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On the Story
Bird Flu Fears; Rumsfeld Rips Into Reporters
Aired December 10, 2005 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: "On the Story" is coming up in just a moment, but first, a look at what's happening right now in the news.
The fate of four western hostages in Iraq, and one of them is an American. Their captors set a deadline to kill them and that deadline has passed. No word yet on the hostages' condition.
Legendary comedian and actor Richard Pryor is dead. He suffered from multiple sclerosis since 1986. But his wife tells CNN he died of a heart attack today and died at a southern California hospital. Richard Pryor was 65.
Also, word today that Eugene McCarthy has died. The former Minnesota Senator and five-time presidential candidate died in his sleep in a Washington area nursing home. He was 89 years old.
Now, coming up at 8 p.m. Eastern, "CNN 25: Then and Now." A look at the people who made headlines and shaped events at the last quarter century, and what they're doing now.
That's what's happening right now in the news. I'm Carol Lin. At 10:00 tonight, I'm going to speak with the head writer. Right now -- actually we're going to be talking to Richard Pryor's friends and family and tell you more about his passing and his life and his legacy.
But right now, "On the Story," including Dr. Sanjay Gupta's firsthand report on the Bird Flu.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is CNN and we are on the story. From the campus of the George Washington University in the heart of the nation's capital, our correspondents bring you the story behind the stories they're covering.
"On the Story" of bird flu and a trip to its breeding ground in Southeast Asia.
Jamie McIntyre talks about Defense Secretary Rumsfeld ripping into reporters.
Then Dana Bash is "On the Story" of President Bush admitting that Iraq reconstruction is not going as well as hoped.
In New Orleans, Susan Roesgen looks at recovery there and how jittery residents are buying guns.
Brook Anderson is on the entertainment story. The Grammy nominees. The Mariah Carey comeback.
And Internet report, Jacki Schechner, knows you can look anything up online, but can you trust it.
Welcome, I'm Ali Velshi. With me here Dana Bash and Jamie McIntyre. All of our correspondents will be taking questions from our studio audience, drawn from Washingtonians, college students and visitors from around the country and around the world.
Now straight to our senior medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. He's been reporting on the risk of a Bird Flu pandemic for months. He's just back from Southeast Asia. He went directly to the source.
Let's have a look at Sanjay's "Reporter's Notebook."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: We decided to go to a place where Bird Flu actually exists in human beings. People have died of Bird Flu in this country. People have died, certainly, of Bird Flu in this region of the world.
We want to see, what does it do to people. How bad is it? And, I think, by being on the ground in Southeast Asia and seeing these chickens and these human beings and the doctors that are taking care of both, firsthand, gives us a sense of how to get prepared.
What we're seeing her is sort of interesting. We're seeing some of what we see in the United States, which is that some people appear to really care about this and are truly frightened by it. And some people just don't think it's going to happen at all.
One of the things about working for CNN, and certainly we want to try and inform the world public about what could be a world health crisis. And actually getting on the ground in Southeast Asia, as a doctor, being able to go in the hospitals, talk to fellow medical colleagues, and learn about what they're thinking and what lessons they've learned, that we can take back to the United States and around the world.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, joining us live from Atlanta.
Sanjay, always good to see you. And we are going to be covering the story continually. And you've got a special that we're going to tell our audience about.
But first, I want to ask one of our audience members to ask you their question.
Your name and where you're from?
ELIZABETH: Elizabeth from England. What precautions did you take, on your trip, to ensure that you didn't catch Bird Flu while you were in Asia?
GUPTA: Yes, that's a good question. In fact, I spent a lot of time talking to the Centers for Disease Control ahead of time.
Now, there were no specific recommendations. I did take Tamiflu, which is a medication that can -- it's an anti-viral that can potentially protect me against Bird Flu, if I were to become ill. We did carry masks around as well. And we just used standards precautions, washing our hands after we were on the farms and things like that.
That's all the precautions that really are necessary at this point, in terms of not catching the Bird Flu.
VELSHI: Sanjay, you've got a mask there, I understand?
GUPTA: Yes, this mask actually is just a promotional mask. It says, "Killer flu, a breath away." It's in my special that's coming up.
But the actual masks that people would use to protect themselves is actually an N95 respiratory mask. It's a little bit more sophisticated than this one. And, you know, a lot of pharmacies are selling them.
VELSHI: All right. I've got another question from the audience.
Where are you from, sir?
MIKE: I'm Mike from Rockville. Is there a sense of panic in Asia over the Bird Flu?
GUPTA: You know what was so striking to me as I was out there in Southeast Asia was that, you know, remember SARS? A lot of people weren't talking about SARS. They didn't report the cases and, all of a sudden, the cases ended up in Canada. I remember that well.
With Bird Flu, you've really got a sense that everybody knows about the Bird Flu out there. You ask anybody and they say, "Oh, yes. The Bird Flu. It effected this small village." or "I had a neighbor's son who was killed by it." And a lot of people are talking about it.
They even know the term H5N1. You know, the average person on the street, for example, in some small provinces in Thailand know H5N1. It's really become a part of the language out there. People are truly frightened by it.
