Dean's Campaign Chairman Quits; Priest Sex Abuse Scandal Widens
Aired February 16, 2004 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again everyone.On the eve of the Wisconsin primary the story of the day seems not to be John Kerry's ascent but when Howard Dean will drop out. Now, in truth this story is fueled in large part by a key member of the Dean campaign, Steve Grossman, who has now left the campaign after asserting that after tomorrow's expected loss, Dr. Dean should drop out as well.We ask why? Win or lose he has millions of supporters. His message in many ways laid the groundwork for all the other Democratic candidates who have run against him. If you are a Democrat, and we are not, you could argue that staying in the race actually helps the party by keeping the media focused on the race. Dr. Dean isn't going to win, we don't think, but whether he stays in the race or not, whether he continues to trumpet the causes he believes in, whether he stays should be something he and his team and his followers decide, not us, or anyone else, politics in a moment.But we lead tonight with a new report on abuse in the Catholic Church, Jason Carroll has gotten an exclusive look at the report so he starts us off with a headline -- Jason.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, it is a draft of the report and it details the number of priests accused of abuse since 1950 as well as the number of victims but there are critics who say it still does not go far enough -- Aaron.
BROWN: Jason, thank you. We'll get to you at the top tonight.Next to Wisconsin on the eve of primary day, CNN's Kelly Wallace logged in a few more miles. She's in Milwaukee tonight, Kelly a headline.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, a co-headline tonight going to John Kerry's rivals. Number one what will Howard Dean decide to do? And, number two, could John Edward pull off another Iowa surprise -- Aaron?
BROWN: Kelly, thank you.Finally, the White House and whether Friday's document dump put questions of the president's guard duty to rest, CNN's Dana Bash with the watch tonight, Dana a headline.
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Despite the hundreds of documents released on the president's National Guard service more than 30 years ago, there are still a number of unanswered questions but perhaps the most important question here at the White House is how much all of this matters to voters -- Aaron.
BROWN: Dana, thank you. We'll get back to you and the rest shortly.Also ahead on the program tonight, the rich do get richer and everyone else curses the Yankees. We'll tell you the story of Arod and Ken Burns joins us as well and we'll cry together.In Segment 7 tonight a tiny corner of Arizona where polygamy and an outcast group of Mormons rule.And back for the weekend and the Catskills, I'm sure that's where he was, the rooster will be here to check your morning papers for a Tuesday, all that and more in the hour ahead.We begin with the priest sex abuse scandal, a report commissioned by the Conference of Catholic Bishops is due out at the end of this month. If nothing else, it is ambitious in scope covering a half a century of accusations and wrongdoing and suffering. What it may not be for some though is enough, not thorough enough, not critical enough, not nearly independent enough to earn the trust of those who believe the church has broken faith with them time and again.With it, though, is the first major effort by the church to assess the dimensions of the problem. We'll have a discussion on this later in the program, first the details of the report from CNN's Jason Carroll.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL (voice-over): The report attempts to shatter the secrecy surrounding priestly sexual abuse for the past 50 years. CNN saw a draft of the report put together by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the request of the U.S. Conference of Bishops.Preliminary numbers, based on church records, show 11,000 allegations of abuse nationwide between 1950 and 2002. Seventy-eight percent of victims were ages 11 to 17, 16 percent 8 to 10, and slightly less than 6 percent were 7 years old or younger.Of the 11,000 allegations, 6,700 were substantiated by church records. One thousand were unsubstantiated. The remaining 3,300 were not investigated because the priests who were accused were already dead by the time allegations surfaced.The president of the bishops' conference, who has not seen the draft, says: "These reports will be a very sobering and important milestone. My heart goes out to all who have suffered." Victims like David Cerulli who say as staggering as these numbers are the real number could be even higher.
DAVID CERULLI, ALLEGED SEX ABUSE VICTIM: Victims have a hard time coming forward. We believe that there are more victims out there who haven't reported their abuse.
CARROLL: The research also found 4,460 priests were accused of sexual abuse between 1950 and 2002. That number represents about four percent of the 110,000 priests who were in active ministry. More than half of the accused had one allegation against them. A little more than 25 percent had two or three. About 13 percent four to nine, three percent had ten or more allegations involving minors. That three percent accounts for 147 priests but those priests were responsible for abusing nearly 3,000 victims, included in that group priests like Father Paul Shanley in Boston who is accused of molesting 30 children since 1967.
FATHER THOMAS REESE, "AMERICA" MAGAZINE: I think what it shows is that, you know, a few priests can be a terrible plague on people, on children.
CARROLL: The report suggests the abuse increased in the '60s, peaked in the '70s and fell off in the '80s and '90s. Why? Some clergy say the church got a wake-up call in the mid-1980s when a priestly abuse scandal erupted in Lafayette, Louisiana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: And there are some critics who say that, again, this report does not go far enough because researchers relied on church documents instead of looking for outside sources of information.The report also explores why the abuse went on for so long. It cited several reasons, including the church's failure to grasp the gravity of the problem and the priority the church placed on avoiding scandal. Again, Aaron, this is a draft report. Expect there to be more changes in the final report that is scheduled to be released to the public on February 27 -- Aaron.
BROWN: We talked about changes in the final report. We have some fairly specific numbers. People can quarrel about the accuracy of those numbers but they're fairly specific. So, where are we going to see changes?
CARROLL: Unknown at this point. Again, it's a draft version that I had an opportunity to look at, my source simply telling me that there is the possibility because it is a draft that there might be other changes. But in terms of specifically where those changes will be made, I'm going to have to wait for February 27th like everyone else.
BROWN: Unless you get your hands on it beforehand. Thank you, Jason. It worked once. Later in the program we'll talk a bit about the conclusions and the methodology here. Both are somewhat in play tonight and there's some contentiousness about both of them and we'll get to that a little later in the program. We'll finish the news of the day first. Politics next, a day away from the primary in Wisconsin, John Kerry looks like he's about to chalk up another one. Howard Dean, who has an awful lot riding on tomorrow, some would say everything, spent the day trying to put a good face on the departure of Steve Grossman his campaign manager, so much to talk about for CNN's Kelly Wallace.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WALLACE (voice-over): Will he stay or will he go? Howard Dean gives a very Dean-like response.
HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think it is possible for us to win and I think it's possible for us to do well if we don't win.WALLACE: But there are signs, smaller crowds, a national chairman who has already left, and a candidate saying nice things in Sunday's debate about front-running John Kerry after attacking him just a few days ago.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What happened to the tone? You almost over moderated. Have you figured out where it's headed yet?
DEAN: Sure. We're going to change this country one way or the other.
WALLACE: Dean and Kerry chatted briefly at the debate. A senior Kerry adviser said if Dean decides to leave the race, Kerry would try to get him and his grassroots thousands strong organization onboard as quickly as possible, for now, Kerry's goal trying to score his 16th victory.
SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Hello Green Bay. Now are you glad to see old Kennedy? Are you glad I'm back out here?WALLACE: Forty-four years after his brother, President John F. Kennedy, pulled off an upset here, Senator Ted Kennedy asked the state to deliver a victory for another Senator from Massachusetts.
KENNEDY: Do for him what you did for my brother. He'll be a great president.
WALLACE: But the endorsement of the state's largest newspaper was delivered not to John Kerry but to Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, who took Kerry on in Sunday's debate and plans to keep it up.
SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think as the race is narrowing to two people it will be clear what the differences are between us.
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WALLACE: And in an ironic twist, in his speech Edwards is also reminding voters of the Kennedy upset asking people in Wisconsin to do for him what they did for John F. Kennedy in 1960 and an adviser to Senator Edwards telling CNN tonight that no matter what happens tomorrow, Senator Edwards is staying in this race -- Aaron.BROWN: What are they saying about turnout tomorrow?
WALLACE: They expect it to be quite high, Aaron. They definitely do. There's been a lot of attention, a lot of people tuning in to this debate. The candidates have all been here, Edwards, Dean, John Kerry have been campaigning over the past few days, so they expect a high turnout and we'll see what happens tomorrow.
BROWN: Talk to you tomorrow then, Kelly Wallace in Milwaukee, Wisconsin tonight.A quick update now, on Friday Senator Kerry categorically denied rumors of an affair with a young woman. Today she came forward to deny it completely as well. In a statement issued to the Associated Press, her former employer by the way, she said this: "I've never had a relationship with Senator Kerry and the rumors in the press are completely false. Whoever is spreading these rumors and allegations does not know me but they should know the pain they have caused me and my family." She adds, "It seems that efforts to peddle these lies continue, so I feel compelled to address them."We've said before that in an odd way this race, if it does come down to John Kerry and George W. Bush, will have at least a chapter dealing with Vietnam. Just last week there was a doctored photo of Senator Kerry sitting next to Jane Fonda. The photo was a phony. There are questions about the president's National Guard service and we'll deal with that again in a few moments. So, Vietnam is still out there, especially where Senator Kerry is concerned.
