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American Morning

Minding Your Business: 'Do Not Call' Put on Hold

Aired September 25, 2003 - 09:18   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.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: A judge has blocked the "do not call" system, aimed at telemarketers. So, are telemarketers getting off the hook?
Andy Serwer is here to answer that question for us this morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: I do not think so, Carol. I think this is a temporary setback. A federal judge yesterday in Oklahoma ruled that the FTC did not have the authority to impose the "do not call" list that was scheduled to go into effect next Wednesday, October 1. This, of course, sparking all kinds of outrage from ordinary citizens and from people in Congress.

Representative John Dingell yesterday from Michigan sounded off on the subject. Let's listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN DINGELL (D), MICHIGAN: The American people do not want these miserable calls. They regard them as a particular annoyance when they're eating dinner. And as I have observed earlier, they're as popular as a skunk at a church picnic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERWER: Oh, the old skunk at the church picnic line.

I wouldn't worry about this, Carol, because people like Representative Dingell and others are going to make sure that this does become law. There are, of course, 40 states that have "do not call" lists, and those work pretty well so far. But again, I think this thing, maybe it's delayed by a couple weeks, but we're going to go back on track.

COSTELLO: Well, it was supposed to go into effect -- oh, you said it was going to be delayed a couple weeks.

SERWER: It could be.

COSTELLO: Because it's supposed to go into effect October 1.

SERWER: I wouldn't be surprised, though, if they get on their horse and get this thing going by October 1, because this is such a popular thing. Fifty million Americans plus signed up for the list, and Congress isn't going to ignore that.

COSTELLO: No, I don't think so. SERWER: No.

COSTELLO: Because a lot of people are angry about that, aren't they?

SERWER: Yes, that's right. They're angry.

COSTELLO: All right, thank you, Andy.

SERWER: OK, Carol.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.






Aired September 25, 2003 - 09:18   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: A judge has blocked the "do not call" system, aimed at telemarketers. So, are telemarketers getting off the hook?
Andy Serwer is here to answer that question for us this morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: I do not think so, Carol. I think this is a temporary setback. A federal judge yesterday in Oklahoma ruled that the FTC did not have the authority to impose the "do not call" list that was scheduled to go into effect next Wednesday, October 1. This, of course, sparking all kinds of outrage from ordinary citizens and from people in Congress.

Representative John Dingell yesterday from Michigan sounded off on the subject. Let's listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN DINGELL (D), MICHIGAN: The American people do not want these miserable calls. They regard them as a particular annoyance when they're eating dinner. And as I have observed earlier, they're as popular as a skunk at a church picnic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERWER: Oh, the old skunk at the church picnic line.

I wouldn't worry about this, Carol, because people like Representative Dingell and others are going to make sure that this does become law. There are, of course, 40 states that have "do not call" lists, and those work pretty well so far. But again, I think this thing, maybe it's delayed by a couple weeks, but we're going to go back on track.

COSTELLO: Well, it was supposed to go into effect -- oh, you said it was going to be delayed a couple weeks.

SERWER: It could be.

COSTELLO: Because it's supposed to go into effect October 1.

SERWER: I wouldn't be surprised, though, if they get on their horse and get this thing going by October 1, because this is such a popular thing. Fifty million Americans plus signed up for the list, and Congress isn't going to ignore that.

COSTELLO: No, I don't think so. SERWER: No.

COSTELLO: Because a lot of people are angry about that, aren't they?

SERWER: Yes, that's right. They're angry.

COSTELLO: All right, thank you, Andy.

SERWER: OK, Carol.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.