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American Morning
'The CNN Effect'; Preparing for Hurricanes in Florida
Aired June 01, 2005 - 09:30 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome back, everybody, on this AMERICAN MORNING. We are celebrating CNN's 25th anniversary today.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Also, one of the guys who really helped put CNN on the map in a moment here, Bernie Shaw, comes back in a few moments. He was there when it all began. That's him on June 1st, 1980. He's got some great memories and an incredible career, too. We'll talk to Bernie in a few moments here.
O'BRIEN: Look forward to that. Headlines, first, though, with Carol Costello. Good morning again.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Good morning to all of you.
"Now in the News," at least 20 people are dead, 40 others wounded after a suicide bombing at a crowded mosque in southern Afghanistan. Police say an attacker set off the explosives during a funeral. The U.S. military and Afghan officials have condemned the attack.
Last hour, we told you the FBI is reopening the investigation into the 1955 killing of 14-year-old Emmett Till. His murder galvanized the civil rights movement in the '50s. Well, the process of exhuming the remains is starting today. Authorities are hoping to positively identify the body and determine an official cause of death. Till, a black teenager, was reportedly killed after he whistled at a white woman in Mississippi.
In Spokane, Washington, mayor James West says he will remain in office despite a call for his resignation. West is under investigation for alleged misuse of power and claims he molested two boys decades ago. The city council unanimously voted last night to ask West to step down, but the vote is only advisory. The council has no power to remove him.
Authorities near Seattle, Washington, are looking into claims a fan was severely beaten during a hip-hop concert. Home video, you can see it here. It shows the man running onstage during a performance by the rapper Snoop Dogg. You see him there. He then appears to be tackled by security. The man claims he was invited onstage and then he was not only beaten, but was robbed. A publicist for Snoop Dogg says whenever someone jumps on stage, it's seen as a security threat.
OK, let's get to some good news, finally. The sport for the geek in all of us, the 78th Scripps National Spelling Bee, now underway in Washington, D.C. You are looking at live pictures. Let's listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Frangipane or frangipane.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE CHILD: Frangipane. Can I have the definition, please?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Frangipane is a custard cream flavored with almonds and used as a tart filling.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE CHILD: Frangipane, F-R-A-N-G-I-P-A-N-E, frangipane.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Bravo. Bravo! That was awesome. More than 200 top spellers from across the country took the written exam in the last hour. They're now beginning the oral part of the competition. Final rounds tomorrow, and we will have the spelling bee champ live on AMERICAN MORNING on Friday. You couldn't spell that word.
O'BRIEN: I did. I even spelled it for Bill. I love frangipane.
COSTELLO: And you're not just saying that?
O'BRIEN: I mean, no.
HEMMER: It's for dinner tonight. She's like, feeding...
O'BRIEN: Remember last year when that little kid fainted? The little one?
COSTELLO: Yes, it was terrible.
O'BRIEN: Remember that kid? He was fine. We talked to him later. He was OK.
COSTELLO: He hopped back up.
O'BRIEN: Yes, but the tension and you know? I love that competition.
COSTELLO: Oh, me, too.
O'BRIEN: That's fun.
HEMMER: Thank you, Carol.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: Well, we're off and running. John Zarrella's in Punta Gorda, Florida. We all remember the pictures last year in Punta Gorda. Looking today at new ideas to help people cope with these storms. Here's John there now.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Bill. You know, $40 billion damage from the four hurricanes that hit Florida last year. Hurricane Charley, 145 mile-an-hour winds came through here, the first and the worst of the four.
Let's give you a quick look over here. This Punta Gorda's downtown. This is where a shopping plaza used to be. That shopping plaza is now gone. Directly behind me are the Charlavoy (ph) Condominiums. They're being rebuilt now. In the distance back there was a Holiday Inn. That's gone. And over there is a gas station. People may remember the shot of the car up on the lifts. That was the last thing that we saw of that gas station.
With this expected to be at least as bad, perhaps worse, hurricane season than last year, there are lots of items out there you can buy to protect you and your family, should you get hit by a hurricane.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA (voice-over): For millions of Floridians, the last hurricane season meant ice, last-minute runs for plywood and blue tarps. If this is another mean season, why not minimize the misery?
