he was an internet prodigy and a fearless advocate for cyber freedoms today the family and friends of radek hope reader aaron swartz laid him to rest party was there and will bring you or port in a minute. another storm is brewing over seventy days after hurricane sandy wreaked havoc on the eastern seaboard house republicans are getting ready for round two of sandy sandy aid talks what the bill entails and why it's taking so long to pass coming up. and what can only be described as an editorial flub the gray lady may reveal her true colors when it comes to the decades old dispute over the west

bank what a simple headline might say about it in bias in the new york times office ahead. it's tuesday january fifteenth eight pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wahl and you're watching our t.v. . well today family and friends laid to rest young man who helped make the answer not what it is today aaron swartz is remembered for his dedication to a free and open internet but he was haunted by a federal case in which prosecutors called for extremely stiff sentences and his death a new debate has emerged about government and prosecutorial overreach are the producer many rob lowe is in chicago today with a look at. relatives friends activists and several alternative voices arrive together on

a somber note at central avenue synagogue in chicago to pay their respects to an internet pioneer aaron swartz who at the age of twenty six took his own life sorts was co-founder of the online publication reddit and demand progress and was an influential figure in his own right a passionate activist and a web freedom fighter he rallied for an open and accessible internet a point his supporters have vowed that they'll continue to champion one of the most important tools to creating more democratization is making things more transparent and so if we can make information more transparent it's obviously a success for everyone out there erin was facing allegations and indictment on thirteen counts including wire fraud and computer fraud psychologist and supporter dr jean backman who came to highland park to pay respect to aaron's family suggest that the behavior of federal prosecutors was nothing short of bullying if you look at the definition of terrorism it is to inspire terror and this man

a young man and his family were literally terrorized by the prosecutors and the judicial discretion that let this case go forward and not stop despite the cold weather activists and supporters arrived by the dozens agreeing that aaron did pose a threat not to justice certainly not to national security but rather a threat to the status quo. the idea that he was facing decades in jail is just disgusting absolutely appalling and and now we've lost a tremendously valuable and talented human being it's just it's so tragic rumors circulated of protest outside of the funeral the police on scene only heavy hearted supporters here to bit a final goodbye and to remember aaron for his work and activism even the genius you know you put in on the steve jobs level you played him on the mark zuckerberg level

you put him on a john lennon level you know and he was a great kid with a good heart to do something good for the world in chicago illinois and it up with our team. from our producer andrew blake joined us earlier from chicago i first asked him about the mood there. obviously quite somber but what if there's one big take away from from today's today's funeral was that aaron was not a somber person fact he was a very very caring and one thing that we kept hearing time and time again during the funeral was that he was completely selfless he was someone who always looked out for others and that's why he was such an advocate for a free and open internet because he wanted to share information with others and you know today you know right here at the synagogue we saw hundreds of people packets to recall someone and you know it was it was quite emotional there were there were tears at times but there was also a tremendous amount of laughter as people recall this is a loving caring individual who who's seriously spent half of his life more than

that working to make sure that other people had access to to information and to the internet who really revolutionized the community now and how do you think that his death will and impact the issues that swartz stood for like internet freedom. right now we can say that this is at least getting people talking and it's under terrible circumstances it really shouldn't take the death of a twenty six year old man to get people to analyze what is wrong with computer laws in this country electronic communications privacy act is very very flawed if you ask many advocates of privacy and if you look at the computer fraud and abuse the very legislation that aaron himself was accused of violating. you can ask people from any sort of sphere you know what do you think of it and you know sure there's going to be parts of it they're there for a reason but when when you have the massachusetts attorney general trying to

prosecute someone like erin who was only trying to share information and to share knowledge it's incredibly unfortunate and that was something that was really driven home today at the funeral and everyone who came up to offer eulogies said something something has to change the united states government can no longer be making martyrs out of hackers because right now you know a friend of mine just recently said that at this point in time it seems like as far as the hacking community goes martyrs are the chief export of the united states government because there is no there is no celebrating them in the eye of washington there is still this this misconception character assassination that people who go on computers and do things that are understandable to others are doing it for harm and for no good and you like we saw here today hundreds and hundreds of people gathered to celebrate erin is someone who always put every single person else above above himself he was constant looking for ways to better

the community to better society and to better the world and hopefully that change is going to continue it by finally revamping some legislation that exists right now that you know more than enough people will tell you are rather invalid and you know erin's father himself actually before the funeral finished this morning air. father said you know aaron didn't commit suicide but was killed by the government and he was very passionate about you know. that his son took his own life but but seeing that it. wasn't really aaron's depression in his opinion that did him in but it was more or less the persecution of prosecution of a government that just miss understands legislation and is only looking to make an example out of people. of course suicide suicide cases can be very complex and we heard it the way that aaron's family is reacting to this blaming the government for for what instigated him to take his own life alternately

