that ObamaCare is something out of the ordinary.

Basically, ObamaCare, the Affordable Care Act will allow many Americans, especially those with pre-existing conditions, children, to receive coverage, so I think the NAACP, those members who decided to boo on that occasion were right to boo because they understand the Affordable Care Act will provide more coverage, it will help reduce the cost of healthcare in this country.

But I don't want to litigate healthcare. Look, Mitt Romney would have gotten booed if he would have essentially given the same speech that he would normally give to some of his tea party audience audiences, that supports voter I.D. that will suppress and perhaps interfere with millions of Americans exercising their right to vote.

He's embracing the Ryan budget which will tear a hole in our economy, create more joblessness. There are estimates that the Ryan budget that Mitt Romney has embraced will essentially lead to more unemployment in this country.

Mitt Romney embraced the tax cuts, his own economic proposals. He says he wants to reduce the deficit? Well, there are independent analyses that say his proposals, especially the tax cuts that are not paid for, will increase the deficit.

I think what this audience wanted to hear was Mitt Romney talk about jobs, peace, and freedom and what they got was a long list of promises with hardly any solutions and any details.

WHITFIELD: Well, he avoided the former items that you just mentioned, but in terms of propositions that he did make, he did propose more, you know, greater efforts, if elected president, greater efforts to reward free enterprise and as well as charter schools which seemed to resonate in the audience there, where he tried to then underscore examples when as Massachusetts governor he was a great proponent of it and he would do the same if elected president.

NAVARRO: And he also -- you know, Donna, you've got to give him credit for at least being there. Yes, he made promises, which is the right thing for him to do. He also provided some specifics, but at least he was there. Where was Barack Obama, to this loyal friendly group that's, you know, a very good audience for him? So that's not a lost detail, the fact that Romney ...

WHITFIELD: But is that what this is about, just arriving or arriving with a message?

NAVARRO: I think it's both things.

BRAZILE: Ana, look, the point is that it's not just about showing up. It's about delivering, as well. It's about the policies, the vision. And I think members of NAACP -- by the way, the NAACP is a non-partisan organization. Our chapter president here in D.C. is a prominent, loyal Republican who works on Capitol Hill for a very conservative member of Congress.

The NAACP has always, throughout its history, tried to invite leaders from both political parties. It has embraced Republican ...

NAVARRO: Donna, we know that the overwhelming people -- the overwhelming -- you know, the folks in that audience are overwhelmingly Obama-supporters. You know Obama got over 90 percent of the African-American support four years ago. He'll probably do the same this time around. We don't know if turnout will be the same and that's a very important issue that's up for question.

But also, you know, yes, showing up is important because showing up to a tough audience, speaking to them -- and he did give them specifics and he did also call into question the 14.4 unemployment rate under the Obama administration for the black community.

That's something that requires answers and requires, you know, some specific proposals. I heard Romney give some specific proposals and I heard him say things that I think that audience was very receptive to ...

WHITFIELD: Except I don't think anybody heard any specific proposals as it related to that unemployment rate, specifically the 14 percent among African-Americans.

But there will be some other opportunities to digest what we've all heard today. Ana Navarro, thanks so much. Donna Brazile, appreciate your time.

We're going to have much more in the "Newsroom."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, now to a story that is extremely disturbing. A woman abandoned her mentally challenged daughter outside a bar in Tennessee. Lynn Cameron is 19 and, so by law, an adult.

But when police found her, she couldn't tell them her age, address, phone number, not even her own name. In fact, they didn't know who she was until they got an anonymous tip. Her, Eva, mother is from Illinois and police say she refused to take her child back.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

EVA CAMERON, MOTHER OF ABANDONED DAUGHTER: When I didn't get the help I needed from Illinois, somebody at the church said, why don't you go down to Tennessee? That's a good healthcare system. But I toured and got lost and then she became a Jane Doe and it wasn't supposed to happen that way.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The mother cannot be charged because Lynn is an adult. Lynn is now a ward of the state of Tennessee and is being taken care of.

The fate of Mississippi's only abortion clinic hangs in the balance. Today, a federal judge will decide whether the clinic should stay open while it challenges the constitutionality of a new law. The law requires its physicians to be certified OB/GYNs and have admitting privileges at local hospitals, but the clinic says it hasn't been able to get those privileges for its out-of-state doctors.

