there may be some survivors. >> nearly 300 passengers are still missing. most of them are teenagers. >> president obama called congressman eric captor to wish him a happy passover and pressed the house majority leader to take um immigration reform. >> that conversation didn't go so well. cantor released a statement after their talk saying -- >> the president called me hours after he issued a partisan statement, do not attack the very people you hope to engage in a serious dialogue. >> vladimir putin is speaking to a major nationwide broadcast on russian television. >> and he was asked this question edward snowden during a tv call-in event. >> does russia intercept in any way the communications of millions of individuals? >> putin responded that russia is russia is not carrying out any mass collection of citizens data. critical talks got under way in geneva between secretary of state john kerry and russia's foreign minister. >> russia's president says the protests in eastern ukraine

being carried out by local citizens, arguing it is nonsense to claim russian forces are there. his first actual first shot at instagram, a selfie, president of the united states. >> joe and i decide you had it's time for a guys trip. first up today, with hundreds still missing, there has been a dramatic setback in the frantic race against the clock to pull survivors from the slowly sinking ferry that wrecked off the coast of south korea. the setback? south korean coast guard officials were unable to get inside that submerged part of the ship where survivors could be taking refuge. at this very hour, 18 are confirmed dead. and 278 at last count are unaccounted for. more than 400 were on board that ship when it suddenly tipped over and the majority of those passengers were high school students on a field trip.

one teen texted their mother, mom, in case i don't get a chance to speak to you, i love you. president obama just leased a statement on the tragedy saying, "the bonds of friendship between the american and korean peoples are strong and enduring and our hearts ache to see our korean friends going through such a terrible loss, especially the loss of so many young students." nbc's clear simmons is monitoring the situation from london. why is it that the coast guard wasn't able to reach that spot where the ship is believed to be and where the survivors could be? >> reporter: well, what we are hearing, ronan, from people who have been down, day of theers who have been down is the visibility is really, really difficult, it is very, very muddy water. >> and so, really hard to see what they are doing. what they are doing now is bringing in three huge crepes that will eventually help to lift the ferry, but that could take months, we are told. meanwhile, 169 ships, around 26 navy vessels and 29 aircraft are

involved in this rescue operation. they still hope, holding out hope that possibly somewhere on that ferry, perhaps in some kind of an air bubble, because it went down so quickly, there might still be people surviving, that they can still kind of bring out from the ship. but every hour that goes by with parents on land, deeply emotional, the hope of that fades. secretary of state john kerry has been meeting with the union and an agreement with the goal offi reaching tensions. here is what he said moments ago. >> out cranian people have a right to choose their own future. the international communityrema

side as they travel the difficult path to prosperity and peace. >> the agreement calls for disarm willing a you will of the illegally armed groups the region and for buildings saezed by pro-russian separatists to be turned back over to authorities. we saw the first nope contact between fugitive edward snowden and president vladimir putin during a state-run tv call-in show with a live studio audience. they seemed cozy. snowden asked putin about surveillance in russia, the country that granted him asylum last august. take a listen. >> little public discussion of russia's own involvement in the policies of mass surveillance so i would like to ask you, does russia intercept, store or analyze in any way the communications of millions of individuals? >> translator: dear mr. zmoen, you are a former agent. i used to be part of the secret service myself.snowden,

you are a former agent. i used to be part of the secret service myself. illinois speak in a professional matter. we do not allow ourselves to do that we ho that. we hope, i hope we never do that we do not have the technical means or the money to do that like the u.s. most importantly, our secret services, thank god, are under a strict control of the government and the people. and their activities are regulated by the law. >> putin claimed that russian authorities who con dunlgt surveillance are regulated by law, sounds like an explanation our government gives on the same subject. putin fielded questions about why russia's not taking over alaska. quick recap. russia sold the state to the united states in 1867. and to a concerned caller, he said, "my dear, why you need alaska? let's not get too hasty." for more, let's turn to a former host on that russian tv network, alona mankovsky, covers national

security issues and now a host for "huffington post" live. why would russian state television allow putin to get publicly challenged by snowden in that way? >> all about optics. an event like this for any politician as well as someone like vladimir putin is going to come out positive because it's a town hall-type of scenario, you are taking live questions from the people and giving them a chance to really voice their concerns and have their -- you know, their questions answered. i think that's led a lot of people to criticize edward snowden today and decide that maybe this makes him look as if he's a tool of putin and a part of his propaganda. but i think honestly, it's gooed that snowden at least asked this question, you know? his critics a long time saying this edward snowden is not questioning anything that goes on in russia. i don't really think it's his responsibility to do that but at least he is now doing it and i don't think that they are ever going to be satisfied with anything that edward snowden

