Chris christie knew about the closings. A wealthy lawyer says he has evidence. The air force cheating scandal is growing this morning. I believe we have stomach problems within the force. It takes a very fearless journalist to get up and say i have to continue my profession. Even though i have to spend my life looking over my shoulder. 150,000 a second my wonderful pistachio commercial. Digy digy down. We begin with the latest from the garden state. From security on super bowl sunday to the latest on the bridge plane scandal this has enveloped governor Chris Christie. Attorney for david wildsteen, for days of havoc on the washington bridge, where wildstein had worked as a top christie appointee, evidence exists tying christie having evidence of the closures during the time the lanes were closed. Contrary to what the governor stated during a twohour press conference. This is part of what governor christie had to say about the lain closings during that press conference on january 9th. I had no knowledge of the planning the execution or anything about it and i first found out about it after it was over and even then what i was told was that it was a traffic study. And there was no evidence to the contrary until yesterday. That was brought to my attention or anybody elses attention. On friday, the Governors Office brushed off wildsteins assertions with a statement that reads in part, mr. Wildsteins lawyer confirms what the governor has said all along. He had absolutely no knowledge of the lane closures before they happened and whatever mr. Wildsteins motivations were for closing them. Joining me to help sort this out is bob engel who writes a column and the coauthor of Chris Christie the inside story of his rise to power. Bob good to have you back on the show. Thank you. Lets take the claims in order. Mr. Wildstein isnt saying that christie personally ordered them, but he knew about the closings while they were happening which contradicts what was said in the news clip we just played. How damaging is this to christie . It became a really good story friday afternoon because the New York Times who got a leaked copy of this letter wrote that he the are had evidence that the governor knew. Well thats not what the letter says. The letter says as you pointed out that there is evidence. Theres a huge difference between there being evidence, and his having evidence. So the twitter world that we live in now, was all atwitter, with, well, thats the smoking gun that got it. Well take a good look at the letter. It doesnt say that at all. In fact the Governors Office did come along and say this doesnt say anything that we havent already said. And theyre right. Now so far there hasnt been any evidence that the governor ordered the lane closings as a retaliation or he had any prior man knowledge of the clos. Thats exactly right. It should be noted that the letter was written to the Port Authority to ask the Port Authority to reconsider paying the legal bills for mr. Wildstein. That is context that it was written in. Governor christie used to talk to the press a lot and conflicting statement. Yes i did. On december 13th he had this to say of the bridge closings. The first i had to say was in the press leaking of mr. Foys emails. Now he is referring to a story published in the wall street journal often october 1st weeks after the closings which quoted a september email from Port Authority executive director patrick foy demanding that the closed lanes be reopened. So again, the question is, you know, does that contradict what he said at the press conference . When did he know about this . Thats what were trying to figure out and you know how it is, when you are talking to lawyers, it depends on what the definition of is, is. He may be able to say and no one can contradict that this was ongoing, in his office. He was busy with other things. He didnt know what was going on until he read about it in the papers. It would be hard to think that a guy who likes to manage things as well as christie, that somebody didnt call him on the phone and say, whats with all this bridge backup here, whats going on here . But i guess it was possible. Because it was a huge issue. I want to read another quote from wildsteins attorneys. He says mr. Wildstein contests the accuracy of various statements that the governor made about him and he can prove the inaccuracy of some. Now is this, presumably he is claiming that christie said he didnt really know mr. Wildstein that well in high school and didnt have very much contact with him in the past months, even though he was christies number 2 at the time Port Authority . This is one of those lawyered type answers that didnt give us answers to everything. He did go to school with him. He was a year behind christie and it turned out that he kept the statistics for the Baseball Team that christie played on. So people are saying well there, they had to be good friends. Well, not necessarily. Because i was thinking about when i was in high school there are all kinds of people that i knew at the time, and i had forgotten about and there were people around me and various activities