DAVE BLANDFORD, HEATER MEALS: Look at the magic that's going on in here. Again, it literally will steam and that's going to warm your meal up 100 degrees above whatever the ambient temperature is.
ZARRELLA: A simple chemical reaction cooks these heater meals in a tray. No need for gas or electricity.
(on camera): I was going to say it tastes better because I didn't have breakfast, but it tastes good -- it just tastes good.
(voice-over): Heater meals were just one of dozens of hurricane pain-relievers displayed at a Florida tropical weather conference. How about this ready kit? Everything you can think of to get through the storm and some things you'd never think of.
MIKE GERAGHTY: This is a nylon utility turn-off wrench, so if you have to turn off gas in the house, you'd use this without creating a spark.
ZARRELLA: Let there be light, without a gas-guzzling generator. For $500, you can own a power pal. Just hook it up to a car battery.
DAVE STRAUB, POWER PAL: It makes no noise. It uses no fuel whatsoever, OK? It emits no pollutants. It can be used indoors.
ZARRELLA: There were plenty of shutter designs to choose from, but getting them installed now is another story.
JEFF ROBINSON, HPI: It's a market like I've never seen before, John. Most companies are booked up a minimum of six months. Some of them are saying a year and a half behind, as far as when they can come out and install shutters.
ZARRELLA: If plywood is your only option, the makers of Plylox (ph) say these steel clips can simplify the job.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Squeeze the clip down so it fits on good and snug and just put it in the window opening and lock it in.
ZARRELLA: With a little luck, you won't need to use any of this stuff, but images of Florida last year should be enough to get people in the hurricane zone moving now, just in case.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA: A little bit of advice, yes, move now. Don't wait until the last minute. We all know what those pictures are like, those lines. And the first named storm of the season this year, which we know is going to form, will be called Arlene -- Bill.
HEMMER: Watching the skies for Arlene. John Zarrella, thanks. In Punta Gorda this morning -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Well, 25 years ago today, Ted Turner launched his vision, the world's first 24 hour news network. Since then, CNN has influenced not only the media, but also pop culture and even foreign policy.
AMERICAN MORNING's Kelly Wallace with us this morning to talk about that. Good morning.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad. We're talking 25 years. So many major stories covered by CNN around the world. But there is one that observers really believe put CNN on the map. A very big story back in 1991 that captured Washington's and Hollywood's attention.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GEN. COLIN POWELL, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: I think the best source of how careful we have been is listening to the CNN reporters who are watching it unfold.
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Best reporting I've seen on what transpired in Baghdad was on CNN.
WALLACE (voice-over): Observers say to analyze the CNN effect, you have to go back to the first Gulf War, when people around the world, even then President Bush, watched the war play out live on CNN, and only on CNN. The night the war began, NBC's Tom Brokaw interviewed CNN's Bernard Shaw, who was in Baghdad.
TOM BROKAW, NBC NEWS: CNN used to be called the little network that could. It's no longer a little network.
WALLACE: It was during and then after the first Gulf War that U.S. policymakers knew what they said and did would now be broadcast around the world.
Mike McCurry served as State Department spokesman and then White House press secretary in the Clinton administration. MIKE MCCURRY, FMR. CLINTON PRESS SECY.: Many foreign embassies have told me this, they used to monitor the coverage on CNN, the broadcasting of the various news briefings around town and instantaneously relay that information.
WALLACE: McCurry says there is a down side, a press corps sometimes getting it wrong.
MCCURRY: Sometimes in the need to report quickly on a breaking story, it's very difficult to get on top of the facts.
WALLACE: Since the 1990s, academics have been analyzing what they have termed the CNN effect, the impact of 24-hour news on our culture, not just from CNN now, but also its competitors.
KURT ANDERSON, COLUMNIST, "NEW YORK" MAGAZINE: It has just speeded up incredibly the -- not only the way people expect to get news, but, in fact, the way news is made to the degree that news is made by people like politicians.
