11-16-10 - All About Kanye West and Airport Body Screeners

In case you missed it...

DANCING WITH THE STARS, PALIN'S ALASKA AND RAISING KIDS
Rosie started today's broadcast talking about last night's Dancing With The Stars.  Rosie said Jennifer Grey should just win the whole thing.  She also thinks Kyle should come in second and she said he's adorable.  Rosie doesn't hate Bristol Palin like she thought she would.  Rosie also watched last night's premiere episode Sarah Palin's Alaska.  Deirdre said it was the largest viewership of any program EVER on TLC.  Rosie then showed the other staff members a clip from last night's episode when Sarah and her kids are very close to a bear wrestling with another bear.  Rosie thought it seemed a little too close!  She said she thinks Palin is an "interesting character."  She said she has "a down-home charisma mixed with stepford-wifey bravado."  Janette doesn't mind Palin as a person and thinks if she wasn't in politics she might be less frightening.  Janette and Rosie thought Palin could be a very successful journalist/political pundit/host of a reality television show.

Jeannie was late to the studio and walked in during this conversation because traffic was so bad on the Long Island Expressway.  They asked Jeannie what she thought of the the new Sarah Palin show and Jeannie said she hated it and felt like Palin was very aware of the cameras.  She felt like it was all a presentation and not like a reality show at all.  Deirdre said it seemed like a giant commercial for Alaska or for her running for President.  Rosie is also watching 16 and pregnant and World of Jenks and they briefly discussed those programs.  

Rosie said her two little ones (Blake and Vivi) are home sick today from school.  She's fairly sure Blake is faking it but she let him stay home anyway.  He came home from school yesterday with a low fever and she fed him chicken noodle soup which he said he later threw up.  Though Vivi didn't buy it because she didn't hear the toilet flush and said it didn't smell like he threw up in the bathroom.  This morning he got up very early and said he threw up too but Rosie saw him go to the bathroom (as he was sleeping in her bed) and didn't hear him getting sick.  But Rosie let him stay home and said to Jeannie, "What can I do?"  Jeannie said she would have made her kids go to school and then go see the nurse if were not  not feeling well and then they'd be able to come home.  Rosie let Vivi stay home too because she also "suddenly didn't feel well" overnight.   

Rosie mentioned she sleeps with a sound machine and Deirdre asked her if she likes it because she was thinking about getting one herself.  Her dog snores all the time and she's pretty sure that's why she's not getting a good night's sleep.  Jeannie feels too cut off from the world when she sleeps with a sound machine and worries she won't be able to hear her kids in the night. 

TEENAGERS, MATH AND THE ONLY WAY JANETTE WOULD EVER GET MARRIED
Rosie's eldest son Parker got an academic detention yesterday because he didn't do all his homework.  The punishment in the house for an academic detention is no phone and no computer for three days.  So, yesterday he sat down to his computer and Rosie asked him what he was doing.  He said he was accessing his iTunes so he could listen to music while he studied.  Rosie told him he was not allowed to (because of the computer rule) and he became enraged and said Rosie's rules are "so unfair!"   Jeannie said it never ends and parenting a teen is the hardest thing in the world.  Rosie wrote to his adviser again asking when she will receive Parker's grades and the adviser told her he gave them to him last week!  But Rosie STILL hasn't seen them!  Rosie said she will be talking to Parker about that later tonight and said it's going to be a "fun weekend at the O'Donnell house."    Jeannie remembered being that age and trying so hard to please the teachers.  She wondered why their kids aren't more concerned with that.  Rosie remembered her father being so infuriated with her because she couldn't understand Algebra.  Jeannie had the same anxiety about math growing up but she's found as an adult, without the pressure and anxiety over grades, she's been able to figure out math better.  This then started an entire conversation about tipping and percentages.  Rosie admitted she doesn't understand percentages so she just decides to double the bill when she needs to tip.  Deirdre recommended the Tipper App for the phone that calculates the tip for those that have trouble figuring out percentages. Janette said she couldn't ever do math and she really tried in college.

