newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, striking back: formea. director john brennan claims by revoking his security clrance, president trump is trying to silence critics. then, more than 300 newspaper editorial boards across the country respond to the president's repeated attacks on the free press. and... >> ♪ i said it won't be long >> woodruff: the queen of soul exits the stage.we onsider the life and singular legacy of aretha franklin. >> singing is about communication. it's like communicating with the people sitting there in that auditorium and she worked on it and she showed tat whole world t meant to be a great singer.>> oodruff: all that and 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. babbel's 10-15 minute lessons e available as an app, o online. more information on babbel.com. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovatio 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 broadonsting. and byibutions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thk you. >> woodruff: the "queen of soul," a "national treasure." the death of aretha franklin today, of pancreatic cancer,ut has brought anuring of tributes from around the world. she shot to stardom in the's 1960 with classics like "think" and "respect." later, she renewed her popularity in the 1980 movie

"the blues brothers." and, in 1987, she became the first woman inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame. aretha franklin was 76 years old. we'll look at her life and legacy later ithe program. in the day's other news, president trump's move to revoke john brennan's security clearance rippled across washington. the former c.i.a. director cast it as a disturbing power play. he wro in "the new york times" that it was "an attempt to scare others into silence whmight dare to challenge him." the decision also divided senators, among them, republican lindsey graham of south carolina and democrat martin heinrich of new mexico. >> i think there was clearly an attempt here by the president to make his critics go ay. and if that's his goal i do not think he will be successful. >> mr. brennan has gone way over the line in view and i think restricting his clearance. pulling his clearance makes sense to me.

>> woodruff: brennan charged ths presidenrying to protect himself from potential damage in the russia investigation. and, in a "wall street journal" interview, mr. trump himself linked his decision to the russia probe. we'll talk to a former top c.i.a. official after the newsy. summ the president's former adviser omarosa manigault newman is outc with anothertly-made recording, and says it proves he tried to buyer silence. it was aired today on msnbc. in it, lara trump, the president's daughter-in-law, offers a campaign job, at $15,000 a month. but only provided manigault newman keeps any damaging information to herself. >> it sounds a little like, obviously, that there are some kings you've got in the b pocket to pull out. clearly, if you come on board the campaign, like, we can't have, we got to... >> oh, god no. >> everything, every positive, ri druff: manigault newman says she made the recording days

after she was fired from the white house, last december. w intten response, lara trump said she offered the job before learning of what she called manigault newman's "gross violations of ethics and integrity". xue vatican says it feels shame and sorrow over abuse documented in the pennsylvania church. a grand jury found some 1,000 children were molested by moreth 300 priests, over decades, and that the vatican helped cover it up. in a statement today, the vatican said the church "must learn hard lessons from its past". in genoa, italy, officials said today as many as 20 peoplere still missing in tuesday's bridge collapse.ll the death s now 38. rescuers dug through the rubble again for a third day. and, dozens of residents had to evacuate homes near the bridge, fearing even more damage. >> ( translated ): i managed to

get some essentials. we don't live immediately under the bridge, we are about six budings away but they evacuated us any way. we have to get some things but this willnow how lo last. i hope i can return and get some other things. >> woodruff: italy is planning a ste funeral for the dead, saturday.ee a bloodyin afghanistan continued with yet another attack today. two gunmen oned fire at an afghan intelligence service compound in kabul. the shootout lasted for six hours before police killed the attackers.e, ayanwhourners buried victims of yeste suicide bombing that killed 34 shiite students. the islamic state group claimed responsibility for the attack. back in this country, new federal figures show 72,000 americans died from drug overdoses in 2017, up 10from the year before. the centers for disease control and prevention said the increase is largely due to a sharp rise in deaths from synthetic opioids.

meanwhile, police in nen, connecticut are trying to round up a bad batch of synthetic marijuana, after 76 people overdod in 24 hours. paramedics started responding to overdoses, starting wednesroy morning, ad a park near yale university. no one has died, but police have made three arrests. sd, on wall street, stock jumped on news that the u.s. and china said will hold new trade talks. the dow jones industrial average gained nearly 400 points, 1.5%, to close at 25,558. the nasdaq rose 32 points, and the s&p 500 added 22. still to come on the newshour: fallout from the president's decision to revoke the former c.i.a. director's security clearance. newspapers speak out about being labeled "fake news."st the laebel strongholds in syria, and much more. c.

