>> no, you are honor. >> because you are going to bend over backwards? >> no. there are always a number of contexts about which life context to go about. all you are talking about in terms of audio delay of a few seconds. even getting the signal to the home, if you have a d.v.r. or whatever, there is always a few seconds delay. the idea of live programming that is crucial for mirs amendment purposes, that nicole richie get her utterance out to the audience in six seconds rather than 10 seconds. >> are you prepared to give up your claim that this is profane based on your brief in which you say it is duplicative of the definition of decency. >> i think the court has to reach it -- >> are we done with profanity as a claim against the

petitioners here? >> aim -- i am not prepared to give it up yet. i think what we explained -- >> if you duplicate indies eans, then it is superfluous. >> the commission found these broadcasts profane, but i think for present purposes the court doesn't need to reach that question. .

and perhaps more so for the >> if technology exists that would permit families that are absolutely in can't on not having their children -- intent on not having their children here words that they do not want them to hear, if the technology exists to label those families make sure that they could not see these programs, why should those families that want to impose the highest level of restriction on broadcasting impose on the entire rest of the country what is appropriate to hear in a manner that is so

vague that broadcasters would have to worry about and probably not broadcast all sorts of things and would not be eligible for punishment or sanctions? why should the public be deprived of the opportunity to hear all of these kinds of programs because during the daylight hours, without having to wait up until the wee hours of the morning to do it, without having the standards of what they are allowed to see or hear dictated by people who will write letters to the fcc. >> there is no technology. the ratings have no accurate rating system. >> you mean that something can sneak through? >> no, it is not something sneaking through.

here, it was rated pg-13. if you wanted to use the v chip, this program would have gone straight through that v-chip because it was rated pg-13. the v-chip is not going to be affected. that is the simple answer to that. there would not -- >> i do not see what it is a utopia. isn't in a perfectly simple thing for a broadcaster to identify by letter or code a program in which people will be speaking freely without previously controlled tax? >> -- controlled text? >> that would not tell people. >> if they do not want to run the risk, they will not let their children watch live program. >> that solution would require a

parent to exclude all my programming. >> those words could occur in every live program. >> those parents will deprive the rest of the country of the opportunity to hear stuff that is perfectly appropriate and has nothing wrong with it except that the broadcasters are afraid that if they broadcast it, the fcc, by what ever it calls patent offensiveness, will come down on them. >> this doesn't serve first amendment interest to do that all together. it doesn't narrow the field very much. the point is, the v-chip has

proved not to protect and so does not offer an alternative. i think that the council has conceded that it is not enough to simply show that time channeling is less restrictive. the commission can show the alternative that satisfies its own policies. >> it is intermediate scrutiny. thank you, counsel. >> three minutes for rebuttal. >> i will not take the entire three minutes. i just have a few points i would like to make. the judge's hypothetical about the zoning board and the possibility of somebody using the term fucking, that is precisely example when they have

the debate. they declined to televise the debate out of fear that this will show what. they do not have the money to bleep out or protect the audience from that particular audience. we were talking about with $500,000 for a mistake, you will sells sensor. -- talking about 20 $500,000 for a mistake, you will self- censorship. >> what about bending over backwards? >> that is not giving me a fuzzy feeling. would you advise your plant under those circumstances to run a particular program at my answer would be that if you are a network and you have an extra $65 million lying around, my advice would be not to run that

program and run the risk. the number of the amicus brief puts out a whole string of advances -- examples of self- censorship. there is a lot of television that is not only at the margins, but it is at the core of first amendment protected activity. the court ought to be without accordingly. the second proposition that he offered strikes me as almost mind-boggling. it is the notion that simply cents they had issued more guidance, that the industry now has a greater understanding of how the commission is going to apply those policies. at one time, and i do not know what the present commission's view is, the use of the word dick head is ok, and the use of

the word of fuck is bad. >> some are ok. >> under those circumstances, this is light years away. there is simply no basis. >> would you finish on the v- chip? >> the position ought to be that it is a alternative that is less restrictive than simply sitting here and punishing the industry. >> he was saying that it does not work. >> that is not true. we keep focusing on this particular broadcast. the pg broadcast would have put parents on notice of the possibility of the language coming out.

you can devise a better system of applying this. i think you are absolutely right, that parents who are committed to the idea that their children will never hear those words are precisely the parents that will figure out how to use the v-chip in order to accomplish that. >> could you have a system that alerted parents to live broadcasts? >> we could certainly list every live broadcast as a picchi program. >> -- as a pg program. >> there is no impediment to doing that. i do not know if it is the least restrictive, but it is a less restrictive approach. it satisfies in the sense that the court held it has adequate as an alternative ground. the last point i wanted to make,

i do not know if it is the end of live programming, but it will be a significant limitation on live programming. smaller television stations are going to have to get out of the business. they cannot take that risk. the networks will talk to be extremely careful what they do. the reality is that fox tried to bleep out these words and it did so because of its editorial judgment as the best way to promote its audience's interest. the fcc rides that and asks about the big deal this period of the big deal is that the first amendment protects our right to make those editorial judgment and prohibits the fcc from making those kind of editorial and judgments. i ask you to satisfy the fcc's order. >> mr. estrada? >> thank you, your honor.

i would like to start with the v-chip point. the fcc counsel said that the commission found this and that. that would have been of some consequence. under control and the supreme court process president, the law is subject to independent review by the court. that includes not only legal theories but factual support. insofar as this court must examine what is really the assertion of the commission's collier in this case as if this works well enough, or at all, it is up to this court to make a determination of the record in that respect to >> i think i am correct in respect to the v-chip that the commission gave a

reason that parents have found it difficult to use and so they do not use it. is it appropriate for parents who could protect their children by using the v-chip to simply not learn how to use it and thereby imposed on the rest of the country not to hear the programming that the rest of the country would like to hear? >> absolutely not. what the supreme court has said again and again is that when that is the nature of the government's problem, the government's remedy lies in trying to teach people. it said that in the playboy case and the denver area case. it is an invalid legal reason for saying that the v-chip is inadequate.

nbc submitted a number of pieces of evidence that give more reasons on the side of the commission. of course, since last year, with the switch to digital, everyone who is watching broadcast video must have either a tv that has the v-chip or a converter that also has a v-chip. >> so the v-chip is 100% penetration? >> anyone who was watching digital television as of june 9 -- as of june 2009, they will have the v-chip. there are some narrow exceptions, but as far as the bulk of the country, with the switchover to digital there is either a v-chip equipped

television in the home or a converter top as a v-chip. if i could just say -- >> are you saying that television sets -- older television sets simply will not function anymore? >> accor rep. by federal law, you have to convert to digital. they will not function. you may be entitled to a subsidy, but if you take the subsidy, the box that you get will have a v-chip. my second point is that one of the most striking aspects of the government's argument is the repeated assertion that the commission will consider the case.

>> been over backwards. >> it makes us think of what equity is. it is the best description of what i have heard that the commission actually does this. my final point is this. mr. lewis also said that the concept of indecency, at some will, is not so devoid of meaning that they cannot be applied in some context. i want to point out that what we have said in this case is that a change in policy is not constitutional. whether the policy can be applied in the future on facts that are comparable to the monologue, then the supreme court will rule in due course. what has happened here is that the commission went from that policy to a policy that is not

constitutional. the court has to say that as a matter of first amendment law, the commission has to go with the policy that prevailed before golden glow. >> the petitioners here think that pacific cut is the end of the sec -- the fcc regulation. that is what we have to decide. >> of the argument is that plants that are so far away and may not exist but the light is still making it to the earth, it is not even there. >> i think you are imposing too much on this. we do not have to siddecide that this is the end rather than the beginning.

what is being placed by you is that whether there is a now something that is illegal under the constitution. it would not be proper for us to rule on all possible regimens that the fcc might devise. >> that is true. >> the only one that is before us is the one that is before us now. i do not see it as appropriate for myself or for us to state the limits of the fcc powers. maybe we find that the present one is no good and they can come up with one that is fine. the present one is what is before us. >> that is true up to a point. >> your argument is that it has to comply with specpacifica as pacifica was described.

>> also, with the entire purpose of the forcfirst amendment law. >> you do not argue that the court ruled that this is the limit and extent of the fcc's power? we are ruling on this, not on anything else. your argument would be no better than the commission's. >> i think that you make the octant -- you make the argument that we have been making. all that was at issue was the monologue. for them to say that it allows them to do anything else is wrong. for anything else that they wish to do, they must find support in the first amendment law, which

is contrary to everything you are doing. >> thank you counsel. at thank you all. i will ask the clerk to adjourn. >> you can watch this program again or the 2006 oral argument at c-span.org. just click on "america and the courts." join us every saturday at 7:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span. >> remarks now from president obama and former presidents george bush and bill clinton on raising money for haiti relief. following that, secretary of state hillary clinton on providing food to that nation and we will hear from vice- president joe biden on the u.s.

commitment to rebuild haiti. >> a look at search and rescue efforts in haiti from earlier today. this comes to us courtesy of united nations television. it is just under five minutes. >> we are heading to a university that collapsed with many students inside. they have been stranded for the last 70 hours and we were still hearing voices this morning and one guy walked out by himself.

we need some help to open the concrete and get the other people. we just spoke to three of them are still alive. > there is better access arod there. >> i was out with the president of haiti and we discussed the search and rescue phase and how long we wanted to continue. he wants to continue as long as the population thinks that there

is hope. the first idea was to close by the end of tomorrow, but that will definitely be expanded. as long as the population feels that there is hope, we will continue the search and rescue, basically. >> try to relax as best as you can. >> president obama has asked former president's george w. bush and bill clinton to help and recovery efforts.

