captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: fierce fighting in ukraine. hopes for new peace talks fail as pro-russian rebels try to seize important towns in the east. good evening, i'm judy woodruff. also ahead: >> it's easier than ever to become a filmmaker. that doesn't mean it's easier than ever to become a sustainable filmmaker. >> woodruff: we travel to utah at sundance, where directors are trading the theater in for the small screen. and why video on demand comes first for more independent filmmakers in search of an audience. >> maybe it's time we stopped calling ourselves filmmakers. maybe it's time to start calling ourselves content makers or

storytellers. because there is, just to say a filmmaker limits the expectation to a certain length and a certain expectation of a theatrical release. >> woodruff: and it's friday, mark shields and david brooks are here to analyze the week's news. those are some of the stories we're covering on tonight's pbs newshour. ♪ ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us.

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public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the u.s. economy slowed in the fourth quarter of 2014, but american workers did a little better overall. government data today showed the gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 2.6%, down from previous quarters. a separate report said wages and benefits rose 2.2% in 2014, the best pace in six years. and the university of michigan consumer confidence index was the highest it's been in over a decade. across the atlantic, the euro- zone reported consumer prices fell over the past 12 months a further sign of soft demand and general economic weakness. meanwhile, in athens, the new, leftist leaders of greece pressed top european union officials today to ease terms of the greek bailout.

but the chair of the euro-zone financial ministers warned greece against rash decisions. >> the utmost importance that greece remains on a path of recovery. this requires commitment it's a reform process and fiscal sustainability. taking unilateral steps or ignoring previous arrangements is not the way forward. >> woodruff: the german government joined in the warnings. its foreign minister rejected demands to forgive rescue loans to greece, and commented: "we are difficult to blackmail." while in russia, the central bank unexpectedly cut a key interest rate, citing the growing risk of an economic slowdown. the ruble tumbled again in response. the day's economic news worried wall street. the dow jones industrial average lost nearly 252 points to close below 17,165. the nasdaq fell 48, to 4,635. and the s-and-p 500 slipped 48,

to finish at 1,995. for the month, the dow lost 3.5%. the nasdaq fell 2%. and the s-and-p lost 3%. you can scratch mitt romney from the republican presidential race in 2016. the party's 2012 nominee announced today he will not make a third run for the white house. in a phone call with supporters, romney said it's time for a fresh face. >> i believe that one of our >> woodruff: romney said he'd been asked if anything might change his mind. he said that "seems unlikely." bombings across the islamic world, left scores of people dead today.

at least 56 were killed and dozens wounded in southeastern pakistan, when a bomb ripped through a shiite mosque. the blast struck in the middle of friday prayers leaving bystanders and worshippers pulling victims from the rubble. a militant sunni group claimed responsibility. shiites were also the target of bomb attacks in iraq. explosions across baghdad killed at least 27 people. most of the victims died in a pair of timed bombings that struck a busy market. to the north, islamic state fighters attacked near kirkuk killing a top kurdish commander and eight of his fighters. there was no word today on the fate of two islamic state hostages, a japanese journalist and a jordanian pilot. the militants had threatened to kill the pilot unless jordan released a convicted terrorist yesterday. instead, the jordanians are demanding proof that the pilot is still alive. britain paid tribute to winston

churchill today, marking 50 years since the wartime leader's funeral. the same boat that once carried churchill's coffin re-traced its route along the river thames. members of churchill's family joined the journey, and his grandson recalled how the funeral had affected the british public. >> i was astonished at the faces of many, many people who were literally contorted with grief because i think that for the older people my grandfather had been a friend. he was someone they knew. and he had led the nation at a very difficult time, with them. and they felt part of that and i think his going was definitively the end of an era. >> woodruff: on that day in 1965, an estimated one million people lined churchill's funeral route. as his flotilla passed by, london's dockside cranes were lowered in respect.

back in the country the white house weighed in on vaccinating children for measles. the spokesperson says the science is clear the immunizations work. about 100 cases of measles have been reported in the u.s. since last month, mostly in california. and two men, one american, one russian, claimed the world record today for long-duration balloon flight. they've now spent 138 hours in the air, on a flight across the pacific. they also surpassed the distance record of 5,209 miles. the pilots lifted off last sunday in japan and expect to land in mexico tomorrow. once they do, the balloon will have traveled an estimated 6835 miles. still to come on the newshour: fierce fighting in ukraine; the white house push to spur personalized medicine; filmmakers shift from the silver screen to on-demand; from deflate-gate to domestic violence, recent hits to pro- football's image;

plus, shields and brooks on the week's news. >> woodruff: the crisis in ukraine showed more signs of intensifying, after a bloody day across the east left civilians on both sides dead. meanwhile, peace talks scheduled in belarus were abandoned, after rebel delegates refused to participate. pro-russian forces said at least seven people were killed in donetsk today by government shelling. to the south, in mariupol, fears remain of a rebel takeover, where kiev said an offensive over the weekend left 30 civilians dead. meanwhile, the strategic government-held railway town of debaltseve has seen heavy fighting. the area just outside debaltseve was caught under intense artillery fire overnight, and into the morning.

