♪ from our studios in new york city, this is "charlie rose." evening, i am just glory filling in for charlie rose who is traveling. reportingproduct of by journalist nick schifrin and zach bannon. they recently traveled to a dozen russian cities in an attempt to better understand the country. it will explore everything from the relationship to the u.s., to propaganda, and the fate of putin's enemies.

thefirst episode deals with popularity of president clinton. here is a look. >> the idea the state is more important than the people is not new. >> for us, it is a collective concept. we consider ourselves to be part of the whole. to be russian means to share the same cultural and historic identity. , he inspired the kremlin's ideology. he says the elected identity comes from patriotism, projection of power, and respect for rule. putin katzen to all three connecting russian -- taps into all three. >> it is not something additional or artificial. breath, our organic way of life. >> today, the kremlin uses the

patriots and convince the population only a powerful state can protect them from enemies. enemy number one, the u.s. they accuse the u.s. of humiliating russia are expanding nato to russian borders and supporting revolutions in former soviet states and satellites. he advocates by fighting back against the west with asymmetric war. dissidenty supporting movements. much more. >> exactly. we are supporting any kind of national, including russian. doing the same thing against us. >> nick schifrin joins me now. i please to welcome him -- i am

pleased to welcome him to the program. the first part of the program is how russians see vladimir putin versus how americans see vladimir putin. russians see it as an attack on their identity. over the last 15 years, putin has brought relative stability to russia. anybody old enough to remember the 1990's will remember the economic and political chaos. that is the first step. the second step is re-creating russian traditions like the orthodox church, pre-soviet traditions, into a level of pride in shared religion and traditions. that has tapped into a collective identity that russia has long had. that means the pride russians feel, the patriotism russians feel today, yes, there is some manipulation, propaganda, and

repression. but it is also a genuine perception that putin has made the country more stable, better. brush is able to project power, and that means putin's popularity is genuine. >> it is nostalgia. >> it is imperial grandeur. some would call it imperial delusion tapping into russia's imperial history. it is legitimate in the sense that you have russian traditions, russian religion, the orthodox church, and a real sense of the ability to project power. that is fundamental to the russian identity and putin brought that back. >> what new things is he doing to maintain that level of support which is overwhelming? >> it is. it is not quite 90% like it was right after crimea, but it is still city percent or 70%. things like crimea, syria are able to convince russians that

putin is strong, respected on the international stage, and can project russian power. a lot of that is propaganda. you get an echo of the points on russian tv with anchors saying putin is strong and everyone is weak. part of it is that. but they do see that russia has a huge part to play in the middle east. >> russian television, americans get a bit of that through rt. >> there are two parts of this. one is the propaganda machine in russia. it has gone through different messages and changes, but the consistency is this. we have to rally around russia, and there are lots of enemies. right now the message is russia may not be great but the west is not great either and you should support us, you should support the government, because you need strength right now. the second part is the external focus, rt, sputnik.

rt and the most popular anchor in russia admits information is a weapon and they have aimed it at russia's in these. that means trying to destabilize the west through propaganda campaigns. the propaganda campaigns went far into the united states. president trump certainly echoes some of those propaganda points. >> information has been weaponize. cyber warfare has been weaponize. >> it is one in the same. the russians do not see it differently. early last year, there was a fake story about the so-called rape of a german/russian girl. it was fake great the russian media new that it was fake. the russian foreign minister new it was fate but used it as a tool against german chancellor angela merkel. you have a real notion all of this combined, whether

diplomacy, information, you can use all of the tools at your disposal to try to weaken your enemy. >> there is economic suffering in russia. i wonder how the putin administration fends off any negative discussion of that. >> this is where you see a generational divide. this is what we are seeing in the last few months. a lot of people say the 90's were worse, and maybe the economy is not so great but putin has brought stability. you have a younger generation saying, why are there potholes in the road if we are in crimea? why is my life not better? that is what the lead opposition figure has tapped into. he says these people are crooks and thieves taking your money. the younger generation agrees. they say we are not as rich as we should be. the older generation is holding on to the notion of the russian

