Shooting Straight: Guns, Gays, God, and George Clooney

by Morgan, Piers

  As the afternoon wore on, our newsroom lights began to flicker, and our building – the Time Warner Center is one of the biggest, newest and supposedly strongest multi-skyscraper edifices in America – shook and rattled like a cupboard full of steel skeletons.

  Rain and wind lashed the windows with ominous velocity, and by 9 p.m., when I went live on air, the full force of Sandy had descended on the city.

  What happened in the next hour was mind-boggling.

  More than fourteen feet of water surged onto the mainland at the southern tip of Manhattan, swamping the subway system, and flooding the streets so badly that cars began floating away. House facades were ripped off, fires erupted as power lines collapsed (a hundred homes in Queens were destroyed by one blaze alone), thousands of trees smashed down (in a few tragic cases, onto people).

  I interviewed numerous ashen-faced governors and mayors from all over the East Coast, all of whom said it was the worst storm they’d ever seen.

  Sandy wasn’t even that big by hurricane standards, registering only Category 1 for most of its terrifying journey. By comparison, Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged New Orleans in 2005, reached Category 5.

  But what made Sandy so devastating was that it collided with an unusually early winter storm coming from the west, fierce Arctic air coming from the north and hit New York at the precise moment the city had a high tide and full moon.

  It was a perfect storm of hell. Coincidentally, one of my expert guests tonight was Sebastian Junger, who wrote the book The Perfect Storm and he explained why this was even worse than the 1991 monster he dramatised. ‘Sandy came ashore,’ he said. ‘My storm didn’t. Big difference.’

  Later, Chad Myers, CNN’s superb meteorologist, reported on my show that the New York Stock Exchange was submerged in three feet of water. This was a sensational development.

  Unfortunately, it wasn’t true.

  Chad had read it on the National Weather Service bulletin board, usually a reliable source of information.

  But CNN reporters down near the NYSE phoned in to say there was no sign of any flooding.

  I had to correct it on air, and we rightly copped some flak for getting such a hugely important piece of information wrong.

  I anchored a second live hour for CNN at midnight, by which time Sandy was on the rampage through Long Island, the beach area of New York, wreaking havoc everywhere it went.

  The sheer scale of the damage was incredible.

  I remember the 1987 ‘Great Storm’ in Britain, the last version of a hurricane we suffered back home, and that seemed like a troublesome squall compared to this. (Eighteen people died in our Great Storm, while over a hundred died during Sandy – and well over double that number on its lethal route through the Caribbean and Haiti.)

  I left the office at 1 a.m. to walk one block up to the Mandarin, where I was staying for the night. The wind was still strong, and it was raining, but there was an eerie kind of calm to the sky now. Sandy was now barrelling on to other areas.

  From my fortieth-floor hotel room window, I looked down and saw a city of two halves – the lower half, downtown, was plunged into almost total darkness. The upper half, from around Fourtieth Street onwards, still had power.

  I turned on CNN to see shocking scenes from the New York University hospital on the Lower East Side, where the backup generator had (shamefully – they’d had a week to prepare for this) failed, and mothers with newborn babies were being ferried on makeshift respirators down ten flights of stairs to other hospitals on higher ground.

  Atlantic City looked almost completely submerged in parts (one of our guys was now reporting from a main boardwalk, up to his waist in seawater), and other parts of New Jersey were even worse.

  I finally went to sleep at 3 a.m., exhausted and slightly shell-shocked.

  TUESDAY, 30 OCTOBER 2012

  Woke at 6 a.m., and caught up with all the aftermath of Sandy’s appalling rampage. Millions of homes are without power on the East Coast, the subway may be out for a week, all airports and schools are closed for at least two days, the Stock Exchange shut for a second day and the death toll is rising by the hour.

  I walked home at 9 a.m. in surprisingly mild conditions. New Yorkers were back out walking their dogs, jogging and doing everything they’d usually be doing on a Tuesday morning, except drinking Starbucks, which remained closed.

