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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Second Case of Mad Cow Disease Found in U.S.; When Politicians Apologize

Aired June 24, 2005 - 22:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

AARON BROWN, HOST: Here's something to chew on, Larry, something more than just a second case of mad cow disease in the United States and all that could mean for the food supply and the economy. Consider now, the possibility that we might never have known about it at all, but for inspector general at the Department of Agriculture, who might have exceeded her authority. She ordered a third round of testing on a sick cow that was declared free of all disease, last fall. Standard procedure said otherwise. The cattle industry raised a fuss. That, of course, was yesterday. Today, the tests came back positive.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): It was the second confirmed case of mad cow in the U.S. The first in an animal actually raised in the country.

MIKE JOHANNS, U.S. AGRICULTURE SECRETARY: Results confirm the presence of BSE in this animal, an animal that was blocked from entering the food supply.

BROWN: BSE is mad cow disease by its formal name and the sick animal didn't just show up yesterday. It was first tested last winter in November and found clean. The retesting found something else. The U.S. Agriculture Department says the discovery shows its system of testing suspected animals works; that it keeps Americans safe.

JOHANNS: ... thanks to the fire walls that are in place. It is critically important to note that this animal was identified as a high risk animal. A sample was taken and the carcass was incinerated.

BROWN: So, while both the beef industry and the government believe that U.S. meat is safe from mad cow, foreign buyers may not be so certain. After today's announcement, the cattle futures market indicated a five to ten percent drop, come Monday morning.

GREGG DOUD, NATIONAL CATTLEMEN'S BEEF ASSOCIATION: About one- third of our exports or $1.4 billion in beef trade goes to Japan, that's our biggest market and it's a critical component of the value of our production for U.S. beef producers.

BROWN: The U.S. beef industry took a big hit from the Japanese in 2003, after a Canadian-born dairy cow transported to the United States was diagnosed with mad cow. Several dozen countries joined Japanese in banning U.S. beef, a nearly $4 billion business. Mexico, the United States' second largest beef customer and other importers lifted their ban last year and expect to stay open to U.S. products. Japan has kept its ban and only recently started talks to lift it.

On cattle ranches and in giant feed lots in the United States tonight, the hope is that today's announcement will not affect those talks.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

BROWN: Which brings us to this: There's little doubt that as a practical matter, mad cow is a lot more harmful to ranchers and meat packers and cows, than it is to people. Which many would argue is not quite the same thing as saying what the government essentially did today: bon appetit.

Here's CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: The government assured the public that despite the new case of mad cow disease, U.S. beef is safe to eat.

The BSE threat to humans in this country is so remote that there is a better chance you'll get hurt crossing the street to get to the grocery store, than by the beef you buy.

That's because after an outbreak of mad cow in Europe in the early '80s, the National Cattlemen and Beef Association, in 1996, voluntarily banned the use of feed containing animal parts that could harbor the infectious agents causing mad cow disease. In 1997, the FDA made that ban mandatory, to reduce or eliminate the risk to the human food supply.

This animal probably became infected by eating parts of the nervous system of other animals before the ban went into place. The animal was a downer, meaning it was unable to walk. Even though mad cow was not confirmed at the time, it was suspected and the animal was slaughtered and immediately excluded from the food supply.

JOHANNS: This animal was blocked from both the human food supply and the animal feed supply. The carcass was incinerated to ensure it did not and could not pose any kind of threat to public health.

GUPTA: For now, younger cows are more likely to be slightly safer, especially ones born after 1997. Still, the problem is a cow could be infected with mad cow disease for several years before symptoms appear. So, some consumer advocates question whether infected cows to could still be entering the food supply unknowingly and the watchdog group Consumer's Union is concerned that there may be loopholes.

For example, part of an animal known to carry mad cow-type disease could legally go into feed for pigs, chickens, maybe even pets. For the time being, the industry and its critics are at odds. The industry says U.S. beef is safe and today was an example of the system working. The animal never entered the food supply. Critics say it's another wakeup call to the USDA and the Food and Drug Administration that they need to adopt additional safeguards, like increased testing and mandatory tracking of cows from birth to slaughter.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Other news: beginning with Iraq.

