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CNN This Morning
Ticketmaster Debacle Hearing; DeSantis Defends Rejection of AP African American Studies; Cross-Country Storm Begins Today; Ten Minutes a Day to Help Your Brain. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired January 24, 2023 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[06:31:03]
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN THIS MORNING.
Coming up, hours from now, Congress will grill the head of Ticketmaster following the Taylor Swift ticket fiasco. What to expect on The Hill.
Plus, the culture war in Florida heating up once again. Why Governor Ron DeSantis is now defending blocking an advanced placement course on African American studies.
And a new study finds one type of physical activity protects the brain more than others. So, which exercises hurt and which ones help your brain?
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: I can't wait to see all those stories and talk about it. I think this -- Ron DeSantis next (ph) going to like ban (ph) James Baldwin? Like, what is - it's just ridiculous, but we'll talk.
HARLOW: We'll get into it.
LEMON: We'll get into it. There's lots to talk about.
Ticketmaster's grip on the entertainment industry facing increased scrutiny at a Senate hearing later this month. The committee's goal is to promote competition and protect consumers in the live entertainment market.
Serious issues came to light last year during a Taylor Swift ticket meltdown, ticket sales meltdown, that infuriated hundreds of thousands of fans.
Jason Carroll is here with a preview.
You don't want to tick off Swifties -
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, you don't.
LEMON: Or the Beehive (ph) or who else - CARROLL: No.
LEMON: The - what is Mariah Carey's - I don't know what -
CARROLL: Butterflies something.
LEMON: Some - yes, Butterflies.
CARROLL: I don't know. I don't know.
LEMON: You don't want to tick them off.
CARROLL: But, look, let's get to this.
LEMON: Yes.
CARROLL: I mean, look, this is going to be a public shaming.
LEMON: Yes.
CARROLL: No doubt about it. So, get ready for that.
But this isn't the first - first time that Ticketmaster has been taken to task for its business practices. And this time, though, so many people have spoken out about it. They're asking Congress to get in there and do something about it.
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TAYLOR SWIFT, MUSICIAN (singing): I'm just going to shake, shake, shake, shake, shake. Shake it off.
CARROLL (voice over): Scores of Taylor Swift fans still haven't shaken off the bitter feeling of being shut out of the pop star's upcoming tour this March.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ticketmaster takes the $490 out of my account, but it, like, crashed.
CARROLL All that ire directed at Ticketmaster, which bungled the pop star's ticket sales so badly last November it left thousands facing technical issues, such as canceled tickets, a crashing site and an artist beside herself over what fans endured to get tickets.
Swift tweeted, it really pisses me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them.
Some of those who did get them ended up paying thousands for resale tickets just to get a seat to see Swift.
Now, Ticketmaster is in the hot seat. Its parent company, Live Nation Entertainment's president and CEO, Joe Berchtold, will have to answer to a Senate Judiciary Committee about claims the Swift fallout is the result of anti-competitive conduct from a company with too much influence. SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): I've called for years for a change. And
maybe Taylor Swift fans will probably put it - will finally put it over the edge.
CARROLL: Berchtold is scheduled to testify Tuesday. Part of his planned testimony reads, in hindsight, there are several things we could have done better. We apologize to many disappointed fans, as well as to Ms. Swift. Anti-trust experts say the real issue before Congress is whether Live Nation Entertainment is a monopoly, something critics say was created in 2010 when Ticketmaster and Live Nation merged.
CLYDE LAWRENCE, SINGER/SONGWRITER (singing): I'm getting sick of the in between.
CARROLL: The Senate hearing welcomed news to singer Clyde Lawrence, who penned an op-ed in "The New York Times" following the Swift fiasco about what he called Live Nation's outsized influence on live music.
His 2021 song titled "False Alarms" included this lyric.
LAWRENCE: Live Nation's a monopoly.
CARROLL: Later today Lawrence will add his voice to those testifying in front of Congress.
LAWRENCE: At the end of the day, the fan isn't getting a big enough piece of the pie when you talk about the amount that a fan spends to go to a concert. That would be the kind of general point that we're driving home.
[06:35:03]
SWIFT (singing): I think it's time to teach some lessons.
CARROLL: While some industry insiders question how much one hearing is likely to change things, others say the Swift movement has already had an impact.
