captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> lehrer: good evening. i'm jim lehrer. president obama called the gulf coast eco-disaster an "unprecedented crisis." he said the government and b.p. should have been better prepared for a worst case scenario. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. on the "newshour" tonight: we have an update on b.p.'s efforts to plug the leak and excerpts from the president's news conference. plus, tom bearden looks at the spill from the waters of the gulf. >> this oil should float. it's not floating. why? and that's the $64 question from

my perspective. >> lehrer: then, margaret warner details the administration's new national security strategy that emphasizes increased diplomacy. >> we are no less powerful, but we need to apply our power in different ways. >> brown: and, as the 2010 book expo wraps up in new york, we look at new technology, shifting reading habits, and the future of the book. >> lehrer: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

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these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> lehrer: b.p. kept pouring mud into that runaway oil well in the gulf of mexico today. they took occasional halts to assess the progress. meanwhile, president obama announced new curbs on offshore drilling in a news conference dominated by the oil spill. ray suarez begins our coverage. >> reporter: images from a mile deep in the gulf showed a dirty plume from the blowout preventer. it was a visual signature of the top kill operation. crews had been pumping heavy drilling fluid called mud into

the well since early wednesday afternoon. if all goes to plan, once the flow of oil is stopped, crews will inject concrete to seal the site permanently. >> mud into the well bore... >> reporter: the former coast guard common tkapbltover seeing things, admiral thad allen, appraise it had situation in venice, louisiana. >> they're pumping mud into the well bore. as long as the mud is going down, the hydrocarbons are not going up. the goal is to put enough mud into the well bore to produce zero pressure so they can put a cement plug over it. they are still in the process of doing that. so while i said the hydrocarbons have been stopped, that does not mean the exercise was over. >> reporter: b.p. said it wanted to wait another 24 to 48 hours before rendering its own judgment. there was also word the spill now exceeds the 1989 exxon "valdez" disaster in alaska as the worst in american history. the u.s. geological survey said

scientific teams calculated the oil flow in the gulf was two to five times more than estimates by b.p. and the coast guard. that means as much as 39 million gallons of oil may have spilled. >> the federal government has been in charge... >> suarez: in washington, president obama defended his administration's response to the gulf disaster. the president also ordered four actions affecting future offshore drilling. he suspended planned exploration in two alaska locations and canceled a pending lease sale in the gulf and a proposed sale off virginia. he also extend add moratorium on permits for deep water drilling for six months and suspended outright action on 33 deep water exploration wells in the gulf. at a u.s. house hearing on the effects of the spill, representatives of transocean and b.p., the two companies that owned and ran the well, gave a mixed review of the moratorium.

>> would off take on this announcement. mr. mckay you first. >> i don't have a take on the announcement. i would say i think it is important that we learn from this incident everything we can learn as quickly as possible that will influence, i think, practices, industry practices that go ahead as well as the regulatory environment by which those practices occur . >> mr. chairman, i think a pause is prudent. it's incredibly important to understand what happened i don't know how to give you a tkeuf definitive time line on what sort of a prudent pause would be >> suarez: the agency charged with overseeing offshore drilling, the minimal management service, has been roundly criticized. today the head of m.m.s., elizabeth birnbaum resigned under pressure she's the second person in as many weeks to leave the agency. >> liz birnbaum has been a strong leader. >> suarez: her boss, interior secretary kennal is sar gave no

answer as to why she left but he noted her work to clean up the agency. but that may be little consolation to many on the gulf coast who see a shoreline fouled with oil for years to come . >> we will lose more coastline from this catastrophe than all four hurricanes-- katrina, rita, tkpwaous of the and ike. >> suarez: researchers in florida reported find ago new underwater plume of oil 22 miles long off alabama stretching toward mobile by a. >> brown: the spill and its continuing aftermath was the focus of a news conference this afternoon, as president obama faced pointed questions about his administration's response. here are some excerpts, beginning with his opening remarks. >> lehrer: and to judy woodruff. >> the american people should know from the moment this disaster began the federal government has been in charge of the response effort. as far as i'm concerned,

spwao *ep responsible for this horrific disaster and we will hold them fully accountable on behalf of the united states as well as the people in and communities victimized by this tragedy. we will demand that they pay every dime they owe for the damage they've done and the painful losses that they've caused. and we will continue to take full advantage of the unique technology and expertise they have to help stop this leak. but make no mistake: b.p. is operating at our direction. every key decision and action they take must be approved by us in advance. for years there's been a scandalously close relationship between oil companies and the agency that regulates them. that's why we've decided to separate the people who permit the drilling from those who regulate and ensuring the safety of the drilling. i also announced that no new permits for drilling new wells will go forward until a 30-day safety and environmental review was conducted. >> to the many people in the gulf who, as you said, are angry

