captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> ifill: the syrian civil war rages on, as assad's prime minister survives a reported assassination attempt in the heart of damascus. good evening. i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, we debate whether the u.s. should intervene and explore who the fighters are behind the rebellion. >> ifill: then, taxing the internet. we discuss how congress may be changing the way we pay for the things we buy. >> woodruff: basketball's jason collins becomes the first male pro athlete still playing one of the big four sports to come out and say he's gay. we assess what his announcement means for sexual stereotypes on and off the court. >> ifill: ray suarez reports on today's gathering of holocaust

survivors and the veterans who helped save them, to mark the 20th anniversary of the u.s. holocaust memorial museum. >> woodruff: our "daily download" looks at the bogus tweet last week that sent the financial markets into a minutes-long nosedive. >> ifill: and hari sreenivasan explores "pandora's lunchbox" with the author of a new book on processed foods. >> technology has merged with food production in a way that few of us, i think realize, but i the way our bodies procession food, it's stuck somewhere in the stoneage. >> ifill: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> more than two years ago, the people of b.p. made a commitment to the gulf. and every day since, we've worked hard to keep it. today, the beaches and gulf are open for everyone to enjoy. we shared what we've learned so that we can all produce energy more safely. b.p. is also committed to america. we support nearly 250,000 jobs

and invest more here than anywhere else. we're working to fuel america for generations to come. our commitment has never been stronger. >> bnsf railway. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> 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. >> woodruff: president obama voiced new concerns about the syrian war and the alleged use of chemical weapons to russian president putin today.

they spoke in a phone call on a day when the syrian prime minister narrowly missed being killed by a bomb in damascus. >> the bomb blast ripped through cars and buss in the syrian capital, shattering windows and sending the wounded to the hospital. >> i just heard a very loud sound. i didn't look around. i tried opening a door but it wouldn't open. my uncle, a professor at the university, died beside me. >> state tv said prime ster the intended target was unhurt. he was later seen presiding over a meeting of economic advisors without any indication of when the footage was shot. and in recorded comments he mentioned today's date but not the bombing. instead the state news agency quoted him as saying it shows the rebels are bankrupt.

there have been other high profile attacks in da damascus n the last year. today's came amid rising tensions on a different front. u.s. claims that the syrian regime twice likely deployed chemical weapons in recent weeks. >> it's going to become a failed state about it end of the year. it's frak tiewrg along sectarian ethnic lines. it's going to be al qaeda's safe haven. >> reporter: on sunday senator graham of south carolina said the u.s. must take action. >> there's nothing you can do in syria without risk but the greatest risk say failed state with chemical weapons falling into hands of radical islamists and they are poring into syria. >> reporter: fellow republican john mccain calls for giving military aid to the syrian rebels. and he said there might be a need for outside forces but not involving americans. >> we have to, as an international group, plan and be ready operationally -- not just plan but be ready

pediatricianally to -- operationally to go in and secure the areas. whatever the composition of that force is is something we have toll look at carefully. the worst thing the united states could do right now is put boots on the ground in syria. that would turn the people against us. >> reporter: today white house spokesman jay carney turned aside talk of action. he repeated the administration wants to make sure it has all the facts. >> we have established with varying degrees of confidence that there have been incidences of chemical weapons used, sarin in particular, in searal. we're working to build upon that evidence to increase the amount of evidence to find specifically what happened, what occurred, who was responsible, and build that case, if you will. >> reporter: and defense secretary chuck hagel said that assessment is ongoing. meanwhile, the civil war in

syria continues with more than 70,000 dead, and nearly 1.5 million syrian refugees in surrounding countries. what should the u.s. do about the war in syria? we get two views. murhaf jouejati is the chairman of the day after project, an independent organization that advises the syrian national council on plans for a post- assad government. he was born in syria and is also a professor of middle east studies at the national defense university. and joshua landis is director of the center for middle east studies at the university of oklahoma. he also runs the web site syria comment. to both of you, welcome to the "newshour". let me turn to you first murhof jouejati, before we talk about what the united states should do, let's look at whether the u.s. should go in. are you convinced that at this point there's enough evidence to warrant further u.s. involvement? >> i think there's overwhelming