Rosie shared with the staff that Prince William is engaged.  None of the members of the studio would ever marry a royal except for Janette.  Janette said the only reason she would ever get married would be to get a title like "Princess Janette."  The other staff members thought you would have no privacy for the rest of your life but Janette said there are many people with titles who no one cares about following their every move. 

KANYE WEST AND HOW THE MEDIA MANIPULATES US

Rosie then wanted to discuss Kanye West who has been in the media lately for an interview he did with Matt Lauer on the Today Show.  Rosie read Kanye's bio: he is only 33, he's only been really famous for 6 years, he was in a terrible car accident, he was raised alone by his mom, he was a DJ/MC for Jay-Z, etc.  Rosie said she heard College Dropout and thought it was genius and so was he.  She talked about how incredibly famous Kanye has become and Pete read an article about him and said since Wednesday of last week over 1000 articles have been written about Kanye.  Kanye has been in the news for getting up on stage and saying President Bush doesn't care about black people after Katrina and then taking the mic from Taylor Swift at the VMAs when Beyonce didn't win the award he thought she deserved.  Last week President Bush was promoting his new book and mentioned the most disgusting moment of his Presidency was when Kanye called him a racist.  And since that  moment when George Bush mentioned Kanye it has gotten a lot of coverage in the media.  Rosie still can't really comprehend how Kanye calling him a racist stands out in Bush's mind more than 9/11, the collapsing economy, the two wars the US is involved in, etc.  Kanye was then interviewed by Matt Lauer about his thoughts about the former President's comments.

Matt's interview with Kanye 

Rosie analyzed the above interview piece by piece.  She said when Matt asked Kanye to watch the President's face as he talks about Kanye calling him a racist it seemed like a very manipulative thing for him to do.  She said she too would have gotten pissed and she called it "incendiary and tabloid-esque."  Rosie thinks Kanye came to man-up about his mistakes and Matt should have simply let him say what he felt about it.  Also, as producers, Janette and Rosie analyzed the editing of the video.  They saw clear points in which the video was edited, yet they also noted that NBC chose to keep in Kanye saying things to people off the set and asking them not to roll the footage of the awards show while he was trying to talk.  Janette and Rosie both felt they edited his interview to intentionally make him look bad.  Kanye then tweeted he will not be appearing on The Today Show and that he accepts their apology that he knows will come in the future.  Rosie totally understood Kanye's reasons for being upset with the interview.  Jeannie, who never really cared for Kanye, watched the interview from a speech pathologist's perspective and thought he groped to put his thoughts together.  She also thought based on the VMA awards moment, the Matt Lauer moment and the George Bush moment that Kanye shows residual impulse control found commonly in someone with a brain injury.  She was interested to see what he was like before his accident.  She thinks  he has no filter for preventing his thoughts from coming out.  Deirdre has worked with Kanye over the years and said he's always been a very shy person and to come from nowhere to the height of fame must have been shocking to him.  She thinks he is a perfectionist when it comes to his music and for every word he says to be used by the media in such a way has to be shocking to him.  Rosie thinks his car accident plays a big role in his impulse control.

Rosie took several callers on the topic. One caller felt Kanye was very arrogant but feels since listening to them discuss Kanye that she has learned about a whole other side of him and now feels differently.  Rosie wondered what it felt like for Kanye to have a former President say his biggest moment of disgust in his entire Presidency was something that he was responsible for saying - not the people stuck on the roofs after Katrina, not the people jumping out of the buildings on 9/11, not the wars - but just what he said.   Brendan read a tweet Kanye re-tweeted that said the media's job isn't to make you look good, it's to exploit your faults and make a good story.  In the end Rosie said everybody makes mistakes and everyone screws up but what the media does now to manipulate people is becoming  more and more evident as we become more and more aware of video editing.  She said she related to Kanye a lot even though she's only met him once.

