captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc d >> brangham:evening, i'm william brangham. judy woodruff is on vacation. on the newshour tonight, president trump's pick to leadth c.i.a., gina haspel, faces questions over her involvement in the alleged torture of terrorism suspects. then, iranian leaders president trump over the decision to pull out of theil nuclear deal, european nations attempt to keep the anreement alive. our series inside the world of junk news continues. tonight: how we as consumers rable to the spread of misinformation on social media. >> it does change your perspective. you do feel little bit duped. but then, i guess, we're all in some way a ltle bit addicted so we keep going back in and in hopes that it will get figured out. >> brangham: plus... ♪ ♪

♪ this is america a new music video strikes a cultural chord. how the acdor and musician ld glover is driving a debate over race, guns and art. all thatnd more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> 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.

>> the lemelson foundation. committed to improving lives through invention, in the u.s. and developing countes. on the web at lemelson.org. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> brangham: three american detainees are on their way home tonight from captivity in north korea. the korean-americans were free today, ahead of a planned summit between kim jong-un and president trump. it came during a visit to

pyongyang by secretary of state mike pompeo. pompeo's plane carryin three men stopped in tokyo on its way back to the u.s. s pompd they "seem to be in good health." later, at a cabinet meeting, president trump said the release was a gesture of goodwill in advance of their summit. >> nobody thought this was going to happen and i appreciate kim jong-un doing this and allowing them to go. i believe that we have sides want to negotiate a deal. i ink it's going to be ver successful deal. i think we have a really good shot at king it successful. but lots of things can happen >> brangham: the president also ruled out the demilitazone between north and south korea as the location for his meeting with kim. iran's supreme leader today lambasted president trump for pulling out of the 2015 nuclear deal. ayatollah ali khamenei accused mr. trump of theling lies, and aid the president is powerless against iran.de european l called for finding ways to keep the nuclear deal alive.

we'll have a full report, later in the program. in syria, a war monitoring group says an air rike overnight killed at least 15 people, including eight iranians. the group says theargets, near damascus, were weaponry at likely belonged to iran's elite revolutionary guard. syrian state media blamed israel, and showed video of the attack. israeleither confirmed nor denied it, but the israeli intelligence minister said such attacks should send a warning to iran. >> ( translated ): we are not going to conquer syria, this is not the intentiobu there is importance to what we do on the practical level to bring this to iranian awareness a cleanclusion, they have nothing to look for in syria, the price is too high. air raid sirens sounded on the golan heights, along the border with syr. russia staged its annual world war ii victory parade today, with president vladimir putin and an array of new weapons. tanks and other mili hardware rolled through red square, along with thousands of

troops. warplanes ew overhead, some carrying a hypersonic missile that putin has described as invincible. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu was also there, for ut meeting with. a former c.i.a. case officer i now accused of passing secrets to china, and possibly exposing u.s. informants inside china, which caused one of the worst intelligence failures in recent history. jerry chun shing lee was indicted tuesday after his arrest in january. he allegly began selling defense secrets to china in 2010. his attorney says he's innocent. president trump today hailed the results of tuesday's rcan primaries. in indiana, businessman mike braun wothe nomination to challenge democratic senator joe donnelly in november. in west virginia, state attorney general patrick morrisey will face democratic senator joe manchin. morrisey beat former convict don blankenship, whom the president had criticized days before the election.

>> i'd also like to recoesize ent trump for weighing in in this race. i mr. presidenyou're watching right now, let me tell you, your tweet was ge! >> brangham: in ohio, richard cordray secured the democratic nomination for governor. the former head of the consumer financl protection bureau will take on republican mike dewine, who is the state's attorney general. meanwhile, in north carolina, republican congressman robert pittenger lost his primary. he's the first incumbent to lose this year. nbc news says an internal probe has culture of sexual harassment. that follows the firing last fall's of "today" show host matt lauer. he was accused of having an inappropriate sexual relationship with another employee. the network says senior manageme received no complaints against lauer before late last year. and, on wall street, tech anend gy stocks led the broader market higher.

the dow jones industrial average gained 182 points, the nasdaq rose 73 points, and, the s&p 500 added nearly 26. still to come on the newshour: the nominee for c.i.a. director faces tough questions. the global ramifications of the rom the iranwing nuclear deal. who consumes so-called "junk news," on both the right and tht plus, much more. >> brangham: president trump's nominee to head the c.i.a., its acting director, gina haspel, went before the senate intelligence committee this morning. as nick schifrin reports, it wae involvement in one of the agency's most controversial activities that was front and center.