evidence. there's overwhelming evidence take away the chemical weapons we're recently talking about. there's overwhelming evidence that this dictator is out to kill as many syrian opponents of his regime as possible. we're now into the second year. there are over 80,000 people that have been killed. there are about five million syrians displaced. that's a quarter of the population. so, yes -- >> woodruff: on moral grounds are you saying -- >> it's not only moral grounds on strategic grounds as well. it's in the best interest of the united states to break the axis of regime and hezbollah. for american interests, i think the u.s. should do more than it is doing. >> woodruff: joshua landis, both for moral reasons and as we heard him say in the national

interest? >> i don't think believe america should get tangled up in this. i don't believe third time is a charm. it's a national civil war syria has slipped into. it's an ethic and sectarian war. america cannot solve it. we cannot stop this process. syrians have to come out the other end of this process and find out what kind of nation they want to be. everybody is blaming obama for saying he is not a leader. he is not going in. it's america's fault for not intervening immediately and that's why it's radicalized. but in iraq we intervened and in three short weeks, we destroyed saddam hussein's regime, roto rooted the military and dissolved the baath party and there was radicalization that went on for years and still going on. there are car bombs going off every day. the united states spent $1 trillion in iraq and couldn't get the outcome it wanted. >> woodruff: his point is --

>> neither in afghanistan. it's not going to happen in syria. this is a civil war in america's vi war, 750,000 americans were killed in a population of 34 million. syria's 24m, 100,000 have been killed so far. >> woodruff: let me bring it back -- >> in process cannot be solved by an outside power. >> woodruff: he is basically saying the u.s. cannot fix this. >> he is basically wrong. one this is not a civil war. it's a national uprising against almost after a century of dictatorship. the united states can help solve this by assisting this free and democratic movement that has risen in syria. in order to level the playing field, the regime of assad is supported by iran, hezbollah and iraq and the rebels have next to nothing. if the situation continues without u.s. assistance, what we have is the infiltration of radical elements into syria and should these radical elements be

victorious they'll be in control of chem call weapons in the middle east. >> woodruff: we've seen the infiltration by al qaeda and islamist groups to the operation. >> the american no fly zone is is not going to stop al qaeda from infiltrating. in the northeast where al qaeda is most active the assad regime pulled out within the first month. it's been hardly active. american no fly zone would not stop them. they are crawling all over iraq. now they are in syria. only american boots on ground going after al qaeda is going to stop them. syrians are joining islamist forces because they want to destroy the assad regime because many want an islamic state. this is not something that america can stop. we tried to go to afghanistan and stop afghanis from being islamist and be more secular.

it's failed. >> woodruff: murhof jouejati, let's talk about what the u.s. would do if it did go n. josha landis is arguing -- nobody is arguing for boots on the ground. what about the no-fly zone? >> nobody is arguing for boots on the ground and the syrian opposition does not want american or any other boots on the ground. they want support in neutralizing assad's air force. he is using fighter jets to bomb civilian neighborhoods and using scud missiles to bomb the neighborhoods. >> woodruff: what could the u.s. do? >> air cover, establish a no-fly zone, for example in the south of syria, much as it had done in the north of iraq and here. let me remind our american audience that zero american pilots have been killed in the no-fly zone in the iraq -- so in the absence of this at least -- at least -- the minimum to provide the rebels with ammunition for them to defend

their families and civilian brothers and sisters. >> woodruff: let's take that one at at time josha landis. let's take this question of supplying ammunition and equipment to the rebels? >> we're already supplying. we're helping get much more sophisticated arms to the rebels already. one of major problems is the rebels -- there are over 11,000 militias in speara. the moderate rebels that mawty is talk d- -- that murhof jouejati is talking about is -- we're talking about if we give them weapons that they could share them with al qaeda. which has been happening. the u.s. can do -- the u.s. government can do a lot more to help the opposition. the problem is is the real fighting forces on the ground in seara, the most effective forces are the islamist front and the al qaeda affiliates. and that's what the united

states is frightened of. israel is frightened of it and they don't want us to give more weapons. we're in a bind. >> woodruff: what will about his earlier point that if you give ammunition, weapons to the rebels, it falls into the hands of the wrong people. >> one, not necessarily, and recently the decision by friends of syria has been taken to pour the assistance into the stream military council which will channel it to the good guys within the sfa. >> woodruff: are you saying you can make a distinction? >> absolutely. the u.s. knows who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. i don't know why professor landis wants to equate syria with iraq. in iraq it was a foreign intervention. in syria it's a national uprising against dictatorship. there are civilians die together rate of 150 per day. and the longer we wait, the longer the radicals and

