captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: iran's supreme leader breaks his silence, blaming "enemies" for nationwide protests that show no signs of easing despite a growing death toll. then, after years of calling for fiscal restraint, republicans return to congress struggling to reconcile their government spending. and, the link between dog ownership and human mortality-- how man's best friend earns that title. >> what we see in this really large study, where we look at nearly 3.4 million people for 12 years, we see clear evidence that dog owners live longer. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

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>> woodruff: a sixth day of protests against iran's leaders roiled that country today, leaving over 20 people dead and hundreds under arrest. president trump has welcomed the demonstrations, but today white house spokeswoman sarah sanders stopped short of calling for regime change. rageh omar of independent television news has more. >> reporter: there is little letup in the protests across iranian cities. their numbers may not be huge, but their significance cannot be underestimated. this crowd are chanting "death to the dictator," a reference to supreme leader of iran, ayatollah ali khamenei, who earlier today met with supporters in what was his first public appearance since the nationwide protests began. he accused what he described as iran's enemies of fomenting the disturbances, a clear reference

to the united states, israel and saudi arabia, and he said iran's courage and faith would overcome such efforts. that warning didn't stop president trump from taking to twitter, where he said the people of iran were finally acting against what he called a brutal and corrupt iranian regime. he said the iran people have little food, big inflation and no human rights, and that the u.s. is watching. the protests started in the holy city of masshad last thursday, quickly spreading to the capital of tehran, and further east, to some 50 cities, across the country as far south as chabahar and ahwaz. so far, the government has been careful not to respond with a hardline violent crackdown, as it did in the wake of the political riots of 2009, which saw thousands lose their lives. what began as demonstrations born out of economic grievances are now sounding much more like angry condemnations of the leadership of the islamic republic itself. the regime will be hoping that

large pro-government demonstrations will drown out such sentiments. >> woodruff: that was rageh omar of independent television news. in the day's other news, south korea extended an olive branch to its rival, north korea. it offered high-level talks with pyongyang to find ways to cooperate on next month's winter olympics in the south. that came a day after north korean leader kim jong-un issued a rare overture to discuss easing military tensions. south korea proposed for the two countries to meet in a border village next tuesday. >> ( translated ): we look forward to candidly discussing mutual interests from both sides face-to-face, to improve relationships along with the north's participation in the pyeongchang winter olympics. >> woodruff: back in the u.s., president trump weighed in on the possible talks between the koreas, tweeting, "perhaps that is good news, perhaps not. we will see." u.n. ambassador nikki haley said

any talks won't matter unless the north drops its nuclear program. the trump administration is withholding millions of dollars in aid to pakistan over concerns that it hasn't done enough to fight terrorism. u.n. ambassador haley made the announcement a day after president trump used twitter to criticize islamabad for harboring terrorists. haley also left open the possibility president trump could eventually halt all funding to pakistan if they don't fully cooperate. she spoke at u.n. headquarters in new york. >> the administration is withholding $255 million in assistance to pakistan. there are clear reasons for this. pakistan has played a double game for years. they work with us at times, and they also harbor the terrorists that attack our troops in afghanistan. that game is not acceptable to this administration. >> woodruff: in pakistan today,

scores of demonstrators took to the streets of karachi. protesters burned american flags and chanted slogans condemning president trump's tweet. pakistan's foreign office also summoned the u.s. ambassador to explain the president's comments. late today president trump also suggested in a tweet that the u.s. could cut off aid to the palestinian authority over its stalled peace talks with israel. an american service member has died in combat in eastern afghanistan. pentagon officials said the fighting took place yesterday in nangarhar province, near the pakistani border. four other soldiers were wounded. the u.s. military formally ended its combat mission in afghanistan in 2014. but it still takes part in operations against the taliban and the islamic state, alongside afghan forces. in peru, at least 30 people lost their lives when their bus plummeted over the side of a cliff. the bus was traveling on a

treacherous stretch of highway north of lima, when it collided with a tractor trailer. rescue crews worked to save who they could. several survivors were transported to a nearby hospital with serious injuries. back in this country, the longest-serving senate republican announced he is retiring at the end of this year. 83-year-old orrin hatch of utah said he won't seek re-election after being in office more than 40 years. in a video announcement, hatch, who chairs the powerful senate finance committee, said it's time to move on. >> i've always been a fighter. i was an amateur boxer in my youth, and i brought that fighting spirit with me to washington. but every good fighter knows when to hang up the gloves. and for me, that time is soon approaching. i may be leaving the senate, but the next chapter in my public service is just beginning. >> woodruff: the move now opens the door for former republican presidential nominee mitt romney

