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Live From...
Marlon Brando's Sudden Death Brings Out Many Memories; Is Bill Cosby Right?
Aired July 02, 2004 - 14:30 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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to the CNN Center in Atlanta. This is LIVE FROM...
I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kyra Phillips.
Here's what's all new this half hour.
Cosby's critical comments about African-Americans -- are they fair? In just a few moments we're going to take some of your e-mails and talk about his tough talk.
WHITFIELD: And healthy hospitals -- which ones give you the best care? New rankings are out today.
But first, here are the top stories.
The accolades are pouring in for a performer many say revolutionized the art of acting. Marlon Brando has died at the age of 80. We'll have more on his life and career later on in this hour.
Freed from captivity in Iraq, two Turkish hostages were released early today after their employer reportedly promised to stop doing business with the U.S. military in Iraq.
And separately, a Pakistani driver for a subsidiary of Halliburton was also released. He is now safely in Kuwait.
A reminder this 4th of July to stay on the lookout for possible terrorist activity. The FBI included the warning in its weekly bulletin to state and local law enforcement agencies. Authorities say there is no specific threat, but they warn America remains on al Qaeda's hit list.
The Pentagon is concerned Westerners could be targeted by terrorists in the Persian Gulf. CNN has learned Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is considering sending family members of U.S. military personnel home from Bahrain. Sources say there has been no specific threat, just intelligence that Western interests in that country may be targeted.
PHILLIPS: Marlon Brando is being remembered by many people today, including our own Larry King. He is a lifelong friend of the late actor. Today, King said that Brando could be removed and aloof, but he was also the warmest and funniest and what a great actor. Brando made a famous appearance on "LARRY KING LIVE" 10 years ago. Here are some of those highlights, including quite an unforgettable moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE")
LARRY KING, HOST: Fascinating. Let's say you get a role, it's "The Godfather." You're not a Mafia kingpin.
MARLON BRANDO, ACTOR: Yes, I am. So are you.
KING: No, no. You're not a Mafia.
BRANDO: Yes.
Well, as a matter of fact, I'm not. But there isn't anything that you are or that you feel or that you have that I don't feel or that I don't have.
KING: You can bring it into someone.
BRANDO: You can ask an actor, well, here, this is what you get. You get hit with a crowbar in the head and you get a brain concussion and you're laying there and you're mumbling, I mumble anyway, but...
KING: OK. You're saying anyone can do that? No.
BRANDO: Nobody can die, so you have to pretend you're dying.
KING: OK. Are you saying when you are "The Godfather" you're pretending?
BRANDO: Sure. I'm pretending.
KING: But you're...
BRANDO: We're going to get lost in vocabulary very quickly.
KING: No. We're learning what you're doing. What do you do? You read the script, you like it.
(CROSSTALK)
BRANDO: I usually read the script and hate it.
KING: You usually hate it. But you didn't hate "The Godfather," right?
BRANDO: No. I wasn't sure that I could do it and Francis, fortunately, asked me if I would do a...
KING: Test?
BRANDO: Yes, a test, which -- I would never play a part that I couldn't do.
KING & BRANDO (singing): Got a date with an angel.
BRANDO: You're off key.
KING & BRANDO (singing): Got to be there at 7. Got a date with an angel and I'm on my way to Heaven. Got an angel beside me, got a date with an angel and I'm on my way to Heaven.
KING: Goodbye.
BRANDO: Goodbye.
(END VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE")
PHILLIPS: CNN's Larry King will dedicate his show to the late great tonight. Be sure to tune in at 9:00 Eastern, 6:00 Pacific for remembering Marlon Brando.
WHITFIELD: Sadness for Marlon Brando, but it is fear that remains the overriding emotion in parts of war-torn Sudan. Terrified villagers are telling U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan stories of attacks by militia forces, but Sudanese officials say the crisis is being overblown.
CNN's Jeff Koinange reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan trying to see for himself the conditions in the refugee camps of Sudan's strife-torn western Darfur region. There was no hiding.
The desperate refugees pleading with the U.S. top man to protect them from what many believe is a government-sponsored militia, the Janjaweed, they say have been raping, murdering and pillaging villages at will. They are a small band of former Arab tribesmen now shockingly well armed and continuing their rampage against Sudan's native black population.
Annan did his best to convince these people that help is at hand, but many here still aren't ready to go back to their villages.
"I would rather stay here and get free food and shelter like a beggar than go back and die," this man says.
Annan's visit followed a similar trip by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell the day before, but it's too soon to tell just how significant the presence of two of the world's top diplomats will have on Africa's latest trouble spot.
