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On the Story

Correspondents Discuss Stories Behind the Stories

Aired January 14, 2006 - 19:00   ET

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

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR, ON THE STORY: 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 stories behind the stories they are covering. Christiane Amanpour is on the story in Iran as that country defies the west and pushes forward with nuclear research.
Ed Henry talks about what grabbed his attention at the Samuel Alito hearings.

Internet reporter Abbi Tatton looks at the reaction online to the confirmation battle and the news coverage.

Suzanne Malveaux is on the story of the president's New Year push for the war on terror and the war in Iraq.

Alina Cho is on the story of the challenges for New Orleans and the Gulf coast, nearly five months later.

Welcome. I'm Ali Velshi. With me here, Suzanne Malveaux, Ed Henry and Zain Verjee. She's here to talk about her interview with the first lady Laura Bush. Also our correspondents will be taking questions from our studio audience drawn from visitors, college students and people across Washington.

But first, the international scene. Iran told the world to back off this week and pushed ahead with its nuclear program. And that is another step down a path that the U.S. and its allies fear could give the Iranian government nuclear weapons. Specifically, the Iranians broke United Nations seals that were used to lock down Iran's nuclear enrichment program. Our chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour was in Iran. Take a look at her reporter's notebook.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Iran has been threatening to restart its nuclear activities ever since President Mahmud Ahmadinejad (ph) came to power last summer.

We sat down for an exclusive interview with the head of Iran's nuclear file (ph), the head of Iranian national security council. He told us again that they only wanted to do nuclear research.

TRANSLATOR: Our intention is to do nuclear research. It has nothing to do with enrichment. You know the issue of enrichment is for the production of nuclear fuel. Research is a different issue. AMANPOUR: Nonetheless, the Europeans, which had persuaded Iran into a voluntarily moratorium for the better part of the last two years are now very angry and say that Iran has taken unnecessary and confrontational step. The IAEA director has said that his patience is running out with Iran and now it remains to be seen exactly what happens. Will Iran be able to continue these processes or will it lead to further punitive measures?

VELSHI: And our chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour joins us now from Tehran. Christiane, as always, a lot of audience questions, so I'm going to go straight to that.

QUESTION: I was wondering what the current mood in Iran was.

AMANPOUR: In terms of the mood, the people here have been long suffering. They have wanted reform. They haven't had it. They now have a very hard line conservative president. They are not sure what the future will bring. The mood of the people is always one of weariness. Any more sanctions on them, I think, will cause amazing harm and hardship for the people. But they do stand behind this right to have nuclear technology and to pursue nuclear research.

VELSHI: Another question from the audience, Christiane. Sir, your name and where you're from.

QUESTION: My name's Skip (INAUDIBLE) and I'm from Redlands, California. And I wanted to know what implications will Iran's renewed focus on a nuclear program have on United States foreign policy, especially with regards to the war in Iraq and troop levels in that general area?

AMANPOUR: Well, I'm not sure that it has implications or an impact on that. But if you mean, will the United States use military action against Iran, there is absolutely no talk of that at this moment. If you remember over Iraq, the talk of military action was very intense from the early moments of the crisis. But now the U.S. and Europe are specifically not talking about military action. The bottom line is, what to do about a country that does actually have a nuclear program. They are trying to get a diplomatic consensus for some kind of diplomatic response, potentially up to and including UN sanctions on Iran. But the idea of going into Iran militarily has not been broached. And furthermore, most people, I believe, most officials in the United States, certainly military officials believe, that the U.S. is militarily overextended and another war of choice into Iran would not be possible at this time. The Iranians for their part say that if the United States did go militarily into Iran, they would face much stiffer resistance, much stiffer military reaction than the U.S. did in Iraq.

VELSHI: And let's take another question from the audience. Ma'am, your name and where your from.

QUESTION: My name's Elizabeth LaFall (ph) from CSU Fresno in Fresno, California. My question is, what alternatives does the U.S have if Iran fails to comply? AMANPOUR: That is a very, very good question. And that is probably explained some of the conundrum the west had right now. This issue has been going on for years and there have been a difference of opinion between the United States, particularly under the Bush administration and Europe on how best to deal with Iran. Does one give a package of incentives in order to bring Iran back into the fold? Does one simply slap punitive measures on Iran? It's very unclear what to do about a country that actually does have a nuclear program. And, therefore, it's going to be very difficult and very sensitive in trying to deal with this and move forward.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christiane, it's Suzanne and one of the things we noticed with the president this week, he spoke about Iran a couple of times and we asked him specifically about that. What were the options, of course that the United States has. It's very interesting to note I see, he pulled back a little bit in terms of economic sanctions, because there's some really heavy hitters that we're seeing, Russia and China that have these lucrative oil deals with Iran that certainly would not support economic sanctions, certainly not sanctions against Iranian oil. Does that concern the Iranians or do they take comfort in knowing that these countries are not really going to put themselves out there that far to punish Iran because they really depend on Iran economically?