>> woodruff: formea. director john brennan might not be the only former national eicurity official to have security clearance revoke by president trump. last night the president tweeted something he attributed to fox news host sean hannity. the president tweeted: "i'd strip the whole bunch of them. they're all corrupt.th 've all abused their power. they've all betrayed the american people with a political agenda. they tried to steal and influence an election in the united states," at sean hannity. the president has threated to revoke the security clearances of other former intelligence and national security officials including bruce ohr, a career official at the department of stice. according to reports ohr's wife has done work for fusion gps, the coany that wrote the salacious report before the election about donalp. so how does all this look to people who have served in the

intelligence community? for that we turn to john mclaughlin. he had a career at the c.i.a. .that spanned three decad he served as acting director of the agency during the george w. bush administration. welcome back to thhanewshour. >> you, judy. >> woodruff: what do you make of president trump personally revoking the security clearance for jobrhnnnan? >> well, it's unprecedented. .hat's the first thing to say i think second i believe the president has crossed anhe important line. he has intimidated people beforeop he's called names before, but this to me is first time he's used power that's uniquely hissho pund with the hope of intimidating an individual who opposes him and argues against him politically. i think that's a veryad sign. i've seen this movie before, and it is usually not in democratic societies. it's something that people do, tyrants do, in countries where there is not free speech.

and john brennan is expressing his view. i think it transcends john brennan. n't think we should focus on john brennan so much. it doesn't matter what he ys. irsuming he's not calling for insurrection andin a crowded theater, it's his right to express his point of view, whether he oas a clearan not has no bearing on that. >> woodruff: does it really not matter? is there no limit that -- well, you said there are some limits. >> there are some limits obviously to free speech. >> woodruff: but what we know, john brennan accused the president of treasonous statements when he was with vladimir putin at that summit ii ing putin've the u.s. intelligence. just yesterdco he made the ent or today in the "new york times" he wrote that he believes that in essence that the president did collude wit the russians to corrupt this last election. >> well, those areis views.

i think an it willically this is what he's concluded, connecting the dots, if you will, to use that phrase. the problem is there are procedures and process for revoking someone's clearance. it'sritten down in executive order. here it is. it's 26 pages. there are 13 reasons given in here for reasons to revoke a security clearance. one of them is not having a view that's contrary to the president. one of them isot what the president accuses him of, erratic behavior and so forth. john brennan's behavior meets none of these criteria.t the presidan change this executive order if he looks at it. it was issued during his time in office. >> woodruf doesn't have the authority to override that? >> he does. i'm not a lawyer, so you mao y wanteck that opinion, but i've talked to attorneys about e this. i belie president has the power to override. this but that's another thing that makes this a bit uni it's one of the few times that he has chosen to ove

established procedure to in this case i think punish someone who is politically at odds with him. >> woodruff: let me cite what the chairman or the chairman of the senate special select committee on intelligence, richard burr, republican of north carolina, saitoday. he issued a statement saying, you know, the comment by john brennan that the president -- the suggestion that he did collude with te russians, he said if he knew this before he left office, he should have, it should have been made public then. he said if he knew that he should have turned that oveecr o the l counsel, to robert mueller. but he goes on to say, and i'm going to quote, this if, hower, director brennan's statement about collusion is purely political and based ontu conj, the president has the full authority to revoke his security clearance as head ofxe the cutive branch. >> well, i have a lot of respect for senator burr r he a very good committee, and i think in a non-partisan way, but i wod disagree with

him on that point, and that's my right in democracy. i don't know the basis for john brennan's statements that he'sen made rey, but i would gus, suspect, knowing him, that these are his judgments based on noted classintelligence or something he's withheld from someone, butar simonclusions he's come to by what others have seen. he's not only the pern saying at. and particularly the last point that you quoted, i would disagree wi if he's making this statement sor i forget the words, for purely political r. >> woodruff: if it's purely political and based on conjecture. >> the implication is american citizens should not criticize the president based on pure political considerations orco ecture, which by the way, is often the definition of politics. so i think there's a big is involved here that someone has

to ferres --r feret out. in the end the worst thing the president can do is to drive an american citizen of his or her rights. under the regulations, if aomeone were to pursue them, this is something would normally, when a clearance is revoked, be considered in wat are called administrative courts. >> woodruff: right. >> i don't know whether it will go to that point or not. l >> woodrt me ask you quickly about the sgnificance of losing that clearance. you're a former government >> i am.. >> woodruff: you have a security clearance. >> i do. >> woodruff: what is the value of that?an d what... does it matter if a former official is no longer in office and they lose... how much does it matter? >> i think it matters areat deal. i'll just take my personal case. i participate voluntarily without pay in some c.i.a. tra programs. in 2009 and 2010 i was asked to come back into the gernment without pay for a period of

