captioning sponsored by newshour productionsllc >> woodruff: good evening. m judy woodruff. the newshour tonight: ( gavel ) a pivotal vote. the u.s. hou judiciary committee approves the charges against the president, clearthg the way fofull house of representatives to impeach president trump.ly then, after newo years of tariffs, the white house reaches the first phase of a deal with china, but how close does it come to ending the trade war? and, it's friday. mark shields and david brooks are here to analyze the news on impeachment, and the justice department's findings on the origins of the russia probe. plus: ♪ ♪ fighting bigotry with music. how a city in north carolina

made a band from across the globe feel right at home.>> translated ): music is one of those things in life where there are no barriers or borders. and as musicians, this is what t gives courage to travel very far away from our sahara desert. >> woodruff: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshouras been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us.

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possible by e corporation for nsblic broadcasting. and by contributo your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the stage is now set for the u.s. house ofs representati impeach the president of the united states. the latest moves came earlier today in a matter of minutes, inafter long hours of he. congressional correspondent lisa desjardins begins our coverage. >> ms. lofgren? >> aye. >> ms. lofgren votes aye? >> desjardins: with a string of "ayes," democrats on the house judiciary committee took a historic step on articles of impeachment against president trump. >> your article is agreed to. the resolution is amended and ie d reported favorably to the house. >> desjardins: the nine-page articles make two chargesth againspresident: "abuse of power" and "obstruction of congress."co thittee decisions today came after a marathon debate session yesterday that lasted

14eours and went late into night. the votes were straight alongnd party lines,uick, as were comments afterward by committee chairm>> jerry nadler. oday is a solemn and sad day.th for thd time in a little over a century and a half, the house judiciary committee has voted articles of impeachment against thpresident for abuse of power and obstruction of congress. expeditiously. act >> desjardins: president trump, hosting the president of paraguay at the white house, railed against the vote. >> it's a witch hunt. it's a sham. it's a hoax. nothing was done wrong. zero was done wrong. it's a scam. it's something that shouldn't be allowed. and it's a very bad thing for our country, and you're trivializing impeachment. >> desjardins: the word "sham" was a republican theme, echoed

by senate judiciary chair lindsey graham. he stated simply that impeachment is "a sad, ridiculous sham, and needs to come to a quick end." an end, one way or another, would come in a senate trial, if articles are approved by the full house. but some of the president's other republican allies in the house are hoping for a longer, more fulsome trial. louie gohmert of tas. >> i really hope and pray the senate will not just pick it up and dism. america needs to hear from the witnesses. desjardins: a major voice in whether witnesses are called b wisenate majority leaderic repu mitch mcconnell. he cannot determine trial rules on his own. essentially, a majority ofat senators does but last night, mccnnell told fox news about his planned approach >> everything i do during this, i'm coordinating with the white houscounsel. there will be no differenceid between the prt's position and our position as to how to

handle this. there is nchance the president is going to be removed from office >> desjardins: democrats on the house judiciary commite balked at that. pramila jayapal of washington state. >> the foreman of the jury, mitch mcconnell, the guy who decides all the rules, is actually goingo coordinate with the defendant. that makes no sense whatsoever. it is an outrage, and frankly, it's a tremendous disrespect to the constitution and to our framers. >> desjardins: as to the political consequences, democrat steve cohen of tennessee said it's not clear, for either side. >> regardless, i think this is something we needed to do. i don't know if it helps or hurts. impeachment now head to a vote in the full house of representatives next week. >> woodruff: and congressional correspondent lisa desjardinsjo s me now. llo, lisa. so this vote by the judiciary committee was supposed to happen last night. they put it off until this morning. tell us what happened and why >> first of all, i want to note this is something that is veryta

ed and is not something we bring up the timing of a vote, but it is significant because of the friction happening now. republicans expected the vote to happen last night. they spent all day putting forth r amendments and stopped. they could have gone all night, but they stopped, tinking a vote was imminent that there was a deal to move to a vote. listen to what happened as they thought the final tes of the articles of impeachment becoming, here's chairman jerry nadler. i has been a long two days of consideration of these articles, and it is now very late at night. i want the members on both sides of the aisle to think about what has happened over the last two days, and to search their consciences before we cast our final votes. therefore the committee will not d in recess until tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. the committee is in recess.>> hairman, mr. chairman, there was no consulting from the minority, ranking member on your schedule for torrow, for which you've just blown up schedules for everyone. you chose not to consult the

