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Newtown: Media Stay Away On Anniversary Date; Rashida Jones Blasts Pop Stars For Too Much "Skin, Licking And Bending Over"; Napping Traveler Wakes Up, Trapped In Plane; Satanists Petition For Statue At Oklahoma Statehouse, Next To Ten Commandments>

Aired December 09, 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 ANCHOR: Bottom of the hour. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

And it is the anniversary no one wants to recognize, but everyone understands the need to. And now there is a question as to just how that should be done. This coming Saturday will mark one year since a gunman murdered 27 people in Newtown, Connecticut, including 20 first graders. City officials have asked the media not to come to town.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PATRICIA LLODRA, NEWTOWN FIRST SELECTMAN: We're fully aware of our tragedy, so we're trying to say to the world, please give us the chance to grow into that really happy, healthy place that loves children and families, that has great schools. We know who we are. We know that that's our destiny, but we need you to help us get there by please staying away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: CNN has decided not to go to Newtown this Saturday. Some of the victim's families have offered a way for people to reach out on that day. This is what they have done. Take a look at this. This is this new web site they have created if you like to go. It's mysandyhookfamily.org. Mysandyhookfamily.org. and in just the last hour, these different moms and dads, they talked about how they will be spending this Saturday.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOANN BACON, MOTHER OF SAND HOOK VICTIM: We ask that you consider performing an act of kindness or volunteering with a charitable organization in your own local community. We hope that some small measure of good may be returned to the world. This concludes our family statement. I'd like to add that our family will be lighting a candle on the eve of 12-14, the last night we spent with our sweet Charlotte.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we will be lighting a candle for our beautiful little girl, Jessica.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will be lighting a candle on behalf of Jesse McCord Lewis.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to light a candle in honor of our daughter, Emilie.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will light a candle for my mom, Dawn Hockspring.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will light a candle for my older sister, Victoria.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will be lighting a candle for my sweet boy, Jack.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will be lighting a candle in honor of our beautiful girl, Grace.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will be lighting a candle for our gorgeous daughter, Avielle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will be lighting a candle for our beautiful daughter, Anna.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will be lighting a candle for our sweet son, Daniel.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will be lighting a candle for my daughter, Lauren.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will light a candle for Jace.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We going to be lighting a candle for our irrepressible Benny.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Gut wrenching. One year later. Joining me now, Frank Sesno, the director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. Frank, nice to have you. One, I should say again, you know, CNN will be covering the story. We will not be in Newtown as I mentioned. We will be doing it from afar. But based on the wishes of the families and the town who we just heard from, how should the media balance coverage?

FRANK SESNO, SCHOOL OF MEDIA AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: Well, the first thing the media should do, and I'm glad to hear what CNN is doing is respecting the wishes of the families. These are terrible stories anytime there's a tragedy or a death and the media is interested in covering that. The first thing you do, the first thing you should do is defer to the wishes of the families.

Sometimes families will want to speak to the public. Sometimes they will find that cathartic. Sometimes they will want total privacy. In this case, the request comes from the town itself. This is an experience the town horribly endured and continues to endure. I'm very pleased to see that CNN is doing this and some other news organizations are as well. The problem is that neither the town nor anyone else controlled all of the media. There's no law that's going to stop people from going into town and violating this request. That's where it gets difficult. From CNN's perspective, there are many, many ways to cover this story without being there while acknowledging the requests from the town.

You can have retrospectives. You can look at the individuals of the victims. You can revisit some of the unknown elements of the crime itself. So I think that CNN is doing the right thing. Other news organizations are as well. And this is going to come up again and again, unfortunately, because the fascination, horror of the story, will not diminish.

BALDWIN: Hearing from those parents, I'm conflicted. I really actually admire the strength they showed today to come out, because they know that there is this need, this demand. America wants to mourn with them. So here we have them giving this full statement and saying essentially, listen, we're talking now. But come Saturday, we want complete and utter privacy. Is that how you see it?

SESNO: It is. And you know, they're not saying we don't ever think the media should be here and we're never will talk to the media again. It's at this moment, this very difficult moment, one year, as the holiday, as the holiday is upon us, to experience this sort of thing. Of course, the town has mourned with the country and the world.

The town has had the country and the world, the president and others there. There have been many number of expressions from townspeople about how helpful that support has been. Their request, it seems to me, is very specific here. And it's one that is very easy for the media to comply with. Give us our space on this day.

BALDWIN: One other request which I plan to honor on Saturday, they said be compassionate, show an act of kindness to a stranger. That was the message from Newtown and something we should all be following this coming Saturday on that one-year anniversary. Frank Sesno, thank you very much.

First on CNN, another sleeper cell busted in America, and once again, Russia is involved. You remember Anna Chapman and her friends climbing up the New York social ladder until their arrests just a couple years ago. And then to further complicate America's relationship with Russia, Moscow grants asylum to the NSA leaker, Edward Snowden, now fast forward to this.

