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.

If anyone has the story on tape, please print out the following transcript and compare it. Please post errors to this thread if you find any. If you find that the transcript is "dead on," please let us know that as well.

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 compliant--was 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 another--that 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)

:)

-- FM (vidprof@aol.com), May 24, 1999

Answers

FM

Many Many thanks to you for your hard work. I just got off the phone with Burell Transcripts. Phone number 1-800-777-TEXT. It seems they still do not have the transcript uploaded from CBS yet. There seems to be a computer glitch. (hmmmm...) In any case, she expects the transcript to arrive via computer sometime today and is taking orders for it for the cost of $8.00 plus a $3.00 order charge. By the way, does anyone have the email address for 60 minutes?

Thanks again, FM.

pamela ;)

-- pamela (pamela4@hotmail.com), May 24, 1999.

FM, thank you 2000 times over and over again for your monumenal (not to mention professional!) work. It is always amazing how many resources we have on the Yourdon forum, who always seem to be there when needed. (And, oh by the way, take the day off -- you deserve it!)

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.com), May 24, 1999.

'Wish I could, King of Spain! (Take the day off that is. . .)

Unfortunately, my husband's start up business is going through some severe growing pains right now (this is scary time for us),and I need to continue to work on ideas to earn more money.

Anyone know any high paying "work at home envelope stuffing jobs?"

(Tee hee.)

:)

-- FM (vidprof@aol.com), May 24, 1999.

Just wanted to add my thanks for all your hard work in producing this transcript. I will qualify any excerpts that I send on to my contacts. Wish I could help you out in the "work-at-home" area, but we're essentially a single-income household as well.

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), May 24, 1999.

FM, Thank you so much for all your work.We do not get 60 Minutes in England.If the USA is as bad as they say it really makes one doubt the readiness in the UK.

I just got all fired up again.More spagetti & couscous anyone ??

-- Chris (griffen@globalnet.co.uk), May 24, 1999.

You're welcome Mac.

To all: remember, if you recorded the segment on your vcr, please print out the transcript and compare. Post errors if you find any. If it's "dead on," please post that as well.

I should have my hands on an official transcript in a couple of days. Time permitting, I'll do a comparison using that route as well.

Right now,. . .time for Tylenol!

:)

-- FM (vidprof@aol.com), May 24, 1999.

Ooops. I posted to Mac and displayed poor manners by not responding to others' kind comments. You are all most welcome. I hope this is helpful to you in some small way.

:)

-- FM (vidprof@aol.com), May 24, 1999.

FM -

just to add my thanks for all of your hard work on this - I think you may have contributed mightily to awakening a large group of people to the realities of the problem.

Arlin

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), May 24, 1999.

Arlin,

You're most welcome.

If the you-know-what hits the fan and one Grandma has clean water stored because someone showed her this transcript, well. . .you know the rest.

'Think I'll sleep good tonight.

:)

-- FM (vidprof@aol.com), May 24, 1999.

I very much appreciate your work. I missed the program and will use this in the city government where I work as well as a wake up call to the church I attend. Thanks again for your labor.

-- James Chancellor, PE. (publicworks1@bluebonnet.net), May 24, 1999.

I might be able to convince my wife to be a GI if I can get a videotape. Anyone know the phone number?

-- nothere nothere (nothere@nothere.com), May 24, 1999.

Many thanks. Already saved and emailed to coworkers.

-- Shimrod (shimrod@lycosmail.com), May 24, 1999.

FM-Thanks so much-this was a monumental task and I appreciate your effort. I'm printing off a copy for my husband who is riding the fence. Maybe he'll step down on one side or the other and I won't feel such a loony. Linda

-- newbiebutnodummy (Linda@home.com), May 24, 1999.

FM, Thank you very much for the great work. I am the host of a weekly Y2K Talk Radio show and was just getting ready to go over the 60 minutes tape for tonite when I recieved your transcript...You just saved me 90 minutes of my life ....Thanks again

-- Chuck (shedman@globaldialog.com), May 24, 1999.

Thanks FM---I'M printing this out to send to my friends. This is great, thanks again

-- thinkIcan (thinkIcan@make.it), May 24, 1999.

FM,

Thanks so much for all your hard work! I am printing copies too. Give yourself a big pat on the back!!

-- Dian (bdp@accessunited.com), May 24, 1999.

'Just checking in briefly before I nod off for the night. You're welcome gang, but once again, a reminder:

It would be very helpful if someone who recorded the program will read through the above transcript, while watching it again. If there are any mistakes (I don't think there are, but. . .) it would be helpful to note them here. Likewise, if it's "to the letter," please post that observation as well.

:)

-- FM (vidprof@aol.com), May 24, 1999.

I was elated to see your transcript on my e-mail. I also have family, friends, and co-workers who missed 60 minutes, one friend called me last night and wanted me to repeat it for her word for word ad couldn't. Now I can let her read it for herself. THANX A MILLION!