a news conference on developments from that meeting. it is about 15 minutes. good morning, everybody. in times of great challenge in our country and around the world, americans have always come together to lend a hand and serve others. that is what the american people have been doing in recent days with their contributions to the haitian people. at this moment we are moving forward with one of the largest relief efforts in our history to save lives and deliver relief that averts a larger catastrophe. the two leaders with me today will ensure that this is matched by an historic effort that extends beyond our government, because america has no greater resources than the

strength and compassion of the american people. we just met in the oval office, an office they both know well. i am pleased president george w. bush and president bill clinton had agreed to lead a major fund-raising effort for relief. the clinton-bush haiti fund. i went to thank both of you for returning to service and leading this urgent mission. this is a model that works. after the terrible tsunami in asia president bush turned to president clinton to lead a similar fund. that effort raced resources for the victims of that disaster -- that effort raised resources that helped rebuild communities. that is exactly what the people of haiti need right now.

every day that goes by we learn more about the scope of this catastrophe any. the suffering that defies comprehension, families sleeping in the streets, injured and desperate for care. many thousands feared dead. that is why thousands of american personnel are on the scene working to distribute clean drinking water and food and medicine, and tons of emergency food supplies are arriving every day. it will be difficult, it is an enormous challenge to distribute this ate quickly and safely in a place that has suffered such destruction. -- distribute this aid quickly. we are working with many organizations, friends from argentina and france, minikin republic and brazil. secretary hillary clinton -- dominican republic and brazil. secretary hillary clinton will be in coordination with this government.

we know that our longer-term effort will not be measured in days and weeks, it will be measured and months and years. that is why it is important to enlist and sustain the support of the american people. that is why it is important to have a point of coordination for all the support that extends beyond our government. here at home president bush and clinton will help the american people do their part, because responding to a disaster must be the work of all of us. those scenes of devastation might as not only of our humanity, but our common responsibilities. this suffering can and must be a time of compassion. as the scope of the destruction became apparent, i spoke to each of these gentlemen and last

ast the same simple question, how can i help? -- they asked the same question. they will be asking everyone what they can do, individuals, corporations and individuals. i urge everyone who wants to help to visit www.clintonbushhaitifund.org. president bush led america's response to the asian sammy -- asian tsunami. as president, bill clinton helped restore democracy in haiti. he has helped to save the lives of millions of people around the world. as the un special envoy to haiti, he understands the daily struggles and needs of the haitian people. by coming together in this way

these leaders sent a message to the people of haiti and the people of the world in these difficult hours, america stands united. we stand united with the people of haiti who have shown resilience and will help them to rebuild. yesterday we witnessed a small but remarkable display of that determination. haitians with little more than the clothes on their back marched peacefully through a ruined neighborhood. despite their loss and suffering they sang songs of faith and hope. these are the people who were called upon to help. those are the hopes that we are committed to answering. that is why the three of us are standing together today. with that, i would invite each president to say a few words. i will start with president bush. >> i joined president obama in expressing my sympathy for the people of haiti. i commend the president for his

swift and timely response to the disaster i am so pleased to answer the call to work beside president clinton to immobilize the compassion of the american people. like most americans, laura and i have been following the television coverage. our hearts are broken when we see the scenes of children struggling without a mother or father, or the bodies of the streets and physical damage of the earthquake. the challenges are immense, but

there are a lot of devoted people leading the relief effort. from government personnel who have deployed to the disaster zone to the faith-based groups. the most effective way for americans to help is to contribute money. that money will go to organizations on the ground who will be able to affectively spend it. i know a lot of people want to send blankets or water, just send your cash. one of the things that the president and i will do is make sure your money is spent wisely. as president obama said, you can look us up on clintonbushhaitifund.org. it is amazing how terrible tragedies can bring out the best of the human spirit. we have all seen that firsthand when americans citizens responded to the tsunami or katrina, or the earthquake in pakistan.

president clinton and i will work to attack that same spirit of giving to help our brothers and sisters in the caribbean. toward the end of my presidency laura made a trip down to haiti to look at the emergency plan for relief programs down there. i remember clearly her coming back and telling me about the energy and optimism of the people. there is an unbelievable spirit among the haitian people. while that earthquake destroyed a lot, it did not destroy their spirit. the people of haiti will recover, and as they do they know they will have a friend in the united states of america. mr. president, thank you for giving me a chance to serve. >> first, i want to thank president obama for asking president bush and need to do this, and for what i believe has been a truly extraordinary response on the part of the

american government. because i have been working there for nearly a year as the un special envoy, i have been in constant touch with our people through the un on the ground. you know we lost a lot of our people there, the largest loss of life in the history of the united nations on a single day. the u.s. has been there from the beginning. the military has been great, the response by the state department has been great. i cannot say enough about it. the people in haiti know it, and i am grateful. i would like to thank president bush for agreeing to do this and for the concern he showed for haiti. before this happened my foundation worked with the people on the aids problems in

haiti, and i saw how good they work. finally, let me say that i don't have to read the website because they did, but i want to say something about this. all we need to do is get through medicine and water and a secure place for them today. but when we start the rebuilding effort, we want to do what i did with the president's father in the tsunami. we want to be a place where the money -- people will know their money will be well-spent. we will ensure ongoing integrity of the process. we want to stay with this over the long run. my job with the un is not at all in conflict with this because i am the outside guy. my job is to work with donor nations and international

agencies, business people around the world to try to get them to invest their, the asian community. i believe before this earthquake haiti had the best chance in my lifetime to escape its history, that hillary and i have shared a tiny part of. the haitians want to amend their development plan to take account of what has happened in port-au-prince and go back to implementing it. but it will take a lot of help and a long time. i am just grateful president bush wants to help, and i have already figured out how to get him to do things he did not sign off on. again, i have no words to say on what i feel. i was in those hotels that collapsed. i had meals with people who are dead.

the cathedral chilled short -- the cathedral church i sat in is in trouble. but it is still one of the most remarkable places i have ever been. and they can escape their history and build a better future if we do our part. president obama, thank you for giving us a chance to do a little bit. >> these gentlemen will do an extraordinary job, but what they will be doing is just tapping into the incredible generosity, the ingenuity of the american people in helping our neighbors in need. i want to thank each of them not only for being here today, but what i know will be an extraordinary effort. i want to make sure that everybody thought that website, one more time. obviously we are just standing it up, but it will immediately

get people a means to contact our offices. www.clintonbushhaitifund.org. we were talking in the back, in any extraordinary catastrophe like this, the first several weeks will just involved getting immediate relief on the ground. there will be some tough days over the next several days. people are still trying to figure out how to organize themselves. there will be fear and anxiety, a sense of desperation in some cases. i have been in contact with the president and have been talking to the folks on the ground.

we will be making steady progress. the key now is for everybody in haiti to understand there will be sustained help on the way, but what these gentlemen will be able to do is when the news media starts seeing attention drift to other things, but there is the stock -- there is enormous need still on the ground. these two gentlemen will be able to help insure that these efforts are sustained. that is why it is so important and why i am grateful they agree to do it. thank you, gentlemen. >> will any of you travel to haiti soon? >> what about secretary clinton?

[laughter] >> and now secretary of state hillary clinton meets with the 18th president. she assured that the united states would bring medical supplies and food and continue to help with rescue efforts. this is about 10 minutes. >> the press conference will be very difficult because of the noise of the motors. i think mrs. clinton for her visit, which shows, once again,

her interest and support for haiti. since the earthquake, president obama has clearly stated how much help the united states and other countries should give to haiti. the last initiative of putting the two last proceeding presidents together to form a fund is, again, a sign of great support.

the u.s. aid is already on the territory. i just visited a victim who has been, since five days, taken care of by the military and american medical support in haiti. mrs. clinton's visit really warms our heart today, but especially to reassure the priorities and needs and the

coordination and needs to be done since the earthquake. i will not talk on behalf of mrs. clinton, i will let her express what the american government wants to do towards haiti. >> first, -- where is the haitian press?

first, let me -- [in distant chatter] -- [indistinct chatter] >> first, let me express -- that

is a good sound. that means good things are coming to help the people of haiti. i want to express once again the deep sympathy that president and mrs. obama and our entire country feel for the terrible tragedy that has affected the people of haiti. but i want to assure the people of haiti that the united states is a friend, a partner in compound and a supporter and we will work with your government

under the direction of your president to assist in any way that we can. we had a very good meeting about all of the priorities of the haitian government and the haitian people. we are focused on providing humanitarian assistance, water, food, medical help to those that are suffering.

we also are working with the haitian government on the continuing rescue of those that can be rescued. there are nearly 30 teams from all over the world that are working right now to rescue people who are still alive. most of the people that the american teams have rescued our haitian. the president just met a man who survived for all of these days and we are very grateful for the

rescue. we discussed the priorities of restoring communication, electricity and transportation. and we agreed that we will be coordinating closely together to achieve these goals. >> i am very proud of the work

that our american embassy has done. for our u.s. military, and for all private groups and citizens and church based organizations that are working with the haitian people. i want to speak directly to the haitian people through the haitian media. >> we are here at the invitation of your government to help you. as president obama has said, we

will be here today, tomorrow, and for the time ahead. and speaking personally, i know of the great resilience and strength of the haitian people. you have been severely tested. but i believe that haiti can come back even stronger and better in the future. thank you. >> thank you very much.

>> [inaudible] >> there is so much that has to be done and that is why the president of haiti and i will be issuing a joint communication tomorrow. it will be translated into all the necessary languages, setting forth our intention to cooperate today to other -- together. much of the work that will need to be done will be reconstruction and rebuilding. >> earlier today, vice- president joe biden talk with a number of asian-americans and political leaders about the u.s. commitment to help rebuild haiti after the earthquake. the vice president was joined by janet napolitano and florida senator bill nelson. this is about 25 minutes.