>> schifrin: for three decades gina haspel couldn't tout her work. today she had to defend it. >> i welcome the opportunity to introduce myself to the american people for the first time. it is a new experience for me as i spent over 30 years under cover and in the shadows. >> schifrin: haspel joined c.i.a. in 1985 and has held at least 20 jobs, almost all clandestine. inhe intelligence communit she's well respected, said florida republican marco rubio. >> if someone like you cnot be confirmed to head this agency, then who can? >> schifrin: but the protests began before she even started. haspel's played pivotal roles in the agency's most controversial recent actions. after 9/11, c.i.a. created at lest six "black sites" for what was then called enhanced interrogation. inside what are believed to be c.i.a.-run buildings, detainees were subject to brutal interrogation techniques such ad waterboaing, sleep deprivation, and confinement in coffin-like boxes.

in 2014 senate democrats released a report haying detaineebeen "tortured," and the techniques were "not an effective means of acquiring intelligence." t by the program had already ended, today haspel promised never to restart it. >> i can offer you my personal commitment, clearly and without servation, that under my leadership, on my watch c.i.a. will not restart such a detentioand interrogation program. >> schifrin: but democrats wanteder to go farther. california's kamala harris: >> do you believe in hindsight that those techniques were immoral? >> senator, what i believett g here today is that i support the higher moral standard we have decided ourselve >> could you please answer the question? >> senator, i believe i've answered the question. >> no you've not. >> schifrin: virginia's mark warner is the committee's top democrat. >> we need, i need to get a sense of your moral code says about those kinds of actions. >> i support the higher moral standard that this country has

decided to hold itself to. i would never, ever take c.i.a. back to an interrogation program >> schifrin: haspel's believed to have run a site in thailand where abd al rahim al-nashiri, accused of bombing the u.s.s. "cole" in 2000, was waterboarded. >> where was that moral compass at the time? >> schifrin: new mexico's mainin ch. >> when you're out in the trenches in the globe, and washington says this is what you need toga do, this is the attorney general has deemed it so, the president of the united states is counting on you >> i know you think it's legal. cu're giving very legalis answers to very fundamentally moral question >> in all of my assignments, iys have conduf honorably and in accordance to us law. >> schifrin: as a candiate, president trump vowed to bring the interrogatn program back. >> i would bring back waterboarding and i'd bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding. >> what would you do if the president ordered you to get

back in that business? >> i would not restart under any circumstances pr interrogation ram at c.i.a.ci under anumstances. >> schifrin: in 2005 haspel was chief of staff to counter- terrorism head jose rodriguez. in the middle of congrsional and media scrutiny, hael wrote a cable for rodriguez that authorized the destruction of videos showing c.i.a. interrogation.e independent manator angus king. >> was it a matter of coincidence that this decision was made to destroy the tapes in same week that two stories appeared in americ>> newspapers senator, i do not recall being aware of that. >> schifrin: the c.i.a. recently declassified a 2011 memo from then c.i.a. deputy director mike morrell that "found no fault" with haspel's actions. arkansas republican tom cotton came to her defense. >> would holding you responsible for drafting a cable at your boss' direction make any more sense than holding a senate speech writer responsible for the boring speeches senators give on the senate floor. >> senator, i'll defer to you.

>> i would submit that it does no >> schifrin: haspel tried to walk a finline between criticizing torture, without criticizing her colleagues who conducted it. yntexas republican john co said haspel and her post-9/11 colleagues were being held tara double sta >> people have simply forgotten the circumstances they wer operating at the time, and doing their dead level best to protect the country from aack.>> he committee is expected to approve her next week, but it's not sure if sh'll beonfirmed by the entire senate. >> schifrin: so is gina hasp a od pick to lead the c.i.a? and, should she be confirmed by the senate? we get two views. john rizzo had a 3year career at the c.i.a., from 2001 to 2002 and fro2004 to 2009 he served as the c.i.a.'s chief legal officer. he along with 52 other former senior intelligence and national security officials wrote the senate in support of haspel's nomination. and stephen xenakis is a retired army brigadier general.

he was one of 109 retired general officers who wrote a letter to the senateg it to reject gina haspel if they confirmed she played a role in y form of torture or detainee abuse. he is also a psychiatrist and has counseled some of the men who were subjected to the c.i.a.'s torture techniques. and thank you both for being here. stephen xenakis, let me start with you. we heard gina haspel defend herself today. she said, look, this was a prodt of the tim the justice department approved these enhanced interrogation techniques. >> she said a couple of other things. when you're on the front lines, you're expected to make tough decisions. and she and the others were in the position, and ay responsible leader-- visa general or visa senior of c.i.a.-- is expected to make the tough decisions under tough decisions. they don't panic. they walk through in a systemic, methodic way. profession.eir they know the work.