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CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the story of Kerry versus Kerry. A step ahead of the draft, John Kerry enlisted in the Navy in 1966. That spring he spoke against the war at his Yale graduation. Within two years he was in Vietnam.
KERRY: And I went feeling like I wanted to win. You know I felt that this was something we had a legitimate purpose in trying to achieve.
CROWLEY: By 1969, Kerry had a silver medal, a bronze star, three purple hearts and a change of mind.
KERRY: When I got there I began to see the extraordinary contradictions, the ways in which the Vietnamese were not supportive, the ways in which there was corruption, the ways in which our strategy simply couldn't work.
CROWLEY: He asked for an early discharge and joined Vietnam Vets against the war. At 27, Kerry was testifying for the group on Capitol Hill detailing stories of crimes committed by U.S. troops.They had, he said "personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages, poisoned food stocks."It was horrific stuff but Kerry was passionate and articulate. A star was born and along with it Kerry got a rep. He was lampooned as a showboat in an early Doonesbury strip. Others saw him as a political opportunist changing sides with changing tides. Many vets were incensed over his allegations of routine atrocities. One took his case to a debate on the Dick Cavett show.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think there is something particularly pathetic about me having to appear on nationwide television and trade polished little phrases with you to defend the honor of the 55,000 people that died there, the two and a half million of us that served there.
CROWLEY: Fueling the political inferno of Vietnam, Kerry and other vets tossed medals over a capitol fence into a bin marked trash.
KERRY: This administration forced us to return our medals because beyond the perversion of the war these leaders themselves denied us the integrity those symbols supposedly gave our lives.
CROWLEY: Later, it came to light Kerry had not thrown his own medals over the fence.
KERRY: I didn't have them with me. It was very simple. I hadn't had time to go home.
CROWLEY: He has the medals to this day. When Kerry arrived in the Senate in 1985, the sting of Vietnam had dissipated. In 1992, the junior Senator from Massachusetts had the military and political credentials to defend Bill Clinton, criticized by rival Democrats for avoiding Vietnam.
KERRY: We do not need to divide America over who served and how. I have personally always believed that many served in many different ways.
CROWLEY: It was President Bill Clinton who normalized relations with Vietnam after a push from John Kerry.Candy Crowley, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Still ahead on the program tonight, the document dump, what the military records released by the White House do and don't tell us about the president's time in the National Guard back during the Vietnam Era.And later, the place where polygamy is still a way of life, a way of life being challenged, at long last, by the law.From New York this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: We imagine that for a certain minority who really, really believed the president shirked his Guard duty during the Vietnam war, no amount of documentation would be enough to prove otherwise and, for others, none is necessary. For the rest, for most people, there are now hundreds of pages of it put out late in the day on Friday, which is where we left the story with the White House confident, the Democrats skeptical, and our correspondents very busy indeed. Tonight, the pages have been turned but only some of the questions answered. Here's CNN's Dana Bash.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BASH (voice-over): President Bush flew F-102 fighters so well nearly 35 years ago his commander called him a "top notch fighter interceptor pilot." So, why did he miss an annual medical exam, according to this August, 1972 document, that suspended his flying status?
EUGENE FIDELL, MILITARY LAW EXPERT: It's very surprising that a person who had qualified as an aviator would in essence voluntarily give up that qualification by failing to have the annual physical. I've never seen that happen.
BASH: This is just one of the questions left unanswered in the hundreds of pages of documents released about the president's Vietnam Era National Guard service.Administration officials say there was no need for Mr. Bush to take an exam because he had transferred to Alabama and did not intend to fly. One former Air National Guard general agrees.
MAJ. GEN. DONALD SHEPPERD (RET.), USAF: There wasn't much of a future for President Bush at that time in his unit, so this is not an unusual situation at all.
BASH: There are other open questions like where was Mr. Bush during the gap in payment records between mid April through late October, 1972? He was supposed to be on non-flying status in Alabama but there are no paper records of what his duties there actually were. People who remember serving with Mr. Bush in Alabama have been hard to find. John Calhoun says he does.
JOHN CALHOUN, SERVED IN ALABAMA NATIONAL GUARD: I saw him there and I know he was there. I talked to him. Occasionally, we'd eat lunch together. BASH: But the dates Mr. Calhoun tells CNN he recalls seeing him don't match up with the dates then Lieutenant Bush was paid for service. For the White House perhaps the most important unanswered question is how much all this matters to voters.The latest "Washington Post" poll says for now only 30 percent see the president's National Guard service as a legitimate issue, while a vast majority 66 percent, say it is not.
CHUCK TODD, EDITOR "THE HOTLINE": I think now the ball is going to be back into the Democrats' court to see if they're going to try and sort of use this as a way of getting into other issues.BASH (on camera): Democratic sources say they now intend to move on to other issues because they say they've achieved their goal, which was to raise questions about the president's credibility, which had already seen a recent dip in the polls. Dana Bash, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: A few other stories making news from around the world. In Iraq, two U.S. soldiers died today in separate roadside bombings, bringing the total number of U.S. military deaths since the start of the war to 542. The attacks, one in Baghdad and the other just north of the city, happened just minutes apart. Five U.S. soldiers were hurt as well.A day in history, 45 years ago today, 32-year-old Fidel Castro was sworn in as the premier of Cuba, the Battista regime overthrown. This weekend the Cuban leader again urged President Bush to say whether or not he renounces the assassination of foreign leaders. Two weeks ago the Cuban leader accused Mr. Bush of plotting to have his assassinated and planning to invade his country.In South Asia, Pakistan and India began their first formal peace talks in more than two years. By midweek officials are expected to hammer out an agenda for future discussions. All issues are said to be on the table, most importantly the disputed region of Kashmir over which the nuclear rivals have fought two wars.And in Sydney, Australia, three investigations are underway following a race riot yesterday in an inner city suburb. The violence was triggered by the death of an aboriginal teenager. Members of the indigenous community claiming the boy died after police chased him in their patrol cars. The police deny that. Forty police officers were injured in the rioting.Coming up on NEWSNIGHT we go back to the priest abuse story and talk about the study that shows it was in some ways far worse than anyone imagined. We take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT from New York.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: You only need to open the paper to get a pretty good measure of the problem that plagues the Catholic Church in the United States. In just the last two weeks there have been stories on accusations against a bishop on Long Island, New York, denials from the bishop of Albany, New York, and an inquiry into the murder in prison of former priest John Geoghan and, with the details of the Conference of Bishops' report on abuse now making their way to the public eye today, we can expect more of the same.We're joined tonight by Tom Roberts, the editor of "National Catholic Reporter." He comes to us from New Orleans; in Boston, Steve Krueger, the executive director of "Voice of the Faithful;" and in Chicago, David France, author of "Our Fathers: The Secret Life of the Catholic Church in an age of Scandal." We're pleased to have all of you with us.Mr. Krueger, let me start with you here, just a quick overview of your take on what you know so far of this draft report.
STEVE KRUEGER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, "VOICE OF THE FAITHFUL": Well, Aaron, I can't really comment on the draft report because we have not seen it yet but a couple things are clear. The fact that the report chronicles over 50 years of abuse in the Catholic Church indicates that we really aren't in the midst of a clergy sexual abuse crisis. We're in the midst of a clergy sexual abuse era and it's an era that is due to the failed leadership and failed leaders in the Catholic Church and I think we're at a point in time when the church and the public realizes that what has happened is unacceptable.
BROWN: Yes.
KRUEGER: And that accountability needs to be restored to the Catholic Church in order for the trust to be restored.
BROWN: That I would assume the church believes they are in the process of doing.David, this number of about 11,000 victims struck you, I gather, as quite low.
DAVID FRANCE, AUTHOR, "OUR FATHERS: THE SECRET OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN AN AGE OF SCANDAL": Well, I think it should strike anybody who has been watching this unfold over the last two years as quite low. The church even internally in the '80s produced a report in which they argued that the numbers might be as high as 100,000, you know ten times that size. And I think that, you know, we'd like to believe that they've done a true assessment of their records and their files dating back those years but it's just, you know, it's just really hard to really fathom that they turned their policies around so quickly and went and actually dug down to the bottoms of their records.The protocol for the study has its problems, left areas in which we felt like just observing the questions that were being answered by the John Jay researchers that there was a great possibility that many allegations could fall through the cracks.
BROWN: I don't want to get too lost in methodology here but I know there were, as you allude to, questions about methodology.
FRANCE: Absolutely.
BROWN: Essentially, it relies on the individual archdiocese to be straightforward.
FRANCE: In a way it's like asking Enron after Enron got caught to go back to its accountants and be more honest this time. There's no genuine forensic work that's being done, at least in this report, that would tell us the true depth and breadth of the problem, which I think is what the church needs to do in order to be able to surmount the crisis.
BROWN: Mr. Roberts, I'm curious if you think the fact that this is being done essentially under the auspices, not of the church itself, the bishops, but a lay group appointed by the bishops in the wake of the scandal tells us anything about where this whole situation is today.