>> we are here because we wanted to see firsthand the operation tempo here and how things were moving. let me start off by saying that all of us earlier in the day visited little haiti, and we met with a very impressive group of haitian american leaders, elected officials, mayors, state representatives, and others, as well as leaders in the business community, medical community, nurses, doctors, and then we went to notre dame to meet with the archbishop, pastor, and a number of other leaders. at the outset, i would like to point out that we have been absolutely astounded by the

result and capacity of the community. one case in point, the pastor of the church, trying to give comfort to the community, told me he had just lost family himself. he had found out that morning. one of the priests at the church was there. he looked devastated, and he had just heard minutes before of the loss of a close family member, i think it was his brother. everyone in the community with whom we have met, including patrick gaspard, have lost family. it is one thing to respond to cries viet -- to respond to a crisis of significant

proportion. is another thing to respond when your own flesh and blood has been the victim of that same crisis. our hearts go out to all haitian americans and others who have family and close friends who are caught in the midst of this absolutely devastating disaster. the images we all see on television are devastating to the average american. but i cannot imagine how the silence of contacting by cellphone a relative in haiti and hearing nothing on the other end, how deafening that silence is for so many haitian

americans. i cannot imagine how out syrian the pain they feel is at this moment. -- how searing the pain in. >> we tend to use adjectives to heighten the description of a circumstance, but sometimes it results in hyperbole. but this is close to unimaginable. we saw what we went through in katrina and rita, and we lost several thousand people. but here we are talking about tens of thousands of dead. a city, a region, from the epicenter out if you look at that symmetry -- if you look at the telemetry. this is absolutely devastating beyond recognition. the american government and

american people are responding in a way that makes me once again brought to be an american. yesterday, i was keeping a long standing commitment to visit lake charles, louisiana, and new orleans, louisiana. now, under the leadership of janet napolitano, fema is actually delivering the goods for the last year to louisiana. there is still a great deal to be done. i am meeting in an area of the largest parish in louisiana,

where electoral system, out in a windswept area where some housing has recently been built for the elderly. i walked into a community room, and the first questions they asked me are, how can we help the people of haiti? they are just getting up on their feet in new orleans. these are meetings and with people from the ninth ward and other places still devastated, and they are organized. the firefighters in new orleans and the police were decimated, and they are organizing volunteers who say they are ready if we can get them there, to go to haiti. so ladies and gentlemen, this is an effort an undertaking that has the full, total, unrelenting support of the president of the united states and the government of the united states. we are moving as quickly as is possible. we are moving aggressively with all the assets available to this

great government. we are saving lives and beginning a full-scale recovery, but put this in focus. there is one airport. the entire world is trying to get help to haiti. we are only able to land because of one apron in the airport, one taxiway, 48 aircraft on that ground a day, from all over the world. that includes the un trying to resupply their people. that includes the ability to refurbish and try to get back up on its feet. we were able to get yesterday 17 air frames in. we have the capacity to send in 700 air frames. i want the american people to understand that we are here in a position of trying to help another country, and we are going by, as we should, their priorities. they are telling us what they want in first, so there will be

a lot of second-guessing of why did you not send in more doctors, why or why did you not send in the 82nd airborne quicker? we are being told now what they need. search and rescue teams. the secretary has gotten our teams then, the best in the world. they are coming from other parts of the world as well. you see vivid images of people caught between slabs of concrete, voices being heard from somewhere below, trying to get them out. that is the first priority. the second priority, they just need water. what is going to happen as we go through, we will get all this in shape, but i just want everybody to know that this first 72 hours, this first week,

it is pretty hard to get everything in there we have the capacity to get in there. as the general said to me, it is like putting a bowling ball through a straw. this is the tail end of this, all the roads, the port is basically not able to be used. to airlift all this in, and we are looking to every other airport in the region to be able to get people in, and then taken over land, which will take seven or eight hours. we are doing everything in our capacity to do this. right now, there is help on the island, and much more is on the way. with each passing day, more and more assistance will greet the haitians, who are in desperate need our help. we have already begun one of the largest recovery missions in recent history. search and rescue teams are

already on the ground. the coast guard is there. the coast guard responded immediately with the ships they had available to them, and the helicopters. the 82nd airborne, some are on the ground already. 3200 are committed. it is sequencing getting them in. the aircraft carrier uss vinson has arrived and is already moving. we are moving people in and getting survivors out. we have already rescued a number of americans and haitians. we have been able to process them coming back. this is just the beginning. the american marine expeditionary unit is on its way. one reason they are so important, when we cannot get in by a port, we will get an easing amphibious land grab.

. . >> here at homestead, they're

supporting the deployment of the rescue teams, the development of mobile energy response systems. they're sending waters. cots, meals, hygiene, blankets, docs. on thursday the president announced immediate investment of $100 million. that is going to mean more life-saving equipment, more food, more water, more medicine, more of everything the people of haiti need including the ability when we get on the 82nd on the ground, more security on the ground. everybody knows how this works. everybody knows how it works. initially everyone is just so focused on staying alive. after that, there is a tendency for fear and panic to set in. there is the tendency for a few bad actors to begin acting bad. we're trying to get all of this done ooze quickly as we can. we are working closely with the regional and international

partners such as the united nations and the government of haiti. we're standing up the government of haiti in terms of its ability to communicate with its people. this has been a total collapse, a total collapse of a country as a consequence of an earthquake. and so we're going anywhere that we can get and we're bringing every resource we have. we're there for the long hall is the second point i wanted to communicate to the people of the haiti. this is not just the united states, the president and i and our administration, we do not view this as let's get relief as quickly as we can, save as many lives as we can, make sure they have enough food, water, and shelter. we're in the for the long haul. the hate shan people are our friends and partners and neighbors. their time of need is going to extend for the ensuing months. it's going to going on for the next few years. we know that after a few days,

the rescues grow fewer and farther between and that's when hope begins to fade. that's why the president and i and the entire administration are intensely committed, not just to the immediate mission, the immediate rescue mission, but in providing the basic necessities for survival and to bring reassurance in the days ahead and the months ahead, we will be there for the haitian people. it's one thing to provide supplies. it's quite another to provide hope that has to animate any recovery, any recovery from a disaster of this magnitude. we're not just going into restore haiti's past. our objective is to help them build a much better future. i am here on behalf of the president and thank the thousands of americans who have already responded by their donations, to thank the hundreds and thousands of sum total it will be of a military

personnel, land, air, and sea, for what they're doing. and we want to encourage all americans who want to help. there is one way to help. the most significant way to help is a financial donation so that the n.g.o.'s on the ground, the u.n., our personnel on the ground can, in fact, have the wherewithal to provide what is needed on the ground. it's hard to get bulk in there right now and in the near term. so what we need to do is we want you to donate. go to www.whitehouse.gov to learn how you can make a difference. it's the mark of our compassion and humanity that so many of us saw the children in the collapsed building, heard the stories for mass scramble for scraps of food and we said we got to help these people. we got to do everything possible. that's the response, not just coming from us, i might add, but all around the world. but it's most important that we

act on our charitable impulse in a way that can do the most good. and the most good now is to be able to send a check, send a check. i think the brave men and women of homestead air force base and all of our armed forces who are going to be doing this around the clock for a long time now, and imagine their frustration. imagine their frustration when they know they get everything from docs to nurses to all kinds of material that can get in and they can only get so much out because the throughput is so difficult. so like i just want to thank the firefighters as well as the rescue workers who continue to save lives even as we speak now. and i think the american people understand just now immense this challenge is. think about it, folks, we all saw katrina. we saw rita, we saw what happened. and many more than a thousand that died and many, many

displaced. if the estimates are correct coming from the community on the ground and we're not there, the red cross, we're talking 50,000 to maybe 100,000 dead. this is of a magnitude that is almost unimaginable. i'll end where i began. we are committed as a government. we are committed as a nation, not just today and tomorrow and next week and next month. we are committed to see to it that the people of haiti have a fighting chance to get back on their feet and are able to look their kids in the eye and those that survived and say we got a future. we got a future better than the past that we left behind. i want to thank, god bless the troops that are here, all of the american people that are willing to help us and god bless the people of haiti because it sounds corny, but they need our prayers right now almost as much as they need our

help. i would like to yield now to the secretary of homeland security, governor napolitano. >> thank you, mr. vice president. i echo our thanks to all the men and women who are here and your colleagues working on this effort and our thanks to those who are already in haiti and those who are waiting at home ready to stage into haiti as the help is on the ground where it's most needed. i would just want to add a couple of things first. as the vice president has said, the united states is fully committed to this effort, not just today, tomorrow, for the long term. there is a lot of rebuilding that will need to be done in haiti. with the haitian government,

with the united nations, our international partners as an overall effort. as that rebuilding is done, though, in the long term. in the short term, our needs are very defendant. we need to be able to get in medicine, medical supplies, medical personnel. we need to be able to get in water systems so that poteable water can be restored -- potable water can be restored. we need to get in the men and women who are skilled in urban search and rescue. so those very precious airframes that we have are really dedicated to those highest needs and those needs have been the needs that have been identified to us by the haitian government as part of the international set of wings that are now going into haiti. as the vice president said, yesterday there were 48 lifts

into haiti, 17 of those came from here. we're hoping that that number increases very shortly to 60. we don't know the number of those that will be from the united states or from here, so that precious air space is like gold right now. and one of the things i would ask the american public. many have talked about chartering flights to come in independently, bring in their own goods and personnel. there will be a time for that later on, but right now we are asking that all of that precious air space be coordinated right through here so we meet the highest needs as identified by the haitian government and as common sense would dictate to us, we meet those needs with that precious air space right now. secondly, the highest need in terms of, you know, the amazing generosity of the american people, we see it time and time

again. the vice president saw it in new orleans last night. i have seen it in my travels as the secretary. we would really emphasize and try to ask that that generosity be in the form of donations of money that can then be used by the nonprofit organizations for the best and highest need on the ground as those needs are identified. as you can already tell, we don't have the capacity to airlift in lots of additional goods, food, clothing, the rest. some of it will end up going to the dominican republic. we will be able to truck it over. we're looking for ways to move goods, services, and personnel in addition to what we're able to airlift in over time. but the number one need of all of these groups is just plain cold cash. the white house has

