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Julie Chen: Did I Give In to "The Man"?; Mayweather to Get Record Payday; Girls Suspected Of Cyber Bullying Teen; Obama Comments on Syria

Aired September 13, 2013 - 14:30   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN: Bottom of the hour. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

And let me just show you some pictures here as I'm cheating to see if we're looking over to see the live pictures. We've got some pictures here of Larimer County, Colorado. Here they are behind me. This is -- look at this. Just as far as the eye can see, floodwater here. The National Weather Service is calling the floods in Colorado, their words, biblical, biblical proportions. Before the rain, you think about Colorado and they were dealt those fires. Remember the wildfires in July burning thousands of acres and homes. And now this rain doesn't want to stop.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Proceed to higher ground. Do not cross standing or moving water.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've never seen anything like this. This is just mind-boggling.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Julie Chen is trending big time online, and what she says she did in order to get into the big time, big time TV. She is now the co-host, has been for a number of years here, of the show called "The Talk," and she's also been hosting the reality show "Big Brother" and is a former network news anchor.

And Chen just this week revealed early on in her career, she followed the direction of an agent and a former boss, and both of these people told her she should undergo plastic surgery to make her eyes bigger. Chen, on "The Talk" this week, actually showed the before, and we can all see her now, the after pictures, while revealing her big secret.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JULIE CHEN, CO-HOST, "THE TALK": And I want to show you a side by side of how dramatic this surgery really was. I mean, if you look at the after, the eyes are bigger. I look more alert, but I will say, when I -- after I had that done, everything kind of -- the ball did roll for me. Which, you know, I struggle with, wow, you know, did I give in to the man and do this?

(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: Let's talk about this with CNN digital correspondent Kelly Wallace and Wendy Urushima-Conn, a former TV reporter and current president of the Asian Business Association in San Diego. So Ladies, welcome. Wendy, let me just begin with you because we can talk TV and your career, I want to ask personally speaking, did anything happen like this to you? A boss come to you, pressure you to change?

WENDY URUSHIMA-CONN, FORMER BROADCAST JOURNALIST: Yes, thanks for asking. Happy to be here. You know, I'm very fortunate that was never brought up to me here in the San Diego market, but you know, I understand it's a very visual medium. And I applaud Julie for coming forward and being courageous and sharing her story because it is her story.

But I think at the end of the day, it really comes back to personal choice and feeling confident and choosing what you decide to do. Part of me also said, gosh, if someone had asked me, I would feel a little sickened and might say, I may not be the right person for the job. I was never asked.

BALDWIN: One thing to think it, but to put yourself in her shoes so many years ago, to both of you, you heard Julie saying a little bit of her worry is that she gave into the man. Kelly Wallace, do you think she did at all?

KELLY WALLACE, EDITOR AT LARGE, CNN DIGITAL: You know, I think I also agree. I sort of respect her decision. It was a difficult one, obviously, to make, and she's sort of questioning if that decision was something if she didn't do, would her career have gone forward?

What I hope really is that as our world, we celebrate more and more diversity, that if there's a young Julie Chen in Dayton, Ohio, right now, that she doesn't even get asked this question and she doesn't even have to think about this. That's what we hope as we become a more diversified world.

BALDWIN: Hopefully, you know, all of us hope being in this visual medium, we hope that times have changed and people are more accepting of all the different ways, you know, we look. But I know, Kelly, that you have been poring through the backlash online. What are people saying about this?

WALLACE: Yes, a lot of backlash, a lot of sadness, a lot of outrage, and then some people saying I don't know what the outrage is all about. Let me read a couple comments that we're getting at cnn.com. You have someone who said horrible role model. She sold herself out, very sad. Another person who said, this is the burden under which all minorities must live. If you don't look European, you're not considered beautiful by the general public.

And then there was this comment who said, she looks great. I can tell you the before person never would have had the success in the media business that the after person would. Plastic surgery is a common practice in the business. What is the big deal? So just a sense of the range of comments we're seeing online. BALDWIN: Wendy, weigh in, and as we were talking with the segment, too, we were wondering if there are issues, it seems, from what I can tell, there are other issues in other cultures to maybe look more western, and I'm also wondering if men deal with this, too. What do you think?

CONN: Well, you know, it's interesting, when I was growing up, I'm fourth generation Japanese-American, and I remember being teased for having slanted eyes and how as a young girl, I thought it must be better to be white and act white, whatever that means. So I think we have come a long way.

I think we have a long way to go, and I'm a mother and I have two daughters, a toddler and a teenager who are very impressionable, and I remind them, we all come in different shapes and sizes. It matters what's up here and what's in here. Are you trying your best? Are you kind? Do you have integrity? Are you giving back to the community? The rest of it doesn't really matter.

BALDWIN: I got to tell you from my own personal, let's say, 12 years been doing this, you know, the only person who said anything to me was very early on, cut your hair and take that crazy earring out of your ears. That's really it for me, so I feel lucky. But final questions because hearing Julie Chen saying, quoting her, she said, you know, after it happened, the ball did roll for me.