explosions echoed in the distance as rebels over-ran the ukrainian military. shaun walker of "the guardian" newspaper, just left the country's east and spoke to me from kiev a short while ago. shaun walker, welcome. you were just in donetsk for about ten days. tell us about the conditions there. >> well donetsk, of course is the rebel capital, was the city of a million people, many of those have left. over last summer, it was kind of a ghost town, but what i discovered on this last visit a lot of people returned when we had the cease fire in september. they thought they would be able to go back to some kind of normal life. so we're talking about hundreds of thousands of people in donetsk now and, of course, the conflict has started up again. every night from the center of donetsk, you can hear outgoing artillery. today we had incoming rockets which killed nine people. just another nine in the 5,000

that have died in this conflict and is very much looking like the war is ramping up again. the cease fire which was never really fully in place is totally in tatters. we have the rebels talking about a newo fencive, trying to take over new terrorist. we have the ukrainians fighting back. ovary time civilians die, both sides blame the other. the end is the death toll keeps rising and civilians on both sides of the lines are ending up suffering. >> woodruff: how are civilians dealing with all of this? >> well, it's very difficult and is especially difficult in the territory that's controlled by the pro-russian separatists. in recent weeks ukraine has taken a policy decision that it's going to essentially blockade the areas. it's made the decision that given it doesn't have political control, it's going to stop things like paying pensions and salaries to government workers

and hassles stopped access to bank accounts. so what you've got is a situation where people have very little access to cash. nobody is starving, but there's suddenly a problem with food supplies, especially when you get out into the smaller towns and cities. i was in a small town just a couple of days ago and it was really quite a depressing humanitarian situation. the the most frail and vulnerable people are the ones who have stayed behind, the people with no money to leave, nowhere to go. so you had little old ladies disabled the most vulnerable people sitting in their homes months ago damaged by the conflict. now they can hear shelling again. they don't have enough food. in many cases, they don't have enough medicine. so they're in this kind of black hole. added to that is another policy of -- from ukraine which is the introduction of a permit system. so now everybody who lives in the rebel territories who wants

to leave and travel back and forward has to apply for this permit. that takes ten days to receive and it's quite difficult to get. so i think there's a real sense of desperation in those areas. many people are very angry with ukraine. i noticed on this visit, you know even a change from three or four months ago where if you got to talking to people and they won your trust they might quietly admit that they really wanted these horrible pro-russian rebels to go away and they were quite pro-kiev. that attitude is changing and it's difficult to find anyone left in donetsk especially now who would welcome the kiev government coming back. and i think these measurers are sort of making that even harder. >> woodruff: just very quickly, we know russians deny that they are in ukraine. troops are there, but there's eyewitness testimony to the contrary. what did you see? >> well, i think there are three types of people in eastern ukraine. there are rebels local rebels,

there are some volunteers and mercenaries from russia. there are russian troops. i saw a russian missile system which could only come from russia. there's no way the rebels have this. we're not talking about whole regimens walking around east ukraine, but definitely weapons, machinery and i think troops coming through maybe in small numbers. >> woodruff: shaun walker with "the guardian." we thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: the president laid out a plan for a new biomedical research initiative today, one aimed at finding targeted treatments for individuals. it's called precision medicine, or more frequently referred to as personalized medicine. the plan calls for the national institutes of health to develop databases featuring genetic information of one million americans. their genes would be studied,

along with their medical histories, so that researchers private industry and the government could help tailor treatments to better match groups of patients. president obama is asking for more than $200 million in his new budget for the project. he spoke of the promise that approach brought for bill elder, a 27-year-old who is taking a drug to fight cystic fibrosis. about 20 years ago, bill was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. but it turns out bill is one of 4% of cystic fibrosis patients whose disease is caused by a particular mutation in one gene. a few years ago, the fda fast-tracked a new drug specifically targeting that mutation. one night in 2012 bill tried it for first time. just a few hours later, he woke up knowing something was different. finally, he realized what it was.