that i really didnt know that well. So i dont think theres a real smoking gun there. I wish that he had said, what allegations that have been made that he could address. He didnt though. He just leaves it to us to talk about. Right. Now the bridge lane closings as we said were ordered as political retaliation for punishing Mark Sokolich for not endorsing christie as governor. But the mayor doesnt seem very impressed by wildstein, when he told cnn from my perspective theres obviously credibility issues with mr. Wildstein and he certainly is bucking for immunity. Right. He also says the letter repeats there was no prior governor christies issue either. I dont know of many people who are big fans of mr. Wildstein. He wrote anonymously in a newsletter that he used to have. And he would be on it appeared he would be on which ever side that he could back, and for whatever reason. Put it that way. It wasnt really a journalistic pursuit. And towards the end there he was very, very supportive of Chris Christie. But there are few of us if any, who really believe this was about getting back at a mayor who didnt support the governor. Its got to be something more than that. I mean, you know if it turns out that was all it was were going to be very surprised. But there are very few of us who cover this administration who think thats what it was. Theres just too much down side theres just too much downside like whats going on right now. To believe that they would really sit around and think up Something Like that just because he didnt go along with the endorsement. Well, friday wasnt a complete lost for governor christie. As the scandal was swirling and he managed to announce rocker bon jovi at Howard Sterns birthday bash. Its great to have you on the show. Thank you sir. Switching topic to the super bowl and security. Bomb squads and hazmat squads were called into security, after packets of white powder were mailed to former mayor Rudy Giuliani and at least five totals in the area of super bowl 48. The substances were found were nonhazardous although additional tests are being done. For more on whats being done to keep people safe during an event like this, im joined in the studio by lou palumbo, owns a private Security Firm thats done security for the oscars and nascar, and nfl players association. Lou its good to have you on the show. Its worth noting that new york and new jersey Officials Say theres no credible threat. What did you think when you first heard about this white powder today . Well, its obviously someone attempting to disrupt the event, make a statement, pose a nuisance maybe test the system as well, it could be any one of a number of that latter one is one to be concerned about . Absolutely, absolutely. Youve been out there three times this week and security Officials Say the biggest threat is a suicide bomber, a vehicle bomb or Something Like we saw at the Nairobis Westgate mall last year. Tremendous deployment of forces, 4,000 Security Officers have surrounded the stadium with a perimeter fence, installed security cameras, they providing tough limits on bags, they have to be small and transparent. Where do you see the vulnerabilities . I havent really been able to identify a vulnerability. My perception of what they have done is they built out a very hard perimeter. Its very visible, the Law Enforcement community, particularly the new Jersey State Police. The fbi, are present, secret service, they even have air support constantly around the stadium, in the form of cobra gun ships, provided by homeland security. They even have blackhawk helicopters. And fighter jets ready to be scrambled if necessary. They have been training off the coast and our navy is poised as well. We are well prepared for this. But the reality is 400,000 people have been estimated to come to the event and certainly, they are going to be at other places owner the stadium. There could be issues later. I want to play a comment from new Jersey State Police lieutenant rich fuentes. There of particular concern to us was what was going on in volgograd in relation to the sochi olympics. As you know both of those bombings target mass transit. We rely on the dhs and fbi who are gateway to the federal Intelligence Community to keep an eye and brief us out on those events. Is mass transit one of the areas . Its one of them. Sits been reported today, theyve actually stepped up on the mass transit component. The thing thats important to mention is much of our safety our security daily is predicated on the Intelligence Community that they provide on the agencies. New jersey state and local police, weve heard that, are you confident that that isnt the case here . Interestingly enough, there still isnt enough dialogue but i will tell you that the agencies that are spearheading this have a very good handle on whats going on. Their ultimate fear are home grown or rogue incidents, where theyre not part of the mainstream of surveillance. In other words, you know theres been a lot of criticism of the nsa and some of their practices that they have employed. But what people have to understand is thats how we keep