MORGAN HARPER, DIRECTOR OF POLICY AND ADVOCACY, AMERICAN ECONOMIC LIBERTIES PROJECT: This is going to be the first hearing that the Senate will be holding. And it shows that this is a priority issue for folks who are on the Judiciary Committee, and that they see that there are problems with the Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: It should also be noted that the Justice Department is also investigating Ticketmaster. A company that has control of some 70 percent - 70 percent of all major tickets that are sold to concert venues. Seventy percent.
HARLOW: I think it's interesting because there have been so many anti- trust concerns and probes and action on big tech companies, looking at Wall Street really carefully, but not really at this sector.
LEMON: I know, and like - like broadcasting, right? Like -
HARLOW: And broad - and telecoms.
LEMON: Telecoms, yes.
CARROLL: But, at the end of the day, through all these hearings, how much is actually done and how much change is actually done?
HARLOW: Yes, well, Swifties have power.
CARROLL: We'll see.
HARLOW: Just saying.
Thank you. Thanks. Great reporting, Jason, thanks.
CARROLL: You bet.
LEMON: Governor Ron DeSantis speaking out on why he is blocking an AP African American studies class from being taught in Florida high schools. Why he claims its agenda is on the wrong side of Florida standards.
What exactly does that mean?
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LEMON: So, live pictures you're looking at now of Miami, Florida, as the governor of that state, Ron DeSantis, defends his decision to block a new advanced placement course on African American studies in his state. He says that some of the lessons in the course go too far and are a violation of state law.
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GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): We want education, not indoctrination.
This course on black history, what are one -- what's one of the lessons about? Queer theory. Now, who would say that an important part of black history is queer theory? That is somebody pushing an agenda on our kids. And so when you look to see they have stuff about intersectionality, abolishing prisons, that's a political agenda. And so we're on -- that's the wrong side of the line for Florida standards.
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LEMON: The objections from the DeSantis administration center around the writings in the coursework associated with a number of topics, including black queer studies, as you heard there, as you heard from him in that sound bite right there, the movement for black lives and reparations as well.
Now, Florida, under DeSantis, banned instruction at schools that suggests anyone is privileged or oppressed based on their race or skin color. The college board is currently piloting the AP course at 60 schools across the country and plans to make it available nationwide.
Let's discuss now. CNN anchor and correspondent and host of the CNN podcast "THE ASSIGNMENT WITH AUDIE CORNISH," Audie Cornish is here.
Good morning to you.
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
LEMON: So, the CRT, now this. What is -- what's going on here?
CORNISH: Well, already I'm seeing some activists call this, "don't say black," like the idea that he's going to -- like the "don't say gay bill," that you can somehow draw lines in the classroom. And I think that's one of the most important things that he said, the idea that it's on our side, our standards, our side of the line.
What is that line? Who's going to draw it? And if Ron DeSantis runs for president, does he plan on drawing those lines nationwide, in classrooms nationwide? And I think that is a question for every voter, every person who's kind of watching what's going on in Florida. What does it mean when politicians think they can reach all the way into the classroom and tell people what is and what is not OK.
HARLOW: Could we just pull up, because it's not just, you know, he mentioned black course studies, but it's intersectionality and activism, it's the alignments of movement, you know, for black lives and Black Lives Matter, black feminist literary thought, the reparation movement, black study and black struggle in the 21st century. These are all things that they're objecting to in this course.
CORNISH: Yes. I mean, I think the reason why I don't want to engage on this subject matter is because I don't think Ron DeSantis is qualified to make those judgments. Every black movement, every political movement in this country is part of our history, and that includes the modern political movements, which is why this is being piloted in and advanced placement course for kids who are like willing to take on more challenging topics.
HARLOW: Yes, and they say that.
CORNISH: And I don't know where he wants to draw the line. Slavery was political at one point. Martin Luther King, obviously, as Republicans love to talk about, you know, every January, this was a political movement. And no one wanted to learn about that then either. If that's the kind of lineage he wants to join, you know, people who are saying, don't talk about the political thinking of marginalized groups, he's welcome to do it.
LEMON: So, slavery became illegal. Now it's going to be illegal to teach slavery in schools? It seems - it seems really (INAUDIBLE).