he had never been able to breathe out of his nose before. think about that. so bill's now 27. when he was born, 27 was the median age of survival for a cystic fibrosis patient. >> woodruff: our science correspondent spoke with the director of the n.i.h. dr. francis collins, in the white house briefing room today. that's miles o'brien. >> reporter: dr. collins, thanks for being with us. >> nice to be here. >> reporter: i suppose when you look at the broad course of history from the time we were drawing blood and putting leaches on people to today, medicine has always gotten more precise. but when we talk about precision medicine now, what are we really talking about? >> we're taking about the idea that we're all different individuals and the best way to keep us healthy or treat us when we're sick is to take account of the individual differences, whether that's an understanding if you have cancer what exactly is going on in your cancer

cells, or whether giving you the right drug at the right dose for you. let's understand how to do that better. we've tried to do things like that over decades, but we haven't really had the tools. the time is now to really make that opportunity become a reality. >> reporter: it's been a dozen years since we've unlocked the human genome, we have been waiting for magic cures and they have been slow to come. has the computer revolution gotten us to a point where we can all know exactly what we're made of? >> the human genome is a pretty complicated instruction book. most of us involved in reading out those 3 billion letters which we managed to do a dozen years ago, we were aware it was going to take time to build upon that for human clinical benefit. it's not surprising it's taken time to get to the point where we are now. but a lot of things have happened now to make this the moment to really push marred. we have after all the ability to determine your genome or mine

for, you know about $1,000. >> reporter: that's better than 4 billion. >> that's right. so we've dropped that faster than moore's law for computers. dna sequencing is coming down quickly. we have other ideas about how to figure out to run large-scale studies. electronic health records have come along making this more possible than it would have been. we have all kind of interesting new technologies -- using mobile phones to assess people's physiology, their behavior, environmental exposurers -- we can put that altogether and on a very large scale begin to collect the data we need to understand how to keep people healthy. that wassent there 12 years ago. it's starting to be there now and is time to make the push. >> reporter: do scientists in their enthusiasm put too much hope in genetic defects as the source of disease? there's all kinds of

externalities, right? >> precision medicine is mott just about dna. it's also about your environmental exposures. it's also about your health choices in terms of diet, smoking exercise, all of these things. this is supposed to be a holistic way to look at the individual, identify all of the aspects contributing to health or disease, and optimize those. but we don't have enough data now to tell you exactly what those conclusions ought to be, by putting together which is part of this effort a cohort of a million or more americans and encouraging them to be not just subjects and not just patients but participants full partners in this effort. we aim to find out answers to those questions which we've not really had the chance before. >> reporter: but if you do the math there's not quite enough money to do what you're hoping to do here. you know, certainly it's a lot less than spent on the human genome project tbowrks get all the people you would like to

have in the cohort to have their genomes sequenced would cost more than this. do the math for me. >> the proposal by the president in the budget just being announced is $215 million for fiscal year 16. that's the start point in what we hope will be a many-year enterprise. the cost of sequencing genomes has been coming down. we're not done in the drop in the way the cost has been plummeting and over the course of the next 3 to 5 years, the cost is expected to come down below $1,000. so we'll not be able to sequence 1 million complete genomes this year but played out over four or five years, sounds like we could get there. >> reporter: the federal government coordinating, viewing, understanding all our genomes makes some people nervous. there's a privacy component to all of this. how do you address that? >> privacy is critical and that's another reason why this program will only work if the people involved with are volunteers and are at the table

as the whole design of the program is put together. there is a lot of designing to do. what's being announced today is written in fairly broad terms. to get the specifics down, we have work to do. there are always handling the privacy issues, and again we need lots of input and participation by those who are going to be donating their data but many surveys have been done people are interested in doing this, we have experience in smaller cohorts about how to handle the privacy issues. this will be important, but i think it can be managed effectively. >> reporter: lastly, n.i.h. has had a tough string of years for funding. is this going to be different on the hill? >> it has been a tough 12 years. rev lost about 25% of our purchasing power for research, as budgets have been very tight. i actually think medical research is not a partisan issue. over the course of decades, this has been aniary that both parties have agreed is important. we've had a struggle.

