tv PBS News Hour PBS February 4, 2015 3:00pm-4:00pm PST
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captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> ifill: jordan's king calls for a relentless war on islamic state militants. what will it take to keep the fighting coalition united? good evening, i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. also ahead this wednesday, an internet for the people, new rules for the web seek to expand the definition of a public utility to include broadband. we have an exclusive tv interview with the man leading the charge. >> you want to make sure that you've got protection so it's gonna be fast, it's gonna be fair and it's gonna be open. >> ifill: plus, making fractions
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of a penny per digital stream technology changes the game for musicians trying to earn a living. >> there's a feeling now, a concept that music should be free, that it's like oxygen. everyone should have access to it. everyone should have access, but should it be >> woodruff: and... >> there is a stigma associated with coming out, if you will that you are raising your grandchildren, because your children won't raise them. >> woodruff: ...when poverty, drugs and unemployment cause families to splinter, how a west virginia community and the public schools come together to support caregivers in crisis. >> if you add up the hours that a child spends in school between kindergarten and twelfth grade, it's about nine percent of their life. we need to be concerned about the other 91% of their life. what's going in the other 91%. >> ifill: those are some of the stories we're covering on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:
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♪ ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> at lincoln financial, we believe you're in charge. you're the chief life officer and this is your annual shareholder's meeting. you're overseeing presentations on research and development, and welcoming new members of the team. you're in charge of it all. lincoln financial is committed to helping you take charge of your future. life, income, retirement, group benefits and advice. lincoln financial. you're in charge.
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i.b.e.w. the power professionals in your neighborhood. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions 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: the gruesome killing of a jordanian military pilot echoed across the middle east today. a video of islamic state captors burning him alive triggered demands to strike back and vows to redouble the fight against the militants.
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for many in jordan, this was a day of outrage mingled with mourning. people prayed in the home village of the murdered pilot, 26-year-old muath al-kaseasbeh. and soldiers lined up to pay respects, as his father demanded retaliation against the killers of his son. >> ( translated ): these are criminals, and there is no comparison between them and the blood of muath. the country has to take its revenge, and i call for no one to remain alive from islamic state, i call for revenge by executing prisoners. >> woodruff: in amman, protesters joined in that demand. the government did announce it had hanged two al-qaeda prisoners before dawn. a convoy carried away their bodies for burial. one was sajida al-rishawi, a
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would-be suicide bomber who was sentenced to die for her role in a 2005 attack. the islamic state had demanded her release in exchange for the pilot's life. the other prisoner hanged today ziyad karboli had been sentenced to death in 2008. the government's information minister promised other actions to come. >> ( translated ): all the state's agencies, including its military, different options to deal with this new challenge and to emphasize that the response of jordan will be heard by the whole world. >> woodruff: elsewhere in the middle east, the grisly killing of the pilot drew condemnation from leaders in palestine, israel, and turkey. and from leading muslim clerics including the grand mufti of lebanon. >> ( translated ): we condemn this cowardly act and whoever committed this cowardly act is far from being related to islam or any other religion.
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this is brutal and totally reprehensible and no person or religion would agree with such an act. >> woodruff: king abdullah returned to amman today, vowing a relentless war against islamic state fighters. he cut short a visit to washington, and before the pilot's death, at least, had faced criticism over the air strikes. the united arab emirates came under similar pressure, and there was word today it suspended its own air strikes in december, after the jordanian pilot was captured. but at the state department, spokeswoman jen psaki argued the coalition remains strong. >> the united states is not going to buckle in the face of demands or horrific actions of isil, and we don't expect other countries will either. >> woodruff: meanwhile, republicans and democrats alike called for expediting military aid to jordan. and at his senate confirmation hearing, defense secretary designate ashton carter pledged
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to clear up reported delays. >> i definitely want to find out what they are and resolve them because we need partners of the ground to beat isis. and the jordanian people have clearly reacted the way that encourages us to support them. >> woodruff: the obama administration announced yesterday the u.s. will boost financial assistance to jordan over the next three years partially to modernize its military. we'll get appraisals of the coalition's efforts, and its needs, after the news summary. >> ifill: three african nations battled boko haram militants today, in the biggest offensive yet against the nigerian group. troops from chad and cameroon reported killing more than 250 militants in two days of fighting along cameroon's border with nigeria. at the same time, warplanes from nigeria and chad blasted boko haram targets. the group declared its own caliphate in the region last
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year. >> woodruff: one of the f.b.i.'s most wanted terrorists may have been killed in the philippines. he's identified as zulkifli bin hir, also known as "marwan." the f.b.i. said today that d.n.a. tests indicate he died in a pre-dawn raid last month, on muslim rebels in the southern philippines. 44 police commandos also died. bin hir is linked to the 2002 night club bombing in bali, indonesia, that killed 202 people, including seven americans. >> ifill: the man who's likely to be the new pentagon boss signaled today he'd favor giving guns to ukraine, to fight pro- russian rebels. that came amid signs the white house may reverse its opposition to taking that step. ashton carter addressed the issue at his senate confirmation hearing. >> i very much am inclined in that direction mr. chairman, because i think we need to support ukrainians in defending themselves. the nature of those arms, i can't say right now because i don't have-- i haven't conferred with our military leaders or
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ukrainian leaders. >> ifill: after a lunch break, carter partially qualified his statement by saying that sanctions on russia should continue as the main center of the u.s. effort. he's expected to win easy confirmation as secretary of defense. >> woodruff: at a separate hearing, a top u.s. diplomat ruled out giving the guantanamo bay naval base back to cuba. last week, cuba's communist president raul castro said the return of guantanamo is a main objective of restoring ties with the u.s. but assistant secretary of state roberta jacobson told a house committee today, it's a non- starter. >> the issue of guantanamo is not on the table in these conversations. i want to be clear that what we're talking about right now is the reestablishment of diplomatic relations which is only one first step in normalization. obviously, the cuban government has raised guantanamo. we are not interested in discussing that.
