the head of the table, right where he belongs. aftershock. the west coast braces for what's next after a big quake struck overnight. i'm abby huntsman. scientists say it's not if but when the next one is going to strike. >> toure today becomes court tv. i'm making the case for why it's good to defend bad people. we begin with breaking news in the missing flight mystery. the fbi is about to run fingerprints lived by airport security in kuala lumpur against u.s. databases trying to id the two men who boarded the flight 370 using stolen pass ports and one-way tickets purchase with cash through an iranian middle man. right now there's no evidence terrorism brought down the plane but u.s. officials are not going to rule that out either. in fact, no evidence of the plane at all has been found or any of the 239 people who are on board. interpol is working to identify the men caught by airport security cameras using the stolen passports. u.s. intelligence officials

saying there's a troubling travel pattern attached to them. experts caution that stolen passports don't automatically mean terrorism and there's been zero chatter among known terror groups claiming responsibility. as for the families of those on board they're being told prepare for the worst. three americans are among the missing. it's been 75 hours since last contact. tests confirm that debris and oil slicks found floating in the search area were not from flight 370. that search area is now a few hundred square nautical miles and includes part of malaysia. two destroyers of the u.s. seventh fleet are among those assisting in search and rescue. there's reports the plane may have attempted to turn back but never issued a distress call before vanishing off radar screens. terrorism to mechanical malfunction to pilot error. tom costello is our aviation go-to go. tom, let's start with the fbi's role in this investigation.

where do things stand now? >> the fbi is just running the traps here to see if there is anything on these two individuals. you know, i will tell you that all of our reporting at nbc news from our justice correspondent pete williams and from others is that the intelligence community really sees at the moment no signs that this is a terrorism. we do have some individuals who appear to be shady in some regard but they could be criminals, they should simply be into human smuggling, they could be into drug trafficking. this is a part of the world where a lot of people are operating on false documents. let's go up to the first map. we are now into the fourth day of the search. the fourth day now with no signs of any debris or anything at all on the water. and so as a result, they are now widening the search pattern. and where are they've looking? look down to our lower left. that big yellow land mass is malaysia. they are now looking and going to expand their search into the waters to the left of malaysia.

do you see that? we've got north of sumatra and indonesia. that tells you that they believe that this plane may have taken a left turn, military radar says the plane may have taken a turn suddenly. and then it flew on would be the argument here. the theory is it might have flown on and just on and on. so why would that happen? well, the theory here would be that for some reason this crew was incapacitated, that perhaps there was a breach in the fuselage and if that happened at 35,000 feet they would have only a matter of seconds before everybody would be incapacitated because lack of oxygen. so there is this theory here that the plane has made a left turn and now expanding the search area to include the malaysia mainland as well as the waters north of sumatra. that is a completely different area. hundreds of miles from where they were originally and have been originally focused which is

the south china sea and the gulf of thailand. and keep in mind, that area, the south china sea and the gulf of thailand where they believe the plane was last known to have had contact is a heavily trafficked area for ships. you have fish trollers, you have oil tankers, you've got a lot of people moving in and out of that region. now this armada of naval units search for this wreck wanlg and they have found nothing. so to switch the area, to shift the area or expand the area to be north of sumatra tells you that they are now starting to come up with other ideas of where this plane may be based on that proposed left look. guy, back to you. >> very interesting report. thank you very much for that. greg is a former ntsb investigator. greg, you heard tom's theory. what is your theory of what could have happened so fast to cause such a catastrophic event that neither pilot nor co-pilot

could send an sos? >> tom mad a good theory as far as discussing the incapacitation of the flight crew given the fact that the airplane is inact and flyable. even though the crew may not have been in control of the airplane. it's evident that the lack of wreckage on this sea surface, the fact that we don't have any kind of debris, which would indicate an inflight break-up, suggests that the airplane may have gone down either in another body of water or definitely over land where it's heavily jungled. >> greg, i think that's one of the big mysteries here is that such a large object as a 777 could just vanish into 13 air seemingly. how do you explain the fact that we haven't been able to identify any debris anywhere, any sign of it whatsoever four days in? >> well, it would suggest that the airplane didn't break up in flight because if it did at 35,000 feet you would have had

