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CNN LIVE AT DAYBREAK
Restaurant Business Hurt by False 9/11 Rumor
Aired March 21, 2002 - 06:57 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Finally, this hour, in West Bloomfield, Michigan, a restaurant owner is trying to overcome a problem created in the wake of the September 11th tragedy. The problem started with an e-mail rumor.
CNN's Jeff Flock traveled to West Bloomfield to bring you this story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You wouldn't know it's the lunch rush at The Sheik restaurant outside Detroit. Business is bad, down 50 percent. Enough to make owner Dean Hachem cry.
DEAN HACHEM, OWNER, THE SHEIK: Sorry.
FLOCK (on camera): No, I understand.
HACHEM: You know, I worked so hard in this life to build something for my kids, but...
FLOCK (voice-over): What he built, ruined by this e-mail, sent September 11th. It says a nurse picking up her lunch order that afternoon saw the restaurant's employees, quote, "... cheering as they watched the TV footage of our American tragedy. Do not patronize this restaurant," said the message, "and please pass the word."
One problem with the story about the celebrating...
DICK PURTAN WOMC RADIO: It didn't happen.
FLOCK: Detroit radio personality Dick Purtan finished his shift and went to The Sheik for lunch that day. Neither he nor anybody else saw any cheering.
PURTAN: You could hear a pin drop. There wasn't a sound. Nobody was shouting, "Hooray, hooray," at all.
FLOCK: Hachem also has security cameras to prove his point.
(on camera): These cameras are -- how many of these do you have?
HACHEM: Twelve.
FLOCK (voice-over): He checked them all. No cheering there.
HACHEM: He's picking up his tray. The one behind is doing his work. Look at the busboy, he's carrying the water glasses.
FLOCK: And he called everybody who picked up a takeout order that day. He saved the slips.
HACHEM: Everybody said when we came and picked up the carryout, all we saw were sad faces.
FLOCK: But some are still not convinced.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just feel funny going there. I just kind of feel funny going there.
FLOCK: And, it wasn't enough to stop the story from spreading on the Internet.
HACHEM: This was on 9-13, OK?
FLOCK (on camera): Oh, and you see the forwards.
HACHEM: Just look at how many people went to one page, two pages, three pages...
FLOCK (voice-over): People kept calling, leaving messages...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope you guys go bankrupt because of it.
FLOCK: And then there were letters. "If I was there on September 11th," said one, "a lot of you would have had to make trips to the local hospital to be put back together." What is Dean Hachem's attitude about all of this? Believe it or not, hatred.
HACHEM: Even what's happened to me -- and it hurts me very much -- but this is my country. I will do whatever it takes to fight for it, absolutely.
FLOCK (on camera): Still to this day?
HACHEM: Still to this day and until the day I die.
FLOCK (voice-over): For now, he'd be happy with a bigger lunch crowd.
I'm Jeff Flock, CNN, in West Bloomfield, Michigan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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