and frustrated and feel somewhat abandoned, what do you say about whether your personal involvement, your personal engagement has been as much as it should be, either privately or publicly. >> the day that the rig collapsed and fell to the bottom of the ocean i had my team in the oval office that first day . those who think that we were either slow on our response or lacked urgency don't know the facts. this has been our highest priority since this crisis occurred. there has never been a point during this crisis in which this administration up and down the line in all these agencies hasn't, number one, understood this was my top priority. the decisions that have been made have been reflective of the best science that we've got, the best expert opinion that we have, and have been weighing various risks and various options to allocate our

resources in such a way that we can get this fixed as quickly as possible. >> you say that everything that could be done is being done. but there are those in the region and those industry experts who say that's not true. governor jindal, obviously, had this proposal for a barrier. they say that if that had been approved when they first asked for it they would have ten miles up already. there are fishermen down there who want to work, who want to help, haven't been trained, haven't been told to go do so. how can you say that everything that can be done is being done with all these experts and all these officials saying that's not true? >> if the question is, jake, are we doing everything perfectly out there then the answer is absolutely not. we can always do better. if the question is are we each time there is an idea evaluating it and making a decision is this the best option that we have

right now based on how quickly we can stop this leak and how much damage can we mitigate, then the answer is yes. so let's take the example of governor jindal's barrier islands idea. when i met with him when i was down there two weeks ago i said "i will make sure that our team immediately reviews this idea, that the army corps of engineers is looking at the feasibility of it and if they think... if they tell me this is the best approach to dealing with this problem, then we're going to move quickly to execute. if they have a disagreement with governor jindal's experts as to whether this would be effective or not, whether it was going to be cost effective given the other things that need to be done, then we'll sit down and try to figure that out. and that essentially is what's happened which is why today you saw an announcement where... from the army corps' perspective

there were some areas where this might work but there's some areas where it would be counterproductive and not a good use of resources. >> why not ask b.p. to simply step aside on the on-shore stuff? make it an entirely government thing? obviously b.p. pays for it. why not ask them to completely step aside on that front? and then also, can you respond to all the katrina comparison that people are making about this with yourself? >> well, i'll take your second question first . i'll leave it to you guys to make those comparisons, and make judgments on it because what i'm spending my time thinking about is how do we solve the problem. and when the problem is solved and people look back and do an assessment of all the various decisions that were made, i think people can make a historical judgment. and i'm confident that people are going to look back and say that this administration was on top of what was an unprecedented crisis. the problem, i don't think, is that b.p. is off running around

doing whatever it wants and nobody's minding the store. inevitably in something this big, there are going to be places where things fall short. but i want to... everybody to understand today that our teams are authorized to direct beep in the sa *eupl way they would be authorized to direct those teams if they were technical ly being paid by the federal government. in either circumstance, we've got the authority that we need. i think it's a legitimate concern to question whether b.p.'s interests in being fully forthcoming about the extent of the damage is aligned with the public interest. so my attitude is we have to verify whatever it is they say about the damage. this is an area, by the way, where i do think our efforts fell short. >> weeks before b.p., you had called for expanded drilling.

do you now regret that decision? >> i continue to believe what i said at that time, which was that domestic oil production is an important part of our overall energy mix. where i was wrong was in my belief that the oil companies had their act together when it came to worst-case scenarios. now, that wasn't based on just my blind acceptance of their statements. oil drilling has been going on in the gulf-- including deep water-- for quite some time and the record of accidents like this we hadn't seen before . but it just takes one for us to have a wakeup call and recognize that claims that fail safe procedures were in place or that blowout preventers could function properly or that valves

would switch on and shut things off, those assumptions proved to be incorrect. so my job right now is just to make sure that everybody in the gulf understands this is what i wake up to in the morning and this is what i go to bed at night thinking about. >> the spill? >> the spill. and it's not just me, by the way. you know, when i woke up this morning and i'm shaving and malia knocks on my bathroom door and she peeks in her head and she says "did you plug the hole yet, daddy?" because i think everybody understands that when we are fouling the earth like this, it has concrete implications not just for this generation but for future generations. in case you're wondering who's responsible, i take responsibility.