The Justice Department is exposing a new spy ring, this one involved Russian diplomats and fraud. CNN's justice reporter Evan Perez broke this development, and he joins me now. And so Evan, if these guys were being investigated for espionage, how did the feds catch them for fraud?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I know that seems strange, Brooke. It's a bizarre twist of a story that is already causing tensions between Russia and the United States. These are 49 Russians. Some were diplomats and their wives who were accused of defrauding Medicaid. That's the health care program for low-income families.

Now prosecutors in Manhattan say all together, these Russian diplomats ran a nine-year scheme that bilked Medicaid of $1.5 million. As you mentioned, Brooke, CNN learned that the FBI discovered this alleged scheme in New York when agents were tracking some of these suspects for spying.

Now, there's been a back and forth between the Russians and the United States, exposing each other's spies. You might remember Anna Chapman and the spy ring in 2010. Earlier this year, the Russians exposed an alleged CIA agent who wore a bad blond wig in meetings. Now some of these 49, there are only 11 who are still in the United States.

And all of them have diplomatic immunity. So unless the Russian government waived their immunity, which is unlikely, they cannot be arrested. Instead, the State Department is expected to have some of them sent home -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK, that was a bad blond wig, Evan Perez. Evan Perez for us in Washington. Evan, thank you very much.

Coming up here, a passenger falls asleep during a flight. Wakes up alone and trapped. You'll hear that story.

Plus, actress, Rashida Jones said she has had enough with what she called the pornification of pop stars. Hear what she says. We're seeing way too much of in Hollywood.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: The pornification of America. That is the title of this controversial new piece in "Glamour" by actress, Rashida Jones. Basically, her advice to Hollywood pop stars is this. Stop acting like, well, I'm going to use her word here, whores. She said, "I am not a prude. I love sex, I am comfortable with my sexuality, hell, I even posed in my underwear, I also grew up with a healthy balance of sexuality in pop stars."

She goes on, "Every star interprets sexy the same way, lots of skin, lots of licking of teeth, bending over. I find this oddly boring. Can't I just like a song without having to take an ultra sound tour of some pop star's privates?" Yes, the words of Rashida Jones.

Joining me now Krista Smith, CNN entertainment commentator and I tell you, I tweeted this one out last night. I think it's a fascinating article. It brings up a lot of points. First, do you agree with Rashida?

KRISTA SMITH, CNN ENTERTAINMENT COMMENTATOR: I do, actually, agree with Rashida. I loved reading this piece. I liked it from her perspective because this is -- she grew up in Hollywood. Her dad is Quincy Jones. Her mom is Peggy Lipton. She grew up around all of this, Madonna, Michael Jackson. She went east to school. She came back to L.A. She works in Hollywood.

So I think it's amazing that she actually articulated it like this and wants to start a dialogue. She's not telling people what to do. She's just saying, isn't there another color in the crayon box we can use. Why do we always have to the same color every time?

BALDWIN: Well, let's talk about that color. That color is that of many of these young women taking off a lot of clothes. In fact, I think it was Lady Gaga recently performed, I think, totally clotheless. So why is it do you think, you cover entertainment, this is your beat. Why do you think a lot of these women feel the need to show so much to get publicity?

SMITH: Well, I think there are a couple of arguments. One, people can say it's artistry. Another one argument could be they just want attention. I think that there's so much noise out there with everything, in terms of Twitter and Instagram and the whole social media, and even us with the 24-hour news cycle that the ante has to keep going up, up, up, to the point where this now becomes the norm.

We're all kind of numb to it. I agree with what Rashida is saying, let's get back to that may not be my idea of sexy, maybe it is one time, but it's not every time. Can't we show some kind of variety?

BALDWIN: Then, so she talks about in the article taking the idea to Twitter, and she's slammed on Twitter specifically by feminists saying you're shaming women. I suppose some people think, I myself don't, but this idea of flaunting one's physical assets like really flaunting them in some cases with these young women, is that empowering? Is that an argument, a valid argument from some of these people?

SMITH: I don't think so. I mean, I think it's like the case by case, but generally, you look at this, this isn't empowering. This is just about, it's my body. This is it. This is what it means to be sexy. That's not the case for every girl. I think Rashida makes a really good point about saying I don't want to be a role model. I'm not a role model. Guess what, you are a role model.

BALDWIN: She said you have to be a role model.

SMITH: Yes, you have to be. You're selling out stadiums. You are selling records. You are a role model. There's got to be a certain amount of accountability. But on your note with the feminists, I am disappointed that a woman cannot make a comment, and she makes it clear, what right do I have to say? I don't, this is just the way I feel. The fact that she is opening up a dialogue, and all of a sudden, she's slammed for not being a feminist, I think it's ridiculous.

BALDWIN: Take away for record execs, take away for some of these pop stars for women, and I want to end quoting her talking about men. She says, men, where are you? Please talk to us about how all of this makes you feel. You're 49 percent of the population. Don't sit around and let women beat up one another while you're intermittently and guiltily enjoying the show.

I just think she brings up some awesome point. I'll tweet out the line. Krista Smith, got to go, but thank you so much for weighing in. I appreciate that very much. SMITH: Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Coming up, take a look at this. It is a monument showing the Ten Commandments and it stands outside the courthouse in Oklahoma, but a group of Satan worshipers want their own statue there as well. Can they do that? We'll talk about that.