This is the older, you know, local anchor, Dayton, Ohio, Julie Chen. I'm just wondering, first Wendy to you and then Kelly. Do you think if she had stayed as we saw on the left side of the screen, do you think she would be in the position she is today?

CONN: You know, that's a tough question. I'll take that first. I mean, at the end of the day, when you look at Julie's skills, she's an incredible reporter, anchor, role model. She's fabulous on-air talent and she's good at what she does. Now given the climate 18 years ago in the Midwest, I don't know. And so, again, I respect her decision to make the choices that she made. I mean, I color my hair. There, it's out.

BALDWIN: Me, too, guilty.

CONN: I don't know if that makes me more successful or not. My husband says let your hair go curly and stop dyeing it. Who knows? But all I have to say is, at the end of the day, she's really good at her job. She was beautiful before. She's beautiful now, and I think we need to, again, continue to celebrate diversity. But yes, that's a good question.

BALDWIN: I'm going to leave it there because I love that final note, beauty in the eye of the beholder, as well. Wendy and Kelly, thank you both very, very much. Great discussion.

Coming up, he's one of those stars you never know what he's going to say. And before he fights tomorrow's $41 million bout, Floyd Mayweather talks to me. Don't miss it.

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BALDWIN: Huge fight in Vegas tomorrow night. Have you heard about this? Biggest in professional boxing history, Floyd Mayweather, undefeated at age 36, that is him on the left, and he's expected to earn some $41 million for stepping into the ring with a Mexico's Canelo Alvarez. He is undefeated as well.

I talked to money may, I talked to Floyd Mayweather here in studio seven, pound for pound, the toughest and richest guy out there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: You are the highest paid athlete in the world. You laugh, it's true.

FLOYD MAYWEATHER, UNDEFEATED PROFESSIONAL BOXER: I do not carry around a million dollars in cash.

BALDWIN: I'm listening to you, but I'm distracted by the shine on your sunglasses. Get a closer look at the sunglasses, the necklace, and I was already admiring the watch. Here we go. Show me your moves.

MAYWEATHER: No. Never hit a lady.

BALDWIN: I'm not asking you to hit me. I'm protecting my face.

MAYWEATHER: Yes, but I fight with my hands down.

BALDWIN: Boom, Alvarez guy?

MAYWEATHER: He's young. He's strong. He's a heavy hitter. I'm banking on my experience being around the sport, dominating the sport for 17 years. He's 22, I'm 36.

BALDWIN: Yes.

MAYWEATHER: So it's an interesting matchup.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Floyd, what do you want to say?

BALDWIN: You did a couple months' time for domestic battery charge. What have you learned from that?

MAYWEATHER: Done my 70 days in the hole, which is max security, and I'm out now. I'm still positive and once again, tough times don't last. Tough people do.

BALDWIN: What's your message for people? We cannot all be Floyd Mayweathers, but in terms of being happy, being healthy, being positive, what do you say to people?

MAYWEATHER: Surround yourself with positive people. At one particular time, I was negative. I come from a rough situation, but you know what, it's all about going forward, staying on a parallel path and being the best I can be. If you dream it, you can do it. (END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Money May, thank you, again, that big fight tomorrow night.

Coming up, incredibly tragic, 12-year-old jumps to her death after being bullied online, 12 years old. And just hours before her death, a text message she sent will break your heart. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Florida police are sifting through the phones and laptops of 15 girls suspected of cyberbullying a 12-year-old girl who committed suicide. Police say Rebecca Sedwick killed herself Monday by jumping off a tower. And just hours before her death, police say Rebecca texted a boy she met online and told him that she couldn't take it anymore.

Now, Rebecca falls into this tragic number of teenagers who have taken their lives because of cyberbullying, but there is a twist here because it involved a CNN crew who just happened to be at Rebecca's former school the day she killed herself. Sara Ganim has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bullying.

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A pledge to stop bullying at Crystal Lake Middle School. No one knew it then, but that very day, one of their former classmates killed herself. She was being bullied, the sheriff's office says, by girls at this school. Heartbreak and another rally hours later, once her family found out what had happened.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love my sister.

GANIM: It was so secret that Rebecca was being bullied. There were fights in school and police say administrators even tried changing her schedule. Rebecca was hospitalized in December for cutting her wrists. This e-mail shows the sheriff's office opened an investigation and then closed it. Her mother eventually pulled her out of Crystal Lake Middle School all together, but the bullying didn't stop. It continued on social media.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some of the juveniles have told us that Rebecca was absolutely terrorized on social media by some girls.

GANIM: CNN was at this rally Monday where some students opened up about bullying at Crystal Lake. There were confessions and apologies, but police believe Rebecca was already dead. The sheriff says she jumped from the tower of an abandoned cement plant. Sheriff Grady Judd said laptops and cell phones from about 15 middle school girls have been confiscated as part of the investigation.

And they found messages sent to Rebecca on several social media sites. Messages such as "you should die." and "why don't you go kill yourself?" The sheriff says the night before she jumped, Rebecca sent a message to a 12-year-old North Carolina boy she had befriended online. She wrote "I'm jumping. I can't take it anymore."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can see from what we have investigated so far that Rebecca wasn't attacking back. She appeared to be beat down. She appeared to have a defeatist attitude and quite frankly, the entire investigation is exceptionally disturbing to the entire investigative team.

