in order for all americans to prosper. the sabinos and the williams and the bowlinss, we need to prosper too. that's our show for today. give me a big hug. >> hi, everyone. this is aljazeera america. i'm john seigenthaler in new york. pakistan horror, scores of children slaughtered in school. who is behind the attack? an extraordinary move to prop up russia's economy. why it might not work. under surveillance, police body cameras now mandatory for one of the biggest forces in the country. and prior knowledge. what made the comic legend tick. we'll talk to the man who wrote the book on richard pryor.

we begin tonight with the horror in pakistan, and shock around the world. taliban gunmen stormed a school in the city of bashar today, and the attack lasted for hours. when it was over, 140 people were dead, almost all of them children. shocked families stood over the injured. witnesses said that the gunmen fired at random, their primary goal to kill as many as possible. >> reporter: it was an attack many people in pakistan had feared would eventually come. the blowback, as the taliban takes its revenge on the army for launching a military campaign against it. but no one thought the target would be a school.

>> we ran, there were six or seven attackers and they were entering the classrooms and shooting the children one-by-one. >> more than 130 children are dead. one of the worst attacks in pakistan for years. some of the students were on the floor, lying under their desks, terrified, listening to the gunfire around them. this student said that he was in the hall when the firing started. he saw some children shot dead. and he said his teacher was also shot and his body set on fire. outside of the hospital, parents checked lists to see if their children were there. the taliban said that it carried out the attack in response to the army's attack against it. a response from the group has released this statement. [ foreign dialogue ] >> >> interpreter: they burned our homes, and we have advised our comrades, if

there's an underaged child, he should be given a way out. there's a primary section, and there's another section that we hit. we know that there are no under-aged children there. >> reporter: the offense it's against the taliban started six months ago. the military said that it has killed more than 1800 fighters and destroyed camps and weapons stores. >> the government and the army has begun the operation against militants, and the results are good. and this operation will continue until we banish this terrorism from our country. >> as soon as it started, the siege was over, all of the gunmen were killed. the group has proved it's point. if anyone thought that they were on the backslide, here's what they can go. and the challenge is to prevent it from happening again.

>> president obama called the act an act of depravity. and the u.s. stands against such violent acts. jamie mcintyre is at the white house with more. jamie. >> john, this attack is the latest in what has been an increasing number of taliban attacks on both sides of the afghanistan/pakistan border. and the children of the pakistani military were targeted and it shows that the taliban are feeling the pressure from pakistan's armed forces. the u.s. denounced the attack on the military-run high school in the strongest terms. secretary of state kerry said that it was carried out by what he called taliban assassins, who serve a dark and almost medieval vision. >> the images are absolutely gut wrenches. young children carried away in bans ambulances, a teacher burned alive in front of the students, a house of learning turned into a house of

unspeakable horror. >> the attacks by the taliban are increasingly with children. a bomber blew himself up during a musical performance. transitionition into the support role of relatively small number of u.s. and international troops, roughly 12,000. despite the stepped up attacks, the white house said that there will be no further adjustment in the timeline to bring all remaining u.s. troops home from afghanistan in the next two years. >> the president is committed to making sure that we remain on track for the drawdown that he has outlined for our military presence in afghanistan. >> the pentagon insists that unlike iraq, with the brutal offensive with rebels, they are up to the task of taking on the taliban. >> you have a much more robust

afghan security force, ready to defend their citizens, and they're doing it quite well. >> the role doesn't end for two more weeks, and it's in reality already over. the uss afghan forces are conducting all of the missions inside of afghanistan. and the u.s. officials point out that last morning the it's the real key to defeating the taliban, increased cooperation between the two rival nations. the u.s. has told pakistan that it will help in any way it can in the battle against the taliban, but it notes that pakistan already has a very capable military and it has not requested any assistance. john? >> jamie. thank you. who are the pakistani and the taliban, and what would they want? >> they provide each other

fighters and supplies, and in fact, the pakistani taliban has been growing as the u.s. weakens the afghan taliban, and the group has been stepping up its attacks. the school is the latest and most violent carried out. the group has launched attacks that include targeting a 15-year-old girl, who had become a global ikeen, to bombing hotels and military bases, and the group influenced a group who tried to set off a car ban. >> today is a warning sign that the taliban is alive. >> pakistan taliban have killed tens of thousands. marion lost a son in a suicide bomb, and now she struggles to support the family. >> at times, we have no food. and i know they have a miserable life, but what else can i do and. >> as they suffer, the taliban