debris scattered over a very large area and it would be most likely that somebody would find some piece of it, whether it's in the water or on land. if the airplane stayed intact and ended up crashing in a remote part of an island or a land mass where the jungle is very dense, you could have this airplane go into that area and be covered up. we had an issue with the gold 737 when it was involved in a midair down in south america where the airplane crashed in a densely jungled area and it took searchers quite a while to find that wreckage just because of the canopy and how dense the forest was. >> that's what makes this story intriguing. four days in and no one has any idea what happened. the only real lead we seem to have are these two men with stolen passports. we don't quite know what to make of them yet. it's clear there's a lot of interest in these two travelers. looking into where they were traveling exactly and now

running thumb prints found at the airport against the united states database. do you give any credence to this theory this was an act of terrorism? >> well, it's hard to tell at this early stage because we're all working with very scant information. as an accident investigators you can never rule anything in or rule anything out until you really have something to look at. they have some radar data but the fidelity of that radar data may not give investigators very many clues. it's really going to be the wreckage once they find it and, of course, the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder because those, if they have done their job, will provide investigators with some very good information as to what happened. it may not tell them why it happened but it will definitely tell them what happened up to the event. >> greg, we live in an instand on-demand culture now but a similar plane crashed in 2009, air france flight that was on its way to rio de janiero that broke up over the atlantic

ocean. it took investigators about three years to conclude that investigation, two years to find the black box and the data recorder. are we looking at the possibility that it could be two years before we find the data linked to this flight that rent down? >> that's definitely a possibility given the fact that if this airplane came down relatively intact, then investigator, depending on where it is, will have all of the wreckage. unlike 447, which unfortunately sank in very deep water, the investigators in that particular event couldn't recover all of the wreckage but they did have key information early on, within days, they had some downloaded telemetry data normally downloaded in bursts from the airplane that investigators could start with. i haven't heard anything about whether this airplane, this 777 was doing the same thing, whereas it was down bursting into information to the maintenance folks at malaysia air. it may be that they have

information that we don't know about. but it could take as long as three years depending on where this airplane is found and how much information is available. >> wow. >> greg, they may have that information but we don't know about it. why isn't there a better way to track these planes? >> well, you ask a very good question. we've been pondering that for quite a while. we've talked about it in the aviation industry. if you look at the way we fly airplanes, the majority of the time, commercial airliners are in some sort of radar contact. there are spots around the world, whether it's the top of the world, bottom of the world, or over large water masses like the atlantic and the pacific, where there are flight tracks and they don't have radar coverage but they do have mandatory reporting by pilots. so that the air traffic controllers can track their progress. i think now this is going to prompt the discussion about putting global positioning tracking systems or some other satellite type tracking system on the airplane that is at least

providing realtime location and not just utilizing an emergency locator transmitter which will give a transmission, if it's functioning, after the fact. >> right. greg, as abby pointed out there's obviously a lot of interest in these two passengers traveling on stolen passports. give us a sense of how common it would be to have one or two passengers on a large aircraft such as this traveling on stolen documents. >> well, that's really for the counter terrorism people, especially after 9/11, because if we reflect back there were multiple people getting on the same flights that ended up becoming an intentional act around, you mknow, the east coast. so when you look at it, is it unusual? you would think so, especially after 9/11. but the rest of the world doesn't necessarily operate in lock step with what we've done here in the united states to ensure the security and the

sanctity of passenger safety and crew safety when it comes to flying large airplanes. >> greg feith, thank you. up next, tensions boil over in crimea resulting in violent clashes between russian supporters and ukraine backers. russian troops continue to stream into the region. we're going to talk to the former ambassador to russia as we start a key week in this global standoff. "the cycle" rolls on for monday, march 10. tdd#: 1-888-852-2134 there are trading opportunities