Also, remember this. It effects chickens. And that's a major sort of business source for a lot of the folks living in some of these small provinces in Thailand. It's effecting their way of life because of that.
GENE: I'm Gene from Jacksonville, Florida. And with as many locations across the world as have reported outbreaks of Bird Flu, how do you select the places you'd be reporting from? GUPTA: Yes, good question. We wanted to go to the places where there had actually been human cases. You're absolutely correct in saying that there had been several places around the world that have had Bird Flu. But a lot of those places, it's mainly just in birds.
Hong Kong, you may know, or may not know, that it was actually back in 1997 that the first human case of Bird Flu happened in Hong Kong. But it's been countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia. These countries we visited because that's where the human cases were happening. And we wanted to see how they were taking care of themselves and how they were protecting themselves over there. So we could take some of those lessons learned and tell you about it.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Have you covered anything like this before, Dr. Gupta? I know you've covered a wide range of medical stories, but is this unique?
GUPTA: Yes, this is very unique. And I'll tell you what's so -- It's a challenging story, Jamie. Mainly because, you know, you have this virus that's over there, as a lot of people call it, in Southeast Asia, and we have this sort of tough balance between how much do we want to tell people. Because we know it's going to be scary. But how much do we think the people just deserve to know about this?
You have a virus out there in Southeast Asia that's killing half the people that it infects. It's one of the most lethal viruses that we've every seen. And this world of ours has a history, a precedent of pandemics that can kill tens of millions of people. So we think it's an important story.
But you're right. It's an unprecedented story for me to cover. And it's been challenging sort of making that balance constantly, Jamie.
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sanjay, I was just in Asia a few weeks ago with President Bush and this was obviously a major topic of discussion. And part of it was talking to the leaders of the counties that you were in about being a lot more aggressive in trying to deal with this and educate people. Are you getting the sense that that's actually happening?
GUPTA: Yes, Dana, and this is something we've been following quite closely. I mean, you were probably surprised, like I was, the President actually coming out and talking about this, setting aside nearly $10 billion towards Bird Flu, even thought the virus doesn't even exist in the United States. That was pretty remarkable really for a United States president to do that.
But the key, Dana, and you're hitting right on it, is that you've got to spend money toward surveillance in these other countries. We totally missed the boat on SARS because there wasn't adequate surveillance in these countries.
And President Bush and a lot of other people are saying, "We can't let that happen again." If you catch those cases early, if you isolate those people, if you get the people treated in Southeast Asia, you have a good chance of containing this pandemic, so we never hear about those tens of millions of cases and this is all just a bad memory.
VELSHI: Hey, Sanjay, it's not often that you and I are on the same story. This week we've both been on Bird Flu because there's been an economic side to it and Vioxx and Merck. I just have to talk about the numbers of this thing. You've actually got to get out there and explain the science and the medicine behind it.
How do you get around to doing that? What happens? A piece of news and they want you on TV. What happens?
GUPTA: Well, you know, with regards to the Bird Flu, for example, I mean, you know, this is something that, as you mentioned, I've been sort of studying and learning about for months now. I mean, long before we started reporting this story on television, I was doing interviews, calling the head of the Centers of Disease Control, calling Ministries of Health in foreign countries, talking to scientists who had been studying Bird Flu and made it their lives.
So this is something I've just been focused on for some time. So luckily, when something happens, when we hear about a new case or when the president starts talking about it, you know, myself and my production team, we have a lot of disposable information that we can sort of give to our viewers and make it contextualized for them, so they know why we're telling them this.
VELSHI: Sanjay, it's always good to see you. It's important to see you on this topic. Thank you for being with us.
GUPTA: Thank you.
VELSHI: Sanjay's special, "Killer Flu: A Breath Away" runs Sunday evening, 10 pm eastern.
Well, from the medical war against the Bird Flu to the verbal battles between reporters and the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, over the Iraq war.
Jamie McIntyre's back on that story after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: We are "On the Story" on the campus of the George Washington University. It was a case of Rumsfeld versus reporters this week.
The secretary of defense ripped into the media for being to quick to report bad news.
Our Pentagon correspondent, Jamie McIntrye, is covering this story. Here's his "Reporter's Notebook."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAMIE MCINTRYE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Defense Secretary Rumsfeld's been doing a slow burn about press coverage that he's been getting and the policy of Iraq's been getting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The worst about America and our military to so quickly be taken as truth by the press, and reported and spread around the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCINTYRE: I have the dynamic of, I'm reporting on Rumsfeld's criticism, but yet, I'm also potentially part of the problem he's criticizing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCINTYRE: Even as Rumsfeld broadly criticized the news media for lack of context and accuracy, he praised reports who, he said, many have risked their lives...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCINTYRE: In all honesty, Rumsfeld has a point when he starts complaining that there's not enough context, there's not enough investigation to get all the facts. Part of it is because journalism is a first rough draft of events going on. You just can't go with the first version of the story. You have to keep checking back and see what's developed, and reporters have to continue to dig to try to get all the facts.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: Slow burn, that's a point and you've made this point before that this is a constant them coming out of Donald Rumsfeld.