TOM ROBERTS, EDITOR, "NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER": I think it is significant, Aaron, that it's happening under the auspices of a group of lay people. My news organization and lots of others have been trying to get some figures out of the bishops, some national scope on this problem for about 20 years and we're always told that it just couldn't happen because the diocese were autonomous. Bishops couldn't gather that kind of information and give it out.It was under the force of coverage and exposure of documents that showed the church's language in all of this that showed cover-up that the bishops finally were forced to begin dealing with it in this way.And it's interesting because they are somewhat in control of the information. Obviously they have it. But the fact of the matter is that in the last two weeks we've gotten reports from groups that went in, lay people, investigating diocese. This is certainly not the way bishops would prefer to have it done.I have a question about the survey too. I don't know. I haven't seen it. I've just seen the coverage. I'm wondering do these numbers include religious orders or are they diocesan priests only?
FRANCE: It's not clear I'm afraid.
BROWN: It's not a question I can answer if anyone can. The significance of that to you would be what by the way?
ROBERTS: Well, I think the numbers would be significantly higher if these were just diocesan priests who were included in this report.
BROWN: Yes.
ROBERTS: The numbers aside, and I think the numbers, the dimensions, are greater than people suspected. It is self reported so you can always factor that in but the question beyond this is what now happens? What are the recommendations because this has long ceased to be just a scandal about sex abuse? It's a scandal about abuse of power and trust and a breach of faith with the people.
BROWN: I think everybody at this --
KRUEGER: Aaron does --
BROWN: I'm sorry. Go ahead.
KRUEGER: Well, there's another very important aspect to the report that will be coming out on the 27th, which is the fact that although it counts the number of children who have been abused, the number of priests who have abused children, the total financial cost to the church it does not chronicle the number of bishops who knowingly reassigned priests...
BROWN: Yes.
KRUEGER: ...who had abused children and without that kind of investigation there can be no accountability.
FRANCE: Steve's right. There's so much that the report just doesn't tell us. It tells us or tries to tell us that some 4 percent in the priests in this period had drawn credible allegations of molestation against kids. But, you know, we see at least in three dioceses around the country where, under threat of prosecution, the churches have opened up their internal files to prosecutors. The numbers have been significantly higher than that, 6 percent, 8 percent.
BROWN: Yes.
FRANCE: And I think what's really being masked in here is that there's a generation of priests in which this happened. And in my book, I cover the class of 1960 around the country. And the incidence rate was as high as 12 percent in that class. So to include kind of these outliers, it really kind of allows -- confuses us a bit on the real focal point of when and what happened in this problem.
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: I'm sorry. David, thank you. Just -- I'm not in the business of plugging books, but I did read yours. And it's terrific laying the ground work for understanding some of what we've been talking about now for a year and a half. Thank you all for joining us. I suspect, come the 27th, we'll gather again and do this some more.
FRANCE: My pleasure.
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: A few more stories now from around the country. Tomorrow, federal aviation officials plan to announce a plan to require all U.S. aircraft to have on-board systems to prevent fuel tank explosions, like the one believed to have brought down TWA Flight 800 in 1996. Existing planes, as well as new aircraft, would have to install the system, which would lower the amount of oxygen in fuel vapors. Following that, a new study in "The Journal of the American Medical Association" finds for the first time that antibiotics may increase a women's chance of breast cancer. In the study, women who used the drugs more than 500 days had double the risk of developing the disease. Researchers are not sure why and are not yet recommending women change the way they use antibiotics. In San Francisco, more than 2,000 gay couples have exchanged vows since city officials began performing gay marriages last Thursday, in direct defiance of California state law. To meet the demand, officials volunteered their time over the long holiday weekend. When City Hall opened its doors today, 300 couples were waiting outside. A group trying to block the marriages has requested an injunction, which a judge is expected to review tomorrow. Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, we'll, of course, check morning papers. And no doubt, the A-Rod deal will be in most of them somewhere. More on that after the break.Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
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BROWN: Well, you got to love the New York Yankees. Well, you got to love them if you can get over hating them. Here's a team with the richest history in baseball, the highest payroll, the most revenue, who are now being paid -- yes, they are being paid $67 million to take the best player in the game off the hands of the Texas Rangers. Until today, I never thought God cared about baseball. Now, I'm sure he is a Yankee fan.
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BROWN (voice-over): In the end, it's pretty simple. The player widely regarded as the best player in the game, certainly the highest paid, wanted to play on the game's largest stage, New York. It's also about how relatively little the New York Yankees paid to get him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is going to be one of the greatest teams you're going to see in the history of the Yankees. You watch and see.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the best move that the Yankees have made since the Babe Ruth acquisition.
BROWN: Yes, baseball commissioner Bud Selig approved the deal today, but said he was -- quote -- "very concerned about the large amount of cash involved."The Texas Rangers will pay the Yankees in excess of $60 million to take A-Rod off their hands. Professional baseball is a sport where there is no limit on what teams can pay players. And today, the rich got decidedly richer.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A-Rod going to the evil empire.
BROWN: For much of baseball's off season, it was the Boston Red Sox who were in hot pursuit of Alex Rodriguez. But on the cusp of a completed trade, the Players Union vetoed it because Mr. Rodriguez would have had to agree to a lower paycheck with Boston.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: George is king right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: George is the best. BROWN: That would be the New York Yankees' owner, George Steinbrenner, of course, who will wind up paying Alex Rodriguez $15 million a season.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Alex.
BROWN: A figure that, in the upside-down world of baseball economics, is seen as a pretty good deal.
TOM HICKS, OWNER, TEXAS RANGERS: The Yankees started getting the money right late Wednesday night and Thursday. At that point, I took it very seriously. It was a very difficult decision for me to make.
BROWN: Spring training for many teams officially begins tomorrow. If you're a fan of the Yankees, it began today.
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BROWN: For the Red Sox, the A-Rod trade is just the latest loss they have suffered in their long-standing and bitter rivalry with the Yankees. Filmmaker Ken Burns directed and produced the acclaimed PBS series called "Baseball." He is also an unshakable Red Sox fan. Well, we'll assume he's unshakable. We'll find out in a moment. We're always glad to see him here.
KEN BURNS, FILMMAKER: I'm shaking.
BROWN: Well, look, it is sort of Ruthian.
BURNS: It is. No, it has got all the hallmarks of deja vu. The off season is very much like the season, where the Red Sox are making all the right moves and all the right moves and all the right moves, and, somehow, at the very last moment, the Yankees come in and make the rightest move.
BROWN: Without getting too caught up in the baseball of a baseball story, because what fun would that be, if you looked at this all Thursday, you say, the Red Sox had a fabulous off season. They came close on something, but they were still -- and they acquired a great pitcher.
(CROSSTALK)
BURNS: A couple.
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: They looked terrific. And then, all of sudden, boom.
BURNS: Boom. And you start hearing the rumors. And if you're a Red Sox fan, you know they are going to happen, just as Grady Little walking off the mound, not taking Pedro Martinez out when we're ahead in the last game of the championship. You go, oh no. Oh no. Please.
BROWN: So here's what I don't get. We have known each other a while now. And you've told me time and time again you don't believe in the curse.
BURNS: I don't.
BROWN: How can you got believe in the curse now? If you didn't believe in it three days ago, I was OK with that. I think you were a little shaky, but OK, because I like you. But how can you not believe it now?
BURNS: All right, well, you've got to divide Red Sox fans. And each Red Sox fan is divided between the glass half full and the glass half empty. The glass half empty is, of course, we're wringing our hands. This is terrible, the worst thing that ever happened. But talking to friends today and thinking about it, well, this is not so bad. We didn't want really A-Rod. We didn't want to get rid of Manny. We like Nomar. We got great pitching. Pitching always wins. Anderson (ph) in "The Times" today points out that pitching is going to triumph over hitting.So, maybe it will come down once again and we'll remember to take out our pitcher and put in our new reliever and win in the seventh game and go on and win the series. This is what we hope for every year. No curse, though.
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: OK. Now put on your baseball historian hat. Take off the Red Sox jersey. Is this good or is this truly terrible for baseball?
BURNS: It is funny. I listened all day, all weekend to even the Yankees -- the most die-hard Yankee folks. And they're just so excited. This is going to be one of the greatest lineups since 1927. This is a wonderful thing. And then, they'd stop and someone would say, is it good for baseball? And even those die-hard Yankees fans said, no, of course not, because you're concentrating so much money, so much talent, so much of what we don't like about the game. We want this to be our democratic sport. We want it to be a level playing field. Now, if you had interviewed me and we had gotten A-Rod, I could argue the other side of it just as easily. But the Yankees made a terrific deal.
BROWN: They made an unbelievable deal.
BURNS: We couldn't do it.And it really comes down to -- it's not really about A-Rod in the end. It is going to be this season when he has to move to third base. He has to get along with Derek Jeter. They have to figure out how to put it together. They have less pitching than they wanted to start out. But they have got a phenomenal lineup. But this is the different situation.
BROWN: Oh, look, it's George. If the pitching breaks down, he'll go get Walter Johnson. I mean that's -- if it's only about money, he just saved himself a ton. I mean, this is basically a $11 million deal.