does, [ inaudible ] with vladimir putin's answer yes said, no that this type of [ inaudible ] because [ inaudible ] who knows. but b, he said because the surveillance that they do do is in accordance with the law and they follow court orders or use court orders. that's the exact same thing that we heard from politicians here in the united states from our very own president, from the leaders of our intelligence community and we all found out that that wasn't true. so you know, if anyone is looking scentically now at what putin is saying that's thanks to edward snowden disclosed. >> seemed to go over well in that room, heard the cheers, he seems like a popular figure within russia, as his role in the world gets more and more divisive. thanks, alona. appreciate that update. >> thank you. the big domestic headline today, the presidential phone call the white house called pleasant, the guy on the other end of the line, minority leader eric cantor didn't think went that well. what prompted that call? immigration reform. this week marks one year since

the senate, led by the gang of eight, passed a sweeping bipartisan bill that could have changed immigration as we know it it was never brought to the house floor. president obama issued a statement to park the year of the senate bill passing saying, "the republicans and the house of representatives have repeatedly failed to take action, seemingly reprefederal government t-- prefederal government a broken immigration system." he called cantor meant to mark passover but instead reportedly turned to tense talk about immigration. congressman captor issued a statement just after saying that the president,s you do not attack the very people you hope tone gauge in serious dialogue." remember, hanging in the balance here are millions of undocumented immigrants, 11 million, to be exact, as well as the millions more young americans they have given birth to this in this country. this is at the core of america's promise to this world, give me your tired, your poor, huddled passes yearned to breathe free, yet over and over begin, immigration reform falls by the

wayside of beltway fisticuffs. joining me someone with a personal angle, jose antonio vargas, won a pulitzer prize for his reporting on. this tell me about your personal confrontation with this issue. >> well, i was born in the philippines. i -- my mother sent me on a -- put me on a plane when i was 12 and landed in mountain view, california. found out that i was undocumented when i went to the dmv to get a driver's license and found out that -- >> you had no idea? >> i didn't know. and found out that the green card that my grandfather had given me was fake. now, my grand parents were both american citizens, naturalized american citizens, i so i thought everything was fine. so then i found out that i was "illegal." and my first instinct was actually wait a second, like, i'm filipino, i'm not mexican. when you grow up in california, like i did, whenever you heard "illegal" -- >> stereotype. >> which is horrible. it's horrible. and then, of course irk found out that not only latinos and mexicans can been documented, asian people about 1 million of

the 11 million undocumented population is asian. and so, i basically for -- for the next 14 years, got jobs as a journalist. i lied. i checked boxes i wasn't supposed to check. and then after i had enough of that, i -- 'cause you can only live for so long lying not only to other people but to yourself. so then i decided to out myself, so to speak, as an undocumented immigrant in the "new york times" magazine in june 2011. and to my surprise, nothing happened to me. i kept expecting to get a call or a knock on the door from some government official, i finished a film and in the film, i actually called immigration officials myself and asked them, hi, i'm jose vargas, i haven't heard from you, what are you planning to do with me? >> many people don't have such a happy ending, repercussions, been in the news a lot, actually just yesterday, president obama released new numbers through doj saying that the rate of deportations has declined

steadily over his presidency. on the other hand, the head of lore roads za council and other groups called him a deporter in chief. >> which is the right name. the president has deported 2 million people in five years. >> but what about those numbers about declining rates? >> this is the white house, i think, and the president looking after his legacy. he doesn't want to be known -- the first minority president doesn't want to be known as the president who's deported 2 million people, right? and yeah, the numbers are showing that numbers are falling in terms of deportation, you cannot deny in totality five years, i'm speaking to you as probably the most privileged undocumented immigrant in america, aism' talking to you while people are getting deported every day. >> what should the president do? taking executive actions, gun control, closing loopholes, do the same for immigration? >> yes, he should. given the fact that, you know, we are breaking up families. there's 5,000 children right now in america who are american-born citizens, whose parents have