to possibly run for hatch's seat. a bone-chilling cold gripped a huge swath of the u.s. for another day. the deep freeze has now been blamed for at least nine deaths in the past week. sub-zero temperatures forced schools to close in indianapolis. and farther south in houston, texas, traffic on ice-covered highways slowed to a crawl. freeze warnings were issued there, all the way north to canada, and from montana through new england. the leader of the new york city ballet is retiring, following an investigation into sexual misconduct. peter martins had been accused of sexually harassing or abusing members of the company over decades. in a letter to the board of directors, martins maintained his innocence, and acknowledged the scandal had taken a "painful toll" on his family. and on wall street today, stocks began the new year on a high note, led by gains in the

technology and health care sectors. the dow jones industrial average soared 104 points to close at 24,824. the nasdaq hit a record high, rising 103 points, and the s&p 500 also notched a record, adding 22. still to come on the newshour: how iran's leaders are responding to the unrest in their country. congress returns with a full plate of budget issues. can having a dog help you live longer? and, much more. >> woodruff: we return to the protests in iran, and take a closer look at whether the iranian government is united in how to respond, with abbas milani, director of the iranian studies program at stanford university.

mr. milani, thank you very much for joining us. before i ask you about the government's response, how do we know whether these protests are organized, whether they're spontaneous? what do we know about that? >> i think what we know is they're spread over a remarkably large expanse of the country. they're occurring in some of the places that have never been centers for action against the government, small towns where people cannot hide behind anonymity, where the regime knows everybody. so it to me is an indication of the level of despair in places never before the center of discontent. you are seeing massive demonstrations, either in size or in the voracity of the slogans. >> woodruff: what does that tell you about what is bringing these people out into the streets?

>> i think what it tells me is that the result of about 30 years of economic mismanagement, of corruption, of cronyism, increased pressure as a result of the sanctions have created a moment i think where people, and new categories of people. this is the regime of the poor, the dispossessed, and it is here, too, these elementings that have come into the streets, sometimes in cities known for their religious piety, from mashad, to najafabad, which has the distinction of having more people in iraq in terms of the number of people killed. these are now the centers of activities, and this gradual grind of double-digit unemployment, double-dig inflation, no prospects of economic improvement, remarkable cronyism, recent publication of budget figures that show

millions of doll verse been given to religious endowments that have done virtually nothing to contribute. all of that i think created a tipping point. >> drew: so what. >> woodruff: so what do you make, professor, of the regime's response in today, among other things, the supreme leader said that it's enemies of the country that are behind this. >> i think he has a paranoid view of the world. he does not believe that he has made any mistakes. he has yet to accept any mistakes for any of the major policy decisions that he is directly responsible for. i think many in the regime, including rouhani, have long realized that the status quo is not tenable. they know the level of disgruntlement. they know that more serious economic structure challenges

that are on the horizon. iran faces some truly remarkable economic challenges from the falling price of oil to, water shortage, to unemployment, to the failure of investments to come into iran. none of these can be solved unless mr. rouhani and his conservative allies accept responsibility for the catastrophe that they have created and maybe allow, it's not too late yet, maybe allow more mergers. >> woodruff: do you believe there is a chance he will do that? >> everything i know about him, everything i have read about him, everything i have watched about him, unfortunately i do not have room for optimism. my only hope is that people around him and people who have a stake in the regime, people who realize the bloodshed that will come will prevail upon him to change his views. i hear that he's going to give a talk this friday, and if the

talk that he gave this morning is any indication, i see very little hope of the much, much-needed tone of contrition that he needs to have. >> woodruff: is there room for dissent, for debate within the leadership of the country? >> i think there is. i think there is considerable room for factual dissent within the regime. they don't like it in public. they all have to be very careful of not causing problems for mr. rouhani. a number of people have been arrested illegally. they're under house arrest. the leader of the green revolution. most leaders of the country other than khomeini know this is stupid and counterproductive, but they don't challenge him. but behind closed doors, one hears unconfirmed reports that more and more people are beginning to realized that his

path is literally a path of a grim future for iran, because i think the level of anger is so rackable. there are forces that are instigating more anger on their side. >> woodruff: and just quickly, what effect do you see president trump's tweets having? he's very critical of the regime, calling him corrupt, saying it's time for change. is that helpful or not? >> i think in some ways it has been very helpful because i think people need to know, the iranian regime needs to know, as mr. trump said, the world is watching, but mr. trump's policies of the past have made the effectiveness of the tweets i think less. the fact that there is a ban on iranian, the fact that he sided almost completely with saudi arabia in the region, the fact that he called the persian gulf the arabian gulf, all of these have helped undermine the potentially far more effectiveness of the much-needed

