captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc i'm judy woodruff. >> sreenivasan: and i'm hari sreenivasan. >> woodruff: on the newshour tonight, as president-elect trump expands his team with new picks, how the future commander in chief is redefining the presidential bully pulpit. >> sreenivasan: also ahead this wednesday, rescuers search under the rubble for survivors in indonsia's aceh province after a powerful earthquake kills nearly 100 people. >> woodruff: and, when religion and art collide: a new smithsonian exhibit celebrates the beauty and mastery of the qur'an. >> it really shifted my perception of what these works are, and i'm hoping that it will also shift the perception of the visitors who come to the museum to see the exhibition.

>> sreenivasan: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> ♪ love me tender ♪ love me true we can like many, but we can love only a precious few. because it is for those precious few that you have to be willing to do so very much. but you don't have to do it alone. lincoln financial helps you provide for and protect your financial future, because this is what you do for people you love. lincoln financial-- you're in charge. >> bnsf railway. >> xq institute.

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high-level announcements today from the trump transition. they include a new ambassador and a new leader for small business interests, and, the incoming president himself has picked up another honor. lisa desjardins has our report. >> reporter: he didn't appear in new york's trump tower lobby today, but president-elect donald trump still made headlines, as "time magazine" named him its 2016 "person of the year", billing him "president of the divided states of america." meanwhile, the president-elect made more picks of his own, announcing he'll nominate iowa governor terry branstad as his ambassador to china. branstad is a republican and the longest-serving governor of iowa, ever. he was one of the most prominent establishment republicans to support mr. trump in the election, and he has a longstanding friendship with the chinese president, xi jinping. also today, the associated press and other outlets reported retired marine general john kelly is the choice for

secretary of homeland security: >> great, great general. >> reporter: and multiple outlets also reported oklahoma attorney general scott pruitt as mr. trump's pick to lead the environmental protection agency. pruitt is known for opposing e.p.a. climate change regulations. all this, after the incoming commander in chief officially introduced retired marine general james mattis as his selection for secretary of defense at a rally last night in fayetteville, north carolina. mattis would need a waiver from congress to accept the position because he's been out of the service less than seven years. >> what a great guy, he's going to be incredible. he'll get that waiver, right? he's going to get that. ohh, if he didn't get that waiver, there'd be a lot of angry people. >> reporter: the stop in north carolina is part of a clear ramp-up of travel for mr. trump. tomorrow he'll be in columbus, ohio, to meet with responders to the ohio state campus attack last week, then a thank you rally in des moines, iowa.

friday, the stops are baton rouge, louisiana to support the republican senate candidate in a runoff, and another thank you rally in grand rapids, michigan. president-elect trump has said his biggest remaing pick, secretary of state, will be announced next week. this morning, he told the "today" show he's getting advice from his predecessor. >> i will say this, i've now gotten to know president obama. i really like him. we, obviously, very much disagree on certain policy and certain things, but i really like him as a person. >> reporter: and today mr. trump met with the president's first chief of staff, chicago mayor rahm emanuel, who said he argued for so-called "dreamers," undocumented americans brought here as children. for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, a charleston, south carolina jury heard opening statements in the trial of dylann roof, the white supremacist charged with murdering nine black churchgoers. it happened in june, 2015. today, a federal prosecutor

declared roof had a "cold and hateful heart". the defense conceded roof's guilt, and focused on preventing a death sentence. later, a survivor broke down as she testified about seeing her son die in the gunfire. >> sreenivasan: authorities in tennessee have charged two juveniles in the fatal wildfires that blazed through the great smoky mountains two weeks ago. fourteen people died and more than 1,700 buildings were damaged or destroyed as high winds blew the flames into the gatlinburg area. prosecutors left open the possibility that others could be charged as well. >> woodruff: recovery efforts came to an end at the scene of the deadly warehouse fire in oakland, california. the death toll from the weekend tragedy stands at 36. investigators have turned their attention to a refrigerator as a possible cause for the blaze. the fast-moving fire ripped through the warehouse, where a dance party was underway. >> sreenivasan: in indonesia, the earth shook before dawn today, knocking down buildings, and sending terrified people into the streets. at least 97 were killed, with

