The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

RAY SUAREZ: Good evening. I'm Ray Suarez. Jim Lehrer has the day off. On the NewsHour tonight: A summary of today's news; making a national holiday a safe one; troubles inside the American music industry; assessing student athletics 30 years after Title IX; and historian David McCullough on founding father John Adam-- all tonight on the NewsHour.

NEWS SUMMARY

RAY SUAREZ: A gunman opened fire today at Los Angeles International Airport. Police said two people were shot and killed near the ticket counter for Israel's El Al Airlines. Then, an El Al security guard killed the shooter. At least three other people were hurt. Police closed off much of the airport, and thousands of people were evacuated for a time. An FBI spokesman said it appeared to be an isolated incident, and not an act of terrorism. He said the fact it happened near the El Al counter was a coincidence. There was no word on the identity of the gunman, except that he was 52 years old. The shoot-out came amid high security for the Fourth of July. That heightened security was seen from coast to coast. This is the scene from the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the grassy plaza stretching from the Capitol to the Washington Monument. Hours ago, people began pouring in for the July Fourth celebrations. They found increased security measures-- fences, bag screening-- a far cry from the low-key police presence of past years. Today in this first July 4 since last fall's terrorist attacks, gatherings around the country saw tight security to reduce the vulnerability to attack. We'll have more on the national celebrations later in the program. President Bush joined Independence Day celebrations in Ripley, West Virginia. They're billed as the largest Fourth of July events of any small town in America. Before the President spoke, the crowd recited the Pledge of Allegiance...

CROWD: ...And to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God...

RAY SUAREZ: ...And shouted the words "Under God." A federal appeals court ruled last month it's unconstitutional for the pledge to include those two words. Mr. Bush drew cheers when he picked up that theme later.

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: The American people, when we pledge our allegiance to the flag, feel renewed respect and love for all it represents. And no authority of government can ever prevent an American from pledging allegiance to this one nation under God. (Cheers and applause)

RAY SUAREZ: The President also took note of this being the first Fourth of July since the attacks of September 11. He said, "We love our country only more when she is threatened." Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai insisted today the U.S. military coordinate operations with Afghan officials. He said his people were "shocked" by Monday's attack on a village north of Kandahar. Witnesses claim dozens of civilians were killed. A U.S. military spokesman said today a fact-finding team at the site confirmed five dead and 11 injured. He also said there was information senior Taliban leaders were in the village during the attack. Russian families arrived in southern Germany today at the scene of Monday's fatal collision of two planes. Dozens of Russian children were killed in the crash near the borders with Switzerland and Austria. We have a report from Lindsay Taylor of Independent Television News.

LINDSAY TAYLOR: About 120 relatives of those who died gathered around part of the wreckage. Some laid flowers, others hugged; many just stood, their heads bowed. 71 people, 45 of them children, died when the Boeing 757, a DHL delivery plane, collided with a Tupolov 154 passenger aircraft. Today, crash investigators said that the flight recorders recovered yesterday had been severely damaged. Analyzing them is proving difficult, but doing so is crucial. Reports from Russia today said the Tupolov pilots warned Swiss air traffic control 90 seconds before impact, asking permission for a course change. The Swiss have said controllers ordered the plane to descend at about 50 seconds and at 30 seconds. German investigators say that was not early enough, but the International Air Transport Association in Geneva said 50 seconds should have been enough time to avoid a collision.