David Mattingly is joining us right now from Jackson. So, David, the primary issue is whether this clinic can comply with the new law, but it goes a lot further than that, doesn't it?

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. That's because there are ten states in the country now with a law that is similar to this that requires doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at hospitals.

So, Mississippi is not alone. Other states will be watching what is happening here, but at issue here, the question is, is this law exactly what its proponents say that it is, that it's a measure to help women seeking abortions in the state of Mississippi or, as its proponents describe it, as a bill that's trying to make it harder for women to find abortion services?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEOLA REISS, PLANNED PARENTHOOD SOUTHEAST: The most important thing is that the women of Mississippi have access to all reproductive health care, including abortion.

Abortion is safe, it's highly regulated, and it's really time for lawmakers to do what Planned Parenthood does every day and that is to ensure that there's reproductive health care for all women, especially in Mississippi where they have some of the highest levels of unintended pregnancy, teen pregnancies, high HIV- and STD-rates.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: We did some digging here in the state of Mississippi. This one clinic performs over 2,000 abortions a year. It has been owned by the same owner for the last two years.

So out of that 4,000 to 5,000 abortions that have been performed at that clinic in the last two years, the state tells us there was only one case where a woman had some minor complications after her abortion.

So with those kinds of statistics, the opponents of this law are saying this is politically driven and driven to the intent of limiting abortions in the state of Mississippi. In fact, when the governor himself signed that bill, he did say that this was the first step towards what he hopes will be an abortion-free Mississippi. Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: And, so, David, have there been health and safety issues involving that clinic?

MATTINGLY: Well, again, that clinic -- talking directly to the state health department, they say that has been operated very well. Over the last two years they've performed about five inspections a year there. They have uncovered a couple of violations. There was a paperwork violation and there was a problem with the generator. Two things that did not affect patient care there. But overall, they are saying this clinic is doing a very good job of taking care of its patients and the owners of the clinic say in two years not a single patient has had an abortion there and then had to be taken to the hospital directly.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much. David Mattingly, you'll be bringing us more on this story.

Tomorrow, the head of Jackson's women health organization will actually be joining us live, as well, and we'll get her reaction to what might come out of the hearing today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Health experts say they have solved the mystery illness that is killing dozens of children in Cambodia and it's not just one thing, but a series of causes.

Chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, is joining us now from Phnom Penh, Cambodia. So, Sanjay, just what are these causes of death?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's been a mystery for some time, Fredricka. Early on, they found a one particular virus known as enterovirus-71, but they didn't find it in all of the samples.

Over the last few days, we've now learned the World Health Organization officials, along with the ministry here, have isolated a couple of more pathogens. One is known as streptococcus and the other one is the bacteria that causes dengue fever, so you have things that, you know, are pretty well-known pathogens.

The question that they were trying to answer, why were these children dying so quickly? Why were these pathogens acting so aggressively? And what they sort of figured out, Fredricka, and this is important, is that many of these patients also received steroids early on. And steroids, a common medication, can be an anti- inflammatory, but it can also knock down someone's immune system.

When that happens, a dangerous infection can turn into a deadly one, so that's how the pieces of this puzzle come together. Different organisms that were causing infections, but then steroids allowing those infections to sort of run amuck.

WHITFIELD: And it's happened so quickly, the sudden death of these children, we're talking this 24-hour period in which they can die. I mean, it really is the touch-and-go period for them.

So should residents expect to hear more of these deaths in weeks to come? And are these -- is this like contagious even?

GUPTA: Yes. You know, the backdrop here, I think, is important, as well. I mean, this is country where already this season you've had 11,000-some cases of dengue fever. So, there's a lot of infectious disease here. So, in answer to your question, I think there is a good chance there will be more infections, although they do seem to be dwindling. There hasn't been a confirmed case of this mysterious illness, now solved since Saturday.

But I think the key point here, though, is if they don't get steroids, they're much more likely to survive, not get as sick.