have grown. they have emerged from 2007 from neighboring afghanistan, pushed out by u.s. forcers, and now it's an embrella organization, composed of 30 groups aligned with al qaeda, and trying to impose harsh islamic law. >> while we have the government, there's going to be an element that's going to decide who should run it. >> pakistan's prime minister came into office to negotiate with the fall ban, but an attack in june at the airport ended that hope. after the country launched a massive offensive, targeting the taliban on the northern border. thousands have been killed. and hundreds of thousands forced from their homes. but pakistan's army says that the strikes are working, pushing the taliban out.

not completely blunt in power. >> it's a critical point in the history of the nation of pakistan. maintaining the military power, and they have to have talks with these elements. pakistani taliban does have strong following. critic say that pakistan works with parts of them whilele -- >> hussein is a former pakistani ambassador to the united states, and now he's the director of the hudson substitute. he's in washington tonight. and welcome, it's good to have you on the program. could you explain why this happened? >> basically, it happened because the taliban has presented an ideology that allows such things happen. it's not a normal organization, and it's not people with the kind of world view that you and i understand.

they attack the military headquarters, because the pakistani military attacked them. and that would have at least made some sense. attacking children, who could not feedback, who are helpless, basically, it's the aim way of thinking as boko haram in nigeria or isis in syria. no sensible reason explains it. only their ideology does. >> can you tell us the reaction in pakistan and what you've heard? >> pakistanis are obviously grieved and all saddened by this, and we're also outraged. and what we need to see if the grief and the outrage transforms into serious policy which brings pakistan out of this mess that has been created over the last three decades. pakistan fought alongside the united states against the soviet union in afghanistan. and the jihad started then, but

pakistan is had have demobilized these groups at that time. but instead, pakistan decided to use them for regional objectives. and unfortunately, it has now been proven that whether the group is global, regional or local, it basically wants to kill people that it does not agree with, and in this instance, kill children that belong to people that don't agree with. >> pakistan is a democratic country, and they participate in elections and see how many people rote for this point of view. there are islamic political parties in pakistan that get a share of the votes. but taliban, i don't think would have much support. what they present is an extreme rue and an extreme belief system. and that's why they want to impose it by force. look, in entire islamic

history, there's no example of a massacre of children of this nature to avenge anything. muslims have had many historic instances where their enemies have gone against them. and they have tried to get even through means that are deemed to be legitimate. such actions reflect a group that is actually born in the 20th century, but wants to drag our people into the 7th. >> you know, i remember after nine 9/11, i had a conversation with a pakistani official who said, you don't understand the world of pakistanis and other area. we're like the wild wild west was early if your country. do you feel that way? >> absolutely not. absolutely not. whoever said that was just putting forward a narrative

that has come to harm pakistan. pakistan was, until 1947, or most of pakistan was until 1947, part of the indian continent. and it produced art and literature and culture. the taj mahal came out of the same culture that is represented by the new country of pakistan that was born in 1947. as far as the pakistani are concerned, they have chosen to be less modern in the past. but they liked to use modern gadgets and therefore should also be open to modern ideas if the opportunity was given. unfortunately, the pakistan he's pursued the global policy of keeping their travel areas separate from the rest of the country. but look, pakistanis are essentially people who aspire to be muslims, but muslims in the 21st century. and they do not believe in using force and coercion, and

very frankly, the islamic holy book clearly says that there's no coercion in religion, because you can not force people to be pius, and if anybody thinks that by killing children and massacring them in the school that they will somehow make society more pius, they're definitely delusional. >> but you know that there are people in this country and other countries around the world that will say that this is about religion. what do you say? >> well, if it was about religion, there are more than 1 billion muslims in the world, and not all of them are taliban. they are distorting religion, and using it to if i want their attitudes. the truth of the matter is, if this were a religion, it would happen throughout islamic history. islam has been around for 14 centuries, and when did muslims go into schools and reques withy