MCINTYRE: Well, you know, one of the things that was interesting is his point was illustrated by the speech he gave at John Hopkins this week. In that, he said a lot about the media, some positive things. He also had some self-criticism. But all we really focused on was, as you said, he should have ripped into the media.
And if you went back and listened to the full remarks he made, it seemed much more thoughtful, not so antagonistic. That's exactly the point he's trying to make, that a lot of things are reported without the full context.
VELSHI: It's so much easier to take those spicy nuggets, isn't it?
Let's go out to the audience and see what your question is.
Where are you from? What's your name?
SAMANTHA: Hi, I'm Samantha from here in D.C. I was wondering, as a member of the press, do you feel that Rumsfeld's criticism of the coverage in Iraq is warranted? MCINTYRE: Well, you know, I think he has a point to some extent when he says, he's talking about a lot of stories that he feels that simply you bring more facts, more information, show them in a broader context. And we do necessarily focus in on the most sensational things.
But, you know, when the Pentagon says you're not saying enough about schools being built or hospitals being built in Iraq, you have to remember that that's not why the U.S. went to Iraq. They went to establish, you know, they went to look for weapons of mass destruction. And now they're trying to establish a stable democracy. And that's the thing we're going to focus on when we're covering it.
BASH: And isn't also part of the reality that it's actually hard to get all the facts in Iraq because it is very dangerous for reporters to go around and get that kind of information?
MCINTYRE: It's very hard. And one of the things that Rumsfeld was zeroing in on was, he felt that reporters ought to be more skeptical until they get all the facts. They shouldn't be predisposed to believe something.
A good example this week was there was a report -- a highly speculative report in the newspaper that suggested that Rumsfeld might resign next year. Well, Rumsfeld -- imagine you're Rumsfeld. You wake up in the morning, you read in the paper that you're going to resign next year and you haven't thought about that at all.
So you can see, from his perspective, how he's going to think that the news media's too quick to get into speculation, too quick to sort of run with the story before they've been able to check it out. Before he's even had a chance, by the way, to deny it.
VELSHI: Sir, where you from? What's your name?
RICH: I'm Rich from Pennsylvania. Secretary Rumsfeld often battles the press on camera, but does he have any reporter friends off camera?
(LAUGHTER)
MCINTYRE: Well you know -- I think that many -- there's some animosity between Rumsfeld and some members of the press. But, I think, actually when you step away from the camera, there's sort of a grudging respect on both sides.
Certainly, reporters see that he has a way of avoiding of questions, of handling reporters that's pretty masterful. On the other hand, I think, he respects reporters who are able to pen him down and get to a key point.
You know, actually there was a very interesting example. Our Ed Henry encountered Rumsfeld in the hallway as he was rushing to get to the White House today, and tried to pen him down on some questions. You could see Rumsfeld wasn't real happy about being ambushed, but he still sort of masterfully dodged the question. I think we have that clip. Can we look at it?
VELSHI: Can we have that? Let's see if we can...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Mr. Secretary? Sir, is the administration giving in on the McCain torture amendment? Are you going to accept the language in McCain?
RUMSFELD: The White House has been doing all of this. I feel you'll have to talk to them.
HENRY: But you're the defense secretary. Are you accepting the Torture Amendment? The McCain language? Presumably this is your area?
RUMSFELD: I've said to you that the White House is handling the negotiations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCINTYRE: Yes, Ed says that presumably it's your area. He said, "No, no. It's not me. It's the White House." It's the same kind of answer we get at the pressroom. But again, Rumsfeld, he doesn't like to answer these sort of complicated, nuanced questions about negotiations on torture language in a hallway ambush. So he's just not going to.
VELSHI: So if Rich in Pennsylvania wanted to know, Ed Henry's probably not one of those off camera guys that Donald Rumsfeld is spending a lot of time with.
Another question from the audience.
Your name and where you're from?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Aloha, my name is Chris Charisma Prim (ph) from Honolulu, Hawaii.
VELSHI: Where it's a little warmer than it is here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is. Just a little bit. I was curious if you feel your reporting affects the morale of the troops and, if so, how do you balance that with the public's right to accurate information?
MCINTYRE: Well, from everything I've discovered in going out and being with the troops -- I spend most of my time at the Pentagon but I do get out and talk to the troops.
You know what they really want, they want the truth. They want the facts. They want things presented in an even-handed and impartial way. They want the context so they can understand what's going on. To the extent you do that, I think, you earn their respect and you don't undermine their morale. What undermines their morale is when they think things are being distorted or not being reported fairly.
VELSHI: Our friend from Hawaii's question leads us very well into our next topic. President Bush has continued a series of major speeches on Iraq this week, saying, or at least putting the message out that the U.S. is going to accept nothing less than complete victory.
Our White House correspondent, Dana Bash, is back on that story after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: CNN is "On the Story" and our White House correspondent, Dana Bash, was on the story this week of President Bush's continuing defense of American policy in Iraq. Check out Dana's "Reporter's Notebook."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: This is really a classic Bush White House tactic, which is a telegraph to those of us in the press that they have this campaign, that is to try to get their message out in Iraq. And the thinking behind that is that, by telling us what they're going to do, they'll get more attention for it.