about six months where i caired a committee, a panel, if you will, that looked at the reasons that we had failed to detect the terrorist attack on the united states, an attempted attack. you'll remember it, the christma bomber. we did that for sick months. we issued a report. h it wghly classified. i couldn't have done it if i hadn't retained my clearance. that's one way in which the cleerntionl -- cearance is important. you get called back to government, not just by th president or by the white house, but by someone who is pursuing a terrorist trying to figure out what's going on with the iran nuclear program. you may have specialized knowledge. you may be in a better position thanthers to judge at they're concluding, to offer an opinion. it's useed in tse ways. i want to disabuse your viewers of the idsea that havincurity clearance means that i go home at night or one of us goes homea at nig opens up a computer and reads classified information or, for that matter, goes into the c.i.a. or the n.s.a. or

somewhere and says, i'd like to read some classified information. we don't do that typically. >> woodruff: it's only when you're invited in. >> it's wen you're invited in and when there is a need for your view. >> woodruff: but ypoint is it's a valuable thing to have, the information and the intelligence as a former official. that's my view. >> woodruff: john mclaughlin, former acting head of the c.i.a., long-time c.i.a. firm, thank you very much. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: another frequent target of the presidenhes attacks isedia. today, more than 300 newspaper itorial boards took the extraordinary step of publishing a coordinated ssage: "a free press is central to our democracy and journalists are not the enemy of the state." it was sparked by a call out

from the "boston globe." papers big and small across the country responded, including "the florida times union" in jacksonville. they were one of just two large- circulation daily papers to endorse then-cdidate trump in 16. aneditorial page editor mi clark joins me now. mike clark, welcome to the news hour. why did you write this editorial today? >> well, we felt it's time for a truce between the prsident and the news media. this war of words is not doing anybody any good. >> woodruff: you write that there's blame on both sides. explain that. >> wl, president trump ha taken his attacks on the media to a new low, no doubt about it. but a lot of t media has fallen into his trap and taken this oas a war. and that doesn't help the general public when they're trying to determine what is right and what's wrong about the media. if we just go to our ideological

corner people don't know wha to believe. >> woodruff: let's talk first for a moment, whats it aut what the president has said that you think has inflamed this, if you will? >> well, the way he attacks the reporters on hi public appearances, it actually is kind of scary. i'm afraid its going to lead to violence against the people who are actually covering him.an this this phrase "the enemy of the people" is something that is losing all context. it's like we're illegal immigrants. i know there's a few good ones out there. i mean, so his attacks are hurting all of us. >> woodruff: i'm reminded of your comment, cbs correspondent lesley stahl had. she said when she interviewed then-president-elect donald trump why he was so critical of

the media he wa asked why she was so mean about the media. he said, i do i dt toscredit the media. >> he's not the first one to do that. charlie sykes in his book talked about how the conservative media has managed t smear thetire news media universe so a lot of conservatives don't believe anything they hear out of the net' media. so wthe general public supposed to think when they see something? th's rally dangerous to our democracy when the information universe has been poison. >> woodruff: what do you think needs to be done? you say in is editorial today that there's work to be done now on both sides.>> ell, i used to be a newspaper ombudsman for 15 years. i think the major media out that have some revenue need to reappoint on t budsmeno take -- to do a little soul-searching to look at how they're doing. i think though it was said the

first 100 days of the tump information set a new standard for unfavorable press coverage for the president. the news media needs to do some soul-searching on their side. at the same time, the president needs to lower the rhetoric. maybe we can find somebody to do some mediation between the two. >> woodruff: why does this matter so much? why do you thinkt's important that we address this right now, mike clark >> the founding fathers said this a republic depends on an information source that allows the people tonow who they're electing and how they can trust their information. and if the information source itself is tainted, then the whole republic is at risk. >> woodruff: and the trust on the part of the public of the news media? how important is that? i> well, we're hearing now from people from bothes of the spectrum that are going to their respective corners. they're only trusting their particular favorite media. and that's not going to work

en we have some big issues that require all of us to work. togeth we need to have some common ground on information, and righn now we'r even agreeing on basic facts anymore. w >> woodrufll, it is a fraught time, no queion. today a remarkable thing to see so many newspapers around the country, including yours, editorializing about it. mike clark, with "the floridaon times un thank you very much. >> thanks, judy. >> woodruff: what happens to immigrant children oey have been released from government custody? the u.s. senate has been asking that questio lisa desjards reports members of both parties were not thtisfied with the answers.