AMANPOUR: Yes, I think Iran does believe that sanctions perhaps won't be as stiff if they come because of precisely those reasons. Iran has always tried to sort of divide and conquer if you like, trying to reach out to various countries it knows will support it because of those economic and other trade reasons. And Iran is also defiant publicly about sanctions. Because, you know, ever since 1985 -- 1995, I think, the U.S. has had sanctions on Iran. And they have hurt and there are consequences, economic sanctions. But Iranians said, well, we've dealt with it. We've had trade with other countries. We've made the shortfall elsewhere. So they claim that sanctions won't hurt. Sanctions will hurt. If blanket sanctions are put on any country, they will hurt. The question as you raise is, will the UN be able to put those blanket sanctions on because of the other countries such as China and Russia and others. That's why the U.S. is trying to develop a consensus at the Security Council over this issue.

VELSHI: Christiane, lots of questions and thank you for helping to answer some of them for us tonight. Christiane Amanpour in Tehran.

Well, from the confrontation on the Iran story to the standoff in the U.S. Senate this week over Judge Samuel Alito. Our Ed Henry is back on that story after this. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: CNN is on the story here at the George Washington University in the nation's capital. Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito kept his cool as the hearings heated up this week. He faced hard questioning from often irritable senators. Ed Henry watched this political theater play out from his perch on the balcony. Let's have a look at his reporter's notebook. ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's not the four seasons, but it's fun. This is you know, you feel like you are in the room, even though you kind of are, you kind of not. You are looming over the senators and the nominee and you get a bird's-eye view of the action. There's a Democratic frustration building. They feel that the nominee has been evasive and every time they've tried to pin him down, he's gotten away. It's fascinating downstairs as well from where we are outside the hearing room.

The spin game is on, the spin control and you've got all the liberal interest groups and the conservative interest groups outside. They are grabbing you on the way to the bathroom saying, I just saw your live shot. You know, Alito's really wrong on this one. Let me give you a packet of information. OK, great and then you're on the way back from the bathroom, a conservative group grabs you and says, we want to give you this bumper sticker. Alito is the greatest thing in the world. And it's like, there's one battle going on in the hearing room. There's a whole other battle going on outside the hearing room.

ZAIN VERJEE, ANCHOR, YOUR WORLD TODAY: Ed, you know, so much attention, obviously, on this Supreme Court confirmation hearing. But much of the attention over the past few hours has been on his wife Mrs. Alito who burst out crying in the middle of one of his sessions. What are your thoughts on that?

HENRY: It was amazing. There was almost no drama. We had built up the drama. Then it was gone. It was like he's selling the confirmation. And out of nowhere she got very emotional. And there's always a moment at these hearings and this became the moment. And what was fascinating for me is I was in the balcony overlooking the hearing. We got word from our producer Ted Barrett (ph) in the room that she had left crying because she was tired of the questioning of her husband, whether he was a bigot or not. Democrats had been pushing too hard. And so all of a sudden, I had a source tip me off to where she had gone. We heard she had left the room. We didn't know where.

And I heard that she was in an office that Vice President Cheney keeps on the Hill. It's unmarked. Nobody really knows where it is. So I raced over there and I happened to catch Judge Alito during a break a couple of minutes later heading over to comfort his wife. And I got him. I was the only reporter there in the hallway and I said what's your reaction? Do you think the Democrats are hitting your wife too hard? How is she? And he said, I don't even know what happened. He said I'm going to find her. You're just telling me this.

It's because he was so focused on the hearings, he didn't even know. She behind him. He didn't even know that she got emotional. Finally, he goes in. He comforts her. I wait and they come out together. I have an exclusive with the two of them and she's all smiles. They are walking hand in hand. And she says, you know, I got a little bit emotional, but I'm feeling good now. And then he told me, we have never been through anything like this before but we're a strong family. And it make me think, you know, we think this is all a political game sometimes, but there's a family here. And, you know, they aren't used to this.

VELSHI: It's a good point. Did most of you see that coverage of how she became emotional? Did you see that on TV because it's become a bit of an issue as to whether that's good TV or that's too much TV. It's a good question. Let's go to the audience and see what questions you have. Ma'am, where are you from and what's your name?

QUESTION: Sandy from St. Leonard, Maryland. And what were the differences between covering the Alito and Roberts confirmation hearings?