And with regard to being contagious, you know, you would have thought -- certainly, many doctors thought -- it would be contagious, but it just doesn't seem to be. Children within the same household not getting it, people within the same community not clustering it. It could be that people are getting the infection but with some people it's so mild that they don't even recognize that they have it so they are not getting treatment and may not be getting sick. Concerns about other people living in Cambodia or people traveling to Cambodia, the concern is pretty low -- Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: Thank you so much.

The World Health Organization is expected to officially release their findings to the public later today or perhaps even tomorrow.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. This is a question that parents and doctors wrestle with all the time. If he or she is in pain, should they be given addictive pain killers? It seems doctors have been doing it, but off label. But the now the FDA has commissioned a study has been conducted to test the prescription, oxycontin, on children, a pain killer known to be addictive.

Jason Carroll tells us why this is raising a lot of red flags.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The powerful painkiller has brought relief to millions but it's also made headlines for its abuse. Rush Limbaugh, Courtney Love, whose addiction became public. The latest controversy, a study under way to test the effects of oxycontin on children.

DR. ANDREW KOLODNY, PHYSICIANS FOR RESPONSIBLE OPIOID PRESCRIBING: My concern is the reason they are interested in this research is they want to get approval to market the drug for use in children.

CARROLL: Doctors have been prescribing oxycontin to children for years, doing it off label. In other words, prescribing it even though it's only approved for adults, often improvising dosage because there's no research on how much to give children.

The FDA asked the oxycontin's maker, Perdue Pharma, to conduct a study, offering the company to extend the patent on oxycontin that would translate to huge profits. The study's criteria on its 154 patients include the child must be between 6 and 16 years old, must be suffering from moderate to severe pain, must already be receiving treatment with opiates.

Dr. Gabrielle Gold-Von Simson is one of the lead trial investigators --

DR. GABRIELLE GOLD-VON SIMSON, TRIAL INVESTIGATOR, NYU LANGONE MEDICAL CENTER: It's not fair to the child to withhold a treatment that can help them recover and feel better and be productive.

JEANNIE KARLITZ, FRIENDSOFCARRA.ORG: Well, I have complete compassion --

(CROSSTALK)

CARROLL: Jeannie Karlitz's son has rheumatoid arthritis. His chronic condition is managed without oxycontin. But the study would help parents and doctors make more informed decisions.

KARLITZ: Worrying about the teens getting addicted to oxycontin because of the clinical trials in children, it's so silly because one thing has nothing to do with each other.

CARROLL: This recovering oxycontin addict disagrees, worried that the study could lead to more addiction. He was addicted following a baseball injury when he was 18.

GERARD, PHOENIX HOUSE RESIDENT: It's a fine line between, is this going to help or create more chaos in the future.

CARROLL: First introduced in the late '90s, oxycontin was promoted as nearly addiction-proof. Purdue Pharma pled guilty to label misbranding, paying $635 million in penalties, and reformulated oxycontin.

As for the study, Purdue says it's not trying advertise the drug for children, that the result will give information about oxycontin's "safety and efficacy in pediatric patients to clinicians who may consider using the product in children with moderate to severe chronic pain."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Jason Carroll joins us live from New York.

Jason, how long is this study being conducted?

CARROLL: Well, we're told that the study lasts for four weeks. Doctors have the option to extend it outside of that study. We're told, from doctors who have been participated in the study, that, so far, the patients who have been participating in the four-week study, they have all been weaned off the oxycontin within weeks after taking it.

WHITFIELD: And so it's not just oxycontin, right? There are other addictive drugs being prescribed to children?

CARROLL: That's what we found surprising in doing some of the research on this story. There are a lot of medications out there. it's not just oxycontin that we're talking about here. Painkillers, other types of medication approved for adults routinely prescribed off label. Some 50 percent of drugs that, once again, are approved for adults are often times prescribed to children.

And so I think what parents have to do, Fredricka, is when you take your child in, and whether it's pain management or any other type of medication, be sure to ask your doctor, is this approved for children in if not, how much experience do you have in prescribing it to children.

WHITFIELD: Great question to ask.

Thank you so much, Jason Carroll.

For more information on oxycontin and its side effects, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine web site at nlm.nih.gov.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: First it was Stockton, California, the largest city in the nation to file for bankruptcy. But the bankruptcy hits just keep coming. Another California city, a third in less than one month, is seeking bankruptcy protection. This time, it's San Bernardino. Its leaders voted to approve bankruptcy. There is a shortfall of nearly $46 billion. City leaders say was he is exacerbated by the recession.

