tv Larry King Live CNN January 6, 2011 12:00am-1:00am EST
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now, his is more of a strictly comedy branding whereas with fox news the comedy is an unintentional comedy. >> they view it as serious news, unfortunately. >> but i think the two of them really are different sides of the same coin. >> let's see. he got you to laugh and you got him to open up, i guess that's reason enough to keep watching. make sure you're with us make sure you are with us tomorrow night. until then, a special edition of "360" starts now. >> brace yourselves for a meeting of the mouths. three people who like to tell it like it is. that was roseanne. comic and activist roseanne barr is here. just out with a new book. rock star, red stater and avid hunter ted nugent joins me as well. author of "ted, white and blue." rounding out our panel, no shrinking violet himself, former obama campaign pollster cornell belcher. >> i don't belong here.
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>> i didn't want to be the only black guy here. >> there's a lot of gray going on. >> we're all rocking the gray. >> i got the white going on. respect your elders. i'm 62. do i own the place? >> i'm usually the only one rocking the gray. i'm glad we're all here. we begin with a breaking story. evidence of fraud against an autism researcher. his name is andrew wakefield. his medical license was stripped in britain back in may. in a 1998 study published in the medical journal lancet he claimed to have found a link between vaccines kids take and autism. in the years since, as autism cases have inexplicitly risen. an increasing number of parents have stopped getting their kids vaccinated. just tonight, an investigative journalist published his findings in a british medical journal calling the wakefield study, quote, an elaborate fraud. a fraud that has done long-last
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damage to kid's health. bmj, this journal, says wakefield faked the data on the 12 kids who were the focus of the 1998 study. they show evidence he faked it and he had financial motives for doing so. i spoke with wakefield a short time ago, about two hours ago. we're going to have the complete interview at 10:00 p.m. on "360" as well as rebuttal from sanjay gupta. another reporter that has been investigating this for years. here's just some of my interview with wakefield. sir, according to this new report, not only did you do a study that was scientifically and ethically flawed, it was, quote, an elaborate fraud. an award winning investigative journalist has published evidence that you had sought to exploit the scare among parents for financial gain. how do you respond? >> you know, i had to put up with this man's false allegations for many, many years. i've written a book --
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>> this is not just one man. this is published in the british medical journal. >> i have not as yet had a chance to read that but i have read his multiple allegations on many occasions. he's a hit man. he's been brought in to take me down because they are very, very concerned about the adverse reactions to vaccines that are occurring in children. >> again, we're going to have the complete interview at 10:00. roseanne, you have kids, grandkids. did you get them vaccinated? >> yeah, of course. i think you have to. absolutely. >> have you heard the concerns about autism? >> i have heard all that. i don't know what the heck to believe about anything. i mean, seriously. i don't know ways bs and what's true. >> which side is more fraudulent? the poor guy being charged or the people making the allegations. either way, it's tragic. i'm a parent and grandparent. and obviously the scientific data is irrefutable that once the vaccinations were kicked in back in the '30s and '40s that
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rates of certain diseases fell off the charts. and fell off the map. i think that's desirable. you can't deny that evidence. but if this guy's guilty of fraud, i think somebody's dad ought to go kick his ass. >> kids in the united states have died now from, like, whooping cough because their parents have decided not to get them vaccinated. >> hanging's too good for this guy if this is true because he's impacted kid. i have two boys myself. who better be in bed right now. >> i like that you said if it's true. because we don't know. >> because, well, that's the thing i want to get to. >> what's interesting -- and we'll do more of it at 10:00 because that was just a little thing. i go point by point with this guy. the evidence is pretty clear that he -- according to this investigation that's been done, that he faked the data. there are only 12 kids in this case. he faked the data on each of these 12 kids. public health officials around the world are all saying there is no link, no provable link between -- >> if it's provable that he did
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that, then that's just a terrible thing. >> i think it's amazing that roseanne barr and i agree that we don't trust anybody. >> no, absolutely. >> that's the only time it's going to happen tonight. >> i'm going to try for more. >> let's talk politics. today was a big day in washington. you're obviously excited, i guess. >> i want to be excited but i'll believe it when i see it. i don't trust any of them either. i don't trust liberals or the democrats or the conservatives or the republicans. i just don't know who to trust. the fraud and the corruption, the deceit, the abuse of power, is pandemic in politics today. so i want -- i write a feature every week for washingtontimes.com and humanevents.com. just as a guitar player. i want to see some results. i want to see some pragmatism and some accountability. god bless accountability.