HENRY: Well, you know what I find really fascinating is that heading into these hearings the White House itself was nervous as Suzanne knows better than anyone, that maybe Samuel Alito is frankly a little nerdy and he's not as polished -- I'll say it because conservatives were telling me this heading into the hearings. They said it in an endearing way, that he's very smart, very bookish, but he's not as polished as John Roberts and John Roberts has the boyish good looks. He was sort of cast for this. He came out of central casting and they thought Alito maybe, he'll crack under pressure. He's never been under the hot lights like this. And what was fascinating is at these hearings, he almost in his own way, he was just himself and his own style in that sort of -- almost endearing and sort of just stick-to-itiveness. He wasn't polished but he knew the facts. And as I said, instead of killing them with kindness, he was killing them with boredom and the Democrats tried everything and they couldn't get it. He was killing them with case law because he knew everything. I've made a career out of killing people with boredom.

VELSHI: (INAUDIBLE) I am going to ask this gentleman over here what his name is. I'm going to take a wild guess that he's from Fresno.

QUESTION: Maurice, California State University, from Fresno. Do you think Democrats still have a chance of sustaining a filibuster against Judge Alito?

HENRY: No. I mean, what's interesting again is that Democrats were sort of the first day of the hearings again, the drama was there and the opening statements from the Democrats were like, we're going to war. And, you know, the interest groups on the left had been saying for months, Roe v. Wade is on the line. Social policy for the next 30, 40 years could be on the line. We're ready for war. And I was fascinated that over the course of Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, it just dissipated. The Democrats didn't seem to really have a coherent, coordinated effort to really get at him and anything that they did start to make some ground on, whether it was Princeton or other issues, he ultimately was able to prevail. And the Republicans did a good job of defending him on the committee. And I think you don't have to hear it from the Republicans that they did a good job. The liberal groups were frustrated as I said that the Democrats didn't do a good enough job. So to answer your question, I don't think that there's going to be enough support there for the Democrats to sustain a filibuster. They're not going to be able to stop him.

VELSHI: Your name and where you're from. QUESTION: I'm Sarah Tagahashi (ph) from Denver, Colorado. My question is, do you foresee President Bush selecting a more moderate candidate if Alito were to fail?

HENRY: Well, I think he's going to make it but I think Suzanne could probably answer whether or not, whether he would come back. I think the president is somebody who is known to sort of dig his heels in and --

MALVEAUX: I don't see where -- I think Alito is definitely going to get it. The one thing that was really fascinating with all of this was the fact that you had his handlers, the Republican handlers who were blackberrying you really like every 30 minutes or so, rebutting some of the things that the Democrats were saying. That's pathetic. That's ridiculous. And you'd be getting these blackberries constantly trying to, you know, basically, you know, stamp down that argument. One of the things that I wanted to know from you, Ed, is the fact that how did it play? How did they spin that whole emotional element with his wife? Because I know the president said, I want a dignified process. And then the next day they said it wasn't dignified. We told you so. They really...

HENRY: The Alito advisers immediately pounced on it. I can tell you in the hallway, as I was waiting for the Alito's to come out, I had various senior people coming up to me and saying the Democrats went overboard. And this just shows how bad they are. And I think in fairness to the Democrats, the Republicans were spinning this one like you wouldn't believe it. And I just think it was an emotional moment. I don't think Mrs. Alito was trying to make any political points. But the Republicans were trying to take that moment and turn it into a political moment and I think though the Democrats did hit him pretty hard on personal issues. That's for others to decide whether it's fair game or not. But I think put aside all the politics, this was a raw moment. It was emotional. This is what a woman was feeling, seeing her husband being, you know, hit pretty hard. And whether the allegations were true or not, that was her in that moment and it was a very powerful moment.

VELSHI: Let's move on to another story just ahead. Internet reporter Abbi Tatton gets the blogger reaction to the media coverage that Ed was just talking about about those hearings, because some people think covering it might not have been very dignified.

But first, to the White House beat where this week President Bush defended the Iraq mission and took a tough stand on Iran. Suzanne Malveaux is on that story coming up next. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: CNN is on the story. Suzanne Malveaux is on the story of the president's week and she's knows better than most of us that it takes a team to cover the White House for CNN. Let's look behind the scenes, behind the camera with CNN photo journalist Mark Walz. He's on the White House beat.

