Le Show; 2002-06-23

Transcript

It was a community service of Santa Monica College. Took him a while. I'm Tom Schnabel. James Gavin, author of Deep in a Dream. The long night of Chet Baker is my guest at 1 p.m. on Café LA this Sunday. Please join us then. Café LA Sunday's Noontail 2 here on 89.9 KCRW. The envelope is fat. It's choice. It's packed with terrific premium special offers, French benefits and luxury sweet steaks. Check out your summer sign-up membership mealer. You could find yourself at an elegant resort on Mexico's Costa Carayas, on Mallorca, or in French Polynesia on Bora Bora, just for the price of supporting KCRW. Not a subscriber? Call 888-600-KCRW. Or go online at KCRW.com. I guess we can treat that as a fun drive early warning. Chris, when's the next news here? I have no idea. No, it's at 5 o'clock. That would be weekend, some things considered. Thank you, Chris. You're welcome. In 10 seconds, ladies and gentlemen, it will be 10 a.m.

Pacific Daylights Savings Time, Time 4 List Show. From deep inside your radio. So, ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to propose an addition to our steadily growing list. At least, I hope you're keeping a list of insupportable, or at least vastly irritating, journalistic cliches. And of course, I use the word journalism as loosely as the news media do these days. I add to terrible tragedy. That's one of my favorites. Supposed to all the wonderful tragedies we won't be covering today. Here's the latest on this terrible tragedy. My favorite this week has to be the shock, the absolute disbelief with which anchors and field reporters alike regarded the possibility that the big wildfire in Colorado was started by a fire person, firefighter.

Unbelievable of stunning irony. This fire may have been every year. I'm not kidding. I mean, I live in fire country, but every year, at least one major fire in the West, I believe. I'm going to stand by this one is started by a firefighter. Now, that is in no way, in no way, in Senator in no way, to negate the wonderful heroism of our firefighters. But there is just a little tiny percentage of them that have this hero complex. And it's explained every year. They trot out the requisite shrinks to say, hero complex, and yet this week, despite all of that, stunning irony.

Disbelief. Absolute shock and horror. So there you go. It's just, you have to do that. It is obligatory in the quotes here. Journalism, unquote, profession today to profess shock and horror when something utterly predictable occurs. Now, ladies and gentlemen, I'm glad to say that we've made progress in Washington, at least. I pointed out to you last week that the current reigning cliche in our nation's capital is connect the dots referring to the inability of the FBI and the CIA to use the shreds of information that apparently came to them before September 11th to put together a predictive model for what was to come. This week in the wake of a leak, they're all leaks. Anything you read in the paper that's worth anything is a leak. In the wake of the leak that the NSA, the National Security Agency, the big ear, heard on September 10th in Arabic,

tomorrow is D-Day, or H-hour, whatever, they put it in Arabic, you know, who knows. But of course, they translated it on September 12th. Not that that would have, anyway, the discussion is now joined about the wisdom or lack thereof of the new Homeland Security Department, the cabinet level department that includes neither the CIA nor the FBI nor the NSA. And Senator Joseph Lieberman took us a big step forward today on the Sunday Act shows. When he said the job is to put all the dots on the same table, then they can be connected. I think we're making progress. Hello, welcome to the show. I'm going to say one, two, three more things before I go on.

In the shop, dress, pamphlet, something on the fiddle, in the background, right next door. And everybody's mother's cooking something in the kitchen. You got this, this tag, stealing the floor. I got to say one, two, three more things before I go on. You can run the tighten heart away Here comes another day. Red restricted growls a little Mexican tune on the chain link infinitely by the gate is у aroma going to make it a lick I gotta say one, two, three more things before I go on. You can run, you try to hide away Here it comes, it comes another day It's your law, now make my way, no matter where you are

You'll never really find a good morning as light But the big fat park was an area through the middle of this place that I come home When I get lost and don't even got a nickel, there's a piece of dirt I call my own I gotta say one, two, three more things before I go home You can run, you try to hide away Here it comes, it comes another day Where you are, never really far away Good morning as light

You can run, you try to hide away Here it comes, it comes another day Where you are, never really far away Good morning as light You can run, you try to hide away Here it comes

You can run, you try to hide away Here it comes You can run, you try to hide away Here it comes You can run, you try to hide away Here it comes You can run, you try to hide away Here it comes

You can run, you try to hide away Here it comes You can run, you try to hide away Here it comes You can run, you try to hide away Here it comes Earlier, the London's Guardian newspaper published an April 16 interview in which Turner made the comments along with in the newspaper a warning of possible repercussions for CNN, which he has nothing to do with anymore.