But even critics here admit it offers the best hope yet for what many are calling the world's worst looming humanitarian catastrophe.
(on camera): From Sudan, the secretary general flies to neighboring Ethiopia, where he is expected to address the annual summit of the African Union and press for more peace-keepers in strife-torn Darfur, thereby sending a direct message to the Sudanese government that if it can't reign in the dreaded Janjaweed militia, then that role may end up in the hands of African troops.
Jeff Koinange, CNN, Khartoum, Sudan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Well, a teenager made a quadriplegic by a gunshot wound now wants to buy a gun manufacturing company.
PHILLIPS: He's got a plan to save other children though. You won't want to miss this.
We're also taking your e-mail today about Bill Cosby's latest comments. Words of wisdom or old news?
WHITFIELD: E-mail us now at livefrom@cnn.com. We'll read some of them in just a few minutes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: In health news, a cut above the rest. "U.S. News" is out with its list of the nation's best hospitals.
CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now with more.
I have to tell you, this is something, and not until you're in the hospital or somebody else is that you really love do you really pay attention to this stuff.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely.
You never think about this otherwise. It's when you're in there or somebody else is in there you think, gosh, I really wish I knew how to navigate this place or maybe I should have chosen another place.
But let's talk about what makes a best hospital. This is the "U.S. News & World Report" list.
One of the criteria they use -- not surprising -- death rates. They liked hospitals that didn't kill their patients. Another criteria they used, a hospital that has some of the best technology and has a good nurse to patient ratio.
So let's talk about what some of these top five hospitals are.
Here is the list: John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, No. 1 -- not a huge surprise -- Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, Mass. General out of Boston, the Cleveland Clinic, and UCLA Medical Center.
And let's look at some of the specialities, because "U.S. News & World Report" also listed them by specialty.
For heart and heart surgery they said go to the Cleveland Clinic. For cancer, MD Anderson (ph) in Houston. For hormonal disorders, which includes diabetes, the Mayo Clinic once again. Urology, Johns Hopkins again, Baltimore. And for pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Now "U.S. News" has been doing this list for quite some time. But for the first time this year, they decided to include in the ranking how well the hospital does at attracting the best and the brightest nurses. Because, Kyra, again, if you've ever been in a hospital you know it's not just the doctors, it's the nurses who sometimes are really the ones who matter.
PHILLIPS: They're doing so much of the work. I'll attest to that one.
So if you don't live near any of these hospitals, it's not convenient, how do you pick a hospital then?
COHEN: There's a lot of other hospitals on the "U.S. News" list, You can go to their Web site and they can help you out there.
And here are some other guidelines for choosing a hospital. First of all, make sure it's accredited by JCAHO. That's an acronym for that accredits these. And they have a Web site that can talk to you about accreditation.
And another one, can your doctor admit you there? It's important. You might like your doctor, but can he admit you to the hospital that you want to go to?
Another one, does your health plan cover your stay? In other words, who's paying for all of this? And is the hospital experienced and successful at treating your illness?
And that JCAHO site can talk about -- they break it down by specialty to see how many procedures your hospital has done, how successful they've been, that sort of thing.
PHILLIPS: What if you think they haven't been successful and you might be upset with what happened there? I mean can you complain? Where do you go for patients right?
COHEN: Right, it can be difficult when you're in the middle of a hospital stay, no matter how good the hospital is, and you feel they haven't done a great job.
So one thing you can do is that many hospitals these days have what is called a patient advocate. That is someone where their job is to take your phone calls from within the hospital. They say hey, something's not going quite right and to listen to you.
And another thing, and this sound pretty obvious, take someone with you. Have someone with you in the hospital because having your own advocate is sometimes the best thing. I mean, I know just from personal experience that having someone who can go to that nurse's station and say, hey, you know what, something hasn't gone quite right here is very important.
PHILLIPS: You know what? You hit it because I had to be an advocate for my grandfather and I was in there every single day. So I agree with you, totally.
Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much.
COHEN: Thanks.
PHILLIPS: All right -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: A California teen paralyzed from the neck down after a shooting a decade ago turns his sights on the company that made the gun. His goal, to buy the firm. CNN's Miguel Marquez explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRANDON MAXFIELD, SHOOTING VICTIM: I used to play baseball all the time. I wanted to be a baseball player when I grew up.
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A little more than 10 years ago, a bullet, accidentally fired. turned then-7-year- old Brandon Maxfield from an aspiring ballplayer into a quadriplegic.