islamists are going to jump n. the longer we wait, the worse it's going to be not only for syrians but also for the region and the united states. >> woodruff: joshua landis? >> look, the average cost of iraq and afghanistan for the american -- each american household has been $40,000 of debt for every household. $1 trillion in iraq and afghanistan. we hardly changed the outcome. we did change it because we've spent -- we have spent $250,000,000 in syria. almost nothing. we could pour in more money but what outcome are we going to get? it's a civil war it's pitting two different sectarian groups against each other, and the united states f they get in -- if they get in and get a sunni arab win over the minorities there could be ethnic cleansing.

there is going to be a lot of things that go on that we didn't plan for as had happened in other countries. we could provide a no-fly zone but that is for humanitarian reasons to stop the killings. fit doesn't stop, as it probably won't, then the mission creep is tremendous. we'll have to go hunting assad and kill him. in libya it took two days to go from a no-fly zone to kill qaddafi zone. we're bell mediate age tough civil war. >> woodruff: very brief response. in afghanistan and iraq it was costly because there were boots on ground. syria does not want boots on the ground. they want a protection for the free civilian army to be supported to collapse the murderous regime so the middle east can see stability again. >> woodruff: the debate goods on. murhof jouejati and joshua

landis we thank you both. >> thank you. >> ifill: still to come on the newshour, taxing online sales; coming out in the n.b.a.; remembering the holocaust; hacking twitter; and opening pandora's lunchbox. but first, with the other news of the day, here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: five car bombs exploded in shiite areas across center and southern iraq today, killing at least 36 people. it was the latest in a wave of sectarian violence that's left at least 218 dead since last tuesday. after today's bombings, the mangled remains of the vehicles and other debris littered streets in diwaniyah and other towns. in addition to the dead, dozens of people were wounded. afghan president hamid karzai has confirmed that his national security team received payments from the c.i.a. for the last ten years. the "new york times" reported today that the agency delivered millions of dollars in suitcases and even plastic bags in a bid to gain influence. karzai said it was only a "small amount" of money, and that it went to care for the wounded and to pay for housing.

the "times" report said in fact, the money has fueled corruption and funded warlords. in banglades rescuers ended the effort to find survivors of last week's eight-story building collapse. the death stood at 382, with some 2,500 survivors. we have a report from john sparks of independent television news. >> this morning, the authorities gave up. crains and heavy cutting equipment were moved in and volunteer rescuers told to go. little chance now, say officials, of finding anyone left alive. yet six days after this catastrophe there are hundreds of people, perhaps as many as 1,000, still unaccounted for. yesterday evening, rescue teams were given one last chance to find survivors. the obstacles were fearsome, the heat and stench of decomposing bodies overpowering but they deseended to the ruins

nonetheless. >> you can't see anything inside but you can hear people shouting for help. it's so dark no wind, no light. >> reporter: mr. ali told us they were looking for a woman, a distant voice amidst the rubble we think there's only one person alive now and we're trying to help. we can hear her but we need more times. >> reporter: their efforts would be in vain. rescuers started a fire accidentally as they tried to cut her free. to save themselves they were forced to retreat. god knows what happened to the girl, he said. they wept for the one they couldn't reach. the owner of the building was led to court today dressed in a police helmet and bullet-proof vest. an angry crowd shouted "hang him! hang him! " in an interviewed conducted the day before the disaster he said cracks in his building were

nothing to worry about. >> i saw them, my engineer saw them but they are not cracks just plastic coming off. it's not risky at all. >> reporter: the family of the missing hang on still waiting at the site with family pictures in hand. >> sreenivasan: a mississippi man charged with sending ricin- tainted letters was ordered held without bond today, at least for now. james everett dutschke made his first appearance in federal court since being arrested on saturday. the poisoned letters were sent in early april to president obama, a u.s. senator and a mississippi judge. federal agents originally arrested another suspect, but decided they had the wrong man and let him go. it has been two weeks since the boston marathon bombing, and the mother of the suspects is denying that she or her sons played any role. zubeidat tsarnaeva told the associated press that the charges are all lies. the focus on her came after russian authorities reported she discussed jihad with her elder son, tamerlan, in a phone call. it was intercepted prior to the boston attack. tsarnaeva lived in the u.s. for ten years until last fall.