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>> woodruff: the u.s. has controlled guantanamo since the spanish-american war, and formally established a naval base there in 1903. >> ifill: another mass sentencing in egypt today. a court ordered 230 people to serve life in prison for their involvement in violent protests in 2011. all were tried in absentia except secular activist ahmed douma. he helped lead the uprising that ousted president hosni mubarak. >> woodruff: china has clamped new curbs on internet users, in a growing censorship campaign. as of march, the nation's nearly 650 million web users will have to register their real names with service providers, if they blog or use chat rooms. they'll also have to pledge, in writing, not to criticize the country's communist rulers. >> ifill: in taiwan, rescue crews worked late into the night in the capital, taipei, looking for victims of an air disaster that killed at least 26 people. the trans-asia airliner careened out of control today in a crash captured on video. john sparks of independent television news, reports.
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>> reporter: it seemed to come out of nowhere a regional passenger plane, falling from the sky. it's left wing clipped a taxi on an elevated highway, then shattered on the safety barrier. before plunging into tapei's keelung river below. the crash was followed by confusion and the approaching wail of sirens. and in the water, lying motionless, the white and purple fuselage of the trans-asia turbo-prop. the aircraft, which had just left taipei's city center airport, was carrying 53 passengers and five crew. and rescue workers surrounded the wreckage in attempt to reach them. miraculously perhaps, some
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people survived, one group of passengers gathered a submerged wing, waiting for help. and this young child was hauled from the wreckage and rushed the riverbank. many however, were trapped inside with rescuers struggling to reach submerged parts of the plane. >> ( translated ): we need heavy cranes, said the head of the fire department, we have to lift the body of the plane we think lots of people stuck near the nose of the aircraft. >> reporter: rescue teams did recover the flight data recorders, but it's not known what caused the incident, the aircraft had been inspected just a few days ago. still, a major mechanical failure seems likely, the last communication from the pilots was, "mayday, mayday, engine flameout." for transasia, it's the second fatal air crash in seven months and it will come under
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increasing pressure from the regulator. >> ifill: at least 17 people from the plane are still missing. >> woodruff: back in this country, federal safety experts began investigating a deadly collision just north of new york city, on one of the nation's busiest commuter railroads. the metro-north train barreled into an s.u.v. that had stopped on the tracks during tuesday evening's rush hour. five passengers were killed as well as the woman driving the s.u.v. witnesses said the woman got out of her vehicle, tried to lift the crossing gate, then got back in just before the train hit. >> ifill: a federal jury in manhattan today convicted the man behind silk road, a web site that became a haven for drug dealers. ross william ulbricht was found guilty after just three hours of deliberations. prosecutors say drug deals accounted for nearly all of silk road's sales before ulbricht's arrest in 2013. >> woodruff: on wall street, stocks struggled to make any headway after rising oil inventories snuffed out the
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rally in crude oil prices. they dropped nearly nine percent. in turn, the dow jones industrial average managed to gain just six points to close a little over 17,670; but the nasdaq fell 11 points on the day; and the s&p slipped eight points. >> ifill: and, finally, charlie sifford, the man who broke the racial barrier in professional golf died overnight. he was a five-time national champion on the all-black tour, before challenging the p.g.a.'s whites-only clause. it was dropped in 1961, and sifford won several tournaments despite death threats and racial slurs. in later years, he received the presidential medal of freedom and was the first black player in the world golf hall of fame. charlie sifford was 92-years- old. >> ifill: still to come on the newshour. uniting in the fight against islamic state militants. new rules to preserve an open internet. how streaming music services have changed the business model for musicians.
