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American Morning

'Here's What I Don't Get'

Aired December 04, 2001 - 08:38   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: All right, let's check in with Jack Cafferty. Here's what I don't get, and this is a constant theme in our household. And I've talked to tons of women who say they get the same response from their spouses or their boyfriends or whatever. You guys say these warnings are, it is what it is. If I hear that one more time, I'm not going to tell you what I'm going to do.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNNFI CORRESPONDENT: You mean it's not what it is?

ZAHN: It is what it is.

CAFFERTY: Well, what...

ZAHN: I ran into Maria Shriver on the street a couple weeks ago and we were talking about this.

CAFFERTY: Now, she's got Arnold Schwarzenegger at home.

ZAHN: Well, the tar maker, right?

CAFFERTY: What has she got to worry about?

ZAHN: So I asked, I said well, what does Arnold think about this? She said you know what his most common phrase is, it is what it is. I can't hear that anymore.

CAFFERTY: Well, this...

ZAHN: So, are you taking action on this?

CAFFERTY: Well, I come to work every day.

ZAHN: Like turning on sports TV?

CAFFERTY: No.

ZAHN: Is that how you're acting up?

CAFFERTY: A couple of days after 9-11 my daughter, who's in junior high school, came home and told her mother that she wanted to go to the mall. And my wife said, well, I don't think you ought to go to the mall because at the time there was speculation that, you know, maybe there'd be a terrorist attack on a shopping mall. And so we had this debate, or they had this debate. And I just listened, which is what I do mostly at home.

ZAHN: You'd have to in your household.

CAFFERTY: Yes. And eventually it was decided that she shouldn't go to the mall. Now, 9-11 was how many months ago? Three and a half months ago, roughly, give or take.

ZAHN: Exactly.

CAFFERTY: Every day for three and a half months I come through the Lincoln Tunnel from New Jersey into New York City, 34th and Eighth Avenue, where we're sitting right now, every day for three and a half months. Never been mentioned that perhaps I shouldn't go into New York City because that's where the attacks actually happened, you see?

ZAHN: All right, so you're saying the women in your household are completely irrational?

CAFFERTY: No, no. Not at all. There's -- are you kidding? I'm not suicidal. Why would I say that? They might be watching. No, they're not irrational at all. There's another school of thought. Boil us all down to the lowest common denominator, women are smarter than men, end of discussion. And there is a body of evidence, at least in my life, that would tend to confirm that statement. So maybe they get it and we just don't.

ZAHN: You'd be threatened if you hadn't come to that conclusion, right, Jack?

CAFFERTY: Yes, that's absolutely right. I'm not as dumb as I look.

ZAHN: We have plenty more ahead. You might remember yesterday if you were with us at this time Jack sparked a bit of a war over the controversy surrounding who should be on the Man of the Year cover. Why don't you tease what you're going to do in the next couple of minutes?

CAFFERTY: Well, yes, we caused a bit of a reaction, I guess. "Time" magazine, which is a sister publication of this media empire that we're a member of, is considering Osama bin Laden as its Man of the Year, arguably the stupidest idea I have ever heard, and I'm 58 years old, maybe like right at the top. And we suggested that it was a dumb idea yesterday and there's been some interesting reaction to those comments and we'll share some of that later.

ZAHN: Right after this break.

CAFFERTY: OK.

ZAHN: We'll take a short break and Jack will return with lots of fodder for what I don't get this morning. We'll be right back.

COMMERCIAL (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID LETTERMAN: We continue to bomb Afghanistan and, you know, it's not just bombing. They drop food. They drop food and they drop propaganda leaflets. So, a friend of mine down at the Pentagon said, he says, Dave, I think you'd be interested in seeing the leaflets that we're dropping when we, in Afghanistan here. And it's propaganda and it's to try to enlighten the people that, you know, there is some good to what we're up to. And so, I don't know, I know nothing about war.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Let's see.

LETTERMAN: Well, take a look at this. See, it says "surrender now" right there. That gets your eye, right there, OK. "And you get $2 off any large sized sandwich at Blimpies."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAFFERTY: Very good.

ZAHN: Oh, he's always funny.

CAFFERTY: Yes, I like Letterman a lot.

All right, so back to what we were talking about yesterday. We were talking about the wisdom of "Time" magazine's editors considering putting Osama bin Laden on the cover as the Man of the Year. And when it was pointed out that they have done silly things like this in the past with people like Stalin and Hitler, I made the point that there is no statute of limitations on stupidity.

ZAHN: Point well taken.

CAFFERTY: Yes. Anyway, we wanted to hear how folks felt about this whole idea so we went out on the street and we asked some of them. Check it out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I don't think he should be the Man of the Year. I think that the Man of the Year should be someone who is very dignified and actually is positive and contributes to society.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: If I saw his picture on it and if he was pictured Man of the Year or whatever, that would be offensive, I think, to a lot of people.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Man of the Year, yes, if he was dead and they had his head on a stick.

