Transcripts For KRCB PBS NewsHour 20121026

Government each year. Reporter what you might not know about the federal deficit. A guided tour in and around washington, d. C. With the wall street journals david wesson. Woodruff we have another in our series of topics not being talked about in the campaign. Tonights missing issue is europes debt crisis. Brown an ancient and historic city at risk in a modernday civil war. We look at the destruction in aleppo, syria. This is one of the great tragedies. Aleppos an extraordinary cross roads of cultures, religions, all built on a strata of centuries of woodruff and ray suarez has the story of a 19th century recording made on tinfoil by thomas edison, digitally converted so we can hear it. Brown thats all ahead on tonights newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by computing surrounds us. Sometimes its obvious and sometimes its very surprising in where you find it. Soon, computing intelligence in unexpected places will change our lives in truly profound ways. Technology can provide customized experiences tailored to individual consumer preferences, igniting a world of possibilities from the inside out. Sponsoring tomorrow starts today. And the william and flora hewlett foundation, working to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. And with the ongoing support of 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. Brown with election day less than two weeks away, the race for president looks tighter than ever. A new Associated Press poll today shows president obama and governor romney in a statistical dead heat. In the meantime, one prominent voter, the president himself, cast his ballot in early voting in chicago. cheers and applause in addition to showing the president and mitt romney running neck and neck nationally, the new poll reveals that among women, president obama has lost a 16point lead he held just one month ago. The race has tightened among men, too, in the opposite direction, with romney losing much of his advantage over the president. Still, on november 6, it will be the swing states that most matter, and, today, romney concentrated once again on ohio, where 18 electoral votes are up for grabs. He addressed a raucous crowd in cincinnati this morning. You know somethings wrong about the direction were headed right now. You know that we dont want to keep going on the same path weve been on for the last four years. You know we cant afford four more years like the last four years. I mean do you want real big change in this country . cheers and applause well, youre going to get. On november 6, youre going to make it happen. Were going to get america on track again. Brown republicans were also today trumpeting big gains in the money race, with over 111 million raised from october 1 to october 17. That gives the Romney Campaign, the Republican National committee and state parties 169 million cash on hand. Democratics arent required to provide its october totals until mid november. The president , fresh off an appearance on the tonight show wednesday, continued to criss cross the country, with stops in florida, virginia, and, yes, ohio. You notice my. My voice is getting a little hoarse. But. But im just going to keep on. Just going to keep on keeping on. cheers and applause brown on cbs this morning, he picked up an endorsement from former secretary of state colin powell, a republican who bucked his party to vote for the president in 2008. I think thiis an citi race between two very, very capable men. And i signed on for a long patrol with president obama, and i dont think this is the time to make such a sudden change. Brown with powells nod, the president campaigned in tampa, florida, where he told supporters they have a stark choice. You can chose the topdown policies that got us into this mess, or you can choose the policies that are getting us out of this mess. cheers you can choose the Foreign Policy thats reckless and wrong, or you can choose one thats steady and strong. cheers you can choose to turn back the clock 50 years for women and for immigrants and for gays, or, in this election, you can stand up for that basic principle that makes our country the envy of the world, that were all created equal. Brown those comments come amid continued fallout over statements about abortion by Indiana Republican Senate Candidate Richard Mourdock in a debate tuesday night. And i think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that god intended to happen. Brown in a new ad out today, the Obama Campaign attempted to link romney to mourdock, and to comments made by vice presintial nominee paulyan. So, im very proud of my pro life record, and ive always adopted the idea, the position that the method of conception doesnt change the definition of life. Brown romney has distanced himself from murdocks remarks even while continuing to support him. Romney has said he opposes abortion except in the case of incest, rape and a threat to the life of the mother. Deficits mas altos, desempleo cronico. Brown the Romney Campaign continued its air war, as well, reaching out to hispanic voters with a spanishlanguage ad that accused the president ofailing to ve uto h promises. You cant change washington from the inside. Brown this evening, the president stopped in his hometown of chicago and became the first sitting president to participate in early voting. In fact, it appears now that as many as onethird of all American Voters will cast their ballots before election day. Meanwhile, the Obama Campaign announced today that former president clinton will join president obama in florida, ohio and virginia next week. And for more on the money being poured into the president ial contest, we turn to margaret warner. Warner if you live in a battleground state, chances are youve already seen