president obama has nominated the mayor of charlotte, north carolina, to be the next secretary of transportation. anthony foxx is the first african american nominee to be tapped for a cabinet slot in the president's second term. the 41-year-old democrat pledged today to work with congress and state and local governments to boost public works spending and create jobs. >> there's no such thing as a democratic or republican road, bridge, port, airfield, or rail system. we must work together across party lines to enhance this nation's infrastructure. >> sreenivasan: if confirmed by the senate, foxx will succeed ray lahood, the outgoing secretary. lahood was one of a handful of republicans serving in the obama administration. state funding for pre-school education fell last year by the most since recordkeeping began. rutgers university researchers reported today that most cuts were due to lingering budget problems caused by the recession. they also said half a million students are now enrolled in pre-kindergarten programs that

do not meet federal standards. in economic news, consumer spending and personal income rose in march by .2%. the increases came despite a return to higher payroll taxes to fund social security. overall, the news encouraged wall street. the dow jones industrial average gained 106 points to close at 14,818. the nasdaq rose more than 27 points to close at 3307. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to gwen. >> ifill: since the earliest days of the web, buying goods online has often come with one, often not quite legal, perk: no sales tax. but that may be about to change. the senate has cleared the way for a new law that would allow states to collect taxes on transactions conducted across state lines. the bill exempts businesses earning less than a million dollars a year. as it stands now, states can only collect taxes from businesses that have a physical presence in their state. we look at what's at stake in congress and the debate surrounding the change.

brian bieron is with ebay, which has actively opposed the legislation. he's the senior director for global public policy there. and rachelle bernstein is a vice president at the national retail federation, which supports the bill. rachelle bernstein, let's start with the basics, what percentage of goods, would you say, of sales are made online at this point? >> you know, it's a growing percentage. it's not that large. i don't have that exact number, but we do know it has really grown exponentially overtime. we know that number is supposed to double in the next six years. if we look sales tax base of the states it will be greatly eroded if something is not done to even out the tax burden on goods that are purchased from out of state as well as instate. >> ifill: we're talking about a difference from people with a brick and mortar and people like

you at ebay who look at this and it exists on theline. >> it's a marketplace on the internet for retailers. we have thousands, tens of thousands of entrursepneand small businesses who use the internet on ebay in other ways. many of them have presence through warehouse. the thing to think about that while the internet right now is 6% of retail. it's not an overwhelming number that this bill treats small businesses in a much more negative way than it treats really giant businesses. >> ifill: how? >> well, the giant businesses today because they tend to be in more places, the current law essentially requires them to collect and live under the laws of a large number of states. smaller businesses, many of whom are using the internet but might be in store fronts, no matter how they sell things they are

only required to collect for one state or be audited or live under the enforcement of one state tax collectors. to take any business when they are really small who today is living under the laws of one state and would ask them to live under the same set of laws that giant businesses, billion dollar businesses with armies of accountants and tax lawyers, treating them exactly the same we think would be unfair. it's not that we opposed ideas, we think the bills should be rejected right now because they are not balanced and don't treat the small businesses in the right way. >> ifill: rachelle bernstein? >> i understand what brian is saying but we have small businesses, mom and pops in the community paying property taxes and employing people there and they say there's competition from the internet sellers. >> ifill: give me an example of that. >> we have -- one of our members in baltimore owns a running shoe

store. just one store. he has a very wide selection of different types of shoes so that you can go in and try everything on and figure out exactly which shoes you want. running shoes are expensive. people go in there and they find exactly what they want, maybe order two pairs. they'll be as bold as to in that store pull out the telephone and order the shoes online after they've identified what they need. >> ifill: to save the tax? >> to save the taxes. the owner of the store can't compete with that. we have got a problem here. i hear what brian is saying in terms of burden of collecting taxes from states you are not in but the legislation said -- that the senate is about to pass includes requires the states that want to collect the tafls to provide software to the remote sellers that calculate the tax, collect it and remitt

it to the states on behalf of sellers. >> ifill: you made the point the senate is about to pass. the senate committee has cleared the way but it still has to go to the full senate and the house. why shouldn't that happen? >> states have the right to require whether it's the businesses or the consumers in their state to pay. states have authority to collect their taxes. in fact, the internet doesn't change that. >> ifill: they have the authority but it involves individuals saying this is how much i think i spent an ebay last year. >> whur shopping on ebay you are shopping with retailers. on ebay they are usually small businesses. if you buy on the internet from a business in your state the sales tax is collected. this is about requiring businesses that are far away from a state to live under that state's loves -- laws. rachelle mentioned software.