it is my job to make sure that everything is done to shut this down. that doesn't mean it's going to be easy, it doesn't mean it's going to happen right away or the way i'd like it to happen. it doesn't mean that we're not going to make mistakes. but there shouldn't be any confusion here. the federal government is fully engaged. and i'm fully engaged. thank you very much, everybody. >> lehr: and to judy woodruff. >> woodruff: for a response to the president's actions today, we turn to john felmy, chief economist at the american petroleum institute, an oil industry trade group. and frances beinecke, president of the natural resources defense council, an environmental action group. thank you both for joining us. john felmy, to you first. the president's overriding message today was that the federal government, he said, had been and is in charge of this response to this spill and he said that's been the case from the very beginning.

is that... what's your reaction to that? >> well, i think there's no question that's what's going on. we have a concerted effort that is being marshalled by the appropriate agencies and they are clearly involved. we've got, of course, b.p. as a responsible party being heavily involved, but it's broader than that in terms of industries, so i would accept that. >> woodruff: and he said b.p. is operating at the government's direction. >> that's my understanding in terms of everything that i've heard. that basically >> brown: in the meantime, of course they're supplying the resources but never else in it's under the direction of the unified command. >> frances beinecke, again, b.p. is acting at the government's direction and he said "this has been my highest priority from the very first day." >> well, i think that the president obviously today took charge of the situation and communicated that to the public. i was down in the gulf two weeks ago and i can tell you that, you know, the sense was that b.p. was calling a lot of the shots.

i'm glad that the president clarified that today that it's really coming from the federal government. it needs to come from the federal government and although b.p. is the responsible party, we have to depend on the government to protect our resources, restore the environment down there, and restore the livelihoods because so many people have lost their jobs in the fishing industry. it's really a catastrophe that the government has to be the responsible party for and hold b.p. accountable to the fullest extent of the law. >> woodruff: but were you surprised based on what you had seen to hear him say that today? >> i wasn't surprised to hear him say it, but i was relieved to hear him say it because i think that the... until you go there, you can't appreciate either the scale of it or the human impact. going out with the oystermen, with the shrimpers, the uncertainty of their future how long these fisheries are going to be closed, whether the marine environment is going to recover,

whether it's in the wetlands or in the ocean. this is a cat trophy of the largest dimension we've ever seen and nobody knows what it's going to take to recover from this and it's truly devastating to the environment and the people who depend on it. >> woodruff: john felmy, the president was very critical of what he called the scandalously close relationship between big oil and the government regulators, the agencies that are supposed to regulate them. is he right about that? >> well, i think the nature of these operations, particularly these very complex deep water operations, offshore operations in general require a close working relationship between the regulator and the industry. but it's got to be an ethical one. so going forward, that's clearly our position. >> woodruff: has it been less than ethical? has it been unethical? >> well, the reports clearly call into question some actions on the part of the folks involved so i'll leave it to the report in terms of what they said. >> woodruff: frances beinecke, what would you say about that?

>> well, i think, you know, i worked on offshore oil issues for several decades and i think the relationship between m.m.s. and the industry has been cozy, would be, i think, a kind term. i think the recommend diggss that are coming out to separate the regulators and to ensuring that there's adequate environmental oversight are absolutely critical. if we have learned anything from this it's that we need to completely reform the relationship between the oil industry and the regulatory authorities and the independent commission that the president announced last friday is a crucial step to ensuring that that happens. >> woodruff: john felmy, the president also announced several new steps to deal with the aftermath of this, including he talked about a moratorium on offshore deep water drilling permits for six months. he spoke about suspending the planned exploration of drilling off the coast of alaska and virginia and then he mentioned 33 different deep water exploratory wells under way in the gulf of mexico.

what do you... speaking for the oil industry, what's your take on that? >> well, right now, our perspective is that first of all we've got to stop the leak. that's got to be the first priority. clean it up. and then we do need some time to be able to assess what happened, what went wrong so we don't see a repeat of this incident. so some time is appropriate. but remember, there's economic consequences to delaying things. we rely on oil significantly and it means jobs, government revenue, energy security, and improved trade situations. so we've got to bring that into account in terms of whatever actions you take. >> woodruff: but these steps you're saying you believe... your organization believes are appropriate steps? >> well, at this point we just want to be very careful because there's economic consequences to everything and if this turns into, you know, something ill-defined and not really care fully kind of defined, you know, we're concerned about