the ads we just showed, probably more than once. Ad spending by the president ial campaigns, the parties and the outside groups supporting them continues to far exceed the pace in 2008. Combined, theyve reportedly spent upwards of 900 million on tv ads, much of it in nine battleground states. According to the ad tracking firm kantar media cmag, at least 44 million has gone to iowa, 45 million in neda, 101 million in virginia, and, in ohio, a whopping 116 million. The newshour is partnering with kantar media cmag and n. P. R. To sort through these numbers, and were joined by mara liasson of n. P. R. To look at what the ad spending figures tell us about the shape of the race. Mara, so nice to have you. Nice to be here. Warner so what do these ad spending numbers if you look at the breakdowns tell us about the strategy ch camp i pursuing nowhisloseo the election . Whats interesting about this universe is the battleground of nine states wisconsin is the newest addition that came out around june these states are set in stone. This is a battleground thats not going to shrink because of a peculiar aspect of this cycle. In the past because campaigns had to make tough decisions because they had limit ord finite resources, sometimes they would leave a state. Thats not going to happen this year. This battleground is not going to shrink. But what these adsell us is, at this momen it also not growing. If the battleground was growing youd see republicans bye ads in michigan or pennsylvania and theyre not right now. Warner but romney is still going to places like he hasnt been to pennsylvania lately. Why that disconnect . Why arent they pulling out . Because they dont have to. They have so much money they can afford to play wherever, even in states like North Carolina which most people think is beyond the reach of democrats. Or nevada which some people think is soon to be beyond the reach of republicans. Theres no point. They have so much money they can play everhere, at least for theeaso of pinning the oher guys down. Warner now, when you look at these numbers it looks as if the relative strength is almost equal if you combine the parties and the campaigns and the outside groups . Yes, right now. Previously through september on t Obama Campaign had a little edge according to the kantar numbers because for a variety of reasons. They can bye ads at a slightly discounted rate than, for instance, the republican super pacs. Also because the Obama Campaign strategy of buying adds was to buy them rly like youd buy a plane ticket in advance, youd get a cheaper rate. The Romney Campaign strategy is to buy them at the last minute so you have to pay more. So up until now, yes, very equal. But the kantar folks expect that thats going to change in the last two weeks because romney has a money advantage and that could switch to an advantage for him in the final weeks. Warner now, what does what do these numbers tell us about who is bei targeted and has that changed at all for each campaign . What sorts of viers e they oing after . Well, theyre clearly going after undecided voters. Its a very small universe. In these state there iss probably about 800,000 truly undecided persuadable voters. Pelley you mean total . Total total that means campaigns are spending a thousand dollars per persuadable voter. Now, to them thats probably a bargain. Sounds like a lot of money. But for instance heres a target group. White male midwestern voters. That means that youre seeing ads on College Football games in the midwest. And that is among pelley cllegeootball. College football. Thats among the most expensive advertising you can buy which is on a live sporting event, especially football. Warner what about the undecided women voters we keep hearing about clearly targeted. Unmarried women are a target for the Obama Campaign, married suburban women are a target for the Romney Campaign and theyre advertising on all of the programs, whether its daytime talk, et cetera, where they could possibly reach those people. Warner this is probably a dumb question because any of us whove seen the ads know the answer, but explainhe prortion of site t negative ads. Its 71 negative and thats not a surprise to anybody. Negative ads seem to be the ones that work and thats what youre seeing this year. Warner do you expect any kind of shift in this patern . These numbers are pretty fresh up to this week. So youre looking at the final two weeks. Well, i expect the shift that romney would have an advantage at the ad wars at the end. Hes going to be paying more per spot and maybe because he is so much more money in the end he can buy more spots. But the Obama Campaign has bee pretty effective. Theyve targeted, theyve bought early and theyve been able to kind of keep pup spot for spot with the republican super pacs and the r. N. C. And the Romney Campaign whove had to generally spend more money per spot. Warner and you dont expect anybody to pull either campaign to pull out of any of these states . I dont see why they have to. They both have plenty of money to stay until the end. What i would watch for is if that ad battleground expands. Do the republicans see an opportunity where its worth pouring money into michigan or pennsylvania. Thats what id be watching for. That will tell us something. Warner well, mara liasson, npr, thank you. Woodruff still to come on the newshour the highstakes politics of the budget; missing from the campaign europes troubles; destruction in an ancient syrian city; and the worlds oldest playable recording. But first, the other news of the day. Heres hari sreenivasan. Sreenivasan Hurricane Sandy beat a path across eastern cuba and the bahamas today as a category2 storm. Its being blamed for at least four deaths so far. Sandy brought strong surf, heavy rain and winds topping 105 miles an