provocation, kill children in and to say that they're young children and old children, and to say, we only picked the ones that are 13 and 14 and 15, and we spared the ones that were five and six and seven, it's just an argument. and it's not justified by anything that has happened in islamic history. even afghan taliban find it difficult to support it. >> thank you very much. voices from every corner of the world are condemning this attack, and none more powerful or poignant than malala yousafzai. >> in pakistan, the political parties, and everyone that we should stand up together and fight against terrorism. and we should make sure that every child gets safe and quality education. >> she was shot by the taliban

after speaking out for girl's education. last week, she became the youngest person to receive the nobel peace prize. we'll have more on the pakistan attack in the next half hour, including why they're targeting children in schools. and russia's black tugs. the country's economy on the brink of a major crisis.

>> economic sanctions and plunging oil prices have sent russia's currency into a free fall today. catastrophic lows, with foreign products, and putting new pressure on vladimir putin. >> like a fox chewing off its snared leg, the russian central bank's huge rate hike is a savage attempt to solve a

savage problem. for the final borrower, it will be 22%. and at this rate, the investment process stops for most marketplaces, except for a few very big profit industries, and a few companies for whom a special independent rate is set. but i in general, the investment process will stop. >> it's likely to inflict on russia, the economy will be in vain. just a few hours before the spike of the ruble. and it was over and continued it's tumble. there's not of that individual russians can do about this. so this website advocates a little calm. watch the ruble fall against the dollar and along with the oil price in realtime, to a new age soundtrack, a ship, as it

hits the iceberg as the ruble sinks below the waves. >> i dropped a ruble down there, goes this joke, let me down further, i can't see the bottom. but despite the black humor, this is no laughing matter. the mortgage that the people have on their homes are in dollars, and the kremlin will be watching closely to see this doesn't spread. >> they will take my flat. i have to pay $2,828 every month. it's unbearable how much it costs now. also, i have to pay insurance mortgage, which is also dollars, and the dollars grows so quickly, by mother and daughter will end up on the streets soon. >> blink, and the boards change again. russians can't see the bottom, but they know they're not there

yet. >> and the money correspondent, patricia joins us now. and patricia, they raised it from 10 to 17% in the middle of the night. and it was an attempted quick fix. did it work? >> no, and it wreaked of desperation because russian central bank has spent $80 million in defending the ruble. and the markets, they smelled blood in the water and went in for the kill. but how does it feel if you're in moscow right now? imagine you go to bed and you have an adjustable rate mortgage at 4% and now it's at 13%. >> have people lost confidence in russia's economy. >> let's start with oil, this is where they had the lion's share of revue. the kremlin was counting on it

next year, and the price of crude has fallen to around $60 a barrel. that's a serious shortfall. and it tiles the kremlin's hands to maneuver around sanctions. >> which partly of the sanctions have had the biggest effect? >> by far, the biggest are sanctions that have targeted banks and firms that really limit their access to capital. and this is making it really really difficult for these firms that have debt. debt and dollars by the way, to be able to refinance that. so you can imagine, as the ruble goes weaker and weaker against the dollar, these firms go more and more into the red. the thing that precipitated it, government bail out of roznet. this is a huge energy firm. but more firms will be going to the kremlin saying bail us out too. >> so back in 1998, when russia defaulted on its debt, what's different this time. >> the difference is back?

1998, russia had no arrives, anreserves,and as of december 5e up to $16 billion. that's a nice cushion, but they can't access all of those reserves as easily as you may think. >> the propaganda continues on television, and putin is popular now, but how long can that last with the tumbling ruble and the people of russia? >> putin controls the media, and that means that the controls the narrative, and this is being positioned that the russian people have top band together, because the west is basically trying to strong arm russia to tell it what it should be doing in its own neighborhood. and right now, putin's popularity is still very very high. >> what impact does that have on the u.s. economy. >> right now, we're insulated and europe is feeling the pain

because they're more closely integrated with russia's economy. and they have felt a lot of pain. germany has really been affected but right here in the u.s., we're not dealing with t. >> russia's economic woes are having an impact. and today, apple stopped having sales in that country. the company did so because of the ruble's extreme fluctuations. the sales will remain closed as it revolts the pricing. in november, apple raised prices in russia. the first primaries in the 2016 election are more than a year away, but today, jeb bush took the first step in throwing his hat in the ring. >> it was a jeb bush announcement that his supporters have been hoping for much the former governor of florida pointed to thanksgiving discussion was his family. and he said as a result of these conversations and what america needs, i have decided