MAXFIELD: What happened to me is the past. There's nothing I can do about that. What matters is the future.
MARQUEZ: The future, says Maxfield, is to buy the now-defunct Bryco Arms and turn it into Brandon Arms. Maxfield would become the owner of the company that made the very pistol, a .380 semiautomatic, that discharged a bullet into his chin. Last year, in a suit against Bryco and its owner, Bruce Jennings, a jury found that the design of the safety device was defective and partially responsible for his injuries.
MAXFIELD: By the time I'm done I want this, that whole company to be leveled.
MARQUEZ: Maxfield says he wants to take the remaining 75,600 gun frames and parts in Bryco's Southern California warehouse and destroy them all.
MAXFIELD: Buy the company, and melt down the guns, get them off the streets.
RICHARD RUGGIERI, MAXFIELD'S LAWYER: It's empty. It's stopped working.
MARQUEZ: The problem, says Maxfield's lawyer, is that everything is tied up in the courts. Bryco went bankrupt the day after it lost a $24 million lawsuit. Less than $9 million has been paid, and Maxfield's lawyer estimates his client's lifetime medical bills will be around $11 million.
So Brandon Maxfield is now raising money to buy Bryco in bankruptcy court, hoping to outbid Bryco's former plant manager's offer of $150,000.
RUGGIERI: Our intention is to bid for the assets, to have the machinery and other assets that can be put into useful production sold off.
MARQUEZ (on camera): The court is only deciding who will buy the company, not whether it will manufacture guns. Ruggieri says if Bryco's former plant manager wins the bid, the company will be back in the gun making business. The plant manager didn't return our calls, and the company's former owner says he's contesting the award to the 17-year-old high school senior.
Miguel Marquez, CNN, San Francisco.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: We're taking your e-mails on Bill Cosby's latest comments calling on African-Americans to take more responsibility for their lives and their children's lives. We'll read your e-mails straight ahead. Our address is livefrom@cnn.com.
PHILLIPS: E-mail, vending machines, e-tickets. Hey, are we turning too much into an automated society?
And later, you have to play to win the $200 million jackpot up for grabs.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: More on entertainer Bill Cosby now and his latest thought provoking comments about African-Americans. The comedian issued both criticisms and challenges for blacks while in Chicago yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL COSBY, ENTERTAINER: We're going to call each other names of ugliness. Comedians coming on TV. "My mother's is so ugly, you're ugly. Yuck, yuck."
That's all minstrel show stuff. I'm tired of this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Well not everyone believes Cosby's comments are new or controversial. Radio talk show host Lincoln Ware of WBDZ in Cincinnati has been gauging opinions on the air all morning. And he's also here to respond to some e-mails we've been taking in from many of you viewers throughout the day. Good to see you, Lincoln.
LINCOLN WARE, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Good to see you.
WHITFIELD: All right, well Bill Cosby's comments, did he just say what many people have been thinking and talking about, perhaps, in more private quarters, and the shock and alarm among some is coming because it's coming from a very public figure in a very public forum?
WARE: Yes, well, when you're Bill Cosby, you walk the walk and now it's time to talk the talk. And, you know, when you're a guy as popular as Cosby, you've got the money that Cosby's got, you can say things like that and get away with it.
For the most part my callers -- most of my callers agree with what Bill Cosby said. I agree with what Bill Cosby said because it doesn't apply to me. The people who disagree with Bill Cosby are the people he's talking about.
WHITFIELD: So, did you get a sense from some of your listeners that there was a feeling of, well, it's about time somebody said it publicly because it's something that we have been thinking and feeling all along?
WARE: Yes, definitely. And we do need work done in the black community. That's true.
But when Bill Cosby says it, a lot of people think that when the white America listens to Bill Cosby, they think it's all blacks that he's talking about. And that's where a lot of people have a lot of problems with the fact that he said that your dirty laundry gets out of school at 2:30.
Now if you're white America, you're listening to that and thinking all blacks' dirty laundry gets out of school at 2:30. So I think that's the main problem a lot of the blacks have with -- when Bill Cosby speaks out and he's chastising the black community, it's not everybody in the black community.
WHITFIELD: Congressman John Lewis was on this program in the last hour really talking about the 40th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. But he said, just off camera, his comments were, you know what, this was a wake-up call and he thought it was the right time, it was the right form, it was the right person to make these kind of comments.
So, is it your feeling that among some of your listeners, you describe some of those who are very much against what he said that there really is a generational gap here, too, this message hits home with some in a segment of a generation or two out there and it really goes over the head of a few others?