budge taylor, i think congress, seeing an opportunity of this sort, will be very interested, regardless of party and, certainly, from my perspective, that's about as it should be. this is about all of us. it's about americans who didn't want to see something happen that would improve the likelihood of all of us being able to live long and healthy lives. >> reporter: dr. collins, thank you very much. >> thanks. nice to be here. >> woodruff: now, the changing world of making and distributing movies. jeffrey brown was at the sundance film festival this week and here's the second of two reports he filed from there part of our ongoing series, "newshour goes to the movies." >> earlier this week, the director got the red carpet treatment for his new film digging for fire. the gathering in park city, utah, is for those who make and

love independent films and it's still a touchstone for the health of the industry. it's a scene, all right. a place to see and be seen. but for swanburg and other filmmakers, it's more than that. >> sundance is a market. i mean, i am here to sell my movie. i'm here to see other friends' films. i'm here to appreciate good art, but i'm here to sell my movie. it's a market. >> reporter: just getting here for the film is a major achievement. for this year's festival, more than 2300 dramatic film and 1800 documentaries submitted, from those, 184 were accepted. a showing here is great. launching from here is even better. that's because, while technology has made it cheaper and easier than ever to make a film, it's in some ways harder than ever to break through to get people to see your film. >> i brought my first feature film here, poison by todd haines, 19 # 1, i think and it won the grand jury prize.

>> reporter: you won the big prize. >> i was like how hard could this be? i came back with 21 movies and we've never won again. >> reporter: christine can aforward to laugh. one of the co-founders of fills. she's a veteran producer of a dozen smaller movies, including boys don't cry and still alice. >> we have to start focusing on what is the right platform. >> reporter: at sundance the other day she took part in a panel on a major topic of discussion here, the rise of video on demand platforms, pushing many new films straight to a small screen including, of course television. she told me it's a profound shift, forcing people like her to re-think their own identities. >> one of the things that i say, for example, when i talk to young filmmakers, and i have to say this to myself, too is maybe it's time we stopped

calling ourselves filmmakers and should call ourselves contentmakers or story tellers. to say a filmmaker limits the expectation to a certain lent and expectation of theatrical release, for example -- >> reporter: like it's going to the movies. but it's not the case now? >> it's not the case for many many stories. the fact, is that doesn't make them any less compelling. >> reporter: think of your own viewing habits. are you still going to the movie theater as often as you used to or are you watching more on demand at home on one of your tvs or one of the many other screens you might own. the answers are providing new challenges and new opportunity for filmmakers. >> the next challenge is how do i distribute it and get it to audiences? video on demand provides an open platform for any filmmaker to sell a video anywhere in the world for any price and to be consumable on any device. >> harry trainer thinks the new

on-demand model can work for filmmakers who don't kneed a pass audience. >> as more creators came, more viewers came to watch. >> reporter: the key is to reach the right audience, he says one willing to pay for digital content they can access when and how they want. >> when you're selling a piece of work it only takes tens of thousands of buyers for selling something $5 to $10 to make hundreds of thousands of dollars. >> reporter: indiegogo is a site that allows filmmakers to raise money from individuals. targeting fund,ing, targeted distribution, direct from and to the consumer. the c.e.o. says it's an exciting new world but hardly the end of the challenge. >> it's easier than ever to become a filmmaker. doesn't mean it's easier than ever to become a sustainable filmmaker. we live in a world of twitter

where people need things quickly in the next story. don't just think about it one film. think about it as you're creating a relationship with your audience and creating a career. >> reporter: in the case of the swanburgs, two careers. director joe swanburg whom we met earlier is the husband of director chris swanburg who had her own film premiering at sundance. these two are used to the indy life. >> i've only made films, both of us have only made films for under a million. >> we, yeah, we've made a lot of films for under $10,000. you can, these days you can make a film for almost nothing. >> brown: joe swanberg, just 33 years old, has had the longer career, turning out film after film, mostly shot in their home city of chicago. and sometimes literally in their home, where the movie "happy christmas" takes place. kris' new film, "unexpected", is

her third. a story of a chicago high school teacher-- kris was once a teacher herself-- who finds herself pregnant at the same time as one of her students. >> brown: in thinking about the economics of the independent filmmaker, you're like a two income family? >> yeah, to some degree. i have historically taken all the money that i've made off of a movie and then invested it in the next movie. >> brown: you have? >> so we're more like a 'two gambler' family than a two income family. i mean, it's really, it's a tricky industry, and it's an industry that pays off if you invest in yourself. but that payoff comes in weird ways and over a long period of time. and there's a third member of the team-- son jude, who's now appeared in two of dad's films. >> i always say like if we owned a flower shot, he would start working the flower shop when he was 12 probably. yeah, jude's part of the traveling gypsy pack of

independent filmmakers. two filmmakers, two films at sundance-- but what happens to those films afterwards? kris swanberg knows what she wants, even if these days it sounds almost quaint. >> i made the movie to be seen in a theater. i would love for that to happen. it's important to me. i think it legitimizes the film, and i also think that it, it finds a new theater going audience that doesn't necessarily buy things on vod. producer christine vachon works at a higher dollar level, but she too is mindful of holding down costs as the economics of the business change. >> there used to be a kind of character driven drama, right? and those are the toughest because they have to be really good to work. those used to get made pretty routinely either independently or by some of these, you know, independent studio operations, at like $8-10 million. and now we're making them routinely at $3 to $5 million.