hundreds more injured. it was a picture of desperation: rescue crews using bare hands to dig through twisted wreckage while excavators removed heavier debris. >> ( translated ): we estimate the number of casualties will continue to rise as some of the residents are still likely under the rubble of the buildings. the search and rescue operation is still underway. >> sreenivasan: the quake hit shortly after 5:00 a.m., registered 6.5, and was centered around the northern tip of aceh province on sumatra island, but it was too shallow to trigger a tsunami. still, it was all too reminiscent of the far more powerful quake and tsunami that devastated the same region in 2004, killing more than 100,000 people in aceh alone. that disaster prompted efforts to improve warnings and readiness, but kanupriya kapoor, with reuters, said the quake- prone country still has a long way to go. she spoke via skype from jakarta. >> if i were to speak to the

readiness of these communities, the preparedness to deal with the quake, i wouldn't be surprised if they aren't as prepared. if, you know, structures in this area, you know were clearly not built to withstand even a 6.5 magnitude earthquake. >> sreenivasan: indonesia's disaster agency estimates some 245 buildings, including 14 mosques, were either seriously damaged or destroyed in today's quake, leaving thousands of people homeless, and local the indonesian government has officially declared a two-week state of emergency in aceh. >> woodruff: no one survived an airplane crash in the mountains of northern pakistan today. the head of pakistan international airlines says 48 people were onboard. witnesses said the plane burst into flames and went down about 50 miles outside islamabad. junaid jamshed, a well-known pakistani singer-turned- evangelical muslim cleric, was among those killed. the cause of the crash is under investigation.

>> sreenivasan: the u.s. and five other western nations are calling for a new cease-fire in aleppo, syria in a bid to get civilians out. they also accused russia today of blocking efforts to end the bloodshed. meanwhile, syrian government troops and their allies pushed deeper into eastern aleppo. they now control about 75% of what was the rebel-held area of the city. >> woodruff: back in this country, a bipartisan bill to speed federal drug approvals and bolster research, overwhelmingly passed the senate today. president obama promised to sign the $6 billion measure. it includes funding for vice president biden's moonshot effort to find a cure for cancer, and for a stepped-up campaign to fight opioid abuse. >> sreenivasan: senators also paid tribute today to vice president biden. he served there for 36 years, representing delaware. he was back today, in his official role as president of the senate, listening as lawmakers praised him for compassion, strength and humor. and, maryland senator barbara mikulski gave her farewell

speech after serving 30 years. that makes her the longest serving female senator ever. >> though i was the first democratic woman, i wanted to be the first of many. i wanted to help women get elected to the senate and do what i could to help them to do that. it has been just wonderful to see that now, there are over-- there are currently 20 women serving in the united states senate. >> woodruff: mikulski also served ten years in the house, before coming to the senate. >> woodruff: wall street soared today on mounting expectations of faster growth. the dow jones industrial average reached another record, gaining nearly 300 points to close at 19,549. the nasdaq rose 60 points, and the s&p 500 added 29, for its own record close. >> sreenivasan: and, thousands of people converged on pearl harbor today, marking 75 years since the japanese attack that brought the united states into world war ii.

elderly survivors highlighted the crowd that gathered across the harbor from where the battleship "arizona" sank. they observed a moment of silence, and then listened to tributes to all those killed on december 7, 1941. still to come on the newshour: the g.o.p.'s sean spicer talks about donald trump's latest appointments; the president- elect's unconventional methods of communicating directly with the american people; the first woman to win baseball's prestigious sportswriting award, and much more. >> woodruff: we get the view from trump tower now on the president-elect's transition from sean spicer, spokesman for the republican national committee. sean spicer, welcome back to the newshour. let me start with some of the announcements already made today, just in the last hour or so. lynda mcmahon with the

professional wrestling organization. she and her husband made a huge success of that, appointed to run the small business administration. this now makes, i think, the fourth or fifth billionaire appointed to the trump cabinet. what are we to make of this? what are ordinary americans to make of this? >> i think you look at the people, like lynda mcmahon. she started a company with 13 people. she ended up with 800. what i think donald trump has shown is he wants to surround himself with people who are successful, who understand how to make change and make things happen. americans want more jobs. they want to put america first. they want american businesses. they want american families to be put first and foremost. and i think what donald trump is showing i'm going to get the best, most qualified, successful people to be part of a trump-pence administration because the one thing that has ended, judy, is business as usual in washington, d.c. you look at someone like lynda mcmahon who not only built an unbelievably successful business but then went on to mentor young

