Tone of Protest Changes in Cairo; Journalists Targeted in Egypt
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Live from Studio 7, I'm Suzanne Malveaux. Let's get you up to speed for this Friday, February 4th. It is wall-to-wall protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square right now. The crowd is calling today "Departure Day" for President Hosni Mubarak. There is no sign there of government supporters or rent-a- thugs, as they've been called. They're widely blamed for two days of violence. Egypt's health minister says about 5,000 people have been hurt in the unrest. He says 916 of the injuries happened Wednesday. That's when Mubarak supporters stormed Tahrir Square with clubs and machetes. Al Jazeera says that thugs stormed its offices in Cairo today and burned television equipment. The Arab language network says it's the government's latest move to stop coverage of the protests. Authorities ordered Al Jazeera to halt operations in Egypt last Sunday, but it hasn't. Egyptian state TV reports soldiers have freed most detained journalists. They're now in what the report calls a safe place. Journalists from CNN, the BBC, "The New York Times," "Washington Post" and other organizations have been attacked or otherwise harassed. Now, we don't know which journalists are now "in this safe place." Well, a high-profile reporter for state-run Nile TV says she feels liberated after walking off the job. Shahira Amin says she was forced to report one side of the story, the government side. She says she felt suffocated.</s>SHAHIRA AMIN, FMR. REPORTER FOR NILE TV: I was only allowed to air the pro-Mubarak rallies that were going on, as if nothing was happening in Tahrir Square. We weren't allowed to reveal any figures. There was a near total blackout. And I feel that this is hypocritical at this time, and I just don't want to be a part of it.</s>MALVEAUX: There are protesters on the streets in Jordan today.</s>MALVEAUX: Several hundred people gather outside the Egyptian Embassy in Amman to demand that President Mubarak go. A small demonstration compared to last week, perhaps because of the heavy rain. Jordan's king fired his prime minister this week and pledged political reforms. The unemployment rate fell to 9 percent in January, down from 9.4 percent the month before. But the Labor Department reports that the economy created just 36,000 new jobs, far fewer than expected. Now you're up to speed in the CNN NEWSROOM. Want to go back to the tens of thousands rallying right now in Egypt's Tahrir Square. They have optimistically dubbed this a "Day of Departure" for President Hosni Mubarak. Our Frederik Pleitgen, he is joining us by phone from Cairo. Frederik, you have been down there in the crowd today. Give us a sense of the mood. Is it different than what we saw yesterday?</s>FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, absolutely. It's a 180 degree turn from what it was like yesterday, Suzanne. There are tens of thousands of people still in Tahrir Square. I'm actually overlooking it right now. I was there before, and it was really a very cheerful atmosphere, where a lot of people were sort of sitting there almost having picnics with the food that's being smuggled in through these checkpoints. A lot of them, of course, chanting the anti-Mubarak slogan, and a lot of them telling us that they say they're going to stay there until Hosni Mubarak goes. And they certainly feel that that should be today. As you said, they call this a "Day of Departure." There's one bridge over the Nile where many of these people are still flocking into Tahrir Square. I would say it's still a good 7,000, 8,000, maybe 9,000 people who are there right now. And there really was absolutely no violence there today, and part of the reason for that is, Suzanne, that the Egyptian military is just doing a better job of asserting itself and prying the two sides apart. I'm actually overlooking an area that yesterday was an absolute battlefield between these two sides, where protesters were throwing Molotov cocktails, rocks, and anything else they could find at each other, and beating each other. And today it's just absolutely quiet. And there's more foot soldiers on the ground. And I spoke to the soldiers, and they seem to be sort of more elite troops than we've seen in the past. They say they're part of an airborne division, and certainly not the young conscripts that we've been seeing over the past couple of days -- Suzanne.</s>MALVEAUX: And Frederik, we saw that, obviously, there were a lot of journalists that were coming under attack just within the last 24 hours, 48 hours or so. Is there any new evidence of this government crackdown on the media to actually cover these kinds of protests?