WALLACE: Hollywood took notice too.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN TRAVOLTA, ACTOR: You can't run for the president of the United (EXPLETIVE DELETED) States without CNN!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSH HARTNETT, ACTOR: We have two things we can do: We can either help or we can sit back and watch the country destroy itself on CNN.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: From the big screen to television.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Leo Izaray (ph) is a sadistic mad man. This can't possibly be argued, but he's not a stupid man, and he knows where CNN is on his television.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Sharon, you've been watching CNN for about eight weeks now. Don't you want to watch something else?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: Even "The Gilmore Girls."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Why do you wish to be Christiane Amanpour?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: Well, I don't wish to be her, exactly. I just want to do what she does.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: And a sign CNN was truly part of the pop culture, Kudos from one of the most famous women in the world.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OPRAH WINFREY, TALK SHOW HOST: I just came back from Africa. I've been in other countries. And no matter where you are, CNN is there, your friend.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALLACE: And Oprah Winfrey going on to say, and there is Larry, no matter where you go around the world. You know, Soledad, so many more clips, so many more stories to cover, not enough time to put it all in that piece. But Mike McCurry mentioned something in that interview. He said the CNN effect, 24 news coverage of places like Bosnia, Haiti, Somalia, definitely urged world leaders to act.
O'BRIEN: And made a big impression not only on just the populous, but also political leaders, too.
WALLACE: Absolutely.
O'BRIEN: Kelly, thanks a lot.
WALLACE: Sure.
O'BRIEN: Tonight, a primetime special, "DEFINING MOMENTS: 25 STORIES THAT TOUCHED OUR LIVES." That's tonight at, 8:00 p.m. Eastern time.
And we're back in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: It was June 1st, 1980, the day CNN went on the air for the first time. Take a look at this moment now from day one.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BERNARD SHAW, FORMER CNN ANCHOR: I'm Bernard Shaw in our cable news Washington bureau. Our staff is large because this news capital of the world is large, complex and ever-changing. The number one challenge is not just to tell you what and why things happen here, but to explain what developments mean to you and how they'll affect your pocketbook. And we've got the kind of professionals who care.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: 2001, Four years later, he's back with us today.
Great to see you friend.
SHAW: Good to be back. Happy birthday.
HEMMER: Happy birthday to you as well. That clip we just watched there, you're sitting at that desk. You left ABC News to come and launch this new venture that no one was really quite sure about where it was going. Did you know behind you, Bernie, that the guy was still putting the newsroom together with that hammer?
SHAW: I was quite aware of that, not only the carpenter, but the painters were off to the right and to the left, and they continued working. Sometimes they popped up in the shot.
HEMMER: What were you thinking as you sat at that desk the first day you went to air?
SHAW: I recall my stomach was tight, and I told myself, 'There's no turning back. You've walked the plank.' And my attitude was, let's make this work.
HEMMER: January of 1991, I think that's really when most people felt that CNN was really working, because that's the first time so many millions around the world paid attention.
Listen to this clip from Baghdad when you were there with John Holliman and Peter Arnett and a few others.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHAW: Something is happening outside. Peter Arnett joins me here. Let's describe to our viewers what we're seeing. The skies over Baghdad have been illuminated. Clearly, I've never been there, but this feels like we're in the center of hell.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: As we look back, Bernie, we know that that moment put CNN on the map around the world. But if CNN did not have that moment, where do you think the network would be today?
SHAW: I think CNN still would have evolved to its current status. I have quarreled with the observation that we were put on the map because of the Gulf War in '91, January. We had been on the air for a full decade. We had been reporting stories that brought us credibility, from the assassination attempt on the life of President Reagan to the missile silo, the nuclear warhead that the Air Force was looking for in the woods, to other stories. The 1985 Reagan/Gorbachev summit in Geneva, the first one, that was a monumentally important story, et cetera, et cetera.
HEMMER: Go back to China, too, Tiananmen Square a few years before the Persian Gulf War.
SHAW: Oh, yes, yes.
HEMMER: You were there with a number of CNN staffers, literally witnessing history unfold. At a time when you went there for a completely different story Tiananmen Square broke out. Watch here, and we'll talk about it, too, Bernie.
SHAW: OK.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHAW: In my 26 years in this business, I've never seen anything like this. The situation in Tiananmen Square is that, it is a standoff. The people are there. The troops are not there. They were ordered in. They came as far as they could get, five miles outside. They were talked to by the people, persuaded to leave. They turned around, promising never to come back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: You once said the hotter the story, the cooler you stay. Why is that?