consolidated all of its websites into one, www.whitehouse .gov/haitiearthquake. that is where definitions can go. last li, has has been widely reported, yesterday i signed the order beginning, for the process of t.p.s. status for haitians already in the states. this is an immediate immigration status that allows those who are here to remain and to work. as they work, of course, many send remittances back home. this in and of itself is a form of support to haiti and a form of economic assistance to haiti. to qualify, you must have been in the united states before january 12, the date of the earthquake. if you qualify, you should go

to uscis.gov and there is information there to provide you on how you get the t.p.s. status. it will be good for 18 months from the date of the issuance, so that will be in july of 2011. so for haitians in the country who were here before the earthquake, we are now opening up the process of t.p.s., that intermediate immigration status for you. i would say lastly, please, if any haitians are watching, there may be an impulse to leave the island to come here. you will not qualify for t.p.s. status. if you do, you will be reupdateated back if you attempt. this is a very dangerous crossing. lives are lost every time people try to make this

crossing. please do the no have us divert our necessary rescue and relief efforts that are going into haiti by trying to leave at this point. it's time to focus all our efforts collectively with haiti, the united nations, with our international partners on rebuilding this devastated country. and now it's my pleasure to turn the podium over to someone who has been with us through all of these efforts and someone who has been with us today, florida senator, senator nelson. >> the generosity of the american people is self-evident and it's also evident in the generosity of how the government of the united states has responded. you can see this is a well-coordinated effort. the military knows how to take care of business, and they're

doing that to the best of their ability to get into haiti. the coordination among all of the agencies of government is there to provide this search and rescue and relief. so, mr. vice president, madam secretary, thank you for your very quick, prompt, and very detailed attention to this. we thank you, we god bless you and god bless america. >> ladies and gentlemen of the press, i'll see we will on a regular basis, the administration, we'll be operating you as we get more information, as things begin to get clear as to what's happening on the ground, exactly what's going on and u.n., if roads are getting cleared, how we're getting folks there as we put in personnel. so well be keeping you updated

regularly. thank you all for being here. thank you. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> for the latest updates on the haiti earthquake, log on to c-span.org. >> coming up on c-span, newly elected virginia governor bob mcdonnell's inauguration ceremony. and marvin kalb on journalism ethics.

tomorrow on "washington journal," a discussion on the obama administration's policies on jobs and the economy with democratic strategies karen finny and kevin madden. and how poorly equipped haiti is for natural disasters with mathieu ejean. and the discussion in massachusetts how to fill the latest seat with senator paul kirk. 7:00 eastern on c-span. >> the oath of office will now be administered to the

governor-elect of the commonwealth of virginia, robert francis mcdonnell, by honorable barbara milano keenan, justice of the supreme court of virginia. [applause] >> are you ready to take the oath in. >> i am ready. >> please repeat after me, raise your right hand. i, robert francis mcdonnell, do solomnly swear, that i will support the constitution of the united states, and the constitution of the commonwealth of virginia, and that i will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties incumbent

up on me as governor of the commonwealth of virginia, according to the best of my ability, so help me god. [ cheers and applause ] [applause]

[applause] [applause] [applause]

[applause] [applause] >> members and guests, please be seated. i have the honor to present to the sovereign people of virginia the new governor of the commonwealth, his

excellencey, robert francis mcdonnell. [cheers and applause] >> well, that is a lot of people there. kind of like one of your fundraisers. thank you. thank you. [cheers and applause] >> thank you! [cheers and applause] >> thank you! thank you so much for the incredible honor that you bestowed on me. thank you, mr. speaker, lieutenant governor bowling, attorney general, members of the general assembly,

distinguished guests from around the world and across the country, family and friends, fellow virginians and americans. good afternoon. i want you to know i am kept my first campaign promise. i said that it would be sunny and warm in richmond on inauguration day. [cheers and applause] i have been to many inaugurations, but i want to say, this is the best seat i have ever had. [laughter] we gather today on the steps of our magnificent and newly renovated state capital. from this hill, the land rolls gently down to the james river, the waterway of the settlers in 16 70. from this place, the sweep of history has moved us forward to today.

this is the cradle of democracy for virginia and america. governor thomas jefferson designed this capitol building. governor patrick henry came here for the laying of its cornerstone. i am humbled today to follow in their historic footsteps. the general assembly first convened in this new building during the first term of america's first president and my favorite, virginia's george washington. [applause] behind me in the pro tunda are the busts of the eight virginians who became president of the united states. it was here that robert everyone lee, the son of a governor, was commissioned as the young nation split into war. it was here just four years

later that president abraham lincoln came to begin the process of reuniting a war-torn nation, walking the streets of a still smowldering richmond. it was here 125 years after lincoln's visit that a grandson of slaves, l. douglas wilder took the oath of office as the nation's first african-american governor. [applause] and it is here today that an average middle class kid from fairfax county, the grandson of irish immigrants is given the enormous honor of becoming the 71st governor of the commonwealth of virginia. [cheers and applause] as it turns out, i succeed

another descend didn't of irish immigrants, governor tim kaine. on behalf of the people of virginia, governor kaine i thank you for your great service to the commonwealth of virginia. [applause] today virginia is a thriving and diverse home of nearly 8 million people with one out of ten being born outside of the united states. a state of rich history and strong people, we do face many challenges together. we do not face the challenges of forming a new government or securing a new nation as did henry and jefferson or washington. we do not encounter the devastation and destruction of civil war as did lincoln and lee. we do not struggle with the injustice of slavery and its legacy of segregation as did governor wilder as a young man.

we do not march into the bullets and artillery shells as the greatest generation did on the beaches of more mandy and the islands of the pacific. two members of that great generation who served in world war ii, special people, are with me today, my father, jack mcdonnell, and my father-in-law, frank gardner are with us today. [applause] >> on behalf of a grateful

commonwealth and nation, i thank them and all of the members and veterans of the military for their incredible sacrifice and service to our nation that continues today. the actions of those patriots that have come before us had a common purpose -- to create and expand freedom and opportunity for the generations that were to come behind them. the creation of and desire for opportunity has shaped virginia from its very foundation. it was in seeking the opportunity of a new world that captain john smith and 104 brave settlers braved the perilous atlantic to step on the floors of cape henry in 1607. it was in securing the opportunity of a new nation that virginia patriots joined together with their fellow colonists in the first fight for independence and thus was born a country of ordered liberty that now in years later is still a beacon of hope for the world.

it was in seizing the opportunity of an equality and a good education that a courageous 16-year-old girl, barbara johns memorialized behind this majestic capital at the virginia civil rights memorial stood up and walked out of high school in farmville, 5 years ago this spring. new opportunities helped them meet the challenges of their time. greater opportunity will help us meet the challenges of our future. together we must create jobs and provide more economic opportunities for our people, provide new educational opportunities for all virginians and enhance family and community opportunities by easing the burdens of government on a free people. [applause] >> as virginians, we believe

that government must help foster a society in which all of our people can use their god-begin talents and litter to pursue the american dream. where opportunity is absent we must create it, where opportunity is unequal, we must make it open to everyone. our administration will be dedicated to building a commonwealth of opportunity for all virginians. [applause] it starts with restoring economic opportunity for virginians in every corner of this great state. today tens of thousands of members of our family, our neighbors have lost their jobs. thousands more worried that they could be next as we confront the worst economy in generations, the creation of new job opportunities for our citizens is the obligation of our time. so all virginians who seek a

good job can find meaningful work and the dignity that comes with it. virginia has received high-rankings over the years for being a very business-friendly state. now, these ranks speak very well of our past, but they do not determine our success in the future. competition for jobs is intense among the states and between nations. states are aggressively positioning themselves to best appeal to the entrepreneurs and the job creators. we must make this the best state in which to start and grow a small business. [cheers and applause] >> and that is why we will seek to reduce burdensome taxation and regulation that impedes job creation. that is why even in these tough times, we will have the foresight to invest today in ideas and economic policies that increase economic

prosperity tomorrow. this economic downturn has touched every virginian. declining home values and diminished retirement accounts have wiped away in just a few short months the accumulation of savings of a lifetime. as jobs are lost and consumer confidence remain low, state revenues have declined and an historic budget shortfall has stretched into the billions. thus like so many households and businesses across the commonwealth, state governments needs to device new ways to operate and find savings. this will not be easy, but it is necessary. the circumstances of our time demand that we reconsider and restore a proper and efficient role of government. without reform, the continued growth of government can threaten our very prosperity. we must properly fund the core priorities of government, which we all treasure.

but equally important, we must use innovation and privatization and consolidation in order to deliver government services more effectively. and as we enact these reforms, we must remember the central truth -- that government cannot guarantee individual outcomes, but equality of opportunity must be guaranteed for all. [applause] >> all virginians must have the same fundamental opportunities to work hard, live free, and succeed in this great state. access to equality education is the foundation of our future opportunity. my dad stressed to me as a young kid, he said, son, if you want to get a good job, you need a good education. it was true then. it's even more true today. virginians are blessed with so many great schools, with

dedicated professional teachers like my city nancy in amhurst who worked tirelessly to model the minds of the next generation. to compete in the global economy, every young virginian must have the opportunity of a world class opportunity from preschool to college. [applause] >> a child's future prospects should be as unlimited as his intelligence, his integrity and his work ethic can take him. no child in virginia should have her future determined by her place of birth or by her zip code. [applause] so well work with president obama to expand high-quality charter schools and institute pompei for our great teachers. more money must go to the classroom and less to administration and new

opportunities must be found in the science and technology and engineering and health care professions that will provide the great jobs of tomorrow. let's recognize now that a high school degree is no longer the finish line. we must create affordable new pathways to earning college degrees. i intend to pursue a recommendation to confer 100,000 new degrees over the next 15 years in our great state of virginia. [applause] >> and we must make our community colleges national leaders in workforce development and career training, because these are the investments that will pay individual and societyal dividends for many years to come. barbara johns was willing to risk everything for the simple opportunity of a good education. surely nearly 60 years later, we can work together to provide

that opportunity for all of virginia children. our administration will demand excellence, reward performance, provide choices and celebrate achievement. god has bestowed on our great commonwealth an amazing amount of natural resources. virginians have the intellectual capital to use these resources to create new jobs, reduce our energy bills and make our nation more energy independent. we will make virginia the energy capital of the east coast. [applause] we will do so by growing our natural gas and coal industries, expanding the use of nuclear power and promoting new energy technologies like wind and solar and biomass. and we will champoon environmentally safe offshore

exploration and production bringing with it thousands of new jobs. [applause] and the revenue and capital investments that come with it. now we must also seize the opportunity to improve our transportation system by getting long overdue projects underway, utilizing new ideas to build roads and bridges and rail and ports that we need, a better transportation system will create new opportunities for our citizens all over this state. now, these are the policies focused on addressing the real problems that people in virginia face in delivering real results. i have had the opportunity to listen to people across the state over the last years and some have told me they fear that america may no longer be the land of opportunity that it has always been and that virginia's leading role in history may be just that -- history. they are wrong. [applause]