What all of these speeches are about is to try to convince the American people, who have pretty much soured on the war in Iraq, that behind the daily images of violence there is progress. And that's a word that we've heard the president use over and over again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... visible progress. Freedom's progress ... encouraging progress...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: He also did talk about the problems that still exist.
I've been covering the president since two months before the war in Iraq started, and what's been most fascinating in, at least the first two speeches that he's given in this series, leading up to the Iraq election, has been the shift in tone. And that is very deliberate on the part of the White House, to try to have the president sound as if he understands things aren't perfect and that things weren't perfect at the beginning.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: That's Dana Bash our White House Correspondent. Let's go straight out to the audience to see what somebody out there has to ask.
Where are you from, sir? THOMAS: I'm Thomas from Reston, Virginia. I was wondering, what does the Bush administration have to lose by providing an accurate timetable for the pullout of U.S. troops?
BASH: Well...
VELSHI: A lot people out are asking. It's really on people's minds.
BASH: Yes. No, right. That just -- that boils down to the, the political debate right now in Washington. It has been going on for a couple of weeks. And it's not going to end anytime soon.
What the president will say, and the president has said that over and over again, is that, if they give a very specific, very detailed exit date -- and Jamie hears this at the Pentagon all the time -- that that is going to send a signal to the insurgents -- although they don't use the I word anymore -- the terrorists, that they can just sort of lay low and that, when the American troops leave, then that's their chance. That's what they say.
Now, what we have been hearing, from Democrats, even more, more and more, and unfortunately, from their point of view -- they have sort of different versions of this and it's becoming hard for them to get one voice on this -- is, you know, you don't have to give an exact date but you've got to give a better sense of when troops are going to come home.
Now, the president was very clear saying he's not going to give a timetable, in his very first speech in this series, but he tried to explain in talking about how they're trying to better prop us the Iraqi security forces that -- we're working on it. That was essentially the message.
MCINTYRE: Would you say this is also a classic sort of Washington technique in that, if they give a specific timetable or projection, it's going to based some sort of assumption. Sometimes, somewhat hopeful assumptions, and we've seen that a lot of their assumptions haven't worked out. So isn't it just simply a matter of they don't want to say anything that someone can hold them to. They just want to keep it open.
BASH: Right.
VELSHI: Someone, like the two of you or -- or...
MCINTYRE: Because if they say, we are going to get this production by then, when that time comes we're going to say, well what happened to that?
BASH: Right. I mean, that's exactly right. It's the expectation game. And that is -- that is their fundamental problem and that is what they've been trying to get away from. But, I sort of mentioned this in the piece. The thing is, that's striking, is the fact that the president has, in these speeches, been trying to say, "Well, we tried it this way," for example in trying to prop up the security forces -- the Iraqi security forces. It didn't really work so well, so we sort of shifted.
Now, he has not used, in his own words, the M word, mistake. He has not actually said that. He's used the A word, adjustment. But -- but...
MCINTYRE: Yes, but other reporters have, right?
BASH: Yes.
MCINTYRE: I mean, they've characterized some of things he's said as admitting mistakes.
BASH: Well, he quoted -- he sort of tried to have -- he had a twofer. He tried to sort of, you know, give a little wink and a nod to a Democrat, Joe Lieberman, by saying, "Thank you for supporting me." And in doing that, he quoted Joe Lieberman saying that mistakes were made, saying, "I agree with him." So he didn't actually say...
VELSHI: As though he said that.
BASH: Exactly. He put quotation marks around it.
VELSHI: Sir, where are you from? What's your name?
CLAYTON: My name's Clayton McCluskey and I'm from Dallas, Texas. Do you think that we'll see a shift in Bush's Iraq policy following the December 15th elections?
BASH: Well, this is all about these speeches that the president's giving now. It's all about the December 15th elections. I mean, it's essentially the White House trying to buy time and waiting for that to happen. But when you talk -- Look, part of the challenge that -- Jamie can tell you as well -- is trying to figure out what they say, whether or not it's actually, you know, real or realistic or not. And they are so focused on these December 15th elections.
But when you talk to people who are not partisan, which is not easy to do it these days, find people who really are going to give you the real deal. They say, "Look, the December 15th elections." You know, that's all well and good. But who knows what's going to happen after that?
It's so dependent on what happens on the ground and how the Iraqi's prop up themselves. And that's really the big fear. When you talk to people at the White House, is they get that. And so much of this is increasingly out of their hands.
VELSHI: Yes. You're talking about what's real and realistic and what's happening on the ground. Well, from the White House beat to New Orleans and the dramatic problems of reconstruction more than three months after the disaster. We'll find out what's real and what's realistic from out new Gulf Coast correspondent, Susan Roesgen. She's back in a moment on that story.
We are "On the Story" here in Washington to New York to New Orleans and elsewhere. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALPHONSO VAN MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: To help stops AIDS deaths here, Bishop Dowling is ignoring the Vatican's ban on contraception. He said those who truly believe in the sanctity of life would recognize condoms as an acceptable to lower risk of infection.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There was a boom and a flash, according to witnesses. This shopping mall has been target twice before. This time, the suicide bomber was waiting in line to pass security checks.
