tv [untitled] CSPAN June 23, 2009 9:00am-9:30am EDT
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something that president obama mentioned in his campaign, and that is, in medicare alone for every $6 actually spent on health care the insurance companies are getting $11. the mammoth in the room is the process of the insurance companies. that is why our health care is costing 40% more per person in the united states as in the next most expensive country. . .
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the council will be shared -- chaired by larry summers and by holda solis. the vice president will make the announcement later today. the automobile industry has lost jobs in the last decade. meanwhile, a gm executive is telling dealers that the car executive sees no need to order the closure of the additional dealerships, citing improved sales in may. an announcement is expected today at the energy department to lend money to the ford motor co. and two other automakers to develop fuel-efficient vehicles. on wall street investors are cautiously upbeat after yesterday's sell-off. stock futures are edging higher with the national association of realtors expected to report a jump in sales of existing homes. later today the fed begins its
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two-day meeting on monetary policy and is expected to keep its key rate near 0. today in congress nancy pelosi is expected to be a climate change bill to the floor. the speaker file the legislation with the rules committee last night even though its authors henry waxman and ed markey are still working out a deal with collin peterson. lighthouse coverage at 10:30 a.m. on c-span. finally, -- live coverage of the house at 10:30 a.m. eastern. an investigator for the subway train accidents as a was part of an aging fleet that federal regulators have recommended three years ago to be phased out or retrofitted. those are some of the latest headlines on c-span rita.
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"washington journal" continues. host: we want to welcome our guests to c-span, bob schieffer. guest: thank you. host: how you view where we are at at this moment in time? guest: i can ever recall a time when the president has faced more serious issues. you look at north korea and the threat that poses right now. you look at iran and the the middle east, then afghanistan, pakistan. i still think that the border is still the most dangerous place in the world. that is not to mention iraq or what is going on in this country. then you have the financial crisis we have been going through in this country. if there is any good news i think we may have reached a bottom.
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nobody knows for sure. you have these enormous programs that have been launched. the stimulus package, the help to general motors, the help to the banks, all of this. we are at the very beginning of solving these problems. it is a very serious time here. i cannot recall the time when there have been this many different problems that a president confronted when he got up and went to work every day. host: you cannot go to a news magazine rack or turn on the tv without seeing it barack obama. is he over exposed? guest: there is no question he is getting a lot of exposure. you do run the risk of being overexposed, but this grows out of the fact that first, he is a new president and we are in the very beginning of this presidency, but the other part is what i have talked about, the
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big number of problems he is confronted. he is trying to do with each one of those. every one of those brings with it more publicity as it were. more news conferences where he has to explain what he is up to, what he is doing. there is a second aside to that since we live in a democracy. the people on the other side are getting lots of publicity. a lot of it grows out of what he is trying to deal with right now. host: when you were on with senator john mccain, in the round table discussion the sentiment was that the mainstream media has a bias in favor of barack obama. could you address that? guest: you know, i think we're just trying to cover the news is what i think we are trying to do. i think it is a good question, a legitimate question. in this a point we ought to
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discuss. but there's so much media out there now that the idea of bias in the media has almost become irrelevant. we are in the age of opinion journalism where you can get the news served up almost anywhere you want it. if you want to hear from a conservative point of view you can find plenty of places to get that. if you want to see it served up on that and no apology liberal point of view you can get a served up that way. it is almost like going into a restaurant and ordering eggs, you think it them sunny side up, scramble, with a little bit of help in your pepper if you wanted. is there if you wanted. -- a little bit of jalapeno pepper if you wanted. the mainstream agree that if you do not agree with every opinion expressed, you can agree or disagree, but i hope when people
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watch cbs they can agree it is a place where the facts or correct. -- are correct. we have gone to every link to get the story. that is our role. host: your commentaries and they said the old person even gets the bill, even on father's day. guest: that is just one of the rules of the road. i was giving six rules for a happy and successful father's day as a veteran for 40 years no of father's day. i have two daughters and three granddaughters. the things i have learned, number one, do not try to sing. children everything that their parents can sing tell a joke. no child of everany age think tr parents say anything that is funny. always pick up the check. they're really like that. they always give it to the
