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CNN Live At Daybreak
Talk with Actor Ron Silver and Comedian Ben Stein
Aired November 12, 2001 - 08:10 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get some first-hand views on Hollywood's war effort from actor Ron Silver and comedian Ben Stein who have dropped by this morning. Ben Stein, of course, host "Ben Stein's Money." He is in New York this morning (INAUDIBLE) Microsoft Encarta challenge. Is there a new game show in this for you?
BEN STEIN, HOST OF "BEN STEIN'S MONEY": There is a game show they're going to be promoting children using Encarta to do research projects, and it's a good thing to do.
ZAHN: (INAUDIBLE) from winning this challenge?
Stein: Sure. They get 50,000 plus a car. But actually it brings me to useful point, which is Microsoft has made this incredible online research material set of things. I see in "The New York Times" everyday a list of people who are killed - about 10 or 12 of them at the World Trade Center, very brief bios of them, it never fails to make me cry. And I'd like to see an online site about that.
All the people who were killed - I see it and Osama bin Laden says we weren't attacking individuals. We were attacking the icons and American capitalists and (INAUDIBLE). Well maybe so, but they killed 5,000 innocent men, women and children. I think we could do a huge service for this country and the world by having a site where people all of New York could go and see little bios of all the innocent people killed in this terrorist attack - see that it wasn't an attack on B-52s or Marines or special forces, but on women, children and innocent men, and that would be a huge contribution that Hollywood could make along with some giant Web company.
ZAHN: Yes let's - both of you have been in meetings, either with the White House or the film executives. Ron Silver, what does the White House want from Hollywood right now?
RON Silver, ACTOR: I think the - what they would like is just to share some ideas (INAUDIBLE) community of interests, we'll get together. I mean ...
ZAHN: What does that mean?
Silver: Well there's a parallel battle going on now beyond ...
(CROSSTALK)
Silver: I know that. I know that.
(CROSSTALK)
Silver: I was actually going to try to explain myself now. There's a battle for world (INAUDIBLE) going on that's not equally important as the military campaign, but it's very important to weave the actions of millions of Americans in pursuit of a larger national goal.
And this world opinion is very, very important domestically, to sustain our effort with a coherent consistent message and also in foreign ways to get our message out.
ZAHN: So do you do that ...
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: ... in film? Do you do ...
Silver: Well ...
(CROSSTALK)
Silver: Look your company is part of a tremendous local outreach in terms of entertainment, online, information, providing news. It's information - there's tremendous hardware that the entertainment industries have -- I - in some ways more than the government. News Corp has (INAUDIBLE) satellites that broadcast and have footprints in areas of the world that the government does not.
The government is functioning on via Way (ph) with a weak (INAUDIBLE) signal out of Cyprus. We're not reaching a lot of the populations in the world that we need to reach.
ZAHN: I see you nodding in agreement.
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: But this is a rare - a rare thing when you get the two of you ...
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: I know you're quite the (INAUDIBLE).
STEIN: But this - we have, as he said, a huge world out there to reach and it's possible for Hollywood along with people like CNN to reach the world and say this is what America is like. America is not a land of billionaires on the one hand and homeless on the other and everything else.
America is a land of very wonderful, kindhearted, generous, open- spirited people. America is a land of people who help everyone including Muslims; everyone in the world who stretched out his hand, America will answer with help. Let's have some stories about how good America is to the rest of the world and to the people here. I keep thinking to myself, stories like why we fight and Frank Capen (ph) made this great series in World War II called "Why Do We Fight" about how great America was and why we were pushed into the war. A series beamed to the (INAUDIBLE) but daily life in America's life and why it has to protect that way of life.
(CROSSTALK)
SILVER: If I may, it's not simply the content. Telling people that we're wonderful people, that we believe in this and that, it has to be consistent with our policies because a lot of people in the world see our policies as not consistent with our rhetoric - that our policies seem to undermine what we say we're about and what we want for them. So it's a very complicated business. It's going to take a long-term commitment.
ZAHN: Right, but I'm still not clear on exactly what is expected of you all. We're going to show some pictures now of those very effective posters that were created during Word War II. Is anybody from the White House ...
(CROSSTALK)
SILVER: Well a lot of things ...
(CROSSTALK)
SILVER: Well there can be PSAs done. We - our pop culture can reinforce sacrifice on the - on the homefront about ...
(CROSSTALK)
SILVER: World War II, it was very effective.
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: Comedy series on TV ...
SILVER: Well ...
(CROSSTALK)
SILVER: ... I don't know.
(CROSSTALK)
STEIN: Look it doesn't need to be that much sacrifice. In the cost of this war economically at this point is very, very low.
(CROSSTALK)
STEIN: (INAUDIBLE) what Hollywood can may do is show the rest of the world what America is. America is not what bin Laden says it is. America is not what the Hamas and (INAUDIBLE) is. America is a place that is a generous, charitable, kindhearted people wanting justice for everyone who has a legitimate cause. And Hollywood can show that by showing the kind of people Americans are. Americans are an extremely good people. They're the kindest people that God ever made. We can show that to the rest of the world (INAUDIBLE).
ZAHN: But look at what we go to see in the movie theaters every week and that's where I'm not clear on where you guys are taking this.
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: Because those kind of feel-good movies in the past haven't performed ...
(CROSSTALK)
SILVER: I'm not just talking about that. But what I am talking about is that we have to be very clear on what the objective is. Is it to sell America and what kind of people we are and what we're about and what we want for everyone or is it to foster some sort of mutual dialogue and respect, not mutually exclusive, but they are very different because quite often we will see a kid wearing a Madonna T- shirt with designer jeans, a Yankee baseball cap, and he's drinking a diet Pepsi and he's throwing a bomb at us.
So I mean selling products is one thing. Selling ideas or fostering a dialogue is something else, and I think people in our industry can be influential as contributing to that and play in getting out that story and fostering their dialogue.
(CROSSTALK)
STEIN: I don't think we need to sell any products. We're already selling plenty of products. We need to sell what America is. America is the greatest creation of man's mind (INAUDIBLE) ever been. We need to show that to the rest of the world that the ordinary American is a very wonderful person. Don't kill us.
ZAHN: Well I have faith that the two of you can try to further sell these images that I think really are ...
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: ... a part of the fabric of our society.
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: I salute the two of you, wish you luck. I'd love to have you come back by.
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: When you have more meetings with the White House and can better understand where this campaign is going.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're at your disposal.
ZAHN: Good luck with your new project.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.
ZAHN: You working on a movie now - new one, yes, in between projects?
(CROSSTALK)
SILVER: I'm involved with all this stuff right now. This is too important ...
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: Well that's the most important place to be. Thank you gentlemen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you ...
(CROSSTALK)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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