dollars from gays and lesbians right after he came out in favor of same-sex marriage. >> brown: and ray suarez examines an investigation into whether g.o.p. money-man sheldon adelson violated a foreign bribery law. >> ifill: plus, hari sreenivasan talks with author william dobson about the techniques modern day dictators use to control protesters. they have really developed excellent crowd control techniques where they would move the crowds through with street cleaning equipment, cleaning the same street corner again and again and again. >> brown: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation, working to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> ifill: president obama and governor mitt romney are broadening their critiques of one another as their nominating conventions approach, with a political battle now fully engaged over jobs, outsourcing, and taxes. >> the presidential candidate hammered away at each other today.

each accusing the other of changing the subject. president obama stepped up his charge that governor romney would ship american jobs overseas. >> there's a new study out by nonpartisan economists that says governor romney's economic plan would, in fact, raise 800,000 jobs. there's only one problem. the jobs wouldn't be in america. and governor romney said president obama is ignoring his own for job creation record. >> what does it is a about a president whose record is so poor that all can do in this campaign is attack me. >> romney has been on the defensive over reports that he continue to receive compensation from bain capital well after he said he left the company in 1999. but government filings indicate he was still involved as late as 2 o-- 2001. democrats an even some republicans are also pressuring romney to release more than the two years of

tax returns he's promised. >> john mccain ran for president and released two years of tax returns. john kerry ran for president. you know his wife who has hundreds of millions of dollars, she never released her tax returns. somehow this wasn't an issue. the obama people keep on wanting more and more and more. >> over the weekend mr. obama said he won't back down from his scrutiny of romney's record. >> we won't be apologizing. mr. romney claims that he's mr. fix-it for the economy because of his business experience. and so i think voters in tirely legitimately want to know what exactly was that business experience. >> asked today if the president should apologise for suggestions that he's been dishonest about his time at bain, romney stood firm. >> i think what people accuse you of a crime you have every reason to go after them pretty hard. i'm going to continue going after him. >> the disagreement has morphed into mussically themed video wars. >> oh beautiful, for spacious skies. >> reporter: the democrats

featured audio of romney singing america the beautiful from a campaign event in january. while the republicans used the president singing to accuse him of cronyism ♪ i ♪ so in love with you ♪. >> meanwhile romney is turning his attention to his next major decision, choosing a running mate. he spent the day raising money in louisiana with governor bobby jindahl one of several governors considered on his short list. one senior romney advisor said coname his pick by end of the week. to and to help us sort through the summer haze of the presidential campaign we are joined by jonathan martin, senior writer for "politico." and molly ball, staff writer for the "atlantic." help us explain this bain back and forth. at the end of this weekend was there any more collar bit when he left and if he left bain? >> well no an i thinks this's part. reason why there's still

questions out there about what exactly his status was at that company. now look, the romney campaign wants to say this is purely a matter of president obama's desperation, his attempt to divert attention from the economy. but in politics when you're defending, when you're explaining you're losing. and for the last week he has been doing just that. it is a remarkable turn about. consider this, a weak ago we were talking about the second straight month of dismal job numbers. a week later we're talking about bain and income tax returns. so the a bomba-- obama came haine has had a nice run keeping romney on his back foot. >> molly, what are the democrats trying to do with this kind of multipronged attack on who a rom nie is and how much he earns, how much wealth he has. >> well, as you said there are a few prongs to it. number one they are just trying to fill in the picture before romney has a chance to do it himself. he is 9 relatively recent nominee of the republican party. he's not very familiar to a lot of americans, especially people who weren't voting in

republican primaries for the last couple of election cycles. people have a lot of questions about him. they want to know who he is. they have an open mind, a lot at this point so the obama campaign job will fill that void with as much negative information as they can. and then as you say this is all themed to wealth and money. whether we're talking about romney's fund-raising, whether we're talking about romney's personal wealth and his business career and what he did there. whether we're talking about his donors and the super pacs or whether we're talking about policy and what he wants to do on taxes. >> let's talk about his tax returns because he has insisted at least for now that he's not releasing more than two years even though other candidates, in fact his fatheriers ago released everything. can that hold? is that something that they are counting on to hold? >> we saw this movie before during the primary where he similar lee teng-hui-- similarly was hesitant to rehis tax returns. >> also aon the bain issue. >> eventually gave in and put out one year.