you safe. Tracking the people are a potential threat. Were concerned about the ones we dont know. And one place thats more difficult to keep track of is, the super bowl way, times square, a much more difficult place to secure. Thats as appropriate reply done, theres a tremendous number of assets that are dedicated to that area, technology, manpower, both visible and invisible. The technology that were capable of detecting, radio transmissions, cambao. Lets hope everybody has a safe and fun super bowl weekend. I agree. Thanks for coming back. Coming up new ethics concerns arise over the military. We will run those down next. And a Surprising New look at gun control giving parents a new reason to worry. Plus our producer hermella aregawi, whats coming up. 1. Join the conversation at aj consider this and our google plus and facebook pages. A scandal engulfing the affairs unit that maintains our a scandal engulfing the affairs unit that maintains our Nuclear Weapons is growing. This week the number of officers involved in a cheating scandal tripled to 92. But scandals involving improper behavior including bribery, safety lapses, drinking and drug have spread throughout the military, including the navy and army. Joining us now to talk about these issues is Brigadier General mark kimmet, middle east policy and former undersecretary of state for political affairs. Hes also an Al Jazeera English contributors. Joins us from washington, d. C, general good to have you back. The number of officers implicated in this nuclear proficiency test cheating scandal has tripled. The constantly developed because the initial cheaters were found by initial investigation into criminal drug abuse by some airmen. Whats going on with this force that has such an Important Role im sure the affairs protecting our Nuclear Arsenal . Im sure the affairs commandment is shocked. They are held to the highest standards and to find out that those standards are not adhered to should give everybody pause. The secretary of the air force spoke out about the scandal on thursday, lets hear that. We retested everybody recently and that retest provided a 95. 5 pass rate. Which demonstrates to me that our people know what their jobs are know how to perform and we have the outside Nuclear Inspections that are Going Forward producing equally encouraging positive results. Its good to know that they knew what they were doing but the irony was, she went on to say they likely cheated to get a perfect score on the test. That seems like a silly excuse. It really does. Im quite shocked that the secretary of the air force would say that. We have got a breakdown of morality and discipline inside that particular unit and its probably indicative of a command climate that was tolerant of that kind of behavior. A lot of discussion of this unit talks about how difficult the job is, how much pressure they have, live in isolated areas, they work 24 hour solicits, low morale, and its not just the cheaters. The number 1 in charge of this unit Major General Michael Carey lost his command, because of inappropriate behavior in russia, heavy drinking rudeness and associated with, quote, suspect women and number two an admiral had been let go because of gambling problems. And this isnt even recent. We can go back to 2007 where a b52 bomber took off from Minot Air Force base in north dakota, that had neublg rounds onuclear roundson them and the t they were training rounds, not real nukes, is this unit a special problem . I think it is. And i would hope that the secretary of defense takes strong leadership actions towards getting this solved. They are not freezing at night chasing the taliban. They are pretty plush conditions. It may not be fun work but its necessary work and work that leadership inside that unit would ensure maintain standards and maintains the kind of coherent actions necessary to safeguard our Nuclear Weapons. Beyond that unit, the navys been under investigation for a bribery scandal in the asiapacific region, theres a Sexual Misconduct case against Brigadier General jeffrey sinclair, the sexual impropriety among generals, an epidemic of Sexual Assault in the military thats led to a big debate in the senate. Is there a bigger issue that needs to be addressed . I really dont think so. The heightened tension of sexual abuse and Sexual Harassment inside the military is to a great extent whats bringing a lot of these issues to light. Look, i was in the army for 30 years. It was far worse in the old days. It was tolerated in the old days in a way it isnt tolerated now. I would hardly want to say that this is a good sign that these investigations are going on. This confined of behavior is no longer tolerated. There are people that havent gotten that word yet and they are being investigated but in the long run this is going to work out for the best for the military. I mean, in some of the cases, a general drinking on the job, if that had happened in the private sector he would be fired immediately. But things that other people havent had an issue with in their military careers should the military hold itself to Higher Standards . The