if that was all it took then giant multi-billion dollar businesses wouldn't have these teams because they would replace it with software. the reality is it's more than software. the current bill would mean that any small business over a tiny size using the internet to sell could be audited and tax enforcement in the tax courts of businesses -- states thousands of miles away. >> ifill: we'll talk about the states. rachelle bernstein, do we have any way of knowing or measuring how much money states are losing by people who buy across state lines and don't pay the tax? >> the national council of state legislatures said the number is $23 billion this year. so yes, that's a lot of money. the states right now are hurting for funds. this would help them not have to pass new taxes to be able to collect the money that is needed. the other thing is that, again, as the growth of the internet goes on, if this situation isn't

corrected either state sales taxes are going to have to rise or states are going to have to look to other sources of revenue increasing income taxes or whatever to be able to collect the revenue they are relying on. >> ifill: the bill calls for the million dollar cutoff. you are saying it should be higher. >> we're saying it should be higher. we believe a number like $10 million that is proposed in the department of treasury tax analysis they recommend $10 million. >> ifill: it's in the a big business? >> oh, no they recommend, $10 million is the number they use. the difference between small businesses and big businesses for tax bills across the board. the chairman of house ways and means committee, the lead tax writer on the house side of the hill said $10 million is a standard for him for deciding where it becomes a mid-sized business. >> ifill: we know what the debate of taxes is like on

capitol hill. why isn't this just a tax increase pure and sim snm. >> it's not a tax increase because it's due and owing. it's just, as you said before, it's up to the consumer to remit it. if i could make a comment -- >> ifill: we really -- >> 99% of internet retailers have less than $1 million in sales wench think the balanced number is to raise the small business number to a realistic level to balance the interest of the states of revenue and keep the internet open. >> ifill: brian bieron and rachelle bernstein, thank you both very much. >> thank you very much. >> woodruff: for the first time, an active male player in the four major professional sports today announced publicly he's gay. pro basketball's jason collins put it this way: "i'm a 34-year-old n.b.a. center. i'm black. and i'm gay."

jeffrey brown looks at his decision and the reaction. >> brown: the news came force in collins' own account on "sports illustrated"'s web site. if i had my way someone would have already done this. nobody has so i'm rising my hand. the seven foot collins is 34 and a free agent. he played for the washington wizard and boston celtics this season, his 12th in the league. in his written account he pointed to this month's attack in boston saying it reinforced the notion that i shouldn't wait for the circumstances of my coming out to be perfect. things can change in an instant to why not live truthfully. reaction appeared positive. doc rivers, coach of boston celtics said in a statement "i'm extremely happy and proud of jason collins. he is a pro's pro." kobe bryant tweeted his

encouragement, "proud of jason collins, don't suffocate you are who you are because of ignorance of others." the issue has arisen in other sports before. this year's super bowl san fris sysco 49ers player said gay athletes would not be welcome in the locker room. indeed before collins the only male athletes to come out were already retired while women's sports were more accepting. brightny griner, the top people in the wnb draft wa for more, we turn to lz granderson, a sportswriter and columnist for espn and a cnn contributor. whys that take son long in prosports and why is it a big deal now?

-- lx, are you hear -- l z are you hearing me? all right. we're going to try to come back this to this soon. we've lot contact with lz granderson. we'll move on for now and come back. >> ifill: in washington today, a group of holocaust survivors returned to the capital for a day of remembrance, reminding younger generations of past horrors and of future challenges. ray suarez reports. >> suarez: under a steady rain thousands of came to mark the 20th anniversary, the dedication of a museum built as a constant reminder of one of history's greatest crimes. nazi germany's murder of jews. >> time is an all important --