WARE: Right, it hits home. I see it every day. I can drive down the street when school is out and see these kids that Bill Cosby is talking about. I can hear the N-word thrown around like it is a part of their vocabulary in which it probably is for most of them. So I see what Bill Cosby is talking about.
WHITFIELD: He's curt and he's straight to the point. Let's run a segment of his comments, just moments -- we've been running it all morning. But let's listen to it one more time where he really spells out the state of black Americans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COSBY: We don't have time to argue about who's right and who's wrong. We've got too many children in prison, children in prison. We've got too many young girls who don't know how to parent turning themselves into parents. Ladies and gentlemen, our little 8-year-old boys, 9-year-old boys having erections and only acting out that which they see and hear on some CD. They're acting that out. And they don't know the damage that they're doing when they rape some little girl 9 years old and what they've done to her whole life. It's time to stop it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Lincoln, he cuts to the chase. Did you get a sense that his message is more, here's a challenge, this is what you parents need to do, young people, this is what you need to do, and less of this is strictly a moment of berating or criticizing?
WARE: Right. He's telling you, this is what you need to do. He hit home when he talked about how many young people are in jail. Just last week we have a 14-year-old here in Cincinnati that has been charged with two murders. A 14-year-old charged with two murders. It's got to end. I drive down the street, you see young girls pushing strollers. I want to believe it's their little baby brother or baby sister, but, no, it's their kid. So, he hits home.
WHITFIELD: All right, another comment from Cosby on parenting advice. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COSBY: Please, stop it. Stop your cursing. We want to ask the parent, stop yanking that child.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: All right, Lincoln.
WARE: Once, again, I could be in a grocery store and I could hear parents yelling, cursing at kids like they would curse at an adult. What's this kid to get from this? I mean, he's right on point on everything that he's saying.
WHITFIELD: All right. Let's evaluate some of the e-mail that we've been receiving all afternoon now. This from Carl (ph) in Inglewood, California, who writes: "As a black American, I think it's about time that someone of Mr. Cosby's stature spoke out against black degradation. Many responsible people support his words. I believe we are the silent majority."
And Rusty (ph) in San Francisco, California, writes: "Mr. Cosby said what a lot of people have wanted to say for a long time. But the fear of being labeled either unfair or racist has kept many from speaking out." He said a lot of -- this chimes in with what your listeners have been telling you all morning.
WARE: Well, yes. But I don't want anyone from the white community telling me this, which you get a lot of right wingers, you know, you get those conservative Republicans. They're good at saying exactly what Cosby says and they love it. I don't want these guys telling me that. If Cosby says it, OK. But, you know...
WHITFIELD: It's quite simply because the message would not be received the same way.
WARE: Right. Oh yes. It would be received as being racist, yes.
WHITFIELD: All right, Kellan (ph)...
WARE: That e-mail is absolutely right.
WHITFIELD: Kellan writes: "I don't understand why Bill Cosby is so negative in regards to the hip-hop community when he allowed Fubu, an urban hip-hop clothing line, the usage of his 'Fat Albert' characters. Bill Cosby has profited graciously off the very culture that is being blamed for the cultural state of our youth today."
So not everyone is in agreement with what he has to say.
WARE: And the person who wrote that e-mail has some valid points. I don't know -- were the Cosby Kids really good kids? Fat Albert was this -- you know, and some of the language they used, you know, they used a little, you know, Ebonics every now and then. So the person wrote that e-mail may hit the nail on the head.
WHITFIELD: So Lincoln Ware, as we wrap it up, where do we go from here? What is the best advice that you see or the next step to be taken after America has heard these comments from Bill Cosby?
WARE: Could you repeat that again? I lost my...
WHITFIELD: Where do you see us going from here? What's the next step, what is your next advice that you would give after people try to now digest all of these comments that have come from Bill Cosby?
WARE: Well, the people who need to hear what Cosby is saying, are they listening to Cosby? Do they hear what he's saying? I don't think so. The people that you're trying to reach, he's going to have to go out on the street corner and he's going to have to go right into the hood to talk to people for them to hear his message. Speaking to the Rainbow Coalition, you know, during their convention, the people he needs to reach are not going to hear his message. The people who need to hear it. They are not watching CNN now. They're probably watching BET, watching the videos of them shaking their rumps and everything.
WHITFIELD: All right, Lincoln Ware, WBDZ of Cincinnati, keeping it real yourself as well. All right. Appreciate your candid comments this afternoon.
WARE: All right.