to actively pursue the possibility of running for president of the united states. i will establish a political action committee, raising money for the potential presidential campaign. over the weekend, he deposited the question he has been asking himself. >> do i have what it takes to go through a campaign and be capable of leading this country? that's a humbling thought if you're really serious about it. and the second thing, is it the right thing for my family. >> the family includes his father, president george h.w. bush, and older brother, forer president, george w. bush, who has been encouraging him for months. >> i think he would be a very good president. >> but concern over his wife's columbia's privacy. >> that's why i love her, she's my balance. >> jeb bush is 61 years old and

he's likely to start the republican party establishment. his fund-raising capabilities are second to none. he's fluent in spanish, and he's very popular with hispanic voters, a traditional democratic stronghold. but in republican primaries, bush may be vulnerable to attacks from the right over his immigration core and education guidelines. >> i think my beliefs are good, solid, conservative thought. >> on monday, after receiving an honorary degree in south carolina, bush told students, whatever action they choose in life, they should choose first for themselves. >> you can do what you want to do. and in fact, life is a lot better if you find your own reasons to do your own things. >> still, the bush family name carries certain expectations, including that you will run and

not just explore. jeb bush says that on that count, his supporters will be hearing from him soon. david schuster. aljazeera, new york. >> coming up next, the korean war vet. the journalist who got that exclusive story. plus: >> a day in the life of a police bold camera. >> and he was one of the giants of the american comedy. what you don't know about richard pryor is next. ♪

make the best entertainment part of your holidays. catch all the hottest handpicked titles on the winter watchlist, only with xfinity from comcast. >> this is aljazeera america. i'm john seigenthaler in new york. >> detained, a u.s. veteran held in north korea, and why he says that yang is still fighting the korean war. and the lapd gets body cameras, how they work and do they make a difference? super bugs, drug resistent

bacteria found in brazil. what it could mean for the next olympics. and richard pryor. brilliant. hilarious, travel. the legacy of a comic genius, way ahead of his time. funerals are already underway for some of the 140 victims of the school massacre in pakistan. vigils line the streets of the city today. and more than 130 of those killed were children. and over 100 others were wounded. the government from the pakistani taliban were behind the attack on the military-run school. it's the deadliest attack by the taliban since 2007. why would she kill children? the attack was by no means random. >> reporter: the schools for the taliban represent western

values in the pakistani government. and add to the fact, the pakistani government institution. in their campaign, according to human rights groups, it will go down as one, if not the single worst attack to on a school anywhere, ever. and it's so unprecedented, so horrific and gruesome, even in a country that's used to so many attacks. in the past, the pakistani had launched attacks against the ghq. and the police training grounds, and the police training grounds in karachi this year, earlier this year against the airport. burr over the last six months, the pakistani military operation, in the tribal areas on the afghan border, has

reduced their ability to launch those attacks, and some are calling the attacks like today a sign of desperation, a sign that they can't get to the profile place that they used to. the other sim glitc symbolism o, the one of terror. the one of pakistani parents and children are not safe anywhere. but today, really, and this evening is about standing with pakistan. so many people coming out and so many americans and so many people, indian, and historic pakistani enemies, saying that we're shoulder to shoulder on such a brutal day. 132 children killed simply because they were going to school. jon? >> north korea is weighing in on the cia interrogations, calling the methods brutal and medieval t today, they called for an investigation. north korea's human rights record is already on the

agenda, and some are pushing for an investigation by the international criminal court. pressure from the u.n. may have contributed to the recent release of american captives by north korea. kenneth bay, and matthew todd miller was set free last month. bay was held for more than two years, accused of crimes against the state. and miller was accused of spying. also accused of spying, 85-year-old korean war vet, meryl newman. the first to get the full account of his attention, it's in the book, the last pow. mike is in hong kong tonight. and did newman have any idea that he would be targeted by the north koreans? >> no, he didn't. what's interesting about this story, newman went to north korea on a tourist trip, that

as he told me, he cooked up with a fellow resident with the retirement home where he lives in palo alto, california. and he was wear that other korean war veterans had visited north korea without any trouble, and he thought that he would be okay. but what he did not fully realize was that for the north koreans, the korean war has never really ended. and newman had a particularly interesting in the korean war, because he was an adviser to a group called the white tigers, which is a precursor of the u.s. special forces, and he advised anti-communist korean guerillas, who operated behind the north korean lines. and when the nort north koreans realized that there was a connection with this group, and the demonology is high, and they hated these people, and that's what got him in trouble.