Now the new prime minister meeting with the president today. The visit comes just shy of a year since the return of sovereignty to Iraq, but far short of other things: A new constitution for one and then there's real security.

In the year since the handover, thousands of Iraqis, nearly 900 American troops have died in Iraq, many hundreds of insurgents as well. Today was especially grim in how many were killed and who.

From the Pentagon tonight, CNN's Jamie McIntyre.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Pentagon sources say of the six U.S. troops killed when a suicide car bomber hit their seven-ton truck in a convoy attack near Fallujah, at least three were women and of the 13 wounded in the powerful blast in the small arms attack that followed, 11 were women. That makes Thursday the deadliest day for American women in uniform since World War II, when a Japanese suicide plane hit the hospital ship "Comfort," killing six army nurses in 1945.

Since the Pentagon opened most military jobs to women a decade ago, they've grown to 15 percent of the force and do everything from fly helicopters, to escorting convoys, to fixing tanks. Women are still barred from direct combat units like infantry, armor and special forces, but in Iraq, that doesn't keep them out of the line of fire. Medical personnel, for instance, are often close to the action.

LT. SHARON BATTISTE, U.S. NAVY NURSE: Should we get an injured Marine, they actually bring the Marine back to us. So, even though we are very close to the front line, we're not correctly within the firefight.

MCINTYRE: Currently, there are more than 11,000 American women serving in Iraq and before this attack, 36 had died; 24 as a result of hostile fire. That compares to only two women killed by hostile fire in all of World War I, 21 in World War II, none in the Korean War, one in Vietnam, and five in the first gulf war.

Earlier this year, Congress debated new rules that would have moved women out of units that serve on the front lines, but the plan was rejected after the Army argued it would close some 22,000 support jobs to women, jobs in critical specialties like military police. SGT. LEIGH ANN HESTER, SILVER STAR RECIPIENT: As MP.s, we're out there everyday, outside of the wire, sweeping for roadside bombs and dealing with insurgents. So, in my opinion, I think women do just as good a job as the men do here.

MCINTYRE: Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester was awarded the Silver Star for her role in an operation in March that killed 26 insurgent in a fierce firefight, videotaped by one of the enemy fighters. In a war without clear front lines, it's another example of women facing the same dangers as men.

(on camera): Sources say many of the Marines killed or wounded in this convoy attack were women serving in a so-called lioness team, an all-female unit specializing in searching and interacting with Iraqi female civilians, so as not to give offense. It's a role considered vital in winning over the Iraqi people.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Coming up next: The upcoming political battle over the Supreme Court. But first, in a little early tonight to make up for all of the times we've been late, a look at some of the other stories that have made news today.

Sophia Choi, at "HEADLINE NEWS" in Atlanta.

SOPHIA CHOI, CNN HEADLINE NEWS: Hi, Aaron.

Well, a tragic end to the search for three missing boys in Camden, New Jersey. All three boys have been found dead in the trunk of a car parked near the yard where they were last seen. The father of one of the missing boys opened the trunk of the car and collapsed screaming. Police immediately cordoned off the area. The boys, Jesstin Pagan, Daniel Agosto and Anibal Cruz, vanished on Wednesday.

Firefighters had to keep their distance from a massive fire at St. Louis industrial plant. Flames shot 50 feet into the air and the blaze sent huge fireballs shooting into the air with billowing black smoke. The Praxair plant packaged propane and other gases for industrial use. One witness said pieces of metal from exploding tanks were shooting from the scene like pieces of giant shrapnel. But so far, there have been no reports of injuries.

In China, the death toll from record summer floods has now climbed to more than 500. Forecasters warn: More torrential rains may hit the Pearl River delta near Hong Kong and Macao. The official Chinese news agency says, "after two weeks of rain, the Pearl River is reaching its highest peak, ever and more than 1.5 million people have been evacuated.

And Aaron, just a reminder of the new feature at CNN.com: If you click the video link, you'll be able to see the day's best news clips at your leisure and at no cost -- Aaron.

BROWN: Sounds like a fair price. Thank you very much. We'll check with you in a half an hour.

Straight ahead on the program, all the ingredients of a major battle: big money, high stakes and passion to spare.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: On the right...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're not going to be caught unprepared.

BROWN: And on the left...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But the most important thing is getting out the message as to what's at stake, what could happen.

