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tv   Charlie Rose  PBS  February 4, 2016 12:00am-1:01am PST

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>> rose: welcome to the program. the president visits a mosque and we talk about that with farhana khera, shadi hamid and tom gjelten. >> before he came into the mosque he met with about a dozen muslim-americans, men and women, and one of the things he heard from them is they often felt invisible and then he came out into the mosque and said to american muslims, don't be invisible. you need to be visible not just in moments of crisis or when your communities are under attack. >> rose: the super bowl is here. much talk about super bowl ads. we talked to jeanine poggi, stuart elliott and jason deland. >> it's sort of like a smorgasbord or cafeteria. you go down the tables and pick out there's patriotism, emotion, there is humor, there is
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celebrities, there is hit music, there is surprise endings. there are all these elements that help build a good super bowl commercial. >> rose: and we talk to amos gitai and his film "rabin, the last day." >> three main forces, hallucinating ray buys with the strains, and the strong lobby of the settlers and the parliamentary right b, that i'm not sure wanted to kill rabin but they definitely wanted to get rid of him in power, and, so, we started to research and this is the raw material of the script. >> rose: the president visits a mosque, super bowl ads are upon us, an israeli film maker talks ability rabin when we continue. >> rose: funding for "charlie rose" has been provided by:
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>> rose: additional funding provided by: >> and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and information services worldwide. captioning sponsored by rose communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. >> rose: we begin with this evening with president obama's address to the society of baltimore. first visit to moosic as president and one of several planned speeches on religious tolerance. he spoke at the israeli embassy last week and will appear at the national prayer breakfast thursday in. his speech today the president condemned islamophobia and defended religious freedom. >> as americans we have to stay true to our core values and that includes freedom for all religions of all faiths. our founders like jefferson knew religious liberty is essential not only to protect religion but because religion helps strengthen our nation.
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tolerance of different religions is not enough. our faith summons us to embrace our common humanity. since 9/11 but more recently since the attacks in paris and san bernardino, you've seen too often people confusing horrific acts of terrorism with the beliefs of an entire faith. recently we've heard inexcusable political rhetoric against muslim-americans that has no place in our country. >> rose: joining me from washington that that, senior fellow of the brookings institution and author of the forthcoming book, "islamic exceptionalism." also tom gjelten, correspondent for n.p.r. covering religion and belief. here in new york farhana khera. why now and does it reflect growing concern on the part of
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the president in the last year. >> i think that's right, charlie. in the aftermath of 9/11, we've seen islam emerge as a political issue, the treatment of muslims, immigration, all of these have become likely hot button political issues in a way they weren't at anytime since president obama took office. i can't say why he hasn't done this before. he has spoken out at mosques overseas. h he gave a very famous speech in cairo early in his presidency, but i think this has to be seen as a reaction to this rising rhetoric oa rhetoric of w months. >> rose: he said several times, look, i'm a christian, clearly to make that point, and he said many other things having to do -- it seems to me his
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audience were those people certainly in the political debate that he was trying to speak to them that this was not america and they were going too far. >> one of the lines he said that i thought was especially interesting is he appealed to americans, not just people in the mosque, of course, but americans and said, think of this as a place of worship. this is where families come to worship. ericans to see a mosque as. just another place of worship and muslims as just another group of believers. >> rose: the president also said there was some fear and concern within the muslim community. >> right. >> rose: that was another reason. i'll come back to you, tom, in a second. was that true in terms of your own experience? >> yes, very much so, charlie. over the last year we add muslim advocates have been urging the president to speak publicly about what we had seen as a rise in tide of anti-muslim bigotry