And it's a dark day for Sponge Bob fans who watch TV. Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, and all of the other Viacom networks went dark at midnight for the most popular satellite service. The issue, as always, is money. And each side blames the other for the blackout.

Our Alison Kosik is watching, so to speak.

Somebody needs to blink here. We need that daily show, don't we?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: It's kind of a game of chicken, isn't it? Viacom stations on DirecTV went dark minutes before reaching a deadline deal. DirecTV had said it was willing to continue carrying the channels while they duked it out. Viacom said they are not up for that. A big part of the situation is over what is known as bundling. DirecTV wants to let subscribers pick and choose what channels they want instead of taking all of Viacom's channels in a big mandatory bundle. You have to think, all of those hundreds of channels that you have on your dial that you don't watch, that you barely know exist. Cable programmers are used to bundling, used to giving you sort of everything at once and they don't want this al a carte situation.

WHITFIELD: What is happening on the stocks? We're four days now and counting with the losing streak.

KOSIK: Yes. It could be yet one more tacked on to that. Stocks are a bit lower. Dow down 31 points. Investors are looking ahead in about three hours when the fed minutes are going to come out. That's the latest Federal Reserve meeting. We can get the fly on the wall perspective of what they discussed on that meeting. Investors want to see if there's any indication that the central bank is considering stepping in with more stimulus to try to give a jump-start to the economy. Calls for the stimulus are getting much louder after the weaker than expected jobs report came out last week showing that only 80,000 jobs were added to the economy in June -- Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: Thank you so much, Alison.

A little addendum here. If folks don't believe how nasty it is getting between DirecTV and Viacom, Direct is paying hard ball? Its web site tells viewers where to go online to watch Viacom net for free.

As Lance Armstrong faces doping charges that could strip him of his seven Tour de France titles, two doctors and a trainer involved in the cyclist's tour wins are slapped with lifetime sports bans by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, accusing them of trafficking performance- enhancing drugs and masking agents. Armstrong and the three staffers all maintain their innocence, though Armstrong is the only one to enter a legal proceeding with the agency.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: As the violence in Syria escalates, the main opposition group is pushing for a solution, too. The counsel's leader is meeting with Russia's foreign minister, seen here. The council is laying out a series of proposals of how to resolve the crisis. The meeting is key since Russia and China have vetoed resolutions to condemn President Bashar al Assad's regime.

At the same time, U.S. officials are watching Russian military ships make their way to Syria's Port of Tartous. Russia says the ships are part of routine training exercises and resupply. And special envoy, Kofi Annan, is debriefing the U.N. Security Council after his talks with Iran, Iraq and Assad.

So, for many Syrians, this is a reality, a familiar scene, extreme violence, explosions, death daily. In fact, the U.N. estimates that more than 10,000 people have been killed over the past 16 months of carnage. But there's another side to the reality of Syria, one of the Syrian elite, largely unseen by the outside world.

But "Newsweek" is taking a revealing look, and what its reporter finds behind this backdrop of violence of protests behind Bashar al Assad is stunning. That report is Janine di Giovanni.

Janine, you spent a good amount of time there and you were able to explore the lives of what turned out to be Syria's elite. While you have that backdrop of violence, they were going about their business per usual. Describe what you saw and under what circumstances did you see this?

JANINE DI GIOVANNI, REPORTER, NEWSWEEK: Well, I first have to point out that this is a very small portion of the population, and I think in any regime, like Assad or Saddam, before he fell, you always will find a certain sector that had money, that had the ability to party, in a sense, while the country is collapsing. And there's also a sense of delusion that this isn't going to happen to them.

I think that for many people in Syria, there's a great fear. More than anything, there's a fear of what will happen. And so even while this elite continue or try to continue with their lives, most are questioning what will come after this if Assad goes, when he does go, what will become of us? Will we have to go into exile? Will we have to flee to Lebanon or Paris? What will come next?

WHITFIELD: One viewer said I don't completely agree with Bashar al Assad but I don't believe now is the time for change?