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we have to look at the reality of the options. there really want any direct

military options that we have. i think that some of the sanctions that are being discussed and actions being taken, whether it's limitation on visas or on travel, on potentially freezing assets of specific individuals, frankly i don't believe there are going to be any deterrent for putin. >> no deterrent for putin, that is how former defense secretary bob gates used the current actions against russia's president. just today russian takeover of the ukrainian post in crimea. that information coming from a base commander. we're told that no one was wounded but it is another sign that putin is tightening its own on the region. pressure is mounting as the prime minister visits president obama at the white house on wednesday. german chancellor told obama.

violates ukraine's constitution. so with nothing thus far stopping putin, does merkel hold the key to a diplomatic solution? is there even a diplomatic solution? maybe not if you listen to former secretary gates. >> i do not believe -- i do not believe we're going -- he's -- that crimea will slip out of russia's hands. >> do you think crimea's gone? >> i do. >> strong words. here to discuss is michael mcfall, thank you so much for joining us. >> sure. >> so first, i was hoping you would weigh in there on secretary gates' comments. in your view is crimea gone? >> i think the prospects for a diplomatic solution are very low so i agree with my former colleague secretary gates thinking about the steps that president putin has taken just in the last 48 hours sends a clear signal that he's seeking to put this steps in place for

annexation and once that referendum goes through and we all know what the results will be, that will be very hard to roll back. i'm not optimistic. it doesn't mean we shouldn't try. i want to be clear about that. i think that it is right for secretary kerry to be trying to avoid that outcome. it is right for president obama to be engaged with president putin. but if you ask me to predict the future, i'm quite pessimistic. >> i pish we could just talk about this in terms of dealing with the people of crimea and russia and ukraine, for that matter. of course we have to talk about the previous administration, dick cheney and condi rice out saying the real problem here is that putin does not respect obama's character and that he's weak and this is why this has happened. secretary gates who we just saw said that putin invaded georgia while bush was president. so was bush also weak? let's not even deal with that. let's just deal with this idea of this that we keep hearing about it's the president's character is the reason why putin is making a move on his

neighbors. do you put any stock in that? >> no, i don't. i participated in many meetings between prime minister putin and then president putin with president obama. and i have somewhat very different view. i think president putin assigns more power to the united states than we actually have. if you listen to his statements he's constantly talking about the threat of the united states, revolution. be it in the middle east, ukraine, or even in russia. and he assigns all kinds of powers, all kinds of agency to the united states that i personally don't think we have. and historically, as secretary gates rightly pointed out, president bush could not stop the russians from invading georgia, ronald reagan did not stop marshall law from being declared in poland. going back, eisenhower in '56 in hungary. i don't think this is a question of weak or power it's being

willing to use force in eastern europe and us having very few military options available to try to stop it. >> ambassador, one thing i find fascinating about this conflict is the role of angela merkel of germany. germany is obviously a country that's very much reliant on the gas and oil that comes from russia. and so far she has not been as outwardly critical of putin as some of her close western allies but now saying that the referendum in crimea is a violation of international law and violates ukraine's constitution. because of her relationship with putin, which is not the best but they describe as cordial and she does phone him probably more than any other western leader, is her taking this stance significant and show vladimir putin that perhaps what is going on in crimea is not in the best interest of russia overall? >> well, my reading of the chancellor's strategy was to try to keep the door open for diplomacy. we all agree that if there's a

diplomatic solution that leads to ukraine being sovereign again and whole and free and the russian troops going back to the barracks, that's the best outcome, because once that vote goes through and once vladimir putin declares crimea part of russia, then it's very, very difficult. it's years if not decades of trying to raise the cost of that decision. i think what you heard from her yesterday is a sign that people are losing hope and that we're going to have to dig in for the long haul to make this a costly mistake for president putin. >> ambassador, another player in all of this could very well be china. last night president obama spoke on the phone with china's president ping. the u.s. and china are coming together in interesting ways. for one, china would be fearful of referendums like this given their relationship with taiwan who has threatened something similar in the past. we know that putin tried to establish an alliance with china over the years.