MARK WALZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The most important part of my job is to get the shot, to be at the right place at the right time. Monday the president visited North Glen (ph) elementary school in Glen Burnie, Maryland. We also flew there on a helicopter. And during our flight, we happened to look out and we were flying right over NSA. And with NSA being in the news, you know, we knew that was an important shot. We're very much a team at the White House. We have, you know, our correspondents and our producers and then we have our technicians, you know, the guys who I rely on to do their jobs and they do their jobs very well. What I find most rewarding about the job is covering the office of the president. Everything that he does is history and we are there to record history. There are often little gems where you get recognized by the president. He gives you a wink. It's a nice feeling.

VELSHI: That's great. That's the part -- that's the part that's hard for us to always convey that it's got -- everybody in the chain has to be as committed to getting that story as you are. And it all comes down to you telling it. But that's what you need to get this right.

MALVEAUX: And Mark Walz is a terrific photographer. There's also a terrific team. And really, when you saw his notebook, that was really a special moment when you are part of the travel pool. The much smaller group that actually travels with the president, because then you really get a chance to see him up close. You get a chance to get to know him. He gets to know you as well. And you do share those kind of special moments that are part of history.

VELSHI: Let's see what our audience has in terms of questions that they want to know about covering the White House.

QUESTION: I'm Erin from Roseville, Minnesota and my question is, what do you think is contributing most to Bush's declining approval rating?

MALVEAUX: He had a really, really tough year last year. And, believe me, when you talk to him and his aides, they were just ready to be done with 2005. And a lot of that, that was the handling, the handling or mishandling of Katrina. Also you had the initial nominee Harriet Miers that failed. He lost a lot of support from his Republican base, the conservatives. The Iraq war, as you know, it reached a gruesome threshold, of I believe it was 2,000 Americans killed. There were a lot of things that happened within a very short period of time, and it was -- he had some very bad moments. And I do believe that there was -- people lost faith in the president. It dipped below that 50 percent, 40 percent. You were talking about 35 percent approval rating. Since then it has gone up and that's something they are working really, really hard to achieve.

VELSHI: There was a poll that recently asked a question, in general, how would you say things are going for the U.S. in Iraq, very well, moderately well, moderately badly or very badly. Let's take a look at these results, 46 percent said well, 53 percent said badly. As you said, this has been a rough year for them. What changes in the way they -- to use Ed's words -- spin that?

MALVEAUX: You know what's really interesting is that you listen to him talk now and it's really been kind of an evolution, the strategy here. But at first, he was very reluctant to admit that there were any mistakes that were made. If you listen to what he says now, he's talking about it all the time now. We should have done this a little bit better, so they are admitting mistakes. The other thing they're doing is they're giving details. That is something that people have been asking for for quite some time, especially their critics. Tell us what you are going to do, specifically when it comes to troop numbers. So now he's offering those kind of details.

And then finally, you mentioned the polls, which is really interesting because the president and all of his aides say, we never look at the polls. We ignore polls. He used a poll number this week. He brought out and used a poll from the Iraqi people saying that the Iraqis are more optimist about their own future than Americans are about the Iraqis future. So he is using polls. They are using everything they have essentially to convince the American people, hey, stick with us here because they do not want this to hurt the congressional midterm elections come November.

HENRY: Suzanne, it was interesting we started out with Mark. People also don't always understand how your photographers are the ones that get the story sometimes. I mean, without the pictures, not just for your live shots, but if you were out there chasing a story and we have so many good ones. I mean are there any moments in particular that strike you over the years that, in working with these photographers that really just strike you?

MALVEAUX: Well, it's interesting. I mean, there are times when you might capture the president or something that happens at the White House that you don't think you are supposed to see. You know, perhaps you catch a glimpse of someone in the window. The photographer might be zooming in and you might see the president changing his shirt or something. And you are like, oh, OK. So you make a decision. You make a decision. You say, that's a piece of footage we're never going to air.

VELSHI: It goes on the Christmas reel.

MALVEAUX: You know, you capture some of those more intimate personal moments and you make those kinds of decisions, what you are going to air and not air. But you get to know them fairly closely.

VELSHI: This is why you watch ON THE STORY. Sir, your question and where you're from.

QUESTION: Hi. I'm Nick from Flint, Michigan. Do you find President Bush that -- is it true that he's more clever and funny, a little bit off camera as opposed to say on camera like he appears sometimes?

MALVEAUX: Well, he's very affable and he likes to joke around a lot and he likes to give people nicknames, which he does often.

VERJEE: What's your nickname?

MALVEAUX: See, now, I think he's just -- I think he's just working on pronouncing my name correctly, which is good. It's Suzanne. But all right, he's got my name. He knows who I am, but he'll call some people Stretch because they are really tall or Ssuper Stretch, things like that. But yes, I mean - a lot of things people don't know is that he is an avid reader. And he does like to, at times, debate certain issues. He's very open to very different ideas. And so those are the kinds of things that you learn and you don't necessarily see on TV.