BROWN: Bracing for the fight of their lives over the next Supreme Court nominee.

SEN. DICK DURBIN, (D) ILLINOIS: I sincerely regret if what I said caused anyone to misunderstand my true feelings.

BILL CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I deeply regret that.

RICHARD NIXON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In all of the decisions I have made in my public life, I have always tried to do what was best for the nation.

BROWN: The politics of saying sorry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I'm not looking for my family anymore. I don't have any hope of finding them.

BROWN: Six months after the tsunami, how the orphans are coping and who is helping them.

ROBERT KNIGHT, CONCERNED WOMEN FOR AMERICA: I think the people at PBS see themselves as social agents.

BROWN: With Public Broadcasting under fire, a NEWSNIGHT conversation with Bill Moyers.

BILL MOYERS, JOURNALIST: Ideologues embrace a world view that can't be changed because they admit no evidence to the contrary.

BROWN: From New York on a Friday night, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: There's no fountain of youth, but the U.S. Supreme Court comes pretty close. Still even there, there are limits. William Rehnquist, the chief justice is 80 and fighting cancer. His colleague, Justice Stephens is 85. Even if Mr. Rehnquist decides not to announce his retirement, as expected over the summer, time and the law of averages may soon produce an opening on the court. And when it does, look out, that food fight over filibusters and nuclear options, consider that an appetizer.

Here's CNN's Joe Johns.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOHNS, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The battle over the Supreme Court is about to begin.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're not going to be caught unprepared.

JOHNS: Activists are huddled in their war rooms plotting strategy, rallying the ground troops.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It'd be a good idea to go over this with the field. Actually, when you are done with it, we can e-mail it out to them, so they'll have it in front of them.

JOHNS: In the video editing bays, television attack ads are waiting for someone to push the play button.

ANNOUNCER: The president nominated George Washington. Democrats attacked Washington for his environment record of chopping down cherry trees.

JOHNS: Conservative activist Chris Myers and his group, Progress for America, are preparing to defend the president's nominee, whoever it is, against an expected onslaught from liberals. They have organizers in 21 states and an $18 million war chest.

CHRIS MYERS, PROGRESS FOR AMERICA: We do know that if there is a retirement, that it will be defined quickly, we know the kinds of patterns that the left exhibits based upon the things they've done in the past.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right!

JOHNS: On the left, Ralph Neas, a 30 year veteran of these wars, sometimes called 101st senator for his civil rights advocacy.

RALPH NEAS, PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY: We're well-prepared for whatever happens, whether it's one, two or three possible, vacancies.

JOHNS: Neas and his group, People for the American Way, fear the president will nominate someone who will take a wrecking ball to civil liberties. They've already sent out a million pieces of mail with more to come once a nominee is named. And they're taking the fight to the Internet.

NEAS: We have registered a number of domain names, both with respect to the name of the campaign. And we want to make sure that we're ready to go from the very first moment. JOHNS: At the center of all this, 100 U.S. senators.

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY, (D) MASSACHUSETTS: If the president submits an in-your-face nomination to flaunt his power, it takes time and effort, and sweat and tears before the truth about the candidate is fully discovered.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And over the last four years, this president's judicial nominees have been labeled kooks, Neanderthals, and even turkeys. Respected public servants and brilliant jurists have been called scary and despicable.

JOHNS: Senator Arlen Spector, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, the primary battleground, warns it's a little early to get so worked up over a possible Rehnquist retirement.

SEN. ARLEN SPECTER, (R-PA) JUDICIARY COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: What he intends to do or what anyone else intends to do remains to be seen. But it is hardly the time, given the kind of confrontation in this body, which we have seen on the judicial nomination process, to be looking to pick a fight.

JOHNS: But with the stakes this high and the troops this ready, a fight is the one thing sure to happen.

Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: This has been another week of the apology: apologies either offered or demanded. Search apologies on Google news and you'll get more than 3,000 stories, even if a lot of them aren't worth the paper they're written on. That's a lot of apologies. And so with apologies to Ella Fitzgerald, some of them don't mean a thing if they ain't got that swing.

Here's CNN's Jeff Greenfield.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Love means never having to say your sorry.

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Well love, maybe, but when it comes to politics, no way.