QUESTION: Do you think Osama bin Laden should be "Time" magazine's Man of the Year?

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: No.

QUESTION: Why not? UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Oh, because of the destruction that he's created.

QUESTION: And why do you think he should be?

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Oh, I think it's another way of disgracing him, putting him on with the other buffoons who have adorned the magazine in the last 10 years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAFFERTY: All right, so a few opinions. We also got some e- mails and the one fellow there who was talking about bin Laden's head on a stick, we got...

ZAHN: I think you used that same phraseology yesterday, John.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

ZAHN: Trend setter that you are.

CAFFERTY: And somebody took great exception to it. Here it is here. "How can someone, how can you let someone make comments like Jack Cafferty made on CNN yesterday? I find his comments offensive, he would like to see Osama's head on a stick. I know we live in a country of free speech, or so we think. But his comments were the worst I ever heard from a so-called educated man."

Ma'am, I never claimed to be educated. Maybe put his head in a bowling bag or something.

ZAHN: There's Jack's out this morning. There you have it.

But by and large, how did the e-mail go?

CAFFERTY: About 10 to one in favor of not putting Osama...

ZAHN: OK.

CAFFERTY: Here's, if you feel Osama bin Laden rates Man of the Year and a place on your cover, why not go all the way and split the cover picture with Timothy McVeigh on the other side? Timothy McVeigh being the mutant who blew up the two buildings down in Oklahoma City and killed all those people.

One other. "Wouldn't it be more appropriate to select George Bush as Man of the Year for standing up to terrorism and leading most of the free world in an effort to purge ourselves of all these crowds?"

ZAHN: And I have one to indulge you now, Jack. This one comes from Robert Grube. He says, "I hope Jack Cafferty can read this because my hat went off to him when I heard his disgust about "Time" magazine considering Osama bin Laden for Man of the Year. His honesty and courage is to be applauded. He was right on with the statements and thank god there's a journalist who has the guts to speak his mind about things that don't make a bit of common sense, especially when it comes to disagreeing with his parent company. All the best, Jack. Robert Grube."

CAFFERTY: And when I lose this job, Robert, I'm going to get in touch with you and send my resume because -- no, that was nice.

ZAHN: So you know what Robert would like?

CAFFERTY: What?

ZAHN: This is what Robert would like.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

ZAHN: Here is who he might pick for "Time's" Man of the Year, if you go really, really tight, you might recognize that face.

CAFFERTY: That was...

ZAHN: J.C., Jack -- oh, there I can't, I can't even find him in the picture, Jack Cafferty.

CAFFERTY: Yes, that's backwards.

ZAHN: Yes, it's backwards.

CAFFERTY: Anyway, what you can do if you go to "Time" magazine's Web site, my guess is there's probably a link where you can get in touch with the letters to the editor. And if you have an opinion on the subject then you could probably get in touch with them and cast a vote. Or call them up and tie up their phone lines and just generally become a source of aggravation to the point where they're forced to make a public statement, look, this was a bad idea and we're not going to do this and then we can move on to something else.

ZAHN: Have you heard from the suits?

CAFFERTY: No, but you know what? Alan Wassler (ph) down there in the witness protection network that I work with at CNNfn that doesn't go anywhere? He tried to call "Time" magazine yesterday. He called the editor. He called four or five people. You get these voice-mail if you want to talk to somebody, don't bother us, dial 12.

ZAHN: Sure.

CAFFERTY: Eventually late in the day he got a call back from some P.R. person saying well, we'd be happy to discuss it. But none of the people that he tried to reach returned his calls.

ZAHN: Won't come on the air.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

ZAHN: Now, I want to share with you all now what I think is one of the most ridiculous reports I've heard. Osama bin Laden has asked the anti-Taliban Mujahedeen commanders to refrain from launching any attacks in that Tora Bora area we have been talking about. I mean where does this guy, what is this guy talking about?

CAFFERTY: Leave my cave alone.

ZAHN: Let me go on to say what he's saying. "I am ready to fight foreigners, but not the Afghan Mujahedeen," many of them the same fighters who fought alongside bin Laden to drive the Soviets from Afghanistan. And I think what is this guy thinking?

CAFFERTY: Well, it's just amazing.

ZAHN: You're really close now. Don't get me.

CAFFERTY: Yes, and well, that's probably what he's afraid of. He'd rather fight the foreigners because he probably thinks he has a better chance of winning. Those Afghan soldiers are tough guys. Unbelievable.

ZAHN: Thank you, Jack. Keep us posted on how that e-mail continues to flow in.

CAFFERTY: OK.

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