aside from his family how are people over there viewing the prosecution's role in this. i'm sorry can you can you repeat the last question to me how are people there viewing the prosecution's role in the death aaron swartz. ok i'm sorry thank you you know it's not just this family who is saying that that that the department of justice in the massachusetts attorney general's office had a role in this tim berners lee who actually invented the world wide web as we know it he was here today and was championing for the community there and so much was a part of and loved to to to make changes so that this doesn't happen any longer erin partner tara. just after ten o'clock this morning and she was saying that in aaron's final days he seemed. almost like he couldn't fight anymore

she said he just seemed tired and asked how long is this going to go on for it wasn't just his family but it was people close to him his peers and his colleagues in the circle of information activists and online communities who really feel at least for from the testimonies that i've heard from people that you know this wasn't just a list of selfish suicide but this was someone who simply couldn't take the weight of the federal government hurting them and you know i can't dear dear understand what it would be like to be an errand she was facing thirty five years in a federal penitentiary only for trying to help people but it's definitely something that it's not just this family recognizes and hopefully we will see change because of this but unfortunately it's under such terrible circumstances all right and i really appreciate you staying on top of this story over there in chicago that was producer andrew blake. just moments ago the house of representatives passed a piece of legislation aimed at providing relief to victims of hurricane sandy but

the fifty billion dollars bill didn't pass without a fight lawmakers have been embroiled in a bitter battle over several pet projects that have made their way into the emergency plan including billions of dollars of earmarks unrelated to helping the actual victims of the hurricane so why is it so hard to pass legislation that would help those desperately in need some to break this all down i was joined earlier today by michael brooks producer of the majority report he began by explaining how the emergency relief bill turned political. i think you're seeing another opportunity here for republican grandstanding about the budget and it's really unfortunate you know this is a these funds need to be appropriated here in new york city there are definitely sections of new york new jersey that are not recovered at all people are really suffering

a lot of these funds are actually really essential and really needed immediately to get people back on their feet and there's also a disturbing pattern of using. bills like this that are really essential or on another skill actually raising the debt ceiling which is also pretty essential to kind of score political points about. congressional people may or may or may not like about the budget so it's pretty disheartening to watch and it's definitely grounds for pretty major concern now michael i want to break down some of the specifics of this bill that has done quite complicated fifty billion dollars for hurricane relief aid this has been broken down seventeen billion dollars as bare bones package thirty three point seven billion dollar amendment that allows fema to make disaster aid grants based on estimated damage costs and it also allows famous have fun limited repairs on homes and also

streamline the environmental review process so how will the money in this bill be doled out a will it go directly to people who have lost their homes and businesses. well you know unfortunately there's going to be a lot of bureaucracy observes of how this money's delivered i think in the first build it seems to be less controversial the first seventeen billion those are very immediate things like getting people home home heating you know don't forget it's very cold part of the country here you're talking about senior citizens that don't have heat things like that so it won't go directly into people's private pockets but i think it will be pretty easily sort of streamlined in terms of availability for people to get funds for things like that in the longer term in terms of collecting insurance on houses or businesses or things like that that tends to be a more arduous and complicated process. and you know there's

a lot of brocker see there's a lot of different things that people have to deal with and you know you still see people from previous disasters still waiting on claims and disputing how much money they've received to compensate for their losses in those areas it gets a lot more problematic meanwhile a lot of controversy in this bill a big debate going on about the billions of dollars of pet projects that are sneaking its way into this bill can you talk about this practice and how it's affecting the ability for lawmakers to reach a consensus. well i think it's important to make a couple of distinctions with that i mean this is always happens and it is a problem i mean there was odd supplementals on iraq and afghanistan war funding you know. funding for people to build museums or do different things in their district there's nothing new about this. on the other hand i think that there are

much bigger more structural issues in terms of how we spend our money in terms of the types of systemic or part subsidies we give out something with the oil industry as an example how we deal with revenues and taxes that are actually a lot more fundamental than these projects even though they can and often are a problem but in this bill what you see is you see a republican party which is more and more out of the northeast using a bill that will not really affect their constituents because they're not the receiving end of this emergency to kind of extract political wins so in this case it's there's some legitimate issues being raised but it's really cautious in terms of how it's being applied and whether it's being applied and if you look into some of the republican members who are blocking this money now they've certainly been. active here markers themselves they've certainly got out and gotten

