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CNN NEWSROOM

Dow Flirts with Record; UVA Reinstatement; "Rolling Stone" Retracts UVA Rape Story; Athletes Speaking Out in Support of Protests

Aired December 8, 2014 - 09:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody. Don Lemon in for Carol Costello today. Thank you so much for joining me.

We have some terrific news for your bottom line this morning to tell you about. The Dow is flirting with a record 1,800 (sic) milestone while gas prices are at their lowest level in four years. That's good news.

Christine Romans is here, Alison Kosiki at the New York stock exchange. Alison, let's start with you. Talk about that record high as the bell is ringing.

(BELL RINGING)

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, a little bit of a false start there, but the opening bell sort of ringing this morning. It was -- yes, on Friday, it was close but no cigar for the Dow hitting 18,000. In fact, it got within 10 points of hitting that psychological milestone. But as we see the numbers start -- the numbers are getting further and further way because of worries that are creeping in.

For one, we learned that Japan's economy contracted more than expected in its third quarter. Out of Europe, there's a warning about the economic prospects there with one policymaker warning of a massive weakening of the economy. The Eurozone's unemployment rate, by the way, 11.5 percent. He it's 5.8 percent, much better. So our economy is getting stronger. Our markets are more attractive.

You look at our third quarter earnings. Companies are doing really well. Our economic growth continues to rev up. And those lower oil prices, there are leading to lower gas prices. That's expected to lead to more consumer spending, which is important because consumer spending makes up the lion's share of economic activity.

But, Don, you know what, they did make the hats expecting Dow 18,000 to hit. We can't wear it yet, so I will go ahead and wear it like this until the Dow actually hits 18,000.

LEMON: She's balling on Wall Street. All right. I would do, you know, my little peace sign, but people would think -- take it out of context and say it's a gang sign. Mmm, peace. So --

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It means buy stocks.

LEMON: It means -- I love it. So here's the thing. You know, I -- you know I'm optimistic, right? But when everything is going so great, ,you have the Dow at 1,800, you have low gas prices --

ROMANS: Eighteen thousand.

LEMON: Eighteen thousand. You have all of this stuff. I'm like, when's the -- when's the shoe going to drop?

ROMANS: Well, let's talk about why stocks have been rising.

LEMON: Yes. And why is that?

ROMANS: OK. I mean it was just 17,000 in July. Now you're talking about 18,000. You have a U.S. economy that is doing better really than the rest of the world. You have a Fed that's no longer having to stimulate the economy anymore. And, in fact, it is businesses that are spending and businesses that are hiring. Those low gas prices that Alison was talking about, that's a stimulus for the American consumer. And, really, when investors look around the world, they look to -- they look to, you know, China, they look to Asia, they look to Europe, they say, the U.S. is still where they want to be.

Now, a lot of the strategists are looking at next year, Don, and they're saying, hey, we think stocks are going to continue to go up.

LEMON: Yes.

ROMANS: Companies are making money, they're building new plants, they're buying new equipment. The broadening out of where the -- how the economy has been fairing, you know, more and sectors are doing -- starting to do better now and so you're seeing the stock market rise.

LEMON: Yes, since I've known you for the -- what is it, eight years --

ROMANS: One hundred and 125 years.

LEMON: Yes, that I've been here, you've always said, it's a marathon. It's -- the stock market is for the long haul.

ROMANS: Right. It is.

LEMON: Don't get in for the -- right.

ROMANS: Don, I'm so glad you said that because people look at 18,000 and it's a number that is a round number. But the number you care about is how much you've returned this year in your 401(k).

LEMON: Right. Yes.

ROMANS: The Dow is up 8 percent. The S&P 500, that's kind of the bigger average, the bigger index. Probably what the stocks in your 401(k) look like are the S&P 500. That's up 12.3 percent this year.

LEMON: Goodness.

ROMANS: Three years of double digit gains. That's remarkable.

Now, a lot of people worried about, OK, what could derail it? At least for now, though, at least for now, these numbers have been pretty good. I wouldn't worry about a 55 (ph) point pullback either because when look at 17,902, it has been a really great year in stocks.

LEMON: Just, real quickly, because I think it affects more people, gas prices, than the stock market, right?

ROMANS: You're absolutely right.

LEMON: How much lower can they go?

ROMANS: Another 15 to 20 cents probably.

LEMON: Really?

ROMANS: And you're talking about maybe next year you're going to continue to see pretty low gas prices. It's real money in your pocket that's going to go back into the economy. Everyone going back, sharpening their pencils, trying to figure out, what is this going to mean for the American economy and for the globe --

LEMON: Yes.