VELSHI: Well, one of the things about President Bush is he made a visit to New Orleans this week. And it is said that it reminded him of the city that he used to visit. Our Alina cho is back from New Orleans, and she's back on the story in a moment. We're on the story from here in Washington, Iran, New Orleans, and elsewhere. Take a look.

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The man who shot Pope John Paul II has spent nearly 25 years behind bars. An Italian court sentenced Mehmet Ali Agca (ph) to life in prison. A recent court ruling cleared Agca's sentence cleared the way for his release.

EUNICE YOON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is how Muslims in (INAUDIBLE) Pakistan are celebrating the Islamic day of sacrifice, sitting in rubble, faces worn. These people understand sacrifice. Three months after the October 8th earthquake shook their capital, leaving at least 73,000 dead.

BECKY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Major Alan McEwen is like a politician, campaigning for American-style development in rural Afghan villages.

UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: These guys have shovels in their hand instead of siding with the Taliban having rifles.

DIAMOND: This is a $25,000 project employing local villagers to build an irrigation canal that will help them harvest grapes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening.

I'm Carol Lin and here's what's happening right now in the news.

There is still no word on the fate of Ayman el-Zawahiri. U.S. sources say Osama bin Laden's number two was the target of a CIA air strike in a village in Pakistan. And Pakistan has launched a protest against the attack, which killed 18 people.

Bad news for flu sufferers this year. The Centers for Disease Control say two drugs commonly used to treat symptoms won't work on this year's flu. Two other drugs, Tamiflu and Relenza, do work.

Later on "CNN PRESENTS," undercover in the secret state. We get a rare inside look at human rights atrocities inside communist North Korea. And on "LARRY KING LIVE," Oprah Winfrey comes to the defense of author James Frey in his first interview to answer claims his best- selling memoir may be exaggerated. That's coming up at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

I'm Carol Lin.

Now back to ON THE STORY.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: CNN is on the story at the George Washington University in the heart of the nation's capital.

Almost five months since the hurricanes clobbered New Orleans and wide areas of the Gulf Coast. Our Alina Cho is just back from that region, talking to students who are trying to get back to college and to residents that are trying to get back to their lives.

Let's take a look inside her Reporter's Notebook.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Well, this was my fifth trip to New Orleans. Our assignment this time around was to talk about how universities were recovering. They were reopening for the first time after hurricane Katrina.

Classes are being held in the hotel ballroom. Students and faculty are living there, too.

It requires a certain amount of compassion to get people to open up to you, especially when you're dealing with people who themselves are dealing with limited services. I don't pretend to know what these people are going through, but I think having been there several times to this region, I have some idea. And I think that certainly helps when you're trying to get people to talk to you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm blessed to be alive. You don't know how many people didn't make it.

CHO: People in St. Bernard Parish call themselves the forgotten parish. And I think that we need to remind people elsewhere in the country what they're going through. It looks exactly the same as it did just a few days after the storm. I think it's important to continue to tell those stories.

You look out here and you just -- all you see is trash.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, now it's starting to get like it's been too long.

CHO: These people are frustrated. Residents don't want to come back to that. Would you want to come back to that?

(END VIDEO TAPE)

VELSHI: Alina Cho joins us now from New York. She's back from New Orleans -- Alina, a lot of interest from the audience, so I want to go right to the audience with some questions.

Ma'am, your name and where you're from.

GRACE: I'm Grace from Buena Park, California.

And my question is how are the spirits of the college students returning back to New Orleans and if they're having trouble concentrating on their schoolwork after having gone through such a bad experience?

CHO: Well, I think that everything has sort of a Katrina dimension to it, Grace.

You know, interestingly enough, a large percentage of students have come back to New Orleans because they feel like, in some way, it's their duty. You know, they've seen what has happened from elsewhere in the country. Of course, the universities were closed during the fall semester. So these students were spread out over hundreds of other universities and colleges across the country.

They were seeing what was happening in New Orleans and elsewhere in the Gulf Coast on television, like the rest of us wwere. And so they wanted to come back to see what it was like for themselves, with their own eyes, for one. And, also, a lot of people felt like they wanted to help in any small way that they could. One student told me, you know, if all he does is help someone put on a door in the Lower 9th Ward, that would be enough for him, because these students feel like they want to contribute now.

VELSHI: We have another question from the audience.

Sir, your name and where you're from.

NICK SCHAEFFER: My name is Nick Schaeffer (ph).

I'm a UCSB gaucho.

And my question is do you feel...

VELSHI: What's a gaucho?

SCHAEFFER: A cowboy.

VELSHI: All right.

Sorry to interrupt.