that, of course. >> woodruff: frances beinecke, from the perspective of the national resources defense council, how do you view this? >> well, we thought it was an important step in the right direction. we and many in the environmental community have been urging the interior department literally for years to not proceed with the leases in offshore alaska. the offshore alaska environment is incredibly fragile, very difficult. if you look at the spill which is in the gulf of mexico where the entire oil and gas industry is deployed and yet it's taken over 35 days to try to get control of it, imagine what would happen in the frozen fragile environment of offshore alaska some we're very pleased about that. it allows time to really understand what the implications of operating up there are and also, you know, in the western gulf and virginia and in the deep water environment. i mean, there is a lot to learn here and we have to be sure that the pristine and fragile areas

of our coasts which create abundant resources as well in the fisheries area are protected adequately. and, you know, right now what we're looking at is they're not. so as i mentioned before, this independent commission is absolutely critical before there can be any steps ahead. and i would say that some of these very fragile areas should never be drilled. >> woodruff: what more, john felmy, needs to be done by the administration at this point? >> well, i think going forward the most important thing is that we've got to understand what happened. i think that it's clear that we're going to need oil for the foreseeable future. we're going to need a lot of different energy and so on. and so stepping forward if we can use this opportunity to be able to really understand what our needs are and what the appropriate actions are. you know, we have 250 million cars and trucks on the road that run on oil and they're going to run for a very long time. so we're going to need oil in this country. and if we can produce it responsibly here, there's a significant economic benefit. >> woodruff: and i hear you

bringing the word... the economy, jobs, into the discussion at several points over the last few minutes. >> well, that's right. we need jobs right now. we need good-paying jobs and the offshore industry has a lot of jobs, up to 200,000 that are supported. so we've got to be cognizant of that in terms of how important they are. >> woodruff: very quickly, frances beinecke. from your perspective what more needs to be done? >> well, i think that this is an opportunity to really focus all of this country on what our oil addiction is and i think john's absolutely right, we have 250 million cars on the road. what the president really focused on in addition to the spill itself was the need to get on a clean energy pathway, to get congress to consider legislation that they now have in front of them, the american power act, to take us down that clean energy pathway that would result in better public transportation systems, more efficient cars, alternative fuels, things that will reduce the demand on oil.

the reason we're out there drilling at 5,000 feet is because of this voracious demand we have. and if we're not able to check that, this is going to be a problem in the future. so creating a clean energy future and developing the policies that allow us to do that is just a very important moment for this country. many of us have been working on that for decades and now is the point in time to actually get it done. >> woodruff: frances beinecke, john felmy. thank you both. >> thank you. >> brown: even as that debate goes on, charting the magnitude of the spread of oil both at the surface and below has remained a difficult and controversial task. "newshour" correspondent tom bearden went out on the water with a team of researchers near venice, louisiana to track their efforts. >> look at that. >> reporter: ed overton is getting an up close and personal

look at the nemesis. >> the reddish brown color is right at the surface. >> reporter: overton is an environmental sciences professor emeritus as louisiana state university. he was one of several scientists who accompanied reporters and photographer aboard a five-boat flotilla arranged by the national wildlife federation . the trip started out from a marina in venice and the goal was to get as close to the main oil slick as possible. the weather had other ideas. thunderstorms and lightning blocked the path. >> let's follow these guys. we'll go out to the right and hopefully the weather's going to head more southeast... i mean southwest and we're going southeast. >> reporter: despite the detour, it wasn't hard to find a large patch of thick, heavy crude floating on the surface. the hulls of the boats were heavily stained within minutes. >> the thicker oil is just how the oil moves through the environment. it's not all coming up in one spot. the plume comes up and disperses out. some of it comes up pretty quick. some of it takes a longer time

and it's globing up when it gets to the surface. it starts moving... not a lot of strong currents out here. you've got wind on the surface and currents but this is kind of a meandering area as opposed to a loop. >> reporter: so what happens if it lingers here? >> it just lingers here and the bacteria will degrade it. that's what we were hoping but i think what's happening, we're just piling on and piling on and it's filling up and pretty soon we're going to override the capacity for the environment to remove it and some of it will start globing on shore. >> reporter: we've seen some reports of underwater streams of oil that are not readily visible from the air. >> right. >> reporter: what about those? >> good question. that's exactly what i'd like to get samples of if we could get them out here. it's, of course, hard to find because you don't see them. you can look down and you can't see them. you have to be lucky to find them. this oil should float, it's not floating. why? and that's the $64 question from my perspective.