ranking member on a schedule issue of this magnitude. so typical. i reporter: so typical, a think that's whey they wanted to raise this. this kind of activity is actually unusual. the ranking member an the chairman talk about basic y,uff like this, but, jud here's where we are where they can't agree or talk even about votesosing time for the or when votes are happening, and this is just added to this atmosphere of agoer. i talked to sheila jackson lee who's on the committee, from texas, she says she has empathy forpublicans, their expectation that they would get a schedncing annent, and said we felt it important to take the vote in daylight. implication communication has >> woodruff: indicating the divide in the committee. next the house votes and going to the senate. what have you heard about the senate and leader mcconnell and the plans.he >> has been a lot of news from mr. mcconnell in the last few days about what he thie nks

nate should do, and speaking to aides,o senator mcconnell, we know he is cautious about having a very long trial in the senate. he doesn't want every witness, perhaps, that the white house ol other reans may want to call. so what he's doing now is he's going to hava process where you will hear essentially opening presentations by the house who will be arguing for impeachment and removed -- removal of the president and from the president and whoever he selects to defend him. e plan now is to let the senate decide essentially case by case if theyant witnesses at that point, or not. it will take 51 senors to decide on any kind of rules going forward from that. there's a chance there could be a bipartisan deal.p no one ets that but, essentially, it's going to be a little unpredictablewe get to january. it's possible the trial could doesn't.ckly, it's possible >> woodruff: lisa, stepping back, four american presidents have faced impeachment, three in the last 45 years. you have been talking to people

on the hill out what that says. >> reporter: that's right, the three recentths whoaw the house judiciary committee vote on articles of impchment i significant to longer term staffers who look at the span of america's 230 years ofng presidents and say this is happening more frequently now. this is a tool that we see lawmakers on capitol hill thinking about more often. there are, of cours still very relevant debates as to what is the standard for impeachment what is impeachable. there is just a very real conversation about the fact that it is uphappening more often in this modern era. >> woodruff: and we are certainly thinking about it right now. d lijardins, thank you. >> reporter: you're welcome. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, the u.s. and china beginnings of a long-awaited trade agreement. the interim deal cancels a new und of planned u.s. tariffs

against china, and scales back some others.a, chn turn, will buy more american farm commodities. both president trump and chinese officials talked tod of what's next.ld >> china wike to see the tariffs off, and we're okay with that. and they'll be used as the negotiating table for the phase 2 deal, which they would like to start immediately, and th's okay with me. >> the consultation in the second phase will depend on the implementation of this phase 1 agreement. so the priority for us is to sign this agreement and make use of the agreement to promote ecomic and trade cooperati >> woodruff: we will look at the trade announcement in detail, after the news summary. the u.s. supreme court will hear three cases involving president trump's refusato release financial records. a state prosecutor in new yorkig has subpoenaed years of the president's tax returns. severau.s. house committees are seeking bank records. lower courts have ruled against mr. trump.

in britain, prime minister boris johnsocalled for unity after winning a resounding new mandate to carry out brexit. his conservatives captured a commanding majority in parliament in tuesday's election. that clears the way for britain to quit the europeannion at the end of january. robert preston of independent television news reports. >> reporter: sheer jubilation after the queen confirmed he isi staying as pme minister, celebrating the best electionlt re for a tory leader since margaret thatcher's in 1987. all the more remarkable because, just six months ago, his party the european parliament.ns for and what is even more remarkable t he won seats from labo that have never been tory in t modees.

>> to repay your trust. >> reporter: what propelled him to victory was the slogan, "get brexit done." and day he begged a country torn apart by brexit to come back together. >> after three and a half years, after all, an inrireasingly d argument. i urge everyone to find closure and to let the healing begin. famous bong --t was that >> it is now 10:00 and we can reveal the full details of the joint roll casters exit poll. >> an earthquake.ep >>ter: labour seat after labour seat fell to the tories, starting with workington and blyth valley... >> 20,000.ri ( ch ) >> reporter: ...all through the former industrial heartlands of the midlands and north. th i will not lead the party.