BURNS: Right.
BROWN: And for the best player in the game.
(CROSSTALK)
BURNS: We couldn't get him.This is a story really about Soriano and Manny Ramirez.
BROWN: Yes.
BURNS: We were going to try to give up Manny Ramirez.
BROWN: "We" being the Red Sox.
BURNS: The Red Sox. It's like the parent company of CNN Time Warner.
(CROSSTALK)
BURNS: You have to say the Red Sox fans.But, you know, were going to give up Manny. And he game with a price tag and Soriano didn't. And so they could make the deal happen. Of course, it was the Players Union that nixed the deal a few weeks ago for the Red Sox. Otherwise, they would have had it, and had the same problem. What do you do with Nomar and A-Rod at -- a lot of people said, this is not A-Rod. For Boston, it is A-shaft.
(LAUGHTER)
BROWN: So, this is just another example of George being -- having deeper pockets and, in one sense, more imagination.
BURNS: Yes. I think, in this case, you know, they saw what could happen.
BROWN: Yes.
BURNS: I mean, but there is a downside for Yankees.
BROWN: Oh, I can't wait to hear this part.
(CROSSTALK)
BURNS: Look, you give up one of the great lead-off hitters, right?
BROWN: Who would that be?
BURNS: This would be Soriano.
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: No, no. Ken, I love you. He's not even a good lead-off hitter.
(CROSSTALK)
BURNS: More home runs leading off.
BROWN: No. Let me explain something about baseball, OK? What you like from your lead-off hitter is very few strikeouts and a lot of hits.
BURNS: You will see.
BROWN: OK? Get on base. The home runs, no one cares from a leadoff hitter.
BURNS: I now think we have got the series now. BROWN: How did we book the guy who did the baseball thing?
(LAUGHTER)
BURNS: We have got the series. I predicted it last year, they were going to win the World Series. And I was just off by a couple of pitching
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: A few moments.
BURNS: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: You were within a few moments.
BURNS: A few moments of winning that game, just like in '86, like I told you, and '75, and '67.
(LAUGHTER)
BROWN: I can't believe you said that. Thank you for coming in. BURNS: Well, I think...
BROWN: This must have been a very painful day.
BURNS: Very painful.
(LAUGHTER)
BROWN: Thank you. Before going to break, some of the money stories not involving infielders, starting with Halliburton and allegations of a subsidiary overcharge for gasoline trucks into Iraq from Kuwait. You'll remember this. Today, Kuwait's parliament launched an inquiry into the Kuwaiti company providing the gas and how it came to get the contract. Auditors for the Army already concluded that the company charged Halliburton more than twice what suppliers in Turkey did. If Comcast wants the Walt Disney Company, it will have to take it by force. Well, that sounds a little strong. Perhaps money will work. Disney's board today rejected an offer made last week by Comcast, which would have paid about $54 billion in stock for the company. And the stock market reports for today is easy. Markets were closed because of Presidents Day. They will open where they ended on Friday, with a bit of ground to make up. Alfonso Soriano one of the great leadoff hitters in the game, I don't even believe that.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: Ahead on the program, a place where polygamy survives and the battle over who will control a tiny town in Arizona. A break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Segment seven comes full circle, back to religion, young people and allegations of abuse. The state of Utah announced over the weekend that it will fund a billboard outside twin border towns in Utah and Arizona. The billboard's message will offer help to the victims of domestic abuse, which authorities believe is a serious problem in both towns, towns where polygamy is widely practiced. Many of the residents belong to a breakaway sect of the Mormon Church. For years, they have lived in relative isolation. That is all changing now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): They come in the predawn darkness, seemingly the entire town of Colorado City, Arizona, arriving at the nondescript building that is the headquarters of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a church whose members devoutly believe in polygamy.
DELOY BATEMAN, FORMER CHURCH MEMBER: When we were teenage age, actually just 19, going on 20, then, I was assigned this woman as my first wife. Eight or 10 years later, maybe a little longer than that, I was assigned a second wife.
BROWN: DeLoy Bateman and his wife, Eunice (ph), aren't members any longer of the Fundamentalist Mormon Church that dominates this remote town along the Utah-Arizona border. Eunice has 13 children with DeLoy. There are four more by his second wife, who has since left town.
BATEMAN: The prophet makes -- gets a revolution on who you should marry. He decides who everybody marries. So I was called in and said that he had a wife that I was to marry. And a short time after, we were married. And that's the way life started for us as a pair.
BROWN: But life here in Colorado City's changing and changing very quickly, it seems. The current leader of the church, who once lived in this compound surrounded by an 8-foot-high wall, recently expelled two dozen of his closest followers, including mayor of the city, and then fled the country after several young girls ran away, according to authorities, because they were being forced to marry older men.
MARK SHURTLEFF, UTAH ATTORNEY GENERAL: I think it's a matter of time before we bring charges.
JON KRAKAUER, AUTHOR, "UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN": It's as if the Taliban, part of the Taliban had been transplanted to American soil and been flourishing there since the 1930s. And that's exactly what it is.
BROWN: Journalist Jon Krakauer spent more than a year investigating Colorado City for his book, "Under the Banner of Heaven."
KRAKAUER: True believers in this town are not allowed to talk to outside. They're not allowed to watch television, read newspapers. They're not allowed to do anything that the prophet doesn't want them to do, because wives -- women and children, wives and children, are property of the church. They don't belong to a husband. They don't belong to themselves, certainly.
BROWN: And at least some in Colorado City have threatened critics with physical harm. This letter was sent to the home of an elderly, nearly blind man who has written a self-published history of the church.
BEN BISTILINE, FORMER CHURCH MEMBER: Basically, what it is saying is that I'm an evil man and the young men are being trained in Colorado City to perform a blood atonement on those who the prophet tell them to do.
BROWN: The phrase blood atonement, he says, means murder.
BISTILINE: They have got a program over there, I compare it with the Hitler youth program of the 1940s, where they're training those men. And if you read that letter, you can see what -- where I'm coming from on it.
BROWN: Both the local sheriff's office and the FBI say they're investigating. But an attorney for the Fundamentalist Church dismisses the allegations as nonsense and says, further, that all these concerns by authorities are groundless.
ROD PARKER, ATTORNEY, FUNDAMENTALIST CHURCH: They get their information about that community from its most vocal critics and its most vocal detractors. It is like trying to learn from the Mormon Church from the street preachers on Main Street.
BROWN: For its part, the far larger Mormon Church, based in Salt Lake City, whose membership is approaching three million and who are not associated with the Fundamentalists, is avoiding any comment at all. And in Colorado City, even the thought of breaking away from the Fundamentalist branch is something entirely new.
BATEMAN: We never critique our leader. He is -- he is God in our eyes, and how can he possibly make a mistake?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Colorado city. Next up on NEWSNIGHT, morning papers.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(ROOSTER CROWING)
BROWN: Okeydokey, time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world. It's always a challenge to do this after a weekend off. I don't know why, though. "The International Herald Tribune," published in France by "The New York Times," leads with Iraq, basically, sort of equal weight given to a couple of stories on the front page. But I like that picture. Anyway, the headline is, "Blast Rocks a Crowded School Yard in Baghdad. Explosion May be Accident or a Shift in Insurgents' Tactics." It would be kind of a good thing to nail which it is, wouldn't? That's the lead in "The International Herald Tribune."
"The Herald Sun," which is an Australian paper, we told you about the riot yesterday. And that's the lead. "Shameful" is their headline. And I'm not sure you can make out that picture very well, but it looks like tear gas canisters and the like being shot off. Or maybe those are molotov cocktails. Who knows?
"The Washington Times," a couple of stories to talk about. "Licenses to Gay Couples Top 2,000. Opponents Go to Court to Stop San Francisco." It's always a big issue for "The Washington Times," so they put it on the front page. I found this fascinating and, I'll confess, a little surprising, down at the bottom. "Most Americans Take Bible Stories Literally, Accounts More Than Lessons." Poll reveals 61 percent told an ABC News poll that they believe the literal account of the creation of Earth as told in Genesis. That's pretty interesting. Oh, OK.
"The Detroit News" front page is the John Kerry denial. "Woman Denies Affair With Kerry." The surprise is, it's on the front page, but that's me. An "The Chicago Sun-Times," the weather tomorrow is "hopeful." Sex abuse is the lead. We'll wrap up the day in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: a quick recap of our top story before we leave you tonight. We got a glimpse today of a draft report commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Bishops. It shows that more than 11,000 allegations of sexual abuse by priests against minors were made between 1950 and 2002. They were leveled at more than 4,000 priests across the country, about 4 percent of the 110,000 active priests at the time. The report suggests the abuse increased in the '60s, peaked in the '70s, falling off in the '80s and '90s. A final report due out at the end of the month. Tomorrow on this program, all the election results from Wisconsin and the fallout as well. And a political flashback, Jeff Greenfield longing for the smoke-filled rooms, the backroom deals. What happened to the good old days of the brokerage conventions? That's right here on NEWSNIGHT tomorrow."LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" next for most of you.We'll see you tomorrow. Good night for all of us.