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and anti-muslim hate crimes and discrimination, in the last two months alone since the horrific attacks in paris, we've seen nearly 70 hate crimes targeting americans simply based on their faith and anti-muslim bias. so we believe the president's leadership encouraging our fellow americans to embrace our religious freedom and reminding them that muslims have been a part of america since our nation's founding was absolutely crucial. >> rose: do yo shadi, tuning ths will change anything? >> the symbolism of obama being in a mosque and speaking directly to muslim americans and saying quite powerfully you belong here, you are muslim and american and we need to embrace that as a country. so i think that message was important. he clearly knew his audience. he made an interesting comment
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about muslim characters on tv only being -- only having roles relating to national security. you know, as someone who likes watching shows like homeland, you know, you can't help but notice that we as muslims are either fighting terrorism or the terrorists, you know, so i think that the symbolism of statements like that really connects to an american-muslim audience. now, will it have an effect on a broader american public? that's perhaps less likely. i feel we're at a point in this country where we're so polarized that if you already have negative feelings about muslims, nothing obama says is going to change your mind because you probably see obama as part of the problem that someone who hasn't taken a strong stand against terrorism and attacks in the west. but i think at least for the american muslim community this is something they needed to hear. >> rose: okay. go ahead. you would have something to do if you went to the white house and said time for the president
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to go to a mosque. >> i'm going to disagree with my friend shadi at this point. i hope the president's remarks will make a difference. in order for us to make head way in pushing back against this rhetoric and fearmongerring, we need all americans of good will being willing to stand up and that starts with the president of the united states. a line in his remarks that struck me and that was we cannot be bystanders to bigotry, and he's leading by example. it's my hope that other americans will follow his lead from public officials to other people in places of public trust to celebrities and our everyday americans, your neighbors, teachers in school who are the teachers of these young people who are shaping the hearts and minds of our future americans. >> rose: tom will probably know this better than i do, but there was a famous quote from the british parliament that said for evil to triumph, all that's necessary is for good men to
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stand aside. >> good men to do nothing, right. i wanted to make one other point, charlie. before he came into the mosque, he met for about an hour with a dozen young american muslims, men and women, and one of the things he heard from them is they often felt invisible. then he came out into the mosque and said to american muslims, don't be invisible. you need to be visible not just ur communities are underwhen attack, you need to be visible at all times. so i think that was a plea to be more engaged in america. >> rose: be part of the american fabric and part of the american conversation. >> exactly right. i would go one step further. it was a plea to not just be a part of the conversation but to not be acclaimed to be a muslim in america and that touches on a critical fear that i hear of concern of muslim fathers and mothsers across the country and particularly in the last few months of increasing urgency is a concern because of the
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political dialogue of hate crime -- >> rose: identifying it as -- bullying in school, sometimes conduct by administrators and teachers, people who should know better. it's that idea that everyone should have a place in our country and equal access to opportunity. >> rose: i should make the point the president visited a mosque before. this is the first time in america. >> that's correct. >> rose: some argue and some israelis were concerned and jews, at the time he went to cairo, that he didn't come to jerusalem, you know, that that would have made things much better if he had reached out, because this was early in his presidency. >> he certainly, throughout his administration, and shadi could probably speak to this more as a foreign policy expert, but he certainly has been visiting muslim communities around the world from egypt to malaysia, indonesia and now has basically come home in his last year.
