jeffrey brown has an appreciation and more on that decision. ♪ ♪ >> brown: he led a folk revival in the60s, took it into new and epoch-making territory through his use of language and imagery, famously went electric at the newport folk festival in 1965, and for decades since, to this day, has continued to perform, record, impress and sometimes confound millions of fans worldwide. by any measure, bob dylan is one of the most important and influential popular songwriters of his era, and now he is also a nobel laureate in literature. the announcement came this morning in stockholm. >> the nobel prize in literature for 2016 is awarded to bob dylan for having created new poetic expressions within the great american song tradition. >> brown: though his name had been fancifully raised for the nobel in recent years, the choice still came as a surprise, and his selection ends a long drought for americans-- the last was novelist toni morrison in 1993. dylan was born robert zimmerman in duluth, minnesota in 1941. he changed his name and came to new york's greenwich village in 1961. his debut album

then, jeffrey brown sits down with comedian seth meyers to get his take on how the late night talk shows are taking on the presidential candidates. >> i don't think in comedy support is a particularly funny position to have. i think it's far more-- it's far funnier to point out people's flaws as opposed to pointing out their strengths. >> woodruff: and it's friday. mark shields and david brooks are here to analyze another packed week of news. all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

jeffrey brown will speak with a former u.s.sador to iraq in a moment, but first, chief foreign affairs correspondent margaret warner reports on today's events. [gunshots] >> reporter: gunfire sounded all day, across the outskirts of mosul. columns of smoke billowed from artillery fire and u.s. coalition air strikes, and from oil ignited by isis fighters to blind attacking planes. long anti-isis convoys advanced, and by late in the day, the overall iraqi commander issued a confident assessment. >> ( translated ): the operations are going very well and according to plan. sometimes we are ahead of the plan because of the high morale, and fighters' strong will to fight the islamic state group and liberate mosul, which has been under isis rule for the past two years. >> reporter: for the iraqi army, the campaign for mosul is by far its largest operation yet against the islamic state. u.s. intelligence estimates that up to 4,500 isis fighters are in the city. other estimates run to 8,000. >> this may prove to be a long and tough batt

he spoke with jeffrey brown recently at the national book festival here in washington, d.c. >> brown:ch," the end of a trilogy, right? >> right. >> reporter.>> brown: is the ene the start of a trilogy. >> no. i thought the first book in the trilogy, mr. mercedes, would be the only book, and i kind of didn't want to let the characters go, the main characters, so i had an idea for another book, and realized when i was working on that that i had unfinished business from the first book, so i had a -- it had a nice rounded quality, the three of them. >> brown: so you did not know where you were heading, right? even when you start a character in the first book, mr. mercedes, do you know where that was going? >> no, i did not. > sometimes i have an idea of how the book will finish up, but it very rarely finishes up the way i think it's going to. >> brown: you have to go where the book leads you. >> yes. >> brown: and what about a character? >> there is a novelist called thomas williams who's passed on, now, and he said that the idea for a novel is like a little tiny fire in a dark night, and

paul, minnesota, i'm jeffrey brown for the pbs newshour. >> woodruff: online you can watch chris thilesong-of-the-week for the new show, about this autumn season of leaves falling and campaign rhetoric flying. that's at pbs.org/newshour. >> woodruff: later tonight on pbs, an inside look into the making of the broadway hit "hamilton." the 90- minute program, "hamilton's america" offers a view of lin-manuel miranda's creative process during the three years leading up to the opening of the musical, including time he spent in aaron burr's bedroom. >> i write everywhere. i write on trains. i write wherever i can, and sometimes, a couple of days, i've written in aaron burr's bedroom. it's pretty amazing to be in the space he was in the later parts of his life. talk about artist in residence, literally. this is my hamilton writing desk. i sit here, on the floor, not on the colonial furniture. there is a song in the show called "my shot." it's hamilton's big "i want" song. the second in the show. we see him make his great friends, john lawrence, hurricanherculesmull gun and jo. these guys are

from berkeley, california, i'm jeffrey brown for the pbs newshour. >> woodruff: yesterday, charlotte television reporter steve crump accepted an apology from bryan eybers. the two men were involved in a confrontation last week during which ebers used the n-word. crump was on assignment in charleston reporting on hurricane recovery when he walked past ebers. >> what did you call me? >> what? >> what did you just call me? >> i call you sir. >> new york you did not call me sir. you called me the "n" word, right? >> i believe i did call you the "n" word. >> you're a [bleeped] idiot. you're ignorant. >> woodruff: the n-word is one of the most contentious words in the english language, and special correspondent charlayne hunter gault explores its origins and use with harvard law school professor randall kennedy as part of our year long race matters solutions series. >> professor kennedy, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> i don't have to tell you we are dealing with a very contentious word, but it wasn't always that way. so, take us back when it was more benign. >> it's like many w