i will discuss we party, reflection on this result. it is over for jeremy corbyn, though he'll sy for a few months till a successor is chosen by labour members. but she has to walk away, because shs no longer an m.p. quite a christmas present for him. just a few weeks ago, he was the parlment's hostage-- not enough m.p.'s to govern-- and now his majority is so big, he can be confident of living here, erand being our prime mini for many years. >> woodruff: that report from television news.f independent in algeria, a former prime minister has been elected president, despite a boycott by pro-democracy forces. officials say abdel-ma tebboune received 58% of the vote yesterday. they said turnout was %. today, thousands of protesters turned out in algiers and other cities.t

they charged tbboune is beholden to the same military- backedlite that has ruled forde de a search team in new zealand has recovered the bodies of six of the 16 people killed in a volcanic eruption. they are believed to have been australian tourists. the volcano on white island was still spewing toxic gases today, making the search a high-risk operation. two people are still missing. some 200 countries struggled today to reach agreement as a climate summit wound down in madrid. it appeared the so-called cop-25 gatherg could put ofon on key issues foanother year. anwhile, in brussels, european the bloc carbon-neby 2050.ake >> we want europe as the first climate-neutral continent. we took this decision with respect for many concerns of different countries because we know that it's important to ta

into consideration the different national circumstances and also different starting points. >> woodruff: poland was the only u. member nation not to sign on to the agreement. on wall street, stocks managed minimal gains,s investors weighed the worth of the trade deal with china. the dow jones industrial average was up three points to close at 28,135. the s&p 500 added a fraction.d and, veteran actor danny aiellon died overnightew jersey, after a brief illness. his breakthrough came in "moonstruck," in 1987, as cher's jilted lover.he also played pizr sal in spike lee's "do the right thing," and earned an oscarmi tion. other movie credits included "fort apache, the bronx" and "once upon a time in america." danny aiello was 86 years old. ill to come on the newshour: as the u.s. and chinh a

deal, how close are we to the end of the trade war? consider what broungressrooks to the precipice of impeachment. and, much more. >> woodruff: as we reported, the trump administration and china today announced phase 1 of a deal to de-escalate the trade war between the world's two largest economies. but the agreement has produced many questions, and criticism.if nick sn is here with that story. >> schifrin: judy, the trump administration portrays this deal as a major victory that could lead to fundamental change by china, at little cost. a senior administration official said china had agreed to "structul reforms" on behavior that's long concerned the u.s.:

intellectual property theft; forcing u.s. companies in china to transfer their technology; and, currency and foreign change manipulation, amo others. and china committed over thext wo years to purchase $200 billion in american agriculture, manring, and energy products. r urn, the u.s. dropped a new round of tariffs scheduled to take effect on sunday, and reduce a previous round of tariffs. all told, the changes e uld affect man $350 billion worth of goods. to talk about this, i'm joineda by mary lovelynior fellow at the peterson institute for international economics. weome to the "newshour". thank you very much. >> thank you. >> reporter: we can't read the actual deal but the administration describes it as how do you asez significance of this deal? news in the short for theood american economy. we have some lifting of the

tariffs. we have a dal, and the longer it's going on, seems more it was a drag on business confidence. g.d.p. growth has been held back by really a major slowing down of bust,iness-fixed investm and, so, we're hoping that businesses will see this as potentially a pathway to trade peace and begin to invest again. of course, the tariffs have kind of thrown their plans for where supplies and where they're going to sell, so at least a little bit of certainty on thats good. >> reporter: it's a look at some spenicifics. adration is claiming china agreed to fundamental restorms most notably intellectual property, transportation, things u.s. has long complained about. is there any indication china is willing to deliver fundamental reforms? >> well, china has been making changes in its law, and i think we're going to see a lot of those changes sort of package in this with a nice bow put on top. so, forxample, intellectual

property, it's been tighting both the law, the ability to police it, how those thngs are adju an important step they took last year, we would think of it as an appellate court at the central government level because a lot of these concerns happen at the local level, and one of the big complaints american businesses have had is that, you know, we can't have the se guys at the provincial level who are part owners in thbusiness that we say is stealing our stuff deciding whether or not that theft is actually happening. so now there is another levelho that businesses can take these claims. so on that, china was already doing things. on forced technology, they created this new foreign investment law last ,anua which clearly states that free of any kind of coercion on their technology. so a lot of these things were happening, at least on paper.

