Subject: Unofficial Transcript of 5/23/99 '60 minutes' on Y2K
The following was picked off of usenet by Rebecca Kaplan and off of Roleigh
Martin's listserve by Wendy Tanowitz. -- Tom
For those of you who haven't checked the other threads on this, I've
transcribed the entire '60 Minutes' 5/23/1999 story on Y2k for the simple
reason that reading it may be someday prove helpful to someone. Many thanks
to those who encouraged me while I did this. 'God bless.
A few words about the accuracy of the following: Transcribing interviews
used to be a big part of my job for over 20 years. I take this stuff
seriously, and have made every effort to be precise. Of course, this is NOT
an official transcript from CBS, and if you'd like to pass it around, you
probably need to make sure you explain that. However, I transcribed from
audio tape, stopping where necessary to view the story on video to confirm
wording.
Understand that the spellings of names that follow may not be correct. "60
Minutes," unlike our local newscasts, does not generally "superimpose on the
screen" the names of those who are interviewed. That makes it difficult to
get a correct spelling. Also, a tape recording delay made the transcription
of Krofts first few words impossible.
Here's a Synopsis of that: CBS Correspondent Steve Kroft opens the report
sitting on the 60 Minutes set, with words referencing a previous 60
minutes report on Y2k, apparently broadcast in the Fall of 1998.
He continues (paraphrasing here) Back then when we did our story on:"
(From here on, this is a word for word transcript)
". . .the Year 2000 Computer Glitch, a lot of people still thought it was a
joke; a lot of hype to make people go out and buy new software. Today, no
one is laughing, least of all, the corporations and public entities that
have spent an estimated 200 billion dollars trying to fix the problem.
Everyone agrees that enormous progress has been made, that the computer
glitch is not going to mean the end of civilization as we know it. Now, the
federal government is comparing Y2k to a huge natural disaster, like an
earthquake, a hurricane or a tornado that disrupts peoples lives for days,
weeks or maybe even months. The people who seem to be the least prepared are
local governments, and you may find that the computer bug hits hardest on
the street where you live."
KROFT NARRATION: "Local governments all across the country have become
dependent on computers and microprocessors to deliver services. They open
the valves at the waterworks, and handle 911 emergency calls, they send out
the tax bills, and print the welfare checks. They make the traffic lights
turn red and green, and all of those systems are potentially vulnerable to
the Y2k computer bug."
(TRANSITION FROM KROFT NARRATION TO KROFT ON-CAMERA IN FIELD WITH WASHINGTON
LANDMARK IN BACKGROUND)
KROFT: "And no city is more vulnerable than Washington, D.C. The Federal
Governments General Accounting Office has warned Congress that the Y2k
situation is so bad here, that the nations Capitol may be unable to
effectively insure public safety, collect revenue, educate students or
provide health care services."
(TRANSITION FROM KROFT ON-CAMERA TO KROFT NARRATION)
KROFT: "No one is more aware of those problems than Mary Ellen Hanley (sp) a
top computer systems specialist who was hired by the District of Columbia,
to try and fix them. But when she took over last year, as Washingtons Year
2000 Program Manager, she quickly discovered that there was no program, and
not much management."
(INTERVIEW WITH HANLEY)
KROFT : "It sounds like you expected the worst."
HANLEY: "I expected the worst."
KROFT NARRATION: "And she wasnt disappointed. Turns out, no one even had a
complete list of the departments and offices that make up Washingtons local
government, let alone a list of the computers and software they use. She
quickly realized there was simply not enough time to make all the computers
Y2k compliant.
(INTERVIEW WITH HANLEY)
KROFT: "You had no illusions that you could fix all of the problems by the
year 2000?"
HANLEY: "Never. Never."
KROFT: "All of the critical systems?"
HANLEY: "We hope all of the critical systems, but we knew we would never fix
all of the systems of all of those 68 district agencies. No time."
