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CNN Saturday Morning News

Interview With Regina Lewis

Aired February 08, 2003 - 08:19   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 headlines is getting lots of attention on the Internet. Generating the most interest, the case against Iraq and the shuttle "Columbia" tragedy. Regina Lewis, AOL's online adviser is joining us now with more. Good morning to you, Regina.
REGINA LEWIS, ONLINE ADVISER, AOL: Good morning, Heidi.

COLLINS: We're hearing a lot more about Iraq. I'm sure we'll talk about that in just a moment. But some of the other topics were interesting. Why don't you count us down from five down to number one?

LEWIS: Sure thing. Number five was high school hoops hype, LeBron James, who has been deemed the next Michael Jordan. He's the high school basketball phenomenon. He's raised a few eyebrows, something about a $50,000 Hummer with three TVs in the back. People said, wait a second, you're an amateur. So a lot of people looking and buzzing about that.

Number four is bolstering the economy. That compromised what's going on in Washington, and more personal finance activity. I've never seen this early a jump on online tax planning. A lot of people want refund checks. The single fastest way to get your hands on the cash is to file electronically. So we're seeing very early activity there.

COLLINS: It sounds like LeBron James could help bolster the economy a little bit?

LEWIS: No kidding. And if he can't do it this year, he's got Nike and Adidas waiting to write him $20 million checks. It's quite staggering.

COLLINS: There you go.

LEWIS: Number three was the World Trade Center, the final designs were picked this week, the last two. They expect their final pick later this month, and I think people will continue to follow that.

COLLINS: And then, of course, unfortunately, number two. Just one week ago, we were talking about the shuttle coming down to land, and unfortunately, that of course did not happen. And this generated quite a bit of traffic on the Internet. LEWIS: It was really amazing, Heidi. I have followed a lot of breaking news online. I've never seen anything quite like this. Almost instantly, eyewitness news accounts started pouring in. We've got some representative examples. It was almost this time last week that people from Louisiana and Texas were writing, here's what I'm seeing. I'm hearing loud booms, one after another. And the last line of this particular post is so sobering, and so many people couldn't help but think this or stop in their tracks. "I thought we were at war for a second."

From there, there was some anger and frustration and concern as people started to focus more on the NASA program. A lot of opinions there. Some people saying, hey, wait a second, I'm not a space buff, I'm not an engineer or a scientist, but it doesn't take a ton of thought to think here that NASA's got some safety issues with their shuttle program, and maybe we should stay on the ground until we can ensure the safety of people. And, of course, they're very focused on that now.

And lastly, tributes and condolences. It was an overwhelming online outpouring. In a national tragedy, like this with the introduction of the internet, it's really become the modern way to mourn. You just want to do something, say something. It's almost cathartic. People went to great lengths to do this, as did children in computer classrooms throughout the country; some even wrote poems.


Aired February 8, 2003 - 08:19   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 headlines is getting lots of attention on the Internet. Generating the most interest, the case against Iraq and the shuttle "Columbia" tragedy. Regina Lewis, AOL's online adviser is joining us now with more. Good morning to you, Regina.
REGINA LEWIS, ONLINE ADVISER, AOL: Good morning, Heidi.

COLLINS: We're hearing a lot more about Iraq. I'm sure we'll talk about that in just a moment. But some of the other topics were interesting. Why don't you count us down from five down to number one?

LEWIS: Sure thing. Number five was high school hoops hype, LeBron James, who has been deemed the next Michael Jordan. He's the high school basketball phenomenon. He's raised a few eyebrows, something about a $50,000 Hummer with three TVs in the back. People said, wait a second, you're an amateur. So a lot of people looking and buzzing about that.

Number four is bolstering the economy. That compromised what's going on in Washington, and more personal finance activity. I've never seen this early a jump on online tax planning. A lot of people want refund checks. The single fastest way to get your hands on the cash is to file electronically. So we're seeing very early activity there.

COLLINS: It sounds like LeBron James could help bolster the economy a little bit?

LEWIS: No kidding. And if he can't do it this year, he's got Nike and Adidas waiting to write him $20 million checks. It's quite staggering.

COLLINS: There you go.

LEWIS: Number three was the World Trade Center, the final designs were picked this week, the last two. They expect their final pick later this month, and I think people will continue to follow that.

COLLINS: And then, of course, unfortunately, number two. Just one week ago, we were talking about the shuttle coming down to land, and unfortunately, that of course did not happen. And this generated quite a bit of traffic on the Internet. LEWIS: It was really amazing, Heidi. I have followed a lot of breaking news online. I've never seen anything quite like this. Almost instantly, eyewitness news accounts started pouring in. We've got some representative examples. It was almost this time last week that people from Louisiana and Texas were writing, here's what I'm seeing. I'm hearing loud booms, one after another. And the last line of this particular post is so sobering, and so many people couldn't help but think this or stop in their tracks. "I thought we were at war for a second."

From there, there was some anger and frustration and concern as people started to focus more on the NASA program. A lot of opinions there. Some people saying, hey, wait a second, I'm not a space buff, I'm not an engineer or a scientist, but it doesn't take a ton of thought to think here that NASA's got some safety issues with their shuttle program, and maybe we should stay on the ground until we can ensure the safety of people. And, of course, they're very focused on that now.

And lastly, tributes and condolences. It was an overwhelming online outpouring. In a national tragedy, like this with the introduction of the internet, it's really become the modern way to mourn. You just want to do something, say something. It's almost cathartic. People went to great lengths to do this, as did children in computer classrooms throughout the country; some even wrote poems.