>> the administratiys china is going to buy $40 billion to $50 billion of agr this year and next year. we've got a statement today from a group, farmers for free trade questioninthat, hoping that "this is not an empty pol promise." is there any indication that china can and wants to purchase that many goods for american farmers? >> well, frankly, i'm surprised that the totals are thahigh. the maximum amount of agriculture exports we ever sold china was in 2017, and it was about half of that, so it was 27,000. so -- 27 billion, i'm sorry -- but half of what the maximum act is, your 50 billion. it's hard to see where they will put them. plus the chinese economy has d.en slowing which would slow the dem >> there has been political criticism to have the deal. we can bhow a twe top democrat in the senate, chuck schumer. qu president trump has sold out for a temra and

unreliable promise from china to purchase some soybeans. is the chinese promise temporary and unreliable? >> well, i thienknator schumer believes this trade war woof led to better outcomes. i personally dnot think tha is true. this is not the way to get change in china. we are seg dramatic changes in the political system in chin a massive inase in the role of the state, a lot of the investment going into state-owd enterprises, we're seeing political repression in many ways those are the chan the u.s. has to deal with in a smart way.l this bunt-force intrument wasn't getting us anywhere, i was hurting american consumers, hurting american businesses.t what are we gting out of it? i'm not sure what senator schumer thinks about where we were going to go, but i didn't positive direction, so i'm happy that we at least called a cease fire today.th >> shurdle for phase one has been high and phase two is even bigger, right?

more fundamental reforms. how far are we away from the end of the trade war? >> i think very far away. what we packed into phase two were the difficult things -- industrial subsidies, in particular, since these subsidies are fundamental to chinese development plan, toward reorienting its economy, ards intensities and emergingapital industries like electronic vehicles. we left aside market access. having level playing ground for our tech and financial very difficult.ing to be they're going to move into other issues including censorship the internet, chinese control of their own fin, ancial marked national security, and we know >> reporter: not a lot ofgh. progress before the election in .,e u.s probably. >> i don't think so. >> reporter: mary lovely, from the peterson institute for

international economics, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: stay with us.p coming the newshour: the author of "antisocial: online extremists, techno- utopians, and the hijacking of the american conversation." and, from the sahara to the carolina the power of music in the fight against bigotry. abuse of power, and obstruction of congress. as of today, those are the judiciary committee-approved charges against president ump. now, it is on the full house of represtatives to decide whether or not to impeach him. to help us analyze this important week, as always, are shields and brooks. that is syndicated columnist mark shields, and "new york times" columnist david brooks. he to to both of you. so these two articles of impeachment, david, hog w str case have the democrats made with this? >> well two, thinin. one, i ththey made a strong

case. i think there was clearly a campaign to have a quid pro quo with ukr iaine, andt's clearly an impeachable offense. as for the articles of impeachment, i don't like them. abuse of power? that's not a cri thing. it's a vague construct. same with truction of congress. these are both extremely v constructs and i think they lead away from what actually haened, what crime was committed and what should the punishment be and they'll lead to a debate over these vague concepts. the concepts should hug closely to some sort of criminal conce that's in our court system, so we all have a history abotut and know the structure of it,d hese waft away from it. i think they make the case, but i don't like the way nay framed it. >> woodruff: mark, too vague and not on point? >> too vague? no. judy, think the best case was made by a unique personn i

loughlin in the nixon impeachment, a member at the time of bill clinton's patient and in the house judiciary committee. i think she ew a distinction compellingly that richard nixon, no comporting with a for power, no attempt to bring foreign inflnce into our elections, that he tried to influence the electopn imly and tried to cover it up with the f.b.i. and the c.i.a. and paid for it. bill clinton, no foreigng influence, no ng of an election. al had tot and improperlyd and efensively had sexual relations with a 21-year-old intern and lied about it. but this was a president tryg to rig an election coming up in in. a country, an ally under duress facing external threat to its visurl from moscow and

fr russia in need of our assistance that has already been vod for and asking for exchange to get that, of meeting with the president to validate the new leader of our ally there, that they spy on an upcoming eection in the president's principal opponent. >> woodruff: you're saying these articles capture that? >> i think it's qute straightforward and clearly understandable and clearly understandable by anybody and i think, judy, quite honestly, no republican i know will be able to explain to his or her grandchildren why he or she voted against this, that this was defensible, that this was of the president ounitedhe part states. >> i i think they'll say, oh, i might have voted for censure, this doesn't rise to the level of impeachment. i think that's the str ongest argumeide from just throwing up smoke. >> woodruff: but are you

saying, david, there's a different article that they could have, should ve come up with? >> i should have gone to law school and i would'tnow. i dio to law school. i don't have the exact phrase. i just think the phra of abuse of power means nothing and everything to me. >> woodruff: andtr obstion of congress? >> that's a little closer, but, frankly, so many peoveple been accused and sometimes removed from office for that that we really uno an election over that one. i think something serious happened here but it was what mark just described, but somehow the way we're about to debate this doesn't seem to get to the seriousness of it. >> one side engaged. there wasn't an acknowledgment n the part of clinton's defenders that hd done wrong. with nixon, there had been a brblk-in. the reans are in a ste of denial. they're sailing blithely on the river denial. nothing was done. mick mulvaney tells us wae up,