WHITFIELD: All right, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Got to love Lincoln.
(MARKET REPORT)
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Aired July 2, 2004 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to the CNN Center in Atlanta. This is LIVE FROM...
I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kyra Phillips.
Here's what's all new this half hour.
Cosby's critical comments about African-Americans -- are they fair? In just a few moments we're going to take some of your e-mails and talk about his tough talk.
WHITFIELD: And healthy hospitals -- which ones give you the best care? New rankings are out today.
But first, here are the top stories.
The accolades are pouring in for a performer many say revolutionized the art of acting. Marlon Brando has died at the age of 80. We'll have more on his life and career later on in this hour.
Freed from captivity in Iraq, two Turkish hostages were released early today after their employer reportedly promised to stop doing business with the U.S. military in Iraq.
And separately, a Pakistani driver for a subsidiary of Halliburton was also released. He is now safely in Kuwait.
A reminder this 4th of July to stay on the lookout for possible terrorist activity. The FBI included the warning in its weekly bulletin to state and local law enforcement agencies. Authorities say there is no specific threat, but they warn America remains on al Qaeda's hit list.
The Pentagon is concerned Westerners could be targeted by terrorists in the Persian Gulf. CNN has learned Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is considering sending family members of U.S. military personnel home from Bahrain. Sources say there has been no specific threat, just intelligence that Western interests in that country may be targeted.
PHILLIPS: Marlon Brando is being remembered by many people today, including our own Larry King. He is a lifelong friend of the late actor. Today, King said that Brando could be removed and aloof, but he was also the warmest and funniest and what a great actor. Brando made a famous appearance on "LARRY KING LIVE" 10 years ago. Here are some of those highlights, including quite an unforgettable moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE")
LARRY KING, HOST: Fascinating. Let's say you get a role, it's "The Godfather." You're not a Mafia kingpin.
MARLON BRANDO, ACTOR: Yes, I am. So are you.
KING: No, no. You're not a Mafia.
BRANDO: Yes.
Well, as a matter of fact, I'm not. But there isn't anything that you are or that you feel or that you have that I don't feel or that I don't have.
KING: You can bring it into someone.
BRANDO: You can ask an actor, well, here, this is what you get. You get hit with a crowbar in the head and you get a brain concussion and you're laying there and you're mumbling, I mumble anyway, but...
KING: OK. You're saying anyone can do that? No.
BRANDO: Nobody can die, so you have to pretend you're dying.
KING: OK. Are you saying when you are "The Godfather" you're pretending?
BRANDO: Sure. I'm pretending.
KING: But you're...
BRANDO: We're going to get lost in vocabulary very quickly.
KING: No. We're learning what you're doing. What do you do? You read the script, you like it.
(CROSSTALK)
BRANDO: I usually read the script and hate it.
KING: You usually hate it. But you didn't hate "The Godfather," right?
BRANDO: No. I wasn't sure that I could do it and Francis, fortunately, asked me if I would do a...
KING: Test?
BRANDO: Yes, a test, which -- I would never play a part that I couldn't do.
KING & BRANDO (singing): Got a date with an angel.
BRANDO: You're off key.
KING & BRANDO (singing): Got to be there at 7. Got a date with an angel and I'm on my way to Heaven. Got an angel beside me, got a date with an angel and I'm on my way to Heaven.
KING: Goodbye.
BRANDO: Goodbye.
(END VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE")
PHILLIPS: CNN's Larry King will dedicate his show to the late great tonight. Be sure to tune in at 9:00 Eastern, 6:00 Pacific for remembering Marlon Brando.
WHITFIELD: Sadness for Marlon Brando, but it is fear that remains the overriding emotion in parts of war-torn Sudan. Terrified villagers are telling U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan stories of attacks by militia forces, but Sudanese officials say the crisis is being overblown.
CNN's Jeff Koinange reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan trying to see for himself the conditions in the refugee camps of Sudan's strife-torn western Darfur region. There was no hiding.
The desperate refugees pleading with the U.S. top man to protect them from what many believe is a government-sponsored militia, the Janjaweed, they say have been raping, murdering and pillaging villages at will. They are a small band of former Arab tribesmen now shockingly well armed and continuing their rampage against Sudan's native black population.
Annan did his best to convince these people that help is at hand, but many here still aren't ready to go back to their villages.
"I would rather stay here and get free food and shelter like a beggar than go back and die," this man says.
Annan's visit followed a similar trip by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell the day before, but it's too soon to tell just how significant the presence of two of the world's top diplomats will have on Africa's latest trouble spot.