RAY SUAREZ: The Swiss have acknowledged a crash avoidance system on the ground was out of service at the time of the collision. The UN peacekeeping mission to Bosnia will continue at least through July 15. The Security Council approved the extension late last night. The Bush administration had threatened to let the mandate lapse unless U.S. peacekeepers were shielded from prosecution by the new International War Crimes Court. But the U.S. Ambassador said there wasn't enough support for that position. He said the extension buys time to that win support. A stepson of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been arrested in Florida on immigration charges. Mohammed Nour al-Din Saffi was taken into custody yesterday in the Miami area. The FBI said he d enrolled at a flight school where one of the September 11 hijackers was trained. Saffi, the son of Saddam Hussein's second wife, is a citizen of New Zealand and has worked as a flight engineer there. He has not been accused of having links to terror groups. Venus and Serena Williams made it an all-American women's finals at Wimbledon on this July 4. The sisters, seeded one and two, won their semifinal matches at the all-England tennis club. They'll play for the title Saturday. Venus has won Wimbledon the last two years. That's it for the News Summary tonight. Now it's on to making a safe Fourth of July, troubles inside the American music industry, 30 years of spending parity for men's and women's sports, and another look at David McCullough on founding father John Adams.

FOCUS SECURING THE FOURTH

RAY SUAREZ: A nationwide effort to protect Americans on this Fourth of July; Betty Ann Bowser begins our coverage.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Law enforcement was on high alert all over the country as Americans celebrated the first Independence Day since 9/11. In New York, an estimated 4,000 police were out in force. Security was tight on Wall Street, and at the tunnels that take people in and out of the city. At the Statue of Liberty, people lined up early for the ferry, some saying they didn't mind the extra security.

WOMAN: I think it's a good idea. We're tourists from out of town, so we appreciate it.

REPORTER: Are you worried?

WOMAN: No.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: F-16 fighter jets could be seen in the skies over New York, Washington and other cities. No-fly zones were also enforced over Mount Rushmore and the St. Louis gateway arch. On the west coast, every police officer in Seattle was on duty and the Coast Guard's newly commissioned security unit, armed with machine guns, protected Puget Sound. In California, the Los Angeles International Airport was closed for several hours after gunfire erupted near the ticket counter of El Al, the Israeli airline. It was unclear if the incident was terrorist-related. The state highway patrol had its planes and helicopters in the air to conduct surveillance over a number of facilities, including a major aqueduct to the state's water supply.

MARK GREGG, California Highway Patrol: We've stationed additional units in and around and near facilities, state parks, state bridges in an effort to try to maintain security on the installations.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: In San Diego, there was tighter security at tourist attractions, including Sea World, the Coast Guard and four safety zones at the Naval base around there and around bridges, cruise ships and power plants.

MARK GREGG: We haven't received any specific targets or specific threats in general, but we have beefed up our enforcement, of course. It is a maximum enforcement period for us.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: For celebrations in Boston, the National Guard was called in to back up police. Undercover officers mingled in crowds wearing portable radiation detecting devices like this one. In the nation's capital, there was unprecedented security. A double player of snow fencing encircled the 146 acres around Washington's Monument corridor. Some 2,000 uniformed police officers were on patrol. And plainclothes police circulated through the crowds on the National Mall. As many as half a million revelers were expected to brave the heat for the annual concert and fireworks. They had to pass through one of the two dozen security checkpoints before entering the area.

SPOKESMAN: I need you to take a drink of that for me, ma'am.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Bags and coolers were searched. People were also scanned with metal detectors.

MAN: We're at a state of war right now, and if this is what it takes to have good security around here, I'll say, "No, I don't mind."

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Not so visible was another kind of security. A network of video surveillance cameras mounted on monuments and museums were keeping watch all over the capital, and a vast network of FBI agents and Homeland Security officials were on duty monitoring for potential terrorist attacks.

RAY SUAREZ: For more on what is happening in Washington, we go to Teresa Chambers, the chief of the United States Park Police, the force charged with patrolling Washington's National Mall. I talked with her earlier today from the National Symphony Orchestra concert site on the west front lawn of the Capitol building. And chief chambers, welcome to the program.

TERESA CHAMBERS, Chief, U.S. Park Police: Thank you, Ray.

RAY SUAREZ: What kind of day have you had so far?

TERESA CHAMBERS: It has been perfect. We couldn't have asked for more cooperation from the customers who have come down here today, or from the officers of the United States Park Police to the 2,000 additional officers who have joined us here today. It's been terrific.

RAY SUAREZ: Have you done a large crowd control event since September 11 so that some of these procedures have already been run through?