so if the united states and china's relationship is somehow strengthened over this would that be enough to change putin's behavior? >> well, i think the call and what the readout of the call at least at the white house put out was very important because the two leaders stressed the importance of recognizing sovereignty as a paramount international norm. and i think it shows just how isolated putin is. there's hardly anybody. i think maybe just assad in syria, nobody else has supported his actions yet. >> that's not great company. >> it's not going to change his tactics in the short run. it will only make this costly over the long run. if he decides he wants to annex krooim crimea it doesn't matter if the rest of the world is against him he'll do that. over the decades, it might change the calculus within russia. major russian businesspeople thinking maybe this isn't such a good idea. russians that can't travel as freerly as they can now. over time, the debate in russia

could shift. >> ambassador, thank you so much for your insights. >> thank you. and up next, remember ted cruz's epic talk-athon? i wish i could forget. the dems have a little something of their own planned tonight.

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the "news cycle" begins with edward snowden discussing government surveillance at south by southwest today in austin, texas. the former nsa contractor spoke by a videoconference from moscow saying, tech companies must do more to protect consumer privacy against government spying and called on those in the conference to step up to the task. >> the sort of global mass surveillance that's in all of these countries, not just the u.s., it's important to remember this is a global issue, future of the internet and the people who are in this room now, you

guys are all the firefighters. and we need you to help us fix this. >> oscar pistorius sobbed and became physically ill in court today after hearing detail s described of his girlfriend's reeva steencamp. she died after being shot in the head, the hip, and the arm. his body shook as pathologists described how any of these three wounds alone would have been fatal. pistorius is found guilty he could face 25 years in prison. there was a whole lot of shaking going on overnight in california. an earthquake, you love jerry lee lewis, measuring magnitude 6.9 struck in the pacific oegsz. residents in eureka reported it lasting more than 20 seconds. more and more aftershocks are possible in the coming days, baby. many cities across the u.s. experience their warmest days so far this year with highs in the 70s. in places like raleigh, north carolina, and st. louis,

missouri. but don't hang up your coat just yet. winter storm wednesday is on its way. up to 18 inches of snow is expected to fall from central indiana to northern new england. we are expecting one to three inches here in new york city as well as in chicago and boston. enjoy the weather before the storm comes. >> i don't want to. turning to washington where senate dems plan an all-night talk-athon to draw at tengsz to climate change. they will be rearranging the tie t titanic. they will take to the floor to urge action as part of the recently formed senate climate action task force. the event begins after voting in the senate has ended for the day. it's planned to last until 9:00 p.m. tomorrow. i know what luke russert is doing tonight but will this accomplish anything? those specific legislations being offer ud up for a vote or

time tape for action this year? joining us now is democratic strategist erica. first to you, what's the purpose of this all nighter? is this more than just political theater. >> well, yeah. one thing the biggest problem is that congress is in deadlock, right? if you can't get anything done and if the conversation around climate change is so toxic that you have climate deniers at your home states and on the committees, what's the way to combat that? you change the conversation. so this is really about starting a dialogue, changing the context in which climate change is addressed within the senate. literally it's not like immigration, okay? immigration, everybody agrees that there's a big problem, that there's -- the system is broken and needs to be fixed. climate, half the kind of team that's supposed to be leading our country forward doesn't even agree that the problem xis at all. senator, the chair of the environment public works committee is a climate deny whole has written books about it, who has gone out and talked about it at various conferences.