>> desjardins: take oath, four top staffers for trumes cabinet agenesponsible for immigration.d. >> i'm frustra and i think you can hear the frustration here. >> desjardins: and sharply questioning them all. senators from both parties, concerned the agencies are failing a massive gr immigrant children. >> desjardins: at issue is the group of children known as unaccompanied minors. just in thpast six years the u.s. has seen more than 200,000 unaccompanied minors-- kids arriving illegally by themselves-- without parents or guardians. this does include the smaller group of kids recently separated from parents. they are initially in the custody of the health and human services department, then the agency places the vast majority with temporary sponsors inside the u.s., often, but not always family members. last night, the senate homeland security committee released a three-year investigation finding that once the kids are with sponsors-- no agthcy, no one in federal government is keeping track of them. jonathan white oversees child reunification for h.h.s. via what's called the office of refugee resettlement, or o.r.r.

he said it is not their responsibility. >> h.h.s. does not presently have the authority to exercise supervision or oversight of children who are not in the physical custody or f o.r.r. ertainly does not have t appropriations. >> desjardins: senators in both parties balked. ohio senator rob portman >> we believe you do have that authority. 's claire mccaskill. >> this would be a huge scandal in all our os states. thisout the fourth or fifth time that no one seems to be worried about fact that you all get to wash your hands of these children. >> desjardins: meantime, h.h.s. is not notifying state governments about these children. white saidt has had trouble finding contacts. >> there are very real concerns. >> there is not! every state has child welfare agency. >> desjardins: the hearing and report painted a picture of agencies working for greater immigration enforcement failing to follow-up on thousands of

undocumented children moving through their custody. some insist the law only requires the government monitor the kids in their custody, not with sponsors. in a joint statement, h.h.s., the department of homeland securitynd the department of justice said the senate report was "misleading." and "the report demonstrates fundamental misunderstandings of senators insisted they will return to this issue. for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. w druff: iraqi jets today launched an air strike against isis fighters inside of syria, where the u.s. is on the ground artner forces trying to finish off the islamic state. the wider war inside syria has been raging for seven years. but bashar al assad's army is preparing for what could be the war's final major battle. nick schrin has that story. >> schifrin: the horror of

syria's war has feltss. half a million dead. millions displaced. but the battlefield has shifted dramatically. take a look at this map. september 30, 2015, the da russia intervened.ri the government, in red, controlled pockets across the west. isis controlled a spidin the center and east. and this is today. the syrian government, in red, has made dramatic progress. isis, in black, reduced to a small area. anti-government rebels, in green, only have a few pockets. the most important is lib. that is the likely last, major battle of the syrian war. the yellow is kurdish controlled. take a look at these photos from the kurdish area: a syrianmo er named batool with her baby, and batool with gayle tzemach lemmon, who just returned from the kurdish- controlled areas, and joins us no she is an adjunct senior fellow at the council on foreign relations. and also joining me isaul salem, president of the middle east institute, and the author, s st recently, of "from ch cooperation: toward regional

order in the middle east."to thank yoou both. paul salem, let me turn to you. why is idlib so important? >> well, as you said, idlib is the last of the stions partly with the opposition and partly up.h terrorists gro idlib is the only major remaining place where there are several ns of thousands of opposition fighters. some are terrorist gros as well as turkish-backed troops, syrian army rebel groups. right now the city and thein pr of idlib, which holds anywhere from 2.5 to 3.5 mili civilians is the last remaining sort of location. the assad regime and the russians and the iranians want to resolve tat last hold-out i idlib one way or the other s because that would basically conclude much of the syrian war. the risk is that the fighting, were it to come down to a military fightwould be even more horrific than we've seen so

far and might push hundreds of thousands of refugees back on the march either through turkey or through other aces. >> schifrin: gayle tzemach lemmon, tae us to the kurdish area in the northeast where you've seen a lot of prle >> absolutely. the closer you get to raqqa, the more you see local arab forces. i think the story of batool, th mother you showed, embraces and embodies the horror and the hope of this conflict. the horror in that here is a mom who walked out of raqqa city when we met her one year agolf eight and a onths pregnant and gave birth to a baby that's two kilos. >> that's four and a half pounds. >> and had a very strong chance of dying. her mother thought she was gotog ie. when we met her, she was talking about how she did not want to give bth to a baby in isis-controlled territory, and it is why she gave her whole life savings to a smuggler who made her, put her family i a

convoy with five other cars. fifth car exploded as itove over an isis-placed landmine. basically what we see today ise this mother oear later who iss, you know, a baby that really healthy and chunky and happy. all her kids are in school. and she talked to us one yearr lateerm when we first met her about how she really has hope for the future. and what she believes is possible now is to have a basic level of security fo syrians to be able to rebuild their future and what she asks for was the international community to remain present there in th region. >> you also saw the opening of a woman's council in raq i think we have video of that, as well. is there a real sense that what was the adquarters of isis at one point has really turned a corner for good. >> it is fascinating, nick, right? on streets were women were ught and sold, we went to this event this past week, where you saw dancing and men and women and a lot of women i interviewed