>> suarez: between 1933 and 1945 hitler led germ dmi and his collaborators first to systematic ally persecute and eliminate european jewery. today's ceremony brought together survivors and more than 100 military veterans who took part in liberating europe and the death camps. there probably won't be too many more gatherings like this one. it's almost 70 years since ve day. even those liberated as children are in their 80s and 90's. natalie is one of those survivors from poland she remembers what she saw when she was three years old. >> a little baby was crying. and the german yelled in german stop the baby from crying. that's what he yelled, you know. how do you make a baby stop crying. she couldn't stop the baby from

crying. he grabbed the baby, set the baby down and the blood was gushing all over. that's what i saw at three years old. >> suarez: it was on another rainy and windy day in 1993 that president clinton and nobel laureate elie weisel dead dated the museum. >> for the dead and the living we must bear witness. >> this museum is not for the dead alone nor even for the survivors who have been so beautifully represented. it is perhaps most of all for those of us who were not there at all. to learn the lessons, to deepen our memories and our humanity, and to transmit these lessons from generation to generation. >> suarez: now 20 years later under a massive tent the same two men called on the world to

prevent future genocides from happening. >> you are now the flag bearers. it's in your memory. our memory will live in yours. remember that, young people, that you have an ideal, not only an idea but ideal, the ideal of saving whatever the past has to offer for the future. and it's heros and also its victims. >> make sure that has direct memories fade away that the records, the pictures, and the stories never die, to make sure that we will always be able to come here to remind us that no matter how smart a people are if

you have a head without a heart, you are not human. >> suarez: the museum has seen more than 35 million people pass through its doors since it opened just off the national mall. it's full of audio add video testimonials, a model of the gas chamber at auschwitz, artifacts from victims lives like the stack of shoes they took off before being put to death in the gas chambers and the faces of those killed in the genocide. the museums director, sarah bloomfield, said the core mission is to education but also about helping to prevent future genocides. >> evil is not an irradical disease. it will be here forever. our responsibility is to do for future victims of genocide what the world filed do for the jews of europe in the 1930's and 194 50ez. >> suarez: henry say survivor and a veteran.

he fled to america from germany as a teenager and ended up going back as a young gi where he walks through the barracks. now he tells sortie to school children. >> they are -- he tells his story to school children. >> they talk about history and i hope, something i told my two children growing up, i said can't you love one another? it's a lot easier than hate. and if that transformed itself to the people in this world to love one another, i think it would become a better world. >> suarez: there are other holocaust memorials and museums around the world like in israel and berlin's memorial tbhilt 2004. and -- built in 2004. and just last week canada announced plans to build a memorial in ottawa, the only former allied nation without

one. >> woodruff: you can watch videos >> ifill: you can watch videos from today's ceremony online, including speeches from president clinton and elie wiesel. find those on our youtube page. >> for more now on the jason collins store i'm joined by lz granderson. specifically for the nonsports fans, why was this taken so long in prosports and why is it a big deal now? >> well, one of the reason it's taken so long in professional sports is because there's a sense in the lockerroom that a openly gay male player would not be safe. that his job would be in jeopardy and his health could be at risk especially if he is playing a collision sport or a

team wouldn't sign him, cut him or waive him if he is playing football. the threat of your livelihood and health for many, many years was the reason why athletes were so hesitant to come out. as far as it being a big deal now it's the a big deal in the sense it's a first player but if you look at the arc of the lbgt movement not i'm not sure it's as big in other words the movement has progressed to this it's effecting a larger group of people than perhaps the symbolism of one player in the nba. >> brown: you are saying the movement is beyond where sports is perhaps? what kind of reaction is it getting so far in the world of sports and what kind of reaction might you expect later on in the

locker room? >> well, you know, jason is say free agent -- is a free agent so he doesn't have a particular locker room to property to. that is the piece of puzzle we're waiting for, if you will. everyone that has been tweeting thursday far, for the most part have been supportive. it's my understanding that president obama called jason collins and congratulated him. we know michelle owe d obama tweeted we've got your back. numerous players have tweeted in support of jason. but at the end of the day where we're in this conversation will be determined about whether or not jason is resigned. if he is signed as an openly gay player, then i think we know where we are. if he is not signed, we have much more questions that needs to be asked as well as answered. was he not signed because he is openly gay? was he not signed because he is not a particularly great player? because he is 34?