i'd like to understand why is this oil... is it because of the dispersants? there's natural dispersion, what's going on? i'm hoping that they will find some oil under the surface and... have they got the camera down? >> reporter: l.s.u. scientists lowered a report control submerse to believe see the oil suspended in the water column, oil that had probably been broken up by chemical dispersants. the results were disappointing. the camera quickly became fouled by the surface oil. kevin boswell is an l.s.u. biologist who helped deploy the camera. >> we didn't fare so well in terms of the cleanliness of the equipment. it's pretty nasty stuff. so the quality of the data, we're a little compromised with just the fact that the lens cover is still pretty covered in oil. however, for the most part we were able to put it down and did document that there is, indeed,

these small particulates that look a lot like oil particle wes saw on the surface. >> reporter: overton is frustrated by the fact there isn't much data on a spill like this. >> a spill of this magnitude under these conditions has never happened. there have been some very minor deep water test spills in norway a couple of releases a decade ago. and they raised questions but there was no follow-up, no further test, no research. and, again, you know, i go back to the offshore from all of these wells are generating billions of dollars of revenue and none of that money... if you take just a fraction of it and put it, we would have had a better understanding of what's going on. but we didn't. so we're here now. >> reporter: should that requirement be in some sort of regulation, federal regulation? >> i would certainly hope that we've learned that, you know, we don't want to do this again without being prepared. in some sort of... at least a portion of those monies would go back into understanding the

environment that you're drilling in. it's just crazy. it's absolutely nuts. it's not terribly sticky. >> reporter: overton also think it is mutual accusation society of government and industry is also nuts. >> there are things that could be done but it's not being done. so this is a massive effort and we need to cooperate together and stop pointing fingers. there will be plenty of time for fingers and plenty of time for hearings to figure out what caused the accident and what to do about in the the future. the new regulations, restrictions on certain types of drilling without proper precautions, all of that is going to come. right now we've got a spill we've got to work on. we've got to work together. we don't need to be getting people irritated at each other. we need a team, a cohesive team that's working toward the successful conclusion of this damn thing. >> reporter: as more thunderstorms began to build up to the west, the assembled both captains decided to call it a day for safety reasons and began the run back into the mississippi river.

we're proceeding at high speed across the gulf. at times we cross streams of oil and the white spray turns black. the group made it back to the dock in venice before the thunderstorms arrived. the people running the cleanup operation dread this kind of weather because it tends to push oil toward the shore where it can kill wildlife. >> this is an eel that we pulled right out of the middle of the oil. >> reporter: doug inkly, a senior scientist for the national wildlife federation says it's killing animals offshore, too. >> obviouslyitis not a very healthy environment out there for critters like this which are an important part of the ecosystem. we also saw an atlantic sharp-nosed shark that was obviously disoriented and swimming if tight circles on the surface, something our captain had never seen before. and it was obviously distressed by the oil. >> reporter: for weeks, many scientists have been urging b.p. to allow them to place sensors near the well to get more accurate data on how much oil is being released. they say that information will

be valuable in making plans to clean it all up. >> brown: still to come on the "newshour": a new tone in national security and the changing world of books. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan in our newsroom. >> sreenivasan: wall street surged today after china scotched rumors that it might dump its european bonds. that eased immediate fears about europe's overall financial situation. the dow jones industrial average gained 284 points to close just short of 10,259. the nasdaq rose more than 81 points to close at 2,277. in jamaica, police announced at least 74 people have died during the manhunt for accused drug lord christopher "dudus" coke. members of his gang have battled security forces since the weekend. but police conceded today it's unclear whether coke is still in jamaica. he's wanted in the u.s. charges of drug and weapons trafficking. the president of sudan-- omar al-bashir-- was sworn in today for another five-year term. the ceremony in the national parliament followed an election marred by boycotts and fraud

allegations. bashir is also accused of masterminding genocide in darfur. al-bashir came to power 21 years ago in a military coup. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to jim. >> lehrer: next tonight, the obama administration presents its national security strategy. today, in a 52-page document, the principles behind the policies were laid out. in a washington speech secretary of state clinton said that includes the smart use of power. >> we are no less powerful, but we need to apply our power in different ways. we are shifting from mostly direct exercise and application of power to a more sophisticated and difficult mix of indirect power and influence. so smart power is not just a slogan, it actually means something