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the mysterious death gripping argentina. and how public schools are partnering with grandparents to improve the lives of students. >> woodruff: we return now to the coalition fight against the islamic state group. to help us take stock of that effort's strengths and weaknesses, we are joined once again by: retired colonel derek harvey, former special adviser to the commander of u.s. forces in iraq, and now director for the global initiative on civil society and conflict at university of south florida. and janine davidson, a former air force pilot and deputy assistant secretary of defense for plans during the first term of the obama administration. she's now a senior fellow at the council on foreign relations. we welcome both of you back to the program. janine davidson, up until now now how effective has this coalition been against the
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islamic state? >> i think it depends how you define being effective and it depends how you define progress in this entire thing. i think there's no doubt this is an unprecedented coalition, to be able to pull together the types of countries across this region to focus-- i mean, on the very first night of air strikes to have mathat many countries participating. i think that's kind of amazing. that's on a military perspective. but at the end of the day this isn't going to be fully military solution. that said, i think there is no doubt that we have sort of pushed back the advance of isis. you don't see them with a lightning speed they were taking over territory last year. they've stopped. and i think what they've done is they've taken control of places like raqqa in syria and mosul in iraq, and that's the greater military challenge. >> woodruff: derek harvey how do you size up the progress or not this coalition has made so
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far? >> i think we've made limited and halting progress. most of the progress has been by the shi'a militias supported by the iranian force, and the kurdish peshmerga. they have halted the progress of isis and pushed them back in some other areas, but isis still has the initiative and quite a number of areas in iraq. and most importantly, they have had significant gains in syria over the last four months. politically, things aren't going well for the sunni arab community in iraq, despite the new prime minister, abadi. there's been very little support for sunni arab awakening movements there. so it's really questionable at this point in time as to making a judgment. real progress. i think we've stabilized, and that's about it. >> woodruff: so, given all that, janine davidson, how much difference do you think that the death and the way this-- the death of this jordanian pilot was carried out will make? >> well i think it's an absolutely horrific turn of events. i think it has, if anything, become sort of a wake-up call to
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people across the region. i mean, there are plenty of people who are sort of on the fence, maybe sympathetic to isis kind of being bold against the west. but now, you know, they've done this completely horrific unacceptable thing to a muslim pilot from jordan and i think, you know, for countries or leaders in the region that were having, you know, trouble getting their populations to understand, you know how grave this threat is and how, you know-- how horrific again, this particular group is, i think this will sort of stiffen their spine a little bit, at least in the short to medium term. >> woodruff: so colonel harvey we heard king adbullah of jordan say we are going to engage in a relentless fight now against the islamic state. so do you see it making a difference in jordan? do you see it making a difference in other countries that are supposed to be part of this coalition? >> well, i think it's clearly going to energize jordan for the short time. but they've got limited
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capabilities. they've got good special operations forces a good but small air force. they need a change in u.s. strategy and u.s. enablers to really make a difference as far as their participation. most importantly, this is not going to change the participation significantly in the military campaign. we'll see some posturing, some rhetoric, but really no change in the coalition. the coalition is weak, and it's got real problems maintaining this coalition particularly with the shi'a sunni arab divide. >> woodruff: a couple of things raise questions, staying with you colonel harvey. what do you mean? what do you mean the problems holding together the coalition in the says of the sunni shi'a divide. >> well sunni arabs, be they in the gulf in jordan, you know, in countries of sir syria and iraq, the sunni arab communities turkey, they want to see an effort directed at the assad regime and a check on shi'a militia and iranian influence in iraq and syria.
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unfortunately, from my perspective, the u.s. administration is focused on rapprochement with iran, and acknowledging tehran's regional hajimini in the process and that alienates sunni arabs and impacts tel aviv. that creates problems for us in mobilizing support, keeping people online and having unity of effort. >> woodruff: how do you see janine davidson, the problems? >> similar, but i'm not so sure i think the main driver for the coalition for the administration is that they're ceding the space to iran. although i do think that is definitely an issue across the region. but i think there's another issue here which is if you take the fight completely 100% to assad and isis at the same time,un, what's going to come next? and i think everyone is very focused on can we do this in sequentially, you know, the
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alligator closest to the boat would be isis. everybody can agree on that. but there's still this big hanging question, the political question of what happens next? and even if you were to really defeat isis in any sort of traditional way so that they're no longer a threat, then all the other problems are going to come up. you have the seeny-shia divide, and that is going to continue to be the problem throughout the region. >> woodruff: what about that derek harvey. and also you brought up the role of the u.s. in all this in the coalition. what are you suggesting? >> well what i see happening in iraq in particular, let's take a look at that, the abadi regime there, along with iranian support, is given free reign to shia militias who are conducting atrocities almost on a daily basis and they openly proclaim the u.s. are supporting their operations which feeds into sunni arab paranoia and supports the isis narrative about a divide and that the u.s. is aligned against sunni arabs in the region. so that hurts us in many ways.