hour, and it ft behind a trail of downed power lines and uprooted trees. The edges of the storm will likely bring Tropical Storm conditions to southeast florida, and, as it moves north, the mid atlantic and northeast could also feel the effects through early next week. Forecasters are also predicting sandy could collide with a blast of arctic air from the north, creating conditions for a super storm along the east coast. A new wave of Ethnic Violence has erupted across western myanmar, killing at least 56 people. Dozens more were wounded in the clashes between buddhists and muslims. The violence reignited on sunday in rakhine state, triggering the worst fighting the country has seen since june. Nearly 2,000 homes were also destroyed and thousands of residents fled the area. In afghanistan, two u. S. Troops were killed in what appeared to be another insider attack. It happened on a late morning patrol in southern uruzgan province, when a man in an Afghan Police uniform turned his gun on the troops. Its the second suspected insider attack in two days. Yesterday, two British Service members died in a shooting with an Afghan Police officer. In u. S. Econic news, new aims for unemplmentell lt we, inditing slow t steady job growth. Stocks on wall street edged higher today on a handful of corporate earnings reports. The Dow Jones Industrial average gained 26 points to close above 13,103. The nasdaq rose more than four points to close at 2,986. Those are some of the days major stories. Now, back to jeff. Brown a major issue of the campaign and the country the growing debt problem. Today, there was a new call for a bipartisan effort to tackle it. It came from a group of more than 100 Business Leaders supporting a balanced approach of spending cuts and increased tax revenues. The group, called the campaign to fix the debt, released a letter saying it was not pushing any one plan but that any deal should make reforms to all areas of the budget, including Social Security and medicare. Its an oftstated goal, but what makes it so hard to more forward on . Our economics correspondent, paul solman, has been taking a look. Its part of his ongoing reporting, making sense of financial news. Reporter youve heard the numbers before federal budget, 3. 6 trillion, deficit 1 trillion, debt 16 trillion. But where do all the trillions actually go . Anything we can do about them . The wall street journals david wesz has written a primer red ink to itemize and explain. So we asked him to take us on a d. C. Budget tour to give us the hard truths and hard answers, starting on capitol hill. Okay, this may be hokey but were in the House Budget Committee room. Im sitting in the chairman seat and since i ask questions on behalf of the American Public i ask you, the expert on the budget, what do we need to know about it . One of the reasons i did the book was because of the times ive sat in this room and heard democrats and republicans argue about the budget and you would never know if you were an outsider listening what were they talking about because it would be impossible for all the things they say to be true i just thought it would be useful to put some facts on the table. Reporter and so as if a witness to the budget hearing, wessle testified toard truth numr on last year, 63 the government spent went out the door without a vote of congress. It was spending thats on autopilot. It was paying for promises that have been made in the past. Social security, medicare, medicaid, farm subsidies, veterans pensions and, of course interest on the federal debt. Reporter thats not to say we wont modify some might say renege on some of the promises. But whos willing to modify the main one. Health care. Reporter in 1960 the federal government sent. 5 ofll its money on health care. This year its 25 . The Congressional Budget Office says it will be 33 in a decade. One cannot control federal spending without finding some way to control Health Care Cost reporter okay, twothirds of the budget on auto pilot, Health Care Costs going up inexrabbbly, anything else we need to know . Even if we fired every single federal employee from the person whos watering Michelle Obamas tomatoes to the woman whos sitting in some silo in north daka with heringer on th button to launch a missile if need be, if we got rid of all of them we would have saved a lot of money but it would have only made a small dent in the deficit the deficit was over a trillion dollars last year and we would have saved 435 million in wages and benefits if we fired every federal employee. Reporter including the military . Including the military. The point is that most of the money the federal government collects does not go to pay bureaucrats it goes right back out again in the form of benefits or state and local government grants or contracts. If we dont restrain spending someone is going to get less money from the federal government. Reporter so if not health care, how about Something Else . And i can guess why you wanted us to go here. Thats the pentagon and this must be military spending which is how much of the total budget . Its about 20 of the federal budget now. 700 billion last year. More than the combined Defense Budget of the next 17 largest Defense Budgets. More than china plus russia plus germany plus france plus spain plus israel plus the United Arab Emirates and a few more i cant remember. Reporter do we really cant to skimp on defense with china an emerging superpower making offensive moves in the South China Sea and those islands in japan . We want to have enough defense to protect ourselves but the question is how much defense do we really need and how much can we afford to be the cops of the world . The thing that strikes me about the Defense Budget is how large the component decisions are so take this one question. How