from raqqa, who talked about how they had never o beenside the home, working or volunteering, prior to isis. and what you really see, what i saw this trip, and in the three other trs i've made in the past year, is arab women who are really saying, listen, theyr pushed us to f. and our families now support us to be part of local councils, to be part of local security, one woman i met was a shopkeeper who just opened a pajama shop in raqqa, and she said, you know,ss busias been slow at the outset. it's starting to pick up. so i almost packed up mysag and went home, but my father told me that he really believes that i should keep athis and be part of rebuilding the economy and helping our family. an you hear thant story overd over again. >> schifrin: paul salem, i wonder if, as we're about to see perhaps the last major battle of the war, has the underlying reasons for why you've been seeing so much work the last en changed? b >> what's particularly tragic about the syria situation is

that the cause of the terrible government repression, you know, torture and all of that, an economy that was very unequal how it distributed wealth, all of that has gten ch worse, and yet syria has not gotten closer, maybe it's gotten further from a political settlement. so whereas obviously getting rid p isis is the blessing of untoldroportions, but the road ahead for syria for many years is going to be very difficult. first of all, the war itself, you know, has ended in some areas, but much of the discontent, many of the armed small groups are still there. it might come back in different rms here or there. the president, the government does not have legitimacy. there are no credible elections coming forward. there's no negotiation. >> schifrin: and gayle tzemach

lemmon, in the time we have left, what dideou hear in th northeast? did you hear a desire to maintain from the u.s. perspective presence in that area? >> absolutely. i think what you hear from everybody is two things. one is firqust estion: can you tell us what the americans are going to do? the second thing is people stating a desire, and this is pkeepers along sho with u.s. forces actually, saying, look, we really do thin ternational presence is helping to really keep a level of stability and security that allows schools to open, people to go back out on to the street, allows stores to begin tcome back to life. and i think we have spent so much time iinn washington ta about what the united states is not capable of, and here in rtheast syria, you actually have an example of what u.s. leadership with partner force that is able to bot take the lamp and also to hold it with local fors, is able to do for moms and dads. i don't think we talk enough about what is actually happening

there on the gound, which is a story of forward-moving progr amid destruction and amid the devastation of war and of isis.s >>hifrin: gayle tzemach lemmon, paul salem, thank you very much. >> thank you. thank you, nick. >> woodruff: now, economics correspondent paul solman looks at a market trading in a commodity too precious to put a price on. the paired-organ exchange allows living kidney donorsho are not a match with their intended recipient to network with others who are. it's this week's installkint of our mang sense economic series. >> look how pretty, rob. >> reporter: rob and melanie melillo's 21st weddingan versary. a bit less dramatic than their 20th. >> he got a piece of steak stuck in his throat, and he looked at me with this face and i did the heimlich, and i said to him i

just saved your life. twice.te >> repor once from choking. >> you lucky dog.>> c'mon. >> reporter: the second time, i howeves still to come-- to save rob from a hereditary disease that's destroying his kidneys, and forced him, last august, to join 100,000 other americans on a waiting list for a kidney from a deceased donor. how long did they say you would probably have to wait? >> when they first listed me i was athree to five years. now i went for my one year checkup anthey said it got bumped to four to seven years. >> reporter: evethough, in this last year, his alth has continued to decline, making it harder and harder for him to keep working as a plumber. >> about four hours worth of work and i'm draggin >> reporter: melaniv was ready toone of her kidneys to ib. >> i said i'd giif i could. the nurse said well you can. >> reporter: but, it turned out, not to rob directly ... >> give me that jog in place! >> reporter: at age 47, this fitness instruct has kidneys

that support a body able to run rings around the rest of us. problem is, melae is a type a, blood type, that is, meaning she can only donate a kidney tome e with type a or type ab blood. but rob is type o, meaning he can receive a kidney only from someone with type o blood. the key to this story, however, is that even though rob's body would reject melanie's kidney, they learned that econics has come up with a way that she can donate for him. >> sometimes you're healthy enough to give a kidney but you can't give it to the person you love, and this is what opens up the possibility of exchange.te >> rep it's a process called paired exchange, and economist al roth won a nobel prize for coming up wi idea more than a decade ago: a market for kidneys, but non- cash, since buying and selling organs is illegal everywhere in the world except iran. >> a simple kidney exchange is between two incompatible patienr donor so at the top here

we have a donor who would like to give to a recipient but can't becae they have incompatible blood types and on the bottom we have a blood type b donor who can't give to a blood type a recient but they could exchange with each other. >> reporter: what roth and hisam ealized: the bigger the market, that is, the more pairs on the list, the greater the chance of an exchange. >> so turns out that in the united states we have people who want to give someone a kidneyha and don' a particular person in mind and that's actually important. we've learned how to use them to start chns of transplants where they give to a patient donor pair and the donor in that pair gives to someone else who gives to someone else gives to someone else long chains of transplants and that's enormously effective. >> reporter: the minute rob and melanie melillo heard about an exchange market, they signed up at their local hospital, westchester medical center, north of new york city. after months of physical exams, and for melanie, psychological testing, they were approved.

