CNN Newsstand

Election 2000 Goes Online; Oscar Buzz Begins for Real;
Benetton: Selling Clothes or Selling Out?

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

ANNOUNCER: It's Monday, February 14, 2000.

Tonight, on CNN NEWSSTAND:

From fireside chats to live television to this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Mr. President, there's another e-mail question.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Tonight, election 2000 goes online.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHIL NOBLE, ONLINE CAMPAIGN CONSULTANT: Politicians who don't understand and come to use the Internet, they're like dinosaurs. They're going to die.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Clicking our way to Election Day.

From the most crowded prison system in the world comes a controversial ad campaign that's shaking up the world of advertising.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOANNE BRANDON, MOTHER OF TINA BRANDON: I think it's the worst company that there could be right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: NEWSSTAND visits a death row inmate who's made his mark on Madison Avenue from behind bars.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What do you think of the picture?

JOHN LOTTER, DEATH ROW INMATE: It's one of my better ones, I guess.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Benetton: selling clothes or selling out?

And on the eve of the Oscar nominations...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "TUMBLEWEEDS")

JANET MCTEER, ACTRESS: Thank you so much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: ... some handicapping.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "AMERICAN BEAUTY")

KEVIN SPACEY, ACTOR: I quit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Spacey, Bening...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "AMERICAN BEAUTY")

ANNETTE BENING, ACTRESS: You didn't screw up once.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: ... Washington...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "MUSIC OF THE HEART")

MERYL STREEP, ACTRESS: Are you kidding me?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Streep...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "MAN ON THE MOON")

JIM CARREY, ACTOR: It's all great.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Carrey, Swank.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY")

JUDE LAW, ACTOR: Brilliant.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: ... NEWSSTAND looks at the front-runners and the long shots as Oscar buzz begins for real.

CNN NEWSSTAND, with anchors Stephen Frazier and Natalie Allen in Atlanta.

STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, welcome to NEWSSTAND.

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Our top story: the presidential campaigns are online, now the Oval Office is, too.

FRAZIER: With Iowa and New Hampshire behind us now, retail politics door to door and face to face may be pretty much over for this election -- maybe for good. The cutting edge now: talk to voters by computer.

Earlier today, President Clinton, who says he personally is technologically challenged, connected with Internet users worldwide. Anyone could ask a question.

CNN's Wolf Blitzer moderated the session, and he reflects on it in tonight's "Reporter's Notebook."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: The CNN.com Web site was jammed with people from all over the world trying to get into that chat, into that auditorium to start asking questions of the president. As far as the questions were concerned, they came in from the e-mail into our Web site. And we had our people in Atlanta looking at the questions, and they were trying to get a sampling of some of the questions that were coming in reflective of a whole bunch of other questions. And that's how it came through.

I thought the president made some news when he said that he would support Republican legislation introduced in Congress in the House of Representatives that it would eliminate the caps on earnings for Social Security recipients after they reached the age of 65 to 70.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM J. CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If you're 65 today in America, your life expectancy is 83. And you want to be alert, you want to be physically strong. And we know as people stay more active, they're going to live better, not just longer. So I don't think we should penalize them.

Secondly, I think as the baby boomers retire, it's going to be important to have a higher percentage of people over 65, if they want to, working.

If they will send me a bill, what we call in Washington-speak, a "clean bill," that is not -- doesn't have a lot of other things unrelated to that littered to it, I will be happy to sign it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: There were questions on personal issues, his legacy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CLINTON: But I think they will say, among other things, that we had a -- we came into office with a different approach that was attuned better to the changes that were going on in the economy, in the society and in the world and that we helped America get through this enormous period of change and transition.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: When he was running for office in '92, he loved doing the taunt hall meetings. He was so good at it, too. Just any questions, go ahead, ask whatever you want. And to a certain degree, this is an online town hall meeting. He acknowledges he's not Mr. High-tech, he doesn't really have the kind of expertise on the Web that he probably should have, but he wants to feel that he's catching up to the technology. And I think that came through during the course of this interview.

The president was really enthusiastic, said he would like to do a lot more of this, thought this was wave of the future, thought his successor, whoever that successor might be, should probably plan on doing this at least once a week.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Well until recently, the Net appeared to have limited appeal for many of those already entrenched in the corridors of power.

But as NEWSSTAND's David Mattingly tells us, old-liners who fail to go online may find themselves sidelined -- or worse.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): September 1960: the first presidential debate between Richard Nixon and John Kennedy. The power of television emerges, a revolutionary force in American politics.