identity. >> let's talk about the opposition. where is it and is it growing? >> it is growing in the sense that two thirds of the country now believes corruption is the number one problem. that is a sea change. that is not something we would have got nine months ago. he is a 41-year-old prominent politician. a lot of people who are young really like him. he goes to these events and takes selfies with hundreds of people. he speaks their language. there's probably a ceiling to his population -- popularity. partly generational. partly urban, liberal, higher educated russians will be listening to him whereas the other part of the country will be listening to propaganda in the evening. but he is growing in popularity. the kremlin takes him very seriously. he is beginning to change people's perceptions. >> how much does vladimir putin dictate how popular you can become? >> an activist and author about

russia has a good sense on whether putin is this massive manipulator. she says there are emanations that come from the kremlin, that come from the top. it is almost shakespearean. much control putin has directly in everything, we don't know. we are just guessing. but the system is clearly very much a product of what he and the kremlin and his loyal lieutenants want. right now, there are a lot of efforts to try to discredit him. one of them is president putin never mentions his name, tries not to take him seriously even though the police take him seriously and oligarchs take it seriously. the structures of the state are taking him seriously even if the president pretends he is not. >> vladimir putin has been battling terrorism in his own

country ever since he assumed office in 1999. i know you did some reporting on that. what is the state of what is happening now? >> you have a few examples of that. one is ideologically for russia, that is exactly what they want us to talk about. bargain, whether it starts in the southwest corner of syria. civilizational battle to say we need to come together. more locally, they have had to deal with local incidents in st. petersburg recently and moscow before of terrorism. republics, one of the on russia's southern border, the insurgency is not that hot. right next to chechnya. buts not that violent now, there's a huge amount of police and security services present.

a lot of what critics call brutal tactics. that has led to an exit is -- fighters some of these to isis. russia is doing everything it can to make sure those people do not come back. that rightem tell us before the 2014 olympics, russian security services facilitated some of their travel to syria to get them out of russia. dagestan is safer. chechnya is safer. whether syria and iraq are safer is another question. >> where does vladimir putin want people in the west to believe he is on ice is now? >> i think it is relatively genuine when he says we are fighting a civilizational war and isis is the enemy. the technicalities in syria are another question. inre are a lot of people

this administration who say russian jets are not attacking isis. russian jets are attacking whoever is russia's enemy that day and propping up the assad regime. overall, pressure presents itself as an enemy to isis and is trying to align itself with the u.s. on that basis. >> what do people in russia think about donald trump? >> they are disappointed. >> in what way? >> they heard a candidate who ind we will not meddle syria or elsewhere. we will not metal in other people's backyards, whose that i love putin. he says nice things about me, i will say nice things about him. i think the bombing of syria convinced russians that trial -- president trump: -- that trump is just another republican president and there is

disappointment he has not been what theeliver on candidate trump on russia tv seem to suggest which was a better bilateral relationship and that has not happened. most russia watchers say this is one of the most tense moments between the countries in decades. >> fascinating series on pbs newshour. thank you so much. ♪

♪ >> the trump administration grapples with north korea. there is also trouble brewing between some of america's allies half a world away. a saudi led blockade of qatar is now entering its second month. saudi arabia, egypt, bahrain, and the united arab emirates have accused qatar of supporting terror groups. qatar rejected a long list of demands that included cutting ties to the muslim brotherhood, distancing itself from iran, and closing al jazeera. joining me now from washington is steven cook with the council on foreign relations. good to see you. a lot of this comes down to what say is terrorism.

that is hard to define, isn't it? >> it is hard to define. i think it is clear the qataris have coordinated and given safe haven to groups that having gauged in terrorist activity and violence around the region. it is one of the chief complaints. the saudi's do not have a good track record on this issue either. it seems there is more going on than just the question of the qataris' position with regard the muslim-- brotherhood. say it isdis terrorism. this has been simmering for quite some time. >> that is absolutely right. you have to look at this crisis

in a broader historical context in which these three countries and the ruling families of these countries do not see eye to eye on things. they tried to engineer a coup that would overthrow the current emir's father and install their own government more freely to the saudis and miraties and -- e be in alignment with his organization that encompasses all these gulf states in which the qataris would essentially told the saudi line. the qataris have resisted that and wanted to pursue more independent foreign policy. >> what is rex tillerson trying to do? >> he is trying to manage this conflict. he is working with the kuwaitis who have positioned themselves at the -- as the gulf mediator