and they know what's right. and i think this was a lapse in laip on her part. there was a lapse in knowing what was right. there was a lapse in knowing what was effective. and even though she had some legal cover-- and you can get legal covr almost-- in ious ways-- it still didn't make it right or effective. and so i think they failed-- she failed, particularly-- in not exercising good leadership and good judgment. >judgment. >> schriin: john rizzo, was it neither right or effective? >> well, it was effective.up a things, nick, first of all, i was in a leadership position at c.i.a. dring those years. i was involved in the program from beginning to end. miss haspel, i have to beec circumhere, because i know she was a little-- couldn't get into a lot of her precise responsibilitieses-- but i will say thifor miss haspel-- she was not in a leadership position

at thece agency, andtainly was not in a leadership position, like i was, in the creation and approval and implementation of those techniques. so, i mean, i think that's important to keep innerate her, just because she wasn't int leadership? >> i don't think so. i mean, again, you're on te front lines. you have to make the tough decisions. and you're in a situation where there aren't people t prhoblem, eand yo,u've got to exercise a jgment that you know is best and is going to work. interestingly, also, in listening to her testimony, she thisr answered directly if was effective or not. i forget which senator asked her, "do you think it worked?" and she didn't say, "well, it works or it doesn't work." what she said was, "well, we got, eventually, the information we need from the captives." it's not clear to me at thipos

t-- which i think is important-- she may in factt recognize these tactics are not effective. >> may i speak to tht? i will say for myself-- and i've said this before publicly, including in a memoir i wrote a few years back-- that the ogram was effective. i mean, aside from its moral-- as far as questions of morality or legaly, the program produced results. the difficult part of this is that, you know, it is unknowable whether these detainees would have yilded te same information without resorting to these admittedly harsh techniques, and i think that is unknowable. and i believe mispel made that point at the hearing. it's a complicated, complex, difficult issue. >> schrifr: it certainly is. but i think we heard democrats abouttoday that this is more than whether it was

effective or not. it was about whether it was right and the morality. and you believe that it just simply wasn't there, or at leart sponse weren't there for those answerses. >> her responsibility wasn't there. it's clearly immoral, and it's clearly illegal, for everybody. >> schrifrin: john rizzo, does it matter if it's imoral? >> first of all, it was not illegal at the time. now a program like that could not take place today because congress subsequently, a fewhibd any of these harsh techniques. >> schrifrin: right, but does it matter if it's immoral? >> oh, sue, that's a fact. for what it's worth, i beieve there was a moral imperative after 9/11, both from the american people and from congress, that the c.i.a. would not, could not, must not allow a second major attack on theho land to happen. i mean, as we all rmember, those were very perilous times. in terms of the morality, i

think-- i think-- i believed then, i beliei. now-- c. in a moral imperative on behalf of the american pique people to protect the country, to protect thousands of people, innocentro peoplebeing murdered, and to use those techniques within the law that wouldt ele kind of critical intelligence that could prevent another major take takata on this country. >> schrifrin: stephen xenakis, i want to get your thoughts quickly onomething else. you're a psychiatrist who has seen some of these detainees who were subject to the me of these techniques. what's the impact on them? >> oh, it's injured them. there's evidence of clear injury and damage, which is, i think is a further evidence thaese tactics really were torture, and they were brutal. and we make it clear from ouroi stan-- and i sit with a number of philosophers and lawyers at a center for ethics

and rule of law at penn law school-- torture is illal. now, there may be legal opinion that says "these, what you're doing is cleared," but torture is illegal. and this was brutal, and it injured these people, and in every ways it wastu tor. >> schrifrin: and i just want to get one last point. gina haspel would be the first woman c.i.a. director. also the first operator, the first clandestine officer in more than 50 years. does that matter? >> well on, the first point it's certainly-- it's certainly a good thing that awoman i finally appointed c.i.a.or dire i don't think that, frankly, affects her qualifications about whether she will b confirmed or not. but it is quite important, in my view, to have a career intelligence officer, especially operations officer, to head the c.i.a. i worked der 11 c..a.

directors. none had the kind of experiee that miss haspel has, and i'm telling you, on the inside, it is much easier and more efficient for the agency and for the country to have a c.i.a. director in the chair who doesn't have to have on-the-job training. >> schrifrin: john rizzo, stephen xenakis, thank yo both for coming in. >> thank you. >> brangham: now, back to the ongoing fallout to president trump's decision to break the u.s. commitment to the iran numear deal, and withdraw f the pact. worldwide reaction continued today, including strong protests from within iran. iranian lawmakers had one: reaction todtright fury, to the u.s.'s decision to walk away from the 2015 nuclear agreement.