there's a joke. >> brown: that's a big change vachon: yes, we have this joke that 5 is the new 10, that 3 is the new 5, 1 is the new 3. you get it, hilarious. less money per film. but more players -- including now netflix and amazon-- and more options for distribution. somehow, many independent filmmakers make it work. joe learned his film was purchased for $2 million. chris swanburg is still waiting to hear the fate of her film to see if it comes to a theater or smaller screen near you. from the sundance film festival, i'm jeffrey brown for the pbs newshour. >> woodruff: next, the state of the national football league. the new england patriots and the seattle seahawks finally meet

sunday, in super bowl 49, after a season that's left the league on the defensive. the nfl commissioner took stock of things today. >> sreenivasan: roger goodell came to the microphones, in phoenix, arizona, with a simple summary. >> it has been a tough year. it's been a tough year on me personally. >> sreenivasan: indeed, even the run-up to super bowl 49 has been dominated by something else: under-inflated footballs that new england used in its conference title win. >> we take seriously anything >> we are focusing principally on two questions: why were some footballs used in the game that were not compliance to the rules? and was this the result of deliberate action? >> sreenivasan: far more serious questions also persist: nearly a year ago, ray rice of the baltimore ravens punched out his then-fiancée and was ultimately dismissed from the team.

later, adrian peterson, the minnesota vikings star, was caught up in child abuse accusations. goodell was roundly criticized for his handling of the incidents. today, he said he and the league have taken it all to heart. >> we've done a great deal to bring more awareness to these issues of domestic violence and sexual assault. we are committed to that. >> sreenivasan: to that end, the n.f.l. is paying for an ad during sunday's game. it portrays an abuse victim who disguises her call for help because her attacker is still in the house. >> large with half pepperoni, half mushroom. >> um, you know you called 911. this is an emergency line. >> do you know how long it'll be? >> ok, ma'am, is everything okay over there? do you have an emergency or not? >> yes. >> sreenivasan: the league also continues to wrestle with head injuries, but it says concussions were down 25% this season. still, there are no signs that all of this is affecting the bottom line. a 30-second super bowl commercial will command $4.5 million. and the game could exceed last year's record t.v. audience of 112 million viewers.

>> sreenivasan: let's take our own stock now of the nfl as it heads into its showcase event of the year. we turn again to kevin blackistone, a sportswriter and commentator for espn. he's also a professor of sports journalism at the university of maryland. and christine brennan, national sports columnist for usa today, and commentator for abc news. she is in phoenix covering the game. i want to start with you. in the short term, deplategate was ate giant witch hunt or lit have longer lasting impact on the integrity of the game beyond this one? >> i don't think it will have any impact on the integrity of the game beyond this one. in fact, i think it worked out to be a -- somewhat of a nice carpet ride for the n.f.l. to keep the conversation going about this particular super bowl matchup, and gave one team a black hat and the other team a white hat. it's amazing we get to the end of the season talking about something as ridiculous as deflated and inflated footballs

when we beginning the season talking about very serious issues affecting the league such as dmensic violence and child abuse. >> sreenivasan: christine in your column today you were writing when you walk through the streets, it's like the olympics. not any signs people are thinking about domestic violence and child abuse? >> absolutely and the tv ratings may be higher than before because controversy brings more people to the television to see what it's about. is it possible there could be more people watching the super bowl? i agree with kevin, it is ridiculous, but it's been a distraction and kept the n.f.l. in the news in the week between the conference championship games and the super bowl itself. but walking around phoenix being in this town it struck me that in this year of ray rice, september 8, 2014, the video that changed everything, our perceptions of the country about domestic violence, our culture as well as the n.f.l.as feelings

about it and having to deal with these issues, it's almost non-existent. fans come and this is america and this is our football and that want it and yes talk about domestic violence, they're kind of saying, at least you figure you're saying, but don't bother me with it every sunday. and, so if there's any doubt that the n.f.l. is going to thrive and survive no matter what, should be no doubt based on what you see on the streets in phoenix. >> sreenivasan: kevin, is this a reflection of our collective, perhaps, attention span or the fans of football over it and don't want it on sundays as christine said, or does it also have to do with the way the commissioner handled it? >> well, part of it, i think, is the which the commissioner handled it because so much of the focus became how roger goodell was bungling these very important issues as they affected some star players in the league. i think the other part of it, though, is that, you know, football has long tried to divorce itself from the rest of