Now, 40 years later, it's happening again. Welcome to the age of the Internet.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Harry Truman said if you want a friend in Washington, go out and buy a dog.

STEVEN LENES, MCCAIN DONOR: In a way, it was kind of a family sort of meeting. We had the children here, and we got to be with his wife and be with him.

MATTINGLY: Last week in South Carolina, Republican contender John McCain organized the first Internet-only fund-raiser. His Web campaign has raised over $2.5 million since New Hampshire, bringing McCain's online fund-raising total to $3.7 million.

MCCAIN: You're able to communicate. The communications capability is unbelievable. It will change politics in America permanently, because the next presidential campaign will be run over the Internet. MATTINGLY: In this presidential campaign, here's where the major candidates stand: McCain $3.7 million, Bradley $1.7 million, Gore, $1.1 million and Bush $385,000.

NOBLE: Where are we going?

MATTINGLY: Online campaign consultant Phil Noble says that the candidate with the most party strength and organization may not necessarily have or need the greatest presence online.

NOBLE: The Internet has been the tool of the outsider and the challenger. If I were George Bush, I wouldn't pay a whole hell of a lot of attention to the Internet either. Why would he want to? I mean, he's got a gazillion dollars, he's got every Republican in the country who's sort of a party leader or official.

MATTINGLY: Noble's company, Politics Online, provides Internet products for campaigns.

NOBLE: I think there are three things that make a good Web site. Number one, does it tell voters who you are, what you believe, and what you want to do when you get elected?

Number two, is the thing easy to use?

And third, is the Web site integrated into the whole campaign? Does the candidate use it? Does he go online personally.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do solemnly swear...

GOV. JESSE VENTURA (I), MINNESOTA: I do solemnly swear...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: The first prominent candidate to successfully put all those criteria together into a campaign Web site was Jesse Ventura in 1998, when he ran for governor of Minnesota.

NOBLE: He did online just what his campaign does.

MATTINGLY: Ventura used the Internet to coordinate his final statewide bus tour that pushed him on to victory.

VENTURA: We're all equal, aren't we?

DR, MIKE CORNFIELD, DEMOCRACY ONLINE PROJECT: Every aspect of politics -- with the possible, probable exception of kissing babies -- that you can do off-line, you will do online.

MATTINGLY: Already, there's been talk of online voting in the future and more sophisticated use of the Internet during campaigns. No matter what lies ahead for this new tool, one message is clear.

NOBLE: Politicians who don't understand and come to use the Internet, they're like dinosaurs, they're going die.

David Mattingly, CNN, NEWSSTAND.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: More on clicking and campaigning when we return. We'll talk with Jacob Weisberg, chief political correspondent for Slate.com

ANNOUNCER: Later on NEWSSTAND, they are faces on death row. But now their sell is about what they do, not where they live -- brought to you by Benetton.

When NEWSSTAND returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FRAZIER: Continuing now with cyberspace and politics, and joining us from New York is Jacob Weisberg, the chief political correspondent for "Slate.com," an Internet magazine.

Mr. Weisberg, welcome to NEWSSTAND.

JACOB WEISBERG, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "SLATE.COM": Thanks, David.

FRAZIER: Is there something about John McCain's anti- establishment stance that seems to attract people? You saw him featured in that last report, and he raised a tremendous amount of money.

WEISBERG: Well, I think that's right. At the outset of this campaign, I wouldn't have predicted that it would be John McCain who would make the most effective use of the Internet. In some ways, he's the least Internet adept himself of the major candidates. But I think there is something about an insurgent campaign, a campaign that tries to portray itself in this sort of David and Goliath way that attracts people on the Internet.

FRAZIER: Because they are libertarians themselves, kind of anti- authoritarian themselves?

WEISBERG: Well, McCain has been trying to appeal to people with this Internet tax moratorium. He says, not only should we keep this law that's in place, saying sales taxes can't apply to the Internet, but we should extend it forever. So, that's a direct play to the Internet libertarians. as you call them.

But I don't think it's necessarily a libertarian issue. I think it's just an anti-establishment issue.

It's interesting that George Bush -- George W. Bush has made so little use of the Internet and has used it so little as a tool, because really, as someone said in your setup piece, I think, he doesn't need it.

FRAZIER: He's got everything else lined up really well, right. WEISBERG: Yes.