TERESA CHAMBERS: Well, the United States Park Police engages in a lot of demonstrations here in the mall and in the area. The IMF has been the largest that we've dealt with since I came here just a few short months ago. Nothing can compare to the size of the crowds we're expecting tonight, nor the acreage that we're covering with the snow fence and security screening today.

RAY SUAREZ: So if people were to come down to the National Mall today, what would they see that's different from previous years?

TERESA CHAMBERS: Well, the first thing they would see is actually the double row of snow fence that's been erected over the past few weeks. The snow fence was chosen because it's not a hardened fence. We certainly didn't want the image of people coming to the nation's capital to celebrate America's independence by being closed in. And so the snow fence gave us an opportunity to funnel people through controlled access points. At each of those access points, every bag, every cooler, is being checked. We want to make certain that there's no glass containers, no alcoholic beverage, no fireworks, firearms or other illegal substance coming in here. This is a family affair. This is the people's park. We want it to be a safe and secure day for everybody.

RAY SUAREZ: But it's also a huge crowd, in the hundreds of thousands. How do you keep the line moving, and move all those people in and out of a confined area?

TERESA CHAMBERS: Well, you know, if I look a little hot, I spent the last three hours walking the crowds and talking to people and then stopping and talking to my officers and those that are helping us today. They have been creative and ingenious on how to move folks through. They've opened up extra lines; they've shifted people to other lines. They've had shortened lines for those that aren't carrying coolers in. It has been a seamless, and really a great effort.

RAY SUAREZ: Have you had any points where you ve had sort of the tension between preserving everybody's good time, preserving the flavor of the festivity and the real need to protect the area?

TERESA CHAMBERS: Actually, just the opposite. I had the most remarkable experience walking along the parade route earlier. Actually, I was walking in the opposite direction of the parade so I could enjoy the parade as well. But I stopped and talked to the officers and the people standing in the crowds. On three occasions people stepped out who were not from the Washington, D.C., Area-- Arkansas, Colorado, Ohio, and actually, a fourth, South Carolina-- and they said, "this is our first time coming to Washington, D.C.." and in one case, the woman said, "We heard you talk, Chief, about your experiences in Washington as a kid and what it meant to come to the Fourth of July celebration, and what it meant to build up that patriotism inside of you, and we wanted our children and grandchildren to see that, so we brought them here today." I had a tear in my eye by the time she finished talking to me.

RAY SUAREZ: It's still hours till the concert and the fireworks begin. Do you have any idea about the building of the crowd? Have people been coming early because of the added security?

TERESA CHAMBERS: Well, there's been a shift a couple of times during the day. There were actually people in line waiting to come on to the mall property when those checkpoints first opened at 10:00 this morning. Then the next wave came right after the parade. Many people come to Washington despite the heat today early enough to watch the parade. And when it was over, for the first time, then, thousands came at the same time. And yet it was only a few moments of time that they waited in line to get to through the checkpoint. The next wave will come when the sun starts to move out of the high part of the sky, and then finally, right before 9:00, we'll get the crush.

RAY SUAREZ: Well, let's talk a little bit about the crush. When the event is over, you'll still have a large number of people in a fairly small space. Your job really isn't over at that point, is it?

TERESA CHAMBERS: No, it's not. It shifts to a new direction. And that's helping people ease back out of the area. One of the things the officers will do as the fireworks wind down is help to take down that snow fence themselves so the people can have an easy egress back to either public transportation or to their cars.

RAY SUAREZ: You've talked a little bit about the good feelings that you've seen as you've been walking the area. Is there also a degree to which just seeing you there actually reassures people, where you don't want to have too many police, but you also don't want to have too few?

TERESA CHAMBERS: The comments we've received from the crowd that I talked with were all the positive ones saying, "Thank you for the extra effort. We feel good about having the officers here." And these officers are marvelous. If you see and interact with them today, they are so proud to be a part of what's happening here in Washington today. They're great interacting with the kids and the seniors and everybody in between. It's just a very festive mood and one of great patriotism.