many Aircraft Carriers are enough . The congress has told the navy they have to have 11 Aircraft Carriers. Thats about ten more than any other country has. And the navy says we need to replace one Aircraft Carrier every five years for the rest of my life and then some. Each Aircraft Carrier is 11 billion. Its as much money as we spent to replace 750,000 shoulder, knee, and hip joints for people on medicare. One Aircraft Carrier, 7 50,000 joint replacements. Thats the magnitude of the decisions we have to make. Reporter 20 of the federal budget spent on defense. About 25 on Health Care Including medicare and medicaid, another 20 or so on Social Security. Americans do see the deficit as a problem, we just cant agree on how to solve it. I would cut a fair bit of the entitlements, we need entitlement reform. I wouldnt cut defense. Considering we have so much defense as it is, id cut a little more there, perhaps and not quite as much as social welfare. I nt know exactly what to cut. If i did, id probably run for office. laughter reporter on the other hand, if he did know and ran on drastic cuts he probably wouldnt win. Meanwhile, wessle escorts us to the Treasury Department to explain one last fact slice of the pie yearly interest on the 16 trillion national debt. Alexander hamilton was the first secretary of the treasury and in many ways hes the father of the federal debt. After the revolutionary war, he convinced all the individual states instead of trying to pay their debts off individually which was proving a big problem for some of them he convinced them to combine them all so we had one federal debt and reporter and this is the next big line item . Interest on the federal debt last year amounted to about 230 billion. Thats more than the combined budgets of commerce, education, homeland security, interior, justice, and the federal courts combined. Its 6 of all federal spending that went to Interest Payments last year. Reporter and thats with Interest Rates near alltime lows if those rates rise, so will the interest tab. But, of course, spending is only half the budget battle. You cant talk about the federal government without talking about revenues, without talking about taxes. And one thing that people in if middleclass dont believe but they should is that the tax bite on them, the federal tax burden, has been going down for the middleclass for the last 30 years. It was about 19 in 1979 before Ronald Reagan came washington. In 2007 before the Great Recession it was 14 . The line goes down and it has gone down even further since because of the Great Recession and the tax credits we put in to try and address it. Going down for all of us, and for our special interests, too. Wessle chose the monocle one of d. C. s choice spots far power lunch to make the point, telegeneralally. This is where lobbyists meet members of congress. Its not the floor of the house. Cspan dont come in here but this is where the deals are really cut. Reporter what impact does that have on the budget . The budget of the United States is huge. Its 3. 6 trillion, right . And in there are all sorts of deals to favor one industry or one company or one segment of the society. Last year the government took in 1. 3 trillion in tax revenue but the treasury adds up the t value of all the loopholes, deductions and credits and they amounted to 1. 1 trillion. So they gave away almost as much money as they collected. Reporter largely says wessle because over a nice lunch lobbyists can convince lawmakers to change the tax code. Someone says, you know, the law isnt really clear on this facet or the tax court has ruled this and if we could just get a piece of legislation in that would clarify this it would be in my interests and, by the way, congressman, i was so happy to see you at your fundraiser last night. Reporter well, it cant be that blatant its rarely that bald a transaction, but occasionally it is. But you are naturally more likely to have lunch here with someone whos raised money for your campaign than someone who turned down every invitation. Reporter so tax cutting for citizens and businesses, big spending mostly on auto pilot result . Fat deficits, fatter debt back at the pentagon we asked wes wessle what would he do . Its the role of the journalist to say you have to think about defense spending, you have to think about taxes and Health Care Costs and these are the fundamental Building Blocks from which you can make choices. Im afraid if i list out my choices, the people dont who dont like them wont listen to my facts and im trying to avoid that. Reporter we are trying to avoid that, too. Brown on pauls making sense page, theres more from his washington, d. C. Budget tour, including david wessel, explaining how the history of u. S. Debt woes mirrors whats happening in europe today. Woodruff and that brings us to europes debt crisis. That is one of the little mentioned topics in this Years Campaign and the subject of tonights segment on missing issues. Throughout the campaign, president obama and mitt romney have debated extensively on the direction of the u. S. Economy. 43 months with unemployment above 8 , 23 million americans struggling to find a good job right now. 31 consecutive months of job growth, 5. 2 million new jobs created. Woodruff but theres been little discussion about a potential outside threat to the nations recovery europes struggle with its debt crisis. Yesterday, the 17 countries using the euro saw their overall debt rise to 90 of their total economic output, the highest level since the euros creation in 1999. Moreover, at least nine member countries have slid into recession. Thats had an effect on American Companies operating overseas. This week, automaker ford announced its closing a major plant in belgium and two facilities in britain after losing more than 1. 