The Israeli's insist there will be no peace talks until the Palestinians disarm militant groups like Islamic Jihad. But the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, said that could cause a civil war.
DANIELLE ELIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A thousand tourists were stranded on Tuesday in the mountains of Peru as demonstrators blocks the only train line to the ancient ruins in Machu Picchu. They are angry with how the mayor is handling negotiations between the government and an international train contractor.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: Good evening.
I'm Carol Lin.
More of ON THE STORY in just a moment.
But first, the stories making news right now.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says it is a tough decision, but he will soon decide whether or not to grant clemency to convicted killer Stanley "Tookie" Williams. The 52-year-old Crips gang founder is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Tuesday.
And comedian Richard Pryor has died in Los Angeles. He died of a heart attack after struggling for years with multiple sclerosis. Pryor served as an inspiration to a generation of comics, including Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall and Robin Williams. He was 65 years old.
And Eugene McCarthy died in his sleep today in Washington. The one time senator from the State of Minnesota turned the political world upside down when he mounted a primary challenge to President Lyndon Johnson over the war in Vietnam. McCarthy was 89.
And please stay with me at the top of the hour for "CNN 25: Then and Now," a look at the people who shaped events of the last quarter century.
That's what's happening right now in the news.
I'm Carol Lin.
Now back to ON THE STORY.
VELSHI: We are on ON THE STORY here on the campus of the George Washington University.
The machinery of CNN went into high gear when hurricane Katrina approached, and we stayed on afterward. But one member of our team didn't go in with us. She was already there.
She's CNN's new Gulf Coast correspondent, Susan Roesgen. But she isn't new to the business.
Here's CNN's Susan Roesgen and her Reporter's Notebook.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You never expect to cover a story and live the story at the same time. All the other hurricanes that I've covered were in other places. So I would grab my yellow slicker and run out to Florida or wherever the hurricane was, cover the story, maybe a couple of days there, get in my car, come back to New Orleans, get in my nice, warm bed, have a nice hot shower, everything's fine.
So to have it be right here and not going away for who knows how much longer was really weird.
That's kind of what I'm working on now. I wonder if I could interview you?
The biggest challenge for me is trying to show the many different sides of the story, the many different cities that we have in one city. The French Quarter, everybody's seen that on television now, the people looking daiquiris again on Bourbon Street. It looks like life is pretty normal. And then you go to Midcity or Lakeview or Gentilly or New Orleans East or the Lower Ninth Ward, and people in each of those areas are struggling with a different set of problems and a different reality.
I mean you don't want to continually give the impression to a national audience that it's nothing but one destroyed house after another. That's so numbing. And that's not really accurate, either. There is life here. We are moving forward, some of us. And we're waiting for the rest of it to come together.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
VELSHI: Susan Roesgen, welcome to ON THE STORY.
Welcome to CNN.
Let's go right to the audience.
I know there are a lot of questions about the beat that you cover. Your name and where you're from.
KATE: Hi, I'm Kate.
I'm from Washington, D.C.
And my question is how do you keep your emotional distance when you're reporting on the victims of hurricane Katrina, when you're reporting their stories?
ROESGEN: You know, I'm not sure. I think it's just out of habit. You're usually with a photographer. You have a story to tell. You have people to interview. And you don't have time to think about your own emotions. You just want to get their story out. And so you become sort of detached. You really are focusing on what they have to say and you don't have time to think about what you're thinking about.
VELSHI: Susan, you don't have time -- you didn't have time the morning you started covering this story.
Tell us a bit about that. You didn't know what was happening.
ROESGEN: No, I didn't. Sunday afternoon, I remember making a grilled cheese sandwich in the skillet and wolfing it down really quickly and grabbing a couple of shirts and a couple of pairs of pants and throwing them in a bag and running to the television station and thinking well, I might be here for, you know, a day or so. It should be a pretty big storm.
I had no idea that that grilled cheese sandwich, what was left of it, would sit in that skillet in the kitchen sink for a month. I had no idea that I wouldn't be able to get back to my own house for about a week. And even then, there was no power or no water for four weeks. So I would go in from time to time and grab a few more things, a few more pairs of socks and underwear and shirts and just go back out again and cover the story.
But I have to tell you, one time I think the thing that I most wanted to do was get upstairs and play the piano, because I needed to do something defiantly normal. So I banged away and butchered Beethoven one morning because I had to do something that made me feel as if things were normal again, even though they weren't and aren't.
VELSHI: I hope it helped.
Another question from our audience.
Where are you from and what's your name, sir?
NICHOLAS: Hi. I'm Nicholas from Spencerville, Maryland.
I was wondering, do you have local sources in New Orleans and, if so, are they fellow reporters or are they everyday type people?