support for the iranian people. and i think europe, too. people are increasingly trying to see where europe stands. >> woodruff: abbas milani at stanford university, thank you very much. >> woodruff: over this holiday break, republicans in congress celebrated their tax cut bill and stressed plans to rebuild the military and infrastructure. but they spoke less about a tough trade-off involved-- adding to the government's red ink problem. our lisa desjardins looks at how lawmakers are spending, and a potential budget collision ahead. >> desjardins: that's right, judy. to get our hands around this, we have with us longtime spending watcher, stan collender. he is a professor of public

policy at georgetown university's mccourt school, and a contributor to "forbes" magazine. i want the start breaking down some of the big examples here, stan. let's look quickly, the tax cuts, that's estimated to be about $1.5 to $2 trillion it would add to the deficit, disaster aid, three hurricanes and wildfires last year, there are proposals for $100 billion there, and infrastructure, president trump proposing another $200 billion there. not clear how this will be paid for. i want to ask you about another big one, budget cuts. this year is unique that across-the-board spending cuts called a sequester are to go into place, but now republicans and democrats want the lift those, which would add to the red ink. can you explain this? >> sure. let me make a less-than-bold prediction. those spending cuts will never happen. democrats want more for domestic spending. republicans want for for the military. these cuts would be so dastardly

that congress would do everything to avoid it. they didn't think avoiding it meant raising the caps. they thought it meant consulting other spending. now we'll just increase the deficit so to get to your basic point, how are they going to pay for it? they're not. they're going to borrow to pay for it. >> drew: what does this mean? we have major short-term deadline coming up january 19th. that's when the latest government funding bill runs out. how does this bigger budget cap and spending cuts battle affect that in. >> well, in a perfect world, democrats and republicans and the white house, we get together by january 19th and work out a deal. that's very unlikely given the hyperpartnership that's going on, given the unpredictability of president trump. so chances are we'll get another short-term funding bill, i'm guessing until the end of this month, that is the end of january to, give them more time to deal with it. ultimately it means more spending than we're expecting spendinghat was on the list yout down. there a much higher deficit. i have been saying to months for my readers. we're looking at deficits of $1

to $1.2 trillion a year every year during the trump administration. >> woodruff: we have a longer list of these spending items in our weekly politics newsletter. a bigger question, i've been on the halls in capitol hill, i've been talking to republicans. and even some members of the conservative freedom caucus are shrugging off or holding their nose about the spending decisions. this was the party of the deficit hawks. for republicans, is this spending a change in philosophy or is this just a change of short-term priority? >> look, i'm going to say it differently. it wasn't a change, because the republicans never cared that much about the deficit to begin. with they cared about the deficit when it was a way to stop someone else, barack obama's proposals from happening. but now that it's their proposal, tax cuts, defense increase, the deficit be damned. they want to move ahead and do what they want to do, and if it means that it induces or forces cuts or forces people the look at cuts on things like medicare and medicaid and social security, so be it as far as they're concerned.

>> woodruff: >> balanced budgets predate barack obama and go back before that. >> oh, sure, but these same people who were big on balanced budget amendments to the constitution and spending deals that would result in a balanced budget in ten years, they just have gone by the wayside. that was in many ways just subterfuge to get through what they wanted to do so they can do what they want to do now. >> the last question, voters also in polling, they don't seem so concerned about spending and deficits right now. that's different than six years ago when we saw that spike and people were worried. playing devil's advocate here, maybe do republicans not need to pay attention if voters aren't paying attention? >> undoubtedly the polling for the republicans showed exactly what you just said, which is that give an choice between a tax cut and a deficit increase, no problem, we'll take the tax cut every time. but when tax cuts don't produce that much for the average person and start spiking up interest rates and inflation and it starts people... people start to

hurt to feel by it, they will start to worry about the deficit again, and it's going to be more difficult. >> classic short term/long term problem. stan collender, thank you for joining us. >> you're welcome. >> woodruff: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: changes coming to public and private schools in the new year. and, what's behind the public's distrust of the news media. but first, a new scientific study underlines the truth of the old phrase, dogs are a man's best friend. according to researchers in sweden, dog owners live longer. their figures show that of people who live alone, those who have a dog have a 36% chance of living longer than those who don't have a pet. malcolm brabant begins his report from uppsala, north of stockholm. >> reporter: tove fall practices what she preaches.