then, jeffrey brown sits down with comedian seth meyers to get his take on how the late night talk shows are taking on the presidential candidates. >> i don't think in comedy support is a particularly funny position to have. i think it's far more-- it's far funnier to point out people's flaws as opposed to pointing out their strengths. >> woodruff: and it's friday. mark shields and david brooks are here to analyze another packed week of news. all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. lincoln financial is committed to helping you take charge of your future. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the republican nominee for president is under siege tonight:

. ♪ ♪ bob dylan receives the nobel prize in literature, jeffrey brown asks james taylor, how does ita musician for the first time receive the top literary honor? >> it is literature and it meant a huge amount. i think it was wor c

. >> ifill: and, jeffrey brown sits down with the master of horror, stephen king to talk about his new novel and the art of writing. >> i got where the story leads and sometimes it's outrageous and i relish that. i sort of want to be as much on

jeffrey brown has that. >> brown: lawrence egbert lawree >> brown: lawrence bright went to thailand.006 book the looming tower on the growth of al-qaeda and events leading to 9/11, won thee pulitzer prize. now he's pulled togetherhe writings from the "new yorker" magazine, the product of many years of reporting in a new book titled "the terror years: from al-qaeda to the islamic state. larry wright. >> it's good to be here. >> brown: there is a sense of wanting to tie things together.t did you see a guiding thread in your work when you went back to look at it? >> yeah, i was planning to putnn together a collection of articles, but then when i lookee at all the work i had done on terrorism since 9/11, i never thought that i would still be writing about that 15 years later, but i realized these pieces had a narrative qualityal in terms of the evolution of i.s.i.s. and al-qaeda and how it's developed from 9/11 until today. >> brown: your weigh-in has always been the individual stories. >> yeah. >> brown: but to tell a largerid story, whether they're americans or egyptians, saudis, syria

jeffrey brown spent a day at the ball park with scully in 2009. 's an excerpt of that profile. >> it's time for dodger baseball. brown brown it's a voice that generations of dodger fans have grown up with, savored, loved. >> ground ball to third backhanded by blake. easy inning for randy wolf. >> brown: in los angeles, but also incredibly going all the way back the brooklyn in the 1950s. >> the pitch at the right angle is balance one. admittedly, there are days when you think, you know, i'd rather sitd under a tree and read a book than go to the ballpark. >> every has those days. >> but what's great is you come to the park, you do the routine stuff, and then the crowd comes in, and the team takes the field, and the crowd roars, and all of a sudden you're delighted as a kid in a candy store. >> that's exactly where you want to be. >> exactly. >> brown: in an age when the sports broadcast booth is crammed with two and even three announcers, scully was the first to work alone. >> sanchez a strike and the count 0-1. >> brown: his style, mastery of lang

jeffrey brown is in charge. >> brown: had enough of debates, ads, speeches?w book argues that "the crisis in our politics is a crisis of political language, as it explores the arts and science of rhetoric through the ages ." it's called "enough said: what's gone wrong with the language of politics." author mark thompson is viewing this from a very influential perch as president and c.e.o. of the "new york times" company. welcome to you. the problem is our language or our poll licks? you're making the case it's one in the same. >> we have been brought up to think the political language is superficial and below that is ideology and policy. my argument is it's all tangled up. particular idea are expressed in language, argued in language, communicated from one human to another in language and political language is everywhere, and it's because of changes in political language i saw as i wrote this book. >> brown: i'll go a bod brush here and say, in hillary clinton, i think many people see a f political rhetoric that comes off as phony. is that fair? >> i think it

jeffrey brown spoke with paul beatty when the book came out last year.her look. >> brown: paul beatty, welcome. >> thanks for having me. >> brown: this is a solo skewering. humor of racial politics. what set you off? what are you responding to? >> i'm just kind of responding to myself, i guess. it's not like there is some impetus that i have to write about that. it's just stuff that i have been thinking about for a long time. i have been thinking about segregation for some reason. i think i had read something about somebody saying, "oh, black people are better off under segregation," and i just went, that would be so fun to try to see how segregation would work now in a weird kind of guy. >> brown: so your nameless character, young back man, he tries to re-segregate his city, in a sense. >> yeah. >> brown: strangely enough. he doesn't know he's doing that and that the city is already segregated. >> brown: it is segregated. >> in many different ways. >> brown: as is much of our life today. >> exactly. it's interesting in the book how acknowledging that yo