>> working together as virginians, republicans, democrats, independents and the like, this commonwealth will continue to blaze the trail of opportunity and prosperity. and like the mechanic looking to the owners manual for guidance on how to trouble shoot the car, we should look to the founders and their writings for wisdom in governing. [applause] >> the founders capstone on the great american constitution was the bill of rights. no state or federal mandate nor program crafted by either political party should ever undermine the central principal of federalism enshrined in the birth certificate of america by those who pledge their lives and fortunes and sacred honor.

the founders recognized that government closest to the people governs best. more often than not -- [applause] >> more often than not, richmond knows better about the hopes and fears and dreams and aspirations of americans than does washington. [applause] >> and likewise, fairfax, virginia beach, hope well know better than richmond. [applause] >> now as we pursue this vision of a commonwealth of opportunity, i urge all virginians to continue to seek your own opportunities to get more involved in the life of our commonwealth.

after a century ago, president kennedy uttered those immortal words that you all recall, "ask not what your country can do for you. ask what you can do for your country." today i urge all virginians to rise up and meet this timeless challenge. we live in the most generous nation on earth. so many virginians give of their time and their talent and their treasure and rightly so. for the scriptures say, to who much is given, much will be required. right now i urge -- right now much is required in this nation and much is required for the people of haiti. so i urge all virginians to donate generously to the relief efforts currently underway in haiti. [applause]

>> here in this commonwealth, i urge business owners to look for new opportunities to sponsor a little league team, help a charity, promote corporate responsibility in the communities in which you live and you work. i urge all leaders of the faith communities to expand your selfless work of helping the homeless, feeding the hungry, and comforting the brokenhearted. i urge all the young people of virginia to use your god-given talents and your energy to fully engage in the future of this commonwealth. i urge virginians who came here from foreign lands to contribute your culture, your history, and your traditions to the rich tapestry of life in virginia. i urge every virginian to take every opportunity to thank a man or woman in a law enforcement or military uniform for the preservation of our freedoms. [applause]

>> there is so much that each one of us can do with our individual and unique talent to leave this commonwealth a better place than we found it. no government program can possibly substitute for the incredible good done every day through voluntary actions performed freely by caring individuals in virginia. and while government can help provide opportunities, it is every person's individual

responsibility to take advantage of them. in recent weeks, i have seen people exercising that responsibility and changing lives as a result. i visited the healing place here in richmond, the carpenter shelter, the foot banks, the boys and girls clubs in virginia beach, the u.s.o. in norfolk and in all of those places, great work was being done by caring people. as a commonwealth, we must do the same and we will. standing here today on the steps of this great state capital in the inspiring shadows of our shared history behind us, we embrace the limitless opportunities stretching out far before us. and it is now here in this place that i ask all to mutually pledge to work together to create this commonwealth of opportunity for

all virginians and add our collective foot steps to those of our founders through virginia's journey. it was george washington who noted in his first inaugural recall address a timeless truth -- inaugural address a timeless truth. the smiles of heaven cannot smile on a nation which heaven itself has jordanned. it is right to help one another. it is right to get together and solve problems. it is right to provide opportunities for all of our citizens. so my fellow virginians, my friends, leaders from across the state, let us heed the words of the father of our country, employ these eternal rules and get to work for the good of the people of virginia. thank you, god bless virginia,

and god bless this great country. [cheers and applause] >> coming up on monday on c-span, new virginia governor bob mcdonnell delivers his state of the commonwealth speech. you see that live at 7:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span. >> coming up next on c-span, former cbs and nbc news anchor and correspondent marvin kalb on journalism ethics. following that, remarks from president obama and former presidents george w. bush and bill clinton on raising money for haiti relief. also secretary of state hillary clinton on the u.s. efforts to provide food and after that, we'll hear from vice president joe biden and homeland security

secretary janet napolitano on rebuilding haiti. tomorrow on "washington journal," a discussion on the obama administration's policies on jobs and the economy with democratic strategist karen finney and republican strategist kevin madden and a look at how poorly equipped haiti is for natural disasters. following that, a discussion on the special election in massachusetts to fill the late senator edward kennedy's seat with senator paul kirk. "washington journal" live at 7:00 a.m. eastern here on c-span. now former cbs and nbc news

anchor and correspondent marvin kalb talks about journalism ethics and allowing c-span cameras into conference committees. this is just over 50 minutes. >> it's my pleasure to introduce an old friend and a friendly competitor from many years when i was at abc and he was at cbs, marvin kalb is the james clark welling presidential fellow at george washington university here. marvin is also the edward rmurrow prouf emeritus from the kennedy school of government. he appears frequently on npr and on fox as an analyst. marvin had a 30-year career at cbs and nbc. he was the chief diplomatic correspondent for cbs for many, many years. prior to that, he had been the moscow correspondent for cbs.

an interesting thing for those of you who are college students is the fact that marvin was actually in cambridge studying for a p.h.d. when he got an opportunity to go to moscow for the state department. and that -- a year later then, he was signed on by cbs, the last correspondent hired by edward r. murrow. so he went right from academe to the firing line and was a brilliant cbs correspondent for so many years. later on nbc, he was the moderator of "meet the press." two peabody awards, that's the biggest in broadcast journalism. dupont prize, overseas press club awards, too many to count and a bunch of emmys as well. he has written 10 books, two of them were novels. one of them was co-written with

ted koppel. it was a great spy novel that i asked ted one time, what was the toughest thing about writing the book? he said the sex scenes. after i had read the book, i understood why. marvin is currently working on a book on the american experience in vietnam and we're delighted to have him here this morning as one of our speakers. marvin. [applause] >> thank you. let me start by telling you about the sex scene. [laughter] >> ted and i were working on this book for about a year or two and always delaying handling this problem because both of us felt rather uncomfortable. and yet our publisher was telling us that if we really

wanted to make it big, you had to have a sex scene. he called it the o.s.s., the object bigtry sex scene. -- obligatory sex scene. i said to ted, you're so much smarter than i, why don't you write it. he said no, you're taller than i, you write it. i said you have four children, i only have two which means you are twice as good at it. so why don't you write it? so finally, he wrote it and he gave it to me. it was awful. it was really awful. so i didn't call him back and he called me and he said is it that bad? i said yes. i'm not sure what happened with it. i think what happened was that when they embraced we almost, like a camera, turned to the window where a breeze came

through and that was that. so the book sold maybe 20,000 copies less, but what the heck. ladies and gentlemen, i'm happy to be here. i thank you very much for the invitation. how many of you have been journalists, either in college, secondary school, summertime, any of you? good. ok, then you may be ahead of the track from where i am because i have been asked to speak about the ethics of journalism. as i was driving here this morning, i realized that my fundamental problem is a no longer what journalism is. you can all think that you have a grasp on it. i thought i had a grasp on it. i know longer do. and the reason that i don't is that the craft has changed so dramatically in recent years that it's impossible to know

exactly what it was, what it is, and where it is going. and i admit to my difficulty upfront with you. when steve and i worked in this business, i think we each knew who we were and what hour responsibilities were. -- our responsibilities were. but today i find it very difficult when i watch cable news difficulty, to find out who the journalists are. for example, can i say with both candor and certainty that larry king is a journalist? i cannot. and yet news is committed on his program. there are people who come on to his program and actually make news. so you can say, well, if news is made there, why isn't he a

news man? and in a way he is, but is that the same thing as ted koppel or steve bell working as reporters covering wars, covering political campaigns and the answer has to be no. there is a very marked difference. so then what is the difference? how is one to define who the reporter is? and until you can, how is one to define a set of ethical values that are ascribed to that kind of work? if you are covering a war, there is a certain kind of ethics built in to the very craft of war reporting. likewise, politics. but if you are the host of a program or if you have spent most of your life as a politician and then you lose a race, what happens? these days you generally go

into television. the former governor of alaska is now going to become an analyst on fox. now i do some of that for fox, so i have to say immediately that i'm not sure that this represents an increase in the journalistic value of fox, but it does probably almost certainly in fact add to the ratings potential at fox. therefore, what we're talking about here is bringing on personalities largely political personalities who have done a great deal of work in a certain business of politics into a world of communication, into the world of the media. and then we somehow or another believe that, therefore, they become news people. well, forgive me, but i reject

that. i don't think it's right in any way. but there are ethics involved in the craft of journalism and i would like to talk to you a little bit about that. does a reporter have a right to report everything that he or she knows? if a reporter is covering, as i did, i think, steve, i'm not sure -- covering, let's say, the war in vietnam many years ago, and you came upon a bit of information -- i know this for a fact. i will not mention the reporter's name. a television journalist well known walked into a bar and met there with a young american

pilot who told him, simply because he recognized him as someone he had seen on television, he told him, sir, you know, it's very interesting, tomorrow morning, we're going to go off on a bombing raid over hanoi. at the time the u.s. was not bombing hanoi and the president was saying we don't want to expand the war, and yet here was a young pilot saying tomorrow morning i'm going off to bomb hanoi. what is the ethics involved in the reporting of that story? let me suggest something and when we get to the q & a, you come in with your own point of view. on the one hand, a reporter has most of the time -- most of the time, a right to report the information that he or she has so long as you are fairly

persuaded that the information is accurate. and you try to present it fairly. but does that reporter have a right to put out the information that this young man is going to be taking off in an american fighter plane the next morning to bomb hanoi? i would say no. it's a heck of a good story. you're breaking something quite new. the u.s. is expanding the war and beginning to bomb the capital of north vietnam. this particular reporter did not report that story. i think he did the right thing. let us say in another circumstance less dramatic, a politician on capitol hill, this did happen to me, following a meeting on the senate foreign relations committee came over to me as we

were all walking out and said, marvin, this is off the record, but let me tell you that the democratic majority is going to try to move a resolution condemning this particular aspect of policy. i said, well, thank you, senator, thank you very much. i walked away. he had said this was off the record. now we were all clear -- i got to pause here. off the record means you are not to use the information in any circumstances. it's off the record. there is then on the record, which means go with it as best if you wish. then there are two immediate categories. one is background and one is deep background. and if a government official in this city says to a reporter, this is on background, what the official really means is use the information, but don't quote me.