I mean, he's on the board of, he's a vice chairman of AOL, big deal. That means he gets to go to Montana, watch his buffalo. CNN has frequently been accused of bias by Israelis, although some Palestinians have also decried it as the Zionist news network. CNN earlier issued a statement saying Turner spoke for himself during the interview. Aren't the Israelis and the Palestinians both terrorizing each other? Turner was quoted as saying, that's a rhetorical question. He's apologizing for a rhetorical question. Turner also drew fire from Tom Delay, Tom, the exterminator delay. They call him the hammer in Washington, but I like to remember his earlier occupation before he got elected to Congress. He's the exterminator. He says, Turner's thoughts on the Middle East are the rant of a man with a defective moral compass, says Tom Delay. He gets to get fixed your compass too.

More this week about the replies from the Bush White House to the General Accounting Office's final report on the extent or lack thereof of vandalism by the departing Clinton East's. There were not 30 to 64 computer keyboards with missing or damaged WK's in specific rooms, says the Bush reply. There were 58 to 70. The GAO was wrong to say that 10 to 11 doorknobs were missing. In fact, the White House said 11 to 13 doorknobs were missing. The GAO got it wrong again and saying there were 9 or 10 missing remote controls. According to the White House, there were reports of 10 to 11 missing remote controls. The head of the White House effort to reply to the General Accounting Office's Bush Council Alberto Argonzales, a Supreme Court hopeful, who began his 80-page White House response to the GAO's report. With a two-page letter devoted almost entirely to arguing that the agency should include a dirty word in its report.

We believe it is vital to include the substance of specific graffiti. To the extent that this specific message is especially offensive or vulgar, it may be more relevant to the inquiry. So, ladies and gentlemen, for your file of figures, there were not 30 to 64 computer keyboards with missing or damaged WK's, there were 58 to 70. The range is like, doesn't narrow the range at all, just moves it. That's cute. That's a cute. But our text this week really, I think, can be found here in the dining section of the New York Times, a very long piece about the opening of Britney Spears' first restaurant. That's right. She got so tired of being good at music. She's now opening her first restaurant. Of course, she's out on tour. So, the partners say Ms. Spears played a role in putting together the menu, but conceded that she hasn't tasted anything on it.

She's been busy touring, said one of her partners. She hasn't tasted, but her manager, and I have, she tasted it biosmosis through her manager. Unquote. Tempts to interview Ms. Spears. We're unsuccessful, even through her manager, biosmosis. So, she tasted the food at her new restaurant biosmosis through her manager. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the text for today's broadcast. But let's get scared now. Can we please? It's Sunday, the news media would like to scare us. So, here we go. These are two good ones. Unraveling, this is from the observer in London, which does like to scare us. Unraveling the human genome is given scientists an unexpected headache, mutant mouse overload. Attention, Hollywood screenwriters. Take close attention. They've discovered their animal containment buildings and cages could soon be overrun by hundreds of thousands of new strains of genetically engineered rodents needed to make sense of data generated by the human genome project.

Tens of millions of mice could be involved in this research initiative over the next two or three decades. After years in which scientists have managed to make serious reductions in experimental mice numbers. It's a nightmare admitted one of the world's leading BSE researchers. That's, I guess, the precursor to mad cow disease. Dr. Adrian Agutzi of Zurich University. Lab mice cost a great deal of money to feed house and look after and the problem is getting bigger every day. Won't you help? No, he didn't say that. Last year, scientists on both sides of the Atlantic revealed they had sequenced all the genes in the human genome. Held as a milestone that would soon lead to the development of new vaccines, drugs and treatments. What was overlooked was the time and effort and number of mice spliced with human genes required to turn raw data into practical science. Discovering all the genes that make up a human being was just the beginning, says Dr. Steve Brown.

We now need to find out how each of these genes operate. What proteins they make, how they contribute diseases, how they interact with other genes. That will take us the rest of the century. And a lot of mice. You need thousands of mice just to research cystic fibrosis and to test various treatments for the condition. The genetic arithmetic indicates that at least 30,000 strains of mice and thus hundreds of thousands of individual mice will be needed to unravel the behavior of every single human gene. The figure will be closer to 150,000 strains, representing more than a million mutant mice, because individual genes usually come in different varieties or mutations. Nor will it be possible to substitute test tube alternatives to animal experiments. Says Werner Müller of Germany's National Center for Biotechnological Research. I study immune systems. There is simply no substitute for testing an animal during research. Each mouse and a laboratory costs about three bucks a week to feed and keep warm. As the current issue of nature magazine says that problem has become a logistical nightmare that is reaching a crisis point.