mi mitch mcconnell came out against climate change saying he wasn't sure that man had impact and there could be anything that could be done. right after this actual -- this task force was announced. you see a situation where legislation isn't going to move forward. so keep continuing to put legislation out there isn't going to be the solution. try something different. so if ted cruz can get as much attention as he did for his talk-athon take a page out of that playbook and play ourselves. >> i want you to get in the time machine with me because you were with me in the speaker's lobby in july 2009 when nancy pelosi muscled through that cap and trade bill 219-212, 44 democrats opposed it. what happened to that cap and trade bill back then? she sent it over to the u.s. senate and harry reid wouldn't move on it. this time around which democratic senators are not sitting on this climate talk i on this?

hagan, landreiu, all red state dems. isn't this disingenuous, harry reid was not having a profile on the senate floor. actually afforded the chance, would they actually move on this type of legislation? >> luke, you're right. the core of it though is that bill was not going to pass in 2009. senate democrats, there were a lot of democrats, sharrod brown who would have voted against it at the time and it would not have had the votes then and not now, either. that's the core challenges. i looked at this poll today. the pugh presented a poll about what's the most important issue to americans and found 20 issues they looked at, climate change ranked 19th in the public policy priorities. the big challenge is not that climate is not popular among democrats but the it's voters overall who don't view it as an important issue. what you have to see is will hillary clinton or the democratic candidate in 2016 and 2015 put this on the agenda,

make it kind of their health care, the issue they're going to drive forward. right now americans are not engaged enough. and one or two days on the senate floor is not going to be enough to galvanize the public on this issue. >> do you see the beginnings of that sort of stirring of interest, renewed interest in climate change though on the left? it does seem like opposition of the keystone pipeline has galvanized a lot of environmentalists on the left and billionaire tom stire willing to spend money pushing climate change, addressing climate change forward. are we starting to see that new energy building on the left? >> i think so. i think another factor ask kind of another generation. even republicans, 53% of republican voters under the age of 35 say that people who are climate deniers are crazy. this is really something that this younger generation is pushing forward. so you have -- senator from hawaii is the one coordinating and organizing this talk-athon.

he's going to be there late in the middle of night, dead of night, the kind of worst time slots are going to be guys like chris murphy, hin rick, it's going to be the younger members. so i think there's renewed energy with new members that are younger, that really kind of grown up with this idea that climate change is real, that you need to recycle, that we need to be aware of it and talking about it. whereas the other guys, a little, you know, a little, you know, angrieangrier, a little g, i think their kind of frustration comes out and they let it go. i think these guys are trying to find new ways to do something. >> perry, climate change or even just the mention of science does not play well among the conservative base. today, reminds me of the 2 2012 primaries when my dad tweeted out about it and many say this is the beginning of the end of the jon huntsman campaign. he said, to be clear, i trust scientists on global warning. call me crazy. >> get out of town! >> get out of town.

>> crazy. >> get out of town. >> he is crazy, that man. >> very courageous to tweet that out. is there actually room in this conversation for republicans and who are these other voices? >> right now if you're a republican who wants to run for higher office or run for president, i don't think you're going to say much. remember john mccain not that long ago, very involved in the issue. right now if i was run for president of the republican primary i would duck this issue and that's what you hear the candidates doing right now. >> i remember that ad with newt gingrich on the couch with nancy pelosi talking about climate change. >> you got my -- every time you say let it go i got that song from "frozen" stuck in my head thanks to my daughter. thank you very much. up next, don't call me superman, says pope francis, one year into his papacy. like it or not, he could be the

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responsibility. what's your policy? we've got a pope, david, that does not think in terms of winning or losing. i think we've got a pope that says, i want to ask the right questions, i want to point people to the place where they can get the answers, namely not me, the pope is saying, but the church is teaching, our tradition, the bible, what god has told us. let me point them to that. let me ask the questions. let me get the interest going. then let's try to revive god's people to passionately reclaim the truth that god has revealed. >> that was cardinal timothy responding to questions about the 30pope's stance on civil unions this week as we pope one year since pope was elected. just yesterday crowds gathered as pope francis boarded a bus to a spiritual retreat outside of rome. in just one year he's amazed the faithful and shocked the