KROFT: "Correct me if Im wrong. . ."
HANLEY: "O.K."
KROFT: "Youre so far behind, the only way to deal with the problem is to
try and set up contingency plans, assuming things dont work."
HANLEY: "Contingency is prudent. Its a prudent methodology. "
KROFT NARRATION: "In most cases those contingency plans involve something
called manual work-arounds, which is exactly what it sounds like: going back
and doing things by hand, the way they were done before computers. When we
spoke, her office has just finished a plan for the Office of Tax and Revenue.
(INTERVIEW WITH HANLEY)
HANLEY: "Were going after contingency in a way that will be very basic.
Say, if it had to be manual, we would have to develop a way to do that."
KROFT: "Pen, pencil and carbon paper?"
HANLEY: "Perhaps setting up centers around the city where people would come,
print out everything before January 1st, have it in place so that we can
deal with it, uh, be able to set up centers where people can come, find out
and check and verify taxes."
KROFT NARRATION: "For some welfare related programs, the kind Hanley
describes as getting checks out so kids can get fed, the contingency plans
are as simple as hiring a hall, renting tables and chairs, and drafting a
few hundred city workers from one department to write checks or keep records
so that another more critical department can be up and running."
(INTERVIEW WITH HANLEY)
KROFT: "Obviously, if you have a lot of failures, youre not going to have
enough people."
HANLEY: "Could happen."
KROFT: "In the testing process, have you had failures?"
HANLEY: "Uh, we have had, uh, some failures. Uh, principally in the area of
the Districts payroll--a subject very close to all our hearts who work here
in the District--uh, we had a failure date of December 18th, we were able to
uh, find it, we were able to fix it and test it and return it to production.
We had a. . ."
KROFT: "How long did that take?"
HANLEY: "That took us approximately 60 days."
KROFT: "So if this had happened and you hadnt found it, you--your payroll
department would have been out of commission for--two months."
HANLEY: "We would have been unhappy."
KROFT NARRATION: "But its not just computers shutting down that worries
Mary Ellen Hanley. Its computers with Y2k problems that continue to
function, improperly: spewing out inaccurate data, like issuing checks for
the wrong amounts."
(INTERVIEW WITH HANLEY)
KROFT: "Instead of 500 dollars, it comes back 5 dollars, or 50 cents. . ."
HANLEY: "It could--yes, any of those, any of those amounts."
KROFT: "Or 5 thousand dollars?"
HANLEY: "Or 5 thou. . .yeah, thats a problem too."
KROFT NARRATION: "But even if Washington, D.C. had started preparing years
earlier, theres no guarantee it could have averted these problems. Just
take a look at Washingtons next door neighbor: Montgomery County,
Maryland--by most accounts, the best prepared local government in the
country for Y2k problems. It began preparations more than four years ago and
has spent more than 40 million dollars on Y2k fixes and
replacements. "
MONTGOMERY COUNTY MANAGER BRUCE ROMER (sp): "We have about 700 signalized
traffic installations in the county. . "
KROFT NARRATION: "County manager Bruce Romer is particularly proud of the
state of the art central traffic system. He rolled the clock ahead to show
us there are no problems."
(INSIDE TRAFFIC CONTROL CENTER. CLOCK IS ROLLED FORWARD. DEMONSTRATION OF
THE EFFECT)
KROFT: "So the traffic system actually thinks that this is. . ."
UNIDENTIFIED WORKER AT COMPUTER TERMINAL: "When it changes the clock,
December 31st, and here we are, were now year 2000"
KROFT: "Zero one, zero one, zero zero."
UNIDENTIFIED WORKER AT COMPUTER TERMINAL (CLOSE UP OF SCREEN WITH CLOCK
ROLLING OVER): "Now youve got 2000."
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: "One, One, 2000."
ROMER (CLOSE UP OF TV MONITOR SHOWING TRAFFIC AT INTERSECTION): "Theres an
intersection right over there. . .still functioning. And another one over
here."