CORNISH: So, I mean, where is he going to drawing the line?
LEMON: Where do you draw the line?
CORNISH: Somewhere between abolition and now? I don't know where Ron DeSantis considers the history versus the now.
LEMON: Isn't education, though, all about critical thinking? I mean you just verbalized what I was thinking. Look, there's going to come a point where we are going to teach kids about the MAGA movement. That was uncomfortable for a lot of people. We're going to teach kids about the Oath Keeper. We're going to teach kids about what happened on January 6th. All of these things, that's going to be part of our history. And so are you going to ban that because it's not happy, because you don't like it, because it makes the MAGA movement look bad? Do you understand what I'm saying?
CORNISH: I mean when I was studying kind of the school board activism movement, of which DeSantis is very much the face of, you know, these are the exact conversations that have happened decade after decade, which is that people of the moment say we shouldn't be talking about x because it's too political.
[06:45:04]
Get it out of the classroom. And then a big fight ensues. Because what our kids learn really helps shape us as society. So, control over that is very high stakes. More high stakes than people give it credit for.
LEMON: When you look at this thing where it talks about black queer studies -
HARLOW: Yes.
LEMON: If you look - and the course of the civil rights movement, we knew that black queer people had a big part to do with that, if you look at Bayard Rustin, right, if you look at James Baldwin, right, they were black queer people who helped with the civil rights movement and were basically written out of it as - as Bayard Rustin was.
If you look at what happened with the gay movement, it was black queer people who helped to start the Stonewall --
CORNISH: And the trans movement, yes.
LEMON: And the trans movement. The Stonewall uprising and they got - they learned from the civil rights movement.
CORNISH: Yes.
LEMON: And so it's --
CORNISH: I mean I admire what you're doing because you're engaging him on the substance, which is not what he's doing.
LEMON: (INAUDIBLE).
CORNISH: He's using a, I would say, kind of like a culture wars patoi (ph). LEMON: Yes.
CORNISH: So, it's queer theory, that's bad, right? It's introduction (ph) sectionality (ph), that's bad. Black Lives Matter, that's bad. These are all the key words that are things that are, I guess, in the political parlance, red meat for a certain voter. And he's just trying to say, look at me. As he says in his speech, Florida is where woke goes to die. So anything that fits under that Rubrik, those -- those terms to fire people up is what you're going to hear.
And I think the question people are going to have for him is, OK, where do you stop? What's the next class or coursework?
HARLOW: And a federal judge - we've got to go, we'll have you back later - but a federal judge came in and blocked part of what became known at the Stop Woke Act, remember, about diversity training in workplaces. This is different because this wouldn't come under the purview of a judge.
CORNISH: Right.
HARLOW: This is, you know, so there's not a lot of recourse here.
CORNISH: But the journey is the destination. Showing he's fighting is how he's trying to show he's a political figure.
HARLOW: Sure. I'm just saying there's not a lot of recourse here if this gets blocked, you know.
LEMON: But it's also -- listen, I'm all for - I think parents should have some say in what their kids are taught, right, but he's going this far -- so far not to give parents even the opportunity or the option to be able to say, I would like for this.
CORNISH: Well, just wait till the student speak up.
LEMON: Right.
CORNISH: Because I don't want to get on the wrong size of gen-z.
LEMON: Yes.
CORNISH: And I think this is putting them on the path there.
LEMON: I think so.
HARLOW: Audie Cornish, thank you. We'll see you a little bit later in the show.
This morning, a multiday severe weather threat is beginning as a cross-country storm is said to bring snow, possibly tornadoes, from New Mexico all the way to Maine. Our meteorologist Chad Myers is joining us now.
Yikes, New Mexico to Maine. CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: All the way, even up into parts of
Ontario, Poppy. So, yes, severe weather to the south, rain to the north and then there's that heavy, heavy snow that's already beginning at this hour into parts of west Texas. Heavy rain showers across the hill country. But the big threat today will be south of there, along the Gulf Coast.
There is that swath of heavy snow. Winter storm warnings in effect right through here. And this is the area that will see potential for tornadoes. Those wintertime tornados. Right through this area again in the same areas. Not maybe as far north as we had a couple of tornadoes a couple of weeks ago, but this is going to be another storm that runs along the Gulf Coast, uses the Gulf of Mexico moisture and makes significant thunderstorms possible.