grow up and accept it. >> woodruff: republicans are calling it a sham, a waste of time. the president himself is doing the same thing, he's tweet ago lot. was out on the campaign trail this week. pennsylvania,shey talking about the impeachment process, also singling out the chrman of the house telligence committee, and schiff, and here's -- adam schiff and here's wht the president said.>> he president of ukraine repeatedly declared that there dnwas no pressure, but he want to say that. we said, "say it." "say it, you crooked bastard, say it." but he doesn't want to say it. we said, "say it!" i'd like to force him it. he'll walk up to the mic, "lads and gentlemen." guy's a total corrupt guy. >> woodruff: so that plays well with trump suppt ters, does? >> she's a showman, and that's

show business. i ha to say, i had a friend who had been away in israel and came back to united states and he came up to me ansaid trump's really funny, and i don't always see the humor, but in hershey, pa, tens of ousands of people see the humor and hundreds of millions or tens of milpllions of peo around the country see the humoi and they just the guy is funny, and they like that. >> woodruff: it's working. he's using tough language. >> it's not wor.ki he's behind joe biden and every other leading democrat. political leaders in your lifeme, whether it's the city -- shining city on the hill o the hope, younow, what we can do together, you know, what we owe each other, this is the antithesis of that. this is the politics agreements. this is not at we are surrounded by those with whom we can work, we can rea across the aisle, that my opponent --

my adversary is nos mitaken or ill-informed. my opponent is my enemy and i's evil and he hates this country and hates you, and if that didn't echo through jim jordan's words. donald trump has spawnes protnd knock-off version veions -- you know, tey hate us, they're out to get us. really, it's a terribly bleak d dismal and dark america the president puts forth. >> wre praisedn the noion that we can have a conversation, so i stand up for those values as much is anybody, bua time when people hate the political establishment so much, one ofse trump'screts is there has to be a stylistic way to have talking tht seems different. even for those of us on our side have to find a stylistic way of talking that feels authentic toe people, and f the old communication styles that

candidat used to do, i thatnk not resonating with people right now, and that's been true around the world, and you can get somebody who's conservati or progressive who doesn't exhaust everybody all the time and who actually talks in a nrmal tone and listens. buhasomehow, something tt is to change and that's one of the things we've learned not only from trump but the world politics. >> people e pointing tooris johnson. >> and i agree, but one point, judy, and that is, at no point is there any celebration of what we've achieved in this country. i mean, the fact that we've cuto thrty rate of people over age 65 by tw-thirds that would remove 85% of the lead from the air, all the things we've done gnd are doing, we've got a lon way to go, but we have achieved. you know, there are good things that america does.>> woodruff: a completely different direction, two investigations, i want to b ask youoth about. one, david, is the inspector generalt of the department of justice went back and looked at the origins of the trump

campaign rusa investigations. the inspector general said he didn't fi bnd politics but a lot of mistakes. what's the taeaway. >> fiona hill and a lot of people testified we saw thede l got at its best and now we're seeing another side, incomcompetence. i take them at their word there was no political bias. carter page wasn't meting are russians and telling the c.i.a., i just wa int you to knom meeting with them, and the f.b.i. did not disclose that fact that he told e c.i.a., which certainly makes it look a lot less suspicious than otherwise would be, and, frankly, indicates a lot of the stuff devin nunes was saying, the how republicans and house they weren't pl fair.e, saying there was certainly a lot of incompetence and certainly people getting over their skis and trying to pursue an investigation maybe without as

much cause as they pretended. >> woodruff: what do yu take away from this? >> i agree with david, that there were sersious mtakes made, and i thnk the f.i.s.a. process is open not only to scrutiny but severe criticism. but when christophere wray th director of the f.b.i. appointed by president trump said investations were opened in 2016 for authorized purpose and with thedequate federal predication -- predication is word that is now in vogue -- but he gets lambasted by the president. it's like everybody got something out of this investigation, except the president who wanted to be a coup, and there was no coup, that's it. i mean, i think there are p a lt ple have to answer what they did as far as the visa, but therwas no coup. >> woodruff: and the other