  Outside my apartment, trees had fallen onto almost all the cars in the street (I don’t have a car here – there’s no point driving in New York). But the only damage we’d suffered was a broken flower pot on the terrace.

  We were the lucky ones.

  Returned to the office late in the afternoon, and we had an inquest into the faulty NYSE flooding report last night.

  It’s always serious when CNN reports a significant piece of information like that, which transpires to be wrong. Our brand is ‘the most trusted name in news’, and people turn to us in huge numbers on these stories because they expect us to report the facts.

  It’s one of the great advantages we have over rivals at Fox and MSNBC, who have reputations for partisan reporting.

  Chad is an excellent, very experienced correspondent, and he had clearly reported the NYSE flooding story in good faith, but Jonathan and I agreed that I should have said something like, ‘Whoa, that’s a huge development if it’s true. CNN hasn’t independently verified this story yet. We’ll try and do that now,’ after he said it, to cover ourselves.

  There are always going to be mistakes on big running breaking news stories; such is the fog of information.

  But it’s better to wait a few minutes and be right, than rush to be first. Or cover any such claim with transparent qualification.

  The NYSE story could have had major global financial repercussions had I not corrected it on air very quickly.

  FRIDAY, 2 NOVEMBER 2012

  Barack Obama has seen a spike in his poll numbers since the hurricane, which is hardly surprising given that he’s dominated the airwaves, leading the country through a crisis – as poor Romney has been forced to sit in the shadows, cursing his luck.

  Sandy may have changed everything.

  There are two famous quotes from former British prime ministers that every politician needs to have tattooed on his or her forehead from birth.

  Harold Macmillan, asked by a journalist in the late 1950s what he thought was most likely to knock his Conservative government off course, replied: ‘Events, my dear boy, events.’

  A few years later, Labour leader Harold Wilson came up with his own version: ‘A week is a long time in politics.’

  This is just about the worst thing that could have happened to Romney.

  Why?

  Because it removed the election from the top of the news agenda in America for most of this crucial final ten days, meaning he’s barely had any TV airtime for his campaign just when he needs it most.

  Conversely, Obama’s been seen giving orders, hugging victims, flying in Marine One over flooded areas and giving press conferences in army jackets. In short, he behaved exactly like a president should behave.

  Obama’s been undeniably impressive. And there’s nothing Romney can do about it.

  Even worse for the candidate, the most popular Republican in the country, Chris Christie, has poured ecstatic praise on Obama – saying repeatedly what a brilliant job he’s done throughout the disaster.

  This is the same Chris Christie, of course, who’s spent the past six months telling Americans what a terrible president he thinks Obama has been.

  ‘This administration, at the moment, could give a damn about election day; it doesn’t matter a lick to me, I’ve got much bigger fish to fry than that. I only care about what’s happening to people in my state,’ Christie said, standing next to Obama at a disaster site.

  It was a powerful display of non-partisan politics. And absolutely the right thing to do with regard to the people of New Jersey, whom he was elected to represent. Yet at the same time, it’s obviously bee
n deeply unhelpful to Romney’s electoral chances.

  Despite all this, the polls are so tight it remains too close to call.

  Mitt Romney may still pinch the election.

  And if he does, it will be because Americans concluded they trust him more than Obama to revive the ailing economy.

  But it wouldn’t surprise me if come Wednesday morning, we now see Romney stranded at a drive-in, branded a fool, crying: ‘Sandy, Sandy, why, oh Sandy?’

  MONDAY, 5 NOVEMBER 2012

  The final Gallup and CNN all-important swing state polls have the election race a dead heat.

  But Nate Silver, a New York Times number-crunching blogger, has consistently forecast an easy Obama victory throughout the entire campaign, and says he’s seen nothing in all his stats to change his mind.

  His confidence is extraordinary.

  WEDNESDAY, 7 NOVEMBER 2012

  Barack Obama won the election last night.