(DIFFERENT PART OF BUILDING. KROFT AND ROMER LOOK AT VARIOUS PIECES OF
EQUIPMENT)
ROMER: "These again have been certified as compliant. . ."
KROFT NARRATION: "To make sure all the problems were solved, Montgomery
County inventoried and checked all of its computer systems and every piece
of equipment that had a computer chip in it: eleven hundred items in the
fire department alone. They thought they had tested everything."
(TRANSITION FROM KROFT NARRATION TO KROFT ON-CAMERA IN FRONT OF A COMPUTER
MONITOR)
KROFT: "So what happened on the first business day of 1999? Well, the
computer that handles building permits crashed. The building permits are
good for one year and the computer couldnt handle expiration dates in the
year 2000. But that wasnt the only problem. The county soon learned from
Microsoft that the in-house computer network that handles email and stores
county records--and was supposed to be Y2k compliantwas not."
KROFT NARRATION: "And then there was the call that County Executive Doug
Duncan (sp) got from Erickson (sp) about the countys phone switcher, which
was also supposed to be Y2k compliant."
DUNCAN: "And then all of a sudden they came back later and said, uh, Sorry.
We made a mistake, so now were spending about 7 million dollars getting a
total new phone system for the county."
KROFT NARRATION: "And these are the kinds of problems being encountered in
the best prepared county in America. "
(INTERVIEW WITH DUNCAN)
KROFT: "If youre not convinced that youre going to be ready for this thing
now, after spending 40 million dollars and spending five years on it, uh,
what about the other communities around the country that havent done
anything?"
DUNCAN: "I get a little nervous about some of that."
KROFT: "You are a suburb of Washington, D.C., the nations capitol. What
happens once you cross the line into the District of Columbia? Do you have
any sense of how well prepared the District is?"
DUNCAN: "My sense is theyre going to have some very serious problems. Uh,
theyre not going to be able to do it in the next eight months."
KROFT: "No way?"
DUNCAN: "Its not going to happen."
KROFT NARRATION: "One of the prime concerns for Washington and other
communities throughout the country is drinking water. Computerized water and
wastewater treatment facilities use embedded computer chips in their control
systems. Some of the chips in those water systems have been tested for Y2K,
and have failed.
Mary Ellen Hanley (sp) believes that Washingtons water system can run
without its computer controls, but she acknowledged she may have to develop
contingency plans, for water rationing."
(INTERVIEW WITH HANLEY)
KROFT: "What would cause water to be rationed?"
HANLEY (Washington D.C.s 2000 Program Manager:): "If we lose power, through
the power grid, as any other state or city around us, including Montgomery
County, we will not be able to function normally, and will have to go to
considerable slowdowns that will produce--could produce, uh, rationing, for
example."
KROFT: "Youre preparing contingency plans that there might be no power?"
HANLEY: "Yes."
KROFT: "For how long?"
HANLEY: "Were looking roughly at what we would consider national averages,
uh, one to two weeks."
KROFT: "One to two weeks without power?"
HANLEY: "One to two weeks."
KROFT: "Do you think thats possible?"
HANLEY: "Right now, we dont think its impossible."
KROFT NARRATION: "And apparently, neither does the American Red Cross. The
Red Cross Y2k Checklist suggests that Americans stock disaster supplies to
last several days to a week, including non-perishable foods, stored water,
and an ample supply of prescription and non-prescription medications."
(NATURAL SOUND--CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE MEETING) "The committee will come to
order."
KROFT NARRATION: "According to Senator Robert Bennett, Chairman of the
Senate Special Committee on the Y2k problem, there is still a possibility of
economic disruption that could lead to civil unrest. "
KROFT: "What does that mean?"
