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Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien

Winter Storm Moves up East Coast; Women in the Workplace; Interview with Radhika Jones; Meeting Mila; Interview with Chris Stark

Aired March 07, 2013 - 08:30   ET

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

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: One of the more disturbing allegations in this complaint involves one student she tells the story of how she reported allegations she had been raped and told by administrators that, quote, "rape is like football, you take a look back at it and wonder what you could have done differently." Well the complainants here are saying that women were made to feel that administrators fostered an environment of silence and hostility toward cases of alleged rape. There was a 34-page brief submitted originally in January by these women to the department of education seeking a civil rights investigation and now they have it and they've had to submit another 100 pages of allegations. The department deciding they're going to look into this. The university, for its response, not having a lot to say at this point, but that the university has received the letter from the department and will respond appropriately to their requests and will cooperate fully.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: David Mattingly for us thanks.

Other stories making news we have John Berman's got that.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Soledad. We're going to start with that storm that's just battering the east coast. New video into CNN of this east coast storm right now, this is Sea Bright, New Jersey, where the water has risen up to people's doors already and the storm is not over yet. Winds of 20-30 miles and hour and gusts up to 50 miles an hour will batter the east coast into Friday. These onshore winds will increase high tides to flood levels affecting those still recovering from superstorm Sandy and snow showers will continue into tonight through tomorrow morning.

Karen Maginnis is live at the weather center in Atlanta. Karen, what is in store for too day?

KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It looks like the northeast and New England will be battered by the gusty winds. So the force of the winds will produce heavier waves and at high tide, this is when we'll see the wave heights three to five feet above where they should be and in those low lying areas that spells out coastal flooding. There could be some beach erosion but in addition to that, we're still looking at this nor'easter, atypical though it may be, to produce several inches of snowfall for New York City and Long Island spreading up to the New England coast, for Boston, four to six inches of snowfall. Yesterday you may remember in Washington, D.C., we were looking for half a foot maybe as much as a foot of snowfall. Didn't materialize there but well to the west of that I-95 corridor, they did see about 20 inches, but right now winds along the coast gusting up to 50 miles an hour. John?

BERMAN: Karen our thanks to you.

Now a CNN exclusive. Three weeks after Olympian Oscar Pistorius shot and killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steencamp, her family is finally speaking out. This is the first time we're hearing from them since Pistorius was freed on bail and now awaiting trial for her murder. Her uncle says he want to meet with Pistorius but not out of anger, he says.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE STEENKAMP, REEVA'S UNCLE: I would like to be face-to-face with him and forgive him, forgive him what he's done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The uncle says this is his way of finding peace and says the Steenkamp family will not attend the Pistorius murder trial.

Police in Bakerfield, California, say no charges will be filed in the case of an 87-year-old woman who died after a worker at an independent living facility refused to perform CPR. The 911 operator begged the staff member, who said she was a nurse, to perform CPR on the dying woman.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I understand if you, your facility is not willing to do that. Give the phone to that passerby or that stranger and have them. I need, this woman is not breathing enough. She's going to die if we don't get this started, do you understand?

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BERMAN: The company that owns Glenwood Gardens said it is conducting an internal investigation into the incident. The worker who spoke to the 911 operator is now taking a voluntary leave of absence.

A controversial ban on abortions after 12 weeks is now the law in Arkansas, where state legislators voted Wednesday to override Governor Mike Beebe's veto. The new law is the most restrictive early abortion ban in the country. Governor Beebe said he vetoed the bill because it blatantly contradicts the United States constitution. The Center for Reproductive Rights and the Arkansas ACLU say they will challenge this law in federal court.

So you don't have to worry about him anymore. Mitt Romney has landed on his feet, the former Republican presidential candidate is returning to the private sector taking a role in an investment firm, Solamere Capital, that is run by his son, Tag. He'll spend about a week out of every month advising the firm.

O'BRIEN: That's a nice little gig. BERMAN: He's made some money doing it. And I'd listen to what Mitt Romney has to say about private equity.

O'BRIEN: You could call the COO of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg many things, but don't call her bossy. It's one of the insights into the woman who broke up the Facebook boy's club. It's all detailed in a new "Time Magazine" interview.