ROMANS: When you're not paying so much for gas? So really watching those oil prices and gas prices, the lowest level in four years.

LEMON: So now that I live in New York the gas prices are cheap. When I was in Atlanta and had to commute in the big four-door sedan, it was -- oh.

ROMANS: I know.

LEMON: It killed me.

ROMANS: It's, you know, we -- that's the national average. $2.67.

LEMON: $2.67. That's crazy.

ROMANS: But that's like say -- that like saying a national -- a national average temperature. There's no such thing, right?

LEMON: Right.

ROMANS: It's different everywhere depending on taxes. Really low in Oklahoma. Really low in Texas.

LEMON: Yes.

ROMANS: Some places have less than $2 a gallon gas right now.

LEMON: That's great though.

ROMANS: It is -- well, unless people (ph) go start buying their big cars again and then gas prices eventually go up and then you're stuck with a higher gas bill. So --

LEMON: Don't do that.

ROMANS: Be careful.

LEMON: Thank you.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

LEMON: Appreciate it, Christine Romans and Alison Kosik as well. Thanks to both of you.

Still to come, "Rolling Stone" is changing its story about that alleged brutal gang rape at a UVA frat house -- at the UVA frat house. CNN's Sara Ganim has the very latest from Virginia.

Hi, Sara.

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don. Good morning.

"Rolling Stone" changing its apology, taking the blame off the alleged victim. Meanwhile, we'll tell you what national organizations are calling for UVA to do now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Three national Greek organizations are calling for an apology and the immediate reinstatement of all fraternities and sororities on the University of Virginia campus. Last month, UVA shut down all Greek operations in the wake of an explosive "Rolling Stone" article detailing a brutal gang rape at a fraternity house. But now discrepancies in the alleged victim's account are beginning to surface and "Rolling Stone" is apologizing. CNN's Sara Ganim has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): "Rolling Stone" magazine now says they are to blame for their unraveling story about the alleged gang rape inside a University of Virginia fraternity house, asking the public to avoid criticizing Jackie, the unidentified accuser at the center of the explosive article, saying in a statement, "these mistakes are on "Rolling Stone" not Jackie."

The attorney for UVA's Phi Kappa Psi fraternity tells CNN, "several details in the article are just wrong." He says records show there was no party the night that Jackie claimed she was attacked. There's also no side staircase inside the frat house, which the article states Jackie walked down after the attack. And the fraternity brother who allegedly brought her there was never even a member of Phi Kappa Psi.

CROWD: Not one more. GANIM: The article originally spurred an outpouring of protests. Now many are urging students to keep focus on a larger problem, how the university and its students react to reports of sexual assault.

EMILY POWELL, CLAIMS SEXUAL ASSAULT AT UVA: I remember crying when it happened. And I remember saying no. And I remember pushing him off of me.

GANIM: Emily Powell says she was assaulted last year at UVA by a fellow student following a first date.

GANIM (on camera): Why didn't you go to the hospital the next day?

POWELL: I asked a person who also happened to be a friend of the person who had assaulted me to take me to the hospital because she had a car. She told me that she would take me in a week once I had calmed down, which very much felt to me like, you know, she thought I was making this up. They threaten had they would tell the police that I was obsessed with the idea of rape. I would accuse anyone of rape, and they would say that I was mentally unstable.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GANIM: And, Don, as you mentioned, in response to the "Rolling Stone" apology, those Greek organizations have demanded that UVA apologize and reinstate fraternity functions here on campus. Those statements go pretty far. They seem to imply that they believe that that entire "Rolling Stones" story was false. Well, we've talked to several of Jackie's friends here and they say they do believe that something bad did happen to her, but it is clear to them that there were some inaccuracies in that story. That's now for police to figure out. They have an ongoing investigation.

Don.

LEMON: Oh boy, what a mess. Thank you very much, Sara.

Let's talk about this now with CNN's senior media correspondent, Brian Stelter, and UVA Professor Susan Fraiman.

Brian, on the one hand, "Rolling Stone" says that their trust was misplaced, but they haven't fully retracted the story. Who and what can we believe here?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: I think we are in the phase here where "Rolling Stone" is trying to figure that out, Don. They've apologized, but not retracted. So they're not saying the story is false, they're just saying there are some questions they need to figure out the answers to still.

LEMON: But initially there probably wasn't enough explanation in their story because people thought that somehow the story was just completely inaccurate and that she made it up, correct?

STELTER: The fact that they revised their apology a day later shows that there's a lot of chaos going on at "Rolling Stone." They spent the weekend reviewing and now belatedly fact checking the story --

LEMON: Yes.