SCHAEFFER: Heehaw.

I was going to ask, do you feel that racism in New Orleans will continue to be a problem throughout the rebuilding process?

CHO: You know, I sense that at times. But I have to tell you overall, residents -- black, white and otherwise -- are pretty much resolved to rebuilding New Orleans. Now, the estimates are not really encouraging. I think the latest estimate is that by 2008, only a quarter of a million people will return to New Orleans. Prior to Katrina, New Orleans had a population of a half a million. So that's only half of the population coming back.

Nonetheless, people are resolved to rebuild there. Now, I don't know if you remember this, but just this week, you know, the city's rebuilding commission came out with quite a controversial plan saying that essentially residents could go back anywhere they like and rebuild, but within a year's time.

So essentially -- and here's the controversial part -- you can rebuild anywhere you want, but if there's not a critical mass of residents who come back to a certain area, say, like the Lower 9th Ward, then they might be able to bulldoze that area or maybe restore it to marshland.

There are some urban planning experts who believe that there need to be some areas in and around New Orleans that are flood retention areas in case another Katrina happens.

So that is really controversial, particularly to the people who want to go back and rebuild in those low lying areas.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Alina, it's Suzanne.

I have a follow-up, really, to that. I'm very curious at that plan. As you know, a lot of my relatives lost everything to Katrina. They're staying in hotels in Baton Rouge now. They do want to come back, but they are very concerned about coming back, rebuilding and not having that guarantee that they need that their land and their homes won't be destroyed later.

Is the commission going back and taking a second look at this plan, because it was received so poorly by so many people?

CHO: Well, Mayor Nagin, Suzanne, as you know, called this only a recommendation. He said ultimately the residents will decide which areas are rebuilt.

But, you know, it's not encouraging. And I have to tell you, having been back to this region several times now -- I think this was my fifth trip, and I'm sure I'll be going back again very soon -- but that said, you know, every time I go back, I see certain areas really coming to life, like the French Quarter. That's where we stay. And in some ways the French Quarter looks like a storm never hit. And then you go to other areas like Eastern New Orleans, the Lower 9th Ward, certain parts of Mississippi and St. Bernard Parish, certainly, where there are still mountains of trash, and you get really discouraged.

So it's hard to say whether those places will ever be rebuilt.

VELSHI: Alina Cho joining us from New York.

Alina, good to see you.

Thank you.

Well, from New Orleans we're going back on the story of Samuel Alito and his confirmation hearings.

Back on the story online with our Internet reporter, Abbi Tatton. She and her Web cam are going tell us how the bloggers reacted to what they saw on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: CNN is on the story online.

As many of us watched the hearings on TV, the Internet was humming. And our Internet reporter, Abbi Tatton, was watching as bloggers across the political spectrum lashed out at the senators, the nominee, the hearings, the media, you name it -- Abbi, take it over.

ABBI TATTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ali, that's right.

People were fact checking, scrutinizing, live blogging these hearings all week. Not just the questions and the answers, but also the media's coverage of what was going on inside those hearings.

Now, one person, one of the many watching very closely, is Hugh Hewitt, conservative blogger, radio talk show host and also law professor.

He's joining us via Web cam from his studio in southern California.

Hugh, thanks for joining us.

HUGH HEWITT, HUGHHEWITT.COM: Good to be here, Abbi.

Thanks for having me.

TATTON: Now, as a viewer at home this week, do you think that they would have got, by watching the media's coverage of these hearings, do you think viewers got a fair impression of what was actually happening?

HEWITT: No. If you were only a television viewer, you have no idea of the undressing that the Senate Democrats were handed, not just by Judge Alito, but by a whole army of competent bloggers, whether it was over at the corner at Nationalreview.com or Benchmemoes, the folks over at Powerlineblog, Glen Reynolds at Instapundit.

There are a number of us who are law professors or are very competent and long serving lawyers who were watching and listening as Democratic senator after Democratic senator first, asked dumb questions; B, got answers they could not understand, or C, simply embarrassed themselves.

That was on the blogosphere. It did not make it much onto television.

TATTON: But, Hugh, as a conservative blogger, aren't you going to say that? Really, going to your site, are you going to get a better, fairer impression of what was going on?

HEWITT: Yes, you will because you'll have links at my site. If I can't back up something, you won't see any links. But when you go to Hughhewitt.com and I talk about, for example, "Stenberg v. Carhart", I will link directly to that. People can go read for themselves and they can check up on it.

That generally is the tradition, as you know, Abbi, as a blogosphere reporter, bloggers have to back up what they say. And if there aren't any links, you become suspicious of it.