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Aired February 16, 2004 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again everyone.On the eve of the Wisconsin primary the story of the day seems not to be John Kerry's ascent but when Howard Dean will drop out. Now, in truth this story is fueled in large part by a key member of the Dean campaign, Steve Grossman, who has now left the campaign after asserting that after tomorrow's expected loss, Dr. Dean should drop out as well.We ask why? Win or lose he has millions of supporters. His message in many ways laid the groundwork for all the other Democratic candidates who have run against him. If you are a Democrat, and we are not, you could argue that staying in the race actually helps the party by keeping the media focused on the race. Dr. Dean isn't going to win, we don't think, but whether he stays in the race or not, whether he continues to trumpet the causes he believes in, whether he stays should be something he and his team and his followers decide, not us, or anyone else, politics in a moment.But we lead tonight with a new report on abuse in the Catholic Church, Jason Carroll has gotten an exclusive look at the report so he starts us off with a headline -- Jason.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, it is a draft of the report and it details the number of priests accused of abuse since 1950 as well as the number of victims but there are critics who say it still does not go far enough -- Aaron.
BROWN: Jason, thank you. We'll get to you at the top tonight.Next to Wisconsin on the eve of primary day, CNN's Kelly Wallace logged in a few more miles. She's in Milwaukee tonight, Kelly a headline.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, a co-headline tonight going to John Kerry's rivals. Number one what will Howard Dean decide to do? And, number two, could John Edward pull off another Iowa surprise -- Aaron?
BROWN: Kelly, thank you.Finally, the White House and whether Friday's document dump put questions of the president's guard duty to rest, CNN's Dana Bash with the watch tonight, Dana a headline.
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Despite the hundreds of documents released on the president's National Guard service more than 30 years ago, there are still a number of unanswered questions but perhaps the most important question here at the White House is how much all of this matters to voters -- Aaron.
BROWN: Dana, thank you. We'll get back to you and the rest shortly.Also ahead on the program tonight, the rich do get richer and everyone else curses the Yankees. We'll tell you the story of Arod and Ken Burns joins us as well and we'll cry together.In Segment 7 tonight a tiny corner of Arizona where polygamy and an outcast group of Mormons rule.And back for the weekend and the Catskills, I'm sure that's where he was, the rooster will be here to check your morning papers for a Tuesday, all that and more in the hour ahead.We begin with the priest sex abuse scandal, a report commissioned by the Conference of Catholic Bishops is due out at the end of this month. If nothing else, it is ambitious in scope covering a half a century of accusations and wrongdoing and suffering. What it may not be for some though is enough, not thorough enough, not critical enough, not nearly independent enough to earn the trust of those who believe the church has broken faith with them time and again.With it, though, is the first major effort by the church to assess the dimensions of the problem. We'll have a discussion on this later in the program, first the details of the report from CNN's Jason Carroll.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL (voice-over): The report attempts to shatter the secrecy surrounding priestly sexual abuse for the past 50 years. CNN saw a draft of the report put together by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the request of the U.S. Conference of Bishops.Preliminary numbers, based on church records, show 11,000 allegations of abuse nationwide between 1950 and 2002. Seventy-eight percent of victims were ages 11 to 17, 16 percent 8 to 10, and slightly less than 6 percent were 7 years old or younger.Of the 11,000 allegations, 6,700 were substantiated by church records. One thousand were unsubstantiated. The remaining 3,300 were not investigated because the priests who were accused were already dead by the time allegations surfaced.The president of the bishops' conference, who has not seen the draft, says: "These reports will be a very sobering and important milestone. My heart goes out to all who have suffered." Victims like David Cerulli who say as staggering as these numbers are the real number could be even higher.
DAVID CERULLI, ALLEGED SEX ABUSE VICTIM: Victims have a hard time coming forward. We believe that there are more victims out there who haven't reported their abuse.
CARROLL: The research also found 4,460 priests were accused of sexual abuse between 1950 and 2002. That number represents about four percent of the 110,000 priests who were in active ministry. More than half of the accused had one allegation against them. A little more than 25 percent had two or three. About 13 percent four to nine, three percent had ten or more allegations involving minors. That three percent accounts for 147 priests but those priests were responsible for abusing nearly 3,000 victims, included in that group priests like Father Paul Shanley in Boston who is accused of molesting 30 children since 1967.
FATHER THOMAS REESE, "AMERICA" MAGAZINE: I think what it shows is that, you know, a few priests can be a terrible plague on people, on children.
CARROLL: The report suggests the abuse increased in the '60s, peaked in the '70s and fell off in the '80s and '90s. Why? Some clergy say the church got a wake-up call in the mid-1980s when a priestly abuse scandal erupted in Lafayette, Louisiana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: And there are some critics who say that, again, this report does not go far enough because researchers relied on church documents instead of looking for outside sources of information.The report also explores why the abuse went on for so long. It cited several reasons, including the church's failure to grasp the gravity of the problem and the priority the church placed on avoiding scandal. Again, Aaron, this is a draft report. Expect there to be more changes in the final report that is scheduled to be released to the public on February 27 -- Aaron.
BROWN: We talked about changes in the final report. We have some fairly specific numbers. People can quarrel about the accuracy of those numbers but they're fairly specific. So, where are we going to see changes?
CARROLL: Unknown at this point. Again, it's a draft version that I had an opportunity to look at, my source simply telling me that there is the possibility because it is a draft that there might be other changes. But in terms of specifically where those changes will be made, I'm going to have to wait for February 27th like everyone else.
BROWN: Unless you get your hands on it beforehand. Thank you, Jason. It worked once. Later in the program we'll talk a bit about the conclusions and the methodology here. Both are somewhat in play tonight and there's some contentiousness about both of them and we'll get to that a little later in the program. We'll finish the news of the day first. Politics next, a day away from the primary in Wisconsin, John Kerry looks like he's about to chalk up another one. Howard Dean, who has an awful lot riding on tomorrow, some would say everything, spent the day trying to put a good face on the departure of Steve Grossman his campaign manager, so much to talk about for CNN's Kelly Wallace.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WALLACE (voice-over): Will he stay or will he go? Howard Dean gives a very Dean-like response.
HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think it is possible for us to win and I think it's possible for us to do well if we don't win.WALLACE: But there are signs, smaller crowds, a national chairman who has already left, and a candidate saying nice things in Sunday's debate about front-running John Kerry after attacking him just a few days ago.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What happened to the tone? You almost over moderated. Have you figured out where it's headed yet?
DEAN: Sure. We're going to change this country one way or the other.
WALLACE: Dean and Kerry chatted briefly at the debate. A senior Kerry adviser said if Dean decides to leave the race, Kerry would try to get him and his grassroots thousands strong organization onboard as quickly as possible, for now, Kerry's goal trying to score his 16th victory.
SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Hello Green Bay. Now are you glad to see old Kennedy? Are you glad I'm back out here?WALLACE: Forty-four years after his brother, President John F. Kennedy, pulled off an upset here, Senator Ted Kennedy asked the state to deliver a victory for another Senator from Massachusetts.
KENNEDY: Do for him what you did for my brother. He'll be a great president.
WALLACE: But the endorsement of the state's largest newspaper was delivered not to John Kerry but to Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, who took Kerry on in Sunday's debate and plans to keep it up.
SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think as the race is narrowing to two people it will be clear what the differences are between us.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALLACE: And in an ironic twist, in his speech Edwards is also reminding voters of the Kennedy upset asking people in Wisconsin to do for him what they did for John F. Kennedy in 1960 and an adviser to Senator Edwards telling CNN tonight that no matter what happens tomorrow, Senator Edwards is staying in this race -- Aaron.BROWN: What are they saying about turnout tomorrow?
WALLACE: They expect it to be quite high, Aaron. They definitely do. There's been a lot of attention, a lot of people tuning in to this debate. The candidates have all been here, Edwards, Dean, John Kerry have been campaigning over the past few days, so they expect a high turnout and we'll see what happens tomorrow.
BROWN: Talk to you tomorrow then, Kelly Wallace in Milwaukee, Wisconsin tonight.A quick update now, on Friday Senator Kerry categorically denied rumors of an affair with a young woman. Today she came forward to deny it completely as well. In a statement issued to the Associated Press, her former employer by the way, she said this: "I've never had a relationship with Senator Kerry and the rumors in the press are completely false. Whoever is spreading these rumors and allegations does not know me but they should know the pain they have caused me and my family." She adds, "It seems that efforts to peddle these lies continue, so I feel compelled to address them."We've said before that in an odd way this race, if it does come down to John Kerry and George W. Bush, will have at least a chapter dealing with Vietnam. Just last week there was a doctored photo of Senator Kerry sitting next to Jane Fonda. The photo was a phony. There are questions about the president's National Guard service and we'll deal with that again in a few moments. So, Vietnam is still out there, especially where Senator Kerry is concerned.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the story of Kerry versus Kerry. A step ahead of the draft, John Kerry enlisted in the Navy in 1966. That spring he spoke against the war at his Yale graduation. Within two years he was in Vietnam.