you can say u.s. officials, plural, you're getting it from one person, u.s. officials say x, y, and z. you can use that formula. that's acceptable. if the source says to you this is on deep background, that means, in effect, you can use the information, but you use it on your own. you can ascribe it to no one. in other words, you write a sentence that it is the feeling here in washington that -- then you use the information. if you wish to do that, remember, you're assuming the information then is right. wisely, you would have checked it beforehand. now, when that senator gave that to me, i assumed it was off the record and i walked away and i did not use it in my piece that night, only to get a call from him the following morning saying why didn't you

use that? i gave it to you to use. i wanted that on the air. and i said, but, senator, you said it was off the record. he said don't be hung up on terminology like that. if i'm giving you information, use it. then it's the reporter's responsibility, should it be the reporter's responsibility to figure out whether the information is of a sort that he the reporter can figure out and use. last night i was -- i'm absolutely hooked on ole miss ris and so i was watching a movie called "north side 777." jimmy stewart made it about 50 years ago. it is about a reporter who approaches a story at first with extreme skepticism. he writes it but doesn't think it's right at all. the information that he is

writing is right, but he doesn't think this particular person is innocent. . the eth he can -- the eth -- the ethics comes in with the knowledge that the story is absolutely right, ready for broadcast or newspaper.

but is that enough? is there not a moral dimension that goes along with the reporting of the news? don't we also have an inner morale compass that says, this is really yobbled the pale we should not be going down that way? and all i can say is that over the years, as the distinction has broken down between a clear-cut reporter and a cable host, all under the umbrella of the median, introducing enormous confusion in people's minds, and i don't blame them. it's unble that there would be the confusion because you're not sure of the product you're working with.

if you get to a certain point where you feel a story isn't right you should simply tell your editor, i can't do that. example, during the iran hostage crisis there was a moment early on in that crisis when six americans were actually not being held at the american embassy held by revolutionary guards of the iranian regime at the moment. but being held in the canadian embassy. it doesn't seem like a big deal now but it was then. there were six lives involved. i had that story and i think someone on nbc had that story, i'm sure somebody at abc had the story, too. but i called up cronkite that night and said, this is the information, it's slutely

accurate. but i can't do this story. president beyond -- i don't think it's right to jeopardize the lives of these six people. i said, however, you know, you guys pay me. this is the information. do what you wish with it. and cronkite thought about it really for two seconds before i even got off the phone and he said, we're not going to do it. let it sit there. somebody else can have it. we didn't do that. we didn't do that because we didn't feel it right to broadcast information that might jeopardize lives. and i think that becomes a cutting-edge issue in all reporting of national security. the ethical line there is if there is a danger that you may jeopardize lives you don't do the story and i think that makes very good sense and i think, by the way, that most reporters do that.

"the washington post," a major newspaper here in d.c., comes upon information regularly that it does not accomplish -- publish and it does not publish the information not because it doesn't like the stories but because it doesn't feel it's right to go with it. and how do you define that sense of right? very hard to figure out. and right now as i did from the very beginning, we're dealing with categories when we talk about the ethics of journalism that are very fuzzy both on the ethical side and on the definition of journalism side. let me now speak for just a couple of minutes about one subject i care very deeply about and is connected to what i just said and then we'll open it to you students. i've been a journalist for an

awfully long time and i'm very proud of that profession. i've spent a good many years overseas. after a while you get to know those countries that are free, relatively free, and those that are dictatorships or dictatorial in nature. who call them authoritarian for a moment. and you can tell by the way which is which by just going to a local news stand. walk up to a kiosk and just look at the newspapers in front of you, the magazines, and i submit that you can tell almost immediately whether that i cans to exists in a country that is free, sort of free, dictatorial

or sort of dictatorial. how? you can take a look at the newspapers, they all tend to look alike. they're all reporting essentially the same story and not just that, but reporting it the same way. and on the faces, the covers that exist on magazines and journals, there are always the faces of the leaders of the dictatorship, almost every single magazine will have the picture of dictator one. whereas if you go to a news stand in this country and you can buy a tabloid which will have one kind of headline and emphasis and let us say the "new york times" which will have another one, you can see immediately by the face of journalism what the essence of the political system is. and i maintain that a free

press, a free, vibrant, occasionally even irresponsible press is the essence of a free, vibrant and occasionally irresponsible democracy. and that the two go hand in hand. if you have a free press you're going to have a free and open system and if you begin to clamp down on the press you're going to find that your political freedoms are going to be cut down as well. and my concern at the moment, particularly after coming from such an elegant and eloquent panel as you've just been exposed to, i respect -- represent obviously a different generation but also a different vision of journalism. to me it is not sacred but it is appalling, it is something very special, it is, as i've

said a moment ago, for me the essence, literallying the neck tar of an open or free society. and when, due to the explosive force of the new technology, we have a journalism that is much wider, it exposes more people to more information than we have ever had before and that is a good thing. it is at the same time information that is presented that is very thin. it goes across the spectrum but not deeply. it goes across the spectrum in a shallow way. and it also goes across the spectrum in a way that, at the borders there's a fuzzyness between substantive could be

tent that is real and political opinion. that is opinion. that should be in the straight news story, should not be in the straight news story. so i worry deeply that where we're going in journalism today is to lose our soul in pursuit of profit that is understandable and that may be unstoppable given the way revolutions take place, particularly in technology. but that doesn't necessarily make it a good thing. and because you are all, because of your age, going to live with this for the rest of your lives, it becomes your responsibility to make absolutely sure that you're not losing the soul of the business which by my likes is the soul of the democracy. so i am finished with my basic

picture but we do have a lot of time for your questions and by the way we can wander afield well beyond anything i've been talking about. [applause] if you want to just stand up i'll recognize you. oh, there's a microphone? yeah, right in the middle, please, go ahead. >> greetings. i'm from north carolina central university. you discussed the idea of ethics. in your opinion, have ethics changed over the years since the beginning of journalism? >> has ethics changed over the years and the answer is yes because while, as i was trying to say before, while i might have had a standard of ethics that i would apply to a news story in the 1960's and 1970's and 1980's, that might necessarily be appropriate to

judge a news story's value today or the performance of the reporter in getting that story. so the ethics have become a bit fuzzy along with the definition of journalism. so has it changed? absolutely. should it change? well, this is a flight of fancy. so long as the journalist knows that he or she is presenting information believed to be accurate, presenting it in a fair way, i think the ethical impulse is to go with the story so long as it doesn't affect -- so long as potentially it might not affect human life in a military situation. >> thanks. >> thank you. >> i'm from a college in

connecticut. a few years ago there was a young girl about the age of 14 that went missing. and a couple days later, about a mile from her home, her body was found. and there was a reporter on the scene who immediately aired the images of this girl's body. the parents hadn't yet been alerted of the situation and the images that were shown were not very easy ones to look at especially for patients -- parents. what do you feel ethically the reporter should have done in the situation think? understand that they want to be the first one there. i feel that the parents should be told first. >> well, again, by my ethical standards, i probably would not have run the pictures. i might have selected a picture that conveyed the essence of the awfulness of the story

without showing too much guts and gore. look, if you write a good story you're going to convey the awfulness of that kind of a event -- kind of event. and i don't think it is necessary to go too far with the pictures. there used to be an issue that came up on television all the time in my day and that was, since our major programs, cbs evening news with walter cronkite went out at 6:30 or 7:00 in the evening and maybe in the middle of the country at 5:30 or 6:00, but roughfully that time frame, which was dinner time, so walter was always asking the question, if we had a really gorey picture do we put this on while people are having their dinner? and the answer quite often was

no. now, in recent years and again i don't want to give you an old fogey vision of reality, but that's what i'm giving you, but increasingly there's more of the gore on television that is acceptable stuff. more newspapers are putting in gorey pictures because that has become the acceptable thing. more stories about the private lives of public officials are in newspapers now because that has become more the acceptable thing. is that the right thing to do? that's a separate issue these days. president almost anything goes. but i appreciate your dilemma. i thank you for the question. >> thank you. >> hi. i'm zach from texas. and yesterday my small group went to roll call and we were in the meeting with this reporter there at roll call d

and i posed the question, if lives were at stake would you publish the story? and his response to me, which shocked me, was, that's not my job, that's not my problem. do you think that it's because of reporting like that that has contributed to the negative perception of media in recent years? >> are you asking specifically whether as a reporter i have the responsibility to judge the impact of my story when it's published? >> well, that, and do you think that that has -- that mindset that has contributed to the negative perception of the media today? >> yes, of course, it has contributed to the negative perception. alas i'm old enough to remember the time when a vice president named spiroing a due, who was

