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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Regina Lewis

Aired January 12, 2003 - 09:52   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.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: From the front page to the Web page, what's making news is getting big hits on the Internet. We're finding out what you want to know the most about. So we have Regina Lewis, AOL's online adviser with us this morning to talk about it from New York. Hi, Regina.
REGINA LEWIS, AOL'S ONLINE ADVISER: Hi, Heidi.

COLLINS: Thank you for being here. So what's everybody chatting about?

LEWIS: Well, first, it's Bush's economic plan. And the dialogue there takes two tracks. One partisan, and you can guess how those messages read. And the other is personal, the common denominator being me, myself and I. How is this going to affect my finances? A lot of people discussing and trading secrets on what they're doing to make ends meet in these uncertain times.

COLLINS: I so badly wanted to go to Maurice Gibb after that, but the number two is the North Korea situation, obviously, right?

LEWIS: It's interesting. And Iraq. Just to make a macro observation there, people are pretty decisive about how they feel with the Iraq situation, perhaps following the president's lead. When it comes to North Korea, there are less messages, but they tend to be longer, as if to indicate that maybe that's a little bit more complicated scenario, and you get the sense from reading them that people are still formulating their views on that very sensitive topic.

COLLINS: And obviously asking a lot of questions, trying to clear up their confusion on the situation.

Now, Maurice Gibb. Just learning that this former Bee Gee is dead.

LEWIS: Yes, and here's what's happening there, and this is consistent with the death of any famous person. A lot of people wake up to find this news, A, want to say, OK, wait a second, which Bee Gee was he, and then they want to offer their condolences. And that's happening currently online at Beegeesfanclub.org. America Online will also have an area where they will take condolences, and sometimes those even get sent to the families, so it's a nice way for people to offer their thoughts and well wishes, and also reminisce about their experience with the band. I saw several that said I can remember seeing them in concert. They were very talented.

COLLINS: Yes, probably back when Andy was there too.

Illinois Governor Ryan, I'm sure this had a lot of traffic, right?

LEWIS: This was the biggy. In fact, you're right on with that. The messages are coming in at a rate of about one per second, and we're seeing that pick up this morning and expected to increase going into Monday and Tuesday, which are the biggest online days of the week.

There was an almost instant reaction. And as CNN pointed out yesterday, when the governor made his announcement at Northwestern, it was a fairly controlled environment. For instance, the families of the victims were not there. Of course, that's not the case online, where it's almost like talk radio, but every call gets through. So you see very disparate opinions. People saying hats off to the governor for being so courageous, and others saying, this one from an AOL member in Texas, saying, you know, what's up with you people in the north? Are you kidding? And then some making fun of the situation or the disparity from state to state, saying, you know, heck, if you want to murder someone, go to Illinois, and of course, you know, states like Texas being much tougher on that issue.

A lot of people also talking about the President Bush's tack record as the governor, which, of course, he had very, very different views than Governor Ryan.

COLLINS: Indeed. All right, now, obviously to a much, much lighter topic, reality TV. Can't get enough.

LEWIS: Oh, boy, people really can't. "Joe Millionaire" stole the show this week. The show debuted on Monday on Fox, and, you know, hello. People just couldn't stop talking about it. It was really a water cooler discussion.

Interestingly, it wasn't just women, it was men. A lot of moms online were saying, you know, my sons are so into this show. People were really fascinated about how this one is going to shake out. Some people thought...

COLLINS: And this was really a surprise, right? The "Joe Millionaire" one is the one that the guys were watching this time around, right?

LEWIS: Well, yes, because the whole story is told from the guy's point of view. And one mom online said my son's looking for pointers on how he's going to handle this. You just showed an online poll where 51 percent of people who took the poll -- I'd love to see the male/female split on this -- said that they would believe that Evan really was a millionaire, and, of course, the whole premise of the story is that in the end, they're going to find out he's not.

Now, this guy is so hot, to borrow a phrase from a lot of the producers I was talking with this morning here, I think a lot of people just want to believe it. They can't get enough of him himself.

COLLINS: All right, Regina Lewis, AOL's online adviser, we certainly appreciate it this morning.