. >> lehrer: margaret warner covered the speech and read the document. margaret, welcome. >> warner: thank you, jim. >> lehrer: how should smart power be defined in these terms? >> warner: it reflects the assessment in this 52-page document. they're saying they're looking at the world as it is, not as it used to be. that means though the u.s. is still number one economically and militarily, it really isn't alone in exercising power. and that to work it will in the world and protect its interests the u.s. is going to have to more skeuflly manage cooperation among allies, adversaries and these emerging new powers. so it means more emphasis, obviously... i mean, the military remains an important tool in the kit bag. but greater emphasis on cooperation and persuasion. and it is a strategy or an approach that as she said today requires patience . >> lehrer: were there any specifics either stated or implied like iran, north korea? anything like that that you can

kind of say, "yeah, i understand that"? >> warner: i think so. this document isn't like a state of the union or policy speech that announces new policies. so the specifics would be tucked into sections. let's take iran. so that would be in the section about how important it is to fight the spread of weapons of mass destruction. and in there would be a paragraph about the approach they're taking to iran, which is the same as north korea. to show them there are incentives for doing the right thing and incentives for doing the wrong thing. but, of course, implicit in that is that takes international cooperation, as we well know. this was more their sort of broad, strategic concept, not a specific policy. >> lehrer: where did this come from? what drove the need for this or the desire for a new strategy? >> warner: i'm sure some of the people working on this for weeks and months were wondering the same thing. congress, oddly, actually requires this of the president every year. now, president bush did it only twice, two in '06, and this is

the first obama national security strategy. and it was just like any of these huge white house pronouncements. think of state of the union only even more players. i mean, really, too many cooks to fit in the white house kitchen. >> lehrer: if you had to say, all right, this really changes the way the united states has been operating, can you say that >> warner: a couple quick things. one is hay put for the first time american's economic and other kinds of strength here at home at the center. they said america can't be strong abroad unless we're strong at home. it's the first national security strategy to mention the deficit and national debt. >> lehrer: it's never been in one of these before? >> warner: never. never. it's way more... they like to say comprehensive. or one could say it's an acknowledgment of reality. another difference is in the use of military force. the interesting thing to me there is he doesn't reject preventative war. he reserves the right to use force unilaterally. but he does warn against the danger of overusing military

force. and as he said at his speech at west point, our adversaries would like nothing better than to have the united states, america, sap its strength by overextending itself abroad. so there was an explicit acknowledgment of the dangers there. then on terror, as we no, no longer a war on terror, a war against al qaeda. that's more tonal. as we see how they're operating around the world, they are still keeping up pressure in where they think al qaeda and its affiliates are either resurgent or just there . >> lehrer: finally, margaret, is it correct to to say there are fingerprints and thought prints by the president in this? this is not something that came out out of a group think? >> warner: very much. i'm glad you mentioned that. this is really the obama doctrine from the campaign, but tempered by 16 months in the real world. so, for example, in the iran... again, going back to the iran section. he said... it says something like "we are pursuing engagement... i don't have the exact words here but, you know,

essentially without any sense of illusion. there's no doubt that this strategy of cooperation, they've seen the limits of that. hillary clinton said today, you know, it's one thing to get in a room with a lot of other countries and we think we have a community of interest, now go from there to common action is very tough. she used bartolo colon as an example... copenhagen as an example. we want to have a world in which we don't have global warming but we came in with what we thought was a great idea, and we know what happened at copenhagen . >> lehrer: she made the speech. should she be considered a coauthor of this? >> warner: she was one of many coauthors, i think they took the obama strategy and then they collectively filled out all their sections. what we are seeing is that they're rolling this out... president obama gave the overall themes at west point, john brennan, the counterterrorism advisor at the white house gave a speech at a washington think

tank yesterday laying out the terrorism policy. she did the diplomacy and development and then jim jones, the national security council director is going to lay out the strategy again tomorrow. so each is taking a piece and trying to develop it. >> lehrer: okay, margaret, thank you. >> warner: thanks, jim. >> brown: while the obama administration was releasing its new foreign policy strategy, our pbs colleague charlie rose was getting another perspective from syria's president, bashir al- assad. here's a short excerpt, where they discussed syria's ties to iran. >> there are those in america that would like to believe america can do something that will put some distance between you and iran. >> they contradict themselves. they talk about stability in the region. stability starts with good relation. you can not have stability and have... second, why do they need syria to be away from iran? they have conflict with iran,

well, what does that mean to put syria away from iran? some times they talk about the relation between syria and the iranian relationship and the peace, that's not true, that's not realistic because iran supported our efforts to achieve... to get back our land through the peace negotiations in 2008 when we had those negotiations in turkey . >> reporter: let me understand line that. you believe that iran, even though it says it does not rise israel's right to exist, when you through turkey were trying to negotiate with the israelis, the iranians were supportive of that? >> exactly. >> reporter: so you're saying actions speak louder than words? >> exactly. that's what i mean. and they said it in words. they said publicly that we support syria. so they said it twice during the negotiations. and forward. so you can not see with one eye. so that's what's happening. they see only what they want to, they hear what they want to hear

