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New Day Sunday

Winning Propaganda War with ISIS; Saudi Arabia Postponed Blogger's Flogging; Whitney Houston's Daughter Hospitalized; Prognosis for Super Bowl, Blizzard Warning for Chicago

Aired February 01, 2015 - 06:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: It's 29 minutes past the hour. The U.S., Japan, Jordan and Britain are all condemning what appears to be the beheading of a second Japanese hostage by ISIS. Marchers filled the streets of Tokyo in a silent grieving tribute to Kenji Goto. You see it there.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, he had he gone to Syria to try to save his friend who was also taken by hostage and met the same fate. Japan's prime minister held a cabinet meeting and a show of defiance to the terrorists, he said Japan will continue aiding countries opposing ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHINZO ABE, JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER (through translator): I feel the strongest anger against this atrocious despicable act. I will never forgive the terrorists. Japan will expand further humanitarian support, such as food and medical support, to the region.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Jordan says it's still trying to free a military pilot who was taken hostage by ISIS last year. But it's not clear now whether he is even alive. ISIS released a video that purportedly shows Kenji Goto right before he was killed and then shows his decapitated body. Now, we are not going to show those images. Just this one from that video of Kenji Goto still alive in the captor's hands.

But I do want to bring CNN senior media correspondent and "RELIABLE SOURCES" host Brian Stelter also joining us again is CNN military analyst General Mark Hertling. So, I want to ask both of you, should the media stay away from ISIS propaganda images? Brian, to you first.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: For the most part major news outlets like CNN do stay away from the most gruesome images and they are actually pretty hard to find online unless you know what you're looking for. And that's why in some cases, I think, social network and websites like Twitter and Facebook and YouTube have a harder time with this issue than mainstream news outlets like CNN. You know, for us if we decide as we do not to show the images post- execution, well, then that is that. But on Twitter or Facebook, YouTube or sites like it, anyone can post that video, anyone that sympathizes with ISIS can post those images and it's harder to get them taken down and track them.

PAUL: General Hertling, we know that this propaganda video that they post is their way to try to reel other people into, you know, their life, their cause. Do you think that the U.S. is losing that propaganda war specifically?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I do not, Christi, and in fact, when you take a look at the strategic campaign against ISIS, they are what we call in the military seven different lines of effort. Only two of those are really military lines where it's kinetic operations. And one of the lines is information operations to counter this kind of propaganda that you talk about. It's critically important, to go back to your last question, that the media represents this for what it is. The media in a free country helps inform people and part of the countering of propaganda is informing people what a dastardly organization this is, so I think it's appropriate to continue to tell these stories, but in a correct way.

PAUL: Yeah, Brian, you know, some people say none of the images should be shown of ISIS, and that is just encourages them, possibly inspiring more people to join their cause. What do you say to that?

STELTER: I understand it, but I think a version of being blindfolded or wearing ear muffs does little to actually understand the complex world we live in and actually can do damage to the general's point, can do damage because people don't understand the reality of what is going on. Where we deal with and where it gets complex is in this gray area between, for example, if you see comments on Twitter online or elsewhere, sympathizing with ISIS, well, are those - should those be banned or should there only be messages that advocate for violence or show graphic images that should be banned? Those are the sorts of tough decisions I think that have to be made, but the idea of ignoring the reality altogether that feels much more risky to me.

PAUL: Yeah. So, General Hertling, at the end of the day, how cannot just the U.S. now, but, you know, we heard Japan, Jordan, Britain, how can we collectively win the propaganda war? Because we know that that is fueling and bringing more people into ISIS?

HERTLING: Well, there is that balance Christi. You just brought it up. There will certainly be some recruits that will see these kind of videos as something that belonged to an organization that they might want to join. First of all, you have to prevent that. So we have to counter that piece of it. But the other pieces, there's millions more people now who have seen what has happened to Mr. Goto who are going to say -- who are going to be better informed about how ugly and horrific this organization is. So it is that balancing act between gaining support for the fight versus what ISIS might gain support for jihadi and then you have to stop that with one of the other lines of effort and that is stopping the recruiting campaign. Yes, I think we can counter that.

PAUL: OK, good to know. Gentleman, Mark Hertling, we appreciate it, and Brian, real quickly, what do you have coming up on your show today?