gotten deported and are now therefore in foster homes. that sun american. right? and we have to find a solution in which we are not breaking up our families. the problem here, as you pointed out, is we have been so beholden to the politics of this issue. people like us are being used to win elections, by republicans and democrats. and so i think we have to get this issue out of the political -- >> you want more action, less politics? >> more action, less politics, yes. absolutely. >> thank you, jose antonio vargas. moved by your story, myself included. up next on "ronan farrow daily", the gop pleading poverty in the smart munson at front-runners why don't the front-runners have any money now? our rfd political panel looks to 2016. throwing in the $1,000 fuel reward card is really what makes it like two deals in one. salesperson #2: actually, getting a great car with 42 highway miles per gallon makes it like two deals in one. salesperson #1: point is there's never been a better time to buy a jetta tdi clean diesel. avo: during the first ever volkswagen tdi clean diesel event, get a great deal on a jetta tdi. it gets 42 highway miles per gallon. and get a $1,000 fuel reward card.

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today's headlines are dominated by chatter about hk's presidential prospects, you might be surprised by who is fanning the flames right now an interview with cbs this aired this very morning, president obama praised vice president biden, standing right next to him, while atlugd the fact that clinton and biden could be set to face off in 2016. >> he has been, as i said earlier, a great partner in everything that i do. i suspect that there may be other potential candidates for 2016 who have been great friends and allies i know we have an extraordinary secretary of state who worked with me and joe to help make the country safer. >> this comes as talk willing points people show reporting that super pac ready for hillary is seriously staffing up, hiring directors for four key primary states, iowa, new hampshire, virginia and california. so, what's really going on behind the scenes? joining me to unpack that is sam

stein, political editor of the "huffington post" and msnbc contributor and bob shah rump, daily beast columnist and nyu professor. what is the staff-up of the ready for hillary super pac tell you? >> i think it recognize the reality of where we are at. 91% of democrats in a recent poll think she is going to be the nominee. 70 to 75% of them in most polls favor her as the nominee. so i think that that's the real i and my own belief, the president suspects she will run, i think that's lovely word, i actually think she will run and i think under those circumstances, that joe biden probably in the end won't run. and there's no barack obama waiting in the wings who could stop hillary clinton. >> sam is there any chance supporters are doing too much too early? >> i guess there's a chance that they might turn her off. i think is because of the crazy campaign finance system we are working with raise millions and millions of dollars prior to

announcing your candidacy, people have to raise it for, an allied super pac to be there in case you choose to run suggest that understand there's so much money in the system that entice a candidate to enter the race, feel like the check books will be taken out. >> a landscape changed so much, raising a lot of hackles for old guard on the hill that wanted to combat that influx of money, the way it's going to be though. i will go back to you, bob, on this one, of course that big story in the "new york times" today examining clinton's legacy, particularly while at the state department. one of the things they claim, she was hesitant anticipating a question about that track record. i was there when she delivered those remarks, not sure i agree with the characterization, felt she was deliberately being jokey about it, nevertheless, what do you think her state department track record tells us about the kind of leadership that she would bring to the table? >> that she's sensible, pragmatic, very careful, calculates the odds of success in these things. i agree with you, by the way, i thought the story was very labored, the fact of the matter

is she could point to the sanctions on iran, which have had such an impact and led to negotiations. she could point to the reorientation of u.s. policy in as asia. point to the restoration of america's standing in the world, her fight for women and girls, which is the no just soft foreign policy but really critical to moving this world into the 21st century. i don't share the views she will be hurt by the state department record but helped. charles kraut mimer says republicans ought to walk away for this benghazi stuff. talk about it for two years, not going to do them any good and not going to hurt her. >> as much you say that, bob, i have heard from other democratic strategists, including people close to the clinton world that they are worried about the state department record, they feel like there's nothing that's going to shine that brightly in a record filled with achievements, isn't anything that brightly to dominate her prospective campaign. then you have, what is it five or six years of basically no

votes. >> one area she was strong, better or worse, see in today's article, a lot talking about her role in the situation room as potentially the biggest hawk on that team, obama administration. bob, you think that can be asset or detriment? >> favor going after osama bin laden and killing him, a big asset. i think the sanctions on iran were a big asset. they have led to talks which may give us a kind offalment, just like the one we may be seeing in geneva today with the russians. the one thing i think is that americans in 2016 are not going to focus in on my view on parsing hillary clinton's state department record unless there was something wrong with that >> i agree with that >> they will see her as a big, significant figure. >> double edged sort of the state department in general that we see too little attention paid when there's substance going on and too much politics. turn to the other side of the 2016 equation, sam, one very vocal opponent of clinton's is texas senator ted cruz and new