KERRY: And I went feeling like I wanted to win. You know I felt that this was something we had a legitimate purpose in trying to achieve.
CROWLEY: By 1969, Kerry had a silver medal, a bronze star, three purple hearts and a change of mind.
KERRY: When I got there I began to see the extraordinary contradictions, the ways in which the Vietnamese were not supportive, the ways in which there was corruption, the ways in which our strategy simply couldn't work.
CROWLEY: He asked for an early discharge and joined Vietnam Vets against the war. At 27, Kerry was testifying for the group on Capitol Hill detailing stories of crimes committed by U.S. troops.They had, he said "personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages, poisoned food stocks."It was horrific stuff but Kerry was passionate and articulate. A star was born and along with it Kerry got a rep. He was lampooned as a showboat in an early Doonesbury strip. Others saw him as a political opportunist changing sides with changing tides. Many vets were incensed over his allegations of routine atrocities. One took his case to a debate on the Dick Cavett show.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think there is something particularly pathetic about me having to appear on nationwide television and trade polished little phrases with you to defend the honor of the 55,000 people that died there, the two and a half million of us that served there.
CROWLEY: Fueling the political inferno of Vietnam, Kerry and other vets tossed medals over a capitol fence into a bin marked trash.
KERRY: This administration forced us to return our medals because beyond the perversion of the war these leaders themselves denied us the integrity those symbols supposedly gave our lives.
CROWLEY: Later, it came to light Kerry had not thrown his own medals over the fence.
KERRY: I didn't have them with me. It was very simple. I hadn't had time to go home.
CROWLEY: He has the medals to this day. When Kerry arrived in the Senate in 1985, the sting of Vietnam had dissipated. In 1992, the junior Senator from Massachusetts had the military and political credentials to defend Bill Clinton, criticized by rival Democrats for avoiding Vietnam.
KERRY: We do not need to divide America over who served and how. I have personally always believed that many served in many different ways.
CROWLEY: It was President Bill Clinton who normalized relations with Vietnam after a push from John Kerry.Candy Crowley, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Still ahead on the program tonight, the document dump, what the military records released by the White House do and don't tell us about the president's time in the National Guard back during the Vietnam Era.And later, the place where polygamy is still a way of life, a way of life being challenged, at long last, by the law.From New York this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: We imagine that for a certain minority who really, really believed the president shirked his Guard duty during the Vietnam war, no amount of documentation would be enough to prove otherwise and, for others, none is necessary. For the rest, for most people, there are now hundreds of pages of it put out late in the day on Friday, which is where we left the story with the White House confident, the Democrats skeptical, and our correspondents very busy indeed. Tonight, the pages have been turned but only some of the questions answered. Here's CNN's Dana Bash.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BASH (voice-over): President Bush flew F-102 fighters so well nearly 35 years ago his commander called him a "top notch fighter interceptor pilot." So, why did he miss an annual medical exam, according to this August, 1972 document, that suspended his flying status?
EUGENE FIDELL, MILITARY LAW EXPERT: It's very surprising that a person who had qualified as an aviator would in essence voluntarily give up that qualification by failing to have the annual physical. I've never seen that happen.
BASH: This is just one of the questions left unanswered in the hundreds of pages of documents released about the president's Vietnam Era National Guard service.Administration officials say there was no need for Mr. Bush to take an exam because he had transferred to Alabama and did not intend to fly. One former Air National Guard general agrees.
MAJ. GEN. DONALD SHEPPERD (RET.), USAF: There wasn't much of a future for President Bush at that time in his unit, so this is not an unusual situation at all.
BASH: There are other open questions like where was Mr. Bush during the gap in payment records between mid April through late October, 1972? He was supposed to be on non-flying status in Alabama but there are no paper records of what his duties there actually were. People who remember serving with Mr. Bush in Alabama have been hard to find. John Calhoun says he does.
JOHN CALHOUN, SERVED IN ALABAMA NATIONAL GUARD: I saw him there and I know he was there. I talked to him. Occasionally, we'd eat lunch together. BASH: But the dates Mr. Calhoun tells CNN he recalls seeing him don't match up with the dates then Lieutenant Bush was paid for service. For the White House perhaps the most important unanswered question is how much all this matters to voters.The latest "Washington Post" poll says for now only 30 percent see the president's National Guard service as a legitimate issue, while a vast majority 66 percent, say it is not.
CHUCK TODD, EDITOR "THE HOTLINE": I think now the ball is going to be back into the Democrats' court to see if they're going to try and sort of use this as a way of getting into other issues.BASH (on camera): Democratic sources say they now intend to move on to other issues because they say they've achieved their goal, which was to raise questions about the president's credibility, which had already seen a recent dip in the polls. Dana Bash, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: A few other stories making news from around the world. In Iraq, two U.S. soldiers died today in separate roadside bombings, bringing the total number of U.S. military deaths since the start of the war to 542. The attacks, one in Baghdad and the other just north of the city, happened just minutes apart. Five U.S. soldiers were hurt as well.A day in history, 45 years ago today, 32-year-old Fidel Castro was sworn in as the premier of Cuba, the Battista regime overthrown. This weekend the Cuban leader again urged President Bush to say whether or not he renounces the assassination of foreign leaders. Two weeks ago the Cuban leader accused Mr. Bush of plotting to have his assassinated and planning to invade his country.In South Asia, Pakistan and India began their first formal peace talks in more than two years. By midweek officials are expected to hammer out an agenda for future discussions. All issues are said to be on the table, most importantly the disputed region of Kashmir over which the nuclear rivals have fought two wars.And in Sydney, Australia, three investigations are underway following a race riot yesterday in an inner city suburb. The violence was triggered by the death of an aboriginal teenager. Members of the indigenous community claiming the boy died after police chased him in their patrol cars. The police deny that. Forty police officers were injured in the rioting.Coming up on NEWSNIGHT we go back to the priest abuse story and talk about the study that shows it was in some ways far worse than anyone imagined. We take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT from New York.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: You only need to open the paper to get a pretty good measure of the problem that plagues the Catholic Church in the United States. In just the last two weeks there have been stories on accusations against a bishop on Long Island, New York, denials from the bishop of Albany, New York, and an inquiry into the murder in prison of former priest John Geoghan and, with the details of the Conference of Bishops' report on abuse now making their way to the public eye today, we can expect more of the same.We're joined tonight by Tom Roberts, the editor of "National Catholic Reporter." He comes to us from New Orleans; in Boston, Steve Krueger, the executive director of "Voice of the Faithful;" and in Chicago, David France, author of "Our Fathers: The Secret Life of the Catholic Church in an age of Scandal." We're pleased to have all of you with us.Mr. Krueger, let me start with you here, just a quick overview of your take on what you know so far of this draft report.
STEVE KRUEGER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, "VOICE OF THE FAITHFUL": Well, Aaron, I can't really comment on the draft report because we have not seen it yet but a couple things are clear. The fact that the report chronicles over 50 years of abuse in the Catholic Church indicates that we really aren't in the midst of a clergy sexual abuse crisis. We're in the midst of a clergy sexual abuse era and it's an era that is due to the failed leadership and failed leaders in the Catholic Church and I think we're at a point in time when the church and the public realizes that what has happened is unacceptable.
BROWN: Yes.
KRUEGER: And that accountability needs to be restored to the Catholic Church in order for the trust to be restored.
BROWN: That I would assume the church believes they are in the process of doing.David, this number of about 11,000 victims struck you, I gather, as quite low.
DAVID FRANCE, AUTHOR, "OUR FATHERS: THE SECRET OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN AN AGE OF SCANDAL": Well, I think it should strike anybody who has been watching this unfold over the last two years as quite low. The church even internally in the '80s produced a report in which they argued that the numbers might be as high as 100,000, you know ten times that size. And I think that, you know, we'd like to believe that they've done a true assessment of their records and their files dating back those years but it's just, you know, it's just really hard to really fathom that they turned their policies around so quickly and went and actually dug down to the bottoms of their records.The protocol for the study has its problems, left areas in which we felt like just observing the questions that were being answered by the John Jay researchers that there was a great possibility that many allegations could fall through the cracks.
BROWN: I don't want to get too lost in methodology here but I know there were, as you allude to, questions about methodology.
FRANCE: Absolutely.
BROWN: Essentially, it relies on the individual archdiocese to be straightforward.
FRANCE: In a way it's like asking Enron after Enron got caught to go back to its accountants and be more honest this time. There's no genuine forensic work that's being done, at least in this report, that would tell us the true depth and breadth of the problem, which I think is what the church needs to do in order to be able to surmount the crisis.
BROWN: Mr. Roberts, I'm curious if you think the fact that this is being done essentially under the auspices, not of the church itself, the bishops, but a lay group appointed by the bishops in the wake of the scandal tells us anything about where this whole situation is today.