this type of funding for their districts themselves even in an emergency situation . fewer than even a non-emergency situations so you know i would kind of be wary about people having a sort of holier than thou moment about this funding particularly now given the severity of the situation and raising the question that you know people are using this bell for political gain when it's an emergency bill and there's people that are in desperate need of this funding. that's exactly right and i do want to say a lot of times of a lot of amendments where with such a controversial bill like this being debated on the floor it's not expand expected for a vote until later this evening so could it change significantly by the final vote i doubt it i think it will pass mostly in its current form again actually because

of the things that we're already talking about you know favors are going to be owed favors are going to be pursued i also think the other variable to keep in mind is that you know chris christie the governor of new jersey is definitely the most popular republican nationally and i think if he comes out again gives more statements like he did a couple weeks ago really taking the republican leadership the task in services how they're dealing with this bill and they don't want to deal with that type of thing again so i think that this will probably grow through but it's already been for too long and it's already been held the way longer than it should have been to begin with and i think you know again if you where i am in the city where i live and work it's no problem but if you go to staten island rockaways a lot of people are still living in really even dangerous and very conditions and they need the money now right michael appreciate you coming on our next reporter actually takes a look at this very concern that was michael brooks he is

a producer for the majority report thank you. so with all the talk of relief efforts residents affected by the hurricane are wondering and or when help will arrive two and a half months since hurricane sandy ravaged the eastern seaboard many are still struggling to pick up the pieces are as a correspondent in a stuffy a chair going to have traveled to some of the areas hardest hit by the superstorm she reports how some are finding it harder to keep up the hope with each passing day. so you would just beach area. the rockaways in queens one of the places hit hardest by hurricane sandy two and a half months ago still in shambles today miles and miles of devastated businesses residential buildings and houses like this one a place some family probably used to call home now almost literally hanging by

a thread with almost zero chance of ever being rebuilt a few locals on the collapsed boardwalk most of them in dire need of help this man who chose to remain anonymous to government related work survived hurricane katrina his hopes of recovery post sandy are meager they never going to move you still go parts of alabama louisiana mississippi where they got hit with katrina other areas they've been touched yet after sandy hit and lead october he spent over a month with no electricity heat or hot water and thirty degree weather raymer three times i feel the creation of three times our guts or politicians have their per hour. the folks here that put him in office the least on alias money looks better in your pocket then is spending it on something that may get washed away again i had to replace my. hot water heater retard local roberta harf currently

rebuilding her walls floors and stairs says the destruction after the hurricane has been immense we don't have a movie theater we don't have the hospital it's called the banks and finally opening now it's two and a half months it looks like here as after a war or after no in afghanistan or something. and most of the help in hurricane affected areas has come from volunteers i didn't see too much of the red cross to be true. it was volunteers who have often been affected by sandy themselves like a man you said from staten island actually it was like a foot on top of it that's how much it was the water his house deemed unsafe after the hurricane is about to be demolished the only think we need is the plants the fund is not there to get help you know we we get in like two percent where we're going to get the ninety percent that's a mystery we need a check from god that's what we for a month and a half a man lived in this tent where he also set up a help center for the community somewhere a lot of people coming here still

a lot six seven hundred people. i day six seven hundred yes yes. all of these people victims of sandy everybody around here from go up to them they'll tell you the same thing they said you know they handed me a sandwich and a blanket and i was in water up to my chest and they said hey see you later oh by the way i want to exit the truck occupy sandy a child of the occupy wall street movement has been a big part of the recovery effort to even praised by the n.y.p.d. what we have is a lot of people coming in here and not knowing where to turn and some of them are in tears and you know it's very hard to tell them that help is coming and you hear all this talk about that the nine billion if you want to think that would be a big help it. actually got to communities while politicians seem to have perfected the skill of arguing over how much cash to spend on relief aid getting money and help to ordinary people who needed right now is clearly a skill that is yet to be learnt just as you are new york.

so out here on our t.v. is a real lobby might have found another recruit to promote its message coming up next how a misprint by the new york times mayor of deal more about the paper's bias as the gray lady wants to admit. let me let me we're going to let me ask you a point. here on this network is what we're having the debate we have our night show. me proof you this time it was the right thing

there to get here it is the way we're being i don't want you to talk about theory let me. we turn now to a new york times article raising eyebrows because of the type you can see here coming up there it is. it's a screenshot of when the article originally appeared on its website on january eleventh it reads palestinians set up camps in israeli occupied west bank but later that evening that title change the new one reads palestinian set of tents where israel plans homes this is all captured by a website called news diffs dot org we reached out to the new york times asking why the change of title we haven't gotten a response yet the story is about how two hundred palestinians are setting up tents