society. it wasn't until a couple of years ago that the super bowl even allowed a "political ad" to be played during the super bowl and that was the tim tebow commercial that was a pro-life commercial. we know coming up in this super bowl we're going to have the no more anti-domestic violence public service announcement played. so it will be there, but certainly come the time of the kickoff and for much of the rest of the day leading up to that, it's not going to be part of the conversation. >> sreenivasan: christine, you have been one to have the people who have not called for the resignation of roger goodell. how do you rate his handling of this now? >> it has not been entirely good and clearly huge mistakes were made. this was bungled from the start, the issue of ray rice how to handle him, but i think it's also a reflection of our society and all of us coming to terms

with domestic violence and what it looks like which is why i believe the video of september 8 is such a watershed moment not just for the n.f.l. but all of us in terms of seeing what it looks like. unfortunately, that adjective domestic is a terrible word before violence, it softens the word. domestic violence. if there were another name for it i think it would be better. but i will say this, and i think roger goodell had a bit of a more humble tone today, though he had a few moments that i think were unfortunate but, in general, the n.f.l. is doing more than any other pro sports league on this issue and any other international league in the sport. a lot of people are doing nothing. the 1/2 has taken big steps. it was ugly getting to it. they'll hold them accountable

moving forward. >> sreenivasan: concussions and the ripple it had on another generation of people saying maybe i don't want my young child playing football. i don't know if it correlates with their interest in the super bowl but is there an exotensionle -- existential crisis about where we are now as far as the danger? >> sure. if you remember the investigations into concussions, league of denial, one of the things that was revealed is the idea that if 10% of moth i think the quote was, had their sons not play football coming up that the national football league would no longer have a labor pool to have a league. and so this concussions report that roger goodell issued at the press conference also comes right on the heels of a new study from boston university showing that former n.f.l.

football players who play little league football suffered concussion-related problems health-related problems at a far higher rate than did football players who played later. so this is something that the league is certainly going to have to deal with going forward and certainly a danger to the success and survivability of the league. >> sreenivasan: kevin and christine, before i let you go, one word answer, who do you think's going to win? and thanks for joining us. >> patriots. and i'll go with seattle. if there's a dynasty in football, this may be the new one. >> sreenivasan: kevin blackistone, christine brennan, thanks so much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: for mitt romney a third time won't be the charm. for the koch brothers nearly a billion dollars might be the right number. and for congressional democrats what's life like in the minority? for all that, the analysis of shields and brooks.

that's syndicated columnist mark shields and new york times columnist david brooks. welcome, gentlemen. we have something to talk about. mitt romney announced he is not running, mark. what do we make of this? and especially the part of his statement where he said he expects the next generation of republicans to produce the nominee. >> well if you're very sensitive to jeb bush you might think he was talking about people who were baby boomers. but that's falling in the same generational grouping slightly younger than romney. i was surprised as were most of my republican source three weeks ago, when mitt romney said he was going to reconsider. i was surprised, as they were, today when he announced he wasn't going to run. i think what he got is he got a lot of good will and the respect as he is respected within the party, but not a stampede of people signing up and wanting to jump on board either as

committed supporters or contributors or fundraisers. and i think he, being what he is, a professional man who makes hard, severe judgment based on facts, he made one about himself and didn't sit around, he just made the decision and let it be known. >> woodruff: were you as surprised as mark? >> no i'm never surprised. (laughter) no, i never expected him to run. the people who run is because they represent a faction in the party and they have a group of passionate followers and romney had neither of those. as for the rivalry of bush there's a long-standing rivalry between the two, but i sort of thought he's right, that the estimation that the republican campaign is going to look a lot like the democratic campaign where i have hillary clinton clearly the document figure, jeb bush is the dominant figure i think that's wrong. the way aappraise campaigns at this early stage is to ignore the fundraising ignore who's

getting the consultants and judge the candidates as a picture in spring strange who's got the stuff and showing they can deliver? if you looked at clinton vs. obama, you saw obama on the stump and would say, he's going to be real. scott walker we weren't out the a group of conservatives and unexpectedly showed a spark. marco rubio has done okay. just look at who has raw talent and ignore some of infrastructure issues we probably pay too much attention to you. >> woodruff: what does the rest of the field look like. >> by 2000, by definition, john mccain was the republican nominee because he was certainly the far superior candidate to george w. bush that year and he was connecting and had the right stuff and all the rest but bush overwhelmed him with infrastructure. i hate it when mark comes back to me with that.