STELTER: Doing some of the work they should have done to begin with. You know, there was a reporter for (INAUDIBLE) that said it best over the weekend. He said bad journalism harms everything it touches.

LEMON: Yes.

STELTER: Even if the basics of this story are true, the bad journalism here casts a shadow over all of it.

LEMON: Takes a -- yes.

Susan, you know, Jackie, the alleged victim, still stands by her story, but three major national Greek organizations, including the fraternity and sorority political action committee are asking for an apology and the immediate reinstatement at UVA in the wake of all of this. Should fraternities and sororities be allowed to operate on campus again?

SUSAN FRAIMAN, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Well, I think, first of all, I agree with those who suggested that some discrepancies in the story do not mean that the substance of the story is inaccurate. We know that trauma affects memory. We know that false reports are extremely rare. In fact, the opposite is true. We know that there is one in five women are sexually assaulted in college and yet very few of those rapes are reported. So whether or not this story is 100 percent credible does not take away from the fact that we need to address the issue of sexual assault on this campus.

In terms of fraternities, we also know that while rapes take place in many places, not just on college campuses, also in the military, and on college campuses not only in fraternities. But one thing that has happened in the wake of this article is that there has been more scrutiny of fraternity culture. And we know, for example, that members of fraternities are three times more likely to sexually assault someone than non-members. They're also twice as likely to binge drink.

The way it works at UVA is that sororities are dry and so parties take place at fraternities. Men police the entrance and evaluate women's appearance. When women enter fraternities, they are not on their own turf. Alcohol flows. And it really is a climate that enables sexual predation (ph). So -- I was just --

LEMON: And a lot of -- and a lot of other bad behavior when you add -- when you add alcohol into the equation.

FRAIMAN: Right. No, we --

STELTER: And also so much good. So many fraternity and sorority members would say it turns them into, you know, adults and it increases their -- improves the rest of their lives.

LEMON: And I think she's absolutely right in that, you know, because at UVA there are some, you know, discrepancies about the UVA -- about the "Rolling Stone" story.

STELTER: Yes.

LEMON: It should -- we should keep focus on the bigger issue here, correct, because --

STELTER: There's been a lot of concern about, you know, we're not going to take other claims of sexual assault seriously. Well, that will only happen if we let it.

LEMON: If we let it. Exactly.

STELTER: That will only happen if we let that happen.

LEMON: Because we become sidelined a lot of the times by something else will happen and go, oh my gosh, and people become outraged by that and then not look at the bigger picture.

STELTER: And the solution to bad journalism, Don, is always more journalism.

LEMON: More -- and better journalism.

STELTER: In this case we're seeing a lot of great journalism in Sara Ganim and others.

LEMON: And I want to speak about that. I want to speak about the -- you spoke to someone who knows the alleged victim in the "Rolling Stone" article and she said that she believes that the writer for "Rolling Stone' had an agenda?

STELTER: That the writer had an agenda. The writer was coming --

LEMON: All right, let's listen -- OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDRA MENENDEZ, STUDENT, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: I left that article feeling a little bit uncomfortable. I know that a lot of others peer advocates who were interviewed for the article also felt really uncomfortable after being interviewed. And we don't really know if it was the degree of the questions that were being asked, because it is such a difficult topic and such a painful topic to talk about, or if it was the way that certain questions were being presented.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So what was the agenda for "Rolling Stone"? And what's next?

STELTER: Well, she says the writer was trying to paint unflattering portrait of the fraternity and focus attention on sexual assault and rape culture. Well, she has done that, but maybe in the wrong ways. And the writer has not responded to comment now for several days. She seems to have gone into hiding and I'm not sure that's the best answer for her. I'd like to hear her talk about what happened, why she didn't do more of the fact checking, why she didn't reach out to the alleged attackers, and why she agreed the alleged accuser Jackie's request not to contact the attackers.

LEMON: Susan, would you like to hear more from "Rolling Stone"? Is there anything they can do in the wake of this to actually put the focus back on, as you say, the real problem here and not because a story may have been inaccurate in some ways?

FRAIMAN: Yes, I guess I'd like to suggest actually that the media take the focus on "Rolling Stone". I really think that a debate about journalistic responsibility shouldn't be allowed to both undermine survivor credibility and to take the focus away from actually the really exciting, galvanizing things that happened on this campus in the wake of the article.

So there were small numbers of people who are very aware that this has been an issue forever and ever unfortunately. But what happened in the wake of the article is that there was mass mobilization on the part of students, on the part of faculty. Letters have been written. We are examining the adjudication process; that was already happening but it has received more scrutiny.