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the u.s. has a choice here. we could declare no-fly zones no-go zones in syria. we could have put more capability on the ground and shown some leadership and commitment, which is what sunni arabs are looking for in the region, be they in the gulf or in airchgar and turkey. but we have yet to show real commitment. we have limited resources, limited authorities and a limited strategy, and that's not going to get buy-in from everybody. >> woodruff: janine davidson, just in a few seconds how do you see the u.s. role changing? >> i think the big problem here is that you have to strike a balance between-- sure, we could go in full force like derek is saying. we could retake mosul unilaterally if we wanted to, but i think that at the end of the day, what happens then? and i'm not just talking about oh, we're going to get bogged down in another quagmire. i'm talking about what happens when the united states of america takes over another country? the problems in the region have got to be solved by the people
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in the region. and this is the most uncomfortable, frustrating part of it is catalyzing that to happen and that's what the role is of the u.s. right now. >> woodruff: seems we've seen this movie before. >> yeah. >> woodruff: janine davidson, colonel derek harvey, we thank you both. >> thank you judy. >> thank you. >> ifill: the chairman of the federal communications commission cheered consumer advocates and angered the cable industry today, with a long- awaited announcement imposing new rules on the internet service providers. if adopted, the proposal, known as net neutrality, would be designed to make sure internet traffic is treated equally. the full commission votes later this month. it would, forbid companies from blocking access to legal broadband content ban practices that slow internet streaming and prohibit companies from paying cable providers to speed delivery. more than four million commenters have weighed in on
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this debate at the f.c.c. during the past year, sometimes crashing servers. last month, president obama endorsed this approach as well. joining me now to discuss the decision is f.c.c. chairman tom wheeler. welcome and thank you. >> thank you, gwen. >> ifill: do you see your proposal as a way of constraining commercial interests or expanding consumer interests? >> i think it is a balance of both, and that's been the challenge through it palm you want to make sure that you've got protections in place so that consumers know that when they go to the internet, it's going to be fast, it's going to be fair, and it's going to be open. and at the same point in time you want to do it in a way that's not going to constrain investment pause, obviously we want people, companies, to be building faster and more ubiquitous broadband networks. it's opinion a balance of both of those. >> ifill: we're going to talk a of a little bit about constraining investments because that's what some of your critics
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say it will do. first i want to talk about how this whole debate changed for you. a year ago i don't think you had signed on to the idea of treating the internet as a public utility but now in the face of the growth of wireless access to broadband, do you see it differently? >> i think there are a couple of points there gwen. one is i have always been a proponent of open internet, going back to my days as an entrepreneur when i felt the sting of closed networks, shall we say. and, secondly, just to one correction, we're really not doing utility regulation here. utility regulation was developed for a monopoly model. what we're doing is taking the legal construct that once was used for phone companies and paring it back to modernize it so it specifically deals with this issue. so it's not really utility regulation but it is regulation to make sure that there is somebody watching out for the
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consumer. like you said there's no pay prioritization, no blocking, no throt elg. and most important, there will be ongoing rules in perpetuitiy so that there will be a yardstick to measure what's fair for consumers. because we don't know what the internet's going to be five years from now and we don't know what the various tricks are going to be five years from now but we're going to have a referee on the field. >> ifill: let's talk about what some of your contribution have had to say starting with the national table communications association who put out this statement today: just the opposite of what you just promised. >> that is the opposite, you're right. and i think when they actually see the proposal after it's enacted by the commission, they'll see that there is no rate regulation. they'll see that there is no
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tariffing. they'll see there's no undbundling, all the classic utility kinds of activities and what there is is in place a set of safeguards for consumers that at the same time allow those cable companies to make a fair return so they're inscented to expand their networks. >> ifill: the chairman of the senate and house judiciary committees, both republicans one said, that this would squelch investment and innovation by inference. and john thune said it's a power grab. >> well i-- you know, i respect their opinions but i disagree. first of all, this is modeled after-- it's interesting, i came out of the wireless industry, and the wireless industry has had rules like this for some time, since 1993, and it has been terrifically successful in raising $300 million in capital and building a vibrant competitive business. that's the kind of model that
