stones. stones. "nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television >> announcer: from nbc news world headquarters in new york, this is "nbc nightly news" with brian williams. good evening. penn state may never ever recover from this. in case you had any doubt about the impact of the child sex abuse scandal that's enveloped one of the once great names in college sports, today made it crystal clear when the report came out from louis freeh, former head of the fbi, saying some powerful campus leaders showed a total and consistent disregard for abuse victims while protecting other big names on campus versus the rights of powerless victims. it was another devastating day in state college, pennsylvania. before we hear from bob costas on the impact of all of this, we want to begin tonight with our national investigative correspondent michael isikoff. michael, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian.

the 154-page report is scathing, finding that top penn state officials showed a shocking disregard for the victims of jerry sandusky. >> the most powerful men at penn state failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who sandusky victimized. >> reporter: freeh concluded top penn state officials repeatedly concealed critical facts from law enforcement and the public at large. who were they? graham spanier, the school's former president. tim curley, the former athletic director. gary schultz, the former vice president. all of them have denied wrongdoing. joe paterno, the legendary and revered football coach who died last january. >> there's more red flags here than you could count. >> reporter: several of the more than 3 million e-mails and documents unearthed by freeh's investigators, show paterno, contrary to his grand jury testimony, was informed and kept apprised of a 1998 police investigation of suspected child

abuse by sandusky in the school's locker room shower. curley wrote in one e-mail to spanier and schultz that he had touched base with paterno about the probe. and days later there was this follow-up -- anything new in this department? coach is anxious to know where it stands. the allegation was disturbing enough that schultz, who was in charge of the university police, wrote in private notes, is this opening of pandora's box? adding, other children? but no charges were brought and university officials kept it quiet. >> nobody even spoke to sandusky, not one of those four persons, including the coach, who was a few steps away from his office. there's no indication anybody spoke to him. >> reporter: when mike mcqueary tells paterno about seeing sandusky naked with a young boy in the penn state shower in 2001, paterno responds, you did what you had to do. it is my job now to figure out what we want to do. what they did, according to freeh, is once again keep it secret.

e-mails show spanier, curley and schultz agreed to report it to child welfare, and then curley writes in an e-mail, after talking it over with joe yesterday, i'm uncomfortable with what we agreed were the next steps. spanier signed off on not reporting the incident but agreed that sandusky should be encouraged to seek professional help, calling that a humane approach. freeh also blamed the penn state board much trustes for poor oversight, but today board members reacted soberly. >> our hearts remain heavy and we are deeply ashamed. an event like this can never happen again in the penn state university community. >> reporter: but it won't end there. lawyers for sandusky's victims said today freeh's report provides powerful new evidence for what is expected to be a flood of lawsuits. and on campus today, a painful re-evaluation of the legacy of coach paterno. >> what has transpired has shown

that joe's human. he's not the godly saint that some of us made him out to be, including myself. >> reporter: tonight a family spokesman issued a statement saying, joe paterno wasn't perfect. he made mistakes and he regretted them. meanwhile, lawyers for curley and schultz criticized the freeh report, calling it a lopsided document based on an incomplete report. brian? >> mike isikoff, state college, pa, tonight. thanks. bob costas of nbc sports is already at our olympic headquarters in london preparing to host the olympic coverage on nbc. bob, the big question, i guess, is, what does this do to penn state, the program, the school, the brand, the aura of the nittany lions? >> well, the aura, the reputation, that's already been badly tarnished. i think even the most staunch loyalists realize something that can't be rationalized away occurred here.