SHAW: Well, I think of myself as a surgeon in an operating room. I have a responsibility, as do all of the women and men at CNN, in reporting breaking news, to be calm, to be dispassionate, to be factual, to be accurate, to be balanced, to be fair.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Bernie Shaw from earlier today. We asked him if he missed it. He said not so much to come back. He enjoys life with his wife, Linda, there in the D.C. Area. Bernie Shaw, former colleague and CNN anchor.
Andy's back in a moment here, "Minding Your Business," with big news about federal student loans and what you can do to save money. Andy has that after this.
Back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.
A warning to college alumni. Some student loans are following the upward trend in interest rates. That, plus an early check on Wall Street. Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business" this morning. Hello.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE": Hello. Real money here on these student loans. We'll get to that in a second, Soledad. Let's check in on the markets first of all. Stocks trading up at this hour. What have we got there? Six points. Just a little bit, just a little bit.
I'll tell you some stock that's up that -- more than a little bit, though, is Google. I mean, this just keeps on keeping on. Now up $8 to $285. Yesterday it was up to $275.
HEMMER: Now, that's funny money.
SERWER: This thing's gone from $200 to $285 in a month and a half. Unbelievable. CSFB, the brokerage firm, putting a target of $350 on this stock.
If students would simply have bought this stock a long time ago, you could have funded your entire college education. Let's talk about student loans here for a minute because the rates are going up, as Soledad mentioned, July 1st. And they're going up a whole lot. Almost two full percentage points on the Stafford and the Federal Plus.
And the big news here is about consolidation. You want to consolidate your student loans before July 1st because the rate also goes up two full percentage points. We'll do some math here. If you have $20,000 of loans outstanding, you would save $2,842 over the ten- year life of the loan. If you have $60,000 loans outstanding, those going to graduate school, you would save $8,318 over the life of the loan.
And so you really should...
O'BRIEN: That's a ridiculous increase.
SERWER: It's huge, but it had lagged. They hadn't done it for several years, so they're playing catch-up.
O'BRIEN: Hmm, right. Andy, thanks.
HEMMER: "Question of the Day." Jack's out, Carol's in.
COSTELLO: That's right. We're asking people what news event of the last 25 years mattered most to you, because, of course it's CNN 25th anniversary. And we got some really good ones to wrap up the show.
This is from Michelle from New Hampshire: "My most vivid images of CNN were during the 407 days in 2003 and 2004 that my husband was in Iraq. CNN was on literally morning, noon and night. If you look closely at our TV screen, the CNN logo and the word 'live' are burned into the screen."
HEMMER: Mine, too.
COSTELLO: Isn't that something?
This is from Steve from Tokyo, Japan: "20 or so of us, black, white and Asian, sitting around the TV in a dorm in Tokyo watching the coverage of the L.A. riots. All of us were too stunned, too embarrassed and too ashamed to pass comment."
This R. in Orlando, Florida: "The image that will always remain in my mind is of Gary Tuchman standing at Ground Zero, interviewing a woman who was present during the attack on the World Trade Center. The interview was going well until she recalled the people she saw jumping from the building. She broke down and cried and Gary's empathy, with arms wrapped around her, said more than words ever could."
HEMMER: Wow, that's touching.
O'BRIEN: We feed that this morning.
HEMMER: Thanks, Carol. Tomorrow, we're going to continue our series "Defining Moments" on a similar key, too, there, Carol. "Defining Moments," looking back at the biggest stories of the past 25 years. Tomorrow, we look at the events of 9/11, starting at 7:00 a.m. Eastern time here.
We are back in a moment, right after this, on our anniversary.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Dr. Phil, if you're watching, wake up! Time to go!
There's a special tonight, we should mention, 8:00 Eastern time, to celebrate our 25th anniversary.
HEMMER: (INAUDIBLE), too. Dr. Phil, we'll see you next morning, because we got to go. Happy anniversary to all you guys, huh?
O'BRIEN: Thank you. They got you.
HEMMER: And here's to another 25.
O'BRIEN: That's right.
HEMMER: Thank you, Chad! Here's Fredricka working for Daryn Kagan.