i think bush was not a bad candidate. >> bush wasn't a bad candidate but mccain was the better capt. . and i think the point you make is a very valid one. as far as the rest of the republican field, i think, right now, the early footing, we are really early in the footing. i would have to say scott walker. scott walker, the governor of wisconsin has this going for him, governor of new york, kerry, long shot for governor running against a candidate with 21-point plans. he had a slogan, before they tell you watt they're going to do, make them show you what they've done. h he had a good record in congress. that's scott walker. scott walker is three times basically in a blue or purple state has beaten the democrats done what he said he was going to do hasn't trimmed and maybe made a little connection last

weekend in des moines. i mean, i think in that sense you have to give him a little shoutout. >> woodruff: he certainly fits the definition of next generation. you want to defend yourself here? >> well, i felt bush was equally a good candidate. we don't need to re-litigate that race. >> woodruff: no. but i think the upper midwest is really important, winning that, and got asking being a governor is really important. the problem with walker was people thought he was a little too boring and, frankly, there's aptle look and people weren't sure he had the look. but if he can generate sparks that's something to look for. the general assumption it's jeb bush or mitt romney, some of the old guys, or hillary clinton, i toldly agree, i think she's way overpriced, so there's going to be a campaign that's going to be run. ben carson who doesn't seem that serious because he hast run for office, he will have a moment. i guarantee you he will have a moment in the republican

primaries. so a lot of people will have a moment. more candidates are coming in, 40 or 50 a day. senator lindsey graham from south carolina came in today or indicated. >> one thing talking about the super bowl, kevin and christine were in the earlier segment the republican race is a little like that in the sense there's one representative of the american football conference and one of the national football conference, seattle against new england, and that's how the republican races go. it was for example in 2008. john mccain represented sort of the right of center governorring wing to have the the republican party, and his foe came from the ardently true conservative side, mike huckabee. and 2012 romney was in that center and rick santorum. so two finalists. i would say romney was competing with bush and christie in that governing wing and maybe walker is a hybrid that could go either

way. but i think then you have the true conservatives already, you know, rand paul and ted cruz and mike huckabee and rick santorum and a whole host of others. >> woodruff: the two of you touched on money and whether that matters. we know this week the billionaire koch brothers announce their network is going to raise almost a billion dollars to put into this race. david are they now their own political party? what effect is this going to have or is it? you said a minute ago we shouldn't pay attention to the money. >> first thing we learned is a lot of people who are really smart at raising money are really stupid about giving it away. they spent hundreds of millions of dollars a few years ago and lost most their races. this year they're doubling up. the one thing we know in the big national campaigns whether devoted to senate races or presidential or even house race the money is vastly overvalued. once people reach a threshold you can dump in a ton of money

and have very little effect. i think they're wasting money that could be given to poor schools or something like that and is kind of offensive on that level. it will have an effect as i say not on the vote but the republican party because candidates will pay attention to this money and flock to a certain cycle of koch style politics which is we're going to give you money but if you compromise and don't something we like, next time around we'll give your opponent the money. so they reinforce a non-compromising style of politics. so ying it will have a weird, negative effect on the public party because it will pull people away from independent voters. >> woodruff: what do you see? i think david's last point is absolutely salient in that money does pervert the process. we saw it last weekend and saw the candidates going out to palm springs for their audition. you go in and you're seeking to please. you don't want to displease.

the terrible part of this is it means you will spend more time worried about raising money and less time about raising issue. less time meeting with hair dressers and school teachers and nurses and truck drivers and more time with moneyed people because what are you terrified of? you're terrified of somebody dropping a million dollars against you in a primary. i don't care if it's a swing district or a safe district, that possibility always is there, and that increases when you're talking about -- the thing about the koch brothers fourth and fifth on the forbes list of richest men in america each with $83 billion between them, is their lack of shame, their openness in saying this. we're reminded of the court's decision to open up to say money was speech, in the supreme court of the united states, and we were assured by the justices, so politically savvy themselves that the congress of course

would demand total disclosure that you would have immediate disclosure. now half the money given by millionaires and billionaires is never even recorded not even in the federal election commission because it goes through this charitable loophole. so it's a perversion. and to their credit, maybe they have a lack of shamelessness, the fact they made it public, tells you something about with the swagger with which they approach it. >> woodruff: in the past they weren't so open to talk about how much they're giving but now are. quickly, david, do the democrats have anything comparable? >> they've done well. when obama ran he outraised his opponents. the mccain had a huge advantage. there's money for the democrats. there will be more money than we can believe and each diminishing dollar is making the rubber