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whoever comes up with accountability is going to get my vote. >> i agree. >> -- the tea party's going to get co-opted when they come to washington. you think that's going to happen? >> you know who was there? at least 12 of the tea partiers there with lobbyists circling like sharks. the city is corrupting. people go there to change that city. time and time again, they get changed by that city. it's interesting to see what happens. >> i heard you want to not only for president but prime minister of israel. >> it's a two-fer. >> i thought for sure you already were. >> you know what makes me different? >> where do we start? >> what makes me different as a candidate. i just want solutions. i don't want to hear about whose fault it is anymore. i think that's what most americans feel today. >> how would you rule? >> we have to get together over this huge chasm these two sides pulled us apart. >> i had a bumper crop of
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crowbars this year. >> what? >> i heard you -- >> seriously, like you said, we want results. i think we differ on what the results are and how we get 'em obviously. >> are you a big supporter of obama? >> i'm a supporter of the president. like they always say in a time of war, you have to support the president. i think it is treasonist to attack the president in a time of war so i'm not going to do that. >> we're in a perpetual war though. >> that's true. >> i heard you wanted a council of grandmothers? >> i say all patriarchal politics. it can't work. so i would replace all governments with the grandmother's -- >> that would be better than what we have now. >> that's not horror, that's real.
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grandmothers know how to solve problems. and that's what i'm saying again. we've got to solve problems. >> i think nancy pelosi's a grandmother though, isn't she? >> okay, but this way i'm the head, okay ted -- >> not political grandmother. >> i'm the head grandmother of the entire world and everyone answers to me. >> what did you think of john boehner taking over today? got a little teary-eyed. >> well, i want a leader that's ballsy and tough and ready to face the demons. i was let down by the emotionalism. it was really emotional today. the shape america's in. the abandonment of accountability. makes all of us want to shed a tear. but we'd like to put someone in charge who's stronger than that. if he's wanting to fix things, then he doesn't have time for crying. i was both moved that he was down to earth and human about it. but i was let down because i need a tougher guy than that. >> a lot of people have been very critical. everyone says they want their politicians to be more like real people.
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i just want to show some of our viewers. >> making sure that these kids have a shot at the american dream like i did. i spend my whole life chasing the american dream. i put my -- myself through school working every rotten job there was. and i think the top of our list is providing for the safety and security of the american people. that's at the top of our list. >> anderson, that doesn't play well on tv. that's just mean stuff, man. >> here's the problem with the american people. they like their leaders to be john wayne. tough guys.
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that doesn't -- >> you're a pollster, how does that poll? >> it doesn't play well at all in middle america. the one thing they thought about george bush, whether it was true or not, that he was tough and decisive leader. americans ate it up. the problem with that is they don't see tough and decisive. the guy would cry at the drop of a hat. also, think about this, if this was nancy pelosi on television crying, oh, my god, they would ream her about it. a woman can't cry on television. >> i think the guy acts like he's drunk. you know, like when you have the one too many drinks and you're like "i love you, buddy." >> give john a break. john's going to be a good house leader. >> apparently he does like to drink a little. >> who doesn't these days? i don't actually. earlier tonight, on cnn's "parker spitzer," "30 rock's" alec baldwin talked about a future in politics. later, an actor with other ambitions.