military holds itself to Higher Standards and knows, far but i can tell you that the standards of moralityity are still higher than they were 30 years ago. Theyre still not high enough. Theres still some people that are going beyond the pale. But i feel confident the majority of the people within the military stick to and adhere to a very High Standard of morality and in isolated cases, justice is taken care of. Chuck hagel, responses apparently coming in a couple of weeks. This time of how the military teaches core values and ethical values to its officers. A response coming in a couple of weeks pmweeks. What do you think should be done . Well, i think secretary of defense is on the right track. This is an issue of education but far more than education its a matter of good conduct and discipline. Its senior leaders, saying that this type of behavior will not be tolerated. Its swift and in some cases tough actions taken to those that go beyond the pale. This issue of Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault in the military is a scourge that must be wiped out. When it does find problems and it does have problems more than any other institution i would say in this united states, theyre quick to wipe those problems out. Brigadier general mark kimmet thank you for joining us to discuss these important issues. Sure. We turn now to guns. More than 7,000 American Children and teenagers have to be rushed to the hospital because of them. Studies show, kids are suffering 20 firearm are injuries, almost one an hour. Dr. Robert sagee. In the past the only one available on gun violence for teens and children comes from on death certificates. Your are study shows 7,391 children to the er in 2009. What surprised you most about what you found . I think that many things were surprising. First of all the number that you gave, thats a lot of kids. One every hour is a lot of children. We also found that one out of three of those, thats three every single day, children under age 15, were hospitalized for firearm related injuries. That is a lot of young children. In the American Academy of pediatrics estimate that over 3,000 additional children die from their injuries before they even get to the er, the total number of kids getting hurt or killed every year is 10,000, second largest reason for death for teenagers. Its a huge problem. One that i think is entirely preventible. Your study shows its an on going Public Health treatment, long term physical and mental treatment had bring not only tremendous emotional cost but also financial cost. Absolutely. Well first of all, twothirds of the children ended up in the operating room. 10 of the children had brain and spinal chord injuries. Many had chest injuries, abdominal injuries. The rehab cost for those children alone would be tremendous. In addition, each of those young people had friends, they had relatives, brothers and sisters and parents, they had classmates. And what we know is the trauma isnt just to the person that is shot but all those who know him or her. It has a tremendous ripple effect. Thats right. Your study, as you said a lot of this is preventible. Your study found 75 of the hospitalizations for children under ten were due to unintentional injuries. Is that where you see prevention having most effect . Overall the injuries were unintentional. Most of those from other data we know happen because children find guns in the home and those guns are unlocked and loaded. And those are tragic accidents and ive had the experience of taking care of a fiveyearold who shot his brother and these are horrible things that happen and they happen every day. Even among the assault injuries and the suicide injuries we know that many of those guns come from home. So we recommend that every home for a child, the safest home is a home without guns. If there is a gun at home if your child is young or a teenager that gun should be stored locked and unloaded and the ammunition locked separately. Data shows that that will actually save children from being shot. One interesting point that the city makes is injury prevention efforts have helped prevention efforts have helped preventing poisoning and injuries and drowning. Are you hopeful that this can be done . I think what happened was because of the efforts of the gun lobby the centers for Disease Control was prevented from doing the firearms research. But the Obama Administration has lifted that ban and im optimistic that congress will actually allow us to do more research. If you think about it over the years the rate of death in automobiles has plummeted. The rate of other kinds of household hazards, it is much safer for us and our children. We can do the same thing through Public Health research. Abc news reported that 1. 