once again, pianist rob kapilow joins jeffrey brown to explore what makes great music. >> reporter: rob kapilow, welcome. >> thanks for having me. >> reporter: so today we're marking the birthday of camille saint-saens, right, so this is a story of a great composer who didn't quite get the legacy that he wanted. >> during his lifetime, i mean he was a famous composer, one of the most famous composers in the world writing serious operas, serious symphonies. >> reporter: tell us a little bit about him. >> well you know, he was also one of the world's greatest musical prodigies. in fact many people think he was even more of a prodigy than mozart or mandelson. he started piano at two and a half, he wrote his first piece at four and a half. made a public debut at 10 in which not only did he play two concertos, and write his own cadenza, but for an encore he offered to play any beethoven sonata from memory that the audience wanted. that's 32 sonatas at the age of 10. one of the great musical protÉges utterly famous, yet then for a joke he writes this piece that literally became his legacy. >>

. >> on tomorrow's pbs newshour jeffrey brown sitting down with seth meyers to discuss how late nightes, "check, please!" people! >> it's all about licking your plate. >> the food is just fabulous. >> i should be in psychoanalysis for the amount of money i spend in restaurants. >> i had a horrible experience. >> i don't even think we were at the same restaurant. >> and everybody, i'm sure, saved room for those desserts. >> you bet.

and, to jeffrey brown: >> brown: and a most unusual term it is: with an empty seat since the death of antonin scalia last february, it's been at least 25 years since the court began a term with just eight members. we look at that, and at a case argued today about racial bias and the death penalty. and we welcome back our favorite court watcher: marcia coyle of the "national law journal." >> thanks, jeff. >> brown: welcome back, time to get to work. >> absolutely. >> brown: a term in which the court begins shorthanded, what impact are we seeing white we see? what jumps out at you? >> i think right now what we see has to do with the kinds of cases that the court has already accepted for decision. there are no potential blockbuster issues on the docket of the kind that seem to mark just about every term of the roberts court since it began in 2005. >> brown: there have always been a couple at least. >> that's right. and instead the cases that we're seeing there is a healthy dose of patent, arbitration, bankruptcy, and there are more narrow technical statutory interpretation cases. but i w

we take two looks at it now, with a jeffrey brown conversation with the head of a humanitarian group, and to begin, this report from the front by john irvine of independent television news. [gunfire] >> reporter: keeping enemy heads down. the gunfire gives kurdish soldiers the chance for a quick look over no-man's-land. they want a glimpse of home. these men are from what will be the next village liberated, having fled from there in june 2014. they can hardly wait to run. but while some people will soon be going back home, others are having to flee. they have just left mosul. there are a few more dangerous undertakings than escaping the clutches of isis and crossing over, but they managed it carrying a few belongings and a white flag. regarding the battle, with the help of coalition air strikes still smoldering today, the kurds did make important gains. under normal circumstances, the city of mosul would be just ten minutes drive away, however, for time being, the advance here has been halted because advances elsewhere have not gone so well. these iraqi forces want to wait for their c

. >> on tomorrow's pbs newshour jeffrey brown sitting down with seth meyers to discuss how late night know if the mix of earnings, the election gro concerns, and the fed will lead to more volatili. regaining trust. will the ceo change at wells fa be enough to soothe the outrage in washington and on main street? >>> milli dollar gamble. in today's housing market, the potentia profit from a house flip is much bigger and much more risky. those stories and more tonight on "nightly busi for thursday. >>> good evening, everyone. welcome. look now, but volatility may be starting to make an appearan. stoc began the day with a steep

brown crust and meld the flavors in melted cheese. oh, here's the best part. the new chef-inspired panini collection. now playing at subway. police shot and killed 53-year old jeffrey cave inside his home during an intense new at six... 13 action news anchor..... christopher king is getting reaction.... from our crime and safety expert who says.... the officers may have used... too much restraint. chris? randy sutton -- is a man -- with 34 years of experience -- as a police officer. we watched that body-cam video with him. sutton tells us -- those officers -- showed remarkable restraint. that restraint -- he says -- could have cost those officers their lives. :15:34 randy sutton "wow!" police..wearig armor..guns drawn..cautiously walk up to the kingman, arizona, home of a wanted man. "police! search warrant! open the door!" they..bang on the door..making very clear..who they are. and they mean business. the door opens. jeffrey cave..stands in front of police..with a gun in his hand. "drop the gun!" they clearly order cave..over and over..to drop the gun. "drop the gun!" but cave..does not obey their