inside parliament, they chanted the usual refrain: "death to america!" and burned an image of anmerican flag. protesters made clear their furs irupreme leader, ayatollah ali khamenei, was no more measured. he lashed out at president trump, accusing him of lying in yesterday's announcement. >> ( translated ): this man will die and his body will turn into ashes and food for worms and ants, but the islamic republic will continue to stand. >> brangham: at the white house, esident trump insisted that new sanctions were coming, and offered this warning to the iranian regime. >> i would advise iran not to start nuclear program. i would advise them very strongly. if they do, there will be severe consequence. >> brangham: in london and other world capitals today, talk centered on keeping the nuclearo deal alive w the u.s. members of parliament challenged s itish prime minister theresa may about her effo keep the u.s. in the deal. >> did she speak in the

strongest terms on the lunacy of the actions that the president of the united states has taken? >> i have been very clear in asa number of convons with the president of the united states about the belief of the united kingdom that the j.c.p.o.a., the nuclear deal with iran, should stay. >> brangham: german chancellor angela merkel expressed her disappointment, and said germany would try to keep the deal together. >> ( translated ): we have noted remain committed to the agreement and will do everything in our power to ensure that irao also meets iigations in the future. >> brangham: from paris, french president emmanuel macron called iranian president hassan rouhani to express his view that both of thr countries should keep honoring the agreement. but khamenei said today he didn't trust the u.k., germany or france. in beijing, a foreign ministry spokesman said china, which also signed onto the 2015 pact, would be sticking with it as well. meantime, american officials ramped up the economic pressure

against iran, and against those who do business there. the new u.s. ambassador to germany, richard grenell, tweeted that "german companies doing business in iran should wind down operations and rival manufacturers boeing and airbus could be two of the biggest companies hurt bthe decision the trump administration has indicated that the two manufacturers may lose their licenses to sell iran commercial airliners. w, two views on what is happening, and could happen, inside iran. asfor that we turn to vali he's the dean of the john hopkins school for advanced international studies. he served as counselor in the obama state department. anshrobin wright. s a staff writer for the "new yorker," and a utstinguished scholar at the united states instof peace. welcome to you both. vali nasr, to you, first. we've seen the denunciations from the president and the supreme leader of iran to the president's move. what do you think i going

to do next? >> i think in the immediatee future, theying to give europeans, chinese, and the russians time to see whether they can preserve elements of the deal enough economic activity with iran that might s justice iran tay with the deal. that might take 30-45 days. k, that does not wor think there will be domestic pressure on iran to essentially part wayi the deal. i think at the same time, iran would have to look for ways to itconvince washington thats not as weak and vulnerable as the administration may have concluded that it is. and that's, actuall much tougher for them to do. >> brangham: robin wright, obviously, president rouhani is in a very tough spot here. he was elected, in no small part, to deliver on the del, open up relations with the west and reap the benefits of thi deal. what happens with him nou? >> one of the big questions ctions isn and its rea the context in which it plays out, because iran is at a

critical juncture. they have aging leadership. the actuarial charts would tell you the supreme leader will at some point transit out of the world-- >> brangham: leave this world. >> an there will be a new one. the iranians have to select a new one. iran has term limits on the presidency, so they will go to the polls, and president rouhani will not run again. the question is does this aid th hard-liners whare a minority but disproportionately powerful. and will this give them the leverage to re-exert themselves and say, "we were riht all along. you can't do business with the united states. they're still the great satan." we should stand up to them and vote for us instead. >> brangham: certainly, that is one of the arguments that the hard-liners always made, that u can't trust the americans. and in some ways, president trump has fulfilled that prophecy that they made. >> absolutel i think president rouhani and his team and his faction in irab made on the nuclear deal that it is possible to engage the west and c perhaange

iran's economy, and even political structures through an engagement with the west, and you trust united states and the european countries twork with you. i think, at least in iran the perception is that 's proven wrong, that the iranians paid a huge cost in terms of liquidating its main leverage, which was the nuclear program,he an has very little to show for it. its economy is weaker n than in fact when the nuclear negotiation started. and actual of, actually, it doesn't have much to go back to the table with. i think at the same time, though, the hard-liners do need president rouhani at this moment, because the economy is weak. i think he is in a better fogz keep the iranian public right sided. e is also the facan needs ch terms of engaging europeans, russians, and thnese. on the other hand, i would say that it is the hard-liners that hold all the cards regionally in syria, in iraq, in yemen, i afghanistan. and that's actually now the only

place where iran acually has something that the-- that they could use in order to get some degree of u.s., you know, respect for iranian power and--a >> brangha lever. >> a lever, exactly. and that's in the hands of the hard-liners. >> brangham: presidentrump believes he can renegoate this deal. he believes that iran, is economically weak, and the new sanctions will makthem bite. how realistic is that? >> very unrealistic. the prospects of iran going back to the table are almost nil. at the moment they feel they have the rest of the worldn their side. they have also, we believe, developed a nuclear capacire that they wt going to build a bomb themselves and test it ere would be knew th some kind of regional reteonse, ational response, and they've gotten militarily where they want to be. the incentive forhem is to stay in the deal and seem to be complying. if they walk away fthrodeal,