FRAZIER: McCain has pulled in a tremendous amount of cash. How did that happen so quickly? Is it electronic transfer of funds?

WEISBERG: Well, that's right. People make credit card contributions online and the money's available immediately. And that's incredibly important. I think you just have to stop to compare it to the way it worked before. In the old days, if a candidate like McCain had had a surprise showing in the New Hampshire primary, he would need the money immediately for the next primary. But it was very hard in past years for candidates in that position to capitalize on their success, because you had to solicit the money, you had to get checks in the mail, you had to wait for the checks to clear. And by that time, the opportunity was gone.

Now someone like John McCain can turn this around, turn the money around immediately. The inflow of funds has really been extraordinary. And it's all the more because the money is mostly in the form of small contributions, eligible for matching funds.

FRAZIER: I would imagine Senator Bradley would put this to good use, because he's got so many thoughtful position papers. He can write them all out to his heart's content and lay them out there for anyone who wants to click his way through them.

WEISBERG: Well, Bradley had made fairly effective use of the Internet. In fact, he pioneered some of the techniques that's McCain's using so effectively. He's the one who asked the FEC to rule, as it did rule, that these online contributions be eligible for matching funds.

In terms of the position papers, I think that's good news really with all the candidates, is that there's a kind of requirement that if you're going to have a Web site and you're going to be a serious candidate for president these days, you have to put out some detailed position papers on the Internet where anyone can get them.

FRAZIER: Now, are they using the Internet as a mass medium, like television, or more like a specific -- like a zip code kind of way of targeting individual voters?

WEISBERG: Well, I'm not sure it's either, really. It isn't much like broadcast yet, although there is some broadcast gizmos. On most of the sites, you can watch a little film clip if you have a decent speed connection...

FRAZIER: But can they tailor a message...

WEISBERG: ... of the candidate talking about...

FRAZIER: Can they tailor the message for me, knowing what my interests based on my earlier use of the Internet?

WEISBERG: You know where they can do that is with the advertising. And this is quite fascinating. It's one of the things that some of the candidates in campaigns are starting to experiment with. I think McCain has really done it the most.

But they can target these banner ads very precisely. They can pick out, say, women from age 35 to 44 in New Hampshire who are registered Republican. That's an amazing targeting tool, and I think the candidates are just starting to realize what they can do with that.

FRAZIER: We'll be talking again. Thank you very much, Jacob Weisberg from "Slate.com."

WEISBERG: Thank you -- Natalie.

ALLEN: Well, after many weeks of "will he, won't he" coyness, Donald Trump says he's not going to run for the Reform Party's presidential nomination. The billionaire asserts the party is, in his words, "self-destructing."

And tomorrow here on CNN: "A Larry King Election 2000 Special." The GOP presidential candidates debate in South Carolina on good old- fashioned television. That's at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

Following the debate, at 10:30 p.m. Eastern, an election 2000 special hosted by CNN senior analyst Jeff Greenfield.

ANNOUNCER: Still ahead, at one of the nation's toughest prisons, getting out often means going to the grave, when NEWSSTAND continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALLEN: We've long heard the United States has a serious prison- crowding problem. And it may be worse than we thought. Tomorrow, February 15th, the Justice Policy Institute estimates the U.S. prison population will top 2 million. According to the institute, that's one-quarter of the world's prison population.

In fact, as more inmates age, prisons could become some of the country's largest nursing homes. The nation's largest maximum- security penitentiary at Angola, Louisiana has one of the nation's highest percentages of elderly inmates. More inmates die there each year than get paroled.

But Angola's graying prison population has caused a change that may surprise you.

CNN's Kathy Slobogin with that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHY SLOBOGIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Luther Handley (ph) was put to rest on a hot day in August, surrounded by family and friends.

The cemetery is in Angola, the Louisiana state penitentiary, one of the largest in the country. Luther Handley was one of five people buried at this cemetery within two weeks. Handley was a convicted rapist, sentenced to life. He lived and died in prison. CHICO YANCY (ph), ANGOLA INMATE: Five thousand one hundred and eight prisoners here, and they're never going anywhere because Angola is basically a maximum security prison, and you don't leave here.

UNIDENTIFIED MINISTER: Take solace in knowing that you'll see Luther again.

SLOBOGIN: Chico Yancy, convicted of kidnapping and a sex crime, has a 75-year sentence. He has seen the population here age.