women and others to help them grow and flourish. i think that's what we want. we want people with a track record of success to come into washington, to shake things up, and to get the country back on track, to get jobs moving, to fix a health care system that is not working. but all of those things that people want, he is surrounding to get the job done. >> woodruff: there is another pick, and that is to run the environmental protection aition, the e.p.a., scott pruitt, the attorney general of the state of oklahoma. the environmental community is already up in arms, reacting very negatively to this, saying he is not only a climate change denier, that he's very, very close to the fossil fuel industry. >> okay, well, look, here's what i would argue. first of all, no announcement has been made on that position. second of all, everybody that comes into a trump-pence administration from the lowest to the highest person in the administration is here to carry out donald trump's vision and agenda and to get the things that he wants done accomplished. so, you know, regardless of what

somebody's personal positions are, what they're signing on to is donald trump's vision, his agenda, his philosophy, and the things that he wants to succeed at. >> woodruff: so the environmental community shouldn't read this as somebody who is-- doesn't believe in anything, essentially, in their agenda being put in charge of the agency that's supposed to look after the environment? >> well, look, i think that there's a big difference between environmentalists on the left and people who care about the environment. and i know that sounds like a distinction, but the reality is, you know, two of donald trump's kids, eric and don junior, are very avid hunters. they understand and appreciate the wilderness and outdoors. they love to be out there. but i think there's a big difference between appreciating and wanting to preserve and protect the environment, whether it's clean water or clean air, something we all cherish, or the agenda pushed by the far left. and there is a big difference. and so i think that there's a-- there's-- it is a very big difference to care about whether or not we're toting to the agenda of the far extreme left

that is a job-killing regulation-type agenda that wants to put businesses out of business, or people who actually care about the environment and whose goal is clean air, clean water, making sure we preserve our natural resources and things like that. >> woodruff: two other appointments i want to ask you about, one was announced, the ambassador to china, the governor of iowa, terry brandstad. we know mr. trump has stressed -- i think what you have to say is a "get tough with china" approach is one way he described it. and today he is emphasizing someone who has a close personal relationship with the leader of china. is he undermining the "get tough" message somehow with this? >> no, i think what mr. trump understands is he's been successful at business through negotiation and relationship. he understands how to get what he wants, how to advance a goal. and what terry brandstad brings to it this, he's the longest serving governor in the united states. he has a huge, extensive relationship with the president of china, snag he can leverage

to make sure it is not-- it starts that relationship off on a good foot, to make sure china understands we have an agenda of putting american workers first. that's going to be the agenda here. but it allows that relationship to start from the beginning as opposed to having a "get to know you" phase. they have a long, extensive relationship and that's going to benefit the united states to advance the donald trump agenda and make sure america gets back some of that-- some of those jobs and some of that manufacturing that has gone to china. >> woodruff: just quickly, another appointment, or potential appointment i want to ask about-- again, news organizations have this-- and that is retired general johnicle tow run the department of homeland security. if he's named he would be the third general to play a major role in this administration heading the third largest department in the federal government. what does mr. trump saying by naming all these top military-- people with top military roles? >> well, first of all, no announcement's been made. second, general kelly is an outstanting public servant, somebody who understands the threats we face and knows how to

tackle them and keep america, you know, our homeland safe. he would be an excellent choice if mr. trump eventually chooses him. again, you're talking about 4,000, 5,000 jobs. he's focused on these two and potentially third top-ranking military officials but he's also looked to successful businessmen, lynda mcmahon, a successful businesswoman. this is a very, very broad group, diverse griewrntion of high-quality, high-caliber people, in their own respective fields, whether academia, business, or government, have shown they know how to get the job done, and that's what donald trump wants, is people who understand how to be successful, how to move this country in the right direction, how to lift you want american worker and put america first. >> woodruff: i want to ask you about something that first lady mechelle obama is saying today. she said in an interview she stands by what-- the criticism she made of mr. trump on the campaign trail, but she said like her husband, she's prepared to help him as he transitions.

she said, "we want him to be successful." my question to you is after the conversations mr. trump has had with president obama, is he prepared, in any way, to apologize or pull back the many, many tough criticismshe made of president obama, in effect saying he's harmed this country by his leadership? >> well, i think there's a lot of things said on the campaign trail in the heat of a political campaign. president obama said very legislature things about mr. trump. but i think since election night, mr. trump extended that olive branch, talked about uniting this country, bringing us all together and moving forward as americans to move the country forward and lift up everybody. they've had great meetings. they've developed a great relationship. he said earlier today he continues to enjoy the president's counsel and has grown to really respect the job that he has and the toughness of it, his commitment and love for this country. >> woodruff: finally, sean spicer, does mr. trump stand by his tweet of a couple of days ago that three million votes