>> so we were told that it's an average of four to six months you wait. >> reporter: hey, a startling improvement on four to seven years for a deceased donor organ. problem is, finding a kidney for rob hasn't been as easy as anticipated. >> we've been on it for six months and we haven't hed anything. >> reporter: so how frustrating is it thatt's been six months and nothing's happened yet? >> very. they run the paired exchange list every monday, and tuesday so would find out. and every tuesda of wait for the phone to ring. >> reporter: waiting for word from unos, the united network for organ sharing, that they've found an o donor for rob. but why ishat such a problem? half the population is type o. >> because someone who has blood type o can donate to anybody. >> reporter: that's rob's would- be surgeon at westchester, thomas diflo. >> so it's unlikely to have a pair where the donor is o and the recipient is something else.

>> so if she was an o, i would not be on the exchange list erbecause i would just get kidney. >> reporter: that's why someone with blood te o is called a universal donor. but maybe type o's shouldn't automatically give a kidney to their partner, says transplant expert marie morgievich, and why she tries to convince pairs with an o donor to ter an exchange instead, enlarging the pool of available organs. >> for example, we could match your recipient with a younger oed kidney or improved protein match kidney or soer variable that could help them statistically get a longer life from that transplant. and you have the option of assisting another pair or pairs that are incompatible receive transplant. >> it's the value of playing together.ep >>ter: economist nikhil agarwal studies the kidney paired exchange ma tet. >> imagit you have a marketplace where all peg le who are wito trade various types of goods collect a they come to the same place to conduct transactions.

you might be able to find some rare transactions that you wouldn't otherwise be able t do. >> reporter: and first thing i learned in economics was the whole point is to make as many trades as you can possibly m'se because thhat a market's for. >> every time you make a trade you end up transplanting one more patient. >> reporr: don't make a trade, and one more person goes, or remains, on dialysis. >> okay, here goes nothing. >> reporter: dialysis kes over the job of filtering toxins from the blood. it saves lives, but at a cost-- and not just $100,000 annual tab, which is paid by medicare. as dialysis patient jairo acevedo told us in a recent story:>> hey say that for every year that you spend in this machine you lose five years of your life expectancy. >> reporter: and, with no paired exchange partner, he's been on dialysis for seven years, waiting for a deceased donor n dney. rob and melanie,e brink of rob's needing dialysis, are

desperate to avoid it. transplant center after having rob's monthly doctor's appointment with his nephrologist and basically saida yo to help us. and that's when she said there were other lists, other paired exchange lists to get on. >> reporter: other lists? t the melillos sy only knew about unos. >> you don't know the questions you're don't know.ask if you we didn't know to ask is this the only list, are there other lists. >> reporter: now westchester does mention "other paired exchangerograms" near the en of an eight-page consent form the hospital says it reviews verbally with all patients before they sign. but the melillos say it was only when they knew to ask, nearly a year into the process, that westchester told them about two other major exchanges: the gistry, neither of which the hospital participates in. >> i understand, you know, it's a business.

that's what it is at the end of the day.bu his life is in the balance. our lives are in the balance. >> reporter: the economic point: more exchanges, larger markets rere potential matches. and it turns out t a hospital in new jersey that participates in all threeai exchanges: barnabas medical center, with one of the largest kidney transplant programsnen the country. rologist shamkant mulgaonkar. participate in multiple registries and difficult patients. we put them in multiple registries. if you have an incompatible an exchange the average time is somewhere between six months to a couple of years. so you will get transplanted asa long as you a living donor. >> reporter: but it sure isn't easy. >> doing one exchange transplant is significantly more work than doing a donor directly to a recipient that they're compatible with. >> repter: again, saint barnabas's marie morgievich. >> really 100 people within the hospital at any one time are helping achieve that success.

