[Costello:] Checking stories "Cross Country" now. It looked like a scene from the wild, wild west. When a gunfight erupted outside an Oklahoma courthouse. It all started with a man shooting indiscriminately into the air. Police were called in and it became a full shootout when the man waved his gun at deputies. In the end the alleged shooter, a bystander, and a sheriff's deputy were wounded. In Massachusetts a court says a man has to pay child support for twin girls born to his wife through in vitro fertilization. He has to pay even though he and his wife split up years before the kids were conceived. The court said the father was responsible because his actions, quote, "resulted in the creation of a child." A train carrying chemicals crashed in Abbeville, South Carolina, this morning. Witnesses said it may involved as many as 20 rail cars. Hazardous materials teams are on the scene. Not yet known what chemicals are inside those cars. It is the controversy that just will not die. Rush Limbaugh's show has been bleeding advertisers over Limbaugh's use of the word slut to describe a Georgetown law student. And now a U.S. lawmaker, a Democrat, is calling for the Armed Forces Networks' comments to be I'm sorry, the Armed Forces Networks to drop Limbaugh's radio show. The Obama administration is already under pressure from online activists to drop Limbaugh from the military air waves. But so far, the Pentagon is not budging. If our troops want to listen to Limbaugh, they should be able to do so. Ashleigh Banfield is here to tell us what Senator Carl Levin had to say, who, by the way, is chairman of the Armed Services Committee. Hey, Ashleigh.
[Ashleigh Banfield, Cnn Anchor:] Very good point. Hey, Carol. And, of course, you know, he may be the Democrat from Michigan, but he's is also a very powerful chairman of that very powerful committee. And so, when he speaks, people listen. But how much is he speaking I think is what a lot of people are asking? Is this an edict or is this a request? Have a listen for yourself.
[Sen. Carl Levin , Michigan:] I would not try to legislate it. I would hope that the people who run it would see just how offensive this is and drop it on their own volition.
[Banfield:] All right. So that's pretty critical. This is a request. This is something that is obviously getting a lot of traction because, Carol, there are between 10,000 and 20,000 women excuse me, 10 and 20 percent of the armed services are actually women, and while some people are saying this is much ado about nothing. The Armed Services Network broadcasts to a variety of different viewpoints including Ed Schultz who everybody knows on MSNBC, he used the slut word as well, and actually took some time off because of it. So, the Armed Forces Network is saying there's a variety of view points. And while some say this is much ado about nothing, but others are saying women in the network or women in the armed forces will have a different viewpoint particularly because there has been a real crisis with regard to sex crimes in the armed forces, too. So I think a lot of people are chewing over this a little differently than just who's saying what and who has a different viewpoint. I think there's a bigger issue afoot here as well.
[Costello:] Well, I heard what Senator Levin said about, you know, he doesn't want to legislate, you know, the Armed Forces radio from eliminating the Rush Limbaugh show, but he could affect the funding of the Armed Forces Network, couldn't he?
[Banfield:] Very good point. I think a lot of people forget that the Armed Forces Network is 100 percent taxpayer funded and there's a lot of funding that goes to that network as well. This is a network that broadcasts overseas to the troops commercial-free. And we pay the bill for that. It's $27 million annually. And I think to that end there's an organization VoteVets.org which got together and decided to put together a petition asking for the show to be taken off the air. They had 12,000 signatures, I think, in three days of putting that online petition together. But, listen, also, don't forget the marketplace has also affected Rush Limbaugh as well, too. I think at the last count, and I'm going to quote this from a liberal advocacy group so take what you will out of that Media Matters said 45 different local and national advertisers have pulled off spots from Rush Limbaugh's show. So who knows if Rush Limbaugh will be on wavers Imus style and this will not be an issue for the Armed Forces Network, or whether, you know, legislators will have to deal with this a little bit more than just with what Carl Levin said.
[Costello:] As they say, we'll see. Ashleigh Banfield, thank you.
[Banfield:] Congratulations on the new show.
[Costello:] Thanks so much. And same to you by the way.
[Banfield:] Thank you.
[Costello:] See you later. You gripe and the feds listen. The Consumer Product Safety Commission putting out the top ten consumer complaints. We will have them for you right after a break. Plus, Queen Elizabeth and her granddaughter in law get ready to hit the road. They're celebrating the diamond jubilee in the U.K. Poor Prince Harry had to go to the Caribbean. More on that, next.