the first vice president for richard nixon, did a series of broadcasts attacking television news. and he was the first to give that idea of the media cachet, the media sort of -- that word that embraces everything from journalism to public relations. and he also conveyed the impression that the people in the media were really a special elite group ff northeast pinls, he didn't say harvard, but he meant it, and if you come from the northeast and you are a graduate of harvard that that makes you unamerican. and he conveyed that impression because there was the beginning of strong opposition to the vietnam war on the part of the

american people. and they blamed the reporters for instigating that reaction. i think it was since that time that the public perception of the media shifted from essentially positive to fufrl, i don't want to say essentially now negative because i don't think that's true, but certainly a negative impression is there. and the more that journalists go for the jugular, go for the headline, go for the -- got you kind of journalism, in my view, the more ady municipalition in the degree of public respect for journalism and it goes back to my central point again. if journalism loses its

centrality, its importance, its purpose, we all suffer. our political system is sure to suffer. so somehow the journalist's got to get his act together and i think the sooner the better. thank you very much for the question. >> good morning, professor. i'm from sussex university in boston. >> i know well. >> i'm sorry? >> i know it well. we pass it almost every day. >> my question for you is, how would you change the media today to perhaps make it more ethical and abiding by a stronger moral compass than what it has? >> well, that is the toughest question to answer because it puts me in a position of having to acknowledge what deep down i fear and that is that the

combination of the new technology, and i don't want to repeat, i respect it, it's there, i appreciate all that but the combination of the new technology and the drive for greater profit produce an explosive negative force which undermines the purpose of journalism and likewise introduces into our democratic system a coarseness and an unfairness that we see expressed on almost every talk program that we listen to. i do not see at the moment how journalism makes its way out of this. honestly, i don't. i wish i did because it would leave you all with a more upbeat sense and i would like

to do that but i have to be honest with you, i don't see it at the moment. maybe it will happen. i hope it will happen. for the reason i've already said 10 times. i hope it will happen. i just can't find how that's going to get started. unless all of the young journalists who come in filled with idealism and enthusiasm and energy have the guts at the same time to ask their editor, why? if the editor is moving them in a direction they feel is uncomfortable. because if it's uncomfortable there has to be a reason for that. maybe you're wrong in even raising the question but at least by raising the question you air the problem. and i think that in and of itself is an advance. the more we can discuss this,

mortgage we can have these sessions, the better off we will all be because people will become more aware of the problem. and then ask themselves, wow, am i losing something? is there something i ought to be doing as a citizen? so it's a problem for everybody . it's a journalists' problem, it's a citizen problem, it's a political problem. >> thank you. >> ok. >> jonathan, arkansas state university. i just wanted to know what you think the impact of watergate had on investigative journalism, most specifically the work that they did to lead to the down fall of the nixon presidency? >> wow. well, i have enormous regard for both of those reporters and bob woodward continues to amaze me. he continues to produce these extraordinary books.

presidents and seconds of state, defense, are all -- when they're in power they're all very critical of woodward. but when they leave power they all read those books and try next time he calls to be available and to share some of the stories with him. what watergate did with the reporting of woodward and burn seen it did was make president often tedious job of investigative journalism exciting. because the stories themselves, each one of them was not a blockbuster. there were little pieces of a large jigsaw puzzle. and they were putting it together piece by piece. they didn't have the story. it was a gut sense on their part that this is going up

pretty high. and it may get to the white house. but if it does reach into the white house, before we print that we really have to have the evidence. and so on the part of the editor and the publisher tft "washington post" it was an -- of "the washington post," it was an extremely important and gutsy decision. because sometimes the evidence was not absolutely there. it seemed to be moving toward a conclusion, but it wasn't there. and then of course if the u.s. government at that time under president nixon asked the attorney general to put out an injunction to stop "the washington post" from publication. which could have been a direct interference with freedom of the press. so the supreme court ruled the

right way a week or two later. it all happen very, very swiftly. the impact of the story was enormous. it led to the toppling of the government, to the resignation of a president, two steps ahead of almost certain impeachment. it put the country into a terrible tailspin and i would submit that we're still not out of that. and it ignited in young journalists the belief that they could automatically become a woodward or a burn stein. so on the one hand the excitement into doing investigative reporting is very good. president overexcitement that you could actually be woodward and burnstein overnight was very destructive.

up at the kennedy school we give out a prize every spring time to the best investigative reporting. and i have to tell you that with all of the economic and technological problems now facing newspapers across the country i am always so happy to receive 100, 110, 115 submissions every year. really first-class investigative reporting. first class. and then it becomes extremely difficult for us to have to make a selection as to which one of these is the best. and i always enend up with, when we get do the down to the last five, i say, you can choose any of these five, it almost doesn't matter. so we give out five prizes too often. but my point is that investigative reporting is

still there. it is essential, i'm delighted it continues. its impact, the woodward -burnstein powers were profound. really profound. there have been many books writ been them and there will be many more and i hope even more movies. i mean, just part of our culture, it's important. thank you. >> thank you. >> good morning, my name is alex from sufficient ock, university. my question is, do you think that with the emergence of such media as c-span, as if -- is it now unethical for congressional leaders to hold negotiations of the major bills off the camera? >> this is an issue that s has come up, it has been pushed by the republican side up on capitol hill in order i think to grab on to something that c-span would like very much to do. which is to get its camera in

everywhere on capitol hill. but on the other hand there is clearly a political motivation in all of this and an embarrassment of the president is also a political goal. i answer that on two levels. on one level, theoretical, and on the other level practical. on the theoretical side i totally agree that there ought to be as much coverage as possible and therefore all committee meetings all to be open to the public, therefore open to c-span cameras. and as far as that goes, fine. however, that is not the way legislation is made. it's very much like the production of sausages which you don't ever want to see. because you'll never eat one. legislation comes about in a formal way which is more or less what we see but most of

the deals are made privately and they are made privately because there are deals. you take this, i give you this. look, if the senator from nebraska got a great deal for his people, senator nelson, but he might have -- he was in a position, one senator, senator liebermann from connecticut, in a position to destroy the health care bill. now, you can actually take a picture of senator reid, majority leader, pleading with senator nelson, you know, i'll give you this if you give me that? as a practical matter you're not going to see that. but that is at the heart of politics.

so the camera can expose a lot in form and a good part of it really conveying the -- some of the essence of politics but not all of it because politics is deal making and deal making is done largely on a private basis. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> morning, sir. my name is patrick from sufficient ock university in boston, massachusetts. during president obama's campaign a famous quote was taken from first lady michelle obama during a speech and she said, quote, for the first time in my adult lifetime, i'm really proud of my country. do you believe that this quote was taken out of context? >> um, yes, yes, i do. and it was taken out of context largely to make a political point. to be as damaging as possible

to the obama campaign. now, who would want that to happen? obviously the republicans running against obama. that becomes unfortunately increasingly part of american political campaigning. it doesn't make it right but it does make it obvious. it's just the way it is. what i believe she was saying and as she explained it later, as an american black she suffered, she felt, considerably in different ways. which she has ticked off which in fact her husband has ticked off in a more direct way than she. but she did talk about that. she was simply saying, wow, something that is happening now is so extraordinary that and then she overstated the case. but do i believe that that was

the first time that michelle obama was proud of her country? no. i think she's been proud of her country probably for a lot longer than that and for many more reasons than that. i just listened to her talk about her family and about her father working for the post office. no, i think that she is very proud american who in her choice of words and in the way in which it was picked up perhaps overstated something. >> thank you. >> ok. >> hello. thank you for being here. i'm lidia wood, president of the student government association at miami-dade college. i see that you are a good man and a well respected journalist but have you always been able to stand solid on your ground, refusing to do a report if it was against your ethics and could say no to certain reports jeopardize our jobs as future journalists? >> i've thought about this many

times. i would like to say that i think most of what i have done for many, many -- for many, many years was profession alley sound -- professionaly sound. motivation was clean. fiffs, as steve can attest, a very competitive reporter. but i think at the same time reasonably good and i hope fair. but over the years i have thought about one thing and i'm still not quite sure of the answer. but let me share it with you. i heard brent say the other day that piffs a child of the cold war, quote-unquote. and after he stayed i was

thinking -- said it i was thinking about it and i too was very much a child of the cold war. in other words, when the cold war got started in earnest in the late 1940's, we became very much aware of it in the 1950's, the united states and the soviet union were locked into an if -- a crisis. it was a sort of stable crisis over the years but a crisis nonetheless. we each had enormous nume leer power -- tee nor -- enormous nuclear power. we each had the ability to destroy the other country and in that destroy most of the world. so it produced what was called a balance of terror where both leaders on both sides, whenever there was a real crisis, did not ever want to be pushed to a point of having to use nuclear weapons and that governed the

way we thought about our policy in almost every part of the world. now as a reporter in that environment and as a moscow correspondent and i remember i was a moscow correspondent during some of the most acute berlin crises during the cuban missile crisis, in a number of others as well in the middle east. i believe now that i thought then that in pursuing my story i wanted us to win. i didn't want the soviet union to gain an edge over the united states.

i don't know that i literally wrote stories in order to accomplish that, i doubt it. but i do know and i think now it must have been in my mind, i was anti-communist, remain so, and i wanted, as i said, i wanted the united states to win . so if there was a story during the cuban missile crisis in which i could write that the soviet union was aggressively pursuing an anti-american policy, i would do that without too much thought. but supposing the evidence ran the other way, supposing the evidence were that the united states was pursuing a policy, anti-soviet, that really went over the line, would i have done the same thing? would i have reported it the same way?