Radhika Jones is the executive editor of "Time." It's nice to have you with us. I love Sheryl Sandberg's book, because I think it's an interesting dive into sort of what women face as they try to be successful in a corporate culture and successful at work overall. What was your takeaway from the interview?

RADHIKA JONES, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "TIME": We met with Sheryl early on to talk about this story, and this is something she's incredibly passionate about. She is an exceptional case, she's incredibly intelligent and competent person who has risen to the top of the field where you don't se a lot of women period, let alone leadership positions. She's passionate about bringing other women up with her and about advising women who are at the beginnings of their careers to be ambitious, be active, and stay in. Because what she sees and I think we all know this, more women attend college than men. There are plenty of women are moving forward. But the place where the problem comes in is at the top. There's an ambition gap and there are structural and institutional barriers to women I think we're all aware of. Her focus in this conversation is how have women internalized some of the barriers and are they sometimes holding themselves back.

O'BRIEN: Here's what she writes:

"The sisters are doing some of it to themselves, for a variety of reasons they're not aiming high enough. They're underestimating their abilities, they're doing too much housework and child care, they're compromising their career goals for partners and children even when such partners and children do not yet exist. We hold ourselves back in ways both big and small by lacking self-confidence, by not raising our hands, and by pulling back when we should be leaning in."

She writes. This is from Brenda Luscombein "Time Magazine." You know it's interesting when she talks about that ambition gap that's been a lightning rod for criticism. Some have said, oh you blame the victim, it's the women's fault, the sisters are doing it to themselves.

JONES: Sure. And I think the important thing to keep in mind this is a large conversation and people take bites out of it. You were talking during the break about Anne Marie Slaughter's piece, why women still can't have it all. She focused more on this structural barriers that keep women from rising sometimes to leadership positions but I think Sheryl's point is look these things exist. If there's anything that I can do that's in my control as a woman to make sure that I'm not being left behind for leadership positions, why on earth wouldn't I try to do those things and be aware of them.

ROCHARD SOCARIDES, NEWYORKER.COM: One of her important points is also to encourage women to see themselves as the leader of organizations. She's not criticizing women for not thinking about that but encouraging people to think that way.

O'BRIEN: She says women don't necessarily lean in to their career careers. I've seen this. I mean I've seen this in my life, I've seen it in many of my girlfriends. I think it's a combination of the structural and the personal. It always is, clearly.

JONES: And Sheryl's book is very personal. She talks about her own experience. She talks about women she's advised and hired whether directly or indirectly in her jobs at Google and at Facebook. And she really brings those experiences to bear.

SOCARIDES: She has specific advice to women about what they should do.

O'BRIEN: And interesting comments about Marissa Meyer as well.

JONES: Yes, well again this is a big conversation everyone gets bites out of and there was a little firestorm about --

O'BRIEN: Let me read you a bite. This is Sheryl Sandberg in "Time Magazine" talking about Marissa Meyer CEO of Yahoo!.

"No one knows what happened there," talking specifically about the work from home policy that's been reversed. She says "I think flexibility is important for women and for men, but there are some jobs that are superflexible and some that aren't. Regardless, she believes no man who ordered the same policies would come under fire the way Meyer has."

I agree. I think we pick apart Melissa Meyer who has taken over a struggling company and so far has risen the stock price 46 percent. Instead of championing her, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick.

JONES: That's right and Sheryl is aware a lot of this also has to do with perception. So she talks a lot about the ah-ha moment for her which was this 2003 case study about an entrepreneur who was very successful and in one version of the study the entrepreneur is named Howard and in the other version of the study the entrepreneur is named Heidi. And when people were asked to evaluate the character of the person, would you like to work with this person, Howard came off great, successful, ambitious. Heidi is like well, she seems very aggressive.

O'BRIEN: Heidi is that thing that rhymes with witch.

JONES: Yes. So there's as Sheryl says likability and success for women don't often correlate. And that's a problem.

O'BRIEN: Her book is an amazing must read. And I think it's a great must-read along with the Anne Marie Slaughter article from the Atlantic because they're both really great insights into women's role in the workplace and just very blunt discussions.