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oldest guy at the table anyway. if you do those things you probably had a good father's day. i certainly did. host: you have written a number of books. this one is just in. what is your approach when writing these books? guest: i do them because i like to do them. i like to write. i started out as a newspaper reporter. i still basically consider myself a writer. when i wrote this which took me two years to do, a professional memoir, it was the hardest thing i have ever done, but by the same token is the thing i'm most proud of. when you sit here and you are on tv and you have to write these little stories about this long to get on television and suddenly you have diarrhea of the type of. when you sit down to read a book because you have all this space and you still don't think you have enough time. that is the most fun about it. the thing i really enjoyed, i had planned just to tell some
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tall tales and adventures and the world of journalism, not much reporting, but in order to check my own memory faster to to call people just like you do when you are checking out the story. i wound up interviewing about 85 people, some of whom i had not talked to for about 20 years. it made the book much richer in texture, but also really made it fun because i got to reconnect with all these people. i got to see what they thought about events they had been involved in 20 years ago, with their take was on it now. it was a very enjoyable thing to do. i just love it, i'd love to tell stories. i like to talk to people about the news. that is what this turned out to be. that is what was so much fun. host: we have covered you on many occasions for booktv.org.
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before we get to our first call let me ask you about your approach to sunday morning. when john mccain talk about the situation in iran , where do see that heading? guest: i am afraid -- we're talking about the news today and you'll hear me say this many times on almost every story -- we do not know where we are on iran right now. we know that people have gotten a taste of freedom and they are communicating with one another, through twitter, through facebook, through all these electronic means people have now. but they are not satisfied with the government that they have. there is this great dissatisfaction. they want changes. whether they will win this particular battle, my guess is no. but i think the battle has
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begun. they are bringing pressure on the government. i don't think this can help but to improve the situation there in some way. as we saw in china, the demonstrators in tenements where did not win the day, but there is no question -- and in tienamen square --but we see the impact today. china is not a democracy, but it is a much more open society. people have more rights now than they ever have had. we want them to have a lot more, but there is no question that what happened in tienamen set the stage for that. host: the second oldest program on broadcast television. you have been doing it for how many years? guest: since 1991. i came after lesley who came after george. there have only been four or
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five moderators since 1954. frank stanton in the head of cbs said they have a program over on nbc called "meet the press," for the talk to the top news maker of the week. we need something like that. so that was the inspiration for "face the nation," and our first guest was joe mccarthy in 1954. that broadcast pretty much spelled the end of joe mccarthy. earlier that year you had had the documentary that ed had it done. you have the army in germany or the meetings part of it -- he died within two years. he was dead. oddly enough, when faced the nation had its anniversary, one
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of the letters of congratulations came from joe mccarthy. he said he always watched the show and always enjoyed it. host: one of the photographs. you took this -- let's listen to this caller. caller: i'm doing fine, probably close to your age and them a small businessman. i watch your show religiously. i am a little dismayed. the last couple of years the press has kind of gone leaning with what ever it ideology is in effect. i notice there has been little coverage of the stimulus package which will either make or break this recession. bring it to term limits a lot
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faster. -- a lot faster if it had been done progressively. there is little press for the small businessmen. everyone says 70% of the jobs out there are from the small business sector. we find out that with 9.4 unemployment the last seven or eight months especially in my business we have seen a 20% to 30% downturn, a lack of spending because consumers don't have the money. no one seems to be addressing this problem. not on your show or any others. guest: i take your point, chuck. i think you are actually right. i would say this in our defense. we're doing the best we can. there is absolutely so much news going on right now that you cannot get all of it into a half-hour news program every
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sunday or even a half hour news program that comes on five nights per week. we are doing our best, but there is so much going on that every issue is going to get short shrift from time to time. as a news editor you try to one of the things you think are most important that affect most of the people. you are absolutely right when you talk about the stimulus package. what could have more impact? we will try to keep at it. we will try to get it on. but if it is a tough thing with so many things going on to cover all these things in debt every single time. host: bob began his career for "before worth star-telegram" and this is your 40th year? guest: yes, 40 years last month.