he said he will put out one more year and that's going to be it. the problem is in politics if you keep saying no on this, it's hard to turn the page so to speak to move on to what you want to talk about because the questions are still looming. if you aren't releasing them what are you afraid of. what is actually in there. and if you don't put them out there it's harder for him to move on and talk about what he wants to talk about, which is this president's handling of the economy. here we are, we're not talking about it. >> that's what he said this morning when he talked on fox. he said let's pay attention-- let's talk about his record, it's finally time. is he finally doing this. why this cronyism argument. that seems to be an unusual pushback. >> this is actually the second time he has tried to bring up this issue, primarily of solyndra. he did this back in may and held a press conference in front of the closed building out in california. it is a pretty transparent way to change the subject. as he said the way you put questions to rest in politics is answer them. if you don't answer them people are going to assume

that the answers are worse than the consequences of not answering them. when romney did put out a year of his tax returns before, there was a lot of stuff in there that was damaging. there was the swiss bank account, you know, there was the tax shelters in bermuda, the cayman islands. and that information was damaging to romney. >> but why isn'ted cronyism charge, why isn't obama solyndra the same as romney's bain y doesn't that stick the same way? >> oh, i think because the question about romney and what he did and how he made his money is slightly more exotic. it's easier to sort of portray romney as the sort of gordon gekko because of what he did. whereas the obama question about solyndra, there are certainly clear-cut questions, they are that remain for the president that could ultimately be damaging but i don't think it cuts the same way to the average voter who just sort of sees, well, politicians giving contracts, it just

isn't quite as vivid as this cayman islands, swiss bank account, for romney. here's the good news for romney. the first friday in august there is going to be a jobs report. >> the first friday in september, a jobs report. it's hard for this president to, you know, talk about cayman islands, swiss bank accounts when those things are coming down the pipe. >> but when it comes to change the topic, nothing can change the subject like getting a vice presidential running made. >> that's true. >> so is that actually moving along or does it feel like they're just trying, every day there is a new name floated out that floats to the surface, more timing that floats to the surface. does it feel like that is it or that is really going to happen. >> i think it's a combination of both. like i say it does have to happen. it probably is going to happen soonish. i don't think this we can but in the next couple of weeks. and the speculation also is a way of changing the subject, right, because we are hearing there is sort of a public veting process that

goes on parallel to the private veting process and that is this process of trial balloons going up and the various interest groups saying who they like or don't like whether it is portman or condi rice this is a very fruitful way to get people interested in the campaign and get them energized in a way that does not have to do with these other issues. >> as a matter of fact, i think the rom nie folks have sent out one, two or three e-mails saying you know, you can have dinner with mitt's vp, even though we don't know who it is yet f you send us some money. >> i think about half a dozen. but they have a choice here. how badly do they want to change the subject. how bad is this current news cycle s it bad enough that they would shoot this bullet now and put out their vp to turn the page. or do they still want to wait until august. wait until he goes on his foreign trip which he is later this month, wait for the olympics and then in august going into the convention, have your news. because here's the challenge if you go in july. going into the convention, if you don't have a vp pick as the news going in there,

it gives all of us and the press, what else is there to cover in tampa for the convention. what's the news. what's the hook. >> you'll find something. >> we're going to be looking for ron paul mischief going on down there. >> i think that is going to happen any day. >> is it safe to say both of agree that this week, at least the last ten days have constituted a shift of some kind, if only in velocity in this campaign. >> oh, yeah. >> yeah. >> i think so i think what we expect from the summer doll drops of the campaign is there are a lot of minor skirmages whether it is war on women stuff, or base mott 1r5i9ing am su have a lot of democrats motivating the gay vote, the latino vote. all these base groups getting them excited and engaged so they start working for the campaign. and then in the fall you start talking to those independent voters. but now with this attempt to define romney i think they really are speaking to the broader electorate in a way you wouldn't necessarily expect at this stage. >> they are calling each other a liar or a felon now, what does that leave for

october? >> well, we'll find out. jonathan martin, molly ball from the atlantic, thank you both very much. >> thanks. >> still to come on the newshour, going to youtube for >> brown: still to come on the newshour, going to youtube for news; engaging gay voters; investigating republican donor sheldon adelson; and dictators facing off with protesters. but first, the other news of the day. here's kwame holman. >> holman: the day's economic data was less than encouraging, as retail sales slumped in june for the third straight month. wall street responded with new losses. the dow jones industrial average was down nearly 50 points to close at 12,727. the nasdaq fell 11 points to close below 2897. late today, yahoo announced it's hiring google executive marissa mayer as its new c.e.o. yahoo has faced financial and other problems, and has had five bosses in as many years. a u.s. air force instructor went on trial today in a sexual abuse scandal at lackland air force base in texas. staff sergeant luis walker is

charged with 28 counts, including rape and aggravated sexual assault of female recruits. in addition, 12 male instructors at lackland are under investigation. prosecutors have identified at least 31 female victims. the fighting in syria has reached the country's capital in earnest. government tanks, troops, and helicopters battled rebels today in three southern districts of damascus. it was said to be the heaviest fighting there since the uprising began 16 months ago. meanwhile, the u.n. security council considered a so-called "chapter seven" resolution that could authorize the use of outside force in syria. we have a report narrated by lindsey hilsum of independent television news. . >> protestors blocked the road to damascus international airport today. a very public signal. president bashar al sad o upon ens are bringing the war ever nearer his seat of power. video released by the local free syrian army shares one