YANCY: We've got blind people in here. We've got deaf people here. We've got people that -- in wheelchairs, in bed, bedridden, can't get up, and there's nowhere to go.

SLOBOGIN: Angola's warden, Berle Cane (ph), says he's worried about the growing number of elderly inmates.

BERLE CANE, WARDEN, ANGOLA PRISON: They're all getting older, and it should be a place for predators, not dying old men.

SLOBOGIN: They are the state's worst criminals -- murderers, rapists, armed robbers -- and they do hard time, working in the fields eight hours a day for four cents an hour.

Twelve years ago, James West was a drug dealer. One night, he followed a couple home and held them up at gunpoint while he robbed them of their credit cards and jewelry. He was convicted of armed robbery. It was his first offense. His sentence: 50 years without parole.

WEST: I thought in the back of my mind, with 50 years, I'll do 10 years. I'll do 10 years, and I'll be back. Ten years passed a few years ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's two types of death: a sudden death and a terminal illness.

SLOBOGIN: The long sentences and the prospect of inmates dying in prison has brought a change in the way of life and death in Angola. A year ago, the warden started a hospice for dying inmates. Angola became one of about 20 prisons in the country with its own hospice, one of the few where inmates care for their own.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WEST: You know, I love you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SLOBOGIN: James West volunteers to work in the hospice. There are 30 inmate volunteers who donate their time beyond their regular prison jobs.

TANYA TILLMAN (ph), NURSE: We expect the patient to die. I mean, that's part of the process, and the patient's preparing himself, and then we're preparing ourselves to lose this patient. SLOBOGIN: Tanya Tillman, the nurse in charge of volunteers, recruited West.

TILLMAN: And the first thing he said to me -- and he's real blunt -- and he said, I'm not going to sit with those people.

WEST: And I said: No, I can't never do that. I can't sit with somebody in the hospital and watch him die.

SLOBOGIN: West changed his mind when an inmate he knew was admitted to the hospice.

WEST: I learned something from Mac. I learned a valuable lesson, and that was how to show emotion, and it was hard for me for a long time.

Luther's death was real hard. I watched Luther -- I watched Luther as he died. It was -- it was hard. You know, you want to reach someone, and then there's nothing you can do, and it's hard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WEST: You've got to realize how fortunate you are to still have family that's...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SLOBOGIN: Hard as it may be, West keeps coming back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WEST: But you've got more than just them. You've got a big family in here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

WEST: Us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

WEST: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WEST: For someone to accept you and to allow you to be able to do things for him that only a mother could do, things such as bathing him, maybe changing his diaper -- for a man to even put a diaper on is humiliating, and for me to give him back a little bit of dignity, to do it in such a way that I can say, it's all right, that's an honor to me that he'll accept that.

TILLMAN: When Arizona came into the program, he was what everybody's idea of what an inmate should look like, you know, former biker, here for murder, really kind of -- a really hard individual.

MICHAEL "ARIZONA" SHULARK (ph), ANGOLA INMATE: Most people looked at me and went, man, look at this -- look at this dude, tattoos, everything. He -- he won't care about nothing. I got -- and I -- come to find out I got a heart of -- a humongous heart, you know. That's what everybody tells me.

SLOBOGIN: Michael Shulark, known as Arizona, is serving a life sentence for murder. He never expected other volunteers would look up to him.

TILLMAN: Arizona and James West was standing there, and James was telling Arizona how very important it was to watch him with those patients. And he said, you know, and you've become the person that I watch. You're -- you've become the person that's taught me how to do this.

SHULARK: James -- he says some stuff that just blows me away. I ain't never heard of something like that, somebody saying I'm good. It's pretty awesome.

SLOBOGIN: There was someone else impressed by Arizona's hospice work: his 24-year-old daughter. She had refused to see him since he was sent to prison.

SHULARK: I wrote her years ago, and she wrote me a letter back saying, hey, why are -- why are you trying to get in touch with me now? You know, You wasn't a father whenever I was young.

SLOBOGIN: Then last spring, Arizona got a letter from his daughter.

SHULARK: I know you're probably shocked to hear from me finally. I heard about all the work you've been doing at the hospice, and I'm glad to say I'm very proud of you. I'm sure you have a lot to offer if you would just set it free.

So I was so proud of that letter, you know. It closed the gap in -- a big void in my life right there, just to hear those words right there, you know: Hey, I'm proud of my father.