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 June 1, 2005 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome back, everybody, on this AMERICAN MORNING. We are celebrating CNN's 25th anniversary today.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Also, one of the guys who really helped put CNN on the map in a moment here, Bernie Shaw, comes back in a few moments. He was there when it all began. That's him on June 1st, 1980. He's got some great memories and an incredible career, too. We'll talk to Bernie in a few moments here.
O'BRIEN: Look forward to that. Headlines, first, though, with Carol Costello. Good morning again.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Good morning to all of you.
"Now in the News," at least 20 people are dead, 40 others wounded after a suicide bombing at a crowded mosque in southern Afghanistan. Police say an attacker set off the explosives during a funeral. The U.S. military and Afghan officials have condemned the attack.
Last hour, we told you the FBI is reopening the investigation into the 1955 killing of 14-year-old Emmett Till. His murder galvanized the civil rights movement in the '50s. Well, the process of exhuming the remains is starting today. Authorities are hoping to positively identify the body and determine an official cause of death. Till, a black teenager, was reportedly killed after he whistled at a white woman in Mississippi.
In Spokane, Washington, mayor James West says he will remain in office despite a call for his resignation. West is under investigation for alleged misuse of power and claims he molested two boys decades ago. The city council unanimously voted last night to ask West to step down, but the vote is only advisory. The council has no power to remove him.
Authorities near Seattle, Washington, are looking into claims a fan was severely beaten during a hip-hop concert. Home video, you can see it here. It shows the man running onstage during a performance by the rapper Snoop Dogg. You see him there. He then appears to be tackled by security. The man claims he was invited onstage and then he was not only beaten, but was robbed. A publicist for Snoop Dogg says whenever someone jumps on stage, it's seen as a security threat.
OK, let's get to some good news, finally. The sport for the geek in all of us, the 78th Scripps National Spelling Bee, now underway in Washington, D.C. You are looking at live pictures. Let's listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Frangipane or frangipane.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE CHILD: Frangipane. Can I have the definition, please?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Frangipane is a custard cream flavored with almonds and used as a tart filling.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE CHILD: Frangipane, F-R-A-N-G-I-P-A-N-E, frangipane.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Bravo. Bravo! That was awesome. More than 200 top spellers from across the country took the written exam in the last hour. They're now beginning the oral part of the competition. Final rounds tomorrow, and we will have the spelling bee champ live on AMERICAN MORNING on Friday. You couldn't spell that word.
O'BRIEN: I did. I even spelled it for Bill. I love frangipane.
COSTELLO: And you're not just saying that?
O'BRIEN: I mean, no.
HEMMER: It's for dinner tonight. She's like, feeding...
O'BRIEN: Remember last year when that little kid fainted? The little one?
COSTELLO: Yes, it was terrible.
O'BRIEN: Remember that kid? He was fine. We talked to him later. He was OK.
COSTELLO: He hopped back up.
O'BRIEN: Yes, but the tension and you know? I love that competition.
COSTELLO: Oh, me, too.
O'BRIEN: That's fun.
HEMMER: Thank you, Carol.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: Well, we're off and running. John Zarrella's in Punta Gorda, Florida. We all remember the pictures last year in Punta Gorda. Looking today at new ideas to help people cope with these storms. Here's John there now.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Bill. You know, $40 billion damage from the four hurricanes that hit Florida last year. Hurricane Charley, 145 mile-an-hour winds came through here, the first and the worst of the four.
Let's give you a quick look over here. This Punta Gorda's downtown. This is where a shopping plaza used to be. That shopping plaza is now gone. Directly behind me are the Charlavoy (ph) Condominiums. They're being rebuilt now. In the distance back there was a Holiday Inn. That's gone. And over there is a gas station. People may remember the shot of the car up on the lifts. That was the last thing that we saw of that gas station.
With this expected to be at least as bad, perhaps worse, hurricane season than last year, there are lots of items out there you can buy to protect you and your family, should you get hit by a hurricane.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA (voice-over): For millions of Floridians, the last hurricane season meant ice, last-minute runs for plywood and blue tarps. If this is another mean season, why not minimize the misery?
DAVE BLANDFORD, HEATER MEALS: Look at the magic that's going on in here. Again, it literally will steam and that's going to warm your meal up 100 degrees above whatever the ambient temperature is.