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>> rose: speak to the idea of pushback to the president from the republican candidates in and thation on how you identify radical terrorism. >> yeah, so it's hard to remember it now. it seems like a very long time ago, the cairo speech, but i remember listening to that in 2009. it was a great speech, got a lot of attention at the time, supposed to be a landmark, and obama was trying to set the tone for what he called a new beginning with the muslim world. i think unfortunately what we've seen since that speech is not so much follow-up and a lack of vision when it comes tone gauging with the broader muslim world and obviously obama's policies have come under a lot of criticism especially in the middle east and syria for his failure to do more to protect
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syrians. but the additional impulse was the right one and i think obama is trying to return to some of that initial spirit. when it comes to republicans, you know, i think it's a kind of silly semantic game -- oh, obama won't say radical islamic terrorism, as if it really matters exactly how he names. this i think the bigger criticism, the one i actually would agree with, isn't about names but the substance of obama's policy that he hasn't, in my view, really prioritized the fight against i.s.i.s. the way he should. he seems to be doing everything reluctantly. he would rather see i.s.i.s. as a bunch of thugs and fanatics and dismissed them as an accident of history and not taking them as a serious phenomenon that will be with us for years and possibly decades to come. and i think that is something that's noticeable, and that shouldn't be a republican or democrat thing. many on the liberal and democratic side have criticized
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obama for not having more, as i side, a vision and a strategy when it comes to fighting i.s.i.s. in iraq and syria and really making that a top priority of his administration. we all know that just before -- just months before i.s.i.s. really captured the world's attention, obama called i.s.i.s. the j.v. team of terrorism. i think that says something about how obama sees his priorities. >> rose: and also it has to do with his presidential campaign promise to get us out of wars and understanding what the afghan war and what the iraqi war, the price that had been paid there, you know, and his reluctance because he thinks, you know, that it is a very, very slippery slope. >> exactly. i think there is something tragic about a president who really thought that this would be his legacy of leaving the middle east in better shape, of extracting america from two disastrous adventures abroad. but now his legacy, i think,
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unfortunately, will be could he have done more to fight i.s.i.s. or to prevent i.s.i.s.'s emergence in the first place? could he have done more to stop mass slaughter in syria? so that's certainly not what he wanted to be remembered for but i worry that's sort of where we're at right now. >> rose: what should he have done other than, using your own words, treating wit more concern and urgency. >> so i think syria is really the center of gravity when we want to understand why i.s.i.s. became i.s.i.s. i.s.i.s.'s predecessor had suffered defeat in iraq and the group was able to revive itself in syria, then we see the spillover back into iraq. so this idea i.s.i.s. could be contained, we see time and time again this has been the case, but as we acknowledge syria as the center of gravity, that means we could have done more
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from seeing this political vacuum from emerging, meaning intervening guest against the assad regime because that's in some ways the opposite side of the coin that the brutality of the assad regime has actually give life to groups like i.s.i.s. that are saying we are the last line of defense against the assad regime and this repression. and still to this day, we don't have a strategy against the assad regime, and as long as the assad regime is still in if driver's seat thinking it can win, maybe it won't be called i.s.i.s., but we will have other groups that fill in the vacuum. >> rose: we could have a long time debating what happened in syria and iraq and this is a moment to talk about what the president is trying to do here, and clearly he is calling on that point, though. he is calling on not only muslims in america to get involved but also muslims around the world to get involved with respect to i.s.i.s., both
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governments and foundations and everybody else, correct? >> that's correct, and actually this part of it gets me a little nervous. he said this in previous speeches as well, almost the implication that we as muslims by virtue of being muslim, that means we have a special responsibility to fight extremism or to speak out or to condemn. no one should feel that they have to condemn something just because they happen to be born muslim. >> rose: well, but if you also believe they're hijacking your religion, you clearly want to speak out and say this is not islam, don't you? >> yeah. i totally support that. if muslims want to take the initiative as they are doing throughout the world, that is something that is great and should be encouraged. but this idea of communal responsibility that just because you're a member of a particular group, that means you have to say certain things. that, to me, is a little bit problematic because that contributes to the sense that
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there is something wrong with us as a muslim community that we have pockets of extremism in the u.s. muslim community which is not actually the case. i can't think of any particular locality or community where you have a bunch of people joining i.s.i.s. that may be more the case in europe, but the number of people who have been implicated in supporting i.s.i.s. is very, very small, and that's something we should be proud of as americans that we haven't had as much of a problem as our friends in europe. >> rose: i got you. let me go to farhana. >> i want to respond to the terminology question and i think oftentimes the discourse about it is in the foreign policy aspect and i wanted to raise timber cases here at home and that is by using terminologies like radical islam, radical islamists, it's underscoring not only this is a war against islam overseas to our enemies