</s>PLEITGEN: Well, I mean, think it was pretty clear that a lot of this seemed to have been government motivated. You know, one of the things that really was sort of a sticking point in all this is that I was attacked with a crew a couple of days ago as well. And it seemed as though it was just an angry mob that was after us. But, you know, it's the way they go after your camera. They know exactly what they are looking for, they know exactly how to try and take the tape out of the camera.</s>MALVEAUX: Right.</s>PLEITGEN: And this country has a history of repression against media as well, where these plainclothes government thugs would try and do that, would try and harass media. And certainly it appears as though a lot of that is what's happening right now.</s>MALVEAUX: OK.</s>PLEITGEN: We had a crew earlier today that went into some of the neighborhoods that are just known pro-Mubarak areas, and they got harassed again. It wasn't as bad as in the past couple of days, but still, you know, it's not a nice atmosphere to work in, to say the least. And yesterday, of course, was really a very, very dodgy day for media organizations. And I was down there a couple of times as well, and we got into the wrong area once or twice and sort of had to talk our way out of situations. So it really was very, very difficult. A lot better today though -- Suzanne.</s>MALVEAUX: Frederik, please be safe. And obviously we'll come back to you as more developments happen there where you are in the midst of all of those crowds. Thank you so much, Frederik. Well, here is your chance to "Talk Back" on one of the big stories of the day. That is right, the Super Bowl. More than 100 million people are expected to watch the game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers, and that begs the question from Carol Costello -- Carol, we want to know, what are people doing? Everybody's going to watch.</s>CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's crazy. We wanted to lighten the mood -- it's Friday -- and get you away from all the serious stuff happening in the world. But Suzanne, you are right, an insane number of you will be worshiping at the altar Sunday -- not that altar. I'm talking about worship of another kind, and that would be football. I'm not trying to be disrespectful, but Sunday means football, and maybe church if you can fit it in. The NFL is enjoying a fine TV season. The 2010 regular season reached 207.7 million viewers. That's the most in history. I don't care if you love Sarah Palin or if you love Nancy Pelosi. Chances are, if you root for the same football team, you are sitting together. It got me wondering, what is it about football that draws us together? I give you Mark Waller, the guy in charge of marketing for the NFL.</s>MARK WALLER, NFL CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER: It's America's lost campfire. So if kind of were imagining a Sunday and looking from above, you'd see the glow of the stadiums and the 70,000, 80,000 people in each of those, and then you'd see the glow of the television, the glow of your mobile phone now and your laptop, and how people are huddling and congregating and telling their stories around that.</s>COSTELLO: And you thought it was all about beautiful men in tight pants tackling each other. Oh, hmm. Sorry, I was a little distracted, Suzanne. Anyway, let's just pause, shall we? No, it's not about that. It's really not.</s>MALVEAUX: Come back to us. Come back to us, Carol.</s>COSTELLO: I know. I'm back. I'm back.</s>MALVEAUX: Come one, "Talk Back."</s>COSTELLO: What is it about football that unites Americans unlike anything else in this country? Let us know what you think on Facebook.com/CarolCNN. We'll have some of your answers in the next hour, and more pictures of that really cute guy.</s>MALVEAUX: Carol, how many people do you think are going to say it's those beautiful men in those little tight pants?</s>COSTELLO: At least 50 percent of them.</s>MALVEAUX: If you're honest. If you're honest.</s>COSTELLO: If you're honest.</s>MALVEAUX: If viewers are honest. I think that might come in high.</s>COSTELLO: Exactly.</s>MALVEAUX: All right. Thanks, Carol. We'll see what people have to say. Well, here is the rundown on what's ahead this hour. Dallas tries to dig out before the Super Bowl, but the weather grounds hundreds of flights before the big game. Also, $3 million for 30 seconds? That's the bottom line on what companies are getting out of those big Super Bowl ads. And for you adventure lovers, this is a preview of a water- powered jetpack. You're going to want to see that. And Finally, your turn to "Choose the News." That's a favorite segments of a lot of folks now. We're going to tell you about three stories, and you pick the one that you'd like to see.