ZARRELLA: A simple chemical reaction cooks these heater meals in a tray. No need for gas or electricity.
(on camera): I was going to say it tastes better because I didn't have breakfast, but it tastes good -- it just tastes good.
(voice-over): Heater meals were just one of dozens of hurricane pain-relievers displayed at a Florida tropical weather conference. How about this ready kit? Everything you can think of to get through the storm and some things you'd never think of.
MIKE GERAGHTY: This is a nylon utility turn-off wrench, so if you have to turn off gas in the house, you'd use this without creating a spark.
ZARRELLA: Let there be light, without a gas-guzzling generator. For $500, you can own a power pal. Just hook it up to a car battery.
DAVE STRAUB, POWER PAL: It makes no noise. It uses no fuel whatsoever, OK? It emits no pollutants. It can be used indoors.
ZARRELLA: There were plenty of shutter designs to choose from, but getting them installed now is another story.
JEFF ROBINSON, HPI: It's a market like I've never seen before, John. Most companies are booked up a minimum of six months. Some of them are saying a year and a half behind, as far as when they can come out and install shutters.
ZARRELLA: If plywood is your only option, the makers of Plylox (ph) say these steel clips can simplify the job.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Squeeze the clip down so it fits on good and snug and just put it in the window opening and lock it in.
ZARRELLA: With a little luck, you won't need to use any of this stuff, but images of Florida last year should be enough to get people in the hurricane zone moving now, just in case.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA: A little bit of advice, yes, move now. Don't wait until the last minute. We all know what those pictures are like, those lines. And the first named storm of the season this year, which we know is going to form, will be called Arlene -- Bill.
HEMMER: Watching the skies for Arlene. John Zarrella, thanks. In Punta Gorda this morning -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Well, 25 years ago today, Ted Turner launched his vision, the world's first 24 hour news network. Since then, CNN has influenced not only the media, but also pop culture and even foreign policy.
AMERICAN MORNING's Kelly Wallace with us this morning to talk about that. Good morning.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad. We're talking 25 years. So many major stories covered by CNN around the world. But there is one that observers really believe put CNN on the map. A very big story back in 1991 that captured Washington's and Hollywood's attention.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GEN. COLIN POWELL, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: I think the best source of how careful we have been is listening to the CNN reporters who are watching it unfold.
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Best reporting I've seen on what transpired in Baghdad was on CNN.
WALLACE (voice-over): Observers say to analyze the CNN effect, you have to go back to the first Gulf War, when people around the world, even then President Bush, watched the war play out live on CNN, and only on CNN. The night the war began, NBC's Tom Brokaw interviewed CNN's Bernard Shaw, who was in Baghdad.
TOM BROKAW, NBC NEWS: CNN used to be called the little network that could. It's no longer a little network.
WALLACE: It was during and then after the first Gulf War that U.S. policymakers knew what they said and did would now be broadcast around the world.
Mike McCurry served as State Department spokesman and then White House press secretary in the Clinton administration. MIKE MCCURRY, FMR. CLINTON PRESS SECY.: Many foreign embassies have told me this, they used to monitor the coverage on CNN, the broadcasting of the various news briefings around town and instantaneously relay that information.
WALLACE: McCurry says there is a down side, a press corps sometimes getting it wrong.
MCCURRY: Sometimes in the need to report quickly on a breaking story, it's very difficult to get on top of the facts.
WALLACE: Since the 1990s, academics have been analyzing what they have termed the CNN effect, the impact of 24-hour news on our culture, not just from CNN now, but also its competitors.
KURT ANDERSON, COLUMNIST, "NEW YORK" MAGAZINE: It has just speeded up incredibly the -- not only the way people expect to get news, but, in fact, the way news is made to the degree that news is made by people like politicians.
WALLACE: Hollywood took notice too.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN TRAVOLTA, ACTOR: You can't run for the president of the United (EXPLETIVE DELETED) States without CNN!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSH HARTNETT, ACTOR: We have two things we can do: We can either help or we can sit back and watch the country destroy itself on CNN.
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WALLACE: From the big screen to television.
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Leo Izaray (ph) is a sadistic mad man. This can't possibly be argued, but he's not a stupid man, and he knows where CNN is on his television.