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the internet is going to be able to have. rules that are in place that say here's what we expect and provide certainty and encourage investment. the congress you know has-- the congress makes our rules. i look forward to working with the congress on these issues. i have talked to all the leadership of congress in telecommunications in the last 24 hours, and i said, "you know, i think these rules by us putting out these rules, it creates some certainty in terms of what the debate is about rather than these ethereal kind of concepts that have been kick around." >> ifill: part of the uncertainty-- is it opens a pandora's box there's no way to future-proof what you're doing from extending the hand of government even more into over-regulation. >> i think it's clear, gwen, what we've done is cut down the number of things that used to be in the old-style regulation and
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to only have those that truly can be effective here. do you want practices to be just and reasonable? do you want there to be a consumer process? do you want there to be privacy? do you want disabled to have rights? those kinds of things. those aren't far-reaching utility over-regulatory kind of concepts. >> ifill: a lot of people have a say in whether any of this happens. the courts. there are likely to be legal challenges to this. there is congress as we discussed, there's already push-back, and the possibility of a future president who doesn't agree with you. how do you future-proof for the politics of it? >> well, it's interesting that you know, these rules that i was talking about that have governed the wireless industry for the last 21 years they've been in place as a result of a series of decisions made by the f.c.c. that have been untouched for 21 years. i think what's important is to establish the precedent, to
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vanquish some of the imaginary horribles that everybody throws out that could possibly happen, to build the track record and let it speak for itself. i think what we've done is to establish a path forward to a fast fair and open internet that allows for a reasonable return for those who are building it. >> ifill: tom wheeler chairman of the federal communications commission, thank you very much. >> thank you, gwen. >> woodruff: one recent spike in broadband usage is music. when you want to listen to a song today, you don't have to wait for it to be played on the radio or go to a record store and buy a physical copy. you might not even pay for the digital download. you stream it. whether that's on youtube spotify, pandora, or google play music. this shift in the industry has disrupted how music is made, distributed, consumed, and how artists can make a living. hari sreenivasan takes a look at
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the new, emerging model, it's a topic we'll be coming back to again and again in a series we're calling music on demand. ♪ going down to florence going to wear a pretty dress ♪ >> sreenivasan: music has been part of roseann carb's entire life, from the career of her father johnny to her own. she has a new album with three grammy nominations. for most of her career cash has made a good living from traditional album sales and live concerts, but today it's a very different world for cash and other artists. it's a world where listeners stream music over the internet at their computers, through their phones, in their cars all instead of owning it. >> it's changed how we artists and musicians make a living, and in 1999 the music industry was a $14 billion industry. today it's half that. it's valued at half that.
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there's a feeling now, a concept that music should be free that it's like oxygen. everyone should have access to it. everyone should have access but should it be free. >> sreenivasan: that's a question artists are grappling with. these services offer a free version or premium accounts without ads for about $10 a month. what many consumers may not know is that every time an artist's song is streamed just a tiny fraction of a cent is paid out to the record company. and then divided between the songwriters, publishers and performers. so how much does that translate to if your work is played a few hundred thousand times what's the check that you get in the mail? >> okay, for an 18-month period, i had 600,000 streams and i was paid $104. >> sreenivasan: $10 4.
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>> yeah,. >> sreenivasan: for 600,000 streams. >> yeah. ♪ feeling my way through the darkness." >> alo black cowrote "wake me up." it quickly became one of the most streamed songs in pandora's history but in an article for "wired" magazine black wrote: the issue came to a head in november when pop star taylor swift, the industry's biggest money maker pulled her entire catalog from spotify, shortly after the release of her platinum album "1989." while super stars like taylor swift can still sell albums, the battle over role of streaming comes at a brutally painful moment for the industry. last year album sales fell 9%.