suddenly the whole world will be reimposing sanction sanctions at will cost more for them. t moment, if they play their cardsy right, then relieve the short term. they will pay a very severon ic price for what president trump has done. >> brangham: what about the other argument that president trump made all along, which was the parts that were not in the deal-- iranian's development of ballisc missiles, their acon elsewhere in the region-- the president wants those to be addressed. is there any realistic sense the rranians would changeie beba c missiles to fighte sense for them to doy use at's y lever they have. but, also, if you went back to 2015 when the deal was signed, the most mportant issue th iran was the nuclear program, then followed by ballisticf missileslowed by hezbollah. you could have a list. the top of the list was the ssue.ar i

president obama removed that top of the list so we could focus on item two, three, four. now we put the nuclear issue back on top of the list. in fact, any pressure we bring on iran is ving to hae to deal with the nuclear program, where the sunset clause, with all the things that president trump complained about. and i think, in effect, ballistic missiles, terrorism, hezbollah, regional behavior is going to pushed further wn the line. and at the same time, you know, once the nuclear deal was signed, the united states gave huge amount of arms to iran's righbors. thatted, if you will, a military deficit between iran and saudi arabia, which actually was the reason they doubled down on ballistic missiles. and i do think iran feels vulnerability with israel in syria, it does feel vurnlt with saudi arabia. and that kind of sense of insecurity is not going to help inem give these things up. >> brangham: rright, do you feel-- there are pressures on rouhani and the supreme leader to go full nuclear to, say we are done with this fully,

to kick the inspectors out, and o restart the program. do you really think the international condpoemnation and ntial military action that would follow means that that's not going to happen,ha they're not going to restart their program? >> well, there's not much centive to restart the program right now, unless it's in response to what president trump has done. and they have threatened that i, the u.s. withdhey had the option of withdrawing. there are a lot of options along the way. i would think that ifnians were gaming it-- and thraey're i thvery good gamers-- that would be looking more at a response in the region, whether it's what they do inyria, what they do in iraq, that they look for those areas where the united states and iran hae rifl rival yoterests and that's where see-- because the hard-liners are more powerful there, the revolutionary guards, the kindan of milwings of the regime will make some kind of responset where i think we're much more likely than immediately restting a nuclear program. >> brangham: robin wright, vali nasr, thank you both very

much. >> brangham: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: ary several companies madege enyments to donald trump's lawyer michael coh plus, what donald glover's controversial music video says about race and violence in america. now to our special series on junk news. miles o'brien has been reporting extensively on how it's spread; how social media platforms have been utilized and manipulated; and how some folks have used it for business andther political motives. tonight, he looks at many of us, the users who see all of thisee and how it'sding into our own beliefs about politics, institutions and government. it's part of weekly earies on the ng edge" of technology. >> i go on facebook becaucturesf

my family that way. >> reporter: betty manlove used to be a smoker. not anymore. but she still battles an addiction.y >>her addiction is facebook. i lost hours on faershould haveo things. >> repor of her grandchildren and great- grandchildren lured her to the social networking platform in the first place, it is politics that fuels addiction. >> i was raised democrat, however, i've decide i will not vote democrat again. >> reporter: we found this dyedh in the woostian conservative in a surprising way. her grandson is cameron hickey, the producer of this series. as part of our investigation into the world of junk news, he wrote some software that searched the social nefor misinformation. his grandmother had liked more of these sites than any of his friends.

among pages she has followed, those produced by cyrus massoumi, the prolific purveyor of hyperpartisan conte featured in our last installment. >> she said she doesn't talk to any of her kids, not my mom, nob with other kidt politics because it seems like a challenge but she loking political stuff on facebook. i think social media ha caused me to be more concerned with pitics. >> reporter: facebook is exquisitely designed to feed e lingomlovs addiction. knows her well and consistently provides content designed to keep her at the screen and move her emotions, one waor another. >> it seems like they want to stir up questions in your mind and those kinds of things are t meant influence you to change your mind and they don't. e me a little bit angry. >> reporter: that's one thing betty manlove shares in common with another one of okmeron's facefriends. gabe doran is an actor and

soccer dad from brooklyn. >> look alive boys! f reporter: he also admits he might be addicted ebook. >> i got really involved on facebook which is kind of a waste of time to be honest with you, but it's how i choose to waste all my time. so, it's like damn! i just wasted like an hour on facebook, really accomplishing nothing. that groups called "i am a liberal till my dying day." >> are you a member of that group? >> kni don't ow. i guess so, if you like it you are a memberight? >> reporter: gabe doran is asbe blue ay manlove is red. >> i'm pretty liberal. for some, that's a bad word. pstill don't really understand that, but i'm pretud of it. ik>> reporter: he has also several hyper partisan pages including cyrus massoumi'sl liuth examiner. gabe doran got really hooked during the 2016 presidential election. >> i was in shock. i didn't understand, knowing