establishment by signaling an openness to discuss civil unions calling out income inequality. official stance on divorce, women in the church, and the role of gay, however, remain unchange ppds pope francis' effect on the church is currently a major topic of debate but supporters including our next guest says the pope is shaking things up exactly as jesus himself would have done. father james martin went to the holy land and writes about h journey in his new book. father martin, welcome back to the show. special shoutout to your mom eleanor in philadelphia watching right now. so great to have her son on the show. >> watches it every day. >> that's wonderful. >> i want to ask you, there's been -- over the last year, every pundit seems to have an opinion about the pope, slicing and dicing. what stuck out to me is the new numbers in the pew poll. 40% of catholics say they are praying more, 21% read the bible more, 26% are more excited about

their faith. so no matter what the pope may literally do or literally may imply or not, the fact that he's re-energized the flock and the poll numbers reflect it that has to be the greatest thing he could have ever done within year one. >> i hear that anecdotally as well. people come up to say and say i've been away from the church or felt unwelcomed or excluded and i'm back now. he makes people feel more welcome, which he has done in the last year. >> interesting. the more he tries to remain low key and change the tone of the church the more he's beloved and the more we look at him as like this super hr row which he spoke to recently to an italian newspaper. he said, painting the pope as a -- there was a painting of him, graffiti painting of super has been. painting the pope as a sort of superman, a kind of star, seems to me offensive. the pope is a man who laughs, cry, sleeps well, and has friends like everyone else whork is a normal person. ironic that he finds this to be

offensive but that's the very reason we love him. do you think it's dangerous to have a rock star pope and do you think that's something he's concerned about? >> he's concerned about it a little bit but i think he has it in proper perspective. as you say, the humbler he is the more we love him. we just showed that picture of him going on the trip and coming out of the bus of all the other cardinals. there was a picture of him seated on the back row listening to the retreat director. it's what jesus does. he humbles himself an people love him for it. >> so much of what we are responding to with this pope is what he was taught from his tradition. humility, service, and tolerance. >> that's right. and it's the christian tradition, but i think one of the things that the background adds is that he lived a vow of poverty for so long. he lived simply and he's still living simply. he moved out of the palace and list in a very simple two-room suite and that resonates with people. >> you wrote this incredible book on jesus which is out tomorrow. amazing stuff. pro found. you say that in a lot of ways

this pope is shaking things up in the whey that jesus would have done. what do you mean by that? >> well, one of the great definitions of a christian is someone who comforts the afflicted but also afflicts the comfortable. and that's what jesus does, particularly in his message to help the poor which is the gospel reading today. this is one of the things that the pope always points us to, living simply but going out to the help the poor. >> i want to ask you, as we move forward in the next few years, just from your initial reading of pope francis, how do you see year two playing out, year three playing out? eventually this star power is going to wane a little bit. what do you foresee in the coming years? >> i think you're right. the honeymoon is bound to end at some point but i think what you will see is a renewed emphasis on trying to reform the vatican. he's set up a group of eight cardinals to change the way things are done. he's reformed the vatican bank and i think he will try to bring in women into more leadership roles in terms of running vatican congregationcongregatio. he'll continue this simple

outreach and preaching of the gospel which is so effective. >> he has a few big world trips coming up. i'd like to be the one in the united states, if my boasses ar watching, send me there. eleanor, love your son. wonderful book. up next, peanuts, garfield, calvin and hobbs, comics we grew up with. we go inside the new documentary "stripped" next. >> i created garfield to really be entertaining, you know. [announcer] if your dog can dream it,