(MUSIC)

GREENFIELD: When Illinois Senate Durbin compared prison abuses in Guantanamo to the Soviet gulag and to the Nazis, the Republicans demanded an apology.

JOHN MCCAIN, (R) ARIZONA: I think that Senator Durbin owes not only the Senate an apology -- I don't know if -- not censure would be in order, but an apology.

GREENFIELD: He did. DURBIN: Some may believe that my remarks crossed the line. To them, I extent my heartfelt apologies.

GREENFIELD: When White House political guru Karl Rove took a swipe at the liberal response to 9/11...

KARL ROVE, WHITE HOUSE POLITICAL ADVISER: Liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding to our attackers.

KING: Some Democrats called for contrition or dismissal.

SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER, (D) NEW YORK: Karl Rove has said many things and we understand he's a political infighter. But there's a certain line that you should not cross.

GREENFIELD: White House said, forget about it.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Senate apologized for not passing anti-lynching laws. Some 4,700 recorded lynchings of American blacks took place between 1882 and 1968.

And earlier this spring, President Bush apologized for the Yalta Agreements after World War II that left much of Eastern Europe under Soviet control.

(on camera): So why do politicians apologize? Well, sometimes it's because they recognize what history has already concluded, that an action or inaction was a serious wrong. Sometimes, it's because they realize they've made an actual misstatement. And sometimes, maybe most times, it's an attempt to save a political career.

(voice-over): President Clinton did all of this. He apologized for medical experiments at Tuskegee Institute in the 1930s that left black subjects untreated for syphilis. In Africa, he apologized for the slave trade and the inaction in Rwanda that left hundreds of thousands massacred. And of course, he also apologized for more personal matters.

CLINTON: I deeply regret that.

GREENFIELD: President Nixon, who was once quoted as saying, "contrition is bull" -- that's the PG version -- did apologize for Watergate, but only after he resigned.

Back in 1969, New York Mayor John Lindsay, facing a bleak reelection climate, won after acknowledging, "I've made mistakes," something New Yorkers really wanted to hear from their aristocratic mayor.

And the first President Bush sought to win back disaffected conservatives in 1992 by saying he was wrong to go along with tax increases. That wasn't enough to win him a second term.

(on camera): There are lots more fascinating examples of why and when politicians apologize, but we just don't have the time to show them all to you.

And for that, I'm really, really, deeply sorry.

Jeff Greenfield, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Coming up on NEWSNIGHT on this Friday, it's been six months as the wall of water smashed into houses and cities and lives across South Asia. We'll look at how or if aid has really reached those who need it.

And later, public television under fire from all directions. We'll talk with Bill Moyers. But we'll take a break. First, around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Tonight, we return to a corner of the world that was nearly wiped clean by the tsunami last December, Aceh province in Indonesia. In the half year that has passed, the rebuilding has begun. It's slow work when you start from square one.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): Six months and nearly $2 billion later, the scope of the recovery effort, according to various relief agencies in Aceh, can be measured by the numbers. A half a million were left homeless after the tsunami; a quarter of a million are still living in tents; 150,000 in government barracks; 100,000 others are home or living with relatives.

Housing reconstruction has moved very slowly. Three thousand to 4,000 homes have been rebuilt; 20,000 more should be completed in the next six months. But at least 100,000 more homes still need repair.

Fresh water, on the other hand, is available to almost all who need it; 480,000 people needed fresh water restored, now all but 60,000 have it.

Electrical power in Banda Aceh is at about 60 percent of the pre- tsunami level.

UNICEF reports that 200 temporary schools opened just this week; 90,000 children have been immunized against measles, and major outbreaks of other diseases have been averted.

The Indonesian government says 5,270 children lost one or both parents in Aceh. Another 56,000 were listed as missing or killed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Rebuilding all that was lost will take an enormous amount of money. Global pledges for tsunami relief now total more than $10 billion. Good intentions, of course, are one thing. Making good on them is another. Here's CNN's Chris Huntington. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From southern India to Indonesia, to Sri Lanka, lives that were wrecked by last year's tsunami are beginning to return to normal. But many are frustrated with the pace of reconstruction, and no one knows that better than Jan Egeland, the man in charge of disaster relief for the United Nations.

