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STORY 15. CANCER FIGHT
CHARLES GIBSON: Good evening. The news, which began this broadcast last night, was the number one topic of conversation in medical offices across the country today and the discussions were often heated. Anguished patients were on the phone with their doctors, many expressing anger, confusion and concern about recommendations made yesterday by an independent task force, calling for a cut-back in routine mammograms for women over 40. Said one doctor about her patients, they just aren't buying it. So, John McKenzie is again here tonight. John?
JOHN MCKENZIE: Charlie, we thought we'd find some confusion today. What we found is an outright revolt. Major medical centers from across the country, including the Mayo Clinic and MD Anderson, are rejecting the new recommendations.
OPERATOR (AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY): Thank you for calling your American Cancer Society.
JOHN MCKENZIE: Calls from across the country poured into this cancer hotline.
OPERATOR: The Cancer Society is not changing its screening recommendations.
JOHN MCKENZIE: Anxious women asking about mammograms.
OPERATOR: We are here 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
JOHN MCKENZIE: The new, more relaxed screening guidelines come from some of the most respected authorities in the country. But it's clear today, many women are just not buying it. In
LINDA BENITEZ (
JOHN MCKENZIE: In
GABRIELLE RINGQUIST (
JOHN MCKENZIE: In
NANCY RITTER (
JOAN LONERGAN (
JOHN MCKENZIE: But the guidelines, the so-called expert panel said every other year is good enough.
JOAN LONERGAN : I don't think they know enough to really be definitive about that now.
JOHN MCKENZIE: So you're not going to follow the new recommendations?
JOAN LONERGAN: No, no.
JOHN MCKENZIE: Perhaps most surprising today, so many doctors are actively discouraging patients from following the new guidelines.
JOHN MCKENZIE: What are you telling them?
DOCTOR SHARON ROSENBAUM SMITH (ST LUKE'S
JOHN MCKENZIE: Maria Dominguez is 40, and she's not waiting one more day to start getting her mammograms.
The new guidelines say a woman your age doesn't need routine screening.
MARIA DOMINGUEZ (
JOHN MCKENZIE: Even at 40?
MARIA DOMINGUEZ (
JOHN MCKENZIE: Doctors emphasize, these new guidelines are recommendations, not rules. That it's still up to each woman to decide when and how often to be screened for breast cancer.
JOHN MCKENZIE: Women have that choice, at least now. The concern is insurance companies will soon use these new guidelines to start limiting what they will cover. Charlie?
STORY 16. SPEAKING OUT
CHARLES GIBSON: Sarah Palin's new book, "Going Rogue" went on sale today, soaring right to the top of several best seller lists. The memoirs of the former
BARBARA WALTERS: Well, here is the big question. Do you ever want to be president of the
SARAH PALIN (FORMER VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE): That certainly isn't on my radar screen right now. And when you consider some of the ordinary turning into extraordinary events that have happened in my life, I am not one to predict what will happen in a few years. My ambition, if you will, my desire, is to help our country in whatever role that may be. And I cannot predict what that will be, what doors would be open in the year 2012.
BARBARA WALTERS: Now let's talk about some issues. The Middle East, the Obama administration does not want
SARAH PALIN: I disagree with the Obama administration on that. I believe that the Jewish settlements should be allowed to be expanded upon because that population of
BARBARA WALTERS: Even if it's Palestinian areas?
SARAH PALIN: I believe that the Jewish settlements should be allowed to expand.
BARBARA WALTERS: What should the
SARAH PALIN: To listen to McChrystal, to listen to the appointee that President Obama asked for the advice from. McChrystal gave the President the advice and said we need, essentially, a surge strategy in
BARBARA WALTERS: With what goal, what should be our ultimate goal?
SARAH PALIN:
BARBARA WALTERS: Unemployment in the
SARAH PALIN: I'd start cutting taxes and allowing our small businesses to keep more of what their earning, more of what they are producing, more of what they own and earn so that they can start reinvesting in their businesses and expand and hire more people. Not punishing them by forcing health care reform down their throats, by forcing an energy policy down their throats that ultimately will tax them more and cost them more to stay in business. Those are back assward ways of trying to fix the economy.
BARBARA WALTERS: You do have a way with words.
SARAH PALIN: I call it like I see it.
BARBARA WALTERS: On the business of I can see
SARAH PALIN: It's very significant, and we are a gatekeeper for the continent. So, for national security reasons and for energy independence and resource development reasons,
BARBARA WALTERS: Let's talk about Barack Obama. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the best, where do you rate him?
SARAH PALIN: A four. There are a lot of decisions being made that I and probably the majority of Americans are not impressed with right now. I think our economy is not being put on the right track because we're straying too far from fundamentally, from free enterprise principles that built our country, and I question, too, some of the dithering and, and hesitation with some of our national security questions that have got to be answered for our country. So a four.
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