she's got a dog called vega. an epidemiologist, she's an expert in disease and public health, who's just conducted what's claimed to be the biggest-ever study of its kind, matching the health records of a third of the swedish population with dog ownership data. >> what we see in this really large study, where we look at nearly 3.4 million people for 12 years, we see clear evidence that dog owners live longer. >> reporter: vega's owner has confidence in her findings because of the magnitude of the sample size, using the identification system that tracks every swede's lifelong interaction with state institutions. >> it's really accurate in terms of that we know the date of hospitalizations, cardiovascular disease, we know the date of birth of the dog, and so on. >> reporter: the center for disease control says heart disease is america's leading cause of death. fall's prescription? there ain't nothing like a hound dog. >> dog owners do much more physical exercise.

when it's dark and grey here in sweden, or rainy, the only people you see outside are people with dogs. so, and you know that physical activity is good for a lot of different health outcomes. >> reporter: so can dogs delay your exit? there are doubting voices from across the north sea. sit, good boy. sit. according to a new study, called "all creatures great and small," just published in the "british medical journal," owning a pet does not help you stay young. the study by scientists from university college, london, looked at nearly 9,000 adults with an average age of 67, and found that pet ownership made no difference, in tests on key markers such as walking speed, lung function, grip strength, memory and depression.

good boy. the authors did concede, however, that walking a dog could help weight and cardiovascular problems. the british scientists also said dog owners were more likely to be in poorer health and lonely. but tove fall's findings for single people with dogs, using a substantially bigger database, were completely different. she says their mortality rates were improved by 36%. this rang true with homeless people being helped on a december day by volunteers in copenhagen. with winter beginning to bite, an animal charity was doing brisk business. >> we are an animal shelter. we want to care for the dogs, but we also know that these people, a lot of them, it's their best friend, it's their only companion. so helping the dogs helps the people. and one thing we always find is that these dogs are really well cared for. they are the priority of these people.

>> reporter: and lee believes the dogs are life savers. >> the dogs are their soul mate. they are the reason they get up in the morning, their way of keeping warm here in the winter time, especially in northern climates like denmark. and i think they're the reason for them being alive. >> reporter: kim hasselstrom isn't asking for a free hotdog for himself. he wants it for mollie, his canine companion, whom he credits for saving him from suicide during darker periods living rough. >> i have only mollie. i'm living in the street. i lose my family. so mollie is 95% of my life. every day, i'm maybe not happy. look at that dog one time, then you're happy. the dog is always happy. if you don't like such a little dog when it comes to you, then you don't like anything. >> reporter: the volunteers it a jacket to keep bandit warm during the harsh scandinavian winter. >> i've been living on the street for eight years now, and

i'm always never sick. not even a fever or a cold. nothing. >> reporter: klaus hansen is in no doubt what would happen to him if he didn't have bandit to keep him company. >> oh, probably lying in a corner drunk or hanging in a tree somewhere. actually, the dog helps me in many ways. also my health. and also, i don't go so much crazy in the head. when you are sitting alone all day and thinking, you go in the same rounds every day. so it's nice to have a dog to talk with. >> reporter: 200 miles away, at one of denmark's leading neuro centers, the benefits of dogs in human health care are being assessed and promoted. blida, an icelandic sheepdog, is about to try to help a brain damaged patient. project manager galina plesner. >> the dogs, they can actually provide extra motivation to do the therapy, to do the movements that patients are required to make.

>> reporter: blida lives up to the translation of her icelandic name. it means gentle. her patient today is 72-year-old eric, who's been crippled by a brain hemorrhage. a tracheotomy means he can't speak. he's bed-ridden, and he's is receiving therapy to try to regain basic motor skills. the staff hope the dog can enhance his progress. the gentle one is keen to get to work, and it looks like the feeling is mutual. >> when you go into rehabilitation like this, you've suffered a trauma, and you need to get back on track, back into life. and therapy has to do with training everyday movements. >> reporter: eric is working to reward the sheepdog by fitting small treats into the game. >> for some patients, the dogs will motivate them to maybe work a little bit longer, and it's a bit more fun than being in a therapeutic kitchen or therapeutic bathroom to train the movements that you're required to do.

>> reporter: tina hogan is eric's therapist. >> certainly a lot of progress since he was here last time. eric suffers from muscle atrophy in both his hands. so he has trouble reaching out and grabbing stuff, and that's why we chose the games we chose. >> reporter: the final test of the session is the toughest, putting dog treats in a ball. >> dogs are non-judgmental. so when you have a patient who's suffered a trauma, for example, or an old person who has dementia. they will know that there are requirements in the environment that they can't live up to. and dogs they don't have those requirements, and its intuitively recognized that you don't have to live up to anything with a dog. >> reporter: the icelandic sheepdog is clearly happy with her rewards. >> i think it's important not to call it magic, although perhaps something unique is going on that we can't measure.