probably. but i'm not sure. and this is an issue that has been in my mind over the years, in recent years, because i'm right now in the midst of a writing a book about how american presidents viewed the vietnam war, during the war, and then since the war, how they've viewed the legacy of the vietnam war. and we see that in president obama's handling of afghanistan. he had vietnam in mind. and so i find the book filled with salient points and interesting as heck, but it forced me again to think back to those early days of truman and eisenhower and kennedy and johnson and was i being as absolutely balanced as i could have been? i hope i was and i'm really not

sure. but thank you for that question. >> thank you. >> we have about five or should we wrap it? >> i think we're ready to wrap. >> ok. [applause] >> thank you so much. >> my pleasure. thank you, sir. >> and we thank marvin for his participation this morning and this concludes our regular meetings and you've been a great group. all of you in our tv audience, this is the washington center seminar and it's a wonderful experience for college students from 60 colleges and universities around the country and we're all delighted to be part of it. and we thank you very much. [applause]

[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> coming up, remarks from president obama and former presidents george w. bush and bill clinton on raising money for haiti relief. also, secretary of state hillary clinton on the u.s. efforts to provide food. following that we'll hear from vice president joe biden and homeland security secretary janet napal tano on the u.s. commit am -- napolitano on the u.s. commitment to rebuild haiti. tomorrow on "washington journal," a discussion on the obama administration's policies on jobs and the economy with democratic strategist karen finny and republican strategist kevin madden. also a look at how poorly equipped haiti is for natural

disasters. and following that, a discussion on the special election in massachusetts to fill the late senator edward kennedy's seat with senator paul kirk. "washington journal," live at 7:00 a.m. eastern here on c-span. coming up monday on c-span, new virginia governor bob mcdonald delivers his state of the commonwealth speech. see that live at 7:00 p.m. eastern here on see spanl. -- c-span. a look now at search and rescue efforts going on in haiti from earlier today this video comes to us courtesy of united states -- united nations tv. it's just under 5:00. -- five minutes. >> we are heading >> we are heading to a

university that collapsed with many students inside. so, they've been stranded for almost 70 hours and we were still hearing voices this morning and one guy walked out by himself. we need some help to open the concrete and get the other people. we just spoke to three of them are still alive. > there is better access arod there.

>> i was out with the president of haiti and we discussed the search and rescue phase and how long we wanted to continue. he wants to continue as long as the population thinks that there is hope. the first idea was to close by the end of tomorrow, but that will definitely be expanded. as long as the population feels that there is hope, we will continue the search and rescue, basically. >> try to relax as best as you can.

>> president obama has asked former president's george w. bush and bill clinton to help and recovery efforts. a news conference on developments from that meeting. it is about 15 minutes. good morning, everybody. in times of great challenge in our country and around the world, americans have always come together to lend a hand and serve others. that is what the american people have been doing in recent days with their contributions to the haitian people.

at this moment we are moving forward with one of the largest relief efforts in our history to save lives and deliver relief that averts a larger catastrophe. the two leaders with me today will ensure that this is matched by an historic effort that extends beyond our government, because america has no greater resources than the strength and compassion of the american people. we just met in the oval office, an office they both know well. i am pleased president george w. bush and president bill clinton had agreed to lead a major fund-raising effort for relief. the clinton-bush haiti fund. i went to thank both of you for returning to service and leading this urgent mission. this is a model that works. after the terrible tsunami in asia president bush turned to president clinton to lead a similar fund. that effort raced resources for

the victims of that disaster -- that effort raised resources that helped rebuild communities. that is exactly what the people of haiti need right now. every day that goes by we learn more about the scope of this catastrophe any. the suffering that defies comprehension, families sleeping in the streets, injured and desperate for care. many thousands feared dead. that is why thousands of american personnel are on the scene working to distribute clean drinking water and food and medicine, and tons of emergency food supplies are arriving every day. it will be difficult, it is an enormous challenge to distribute this ate quickly and safely in a place that has suffered such destruction. -- distribute this aid quickly.

we are working with many organizations, friends from argentina and france, minikin republic and brazil. secretary hillary clinton -- dominican republic and brazil. secretary hillary clinton will be in coordination with this government. we know that our longer-term effort will not be measured in days and weeks, it will be measured and months and years. that is why it is important to enlist and sustain the support of the american people. that is why it is important to have a point of coordination for all the support that extends beyond our government. here at home president bush and clinton will help the american people do their part, because responding to a disaster must be the work of all of us. those scenes of devastation

might as not only of our humanity, but our common responsibilities. this suffering can and must be a time of compassion. as the scope of the destruction became apparent, i spoke to each of these gentlemen and last ast the same simple question, how can i help? -- they asked the same question. they will be asking everyone what they can do, individuals, corporations and individuals. i urge everyone who wants to help to visit www.clintonbushhaitifund.org. president bush led america's response to the asian sammy -- asian tsunami. as president, bill clinton helped restore democracy in haiti. he has helped to save the lives of millions of people around the world. as the un special envoy to

haiti, he understands the daily struggles and needs of the haitian people. by coming together in this way these leaders sent a message to the people of haiti and the people of the world in these difficult hours, america stands united. we stand united with the people of haiti who have shown resilience and will help them to rebuild. yesterday we witnessed a small but remarkable display of that determination. haitians with little more than the clothes on their back marched peacefully through a ruined neighborhood. despite their loss and suffering they sang songs of faith and hope. these are the people who were called upon to help. those are the hopes that we are committed to answering. that is why the three of us are standing together today. with that, i would invite each

president to say a few words. i will start with president bush. >> i joined president obama in expressing my sympathy for the people of haiti. i commend the president for his swift and timely response to the disaster i am so pleased to answer the call to work beside president clinton to immobilize the compassion of the american people.

like most americans, laura and i have been following the television coverage. our hearts are broken when we see the scenes of children struggling without a mother or father, or the bodies of the streets and physical damage of the earthquake. the challenges are immense, but there are a lot of devoted people leading the relief effort. from government personnel who have deployed to the disaster zone to the faith-based groups. the most effective way for americans to help is to contribute money. that money will go to organizations on the ground who will be able to affectively spend it. i know a lot of people want to send blankets or water, just send your cash. one of the things that the president and i will do is make sure your money is spent wisely. as president obama said, you can look us up on clintonbushhaitifund.org. it is amazing how terrible tragedies can bring out the best of the human spirit.

we have all seen that firsthand when americans citizens responded to the tsunami or katrina, or the earthquake in pakistan. president clinton and i will work to attack that same spirit of giving to help our brothers and sisters in the caribbean. toward the end of my presidency laura made a trip down to haiti to look at the emergency plan for relief programs down there. i remember clearly her coming back and telling me about the energy and optimism of the people. there is an unbelievable spirit among the haitian people. while that earthquake destroyed a lot, it did not destroy their spirit. the people of haiti will recover, and as they do they know they will have a friend in the united states of america.

mr. president, thank you for giving me a chance to serve. >> first, i want to thank president obama for asking president bush and need to do this, and for what i believe has been a truly extraordinary response on the part of the american government. because i have been working there for nearly a year as the un special envoy, i have been in constant touch with our people through the un on the ground. you know we lost a lot of our people there, the largest loss of life in the history of the united nations on a single day. the u.s. has been there from the beginning. the military has been great, the response by the state department has been great. i cannot say enough about it. the people in haiti know it, and i am grateful.

i would like to thank president bush for agreeing to do this and for the concern he showed for haiti. before this happened my foundation worked with the people on the aids problems in haiti, and i saw how good they work. finally, let me say that i don't have to read the website because they did, but i want to say something about this. all we need to do is get through medicine and water and a secure place for them today. but when we start the rebuilding effort, we want to do what i did with the president's father in the tsunami. we want to be a place where the money -- people will know their

money will be well-spent. we will ensure ongoing integrity of the process. we want to stay with this over the long run. my job with the un is not at all in conflict with this because i am the outside guy. my job is to work with donor nations and international agencies, business people around the world to try to get them to invest their, the asian community. i believe before this earthquake haiti had the best chance in my lifetime to escape its history, that hillary and i have shared a tiny part of. the haitians want to amend their development plan to take account of what has happened in port-au-prince and go back to implementing it. but it will take a lot of help and a long time. i am just grateful president bush wants to help, and i have

already figured out how to get him to do things he did not sign off on. again, i have no words to say on what i feel. i was in those hotels that collapsed. i had meals with people who are dead. the cathedral chilled short -- the cathedral church i sat in is in trouble. but it is still one of the most remarkable places i have ever been. and they can escape their history and build a better future if we do our part. president obama, thank you for giving us a chance to do a little bit. >> these gentlemen will do an extraordinary job, but what they will be doing is just tapping into the incredible generosity, the ingenuity of the american people in helping our

neighbors in need. i want to thank each of them not only for being here today, but what i know will be an extraordinary effort. i want to make sure that everybody thought that website, one more time. obviously we are just standing it up, but it will immediately get people a means to contact our offices. www.clintonbushhaitifund.org. we were talking in the back, in any extraordinary catastrophe like this, the first several weeks will just involved getting immediate relief on the ground. there will be some tough days over the next several days.

people are still trying to figure out how to organize themselves. there will be fear and anxiety, a sense of desperation in some cases. i have been in contact with the president and have been talking to the folks on the ground. we will be making steady progress. the key now is for everybody in haiti to understand there will be sustained help on the way, but what these gentlemen will be able to do is when the news media starts seeing attention drift to other things, but there is the stock -- there is enormous need still on the ground. these two gentlemen will be able to help insure that these efforts are sustained. that is why it is so important and why i am grateful they agree to do it. thank you, gentlemen. >> will any of you travel to haiti soon?

>> what about secretary clinton? [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> the now the secretary of state hillary clinton meeting with haiti's president. during her remarks she reassured the people of haiti that the united states would bring medical supplies, food and continue to help which it's rescue efforts. this is about 10 minutes. . this is about 10 minutes. >> the press conference will be

very difficult because of the noise of the motors. i think mrs. clinton for her visit, which shows, once again, her interest and support for haiti. since the earthquake, president obama has clearly stated how much help the united states and other countries should give to haiti.