Even the potential for a little bit of light snow into New York City. Yes, the first possible chance for snow in New York City is coming for this year. Now, it's going to be warming up from where we are now, all the way up -- back up into the 40s. But enjoy a flurry or two, Poppy. I know you had some up in Vermont when you went skiing this weekend.
HARLOW: I went skiing in Vermont this weekend.
LEMON: I love that, what you -
MYERS: I know.
LEMON: Up on the screen. Is this your seven day? That's really cool. I like this.
HARLOW: Yes, looks good, Chad. We'll take the snow.
LEMON: Yes.
HARLOW: That's my perspective.
MYERS: Yes.
HARLOW: Thank you, friend.
LEMON: Thank you.
HARLOW: well, there's a new study out and it takes a looks at which daily activities are good for memory and problem-solves skills. What you can do to protect your brain, next.
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HARLOW: Do you have 10 minutes a day, just ten minutes, to help your brain? If not, you've got to find the time.
LEMON: I'd probably need more than 10 minutes.
HARLOW: A new study says with just ten minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity each day you might be protecting your brain, potentially having a big impact on things like memory and planning.
With us now, CNN medical correspondent Dr. Tara Narula.
Just ten minutes. We can do it.
DR. TARA NARULA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Just 10. Everyone can do this.
Yes so researchers wanted to understand what kind of activity in mid- life, that's my age, might help. And so they took 4,500 individuals in the U.K. They strapped an activity monitor on to their thigh. And they looked at, what did they do during the day. How much did they sleep? When were they active? When were they sedentary? And they basically then gave them a cognitive test and assessed their memory and executive functioning. And they found that if you shifted away from light activity or sedentary activity or sleep to moderate or vigorous activity, even by six to nine minutes, you improved your cognition. Both your memory and what we call executive function, your ability to plan, think, make decisions.
The converse was also true. If you shifted -- downshifted from moderate or vigorous activity towards more sleep, sedentary behavior or light activity by about 7 to 10 minutes, you lost about 1 to 2 percent of your cognitive ability.
Now, Don, you asked about sleep. They did not find an impact with the amount of time that you slept. You would think if I sleep more, maybe I improve my cognition, but they did not assess sleep quality, which we know is really important.
LEMON: That's my favorite pastime is sleeping. I love it.
So, psychological benefits?
NARULA: Psychological benefits, yes.
LEMON: There are psychological - OK, so are there limitations to this study?
NARULA: Yes, well, I mean, this was mostly a white population. They couldn't really rule out other health behaviors. So, maybe the people who were more moderately and vigorously active had other healthy behaviors that helped. but there is some physiologic reasoning behind why this might work. And they speculate that it could be increasing your cerebral profusion, or the blood flow to your brain. It could be -
HARLOW: Cerebral profusion.
NARULA: Profusion. That's a fancy word.
HARLOW: For you at 6:41.
LEMON: My brain can't even comprehend.
NARULA: Here's another one, neurogenesis, so, growing new nerves and growth factors in the brain. So there is some reason why this might have an impact.
[06:55:02]
And, actually, in my world of cardiovascular disease, we always really recommend moderate or vigorous activity for cardiovascular benefits.
LEMON: So even just walking, like moderate - like if you were walking briskly?
HARLOW: Don likes to walk.
NARULA: Brisk - moderate is brisk walking, brisk walking.
LEMON: I love to walk. I lost a ton of weight just by walking, not doing anything.
HARLOW: All right.
NARULA: And intermittent fasting.
HARLOW: Doesn't he look good?
NARULA: I know.
HARLOW: Am I allowed to say that?
NARULA: He's the picture of health.
HARLOW: You look good.
LEMON: (INAUDIBLE) very interesting.
HARLOW: And your brain -- your brain's good, too.
LEMON: Yes.
NARULA: Yes.
HARLOW: Thanks, Doc.
NARULA: Thank you.
LEMON: Thank you, Doctor. I appreciate it.
California reeling after another mass shooting in three days leaves seven dead. The latest on the tragic attack straight ahead.
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VICE MAYOR JOAQUIN JIMENEZ, HALF MOON BAY, CALIFORNIA: This is something the - we get to watch on the news.