STELTER: Well, we are talking about this topic and about the language of terror. Some news outlets are choosing not to use the word "terrorist" or the words "extremists". So, we are going to talk about those decisions that are made on "Reliable Sources" there this morning.

PAUL: All ready, good to know. Brian Stelter and General Mark Hertling, always appreciate it. Thank you.

STELTER: Thanks.

BLACKWELL: Authorities in Saudi Arabia have once again postponed the flogging of a blogger. Raif Badawi is being punished for insulting Islam on his website. Now, he was injured after the initial set of lashes and the second set of 50 lashes has been postponed several times. CNN's Fareed Zakaria set down with President Obama during his trip to India, and he asked him why the U.S. is so closely allied with such a regime.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is important for us to take into account existing relationships, the existing alignments within a very complicated Middle East, to recognize that we have strategic interests in common with Saudi Arabia, and that even as we work on those common interests, for example, countering terrorist organizations, that we are also encouraging them to move in new directions. Not just for our sake, but, more importantly, for their sake.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: And to watch the full interview with President Obama, watch Fareed Zakaria, GPS, this morning at 10:00 a.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

PAUL: We have gone the latest round of talks between representatives of Ukraine, Russia and rebel envoys have -- had failed, essentially, yielded no results thus far. The talks were aimed at ending months of deadly violence and fighting. A previous ceasefire agreement negotiated in Minsk last year, crumbled long ago. And in the meantime, there has been heavy fighting between separatist forces and Ukrainian troops near Donetsk.

Officials say at least 12 civilians and 15 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed just this weekend.

BLACKWELL: Still ahead, with daughter of singer Whitney Houston in a medically induced coma this morning, we want to talk about her potential state of mind and especially considering the disturbing similarities to her mother's death. We will talk after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Mortgage rates were mixed this past week. Here is a look. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: The daughter of the late singer Whitney Houston is in a medically induced coma this morning. Bobbi Kristina Brown was found unresponsive in a bathtub in her home in Atlanta at Roswell, actually. Investigators say they have found nothing to indicate that this was drug or alcohol related. They have declared it a medical incident. Still what could have been Brown's mental state, especially with -- this all taking place so close to the three-year anniversary of her mother's death? That's what we are going to talk about this morning. I want to bring in psychologist Dr. Erik Fisher. So, we don't know the particulars of her mental state, but I want you to listen to what Bobbi Kristina Brown told Oprah Winfrey in this 2012 interview and then we will talk about it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOBBI KRISTINA BROWN, WHITNEY HOUSTON'S DAUGHTER: I can hear her voice, you know, in spirit talking to me and telling me, you know, keep moving, baby, you know, I'm right here, I got you, you know?

OPRAH WINFREY: I got you?

BROWN: Famous words.

OPRAH WINFREY: That's what she said all the time?

BROWN: Yes.

OPRAH WINFREY: Yes.

BROWN: She is always with me. I can always feel her. I can always feel her with me.

OPRAH WINFREY: Is that when you hear in your head, "I've got you"?

BROWN: That's all I hear. That's all I hear.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: You know, listening to that now, it's a bit eerie. Back then, it probably was reassuring for an audience to hear that her mother is still speaking to her, but to hear it now after these current events, what stands out to you?

ERIK FISHER, PSYCHOLOGIST AND AUTHOR: Well, I think we always need signs of support and when somebody leaves us that is so important, we want to have that feeling that they are still there. Could that actually be her mom still supporting her? Possibly. I think we have to see that. She needs a support system in her life right now and the role she played or seemed to play with her parents and care taking for them through their years of drug use is a situation to look at what was her role after her mom passed away and how did she find a new role in life and what has been her role in life since then?

BLACKWELL: I want to be clear that we do not know her mental state, but I wonder coming up maybe a week and a half, Whitney Houston was found on February 11TH.

FISHER: Right.

BLACKWELL: Almost at the three-year anniversary. What is the impact of these deaths, the anniversaries on family members, especially the son or daughter of the deceased?