report, not so much the investigation official, but "the washington post" has reported, david, ater e extensive reportig going back years, asking for documents, around the afghanistan war, the decisions made by administrations going w back to geor bush, barack obama, through this administrationindicate that top officials were not telling the american people everything they knew, the truth, abo what was going on in that war. >> yea i found this series shocking. you always'hink, oh, ve learned from the past, and one thing we felt we learned from vietnam is you don't lie about body conts, and it was disassembling about aot of stuff over severalmi adnistrations. some of this is inevitable.jo hayes, lincoln's assistant, writing public statements ant how the civil wor ising, the .ar is going great, we're going to win then in his journal, at the same time, we're going to losee,

have no strategy. so some of this is in but the fact they didn't learn the sint gle bessson in 75 years, be straight. mind boggling. >> woodruff: vietnam was only a few decades ago. >> a few decades ago, judy. etnamis worse than you think about it, since 2001, the country has just bee uninterested, disinterested in the war, 18 years. the fact that the 150,000 human beings have perished in this war, a trllion dollars has been spent -- misspent, i think it's fair to say- on mote pools that don't exist, supporting 200,000 troops that don'tst ex it was a total fcaud, sandal, criminal activity, and nobody blew the whistle. nobody called out. it was indefensible and all this

time at home, what are we doing? $6 trillion in tax cuts. i mean, it just sort of let it go on. it is indefensible. we turned our back on the powell doctrine, which if anything we learned after vietnam that you go in with a limited objective, with overwhelming for, with clearly understood consensus of population, civilian and military, all of that's missing and it's terrible. it's a perverse way that helps donald trump because it's the governannt lying. i we don't like to think that we lie to each other, ourme gove lies to us, but this is a case of lying to the themselves.ople and lying to >> woodruff: and your point is it's gone back a long time, this is not a modern phenomenon. >> and you see, you don't see. we all new afghanistan was a struggle. i was in kandar once and i saw a joint american-erghan ions, and the american soldiers looked awesome and fit

and theyere tryg really hard, and some of the afghan soldiers, i could have taken themson. w that but i didn't see it. and when our leaders aren't telling us the truth about these things, it's hard to really know. you've got to trstour leaders, and lives depended upon it. >> fully two-trds of afghans diagnosed with mental disorders in this war. that's a tragedy. >> woodruff:dark shields, d brooks, thankou. >> thank you. >> woodruff: oan average day, er 125 million people use twitter. an estimated 2.3 billion use facebook. we know these remarkable communication tools are also used by a growing number of people as their main sources for news and ition. but as william brangham reportso

a new book us how "news" websites and apps can be harnessed to spread some very dark ideas, very quickly. it's the latest in our "newshou. booksh >> brangham: the creators of online platforms like facebook and twitter and reddit all describe themselves at first as having one overarching goal: creating a space for freewheeling, open connections f ends and ideas from all over the internet. in the process, these silicon valley entrepreneurs built some of the mwerful tools for world has ever seen.n that the but in his new book, "new yorker" writer andrew marantz shows us how these "techno- utopians," as he calls them, filt these platforms full unforeseen vulnerabilities, and how a group of racists and vandalhave used those vulnerabilities to "throw the whole information ecosystem into chaos." the book is called "antisocial:, online extremiechno- utopians and the hijackingf

e american conversation. and andrew marantz joins me now. welcome to the "newshour". >> reporter: let's talk about the platformsthe twitters cebooks and reddits of the world. >> the biggest strength of the platform is their openness, their tolerance of all points of view. i make an analo to a big party, when you throw open the door to the party you're hosting, one way to keep it few anexciting and novel iso not police everything.aging, no >> turn the music down, don'tth drint, don't smoke here. >> yeah, that's not a good part you want to let cerything fly and you want to be ideologicalnsistent and that's basically do nothing. a lot of the platformstarted out as tech no utopi, tech

no-libertarian and say we're not going to police. if we get told oef spcific law breaking we'll put that under control but everything else is we'll let itide. tech no-utopians, the arc of history would bend toward justice, the more speech the better and in some cases, that s true. there were lots of useful social movements that were spark and helped along by social media, but there was also an antisocial side to quote the title along with the pro social side and there wathis halo effect where for the first ten years or so people didn't seem to talk about tanty social side of the media m vech. >> or acknowledge it existed. and our bli cndnee crashing down upon us. >> reporter: you spend a good bu of the book wi the members of the so-called

alt-right. how is it and what is it hat they dith these platforms that's so troubling t you? >> i didn't go into this worfokg the worst people on the internet. i ended up finding them but i didn't go looking for that. i was looking for an example of what's the worst that can happen. it started getting nonhypothetical when i started looking for open racists, misogynistenned propagandists, and i found what i was looking usfor. we're fo as we should be on what the russians did to meddle in the 2016 election, what they and the iranians and the chinese and others might do in the 20 election. i think, as i say, it's to the good that we focusn that, but the 2016 election, there were americans who were not anonymous, who you didn't need a bpoena to go find, who were meddling in our election way more than the ranuswere, and when i went to go k them how