but i think it doesn't have to be magic. it can be very, very powerful and very, both emotional and strong, the effects that you see. >> reporter: this foundation wants to expand the number of rehabilitation programs involving dogs. back in sweden, vega's owner is planning new research to determine whether dogs can benefit humans in other ways. this is a time of year when thousands of puppies, given as presents, are discarded by their new owners. this swedish study would suggest they are rejecting the gift of health. for the pbs newshour, i'm malcolm brabant in scandinavia. >> woodruff: the coming year could be an important one for america's k-through-12 public schools, and secretary of education betsy devos will be a key part of that. she has made it clear that she wants to expand school choice options, and may go further in

rolling back some obama-era guidelines. william brangham has our look ahead of what you need to know, part of our weekly education coverage, "making the grade." >> brangham: the trump administration will also play a key role deciding what happens to students who are eligible for daca-- that's the policy that protects immigrant children. but first, let's talk about one of the changes that's happening because of the new tax law. parents will now be able to use up to $10,000 from their tax-free 529 college savings accounts to help pay for private or religious school for any grade, not just college. so here to help walk us through this and other changes is alyson klein of education week; and anya kamanetz of npr. alyson, let's start with you. these w29s were set up to sock away money tax-free for college. it's now changed under the tax

law. what's the implication? >> parents will now be able to save money in these funds which were just to use for college savings for private school tuition. as you said, private schools and religious schools. you mentioned before that school choice is u.s. secretary of education betsy devos's favorite policy. this is her biggest win so far on school choice, but it's not going to really help the kids that she has said need school choice the most, poor children from low-income families, because those families don't tend to pay a lot in taxes or their parents may not have a ton of money to sock away, as you said. so in the future, you know, betsy devos i think is going to push on some other fronts on school choice. she's called this a good start, but she knows this isn't going to help the poorest kids in the country. >> woodruff: anya, there is another impact you mentioned in the tax bill that might have a big impact on public education, and that's the state and local tax deduction people can take or the changes to that.

can you explain what happened and what impact that might have? >> yes. so public schools get the vast majority of their money from state and local taxes. and up until this bill, those taxes could be deducted in full from your federal taxes some that amount is a very large subsidy toward public schools from the federal government. now there is a state and local tax cap of $10,000 for the total deduction, and that is going to especially affect sort of high-property value areas where they are directing a lot of that money to schools, where schools are often very coveted, very well regarded, and what it's also going to do, some public school advocates fear, is it's going to limit the amount of money that's available that states can use to try to level the playing field for school funding. and so down the road, when states are trying to raise money to pay for public schools among other very important functions of the states, they're going to

have hard time doing that because that cap on the deduction is going to be felt by some of the highest taxpayers in every state. >> brangham: okay. another thing i had mentioned in the intro was this issue of daca, which is not something we tend to think of with regards to education. alyson, can you explain, obviously daca applies, this was sort of a granting of some legal status to immigrant children who were brought here by their parents without documentation. what does daca have to do with public education, though? >> so right now there are thousands of teachers. the migration policy estimates it's 20,000 teachers who are protected by daca. >> woodruff: teachers themselves? >> teachers themselves, sure. so if this initiative is rescinded by congress or by the trump administration, then it's an open question what happens to those teachers. they could lose their jobs. they could end up being deported. some school districts like miami-dade and los angeles have said they will do what they can to protected these teachers, but

there is a lot of anxiety out there among them. also, 250,000 schoolchildren have become eligible for daca since president obama put the initiative in place in 2012. so this affects both sides of the education equation, both the educators and their students. >> woodruff:. >> brangham: an, yeah there is another issue, the essa, the every student succeeds act. can you explain what that is about and what might happen in 2018 with regards it to? >> to essa is a big federal education law that governs k-12 schools. it's an update to the more-famous no child left behind law, and it has to do with how states evaluate their students and their schools' performance. states have been submitting their plans to the education department for how they're going to update how they evaluate both schools and students. and there's been some back and forth about this, about whether betsy devos is rubber-stamping these plans or in some cases being too tough, but we're going

to see more emerging trends around how states might be treating their students. and one of the issues i'm most interested in is the non-academic indicators. states are now able to include or actually they are required to include a non-academic measure of success that can be something like attendance or something more broad based like social and emotional skills. so that's very interesting in terps of what schools and states are trying to pay attention to now. >> woodruff:. >> brangham: alyson, one of the things you mentioned to me, the secretary of education's great source of power is using their department as a bully pulpit. this is something the obama administration did. it issued guidance to a lot of schools saying the evidence is clear that you are disfrom portion natalie punishing black and brown kids in schools, an we're going to keep an eye on that. is that something that secretary devos is likely to roll become or continue? what do you know about that? >> that's an open question. she's met with both supporters and detractors of the obama