  In the end, it was nowhere near as close as the polls suggested. But almost exactly how Nate Silver had predicted.

  There’s no doubt that Sandy helped Obama tremendously, by knocking Romney out of the news agenda.

  But I think Americans went for Obama again primarily because they bought into his repeated assertion that he inherited an unprecedented financial mess from George W. Bush and simply needs more time to repair all the damage.

  They also just like him personally more than Romney, a man who never shrugged off his reputation as a rich, out-of-touch businessman who neither fully understands nor cares for the concerns of ordinary Americans.

  Obama’s not perfect, and has failed to fulfil much of his huge promise so far. But he’s been given a second chance, and I hope he makes the most of it.

  Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, two of the most popular presidents in history, both had rough first terms, then enjoyed a thriving economy in their second terms, which encouraged them to be bolder in their leadership – and they ended up heroes.

  Crying children being led away from Sandy Hook elementary school – twenty of their classmates were shot dead that day.

  CHAPTER 10

  FRIDAY, 9 NOVEMBER 2012

  General David Petraeus sensationally resigned as Director of the CIA today over a sex scandal involving an extramarital affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell.

  America can be a peculiarly puritanical place for a country so famed for defending freedom, and the revelation of Petraeus’s infidelity has sparked the usual cacophony of moral indignation.

  It’s exactly the kind of outrage I’d have certainly embraced in my old tabloid editor days. But today, perhaps enlightened by my years in the real world, I’m not so sure.

  Yes, Petraeus behaved badly, but really that’s a matter for him and his wife to resolve unless it emerges there were genuinely serious security issues.

  The bottom line is that America’s lost one of its most brilliant military stars just when the country’s security needs men like him most.

  Three of the nation’s greatest generals – Eisenhower, MacArthur and Patton – all had affairs. As did great presidents like Roosevelt, Kennedy and Clinton.

  All were famed as bold, risk-taking, high achievers.

  MONDAY, 12 NOVEMBER 2012

  Most depressing news since Obama’s re-election is that gun sales have been soaring in America because of it.

  In October alone, as polls began to suggest he might win again, background checks on people applying to buy guns rose by 18.4 per cent.

  Shares in weapons manufacturers like Smith & Wesson surged too, especially since last Tuesday’s result came in – due to massively increased demand.

  The reason?

  Simple.

  Obama indicated during one of the presidential debates that he might bring in tougher gun control laws relating to high-powered assault weapons.

  That was enough to trigger a mad sprint for guns.

  Mel Bernstein, owner of the Dragonman gun shop in Colorado Springs, said it all: ‘We’re going from normally six to eight guns a day to twenty-five. I stocked up. I got a stockpile of these AK-47s, we’re selling these like hotcakes.’

  It was in nearby Aurora, Colorado, of course, that James Holmes shot seventy people in a cinema, killing twelve of them.

  One of his four weapons was a Smith & Wesson semi-automatic rifle.

  SUNDAY, 18 NOVEMBER 2012

  CNN’s medical expert Sanjay Gupta presented a show tonight on America’s reliance on medication. It contained one astonishing statistic: 80 per cent of the pain pills in the world are taken in the US.

  That means a lot of pain, a lot of drug abuse or a lot of hypochondria.

  MONDAY, 19 NOVEMBER 2012

  The Middle East has blown up in rockets and flames again, this time back in that most persistently inflammable of tinderboxes – Gaza.

  The ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians has always been the running sore of the region.

  I’ve interviewed many senior figures on either side of this divide and both groups have compelling arguments: Israel abhors the relentless bombing of its people by what it views as Palestinian terror groups, led by Hamas. The Palestinians abhor what they see as Israel’s equally relentless land grab of their territory, and oppression – through blockades – of so many of their people, particularly in the densely populated area of the Gaza strip.

  But, as was proved in Northern Ireland, seemingly implacable enemies can eventually be brought to peace – if there’s genuinely courageous political leadership, and the will of the majority of people behind it.