everything that we knethen, we know so much more now and there's still a lot of support. it's mind boggling to me. >> reporter: he too sees a lot that makes him angry. >> i have some right-wing friends who jump on me whenever i post tse things and it starts a long back and forth. they're incredibly misinformed and there's nothing i can do about that with my facts andth wiy logic and with my common sense. >> reporter: but common sense, the facts, are not what keeps people coming back to facebook again and again. se do you ever tried to verify the things that yo >> sometimes if it bothers me. usually i just think it's political and go right on. >> reporter: raw emotion untethered from the facts, is what causes the virtual food fight. jonathan albright watches all of this as research director at the tow center for digital journalism at columbia

university. >> i saw friends and people that i knew posting things that were, insensitive and things that ybe i wouldn't normally see them post, kind of outrage type political, almost lirage porn is what i call it. >> reporter: in this world, fringe players have equal footing, and because they are apt to be moretrident, they get a lot of engagement, and end up at the top of our newsfeeds, burying the mile ground. >> i think maybe some of the polarization and they're kind of effects of what we're seeing ars reallythe exposure of groups that, traditionally, without such densely interconnected social media would never come in contact with one other. >> reporter: and everyone has made decisions about what to trust based on t conventional wisdom of a set of friends, our tribe. and we tend to agree with them. neither betty nor gabensay their opinave been swayed on facebook, just hardened. >> do you think that you're going to change any of your

beliefs based on the news you read? >> not unless there's tremendous proof that i should change what i believe. and these days, the actual truth is kd of hard to come by. >> i know that no onis going to change my mind about the way i feel and i know i'm not going to change anybody else's mind. >> reporter: thea erm of art is ilter bubble"-- web publisher eli pariser coined the phrase. >> i had this kind oimage of a filter bubble as this kind of personal universe of information that folws us around wherever we go. and it filters out things that we might not want to engage with and shapes our own sort of view of the world. that's a really big shift from a set of editors and producers carefully thinking about whatsh ld go on the front page and what shouldn't. >> reporter: it is a welcome shift for betty maove who has very little trust of traditional media sources. >> i believe what i want to believe. i'm too much of an independe thinker to allow emotions to

take over. and news is news and opinion is opinion, and so i just go for e true news. >> reporter: but finding what is true in in her newsfeed is notas so she has been convinced barack obama was born in kenya. >> let him produce the birth certificate, which i hear doesn't exist. >> reporter: and parkland school shooting surdavid hogg is a fraud. so where do these ideas come from? from the filter bubble creates on febook by liking a post o clicking on a targeted ad that unwittingly makes users followers of a hyperpartisan page.ix in thesome misinformation from russia. her grandson helped her find that out by going to a site on facebook for users to see if they have liked any pages liined to russia'rnet research thency. >> it shows that o

ag6/20/2016 you liked this stopa.i, which is a russian facebook page. then on january 8, 2017 you liked armyf jesus which is another russian page. >> really? >> yeah. let's keep going down. and another one and th on 6/20/2016 you liked one called secured borders. so, these three pages that y liked were pages created by russian inteigence agents to spread disinformation. >> well, that's new information for me. >> does it ever worry you that they might manipulating you? >> well, i'm sure that they are trying to.y i t to be manipulated by that, but it's possible that i am >> reporter: gabe doran says he is more likely to seek humor and entertainment stories on facebook. he says he goes out of his way to check stories for accuracy before sharing. he doesn't feel manipulated by faehoods but rather facebo

itself and a business model that rewards polarization and makes users the oduct. >> it does change your perspective.yo do feel a little bit duped. but then, i guess, wll in some way a little bit addicted so we keep going back in and in hopes at it will get figured out, that they'll figure out the glitches and the stuff that's not working. >> reporter: in our next u installment, we'll take ck inside facebook and show you how they're trying to fix what's not working. i'm miles o'brn for the pbs newshour, menlo park, california. >> brangham: there are new questions being raised about payments to president trump's personal attorney, michael cohen. the money went to a shell- company set-up by cohen, and they totaled more than $4 million, including about00 00 from a u.s. company

with ties to a russian oligarchl e to vladimir putin. john yang breaks down what we know.il >> yang:am, the payments went to the company cohen says he set up to pay the $130,000 hush money to adult film actress stephanie clifford. her attorney, michael avenatti, revealed the payments in a document posted online. to help us unpack all of this, here's rosalind helderman, a "washington post" political investigations reporter. rosalind, thanks so much fr joining us. of the payments you've been able to confirm, who did they from, and how much money are we talking about? >> we're talking abonk, i thi it's about $2.5 million that seems to be confirmed at this point. and they come from some maorr u.s. andeign companies. they include at&t,o nvartis-- a pharmaceutical company. they include this company columbus nova, which is a