AIRPORT BODY SCREENERS
Rosie and the staff then discussed the airport body screeners.  Janette called them a "virtual strip search."  Rosie took several calls on the topic.  One caller has a friend who is a male transgender who won't travel now because his bottom doesn't match his top and he's too embarrassed.  Rosie then told a story of when her son Blake, who was only 5 at the time, had to stand in another area at the airport because he was wearing a cast and couldn't go through the metal detectors.  She said the TSA kept giving him directions and he was terrified because he wasn't a neurotypical kid and couldn't understand what they were saying. 

Rosie then introduced John Tyner who was on the phone.  John recently recorded his encounter with the TSA when going through airport security.  Rosie thanked him for calling and asked him if he had recorded the encounter intentionally.  John said he did because he didn't want there to be any dispute over what happened.  He had checked to see if the airport had body scanners but knew he was going to refuse them because he didn't feel the government had the right to look at his naked body as a condition of flying.  He was aware that he would have to have a "pat down" if he opted out of the body scan. John thought the TSA was going to give him the "standard pat-down" and he soon realized he was going to get the new "enhanced" pat-down.  The TSA personnel told John he was going to give him (basically) a groin check and John told him "if he touched his junk, he would have him arrested."  Because of that remark, the TSA personnel had to get his supervisor.   His father-in-law asked the TSA if he could go through the regular screening and they said no.  John was told he could submit to the pat-down or be escorted out.  He chose to leave.  He left the screening area and they refunded his ticket.  As he tried to leave he was met by a TSA representative and told he wasn't allowed to leave until he finished the screening process or he'd face a $10,000 fine.  John argued with the TSA representative and told him he'd see him in court and walked out of the airport.  He's heard the TSA is looking into a lawsuit against him.  Rosie and John talked about why he taped the encounter and John said he did it so there would be no dispute over what was said.  He's not very politically active or anything he just felt very strongly about this issue.  Rosie thought it was a really fascinating story and asked John what kind of response he is getting.  John said most people are overwhelmingly supportive and proud of what he did and sorry they can't do it themselves.  YOU CAN READ HIS BLOG ABOUT IT HERE to listen to the audio.  Rosie thanked John for the call and said he hopes he doesn't get sued and offered to get together a collection for him if he does.

Jeannie feels  this new security measure would have been much more acceptable to the general public if it was months after 9/11.  Janette thinks the security today is run by a fear mentality and they'll say anything to scare you enough so they can talk you into anything.  Pete read from John's blog and said that every attempt to blow up a plane since 9/11 has been stopped by passengers.  And in every incident passengers fended for themselves.  He said the security measures aren't really working and we've secured the cockpit doors and all the other stuff we're doing isn't effective.  Rosie took some calls from listeners. One caller didn't want the radio staff to throw out all the security measures completely.  She thinks they can calm people's fears.  Pete said we need to draw a line so we don't lose our human dignity and make sure our rights don't get thrown away.  One caller felt there are probably cases of terrorism attempts that we have never even heard about.  One caller didn't mind being embarrassed at the airport in order to be safe.  Pete felt that sometimes we have to say our rights are worth more.  Janette wanted to know where we will draw the line and how much we're willing to give up because of fear.  She believes in a level of precaution but she also believes in a limit.  Rosie reminded everyone that with all these new security measures being put in place, there's money being made somewhere and she didn't want anyone to forget that.   Jeannie feels peace of mind with the the scanners and doesn't mind them.  She said you can either go through the machines, take the pat-down or stay home.

ROSIE'S HEALTH UPDATE AND MUST SEE TV: BABS ON "O"
Rosie said she's received lots of responses on her blog about her breast biopsy.  She said everyone has been very kind and reminded listeners that the doctors have told her it was a very low suspicion of cancer and the only reason they did the MRI guided biopsy was because of her family history.  She assured everyone that she's okay and said she will probably know something Thursday.   

Rosie said today she is super excited because Barbra Streisand is on Oprah for an entire hour!  Rosie said, "Oh, dear Lord in heaven."  She told all her listeners to watch the Streisand interview, wished her brother a happy birthday tomorrow and closed the show.

and that's what you missed -kw