you know bamma administration's relationship with the press is still on shaky ground as more details out about the d.o.j. phone tracking of journalists there is talk of how the changes can be made to protect the process we'll have an in-depth look at the continuing concerns ahead and during the memorial day weekend there were protests against months and around the globe thousands voiced their demands for genetically modified food to be labeled and among other ways to ensure food safety updates when the protest from new york and l.a. coming your way all conflicts still rages in syria the nation received a surprise visit senator john mccain made a quick trip to the war in torn country meeting with rebel fighters with the assad regime so will the u.s. soon arm the rebels look at this issue later.

well it's tuesday may twenty eighth eight pm in washington d.c. i'm margaret how are you watching r t. and information content used to emerge regarding the department of justice keeping tabs on journalist and just who approved of those investigations into who journalists communicate with via phone and email well more than three weeks ago news broke that the department of justice seized phone records of the associated press reporters to find out who had leaked national security information then it came to light that fox white house correspondent james rosen was facing charges as a coconspirator under the espionage act for obtaining classified information from a state department source back in two thousand and nine president obama said that he would he was in trusting attorney general eric holder to look into the matter take a listen journalists should not be at legal risk for doing their jobs our focus must

be on those who break the law and that's why i've called on congress to pass a media shield law to guard against government overreach and i've raised these issues with the attorney general who shares my concern the president said the attorney general would have a report on the matter by july the twelfth however holder was the same person who approved of the seizing of fight fox white house correspondent james rosen's phone records and e-mails in the first place were reported to holder's own decisionmaking ought to be an interesting read so what does all this mean in terms of the future of the freedom of the process with me to discuss this earlier from new york with michael brooks producer of the majority report i started out by asking him if having eric holder probing his own decisions at the justice department is working out for anyone. look it seems incredibly funny the notion the holder would be investigating himself usually in situations like this you my let go

of somebody like attorney general holder who'd been involved in making these really controversial decisions and find someone either new in his place or at least independent to investigate it so it's a strange process but how that looks practically margaret is it looks like a p.r. effort to me there's articles on holder being anguished and upset about his decision making process. and sort of focus on renewing the ministrations brand as being committed to a free press and free speech that's what it looks like practically so for you know i agree with you there michael cera i don't know if you caught holder on his hearing on may fifteenth in front of the house judiciary committee but he indicated then the his department along with his advisers will begin exploring ways to reform the justice department's internal guidelines for investigating these leaks and the quote safeguard overly intrusive tactics as he called it what do you make of this

measure and do you think it's too little too late. well i mean of course it's too late because of several cases like this and really a broader culture how this administration has dealt with leaking and it's and it's really important to be clear about this it's not that they're tough on leaking per se they're tough on the leaks they don't like they've used leaks very effectively in terms of advancing their own political agenda and brands and you know all white houses do nothing specific to them obviously but they've been very tough on leaks that don't conform to what they want including just basic whistle blowing throughout the intelligence apparatus so it's definitely it's too late we'll see if it's too little i think that there are people in the administration who get these issues who care about them and you know i never want to say it's too late because you know we're too little because in the long run it really is important that we

correct these issues but it's obviously too late and we need to be apply a lot of scrutiny to this process because of their record so far it's not very promising ok michael so sounds like they're partial to a family expense not others they're having a wreck all right so new york senator chuck schumer i don't know if you caught it but he was on c.b.s.'s face the nation this weekend and he said that he's trying to create a new gang of eight to tackle these issues i want to play his clip take a listen if the government wants to go to a member of the press and say you have to divulge your sources and certain information they first have to go to would judge and that judge will impose a balancing test which is more important the government's desire to keep the information to find out who leaked the information or the flow bust freedom of the press and if we can set up these rules i think will avoid the morass you always need set rules and an independent arbiter we have neither and now. ok michael what's your take on schumer's proposal for that famous media shield law do you

think it goes far enough. well apparent that if we have to get rid of gangs in washington but whole gang of anything is enough already but look i think you know it's unclear to me what seems to happen starting out of the bush administration and continuing under the obama administration is the executive branch makes a really extreme push on something like these investigations into journalists and then washington kind of snaps to attention and says well let's codified it and put some processes around it and maybe that's better than what had been coming before but but in the process we might be losing some really essential liberties like fundamentally journalistic privilege which really should be something that is is very is taken very seriously and not really distorted so i'm not sure about schumer's proposal you know we'll see what kind of what they come up with but again i wouldn't hold your breath on it well some critics have said that the u.s.