straight's guidance, which was intended to make sure school discipline practices are fair to all students, including minority students. she hasn't tipped her hand yet one way or the other on how she's going to approach that issue. >> brangham: same thing on title 9. secretary devos caused a stir with the guidance on sexual assault. can you tell us what happened there? >> absolutely. so the obama-era guidance was very clear on the idea that sexual assault and sexual harassment is a violation of title 9 civil rights and the right to equal education for students of both sexes. what devos did was hailed as some people as the reinstate of due process and the rights of the accused. others said this is sweeping sexual harassment under the rug. what i have heard on campus is that no campus, whether k-12 or higher ed is necessarily going to walk back these steps they've made to try the root out sexual assault and sexual harassment,

but the change in emphasis is certainly going to be seen when we think of some of those high-profile cases on both sides where sometimes people turn out to be wrongfully accused. other times there are offenses that really go to an egregious level. >> brangham: a lot of things to keep an eye on. alyson klein, anya kamanetz, thank you both. >> thank you. >> thanks. >> woodruff: in president trump's first year in office, he tweeted about "fake news" and "fake media" 174 times. that is an average of once every two days. over the weekend, he said that he uses social media because "it is the only way to fight a very dishonest and unfair 'press,' now often referred to as fake news media. phony and non-existent 'sources' are being used more often than ever." we explore how many american people view the role of the

press, and how the term "fake news" has been co-opted and even weaponized by politicians, with margaret sullivan, media columnist for the "washington post;" and craig silverman, media editor for buzzfeed news. welcome to both of you. margaret, i'm going the start with you. you set out to get a sense of what people think about the media. you went back to the place where you grew up, western new york state, and you talked to people. tell us about what you found. >> well, judy, the reason i did that is because i had heard such dramatically different things from readers at the "post" and other people, whether it was on social media or in e-mail, some of it very, very critical, some of it very abusive, and a reader actually wrote to me and said, "you need to get out of that washington, d.c., bubble and go out into, you know, sort of regular america or the rust belt

or the heartland." i decided that would be a good idea to actually spend some time and talk to people about their level of trust in the media and how they're informed and whether they believe it, or whether, like one poll has it, that people, some large number of people think that the news media actually makes things up about the president. >> woodruff: and you found some reassuring responses, but also some pretty disturbing ones. >> i did. i mean, i found that people in general do think they have access to credible news and credible information, but they have their complaints about the news media, too, particularly the blending of news and opinion and the fact that there's a kind of... they see a kind of a pettiness or a snarkiness or an above-it-all arrogance in the news media that they don't feel speaks to them very well. >> woodruff: they were commenting i think among other

things about cable news commentators and just the reporting that they get on their facebook feed, for example. >> exactly. people get their news in all kinds of different ways. that's one of the problems. when we say the news media or when we poll people about the news media, what are we actually asking them about. are we asking them about facebook or fox news or "the new york times" or something else? >> woodruff: so craig silverman, buzzfeed, you've done a lot of thinking over the last several years, and writing about fake news. you used the term a lot. what have you seen? we quoted president trump and his... he's using that term again, and what do you see today compared the what you originally thought when you started using the term a few years ago, fake news, how do you see the meaning of the term and what the distinctions are? >> originally for me, it was a term used to describe a very specific type of completely

false, deceptive content that was spreading primarily on facebook by people who wanted to earn money from the traffic that went back to their web site that had the fake story. and so this was a specific kind of actor, a malicious actor out there, who was doing it for money. and yet now, here we are, roughly a year past the election or so, and the term has really been i think co-opted and it's almost like a jiujitsu move that donald trump has done where people were saying fake news was one of the things that got him elected and maybe people had been tricked by these stories, and he fifth amendment like that undermined the legitimacy of his election, so he decided to take the term and make it in his own image. so he uses it today to criticize reporting that he doesn't like to, criticize mostly mainstream outlets that he thinks are too hard on him. and i think frankly at this point the term in some ways has become almost meaningless or at the very least it means whatever your side thinks it does. and so it's become very politicized. >> drew: there is no question that one example of fake news or

stories that are deliberately put out there purposely lice, information that people know is not true. we have one example, and i think you referred to this in you writing, it showed up as a tweet last year by man named david clarke, quoting hillary clinton, here it is now, it's just clearly made up, there's in truth to it, and yet it got an enormous amount of pick up. >> yeah, and, you know, there's that quote, which is hillary clinton supposedly saying that democratic voters stupid, and there was also a completely fake quote attributed to trump saying republicans are stupid. so you see this coming frankly from all sides, and in the case of clark, you have somebody who is a pretty prominent trump supporter, someone who at one point was expected the maybe get a job in the administration, and he's out there pushing completely fake information. in the context that he shared that completely false quote, he was also complaining and calling real reporting fake news.