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overseas, but also to our neighbors here at home. and i think that is as directly feeding this environment of hate crimes and hate violence that we're seeing targeting our pos mosques, our schools and young children across our country, a and i think that's another reason we need to be careful about terminology and what shadi was saying being careful not to assign blame to an entire group of people based on their faith simply because of the actions of a few. so i commend the president and his team in being disciplined in how we talk about the enemy. >> rose: tom, go ahead. as long as i have been covering this, you hear it talked about as a war of ideas and an ideological struggle, but something really changed in the last couple of years, which is that i.s.i.s. began to acquire territory an and abu back muslio
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fight now that a caliphate has been declared. there is a military aspect to the struggle that wasn't there before. i know a lot of people are saying it's important to take away that territory and make it more difficult for i.s.i.s. to claim that caliphate. so he met with about a dozen, six men and six women that were cozen, i understand, by the white house, and it was a pretty impassioned speech, and what they told him, i understand, from talking to someone in that group, is that they felt really under stress, that they felt it was very important for the president of the united states, the leader of the free world to come out now. they said they had never before felt so under stress as they are at this moment, and they were really grateful to the president for meeting with him. >> rose: doris kearns goodwin has made a comment that, in a
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sense, this is for the president in part, without making any direct analogy, like george washington's farewell speech and dwight eisenhower when he warned against the military industrial complex that in this speech the president is warning this goes to the heart of what america is about and that the idea that the freedom of religion is so crucial to who we are that we must be vigorous about protecting it. >> i think that's absolutely right. and it's enshrined in the first amendment. it's to our bill of rights and the constitution, and i think there is a reason for that when the founders put that in the first amendment. you know, i would argue as a lawyer that the rights that we have in our country and particularly when it comes to religious freedom, i think, are unique set of rights and freedom also that are unprecedented, even compared to other western democracies, and we do have something pretty special in this
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country, but what we have seen through american history is that it's taken generations of americans including presidents to do their part to ensure that our nation is living up to those ideals. >> rose: i have to end it there, but i must say, also, it's important to see what kind of follow-up there is after a speech like this which clearly the white house has been talking about, has been planning, has signaled he thinks is important whether the kind of follow-up and outsourcing takes place. thank you for coming. >> great, thank you. >> rose: thank you, tom. thank you, shadi. >> thank you, charlie. >> rose: we'll be right back, stay with us. >> rose: super bowl 50 is days away but advertising has already begun. with over 1 million viewers expected, the game has never been bigger and with 30-second spots going for a record $5 million, the game has never been richer. while some companies are choosing to release keys to
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commercials ahead of the super bowl, others are posting their full advertisements, trading the element of surprise for the possibility of social media domination. joining me now is jeanine poggi from ad age, stuart elliott from media village and jason deland, partner of advertising firm anomaly and create of the budweiser commercial. $5 million for 30 seconds? >> but cibt a bargain if it works and properly leveraged among all the different media platforms, quote-unquote, like online and social media and the advertisers are working it before, during and after the game. >> rose: i assume, obviously, there's no magic formula because everybody would be using it, but what do the best have? >> the best have -- it's sort of
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like a smorgasbord or a cafeteria. you go down the tables and you pick out there's patriotism, emotion, celebrities, hit music, surprise endings, there are all these elements that help build a good super bowl commercial. but, as you said, if there was some magic formula, every one would be perfect, and there are many, many clunkers down through the years that are notorious for being big failures. >> rose: who had the biggest successes? is it budweiser? >> budweiser over the years, definitely. doritos has been very popular. mcdonald's in the past has had some good commercials. >> rose: cars? cars -- can you remember any good cars? >> volkswagen the force. >> rose: how would you ascertain and assess this year's batch that you've seen?
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>> looks light hearted and a lot more celebrities. the count is 37 at least celebrities in the super bowl. >> rose: media possibilities. yeah, they can put the teasers on their social media sites and have these celebrities talking during the came about the brand, what better way to sort of have that conversation going and with the celebrity behind you during the game. >> rose: anomaly, what goes into it? >> what goes into this show, charlie? >> rose: exactly. there is a lot. i mean, i think we search for meaning, you know, more than celebrities. if you're really good, you know, meaning for the brand. >> rose: you've got a really good client. >> we have really good clients, but meaning for the brand, meaning for the product. and i think if you really know what you're doing, striking a chord with culture and finding meaning there. it's an entertainment platform, obviously. that's what entertainment is about today. it's about creating for people. there is definitely no formula for it.