of their member firing at a tank stuck down an alleyway. this is the second day of fighting in damascus. the syrian military has brought armour on to the streets to counter the rebels and helicopter gunships are firing into the city. >> the humanitarian situation on the ground is very, very bad. lots of wounded people are still lying in the streets. and there are-- they are calling for help, but getting nothing. >> but not far away, men are shouting god bless you to soldiers who have abandoned their tanks and given up the fight. assad's foot soldiers are sunnies like the men they're fighting. some will join the rebels, others may just want to save their skin. u.n. observers whose mandate expires this week set out for the suburbs today. u.n. envoy coffee annan is

in-- kofi aan is in moskow. the rush abs are resisting a security-- which would bring more pressure on president assad. >> to have deep regret one can witness even the elements of blackmail. we're being told if you don't agree to the adoption of the chapter 7 resolution we will refuse to extend the pan date of the u.n. observer mission. >> reporter: in other cities the rebels are rushing their advantage. attacking government tanks. and inid ib hope-- i hadlib hoping with no compromise in site, the tide of war will turn their way. >> holman: the red cross formally has declared the syrian conflict a civil war. that means international humanitarian law applies nationwide. the finding also could bolster any future attempt to prosecute syrian leaders for war crimes. the ousted president of egypt, hosni mubarak, was sent back to prison today. prosecutors said his health has

improved from several weeks ago, when he was reported to be on the brink of death. he'd been transferred then to a military hospital. mubarak is 84 years old. he's serving a life sentence for failing to stop the killing of hundreds of protesters during last year's civil uprising. also today, secretary of state hillary clinton wound up a 12- day international tour that took her to egypt and israel over the weekend. >> good morning. >> reporter: the secretary's first visit to israel in nearly two years came at a key moment in the middle east. from the civil warfare in neighboring syria to iran's any clear intention to egyp egypt-- egypt's political transition. in jerusalem clinton spoke of dizzying changes, over the last 18 months of uprisings in arab countries. >> it is a time of uncertainty but also of opportunity. it is a chance to advance our shared goals of security,

stability, peace and democracy along with prosperity for its millions of people in this region who have yet to see a better future. >> reporter: the secretary also met separately with israeli and palestinian leaders, underscoring the stalled stat us of the peace process. indeed, in an interview yesterday president obama cited the lack of progress as one of the biggest failures of his term. >> i have not been able to move the peace process forward in the middle east the way i wanted. it's something we focused on very early. but the truth of the matter is, is that the parties ultimately they've got to want it as well. >> reporter: clinton had arrived in israel from egypt where the tenuous transition to democracy lurches forward. newly elected president morsi formerly of the long band muslim brotherhood promised to honor the camp david peace accord with israel. the more immediate concern

was egypt's supreme military council which refuses to surrender real power. on sunday alongside the egyptian foreign minister clinton sought to tread between the two sides. >> the united states supports the full transition to civilian rule with all that entails. and we have commended the scad for representing the egyptian people in the revolution as compared to what we are seeing in syria, which is the military murdering their own people. >> reporter: but the secretary made little apparent headway with field marshall mohammed tantawi, the overall military leader. after their meeting he said the armed force was not allow a specific group, meaning the muslim brotherhood, to dominate egypt. it was another deadly day for nato forces in afghanistan. two foreign soldiers were killed by insurgents in the south. there was no immediate word on their nationalities. so far this year, 237 troops from the international coalition

have died in afghanistan. at least 168 were americans. protesters in japan today staged one of their largest rallies yet, demanding an end to using nuclear power. organizers said up to 200,000 people marched through tokyo, with temperatures near 100 degrees. police put the crowd at 75,000. the rally came as japan moves to restart its nuclear reactors. all of the country's 50 reactors were taken offline after last year's earthquake and tsumani. the first major female star in country music, kitty wells, died today at her home in nashville. she'd suffered a stroke. wells was the first woman to hit number one on the country charts, recording "it wasn't god who made honky tonk angels." she remained the top female country singer from the early 1950s into the late '60s. kitty wells was 92 years old. and the actress celeste holm died sunday at her apartment in new york. she'd taken ill two weeks ago.