Mutant mouse overload only in theaters. I can see it. And another in the veritable wave of stories coming out about radiation from cell phones. This one says causes changes in the brain which could pose risks to health, according to an authoritative two-year study. In groundbreaking research on the effects of radiation on the brain, which is for the first time used human cells rather than rats, scientists found that even low level emissions from handsets, that's the phone itself, affects cells. They believe the changes could disable a safety barrier in the body which is meant to protect the brain from harmful substances in the blood. The blood? Scientists call for further research. Of course they do. The study conducted in Finland found that the most cell phone usage, the world capital of cell phone usage, wonder why? Oh, Nokia said where to there, isn't that right?

Found that exposing human cells to one hour of cell phone radiation triggered a response which normally only occurs when cells are being damaged. This led to cells which make up blood vessel walls to shrink, allowing tiny molecules to pass through into brain tissue. Professor Darius Lisinski will present the research at a conference in Canada this month said he could confirm that radiation from cell phones does affect the delicate makeup of human cells. We hear, you know, science is an evolving thing, so it's evolving. Here's one, you probably already heard this, but we love it. Watching a movie or TV program with strong sexual... Watching a movie or TV program with strong sexual references interferes with people's ability to remember the commercials in such programs, according to new research. In the first study to empirically measure whether sexually explicit programming helps or detracts from advertisers' messages, researchers found people watching shows packed with sexual innuendo, performers with revealing clothes or sexual scenes were much less likely to remember the ads, both right after the show and a day later. The scene among adults of all ages, among men and women, and among those who liked the program, and those who did not.

If advertisers find out the most popular programs make the ads less successful, it will revolutionize the TV business, said Jonathan Friedman, a social psychologist at the University of Toronto. This is the journal of applied psychology. Similar findings have been reported for violent programs. The researchers say their work could show advertisers than programmers that sex and violence in fact do not sell. Perhaps most tellingly, the impact and memory was seen in people between ages 18 and 25, a group that advertisers covet as malleable consumers and that programmers try to attract with risque shows. The simplest explanation, said the researcher, is that people who watch a sexual program are thinking about sex instead of thinking about the ads. From the well-duh department, ladies and gentlemen, and now slightly more informative. Let me read the trades to you, or to you bias Moses through your manager.

Updating our information about Tivo, and what it wants to do to your hard drive, if you let it. From advertising age, Tivo inks packs for long-form TV ads. I will read it for you. Tivo, the commercial zapping personal TV service, that sends chills down the spines of Madison Avenue executives as quietly luring marketers to experiment with extended form ads and promotions. The aim is to get viewers to actually choose to view ad content by making it as compelling as the programming. Sony Pictures debuts this week what Tivo refused first to as showcases of unique content to its 420,000 subscribers, showcases which offer at least 10 minutes. Give advertisers the ability to create content packages that go well beyond a 30-second TV spot?

Doesn't say whether you choose to record it, whether Tivo chooses to record it for you, as it already has in England. Sony Pictures is offering a 90-second trailer for the movie Mr. Deeds and starring comedian Adam Sandler in three different movie excerpts for a total of 10 minutes. We want to learn ways to exploit the personal video recorder, and find compelling applications for our advertisers. Sony Pictures said Mitch Oscar, director of Media Futures for Universal McCann, agency, Mitch Oscar, ladies and gentlemen. There are no losers when Mitch Oscars in the room. And as Stephen Spielberg's latest feature minority report hits theaters this weekend, movie goers will encounter a startling example of the latest intersection of Hollywood and Madison Avenue.

Along with headliner Tom Cruise, the film stars a number of fictional futuristic ads that the actors interact with and 20th century brand names front and center. Just as video game makers have recognized the very similar to real world brands can bring to their alternate worlds, Mr. Spielberg looked at brands such as Nokia, Toyota Motor Sales, US Lexus, Pepsi, Guinness, Reebok and American Express to lend veracity to his futuristic story. And advertisers hope the unusual prominence in the movie storyline will gain them some eyeballs they wouldn't get anywhere else. Two of those advertisers Nokia and Lexus are full-time movie tie-in sponsors who spent about 5 million to 7 million each to promote the tie-in. In one key scene, Mr. Cruise's character runs for a subway trying to make his getaway in this world, ads can recognize names and faces. In the space of just 45 seconds, a barrage of interactive billboards call it the name of his character in an effort to sell them their products.

Bonnie Curtis, producer on minority reports that it was Spielberg's intention to use real advertisers. He even wanted to feel like you're on Planet Earth, she said. Folkswoman denied that Nokia is spending 5 to 7 million to tie into the movie she wouldn't reveal other details. Let's say put mutant mice in charge of the media and have done with it. A cynical conclusion that we're driven to latest gentlemen when I read the traits for you.