fund-raising numbers out showing he is not raising anything near the kind of cash he was last year. what do you think that that says about the tea party right now? >> well, two things. his persona was elevated during the government shutdown and led to donations in, in part, because his team tried piggyback on his role in the shutdown to get the donation. two you see the republican party around the republican infrastructure, the conservative infrastructure, is far more focused right now on 2014 midterm races. and for good reason. they are coming up sooner. we are not 900 to 1,000 days away from the 2016 race, the money people are going toward those races, those campaigns, people lining ted cruz are going to suffer from it. he doesn't have the grassroots infrastructure that ron paul and rand paul v so he has got to figure out a way to generate more interest and more money, assuming it will come over time. >> rand small one of those figures outpacing him right now partly just a natural consequence of when each of these people is up for

re-election. one other news beat on the right-wing side is chris christie posting a unique instagram, obviously today, big news, there was a selfie with the president, everyone is running that, white house spokesperson jay carney said that today captures the moment that captures the relationship between christie and you the vice president. this was following on the president and vice president posting a selfie, referring to to, that made the rounds. both quite adorable pictures, what do you think, guys? bob, the tool of the future? do you think we will see instagram as a campaign tool? >> we will see everything as a campaign tool. we have learned that. twitter is a huge campaign tool. i mean, ten years ago -- >> potentially a nightmare for candidates, am i right? scrutinized. >> you know what, there is no private moment. there's no moment when you're in the limb show it is not going to be recorded, no moment in a room, as romney found out with 47%, when you can just say what you want and think that it's just for that room. it's for the whole world. >> a hard slog ahead for the

candidates. up next on the program, nbc's anne thompson bring us the very inconvenient truth about where much of our trash ends up. it's one of your picks for the underreported story this week. don't go away.

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the technology is actually creating new jobs. siemens designed and built the right tools and resources to get the job done. welcome back to "rs daily" where ask and you shall receive. last week, you told us you wanted to know about trash floating in our ocean, your choice for the most underreported story out there today, we are going to bring it to you this problem really high lated lately in the search for the missing malaysia airlines flight 370 which has been hampered by the vast amount of trash that people keep spotting in the indian ocean n this single satellite image of the search alone, about 300 floating objects found in that ocean, none of which have been linked to the plain. and what about what's happening beneath the sur signals there's certainly more to this than

meeting the eye. joining me is anne thompson, nbc's chief environmental affairs correspondent. anne, thank you for being here. >> sure. >> how big is this problem? >> it is a really big problem. what you can see is the least of the properblem. it is estimated that 20% of the trash in the ocean are big things that we can see, debris from fishing vessels or cargo containers that fall off of ships. the real danger are those piece is pieces of plastic made up what they call the garbage patches in the various oceans. >> we have all seen this kind of debris floating, in the streets. >> but that's not it it is the small, like, confetti pieces, because they get into the food chain. >> the packing that you ship things in? >> exactly. the plastic bags, your plastic bottles, they can stay in the ocean for literally decades but broken down into these tiny pieces that fish eat them, birds eat them and that hurts them a lot. in particular, the albatross on midway island, their chicks are

starving and they are dehydrated because their parents pick up pieces of plastic and feed them to the chicks thinking they're the food that they should be eating. >> one of these problems that will not go away and what we do now is going to have repercussions for generations? >> absolutely. >> what can people do? >> a couple of things, first of all, recycle. that's very important. and also, vote with your pocketbook. use -- buy items that have less packaging. we want to urge manufacturers to use less packaging, 'cause less packaging there is, the less waste there s >> i hope that message gets heard. thank you so much, anne thompson. really appreciate it. >> take care. >> so that's one of the stories that you wanted to know more about all week, we have been asking to you submit more suggestions for the underreported story you want covered next. topics you brought up more in the next poll is gerrymandering, whether it makes politics more partisan, the link between prescription drugs and drug abuse and whether america's new trade partnerships are helping or hurting us. go to our website and take our underreported stories poll and

we will cover the winning story. up next, why the struggle against obesity is much bigger every day. and what we can all do to fight it. josh barrow joins with a very personal call to action. [ female announcer ] who are we? we are the thinkers. the job jugglers. the up all-nighters. and the ones who turn ideas into action. we've made our passions our life's work. we strive for the moments where we can say, "i did it!" ♪ we are entrepreneurs who started it all... with a signature. legalzoom has helped start over 1 million businesses, turning dreamers into business owners. and we're here to help start yours.