favors aggressive journalism in other parts of the world just not here do you think there's any truth to that well i think obviously in other parts of the world where journalists are killed tortured regularly put in prison you know the united states obviously still has a very relatively free press but that said i mean obviously it really undermines our ability to go and speak about these issues abroad and you know lecture other countries frankly it's incredibly self negating and does hurt. our foreign policy when we push for that type of thing abroad i don't think there's any question about that ok well michael you're a journalist as in my and when i want to ask you about your personal experience have you seen any changes in the way sources interact with you since these revelations have come out regarding the d.o.j. . well you know i'm more in the kind of opinion analysis world but what i could say

is that you know on the program that i produce we've interviewed people like thomas drake who was an n.s.a. whistleblower on just frankly inefficiency in the n.s.a. and corrupt contracting he was viciously prosecuted so i think that there is this and i know people who are practice investigative reporting and it certainly has affected how their sources interact with them and i think more broadly it affects all of us because if information isn't freely moving and it's clamp down on we're only getting it from a limited amount of sources that have a skew in a spin that obviously affects all of us very deeply ok michael and i'm running out of time here i've got one more quick question for you do you think that holder is going to hold on until the summer i do and i think that holder. is been put in charge is own investigation and so my guess will be that unless new

things emerge eric holder is politically safe at the moment michael we've got to leave it there thank you that was michael brooks prettiest serve the majority report thanks so much. protesters from around the world took to the streets over the weekend to rally against the biotech giant mud santo and their production of genetically modified foods organizers of the march against months and to say as many as two million people march in four hundred thirty six cities in fifty two countries to raise awareness about g m o's and the companies that produce them genetically modified plants come from seeds engineered to be resistant to disease and herbicides as well as increase crop yields well u.s. food and drug administration has deemed them safe but critics say they're dangerous both to the environment and or help list very caused or of protesters to the streets here in the united states parties on a stasia churkin to bring you more from new york but first we begin our reporting in california where much of the world's fruits and vegetables are queer own roughly

a thousand people marched to los angeles r.t.s. were mogul lindo was there. traditional aspect dancers helping the the huge crowd through the streets of los angeles to speak out against monsanto and genetically modified food porn for us the sacred us to this people first of all. we see that they do not be modifying the form is missing. with the creator running for. people of all ages turned out for the march against monsanto demanding to know what exactly is going into the food supply i am a public health nurse that's my profession and i care about the public obviously and you know with all this this chemicals that are in our food even if you want to be healthy how can you and i just really feel like we have a right to know what we're eating. inside your health and environmental concerns regarding genetically engineered food demonstrators here are holding that the

street protests educate americans about the cozy relationship between government and big agriculture they claim that it's healthy for us is that there's no cancer causing agents in those seas i think that they create but do we really know that you know when they're really buying off the environmental protection agency and the food and drug administration we have people who work for months on to working for them now monsanto as come under major scrutiny for what is seen as special state privileges it's congressional lobbying arm has helped secure legal protections for genetically modified seat the supreme court even ruled in favor of months and to its battle against a small indiana farmer if they didn't know about monsanto they know now so they're going to you know what they say are they can but with the power of their money don't buy products that are g.m.o. that contained in most of this march against monsanto may not shut down the food giant but worldwide awareness of the company's reach an influence this spreading

through the streets. in los angeles in the. protesters of all ages and walks of life filled the streets of the big apple. music city one of times it was just world wide. sad people filled the streets chanting against the corporation taking. your market route well they say it's time. i was out there has been up to a giant biotech corporation. notorious for creating genetically engineered and genetically modified food. criticized for turning a blind eye and potential health consequences from g.m. most consumers around the world how many people you point and using immense lobbying powers to resist food labeling legislation in the u.s. and pushing through bills protecting its own interests you have seen the police

protect the crime bosses you see that's why you see all these laws out there protecting the big companies like the wall street i mean us i mean it's all of the service it's all about profits i mean nothing is going to change the monsanto protection act freeing the corporation from government oversight even when consumers take legal action continues to be under heavy mud santo and the government are one how could how could we all get together and change it i don't know what happens tonight when we go home. got to pass some laws write the senators people tell me that still works i need to see it to believe it standing up against the century old biotech giant these protesters demands are simple most importantly labeling modified food in the u.s. countries around the world are banning legislating and limiting the. influx of g.m.o. products into their consumer markets the united states is not doing that

right they say this has to change the consumers can make a. informed choice about what the eat and feed to their kids i'm really concerned that you know i'm being poisoned with small little farmers well and i'd like to have all my crops be organic and i'm very concerned that this is a big issue for people your age more than my age because you have children and your children are going to be genetically modified demonstrators also demand further scientific research into health consequences of eating g.m.o. products any company who has created a chemical called agent orange and has affected our vietnam veterans is now creating seeds for our food supply is a bad sign the corporate giant is heavily criticized for monopolizing agriculture throughout the world by harassing and suing farmers at home and abroad there's a few people making a lot of money and we deserve to have better than that as well as pushing foreign governments to give monsanto similar support and protection the company has in the

u.s. still concerns are high that too few people are familiar with what's going on my hope is that this event will help raise awareness among people in the united states that their government is letting them down completely letting them down we have a supreme court justice who was a lawyer for the month sent a corporation how much independence do we have really in our government with little hope that the government can stop ignoring the voices of the people protesters are set to continue fighting monsanto on their own step by step to try to impact change from the bottom. forty new york. also had here at r.c.a. senator john mccain makes a surprise visit to syria with talk of arming syrian rebels in the air so what could be the result of the u.s. supplying such our best story when we come back.