It's a copyrighted feature and yes it is. Another copyrighted feature is next. Directed from the virtual training floor of Chorium Slotham Oliver, this is Mind Your Own Business. I'm Mike Tuchinolo on the training floor. This week polls indicated that the public was starting to have less confidence in American businessmen than in pedophile priests. Adding to the scandals swirling around Enron, global crossing, Taiko and Adelphia Communications, Martha Stewart was suspected of keeping her stock accounts. Neater than her Doilly drawer. Inside her trading is what the FADS call it. But savvy investors can see that what was inventive and aggressive in the 1990s is being redefined as deceptive and criminal in the decade that doesn't even have a nickname yet. Meanwhile the markets continue their three week ride to the post-9-11 basement.

While in the wake of the government's settlement with Mara Lynch, the value of analysis offered to customers of the marquee brokerage firms was sinking lower than it was. In this turbulent climate our guest today attempts to quiet the rising storm to buffer the buffeting winds and to quell the regulatory climate from getting even more regulatory. He's the vice president of a public liaison for the free enterprise institute Clayton Belding. Clayton, welcome to the training floor. Well, thanks Mike. It's good to be somewhere where they're not shooting at me. I'm being metaphorical of course. I could go to Afghanistan. Really good shot at. But you're not going to. I am not sir. Clayton, your organization is the more aggressive lobbying counterpart to the Chamber of Commerce, isn't it? Yes, Mike. Our slogan is taking care of business, but we mean that in the old fashioned way. We think American business is getting a bad rap from the bad apples that are feeling one very bad barrel. Well, the rest of the apples get tired with the brush of that barrel and we're fighting that with every quiver in our bow.

In what way? Well, we're going public with a very big advertising campaign. You're going to see it on CNN, all the news channels, the Sunday news programs, a night line and on the op-ed pages of major newspapers. These are the media, the opinion leaders consume. That's correct. And we just tell our story that for every right aid where the three chief executive officers of the company recused about right, fraud and deception, there's a Walgreens where the worst thing that happens is pill fridge from the petty cash drawer. But why not just write out the storm, let the bad apples take their punishment and assume that the American people will, as they did in the 90s, view business folks as heroic and forward looking Mike. Mike, there was a little thing called 911. America has its heroes and they're well, honestly, they're not sitting in corner offices, bullying in 50 million and stock options. We have to go beyond the caricature of what is real to a caricature of the ideal.

Our vision of a land where opportunity doesn't automatically lead to a jail term. And that means telling the story of people who for one reason or another, whether it's strong moral fiber or just a fear of pushing the envelope to the breaking point, just don't think that their business is an excuse to plunder their employees, stockholders in general public. Well, who are these people you're spotlighting? You tell me. That's why I'm taking time out from my public relations blitz to appear on programs like this, Mike, to ask for help in locating such what we call angels in the executive suite. You know, we know they're out there somewhere and we want them to come forward so we can tell their stories and deafening and mind numbing repetition. We're basically making it appeal to the reason and the common sense of the average Americans like Judd Idiot. Well, it's an amazingly frank characterization, Clayton. You're afraid it might turn the public even further against business and business man and of course business women.

Well, let's not drag the women into this. Mike, no self-respecting company. Let them anywhere near the money. But no, this is a time for candor for honesty. You know, we go around the world to Asia, to Latin America, preaching free enterprise and transparency is the key to progress. If we can't be utterly honest about our contempt for the targets of our message, we're the biggest hypocrites of all Mike. Clayton, what are the stakes in all this besides the fee you're paying for appearing on this broadcast? Of course, of course. Mike, the world invests in America. If international traders lose confidence in the honesty and transparency of the American economy, we're going to be in this recession until one of the Bush daughters is president. So yes, the stakes are high, but at the free enterprise institute, we think we've got a great message. Our business community is still a whole lot cleaner than anything in the Philippines, for example. And we're determined to get the word out there, except perhaps for the Philippines. Where they might be sensitive.

Where, in fact, they are. Clayton building good luck in carrying the message of American business out from behind the prison bars of media hype. Thanks, Mike. You're welcome at our big pro-am out at White Selfers Springs in September. I'll be there. And that's mind your own business for this week. Next time, former day traders sue for unemployment coverage. And at least one court says, you've got to be kidding. Until then, from the Trading Floor of Korean Folk Am Oliver, I'm Mike Tuchinello, saying, this week, mind the business of someone you love. So long. And when it happened, it didn't work.

It was half a night, half a day. And then we left. So the same and different. I told you that everyone understood. The men asked why they didn't disembark in São Paulo, in Brasil and in Natal. And they left. And then we left. And then we left. And then we left.

And then we left. And then we left. And then we left. And then we left. And then we left.