cast in this election were cast illegally, and if so, what does he base that on? >> of course, he does. and that's based off several academic reports that show the number of people-- if you extrapolate the percentages and the reports-- come out to about that much. so, you know, there are a lot of reports that point to that. >> woodruff: well, we know there's a dispute about many of them, but more time to talk about that later on. sean spicer, thank you very much. >> thank you, judy. later in the program, we'll explore president-elect trump's relationship with the media. >> sreenivasan: the movie

industry has its oscars; the music world, the grammys; and sure, there are nobel prizes in science. but the world of science would like to connect with the popular culture. this weekend, there were some notable awards in that field, held in a makeshift hangar at nasa ames research center in silicon valley, and that's the focus of our weekly segment about "the leading edge" of science and technology. miles o'brien is here to tell us a little bit more about who won, and for what achievements. what is this and who's behind it? >> hari, it's called the "breakthrough prizes." they were founded five years ago by a few silicon valley mowing ulz. they wanted to recognize scientists with the largest cash prizes in science-- glitzy gala, big-name stars from tech and entertainment. the scientific rock stars were honored by some hollywood celebrities -- morgan freeman, alicia keys, jeremy ions, and will i.am, who probably put it best. >> when somebody graduates plays basketball from the u.c.l.a., there's a show about that. there's a show called "the draft," and people tune in. but when someone graduates from m.i.t. and ends up working at google, nobody knows. so i think in popular culture,

like, we do a very poor job celebrating the right things. >> sreenivasan: all right, i see three different categories here-- fundamental physics, life sciences, and math. let's start with life sciences. >> life sciences is the largest of the five topics for recipients. each person or awardee group gets a $3 million prize for major contributions to the understanding of the inner workings of life. for example, stephen elible, a scientist at harvard and associated with the howard hugh institute as well, was recognized for his research into how d.n.a. detects when it is damaged. here he is explaining it. >> d.n.a. has this incredible ability to sense its own integrity. it's a molecule, but it knows when it's damaged. and it has built a ?blg apparatus-- signaling apparatus-- it's sort of like a radio station-- it sends out signals when there's a problem and calls in the troops and

organizes everything. so it's really about communication inside the cell. >> this is key because disruptions of this mechanism are linked to cancer, and there are already some cancer treatments being implemented that are based on this research so it's very exciting, hari. >> sreenivasan: there was a special award in the category of physics. tell us about it. >> yeah, physics is always interesting. there was some award that got into string theory which would be too hard to explain in the time we have but this one was the laser interferometer gravitational wave category, earned a special prize in fundamental physics. known as ligo. this 1,000-plus team will be splitting the $3 million prize for their detection of gravity waves caused by the merging two of black holes. ligo uses lasers to precisely measure the position of mirrors separated from each other by about 2.5 miles. in addition, it takes these measurements at two locations about 1900 miles apart, one in

louisiana, one in the state of washington. ligo is so sensitive, it actually measures the compressing and stretching of space itself. it is the most precise measuring device ever built. it can detect a disturbance of-- listen to this-- one part in 1,000 billion, billion, or something like 1/1,000 of the diameter of a proton. it's mind-boggling. we're deep in the quantum world here. >> sreenivasan: we don't talk about math that much, but what about the math prize? >> i know folks might have some flashbacks to middle school right now, but this is interesting, jean borgane, was awarded for high-dimensional geometry. it's the expanding of the forrier analysis, breaking down messy signals into basic repeated components like a sine,

or cosine graph. this makes it easier to understand structures of complex mathematics and i think we ought to end it there because it will get deep quickly. >> sreenivasan: i remember whether or not you should have the texas instrument calculators, oh, it's cheating. you should do the sine graphs yourselves. there are also prizes for younger scientists what were they getting prizes for? >> this is exciting stuff, two high school students, diana see from singapore, and a student from brazil, students submitted videos explaining tough scientific concepts, probably better than i am now. deanna chose antibiotic resistance in bacteria, andant nella discussed quantum entanglement, not bad for a high schooler. what does the award mean to her? fewer entanglement with

scholarships and student loans. >> now with this i can choose any school i want, any college they want and it's unbelievable. i'm really grateful for this opportunity. >> and will never forget it. >> and i have a feeling, hari, we won't forget her, either. >> sreenivasan: miles we were such slackers compared to those two kids, much less all the kids who were nominated there. >> that's why we're here. >> sreenivasan: thank you. miles o'brien joining us from boston tonight. >> the art of the qur'an a new exhibit featuring ancient manuscripts. and a historic recording from the day that lived in infamy. first, a pioneer in the traditionally male-dominated world of sportswriter.