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individual track downloads on itunes, google and amazon also fell by 12%. streaming is the only part music industry seeing revenue growth. in 2014 it grew by 54% and it now accounts for 27% of the entire industry's revenue. spotify is one of these streaming services seeing exponential growth. unlike internet radio services, it allows users to stream any song on their service at any time. it currently has 60 million users. i met ken parks, the chief content manager and managing director of spotify for the u.s. at their new york offices. i asked him what his pitch was to record companies how he got them to put their artists' work into the service? >> we said look, this is a generation that you've lost. what needs to be done in order to rebuild this industry and restore it to its former glory and to make it even bigger is to
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re-engage this lost generation. >> sreenivasan: just a few avenues away is alice roman the cofounder of the streaming app sonza, which google bought. he is a content manager at google play music, that company's streaming service. >> there's an n.p.d. study that found a digital music buyer will spend about $55 a year on music. not a bad number. a subscriber to google play music will pay $120 a year. if we can get people through a funnel to be a subscriber to a great music service they're a really high-value customer. >> sreenivasan: from the pair customer, spotify and google pay about 70% of that $120 a year to record labels. they also point to a new generation of artists, like the norwegian pop duo nico and vince. ♪ am i wrong thinking we can be something for real." >> sreenivasan: their summer hit "am i wrong" was at the top of the billboard charts for weeks and has 200 million streams on the spotify service
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alone. >> streaming to me is, you know, to an artist right now it's a blessing because you're able to reach so many people with just you putting a song out on the internet and it can go from there. "am i wrong" is one of those songs that flew by itself. people started sharing it and that's because of streaming. >> i think it's a perfect way for new artists, too, to get their music out. >> while nieko and vinz have seen success, some artists believe it could be the new snake oil salesman. >> it used to be the fat guys in suits and pinky rings blowing cigar smoke at you on 57th street, but those guys were invested in a way because they wanted a piece of your action. they want aid piece of your intellectual property. >> reporter: larry kerrwin is the lead singer for black 47, an irish rock band that played live shows throughout new york city for 25 years till calling it quits this past november. >> the new streaming services
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they-- they don't care about your intellectual property. they just want to give it away. they want to make money out of giving a service that they will make money out of, and it doesn't work for the musician, for the-- for the regular musician it's not working. >> sreenivasan: so this is your what wall of fame? >> daniel glass is the owner of an indyeah record label representing mumford and son and phoenix among others. he says streaming is criewsk for fans to discover his artists. >> we have a new artist who released a record, robert delong, put a song out "long way down." as soon as spotify but it on their big playlist the amount of streams quadrupled. we've been 214% three weeks in a row in streams because it's been highlighted. it's been curated curated and played listed.
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>> sreenivasan: and the more his artists' songs are streamed the more ticket they say buy to concerts, which glass says is exactly what happened with robert delong. >> his live sales the tickets went on sale, as soon as streaming services got involved and radio got involved, ticket-- tickets to every show sold out. >> sreenivasan: ken sparks of spotify said stream category reinvigorate sales for established artists as well. >> you take older artists as well with amazing catalogs-- pink floyd would be a good example-- they're using this platform to recorrect with generations that maybe never heard of them and haven't experienced the magic of those categories. >> sreenivasan: the digital folks will say, listen, now if you're nay garage with your laptop you could make a track a million people see, and that will get you the support and the audience that will support you and buy your tickets and go to your shows. >> okay, that's the exposure argument, which i've heard a million times. i just don't buy it. what about artists who don't
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need exposure? i found my audience. i'm not going to be madonna. don't want to be. you know but i still want my music to get out there and have people purchase it so that i can continue making it. streaming is here to stay. we're not luddites. we don't want to turn back the clock. >> sreenivasan: in fact, the industry will clear continue to wrestle with fundamental questions about its business model in the digital aid. last year, americans streamed 164 million songs and streaming services say the number paying for that music will only go up. hari sreenivasan, in new york city for the pbs newshour. >> ifill: we turn now to argentina, where a decades-old unsolved terrorist attack, a prosecutor's mysterious death, and allegations of a cover-up at the highest levels have gripped the nation. here's jeffrey brown.
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>> brown: it's a mystery that goes back to 1994, when a bomb ripped through a jewish community center in buenos aires and killed 85 people. for the last decade, prosecutor alberto nisman tried to prove iran was behind the bombing, a charge the tehran government repeatedly denied. >> my only guarantee is to tether myself to the law and whatever happens, happens. i'm here and i'm absolutely calm and i'm going to continue on with my work. >> brown: then, last month, the case took a dramatic new turn, nisman accused argentina's president, cristina fernandez de kirchner, of covering up iran's involvement.
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>> brown: president kirchner dismissed the allegations, which nisman was set to detail in front of congress days later. but on the eve of his testimony nisman was found dead of a gunshot wound in his apartment. police ruled that he killed himself, nisman's supporters demanded answers. it has since been ruled a suspicious death, and president kirchner herself has voiced doubts that it was a suicide. this week, the drama continued to unfold. on sunday, an argentinian newspaper reported that a draft document requesting the arrest of kirchner and her forign minister was found in a trash bin at nisman's apartment. the lead prosecutor in the case, viviana fein, at first denied it and a cabinet minister dramatically ripped up the article. >> ( translated ): the truth is that they have been trying to establish a scenario with false information ever since the charge was first made. we categorically repeat, we have revealed the lies and will continue to do so because the truth always triumphs. >> brown: but the newspaper published a copy of the arrest document, and fein backtracked. she now acknowledges it does exist, but says it's not important enough to change the investigation.