-- Quana F Austin (quana49r@telepath.com), May 24, 1999.

There were a few stutters from the interviewees, I am assuming you want to gloss over those (so I didn't mention them :) ).

The piece you missed from the beginning:

When we did our first story last fall on Y2K, the Year 2000 computer glitch that threatens to shut down the world's computers come January 1'st next year, a lot of people still thought it was a joke; (continue with your word by word transcript).

At the KROFT NARRATION, he said "going back to doing things by hand" not "going back and doing things by hand".

The next HANLEY, she said "in a way that would be very basic" not will. Then said "So, if it had to be manual" instead of "Say, if it"

At the HANLEY where she says "Or 5 thou... yeah that's a problem too" she laughed after that. (just mentioning it because you marked her laughter down elsewhere.

All the way down to DUNCAN saying "It's not going to happen." He said "No, it's not going to happen."

Down to KROFT saying "Do you think that's possible?" He said "You think that's possible?"

At the end of the KROFT NARRATION starting with "As for Washington, D.C.", you end with the word "precedence". I believe the correct word should be "precedents".

Finally, in the final HANLEY, at the point where you say "that we can, to serve our public", it should be, "that we can, uh, to serve our public".

All in all, a very good job of transcribing. When you get the official transcript, you can spot the things we missed... :)

James

-- James Collins (jcollins@thegrid.net), May 24, 1999.

I just transcribed 12 minutes of a local cable show I appeared on about Y2K. I only transcribed SOME of the comments of the government guy', which is what the local Y2K audience wanted to hear, (they knew pretty much what I'd say!) and that took me 3 HOURS. Whew! What a job you have done. Thanks. Rebecca

-- Rebecca Davies (rebecca@direct.ca), May 24, 1999.

Many thanks and congratulations!

-- GA Russell (garussell@russellga.com), May 25, 1999.

Thank you very much. -)

-- J (jart5@bellsouth.net), May 25, 1999.

See also...

Official & complete 60 MINUTES Transcript

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id= 000rqn

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), May 26, 1999.

Thanks, FM. I am an Argentine without TV set. I took notice of your wonderful work via the Yahoo forum. I will mail it to the La Nacion newspaper and to The Buenos Aires Herald.

Eduardo Varela Buenos Aires, Argentina

-- Eduardo Varela (evarela@infovia.com.ar), May 26, 1999.

People in America have been blessed for so many years that I think it is going to be hard for alot of people to take "Y2K" (the 2000 bug) serious. It may have to happen before it will be taken serious. Maybe if the government, along with the Red Cross, would print a "Y2K" CPR and sent it to everyone (and maybe offered a prize and also their name be drawn for the big prize (and be on T.V.) if sent a form back in response: that the check list has been read and items needed have also been purchased) and then maybe they would listen and prepare for "just incase the Y2K strikes after midnight: 12-31-99" in this way, everyone will be prepared to some extent and we will go through this easier without the panic which could cause some people to loose control and hard telling what they will do to make it more .......... uncomfortable for others just because they did not prepare. It's hard to believe that America could be hit hard just because many years ago..... two numbers were omitted to save alot of money at that time. Can anyone imagine what it would cost now if the ....... disaster, "2000 bug" really hit and all the ........ businesses and households were without: water, telephones, PC's, T.V.'s, electricty, heat, etc. etc. and all the banks, grocery stores had locked doors and the signal lights would be off too just because of the chips who read the year as 1900 instead of 2000? We've been in our comfort zone too long to think this could actually happen. And maybe not all areas will go through a disaster either, however, who knows for sure if it will happen or not? So how can we reach everyone to believe that this could happen and be prepared? Thank you again for making it possible to read about Y2K that was discussed on 60 minutes which proves that there is something going to happen to some areas and may people take on the responsibility to be prepared for the "Y2K" bug come the year "2000".

-- Muriel V. Buller (mvb9@webtv.net), May 28, 1999.

Thank you very much for opening my eyes. Your efforts have "restored my faith" in all of our governments!!

-- John Linn (jslinn@msn.com), May 30, 1999.

I've transcribed taped conversations with my friends for school, and lemme tell you I understand the investment you have made in pain relievers!!! On the sad note, if the Y2K problem is as serious as this story suggests, we haven't seen a headache this big yet!

Good work. Best wishes to your "painful" business.

--Kurt G.

-- Kurt G. (kurtlee@norcom2000.com), June 02, 1999.

Thank you very much for taking your time to put that all together I live in a rural area and next week ,I will be attending a small meeting about y2k in another small town nearby and this is just what I need to bring so that others who missed the 60 minute show will get an idea of what is really going on. thank you ,again Joan

-- Joan Gauthier (electra@midmaine.com), June 18, 1999.

'Surprised to see this thread resurrected after all this time!

Regardless, you are most welcome.

:)

-- FM (vidprof@aol.com), June 18, 1999.