and then outside penn state, the reputation of the university has taken a very, very serious hit. the ncaa has a term that it sometimes uses when punishing schools for violations in their athletic departments, lack of institutional control. if this doesn't meet the definition of lack of institutional control, nothing does. now the ncaa says it will step up its own investigation. so, in addition to all the criminal actions, the upcoming civil suits and everything else, you've got the very significant possibility that the ncaa will step in and deliver its own version of the death penalty, which is to suspend penn state's football program for a year or possibly more. that could happen. >> bob, what happens when we see the name penn state in years to come? do you think it ever, ever fully recovers from this? >> no, it can never fully recover. sadly, neither can the reputation of joe paterno. i don't think that what happened with sandusky invalidates all the good and worthy things joe paterno did with much of his

life, but now especially with louis freeh's report making it clear that, at least in his view, joe paterno knew more and was in a position to do more than his defenders would like to have you believe. this is a serious blow to joe paterno's reputation. and even those inclined to give the benefit of the doubt would have to concede that. >> if this is a rock thrown into a pond and there are ripples coming out, does this wash up against other programs, other colleges, especially for those of us who have college students in our families. it's so important to remember these are amateur athletes. these are kids. >> yeah, i think it does. if anything good has come out of this, it was such a sensational story, and it play out on the national stage. i think it has increased awareness of this problem. it has put everybody on notice as to what the signs are and what you're supposed to do, how you can't look the other way.

how it's imperative, no matter where you stand on the pecking order, that if you see something like this, have reason to suspect it, you've got to report it, you've got to act upon it. i think it isn't just colleges, it's youth sports programs and high schools and whatnot. many of them have changed their own procedures and policies and they're all on notice. that's the good that's come out of it. >> bob costas, who i'll add on this very day was nominated for an emmy award for his coverage of this topic on our broadcast "rock center." thank you for being with us tonight from london. >> thank you, brian. elsewhere in our country tonight, the countryside is burning up. it is official now, it is the worst drought in a quarter century. we're in it and it's causing great damage to staple products. people all over the world depend on from the u.s. like corn. say nothing of livestock and property. nbc's janet shamlian is on the story tonight in texas. >> reporter: a withering pasture in arkansas, reservoirs gone dry

and cracked earth now being seen throughout much of the nation. more than 1,000 counties have been declared national disaster areas. over the past six weeks the drought has spread dramatically. now blanketing more than 60% of the lower 48 states. with some of the hottest months still ahead. >> when it comes to the big picture weather pattern, any significant changes to these drought-stricken areas, we're just not going to see any improvements at least through the end of july. >> reporter: the impact on agriculture is devastating. 30% of the corn crop is in poor or very poor condition, up from 22% the previous week. crops aren't the only casualty. grazing grounds are barren. horsing ranchers either buy feed for their hungry cattle or sell off their herd. >> you know, we are a nation that eats a lot of beef. >> reporter: and uses a great deal of water. indianapolis residents are getting in one last soaking before a mandatory water ban starts tomorrow. there is rain, but it's out of reach of the drought zone.

flash floods pounded texas today, but forecasters say there's little chance it will reach those states so thirsty for relief. janet shamlian, nbc news, houston. now to an nbc news exclusive. our chief foreign correspondent richard engel is just back from syria where he got a firsthand look at the aftermath of one of the worst massacres since the syrian uprising started. a massacre we had heard about, but no one could verify until now. richard is with us in our studios. welcome. >> thank you. before we get to that, there are reports that just today there has been a new massacre with 150, perhaps 200 people killed. so, these massacres are, unfortunately, not rare. but what is rare is being able to verify them. not through anonymous internet video, but actually visiting the place and talking to survivors. that's what we did in one village. >> reporter: in the small

farming village in northwest syria, villagers say a terrible massacre took place last december. antigovernment protests had just erupted in this area and syrian troops rolled in to stop them. these cousins had defected from the syrian army and feared the troops would be looking for them. >> translator: when we saw the tanks, we thought that was it for us. >> reporter: so they fled to this steep, narrow valley a few miles outside of town. it seemed like a perfect hiding place. but it would become a death trap, they said, as other frightened villagers followed them. they thought they were safe. for the first few hours, they were. but then around 9:00 in the morning, syrian troops found them. they took up position here on the top of the valley and then pointed their guns down on the people taking refuge blow. he shows me how syrian troops attacked.