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the first memory of reading comic strips, you know, my parents took the "herald examer" if los angeles which is now defunct, and i remember this magnificent spread when they used to run them this big and i just was so drawn in to this amazing world that these guys could create in this -- it was in a rectangle. >> as a kid it was the best part of the sunday paper, the comics. peanut, little orphan annie, kathy, garfield, but times are changing. newspapers are closing and with them the ability of comic artists to get their strips on to our breakfast tables. so is the web the answer? the new documentary "stripped" takes a look at the history of comic strips and the future of the funnies. featuring over 70 interviews with artists, editors, publis r

publishers and historians. more on that in a moment but joining us now are the filmmakers behind "stripped" dave, great to have you both. >> thank you. >> dave, let's start with you. what is it about comic strips that have captured the imaginations of americans for generations? >> well, there's these little characters that you visit every day, day in, day out, year in, year out, and amidst a newspaper that's filled with bad news and war and pest chulants and plagu and that has a powerful effect that lasts into adulthood. >> frederick, it's been said that the '60s were over when the beatles broke up. for me, comic strips were essentially over when calvin and hobbs -- >> you sound like a 60-year-old. by the way, it's altamont, not the beatles. >> anyways.

i was so rude li interrupted by my colleague toure. comic strips to me died when calvin and hobbs went away. i still waking up that new's eve, saving the paper. it's in the trunk somewhere in my home. you got the elusive bill waterson on audio tape. i want to play what he had to say. >> quite honestly, i tried to if get that there was an audience. i wanted to keep this strip feeling small and intimate as i did it so my goal was just to make my wife laugh. after that i put it out and the public could take it or leave it. >> bill waterson also painted the -- i guess drew the poster for this film. can you just talk about him and the impact of calvin and hobbs had on an entire generation of comic book readers and how unbelievable it is that you actually got him on tape. first interview ever, ever. >> absolutely. >> yes, it was pretty amazing. when we started making this

documentary four years ago he was at the top of our list of who we wanted to talk to but we never thought we would ever get, you know, bill waterson. it was sort of like getting j.d. salinger talking to us about comics. but, you know, we persisted and talked to about 70 different other cartoonists, a lot of whom were friends with bill and word got back to him that i think we were doing a serious piece about comics and comic art and he agreed to participate and was just so generous to -- >> and truthfully, it was 5% us asking and 95% him being an incredibly kind human being and saying yes. we could not be more thankful to him. what's nice is i think he sensed that fred and i were incredibly fashion na passionate about comic strips. we could not be more thankful or lucky to have spoken with him. >> very cool. >> fred, the inverse of bill then is perhaps charles shultz

who created "peanuts," one of the most greatest comic strips of all time. and this strip expands into marketing, into everything to where it's where it's part of the fabric of america to see snoopy or charlie brown or lucy, linus, wherever. how is it that charles schultz created these characters that are so enduring that they can live outside of the strip? >> well, i think we interviewed his widow, jeanne schultz, in the film, and she talks about how when he would create a strip, he would draw -- he called it creating a sense of warmth with his characters. >> i like that. >> he would talk about, you know, when he was drawing, you know, a happy snoopy, he was feeling a happy snoopy. so he tried to get into character when he was creating this strip. and i think that comes across in, you know, over, what, 50 years of peanuts.

>> absolutely. >> how many lives that strip sort of touches and sort of like friends. >> one of the unique things about comic strips, unlike most other media, the cartoonist, it's a singular and personal voice. when reading peanuts, you're reading charles schultz and reading calvin and hobbs, you're reading bill waterson. these are artists that have final cut on their work. how many media does an artist have final cut on what they say and do? it makes for beautiful, personal stories we found amazing to explore in the documentary. >> dave, the future of comic strips is, let's say, in transition now with a lot of local newspapers across the country, going bankrupt and closing up shop. my local hometown newspaper ""the free-lance star"" declared bankruptcy. you tackled future of comic strips, let's take a look. >> as soon as you lose something from a piece of printed paper to a screen or a tablet in digital form, all of the money sort of

seems to flow away. >> they are mad because peopdon want buy horse and buggy anymore. the same magic with these cars, this is how people consume things. that's how they do it. >> they don't read newspapers anymore. >> a debate between folks who want to keep it on print and folks who want to move to the web. what do you think the future is? >> the future is undoubtedly digital. i think the comic strip survives and survives beautifully online. that pence nrsonal voice flouri in web comics. the film, you get to see the past, present and future. some of the future voices are amazing. we're proud about how the film came out. for people that want to see more, stripfilm.com. a lovely film for people who love comics. >> thank you so much. we appreciate it. >> thanks for having us. next, where is ari melber?