they did it, they showed me. they let me sit in their living rooms and watch as they did it. for instance, there was one guya ine county california who invited me in and said, okay, pull up a chair, today we're going to start a rumor about hillary clinton. >> reporter: mike sernovich. ight. multiple times a day he would say i want people to think hillary clinton has a mysterious disease she's not talking about e-mails or whatever the case may be, and he could inject that into the newstream by starting a periscope, getting #on twitter, he had broken it down step by step and infiltrate they newsle basically to where i could pick up the newsper the next dy and say this is here because of what i watched one guy do by rallying his friends on twitter the day before. at's freedom and democracy but seat's not a guy who

fingerprints you want on the national discourse. >> reporter: we've always had fringe characters in amecan politics. is it yourense that these platforms amplify those voices and simply give us a beter look at them, or is it actually creating more of them? is it eliciting new soldiers in their fight? >> yeah, so the platforms changn . i think sometimes the platforms take refuge in the tre idea that there has always been racism and bigotry and misogyny but what they're leavi out is when you incentivize shock and fear and disgust and all these emotions, when you -- >> reporter: in the algorithm. ah, when you incentivize them, when youay points and the more salacious hings you say the more points you get, these things are tainted by the algothm, when youuild a tool that's revolutionary to how people communicate and thi. think the informational crisis k

isind of as big a deal as the climate crisis or the city infrastructure crisis because if we don't know how to think and talk and learn how to arm can't address any of to thee tiisis we're facing. >> facebook in plar but twitter and reddit and many other platforms sac we get it the's a platform and we're trying to moderate and police this better, what do you make of their efforts and do ink they're doing enough? et i think it's better they're doing somng than nothing. for a long time they were essentially not doing any of this. they're not doing enough yet, and they need to be pushed to do a lot more. when you're someone like mark zuckerberg who built your life on do more of what you're doing you will make the world a better place, it's an artle of faith at this point. it seems there is notnghat can dislodge that belief which

is really dangerous because these tools, you know, there are massive, massive harms that are being propagated on these too every day. sparking genosides in various parts to have the wor, real tangible harms, and if we can't een acknowledge those harmst withing told that, you know, that youon't respect free speech, it's not a good argument. i think freedom of speech is important. i'm a journalist, i love the firsamendment, but there are a lots of responsibilities and rights trb this stuff, they have the resources to do it and at this point they're sort of ing it as an excuse to not do it. >> reporter: the boo is "antisocial: online extremists, techno utopians and the hijacking of the american conversation." andrew marantz, thank you very much. >> thank you.

>> woodruff: the band tinariwe d hails fr terts of mali in north africa. its sod blends ancient saharan instruments with electric guitars, and has earned the band devoted fans around thworld. during a recent u.s. tour however, the band members experienced a dark side of america-- before a north carolina show, they received asl barrage ofophobic comments on social media. but as producer ali rogin reports, the city of winston- salem banded together to give em a warm welcome. the story is part of our ongoing arts and culture coverage," "canva ♪ ♪ >> reporter: the band tinariwen may have traveled far for this show, but it's on this stage where these musicians are mo at hom they hardly speak any english,

but here inorth carolina, they feel that their every word is understood. >> ( translated ): music is onee of things in life where there are no barriers or borders.ns and as musicthis is what gives us the courage to travel very far away from our sahara desert.♪ ♪ >> reporter: tinariwen's members are tuaregs, an ethnic group from all aoss the hara desert. they're nomads who lay down musical, rather than physical, roots. the band's music fol a rich tuar lyrical tradition, gone electric. ♪ ♪ and they're rock stars in their own right, sharing stages with robert plant of led zeppelin, carlos santana, and u2's bono. the story of tinariwenollows the story of the tuareg people. until 1960, the tuareg enjoyed autonomy in the north der

french colonial rule. but then a series of dictators took control, and subjected the tuaregs to persecution, seizing their ancestral lands. many fled to neighboring countries. tinariwen's founders were among them. they met in an algerian refugee camp in 1979. ♪ abdallah aalhousseini plays guitar. >> ( translated ): our music was born out of this reality of exile, hardsps and suffering. >> reporter: they moved toibya led by then-dictator colonel muammar qaddafi, who providedem ome freedom. but tinariwen fought with their guitars, notuns. they sang about their people's struggle for freedom in their ancestral land, called azawad. >> ( translated ): we are from razawad, our identity is tuareg origin, and our goal for our country takes precedence