>> can you raise your hand if you're a donor. raise your hand if you're a recipient. >> reporter: but it's paying off for the members of a saiin barnabas cha featured on the today show in june. 27 transplants and countin so the melillos took their business to saint barnabas, hoping they'd found a marketplace big enough for melanie to give, and for rob to receive in return. and last week, less than a month after this taping, they were told that saint barnabas has matched them with another couple where the husband, who needs a kidney, is type a, like melanie, and the wife, who's willing give a kidney, is type o like rob. the surgeries may happen by the end of august. >> happy anniversary. >> happy anniversary. >> rorter: and with the adve of kidney exchange markets, hopefully many more e. this is economics correspondent paul solman reporting for the pbs newshour.

>> woodruff: a legenis gone. aretha franklin died today at the age of 76. her doctor said the cause was pancreatic cancer. one of the best-selling musical artists of all times, she sold over 75 million records worldwe. franklin was showered with honors over the years and i was fortunate to be at one of them, three years ago, with myarate newshourer and co-anchor gwen ifill, when we emceed an event at the national portrait gallery. here now is part of the interview gwen recorded with her that night, and a look at her amazing legacy. there is only one aretha franklin. (cheering and applause) and so it was fitting that "the queen of soul" was honored with the first portrait of america award and this painting that

hangs in the national portrait gallery. >> we were ladies and gentlemen, and we weren't overnight stars. it was gradual. and, for me, i just try to kofp my head ouhe clouds, keep my feet on the ground. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> woodruff: franklin was honored not only for her soul singing but for jazz, rockpop, .assical and gospel as we aretha franklin grew up in detroit, along with other music ndons like the four tops a smokey robinson. throughout her life, she remained very faithful to the city, which had given birth to motown.

in 1960, at the e of 18, she went to new york city to be courted by several labels including motown and rca, ultimately signing with columbia cords which released the album" aretha" in 1961. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ six years later ,backed by recorded the single "i never loved a man the way i love you"" when the album othe same name was released, the first song" respect" reached number one on a both r pop charts, winningst aretha her fwo grammys.

franklin's chart domination soon earned her the title "queen of soul" and she became a symbol of black empowerment during the civil rights movement. performing at the funeral of dr. martin luther king in 1968, spurred by mahalia jackson's death, franklin returned to her ♪ ♪ musical origins for the 1972 album "amazing grace." but that decade saw her career slip before turning to the top of the charts in the eighties to with an album featuring "freeway of love." ♪ we going riding on a freeway going to love in my pink cadillac ♪ she was inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame in 1987 as the first female. she was invited to sing at the

inauguration of president bill clinton in 1993, and barack obama's in 2009. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ in 2005, she received the nation's highe civilian honor: e presidential medal of freedom. and here she was at the 2015 kennedy center honors, in typical aretha fashion in a full length fur, paying tribute to carole king, drawing a tear from president obama. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪o a capstoner career was an invitation to perform for pope francis when he visited philadelphia in 15. gwen sat down that fall with franklin to talk about her life and work. >> ifill: tell me, how do you think of yourself? >> a lady next door. >> ifill: but nobody thinks of you that way, none of your fans, none of the people in that room tonight. >> sure.

yes, yes. >> ifill: they think of you as much more than that. >> well, no, they don't see me in that setting, right. >> ifill: yes. so, then, how do you handle the weight of the diva-ness of this hel? because, i mean,'s a little bit of that in you. you have a lot of flair. >> i love to sing. ist a natural thing for me. >> ifill: so, is part of you, g you know, alwang to be reverend c.l. franklin's daughter? >> absolutely. >> ifill: i'm a preacher's kid, too, so i... >> i knew you-- p.k., okay. : but i am a p.k. but i don't sing quite like you. >> oh, well, we don't all sing. (laughter) >> ifill: we >> yes, you have other gifts. >> ifill: i want to ask you about at, because one of the things that comes up with people who are immensely successfat about hey choose is what brought about the success, who urged you, or who didn't stop you. >> well, my mentor was clara ward of the famous ward gospel singers of philadelphia. and my dad was my coach. he coached me.

and just my natural love for music is what drove me. >> ill: but when did you cro the line from gospel to pop? >> i didn't cross the line. gospel goes withe wherever i go. gospel is a constant with me. >> ifill: so when people hear you sing... >> so, i just broadened my musicahorizons. >> ifill: yes. so when people hear you sing" pink cadillac," there's gospe in that? >> no. so... (laughter) no, that's secular. >> ifill: that's secular. >> that is secular, yes. >> ifill: will you ever consider stping? >> no, not ever, no. i'm not ever going to retire.at -- that wouldn't be good, for one, just to go somewhere and sit down and do nothing. please. no, that's not moi. >> ifill: it's not moi. >> that is not moi. (laughter)♪ ♪ ♪ ♪dr >> wf: aretha franklin last performed in her hometown of detroit in june o. thousands showed up at an