FISHER: Well, having been through the loss of my brother years ago, anniversaries were tough for the first five years or so, and then after then, even then, you still have unconscious reminders of those anniversaries. It's difficult because it brings up memories of their loss and also brings up memories of what life was like when that person was there. So she's missing her mother. And I believe there was a twitter account about I miss you, mommy, that that time, this time now is going to bring up so much emotion that if she is not able to manage what she is feeling, she did have anxiety attacks, she was hospitalized for anxiety after her mother's death and she's had some other, it seems like ongoing issues with anxiety, it's very difficult for somebody to manage those situations to the point to where we don't know was she just wanting to be with her mommy, you know, and be rejoined with her in some way and that is what we don't know.

BLACKWELL: Especially the circumstances. Whitney Houston found in a bathtub, Bobbi Kristina now found face down in this bathtub. And I wonder, this lifetime movie was just aired. Huge audience. A lot of promotion of the movie. What is the impact of something like that? That is something that is specific to celebrity families but what do you believe the impact could be?

FISHER: Well, we don't know if she saw it, we don't know what she was aware of in that, in the promotion even. However, even those things when you know this something is being aired that involves you and your family and somebody who is not there anymore, again, revivifying past events and experiences, was her childhood traumatic? A lot of times what you have happened, and children who grow up in lives of celebrity, is their parents often are not able to really be there for them in the way they need to be. The attachments to their parents are somewhat bound on how are they able to be there for their parents, not often how their parents are able to be there for them. So, this whole airing of this movie could have brought up a lot of emotions, a lot of memories, feelings that she might not wanted to feel. Often when somebody passes away, we want to see them in their ideal life self, not the real self and if she saw some things that were portrayed that either didn't go with what she was brought up, that kind of brought up a lot of internal motions but as well she saw things that did bring up feelings of how it felt to be there and that could also brought up that much more pain.

BLACKWELL: Yeah, and of course, we are all here hoping for the best for Bobbi Kristina Brown. I will be heading out to the North Fulton hospital to continue the reporting throughout the afternoon and evening.

Dr. Fisher, thank you so much.

FISHER: Thank you. BLACKWELL: Christi?

PAUL: Yeah, well said. Certainly thinking about her and keeping her and her family in thoughts and prayers.

It is Sunday and a big day I know for a lot of you sports fans. We are going to take you live to Phoenix to tell you what is going on there right now. Also, snow plows are going on right now in streets throughout the Midwest. More snow is on the way. We will tell you how bad it is and where exactly it's going to hit.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: I know you've been waiting for it! And we are roughly 12 hours away from kickoff to Super Bowl XLIX, New England Patriots /Seattle Seahawks. They won that title and Andy Scholes is live in Glendale, Arizona with us right now. So, it is just edging toward the five o'clock hour for you. What a long day you got going on and the lights are already blaring behind you.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, a long day, Christi, but very exciting day. And what a great setup we have out here.

And you know, after a week, we didn't get to talk much about the game on the field. That's all over with its finally time to get to playing on the field. Patriots versus Seahawks. Should have a great game. Both teams looking for milestone wins today. Tom Brady looking to win his fourth Super Bowl, only two other quarterbacks have ever done that. The Seahawks, meanwhile, trying to win back-to-back Super Bowls and when it comes to winning big games, no one does it better than Russell Wilson. The Seahawks quarterback, he's got a calm demeanor and that is helped him to a perfect 10-0 record against Super Bowl winning quarterbacks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUSSELL WILSON, SEATTLE QUARTERBACK: It's a championship mindset of being able to -- being able to focus and also relax and in a very, very, very, tough situation, you know? And so, I don't feel those situations. You know that. There is no pressure there for me. My dad was sick and he was about to, you know, about to pass away, you know, that is pressure on my mom, you know? That's pressure. That is real-life pressure. This I get to play the game of football because I love it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: So, there are all kinds of fun things to do out here this week during Super Bowl week. I got the privilege to learn how to cook Papa John's pizza from (INAUDIBLE) himself. He told me he expects to sell more than a million pizzas today. That is just incredible. Now, the patriarch of the most famous football family in the world, Archie Manning, he also helped -- show me the ropes, and then he gave me his picks for today's game.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ARCHIE MANNING, 2-TIME NFL PRO-BOWL SELECTION: I'm terrible. My wife says, whatever I predict, go the other way. But I say coming down to a field goal, but I'll pick them just because it's been so long since they won one, I'll pick the Patriots.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: All right. So Archie Manning has got the Patriots. Patriots are a slight favorite in today's game, guys. They are a one- point favorite. According to pregame.com, an estimated $10 billion is going to be wagered on today's game. And you can only -- you can bet on much more than just the outcome. You can bet on the coin toss. You can bet on what Katy Perry is going to be wearing at halftime. And my personal favorite prop bet that you can do today, guys, will Bill Belichick be caught smiling on the sidelines during the broadcast?