over absolutely everything. >> reporter: but none of that mattered to a few dozen people on facebook, who saw a post popromoting the show and red with hate. "any true american will not support this bunch of trash. let them perform in their own country," said one poster. "look like terrorists to me. no way," wrote another. one even threatened to bring his rifle to the show. ( laughter ) singer alhassane ag touhami responds to the hate with humor. >> ( translated ): have they ever seen a terrorist sing a song? people who make music are not terrorists; they are actuay persecuted by terrorists. >> reporter: tinariwn knowsat irsthand. when islamist extremists took n control of theive northern mali in 2012, tinariwen refused to obey the extremist's music ban. one band member was briefly kidnapped. >> ( translated ): we know that some people in the u.s. say wrong and negative things about us, but we do not feel anything

about them, because they are wrong. i reporter: and most peop winston-salem would agree. wake forest university senior yasmeen shaltout grew up here, after her family left egypt when she was two years old. >> i'm constantly surrounded by people that are very welcoming. >> reporter: she's watched the g muslim communiw just within her lifetime. t they used to get together at a local house, an the church space was bought tod converted mosque when the that house.tarted growing out of we've added new parking space, new building for a sunday school, so that expansion is eveniewed in the physical expansion of space to accommodate more people. >> reporter: but that expansion in the tarheel state has created tension. hain 2015, a man in nearbyl hill murdered three college students-- all muslims. shaltout said it was a reminder that there is still some bigotry in her backyard. >> i do feel that sometimes my community is le a bubble, and it's been sheltered from all of

these other terrible acts that we see going on so close by. >> reporter: but in this area, hate against a few is mourned by the many. after an anti-muslim terrorist killed 51 people in a new zealand mosque in march, non- muslims filled a local islamic center here to show solidarity with their neighbors. and they did the same before the club.iwen show at the ramkat this venue typically doesn't have a police presence, but because of some of the threatening comments the band received, the ramkat increased securi for tonight's show. but that hasn't stopped people from lining up, and managementke says tsales have been higher than usual. >> honestly, if you didnd buy tickets u didn't give these people money, they have no reason to care about what you'y. saying anywa >> these are excellent musicians, peace-loving people making music, great music.of >> reporter: before the show, cityouncil members join the

managers of the venue to declare at "tinariwen day." >> we are happy ou are here, we are happy that you have chosen to be here with us tonight. >> reporter: democratic governor roy cooper wrote a letter welcoming them, and local musicians like ryan macleod recorded cov versions of tinariwen songs. >> i think everybody has experienced "outrage fatigue," where you don't know what to do. and so, here was something we could do, to show that this isn't who we are in this town. >> reporter: tinariwen has always believed in the power of their new album, "amadjar," features american artists, cluding cass mccombs and micah nelson, the son of willie.an >> ( ated ): there is this brotherhood, automatic friendship and acceptancemu betweecians, that make it that we nd as soon as we meet each other. >> reporter: their album title means "foreign traveler." the songs champion universal values: love, brotherhood, and freedom-- in their case, themselves.he tuareg all around the world, their songs of longing for lost

homeland have opened doors. >> ( translated ): we keep asking ourselv, how is it possible that people who do not understand us or our culture, very far from our reality, can warmly welcome and support us? rds can't possibly explain how great we feel about that. >> reporter: tinariwen's new album is named for a foreign traveler. but here, they were welcomed as native sons. for the pbs newshour, i'm ali carolina.winston-salem, north >> woodruff: what a great story. and a reminder to check out our new podcast, "oken justice." the series focuses on one state's public defender system. stretched in, missouri's public defenders struggle to deliver on the promise of justice for all. you can listen by vising the "broken justice" link that's on our website. you can also find episodes on apple podcasts, stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts. all that and more on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour.ne

and that is thhour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff.ve great weekend. thank you, and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> mr. jewell, we've got a few questions. >> i was just doing my job. >> you have no idea who might have put that packagthere? >> no, >> did you plaen a bomb in ceal park? >> richard, this is a capital crime here. >> my son is innocent. >> do you have any case against me? >> i report the facts. >> you've ruined this man's life. >> i didn't do this. >>richard jewell," a clint eastwood film, rated r. >> bnsf railway. >> consumer cellular. >> supporting social entrreneurs and their solutions to the world'sost pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> the william and flora hewlett

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