clare smith has been covering baseball for more than four decades. she was the first african american female reporter to cover the game for a newspaper. working for "the new york times," "the philadelphia inquirer" and "the hartford courant" during her career. she's now with espn, and yesterday was awarded the top honor for a baseball writer. smith is the first woman to get that prize from the baseball writers' association of america. she joins me now from covering baseball's winter meetings in oxon hill, maryland, where off- season trades and other business is discussed. clare smith, congratulations. and what does this mean to you? >> it means the world. i look around this hotel lobby, i see my peers out there hard at work. i see so many that i watched grow up in the industry, so many that i've worked with for three-plus decades. and i-- they chose me.

they chose me to be the 68th winner of this award. and previous winners were named grant lin rising, damion runyan, brett smith, wendal smith, sam lacy. and they said, "you are the 68th winner, the first female, the first african american female." it's so humbling. i'm overwhelmed. i really am. >> woodruff: why baseball? why did you want to write about and cover baseball? >> two words-- jackie robinson. i was a child when my mother told me that story, and in those two words, i thought, "this is a great country. anything is possible." and within this sport, this sport taught this country how to grow up and move on. it integrated 20-some years before the united states of

america. i was in elementary school when the nuns at st. james took a third grade class down to the church, in the basement of that elkins park, pennsylvania, school, and showed us "the jackie robinson story." and ruby dee as mrs.-- rachel robinson, and jackie robinson as jackie robinson. they took my breath away. they reminded me of my parents-- young and proud. and i wanted to know more about this couple and that game and that man named brandt ricky. i loved storytelling. my parents bought me an old olympia type writer and gave me paper as a child, preteen. i loved pecking on that. but that story captured my imagination, and i still wear

jackie's number a lot. i loved the idea of baseball and what it did for this country, what jackie and the dodgers did. >> woodruff: it is so inspiring. but once you got into writing about and covering baseball, as a woman, you found out it wasn't as easy as maybe you might have thought going in? i mean, i'm particularly interested in what happened in 1984. >> well, judy, i had a long career with one bad day. and that was in 1984 in the postseason. padres at cubs, play-off game, and i was pushed out, physically pushed out of the clubhouse because the padres didn't adhere to the national league's edict that the national league controlled the clubhows once the postseason started. i had so many people jump to my

defense, not necessarily the padres club, but padres player, first baseman steve garvey, who left the clubhouse to make sure that i had quotes so i could do my job. and he reminded me as i started to falter that he would stay in that damp, small area in wrigley field while i pulled myself together, he would stay as long as i needed for him to stay. but he said, "but you have a job to do," and he-- that one phrase made me pull myself together and do my job. my peers came to my defense. and the commissioner, peter ueberroth, who was in his first week in office, the next day passed an edict, all properly credentialed reporters, no matter gender, race, religion--

whatever planet they came from-- get access in major league baseball. he couldn't believe that it really hadn't happened before. but on his watch, from that day forward, it was going to happen. >> woodruff: and you were not deterred, and you've kept on ever since then. has it been harder, though, as an african american? or are you just not looked back and thought about that since then? >> it was no contest. it was harder because of gender than race. i've always said that because a sport had, at that time, had a much larger representation of african americans in uniform, and still to this day, is a very diverse sport, albeit more latin american players of color, than

african americans of color-- it would be very hard to be overtly racist towards anyone in a clubhouse. however, it's still very easy to be an idiot. it might not be in a club's best interest to push people out because of gender, because the commissioner's office will come down on you very hard. but that doesn't stop a player from being obscene, from being a degenerate, from just being a jerk. and that happens occasionally, sadly. if a woman is isolated in a town where a team has a lawsa fair attitude, it makes it very difficult. i was very lucky. i covered a team that was aggressive in its approach. the yankees were very proud to say that none of that happened in the clubhouse.

by the time i came along, the yankees were just ferocious in policing their own clubhouse from players on up. i had friends who were severely scarred by incidents elsewhere in the country. >> woodruff: wow, well, i hope that a lot of young women who are thinking about going into sportwriting and sports news are watching this and being inspired by it. clare smith-- >> well, thank you. >> woodruff: clare smith, can congratulations. >> thank so much, judy. i appreciate that. thank you very much. >> sreenivasan: one thing that's become clear since the election is the very different approach president-elect trump is taking toward dealing with the media and his efforts to talk to the american public more directly. to start, let's just look at the past 24 hours. it was a most unusual