and they ignore the other stand from the same government . >> lehrer: charlie's full interview with president assad can be seen tonight on most pbs stations. >> brown: finally tonight, new gadgets, new habits and the ancient craft of story-telling. last year, electronic, or e-book sales increased by more than 175% compared to 2008. by march of this year, they accounted for roughly 16% of all book sales. at the same time, americans are reading less for pleasure, according to the most recent study by the national endowment for the arts. this week, writers, publishers and booksellers all gathered in new york for the annual "book expo america" trade show, and the future of the book was a big topic. we gather three attendees for our own discussion now: best-selling author scott turow, who is currently serving as

president of the authors guild. his new novel is titled "innocent." jonathan galassi is president of the pubishing house farrar, straus and giroux, which publishes mr. turow. he led a panel at book expo titled "the value of the book." and cathy langer is lead buyer for "tattered cover" book stores in colorado, and a member of the board of the "american booksellers association". scott turow i know you just left the trade show today. what was the mood for writers? a good to be an author, an anxious time? how would you describe it? >> it's an anxious time for authors. they see the possible consequences for authors of the digital revolution not being good with book piracy being the biggest concern and threats to compensation for authors being the next. pwrup brown threats to compensation, that means you don't get paid as much if your book in the digital world, or potentially you don't? >> well, right now the payment

on a digital book is not the same as on a paper book. the author's guild obviously thinks that e book royalties have to go up. but it's also... it's a world in which we all know publishers are hard pressed and there's more competition from other media and, you know, jonathan galassi was the one on monday who aired, i thought very honestly, the concern about author's compensation. >> brown: hard-pressed publisher, jonathan galassi, come into this. you said at that panel "the book industry is in the first wave of a technological revolution with the depth and force we haven't experienced since the invention of movable type." so that puts it in big historical context. what do you mean? >> well, those are grand words. but what i mean is that all of a sudden the revolution we've seen in the music business has

arrived in the book world. and people are experiencing yet another broadening of the range of opportunities they have for consuming culture. music, films, books now are all available virtually on the same instrument if you want to read that way. and what scott's referring to is that the drive to compete for a slice of that market has led certain retailers to push the price of the e-book down where it's more or less the same as the price of a movie on that kind of a machine. so the... from the commodity standpoint, the book is competitive.

but from the production standpoint, eyey the author and publisher working together to create a new art work, that is being left behind on the consumption side . >> brown: cathy langer, you're taking these products and trying to put them into the hands of consumers. where do you fit into this new world? >> i think we fit well into this new world and i'm not so anxious. i'm curious to see, actually, where it lands. but as an independent book seller, we're certainly staying in the conversation and if 10% or 8% of the books are e books, that's fine. there are still a lot of other books to sell and we'll be selling both e-books through our web sites and in our stores and also we'll be selling lots and lots of what i'm calling physical books, because that's really where the market still is the strongest.

>> brown: staying with you, what kind of dent so far... can you tell yet what kind of dent e-books or change the e-books bring? does that mean fewer physical books or does it mean more of everything? >> i think it's hard to say yet. it's really hard to measure what impact it's had on the overall sales of physical books. i am, again, an eternal optimist and i think it might even expand the market. we know that people are buying the physical book and the e-book. there's talk about bundling, which means you can buy both at the same time. and at this point, i really wouldn't be able to say that it's hurt us too deeply on the physical book side. there's been many other factors recently that we've been dealing with and e-books are just one of them. >> brown: so scott turow, come back to the author's view here. you're well established. a new book of yours comes out, it gets a lot of marketing and you have a lot of readers eager for them. but what do you put on your

author's guild hat here, what do you tell writers nowadays, what kind of strategies do they have to have? do they have to think of themselves as entrepreneurs as well as writers? how does it work? >> first of all, you're right. the complaint isn't for best-selling authors like myself but authors are feeling squeezed in terms of publishers' efforts to promote their books. they need to do more self-promotion by way of blogging, by way of arranging their own publicity events, contacting bookstores directly, because the so-called mid-list author who doesn't garner the same kind of profits for publishers has been a threatened creature for quite some time. >> brown: so how do they do that? >> they do exactly what i said. some of them even have to hire their own publicists. they blog. they get online. you know, the internet is a

powerful tool. and there are, obviously, huge communities of readers out there who are reading on their computer screens. and there are books like "the help," which is a very popular novel now which was really in part created by online acclaim. but authors are trying to get into that world with less assistance from their publishers brown pwrup that's what i was wondering because jonathan galassi brought in the record business and i remember looking into that for this program and you have a lot of musicians going to the internet and the online world as a kind of opportunity. now, do you see that working? you're saying authors have to go there. do you look at it as an opportunity or a kind of last resort? >> well, you know, obviously the barriers to entry to becoming an author are much lower. self-publish ing on the internet is now a real possibility.