But, as I say, a key piece has been looking at student culture and the fact that fraternities play a disproportionate role in structuring social life. So one thing that faculty would really like to see are residential colleges --

LEMON: Yes. We have to run. If you could complete your thought really quickly.

FREIMAN: Yes, I'm just saying I really think that a lot of valuable suggestions have come out in terms of diversifying UVA social life. So we hope that that momentum will continue.

LEMON: Thank you, Susan Fraiman. Thank you, Brian Stelter. Appreciate both of you.

Still to come here on CNN, NFL players join the "I can't breathe" protest. CNN sports anchor Rachel Nichols is here; she is following that story. Hi Rachel.

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Hey Don. Look, we saw displays in stadiums all around the country yesterday. But the NBA has been having them too. And, tonight, LeBron James is considering wearing an "I can't breathe" shirt when he plays -- goes out for warm-ups in front of the royals, Kate and Will, tonight. So we'll get into that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Protesters demanding justice for Michael Brown and Eric Garner held a die-in outside Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field. A couple hundred protesters laid down in the street at the end of the Eagles game with Seattle last night. The die-in lasted 4 minutes and 30 seconds, to symbolize the 4 hours and 30 minutes that Brown laid dead on a street in Ferguson, Missouri.

Players also showed support for Brown and Garner Sunday inside NFL stadiums. CNN's sports anchor, Rachel Nichols, joins me now. How did players express themselves? A lot of -- a lot of players are getting involved here and you don't see them get involved in sociopolitical issues that much, but they're -- this is catching on.

NICHOLS: Yes, you remember last weekend, five St.Louis Rams players caused a bit of a stir when they came out of the tunnel with their hands up and that turns out to beg just the beginning. Detroit Lions running back Reggie Bush, he wore a shirt that "I can't breathe" for warm-ups and you also had a player for the Browns and the Rams scrawl "I can't breathe" on their warm-up gear.

The most high-profile display, though, probably came in the NBA when Derrick Rose, this is a former MVP of the league, wore a T-shirt not just scrawled but preprinted that said "I can't breathe," and that caused so much attention that LeBron James, the MVP of the past four or five years, said that he liked Derrick Rose's shirt so much that he said I want to get one. And, in fact, he was ruminating about possibly wearing one tonight when the Cavaliers play the Nets in front of the visiting royal couple, Kate and William. So if he decides to do that in warm-ups tonight, that will certainly cause attention.

But it's not just the T-shirts, Don. We're also seeing athletes speak out in a very strong way. I want to show you what Amare Stoudemire from the New York Knicks had to say. He said, "It's something that's very alarming." He said, "We have to be more conscientious about law enforcement's job here, and that is to protect and serve." He said, "Those two words are very strong when you think about. Your first job is to protect and your second job is to serve," he said. He says, "Obviously it's not happening that way."

Now, that's a strong statement for an athlete to make.

LEMON: It certainly it. And I understand fans are making -- well, Rams fans at least -- are doing some protesting of their own? What happened with -- went on with that?

NICHOLS: Yes, obviously when there is an action, they say equal and opposite reaction, right? So -- and the Rams, when they did come out of the tunnel with their hands up, we know they upset the police officer's association, and these fans as well were upset. At the time of kickoff of this week's Rams games, you had Rams fans gathering here to set fire to some of their Rams paraphernalia, Rams jerseys in some of of the players who had come out with their hands up.

And this is what is interesting about all of this, is the reaction that it's getting and athletes who, this time, are willing to say, yes, I don't care, I want to say what I think. We didn't so much really in the previous maybe 20 years. We saw that of course in the '60s, Muhammad Ali, Billie Jean King. A lot of athletes not afraid to say what they think -- the protest of the Mexico City games. But then we had a big stretch of sort of the commercial athlete. Michael Jordan sort of epitomized that, the idea that he wasn't going t|o say anything that might damage the brand, right, and that might not sell sneakers.

LEMON: And he got criticized for that. People wanted him to stand for something.

NICHOLS: And he did get criticized for that, but he never did it. And LeBron James has really led this new generation of athletes. He stood up in the Trayvon Martin incident. He stood up and talked about Ferguson. And you've seen a lot of athletes follow suit with their own causes. Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has been talking about the Congo. So I mean you have guys who are willing to put themselves out there and if people are burning their jersey, they're burning their jersey.

LEMON: I wonder how the board room reacting to that?

NICHOLS: Well, it's interesting. So far we've seen all of the apparel makers stand behind their athletes. And, frankly, I think there is many people who will go out and buy a Derrick Rose sneaker now, after seeing that, as who might not. So it works both ways.

LEMON: Yes. Thank you, Rachel. Always a pleasure. Rachel Nichols.

The next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM begins right after this very quick break.

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