SLOBOGIN: Arizona's daughter visited him in prison last April, the first time he'd seen her in 12 years.

CANE: People can change. We do every day.

Hospice teaches you to care for somebody other than yourself, and so when you start to give and think of someone else, that's the beginning really of rehabilitation.

SLOBOGIN: Other inmates may be the only family patients have. Volunteers here say they also feel a connection to their fellow prisoners that family members don't.

Larry Landry (ph), a sex offender sentenced to 105 years, was drawn to hospice work because he identified with an AIDS patient, who has since died.

LARRY LANDRY, ANGOLA INMATE: They were scared of him because he had AIDS, and -- and looking at him, it really broke my heart because that's how I felt, you know, when society threw me away. They told me I wasn't fit to be in society. Nobody wanted to have anything to do with me. And the same way this guy felt, and I know how he felt.

SLOBOGIN: Landry says the patient who touched him the most was a man they called Dray (ph).

LANDRY: He woke up at 3 o'clock that morning, and he couldn't speak no more and he was blind already, and he made signs. I thought he wanted me to raise him up and rub his back for him, you know. So I -- I did, I raised him up, and he hugged me, and he whispered in my ear that he loved me. I can't even explain in words what that means. I mean, to know that you affected somebody else's life when they needed somebody, when they was in their last hours...

YANCY: It makes you feel good. It makes you feel sad. It lets you know that you're really still human, that there's some good in everybody.

So yes, convicted criminals can be good people to do things for each other. Who else is going to do it? We have to do it for ourselves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: During her research, Kathy Slobogin learned that when the hospice started, two of Angola's death row inmates taught themselves how to make coffins. Now, she says every inmate buried at Angola gets a hand-made pine coffin, complete with upholstery and white lace.

ANNOUNCER: Coming up, correspondent David Mattingly meets an inmate featured in a controversial ad campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: When people read your comments and see your picture, what do you want them to think about you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That I'm human.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FRAZIER: More now on our growing prison population. While President Clinton was in church yesterday, his pastor called for a review of the death penalty, another voice, like that of Illinois Governor George Ryan, concerned that innocent people have been condemned. The governor suspended executions two weeks ago today. The president supports their use.

Some of the 3,000 men and women on death row tonight are appearing in magazine advertisements selling Italian fashion, and they are triggering a furor. Here once again is NEWSSTAND's David Mattingly.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody that's born is going to die. You just don't know when you're going to die. And I was born, so I'm going to die, you know? Unfortunately, it will be probably through execution.

MATTINGLY: Their eyes and features convey powerful messages and provoke the strongest of emotional reactions. They are the most talked about and controversial faces in advertising, the faces of death row.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sometimes I wonder if it's going to hurt, wonder what it's going to be like, really.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First 30 days you're waiting for that execution -- you don't understand. When I got here the first 30 days, I was under the impression I would be executed.

MATTINGLY: And from behind bars these people are now behind the label of designer clothing manufacturer Benetton, through the vision of creative director Oliviero Toscani.

OLIVIERO TOSCANI, BENETTON: Some people get angry with my work because actually they get angry at themselves. They don't want to deal with the image that I propose them.

MATTINGLY: Based in Italy, Benetton has long promoted its brand by pursuing an aggressive social agenda through its advertising. Using Toscani's provocative photographs, the campaigns incite passions and sell product. Often controversial and sometimes banned, Toscani's images have been used to promote Benetton's position on racism, violence, AIDS, and now the death penalty.

TOSCANI: Any serial killer compared to state of Texas is an amateur. I mean, I wouldn't like to pay taxes in a state who has got that death penalty. I wouldn't like to be a collaborator like a Nazi collaborator, no. I will refuse to pay taxes in a state who has got death penalty on its program. And I think people should do that.

MATTINGLY: Two years in the making, the $20 million campaign includes a catalogue of photos and interviews putting a human face on death row. The pictures are currently in issues of "Talk" magazine, "Vanity Fair," "The New Yorker" and "Rolling Stone." Twenty-five men and one woman, all convicted killers, sentenced to die like John Lotter.

(on camera): What do you think of the picture?

LOTTER: It's one of my better ones, I guess. Age is catching up on me.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): We met with Lotter on Nebraska's death row. If his face is not familiar to you, his story might be. He was convicted of killing three people, including Tina Brandon, a woman who was secretly living her life as a man. Her story and Lotter's crime became the critically acclaimed film "Boys Don't Cry."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "BOYS DON'T CRY")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: So you're a boy. Now what?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: And when Benetton came calling, Lotter was anxious to make his feelings on the death penalty known.