we're yet, though, to see the sort of underground novel burst off of one of those self-publishing sites into widespread... into widespread readership. but i don't think that that's impossible. but i do think that what jonathan would say, that a publisher serves a very useful function in both shaping a manuscript and focusing attention on it is definitely true. >> brown: well, jonathan galassi, you can pick up on that. are we already seeing an impact on the number of books published or the types of books publishd? give me some examples of how it affects your world . >> well, i don't think we've seen any diminution offy t number of books published. as scott suggests, i think the number of books available is exploding. for one thing, the whole catalog

of every book that's ever been published is or will soon be available to everyone, which whs a wonderful thing. but it also creates a kind of long, long, long tale that has to have some kind of an impact on readership. but i think what we're all watching very carefully is whether there's going to be so-called cannibalization of the sale of hard cover books through e-book sales. and i think that it has been noted , very commercial books, that there is some of that that some readers are moving over to e book format and forsaking print for that. and i think the real question in our business is how far that's going to go. i think cathy is taking the optimistic view that there's going to be room for everyone at the table.

and i certainly hope that's true. i do think we're always going to have print books. the question is how big a piece of the pie that's going to be five, ten, 15 years down the road. and my own sense based on just the experience of how technology goes is that it's going to take a bigger and bigger piece of the action. and what that does to creation of works, fostering is the question. >> brown: let me let kathy back here in our last minute. you are the optimistic one here. what's your advice to readers at this point? >> well, i think readers should know that i think the best place for them to find the right book more them is at their bricks and mortar ref rabbbly independent bookstore. but we are... as opposed to what happened in the record industry, we'll... we serve as show room

for the publishers. i think they appreciate that. we have their books in our stores, we know their books, we know the publishers and we can hand sell to readers and help them make the right decisions for important reading decisions and so i say we serve a very important place and will in the long run. >> brown: we'll have to leave it there. cathy langer, jonathan galassi and scott turow. thanks very much. >> thank you. >> lehrer: again, the major developments of the day: b.p. kept pouring mud into the runaway oil well in the gulf of mexico, and officials voiced cautious optimism. they said they might need another 24 hours. the company halted it for a time. president obama announced new curbs on offshore drilling, and he defended his handling of the disaster. and wall street rallied to make up some of its recent losses. the dow jones industrial average gained 284 points.

the "newshour" is always online. hari sreenivasan, in our newsroom, previews what's there. hari? >> sreenivasan: there's more of our conversation with jonathan galassi. it's about the future of books. and on "patchwork nation," our hardship index is going up. unemployment might be going down, but many americans are still losing their homes. yesterday, we asked for viewers to submit their suggestions on ways to deal with the oil spill on our youtube page. more than 10,000 people have already stopped by and left at least 6,500 suggestions. here are just a few. some users tried to answer the question of stopping the spill. one created diagrams where blocks could be inserted into the pipe and then expanded to stop the flow of oil. another user suggested treating the oil pipe like a fire hose and placing a valve on the broken head to slowly squeeze it shut. >> okay, youtube, this is my idea on how to solve the gulf of mexico oil spill. >> sreenivasan: some users took a lighter approach.

one man suggested moving a syncken ship on top of the pipe to slow the leak. while others dressed in costume. >> i'll be your host mr. know it all and these are my assistance mo and schmo. >> sreenivasan: there were several more suggestions on how to clean up the spillment one youtube user showed con s.e.c. trick circles of booms where skimming boats could soak up the maximum amount of oil. another designed a prototype for a heavy ring tube lowered over the leak to funnel the flow of oil. some solutions have been online for a while. like using hay to soak up the mess. >> the oil is attached to your hay. >> sreenivasan: and there were videos for additive which is could either concentrate the oil to the top or bottom of the ocean. you can view and vote on the responses on our youtube page. and you can find our gulf oil spill coverage, all of it on the

newshour's main web site , site, newshour.pbs.org. jeff? >> brown: and that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm jeffrey brown. >> lehrer: and i'm jim lehrer. we'll see you on-line and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks, among others. thank you and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org