LEWIS: Thanks.

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 January 12, 2003 - 09:52   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: From the front page to the Web page, what's making news is getting big hits on the Internet. We're finding out what you want to know the most about. So we have Regina Lewis, AOL's online adviser with us this morning to talk about it from New York. Hi, Regina.
REGINA LEWIS, AOL'S ONLINE ADVISER: Hi, Heidi.

COLLINS: Thank you for being here. So what's everybody chatting about?

LEWIS: Well, first, it's Bush's economic plan. And the dialogue there takes two tracks. One partisan, and you can guess how those messages read. And the other is personal, the common denominator being me, myself and I. How is this going to affect my finances? A lot of people discussing and trading secrets on what they're doing to make ends meet in these uncertain times.

COLLINS: I so badly wanted to go to Maurice Gibb after that, but the number two is the North Korea situation, obviously, right?

LEWIS: It's interesting. And Iraq. Just to make a macro observation there, people are pretty decisive about how they feel with the Iraq situation, perhaps following the president's lead. When it comes to North Korea, there are less messages, but they tend to be longer, as if to indicate that maybe that's a little bit more complicated scenario, and you get the sense from reading them that people are still formulating their views on that very sensitive topic.

COLLINS: And obviously asking a lot of questions, trying to clear up their confusion on the situation.

Now, Maurice Gibb. Just learning that this former Bee Gee is dead.

LEWIS: Yes, and here's what's happening there, and this is consistent with the death of any famous person. A lot of people wake up to find this news, A, want to say, OK, wait a second, which Bee Gee was he, and then they want to offer their condolences. And that's happening currently online at Beegeesfanclub.org. America Online will also have an area where they will take condolences, and sometimes those even get sent to the families, so it's a nice way for people to offer their thoughts and well wishes, and also reminisce about their experience with the band. I saw several that said I can remember seeing them in concert. They were very talented.

COLLINS: Yes, probably back when Andy was there too.

Illinois Governor Ryan, I'm sure this had a lot of traffic, right?

LEWIS: This was the biggy. In fact, you're right on with that. The messages are coming in at a rate of about one per second, and we're seeing that pick up this morning and expected to increase going into Monday and Tuesday, which are the biggest online days of the week.

There was an almost instant reaction. And as CNN pointed out yesterday, when the governor made his announcement at Northwestern, it was a fairly controlled environment. For instance, the families of the victims were not there. Of course, that's not the case online, where it's almost like talk radio, but every call gets through. So you see very disparate opinions. People saying hats off to the governor for being so courageous, and others saying, this one from an AOL member in Texas, saying, you know, what's up with you people in the north? Are you kidding? And then some making fun of the situation or the disparity from state to state, saying, you know, heck, if you want to murder someone, go to Illinois, and of course, you know, states like Texas being much tougher on that issue.

A lot of people also talking about the President Bush's tack record as the governor, which, of course, he had very, very different views than Governor Ryan.

COLLINS: Indeed. All right, now, obviously to a much, much lighter topic, reality TV. Can't get enough.

LEWIS: Oh, boy, people really can't. "Joe Millionaire" stole the show this week. The show debuted on Monday on Fox, and, you know, hello. People just couldn't stop talking about it. It was really a water cooler discussion.

Interestingly, it wasn't just women, it was men. A lot of moms online were saying, you know, my sons are so into this show. People were really fascinated about how this one is going to shake out. Some people thought...

COLLINS: And this was really a surprise, right? The "Joe Millionaire" one is the one that the guys were watching this time around, right?

LEWIS: Well, yes, because the whole story is told from the guy's point of view. And one mom online said my son's looking for pointers on how he's going to handle this. You just showed an online poll where 51 percent of people who took the poll -- I'd love to see the male/female split on this -- said that they would believe that Evan really was a millionaire, and, of course, the whole premise of the story is that in the end, they're going to find out he's not.

Now, this guy is so hot, to borrow a phrase from a lot of the producers I was talking with this morning here, I think a lot of people just want to believe it. They can't get enough of him himself.

COLLINS: All right, Regina Lewis, AOL's online adviser, we certainly appreciate it this morning.

LEWIS: Thanks.

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