GIOVANNI: One of the things I wanted to accomplish by going on the al Assad side, I had a government visa which is a very rare thing to get, I wanted to get into the heads of the pro Assad heads, what are they thinking? What are they feeling? Do they believe massacres are happening? How do they view him as a leader? And you should remember that this is a country that is monitored heavily by the secret are monitored. They're followed. The secret police are everywhere. So people live in a state of fear. I think the people I spoke to, which range from Christian nuns to musicians to playwrights to writers all seemed to have a fear of if the opposition wins will there be a radical fundamentalist change? Now, this is not completely accurate. But many of them say Saudi and Qatar are backing the opposition.

WHITFIELD: They weren't necessarily government supporters meaning they don't necessarily work for the government. They don't have special interests in the government, but they are private enterprise. They are independent workers?

GIOVANNI: Businessmen, people that have made money and live an extravagant or even just a wealthy life. And they're wondering what will happen to them. And they've done well in some ways under the Assad regime. If a new regime comes in or whoever does come in they're worried about what will happen to their lives. But most people are worried what will happen to them in an ordinary way.

WHITFIELD: Right. Yes.

GIOVANNI: To their children, how they'll continue to educate people.

WHITFIELD: You're right about a couple things. You say they see Assad as a real guarantor of civility and you also write that, quote, there is a deep sense of dread kept at bay by distraction and perhaps even delusion, so is it an issue of delusion or denial or is this kind of like a survival mechanism for some who say, you know, who actually said to you, one gentleman or one woman actually saying to you, you know, we can either choose to live or we can choose to live in fear.

GIOVANNI: Well, Fredericka, I've covered many wars and have been in situations just before wars break out and what I've observed is that people try to survive whatever way they can. Some people pick up their passports, their children, and they flee. They take their money out of the bank if not to late already and they go. There are other people who do not believe this could happen to their country. I interviewed many people who said, intelligent, educated people, who did not believe that Assad was killing his own people, that it was not committed by government troops. So I think in a way many people do live in delusion.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

GIOVANNI: But most of it is backed up by fear. A fear of change, a fear of what could happen, and a fear of the unknown.

WHITFIELD: Well, it is a fascinating read.

Janine Di Giovanni, thanks so much for your time.

You can read more of Janine's reporting on Syria's elite in "Newsweek," the July 16th edition.

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WHITFIELD: We'd all like to think only good happens to good people. We know it's not always the case. In this week's "Human Factor," chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, talks to a social worker whose dream of helping cancer patients was postponed when he had to face his own diagnosis.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD DICKENS, SOCIAL WORKER: I'm going to ask you first to just take three deep breaths.

GUPTA (voice-over): Richard Dickens is a social worker who works exclusively with cancer patients. Here, he's using meditation to help patients cope.

DICKENS: It really is just calming the body and quieting the mind.

GUPTA: Dickens knows all too well the emotional struggle of these sick. As he was looking forward to graduate school to become a social worker he got devastating news.

DICKENS: I got the education to Columbia University and then my number-one choice on a Monday and a cancer diagnosis the next day.

GUPTA: At 37, he was diagnosed with advanced, non-hodgkins lymphoma. He underwent six months aggressive chemo and a bone marrow transplant, but he didn't give up his dream of helping others.

DICKENS: Without ever anticipating I'd get cancer I wanted to work with cancer/AIDS patients.

GUPTA: During his illness, he stumbled across Cancer Care, an organization that helps people through the emotional and financial maze that comes with cancer. DICKENS: Riding the New York City subway to my doctor's appointment I'm looking up at the advertisements and there was one for Cancer Care. Got into a young adult group during that time and learned a lot from a lot of other people and felt safe sharing that.

GUPTA: Once in remission he was able to start grad school at Columbia.

DICKENS: Well, we do have a very small grant.

GUPTA: After graduating, he began working for Cancer Care. He started to run the very support group he had previously participated in as a patient. Today, he's Cancer Care's mind-body project coordinator.

DICKENS: My life is definitely very rich, very rewarding, and I feel I'm where I'm supposed to be. People keep coming back, so I am confident that they're getting a lot from me, and I hope so.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Richard Dickens shares his personal thoughts and his journey on his blog, which you can read at CNNhealth.com.

Thanks so much for watching. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Much more of the NEWSROOM straight ahead with Suzanne Malveaux, with the NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL.

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