But even critics here admit it offers the best hope yet for what many are calling the world's worst looming humanitarian catastrophe.
(on camera): From Sudan, the secretary general flies to neighboring Ethiopia, where he is expected to address the annual summit of the African Union and press for more peace-keepers in strife-torn Darfur, thereby sending a direct message to the Sudanese government that if it can't reign in the dreaded Janjaweed militia, then that role may end up in the hands of African troops.
Jeff Koinange, CNN, Khartoum, Sudan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Well, a teenager made a quadriplegic by a gunshot wound now wants to buy a gun manufacturing company.
PHILLIPS: He's got a plan to save other children though. You won't want to miss this.
We're also taking your e-mail today about Bill Cosby's latest comments. Words of wisdom or old news?
WHITFIELD: E-mail us now at livefrom@cnn.com. We'll read some of them in just a few minutes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: In health news, a cut above the rest. "U.S. News" is out with its list of the nation's best hospitals.
CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now with more.
I have to tell you, this is something, and not until you're in the hospital or somebody else is that you really love do you really pay attention to this stuff.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely.
You never think about this otherwise. It's when you're in there or somebody else is in there you think, gosh, I really wish I knew how to navigate this place or maybe I should have chosen another place.
But let's talk about what makes a best hospital. This is the "U.S. News & World Report" list.
One of the criteria they use -- not surprising -- death rates. They liked hospitals that didn't kill their patients. Another criteria they used, a hospital that has some of the best technology and has a good nurse to patient ratio.
So let's talk about what some of these top five hospitals are.
Here is the list: John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, No. 1 -- not a huge surprise -- Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, Mass. General out of Boston, the Cleveland Clinic, and UCLA Medical Center.
And let's look at some of the specialities, because "U.S. News & World Report" also listed them by specialty.
For heart and heart surgery they said go to the Cleveland Clinic. For cancer, MD Anderson (ph) in Houston. For hormonal disorders, which includes diabetes, the Mayo Clinic once again. Urology, Johns Hopkins again, Baltimore. And for pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Now "U.S. News" has been doing this list for quite some time. But for the first time this year, they decided to include in the ranking how well the hospital does at attracting the best and the brightest nurses. Because, Kyra, again, if you've ever been in a hospital you know it's not just the doctors, it's the nurses who sometimes are really the ones who matter.
PHILLIPS: They're doing so much of the work. I'll attest to that one.
So if you don't live near any of these hospitals, it's not convenient, how do you pick a hospital then?
COHEN: There's a lot of other hospitals on the "U.S. News" list, You can go to their Web site and they can help you out there.
And here are some other guidelines for choosing a hospital. First of all, make sure it's accredited by JCAHO. That's an acronym for that accredits these. And they have a Web site that can talk to you about accreditation.
And another one, can your doctor admit you there? It's important. You might like your doctor, but can he admit you to the hospital that you want to go to?
Another one, does your health plan cover your stay? In other words, who's paying for all of this? And is the hospital experienced and successful at treating your illness?
And that JCAHO site can talk about -- they break it down by specialty to see how many procedures your hospital has done, how successful they've been, that sort of thing.
PHILLIPS: What if you think they haven't been successful and you might be upset with what happened there? I mean can you complain? Where do you go for patients right?
COHEN: Right, it can be difficult when you're in the middle of a hospital stay, no matter how good the hospital is, and you feel they haven't done a great job.
So one thing you can do is that many hospitals these days have what is called a patient advocate. That is someone where their job is to take your phone calls from within the hospital. They say hey, something's not going quite right and to listen to you.
And another thing, and this sound pretty obvious, take someone with you. Have someone with you in the hospital because having your own advocate is sometimes the best thing. I mean, I know just from personal experience that having someone who can go to that nurse's station and say, hey, you know what, something hasn't gone quite right here is very important.
PHILLIPS: You know what? You hit it because I had to be an advocate for my grandfather and I was in there every single day. So I agree with you, totally.
Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much.
COHEN: Thanks.
PHILLIPS: All right -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: A California teen paralyzed from the neck down after a shooting a decade ago turns his sights on the company that made the gun. His goal, to buy the firm. CNN's Miguel Marquez explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRANDON MAXFIELD, SHOOTING VICTIM: I used to play baseball all the time. I wanted to be a baseball player when I grew up.
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A little more than 10 years ago, a bullet, accidentally fired. turned then-7-year- old Brandon Maxfield from an aspiring ballplayer into a quadriplegic.