>> translator: they started firing on us with all kinds of weapons. >> reporter: firing from above, i ask? >> translator: yes, from above. we were surrounded from every side. there was no escape. >> reporter: some tried to surrender to government forces. >> translator: about 15 people gave themselves up. the troops tied their hands, lined them up and killed them. >> reporter: this cell phone video recorded by villagers shows bodies on the valley floor. some appear to be bound, shot execution-style. then they say syrian troops climbed down into the valley to finish off any survivors. >> translator: they were searching for people hiding behind rocks and killed them one by one. >> translator: the soldiers were 30 meters from us. they saw us covered with blood, thought we were dead and moved on. >> reporter: this couple's two sons were among the 127 bodies villagers counted in the valley. people were piled on top of each other like sheep, she says. we moved them in trucks, all

dead, he adds. more cell phone video shows bodies gathered in the village mosque before they were buried in a collective grave on the edge of the village, evidence of what people here call a war crime. >> we're told it was an informant from the village who told the army that in that valley there were 128 men and boys hiding. and the army found them and started killing them. >> now this story can be told here. richard, thanks. we want to tell everybody, richard has another report tonight, containing more reporting we haven't seen from inside syria. that's airing tonight on "rock center" at 10:00/9:00 central on this nbc station. still ahead along the way for us tonight, millions of american men have been using it to cure baldness. tonight the new warnings about propecia and a possible permanent risk that it poses. later, what's emerging as the first potential controversy of the olympic games.

a lot of us woke up to a big health story today. it's about a product millions of american men use to combat baldness and grow hair. it's propecia made by merck and did $134 million in sale for them last year, but tonight reports about possible side effects. we get our report from our chief medical editor, dr. nancy snyderman. >> reporter: propecia was originally approved by the fda to treat benign prostate problems and a welcome side effect was hair growth. so in 1997 the fda approved propecia to treat male pattern baldness, but a side effect has been sexual dysfunction. today they say the side effects could be permanent. i surveyed a bunch of young, healthy men who had no problems, no psychiatric problems, no use of prescription medicines. who took the medicine propecia for male pattern hair loss.

>> reporter: the study involved only 54 men but 96% experienced sexual dysfunction months after stopping the medication. the side effects included low libido and erectile dysfunction. in april the fda ordered changes in the labeling of propecia to include a warning. but for kevin mally the warning wasn't enough. he took propecia for five months last year and experienced adverse side effects immediately. >> there were some warnings labels about the sexual side effects but they said it would occur in less than 2% of men. and the side effects would go away once i discontinued the drugs. i found out the hard way that that wasn't the case. >> here we have a medicine that is purely used for a cosmetic reason and that has a very serious risk. >> reporter: in a statement to nbc news, merck says it believes that a causal relationship between the use of propecia and continued sexual dysfunction after discontinuation of treatment has not been established. psychiatrists say this is not just a man's problem. >> when men are unable to perform in bed, oftentimes it

really rattles the woman's confidence. they feel he's not attracted to her. >> reporter: now men like kevin mally must decide whether a full head of hair is worth the risk of sexual dysfunction. >> it's important to underscore this medication, it can be used for men not only for cosmetic reasons but very importantly for men with a benign prostatic problem. and a reminder, you don't stop a medication without talking to your daughter. your doctor. you don't take it without talking to your doctor. as we talk about so often here, brian, there's no medication that's risk-free. it may be a minor problem for some men. it can be 100% for others. >> glad we did this story, thank you for being with us. when we come back, what happened on the sun today and now the wait for the effects to arrive here on earth. i'm a native californian.

times are tough. our state's going through a tough time. but we can fix it. ♪ chevron's been here in california for 133 years. we work hard. we support 1 in 200 jobs in the state. we support each other. and we spent over $450 million dollars with local small businesses last year. and, together, we can keep this... we're committed. ...the great state of california. committed to california. ♪ this could end up being a big story. there was a very powerful solar flare today, an eruption on the surface of the sunday.