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>> rose: this is a teaser for the bud light. take a look at this and we'll talk about it. here it is. (cheering) ♪ >> i really got to get the elbows. >> will you get the middle of my back? >> there is no middle. ♪ >> you ready? know it. you ready? >> you know it. ♪ (cheering) >> rose: >> rose: tell me about that. this is really a great one because you have two of the most popular comedians right now spoofing what really is the moths -- most talked about conversation right now the presidential election, so what two better things to combine than celebrities and the presidential election? so it's one of the ones we think is going to stand out this year. >> this is a big moment for bud
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light. >> rose: why is it a big moment for bud lite? >> it's the launching of a new campaign. it's the super bowl, so bud lite always shines in the super bowl. >> rose: 2017 honda ridge line featuring queen's "somebody to love." here it is. (animal sounds, music, singing ♪ each morning i get up and die a little ♪ ♪ can't barely stand on my photo ♪ ♪ take a look at yourself ♪ in the mirror ♪ and cry ♪ i spent all my years believing you ♪ you ♪
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♪ somebody ♪ somebody, anybody, body, me ♪ somebody >> introducing the ridge line, the new truck to love, from honda. >> rose: mr. elliott, tell me about that. >> you have a lot of the popular tropes of a super bowl. you have a hit song, and talking animals, and the surprising ending, being that the sheep learned the song because it plays in the back of the truck where the farmer is taking them from one end of the farm to the other and that's the new feature in the truck that they're talking about. >> rose: am i right that we did not see the truck until the last ten seconds of the commercial? >> right. it was in there, but, yeah, it wasn't really featured. >> rose: so the idea is get people watching and enjoying the commercial? >> it's not always about selling the item or the product that
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you're promoting. some of it is about storytelling and having people remember it. >> rose: take a look at this one. a teaser for shop talk's greatest super bowl ad of all time starring miller. debut the first time. >> hi. i'm me. if you don't know who i am, i don't know what's wrong with you. i've permeated global culture through voiceover, television, film and advertising that you must really live in a very reclusive, strange shack somewhere in north dakota. but if you do, you will know it's pretty cool i'm here in los angeles shooting an unfiltered commercial for an unfiltered beer. the commercial is for the super bowl. not just some cool super bowl commercial. it's going to be the greatest super bowl commercial of all time. do you understand? of all time.
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so save a trip to the bathroom for one of the happy insurance ads that goes nowhere but still makes you cry and you don't know why. get ready to laugh out when my draft's out. >> your what? oh, my god. god! it doesn't get any less alarming no matter how many times it happens. >> what's that mean? it's a play on -- oh, i got it. oh, wow. t.j. miller. i mean, i really could drop it like a mic. (laughter) >> rose:.
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it's trying to get to tun filtered nature to have the beer, the product stuart was talking about and bringing that to life with a little bit of comedy. t. j., that's his personality, and to have that just be there as it is unfiltered is what we were going for. he's an amazing partner to do this with. >> rose: t. j. yes, incredibly talented. the idea of super bowl advertising that talks about super bowl advertising is now pretty well established, and this is a good example of that. there is going to be at least one other commercial in the game for a web services company called wicks.com where within the commercial they're going to parody other famous super bowl commercials and plays off the idea that the super bowl is the one day of the year that the american public will give madison avenue their undivided attention and in exchange the viewers are going to get special
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fun, entertaining, heartbreaking, emotional, patriotic advertising. and by now, there was a survey that came out the other day, almost half the people surveyed said they would be deeply disappointed if the super bowl didn't have a halftime show and didn't have commercials. almost 50% of the people. >> rose: what are the metrics for determining success? is it simply revenue increases on the part of the products advertised? >> there are a lot of different. depends on the brand, but visiting web sites during the game itself. how many people actually go on. i know square space is doing a fun thing. the comedians will be live blogging or live chatting during the game. live broadcasting during the game. and that obviously will be interesting to see how many people go and sit and listen and watch that. so there are those type of metrics. but then, of course, any sort of brand remembrance, remembering a brand, brand awareness, upticks
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in any of those, those are huge markers for marketing. >> rose: this is the winner of the quick books small business big game created a contest death wish coffee, beat out 15000 other small businesses for an all expense paid super bowl ad. >> the day is upon us! a glorious death! (cheering) awaken andel and welcome death! >> death wish coughy, fiercely caffeinated. intuit quick books is proud to put a small business on today's game. >> for a brand like that one of the metrics they might look at is how many stores are stocking that brand of coffee after the super bowl. it was -- there was a towel