BENNETT: "If, for example, there is a municipality that is unable to
distribute welfare checks, there could be some civil unrest that could come
out of that. If, uh, if there was a disruption in the food supply, and food
didnt get in, in a uh, distributive kind of way--that it was concentrated
in one part of the city, but not in anotherthat could be a situation that
could create some civil unrest."
KROFT: "Do you have contingency plans for that? Does the Federal Government
have contingency plans for that?"
BENNETT: "We do not have an overall national federal program. Theres some
peoplewho, who suggest, Gee, this is going to be martial law, in an effort
to try and put down that kind of thing, and theyre very scared about it. We
simply dont have the machinery for martial law. If it gets to the point
where there is that big of an
emergency in a particular area, the governor would call out the National
Guard and it would be handled at a state level, rather than a federal level."
KROFT NARRATION: "As for Washington, D.C., Senator Bennett feels that the
district is taking a responsible approach with its contingency plans. A
survey of county governments across the country, shows that 73 percent of
them have no contingency plans at all for Y2k failures, and a report
prepared for the U.S. Senates Y2k Committee says 66 percent of all cities
and towns will experience at least one critical computer system failure.
Senator Bennett believes the country has made a lot of progress in the last
six months, but he adds that the country is in uncharted waters, with no
historic precedence."
BENNETT: "The dire predictions will probably be fulfilled, but on a sporadic
basis, place by place. If youre in one of those places, the fact that the,
uh, overall system works is not gonna be very comforting to you. But we
would be irresponsible if we were to say, There are no problems,
everythings under control, because theres still a lot of work to be done."
HANLEY (Washington D.C.s year 2000 Program Manager:): "We think there will
be some disruptions, and we think they will be localized in many cases, uh,
if the supply chain works--thats a big if--if power works, if gas works,
if uh, uh--Bell Atlantic works, if people who supply groceries to the inner
city work, if pharmaceutical
companies make enough pharmaceuticals, if uh, people should hoard things,
all of those are big ifs, but I havent yet seen, since I have been in
this position and working with this project, that those groups are ignoring
the kinds of concerns that you justifiably are raising that people have."
KROFT: "I want to read you some advice that somebody gave about Y2k. You
can do the marauder approach and move to the mountains, and take everyone
with you. . "
(INTERRUPTED BY HANLEY LAUGHTER)
KROFT CONTINUES: ". . .including your mother-in-law, and hole up for a
year, or you can buy four weeks worth of water, put $100 in your pocket, and
make sure youre safe in your own home."
HANLEY: "I know that quote. Uhmm. . ."
KROFT: "Who said it?"
HANLEY: "Actually, I said that."
KROFT: "Did the quote get you into trouble?"
HANLEY: (Mumbling, then) " I had several conversations with interested
people concerning that quote." (HANLEY LAUGHTER)
KROFT: "How high up the food chain?"
HANLEY: "Uh,. . .high enough for me." (HANLEY LAUGHTER)
KROFT: "Is it good advice? Is it legitimate advice?"
HANLEY: "I believe its uh, . . .I believe the advice is that all of us do
personal preparedness, as we would for any event that we know is coming,
this event cant be legislated away, its gonna occur, uh, I think its wise
to prepare, and I think its wise for us in city government to take all the
necessary steps that we can, to serve our
public, and you try to do that in the best way that you can." KROFT ON 60
MINUTES SET: "Earlier this Spring, the federal government gave Washington,
D.C. 61 million dollars for its Y2k work. Most of that money has already
been spent, paying outside contractors like IBM, whod been working for
months without being paid. Washingtons government is now asking for an
additional 50 million dollars to finish the job"
(END OF PIECE. SIXTY MINUTES CLOCK TICKS)
Tom Atlee * The Co-Intelligence Institute * Oakland, CA
http://www.co-intelligence.org
http://www.co-intelligence.org/Y2K.html
http://www.co-intelligence.org/CIPol_Index.html
-- Jean Wasp (jean@sonic.net), May 26, 1999