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back with a special 9:00 edition of "360." tonight we're talking about politics, and just about everything else with comic roseanne barr. >> is that what that was? >> also weighing in, political strategist cornell belcher. >> you are the front brother. >> earlier tonight on cnn's "parker spitzer," eliot spitzer asked actor alec baldwin if he had any plans to run for office. here's what the "30 rock" actor said. >> i've had people approach me -- >> never heard you stammer before. >> i've had people approach me about running for jobs and moving to other locations and it's been a very difficult decision for me because i am a new yorker and i do like living here and i would prefer to live here.
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there's a lot of planes on the runway ready to take off, any given time. there's a lot of ambition. a lot of entitlement in some circles with people who believe there are certain jobs who belong to them. so the answer is yes, it's something that i'm very, very interested in. >> ted? >> i don't know what to laugh at harder. i think everybody's got not only the right but a civic duty to participate to the maximum in this experiment in self-government. so -- i disagree with alec baldwin probably on everything except his first wife. i encourage him. >> you're a big activist. >> hey, i'm a we, the people guy. politics in america. that's why i so adore sarah palin. here's a citizen who wants to get involved. sees corruption and fraud.
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gets involved. and leaves her citizens being voted into office. that's american politics pure and simple. that's how i -- >> where's my gun? >> so i support roseanne barr to be the prime minister of -- >> how come you've never ran? >> i'm old and i still love to tour luke a mad man. i love to play my music. i'm probably too selfish right now. >> mike huckabee still rocks out a little bit. >> not exactly rocking out. >> i have a different attitude about rocking out. i support alec and i support everybody who pursues it. let the people decide. if there's content and positive upgrade in their message, bingo. >> i think you're right. >> would you vote for alec baldwin? >> i definitely would because he is so handsome. he is so smart too. i agree with everything that guy says. >> and then you can sing the national anthem at his inauguration. >> absolutely, and they you can shoot a little baby pig. >> i could, two of them. >> yeah. >> here's the problem. alec's got to be crazy because you know what, the moment he says he's going to run for office, personal friends of mine
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are going to spend their next couple of weeks digging through his past and bring up all the crap -- >> isn't that a shame? >> it is. that's the way politics is played. truth of the matter is he's got a great job -- >> you think people care about that sort of stuff? really? back in the gary hart days, yes, it derailed a lot of careers. >> negative politics works. it does. there's a reason why we go negative on a candidate, because it works. there's a reason why people who start as front-runner oftentimes don't end up as front-runner, because of negative politics. if i got a couple hundred thousand dollars and i can put points behind that negative commercial, it is absolutely going to penetrate. >> that's what i would like to run. i would revel in the attacks on me. i consider that a party. because it's all such nonsense. it's about getting the job done. >> what's the job though? i mean, you say these things -- you remind me of sarah palin a little. you say these broad things but
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what's the job that needs to get done? like robbing all the working people of every dime they got? >> accountability. >> what does that mean exactly? >> when you have x amount of income from the tax coffers that you don't spend beyond it. i live within my means. i expect my government to live within their means. >> what with goldman sacks? what do you think of that? >> i think they ought to be stoned to death. >> do you think this government is owned by goldman sachs and rich people? >> unfortunately right now, and especially the obama administration, yes. that's why they hired him. >> why do you say that obama when people pay less taxes under obama than they did under reagan. >> that's another example of abandonment of accountability. their deficit and the debt has never skyrocketed like it is right now because the socialist mentality is to redistribute wealth -- >> how about bush -- >> he did a horrible job. put it there, put it there. no, that's rampant. bush blew it. obama's blowing it even better. clinton blew it.