ouedoor festival where she e her concert with a plea to "keep me in your prayers."♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ for more on who aretha franklin was and what she meant, i am joined by chris richards, mu fc crit the "washington post." and grace bumbryan american opera singer, who now lives in europe.t she first etha franklin in 1978, when they both performed at the first kennedy center honors program here in washington. they remained close friends ever since. she joins us from vienna, austria. an we welcome both of you to the newshour. grace bumbry, to yo'rsee first. so sorry for the loss of your friend. what did aretha franklin mean to you personally? >> well, you know, aretha was five years younger than i, but we had one thing in common, and

thrs was marian an. so that was our jumping-off point. then camhimany otherngs, many other pesonal things. you know, she did not like to fly. i don't think she er flew at all. i even invited her to my home in switzerland, and she said she would like to come, but unfortunately she said she can't quite make those airplane flyings. but the thing that i liked about her and loved abo wut her, wh had in common was our love ofh music, and ink the love of perfection. aretha was more of a musician than people give her credit for. and this is because... the reason i say that is because she can sing and took advantage ct the hat she could sing opera. i remember one time she even stepped in for luciano pavarotti when he stepped out of a performance of nessun dorma. no one wated to take it except

aretha. she hopped in and said she would who else would have the nerve to do that? no one except someone who was a grand opera buff. and she did it beautifully. >> woodruff: and cliff richards, that says something about aretha franklin. she could cross from rock andl pop to gosd even opera. what was it about her voice, her music? hen we're talking about the most influential singers of the 20th century, g're talk about aretha franklin. we're talking about the most pivot voice i another say.u n divide american popular susic into before and after her. the thing about it it was able to convey so much emotion the voice, able to t so much feeling, to be able to loai so manerent notes into a single syllable. she had this incredible abilityr to ce her humanity. i think it's made her a legend, and it's part of the air we breathe now, it's so influential. the way we sing at karaoke night, the way we sing at ourco unity talent shows. not just beyonceé, the way we

sito as people has so mucdo with aretha franklin. >> may i say something to that point? the point is that she always spoke the words. it was about text. it was about soul. it was about feelings. this is what i t trio import upon my students. you have to listen to people like aretha franklin. they can give you so much. they tell you so much. it goes to the heart, the hearta is wt's important, not just a beautiful technical way of singing. and aretha showed the world how she could sing and what it meant to her to be able to sing tha ll, to give the audience, you know, for me singing i about communication. it's like communicating with the pele sitting in that auditorium. and she knew that, and she e rked on it and showed the whole world what it meant to be a great sinr. >> woodruff: and chris richard, you could almost hear ler heart when she sang. you were also tng me that she took control of her career. she wasn't passive entertainer.

>> right. she's an incredible arranger of sthese songs, even whhe was covering a seasoning like respect. she was able to control those she was an incredible piano player, very much in control of the muse thank she made. then she was very in control of her career. in the studio she had a lot of great collaborators. she made incredible muse wick m curtyfield and luther van dross. as luther van dross said, she was running the show in a lot of way, a commanding personality who had incredie control, not only over her voice but her eartd. >> woodruff: grace bumbry, she dimhave a soewhat difficult childhood. her mother left her family when she was very young. did that shape her in some way? >> well, i would imagine that shaped her tremendously. the loss of your mother new york -- your mother no matter aom which angle and thect i e had to stand up and take

over. ink that's why you have that deep longiher sound. there's a sound that nobody else has except for are that's because of that pain. you know, you get special sunds through negative situations. but i remember when i lost my mother, and it was very difficult. the voice changes the voice changes. it's an emotional change in you life. and r aretha to have lost her mother so early on goes without saying that it changed her. it made a big difference to her sound. not only negativelier but also positively. it made the sound that she had. >> woodruff: just finally, chris richards, what wld you say her influence is if it's possible to t it into words? >> sure. the yearning that ms. bumbry just mntioned, that became america's yearning. her music broke throught the height of the civil rights

movement. it became a soundtrack for that. it became the soundtrack for feminism. after this it became the sound of the virtue use america that we want. we don't have equality for women. we don't have equality for people of color that. yearng is in aretha franklin's musicken we hear it not only in her singing but in the singing that's all and us today. i think that's a beautiful thing. >> woodruff: chris ricsha with the "washington post." grace bumbry joining us from vienna. the operatic great. thank you, mis bumbry. thank you mr. richards. >> it's my pleasure. thank you very much. >> woodruff: we're so grateful to both them and wonderful to remember our ownwen ifill tonight with her interview from three years ago. that's the newshouronight. join us and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks. fo newshour, thank you and see you soon.

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