in the conflict. the conflict puts the united states in an awkward position. u.s. hosts the largest military base in the region. it is the place from which the united states runs the campaign against the islamic state. , others are critical partners of the united states. tillerson is looking for something in those 13 demands that the qataris have said are nonnegotiable and others have said are nonnegotiable that he can work with. my sense is they are trying to parts of those demands of the qataris can work with. thatcan be u.s. conditions all of the parties can agree to. thus far, no one has been

willing to budge. the qataris have said we are willing to talk about some of these things, but not until you lift the blockade. we will not negotiate under a blockade. the saudi's and egyptians have said these are nonnegotiable items. you have rejected these demands. they are now void, and we will pursue other policies to isolate qatar in the region and beyond. >> this is a big and odd laundry list of demands. some would seem to be nonstarters. >> eight of them are complete nonstarters and the other five are nonstarters from the perspective of the qataris. shutting down al jazeera it is something the qataris could not possibly do. al jazeera is a source of the country's influence not just in the region but around the world. victimsompensation to

of things, the qataris -- to whom? what is the evidence the other countries bring to the table to end its ties with iran? it turns out these other countries also have outside ties to iran. for all the business the qataris have done the iranians -- with the iranians with whom they share one of the largest domes of gas, dubai banks are also doing lots of business with the iranians. that is not to defend the qataris. that is just to point out that some of the demands from the qatari perspective are nonnegotiable and ripe with hypocrisy. >> can you talk about the gcc? you mentioned iran as it relates to originally iran, iraq, and the war, and how that has developed in the gulf. >> the gcc was founded in the

1980's at the behest of the united states in the aftermath of the iranian revolution. this was a way in which the united states could coordinate security in the region. most of the security coordination has been at the bilateral level. but it gave a structure for united states to work with all of these different countries. it has been a difficult group. they have not been willing to coordinate security amongst themselves until quite recently. they have preferred to work bilaterally with the united states. there was a level of coordination and a way for the united states and british and other allies to work with the gulf as a whole. , thetly, the saudi's bahrainis started coordinate

more on the military front. you see that in their mission in yemen which has not gone very well, but nevertheless they point to as a maturation of the gcc and willingness of some of the states to work together militarily. >> as it relates to the gulf cooperation council, how much of this dramatic announced blockade was the saudis being emboldened are the president -- visit from the president? >> if you talk to officials in the gulf, they say this is something brewing for quite some time. they decided to take the action when they did because they did not want to do it before president trump visited saudi arabia. they felt they had to give him the opportunity to come and say may.he had to say in late but when that was over, they

decided from their perspective there was an accumulation of ,hings the qataris had done that they had not adhered to a 2014 agreement concerning the muslim brotherhood, al jazeera, and other issues. thus, it was time to take this step. of course, they were very pleased with what president trump said in riyadh. and they do feel they have the president's support. if you look at the readout of phone calls the president has had with the crown prince of abu dhabi who is influential in this or with the egyptian president, he does say he supports, the president supports the unity of the gulf and the resolution of this crisis. but makes it clear countering

extremism and terrorism should be the first priority. that suggests to people in the president ishe more supportive of the saudi side in the conflict than the qatari side. saudis and immigrant overestimating how much pressure the u.s. can put given the importance of the base? >> i think they miscalculated. i think they believed the qataris would cave quickly and not have options. the qataris have vast resources. this is the wealthiest country on a per capita basis in the world. they have vast resources at their disposal. airbase the fact of the which is incredibly important to the pentagon and american military operations around the region. they have demonstrated they have

some options. the turkish government moved quickly to express its support for the qataris, to indicate it believed the demands on qatar were unjust, and importantly established an average from turkey to guitar -- and air bridge from turkey to qatar. iranians have taken advantage of this situation and early on flu about 500 tons of food in. it is not clear the qataris and iranians can have a strong relationships the same way the qataris and turks do, but thus far the qataris believe they can withstand the blockade and look at is as an existential threat. early on, they said this is an effort to overthrow the qatari government and undermine the state's sovereignty.