But if you turn, for example, to CNN and one of my favorite people to watch, though never to agree with, Jack Cafferty, who I don't think has been right since "THE SITUATION ROOM" started, Jack never has to prove anything he says. He just sort of spouts off.

And that's fine. It's good television. It's not very reliable and I think the audience is figuring that out and that's why my traffic skyrocketed this week.

TATTON: So what...

VELSHI: Hugh, I sit real close to Jack Cafferty.

I'll pass on the love.

But help me out with this, because back in the day when we just did news stories, the criticism was one way or the other, we're not all that objective and something is getting lost.

So now we do things like coverage wall to wall and we're giving it to the viewers the way it's happening, unrefined, untouched. And we still can't win.

What do you people want?

HEWITT: Well, of course you can't win.

Look, on Friday night after the hearings concluded, Larry King took the night off. That's fine.

Who'd you put into his chair? Bill Maher. Who'd you bring on with him? George Mitchell. Yes, Dave Dreyer showed up, but I mean Bill Mahr? That man hasn't been right about anything. He's less right than Cafferty.

The reason that networks are losing audience and blogosphere is gaining audience is that we have free and open access to people who want facts backed up by opinion. And we have expertise.

One of the things that I watched with amazement this week was the inability of any network to call Joe Biden, for example, on his amazing hypocrisy about Princeton.

It took me less than an hour, working with my producer Dwayne, who blogs over at Radioblogger, to find a speech that Joe Biden had given at Princeton earlier in 2005 praising Princeton out the both sides of his mouth. And then he shows up on the Senate hearing saying he hates Princeton.

It's not hard to find that stuff. The blogosphere does. We post the audio, we post the video and then people can decide for themselves.

I think television tends to protect the powerful from the hypocrisies and the double sided approaches that they take to things like the law.

HENRY: Hugh, certainly just -- Ed Henry. Somebody who covered the hearings for CNN.

If, certainly blogs on both sides can pick out little things here and there, factual things, a speech that somebody gave, this case law is wrong, etc.

But to back up to what Ali was saying, you really didn't answer that question. The fact that CNN was giving the hearings to people unfiltered, for the most part -- there were commercial breaks here and there, there was analysis. But you could see Joe Biden give a 20 minute speech before he got to ask a question of the nominee. Viewers are smart enough, in my opinion, to be able to figure out whether or not he's getting anywhere or not.

Why is that not good for you? I mean the fact is people saw with their own eyes the Democrats were not getting anywhere. That's not a political opinion. That's the fact that Alito -- Judge Alito was able to turn them back.

So why didn't the unfiltered approach work for you? I don't understand.

HEWITT: Oh, Ed, I love the unfiltered approach. But then every night when you go to either "HEADLINE NEWS" on your sister network or you go to one of the other nets and they have to compress it down to the 30 minutes, people make selections.

For example, it wasn't selected that Chuck Schumer got his head handed to him time and time again with gentlemanly particular by Judge Alito, because he couldn't understand the difference between the unitary executive and a signing statement. It is a filtering that I think is unfortunately necessary in television. The blogosphere doesn't have to do it.

VELSHI: Abbi, thanks to you.

Thanks to Hugh.

And the great thing about the Internet is that Hugh and Ed Henry are going to take it outside and it'll be covered wall to wall on the Web.

From online to face to face in the White House, the first lady told our Zain Verjee who she'd like to see run for president.

That's next on ON THE STORY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: We're ON THE STORY.

And this week, CNN international anchor, Zain Verjee, was ON THE STORY with First Lady Laura Bush.

She sat down with Mrs. Bush on Friday.

Take a look at Zane's notebook.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I have grown up in Africa. You know, I've seen sort of the poverty, the HIV-AIDS there that really devastates the continent.

We started out by talking about her upcoming trip to Liberia.

How do you think you can make a difference, even a small difference, in the lives of African women?

LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I think that when, actually, if we talk about it, if we speak out from all over the world and talk about how important it is for girls to be educated, how if girls are educated, they have much more of a chance to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases. And then to be able to contribute to their economies, to their societies.

VERJEE: And, Wolf, the first lady leaves tomorrow night for Liberia. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will accompany her, as well.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

VELSHI: And a big treat for us to have my good friend Zain Verjee with us and to...

VERJEE: They did that quickly.

VELSHI: And we get to ask you some questions. So I'm going to take this straight to the audience so the audience can ask.

Sir, where are you from and what's your name?

EVAN: Hi, I'm Evan (ph).

I'm from Sunnyvale, California.

Laura Bush mentioned that she thinks Condoleezza Rice would be a good credit for president.