JAN EGELAND, U.N. UNDERSECRETARY GENERAL: Those who lost everything on the 26th of December are understandably impatient now, but it's a long, uphill battle to rebuild those thousands and thousands of destroyed communities.

HUNTINGTON (on camera): According to U.N.'s own accounting, global pledges for tsunami aid now total more than $10 billion. Nearly $6 billion from governments, and $4.5 billion from private and corporate donors, but soliciting pledges has been the easy part. The real trick now is to get those who promised to contribute to send in the money.

(voice-over): More than half of the government pledges have yet to be collected. The United States government, for instance, has made good on less than 40 percent of the more than $900 million pledged. That's worse than Japan and Great Britain, but better than Germany and France.

But American companies and private citizens lead the world with contributions of more than $1.5 billion.

Still, according to the nonprofit group Interaction, less than 20 percent of that $1.5 billion has reached the tsunami disaster zone. Roberta Cohen tracks international aid funding.

ROBERTA COHEN, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: It isn't happening fast enough. That's for sure. The money is taking a long time, because of local policies and local red tape and local ineptitude.

HUNTINGTON: There are increasing reports of bureaucratic roadblocks. Last month, hundreds of shipping containers filled with relief supplies piled up in an Indonesian port, stranded by paperwork.

The international aid group Oxfam was forced to pay 500,000 pounds to Sri Lankan customs officials to import 25 trucks. The money has since been refunded, but it slowed Oxfam's efforts.

Perhaps the biggest problem is sorting out land ownership in areas where the tsunami washed away almost all the landmarks, and where property records are spotty at best.

Aid worker Elizabeth Stevens just returned from Banda Aceh.

ELIZABETH STEVENS, OXFAM AMERICA: What we need here is a full- court press on the part of governments to resolve the land issues.

HUNTINGTON: Still, Stevens and others familiar with the reconstruction effort are optimistic, and say patience and persistence will pay off.

EGELAND: It takes five to 10 seconds for a tsunami to destroy thousands of communities. It could take five to 10 years to rebuild and build back better, which is our whole ambition.

HUNTINGTON: An ambition these children can only hope is fulfilled.

Chris Huntington, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: The numbers and the damage seem almost as shocking as the earthquake that caused them. But sometimes the biggest numbers, the hardest hitting are ones and twos -- mothers and fathers, children who don't have them anymore. CNN's Atika Shubert reports on the orphans of the tsunami.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are the children of the tsunami, many of them without homes or parents. It's tough for kids, but no less difficult for those leaving childhood behind -- not quite adults, but no longer children. Teenagers are forced to grow up fast in the wake of this disaster.

International aid group World Vision has set up child play areas, but now say youth programs are also needed to deal with he large number of adolescents stranded in the disaster.

MASRAWATI SINAGA, WORLD VISION: The difficult things with the teenagers is at the beginning, but once you can -- especially the difficult things are building trust.

SHUBERT (on camera): Few families want to adopt a rebellious teen, but imagine trying to maneuver through the confusion of adolescence without a mother or father, in fact, without knowing a single relative left alive.

(voice-over): Buhari and Hundani (ph) are 18 and 15-years-old. They're not related, but they're brothers, of a sort. When their families were swallowed by the tsunami, they found each other huddled in a mosque with thousands of other survivors yet, utterly alone.

"I'm not looking for my family anymore," he says. "I don't have any hope of finding them. If they are still alive, with luck, perhaps they'll find me. We're on our own now."

Instead, the boys created their own family when they met Madun Achmad a father who lost his wife and two teenage sons in the tsunami. They live together in a one-room temporary shelter.

MADUN ACHMAD, LOST WIFE AND SONS: I'm alone. He's alone. Bucari (ph) is alone. We're all lonely. He says. We thought how are we going to find a home on our own? So, we banded together and ended up here. SHUBERT: Madun looks for work during the day unsuccessful most of the time and cooks in the evenings. There's enough money for rice and a single egg, split between the three of them. The burden of raising two teenagers clearly wears on him.

Asked if the boys will stick together as a family, at first, Madun is hesitant. We probably shouldn't get any closer, he says jokingly, but the youngest Hamdani (ph) is reluctant to let go of the only family he has left.