what to make of holding lawyers accountable for who they represent? >> it's time for "your business" entrepreneur of the week. jenn heineman launched rent the runway 2009. customers rent dresses and accessories for a fraction of what it would cost to buy them. they launched a successful app last year. for more, watch "your business" sunday mornings 7:30 on msnbc. if i can impart one lesson to a new business owner, it would be one thing i've learned is my philosophy is real simple american express open forum is an on-line community, that helps our members connect and share ideas to make smart business decisions. if you mess up, fess up. be your partners best partner. we built it for our members, but it's open for everyone. there's not one way to do something. no details too small. american express open forum. this is what membership is. this is what membership does.

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if attorneys take on a case like this, expect they're career to be hen expected forever? >> you're defined by the case that you take. >> last week you saw the passions unleashed by the failed nomination to head the d.o.j. civil rights division. passions from the tension around the emotional case of former death row inmate convicted of killing police officer daniel falknor in 198. a case baked into the political culture of the philadelphia area. the murder of any on-duty police

officer is a tragedy and the fop and brother organizations in the situation responded, as they should, in order to protect their men and women. in the civil rights committee, the case has come to symbolize how black people have a hard time getting justice out of the justice system. this is fueled by the belief that the trial was marred by bias and questionable witnesses. amnesty international's detailed report on this trial concludes that, he deserves a new trial because his trial failed to meet minimum international standards safeguarding the fairness of legal proceedings. the appeal was uphead, but now it's easy for some to use it as a new willie horton, politically toxic for all who come near him, just as easy as those who are tone deaf to many americans. he should never been been nominated, the problem is that it bolsters the idea that attacking lawyers because of

their clients is okay. the situation should never have entered into the nomination conversation, because it's a bedrock principal of our democracy, everyone is entitled to zealous defense no matter how repub nant they may be. we don't hold lawyers accountable for who they represent. defending the constitutional rights is not an attack on the police, it's a defense of the constitution. if it becomes a career albatross to represent people who did terrible things, make sure the constitution works for them our promise of justice for all cannot survive. if we punish lawyers for clients, that could lead to few good lawyers defending the indigent and more defending corporations. my classmates think seriously what doors their choices will open and close. it's hard to sell my friends on spending career knowing that it's the practice of a senate to punish public service. but that's not all at play in the blocking of adegbile.

seeking to become the man enforcing voting rights. the ranking republican grassley focus on how he would deal with voter i.d. laws. said, quote, the point of the division is to enforce the civil rights laws of the land but the senator's suspicion suggests they feared it might force them to fairly. republicans use culture wars to soak primal anger and frame debates in their favor when their focus is some larger goal. i suspect that may have happened here. they used guilt by association to make voting for adegbile politically toxicing keeping one of the nation's foremost experts on voting rights from becoming a doj voting rights defender. that's it for "the cycle" "now" starts now. what happened to malaysian air flight 370? it's monday, march 10th, this is "now."

there are new developments this afternoon in the mysterious disappearance of malaysia airlines flight mh370. nbc news confirmed two passengers who boarded the plane with tolden passports purchased their tickets from a resort in thailand through an iranian middleman known as mr. ali. sources tell nbc news that the two men described as vaguely d mediterranean looking began their journey it qatar. interpol criticized the lax security that allowed passengers to board, saying it's of great concern that any passenger able to board an international flight using a stolen passport, listed in interpol's databases. at this moment, u.s. intelligence has not specified whether they are considering terror as a motive. meanwhile, authorities have yet to find any debris or wreckage from the vanished yet. crews from malaysia, u.s., china, australia,