the effects are now traveling towards us at anywhere between 1 and 5 million miles an hour. at that rate it's between one and three days away from us. now, like other solar flares, it is likely to affect some communications. on the upside, it will likely make for those spectacular northern lights all over again. there will also be an attempt to keep spacecraft out of its way as this ball of energy heads toward earth. in our countdown to the 2012 olympics in london, cue the trumpets, please, the olympic torch started this day in the hands of retired american track star michael johnson, who took a ceremonial lap around stonehenge, as dawn broke. largest henge in the world. another stop in the 8,000-mile journey from the big opening ceremony, now just 15 days out. and there's already a controversy for the u.s. olympic team. two whole weeks before the games begin. it's about the uniforms.

they're snappy and snazzy, developed by ralph lauren. they're under fire because somebody found out they were made in china and that set off the majority of the leader, harry reid. >> i am so upset. that i think the olympic committee should be ashamed of themselves. i think they should be embarrassed. i think they should take all the uniforms, put them in a big pile and burn them and start all over again. >> a couple points here. are there better things for the senate to worry about like legislation? sure. but it is a minor pr problem prior to the games. the usoc for their part says they're happy to have a high-profile sponsor like ralph lauren. up next here tonight, they've done just about everything but gather moss. at the combined age of 272 years, ladies and gentlemen, the rolling stones celebrating their 50th anniversary.

on this very night 50 years ago a group of young musicians played their first gig, it was on oxford street in london at the marquee club. they called themselves the rolling stones. well, music history followed. and while they're not known reflectively as collective as a reflective bunch, you know what i mean, they came close to being

refle reflective today. our report from nbc's michelle kosinski in london. >> reporter: it all began here in the london club, middle class teenagers with a passion for the blues. their first gig 50 years ago, for which they were paid about $50. >> we went down really well. everyone loved us. we could see, well, if it happens to us on sunday in this rather sleepy -- >> what about monday? >> tuesday even. >> reporter: in six months the rolling stones had a following. not long after, stardom. they played "the ed sullivan show," famously having to clean up their lyrics from "let's spend the night together" to -- ♪ let's spend time together >> reporter: and eventually entertained full stadiums. they have sold hundreds of millions of records, played live more than any band in history, and still moving like this. ♪ starting me up >> i'm still young.

i know lots of people that can't even walk at my age. poor things. ♪ what a drag it is getting old ♪ >> reporter: well, they somehow didn't. was there a point at which you could really foresee or feel that you would be doing this forever basically? >> no, no, i didn't expect to make it. >> reporter: you say no, you say yes. >> oh, yes. >> i'm surprised he said no. >> it would be pretty difficult being bored doing this. >> about 50, 60 years time, we'll get bored with it. >> reporter: another 50 years? >> yes, something like that. >> reporter: today they have a new book, an exhibit of photographs and plans to play live again soon. charlie, now 71. ronny, 65. keith, 68. mick, 69. ♪ i can't get no satisfaction ♪ >> reporter: did you get the satisfaction? >> oh, my god, no, michelle. >> we're still looking for more. >> wanting more. >> reporter: michelle kosinski, nbc news, london.

and on that note, that's our broadcast on a thursday night. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. later when we see you tonight for "rock center," what happened to some of those that have left the church of scientology. that is tonight on "rock center." of course, we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening for the friday edition. right back here tomorrow evening for the friday edition. good night, everybody. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com write now at 6:00, a fan severely beaten at a 49ers game takes matters into his own hands. what he is doing to help stop fan violence. plus, whether or not to charge sandoval in the wake of sex assault violations. and defending himself. taking the stand in his own civil trial. comments that led it a gasp in courtroom.

good evening, and thanks for joining us. >> stunning admissions in court as convicted killer harness riser takes the witness stand. not once, but twice. rice riser, acting as his own attorney, describes how he killed his wife. jody hernandez has the new details. she joins us live from hay worth. >> hans riser has been waiting to tell the jury his story, and boy did he ever get the chance to do that today. he was called to testify by his children's attorney, the attorney suing him. then he himself called himself to the witness stand, giving new and graphic details surrounding his wife's killing. lans riser talked nonchalantly about how