So I was wondering, does Condoleezza Rice have any interest? Is there any chance she can win the Republican primary? And I was also wondering what George Bush, her husband, thinks about this.

VERJEE: Right.

VELSHI: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) good questions.

VERJEE: They are all good questions and, you know, I was actually really surprised that she came out with a name and said Condoleezza Rice. And it was great. We were all happy about that today because it made news.

However, Condoleezza Rice has said, look, you know, I'm not necessarily interested in even running for this position. She's never been elected to any office before, although she has national security credentials and her position now as secretary of state also gives her the international credentials.

But Laura Bush was definitely, I mean, was definitely hot on Condi and it was very clear that that's where she wanted to place her ballot. And, you know, we felt pretty good because we made news.

MALVEAUX: And that was great that you got that nugget of news, because I know, having interviewed her before, that that's not easy to do. But, I mean, clearly, if you get -- if you get the first lady to laugh, you know, if you can crack a smile perhaps within the first five minutes, then you know you've made some headway there.

VERJEE: You know, she was...

MALVEAUX: And she's...

VERJEE: Yes?

MALVEAUX: ... as you know, I mean she's very well read and usually on message. And, also, what's interesting is that sometimes when you catch her overseas, she will make news. She will kind of step out of the box a little bit and make news and tell you what she really thinks about things.

VERJEE: And she was so warm and gracious, as well. But I was really taken aback at just how candid she was.

I have a confession, though, for everyone. That was the first time I actually went to the White House. I ran into Suzanne outside. And I have to tell you, though, I was a little disappointed, you know? I thought it would be really glamorous and, you know, yes, I'm at the White House and, you know...

MALVEAUX: Everybody has that reaction.

VERJEE: ... I'm here, you know?

MALVEAUX: Everybody. VERJEE: And I thought what? It's, you know, the briefing room is tiny.

MALVEAUX: The briefing room is a little dumpy. It's not quite the glamorous life that you think.

VERJEE: Yes. Yes.

VELSHI: Anybody out there an (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?

MALVEAUX: But to the their defense, they're actually going to redo it in the next six months or so. It's going to have a whole new makeover, you know, like the, I guess, one of the reality shows where you tear down everything.

(CROSSTALK)

MALVEAUX: They'll make it over. It will be there.

VELSHI: OK, your name and where you're from. And I hope it's got something to do with redecorating the White House.

PAT: It absolutely does.

VERJEE: Actually, I don't do any redecorating, but...

I'm Pat from Woodstock, New York.

What was your impression? Do you think the first lady is developing over the years as a more independent thinker or did you feel the presence of handlers and advisers to the president in that interview?

VERJEE: I think that she has evolved over the years, and Suzanne can weigh in on this because she follows it much more closely. But my impression was that, yes, she certainly has. She's really come out a lot more emphatically over the past years, particularly in the second term.

I was very impressed by her poise. She knew exactly what she was going to say. And she was very, very on message. She knew the point she wanted to hit on the trip to Liberia, why it was so important, and she came out with a message on why it was so important to have girls educated.

MALVEAUX: And one of the things that the president and the administration knows all too well is that she really is a gold mine, especially on the campaign. They had her out there all the time. Her popularity numbers are just off the roof.

VERJEE: Seventy-four percent.

MALVEAUX: I mean absolutely amazing.

VERJEE: Yes.

MALVEAUX: So they put her out there as often as possible, you know?

VELSHI: Yes. Yes, you should see, she seems very relatable.

HENRY: Maybe she'll run for the Senate, you know?

VERJEE: Ooh, I...

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: We're back in a moment with what our panel predicts they'll be facing on the story in the coming week.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: All right, let's take a look ahead on the story.

Suzanne, what do you think you're working on next week?

MALVEAUX: Well, right now the State of the Union speech is in a lot of different pieces. The team is going to come together, start putting together his speech to be delivered in two weeks. And, of course, they're going to be keeping a very close eye on what happens in Iran.

VELSHI: Absolutely.

HENRY: I'm going to be watching CNN to see who Zane is interviewing next. But myself, I'll be focusing on part two of Judge Alito. The committee will be voting. We're expecting a party line v. It was pretty bitter. But he'll get through. He'll go to the Senate floor and he's ultimately going to be confirmed, very likely.

VERJEE: And I'm hoping to go on holiday and go to sleep.

No, actually, I'm just going to be working on my show, dealing with news of the day and looking for interesting people to interview.

VELSHI: A show that airs that 12:00 p.m. on CNN.

And I will be covering business news and other matters.

Thank you to all of my colleagues and our fantastic audience here at the George Washington University.

And thank you for watching ON THE STORY.

We're going to be back each week, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.

Straight ahead, a check on what's making news right now.

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