holm first received critical acclaim in 1943, playing "ado annie" in the broadway musical "oklahoma!" in 1947, she won an oscar as best supporting actress in the film "gentleman's agreement." she was also nonimated for her portrayal of bette davis' best friend in "all about eve" in 1950. in later years, she had a variety of tv and theater roles. celeste holm was 95 years old. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to jeff. fuss on television, news on-line, we look next at the shifting media landscape. >> the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in japan-- . >> reporter: millions of viewers watched the japanese tsunami and its aftermath on television in march of last year, but tens of millions more, nearly 100 million people in a week watched videos of the unfolding events on-line, on video sharing web site youtube. a report released today by the pew research center's project for excellence in journalism, captures the

grow pog we are and popularity of the web site as a place where people turn for news. the 15 month study found that the tsunami, the elections in russia and unrest in the middle east pulled some of the biggest numbers, as viewers watched the mix of edited pieces from traditional news organizations and unofficia unofficial-- unofficial raw videos. the growing role of youtube and other video sharing platforms poses yet another challenge for a media industry trying to find its footing in the digital era. >> for 16 years-- . >> reporter: last night nbc news took a high pro tile-- high profile step to rebrand its on-line identity after buying out microsoft's share of msnbc.com, visitors are now directed to nbc news.com. the comcast owned network is also embracing new on-line ties. last week announcing a partnership with facebook for exclusive olympics content. for its part, abc paired itself more closely last year with yahoo! by reaching

an agreement to show more of its content on-line than to provide web only programming. the combined sites have 81 million unique visitors a month in the u.s. alone. and many journalism organizations including the newshour have recognized the popularity of youtube's video sharing approach and now make their own news channels available there. i'm joined now by tom rosenstiel of pew research who conducted the study an brian stelter who reports on the media for "the new york times". it calls it a new kind of visual journalism, speaking of youtube, what does that mean. >> well, it's a perfect loop between citizens who are producing video, news organizations who are producing video, and also incorporating the citizen eye witness footage into their journalism. and audiences who we remember set the news agenda on youtube. so was's the top story each

week on youtube? well that's determined entirely by the audience. this is sort of the dialogue about news in which consumers are also producers and journalists interact with them, that people have imagined would occur on-line. and it's happening on youtube. >> so give us some examples. what do we see so far about what people are turning to on youtube. is it youtub versus the traditional tv news or both? >> it's both. and that's what's so interesting. i think that what people are looking for depends on the story. if you are-- if you want to see how that tsunami looked, a surveillance camera at the airport was actually the number one most watched video in 2011 on youtube. i don't think that our journalism is going to be coming from atm ness the future but at that moment that was the perfect camera. if you are trying to see what it looked like inside a

demonstration in egypt t might be a handheld video from somebody's phone. but if it's something that needs material and context from a variety of destinations, a journalist's package, those are also among the most watched videos. but this is a video-sharing platform so these were visual stories. the kind of explanatory expos that you -- expose that we also want, those are probably coming from print and are not going to be on youtube. >> brown: brian what do you see the role of youtube. it's not a news organization. it's not doing its own reporting, so what is it role in the landscape now? >> it's a supplement in the same way that all other forms of media, when they come along, supplement the existing forms of media. i appreciate being able to watch a video on youtube of protest in syria, raw video taken by a protestor. but i also need to see the news story about those protests. of course the video from

syria, the raw video is especially helpful when reporters can't get into the country, get into isolated areas. so i think we are continuing to understand that youtube is a supplement and an increasingly popular one. networks and news organizations have to go to youtube and distribute their material there, rather than expecting people to come to them for it. we have to go to the consumers. >> tom wa, are the other interesting aspects of this that you raise in your studies, the problems sorbed with it. you don't always know where that video came from. and there's a line that says it creates the potential for news to be manufactured or even falsified. >> right. youtube has guidelines that say that you need to attribute who produced the video, who shot it. but there's no way to enforce that those guidelines are followed as they say. these are just guidelines. and while youtube is new as a news source, if someone wants to stage an event,

some, about 5% of the most watched videos on youtube last year, we could not identify where they came from opinions what percent? >> 5%. >> 5%, you couldn't -- >> there was no way of knowing. and if it's an event like the tsunami, you can fairly reliably imagine that this is real. but it could be something that no one else has produced any video on and there would be no way of knowing. >> now brian, i mentioned some of these other ongoing develoents, nbc, abc. >> right. >> broaden it out a little bit. put this youtube discussion into that broader context. how are traditional, especially television network news trying to adapt? >> i think what we're seeing is news organizations that used to have bigger audiences, seeing their audiences go in dozens of directions because of the internet. it's the splintering effect of the internet and they're trying to reassemble those audiences as best they can

in different ways. nbc and facebook it's a great example. last week nbc said that it will be partnering with facebook for the summer olympics and the head of the coverage, the producer said to me, we're trying to reassemble the audience that is off in a million directions because of the web. today nbc news and microsoft announced they were divorcing, they were splitting up a 16-year-old partnership because they realized being exclusive and only working with each other was outdated. these days news organizations seem to want to have multiple partners. they want to cooperate with multiple different web sites and different distributors. because it's harder to get attention now and they need more distribution partners. >> and you're saying they seem to want to do this. they're trying to do this. nobody has a magic formula, though, right n creating partnerships. >> that's exactly right. you mentioned yahoo! and abc. they joined together about nine months ago.