bounce. >> i think barack obama was generous. he was unique. he raised millions of dollars, a lot more than john mccain did on individual contributions. it was a mission. i don't think that's rep kabul by just any other candidate, and a president can always raise money, whoever the president is, in respect to the party, because of the power. hillary clinton would be able to raise money because of her husband, her, her record, and she's seen as leading in the polls. but if you took a generic democrat and republican under the existing system the koch brothers laid out, i think the republican has and a enormous advantage fundraising. >> woodruff: but you're saying hillary clinton can be on par with the koch brothers and the republican party. >> demonstrated ability to raise money. >> woodruff: less than a minute the most important question for the end of this, the super bowl. is it going to with the seahawks or patriots. david? >> well i have to say it's going to be the seahawks because i know what mark is going to say and i just have to disagree.

i can't get excited if amazon and starbucks which is the biotech industry in harvard, i don't care. i want a town i can actually root for. >> foxboro massachusetts taunton massachusetts, they aren't shee-shee they're not upscale. >> woodruff: are the seahawks bringing the football? >> i'm taking the air out of his comments now (laughter) the fact we've cut a corner or two, so be it! (laughter) >> woodruff: i'm going to be watching. david, mark, thank you both. >> woodruff: finally tonight, our "newshour shares" moment of the day. something that caught our eye that might be of interest to you too. it comes from the new york times "op-docs" video series. and is about the struggles of a

family in fort worth, texas to help their 15-year-old daughter, grace, deal with type one diabetes. her efforts to manage her blood glucose levels have been especially difficult. the short film is titled, "midnight, three and six," named for the hours when her parents must monitor her levels. here's a short clip featuring her mother, patricia chamberlain. (beeping) >> my husband and i take turns on duty and on duty means we check her blood glucose levels through the night. midnight 3:00 a.m., 6:00 a.m. type one diabetes represents, i think the last figure i heard is 5% of all diabetics in the world, and grace is a type one diabetic. she's a volatile type one. she hasn't stabilized and is

unpredictable. so every three hours keeps her safe. every five or six hours can be very dangerous. by very dangerous, i mean she could die. that's the best we can do is checking her, correcting her checking her, correcting her. her pancreas is dead and it died all of a sudden and it becomes very life-threatening very fast. sometimes we have to check her every 15 minutes for a few hours or every hour for ten hours. just depends on what's going on with her. >> woodruff: you can see the full film on the "new york times" web site. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day. new government reports showed the u.s. economy slowed down in the fourth quarter of 2014. in response, the dow industrials dropped 250 points. and mitt romney announced he will not make a third run for the republican presidential nomination. and a reminder about some

upcoming programs from our pbs colleagues. gwen ifill is preparing for "washington week," which airs later this evening. here's a preview: >> ifill: tonight we dissect the story mind the story of mitt romney's decision not to join the crowd of republican presidential field. we examine why on capitol hill, everything old is new again. we talk about the hostage tight rope and how it affects u.s. foreign policy and we travel along on the president's trip to india and saudi arabia. all tonight on "washington week." judy? >> woodruff: on pbs newshour weekend saturday, has one vermont city made a renewable energy and an environmental breakthrough? >> helps run berlgton electric supplies power to 42,000 residents of the city. >> the cheapest long-term financial investment with us with the least amount of risk was to move in this direct. >> nolan says switching to renewable energy will likely save the city about $20 million over the next two decades.

>> sustainability has been a luxury. to get it, you have to sort of seek it out, often pay a premium, and what burlington has done is sort of do away with that. >> woodruff: that's tomorrow night on pbs newshour weekend. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff, have a great weekend. thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: i.b.e.w. the power professionals in your neighborhood. >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your life and become your own chief life officer. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org.

>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and... and friends of the newshour. >> 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

report" with tyler mathisen and sue herera. rocky month. january closing up the first month of the year just as it started with dramatic ups and downs. but will the rest of the year see more of the same? growth follows, the economy didn't expand as much as they thought it would but one voting measure of the federal reserve isn't concerned. scaling back. chevron the latest oil major to cut investment plan slashing its drilling budgets by the most since 2003. all that and more tonight on "nightly business report" for friday january 30th. good evening, everyone. i think i speak for a lot of folks on wall street and around the country where we say january couldn't end soon enough. bag of