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host: hello, jim. caller: yes, i feel honored to have you on the phone. i put you in with the people like walter cronkite and even then brothers and people from that era. we do not get the news like we used to. i'm a vietnam veteran and i appreciate we see people who come right out with the news without added slant to one side or the other. it gives me a good feeling and brings back the old america like we used to. guest: you are my kind to say that. when you put me in the same paragraph as those you just mentioned there's nothing i could feel better about. we make a lot of mistakes but we are doing the best we can and i hope we keep going straight down the line. host: here is a message from
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twitter. guest: he is 92 years old and some days are better than others. otherwise, i have no information on how walters doing. but he is still on the right side of the grass. we love him. alter, kite -- walter cronkite is a wanted to be. i had not been to cbs news long that walter off camera is the exact same way as on camera. i have to say that is not always the case. he is a wonderful guy, a great mentor, a great booster of mind when he did not have to be. he was when it was really important. i just love him and there is no one in journalism i admire more than walter cronkite.
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host: what do you think that the cbs news, abc news, the other networks will look like 10 years from now? guest: we are in a technological revolution and just try to keep up with the technology. we put a story on television shot on one of these little cameras, and it is only this big. it is about that thick, only the size of your cellular telephone. you can record on that on hd for 60 minutes. just the fact that you can do that, think about and the old days when you saw the national conventions and the cameraman would have this thing that weighed 80 pounds on his back. the sound man to hold the sound equipment. now you can do all that with this equipment.
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it has already made television less obtrusive than it used to be. that is good. the fact that this technology is happening like this and so fast, no one can say for anything will be. not in 10 years. are there still going to be newspapers? will we still print news on pieces of paper? will we get it all on the ipod? no one knows the answers to these questions. having said that, the core of journalism is still not the technology. it is the reporter, the individual reporter who goes to the scene and gathers facts independently of what the government is trying to tell him to do or what the government line is and then finds a way to get that into print or into broadcast in some way. i do not know what the evening news programs will look like and 10 years in anyone who tells you that they do know i would challenge that. i don't think there's a way we
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can possibly know. what i do know is that you cannot have a democracy unless you have independently gathered information that is available to every citizen. the difference in a totalitarian society and a democracy -- in a totalitarian society you have one source of news which is the government. in a democracy where you have are two sources of information, one comes from the free press. you cannot have a democracy unless you have that. so as imperfect as we are, as much criticism as we get, and a lot of it is justified, you still cannot have a democracy without what we provide. that is why i think it is honorable and fun to be a reporter and i'm glad i'm part of that. host: our guest bob schieffer is the former editor in chief washington correspondent for cbs news and the moderator of the "face the nation." caller: good morning, steve, and
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mr. bob schieffer. i am also honored to speak with you. i would like to ask you a real big favor. i think you are person the country would listen to. as we know our tax system has become a menagerie. the parties are using it to divide the american people know. senator john mccain said this morning he would have a $5,000 tax credit, president obama has these plans that would give tax credits for this and a bad -- any system that creates a system that creates $14 trillion offshore due to the tax code hurt our country. with a thing like "face the nation" -- an older gentleman in taxes paid out of his pocket a study with economists, that studied the cost of our system.