so he's branding something that's completely fake as real and actual reporting as fake news, and that kind of typifies some of the stuff we see today. >> woodruff: margaret, i want to come back to the people you talk to in the buffalo area. what did they say, the news media needs to do to begin to regain their trust in this world where fake news, that term is thrown around all the time. >> well, they would like to see more substance and less soup fishalty. they would like to see the separation of news and opinion, they would like to see less snarkiness and more of a kind of a respectful attitude, and while they might not put it just this way, they'd like the see more transparency, they'd like to understand what goes on behind the curtain and sort of how the sausage is made, which is something that we've never really wanted to show. but i think these days we have to do that and we have to own up to our mistakes in a much more transparent way so that people can understand how we do our jobs and that we're trying to do it as best we can.

>> woodruff: craig silverman, are those the kinds of things that you think could begin to earn and to regain the trust of the american people? >> i think the last point is one that's particularly important right now. when it comes to the inevitable mistakes that journalists acting in good faith will make, you know, journalism is not a perfect exercise. it's a human endeavor, so we will make mistakes. but if you're not willing to be honest about it and transparent about it, then the people who are trying the brand real journalism as fake news are give an leg up because they can say, see, they made this mistake and they won't say anything about it. i think that's really important. to margaret's point about helping people understand the process of journalism, i do think that's important. people consume a lot of journalism, but they don't necessarily have an understanding of how it's produced. for a long time we took it for granted that maybe people trusted us and assumed we acted in good faith. i think we have to demonstrate a lot more and be a lot more transparent. and sometimes that means making a hard admission about something where we fell short.

>> drew: do you think this will involve more work on the part of the muse media? i see all the... generally reporters work pretty hard. but in order to extinguish between information we know we can back up and information that is just out there, that is so easy to write a report or repeat whether we back it up or not. >> well, we have to do a... i don't know whether it's harder, but we have to do a different kind of work, which now has to do a lot with fact checking and with presenting when an interviewer, whether it's the president or someone else, says something we know not to be the case. we have to be ready to counter in, in real-time and very clearly with credible and verifiable fact. >> woodruff: today the president tweeted that this was the safest year ever in american aviation because there were no deaths from commercial aircraft. in fact, this has been the case

for the last number of years. >> yeah, and he took credit for it. and what is interesting about a tweet like that, where, you know what, he's saying is accurating but the piece that a lot of people seized upon in the media was him sort of taking credit for this thing, i've been really tough on the airlines and i wanted to make this happen. what happens inevitably is given the context of saying nothing has been different in this area under trump, i think a lot of his supporters will look at that and say, you're taking a cheap shot, and so it's an important piece of context, but it's a piece of context in a highly polarized environment that is going to feed some of the perceptions people already have of media and so there's sometimes where you're doing your job, and you're correct in doing it, but inevitably in this environment it's still going to be interpreted in certain ways. i this i journalists have to accept that and think, what are other ways for me to demonstrate my credibility. >> woodruff: we are in a new time, an we have to keep working hard on this every single day. margaret sullivan, craig silverman, thank you both.

>> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: and finally tonight, we take a look at a poet reaching new audiences in a new way. at just 25, rupi kaur has burst onto the literary scene, surging to the top of nearly every best-seller list. jeffrey brown reports how she's done it by embracing social media, and building an avid following of young readers. >> i'm going to cry. oh, my goodness. >> no, you're not going to cry. it's okay! >> brown: it's become a strange, new normal for 25-year-old rupi kaur-- fans eager to share how her work has changed their lives. there's often a photo, and a hug. sometimes the exchange becomes emotional. >> it's because you remind me of my mom. >> i still don't believe it. like, i have to pinch myself. it's real, but it still doesn't feel real. >> brown: and how could it?

kaur's debut collection of poems, "milk and honey," has sold three million copies worldwide. and her new work, "the sun and her flowers," has already sold a million since its release in october. meanwhile, performances of her poetry, like this one in washington, d.c. recently, routinely draw hundreds. >> brown: it's heady stuff for a young woman who grew up in the toronto suburb of brampton, in a large south-asian community, and used social media to build an ardent fan base of mostly young women. >> they are my sisters. they are me. >> brown: we spoke recently at brampton's rose theater, where kaur graduated from high school, and these days performs her

poetry. >> i was 18, 19, 20 when i was writing "milk and honey." and so, we're always going to be growing together, and i think what i want to say to them is that i'm with you. i'm here. i think people just want to feel understood and feel seen and it's what i want growing up, and so that's why i think the poetry works so well. >> brown: kaur's poems are typically short, even just a few lines, with simple, unadorned language and spare punctuation. they're often accompanied by her drawings. in them, she writes of everyday occurrences like starting relationships, or ending them. >> brown: but she also tackles raw issues of sexual violence and trauma, and how to heal.