LOTTER: They say, well, you can't kill. But then they turn around and do that. So...

MATTINGLY (on camera): When people read your comments and see your picture, what do you want them to think about you?

LOTTER: That I'm human just like anybody else. I'm just in here for what the court say is my mistake.

BRANDON: If you're human, you don't kill, you don't take somebody's life or injure them in some way that puts you on death row. You're on death row because you usually take somebody's life.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Joanne brandon is Tina Brandon's mother.

(on camera): And there's his picture.

(voice-over): She hadn't seen the Benetton pictures until our interview.

BRANDON: He's got cold eyes, like there's nothing behind them.

MATTINGLY: She was quick to notice Lotter's picture and a Benetton logo sharing the page with a bold-type Lotter quote that read, "I think people like seeing other people suffer and killed."

BRANDON: Well, that's true. I would like to see other people suffer and killed. He killed my daughter and two other people. He took their lives. He didn't come up and say, may I kill you? He just did it. So, why not? I want to see him suffer and I want to see him killed, yes.

MATTINGLY (on camera): Did you enjoy seeing Tina Brandon killed?

LOTTER: I have made my point on that very clear in the court. I cannot comment on that right now. My case is still in the process.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Lotter is appealing his conviction, while Joanne Brandon maintains her seething anger over her daughter's murder.

Nowhere in the Benetton ads is there any mention of the victims or how they were killed.

We showed excerpts of our interview with Joanne Brandon to Toscani.

Her comments about the company:

BRANDON: I think it's the worst company that there could be right now..

MATTINGLY: Her opinion of their campaign:

BRANDON: I just think it's really insulting to the parents of these kids.

MATTINGLY: And the pain of her loss:

BRANDON: When he fries, I'll be sitting right there watching him. He took my baby.

MATTINGLY: He took her baby.

TOSCANI: Yes, I'm not saying he didn't. I'm not saying that John Lotter is innocent. But we...

MATTINGLY (on camera): But to put his face and his comments in a national forum and say nothing of the crime that he committed?

TOSCANI: I approach it from another angle. Everybody is a child of somebody else. So I understand that woman very well. I also understand the sense of personal vengeance that come from a very emphatic (ph) need of humanity. You know, she think that by killing him probably she will get her daughter back. But she won't get her daughter back, unfortunately.

JOE DIAMOND, BENETTON BE GONE: Why would they take the murderers, the cold-blooded killers of their loved ones, and turn them into celebrities? Why would they do that? I mean, people are astonished at this. They're bewildered and they're angry.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Joe Diamond speaks for a coalition of victims rights groups and police organizations called Benetton Be Gone. Protests are planned outside Benetton stores, and a boycott has been called for against all Benetton products, including a clothing line carried by Sears.

(on camera): In recent developments, the criticism of Benetton goes even further. Prison officials in several states now say they were misled by Benetton's request for access to death row inmates. They say they had no idea they were contributing to an advertising campaign, and in particular, one that puts the faces of convicted killers on public billboards.

(voice-over): Last week, the Missouri attorney general filed suit against Benetton and several individuals, including Olivieri Toscani, alleging fraud and deception. The state is seeking compensation and damages.

Also, in Nebraska, officials are now seeking legal advice in how to handle an alleged violation of prison rules. They intercepted a $1,000 Benetton check made out to death row inmate Jeremy Sheets. Sheets was convicted in the 1992 racially motivated murder of 17-year- old honor student Kenyatta Bush.

DIAMOND: They raped her, they stabbed her, they slit her throat, and then they left her body in the woods. That's what this man did. And he got $1,000 from Benetton. This is reprehensible. I mean, this is outrageous,

TOSCANI: I don't know why they got angry at me. I did all this in a legal way. I didn't do anything illegal. I think it's my interest to raise question.

MATTINGLY: A Benetton spokesman in the U.S. says payment was offered to seven inmates. Only two accepted: Sheets in Nebraska and Jerome Mallet in Missouri.

A brief written statement from Benetton says the Missouri charges are inaccurate and politically motivated. But when it comes to public outrage, Toscani says he's willing to take the blame. If the purpose of bringing the American public face to face with killers on death row was to illicit an emotional response, then the Benetton campaign is already a huge success.