u.s.-based affiliate of a company that is owned and founded by a russian businessman. one thing that ties a number of these companies together is they had major issues pending before the u.s. government. but each of them, in turn, have essentially said that that's not mhy they hired mr. cohen, that they hired hi for various reasons -- to provide real estate advice, to provide accounting advice, for hisge ral legal knowledge. >> yang: and, rosalind, i know there was a filing late today, michael cohen challenging some of this information that michael avenatti put out. ut that? you tell us abo >> yeah, that's right. that just came in i think within the last 10 minutes or so. this is lawyers for michael cohen saying basically two things in court about the avenatti information. on the one hand, they seem to be conceding that so of it is accurate because they say it's a sign that avetti improperly has accessed michael cohen's

tnk records, and they'ing to get the courts to force avenatti to say where he's getting this nfmation so they can assess whether he properly should have access to that information. at the same time, f ey cited somee details that have not been cooferred in the media, because i think the media hasl not been e to confirm them, a few additional details that are sort ofn the last page that avenatti put out, and they're suggesting that that information might actually be false. >> yang: in addition, the treasury department inspector general has begun an investigation onhether any confidential banking records have been tampered with. y y is avenatti so interested in this? he putting this out? >> i think that he-- what he has said is that it gives you more information about the sort of wprocess byhich his client, miss clifford, was pai michael cohen seems to have used this same bank account that he used to pay stormy daniels, as she better known, as he did for all these other transaction. he says that his strategy is

working. he's on tv a great deal, as your viewers probably know, and as a result, people are just sending him infmation that is rel exprant helps inform the american public about the activities of mr. cohen and president trump, and he's trying to publicize that. >> yang: what else ist of intriguing about these-- the source of theense pa? >> yeah, i mean, i think one thing that's very interested is the sort of picture you get of the swamp as it exists under donald trump. of course, president trump tn agaihe d.c. swamp, and one thing that's been very clear is that people soashtsed with president trump, with his campaign, with his business, mho can argue jor companies that they know this very hard-to-understand world of irump's washington suddenly have found themselves very marketable skills. i spoke to several people like that just today who said essentially that their phones wereinging off the hook, starting in january of 2017, from companies who wanted to, you know, essentially throw money at them understand

donald trump. >> yang: and not only understand donald trump, you said that some o these companies had business beforeve the ment in the past couple years. >> yeah, that's right. at&t was-- is going trough a merger, which requires department of justice approval. that's an important thing forpa that co. they say it's unrelated to these rtyments. no, their c.e.o. had a meeting with donald trump not long after this payment. they, too, say that that was unrelated. e companies that have-- another one of them, korean aerospace mes aircraft and is competing for a very, very large contract with the u.s. air force they, too, say that's unrelated to these payments.e but these ompanies that had things they were trying to get out of the u.s >> yang: and, rosalind, we should note another of presidenr trump's sonal attorneys, rudolph giuliani, is saying this evening that the pnoesident had nowledge of these payments to cohen.

but this story will go on. rosalind helderman of the "washington post," thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> brangham: in just a few dayst al5 million people have watched a music video online called "this is america." as jeffrey brown explains, the video has also set off an intense debate about violence and race. >> brown: the video is beautifully shot and choreographed... infectious in its beat... jarring in its violence and agery. and it's clearly struck a nerve, touching on painful racial and a contemporary culture of mass entertainment and mass murders. it's the work of donald glover, knr writing and acting in the acclaimed tv series, "atlanta," for his comedy, and for the music he performs, as here, under the pseudonym, "chiish gambino." here is an excerpt from "this is

america," with a warni, for some of the violent images it contains. ♪ this is america don't catch you slippin' up ♪ don't catch you slippin' up ♪ this is america wooh don't cayou slippin' up ipdon't catch you slippinup look what i'm whpin' up ♪ this is america skrrt, skrrt, ♪ don't catch you slippin' up ayy ♪ look at how i'm livin' now >> brown: the "this is america" video has elicited all kinds of reaction, pro and con. we're joined now by tre johnson, a contributor to "rolling stone" who just wrote about the piece. tre, thanks fir joining us. t of all, in general terms yis it striking such a chord?

>> thanks fo having me on. i think it's striking a chord for a couple of reasons. one, i think it represents pretty strong departure for some of the work donald glovebehad to go that people previously had known. a lot of his work, as you had ted, had been much more in the comedy realm, and this is a daerk, starker rereflection of as take onmerican society that isn't played up for laughs. i think a lot has to do with you're watching what seems like an endless loop of chaos and violence, expended on the black body, which given the climate we're in nowadays. >> brown: whaother specific themes or history are used in this ie? >> i th were ois, obviously, the shootings. there is also the shootin shoott takes place in the beginning of the vio, where youe a black guitarist, who is peacefully