appearance, for a man whose unpredictability is now signature. president-elect trump showed up un-announced in the lobby of his manhattan skyscraper yesterday. less than an hour earlier, he tweeted that costs for a new air force one were "out of control," and said the order should be canceled. >> we've got some great people coming in today. >> sreenivasan: he spoke to journalists who've gathered in the trump tower entrance for weeks. >> it's going to be over $4 billion, for the air force one program. and i think it's ridiculous. i think boeing is doing a little bit of a number. we want boeing to make a lot of money, but not that much money. >> sreenivasan: the white house later questioned the figure mr. trump cited. the president-elect later appeared in the lobby again, to announce an investment by a japanese tech mogul. since his stunning election- night upset, mr. trump hasn't held a single, formal press conference. instead, he's communicated with the public directly-- often 140 characters at a time. he called the protesters who

took to the streets immediately after his election, "very unfair." he said burning the american flag-- which is protected under the first amendment-- should be punishable by loss of citizenship or a year in jail. he has made announcements about the plans for his business interests. late last month, he challenged the results of the popular vote, with a false claim that "millions of people voted illegally". he even used the platform to float names for potential cabinet picks, like dr. ben carson as the head of housing and urban development. in a video statement released on twitter and youtube, mr. trump laid out plans for his first 100 days in office. >> my agenda will be based on a simple core principle: putting america first. whether it's producing steel, building cars, or curing disease, i want the next generation of production and innovation to happen right here, in our great homeland: america. >> sreenivasan: the president- elect's choice to control his own public communication is driven, at least in part, by his

open disdain for the mainstream media. on monday, he tweeted: "if the press would cover me accurately and honorably, i would have far less reason to tweet. sadly, i don't know if that will ever happen!" to be sure, past administrations have had their disagreements and even hostile relationships with the press. during his two terms, president obama has, on occasion, used his social media channels to circumvent reporters. but no leader has taken to such platforms like mr. trump. last week, during a post- election review at harvard, mr. trump's former campaign manager, corey lewandowski, spoke about how the president- elect sees the press: >> donald trump understands the media and he understands the american electorate and he understands how to drive a message. however, donald trump also has the ability to bypass the mainstream media by going directly to social media. >> sreenivasan: the president- elect did hold an off-the-record meeting with television anchors and executives last month, and on-the-record

conversations with "the new york times" and "wall street journal," but he has also repeatedly traveled without notifying the press pool assigned to cover him. that's led reporters to voice concerns about a lack of access. mr. trump is, however, expected to hold his first press conference as president-elect next thursday. we take a broader look at the president-elect's unprecedented relationship with the press and unique communication style, with micheline maynard, a veteran journalist and a contributor to forbes; and lisa lerer, who covers national politics for the associated press. can mickey maynard, this isn't the first time president, any president has wanted to talk directly to the people or go around the pesky press in the middle. what's so different about this? >> well, i think what's so different about this is the unpredictability, and also the fact, you know, with many presidents you could just take, if they had a tweet-- this is really our first tweeting president-elect. mr. obama tweets a little bit, but it's fairly structured. this is not structured at all. you almost have to take the information as the starting

point because you can't simply repeat what he's tweeted. you have to give it a little bit of context. so you were talking about the boeing situation, and the over $4 billion number. well, those of us who cover aviation who have kept track of the air force one replacement program had never heard a number like $4 billion, and the g.a.o., the general accounting office, had never even said that the program would be $4 billion. so it's a little bit of a puzzlement where some of this information is coming from. but it does at least give you something to go on. >> sreenivasan: so how do newsrooms decide where to put their resources -- chase down the fact behind every tweet or figure out what the policy will actually be and what the actual impact to americans will be? >> the interesting thing about mr. trump's tweets is that they're often in response to a news story that he doesn't like. so the boeing tweet in particular came a little while after the "chicago tribune" ran a story quoting the c.e.o. of

boeing says he was a little concerned about trade policy under the trump administration. i don't know how you guess which company he might criticize next. but it's almost as if you have to write the tweet down on one side of a ledger and then go look for a link to the story on the other side of the ledger and see where the mesh comes in. >> sreenivasan: there also seems to be a gap inside the newsrooms-- the political reporters on one side and the business reporters on the other side not necessarily seeing the connections? >> right. they're two different specialties. so business journalists, like myself, we spend years learning how the securities and exchange commission works. we take classes in business journalism. political reporters probably take political science classes, spend years in washington or in their local state ofs. the two-- state governments. the two don't cross that often. sometimes they do. we have great publications like "the "wall street journal"" and "new york times," where you have politically savvy business reporters and vice versa but it's two separate sets of d.n.a.

