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American Morning
Here's What I Don't Get
Aired December 03, 2001 - 08:31 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: Time to check in with Jack Cafferty. It's Monday morning. The man has a grin on his face. You must have gotten some sleep over the weekend. Here's what I don't get.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNNFI CORRESPONDENT: I was born happy and I'll die happy and I'll be happy all the days in between. How are you?
ZAHN: I'm very good, thanks.
CAFFERTY: Good. Remember last...
ZAHN: What's on your mind?
CAFFERTY: You know what? I'm getting a real delay in this earpiece.
ZAHN: So you know what?
CAFFERTY: I'm hearing myself on delay, which is frightening.
ZAHN: Why don't you just take the earpiece out because you're just talking to me and all of America and it doesn't much matter.
CAFFERTY: I'll just, I think I'll just disconnect it. Yes.
Remember last week we were talking about those folks down in Maryland where they do dumb things and then wait for the reaction and then they change it? The first thing they did was they passed, in Montgomery County they passed that law where you couldn't smoke in your own house if your neighbor took exception to it?
ZAHN: Right.
CAFFERTY: And you couldn't, if you smoked out in your yard. Well, this is the latest. Now, this is the town of Kensington. And the town had ruled, because of the objection of a couple of families, that Santa Claus couldn't attend the tree lighting this year. You know, they come on a fire truck. They're my kind of people.
ZAHN: Tolerate Santa, love that sign.
CAFFERTY: And so it turns out that Santa did show up as scheduled because, once again, after they were held up to public embarrassment and ridicule down there, they changed their mind, which is what politicians are said to do on most issues. But before the actual Santa showed up, these are the local people who said, you know, enough stupidity is enough already. And these are guys who came in their pickup trucks and their motorcycles, Santa's helpers. The entire male population of Kensington, I think, showed up.
ZAHN: This is funny. They were singing "God Bless America," showing their patriotism at the same time.
CAFFERTY: Sure.
ZAHN: Now, did we ever figure out why these two families didn't want Santa to come? Was there an issue...
CAFFERTY: I don't know. I don't know. But, you've got to...
ZAHN: ... with Christmas and what it represents? We don't really know.
CAFFERTY: It's a democracy, right? It's a democracy.
ZAHN: Right.
CAFFERTY: The majority rules in a democracy. That's, you know, go read the papers. They've got them in Independence Hall down there in Philadelphia. Two families in this entire town said they were not comfortable with having Santa Claus there. So the council voted not to have Santa and then I guess they changed their mind.
ZAHN: But see, what you are completely ignoring is the fact that your reports have a lot of impact. You took on the Montgomery County folks for being stupid for imposing this law on smoking.
CAFFERTY: Well, it was stupid.
ZAHN: And voila, it ends up on the "Washington Post" a couple days later.
CAFFERTY: It has nothing to do with me.
ZAHN: And it's out.
CAFFERTY: It has nothing to do with me.
ZAHN: And you ridiculed these people for trying to get rid of Santa.
CAFFERTY: Let me tell you what the acid test is.
ZAHN: Yes?
CAFFERTY: Here's the acid test to what you're saying. We'll find out if we've got any power or not. There was a piece in the "Washington Post" over the weekend that "Time" magazine is considering putting Osama bin Laden on its cover as Man of the Year. And if your theory is right, in the next two minutes maybe we can successfully convince them that that is arguably... ZAHN: Kind of nix Osama.
CAFFERTY: ... the dumbest thing I have ever heard in my entire life. This guy is a murderer. He killed innocent people in this country. I know they're going to say oh, he's newsworthy, he's this, he's that.
ZAHN: They're going to tell you Adolph Hitler was on the cover and he was Man of the Year.
CAFFERTY: Yes, it's no wonder -- yes. It's no wonder that people hate the news media. This is the kind of stuff the news media does that's offensive to common sense people everywhere. The only picture I want to see on the cover of "Time" magazine of Osama bin Laden is some marine coming out of a cave with his head on a stick, you know? Put that picture on the cover of "Time" magazine.
There are thousands of young people in the Islamic world, particularly the fundamental Islamic world, that hold this guy in some sort of a god like reverence. You put him on the cover of a publication as prestigious as "Time" magazine, you're only going to enhance this mystical appeal that he has to people that have a warped sense of propriety.
I have never heard anything so dumb in my life as the fact that it's even being considered. And "Time" is a, they're a cousin of ours, are they not?
ZAHN: Yes, we should make it very clear...
CAFFERTY: Yes.
ZAHN: ... that the people who own us also own "Time" magazine.
CAFFERTY: Yes. It's part of our company.
ZAHN: So I think there's no doubt that you will not be our Man of the Year this year, although I'd like to nominate you.
CAFFERTY: Well, you know, it's just, I mean come on, you know? I mean common sense. It's worked for a long, long time. This is just a very dumb idea and what you should do...
ZAHN: But, you know what could -- maybe the idea is to sell a lot of magazines.
CAFFERTY: Well, of course.
ZAHN: And people might be so outraged by the idea of Osama bin Laden being on that cover.
CAFFERTY: Sure. I do this...
ZAHN: Do you think the process is that cynical?
CAFFERTY: Oh, absolutely. Are you kidding? With the advertising slowdown that's going on? I'm sure that's uppermost in their minds, how can we get maximum publicity and sell some magazines, regardless of the potential impact of what is arguably a very stupid editorial decision. And if you happen, if you agree, you could probably either call or write "Time" magazine and let them know that you think this is not a very good idea and we'll find out how many people want this done.
ZAHN: And we're going to turn around in two days and see what kind of impact Jack Cafferty has again.
CAFFERTY: I've got one more, and this is a good one. Politicians and photo opportunities. They're married, joined at the hip, never to part. Politicians will walk naked through a snowstorm if they'll get, if they think they'll get their picture in the newspaper or on television, right?
ZAHN: Right. Right.
CAFFERTY: Photo-ops.
ZAHN: Right. Right.
CAFFERTY: They kiss babies that smell like spoiled formula. They eat stuff they can't identify. They do activities that they've never done before and will never do again and it's very obvious if you're watching they suck at it, but they do it anyway for the photo- op.
ZAHN: Sure.
CAFFERTY: Sometimes the best photo-ops happen is you just do the right thing. Roll the tape. Let's watch President Bush as he was trying to depart for Camp David, Maryland from the White House the other day. He's walking the dog up this -- now, you see the marines saluting?
ZAHN: Right.
CAFFERTY: They always salute the commander-in-chief.
ZAHN: Sure.
CAFFERTY: But the president had to pick up the dog to get him up the steps because he was misbehaving. Now watch what he does. He comes back down the steps and he turns this way and the marine couldn't help himself. They're not supposed to show any emotion, but he smiled. Now, there's a photo-op that speaks volumes about the guy running the country and, you know, a whole lot of things.
ZAHN: It shows such great dignity.
CAFFERTY: You know, it's different from eating knishes on, in Coney Island and, you know, marching in parades in the rain and doing all these silly things. That's a good photo-op.
ZAHN: And it also is a salute. Do you remember how President Clinton was widely criticized for having a wimpy salute for many years and...
CAFFERTY: Well, you see, he dodged the draft so he probably didn't learn how to salute.
ZAHN: That's another issue, Jack.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
ZAHN: We'll move on to that on another morning.
CAFFERTY: Well, OK, Paula.
ZAHN: Here's what I don't get. Love that segment.
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