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i think politics -- there's a military term. it's three syllables. i'll give you two of them. cluster. that's why tea party's so important. saying one simple thing. be accountable. >> but the tea party is owned by the richest people in the world. >> the tea party are welders and farmers. >> no, they're not. >> hanging out with them -- tea parties last week. they're carpenters. they're people who make a minimum wage. >> it's not their fault they're being lied to and tricked. >> the tea party is about the constitution and the bill of rights. >> telling rich people what they want to hear is not good for americans. >> that's not what the tea party is about at all. not even close. tea party is about working hard. playing hard. simple families going, be accountable. what are you doing with our money? who said you can pay people to stay home? who said you can pay people not to work? if you're not productive, you
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get no money. >> but this -- >> how's that sound? >> that sounds like you're blaming the victim. sounds like you're blaming the poor people. >> victims for sleeping in? >> yeah, i think you're blaming the victim. and you work for the richest guys in the world. all you tea party spokespeople, you work for the koch brothers and they're like billionaires. >> i'm just a deer hunter. >> you're working for the wrong people, brother. >> i work for myself. all my buddies work for themselves. they work and they expect to have something left and not give it to people who didn't earn it. real simple. >> who, like dick cheney? dick cheney didn't -- dick cheney didn't earn one damn thing. guy's never worked an honest day in his life. >> who's this? >> dick cheney. he's never worked an honest day in his life. >> oh, you got to be kidding me. >> are you kidding me? >> show me obama's resume. show me all his jobs he's had. show me a product barack obama ever produced. show me one. time's up. >> well, actually, ted, he did start actually working for the churches in southside chicago. >> what's the product? >> the product is actually helping people.
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but to get back to what -- >> thank you. >> chicago people don't look very helped to me. it looks like a tragedy. did he help cabrini green? is that one of his projects? >> you need to try to help people. >> you need to try to help people by scolding them to help themselves. why would you support slavery? >> you're blaming the people at the bottom who have nothing whatsoever -- >> i'm blaming people who refuse to be productive. >> why don't you blame the people who have the blame? >> -- people who have jobs and produce things? >> i want to blame the koch brothers and the billionaires and all the people who robbed the taxpayers of this country, absolutely. >> the government is the one who's robbed the taxpayers this of country. >> what would we do without government? expect the rich people to take care of the poor? are you crazy? >> the rich people are the ones providing jobs. >> no, they're not. there are no jobs. and rich people -- >> -- who put all their lives
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the line to get creative. >> rich people don't pay squat and it's proven. >> guys, let me just jump in here. we have to take a quick break. we'll talk about something you all can agree on, sarah palin, in just a moment. still ahead, piers morgan. tonight he talks about journalism as a contact sport. back in a moment. ?@?@?@?@?@?@?@@
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a little. >> grab the popcorn, get the kids out of the room. >> real butter. >> we've got ted nugent here. comedian self-described domestic goddess roseanne barr. author of the new book roseanne-archy. dispatchers from the nut farm. ted nugent. "ted, white and blue." and cornell belcher. we've had a lot going on during
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the commercial break, i will tell you. let's just first -- >> a lot of profanity. >> let's talk about sarah palin. you're a huge fan of sarah palin. >> i'm a huge fan of sarah palin. both literally and figuratively. >> do you think she can be president in 2012? >> way too early to know. right now, no. >> do you think she would make a good president? >> she's on her way to being a good leader. she's coming from the street. she's coming from the we, the people, rank and file. she makes sense when she talks. she says all the right things. she's sincere. she's knowledgeable. she's articulate. she's damned good looking. plus she kills moose. what can go wrong? >> do you think she could be a good president? >> it's too early to tell. right now if we had a vote today, i couldn't vote for sarah palin. and i love her. >> even though she's so good looking you couldn't vote for her?
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>> nothing to do with it, roseanne. >> what do you think of her? >> i think she's a loon and i think she's kind of a traitor to this country. she would love to erase the line between church and state. which i think this country was founded on and should never be trifled with in any way. >> i heard you say she's stealing your act. >> that's the thing that really -- me off. she's doing it wrong. >> how's she stealing your act? >> you're way funnier. don't worry. you've got your -- >> now you've got me back on your side. >> you got your ground staked out. you're all right, baby. old sarah ain't gonna tread on roseanne, i promise. >> she's another one like ted -- excuse me, ted, don't come after me with a gun and i'm heavily armed myself. >> did we pat them down? >> nobody's armed tonight. >> she tells rich people what they want to hear and calls herself a maverick for doing it. she's not a maverick, she's a dupe. and gets paid for helping to dupe other people too.