ROESGEN: Nicholas, I have to say they're mostly every day type people. You go to the grocery store and you talk to people. You go to the post office and try to get what little mail is coming in and you talk to people. Every day you talk to people. I'd say -- it's mostly friends and acquaintances. And the one thing everyone in New Orleans says to each other when we see each other, whether we know each other or not, is how is your house? That's the question that we greet each other with, how is your house? Oh, four feet of water, two feet of water, a little bit of wind damage, not too bad.
That's the greeting now in New Orleans.
MCINTYRE: You mentioned the mind-numbing quality of the -- seeing the damage all the time.
I mean is it like you're in the movie "Ground Hog Day?" is it the same sort of thing every day? Or are you finding new and different stories to tell every day?
ROESGEN: Oh, I'm finding so many new and different stories to tell every day. But it is like a movie or a series of movies. I think in the beginning I felt like Mad Max in one of the Road Warrior movies and for a while it was like the opening scenes of "Terminator," so futuristic, so devastated.
And now it is like "Ground Hog's Day" a little bit. And it will go on for I don't know how many more weeks or months. We'll have to see. One day at a time.
BASH: One thing that you had been reporting on this week is a very interesting story, and that is guns, that gun shops are actually overwhelmed.
ROESGEN: Yes, it's so true. You know...
BASH: Tell us about that.
ROESGEN: ... well, crime was always a major problem in New Orleans pre-Katrina. We were well on our way to another possible record breaking year in homicides. So crime was certainly an issue. But what we're finding now, even with so few people living in the city, people are very scared. There may be only between 75,000 and 100,000 people actually spending the night in New Orleans. There seem to be plenty of cops per capita to protect them. But people are scared because they're often in neighborhoods with no power and no lights.
And so I talked to three different gun store owners. Every one of them said we're overwhelmed, we cannot keep enough guns in stock. And it's primarily because first time buyers, people who have told us they would never buy a gun in this city before, feel that they need one now.
MCINTYRE: I guess that's one of those different stories I was asking about, huh?
VELSHI: Yes.
BASH: Yes, exactly. VELSHI: Susan, you started the coverage of Katrina as a local news reporter. You are now with CNN, but you're on the same story.
Fundamentally what's the difference in the way you would have covered this at the beginning and how you cover it now that you're with CNN? Is there any difference? Do you do anything differently in the way you choose your stories and the way you put them together?
ROESGEN: Yes, I do. I'd have to say, first of all, that the big difference is, in terms of resources, certainly CNN has given me far more resources to work with than I had in local news. Also, initially in the hurricane I was alone. I found a couple of friends and together we tried to go and to take video and do things kind of on our own and feed them to CNN until we weren't able to feed anymore. So certainly the resources is a wonderful thing to have.
But, also, I try to pay attention to what does a national viewer, someone in Washington or in Kansas or in Los Angeles, what do these people want to see about New Orleans? What don't they know?
I have to fight the tendency to be too parochial at times and remember that some people aren't up to speed. I've lived here many years now and I need to try to convey the truth that can be, you know, easier told and not just giving the local angle. I need to give the national angle.
VELSHI: We'll continue to have lots of questions for you, so if you can, come and join us again on ON THE STORY.
Susan Roesgen, our Gulf Coast correspondent, from New Orleans.
Moving from New Orleans to New York, changing our tone and our tune, Grammy nominations this week.
CNN's Brooke Anderson is back ON THE STORY, after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: CNN is rocking ON THE STORY.
And our entertainment correspondent, Brooke Anderson, was on the music beat this week, Grammy nominations. And she had a front row seat at the biggest event in the world of music.
Here's Brooke's Reporter's Notebook.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: How do I prepare for an assignment like this? Research, research, research. I really get to know the artists and their work.
Many times I do get to speak to the artists themselves, and that's the best research, get it firsthand.
When the nominations are announced, I'm there with my Reporter's Notebook taking notes. And the nominations are read at a fast pace. As soon as they're done, I'm in front of the camera. We thought we were going to have Mariah Carey live for that very first report. The publicist had promised. But then Mariah Carey was stuck doing another live interview right next to us. So we had to patiently wait. And I did work out. It did come through.
I am here with the lady of the hour, Mariah Carey, leading the nominees with eight nominations.
How are you feeling about this?
MARIAH CAREY, GRAMMY NOMINATIONS: I feel just so blessed, really. It's been such an amazing year.
ANDERSON: The atmosphere is both exciting and very chaotic. There are sometimes hundreds of journalists and photographers all clamoring for that information and all trying to get it to the viewer as quickly as possible.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
VELSHI: All right, Brooke Anderson.
She's joining us from New York tonight.
Just a quick poll from the audience. I get to interview CEOs, anyone I want, because I'm a business reporter. Brooke gets to interview music superstars.
Whose job do you want more, mine or Brooke's?
Brooke, thank you for joining us.
We've got a question from our audience.
Where are you from and what's your name?
ERIN: My name is Erin and I'm from Arlington, Virginia.
Brooke, which artists were the most excited or surprised to receive a Grammy nomination?
ANDERSON: Hi, there, Erin.
A really great question.
Well, you know, there are only a handful of artists at the press conference where the nominations are announced. But I have to say that Mariah Carey and John Legend, who both received eight nominations, the leading nominees, they had to seem the most excited to me. And Mariah Carey, this is really the comeback story of the year.