7 children live in a home that has an unlocked and loaded firearm. And they had a hidden camera experiment that showed what kids did with guns in school just days after they viewed an nra safety video. Lets take a look at that video. Seven hidden cameras and for half the kids reinforcing that message with a teacher who shows them the nras eddie eagle tape. Stop dont touch leave the area tell an adult. Then police come in repeating the message. Stop, dont touch leave the area tell an adult. The teacher running the experiment telling the children theyre there for a memory test but she has to go but that theres candy on the table. Among the pairs of children william and griffin, ten minutes after this, one child looking down the barrel of a gun. See those pictures, the child looking down and both kids ended up looking down the abarrel of the gun before they ended up calling for help. What can we do . How can you get that through to them . I think what we know is childrens curiosity is a force of nature and theres just no way that any Educational Program can be relied on to save the lives of our children. Its up to us adults to keep loaded weapons out of the reach of children. You simply cant rely on children to learn a message that will overcome their natural curiosity. Just so many kids getting hurt and killed by guns. Just hope parents are listening. Dr. Robert sagee, appreciate you coming on to give us all of this important information. Thank you so very much for inviting me. Lets check in with hermella. Antonio, the Australian Government have angered a lot of our viewers. On friday it approved 1 million tons of sediment to be dumped near the the Great Barrier reef the largest living structure on the planet, home to 25 of the worlds marine life including thousands of species of fish. The reef provides a barrier so they are very important. The Australian Government says that no mud will be dumped directly on the coral. Environment minister vowed that quote, some of the strictest will be used to protect the reef. But the conservationists say the mud will still threaten the reef. Many of you were really upset about the announcement. Reilly says dont worry, mother earth will have her revenge all over the globe. Shes showing us shes still in charge. And, its not their barrier reef its the planets barrier reef. We have a duty to protect it. You can read more at the website. America. Tonight. Al jazeera. Com. Back to you antonio. Killed simply reporting on the news. And later on i talk to a man who was bitten by a shark and then went right to the pub. His incredible story coming up his incredible story coming up. The struggling midddle class we just cant get ahead. Working longer hours, for less pay. People are struggling everywhere. School loans. Morgages. Inflation. Taking its toll. We live paycheck to paycheck. Now in a continuing series, join ali velshi as we follow families, just like yours, as they try to get by. Were all struggling financially. Americas middle class rebuilding the dream only on Al Jazeera America every sunday night Aljazeera America presents eye opening documentaries. They are impartial. If you wanted to be a good journalist in iraq, you have to risk your life. They observe. And report. Kidnapping is a very real problem. Journalists on the front line sometimes that means risking death getting the story, no matter what it takes thats what the forth estate is all about. Thats why im risking my life. Killing the messenger on Al Jazeera America the leading cause for work related deaths for journalists worldwide is murder. Killing the mention engineer, the deadly cost of news, premiers here on sunday, 9 00 p. M. Eastern. Documentary looks at journalists literally dying to tell stories. A warning, the following video is graphic. Theres a lot of very brave and extraordinary work that goes on around the world that people dont know very much about. Politicians and society tends to be cynical about journalism. I see great courage going on to surface things that the public really needs to know about. Eric mathist and patricia coauthored the film. Judge. Eric mathes and trisha todd coauthored the film. Its good to have you all with us. This documentary hits close to home because its already been more than a month since the Egyptian Government detained three Al Jazeera English journalists, mohamed fahmy, peter greste and Baher Mohamed have been held for more than a month. The government in cairo claims their cases have been referred to the criminal court by the prosecutorgeneral. However, al jazeera rejects their claims and demands their unconditional release. The world has clearly gotten more dangerous for reporters. Absolutely. And i think the key here is that the number one problem that is the impunity that allows these situations to occur. The number of journalists that were in jail when we finished the film in the end of 2012 was about 270 or 280 media journalists. Last year the number went down slightly. But what we are seeing these journalists being taken imprisoned in egypt is just indicative of something that is kind of going on around the world and is really a result of the fact that there is an atmosphere of impunity that allows this kind of thing to happen. And trisha, there have been many more killings of journalists since the year 2000, pretty much, since any time in the past. Yes, this is true. Silencing a journalist is a great way of getting the message, control of the message. And its happening around the world and