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Sharon, you've been watching CNN for about eight weeks now. Don't you want to watch something else?
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WALLACE: Even "The Gilmore Girls."
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Why do you wish to be Christiane Amanpour?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: Well, I don't wish to be her, exactly. I just want to do what she does.
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WALLACE: And a sign CNN was truly part of the pop culture, Kudos from one of the most famous women in the world.
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OPRAH WINFREY, TALK SHOW HOST: I just came back from Africa. I've been in other countries. And no matter where you are, CNN is there, your friend.
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WALLACE: And Oprah Winfrey going on to say, and there is Larry, no matter where you go around the world. You know, Soledad, so many more clips, so many more stories to cover, not enough time to put it all in that piece. But Mike McCurry mentioned something in that interview. He said the CNN effect, 24 news coverage of places like Bosnia, Haiti, Somalia, definitely urged world leaders to act.
O'BRIEN: And made a big impression not only on just the populous, but also political leaders, too.
WALLACE: Absolutely.
O'BRIEN: Kelly, thanks a lot.
WALLACE: Sure.
O'BRIEN: Tonight, a primetime special, "DEFINING MOMENTS: 25 STORIES THAT TOUCHED OUR LIVES." That's tonight at, 8:00 p.m. Eastern time.
And we're back in just a moment.
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HEMMER: It was June 1st, 1980, the day CNN went on the air for the first time. Take a look at this moment now from day one.
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BERNARD SHAW, FORMER CNN ANCHOR: I'm Bernard Shaw in our cable news Washington bureau. Our staff is large because this news capital of the world is large, complex and ever-changing. The number one challenge is not just to tell you what and why things happen here, but to explain what developments mean to you and how they'll affect your pocketbook. And we've got the kind of professionals who care.
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HEMMER: 2001, Four years later, he's back with us today.
Great to see you friend.
SHAW: Good to be back. Happy birthday.
HEMMER: Happy birthday to you as well. That clip we just watched there, you're sitting at that desk. You left ABC News to come and launch this new venture that no one was really quite sure about where it was going. Did you know behind you, Bernie, that the guy was still putting the newsroom together with that hammer?
SHAW: I was quite aware of that, not only the carpenter, but the painters were off to the right and to the left, and they continued working. Sometimes they popped up in the shot.
HEMMER: What were you thinking as you sat at that desk the first day you went to air?
SHAW: I recall my stomach was tight, and I told myself, 'There's no turning back. You've walked the plank.' And my attitude was, let's make this work.
HEMMER: January of 1991, I think that's really when most people felt that CNN was really working, because that's the first time so many millions around the world paid attention.
Listen to this clip from Baghdad when you were there with John Holliman and Peter Arnett and a few others.
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SHAW: Something is happening outside. Peter Arnett joins me here. Let's describe to our viewers what we're seeing. The skies over Baghdad have been illuminated. Clearly, I've never been there, but this feels like we're in the center of hell.
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HEMMER: As we look back, Bernie, we know that that moment put CNN on the map around the world. But if CNN did not have that moment, where do you think the network would be today?
SHAW: I think CNN still would have evolved to its current status. I have quarreled with the observation that we were put on the map because of the Gulf War in '91, January. We had been on the air for a full decade. We had been reporting stories that brought us credibility, from the assassination attempt on the life of President Reagan to the missile silo, the nuclear warhead that the Air Force was looking for in the woods, to other stories. The 1985 Reagan/Gorbachev summit in Geneva, the first one, that was a monumentally important story, et cetera, et cetera.
HEMMER: Go back to China, too, Tiananmen Square a few years before the Persian Gulf War.
SHAW: Oh, yes, yes.
HEMMER: You were there with a number of CNN staffers, literally witnessing history unfold. At a time when you went there for a completely different story Tiananmen Square broke out. Watch here, and we'll talk about it, too, Bernie.
SHAW: OK.
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SHAW: In my 26 years in this business, I've never seen anything like this. The situation in Tiananmen Square is that, it is a standoff. The people are there. The troops are not there. They were ordered in. They came as far as they could get, five miles outside. They were talked to by the people, persuaded to leave. They turned around, promising never to come back.