trying to some music, and he is kind of merclessly executed right at thginning of the film. in the background, too, i think what's interesting to watch is there is an ever-evolving increasing chaos and violence that's happening in the background. some of it is very reminiscent of some of the protests and riots that we've seen in light of a lot of the black victimsfa that havlen due to police brutality other and types of gun violence. i think, too, what you're also witnessing is just the wai that some of this imagery, some of these scenes and tragediesp have been cared. so one of the starkest images i think that pop up in the video for me is when you see the camera p up to the rafters, and there is a group of small black children, who are using all feens to captuot of what's happening around them. >> brown: there really is a mix here ofntertainment-- you know, the music and the dancing, even fun w at timesth this-- with guns and violence and all yowere just referencing. but it is a kind of in-your-face

juxtaposition. >> yes, i think that's purposeful. i think fair couple reasons. i write about this in the article. one is the ideai hat, you know, ink a lot of times black artists oderstand the need t transform their community's pain and trauma into art, andrt sometimes that looks very joyful because we're looking for ways to uplift ourselves and to heal from a lot of the things that are visited upon us in the community every day. also nk you look at, like, kind of the-- kind of, like, the tension between exploitation of black culture and black pain for media and popular culture consumption. so there is an aloofness around just what people are sharing. sometimes it's consumed without the context or the carute abo the actual pain and the real-life circumstances that are involved in the lives of blck artists and the communities that they often represent, when they're kind of taken in b people who are several altitudes removed from those kind of day-to-day circumstances, too. >> brown: you know, i mentioned th there's been a lot of negative reaction. there's many, many layers and strains of that. part of it, of course, is

questioning the convenience and how much that is necessary, howo much of the nce is shown. some talk questioning glover's motives and his own background and what he's bringing to this. explain what you're hearing i terms of the critique out there. >> yeah, you know, i hear some of those same critiques. i think for some fol, the ia of seeing-- even fitionalized-- black violence on the screen is unfortunate because i think a lot of people feel like 've already become very viral in seeing the image of blaesck boeither through police footage, or, again, captured on cell phones, looped through our social media feeds and across text message chains all the time. i think, too, again, you know, i think what isutarring abohe video itself is that you watch glover's only kind of facial contortions as he moves from scene to scene to. scene i think there's a desire to see him kind of linger into the stare and acknowledge the pain that some of these images are

causing for people, or how they are resonant of things that are happening that peoe identify with all the time in terms of losing family members or friends or other relatives to the-- to gun violence itself. and i think lastly, what i really challenge people on is, you know, art is going to make people uncomfortable at times. and i think what i i really like to do is focus on crediting how much it is black artts are choosing to take on the hard labor of holding the tension between interpret and more nuanced conversations about american life which i think is given a passo the mainstream white peer amersts. fo i'm more interested in what is the art telling us veus theotivation behind it. i think the conversation we're trying to have around what this art is producing in front of us is much more worthwhile than trying scrutinize and parse what everyone's individual motivations are.

brown: just briefly in our last minute, i mean, i can see a lot of peoe wondering just what's going on here? how much of it is glover making a serious statement as opposed to making a provocative piece of entertainment himself? >> yeah. i mean, the tough answer mi tt at it could be both. he might want toctually-- you know, i think this is a subversion of pop culture typically being the thing that is escapism,hat makes us fl good, that makes us feel happy. i have been saying, watching this season's "atlanta" one of the greatest things he's been doing about this is changing th expectations on what we're doing in terms of engaging with trouble pop culture media. both "atlanta" and "this is tamerica," are choosing e on a darker, harsher tones. i think, lastly, this fits-- "this is america," "atlanta" versation a wider con around back culture, you look at

"lemonade," you look at even some of the things that solange knolls has done with "seat at e table." they're looking to pick up the baton of having america look ato of the contradictions about what we say we value about blaclives, and then how actually address black entertainment when it chooses to stand up and represent kind of like chaotic, nuanced experiences around brack lives inside i a wider society. >> brown: all right, tre johnson of "rolli" ston thank you very much. >> thank you. >> brangham: on the newshour online, we're hosting a thitter chat osday at 12:00 p.m. eastern about changes in higher education and how we support erllege students. that's part of ours "rethinking college." find the details on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight.

i'm william brangham. a join us onli again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and goodnight. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> consumer cellular understands that noteveryone needs an unlimited wireless plan. our u.s.-based customer service reps can help you choose a plan based on how much you use your phone, nothing more, nothing mss. to learne, go to consumercellular.tv >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, fren i, german,talian, and more. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals.

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♪ >> art is an expression of creativity and imagination. in chengdu, it is not confined only to museums and operas. people in this town express it freely -- dancing at night in town squares, singing a cappella in the park, and, yes, preparing a fae mistlyiv a and friends. rtexant as d fine fd "yan can cook." ♪ >> [ speaking chinese ] ♪ >> [ speaking chinese ] ♪