TOSCANI: You know, you get angry when you think. Already that is not bad. You can't get angry without thinking. You must look at something, think about and react. So, they got angry. That mean that they thought about the image.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRAZIER: As you might imagine, this is fiery stuff within the advertising industry itself. According to "Ad Week" magazine, 54 percent of readers who were asked about Benetton's campaign said it exploited human suffering. Forty-six percent said, though, it gets people talking. We don't know what it has meant for Benetton sales.

ALLEN: Next on NEWSSTAND, rising fuel costs may mean more money out of your pocketbook. That's ahead in our "MONEYLINE" update.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALLEN: Our top stories: Emergencies are declared in four southwest Georgia counties after tornadoes ripped through overnight. At least 19 people were killed, 100 hurt. The town of Camilla was especially hard-hit, with dozens of homes and businesses flattened.

You might have seen our story on Nicholas Breach last week. The 14-year-old had an inoperable brain tumor and wanted to donate his organs. Well, Nicholas died Saturday of cardiac arrest. By the time he reached the hospital, doctors found it was too late to harvest his heart, lungs, liver and kidneys. However, they were able to donate his corneas. Saturday, by the way, was National Organ Donor Day.

FRAZIER: Money matters now. Here's Tony Guida from New York with tonight's "MONEYLINE" update.

TONY GUIDA, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening.

There are a couple of very important economic measurements coming out later this week, how the prices of things we buy are moving both at the wholesale and consumer levels -- which is another way of saying there wasn't much news to move the markets today, which left investors searching for something to buy. And they found bargains in blue chips.

The Dow, which took a beating last week, rebounded with a 94- point gain to close at 10519. Tech stocks, which are not bargains, managed a 23-point gain to 4418. And the 30-year bond gained better than half a point, with the yield moving lower to 6.22 percent.

You know by now from your fill-ups and heating bills that oil prices are through the roof. Today the price shot higher, above $30 a barrel. It hasn't been there since January of 1991.

And, as Willow Bay reports, don't look for a break anytime soon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILLOW BAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Oil prices shot higher on fears current stockpiles of crude are dwindling too quickly. That, along with lower production levels from major oil-producing nations, combined to push U.S. crude to the highest price since the 1991 Gulf War.

FADEL GHEIT, FAHNESTOCK & CO.: The $30 oil has a different tune. It's like when the market hit 12000. Everybody was celebrating. And it's another milestone. And to tell you the truth, no one had expected that oil prices would be that high. Even OPEC numbers themselves could not believe that oil prices would go that high.

BAY: But blasting through the $30 a barrel price point may have more than just a psychological impact. Last week, the Clinton administration urged major oil-producing nations to raise production quotas. But so far, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, as well as not OPEC Mexico have held fast to production cuts they independently instituted last year. Since then, prices have nearly tripled, and the cries for relief by oil-consuming nations grow louder.

Some believe OPEC will relent.

BRUCE LANNI, CIBC WORLD MARKETS: I do think OPEC's going to have to make an announcement that they're going to increase production. It will probably be at sometime in the second quarter, up toward the latter part of the second quarter.

If you look at the stock drawdowns that we had in the fourth quarter of last year and in the anticipated drawdowns in the first quarter of this year, they're going to be significant. And OPEC is quite aware of that.

BAY: The topic of production quotas is sure to be very high on the agenda when OPEC meets in late March. And while OPEC producers are benefiting from these current higher prices, many analyst believe they will increase output in the summer to keep the market from overheating.

Willow Bay, CNN financial news, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUIDA: Looking ahead to tomorrow, we'll see profit reports from Wal-Mart, CVS, Lycos, Applied Materials, and Deere. Look for the stocks to move on those numbers.

Look for shares of SBC Communications to falter. The FCC has been advised to oppose the company's long distance service plan in Texas.

That is it for our "MONEYLINE" update. For a complete look at all the business news, be sure to catch "AHEAD OF THE CURVE" weekday mornings at 5:00 Eastern time.

And tune in nightly for "MONEYLINE" at 6:30 Eastern, right here on CNN.

NEWSSTAND will be back in just a moment.

ANNOUNCER: Up nest: the mistress, the distraught wife, the actress, the jealous lover, the informer...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE INSIDER")

RUSSELL CROWE, ACTOR: I told the truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: ... the fighter. The role players in Hollywood now play the waiting game.

When NEWSSTAND returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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