5 billion. President obama has worked behind the scenes and publicly to press for more aggressive action by his european counterparts, warning against deeper spending cuts. In may, he hosted World Leaders at camp david for the g8 summit, with europe at the top of the agenda. Put simply, if a company is forced to cut back in paris or madrid, that might mean less business for manufacturers in pittsburgh or milwaukee. Woodruff on the campaign trail, however, both candidates have chosen only to highlight the contrast when the subject comes up. In june, during a speech in ohio on the economy, president obama said america took a different path than europe. Today, the economies of many European Countries still arent growing, and their Unemployment Rate averages around 11 . But here in the United States, americans showed their grit and showed their determination. We acted fast. Our economy started growing again six months after i took office, and it has continued to grow for the last three years. cheers and applause thank you woodruff mitt romney has charged the u. S. Could eventually face similar borrowing problems as some European Countries because of the president s policies, something hes raised in all threeresidentiadebates. Spain spends 42 of their total economy on government. Were now spending 42 of our economy on government. I dont want to go down the path to spain. If the president were reelected, wed go to almost 20 trillion of national debt. This puts us on a road to greece. We cant expect entrepreneurs and businesses large and small to take their life savings or their Companies Money and invest in america if they think were headed to the road to greece. And thats where were going right now unless we finally get off this spending and borrowing binge. Woodruff while panic over the fate of the euro zone has calmed of late, big troubles remain. In greece, austerity measures continue to drive political unrest and protests among residents and workers, while spain and other nations wrestle with chronic unemployment especially among young people. A closer look now at the Economic Risks from europe to our economy and why the president ial candidates are avoiding some of the blunt talk about it. This time, we turn to two writers who foll these issues losely. Zanny Minton Beddoes is the economics editor for the economist magazine; she formerly worked as an economist at the International Monetary fund. And James Surowiecki writes the Financial Page for the new yorker magazine, a regular column on business and finance. 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The question Going Forward and this is kind of again what zanny was getting at is whether or not it remains a source of profound uncertainty. Thats also been one of the problems that europe has caused in the United States. Its just made people worried about what they should do in terms of the future d europe continu to play on peoples minds. Woodruff so zanny beddoes, do you agree with that . I agree james, i think there were two ways in which whats going on in europe affects the u. S. One is, if the european economy is in a recession or even if theyre stagnant that has an effect on u. S. Exports, theres an incredibly Close Investment relationship, its a close an important trading relationship. If you have a europe that is stagnating for the next five, ten years, that is a big drag on the u. S. Economy. But i think the more dramatic impact would be if there was some kind of fanci catastrophe in europe, some breakup of the euro and it was the fear of that that on and off over the past couple of years has hung over wall street, has preyed on increased uncertainty and has been there like a kind of big shadow over the world economy. I think whats happened in the past couple of months is that that has receded and the big question is has it receded temporarily or permanently. And thats the whole narrative of this European Crisis has been that usually the European Central bank does something that calms nerves and a few months later theres another big owup an people get worried again. I think this time is different in the sense that there have been a profound shift within certain parts of europe, certainly germany. So i think within the next year or so until the german election next year the odds are well maintain some form of calm. But i think the real problem is no one knows where europe is going to end up in five years and im sure its going to be a tough road to get there. But if you dont know where youre going theres a huge amount of uncertainty. Wdruff so jim surowiecki, the president was defending his approach to this and governor romney was taking shots at the president saying the u. S. Is headed down the same direction as europe, why do you think were not seeing a fuller, more robust discussion about this on the campaign trail . I think there are a couple reasons. The most obvious reasons vn that simply that frankly theres not much the that the president can do about what europe is going to do. So certainly the Obama Administration has tried to exert various forms of moral situatn, tim geithner has been pushing policymakers in europe to deal with the crisis but in reality thats about all they can do so that, i think, is probably the biggest reason the second reason is the complexity of the euro crisis plays itself out in a variety of ways so you can spin the story in many different ways and i dont think it lends itself to a clear narrative. Mitt romney wants to reduce it to too much Government Spending in spain or greece. The spain case is very odd. Spain got into troubl not cause too mh vernment spending but because of a real estate bubble that burst. And obamas case, he wants to say, well, they went to austerity route and we didnt and things turned out well but it doesnt exactly lend