GANIM: Rebecca's mother saw her alive for the last time that night on her phone, texting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Sara Ganim joins me and Ben Tinker, senior medical producer, who as you mentioned, you were part of the CNN crew who just happened to be at this school. So part of this story you're going to tell is not just sadly we lost Rebecca, but someone else was saved.

BEN TINKER, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL PRODUCER: That's true. We were there shooting the story on anti-bullying, which is such a coincidence that we happened to be there.

BALDWIN: So odd.

TINKER: But the day after Rebecca killed herself, someone came up to Jalen's mom, who we're going to talk about, and she said I have a question. Who can I ask? She said, I'll be right back, get someone to answer your question. She walked away and she said, you know what? Something wasn't right about that.

She went back, and her son, Jalen, who is 13, this other girl is 13, confided in her son she was planning on killing herself, Tuesday night, the very day after Rebecca killed herself. Jalen said, don't do it. Please you cannot do this. We're going to get you the help that you need. In fact, they were able to step in and intervene and save this girl's life and who knows how many others.

BALDWIN: It's incredible, all the way around incredible. I know parents are thinking what can we do? What can we do? A lot of parents want to control everything their child does online, right?

GANIM: Right. And the sheriff said it's a really important message. You know, a lot of times it's the cell phones that they're looking at, not necessarily the laptop computers or the things that you think where you have your blocking software, but the apps on the phone are so important.

The sheriff said they're so important that parents enact controls on those, too. Things like ask.fm, that app, or kick. Both of those, Rebecca Sedwick was on both of those apps and her mother said, her mother told the sheriff, when she saw her that night before she went to bed, she was in bed on her phone.

BALDWIN: Cell phone, cell phone, cell phone, parents, take note. Finally with you, tell me about the kid fighting bullying.

TINKER: We went down and met this incredible kid, Jalen Arnold, and he has got this campaign, Jalen's Challenge, and their motto is bullying, no way. He made me promise to give you these bracelets. You can take a look, Jalen's challenge, bullying, no way. And Jalen is a young boy. He's 13 years old. He has Tourette's syndrome. So a lot of his classmates didn't understand that.

He would get bullied all the time. He said if I'm getting bullied all the time, imagine how many kids across the world are getting bullied. This is pretty cool for a 13-year-old to think this. He started this. In the piece, you saw an actor, he went down. He has Tourette's as well. They're doing this anti-bullying campaign. We had been planning this story before this tragic event happened on Monday. We'll bring it to you next week.

BALDWIN: Something positive to come. Ben Tinker, thank you. We'll look for it. Sara Ganim, thanks for telling her story. Thanks both of you.

We are now getting word that President Obama has just spoken at the White House on Syria specifically. We'll share his comments with you, just in, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Got some video we want to share with you now straight from the White House. We have President Obama, he's been meeting in the oval office with the Amir of Kuwait and the subject of Syria most definitely came up. Here's the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Our two countries are in agreement that the use of chemical weapons we saw in Syria was a criminal act. And that it is absolutely important for the international community to respond in not only deterring repeated use of chemical weapons but hopefully getting those chemical weapons outside of Syria.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking in foreign language)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: I shared with the Amir my hope that the negotiations that are currently taking place between Secretary of State Kerry and Foreign Minister Lavrov in Geneva bear fruit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Again, the president sitting with the Amir of Kuwait. As we know, for a couple days, Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meeting on neutral turf in Geneva, Switzerland, to talk about what is happening in Syria and hopefully find some kind of solution over the stockpile of chemical weapons.

Coming up the flooding in Colorado being called biblical, we will take you there live as the waters continue to rise and folks continue to evacuate. Stay right with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BALDWIN: Now, the top 5 videos of the day on cnn.com. Roll it.

Number five, a guy declares war on internet ads and creates an app that he claims will get rid of every ad.

Number four, police two teenage girls in Maine put a kitten in a microwave and turned it on. And yes, had to post this on twitter. By the way, kitty is doing fine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's eating normally. She seems to be in fine shape, as you can see.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Poor thing. Number three, a hunter claims to have killed a mythical creature on a farm in Mississippi.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I said it was one of those chupacabras or whatever, and that's what I call it because it looks just like it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Experts say it's more like a wild dog or coyote. Number two on cnn.com, Jeanne Moos profiles a husband who has this hernia operation, wakes up, sees his wife for the first time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The doctor send you? Man, you are eye candy.

JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The prettiest woman he's ever seen, he said.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: I love it, eye candy, to his wife. The video, of course, went viral, and yes, the hospital confirmed this. And number one, a Ms. America hopeful apparently becomes the first contestant to show off a tattoo on stage. Here she is and you see the ink on her stomach. That's Ms. Kansas and that is the serenity prayer.

A computer glitch sells round-trip airplane tickets for $5. Should this major U.S. airline honor them? I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

Biblical flooding, not my words, that's from the National Weather Service. We will take you live to Colorado where floodwaters are rising.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOVERNOR CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: We are tough, and we stand together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Fire on the boardwalk and now, the recovery.