a lot of questions to be answered. >> brown: what is the sense of where things stand in other sports beyond basketball, football, a famously macho environment, right? >> i'm an openly gay man. i like to think of myself as fairly macho. i don't like to think. >> brown: i certainly didn't mean that? i just ments the reputation. >> no, no, no. people usually prefix the conversation about professional sports being a macho environment. whatever we deem as stereotypically macho, the male athletes that have come out thursday far fit that bill. john amici played a big power forward position. i would think it's macho. he's a bring strong guy. a killer on the field was dave coupe, pretty macho guy. the conversation is reframing

the way we look at it in its entirety. that's the reason i gave a push back. >> brown: i take the push. well taken. what is the situation in other sports? similar to what you see in basketball? >> well, you know, i do know that all these leagues have worked with or are still working with some national organization addressing homophobia in sports. the nba has been working with the gay and lesbian education network for years prior to jason collins coming out, prior to kobe bryant being fined last year for uttering a gay slur inadvertently on television. the nfl has been working with an organization to address homophobia in sports. the nhl a couple weeks ago announced working with an organization to make things better for an openly gay athlete in its sport. i would think at least from an executive level, a lot has been

done to address this issue. and to make things more comfortable or more tolerant for an openly gay player to exist in the locker room. but with that being said, no locker room has what has happened in the nba? and if jason is resigned, the other leagues have a lot of catching up to do. >> brown: lz granderson espn columnist. thanks so much. >> thank you. >> brown: online we have reaction from the athletes from the nba and other major sports leagues. that's on the rundown. >> woodruff: now, our look at how social media affects and infects the world we live in. newshour politictor christina bellantoni is here with the daily download team. >> reporter: we learned last week that a tweet can send markets crashing in a matter of minutes. how can news outlets protect themselves from hack? and how difficult is it to stop

something once it goes viral? we discuss the issue with it two journalists from the web site daily download. lauren around -- ash burn and howie kurtz. thanks for being here. last tuesday we saw that the associated press sent out this tweet to 1.9 million followers. what exactly happened here? >> the tweet as you can see here break two explosions in the white house and barack obama is injured. everybody went crazy online. it was retweeted 1800 times to the associated press with almost two million followers. after that we saw a drop in standard & poor's and the stock market. >> $136 billion lost. most after this rebounded in the seven minutes it took for people like me to start rushing over to the white house and find out there were no explosions and for the twitter to suspend the associated account, account

which had been hacked with we suspected. >> and which the ap pout a correction saying it did not happen. >> they said this say bogus ap tweet, which i thought was very short and tight. >> they had some indication that somebody was trying to break into the system. >> they did earlier and they sent out a warning to all of the 2,000 journalists plus the people working at the ap saying someone is trying to phish or get into the system do in the click. >> the phishing scams they send a link that looks like an article. it's asking for data. >> exposes your password. >> what with underscores is the way twitter has become threaded to the fabric of our society. it's okay, according to the government, for companies to deliver market moving information through the twitter feeds. bloomberg news terminals include

twitter. if there's a hack or false tweet. we saw this with china. >> and "60 minutes" as well. >> it's almost becoming the new normal and it cannot only put out false information but can affect the stock market. >> what are the consequences? are are we seeing to curtail this problem? >> this goes to the power of social media? we need tighter password restrictions. a lot of sites have things called two step verification. twitter does not. two-step verification means you have to get a passed for from your -- pass word from a different place. >> twitter looking into adopting that. this say black eye for twitter even though it wasn't their fault. there will be a hearing tomorrow because as we mentioned the billions and billions of dollars that traded on sometimes false information on hackers involved on how to tighten up the system,

how it's prevent ready trigering a run on stocks. >> this comes as it shows people are more engaged than ever on social media online. we have a pew research center study that we've been taking a look at here. what does it tell us how about people engage on social media? >> we've seen an increase from the last political election to this one and we have a graphic to show how it's happening. people are poafght political articles on social media at a greater rate. it was 28% this election and 11 % in 2008. >> and friending a political candidate has jumped from four years ago to last year. this is great because social media is such an efficient and fun and vibrant way of putting out information, but as that hack underscores again you have to be wary whether you are a journalist or somebody in the stock market. >> you have to understand as social media is growing and growing so rapidly that the

backend of all of these organizations need to catch up and put in tighter security controls. >> we've seen that from the media to the stock market, you know the world market, and now to politics of course. thank you very much howard kurtz, lauren ashburn. daily download. >> thank you. >> >> reporter: you can get the how-to guide for what to do if you are hacked on our web site. >> ifill: finally tonight how technology has changed the foods we eat. hari sreenivasan has our book conversation. >> sreenivasan: human eating habits have changed in more in the past century than in the previous 10,000 years. americans are conassuming double the fat, 3.5 times more sodium, 60% more sugar and more corn and soybeans than in the year 1909. one sul bt processed food.