the same story doesn't make it news to somebody. no. question thank you. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you. are welcome to the big picture. the. first time of the new alert and if they should hear me a little bit. there is breaking news tonight and we are continuing to follow

the breaking news. alexander's family cry tears of the war i. think that there's. a war around oh there's a story made for a movie is playing out in real life. the turmoil in syria continues violence continues and syrian opposition continue to clash with the assad regime and the negotiations for peace stalled on both sides u.s. senator john mccain made a surprise visit to the region in order to speak with rebel forces was made on capitol hill continue to struggle with how to tackle this conflict r.t.s. political commentator sam sacks explores how looking at the past may give us some clues on how to handle the future senator john mccain snuck into syria over the

weekend to meet with rebel commanders he talked about providing them heavy arms and air support in their civil war against president assad but these aren't just empty promises since february mccain and his buddies senator lindsey graham have been pushing plans to arm the syrian rebels and last week thanks to mccain's efforts the senate foreign relations committee overwhelmingly approved legislation to do just that to arm the rebels you see mccain has taken the role of charlie wilson in this war you remember charlie wilson right here is the congressman from texas who arm twisted congress to approve billions of dollars in military support back in the one nine hundred eighty s. for the afghan mujahedeen in their fight against the soviet union hollywood made a movie about wilson and how all that military aid helped the mujahideen when it started tom hanks and julia roberts and of course we know how this movie ended or at least we know how the larger story ended and real life the mujahideen won in the united states walked away from afghanistan no longer caring about what impact the

billions of dollars in new weapons may have on the country in the years to come and then about a decade later a lot of those same forces we armed and trained in afghanistan produced this september eleventh two thousand and one. charlie wilson later said he felt guilty that congress had not stuck around to help the afghans after a decade of war as those sprinkling a bit of nation building on top of a heap of guns could lead to a sustainable peace. but really what charlie wilson and other members of congress learned is that the world changes very quickly and those who we see an advantage in arming today may be the ones turning those same arms against us tomorrow happened when we armed saddam hussein in the 1980's to you. in foreign policy over the last fifty years but here we are again with john mccain and a lot of other folks who work here convinced that the united states and its infinite wisdom wouldn't arm future enemies again and that this time there will be

no blowback but can we be so sure just today there are questions about the syrian opposition about how it's in disarray and unable to come up with a plan for a transitional government free from extremist forces and it's well known that the syrian opposition is comprised of multiple factions with multiple ideologies receiving funding from multiple different sources including roughly six thousand geodes fighting in syria with the al qaeda affiliated nusra front so how can we guarantee that lethal aid provided to the opposition doesn't end up in the hands of these extremist forces once again no one is questioning that syria is a disaster and as the death toll mounts the pressure to do something to somehow put an end to the violence mounts as well but given our history of meddling in conflicts on the other side of the world believing that more machine guns or more missile launchers or more tanks may actually bring about peace. well that's had best a hopeful belief and more than likely it's just a delusional one too and washington same sex party. well higher learning may not be

for you at least that's what new york mayor michael bloomberg thinks and weekly radio address bloomberg advise not so exceptional high school students to skip college altogether and up to learn a trade instead well as the student debt bubble reaches one trillion dollars this year in tuition continues to rise across the u.s. are these words of advice worth considering artie's meghan lopez brings us the details behind bloomberg latest comments well first new york city mayor michael bloomberg went after your cigarettes and then your supersize soda cans now he's telling soso students that college might not be worth the cost there in his weekly radio program mayor bloomberg made a push for technical and trade schools saying that the jobs they train you for pay nicely in the short run and can save your pocket from the burden of student debt and in the long run people who are going to have the biggest problem are college graduates rocket scientists if you will not at the top of the class compare

a plumber to going to harvard college being a plumber actually for the average person probably would be a better deal because you don't spend four years spending forty fifty thousand mostly chanelle income mayor bloomberg pointed out a number of arguments for technical and trade schools a decent standard of living without student debt for one along with the ability to be able to start earning money right away and a bachelor's degree does not guarantee either a job or higher wages in a tough market like this another benefit to seeking technical jobs over white collar ones employees don't have to worry about their jobs being outsourced or computerized since many of these jobs require an in person hands on approach according to mayor bloomberg it all comes down to the type of profession you're looking to get into electricians janitors and mail carriers for instance might not mean that degree in order to earn the same wages as their college educated counterparts in fact in two thousand and twelve carpentry workers who have