>> the books are not 100% autobiographical. they're-- the emotions of it, yes, perhaps-- but they're also stories that my sisters, my cousins or my mom or my aunt experience every single day. and so i've had the ability and privilege to go and write poems about their experiences. >> brown: kaur was born in punjab, india, and emigrated to canada at the age of four. her father is a truck driver, work that takes him as far away as california. her mother, a stay-at-home mom. at home, they speak only punjabi. >> the rule was kind of like, you know, you're going to speak english. 90% of your day, you know, out and about, no matter where you go in the world. this house is, like, where you're going to speak punjabi. >> brown: in fact, kaur didn't learn to speak english until the fourth grade. and she says, it was through writing and performance that she found her voice. >> i think i just fell in love

with the way the mic picks up my voice and it boomed throughout the entire space. and for someone who felt voiceless for so long, that was so refreshing. for me, poetry is like holding up a mirror and seeing myself, and it gives words to these very complex emotions and these feelings that i had as a child, and not being able to put words to them. >> brown: she continued to write, posting work online, but it wasn't until 2015 that she captured national attention, after the social media site instagram twice removed a photo for an art project showing her with what looked like menstrual blood on her sweatpants. kaur responded, "i will not apologize for not feeding the ego and pride of misogynist society that will have my body in an underwear but not be okay with a small leak." the response generated an outpouring of support online, and that same year a major publisher picked up her first

book. since then, she's cultivated a massive online presence. nearly two million people follow her instagram page. a lot of lovers of poetry would think that poetry and social media just don't go together, right? >> yeah. >> brown: social media's this ephemeral, surface thing. >> so, the gatekeepers of these two worlds are so confused. but in my mind, it also seems so very natural that these two things would come together. because of technology and because of social media, so many things are changing, and social media has become a platform for so many different industries. why can't poetry do the same? >> brown: but social media can also bite back. kaur's poems have been the subject of frequent parody online. while some have questioned its

merits. and the title of "instagram poet," she says, comes with baggage. >> to be completely honest, i'm not okay with it. a lot of the readers are young women who are experiencing really real things, and they're not able to talk about it with maybe family or other friends, and so they go to this type of poetry to sort of feel understood and to have these conversations. and so when you use that term, you invalidate this space that they use to heal and to feel closer to one another, and i think that's when it becomes unfair. >> brown: does it hurt you when you're being, when your poetry is being critiqued as more therapeutic or more emotional rather than poetry? >> no, not really, and it's because i never really intended to get into the literary world. this is actually not for you. this is for that 17-year-old brown woman in brampton who is not even thinking about that space, who is just trying to live, survive, get through her

day. >> brown: kaur says social media, the thing that first connected her work to the world, can also be a cause of the pain so many young people feel today. >> what happens when you're so connected with other people through these things, you become so disconnected with yourself and we find it so difficult to just sit with yourself and just be alone. >> brown: and the poet who's followed by so many on instagram... follows no one. >> i think what it teaches you is to put up your boundaries and really figure out, okay, this tool is so great and it's brought me so many great things, but i also need to protect myself if i want to continue to do what i'm doing. >> brown: self preservation. >> oh, yeah. yeah, and it's like, i'm here to be around for the long haul. i'm not going anywhere. i want to be around till i'm 80, and so i need to start some practices now so that i can sort of continue on for the next sort of 50 years. >> brown: kaur just wrapped up a north american tour. pfor the pbs newshour, i'murope.

jeffrey brown in brampton, ontario. >> woodruff: and on the newshour online, we talk to a poet who says we should use the new year not only to review our work, at www.pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again right here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. babbel's 10-15 minute lessons are available as an app, or online. more information on babbel.com. >> bnsf railway. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the

frontlines of social change worldwide. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by

and we're going to investigate some untold stories from america's past. wes: this week: did this faded screen once display the photos that brought america to the brink of nuclear war? [ explosion ] tukufu: do the scribbled names amos and andy make this disc a lost piece of entertainment history? man on record: well, i can handle that situation all right. gwendolyn: and did this odd painting inspire women to take to the streets demanding the right to vote? elvis costello: ♪ watchin' the detectives ♪ i get so angry when the teardrops start ♪ ♪ but he can't be wounded 'cause he's got no heart ♪ ♪ watchin' the detectives