MAXFIELD: What happened to me is the past. There's nothing I can do about that. What matters is the future.
MARQUEZ: The future, says Maxfield, is to buy the now-defunct Bryco Arms and turn it into Brandon Arms. Maxfield would become the owner of the company that made the very pistol, a .380 semiautomatic, that discharged a bullet into his chin. Last year, in a suit against Bryco and its owner, Bruce Jennings, a jury found that the design of the safety device was defective and partially responsible for his injuries.
MAXFIELD: By the time I'm done I want this, that whole company to be leveled.
MARQUEZ: Maxfield says he wants to take the remaining 75,600 gun frames and parts in Bryco's Southern California warehouse and destroy them all.
MAXFIELD: Buy the company, and melt down the guns, get them off the streets.
RICHARD RUGGIERI, MAXFIELD'S LAWYER: It's empty. It's stopped working.
MARQUEZ: The problem, says Maxfield's lawyer, is that everything is tied up in the courts. Bryco went bankrupt the day after it lost a $24 million lawsuit. Less than $9 million has been paid, and Maxfield's lawyer estimates his client's lifetime medical bills will be around $11 million.
So Brandon Maxfield is now raising money to buy Bryco in bankruptcy court, hoping to outbid Bryco's former plant manager's offer of $150,000.
RUGGIERI: Our intention is to bid for the assets, to have the machinery and other assets that can be put into useful production sold off.
MARQUEZ (on camera): The court is only deciding who will buy the company, not whether it will manufacture guns. Ruggieri says if Bryco's former plant manager wins the bid, the company will be back in the gun making business. The plant manager didn't return our calls, and the company's former owner says he's contesting the award to the 17-year-old high school senior.
Miguel Marquez, CNN, San Francisco.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: We're taking your e-mails on Bill Cosby's latest comments calling on African-Americans to take more responsibility for their lives and their children's lives. We'll read your e-mails straight ahead. Our address is livefrom@cnn.com.
PHILLIPS: E-mail, vending machines, e-tickets. Hey, are we turning too much into an automated society?
And later, you have to play to win the $200 million jackpot up for grabs.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: More on entertainer Bill Cosby now and his latest thought provoking comments about African-Americans. The comedian issued both criticisms and challenges for blacks while in Chicago yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL COSBY, ENTERTAINER: We're going to call each other names of ugliness. Comedians coming on TV. "My mother's is so ugly, you're ugly. Yuck, yuck."
That's all minstrel show stuff. I'm tired of this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Well not everyone believes Cosby's comments are new or controversial. Radio talk show host Lincoln Ware of WBDZ in Cincinnati has been gauging opinions on the air all morning. And he's also here to respond to some e-mails we've been taking in from many of you viewers throughout the day. Good to see you, Lincoln.
LINCOLN WARE, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Good to see you.
WHITFIELD: All right, well Bill Cosby's comments, did he just say what many people have been thinking and talking about, perhaps, in more private quarters, and the shock and alarm among some is coming because it's coming from a very public figure in a very public forum?
WARE: Yes, well, when you're Bill Cosby, you walk the walk and now it's time to talk the talk. And, you know, when you're a guy as popular as Cosby, you've got the money that Cosby's got, you can say things like that and get away with it.
For the most part my callers -- most of my callers agree with what Bill Cosby said. I agree with what Bill Cosby said because it doesn't apply to me. The people who disagree with Bill Cosby are the people he's talking about.
WHITFIELD: So, did you get a sense from some of your listeners that there was a feeling of, well, it's about time somebody said it publicly because it's something that we have been thinking and feeling all along?
WARE: Yes, definitely. And we do need work done in the black community. That's true.
But when Bill Cosby says it, a lot of people think that when the white America listens to Bill Cosby, they think it's all blacks that he's talking about. And that's where a lot of people have a lot of problems with the fact that he said that your dirty laundry gets out of school at 2:30.
Now if you're white America, you're listening to that and thinking all blacks' dirty laundry gets out of school at 2:30. So I think that's the main problem a lot of the blacks have with -- when Bill Cosby speaks out and he's chastising the black community, it's not everybody in the black community.
WHITFIELD: Congressman John Lewis was on this program in the last hour really talking about the 40th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. But he said, just off camera, his comments were, you know what, this was a wake-up call and he thought it was the right time, it was the right form, it was the right person to make these kind of comments.
So, is it your feeling that among some of your listeners, you describe some of those who are very much against what he said that there really is a generational gap here, too, this message hits home with some in a segment of a generation or two out there and it really goes over the head of a few others?