in an israeli occupied west bank territory called e one the group has announced they plan on establishing a village there called bubble sheldon's earlier i was joined by even else i had co-founder of existences resistance i asked him if he thought this was simply a mistake made by the new york times or if it was something more. i don't believe it's based on space and editing i believe it's the it's a clear bias against the palestinians the new york times has a history of being values towards a palestinian and being in support of israel i mean this area that israel has called it one is. on palestinian private property in the west bank israel is planning on building illegal settlements on the sill and internationally the whole world recognizes the west bank as occupied territory occupied by israel the new york times went ahead and change the headline six hours after originally putting it up and it showed as

a clear bias towards the palestinians and in favor of israel. and i do want to be fair and mention that the term israeli occupied the term that was used in that title and then removed that is used in the actual body of the article so. does that not negate these accusations of a bias or what do you think i don't begin to get the bias because the headline is what attracts people to read the article it's that stands out it's what it's the headline it's a headline or so and it's not just this issue the new york times has a troubling history of being biased for example their former chief youthen broner his son served in the israeli defense forces and there's really army which was actively occupying palestinian lands bombing the gaza strip shooting at human rights activists in the west bank the bureau chief is son was was an idea while he was a bro chief in jerusalem that's a major conflict of interest that the new york times refused to change his assignment at least temporarily until the sun is out of the army they refused to do

that how can you be objective when your son is an army that's occupying palestinian land and territory and killing palestinians on a daily basis how can he be to borrow chief in jerusalem with this conflict of interest right that case that you referred to. new york times got gotten a lot of heat because of that do you think it's taking taken adequate steps since then to. maybe that not not at all as we saw with this recent change in the headlines and they refused to move them boners position at least temporarily and the other thing i'd like to point out is that the new york times office in jerusalem is actually built on a palestinian home of palestinians who were kicked out of their homes in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight in jerusalem that house at the new york times purchased in one thousand nine hundred four in west jerusalem belong to the economy family there a palestinian family that lived in jerusalem before you were expelled by israeli terrorist militias in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight so they purchased a house that's built on top of palestinian homes and they've acknowledged this is

not a hidden information they've acknowledged that they purchased did they tried to it's ambiguous what their response has been they tried to say we purchased the house from whoever sold it to us but they acknowledge that it was palestinian and that the people the palestinians who owned it should have the right to determine who owns that house who built on top of the original house and is still occupying this house so this is a lot of conflict of interest of the new york times when it comes to palestine there occupying the palestinian home their former bro chief his son it was served in israeli forces while he was abroad chief and now we and now with this headline and as well if you read the new york times on a daily basis they just take the israeli statements as fact when israel bombs the area and says oh we killed ten terrorists the new york times just prints it as a fact it doesn't say allegedly or it doesn't say israel calls them terrorists it just says israel bomb ten militants killed ten militants with out what having reporters on the ground in gaza to to actually see if it's factual or not without

having reporters in the west bank the majority of the reporters for the new york times are stationed in tel aviv and israeli areas in jerusalem so they're not objective at all when it comes to rick reporting the occupation of palestine so clearly you see the new york times as biased when it comes to be israeli palestinian conflict do you think that they're unique and that. no not they're not new nique and dumb along with other newspapers based in new york and newspapers in the united states have a major bias when it comes to our foreign policy in palestine as well as in other countries whether it's iraq syria afghanistan or pakistan there's a major bias where our newspapers are not being object do we just siding with whatever the government says journalism is supposed to be objective you cover a story you hear both sides and you report the facts you don't report the one side as facts and ignore the other side and this is a major problem going on in this misinforming our fellow citizens in this country i

would like to make it related to the topic you were talking about before with hurricane sandy we give israel billions of dollars yearly and we're not able to pass a bill to give money to our fellow citizens in new york or new jersey who were affected by hurricane sandy who have lost their home and still have no power why is it that we can't provide help to our own people but we giving billions to israel and this is a major problem and i believe the media plays a part in this misinformation misinforming americans about the foreign policy in our support of israel and make it look like it's necessary for our security that we have to support the occupation of palestine necessary. we can definitely keep this conversation going but we are unfortunately are to at a time really appreciate you coming on the show. a co-founder of existence is resistance well these days when you hear t.s.a. when you think about a big hassle at the airport some passengers have found their searches to be too close for comfort. please. leave

your daughter was blind as no fly i said excuse me it's absurd my life is pretty much in their hands when i walk their bodies together with mine from the pump on she was right to be weary the pump stopped working just her job but. she and i meet each actually your. touch my very much like the you know your group i believe your life you know you do they're here to test my joint going to have your rest. but you'd be surprised what they found during their searches some of their best finds are of two thousand and twelve are detailed on t.s.a. his blog. this here is a bag of eels confiscated from a passenger in miami the t.s.a. says from time to time passengers try to sneak on marine life and if something seems off about this next photo here about this watch that's because it is meant to look like a bomb.