>> what mistakes did he make when he was in north korea? >> i think the only real mistake he made was being naive enough to any that after 60 years, that the nort north kore, like the japanese, the germans had gotten over the war. what i got from him in getting his story, the group that he had advised during the korean war, they operated with a scenic area of north korea, they called themselves the comrades, and when he discovered that it was a tourist spot to visit, he asked to visit. and the north koreans agreed. he mentioned if there were any people from wanted war still around and mentioned in

passing, maybe there are some folks that i know. and that got a very paranoid north korean security app rat us very suspicious, so they detained this 85-year-old grandfather and accused him of being a spy, as preposterous as that seems. >> how is it different from kenneth bae or matthew miller? >> as i recount in my new e book, the last p.o.w., newman is definitely in somewhat of a different category. he went to north korea, wholly unaware that his past was going to catch up with him. and apart from these very casual comments, he didn't do anything to particularly set off any alarm bells. in contrast, kenneth bae, who was recently released but had been sentenced to a very long prison term, he had used two groups that he was using as a

front to proselytize his christian faith. in the club, the language bible, again, proselytizing inside of the room, which the korean regime takes great offense to. but the crime, in the eyes of the north koreans, dated back to the korean war. and it was a very different kind of situation, and then once the north koreans had him in custody, they interrogated him. and at a certain point, it became clear that they made a mistake, and then the challenge was, how do you figure out how to let this guy go without losing face, after taking the drastic step of detaining him. >> mike, you've been to north korea seven times, and can you talk about the u.s. relationship with north korea and the sony story, where the accusations have flown that north korea has hacked into sony's computer system.

>> well, the u.s. relationship with north korea is extremely fraught and it has been so since the end of the korean war, and there's no sign today that that is going to change. obama administration has made it very clear that it's not willing to engage in bilateral dialogue with the nort north koreans, and it's pressing them to agree in advance to commit to the eventual goal of getting rid of its nuclear weapons before any deployments can get underway. and the north koreans in the absence of that, are moving ahead on their nuclear program. so i think overtime, this is a very worrisome situation. in terms of this film, the interview, i think from the north korean perspective, it's a system where the leader is treated as a god-like figure, and that's true for the current

leader, kim jong un and his father and grandfather. and to have that in a country that essentially mocks kim jong un, and shows his assassination, it's something that unquestionably would set the north koreans off. whether or not they were behind the hacking of sony, it's certainly possible, but it's understandable that in that kind of system, making fun of and talking about the assassination of the figure that the north koreans revere as a god, would make them very very angry. >> mike, the book is called the last p.o.w.. and it's good to see you. thank you very much for joining us. we appreciate it. in los angeles, police officers will soon be wearing body cameras. the city's mayor announced today that l.a. will start by buying 7,000 cameras using

money from private donations. calls from wider use of body cameras took off in august after the police shooting of michael brown in ferguson, missouri. president obama joined those calls proposing $75 million. with the work and the problems they present. allen joins us from seattle with more on that. allen. >> john, it sounds like a great idea, doesn't it? put it all on video. but we're talking about digital mobile camera systems, operated by human beings, so machines, humans, and plenty of room for error in that. there are things that the public should know about how this works and what the rough spots might be. we won't to a town outside of seattle. a small police force, where 16 officers had been wearing body cameras for the last eight months. >> nick takes the camera out of

the charging station, and sticks it on his chest. it rides with him and his dog for the rest of the day. >> it's just a new thing, and it's not that hard. it's a simple on, and it's a simple off. >> it took a little bit much training, but not that much. it's not always obvious when it's actually recording. i thought that i recorded a lot of videos, and i look down, and it's not. and the more -- >> hoke let's everybody know they're on camera. >> this is being recorded. >> and says that he has never had a complaint about the interactioning recorded. >> can't hurt. i don't think it can hurt, right? >> police departments all over the country are trying to figure out rules for when to use cameras, and when not to. when to turn them on and when to turn them off. they have discretion. what are cases where you turn it off and don't record? >> we won't record medical aid, or if we're responding to