not exclusively because like i said that seems to have changed but they had an alliance where yahoo!, the biggest portal of them all would distribute lots of traffic to abc. and it's been good for abc. abc's had a lot of traffic as a result. but the revenue piece has been harder, harder to find. it's been slower to come. not to say it won't come in the future, but right now that distribute deal was mostly for traffic, not for dollars, not for ad dollars and that illustrates the main problem with the web, simply put a view certificate not as valuable on-line as he or she is on television or in print. and while that is slowly changing, the key word is slowly. >> tom, last word for you, how do you see those partnerships? >> well, these news organizations as brian said are looking for new distribution points because they are audience is shrinking. for the distribution partners like yahoo!, they're looking for brand. they need content that will

distinguish them, although youtube, although ewe-- yahoo! news was the most visited news site in the united states, yahoo! is not making enough money and the company is in trouble. so really the only players who are making major kment of money on line is google and a handful of others that have so much market share that even for pennies on the dollar they can make money with advertising. but most of the players there are being left out so this is scramble to remake the landscape, create partnerships, see what works. there's a lot of experimentation. i mean nbc and facebook for the olympics, that's just an experiment to see how things go. no one is expecting, no money even changes hands. these are all bets to learn about where the future may be. >> brown: all right, tom rosenstiel, bop stelter,

thanks very much. >> thanks >> ifill: we come back to politics now with a two-part look at how democrats and republicans are raising their money. first, the key constituency which has come to play an important and lucrative role in the fall election. newshour correspondent spencer michels has our report. . >> reporter: when the president told abc news in may that he now endorses same-section marriage,-- sam same-sex marriage the es bean and day communities were newly energized. an attorney who volunteered to raise money from gays and less leans for president obama's re-election. the job that became much easier after the announcement. >> there was some hesitancy about supporting the president earlier in his term. he has been seen -- desh has seemed to people to be slow to support marriage equality. >> reporter: in the three

days after mr. obama announced his shift in thinking, the campaign raised almost $9 million in donations over $2 lunn. that was triple the amount for the previous three days according to an npr study. >> the obama campaign has-- is deliberately raising money from the gay community, to set up a national finance committee focused on fund raising from that community. and i think that they appreciate every color they-- dollar they get. >> reporter: in san francisco's castro district, long one of the major services of gay political activity in the country, one prominent store celebrated the president's announcement with a placeful depiction in its window of mr. obama. but there was nothing whimsical in the reactions of gay leaders and donors like james hormel. he's been an activist and large donor in the lessbean gay, bisexual and transgender community for more than 30 years.

>> finally there was no question that we as an issue had arrived. and that, and that this issue from this point forward will be addressed more honestly and directly than it ever has. >> reporter: as a democrat, hormel was a major supporter of bill clinton who rewarded him with an appointment as ambassador to luxembourg despite opposition from conservatives and republicans. he was the first openly gay ambassador. he's already given the maximum to the obama campaign. years ago he says such political donations, especially to gay organizations, were rare. >> it was very difficult to raise money from gay people. because they didn't want their accountants to see the checks written to a gay organization way back when. >> reporter: for years hormel advocated for gay rights and gay political power. and watched as that power and the visibility of gays and lessbeans out of the

closet grew-- lesbians out of the closet grew especially in the bay area. he saw politicians begin to court the gay vote. now hormel says much has changed. politicians routinely take part if gay pride parades around the country. studies estimate that between 3 and 10% of americans are gay or bisexual. and surveys report that nearly 70% of gay voters identify as democrats. >> let's hear it for pride, everybody! >> reporter: this summer office holders in new york as well as chicago mayor rahm emmanuel and several officials in san francisco marched down main street in concert with often flamboyant contingents of gay marchers. but wade sees the risk in politicians becoming too close to the gay community. while not a member of that community, he raises or bundled money for the obama campaign in northern california. >> i think what meant so

much to the people who were giving and raising money is that they know that this may not be the best thing in western pennsylvania or eastern ohio or other swing states. >> that concern was reflected in columns and articles alleging that both the president and presumptive republican nominee mitt romney want to keep the policies of gay marriage below the radar. the obama campaign was reluctant to comment on its efforts to fund raise in the gay and lesbian community. a campaign spokesman told the newshour that it would not be able to accommodate our request to interview key fund-raisers. but several gay democrats point to a barack obama web site specifically for lgbt voters. as evidenced the campaign is open about its support for gays. and scott weiner, a newly elected openly gay supervise never san francisco said the president isn't holding back at all. >> the president went on national television to talk