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children increased over the past 14 years. 17% of children and 35% of adults, are now obese, causing skyrocketing health care costs, costing the country billions. here for a take on the poll saint personal stakes is josh a bar row, "new york times" correspondent and msnbc correspondent. appreciate you being here, josh. >> sure. >> now you had a very personal journey with this issue? >> yeah. >> there's a picture of you there. >> yeah. >> you were very game in bringing on your old pictures. >> yeah. >> obviously, you have had a radical lifestyle change. >> sure. >> what triggered that? >> one of these people where if i don't pay a ton of attention to what i it's and how i'm exercising, i would be very overweight. at my peak, i was 250 pounds and 5'10". i was 25, just gotten out of a relationship and taking stock in my life, what could i do to make myself happier and frankly more marketable and really committed to losing weight. what i found is actually losing weight is very simple.

>> many pictures of you before and after the. >> oh, great. yeah. the before pictures, that's great. so like, you eat fewer calories and you burn more of them, you lose weight. not to say it's easy but like, the things are actually very difficult in order to do that, but once i decided to put a lot of effort into that, it was pretty easy to figure out what to do >> on a policy side what needs to be done there skyrocketing costs, $190 billion on obesity-related health care costs, is the white house doing enough? is the let's move program substantive enough, for instance? >> well, think some parts of that have been quite good. particularlying the efforts related to children and nutrition in schools. you can get the children early and frankly, you can be a little more paternalistic toward children because they are children and you can tell them what to eat, you get to chrome the menu of what's severed in schools. i think mike bloomberg has done some of the most, aggressive and useful stuff on this here in new york but the thing is a lot of the things did he were very controversial because it was nanny state stuff, prohibiting certain kinds of products. >> barring the soda, big gulps.

>> first the ban on transfats and before, it was with food, it was with smoking and i think at the time, when he banned smoking in bars and restaurants, people at first were very up in arms about it afterward, people in the city felt pretty good about and became more open to sort of similar interventions on food. the question is can you take that national? i think there has been backlash from the right and several quarters that michelle obama is trying to tell you what to eat. certainly, couldn't do a mike bloomberg-style intervention at the national level. >> there has been blowback from some democrats about cuts to the food stamp program included in the recent farm bill what do you make of those? >> well, so the food stamp cuts themselves were really small. like the cut is $8 billion, which sounds like a lot of money but out of a program that is $760 billion over ten years. so really, the food stamp program is substantially similar before and after the changes. that said, i think there is a strong thought the allotment was too low to begin with. you have three options with food, food that is tasty,ed into

is healthy and food that is cheap and signed any two of those three things trial, shop on a limited budget it is difficult to find food that is good four and tastes good a part of why you see higher obesity rates among the food insecure around people with lower incomes than the general population. so, if you had programs that made it easier for people to afford food and to afford high-quality food, likely to see health improve. >> what we are seeing around the country, responses we have been getting, reporting this story here in the boroughs, very poor, heavily obese communities, people are actually they say, feeling the loss of some food stamp benefits. see how it plays out politically. thank you, josh. appreciate it. up next, the wizards behind two of the most popular immersive video games explain why it's only a matter of time before "rf daily" becomes "vr daily." that's up next. my way ♪ ♪ i got a lock on equities ♪ that's why i'm type e ♪ ♪ that's why i'm tyyyyype eeeee, ♪

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be making headlines, video games. here's why it matters. gamers in the u.s. spent more than $15 billion on video games in 2013 alone. that is $4.5 billion more than hollywood brought in from the box office. but even as games are taking over our living rooms and our bedrooms, they continue to stir controversy, especially about the violent contempt and bloody hits like "call of duty" and "grand theft auto". a long list of legislators pushed crackdowns on game sales and content, including at the time, senator hillary clinton. a new oxford university study is reigniting questions about whether violent video games make people violent. this latest study says no, finding, "that, aggressive thoughts and actions don't come from violent contents in games. instead, it's being bad at playing difficult games that gives rise to real-world aggression." i think we have all been through that moment of frustration. then that's argument that video games can be art. museums from the smithsonian to