70% of our calories come from them tsms a topic of a new book by melanie warner called "pan dora's lunchbox: how processed food took over the american meal." thank you for joining us. define it. >> it's a term thrown around a lot. i like to think of sit processed food is something you could not make at home in our own kitchen with the same indpreedents. packaged food, fast food and i think it's a good benchmark. >> sreenivasan: you did this interesting experiment. you wanted to see how processed food devolve and what the shelflife was. explain this experiment? >> it's something i came upon when i wondered about expiration packages in the supermarket. i wondered what would happen after this date came and went,

would the food good bad, start smelling? i started collecting food and keeping it in many -- then it was an apartment -- and see what happened. eventually i would open it and it would be fine. over time i collected i became curious and what would happen if i tested other kinds of foods, fast food, other supermarket products, frozen meals, pop tarts, you name it. >> sreenivasan: what should have been a smelly area wasn't smelly. >> it wasn't smelly at all. it was in my office and i was able to work there. there were a few exceptions but almost none of it molded, started smelling bad or decomposed. >> sreenivasan: you say that while science and technology has made it easier to process foods our bodies have not edevelopped in the same way.

>> technology has merge with food production in a way that few of us realized. the way our bodies process food is stuck somewhere in the stone age when they were eating different foods obviously. this causes enormous problems. the foods we're eating our bood bodies are not designed to handle. it causes all kinds of health problems. >> sreenivasan: is there scientific data that says we don't have the enzymes or what happens? you can look ingredients. the effect that sugar has on our bodies is -- can be somewhat disastrous if it's over consumed. it causes blood sugar to spike. you hear about people getting insulin resistant. it messes up the whole blood sugar dynamic when we consume too much sugar. you can talk about things like fatz and vegetable oils and we're overconsuming those and it's having problems for arteries and vascular system and our heart.

>> sreenivasan: some of the preserve actives, the -- preservatives, the food industry will say we need this science to feed everybody. >> i would argue that that is not the only way we can feed people and it's not the best way to feed people. do we really want the rest world adopting our diet of eating processed food. our health fat civics are abysmal. we're supposed to be a great country and 37th in life expectancy, globally around the world. i just don't think that that is a solution for feeding the rest of the world. >> sreenivasan: after having written this book and know being processed foods what are you cutting out? what are you including? >> i think it's -- i want to stress that i'm not arguing for a world without any processed food, zero processed food.

i think it's a matter of rebalancing our diet so instead of 70% of our foods coming from highly processed maybe it's something like 30% or 20%, whatever is right for an individual. i do eat processed foods. i serve them to my kids. i'm a working mom. i try to have a balance. when i serve or eat processed foods i try to seek out the best choices, the ones that have as many ingredients and artificial ingredients, the less processed of the choices. >> sreenivasan: for instance,? >> i don't buy boxed mac and cheese for the kids. why i do want to feed them powdered and liquid cheese. making it at home is easily. i've been more skeptical and discriminating. >> sreenivasan: the book is called "pandora's lunchbox." melanie wa

>> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day. president obama raised concerns about chemical weapons in syria, in a phone call with russian president putin. they spoke hours after a bomb narrowly missed killing the syrian prime minister in damascus. bombings across iraq killed at least 36 people. it was the latest in a week's worth of violence. and pro basketball player jason collins announced he's gay, becoming the first male athlete in a major u.s. sports league to come out. >> ifill: online, a reminder from our science unit: the deadline to submit your science- inspired rap video is friday. find more information on how to enter and win a shout-out from the wu-tang clan's gza on our home page. and runners pay tribute to victims of the boston bombings by lacing up and organizing races across the country. and of course it's monday, which

all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. and that's the newshour for tonight. on tuesday, we'll examine escalating sectarian violence in iraq, and the challenges it poses for stability in the country. i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. 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: moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us.

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