>> qatar wants to manage a run -- iran because they share energy reserves? >> that is certainly part of it. the dome of gas, qatar is the third-largest producer, exporter of natural gas in the world. they share this huge dome of gas with the iranians. by definition, they have to seek cooperation there. they also recognize these are very small countries on the arab side of the gulf and iran is a very large country with a long history. rolling it back, defeating it in some way is practically impossible. better to work with the iranians, try to find areas of cooperation. of course, the qataris are on opposite sides from iran on a variety of issues. qataris syria where the have coordinated and allegedly

provided support for extremist groups fighting the assad regime. >> how much of this is the new crown prince in saudi arabia asking for a reset? sonertainly, king salman's who recently moved up from deputy crown prince to crown activeis seeking a more saudi role in the region. you see that in yemen, saudi arabia's intervention in yemen in 2015. you see it in a more assertive policy with regard to iran. and you see less deference to american wishes and interests. you saw that certainly at the end of the obama administration. previously, saudi leaders wanted

to establish consensus in the region first, work with the united states, rely on the united states. he clearly sees a leadership role for saudi arabia in the region. >> it strikes a lot of people that as difficult as the relationships qatar is trying to renage our right now -- a right now, as long as they had the u.s. airbase, they have, no pun intended, the trump card. >> i think that is true. when this began a little more than a month ago, it was clear they were going to use that card. database -- that base is important to the united states. it is clear the qataris worried about their neighbors, their sovereignty, who the rulers are. they see the base as an ultimate

guarantor of their sovereignty. the pentagon has long wanted a second runway at the airbase. and guess what? the qataris are building a second runway for the pentagon. >> how does this >> before we talk about how it ends, i think it has to go on for a longer period than anyone anticipated. they are already signaling they are willing to turn their back on the qataris and see them go their own way and out of the gcc. that may be in fact one ending of this, that the qataris do go their own ways and find their way with a different set of relationships around the world, one that certainly includes the united states, turkey, perhaps a different kind of relationship with iran. there are other arab states that are opposed to what this group of four countries is doing to

qatar. it is possible that they will do that. the other possible ending is some sort of negotiated solution, where secretary of state tillerson presents a list of american demands or american conditions that all of the parties need to agree to. regardless whether that happens or not, the qataris are going to be isolated from the region. there is too much mistrust now among the leaders of these countries for them to repair the relationship in a way where there is constructive cooperation, common interest, mri's --saudis and the saudi's and others will be willing to work together. this is something american policymakers ought to get used to going forward. they have this ally called qatar that is essentially isolated from its surrounding region.

given the size of the airbase, the commitments the saudis and , it issaid they will do something the united states can manage, but at the same time, a a problem fors the united states because it provides all kinds of opportunities for the iranians. >> it looks like at the end of this, it will not look the same as the way it did before. >> that is right. , i appreciatek your time. >> thanks very much. ♪

>> the influential personal technology columnist retired this month. he first pitched his column to the wall street journal in 1991, predicting the rise of personal computing. productshe criticized that were overly complex. his reviews were often unsparing and prompted complaints to modified their designs. he came to be widely revered by the tech committee, interviewing steve jobs, bill gates, elon musk. in 2004, he was called the kingmaker. i am pleased to have them back at the table. welcome. >> i am glad to be here. retired. charlie: when you hear that word, does it fit?

who you ares on talking about. i feel very comfortable with it. i really think that -- and i explained this when i announced it -- as a reinvention. that is not some kind of rhetorical dodge. i think every so often, you have to reinvent yourself. when i say i am retiring, it means i am not going to have a regular job, but i am not going to stop doing things. going to do some different things. charlie: let us do a little bit of the history. guestve been a frequent on this show and given us a direction as to where technology is going. 1991, you go to the wall street journal and say what? named norm pearlstein, he has gone on to do other wonderful things -- i had a great job. i was the national security reporter based out of washington , covering the secretary of state and the intelligence community when we are about --