our film focuses on russia mexico or conflict zones. Particularly, conflict zones, you kill one journalist and you silence many. Its a shame, its tragic, its pervasive. David, kidnapping is also a huge issue, something you suffered through. Tell us about your experience. I was in afghanistan in 2008 working on a book. I decided for my book i wanted to interview a taliban commander. I had met this commander. He had done two interviews are before, not kidnapped them. He an tucte abducted me, held ur seven months it has gotten worst. This is a much higher number than ever occurred in iraq or afghanistan and the problem is growing. Its worse in syria than anywhere else. But its virtually impossible to report without endangering yourself. Absolutely. And the real danger is actually for local journalists. Clearly western journalists are targeted once in a while but the vast number that are dying is mexican journalists, and is russian journalists, there was a mass are killing of philippine journalists, and effort to silence them. They all do it. As you talked to other journalists, you were talking earlier, it does have a tremendous Chilling Effect on them when their colleagues are getting attacked and kidnapped. Yes definitely, we spoke to one journalist in mexico, he left one, not only was he getting threats but his family was getting threats. So its not the safety of the single journalist but their families. How that affects the community at large and the information they get, it happens over and over again and the people start practicing selfcensorship because they dont want to be a statistic. As trisha says, the documentary spends a lot of time on the mexican drug cartels and how they have been brutal with journalists. Eric is there any help when the cartels bribe government officials . I think in the case of mexico theres a number of problems that go beyond what we see in the situation with the cartels. There was a lot of good work done by people behind the scenes in the Journalist Community to get the federal government to pass a law that made the killing of a journalist a federal crime. But like so many of the laws that we see globally, that purport to protect journalists, end up being hyperbole, doesnt have teeth in it. Almost all the cases in mexico and also in russia, journalists being killed, beaten kidnapped and otherwise censored in this violent way are even investigated. When they are investigated it is written off as a random crime. Theres no attempt to connect the crime with the journalist with the work theyre doing to see if the mastermind may have actually had something to gain by silencing this journalist. Trisha, you really tell some harrowing stories about whats going on in russia how bad is it under Vladimir Putin . He is turning the screws on journalists. Its not Getting Better as the olympics are approaching. Theres not a lot of critical reporting being done that isnt having a backlash of some sort. And investigative journalism, it is be shameless if it becomes extinct. They need to expose crime corruption so the population can make informed decisions. The sochi issue because of the threats against journalists. David, just a final question. What is it like for a journalist to operate in situations like this . To be frank, there are many more civilians that die in these conflicts, soldiers that are in much greater risk and you want to bring out the truth. Its a noble profession, i love it and will do it as long as i can. So you hope this doesnt happen to you but its become so constantly that its almost a numbers game. And if youre going to go to these countries eventually something is going to go wrong. And its the impunity. Governments have to stop this from happening and from letting it go unpunished. Its very scary, this documentary is very powerful, certainly worth a look. To everyone. Eric mathes trisha, david, the deadly cost of news, appears on Al Jazeera America on sunday, 9 p. M. Eastern. If you were just bit by a shark, with your first stop be a bar . And scarlett johanssen. Makes the super bowl soar, kind of, well explain later. Of america to be heard. Our shows explore the issues that shape our lives. New questions are raised about the american intervention. From unexpected viewpoints to live changing innovations, dollars and cents to powerful storytelling. We are at a Tipping Point in americas history Al Jazeera America. Theres more to it. Start with one issue education. Gun control. The gap between rich and poor. Job creation. Climate change. Tax policy. The economy. Iran. Healthcare. Ad guests on all sides of the debate. This is a right we should all have. Its just the way it is. Theres something seriously wrong. Theres been acrimony. The conservative ideal. Its an urgent need. And a host willing to ask the tough questions how do you explain it to yourself . And youll get. The inside story ray suarez hosts inside story weekdays at 5 eastern only on Al Jazeera America instead of our regular data instead of our regular data dive we take a dive into the ocean for a bizarre story. More than 100 people get attacked by sharks every year worldwide. But