and now the challenge for noorms will be to school reporters who are trained in politics and business. and school business reporters to look for the politics in whatever mr. trump does. >> sreenivasan: inherently, is anything that comes out of a president's mouth automatically newsworthy? if he wants to say a tweet like the flag burning one, where he's essentially challenging the constitutionality of how we express ourselves, is that newsworthy in and of itself, or someone making an editorial decision this is a distraction and we're not putting resources on it? >> so far, i haven't seen anyone not repeat the tweets. because he's the president-elect, because everybody is looking for clues about what kind of president he will be, anything he says right now will be newsworthy. but i am watching news organizations just repeat it, like they're stenographers. and news organizations that say, "wait a minute. the flag burning thing, we're constitutionally protected if we want to burn the flag." so i'm looking for people giving the right context to their audiences, whether it's on the

air, in print, or on social media. >> sreenivasan: some of the complaints about limited access, about the traveling press pool, or not so many press conferences, i mean, someplace that is a violation of tradition or it's personnel preference, but how does it actually matter in the day-to-day coverage of the presidency? why is that important for the public to have and to know? >> well, right after mr. trump was elected, he went to washington and he left the pool that was following him behind. then he went to dinner and he left the pool that was following him behind. in fact, those reporters had been told that there was a lid on movement for the night. that means he's not going to do anything newsworthy, and in fact he went out for dinner with his family. i don't know how newsworthy that was, but people have made the point, we've had the 9/11 attacks. people needed to know where president bush was. president regan, sadly, there was an assassination attempt, and the pool needed to know what was going on with that, and on and on. so we have certainly had instances in our history where

unexpected events happened, and a group of reporters-- broadcast, print, now digital, photographers -- needed to be there. so the pool is important. but i think we're seeing that mr. trump is either not aware of traditions or has his own opinion about them. >> sreenivasan: all right, micheline maynard, i'm sure we'll have more conversations about this in the future, thanks so much. >> thank you for having me. >> woodruff: in the charged atmosphere concerning muslims in america, comes what is billed as the first major exhibition on the qur'an in the united states. jeffrey brown reports. >> this is one of the great highlights of the exhibition. it's a qur'an from the early 14th century, from about 1330, signed by a great master-- >> reporter: signed?

>> yes. a holy book, as a work of art, the qur'an is sacred to some 1.6 billion muslims around the world. a new exhibition at the smithsonian institution's sackler gallery in washington d.c. presents 68 of the most important and exquisite qur'ans ever produced. dating from the late 7th to early 17th centuries, they come from many parts of the islamic world and are part of the collection of the "museum of turkish and islamic arts" in istanbul. that's where sackler chief curator massumeh farhad first saw them. >> i realized that these were true works of art, that every single one of them was astounding in its sort of mastery of calligraphy, of the styles, and also of the scale of the works. and that is something that, to me, was very important, and motivated me in trying to organize this exhibition,

because i thought it really shifted my perception of what these works are. and i'm hoping that it will also shift the perception of the visitors who come to the museum to see the exhibition. >> reporter: for muslims, the qur'an is a divine text, a series of revelations transmitted from the angel gabriel to the prophet muhammad between 610 and 632. it includes references to earlier figures, including abraham, moses and jesus. the term itself means "recitation;" the qur'an stems from an oral tradition. but the text was written down and codified in a fixed form not long after the death of muhammad. maria dakake teaches islamic religious thought and history at george mason university, and was >> one of the things that is rather striking about the qur'an when people read it for the first time is that it often takes the form of direct address. so it will say sometimes, "o, you who believe." sometimes it will address all

human beings, humankind. it is a series of moral exhortations, exhortations to virtue, it includes many stories of prophets before the time of muhammad. it is an attempt to grab the listener, or grab the reader, to wake them up, to make them think about their life, about the world around them. it's a lot of passages with rhetorical sentences, right? "did you not consider this?" didn't you think about this? how did you get here, right, as a human being? >> reporter: the exhibition includes furniture: stands to hold manuscripts, and chests to store them. many of these qur'ans were originally commissioned and donated or collected by rulers. early manuscripts, on parchment, feature plain ink and simple designs. later, artists and calligraphers developed ever more elaborate and ornate script, illumination, and geometric patterns-- in

light of islam's proscription against figurative images-- to make each manuscript a singular work. >> it's how they sort of use their individuality, is really quite remarkable. and the greater the master, the better they can sort of manipulate the style without breaking the rules, because you could not break the rules of a particular style of calligraphy, but you could sort of stretch them, and sort of introduce your own sort of touch to a particular style, or a particular type of writing. >> reporter: some of these masters are well known to scholars, like the maker of this qur'an, abdallah sayrafi, who spent most of his life in tabriz, in northwestern iran. >> what is remarkable about abdullah sayrafi is the fact that he was able to write in more than one style of calligraphy, because usually most calligraphers specialized in one style, and one particular size alone.