TOM ROBERTS, EDITOR, "NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER": I think it is significant, Aaron, that it's happening under the auspices of a group of lay people. My news organization and lots of others have been trying to get some figures out of the bishops, some national scope on this problem for about 20 years and we're always told that it just couldn't happen because the diocese were autonomous. Bishops couldn't gather that kind of information and give it out.It was under the force of coverage and exposure of documents that showed the church's language in all of this that showed cover-up that the bishops finally were forced to begin dealing with it in this way.And it's interesting because they are somewhat in control of the information. Obviously they have it. But the fact of the matter is that in the last two weeks we've gotten reports from groups that went in, lay people, investigating diocese. This is certainly not the way bishops would prefer to have it done.I have a question about the survey too. I don't know. I haven't seen it. I've just seen the coverage. I'm wondering do these numbers include religious orders or are they diocesan priests only?
FRANCE: It's not clear I'm afraid.
BROWN: It's not a question I can answer if anyone can. The significance of that to you would be what by the way?
ROBERTS: Well, I think the numbers would be significantly higher if these were just diocesan priests who were included in this report.
BROWN: Yes.
ROBERTS: The numbers aside, and I think the numbers, the dimensions, are greater than people suspected. It is self reported so you can always factor that in but the question beyond this is what now happens? What are the recommendations because this has long ceased to be just a scandal about sex abuse? It's a scandal about abuse of power and trust and a breach of faith with the people.
BROWN: I think everybody at this --
KRUEGER: Aaron does --
BROWN: I'm sorry. Go ahead.
KRUEGER: Well, there's another very important aspect to the report that will be coming out on the 27th, which is the fact that although it counts the number of children who have been abused, the number of priests who have abused children, the total financial cost to the church it does not chronicle the number of bishops who knowingly reassigned priests...
BROWN: Yes.
KRUEGER: ...who had abused children and without that kind of investigation there can be no accountability.
FRANCE: Steve's right. There's so much that the report just doesn't tell us. It tells us or tries to tell us that some 4 percent in the priests in this period had drawn credible allegations of molestation against kids. But, you know, we see at least in three dioceses around the country where, under threat of prosecution, the churches have opened up their internal files to prosecutors. The numbers have been significantly higher than that, 6 percent, 8 percent.
BROWN: Yes.
FRANCE: And I think what's really being masked in here is that there's a generation of priests in which this happened. And in my book, I cover the class of 1960 around the country. And the incidence rate was as high as 12 percent in that class. So to include kind of these outliers, it really kind of allows -- confuses us a bit on the real focal point of when and what happened in this problem.
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: I'm sorry. David, thank you. Just -- I'm not in the business of plugging books, but I did read yours. And it's terrific laying the ground work for understanding some of what we've been talking about now for a year and a half. Thank you all for joining us. I suspect, come the 27th, we'll gather again and do this some more.
FRANCE: My pleasure.
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: A few more stories now from around the country. Tomorrow, federal aviation officials plan to announce a plan to require all U.S. aircraft to have on-board systems to prevent fuel tank explosions, like the one believed to have brought down TWA Flight 800 in 1996. Existing planes, as well as new aircraft, would have to install the system, which would lower the amount of oxygen in fuel vapors. Following that, a new study in "The Journal of the American Medical Association" finds for the first time that antibiotics may increase a women's chance of breast cancer. In the study, women who used the drugs more than 500 days had double the risk of developing the disease. Researchers are not sure why and are not yet recommending women change the way they use antibiotics. In San Francisco, more than 2,000 gay couples have exchanged vows since city officials began performing gay marriages last Thursday, in direct defiance of California state law. To meet the demand, officials volunteered their time over the long holiday weekend. When City Hall opened its doors today, 300 couples were waiting outside. A group trying to block the marriages has requested an injunction, which a judge is expected to review tomorrow. Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, we'll, of course, check morning papers. And no doubt, the A-Rod deal will be in most of them somewhere. More on that after the break.Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Well, you got to love the New York Yankees. Well, you got to love them if you can get over hating them. Here's a team with the richest history in baseball, the highest payroll, the most revenue, who are now being paid -- yes, they are being paid $67 million to take the best player in the game off the hands of the Texas Rangers. Until today, I never thought God cared about baseball. Now, I'm sure he is a Yankee fan.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): In the end, it's pretty simple. The player widely regarded as the best player in the game, certainly the highest paid, wanted to play on the game's largest stage, New York. It's also about how relatively little the New York Yankees paid to get him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is going to be one of the greatest teams you're going to see in the history of the Yankees. You watch and see.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the best move that the Yankees have made since the Babe Ruth acquisition.
BROWN: Yes, baseball commissioner Bud Selig approved the deal today, but said he was -- quote -- "very concerned about the large amount of cash involved."The Texas Rangers will pay the Yankees in excess of $60 million to take A-Rod off their hands. Professional baseball is a sport where there is no limit on what teams can pay players. And today, the rich got decidedly richer.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A-Rod going to the evil empire.
BROWN: For much of baseball's off season, it was the Boston Red Sox who were in hot pursuit of Alex Rodriguez. But on the cusp of a completed trade, the Players Union vetoed it because Mr. Rodriguez would have had to agree to a lower paycheck with Boston.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: George is king right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: George is the best. BROWN: That would be the New York Yankees' owner, George Steinbrenner, of course, who will wind up paying Alex Rodriguez $15 million a season.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Alex.
BROWN: A figure that, in the upside-down world of baseball economics, is seen as a pretty good deal.
TOM HICKS, OWNER, TEXAS RANGERS: The Yankees started getting the money right late Wednesday night and Thursday. At that point, I took it very seriously. It was a very difficult decision for me to make.
BROWN: Spring training for many teams officially begins tomorrow. If you're a fan of the Yankees, it began today.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: For the Red Sox, the A-Rod trade is just the latest loss they have suffered in their long-standing and bitter rivalry with the Yankees. Filmmaker Ken Burns directed and produced the acclaimed PBS series called "Baseball." He is also an unshakable Red Sox fan. Well, we'll assume he's unshakable. We'll find out in a moment. We're always glad to see him here.
KEN BURNS, FILMMAKER: I'm shaking.
BROWN: Well, look, it is sort of Ruthian.
BURNS: It is. No, it has got all the hallmarks of deja vu. The off season is very much like the season, where the Red Sox are making all the right moves and all the right moves and all the right moves, and, somehow, at the very last moment, the Yankees come in and make the rightest move.
BROWN: Without getting too caught up in the baseball of a baseball story, because what fun would that be, if you looked at this all Thursday, you say, the Red Sox had a fabulous off season. They came close on something, but they were still -- and they acquired a great pitcher.
(CROSSTALK)
BURNS: A couple.
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: They looked terrific. And then, all of sudden, boom.
BURNS: Boom. And you start hearing the rumors. And if you're a Red Sox fan, you know they are going to happen, just as Grady Little walking off the mound, not taking Pedro Martinez out when we're ahead in the last game of the championship. You go, oh no. Oh no. Please.
BROWN: So here's what I don't get. We have known each other a while now. And you've told me time and time again you don't believe in the curse.
BURNS: I don't.
BROWN: How can you got believe in the curse now? If you didn't believe in it three days ago, I was OK with that. I think you were a little shaky, but OK, because I like you. But how can you not believe it now?
BURNS: All right, well, you've got to divide Red Sox fans. And each Red Sox fan is divided between the glass half full and the glass half empty. The glass half empty is, of course, we're wringing our hands. This is terrible, the worst thing that ever happened. But talking to friends today and thinking about it, well, this is not so bad. We didn't want really A-Rod. We didn't want to get rid of Manny. We like Nomar. We got great pitching. Pitching always wins. Anderson (ph) in "The Times" today points out that pitching is going to triumph over hitting.So, maybe it will come down once again and we'll remember to take out our pitcher and put in our new reliever and win in the seventh game and go on and win the series. This is what we hope for every year. No curse, though.
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: OK. Now put on your baseball historian hat. Take off the Red Sox jersey. Is this good or is this truly terrible for baseball?
BURNS: It is funny. I listened all day, all weekend to even the Yankees -- the most die-hard Yankee folks. And they're just so excited. This is going to be one of the greatest lineups since 1927. This is a wonderful thing. And then, they'd stop and someone would say, is it good for baseball? And even those die-hard Yankees fans said, no, of course not, because you're concentrating so much money, so much talent, so much of what we don't like about the game. We want this to be our democratic sport. We want it to be a level playing field. Now, if you had interviewed me and we had gotten A-Rod, I could argue the other side of it just as easily. But the Yankees made a terrific deal.
BROWN: They made an unbelievable deal.
BURNS: We couldn't do it.And it really comes down to -- it's not really about A-Rod in the end. It is going to be this season when he has to move to third base. He has to get along with Derek Jeter. They have to figure out how to put it together. They have less pitching than they wanted to start out. But they have got a phenomenal lineup. But this is the different situation.
BROWN: Oh, look, it's George. If the pitching breaks down, he'll go get Walter Johnson. I mean that's -- if it's only about money, he just saved himself a ton. I mean, this is basically a $11 million deal.
BURNS: Right.
BROWN: And for the best player in the game.