  Tonight I interviewed Israel’s president, Shimon Peres. He’s an extraordinary man, who will be ninety next year, is the oldest legally appointed head of state in the world, and has served in twelve cabinets during a gargantuan military and political career spanning sixty-six years.

  His face is creased with age, but his mind is as sharp as ever.

  He was blunt about what needed to happen. ‘They [Hamas] must stop shooting, and start talking.’

  When I pointed out that the Israelis have fired numerous missiles into Gaza themselves this week, killing over a hundred people, he replied calmly: ‘We would appreciate if one of our critics will suggest an alternative. What can we do?’

  It’s a good question.

  But he then asserted: ‘There is no siege in fact about or around Gaza, the roads are open, we don’t think there is any shortage of food, or any other human needs. Their economic situation has improved.’

  All of which is palpable nonsense. Gaza’s a desperately poor, hopeless place, crammed with 1.7 million suffering people.

  In the end, I suspect lasting peace will only be achieved when – as the British government had to do with the IRA in Ireland – the Israelis bite the bullet, literally, and sit down and negotiate directly with the leaders of Hamas.

  THURSDAY, 29 NOVEMBER 2012

  Jeff Zucker has been announced as the new president of CNN.

  You couldn’t make it up!

  MONDAY, 3 DECEMBER 2012

  Bob Costas, the voice of American sports, has sparked controversy by using his halftime NBC segment in last night’s National Football League game to make a heartfelt statement about guns.

  His decision followed the murder–suicide of a Kansas Chiefs linebacker (defender) called Jovan Belcher, who shot dead Kasandra Perkins, the mother of his three-month-old daughter, then himself.

  Costas quoted a Kansas writer called Jason Whitlock, who wrote: ‘Our current gun culture ensures that more and more domestic disputes will end in the ultimate tragedy. Handguns do not enhance our safety, they exacerbate our flaws, tempt us to escalate arguments, and bait us into embracing confrontation rather than avoiding it. If Jovan Belcher didn’t possess a gun, he and Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today.’

  Costas has been attacked for ‘being political’ during an American football game.

  But he just told the truth, however unpalatable it may be, to many Americans.
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  Guns do not make the country safer; they make it more dangerous.

  TUESDAY, 4 DECEMBER 2012

  A staggering thirty-eight people were shot in fifty-eight hours over the weekend in Chicago.

  The issue there is a very particular one involving mainly young black gang members killing each other with handguns.

  Chicago has quite tough gun laws, but that’s where the lack of any effective, consistent federal gun control is exposed for the farce that it is.

  Because Chicago’s criminals and gang members simply cross the state into Indiana, where state gun laws are far less onerous, and buy them there.

  Of all the guns seized by the Chicago police between 2001 and 2012, and traced to their place of origin, more than half came from outside Illinois.

  Gun laws in America should be federal, so you can’t just skip from state to state exploiting weaker laws where you can find them.

  SATURDAY, 8 DECEMBER 2012

  Smith & Wesson posted record net sales of $136.6 million for its second financial quarter. This was up a staggering 48 per cent from the same quarter last year.

  ‘The increase was led by continued strong sales across all of the company’s firearm product lines,’ a company spokesman said.

  In other words, Americans are racing out buying as many guns and as much ammo as they can get their hands on.

  And that, analysts said today, is because Barack Obama was reelected, and they fear he’s going to grab their guns – despite the president repeatedly making it clear he has absolutely no intention of removing a single gun from circulation.

  The NRA has done what it always does. Used events like the tragedy in Aurora, and the election of a Democrat president, to drive fear into the hearts and minds of Americans.

  It has nothing to do with safety, as they absurdly claim.

  And everything to do with commercial greed.

  The more noise the NRA makes, the more guns get sold, and the more money the grateful gun manufacturer community pours back into the NRA.

  It’s a vicious, horrible circle.

  MONDAY, 10 DECEMBER 2012

  High drama at CNN today, as a man was gunned down in an apparent execution right outside our Time Warner Center offices in New York.