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scaring the hell out of americans so they vote against their own best interest. and they vote against the social safety net. >> why do you think she's so polarizing -- >> roseanne couldn't be more wrong. >> i'll come up in the middle of this. two years before obama ran, he couldn't win either. >> good point, yeah. >> listen, partisan hat off here, there is not a more influential, like it or not, there's not a more influential republican right now in national politics. look at what she just did in the republican primaries. look what she just did in the republican caucuses. >> she sends a tweet and everybody covers it. i tweet all the time, no one talks about it. >> i think that's overkill. i'm let down by that because they're focusing on some pretty silly elements. i think we need to pay more attention to the content. like you say, the polls show she's extremely influential. that supports my belief she says the right things. believe me, she's not catering to anybody. >> all those people after she
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lost with mccain said, she needs to study, practice, maybe take some foreign trips. >> we all do. >> she ignored that advice. is doing it her own way. in a way that's been very -- >> there's also anti-intellectualism that's pretty deep in america. >> her followers are the dumbest people on earth. >> thanks a lot, roseanne. >> no, but seriously, they can barely scare up a pulse. i'm serious. >> that's kind of mean. >> they are really stupid. they're stupid. >> roseanne, you couldn't be more wrong. you look at the tea party people. they're solidly in the asset column of america. they are the producers, roseanne. why don't you like producers? >> because i would rather fire producers, don't you know anything about me? >> she has a long history of firing -- >> i love the yin and the yang, baby. believe me, sarah palin gets it. people are willing to sacrifice, get up extra early, be the best they can be. at the end of the day, live within their means and be providers of jobs.
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be providers of quality life. >> people like sarah palin are all on the government dole going out and bitching about people wanting to get on the government dole. please. every one of them is on the government money. >> from a campaign perspective, she has two problems. one is as independent voters, you know, the more independent voters -- she has high negatives among independent voters. i was doing polling in new hampshire. every day she spent, independent voters moved away from. right now, there is no gender gap for her right now. something we seldom see with women candidates. women tend to want to vote for women. right now, gender gap isn't really impacting her. it's real problematic. hillary clinton had this big push early on in the primaries because she had a huge gender gap. white women, black women, and we don't see that right now happening with sarah palin in the way it typically does for women. >> you say never -- >> never say never. her negatives would be as high
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as anyone who ever entered that race at this time. that's real problematic for her. >> got to take another quick break. we're going to have more with roseanne and ted and cornell. also, this special "360," haiti, talking to actor sean penn who spent most of the last year in port-au-prince. 100 crisps in every can. ♪ 100 ways to enjoy pringles. ♪ 100 crisps, 100 ways.
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welcome back. i honestly have no idea what i'm doing here. >> you told me i could apologize because sometimes i shoot my mouth off and say really stupid things. >> what do you want to apologize about? >> i did not mean to insult all of sarah palin's supporters. it just flew out of my mouth. >> i accept your apology. >> it's not their fault. i feel they're being duped. i really do feel they're being duped but i don't blame them for that. >> okay.
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let's move on to some other topics. brett favre. i mean -- >> one word -- >> uh-oh, please let it be -- >> cluster? >> photo shop. >> technically, i don't think -- yes, all right. that's what you're recommending? >> that's what i think, yeah. >> you're upset because you actually wish you had received some -- >> i don't know why they never texted women their own age. why are they always going to women half their age to send pictures of their gentles? >> should i go first or should you? >> please. the floor is yours. >> i'm actually always surprised -- i'm not touching that texting younger women. i'm always surprised that we're surprised about athletes chasing skirts. it's time and time again. look, they're rich guys. got a lot of money. they got a lot of women who flock to them. i'm always surprised by this. i'd be more surprised to see athletes not chasing skirts. >> you think chasing skirts is texting a picture of your penis to someone who works for you? you think that's chasing skirts? >> is that what he allegedly did?