(CROSSTALK)
BURNS: We couldn't get him.This is a story really about Soriano and Manny Ramirez.
BROWN: Yes.
BURNS: We were going to try to give up Manny Ramirez.
BROWN: "We" being the Red Sox.
BURNS: The Red Sox. It's like the parent company of CNN Time Warner.
(CROSSTALK)
BURNS: You have to say the Red Sox fans.But, you know, were going to give up Manny. And he game with a price tag and Soriano didn't. And so they could make the deal happen. Of course, it was the Players Union that nixed the deal a few weeks ago for the Red Sox. Otherwise, they would have had it, and had the same problem. What do you do with Nomar and A-Rod at -- a lot of people said, this is not A-Rod. For Boston, it is A-shaft.
(LAUGHTER)
BROWN: So, this is just another example of George being -- having deeper pockets and, in one sense, more imagination.
BURNS: Yes. I think, in this case, you know, they saw what could happen.
BROWN: Yes.
BURNS: I mean, but there is a downside for Yankees.
BROWN: Oh, I can't wait to hear this part.
(CROSSTALK)
BURNS: Look, you give up one of the great lead-off hitters, right?
BROWN: Who would that be?
BURNS: This would be Soriano.
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: No, no. Ken, I love you. He's not even a good lead-off hitter.
(CROSSTALK)
BURNS: More home runs leading off.
BROWN: No. Let me explain something about baseball, OK? What you like from your lead-off hitter is very few strikeouts and a lot of hits.
BURNS: You will see.
BROWN: OK? Get on base. The home runs, no one cares from a leadoff hitter.
BURNS: I now think we have got the series now. BROWN: How did we book the guy who did the baseball thing?
(LAUGHTER)
BURNS: We have got the series. I predicted it last year, they were going to win the World Series. And I was just off by a couple of pitching
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: A few moments.
BURNS: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: You were within a few moments.
BURNS: A few moments of winning that game, just like in '86, like I told you, and '75, and '67.
(LAUGHTER)
BROWN: I can't believe you said that. Thank you for coming in. BURNS: Well, I think...
BROWN: This must have been a very painful day.
BURNS: Very painful.
(LAUGHTER)
BROWN: Thank you. Before going to break, some of the money stories not involving infielders, starting with Halliburton and allegations of a subsidiary overcharge for gasoline trucks into Iraq from Kuwait. You'll remember this. Today, Kuwait's parliament launched an inquiry into the Kuwaiti company providing the gas and how it came to get the contract. Auditors for the Army already concluded that the company charged Halliburton more than twice what suppliers in Turkey did. If Comcast wants the Walt Disney Company, it will have to take it by force. Well, that sounds a little strong. Perhaps money will work. Disney's board today rejected an offer made last week by Comcast, which would have paid about $54 billion in stock for the company. And the stock market reports for today is easy. Markets were closed because of Presidents Day. They will open where they ended on Friday, with a bit of ground to make up. Alfonso Soriano one of the great leadoff hitters in the game, I don't even believe that.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: Ahead on the program, a place where polygamy survives and the battle over who will control a tiny town in Arizona. A break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Segment seven comes full circle, back to religion, young people and allegations of abuse. The state of Utah announced over the weekend that it will fund a billboard outside twin border towns in Utah and Arizona. The billboard's message will offer help to the victims of domestic abuse, which authorities believe is a serious problem in both towns, towns where polygamy is widely practiced. Many of the residents belong to a breakaway sect of the Mormon Church. For years, they have lived in relative isolation. That is all changing now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): They come in the predawn darkness, seemingly the entire town of Colorado City, Arizona, arriving at the nondescript building that is the headquarters of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a church whose members devoutly believe in polygamy.
DELOY BATEMAN, FORMER CHURCH MEMBER: When we were teenage age, actually just 19, going on 20, then, I was assigned this woman as my first wife. Eight or 10 years later, maybe a little longer than that, I was assigned a second wife.
BROWN: DeLoy Bateman and his wife, Eunice (ph), aren't members any longer of the Fundamentalist Mormon Church that dominates this remote town along the Utah-Arizona border. Eunice has 13 children with DeLoy. There are four more by his second wife, who has since left town.
BATEMAN: The prophet makes -- gets a revolution on who you should marry. He decides who everybody marries. So I was called in and said that he had a wife that I was to marry. And a short time after, we were married. And that's the way life started for us as a pair.
BROWN: But life here in Colorado City's changing and changing very quickly, it seems. The current leader of the church, who once lived in this compound surrounded by an 8-foot-high wall, recently expelled two dozen of his closest followers, including mayor of the city, and then fled the country after several young girls ran away, according to authorities, because they were being forced to marry older men.
MARK SHURTLEFF, UTAH ATTORNEY GENERAL: I think it's a matter of time before we bring charges.
JON KRAKAUER, AUTHOR, "UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN": It's as if the Taliban, part of the Taliban had been transplanted to American soil and been flourishing there since the 1930s. And that's exactly what it is.
BROWN: Journalist Jon Krakauer spent more than a year investigating Colorado City for his book, "Under the Banner of Heaven."
KRAKAUER: True believers in this town are not allowed to talk to outside. They're not allowed to watch television, read newspapers. They're not allowed to do anything that the prophet doesn't want them to do, because wives -- women and children, wives and children, are property of the church. They don't belong to a husband. They don't belong to themselves, certainly.
BROWN: And at least some in Colorado City have threatened critics with physical harm. This letter was sent to the home of an elderly, nearly blind man who has written a self-published history of the church.
BEN BISTILINE, FORMER CHURCH MEMBER: Basically, what it is saying is that I'm an evil man and the young men are being trained in Colorado City to perform a blood atonement on those who the prophet tell them to do.
BROWN: The phrase blood atonement, he says, means murder.
BISTILINE: They have got a program over there, I compare it with the Hitler youth program of the 1940s, where they're training those men. And if you read that letter, you can see what -- where I'm coming from on it.
BROWN: Both the local sheriff's office and the FBI say they're investigating. But an attorney for the Fundamentalist Church dismisses the allegations as nonsense and says, further, that all these concerns by authorities are groundless.
ROD PARKER, ATTORNEY, FUNDAMENTALIST CHURCH: They get their information about that community from its most vocal critics and its most vocal detractors. It is like trying to learn from the Mormon Church from the street preachers on Main Street.
BROWN: For its part, the far larger Mormon Church, based in Salt Lake City, whose membership is approaching three million and who are not associated with the Fundamentalists, is avoiding any comment at all. And in Colorado City, even the thought of breaking away from the Fundamentalist branch is something entirely new.
BATEMAN: We never critique our leader. He is -- he is God in our eyes, and how can he possibly make a mistake?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Colorado city. Next up on NEWSNIGHT, morning papers.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(ROOSTER CROWING)
BROWN: Okeydokey, time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world. It's always a challenge to do this after a weekend off. I don't know why, though. "The International Herald Tribune," published in France by "The New York Times," leads with Iraq, basically, sort of equal weight given to a couple of stories on the front page. But I like that picture. Anyway, the headline is, "Blast Rocks a Crowded School Yard in Baghdad. Explosion May be Accident or a Shift in Insurgents' Tactics." It would be kind of a good thing to nail which it is, wouldn't? That's the lead in "The International Herald Tribune."
"The Herald Sun," which is an Australian paper, we told you about the riot yesterday. And that's the lead. "Shameful" is their headline. And I'm not sure you can make out that picture very well, but it looks like tear gas canisters and the like being shot off. Or maybe those are molotov cocktails. Who knows?
"The Washington Times," a couple of stories to talk about. "Licenses to Gay Couples Top 2,000. Opponents Go to Court to Stop San Francisco." It's always a big issue for "The Washington Times," so they put it on the front page. I found this fascinating and, I'll confess, a little surprising, down at the bottom. "Most Americans Take Bible Stories Literally, Accounts More Than Lessons." Poll reveals 61 percent told an ABC News poll that they believe the literal account of the creation of Earth as told in Genesis. That's pretty interesting. Oh, OK.
"The Detroit News" front page is the John Kerry denial. "Woman Denies Affair With Kerry." The surprise is, it's on the front page, but that's me. An "The Chicago Sun-Times," the weather tomorrow is "hopeful." Sex abuse is the lead. We'll wrap up the day in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: a quick recap of our top story before we leave you tonight. We got a glimpse today of a draft report commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Bishops. It shows that more than 11,000 allegations of sexual abuse by priests against minors were made between 1950 and 2002. They were leveled at more than 4,000 priests across the country, about 4 percent of the 110,000 active priests at the time. The report suggests the abuse increased in the '60s, peaked in the '70s, falling off in the '80s and '90s. A final report due out at the end of the month. Tomorrow on this program, all the election results from Wisconsin and the fallout as well. And a political flashback, Jeff Greenfield longing for the smoke-filled rooms, the backroom deals. What happened to the good old days of the brokerage conventions? That's right here on NEWSNIGHT tomorrow."LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" next for most of you.We'll see you tomorrow. Good night for all of us.
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