itself to a clear political message and i think thats probably another part of it. Woodruff dan isny beddoes, you started to zanny beddoes, do you think those are the reasons were not hearing more from the candidates about this . I think theyre absolutely the reasons. Its complicated, its not easy to for govern romney to kind of tar the president with having messed up somehow and i think actually the Bigger Picture that thats no bad thing that its not that high on the agenda here because the truth is theres not much the u. S. Can do. This is a european problem the europeans have to figure out where they can go and i see in some sense too much coming from the u. S. In any obvious way is counterproductive. Because rightly or wrongly in europe who is the u. S. To tell the european what is to do when theres such a huge debt and deficit problem he. Woodruff just quickly, finely to both of you, i know other big players in the International Economy china, latin america, jim surowiecki, why arent we hearing more about those places . Well, you know, china we are obviously hearing a lot about but mainly in the form of china bashing and the reason for that are kind of clear. Its that china is the a clear villain at least they sort of play that role. I think the really interesting question about china is chinas economy as slow signicantly. Its growing faster than most of the rest of the world but its slowed significantly and that does have a profound impact on the u. S. As well in terms of the future of exports and things like that. But its easier to talk about currency manipulation or just talk about tariffs and tires than it is to talk about the ways in which the two economies are profoundly interconnected. So that has to do partly the question of trying to keep the candidates being simple rather than complex. Woodruff zanny beddoes, in a couple sentences, how do you see that an isue o not on the campaign trail . I agree with james. I think the problem is that china is being vilified, its easy for domestic purposes to vilify china. I think thats a dangerous thing to do. Its dangerous because at the same time right now there is a leadership transition of a different sort going on in china and i think that to ten usually theres a lot of uncertainty about how that plays out. In terms of the economy overall, Slower Growth in the the emerging sworld here to stay and that is going to have an impact on the economy here ich were hoping to turnnto an economy that focuses more on exports. Woodruff zanny Minton Beddoes, James Surowiecki, we thananyou both. And well examine other missing issues in the coming days. Brown in syria, the army announced that a fourday cease fire will begin tomorrow, to coincide with the muslim holiday of eed el adha. But the government reserved the right to respond to rebel attacks. One opposition group, the Free Syrian Army, gave a qualified backing to the truce but also demanded that the Government Free captured fighters. Meanwhile, there were new clashes today in aleppo, where activists said 14 people died. And it is to aleppo that we now turn for a closer look at one lessreported aspect of the ongoing violence. As the conflict in syria rages on, the death toll climbs. More than 34,000 people have been killed in the violence that began in march of last year. More than 350,000 refugees have left the country. A million more ve been dplaced from their mes in syria. Its a human tragedy on an immense and horrifying scale, but its also becoming clear that the battle between Syrian Government forces and the reb Free Syrian Army is taking another kind of toll on the countrys rich and historic cultural heritage. A center of that heritage aleppo, syrias largest city, now a scene of destruction that we report nearly every night. But less known is this aleppo is considered perhaps the oldest continuously inhabited human settlement in the world, home to numerous civilizations layered on top of one another including hittites, assyrians, arabs, mongols and ottomans that reach back to the beginning of recorded time. We have references to a place called aleppo from roundabout 2000 b. C. , and its clear that it had certain antiquity then. Brown julian raby is the director of the freer gallery of art and sackler gallery in washington, and an expert in middle eastern art. You have shiites, you have sunnis. But, at the same time, you had a plethora of different christian communities, armenians, syrians, greeks, an extraordinary crossroad of cultures religions, and all built on what felt like a strata of not centuries, but millennia. Brown many of the citys architectural and cultural landmarks have long been designated as World Heritage sites by unesco. Until recently, the old city had been a vibrant place, with locals and tourists flocking aleppos famous souk, an eight milelong marketplace where goods from throughout the region were bought and sold for centuries, signifying the citys role as a Major Trading crossroads between east and west. Another renowned site, the citadel, was a large, fortified medieval palace. The great mosque dates to the 12th century. Last week, it was damaged after rebel fighters attempted to take it from Government Troops whod been holed up inside for several months. And recently, fire raged through the souk. Newshour sent freelance video journalist toby muse to take a look at the situation in the old city. He found no commerce, no tourists, only war. The souks alleys now a bombed out ghost town. Merchants and shoppers replaced by rebel fighters battling government snipers. Shops with wares replaced by sandbagged fighting positions. Just moments before muse arrived, Syrian Forces had shelled and destroyed a building, injuring two people. Allah akbar brown around the corner, there were battle calls and more fighting. Government