very few victims go to a bar for a drink before they go to the hospital. James grant is the exception to that rule. He joins us from new zealand with his remarkable story. James, good to have you on the show. Now lets go into what happened here. A week ago you were out spear fishing with your friends in shallow water. When all of a sudden you felt something on your leg. What happened. Quite weird actually. I had just been underwater for about ten minutes. I had killed my first fish and kind of flapping around on the end of my spear. So i was busy trying to kill that with my dike knife when i found something come up and grab my leg. I thought it was one of the divers who grabbed my leg so i turned around to see what it was. Was a big shock. Wasnt quite what i was expecting. Had a big shark hanging off my leg. You had to go at it with your knife. I had a few stabs on it. The knife wasnt very long but i didnt make as much damage as i wanted to. You at least got him off of you. You are a doctor, you got out of the water and got your first aid kit stitched yourself up. It wasnt even my first aid kit. It was the first aid kit for the bait hunting dogs that we got. They can get pretty roughly are injured when we go out. Put a few rough sutures in my leg just patched my leg a little bit and headed to the pub after that. It must take some presence of mind to be able to do the sutures after a shark fired off on your leg. I guess i was pretty fired up on adrenalin. You must have been. But why did you go to the bar before you go to the hospital . It was a nice ba day for it. We thought we might as well. We actually heard from the bartender. Heres what he had to say. Gave him a pint of beer, his mates are kicking around laughing and he brought out a first aid kit and got a bandage out. Couple of good holes on both sides of his knee. You didnt do a very good job stitching up yourself because you were bleeding on the floor of the bar. I was bleeding on the floor of the bar so i had to put some gauze on it to suck it up. How have you recovered since . I know you went to the hospital and got it done properly. Prudence benedict goodwin, i work with her. She put some nice tidy stitches. She did a really good job of it. Now i heard you have a crazy reputation or reputation of crazy things happening to you. Did you ever expect you would make National News . Its been quite overwhelming actually. Its just ridiculous. All it was when it started was a good story for times. My friends thought i should ring and tell them what happened. So they put it in the internet in new zealand. The next thing i know, i was called by the National News. I did a radio interview and then a tv interview and its going global now with me being on the bbc and al jazeera is ridiculous its a great story, glad youre doing well, james grant, thanks for joining us. Coming up super bowl, best commercials you want to look out for. Innovation changes our lives. Opening doors. Opening possibilities. Taking the impossible from lab. To life. On techknow, our scientists bring you a sneakpeak of the future, and take you behind the scenes at our evolving world. Techknow ideas, invention, life. On Al Jazeera America this is the 900 page document we the super bowls arguably the single biggest sporting evening event of the world. But it is the biggest day of the year for advertisers. And fighting for a share of just 32 and a half minutes of ad times, advertisers are willing to pay 4. 5 million for ad time that could reach more than 100 people. Good to have you guys both back on the show. Did i say 100 million . Something like that. I may have said 100,000. 100 million is what were expecting to watch out there. Getting that kind of audience is pretty much impossible under any other kind of circumstances. Is it worth paying that kind of money . Not just the super bowl ad, theyre paying it for the ad, the three months leading up to it. The teasers on youtube us talking about it paying after the fact when we break it down. Before social you paid the money you saw the ad on super bowl sunday and then you talk about it on monday. These teasers have been dropping for the past three four months. This is a six month seven month eight month campaign. My favorite, the one ive already seen an apparently tens of millions have people have seen on youtube, is one from bud light. Take a look at that. If you only need the light burning low peter says its killing him. It goes on from there. It very powerful. Think about it. They do these ads that tug on your heart strings and the next add is hot models. Theyve got everything covered. Four quadrant brand, they want to appeal to everybody except chin. Why are animals so effective sam . Especially in a beer commercial . Its more the psychology of it than anything else. They are adorable. Like Little People but better. I hope you dont have children sam. They wont like that comment. Of course we have celebrities. Celebrities a big fixture in super bowl commercials. One particular ad again, another budweiser ad that involves don cheadle with a llama in an elevator. Minka kelly, of all people arnold