JONES: By the way they are must reads for men not just for women.

SOCARIDES: There was great advice for everybody. She says you have to be the smartest person, most organized person and also show empathy. I think that reminds me of a lot of successful women and men.

O'BRIEN: Ahead on STARTING POINT, thanks, Radhika we appreciate that.

The Fox News chief, Roger Ailes, says President Obama is lazy, the vice president, Joe Biden, is dumb as an ashtray. He's got a new book and we'll show you some of the pieces from this new interview.

And then meet the radio personality from the UK whose interview with the lovely actress, Mila Kunis, has charmed the internet. He's going to join us ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Fox News president Roger Ailes reveals some of his true feelings for President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. Excerpts from his biographer Zev Chafets' new book were revealed in a new issue of "Vanity Fair."

Here's what he said about the president. "Obama's the one who has never worked a day in his life, he never earned a penny that wasn't public money. How many fund-raisers does he attend every week? How often does he play basketball and golf? I wish I had that kind of time. He's lazy. And the media won't report that."

He also had some choice words for Joe Biden. "I have a soft spot for Joe Biden. I like him but he's dumb as an ashtray."

That's the leaking of the details so everyone goes out and buys this biography.

SOCARIDES: Not so nice.

O'BRIEN: You think? That's just the beginning clearly.

WILL CAIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Everyone's latching on to the fact he called the president lazy which, you could say at the least as you said, Richard, is not nice. But Roger Ailes did go on to say that I'm only quoting from the president directly and he talks about an interview that President Obama gave to Barbara Walters, where he said I grew up in Hawaii it was pretty laid back.

Roger Ailes wasn't coming up with that on his own. He made a point of making that.

O'BRIEN: Okay so the pretty laid back to lazy is a little bit of a leap to me.

BERMAN: Barack Obama used the word lazy.

CAIN: He did. Barack Obama said that he feels a laziness in himself he attributes to his laid back upbringing in Hawaii.

O'BRIEN: It'll be interesting to see -- I mean what I love about it is when they leaking these quotes from biographies because I think Roger Ailes will be fascinating to read about. And follow up -- BERMAN: Well, what's happening here is there's two coming out. One is the authorized biography where these quotes are coming up that you're mentioning, and the unauthorized biography and Roger Ailes is trying to trump the author unauthorized biography with the authorized one.

O'BRIEN: Which will be more interesting do you think?

BERMAN: I think they're both obviously pretty darn interesting.

O'BRIEN: Oh, interesting.

All right, still ahead on STARTING POINT. You can meet this young man, a British radio personality, he's got ten minutes to prepare for an interview with the actress Mila Kunis, they just spring it on him, goes in completely unprepared, wings it and he's amazing. We'll share some of that interview with you straight ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS STARK, BRITISH RADIO PERSONALITY: Did you enjoy being ugly for once because --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: From the fast track to the future --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here in this lab, we can see animals learning to communicate with all the animals just by sending brain signals. That's what we call a brain to brain (inaudible). We have people that have speech impediment because of strokes, or tumors or lesions on the brain, and this is a prototype of what could be a new way for these patients to communicate.

GUPTA: Miguel Nicolailus (ph) on the "Next List" this Sunday at 2:30 Eastern.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: So put yourself in this position. You're a young man who's given ten minutes notice that you are being sent to interview actress Mila Kunis. That's what happened to radio personality Chris Stark. The resulting interview for the BBC was hysterical and it's gone viral. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STARK: Seriously I'm petrified.

MILA KUNIS, ACTRESS: So far you're doing a great job.

STARK: Really? KUNIS: No.

STARK: It's a -- it's a bit of an unnatural environment I'm used to being down to my local pub with the boys.

KUNIS: This is the same.

STARK: I cannot wait to tell them about it's like I get massive blood points for it.

KUNIS: Do you get like a free drink out of this?

STARK: I hope so.

KUNIS: I hope so too buddy.

STARK: Would you like, I mean, you could come join us. Do you ever like do you -- have you ever been to a football match, and we go to go see a (inaudible). It's a nice day we could go to like an Hernando's before.