helicopters arrived and sniper fire intensified. Muse had to flee the area after being grazed by a ricocheted bullet. A particularly sad aspect to the destruction is that aleppo has historically been home not only to layers of civilization and religions, but an interaction between them. Julian raby showed usn example in one of his museums most prized possessions, a large cauldron. Its an extraordinary object, its one of the most elaborate of all of these silverinlayed vessels from the 13th century. But its extraordinary because it combines imagery thats typical of muslim princes polo. Brown yeah, i see them on horseback playing. Right, right. And then, little vignettes taken from the life of jesus. Brown this is literally the the cultures intertwined. Intertwined. Brown in the meantime, as the battles continue, outside experts fear the destruction of this cultural history will only grow. It is truly a loss for World Heritage. Brown kishore rao is the head of unescos World Heritage center. I dont think, i mean, were in a position to attribute blame to any one party, but surely it is the state party to the World Heritage convention which is supposed to be responsible for taking care of its heritage. And, in this case, syria has clearly sort of ignored all International Treaties that it has signed. Brown unesco has complained to president assad and the Syrian Government, calling for protection of the heritage sites of aleppo, but rao is not optimistic. The situation continues to be going from bad to worse, and i might inform you that we have a mission which is on standby. We have experts who are ready to go to the country and to be able to make an assessment of the damage that has been caused. But certainly that can happen only when the security and safety situation improves. Brown no one knows when that time will come, and julian raby says there may still be further problems for the citys treasures if and when the fighting finally stops. One of the great worries now is that, as aleppo moves from a battleground, does it become a ground for looting . Will all of this material be smuggled out and dispersed . So, a real concern, and not just for the monuments, not just for the fabric and the vitality of the city, but also for some of its most important artworks. Brown people we talked to acknowledged that whats happening in aleppo and much of syria today is first and foremost a human tragedy, and expressed a desire to end the killing and suffering of the countrys people. At the same time, a warning that goes beyond the daily headlines. This is one of the great tragedies. Aleppo is a its not just a museum of architecture; it it really captures a sense of the middle east at its very, very best. Its ability to have different communities living quite easily side by side in a very, very natural way. Brown in other words, its not just buildings being destroyed, but a vital part of world culture and history thats at risk, another casualty of syrias bloody civil war. Online, you can watch a slideshow of images from aleppos souk, from a bustling marketplace in 2010 to shuttered and deserted shops today. Woodruff finally tonight, the amazing story of how modern Digital Technology opened up a window into the beginnings of recorded sound. Ray suarez has our look. Suarez the sound is just 78 seconds long. It features a cornet solo and a man reciting Nursery Rhymes, including mary had a little lamb. Experts say they have reproduced the sound of the oldest playable recording of an american voice and the first captured musical performance. Its a recording made in 1878 on a small sheet of tinfoil, then placed on the cylinder of a phonograph invented by thomas edison. A hand crank turned a stylus that moved on the foil, recording sound. E fo was donated years ago to a museum in schenectady, new york, but its significance was not appreciated until this summer, when it was brought to researchers in berkeley. The foil was so fragile it could not be touched. Instead, it was scanned by computer to read the grooves in the foil and create a program to recreate the original sound. 134 years later, its a little indistinct, a little hard to make out. Heres a little bit of what they heard of the cornet for more on the significance of this work and how it was done, we turn to one of the primary experts involved. Carl haber is with the Lawrence Berkely national laboratory. Hes in new york state, where the recording will be played for the public for the first time tonight in more than 100 years at the museum of innovation and science. And carl haber, wheres the foil been in the ensuing hundred years since it was last played . Well, in the recent years, ink, since about th 1970s its been in the collection of the museum. Before that i believe it was in the hands of some private collectors who i think passed it on to the family and then it was finally given to the museum sometime in the 1970s. When you first got in the your hands and started to figure out how to hear what was on it, did you already have an idea of what had been recorded . A cornett . A human voice . That sort of thing . Or was it really sleuthing that started from square one . Well, we had no information directly about what was on this particular recording but we have done a number of projects on early recordings from the 1800s. And there are certain things that typically show up, like people will do mary had a little lamb because that was kind of iconic at the time and other such things. It could have been anything so we didnt really know what it was going to be. Suarez the machine that was meant to play this foil back is ow ng gone. Tell us how you reverseengineered this so oncey [please stand by] [technical difficulties] [please stand by] [technical difficulties] [please stand by] [technical difficulties] [please stand