schwarzenegger, dressed up looking like bjorn borg. Absolutely hilarious. You have to pay a certain amount to get the air time in the first place. Arnold just doesnt show up for a commercial these days. You got to pay him quite a bit too. The question is, is it actually worth it . If you are doing it for bragging rights in the way budweiser really is, yeah, we had the best ad and arnold it also matters who the celebrity is. When i saw the arnold teaser, the governator . Were all, weve seen kate upton enough. You cant see kate upton enough. Don cheadle blew my mind. Even anna kendrick. We have a viewer question. Hermella . What do you have . Too many commercials from all the products everybody sees all year long. People do everything to avoid commercials the rest of the year. They skip the ads online, dvrs et cetera, but the super bowl becomes a main spectacle, why do you think that is . I think its exactly the reason he said, you avoid are commercials all year long. That is the same guy watching every week. This is 100 million unduplicated people. That is by an order of magnitude the largest audience on television. Also the key really here for the super bowl this is where they pull out all the shots. The best creative, the best people on the ads. This is not something you see late tonight television, 2 00 in the morning, for late night infomercial. This is the super bowl. If you have a creative bone in your body you want to see what they do. Weve talked animals, celebrities, lets talk sex. This year it looks like they have toned it down. What about go daddy. They have toned it down. This year theyve gone much softer. Oh, there, you know, still it was a smart move because not only are they toning it down you know what use go daddy and everybody will flock to your modify. There was a little bit of sex in the john stamos commercial too. But it ends up calming down very quickly when his costars from full house but sex not a big part of the super bowl ads. I think a lot of the brands we are associating with sexy contend are tired of being associated with sexy content, maybe they have sort of taken a ding or two from Public Awareness groups for being too explicit or too racy and toning it back. This is the 10th anniversary of breast gate of the Janet Jackson issue, people are waiting to write the letters, pen in hand. Lets talk about scarlett johanssen, a very sexy ad for her with soda stream. But its been banned, she mentions pepsi and coke at the end of the ad. Was that all for publicity . Probably a little. They were banned completely, last year, they werent able to air their ad at all, you cant run them down. Oxfam, another charity she works for has asked she step down because soda stream is in a west bank settlement. So i dont think they wanted that kind of publicity. Banned from the super bowl is what got go daddy into the when you are banned, thats a great strategy. And paid you 4. 5 million. Something else this year, ads that intentionally are not going to run. But refer to the super bowl, anna kendrik, take a look. I was excited to make a bleep with newcastle, they cant even say the word bleep , its bleepped. Bleeped. Again this is a great strategy. Right . Pokes great fun at the nfl and their draconian marketing rules. You cant even say the word, you look, everybody is saying, the big game and theyre trying to coin that too. The super bowl is probably a curse word im like ruining the network because ive said it several times in a live segment. In the old days, commercials used to be pretty simple, heres our product here is what it does here is why you should buy it. Now weve got these wonderful stories. In the end half the time do we remember who the ad is for . We dont remember it now because were a nation of short Attention Span theater. 25 years ago all you had was tv and commercials. 30 years ago this year was the macintosh ad. So i think a lot of it is, people talk about it they talk about it online and they share it, and advertisers and brands are looking for the sharings on facebook and twitter. As they are for the ad to run. I shared the puppy ad. On facebook. Yo you have to say it on facebook and twitter. If you dont identify the brand you know terribly well, just so long as it gets shared and tweeted up. Is this the most fun you have all year . Oh definitely. Keep in mind you get the puppy bowl coming up. Lots and lots of puppies running around. Im really allergic, thats the only joy i get, is watching them on tv. Whats the one you are favorite . The don cheadle ad with the llama. I really love the doberwala. I think its for audi. Going you are making the point, you dont remember my password is going to be super bowl. Sam fieldman peter shankman. Great to have you back. Have a good weekend, the show may be over but the conversation continues find us on twitter ajconsiderthis see you next time. Have a great weekend. The Chris Christie scandal after an old friend tells a different story about the bridge controversy. Recovering from his wounds, an activist tells how he was beaten and tortured after a week in the ukraine. And the keystone project and its affect on the