a bachelor's degree may have less than. those without one mayor bloomberg also pointed out that plumbers make a decent wage the median pay for plumbers is forty seven thousand dollars with the top ten percent earning around seventy nine thousand dollars a recent u.s. census bureau study might support that claim that's because only sixty two percent of people with college degrees are in a job that requires that degree and of those only twenty seven percent of them currently work in a field related to their degree meanwhile mounting student debt has concerned economists that the u.s. is on a verge of the full economic crisis according to the us federal reserve bank of new york the number of students who are ninety days or more delinquent on their student loans has risen to eleven point seven percent this year that's up from five point five percent in two thousand and eleven now if we include the number of people who have chosen to defer their payments that number actually rises to thirty percent of

college attendees meanwhile a new forecast from the congressional budget office says that the federal government will profit fifty one billion dollars off of student loans today the average student debt is about twenty six thousand six hundred dollars over the course of a college experience so the question becomes is college worth the cost when one americans hear success stories like that of mark zuckerberg or walt disney or steve jobs or bill gates they see that the opportunity for success without a college degree is available however the dream of becoming a multi-millionaire from invention is exceptionally rare when you compare the lifetime wage differences of people with and without college degrees many people with degrees make more money in a lifetime than those without c.e.o.'s of all kinds tend to make one point nine million more dollars people who work in security commodities and financial service sales make one point five million more dollars over the course of their career and managers of all types make one point three million more dollars over their lifetime

heck even construction than. gers make more they make one point one million more dollars than their counterparts without a college degree in this that isn't to mention the number of growing concerns like that of countries like china possibly outpacing us in education and eventually innovation with a strong highly educated workforce but with statistics like the fact that the u.s. students at now totals over nine hundred eighty six billion dollars and the threat of student interest rates going from three point four percent to six point eight percent in july first many prospective students are thinking twice before putting all their money into one graduation cap in washington meghan lopez r t well more people worry about the safety of genetically modified foods issues in agriculture don't stop there but the way to food is the way the food is grown and developed has changed throughout many years with us leading to some troubling results in food quality for more and hunted tricia's to dave's today's food truly is the resident for harvest.

everyone knows that you have to eat your fruits and vegetables if you want to be healthy that's how you get all those great nutrients that help you stay strong and stave off as these. only one problem with the studies published within the last fifteen years show that we are actually breathing all of the nutrition right out of our produce that's right today's fruits and vegetables are actually low in fight only the tree ends that count pounds but the potential to reduce the risk of cancer cardiovascular disease diabetes and dementia. in today's world of g.m.

those mass produced processed foods and surging obesity vegetables with no nutritious value might come as no surprise but what might surprise you is that this loss of nutrients did not begin in the last century it began when we stopped for aging wild plants and started farming altogether this conclusion was a ripe to at when researchers compared the bio nutrient content of wild plants with the produce in our supermarkets but they found it was pretty startling for example researchers took a look at that fido nutrient content of our supermarkets in it which many of us consider a super healthy super food but while dandelions which used to be a treat for native americans have seven times more. than our spin it. native peruvian purple potatoes have twenty. eight times more cancer fighting

compounds than are potatoes and while the apples oh hundred dives are more phytonutrient than the gold in the list is that in our supermarket. so what is going on. researchers point to two reasons for our produce losing nutrient one for our farming ancestors chose the least bit of plants to grow and the most beneficial nutrients have a bitter taste and too early farmers chose to grow plants that were low in fiber and high in sugar starch in oil and both of those reasons are based on thing taste our ancestors started it and we continue the trend we breed of nutrients right out of our food and increased it sugar and starch content because then it tastes better . and today the united states department of agriculture invests astronomically more money and energy into developing disease resistant produce than it does into

disease resistant consumers in fact they often spend years and millions of dollars developing new varieties of fruits and vegetables without ever measuring nutritional content. yes the government and our modern world in general are more interested in making a lot of tasty foods people will buy than they are making a lot of foods that are good for people so remember that the next time your mom tells you eat your vegetables tonight let's talk about that by the way to me on twitter at the rest of it. that's going to do it for more on the stories we've covered go to youtube dot com slash artsy america check out our website at r t dot com slash usa you also follow

me on twitter it underscored j underscore how for now i'll have a. good afternoon and welcome the prime interest i'm carrying boring here in washington d.c. let's get to today's headlines. bernanke while the fact is in the bowl sway the big one that because he shiller housing and beat expectations and is on par with the starkest run it seems the boom days of two thousand and five the yearly gain of ten point nine percent is the first double digit gain instead of a year that's according to barron's but this is according to our by the chairman himself and two dollars. i guess that'll buy your premise it's a pretty unlikely possibility we've never had a decline in house prices without a nationwide nationwide basis so what i feel.