by] [technical difficulties] [please stand by] [technical difficulties] [please stand by] [technical difficulties] [please stand by] [technical difficulties] [please stand by] [technical difficulties] [please stand by] [technical difficulties] [please stand by] [technical difficulties] [please stand by] [tchnical difficulties] [please stand by] [technical difficulties] [please stand by] [technical difficulties] the obstruction of justice object that were photographing as well. And we trained that camera over the surface of this foil and we took large numbers of images that together for probably 4,000 megapixels or something of that scale, very, very large image, but it was large enough of that it contained in minute detail the undulations, the movements of the groove that edisons machine had cut into this foil. Once we had the image, we were able to put it on a computer and as you say reverse engineer, ask the question mathematically what would the need have done to create this shape or what would the need have done to respond to this shape if it had been drown through it. And from there its actually a very simple set of physics to get you to what the sound would have been that they recorded or would have been heard in the process of playing it back. Its actually a very direct process. Once you can properly characterizehe surface. Suarez now that youve done that, do you feel confident that what weve played back during the show this evening, what youre going to hear tonight, is pretty much what people would have heard in 1878. I think what people would have heard in 1878 would have been a little clearer because if youve seen the picture of the foil it was folded seven times and then stored in an envelope for 140 years or whatever. So those folds and perhaps it had been unfolded a number of times because it was very ragged and had fissures that ran along through the folds and so that unfortunately gives a very characteristic sort of thump, thump, thump sound that you hear when you play it, every time you cross one of those folds you hear a noise. When it was first played back in st. Louis in 1878 i presume that wouldnt have been there. Suarez do we know who the people are . The person playing the cornett . The people saying the Nursery Rhymes . We dont know know who was playing the cornett, but chris hunter whos a curator in schenectady has done a lot of research and he looked through the microfilms and he found st. Louis newspapers from that time announcing the exhibition of this device and it was attributed to a man named thomas mason who was actually a journalist and he used the pen name i. X. Pect, so i expect. He was apparently a humor writer. And it was recorded he purchased this machine and made an position of it in june of 1878. So our closest guess is that he is probably the person speaking. Suarez you know, all kinds of machines, devices have been made to capture and reproduce sounds, pictures, and yet we cant listen to our view many of those images today. Do we have to be careful that we preserve every old scrap of sound weve got . Create a sound library, if you will, so that a century from now people will be able to listen to for instance, this conversation . I tnk thatery important to create stable archives of the information that we create as a culture. Either you can debate as the amount of information gets larger and larger how best to do that but thats a question of, you know what do we do to preserve whats being created today and in the future and also what do we do to preserve that which was created in the past. For me i can understand a little bit better about the past because thats mostly what ive been thinking about and i think its tremendously important pserve the images,he moving pictures and the recorded sounds of the past. Early sound is something theyre not making any more of and it gives us a really significant and important window of history as a culture, inventors, innovators, scientists, researchers about what people were doing, the insights they had which really a lot of it underlies the information and communication age that we live in today. So i strongly sport the eservation of recorded information. Suarez well, in 2136 when people watch this theyll conclude beards were much more popular than they actually war. Carl haber, thanks for your time. Thank you very much. Brown again, the major developments of the day. President obama made a Marathon Campaign trek across five states and cast his ballot early in chicago. Republican mitt romney focused his energies on the battleground state of ohio. And hurricane andy beat a path across eastern cuba and the bahamas while the southeast coast of florida was forecast to feel some of the effects of the edge of the storm. Online, we have a followup to last nights story about cost cutting efforts at a seattle hospital. Hari sreenivasan has more. Sreenivasan Health Correspondent betty ann bowser continues her reporting with the story about one doctors ahha moment, that his hospital could eliminate its waiting room and become more efficient. Thats on our health page. And another thing to thank your grandma for human longevity. Thats our science thursday story. All that and more is on our web site, newshour. Pbs. Org. Jeff . Brown and thats the newshour for tonight. Im jeffrey brown. Woodruff and im judy woodruff. Well see you online 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 moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. And by the alfred p. Sloan foundation. Supporting science, technology, and improved Economic Performance and Financial Literacy in the 21st century. And with the ongoing support of 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. Captioning sponsored by Macneil Lehrer productions captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org