KUNIS: What Hernando's?

STARK: It's like a chicken restaurant.

KUNIS: That's great.

STARK: So if -- I mean if you wanted to come along.

KUNIS: I do.

STARK: Oh I can get you a ticket.

KUNIS: We're having some chicken and we're going to go see a championship league game.

STARK: Mario Teko is a -- he's getting married soon.

KUNIS: Oh good for him.

STARK: And he did start to get like a plus one to his wedding.

KUNIS: Yes.

STARK: And now I think about it I'm not going to get many more chances to do this.

KUNIS: You're asking me to go with you to this wedding?

STARK: I was just wondering.

KUNIS: Well I've gone to a marine ball so what's another.

STARK: This is what I've heard.

(END VIDEO CLIP) O'BRIEN: Oh my goodness Chris Stark is the interviewer for BBC Radio 1 in London he joins us this morning. It's nice to have you. That interview that went on and on and on was absolutely hysterical. How did you get the gig of interviewing Mila Kunis when you clearly weren't really talking about the movie she was pitching?

STARK: No it was crazy. Basically I work for a radio show in the U.K. and the guy I work for I think just thought it would be really funny to send me. He usually does all the interviews and I just do little bits of his show and he -- yes I think he just thought it would be really funny to send me out and see what happened.

O'BRIEN: So they gave you ten minutes right, to prepare?

STARK: Yes, yes.

O'BRIEN: So what did you do in your ten minutes?

STARK: Well I panicked because he told me that I was going to see Mila Kunis. So I -- there was a cab waiting outside and I got inside the cab and I tried to think of just what -- what questions can you ask a mega star? And then -- and then I got to the hotel where it was at, it was just really a posh hotel. I mean, I shouldn't have even been in the hotel to be honest and -- and -- and then yes I was put in front of Mila Kunis. And it all just seems like a bit of a blur. I'm nervous thinking about it.

O'BRIEN: She seemed awesome. What kind -- could you tell how it was going? I mean did it feel like it was going well or did it feel like it was going badly?

STARK: No, in my eyes it felt like it was going badly. I remember the -- the first thing I asked her, I tried to give her like a compliment because she's gorgeous, she's really hot. So I tried to say I think I said something along the lines of was it hard playing someone ugly.

And I think it just came across very badly. Because I didn't mean to be saying, I didn't mean to use the word "ugly", I meant to be saying you know, you're hot I fancy you. But I just worded it in a very weird kind of way. And even when I was saying it I was thinking this isn't right. You've done -- to be honest I just wanted the ground to swallow me up sort of take me there.

O'BRIEN: In the middle of the -- in the middle of the interview it sounds like the PR person kind of tried to gently get it all back on track and -- and then Mila basically did a self-interview actually about the actual movie that she was there to talk about. I'm going to play a little bit of how that went. Listen.

STARK: Ok.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STARK: I should get back to the proper --

KUNIS: Why? This is just a better conversation.

STARK: Are you serious?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He has to -- he has a job to do. You know, he's been working at the --

KUNIS: Talk about the movie? Let me just give you answers I know you're going to ask. I play a character named Theodora. She's the youngest out of the three witches, she's very naive. She's very sweet actually.

You see what happens is she's a first character that Oz meets when he lands in this magical world. She falls madly in love with him, he breaks her heart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: That, I have to say, I think overall was one of the best most interesting interviews I've ever seen with Mila Kunis and about any movie ever.

STARK: Really?

O'BRIEN: Yes. You know, you learned a lot more about her in your style of interview than sort of the rote answers that she was giving because that's kind the same questions are asked when they do this kind of junket.

What was your big takeaway? I know you kind of -- you asked her out. How did that go?

STARK: Well I haven't heard of her. But I suppose that's the long and short of it really. But for me it was just an amazing experience and I don't know. People -- I think what was maybe nice is she just made me feel really comfortable and then I could just chat to her about things that are sort of, I was interested in.