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HEMMER: You once said the hotter the story, the cooler you stay. Why is that?
SHAW: Well, I think of myself as a surgeon in an operating room. I have a responsibility, as do all of the women and men at CNN, in reporting breaking news, to be calm, to be dispassionate, to be factual, to be accurate, to be balanced, to be fair.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Bernie Shaw from earlier today. We asked him if he missed it. He said not so much to come back. He enjoys life with his wife, Linda, there in the D.C. Area. Bernie Shaw, former colleague and CNN anchor.
Andy's back in a moment here, "Minding Your Business," with big news about federal student loans and what you can do to save money. Andy has that after this.
Back in a moment.
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O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.
A warning to college alumni. Some student loans are following the upward trend in interest rates. That, plus an early check on Wall Street. Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business" this morning. Hello.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE": Hello. Real money here on these student loans. We'll get to that in a second, Soledad. Let's check in on the markets first of all. Stocks trading up at this hour. What have we got there? Six points. Just a little bit, just a little bit.
I'll tell you some stock that's up that -- more than a little bit, though, is Google. I mean, this just keeps on keeping on. Now up $8 to $285. Yesterday it was up to $275.
HEMMER: Now, that's funny money.
SERWER: This thing's gone from $200 to $285 in a month and a half. Unbelievable. CSFB, the brokerage firm, putting a target of $350 on this stock.
If students would simply have bought this stock a long time ago, you could have funded your entire college education. Let's talk about student loans here for a minute because the rates are going up, as Soledad mentioned, July 1st. And they're going up a whole lot. Almost two full percentage points on the Stafford and the Federal Plus.
And the big news here is about consolidation. You want to consolidate your student loans before July 1st because the rate also goes up two full percentage points. We'll do some math here. If you have $20,000 of loans outstanding, you would save $2,842 over the ten- year life of the loan. If you have $60,000 loans outstanding, those going to graduate school, you would save $8,318 over the life of the loan.
And so you really should...
O'BRIEN: That's a ridiculous increase.
SERWER: It's huge, but it had lagged. They hadn't done it for several years, so they're playing catch-up.
O'BRIEN: Hmm, right. Andy, thanks.
HEMMER: "Question of the Day." Jack's out, Carol's in.
COSTELLO: That's right. We're asking people what news event of the last 25 years mattered most to you, because, of course it's CNN 25th anniversary. And we got some really good ones to wrap up the show.
This is from Michelle from New Hampshire: "My most vivid images of CNN were during the 407 days in 2003 and 2004 that my husband was in Iraq. CNN was on literally morning, noon and night. If you look closely at our TV screen, the CNN logo and the word 'live' are burned into the screen."
HEMMER: Mine, too.
COSTELLO: Isn't that something?
This is from Steve from Tokyo, Japan: "20 or so of us, black, white and Asian, sitting around the TV in a dorm in Tokyo watching the coverage of the L.A. riots. All of us were too stunned, too embarrassed and too ashamed to pass comment."
This R. in Orlando, Florida: "The image that will always remain in my mind is of Gary Tuchman standing at Ground Zero, interviewing a woman who was present during the attack on the World Trade Center. The interview was going well until she recalled the people she saw jumping from the building. She broke down and cried and Gary's empathy, with arms wrapped around her, said more than words ever could."
HEMMER: Wow, that's touching.
O'BRIEN: We feed that this morning.
HEMMER: Thanks, Carol. Tomorrow, we're going to continue our series "Defining Moments" on a similar key, too, there, Carol. "Defining Moments," looking back at the biggest stories of the past 25 years. Tomorrow, we look at the events of 9/11, starting at 7:00 a.m. Eastern time here.
We are back in a moment, right after this, on our anniversary.
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O'BRIEN: Dr. Phil, if you're watching, wake up! Time to go!
There's a special tonight, we should mention, 8:00 Eastern time, to celebrate our 25th anniversary.
HEMMER: (INAUDIBLE), too. Dr. Phil, we'll see you next morning, because we got to go. Happy anniversary to all you guys, huh?
O'BRIEN: Thank you. They got you.
HEMMER: And here's to another 25.
O'BRIEN: That's right.
HEMMER: Thank you, Chad! Here's Fredricka working for Daryn Kagan.
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