about his support for marriage equality. i don't see how you get more public than that. >> reporter: for fund-raiser randlet money from gays and lesbians is vital especially in certain areas. >> los angeles, new york, san francisco are probably 90% of the total gay money in the country. and that is certainly where that center of activism is. >> reporter: not all the money randlet and others have raised recently has come from gays. >> most of the money that came to me as somebody who is trying to support the president was from nongay people, especially women who frankly think that a more compassionate, more just society is part of why they supported the president in the first place. >> reporter: and a june fund-raiser in los angeles, specifically aimed at gays and lesbians, president obama spoke of one marine who had thanked him profusely for repealing don't ask don't tell. mr. obama assumed the marine was gay. >> he said oh, no, sir, i am

not gay. it was important to me because i've had friends in my unit that were. and i know how much that tore them up. and i didn't think it was right. and i think we're a better marine corps because they can be who they are and serve our country. >> reporter: of course not all gays areemocrats, nor obama supporters. chris bowman a political consultant, is a member of the log cabin republicans, a gay and lesbian political club that is not yet endorsed a presidential candidate. he can't imagine contributing to or voting for the president, even though governor romney has said he's against civil unions for same-sex couples. a point bowman tries to explain. >> i think he does support domestic partnerships. de when he was in massachusetts.

and it was a fairly extensive domestic partners law. just like for mr. obama's evolving process. >> reporter: the position and that of some other conservative gay groups is that the same-sex marriage issue can be trumped by other issues like jobs or war. >> if we're under invasion or if the economy tanks, you know so, what if we have the right to marry or we have the right for equal employment or nondiscrimination if there are no jobs. >> reporter: for years the entire gay political movement concentrated on fighting the aids epidemic. now that domestically, at least, aids is mostly controlled, gay republicans like bowman are focused on jobs and the economy. while gay democrats like james hormel remain zeroed in on social issues like marriage. and many are opening their wallets to support the president. >> there is more on-line at

spencer reflects on how the gay community's political muscle has grown in the 30 years since he covered his first gay pride parade in san francisco. also on our web site, you can find a blog post about how much the gay vote may-- or may not-- matter in november. >> brown: and to our second money and politics story, this focused on an investigation of a leading republican donor. ray suarez has the story. >> suarez: you may not know him by name, but gambling magnate sheldon adelson is one of the largest republican donors in the 2012 election. adelson and members of his family are reported to have given more than $20 million to g.o.p.-leaning superpacs, including some backing newt gingrich during the primary. now adelson is donating to the "restore our future" superpac. that group supports mitt romney, and collected $20 million in june, a record for a superpac. a new investigation finds adelson may have violated the foreign corrupt practices act by paying a macau lawyer hundreds

of thousands of dollars, all in a bid to get approval for his projects in macau, a special administrative region in china. billions in profits were on the line. china bans casino gambling in the rest of the country. the story was filed by "frontline," propublica and the investigative reporting program at the university of california. stephen engelberg is the managing editor of propublica, who co-wrote and joins me now. stephen, like investors any we are, she wouldon adelson wanted to expand his casino cameabling empire in macao, it is, after all, the largest gambling ter in the world. what was holding him up? >> well, he needed a couple of things in macao. and it wasn't just expanding the empire. at the time of the events we write b in 2008, sheldon adelson had made a huge bet on macao. he was constructing billions of dollars worth of casinos and mall and other things.

and he was running short of money. the financing was in doubtment and they needed to raise some money. and they looked to do it a couple of different ways. one was to sell off some luxury pardon mes that they had built there. for that they needed permission of the authorities in macao. and the other was to go and have an ipo. so a stock in their new subsidiary in macao known as china sands. in both of those things they needed some favorable rulings from local politicians. and they weren't getting them. and it was at that moment that they hired a man named lionel alvish as an outside council. he is a lawyer, a very well plugged in guy in macao. he is got three different posts. he's an advisor to the executive who kind of ruled macao kind of like macao governor or president you pite call him. a member of the macao legislator and also a member of the committee within the mainland china that advises the ruling communist party on policy. so he is both a political figure and a lawyer.

and adelson's company hires him to help him with-- help with these problems. and he does so. he delivers. >> suarez: well, that's where the story starts to get interesting. but why is if a problem. an international investor finding himself blocked in a foreign country, finding himself in trouble. lawyers up and pushes ahead. what's wrong with that? >> well, since 1977 the united states has made it a crime to pay foreign officials to influence policy in their countries. we had a lot of companies in the united states paying bribes. and so congress said we're not going to have that. american companies are not going to do that overseas so they passed a law which makes it a crime to pay a government official, public official polltition, anybody of that sort to either retain or advance your business interests overseas. now in doing that, you have to ask them according to the justice department to in essence do something corrupt, that's the word they used,