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>> there have been allegations but it's not clear where that photo that's been on the internet came from so i'll just throw that out there. >> see, i didn't know that either. >> if he had been texting pictures of his feet to coach ryan last year, he probably would have got more playing time. >> now there are new allegations of texts to some of the massers on -- >> roseanne had one word, i got one word. inconsequential. next. who gives a rat's ass? >> you actually know. it's a sad way for a guy who's had an incredible career -- >> you know what, the sexual world, to each his own, man, have a nice day, keep it legit, don't hurt nobody, but i could just care less -- >> don't you think you should look for a willing partner? >> no, i don't think you should look for anything in this day and age. >> what do you make of all these birds falling out of the sky in arkansas? >> did i that, 20-gauge. you've heard about drive-byes in detroit? that was a drive-by in arkansas. i'm going to tell you something. this is serious.
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number one. the same reason the passenger pigeons died off is because they're a colonizing species. in these colonies, parasites and viruss spread like wildfire. that's what i'm attributing it to. >> you think it's internal? >> the government official statement was fireworks that distracted them. >> i saw that. >> that's the u.s. government doing its finest work. was that the fda or usda or just a bunch of idiots? it wasn't blunt force trauma. it wasn't fireworks. i promise you that. i am just a guitar player, but i can assure you that. i think it was a colonized spreading virus or parasite because it does happen in wildlife often. >> you see on the internet folks who think it's a sign of the end times. >> i think it's monsanto. >> that corporation? >> yeah, if you research it, they're poisoning the food chain from top to bottom. >> roseanne -- >> i mean, they've got this
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bacteria, now there's this bill in congress about forcing them to destroy their sugar beets because what it does is create bacteria that kills off the other crops. >> roseanne, you're probably right. >> a bird probably ate one of their damn sugar beets and all the birds died. >> i think that's where you are off course, but i concur with you that we have chemicaled ourselves to death. air fresheners and scented shampoos for kids and all the chemicals we've bombard ourselves with on a daily basis cannot possibly be good for you. canary in a coal mine. we have birds falling out of the sky and this fish kill. >> all the spraying, whenever you look outside, there's -- >> number one, when they banned ddt, then malaria exploded again so we have to have balance. you've got to kill off, you know, certain disease carrying bugs and other forms. and if chemicals can help do that -- just like vaccinations we were talking about. it may have some dangers but the big picture is you've saved millions of kids lives. so we have to balance it. i'm against chemicals
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completely. i've been drug, alcohol, tobacco and chemical free my whole life. our family's hard core about this. and that other fat thing i'm talking about. >> from -- people would probably automatically assume you were, you know, given the rocker life -- >> that's what i assume. >> yeah, well some people are idiots. it's been so well documented. i've been promoting clean and sober dr -- >> i'm just interested, how do you resist that stuff? >> defiance. i didn't invent the middle finger but i perfected it. about the age of 12. the hippies, the attraction, was it the drooling, the puking or the dying? which was the attractive part? you've got to be kidding me. to infest yourself have poisons is the ultimate crime against your gift of life and certainly your sacred temple so i just laughed those punks into the grave. >> ted, i'm drunk right now. >> i'm getting drunk sitting next to you. >> we've got to go. roseanne, thank you very much. ted nugent, thank you very much. cornell belcher.
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next wednesday night is the one-year anniversary of the magnitude earthquake that devastated haiti. much of the capital port-au-prince was destroyed. still in ruins a year later. men and women and kids simply disappeared in the rubble. i'll be there next tuesday and wednesday reporting on the situation. a cholera epidemic broke out in october.