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brand two or three years ago, did a super bowl commercial, and the number of people asking for product went up by 30, 40% after the game, that's another metric the advertisers can look at. >> from the get-go, just creating this ad was a lot of fun, but it's create to see an entrepreneur get a spot in the super bowl. they didn't even make enough money last year to be able to afford a spot. so it will be interesting to see next year the brand awareness for a company like that. >> rose: take a look at this. the 2007 alantra starring ryan reynolds in ryanville. here it is. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> can you give me a warning? warning, here comes your ticket. ♪ ♪ ♪
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>> oh, in my face! a car that doesn't get distracted. auto emergency breaking with pedestrian detection. on the all new hundred day alantra. >> rose: any response? something like that is cute. i think there is -- i look at communications like that and sort of go, eh. the reason why is it plays on a few tropes. these girls just driving around hoping to catch a glimpse of an attractive, famous guy and i think it plays against a lot of where our culture is going today. >> i actually disagree a bit. i typically am used to seeing the women being the ones men get distracted seeing, and it's nice seeing the women getting distracted looking at the man and putting the man as the sex
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symbol rather than the woman. i think it is slightly more empowering because it's the women looking at the men instead of the other one around where the women are the sexy ones in the commercial. >> rose: this is an anti-drunk driving campaign. >> hello, i'm helen mirrum. a frank british lady. we are dumbfounded people still drive drunk. so i'll sum it up like this -- if you drive drunk, you, simply put, are a short-sighted utter i useless, oxygen wasting human form of pollution, a dobbin of award deserving selfish coward. if your brain was donated to science, science would return it. so stop it. now, the chances are you're a fun, solid, respectable human being. don't be a pillock.
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your friends and families thank you. the friends and families of other drivers thank you. your future itself thanks you. this is supposed to be fun! cheers. >> helen really makes it. i don't think you could have anyone else in that spot and get that message conveyed the way she says it. >> rose: people understand where she comes from. >> absolutely. it's empowering, powerful and also: little bit. so it's nice it's not totally serious and totally, you know, here are the dangers of drunk driving. >> rose: as she can do. yawrk that's something that i give a lot of credit for them doing. it takes a lot of guts to talk like that in the super bowl for 60 seconds. >> rose: and speaking of celebrities, the amazon echo starring alec bald within poking at last year's deflategate planning 'tis super bowl party
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called the baldwin bowl. >> is this the best you can do with the cheese footballs? >> the brie was soft. 60 wheels of pecorino. adding 60 wheels of pecorino. no soft footballs this year, not on my watch. that's a joke, right? because the whole deflated -- >> yeah, i get it. ♪ >> rose: first time amazon's? first time. >> rose: yeah. first time smart, you know, really good, uses the product. the echo is pretty cool. >> rose: that's a cool product. >> it leans into frame. everyone was talking about deflategate last year and what that meant for tom brady and i think that eases that. >> rose: anything you want to say about that? >> i'm just wondering, that's what people were talking about last year, and tom brady is not in the super bowl. i'm wondering if maybe -- this may be a teaser, so i'll hold my judgment till i see the actual
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commercial. i'm wondering if maybe they're talking about something that's past its expiration date. >> they're one of the few that hasn't actually put out a full spot yet, so i think it will be interesting if they hold that back and wait until the game day. >> rose: i got you. goal gait's every drop count, an ad that encourages water conservation. here it is. (sounds of water running and brushing) >> with all the comedy ads, this
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will stand out because there aren't a lot about social awareness and sending a message. it's great. colonel gait is not axe -- colgate is not actually taking the message to the super bowl, they're sending a powerful message. >> it's the first time colgate has been on the super bowl. giant brand that goes back over 100 years. >> rose: you could make an argument that a company doing something in a good cause, the company benefits in terms of its profits. >> there is tons of stats to support that. what colgate is doing is also putting a little lens on water conservation and water and what that's about in the state of california where the super bowl is this year. think about the summer we just got out of. makes a lot of sense. give them a lot of credit for doing it. >> rose: do big bucks produce great ads or are there many cases in which small smart firms with small budgets. >> you need an idea. it's like there's a great cliche in this industry.