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it resulted in hr-25 which is honored by it the congressman from georgia and a corresponding bill in the senate to change our system. what bothers me is this division. a lot of people who call in on these issues do not realize it has corrupted our parties. will rogers in the early 1930's before he died said eventually the way our tax code is in our country will eventually turn our country into a nation of lawyers and cheats. guest: i think you make a lot of good points there and i thank you for your call. host: the next is richard from north carolina. caller: good morning, i would like to ask -- we have seen a lot of coverage from iran about their protests and it is unfair
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and they are so patriotic and all of that. yet when those kind of events happen in america against the world bank or anti-war you never see that on the three networks, never. you do not have any stories about the protests in america. but we see all this stuff about iran. our guys show up in full gear, armor and hold hundreds of people away. host: where does that take place? caller: i have personally been in protests in washington, d.c., seattle, host: georgia and if you do not see coverage of that? caller: yes, for three seconds. poof, and that is it. you never hear about that stuff on the networks. guest: you seem to have a lot of
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information about that. a lot of detail about what you say goes on in these protests. you must have picked that up from someplace. a suspect maybe there has been more coverage of it on television and in the papers then maybe you want to admit or is reflected in your question. i would disagree. i think we give a lot of coverage to significant demonstrations. host: a lot of programs. yet on the sunday shows, they continue to drive the news cycle. why is that? guest: because we are based on the news. sunday morning on television is much different than any other time. on commercial television. -- any other time period. because we are information- driven. we are trying to find out what
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people on both sides have to say about things. tim russert used to say there are no bells or whistles on what we do. we just sit them down at the table, turned on the lights come and ask questions. that is what we do. it is not about antics, but to questions, or tricks, or anchors who show off. it is simply asking people questions about what the news of the day is. there still seems to be the need for that and a market for that. "face the nation" and "meet the press" this week, the program on fox -- these are places where washington talks to other people in washington, but also where the ideas first get laid out for people to think about. then washington generally chews on that for the rest of the week. so, i think we do serve a real purpose and what we do. i don't want to be too noble-
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sounding about it, but that is what we do. it used to be that the ideas got flooded out by the super- columnists. certain people of a given nature. now people come on the sunday shows and just lay out these ideas. host: what was the toughest interview you ever conducted? guest: i do not know, they all present their own challenges. some people come on the show determined not to say anything. i am not sure why they come on. one of the people i most admired of the years is a guest, sam nunn, longtime chairman of the senate armed services committee. sometimes i would call him and asking if he wanted to be on. he would say he did not think so and he had nothing to it said. i thought it was good for the show and good for the senator because politicians make a real
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mistake if they come on these sunday shows but are not coming on to say something. just coming on to get your face on tv i think hurts you. a lot of the public relations people tell their clients you get a message you want to get across, give the answer no matter what the question -- i don't think that helps the person. they come off as evasive. people know when you're not answering a question or when you are just jazzing around. it is a waste of time for everybody. people often ask me how i feel when someone does not want to answer the question. i say i would like to just slap them, but obviously you cannot just do that. but people know, our viewers are smart and know when people are avoiding the question. my advice to people is if you do not want to answer the question then do not come on "face the nation" because you will not help yourself.
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host: our guest is bob schieffer of cbs news. caller: good morning. it is a little bit early. hello, bob, how are you? guest: it is a little later than it is for you, but i'm still looking up, too. caller: i watch you every week. it is one of my favorite shows. guest: that is one of my caller: favorites i know that it is and you watch it every week, too. i want to mention something about the prescription cost, the high cost for senior citizens and for everyone else out there. make a note to maybe talk to representative moran from virginia, do you know him? guest: i do indeed. caller: he has a bill that seems
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to be stuck in committee about cutting back on some of these commercials on in prime time when people can watch, such as ford e.d. do you know that we are the only country in the world that allows prescription drugs to be advertised on television? guest: i did not know that. that is an interesting fact. caller: that is a correct facts. we are the only country in the world that allows that. i think you should get senators moran and a couple of these other people on there and we should have a talk about these high prescription costs. if they would cut out the advertising on tv and radio and in the magazine's -- all this miscellaneous garbage advertising we keep seeing seeing host:
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