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it's a very preventable, very treatable disease. it spread across haiti. killing so far more than 3,000 people. sickening 10,000 -- tens of thousands more. over the course of past year on "360" we have spoken to sean penn who has spent a lot of time in haiti, dedicating his life to relieving the suffering of the haitian people. try to call the world's attention to their plight which doesn't seem to be getting any better. he's the co-founder of the relief organization which operates the largest tent camp in port-au-prince. first, here's a look back at what he's told us over the past 12 months. >> this is the beginning, unless everybody realizes that the disaster is still on. this is a disaster. a bigger one than the earthquake waiting to happen. this is the first confirmed case of diphtheria postquake. it's a 15-year-old boy. he's dead. he was in school, with school mates before he was reported sick. there's an investigation going on.
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this is exactly the kind of thing that can kill masses of people. they've got no water. all of those things that you would need in a camp. clinics. lighting. you know. most of these neighborhoods are living in the pitch dark, in rubble, twice as high as our heads. i think it's very clear there aren't the clean water assets. the area that's affected primarily by the cholera epidemic at this point is an area where the water that the people that use for their everyday life is -- looks like mud. that's not water that you can just simply use aqua tabs in. they need clean and purified water. if one more person tells me they're an expert from africa and i'm a hollywood actor, i'll get on here and tell you everyone who lives with the same disease that's going to kill these people if people don't start doing. >> sean penn over the last year. this week, i had a long conversation with penn.
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about the desperate conditions and about the resilience of the people and what the world can do to improve their lives. what is it about haiti that got you? i mean, a lot of people go there and, you know, leave. you've stayed. what is it? >> it's hard to describe it. because, you know, there's not a place in the world where the smile of a child won't grab the average person's heart. there's something -- it's the line that keeps getting repeated. there's something about haiti and something about haitians. i think there's also something that happens to you when you land only an hour and a half after you take off from miami, florida. and in that much time, you're in a country surrounded by people who have had absolutely no experience or dependence on comfort in their entire experience. in the experience of their parents. in the experience of their grandparents.
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and the lessons of that, you know, i don't mean to talk about it in a kind of high-falooting way, but it's something that i think is such a -- it's nutrition for anyone that grew up in a situation where if all you had available was the thought that if my child's temperature rises too high -- i might not have a great health plan but i can get him or her to an emergency room. this is a culture of people who every time a child's fever rises has to just wait and see if they're going to die. and they've persevered through these kinds of basic hardships. with so much strength. >> it is -- there is something remarkable about air mobility that allows you to go from one world to another, as you said, in the space of an hour and a half. there's a great pain that comes with that as well though. moving back and forth between those two worlds, is that hard
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for you? >> the experiences had by anybody, certainly, who comes from a common culture to ours here that's had the opportunity to see with their own eyes the great misfortune that most of the world lives in. whether that's flying to haiti or to various regions in africa, or to go right over the harbor freeway in los angeles, into south central los angeles, and to see that what it is is it's a very isolating thing. because most people haven't seen it. and it goes back to me feeling that this country and one of the things i've really come to believe deeply about, in my experience in haiti this year, is that we should have -- definitely should have a mandatory civil service period. whether it's after one graduates high school or university that there's a year or two where
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service is mandatory. whether it be -- it need not be military. it could be spending time with the elderly or in south central los angeles. to see where children grow up without the most basic health care available. >> i get the sense -- i don't know you very well but i get the sense this has changed your life. >> yeah, there's -- there's no question, i mean, that this is a -- a dramatic turn. it requires a lot more air travel for me than other things that i've been involved in or where i found myself feeling i could be productive. haiti is going to take, like i said, a very long time. i think that the needs, or the gaps that my organization
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would offer to fill will evolve. and i would certainly love to think that we'll be out of emergency relief within some reasonable amount of years. it's unlikely. >> how do you think haitians in your camp look at you? do they know you are in movies? >> some do by now. it's not what's most important for them. and i am not what's most important to them. you know, i have -- i'm generally called by you. hey you. >> sean penn, i appreciate your time, thank you. >> thank you. up next on the special edition of "360," the tepierce
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date to mark, monday, january 17th, 9:00, the premiere of an exciting new program, "piers morgan tonight." most of you know him from "america's got talent" but piers developed his own unique style of interviewing newsmakers as a journalist. journalism got him into trouble one night in england, bloody trouble, if you will. >> you've been punched on your job? >> i have.