the cold war.win i said i don't want to do this anymore. i want to write a weekly column about computing and technology. he thought that was a great idea. i plan what you said, that i wanted to champion average people and be critical of the industry. he let me do it. but i later found out there was a big fight in the journal about a, whether to let somebody expressed their strong opinions in the paper, particularly about potential advertisers, and b, whether technology was important enough to justify a column. charlie: i love your first line, though. "personal computers are just so hard to use and it is not your fault." you came down on the side of the user, early. >> that line was meant to both criticize the industry and ifvide guilt relief, because you think back to those days, people -- if they could not get

the thing to work, they blamed themselves instead of blaming, you know, the company that made it. whereas, if you're refrigerator broke -- your refrigerator broke, you thought kenmore did something wrong. if you could not boot up your windows pc, you did not blame microsoft, you thought you were dumb. charlie: the difference to why apple -- i assume you asked steve about this or his success ors, why they never gave instructions about their products? walt: because they believed they are intuitive, and they probably overestimate that on some of their products. some, not so much, but others, yes. sometimes, they gave a tiny brochure with a few little pictures, drawings of what to do, but you are right. the instruction manual was something they thought, if you needed it, there was something wrong. charlie: after personal computers, what was it that you think drove this remarkable

transformation of the way we live our lives? walt: i think there have been three big -- a million wonderful, interesting products and a lot of junk. but there have been three big things. first was a personal computer, which by the time i started writing about it was around, but had not been democratized, so the personal computer. the second thing, the world wide web. mid-90's,the 1994-1995 was when most people began to have access to it. charlie: a little over 20 years? thing,eah, this whole charlie, starting with the very first mainstream personal computers, is 40 years. that is it. compared to the railroads, to the auto industry, the oil industry, the textile industry -- charlie: the most transformative sector of our economy. walt: is 40 years old. and the internet part, the world wide web part, is about 20 years

old. that was the second they thing. -- second big thing. the third was mobile, starting with the iphone in 2007. what you and i have talked about before on this show, which i think has put a computer in the pocket of -- a really powerful computer, far more powerful than the oldnext off -- desktops in your pocket. android following on so 2 billion people, 3 billion people have these things now. charlie: and we are talking about artificial intelligence, specifically, machine learning. walt: augmented reality. charlie: all of those kind of things is where the future is. apps. but think about the people you have known. this industry is, you know, famous for some really high profile people. well-known, often on the cover of magazines. the jobs, bill gates -- steve

jobs, bill gates, larry page. walt: yeah. charlie: jeff bezos. walt: i know him. charlie: probably viewed as the most competent businessman in the world today. and by every test. warren buffett at the berkshire hathaway meeting this year did a shout out to jeff, basically saying that there is nobody that has been what he has done to companiesgreat big under one roof. amazon and enterprise services. and retail. and prime. walt: right. on the side,ntion, saving the washington post. it reminds me of you jobs in the sense that, you know -- of steve jobs, in the sense that, you know, he founded apple, then he came back and saved it. then he was running pixar, with kind of his left hand, or right

hand. i once said to him, -- and remember, pixar had run off a string of the biggest hits in hollywood for a period of some years there, and won all these oscars and everything -- and i said "when do you have time to run pixar? he sai" -- pixar"? he said "i do that on friday." when you use to going to a computer store -- charlie: by square footage, some of the most profitable stores in the world. walt: may be the most profitable stores. on fifth avenue, it takes in more per square foot than i think tiffany's. he was usually involved in that. charlie: and the most interesting for you all of them? int: he and bill kind of tie my mind. they are very interesting. jeff, very interesting. what i was going to say about jeff is, he reminds me of steve because he is doing retail, he is doing space -- charlie: with hollywood?

walt: hollywood with "transparent." he is making for amazon prime. he owns the washington post. curious.remely active, he just is involved in a lot. somewhere in there. that is my guess. charlie: probably will be the richest person in the world. walt: that does not matter very much to them. charlie: i'm not saying it matters, but it is a fact, a factoid. walt: when i first went into bill gates's office, and he was at the time the richest person in the world, and still is probably today, i realized i was just better than he was, and i am not a good dresser. i do not even wear a jacket a mess i am going on your show. "well,w, i just thought if he can dress this way, so can i." charlie: he loved to do even greater things. he will be remembered more for what he is doing in global health. walt: i think he will. charlie: then for creating