another police jurisdiction, and they're taking over, we won't record that. >> what about criminal investigation? >> if it's sensitive, and there's an informant, we won't record that. >> you'll turn it off. >> and it's off. >> even when it's on, the camera won't catch everything around him. >> i'm facing straight ahead. and if i look over there, it's not seeing it all. >> maybe it ought to be orange, you're on camera. >> at the end of the shift, there's work to do. >> uploading it can take 20, 30, 45 minutes, depending on how many videos i have done. >> the video goes in the doc, and the officers label dates, and categorize each interaction. >> they have no ability to change or modify the videos. >> andy is one of the sergeants

that has power. >> the only time that i can destroy anything is when i delete t the original is always maintained. >> we got him a freedom of information request like anybody of the public could. redacted is part of the release. certain things like documents are blocked out to regard privacy. that soaks up a lot of time. the department makes a recent request, all of the body cam video would have taken through 2017 to process. the request has been withdrawn, and the cameras will keep rolling. >> it's progressive in modern police department to record all of this stuff. we're going to continue to use them. we think it's an important tool. >> a tool that could be used by 50,000 police officers across the u.s., with funding from the obama administration. >> american cance "america tonig

in depth on police body cams, and joie chen has a preview. >> we're going to look at costs, communities and cameras. classes with law enforcement increasingly recorded by citizens and their cellphones, and video records on the officers. can it work to determine what really happened in the coral clashes between communities and law enforcement sworn to protect them. and does it work? in the few communities already using them to keep cops in check? >> back in the day, you get them, su throw them down, you do all of this, and -- >> you rough them up a little. >> but having that camera on me, when i grab them, and i remember, the camera, the camera, the camera. >> we're going to look into that at the top of the hour. >> the fda has approved a blood

test that could predict your risk of heart disease. it identifies the biomarker that's associated with artery-clogging flack. it's particularly effective for women, especially african-american women. >> a recent report says that so-called super bugs will one day kill more people each year than cancer. and now researchers say that super bugs in brazil could spell trouble for the upcoming olympics, and morgan is here. >> super bugs and super scary. brazil will be hosting millions of tourists for the 2016 olympics, but the waters around rio could be a big concern for those very travelers. the beautiful waters of rio de janeiro, and more recently, the home to a super bacteria. scientists have found a bug

that is powerful enough to not be resistent to antibiotics, the bacteria productions an enzyme, kpc. it's usually only found in hospitals, and so how did it get into the waters of rio? more than half of the water that flows into the bay is actually sewage. so far, it's not causing much alarm among beachgoers. >> i come to this beach all the time. and i'm not worried. >> it's polluted, but it's not a big deal. you just jump in, and you're refreshed. >> but the world health organization is worried. a warning about the rising of super bugs. doctors say that anti-bacteria strains have spread all over the planet and it could lead to an antibiotic area where common

things can kill. and a report from the british government paints a frightening picture. right now, antibiotic drugs account for 20,000 deaths a year, but super bugs could kill 10 million people a year by 2050, and the cost of tretting them. $100 trillion. and in the meantime, doctors need to stop prescribing so many antibiotics. >> the ones that we're treating are adapting dwill, and we're running out of antibiotics. we try to arriv reserve them for those who need them and for the minimum duration. >> they are found to cause gastrointestinal problems. coming up next, the picture of the day, and plus, the genius and the tragedy of richard pryor.

>> good evening, we're looking at a big snow storm in the area of the great lakes and wisconsin as well. over to the east, rain showers that are moving through parts of new york, long island and connecticut, behind it, rain showers, and we're going to pick up more tonight. so tonight in ne in new york, is going to be rainy through the morning.

in new england, quite a bit of snow on wednesday, specifically up here in the northern parts of maine and new hampshire and vermont, 3-4 inches there. as we go to thursday, things get a little bit better. but if you're traveling to new york to see the 8 5-foot tree in rockefeller center, things getting better in the coming days, but if you stay to sunday, things start to go downhill. rainy conditions mixed with snow, and things are on the way down. texas, a flood situation that we'll see building tomorrow. and it's going to be a major problem starting on wednesday and thursday, and then in this area in northern and eastern texas, 4-6 inches of rain in a 48-hour period that will affect northern louisiana and arkansas there as well. dallas, you're going to be seeing rain all the way to the next couple of days, ending on friday morning.

it's not looking too bad. that's the national weather. and more news coming up right after this.