the metropolitan museum of art have added games to their collections, both showcased the game you see now the iconic 1939 adventure game "myst" and review of one of last year's critical darlings, "bioshock infinite" called it moving and said it is confirmation in the hands of the right creators video, games are the most sophisticated form not just of interactive entertainment but multimedia storytelling which brings me to "myst" creator rand miller. explain to the person at home who has never touched a video game, has a vague sense maybe their kid played one why are video games more than just toys? >> it's all about the interaction. you can sit and watch a movie or read a book but it feels like you're getting somebody else's story. you interact with it you get to play the game, it feels like the area of one who gets to tell the story afterwards that's powerful. really powerful >>. >> something i found powerful,

people of my generation organically hard to wrap their behind minds around it less familiar. ken, what about this question about games, incredibly sharp writer, your games have moved me, made me laughed, made me think. as a creator what draws to you the medium of games? >> i think what's unique about them and i think what your other guest was saying was that the player is part of the experience and they are not just a passive participant. one of my favorite things to watch is to -- people sometimes now put cameras on themselves when they are playing games, a very popular thing to do and to watch their level of engagement interaction and watch their face and watch them try to suss out their feelings and their experience. you don't really have that in any kind of media and it's because the gamer's part of it, they are part of the creative process, because they are there making an experience. that's quite uniquely their own. >> that also makes it maybe a more powerful tool and it does raise the question of the police of violence in games, they are

very stimulating, more powerful in the ways you just described. rand, you are famous for blazing trails and making non-violence games. "myst" has no combat in it exploring an environment, telling a story through things you discover the environment. what do you think about the role of violence in games? >> it's tool, the same way as in movies. i think that what we are trying to do in interactive the same thing you try to do in any meeting, evoke some emotion and violence is sometimes an easy way to do that. ken does some amazing stuff, he has some violent video games, love them, ken, but he also tells additional stories, tries to dig a little deeper, these the goal of trying to push interactive a little further. >> one reason i wanted to get ken's take on it, your games are hyper violent at times but full of very complex characters, full of deep historical research, full of very sharp social commentary. do you worry during your preyatetive process about including more violence and think you worry more or less by virtue of the medium being interactive? >> i think that there's a long

history of -- i think as rand said, part of our tool kit, it's been part of our tool kit since sophocles, part of our tool kit since shakespeare, part of our tool kit since let's be honest, its 20th century with comic books and movies and those came in every time there's a new medium, people who don't have the experience of playing them as they grew up, they don't know what to make of them, they find them confusion and a bit alienating. >> like albums when rock and roll was new, right? >> when the novel came out, it was scandalous, people thought, you know, women were reading novels and become unfaithful to their husbands. >> ken, i am still scandalized by the novel. still scandalized. >> still scandalized to this day. there's an issue of literacy meaning when people -- the novel came out, not everybody could read a book, not lit rat. the same wake not everybody can use a controller, they've

literacy problem, can't directly engage with the medium, they can't understand it. >> what about this political blow back that games sometimes get. do you think games get used a as scapegoat? >> sure, yeah, everybody is looking for a reason, somebody to blame for violence and it's easy. i mean, it's gonna continue to be easy and i think it's -- whether it's true, you know, remains to be seen, it's true if somebody says it's true and but the point is, i think of all this ken sake the same thing, we both like to see this industry continue to mature. i mean, these tools that we have at our disposal are incredible and it feels like it's still in the infancy. we want to draw emotion out of people. we want to move them and touch them, make them think about the world around them, ought things that moviemakers wanted to do and in its early days and we are trying all kinds of different things, an experiment. >> your game, "bioshock" a, a huge mainstream hit was a story about a libertarian society went horribly awry, an underwater city massive real lation leads

to everything including air being hocked on the wait. what is your take on rand paul being a presidential front-runner? >> it was fun to take, you know, sorter of took ayn rand and put her in real life, a character named andrew ryan in this utopian city, or dystopian city. what's fun about it, we really tried to explore the intersection of ideology and reality and how those sort of -- what happens when those two things actually interact. when you write a novel, those things, you're a fan of the ideology, those things don't necessarily line up perfectly, trying to make a more honest take on that. i think like all politicians, when ideology lines up with reality, they always have -- face different challenges they might think they are going to fair, that was the fun of the experiment we have of bioshock. >> a big economic force, a big entertainment force and a big emotional presence in a lot of people's lives, clear late a turning point. thank you, both of you. stick around, we are going to be looking at virtual reality in our heroes and zeroes today. we will find out why it's stirring controversy, up next. ♪