it was clearly a qur'an meant for display. it is so lavish in its use of both illumination, in terms of that very rich black ink, in the fact that every gold line is outlined in black. i mean, this is a visual feast, and it's supposed to be viewed and looked at. so it was meant as a display copy. >> reporter: how long would it take to do something like this? >> many years. >> reporter: years, for each one? >> for each one. >> reporter: even amid a highly contentious and politicized atmosphere today about muslims in america, its curators say it was long in the works and the timing is coincidental. for her part, maria dakake hopes it will shine a different kind of spotlight on islam and the qur'an. >> you will hear sometimes islamophobic comments about islam and they'll say, "well, you know, why would i want to know anything about this text? i see what kinds of things it produces, right? it produces people who behave in

these violent ways," or something like that. but when you come here, you see the larger reality of what it produced, right. it produced beauty, it produced scientific inquiry, it inspired literary endeavors. in a time of islamophobia, i think what's so valuable about this collection is to see the kind of artistic elements, the beauty that the qur'an really brought. >> reporter: "the art of the qur'an" is on exhibition through february. from the sackler gallery in washington d.c., i'm jeffrey brown for the pbs newshour. >> now a perspective on the benefits of learning and speaking a foreign language. lauren colins is a correspondent for the "new yorker" magazine, and she brings us the latest

installment in our series "in my humble opinion." what i just say is five years ago i didn't speak a word of french, and why would i have? i was born and raised in a small town in north carolina. in high school i took spanish, and like a lot of people who take high school spanish, i failed to retain much more than hola and gracias and hable english? i guess at the time it didn't seem all that important. but i have come to believe that learning a foreign language is a quietly revolutionary act and that there's never been a better time to do it. my french revolution started when i met a man named olivier at a party. besides the fact we were both living in london, we had exactly zero in common, but somehow we got to talking and neither of us wanted to stop. olivier spoke beautiful glrk so it wasn't a big deal that i didn't speak his language. but then things got serious and we got married and i told his mother i had given birth to a

coffee machine. and we moved to french-speaking switzerland, and eventually it became clear that i was going to have to learn french. i signed up for an intensive class. my fellow students came from all over the world-- germany, argentina, japan. the funny thing about french classes, they're the one place that, by definition, you're never going to find someone who speaks french. but i kept at it. we all did. and very slowly, i found myself getting the hang of things. one day something clicked, and i heard my husband's voice for the first time. there are so many advantages to learning a language. being bilingual improves your memory. and several studies have suggested that it may even stave off alzheimer's and dementia. but for me, most incredible thing was being all of a sudden privy to a parallel world i hadn't even known existed, a world in which there was a word for a person who got cold easily, where a man's shirt was feminine but a woman's shirt was

masculine. where there wasn't just one past tense but two. each time i had to decide whether a person was a vo or a tue, or an acquaintance or intimate, which is basically every time i encountered someone. i found my boundaries shifting and relationships recategorized into private and public. what if in the moment of riling intolerance and xenophobia we could put ourselves in another person's tongue. when you learn a language you benefit not only yourself but society. you develop empathy. you start to see that the world looks different, depending on where you stand and what you speak. >> sreenivasan: now to our "newshour shares:" something that caught our eye, that might be of interest to you, too. as we noted earlier, today marks the 75th anniversary of japan's surprise attack on pearl harbor.

the ensuing battle claimed the lives of more than 2,400 americans, and triggered u.s. involvement in world war ii. an unknown nbc reporter in honolulu spoke by telephone that day, in a dispatch that was broadcast live across the nation. here's an excerpt:

>> woodruff: certainly brings us back to that terrible day. >> sreenivasan: i wonder what that was like to hear that on the radio everywhere. >> woodruff: 75 years ago this day. on the newshour online right now, we share letters to gwen ifill from women journalists of color about what she meant to them as a personal friend and mentor, and as a pioneering icon. all that and more is on our web site, www.pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: tune in later tonight. on "charlie rose:" author michael lewis explores how we make decisions in "the undoing project." and that's the newshour for tonight. on thursday, we start a special series following three women on a mission to serve in newly opened combat roles in the marines. i'm hari sreenivasan. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and good night. >> major funding for the pbs

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