I don't know if you guys remember, but back in 2001, she kind of had a public, a very public professional and personal meltdown. She signed the biggest record contract ever, $80 million, with Virgin Records, but then had a string of flops.
You may remember, or probably don't remember, the movie "Glitter," that soundtrack. They both failed. A lot of erratic behavior there. But she got out of that contract, signed with Island/Def Jam and now she's got one of her most successful albums in years on her hands, "The Emancipation of Mimi." Four million copies sold.
So I will say Mariah, as you saw in the Reporter's Notebook, she feels very blessed, very fortunate to be where she is today.
VELSHI: Brooke, we have another question from the audience.
What's your name and where are you from?
JILLIAN: Hi.
I'm Jillian Barstein (ph) from Chicago, Illinois.
What was it like having to keep up with all the other entertainment news media while you were at the conference?
ANDERSON: Hi, Jillian.
Well, that is a great question, as well, because you wouldn't even imagine the crush of people trying to get to these artists and get them for the live interviews immediately after the nominations are announced. But you have to do a little bit of work ahead of time. You have to speak with the stars' publicists and let them know that you are interested in having that star.
For example, Mariah Carey. Ahead of the nominations, we spoke with the publicist, who promised we would have her at a certain time after the TV outlet next to us had a few minutes with her. Mariah did get stuck and so CNN's AMERICAN MORNING was expecting to come to me with Mariah at a certain time.
Well, they came to me. There's no Mariah there. I hope they weren't disappointed. It was just me.
But I vamped about the big Grammy nominees for a couple of minutes. Mariah was able to make her way over about 10 minutes later. She profusely apologized. They were having technical problems. She was very personable, very gracious. And not all of them are like that. So it was refreshing and we had a very lovely conversation on CNN. It worked out.
BASH: As close as we get to that kind of scene is maybe watching "Entourage" on HBO or something like that.
But how much...
ANDERSON: That's a great television show, Dana, by the way.
BASH: Yes.
How much do you have to go through all of their people to get -- to finally get to them?
ANDERSON: It's quite a process. Many of them do have a team of people, three, four, five, sometimes 15 people deep. So you really have to start well in advance of the Grammy nominations. And we also know who will be there ahead of time. So we knew that Mariah was going to be there. We knew that John Legend was going to be there. We knew that Big & Rich was going to be there.
We didn't know that Kan -- I mean we did know that Kanye West wasn't going to be there. So ahead of time we spoke with his publicist and nailed down an interview with him on that date in Los Angeles. Producer, music producer and correspondent Denise Kwan snagged that interview. She had him moments after the nominations all the way on the West Coast.
So from coast to coast, we have the big nominees covered. It does take a team effort, though.
MCINTYRE: All right, Brooke, what I really want to ask you is to name some names.
Who are those people that weren't really very nice?
But I'll set that aside...
ANDERSON: You know what? I'm pleading the fifth...
MCINTYRE: And instead I'll...
ANDERSON: I am pleading the fifth on that.
MCINTYRE: I'll take the high road.
BASH: She wants to get the interview the next time.
ANDERSON: Right.
MCINTYRE: As someone with, you know, a considerable amount of U2 on my iPod, I'm just wondering, who is your pick for album of the year?
ANDERSON: Well, album of the year, there are five nominees in each category, and they're all really strong. I'll run through that list really quickly for you.
It is Mariah Carey, "The Emancipation of Mimi." Paul McCartney, 62 years old, "Chaos and Creation In The Backyard." He's rocking like he was 30 or 40 years ago. "Love Angel Music Baby" by Gwen Stefani; "Late Registration," Kanye West's sophomore disc; and U2, as you mentioned them, "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb."
My personal favorite, I'm a huge fan of U2. I love their music. I love their concerts. They're extraordinary entertainers. Their passion, their talent, it's incredible. Bono has even said this album is the best collection of songs they've ever put together, that there are no weak songs on this disc. And that's, you know, that's saying something for one of the most popular rock and roll bands ever.
But Kanye West, "Late Registration," considered a hip hop classic.
And he's fully confident he will walk away with album of the year. But it's anybody's guess, really, at this point.
VELSHI: Brooke, good to see you.
Thank you for joining us.
Brooke Anderson, CNN's entertainment reporter.
Jamie McIntyre so does not have an iPod.
Our Internet reporter, Jacki Schechner...
MCINTYRE: I have five.
VELSHI: ... does.
MCINTYRE: I have five.
VELSHI: We're ON THE STORY online.
Somebody kill Jamie's mike.
Jacki is covering how one popular source of information on the Web can be convenient, but not always accurate.
We are back ON THE STORY online right after this.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: We're ON THE STORY Online. No longer do we pull out the faithful "Encyclopedia Britannica" to check a fact. No longer do kids crack open the "World Book" for that class report. Now it's all on the screen, online.
Our Internet reporter, Jacki Schechner, has been checking this out and she joins us now -- Jacki.