to go out and do something outside what you are supposed to do as an elected office holder and sort of influence events. and that is what the fbi and justice department are to you looking at in the case of lionel alvish in macao and add e8son. is that what happened. >> suarez: so his dual sat us-- status, in the only as outside council to mr. adelson but his office holding inside macao that might create problems for the sands in. >> exactly. and in fact, the leadership, the executives at the company were quite concerned about this. it kind of came to a head when mr. alvisl submitted a bill for some $700,000, roughly, according to e-mails that we've looked at. and the company's general counsel an others said this could be a violation of the law. we need to get away from this guy. and according to the e-mails we've seen, adelson was rather insistent that a, this gentleman be paid his $700,000 and b that the relationship continues, which it does. so this day, lionel alvish

is an outside cun to the las vegas sands subsidiary of macao. >> suarez: did eventually get what he wanted in macao. >> well, that's interesting. in the area of the apartment building, the thing they wanted to sell to raise money, they got permission to sell the buildings as a wol but what they really wanted to do was sell the apartments one by one. they're still fighting to get that. on the ipo, the big issue was there was a ferry concession. the ferry from china delivers the gamblers right to the door steps of the casino, it's very important that they control that concession. a competing company had filed a lawsuit and they were in court nmacao and they were winning. they won at the first level, they won at the second level. and they were by all accounts about to win at the final level when the chief executive of maco stepped in and by executive fiat said no, i'm giving the concession to the sands. i'm to the going to let this court case go forward. victory to the sands. now remember that ten member counsel that advises him, 10

members include one mr. lionel alvish who was certainly in a position to help influence this decision, now the documents we've looked at don't say what he did or didn't do about that. he wouldn't talk to us. but he was clearly, you know, in a place where he was one of the most important people advising the gentlemen who made this decision. and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to imagine that that is something investigators are going to want to find out more about. >> suarez: so you've seen internal communications that show that other sands officials realize there may be some jeopardy here? >> yes, indid. in particular, two gentlemen, the general counsel of the company, remember this a fortune 500 company, a man named gonzalez peta became very concerned about this. he asked an outside law frm to take a look at what was going on here. that law firm and he as well both agreed that thises with a potential violation of the foreign corrupt practices act and mr. alvish should not be working for the company given his government

post. that was a recommendation ultimately that was not heeded. >> and quickly, stephen, before we go, where is this being investigated in the united states? is there any one center or special prosecutor who looks at what may be infractions committed overseas? >> yes. this case is being investigated by the department of justice and the federal bureau of investigation that will handle the criminal side of it. the security and exchange commission potentially could also be looking at civil violation of the law. but the criminal side of this is being handled by the department of justice. and we are told by people familiar with that that this case is ongoing and expanding. >> suarez: stephen engleberg, thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> ifill: finally tonight, a portrait of how today's dictators are confronting and controlling democracy activists. hari sreenivasan has our book conversation.

>> 2011 brought the year of the protestor. demonstrations rocked tunesia, egypt and libya. yet despite this wave of pro-democracy movement, the number of free countries declined for the sixth year in a row. that's accord together freedom house research institute. one reason for that is thor tearian regimes are learning to manipulate political system was using brute force for suppression. a new book by william j dobson the dictators learning curve, inside the global battle for democracy taeblings that subject. for two years dobson traveled the world to examine regimes that managed to rule with a velvet glove in spite of their ironfisted policies. >> william dobson, thanks for being with us. >> thanks for having me. all right, so if modern dictators aren't using firing squads or kidnappings, what are they doing to stay in power? >> the modern dictator understands that if you are going to try and keep a hold of your people, you have if use new and different techniques such as take, for

example, putin. putin chooses to send tax inspectors or health inspect ares to close down or shutter-- in venezuela laws are written broadly and then used like a scalpel against any group that is deemed a threat. the chinese communist party frequently refers to democracy and makes sure that all its top leaders only serve two terms. there are different ways in which regimes are finding how to move and navigate through forces that challenge their regimes that make them appear to be other than what they are. >> so there is a scene in the book where you talk about the tension on the streets in china after the revolutions were happening in the middle eastment and how they were trying to prevent any spread of a jasmine revolution, describe that. >> well, i was in china about ten days after mubarak fell. and it was an incredible moment. because the part on the one hand there was no visible sign of revolution. but there was a tremendous tension. and there had been a call

for people to assemble at different point its around china at a particular moment on a particular day. and the regime knew that. and so i was, i went to one of those spots at 2 p.m. on that sunday. and it was an incredible thing you saw the fear that the regime exhibited by just the sheer number of police that were present. but more than the police were the amount of plain clothes policeman. there were moments when i was walking through crowds literally three, four, five people around me all had earpieces. >> what do they try to do to prevent the crowds from assembling. >> they have really developed excellent crowd control techniques where they would move the crowds through with street cleaning equipment. i mean they would push people through with lots of water, cleaning the same street corner again and again and again. mind you, no one is actually coming out to protest. no one is actually declaring down with the chin ease communist party. if you were to do that, then you would be rushed away in no time by security. but rather the call had been for people just to come out

for a stroll. and that was sort of a very, that was a very clever way of going about it. because you can't really arrest someone for just walking down the street. >> so there seems to be almost a cat and mouse game on what i would call 9 technologies of expression. help folks understand that. >> one of my favorite exam-- examples is actually from egypt before the revolution where you had members of the april 6th movement who they put out a call on facebook for people to rally around a strike that was going happen in another part of the country. and they said to people on that day just don't go to work. another easy way to sort of show your protest without actually taking enormous risk, just stay within your home on that given day. and the support for this was he for house on facebook. and so the regime he a anybodial response was to start putting out a ticker on all television broadcasting saying on april 6th everyone must go to work. they inadvertently broadcast this message in a way that the members of april 6th never could have imagined.