And at the time I thought because there was all these people sitting around sort of staring at me. I thought I was doing the wrong thing but looking back maybe it was nice to just have a chat with someone about, you know, normal things or normal in my world anyway. You know, like about what my football club and this chicken restaurant Nando's where me and my mates go a lot or --

O'BRIEN: She loved it. I thought that was awesome. I thought it was a really terrific interview.

Chris Stark thank you for talking with us this morning. We appreciate it. Anybody who wants to see the whole interview, of course, has gone viral. You can watch it online. Thanks, Chris.

STARK: No, thank you so much.

O'BRIEN: You bet.

Interview -- have you guys had a chance to see this? WILL CAIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: No, just those clips.

O'BRIEN: You can just watch. Oh my goodness. It goes on forever. But it's all about his life and his pub and his drinking and what he likes -- nothing about the movie at all.

RICHARD SOCARIDES: I mean it's so great because there's so much authenticity to it.

BERMAN: Exactly.

SOCARIDES: Again, what we want on TV is people being authentic. And he's so revealing about himself and she's so honest about herself.

CAIN: That's right. His authenticity forces her to be authentic. They get so used to these like patterned formulaic interview that she actually illustrated. She did it for you -- a one-man version of it that some odd character swings a hard left-hand turn brings the real person out.

O'BRIEN: She was talking about she used to be a bartender, I guess. And how she was talking about how quickly she can drink beer.

F1: I'm wondering if she can start doing some celebrity profiles. She definitely has a (inaudible) attitude.

O'BRIEN: Isn't she great? She just came across as really real.

SOCARIDES: I want to see the John Berman interview with her.

BERMAN: I can tell, I would like to be that kid.

(inaudible)

O'BRIEN: Yes. You have a little crush on her.

SOCARIDES: Have you ever asked anybody out that you interviewed before you were married?

BERMAN: I've been married a long time, Richard, so no, never.

O'BRIEN: I've been asked out at the end of interviews.

SOCARIDES: I've -- there've been people I've wanted to ask out after the show, yes.

O'BRIEN: Really?

CAIN: Let's get a list during the break.

O'BRIEN: We might be able to make that happen. Hang on.

All right. We have to take a break. "End Point" is up next we're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) O'BRIEN: Welcome back. It's time for "End Point". Will Cain is going to kick it up for us.

CAIN: You know, in contrast to this posh dinner taking place in Washington, D.C. between the President and the Republican senators the most important conversation was taking place over candy bars on the senate floor last night. It was Rand Paul's filibuster of the White House's drone policy. We must explore where the limits, where the boundaries are on this seemingly boundariless war on terror. We have to find out.

Can Americans be killed? What are the legal limits of the war on terror?

O'BRIEN: It was kind of a one-way conversation but I agree. I thought it was really interesting that while he was filibustering he had a lot of great information in raising the issue as opposed to just sort of spewing stuff which sometimes they do in those filibusters. It was fascinating. Radhika, what do you have for us?

JONES: I want to say that the most important conversation going on this week is happening on our Sheryl Sandberg. She will be a pivotal figure in all conversations going forward about women and leadership and success and ambition. And if you read our cover you will learn about her and her perspective and get a lot of great lessons about all those struggles.

O'BRIEN: She's a fascinating figure. I'm a big fan of her book called "Lean In". You get to wrap it up for us this morning. Richard what you got?

SOCARIDES: I think both of those things fascinating topics. I mean I think it's great that Sheryl --

O'BRIEN: You're such a diplomat.

SOCARIDES: No, I think it's great that Sheryl is on the cover. I think it's great that she's the new face of feminism. I think there's a lot of learning in that for everyone, what she has to say in her book. I'm looking forward to reading her book.

And I think Rand Paul who I never agree with about anything, I think it was great that he actually went on the floor and did an old- fashioned filibuster.

O'BRIEN: 12 hours, 52 minutes.

SOCARIDES: He only lasted 12 hours. It was like -- it wasn't even close to the record but good for him.

O'BRIEN: We're out of time. We'll see everybody back here tomorrow morning.

Let's get right to "CNN NEWSROOM" with Don Lemon begins right now.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, a chilling reminder of the cold war. This morning, North Korea shocks the world and warns the U.S. --