>> we have one more psychological test that we have here, word association, and if i say dog, you say. >> tree. >> tree. dog. >> tree. >> that's the start of a classic sketch from saturday night live, where richard pryor hosted the show, and that's about all we can show you from it. he can be pretty rough when he wanted to be. pryor was a comic genius, tortured and troubled, but incredibly they wanted. critics, ahead of his time. and now, surprising events about his life and legacy are emerging in a new biography, the coming richard pryor.

scott is the author of that. and good to see you. ten years of research in this. and richard pryor was a guy who tried to keep his life and a lot of information private, right? >> well, he performed his life. so his life became a legend through these virtuoso performances but there were many details that he was protective. his family was involved with legal activity. and they didn't want to talk. >> what, other than that, did we learn about richard pryor? he had a rough life, right? >> one thing i learned, how much violence saturated his childhood. growing up in the brothel, hearing screams in the middle the night and not knowing who they were coming from, and waiting to find out how that would resolve. and i think that that made him

a very observant person, being a child and knowing that violence could breakout any moment. and he knew too that life was not simple. the person that raised him, a madam, and she went to church on sundays. and the good people of peoria, they came to the brothel on saturday nights. so this was a cynical view of how the world operated. >> his appearance on saturday night live, what happened that night? >> well, he came to saturday night live wanting to change the complex of the whole show. that meant that he wanted to have more people write, and more black writers, and he wanted to inject racial issues into the whole of the show. so we see that saturday night live became race conscience more than ever before. and in the clip that you started, he starts to deal with the "n" word. >> how did they deal with

pryor? >> he can be unpredictable onset. but the 70s were a great time when people were willing to take risks on new kinds of talent. so pryor, when he came onset, he continued to improvise. he was a great improvising actor. and he would change the films that he was involved in. several times, he was just given a cameo role, and he turned it into the third billed star. he was electrifying, and so many people said that he was like having an uninsulated wire. he just gave all of that juice into anything that he touched. >> i can remember in the 70s, being at my uncle's house, and my cousin and i were listening to a richard pryor record. and my uncle came in listening to the profanity and he broke the record into about 20 pieces. how have things changed since the 1970s when he used that

profanity. >> well, you can't show the clips, and i think that pryor has a great legacy for artists in america for comedians and performers. he said that nothing was off-limits, and that was to go with the dark spaces of himself. and to go with the most touching issues of society and do whatever was necessary to explore those. >> do you think that we need one richard pryor to to push the culture? do you think that that's what he did? >> i think there's the school of pryor. all of these comedians that come after him, carrying on different parts of his legacy. so you have experimental comedians that will be doing different things on fringing channels, and then chris rock. he's the alpha and omega of american comedy, and there are

very few comedians that don't claim him. >> and you say -- >> trying to fly towards the sky, and having your wings melt. and falling to the ground. he became the star that he always dreamed of being, but stardom itself was kind of a tragic bargain. he got so much. and it was very hard for him to handle. so in the end, he does burn himself up a lot. >> it is a tragic story. he was an amazing figure. becoming richar richard pryor ie book. and coming up, why the vatican launched a six year investigation into thousands of american nuns and what they found. what could relief catch's historic drought. that's coming up at 9:00 eastern time. hanukkah, the lighting of

the first menorah candle. this is from moscow, the festival of lights. that's our program. thank you for watching. i'm john seigenthaler. "america tonight" is now and see you at 11:00 eastern time.

on "america tonight," eye to eye. we look at cops, communities, and cameras. how new mini cams worn by officers catch all the action and can keep cops in check. >> back in the day, you get them and throw them down and do all this, and they might have to rough them up a little bit. having that camera on me when i grabbed him, and i remember the camera, the camera, the camera. >> michael oku in a california community among the nation's