WARE: Right, it hits home. I see it every day. I can drive down the street when school is out and see these kids that Bill Cosby is talking about. I can hear the N-word thrown around like it is a part of their vocabulary in which it probably is for most of them. So I see what Bill Cosby is talking about.
WHITFIELD: He's curt and he's straight to the point. Let's run a segment of his comments, just moments -- we've been running it all morning. But let's listen to it one more time where he really spells out the state of black Americans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COSBY: We don't have time to argue about who's right and who's wrong. We've got too many children in prison, children in prison. We've got too many young girls who don't know how to parent turning themselves into parents. Ladies and gentlemen, our little 8-year-old boys, 9-year-old boys having erections and only acting out that which they see and hear on some CD. They're acting that out. And they don't know the damage that they're doing when they rape some little girl 9 years old and what they've done to her whole life. It's time to stop it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Lincoln, he cuts to the chase. Did you get a sense that his message is more, here's a challenge, this is what you parents need to do, young people, this is what you need to do, and less of this is strictly a moment of berating or criticizing?
WARE: Right. He's telling you, this is what you need to do. He hit home when he talked about how many young people are in jail. Just last week we have a 14-year-old here in Cincinnati that has been charged with two murders. A 14-year-old charged with two murders. It's got to end. I drive down the street, you see young girls pushing strollers. I want to believe it's their little baby brother or baby sister, but, no, it's their kid. So, he hits home.
WHITFIELD: All right, another comment from Cosby on parenting advice. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COSBY: Please, stop it. Stop your cursing. We want to ask the parent, stop yanking that child.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: All right, Lincoln.
WARE: Once, again, I could be in a grocery store and I could hear parents yelling, cursing at kids like they would curse at an adult. What's this kid to get from this? I mean, he's right on point on everything that he's saying.
WHITFIELD: All right. Let's evaluate some of the e-mail that we've been receiving all afternoon now. This from Carl (ph) in Inglewood, California, who writes: "As a black American, I think it's about time that someone of Mr. Cosby's stature spoke out against black degradation. Many responsible people support his words. I believe we are the silent majority."
And Rusty (ph) in San Francisco, California, writes: "Mr. Cosby said what a lot of people have wanted to say for a long time. But the fear of being labeled either unfair or racist has kept many from speaking out." He said a lot of -- this chimes in with what your listeners have been telling you all morning.
WARE: Well, yes. But I don't want anyone from the white community telling me this, which you get a lot of right wingers, you know, you get those conservative Republicans. They're good at saying exactly what Cosby says and they love it. I don't want these guys telling me that. If Cosby says it, OK. But, you know...
WHITFIELD: It's quite simply because the message would not be received the same way.
WARE: Right. Oh yes. It would be received as being racist, yes.
WHITFIELD: All right, Kellan (ph)...
WARE: That e-mail is absolutely right.
WHITFIELD: Kellan writes: "I don't understand why Bill Cosby is so negative in regards to the hip-hop community when he allowed Fubu, an urban hip-hop clothing line, the usage of his 'Fat Albert' characters. Bill Cosby has profited graciously off the very culture that is being blamed for the cultural state of our youth today."
So not everyone is in agreement with what he has to say.
WARE: And the person who wrote that e-mail has some valid points. I don't know -- were the Cosby Kids really good kids? Fat Albert was this -- you know, and some of the language they used, you know, they used a little, you know, Ebonics every now and then. So the person wrote that e-mail may hit the nail on the head.
WHITFIELD: So Lincoln Ware, as we wrap it up, where do we go from here? What is the best advice that you see or the next step to be taken after America has heard these comments from Bill Cosby?
WARE: Could you repeat that again? I lost my...
WHITFIELD: Where do you see us going from here? What's the next step, what is your next advice that you would give after people try to now digest all of these comments that have come from Bill Cosby?
WARE: Well, the people who need to hear what Cosby is saying, are they listening to Cosby? Do they hear what he's saying? I don't think so. The people that you're trying to reach, he's going to have to go out on the street corner and he's going to have to go right into the hood to talk to people for them to hear his message. Speaking to the Rainbow Coalition, you know, during their convention, the people he needs to reach are not going to hear his message. The people who need to hear it. They are not watching CNN now. They're probably watching BET, watching the videos of them shaking their rumps and everything.
WHITFIELD: All right, Lincoln Ware, WBDZ of Cincinnati, keeping it real yourself as well. All right. Appreciate your candid comments this afternoon.
WARE: All right.
WHITFIELD: All right, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Got to love Lincoln.
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