Plus, a guy falls asleep on a plane, wakes up hours later trapped. You'll hear his story direct from him, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: During this recent bad weather, thousands of passengers are trapped alt the airport. But there's a one guy in Texas, he was trapped in his airplane, and weather had zip, zero, to do with this. Somehow, crews missed Tom Wagner, who was asleep when his ExpressJet flight landed in Houston for a layover.

He was traveling from Louisiana on his way to California when he woke up in just total darkness. He said it took him half an hour to get out after some employees happened to open the plane door just to do their work.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM WAGNER, PASSENGER STRANDED INSIDE PLANE: Well, I woke up and I happened to look up, and the lights were out. I was like, what's going on here? And then I was like, I looked down the aisles and nobody was there. I got up. I walked around, had to go to the bathroom, so I worked my way to the back, found it, and I called my girlfriend, Debbie.

I said, listen, you have to call the airlines. I'm locked in the plane. I get a lot of questions like didn't you feel it when you landed? And I was like, well, I work. I'm a captain on an off-shore -- for the oil field industry, and sleeping, like bouncing around is kind of the norm.

KATE BOLDUAN, ANCHOR, CNN'S "NEW DAY": What do you say to the gate agents?

WAGNER: Well, they were like, what are you doing on this plane? I said, I was a passenger and I woke up and I was locked in the plane. The workers came on first. They're the ones who found me. I was standing. I was going to open the door. I walked up towards the cockpit, the boarding door. I had my hand on the handle. I said, no, I better not do that.

And a couple minutes later, the other side door started opening up and the workers, the one worker came in and said who are you, what are you doing on this plane? I said, dude, I was a passenger on the plane. I fell asleep. I woke up.

BOLDUAN: They gave you a travel voucher. Is that enough? Will you be traveling with them ever again?

WAGNER: I'll travel back on my return flight to Louisiana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: How about that? Here's a response from the airline. Quote, "ExpressJet is investigating to determine how this occurred. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience that caused for the passenger," from ExpressJet.

Take a look at this monument now with me. This is back in 2009. Oklahoma gave a green light to erect this privately funded Ten Commandments monument. This is on state capitol grounds, but little did Oklahoma know that some three years later, they would be facing a pretty sticky precedent because of that. The question now is, can any privately funded religious group put up their own statute?

How about this group? Satanists, yes, a group of Satan worshipers now say they want their own statue right there smack dab next to the Ten Commandments on the steps of the state house. Joining me now, Daniel Burke, "Belief" blog co-editor, really, Satanists want this on the capitol grounds? Who is the group, and what would this monument look like? Let's start there.

DANIEL BURKE, CNN "BELIEF" BLOG CO-EDITOR: Sure, yes, so the group is less of like an organized group that does rituals and meets every Saturday or Sunday. And more like a group of political provocateurs. And they say their message is that, listen, America is a religiously diverse and pluralistic country and there should be more than just the Ten Commandments on any kind of state or government property.

And so that's their big argument. In terms of what going to the monument look like, it's really anybody's guess. They say they want it to be big and bold and at the same time, something that's interactive and that children can play with. So they're really, really going for it here. They are saying that --

BALDWIN: All right.

BURKE: -- yes, exactly, they're saying that Satanism is fun and they want kids to know that.

BALDWIN: OK. This is, you know, they have a right to say that. Let me ask you this. When will this be decided?

BURKE: Well, right now, it's going to a state commission that has jurisdiction over this and they have a variety of standards they go by. We're really at the beginning phases of it. The Satanist group, The Temple of Satan, is trying to raise money right now. They only have $50 out of $20,000 they're trying to raise, so really, really at the way beginning, probably going to be a pretty long court battle about this as well.

BALDWIN: We'll check in with you on the "Belief" blog and see if this thing goes anywhere, cnn.com/belief. Daniel Burke, thank you very much.

Coming up next, a story you will never forget. A young father who served in Iraq goes to buy something he saw on Craigslist. Wanted an iPad, but never made it home alive. We'll tell his story. We're on the case.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Time now for some of the hottest video of the day. We call it hit play.

Brawl in Brazil, a bloody riot between rival soccer fans breaks out. Several people critically injured. The game stopped for more than an hour as police shot rubber bullets into the crowds.

In Virginia Beach, a holiday parade comes to a halt when a float goes up in flames.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was really kind of crazy for just a few minutes. Looking for a little excitement and the black truck was pulling the float through Virginia Beach farm, I believe, all of a sudden, flames starting coming out of a plywood box in the bed of the truck.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Firefighters say a power generator is to blame.

Near Dallas, look at this, sheets of ice come crashing down from buildings and smashing onto cars. Amazingly, no one is hurt, just a lot of insurance claims.

Slip sliding away, the winter weather separating fair weather football fans from the real ones. As Mother Nature turned NFL stadiums into snow globes. In Philly, a full-blown blizzard. Conditions also making play interesting in Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Green Bay, and Washington and that's today's hit play.