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we don't have any money, so now we have to think. (laughter) and i believe it's true on the super bowl. >> rose: yeah, thank you. thank you. >> thank you. >> rose: t super bowl this sunday on cbs. back in a moment. stay with us. >> rose: november 2015 marked 20 years since the assassination of rabin. the israeli prime minister killed during a peace rally in 1995. the murderer was a young law student. the film explores assassination and subsequent investigation into the event. here's the trailer for "rabin, the last day." (speaking in foreign language)
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(gunfire) (screaming) (speaking in foreign language)
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>> rose: joining me the
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director of the film amos gitai. pleased to have him at the table for the first time. it is an amazing film. tell me how you decided to approach this. you had already made one film shortly after the assassination. >> two or three years ago, we decide add group of friends, we had been working continuously for the last 20 years on different films, and we are concerned about what is happening in israel, racist overtones, restricting the liberty of speech, the culture who want to clothe only the arab, et cetera, et cetera, and we say actually maybe the other guy, the current prime minister he's afraid of is that man. you can see every year they call him the active prime minister has to go to the tomb on the day of the assassination, and when you look at the face of
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netanyahu, you see he is very uncomfortable because this is the only moment that was kind of a window of optimism, of peace and so on. so we started to accumulate materials. we went to see the supreme judge at his apartment in tel aviv, he's in his 90s, same generation as rabin, and i asked why did he only investigate the operational failures of the policemen who looked to the left and not to the right, advisor who put the blue light on the roof, et cetera, et cetera. he said this is the mandate they had. >> rose: mandate from? from the acting prime minister at the time. so in a way the film is an investigation commission which is about the invitation to kill rabin. essentially, three main forces,
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hallucinating rabbis, and a strong will by of the settlers and the parliamentary ride that i'm not sure wanted to kill rabin but definitely wanted to get rid of him in power, so we started to research and this is the raw material of the script. >> rose: in viewing the film, the footage that you have -- >> we were very helped by the israeli broadcasting authority, which is the way we put on the credit because we're obligedt( legally. it's under liquidation, it's under the current power of the public television. people in the archive of the israeli broadcasting authority brought us amazing footage which we integrated. >> rose: which i assume the commission used that same footage in the investigation. >> the commission investigated something like 400 witnesses.
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the touching element of this very big paper is the last page. in the last page the supreme judge allows himself to say what he thinks, and he says that these three gunshots on november '95 will change the destiny of this country. and he kind of we want out of his way to put it on the record. >> rose: do you believe that's correct? that it changed the destiny of israel? >> i think we live in the result of these three gunshots. i think we live in the absence of a really forceful opposition to the current ideas. >> rose: what made rabin remarkable? he was a guest on this show a number of times. >> you know, i like this kind of model of israeli, simplics straight talking, not a politician who looks at the opinion poll in the morning to know what he will say in the afternoon, contrary to what he
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is accused of being a a traity the right, he is a patriot. >> rose: a much decorated soldiers. >> he's the chief of staff who actually conquered all the territories and then decided in a rational decision to give them back in exchange of stabilizing israeli and the middle east. so i think that's very touching, this guy who wanted to say the truth, the only israeli leader who put on the record that he chased palestinians in '48. i think it's important you have to say the truth if you want the real peace. >> rose: this is the commission hearing about the role of religious leaders.
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(speaking in foreign language) >> rose: so what do we take from that? >> the thing is likely how do you translate such a boiling event into cinema and what is the role of cinema? it's a civil act.