microsoft. walt: i know you know him well. we just had him on our the conference, not the one i just finished, but a year ago. he and melinda came, and we did not talk about the technology industry at all. we talked about foundation and education and health. charlie: him and melinda, it really is a partnership. he now has a lot of responsibilities. but she really led the way. he gives her credit and warren buffett gives her credit all the time. walt: i give her credit, too. i actually knew her before they were a couple, when she was just a product manager at microsoft. she was are smart the whole time i knew her. i still met over. charlie: what about -- i still know her. s rlie: what about larry ergei? walt: i do not think he is interested in the day-to-day

running of out of it, which is the umbrella company they have google andt covers other things. active ceo of this company. he is not the ceo of google anymore. a very smart, very nice guy who i have high regard for is the ceo of google. and he reports up to larry. but they, you know, look, i knew them before they had the big jets and all that stuff. they, just like gates, just like steve jobs, just like jeff, they had a great idea. in their case, they were, you , and theyneers invented something that was radically better -- the search engine, i am talking about -- radically better than anything else. all the other things they do, android and all the other many things they do, came afterward, but they cracked the case sort

of on how do you search? charlie: and how do you create advertising? walt: yeah. charlie: so there is mobile and artificial intelligence now. walt: that is where we are heading. we have a little bit of it now. charlie: you say there is a kind of lull now. walt: there is. here is what i think is going on. so i think the activity in the labs of all these companies -- and by the way, of companies we do not even know the names of yet, that are probably sitting in warehouses -- literally, this is how it is in silicon valley. these guys and women are in warehouses making this stuff, and they do not hang a sign outside so you know who they are. but the big companies in these other people, everything in the cylinders,ing on they are working on artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, autonomous driving, augmented reality, and virtual reality, but i think augmented reality is going to be bigger. that is where you see virtual

objects, but you also are seeing what is really in front of you through your glasses. i would be seeing you, but there might be something that does not exist on the table in front of us that we both could see that may be the viewers could see and we could talk about. all of that stuff is going on in the labs. what is happening, what i call the lull, is not much that is game changing is hitting the market place right now, because this is going to take some time. in and bezos last year interview, when he had just brought up the amazon echo, i said, "are we in the first inning of this?" he said "no, we are in the first batter who has come up to the plate in the first inning. that is how early this is." charlie: the game just started. have said this is about a 10 year thing for us to get this ai and machine learning down.

they are all using it in small ways. if you look at your phone, whatever phone you use, it uses it to tell you how long your commute is, or like on an iphone, if there is an address or you mail, it will offer to show you directions to that place. it knows it is an address. it no something else is a phone number. it knows -- it will say "this person is not your contact, but we recognize it from your email." that is a very crude, early form of artificial intelligence. so early and so crude. charlie: is there going to be some dominant one? is it going to be a race between apple, who has a new home pod or whatever they call it, echo, which is what amazon calls it, google has -- walt: google home. yeah, there will be a competition between those devices. charlie: will they always use a multiple number? walt: i don't know. it kind of depends on the

ecosystems you lock yourself into. if all of your photos -- so, if phone, alln android your photos are in google photos, all your music is in google play music, you might prefer google one. if you are using amazon's various services, you might prefer the echo. if you are into apple photos and icloud and all that stuff, the apple one might be the one. i want to repeat. , justhese things are just the first thing. we are heading for what i believe, what i call ambient computing. we are heading for the computer to disappear. i'm not even sure. i'm pretty sure we will have phones and 10 years. i'm not sure we will than 20 years. i think the wall -- we will have phones in 10 years. i'm not sure we will in 20 years. we will have connection to the cloud. charlie: it may tell us what we

want to know before we know we want to know it? walt: yeah, the best analogy i can think of is about star trek and how they could just talk into the air on the computer would answer all their questions and throw up visuals on a big screen. you know, i think that it's really where we are heading. charlie: if we really are going to turn over our homes, our cars, our health and more to private tech companies, on a scale never imagined, we need much, much stronger standards for security and privacy than now exists, especially in the u.s. it is time to stop dancing around the privacy and security issues and pass real, binding laws. walt: yes. i wrote that. therefore, i believe it. charlie: do you expect it to happen? walt: not with this congress. i mean, they can barely get anything past. yes -- anything passed. yes, before ambient computing takes over, we have got a little while.