The thing is, we, me and Buchari (ph) will stick together, he interrupts. We don't have anybody else. Madun nods in agreement, resigned to another evening at his temporary home with his temporary family.

Atika Shubert, CNN, Banda Aceh.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, a NEWSNIGHT conversation with legendary journalist Bill Moyers of PBS. And the problems of PBS too. We take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The Public Broadcasting Corporation dodged a bullet this week when lawmakers rejected in the House a 25 percent cut, $100 million in its funding. Republicans say the reason for the proposed cutbacks was money. Democrats say it's all about politics.

These are not easy days for Bert and Ernie. The fight on Capitol Hill isn't the only threat to its future. PBS is also taking fire from within. Here's CNN's Tom Foreman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Out in the suburbs on the edge of D.C., the Rosenbergs are public TV fans. Hannah and her mother have spent hours watching PBS fair.

HANNAH ROSENBERG, 11-YEARS-OLD: I think I watch Barney and Sesame Street and Arthur.

MELISSA ROSENBERG, PBS VIEWER: I think for the kids, it's respectful of their innocence, and educational.

FOREMAN: Not too many commercials.

M. ROSENBERG: Right, not too many commercials. And not the sort of screaming, yelling kinds of cartoons that you often see these days.

FOREMAN: Since National Public Television started in the '60s, it has gathered this kind of ardent supporter, people who admire the educational, cultural and social programming. Robert Knight, however, is not one of them. ROBERT KNIGHT, CONCERNED WOMEN FOR AMERICA: I think PBS has infused its programming with subtle messages that forward the liberal agenda.

FOREMAN: Knight is with Concerned Women for America, a conservative group that says PBS pushes liberal values in shows like this one on the lesbian lifestyle.

ANNOUNCER: Join WETA us as we recognize gay and lesbian pride throughout the month of June.

KNIGHT: I think the people at PBS see themselves as social agents. They see themselves as having this great forum, this great platform to push what they think will be the good society. And I don't think there are enough Christians and conservatives there to keep them in check.

FOREMAN: That may be changing. PBS gets its federal funding through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is led by Kenneth Tomlinson, a Republican. He hired a consultant to look for political bias on the PBS show, "Now" when it was hosted by Bill Moyers.

The newly appointed president of PBS, Patricia Harrison used to work with an official at the Republican National Committee. And this week Congress tried to slash a quarter of the PBS budget. Democrats howled

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON, (D) NEW YORK: Days like this, where we have to fight the Republican budget ax from targeting programs that are not only near and dear to children's hearts, but near and dear to parent's hearts.

FOREMAN: The bill was scrapped. But that infuriated many conservative critics who now want all taxpayer funding eliminated. They point out unlike the days when PBS started, today most homes have dozens of channels with shows about nature, art, culture, education.

And they say the popular PBS shows draw big corporate donors. They'll be fine.

KNIGHT: It's time they went out on their own. And if the good programs are there they'll draw support. If it's bad programming why should they get taxpayer money to go on air with it?

FOREMAN (on camera): Do you think as a liberal that public television should be more sensitive to conservative views?

M. ROSENBERG: I guess it's something we're going to have to look at. For me, sometimes it feels uncomfortable to hear those viewpoints. But I know that they're out there and I respect that.

FOREMAN: Lyndon Johnson launched PBS, saying television has revolutionary power to change our lives, and neither party should control it. Almost 40 years later, however, the battle over control continues. Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: For more than 30 years the name and reputation of journalist and author Bill Moyers has been linked with PBS. Mr. Moyers retired from his public television show "Now" last December. As a young congressional aide in the '60s, he witnessed the birth of PBS. From then to now has been quite a journey.

We spoke with him the other day. Is

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Is there a moment, when you became two organized conservative groups? Because I'm not sure it's true of people who are conservative politically necessarily, but organized conservative groups essentially journalistic Satan?

BILL MOYERS, JOURNALIST: There must be. Because suddenly I did sprout horn. They saw it. I didn't see it. I think it's because they didn't -- they weren't hearing what they wanted to hear from somebody who knows them very well. I tracked the conservatives for 40 years. I was in the Johnson campaign against Goldwater. I watched them grow. I did many documentaries about them when they emerged into power. I was the -- I offered Ronald Reagan the first hour on public broadcasting before he was a presidential candidate. I know these guys, and I don't buy their party line, and I don't spout their party line. And so there was a point at which they didn't like -- they weren't hearing what they wanted to hear, and I became their bad boy.