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cinema is not just sho showbiz. it's a way to express opinions and have them circulate in this very kind of charged situation, and the conclusion of rabin was that if israel would not find inroads into our world and essentially into the israeli-palestinian on flood -- israeli-palestinian conflict the entire process is at risk. we're accumulating more and more enemies as if there was not enough in the middle east. >> rose: what is your current role in israel. >> the project has great contribution of culture and science. >> rose: the creation of the state. >> yeah. fragile project, a lot of immigrants, that if the strategy of the current powers and all that remained in power and the peace you read of tom freedman is also making reference to this
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country, if the current age of politicians is to circulate hate and to get elect bid it and it's the hate of the jews against the arabs, of the religious against the non-religions, then it works, you know. get reeelectricked agaielectricd again and again. but you risk the project, and the project is fragile. we know from the historic period, i did a piece about the victory of rome 2,000 years ago, so this project ih fragile. it is blow up if you don't pay attention and you don't respect one another. one of the nice fragments they use from a piece eshow of myself with rabin in a press conference in cairo, i traveled with him both to washington and cairo, is he speaks about the future of gaza, an and rabin put it on one
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record, he says we cannot make unilateral act. ten years before the retreat, he says if we withdraw unilaterally, the worst powers will take power. we have to make sure that the 24,000 palestinians get salaries, that there is water, that there is oxygen in the hospital. so he wanted to make peace. he wanted to take care of the other side. it's like love, relation between the people. it cannot be done unilaterally. that's the beauty of the concept. what we see now is the entire middle east developed unilaterally. if the other don't exist, it will be fragmented forever. >> rose: what's your analysis of the present prime minister? >> i think he's talented and cynical and he may risk the
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entire project by narcissistic reasons. this is beyond left and right. i have interviewed the right wing, but he was a moderate, connected to this project of israel, and i think that it's not the case now. >> rose: but this is one of his appearances here in 1993. roll tape. >> 50,000 israeli demonstrated against me. they call me traitor. >> rose: yes. they burned my pictures. i'm not saying it was pleasant. but i didn't mind. >> rose: because? because i believed that what i am doing is the right thing to do, and i believe that whoever wants really to change realities will face antagonism of the most conservative way of thinking
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approaching to the problem, and no doubt with those false messianic religious deceptions, that everything was given to god, only god decide. but what i did say to the people, even though 50,000 demonstrated against me, i said, we fight on the one hand, we continue negotiations on the other hand, because there is solution to the problem in the political arena without giving up to terrorism. >> rose: yitzhak rabin, a powerful statement. do you think benjamin netanyahu wants peace with the
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palestinians? >> i have no idea what he wants. >> rose: why is that? he's been prime minister for a long time. that's part of the general bad ey know he's cape tobl stay in power, but what is his perspective, beyond saying nasty things about palestinians or his political rivals, what is his perspective? and this is creating a very bad, negative atmosphere, and israel needs a fresh perspective, optimism, even if it will be difficult. i'm a graduate of the yom kippur war. i did not study cinema, not even one hour. i'm just an architect. i was supposed to follow the footsteps of my father, who was an architect. >> rose: what happened to you? you just fell infá love with cinema? >> no, i think the kippur war sent me somewhere else, and i decided to put questions, and
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architecture seemed to be a formal exercise, i didn't want to end up designing buildings, so i wanted to make movies. >> rose: thank you for coming here. >> thank you. >> rose: thank you for joining us. see you next time. >> rose: for more about this program and earlier episodes,, visit us online at pbs.org and charlierose.com. captioning sponsored by rose communications captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org
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>> rose: on tomorrow's pbs "newshour", judy woodruff talks to colombia's president on the war and the fight again
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this is "nightly business report" with tyler mathisen and sue herera. >> warning signs. the u.s. economy got disheartening news about one of its most important sectors. we'll put it in perspective for you. financials tumble. why bank stocks here and across the globe are getting beaten and buzed in 2016. the mutual funds that may protect your money in a market like this one. all that and more for "nightly business report" on wednesday february 3rd. good evening, everyone, and welcome. do not underestimate the power of crude at least not in this market. stocks staged a massive comeback as the price of oil surged. that relationship between stocks and oil is so strong