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simone romero has been covering the story for the "new york times" in buenos aires. so this 1994 bombing has been contentious in argentina for some time, right? fill us in a little bit on what's known and the prevailing theories about who did it. >> it certainty has, jeffrey. it's been a huge story in argentina for more than two decades now. this jewish center was attacked and blown up in 1994. 85 people were killed. more than 200 people were injured. there were various theories which flourished almost immediately as to who was responsible. and the theory that alberto nisman, the prosecutor was most focused on the lead he was most focused on was the iranian connection, and he had formerly accused hezbollah, a cell of hezbollah here in south america of carrying out of the attack and of iranians officials of orchestrating and financing it. but there were also competing theories here in argentina that continue to have strength and
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persist to should day that there may have been a syrian connection or there may have been local corrupt police officials involved in the bombing. and whatever the case, there were botched investigations to begin with. there was a judge back in the 90s who actually bribed one of the key witnesses $400,000 in cash to implicate others in the attack falsely, and all of those people were acquitted. and that was the case that alberto nisman inherited back in 1994 when he began investigating the bombing. >> brown: the explosive charges against the president, she, of course, has denied them. what do we know about how much evidence he really has? >> well the evidence as laid out in his criminal complaint, this is a document that is 289 pages long is mostly based on interprets of telephone calls and text messages that were in all likelihood obtained by argentina's main intelligence agency, so he worked very closely with agents from that
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service, and he tons and tons of information. all of these calls he compiled of close collaborators and supporters of the president here in argentina. and he weaved together this theory, this argument in his complaint that there was a secret deal that was-- that they attempted to reach with the iranians to shield iranian officials implicated in the attack from responsibility for the bombing in exchange for certain economic benefits that argentina would obtain. of course, these-- this claim by mr. nisman and and his complaint has been roundry rejected here in argentina with strong evidence from parties like interpol, which has come forward to say argentine officials never went to interpol to try to lift the arrest warrants on these iranian officials. so it's a very very contentious matter. a couple of judges actually refused to even take the case, and finally today a judge here in argentina was forced to do so. >> brown: and real briefly,
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the threat to the president and his government. >> president kirchner and her top officials her top aides have gone on the offensive, day in, day out since mr. nisman turned up dead at his apartment. they've been attacking their critics in the media here, and they've also announced an overhaul of the country's main intelligence agency. the president has implied that rogue agents from that agency were somehow involved in the events around mr. nisman's death. so, clearly, the government here does feel vulnerable. it's an extremely sensitive issue. this is an unsolved attack which is sort of been viewed as a stain on argentina's institutions, a stain on argentine democracy since it took place. so it's certainly making the government feel quite vulnerable. >> brown: all right, simone romero of the "new york times," thank you very much. >> thank you, jeffrey.
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>> woodruff: it's often said it takes a village to raise a child, but in remote, rural parts of the country, that may be easier said than done. we have the second report from special correspondent for education john tulenko of learning matters who has been looking at the challenges in one west virginia community. >> reporter: home for jamie mathis is in the steep hills of rural west virginia. >> it's about toim too get your shoes on and your shirt. >> reporter: mismathis, a grandmother, is raising both her grand sons here. >> this was not what i had in mind for me when i was this age, not raising grandchildren. but you're getting it on your shirt sob! look! i've had devon who is 11, since he was two weeks old, off and on. i told you! sam, i've had him since he was born, off and on.
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>> reporter: this situation grandparents raising grandchildren is not unusual where they live. in mcdo you county, west virginia, schools estimate up to 45% of children are living apart from their mothers and fathers. >> i'll be there after school. >> reporter: families are splintering as the community itself unravels. mcdow county is the poorest in west virginia the result of a decades-long decline. this is coal country with mines that once employed some 20,000 workers and a prosperous county seat they called "little new york." all that's gone. unemployment rates here are among the highest in the state, and mcdow county ranks first in poor health, child poverty, and drug overdose and, that more than anything else, is what accounts for so many children living apart from their parents. what happened? >> drugs and alcohol confusion parents not wanting to be
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parents. i just wanted the boys because i wanted to know that they were safe. >> if a child is exposed to a great deal of dysfunction, that manifests itself in behavioral problems, sometimes academic problems, that sort of thing. >> reporter: for principals like flo madpier, there's no ignoring the family upheaval that affects many of her students. >> that's a big issue. kids are carrying a lot of weight today and we want to focus on the academics but at the same time you have to focus on the whole child and you have to focus on the family. >> i know that there are grants that we're pursuing. >> reporter: efforts to support families are under way the result of an initiative called reconnecting mcdow. it's bringing state agencies, private companies, teachers unions and other-- groups that once worked alone-- together in a new partnership. >> we see ourselves as conveners. we need to bring services of families in crisis need inside the schools. we want to turn the schools into the center of the community. >> reporter: bob brown of the american federation of teachers is leading the partnership