(LAUGHTER)

SCHOLES: No is a heavy favorite, by the way.

PAUL: You think? Well, I think that just depends on how the game goes, right?

SCHOLES: Yeah. Maybe catch a smile near the end if the Patriots are about to win.

PAUL: Exactly. Andy, have fun with it out there. Thank you so much.

Victor?

BLACKWELL: All right, so there's a lot of fun there, but not so much fun in the northeast and the Midwest because if you're in that part of the country, your Super Bowl Sunday is going to be a snowy one. We have got your weather forecast coming up. Stay with us. Also in our next hour, New York is the latest state to be on high alert for the measles. A college student was on a busy Amtrak train and now has the disease. We will talk to the health department.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Coming up on the top of the hour. But first, this week's ones to watch. We are focusing on a Vietnamese architect whose designs are famous for restoring tropical beauty to Vietnam cities.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ho Chi Minh City, home to 7.99 million residents and counting.

Vo Trong Nghia has a master plan to reintroduce tropical green beauty for the urban sprawl of Vietnam's overcrowded cities. He has been chosen by international architect David Adjaye as showing great promise.

VO TRONG NGHIA: In Ho Chi Min City, we just have one square meter greenery per person. It's lowest in Asia. For example, Hong Kong, they have more than 50 square meter per person.

DAVID ADJAYE, ARCHITECT: When you hear that stat that is so depressing. That is so depressing. And it's actually hard to believe that, you know, in the '70s there was a time when people thought that cutting down trees in cities was a way to get around in the city.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hidden from the street, this is the Vo Trong's house for trees, five individual rooms which double as huge plant pots for the trees on top. By separating the bedrooms, bathroom, living space and the meditation room, the building compels its occupants to pass through the canopy of trees outside.

VO TRONG NGHIA: Sometimes we just make a question that is how many green, how many green -- how many big tree can we give back to our earth so that question and the answer is really simple.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Watch the full show at CNN.com/onestowatch.

PAUL: So, if you're still buried under snow from last week's nor'easter, sorry. You have to get ready for more! Yes, it's been elevated to a blizzard warning now in Chicago and this isn't just a Chicago event right, Ivan? I mean this is something that's going to continue to move on?

IVAN CABRERA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's going to move on to the east, but right now it is definitely a Chicago event. Strongest storm that they have had all year. Look, I'll start with flight explorer just to give you an idea. This is the activity across the northeast. You see all the planes that clustered across? That's normal, but look at the snow flying in Chicago, not a lot going on there, and that's because we've had 1,300 flight cancellations so far for just today. So, if you're traveling to the Midwest, patience. You are probably not going to get there in time. Now, blizzard warnings have been posted for Chicago. The difference between a blizzard and a winter storm warning is that you're involving very heavy snow coming down very heavily. The precipitation rates are really high and then, of course, the wind. 40-mile-an-hour winds, whiteout conditions as we head through later this afternoon.

We'll move east because that's where the storm is going through Pennsylvania into New York and then in across the northeast. We will track it for you here. It stays all snow. I'm not worried about the forecast in Chicago. We are thinking a good foot to 16 inches in some areas. But as we take you further to the east, by the time we get into Monday, there will be warm enough air, guys, where I think New York is going to mix, turn over to rain, some freezing rain, that's going to be a mess for the morning commute. And Boston does get several more inches of accumulation and winter storm warnings posted there as well. I think New York will be OK. They have to be careful as you're traveling and probably not need the shovels there.

PAUL: Good to know.

BLACKWELL: Enough for Boston. Enough for Boston. CABRERA: Enough, but it's more.

BLACKWELL: Yes. All right. Thank you, Ivan.

PAUL: We have so much more starting. We are so glad you're starting your morning with us here at NEW DAY.

BLACKWELL: Next hour of your NEW DAY starts now.