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>> who punched you? >> "top gear" huge show in britain. he's one of the biggest stars in television. he took exception to the fact that "daily mirror" published photographs of him in a slightly compromising situation with a woman who wasn't mrs. clarkson and it happened twice over the space of two years. and we ended up with the british press awards. so imagine 1,000 journalists from every national newspaper and in the middle of the room this guy comes up to me and punches me three times in the head. i've got this little scar on my head here from where the third one hit with his ring. >> that's what that scar is? >> that scar is from the third punch with his ring, gouging out part of my temple there. but at that point at least i remembered to say something, i was thinking how is this playing out other than really badly? i didn't hit him back because i thought i was going to get fired, which is ironic because i got fired three weeks anyway. but i kept my cool and i thought
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i've got to think of something quick. i remembered the words of muhammad ali fought george foreman, he tucked him in and said is that all you've got, george? so i said something which was, my 3-year-old hits me harder than that. and that gloriously became the ending quote. so i come home with blood streaming from my head and find i'm a bit of a hero. because i came up with this line. but he broke his little finger hitting me and it's still gnarled and disfigured. every time i see him i see this gnarled finger and it's quietly satisfying. >> do you have any other fears in interviews besides being hit? >> only boredom. i think if i'm getting bored in an interview and i start to feel like, you know, this is really not going far, you know the audience is ten times more bored. >> how much of an interview do you try to prepare, obviously you do research, you probably write out questions, how much of it is what you've thought about in advance and how much is just impromptu based on what someone says?
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>> i like to research thoroughly so i would hate to have a moment about a guest where they really know you don't know about a key aspect of their life. i think as a journalist i see it as an absolute prerequisite on the job to be well briefed on them. having said that, i love spontaneity. i think you can get some of the best interviews from a silence or from a, whoa, what did you say? anything that make it's look unscripted, veering off from what the viewer at home assumes is a nice cozy setup. i like it when it's going to reveal something really fascinating about the person. doesn't matter what it is. it doesn't have to be bad, just fascinating. to me there's the seven ps before you sit down. and it's my brother's unofficial regimental motto in the royal welsh in afghanistan, prior, planning, preparation prevents piss-poor performance. and the three fs, fascinating,
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fun and fabulous. if there are three of those, you'll have a great show. if you've done the seven ps and the three fs, you've got an emmy winning stuff. >> seven ps and three fs. >> that's the rule. you should try it sometime. >> i will. you got lucky today. you didn't have the seven ps, but you have the three fs. >> have you had to change yourself in order to kind of fit with an american audience? there's huge differences between britain and united states. >> i'm not so sure there are, actually. i think there's slight humor differences but it depends on where you are in america. if you're in new york it's very similar kind of humor to the stuff i get in britain. it's very sarcastic, people send each other up, l.a. isn't like that at all. they take you much more literally. when you get down to dallas or austin, seattle, it's very different again. what i've learned is you have to work out a pattern perhaps to your humor that can appeal to the whole of america.
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that does limit the way you go. if you're a brit, it particularly limits all the sarcasm. because i might be as sarcastic as i normally am and to a large swath of the audience it will go right over their heads. i don't think -- >> we actually say swath. >> swath. well, i am suave but that's a different thing altogether. you have to work it out. five years touring america, i've slowly worked out a kind of route one humor valve which normally works. >> the thing that always surprises me about england and london, i think americans and myself included always have this idea about it being this incredibly elegant place, not to be totally ridiculous, but folks walking around nicely dressed. >> dickens style. >> i was interviewing lady gaga. i leave my hotel, and i go out and i leave the restaurant and it's 11:00 at night and the pubs have just closed and the amount of people just come pouring into
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