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i'm here with rand miller and getting their take on tech heroes and zeros. first up, what happens when you like a brand on facebook, say, general mills? who's liking general mills on facebook? i do like cheerios. what do you give up? how about your legal rights? well, the maker of cereals like cheerios and bet i crocker added language to their website saying it revokes your right to sue and forces you into private arbitration. arbitration clauses are standard issue for contracts. for a facebook like, for that we're getting the cheerios guys a zero. in other tech news, a virtual reality headset that literally lets you live out 3-d

environments. just yesterday "rolling stone" declared the device could, quote, change entertainment as we know it. it's been dogged by controversy. here's why. the device is created through crowd bundling, mostly paid by enthusiastic gamers who hoped it would innovate that medium. the device's maker was acquired by facebook for a cool $2 million. but they're just going where the capital is, and that could be good for everyone. in addition to gaming, they could have more serious applications like treating ptsd. so for doing what it takes to stand up, i'll give them a tentative hero. randall, what do you think? you've had a kick starter project that potentially had an oculus rift component. >> that's tricky business. crowd funding, it's so new. there's a part of me that could

go either way. money talks, and everybody wants big, cool, immersive experiences. but if you're part of the ground floor of that thing, i put my five bucks on that and they get $2 billion, i'm going to feel a little shafted. >> what do think, ken? what do you think the broader implications of virtual reality are? >> yeah, i think there is always that barrier of people getting comfortable, like wearing the headset and getting comfortable having their actual sort of reality around them taken away. i think at the end of the day when you think where we're eventually going, i think a complete immersive place is a real goal. whether this is the solution for that, or allow you to physically move and engaged makes that a target. >> do you think it will lead to more acceptance or less? it's dopey looking. people were saying oculus rift,

what is that? so when you look at, for instance, the political blowback on the hill, do you think more of that will come with the advent of virtual reality and the funky new tech advances? >> i think that it's hard to say. because i think the people who are on the hill right now are still -- i don't think a helmet will make in i difference on their view on games. it's not going to make them easier to engage or less easy to engage for them. i think it's about kids coming up, and you watch a little kid pick up an ipad and use it and understand it, because their brains are still forming. that's really the generation i'm thinking about. even when we were kids, it wasn't that popular to play games. i'm a little older than you. but i think it's going to be part of people's lives eventually. the opportunity to speak to people is going to be much broader in the generations that are coming, than the people who are already sort of made up their minds. >> you say it wasn't that popular. it's still going to get me teased after the show.

the control room is already snickering. appreciate both of your insights appreciate it. thank you all for joining me. now it is time for t"the red repor report". are you wearing a reality head-set? >> not yet. but i want one. and don't knock a nerdy time. that is the best time. coming up next on "the reid report," immigration is the issue that won't go away. that doesn't mean anything is getting done. how a new spat between president obama and house majority leader eric cantor is making things even messier, if you can believe it. then, bernie unplugged. bernie sanders said he figured out the agenda of the koch brothers. and he said, be very afraid. "the reid report" starts minutes from now. t as you used to, which is funny, because i still do it better than her. [ afi ] i do not like sweeping. it's a little frustrating. [ zach ] i can't help out as much as i used to. do you need help? let's open it up.

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happy thursday. this is "the reid report." i'm joy reid. our top story today, ukraine and shocking targets advanced by secretary of state john kerry, today, of anti-semitism directed toward jewish ukrainians. >> just in the last couple of days, notices were sent to jews in one city, indicating that they have to identify themselves as jews. >> we'll discuss those charges, as well as possibilities for peace in the region. the latest on the south korean ferry disaster where hundreds are missing. we'll have the latest on the search and rescue operation. later, senator kathleen sebeli sebelius? a report in "the new york times" suggest the embattled outgoing hhs secretary just maybe will run against the gop incumbent this year. is it smart?

we start with the talks that many believe have very little chance of giving a peaceful resolution to the crisis in ukraine. nbc has not confirmed reports of pro-russian supporters passing out leaflets in one eastern city. kerry said it demanded jews identify themselves as jews, with the implied threat that otherwise they would suffer the consequences. >> year 2014, after all of the miles traveled and all of the journey of history, this is not just intolerable, it's grotesque. it is beyond unacceptable. >> kerry's remarks today followed ominous ones by russian president vladimir putin in a televised q&a in moscow. putin called eastern ukraine new russia, reminding