egypt is a country of 81 million people. the regime had mistakenly inadvertently communicated this protest to everyone. >> let's talk a little bit about syria. it's in the news. we see horrendous bloodshed there. not necessarily advice for assad but how do you size that up. he's clearly chosen to go the old-fashioned route, let's mow people down. >> that's exactly right. he is really falling-- following his father's example who in its early 1980s crushed an uprising at that time by murdering more than 25,000 people in the space of a month. his son hasn't killed that many yet over the space of a year but he's taking that same approach, the slow burning 20th century approach of trying to just resort to violence and that's what the regime did almost right away. as opposed to others who have tried to accommodate these protests. i mean the thing to remember about 2011 was it wasn't just north africa, and the middle east. this was-- we saw protests spreading across the world and we see how people reacted in many different ways. in the case of malaysia

there was a very sophisticated approach where they essentially ultimately welcomed some of the protests as signs of a mature democracy. there russia of the same, putin has complemented prot testers while using laws to squelch it. >> which leads me to wonder if i'm a dictator and i have this control and there's people sort of say wag ever they want about me on twitter and facebook, why should i care? >> a certain amount of actual dissent, open dissent isn't necessarily a bad thing. it's like a safety valve to let some of the pressure out of the system. it lets people feel a certain amount of freedom without actually having the means of acting. >> so you talk a lot in the book about almost a bunchonning cottage industry between pro-democracy movements. and how much the u.s. government as well as others are trying to toment change in different ways. -- foment change in different ways. talk about how they are learning from each other. >> it is an important element because when i was traveling to a lot of these different countries and i would talk to different student groups or activists,

you name it, they would often draw off examples that they had gathered from other places and other times. so the call for people to go for a stroll in beijing and across china, that was something actually done during the solidarity movement in poland during the 1980s. others were taking lessons from young serbs who had overthrown milosevic in 2000. when you have a police official or done that really enjoys beating up children and beating up protestors, what do you do. they took a tactic from the serbs where they take photographs of the person beating these people. they get their control phone numbers and they plaster posters of the man beating the kids in the places where his wife shops. where his children go to school. if we can't confront him through the badge, through the state, we can use his own family to shun him and make him stop. >> all right, the book is called dictators learning

curve, william dobson, thanks so much for your time. >> we posted william >> ifill: online, we've posted william dobson's list of the top seven people tweeting against authoritarian regimes. that's on our world page. >> brown: again, the major developments of the day. president obama and republican mitt romney took new swipes at each other in interviews and ads, further raising the temperature of the campaign. syrian government forces battled rebels in damascus for a second day. it was the heaviest fighting in the capital since the uprising began 16 months ago. senate republicans blocked a democratic bill to make supersuper pacs and others disclose their donors. opponents of the disclose act says it violates free speech and favors unions. online we have a sneak preview of our special coverage this week on how climate change is affecting native americans across the country. kwame holman has the details. >> holman: a tribe portrayed in the book and movie series "twilight" is poised to reclaim land it ceded generations ago. the move is in preparation for

the loss of territory threatened by flooding and sea-level rise. find that story and another about the tribe's reaction to being included in the "twilight" series on our science page. and on our world page, we talk to globalpost reporter erin cunningham in cairo about demonstrators who hurled tomatoes at secretary clinton's convoy and what it says about the state of egyptian politics. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. jeff? >> brown: and that's the newshour for tonight. on tuesday, dylan went electric, but what happened to his guitar? we'll talk with the history detectives. i'm jeffrey brown. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. we'll see you online, and again here tomorrow evening. thank you, and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: bnsf railway.

and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

>> this is n.b.r. >> tom: good evening. i'm tom hudson. americans closed their wallets in june, marking a third straight month of falling retail sales. >> susie: i'm susie gharib. yahoo taps a new c.e.o.: marissa mayer, 37-year-old senior executive from google. >> tom: and we kick off a week long look at immigration and the u.s. economy. >> susie: that and more tonight on n.b.r.! another disappointing drop in retail sales, a sign that the u.s. economy is limping along. it's the third month in a row that retail sales fell and that pushed down stocks today. retail sales fell 0.5% in june. analystse