BROWN: John Leo, the columnist, was once talking about this question I think we're all living with now, sort of what media is. And he said, the problem with journalists is not their politics so much, is that they like certain kinds of stories. They like the little guy versus the big corporation. They like the underdog. And that then translates into or can be seen as political. And there's some truth to that, don't you think, that we do, in fact, like the story of the underdog, the little guy?

MOYERS: It was especially true when journalists had bookers and brokers -- I mean, instead of brokers, you know, when they made their bets instead of investing in the stock market. There's not a whole lot of reporting about it -- but yes, this -- I think anyone who grows up in a small town like I do, whose father never made more than $100 a year -- as mine -- $100 a week as mine did, I think we do -- we are concerned about the impact of policies on ordinary people.

In my own case, I've spent a lot of time, Aaron, reporting -- my first book was called "Listening to America." I've spent a lot of time listening to people talk about their struggles and listen to them define their hopes and dreams. And 80 million people in this country right now live in households making less than $25,000 a year. There's a big story, not a dramatic story, but an important story.

BROWN: If you look at this sort of body of your life, it's been an extraordinary body of work. You know, the one thing I need to get done is, whatever it is, I need to learn to play tennis or I need to write one more book or shoot one more film or write a novel. Is there one thing unfinished that -- more than anything else?

MOYERS: I've often thought of doing the book of life in progress, of trying to figure out what is it that makes us who we are. What choices do we -- we come to what's called that crucial moment in our lives -- a crucial moment is defined in the Oxford book of dictionary as a moment when you choose between two hypothesis. And I'd like to know why I chose that instead of this. I mean, I'd like to do I guess a book of self-reflection, but there's so much going on, and I have so many opportunities to continue to do some television specials, to do a book on the '60s, when I was a young man, under Kennedy and Johnson. I've got to still, as we all do, make some choices.

BROWN: Are you uncomfortable right now -- you have become in this grand debate over what public television is and ought to be -- and that's actually an interesting question about the degree in which we need public television in -- in a mass -- with so much media out there. But are you uncomfortable at the center of this storm, because you were there? Or is that OK?

MOYERS: It's OK with me, because it's unfortunate that the present fight has been cast as a feud between Kenneth Thomas, the chairman of CPB, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and Bill Moyers. It's bigger than that. It's about how much government should influence journalism, how much government should control programming.

But I'm not uncomfortable, because I'm defining myself in this. You're often defined by those who disagree with you, and I found in this that I'm better able than ever to articulate why we do need public broadcasting.

I ran a two-page ad in "The Washington Post" on Tuesday of this week, called (INAUDIBLE) Moyers about what public -- I was present at the creation. I was a young White House policy aide in 1964, attending my first meeting on the future of educational television at the Department of Education. I've watched this thing grow. It's flawed, but you know, I like the way you talk about television as a democracy, people vote every time they spin that remote or click that button.

I think one of those choices on which they should be free to vote is a choice that is free of commercials and free of commercial values. We started public broadcasting 40 years ago to provide an alternative to what the market was providing, a channel that was free of commercials and free of commercial values.

We don't always honor that. Some of the promotions on public broadcasting smack of commercializing, and some of our programs can dumb down just like commercial television. But as people vote on how they want to spend their leisure time, where they want to get their information, they are voting for public broadcasting in sufficient numbers to justify the very small amount of money that we get from the taxpayer. BROWN: People can say a lot of things about you, and do, but dumbing down anything is not one of them. It's nice to see you. And...

MOYERS: Thank you.

BROWN: (INAUDIBLE) talk to you.

MOYERS: I think this is the most serious and informative program in prime-time, and if that's flattery, then so be it.

BROWN: It is -- I am deeply appreciative of that. Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Bill Moyers. We talked with him the other day. We'll check some of the day's other headlines after the commercials.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: At about a quarter to the hour, time for one last look at the headlines. Sophia Choi in Atlanta, good to see you again.