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which plans to provide school-based medical, dental, and mental health services for children and their parents. >> it's not just what happens in the school. i can tell you if you add up the hours a child spends in school between kindergarten and 12th12th grade, it's about 9% of their lives. we need to be concerned with the other 91% of their lives. >> reporter: the reconnecting mcdow partnership is helping out with a support group for grandparents raising grandchildren. >> you probably feel lots of feeling, that you just kind of feel like -- >> reporter: jamie math sis a regular at the sessions. >> i have somebody i can go to if i have questions and are willing to be there for a listening ear. >> it's not your fault. you did not raise your children to be addicts or irresponsible parents. >> reporter: for amanda, the school administrator who runs the group one of the goals is to help grandparents come to terms with their feelings especially feelings of guilt. >> it's completely a myth that
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some of our grandparents have that they did something wrong with their children. we all have 20/20 hindsight. we all could have done some things differently. >> they get through resentment. they planned for retirement. frustration would be a word i would imagine. and they go through some loneliness because they feel they're all alone and until they get in a group like that they don't realize there are tons of other folks in their area going through the same thing. >> reporter: most of those grandparents aren't coming. there were just four on the day of our visit though they say attendance is normally around 20. there are hundreds of grandparents raising children in this area. >> yes. there is a stigma associated with coming out, if you will that you're raising your grandchildren because your children won't raise them. we just need to get people to feel comfortable coming. >> reporter: but just getting to the meetings can be hard. the county roads are another problem. >> nothing like these mountains. it's a very isolated area and like i said we don't have a lot
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of resources here. >> reporter: so cindy rose makes visits to grandparents and also younger parents. she's what's called a home visitor for save the children, a nonprofit that's another partner in reconnecting mcdow. >> my personal feeling is if educationue know, if you can do this early education, that is the key to getting the poverty. this is it. >> reporter: miss rose makes home visits to about 20 children a week. her first stop of the day was to a home literally perched on top of a mountain. >> uh-oh! he wants to read it himself. >> reporter: checking in on two-year-old jackson and his mother, estella crabtree. >> i love being a mother but in mcdow county being a mother is a lot different than anywhere else. it's very remote. so it's not like we can take our children to the library and let them have a heyday. >> we have tugga-taj-tug boat
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today. >> reporter: cindy brings books? >> cindy brings books. cindy brings lots of books. sippedy brings activities for me. >> look at that nose! >> and, you know he's with me all day so he's ready, willing and waiting, you know, for synd tow come through that door because that's somebody different. >> how did it go? >> reporter: before she's done, miss rose will talk about the baby health and offer to help arrange doctors' appointments. then it's back to mcdow county's twisty roads to visit some of her harder cases. >> well i have a great-grandmother that's raising a two-year-old and a six-month-old. and she doesn't read. she doesn't drive. that's-- that's really my worst, my hardest. right there. >> reporter: for that great-grandmother, how much can you really do? >> a lot. i can give her a lot of ideas to work with the children, show them the pictures the colors.
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she can look at the pictures and her and the child make up the story as they get from the pictures. she doesn't have to sit and read out of a book. >> reporter: mis exproaz two other home visitors see about 60 families a week, but just like the grandparents group, there are hundreds more spread out across this remote corner of the state that she and others in the reconnecting mcdow partnership are not likely to reach. >> there's no question. this job is much more difficult than i thought when we originally started. but we take our successes in small doses. we're not going to turn this around in five years, and maybe not 10 years. but we're going to chip away at those issues. we're going to chip away. >> reporter: in mcdow county, west virginia i'm john tulenko, reporting for the newshour. >> ifill: finally tonight, our newshour shares moment of the day. something that caught our eye that might be of interest to you
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too. today, rosa parks would have been 102-years-old. the library of congress has opened a special collection of her little seen papers and photographs. the letters, photos and artifacts illuminate a lifelong commitment to civil rights that preceded and continued for years after the famous montgomery bus boycott in 1955. that work involved campaigning for candidates like john conyers, meeting with shirley chisholm, and helping labor groups. you can see those photographs and learn more about rosa parks, the activist, at our website pbs.org/newshour. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day, jordan's king called for a relentless war on the islamic state militants after they burned a captured pilot alive. and rescue crews in taiwan worked through the night after a trans-asia airways plane cartwheeled into a river. at least 26 people died. >> ifill: on the newshour online, for decades, cuba has
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been an exotic destination off limits. to most americans, but that could change with a new bill that would lift restrictions for u.s. tourists. in the meantime, we decided to ask former residents of the communist nation to recommend their favorite spots in havana and around the island. all that and more is on our web site pbs.org/newshour. >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. on thursday, we'll look at what the viral video sensation, "gangnam style," tells us about the stock market, and the psychology of investing. i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. we'll see you on-line, and again here tomorrow evening, for all of us here at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your life and become you're own chief life officer. i.b.e.w. the power professionals in your neighborhood.
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