somebody in the u.s. government has got to get serious and pass laws that actually address the world we are in now. and by the way, i am not talking about micromanaging, over regulating, and all this other stuff. what i am talking about -- providing some guardrails that give both consumers and, by the way, the industry -- charlie: using companies like facebook are facing up to this? walt: i think they are -- charlie: beginning to recognize? walt: getting a little better. i think they have a ways to go. charlie: why are they resistant? walt: i mean, you know, some bit is, in fairness to them, they do not want to overstep and be censoring things and making judgments on their own. i think, also, you know, they are not -- my criticism of them are an immediate company and publisher of things. they do not see themselves that way. they see themselves as some sort

of common carrier. but they do business deals with publishers and tv networks and so forth, so i just think they have to step up more. charlie: what else do you worry about? invasion of privacy? walt: you know, it has huge -- i worry about the follow-on consequences like health insurers knowing things about your private health information that will cause them to deny you coverage or raise your rates. employers may be not wanting to hire you because -- charlie: they have information -- walt: information that you didn't know they had. there is the security side. i am very concerned about the weaponization of hacking by russia, by north korea, by other countries. we still do not know -- we are still in the midst of trying to figure out just how badly they interfered with our election. charlie: more than that. if you talk to people at the

major corporations or at the defense department, their efforts -- there are efforts made many times a day to hack into issues that are central to a t they do. -- to what they do. walt: i agree. secure a path to secure our country, which is increasingly an online country, without trampling on civil liberties. it is not an easy thing. i am not trying to say it is easy. it is easy for me to write it. it is hard for people to come to grips with it and do it, but we have to. charlie: conferences. everybody has a conference. you guys were in early, andrew rew thet talent -- and d best talent, certainly within the tech world. everybody wanted to come. you had steve jobs and bill gates on the same platform.

you don't see them that often. where does that world stand? all, ihile -- first of did not do it alone. i had my great partner, whom you also know. it stands is, like every thing else in media, there is a lot of new competitors, a lot of competition. we just finished, what i think, was a very successful iteration of our conference a couple of weeks ago. charlie: you interview hillary clinton. walt: hillary clinton was one of the interviews, and we had others. it goes for about three days. you know, we just have to -- charlie: do people come to hear things are network? walt: both. we try to accommodate both. one of the changes, if you go back to 2003, was there was sterile a lot of -- there was still a lot of networking, but we did not build out the spaces

for networking and the time for networking as well as we might have, and now we do. now, we have more of a balance between what goes on on stage, and will goes on off stage. charlie: what we have seen with computers is the proliferation of data, and a lot of people mine data and therefore give people decision points they never had before. walt: yeah, i mean if you go to a biotech company now, you might expect to walk in and see a labs,of what labs -- wet and they do have some of that, but lots of the -- maybe most of the floor space in these companies are computers and , trying torying away analyze molecules, trying to look at this data, trying to , and that isterns the hope for discovering new drugs. charlie: so the future is a sense of -- you know, you move

to another stage of life. had numerous successful status, and the evolution continues. so part of this amazing world that you first began reporting on in 1991. walt: yeah, i'm going to try to reinvent myself one more time. i have done it a few times, and i'm going to try to do it one more time. charlie: and you don't know what that will be exactly? walt: i will tell you to bring things. there may be 10 things. this is in addition to spending more time with my wife and my family, my little granddaughter, that i'm going to try to write a book. i think i have seen a lot of, like you said, i have known a lot of these people, i have seen a lot of interesting things. charlie: use atomic stories about steve jobs calling you at 12:00, complaining about something you had written in the next morning's paper. walt: yeah, so i'm going to try to write a book. if you,, i will come. charlie: you always have -- if

you call me, i will come. charlie: thank you very much. ♪

anchor: a quiet start for asia-pacific shares this tuesday. investors want to assess earnings reports in the u.s.. anchor: markets are shrugging off political uncertainty. the dollar strengthens on bets that global growth is back on track. betty: a new cold war. best to get his look at the link between washington and moscow. the bad times are over as sales soared in the last quarter. however,