CHOI: Hey, nice to see you, too, Aaron.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy thinks lawyers need to start defending judges. In a speech today in Florida, Justice Kennedy said, there's nothing wrong with criticizing cases, but lawyers should explain the judicial process when judges come under attack, and he said, criticism should not be aimed at individual judges or the judiciary as a whole.

Eric Robert Rudolph is now online, writing about how he survived on the run from police after the Olympic bombing in 1996. Rudolph is waiting sentencing after pleading guilty to the Olympic bombing and the bombing of abortion clings. In an article on an anti-abortion Web site, he says he survived by eating corn, wheat and soy beans he stole from farm silos.

The House of Representatives has voted more than two to one to ban Medicare and Medicaid payments for erectile dysfunction drugs like Viagra. A Congressional Budget Office report said without the ban, the government could have spent $2 billion on the anti-impotence drugs over the next 10 years.

Well, barely a word was said, but two famous statues in Washington at the Department of Justice are bare again. The statues were quietly unveiled as blue drapes came down. The statues have been there since the 1930s, but former Attorney General John Ashcroft ordered blue drapes in 2002 to cover the bare breast of the Spirit of Justice statue and the bare-chested male statue called Majesty of Law. With the drapes, there was no danger of photographers catching him in an embarrassing pose.

And Aaron, it's pretty hard not to say that this is just an end of another Washington cover-up. And a reminder right here, again tonight: The new feature at CNN.com -- if you click the video link, you'll be able to see the day's best news clips at your leisure, as often as you want and at no cost -- Aaron?

BROWN: Thank you. I can afford that. Have a good weekend.

CHOI: You, too.

BROWN: Eighteen years ago, she was a miracle toddler who defied the odds at the bottom of the well: As part of our anniversary series "Then and Now" tonight we look back at Jessica McClure and where she is today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Baby Jessica was everyone's baby, back in October of 1987. The 18-month-old fell 22 feet into an abandoned well shaft just eight inches wide, while playing in her aunt's back yard in Midland, Texas.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE; With the Lord's help and with your prayers, we know that little girl's going to make it.

ZAHN: The world watched, as hundreds of rescuers drilled, hammered and chiseled. She was finally pulled to safety, three days later.

Since then, Jessica McClure has had more than a dozen surgeries and still bears scars from her ordeal on her forehead and thigh. Her parents, who divorced after the rescue, have gone to great lengths to keep Jessica out of the media spotlight.

She quietly graduated from Greenwood High School in Midland, last year. She's now 19 years old and attends Midland Community College. Public donations went into a trust fund, which is reportedly in excess of $1 million, that she'll receive when she turns 25. The well she fell into is still there, albeit capped, in the back yard of a now vacant home. Rescuers put a small plaque on it, shortly after Jessica's rescue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It says: For Jessica, 10-16-87, with love from all of us.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: OK, time to check morning papers from around the country, around the world. Iraq -- I almost hurt myself taking off my glasses.

"Chattanooga Times Free Press:" Bush refuses to set troop pullout date -- president not giving up on Iraq mission. The president goes on national television on Tuesday night from Fort Bragg to talk about Iraq. I don't think he'll be coming there in a flight suit this time, no mission accomplished sign. I think this will be a more sober talk.

"Dallas Morning News:" Lotto chief says prizes exaggerated -- director agreed to advertising bigger jackpots to boost sales. That's dishonest, not only are the odds about as likely as getting struck by lightning twice, but then you find out you get shortchanged.

This is a good story, down in Dallas: Report on air traffic cover up, details close calls over Dallas-Ft. Worth airport.

Self-reporting, hmmm.

A sign of summer -- the "Des Moines Register:" Ten things not to miss at the arts festival.

I don't think you should miss anything at the arts festival.

"Rocky Mountain News:" Mingling with the masses -- U.S. woman's golf open is there. Michelle Wei proving she belongs, just a shot or two off the pace.

"The Daily News:" -- we told about this story last night -- The news gets action -- nutty 9/11 art nixed. Governor Pataki bans anti- American drawings from ground zero site. That seems reasonable. If you're in Chicago tomorrow, dress with as little as possible, because the weather tomorrow in Chicago will be twice baked.

We'll wrap it up for the week, in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Good to have you with us, tonight and this week. Stay cool over the weekend, it's hot in a lot of the country. We'll see you on Monday.

Until then, good night, for all of us.

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