JACKI SCHECHNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This week, Ali, we talk about Wikipedia. It's the online encyclopedia that covers almost everything that anyone can edit. And it came under fire this week when John Siegenthaler, Sr. a political figure and journalist, found some serious errors in his online page.
So joining me to talk about Wikipedia and its making news this week is its founder, Jimmy Wales.
He's joining us via Web cam from St. Petersburg, Florida.
Jimmy, thanks for being with us. Let's just cut to the chase here.
How do you feel about what went down this week?
JIMMY WALES, FOUNDER, WIKIPEDIA.ORG: Well, it's been a really busy week for me, of course. We've had a lot of press interest. But, you know, overall I hope that we were able to communicate to people that we're trying to run a really responsible, thoughtful, charitable effort here to create a free encyclopedia.
SCHECHNER: Do you think Wikipedia got a fair shake in the press?
WALES: For the most part. But I did feel that it was -- there was a lot of reporting that was a little bit overblown. And...
SCHECHNER: What do you think the problems were?
WALES: You know, different things. I think it was a problem when, you know, to focus on just one article or just one aspect of the story.
One of the funnier things I thought was the reporter -- when I came on CNN earlier this week. The reporter quoted from me from my Web site our disclaimer, where we say "Wikipedia cannot guarantee the validity of the information found here. None of the authors, contributors or anyone else connected with Wikipedia in any way whatsoever can be responsible."
And this was, you know, sort of like well, how can you say this? How can you not be held responsible?
SCHECHNER: So what happened?
WALES: Well, I just basically didn't know quite what to say.
But since then, I went and looked up the cnn.com disclaimer, which I'll read to you now.
It says: "Neither CNN -- "
SCHECHNER: Give me a short tidbit.
WALES: Pardon?
SCHECHNER: Give me a short tidbit.
WALES: Just a little bit.
Yes, it says that "CNN can't guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information" and so on like that.
SCHECHNER: So it's a general Internet disclaimer?
WALES: Yes, my point was quoting our disclaimer, of course we have a legal disclaimer, like every Web site does. That really doesn't indicate what we feel about our ethical responsibility to do a good job.
SCHECHNER: Let's get some questions from the audience -- Ali.
VELSHI: Yes, can I -- I'm going to pretend I'm in the audience and ask a quick one.
The issue here is that there are all sorts of biographies and lots of information about people, but regular folk edit this. Volunteers edit this. This is not from some source on high. I mean a good concept in general, but the complaint that Mr. Siegenthaler had is that someone suggested he might have been involved in the assassination of President Kennedy. It's a bit more of an issue than saying that I graduated in 1992 when I graduated in 1991.
SCHECHNER: Yes, absolutely. I mean there was no question the error was egregious. But I think the mistake to make is to think that our community was bad or that this is something that we consider acceptable. This was an entry that was overlooked. It was unlinked from anywhere else on the site. It slipped through the cracks. It was a terrible mistake. But it doesn't really indicate how we do our work or the overall quality of what it is we're trying to do.
SCHECHNER: Hey, jimmy, is the lesson learned that you can't read -- believe everything that you read online?
WALES: Oh, that -- I mean absolutely. I mean one of lessons learned is you can't believe everything you read anywhere and you have to really be careful and think about where the information is coming from. There -- an error can happen anywhere and there are lower and higher quality sources of information. That's something we have to all be very careful about.
SCHECHNER: Ali, you got another question for me?
VELSHI: We do.
JESSIE: Hi, I'm Jessie (ph) from New York, and an active blogger.
Do you believe that Wikipedia presents any privacy concerns since anyone can edit or post online?
SCHECHNER: Oh, that's a great question, Jessie.
What do you think?
WALES: Well, I think that the privacy concerns at Wikipedia are a lot less than almost any other type of open Web forum. I mean anybody can start a blog and write anything they want. You can send anything you want to a mailing list or post in comments or on message board or forum.
The difference at Wikipedia is that there's a community that exercises tight control over the site. If you post something bad, it'll get deleted. Unless, as in the Siegenthaler case, it was unfortunately overlooked. SCHECHNER: I think we can all kind of agree the Internet is still very much the Wild West in some ways -- Ali.
Jacki, the idea of community is one we will continue to examine.
Jacki Schechner, our Internet reporter.
We're going to take a quick break.
When we come back, we'll bring you a little more ON THE STORY.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Keep yourself ON THE STORY at cnn.com. Our Web site tells you about the panel, the topics and how to get tickets to join the audience.
Let's take a quick look ahead ON THE STORY.
Dana, what are you working on next week?
BASH: Two other speeches, the last two speeches the president will give on Iraq. And, of course, the Iraq elections. And maybe I'll be downloading some music from Jamie's iPod.
MCINTYRE: Huge elections in Iraq, as we get to watch whether the Sunnis participate as much as everyone's expecting. That could be the big turning point.
And if you need any iTunes, let me know.
VELSHI: I am going to be spending the week apologizing to Jamie for suggesting that he doesn't have an iPod.
Thanks to my colleagues and our audience here at the George Washington University.
And thank you for watching ON THE STORY.
We're back each week, Saturday night, Sunday afternoon.
Straight ahead, a check on what's making news right now.
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