RAY SUAREZ: Well, thanks for working on a holiday, chief, and thanks for talking to us.

TERESA CHAMBERS: It's my privilege to be here today. Thank you.

FOCUS MUSIC REVOLT

RAY SUAREZ: Next tonight, a high profile labor revolt within America's multibillion dollar music industry. Jeffrey Kaye of KCET Television reports.

SHERYL CROW (singing): All I want to do is have some fun...

JEFFREY KAYE: Sheryl Crow...

BILLY JOEL (singing): Anthony works in the grocery store...

JEFFREY KAYE: ...Billy Joel...

DIXIE CHICKS (singing): And the boss man started screamin'...

JEFFREY KAYE: ...The Dixie Chicks...

EAGLES (singing): Nights so long...

JEFFREY KAYE: ...And the eagles. These are only some of the superstars involved in an unprecedented labor revolt rocking America's $40 billion a year recording industry. It's an insurrection that, if successful, could radically alter the economics and management practices of the music business.

SINGER: And you say you want your freedom...

JEFFREY KAYE: The opponents of the big name stars are their own record labels, many of them subsidiaries of five entertainment conglomerates, which control 90% of the global music market.

SINGER: I used to hurry a lot I used to worry a lot...

JEFFREY KAYE: Don Henley, co- founder of the Eagles, is one of the leaders of the talent revolt. Although his band is one of the most successful groups in pop music history, selling over 100 million albums and climbing, Henley has emerged as an outspoken critic of the music business, arguing that its exploitation of performers has run amok.

DON HENLEY, Recording Artist: The recording industry is a dirty business-- always has been, probably always will be. I don't think you could find a recording artist who has made more than two albums that would say anything good about his or her record company.

JEFFREY KAYE: But you've had a fabulous career.

DON HENLEY: Yeah, but that's not the point. It would have been more fabulous had I been treated fairly. It doesn't matter how well I've done, or how well anybody else has done, the point is, is the business is simply not fair and people are getting ripped off.

JEFFREY KAYE: In their crusade against the music industry, artists charge the record labels with operating a contract system that turns top performers into indentured servants, robbing them of potential earnings.

DON HENLEY: Artists could be held to one record company, to one contract, for their entire careers. Artists never get a chance to go out and compete in the open marketplace to see what their true worth really is, like all other working people.

SPOKESMAN: I said, "look, it's unreasonable to ask Sony to do this."

JEFFREY KAYE: Recording executives such as Miles Copeland, former manager of the rock group The Police and President of LA-based Ark 21 Records, aren't shedding tears for the artists' plight.

MILES COPELAND, Record Company Executive: If you ask any new artist, "How would you like to be an indentured servant like Don Henley," they'd all say, "where do I sign, because we'd love to have houses and millions like he has. Please let me be an indentured servant!"

SINGER: Sunday morning when the paper comes...

JEFFREY KAYE: The mainstage for this battle royale between recording artists and record labels is California, the crossroads of the industry, where most of the music deals are made and the contracts signed.

SINGERS: She's got a cigarette on each arm...

JEFFREY KAYE: Performers like alternative rocker, Beck, want to abolish a California law that excludes musical artists from the state's seven-year limit on labor contracts. Unprotected by the seven-year rule, which covers all other workers in the state, the artists claim that no matter how successful they become, they remain tied to multi-album, non- negotiable record deals; often signed when they were just starting their careers.

KEVIN MURRAY, California State Legislator: You shouldn't have to stay working for the same employer for longer than seven years. Anything beyond that, frankly, is indentured servitude.

JEFFREY KAYE: California state senator Kevin Murray, a former talent agent, is championing the artists' cause in the state legislature.

KEVIN MURRAY: No matter how much you're getting paid, if you still have to do whatever you have to do for that person and you are not getting your value in the marketplace, this isn't about whether you're getting a little or a lot, but it's whether you're getting compensated the way that you would in an open marketplace. And we're prepared to let somebody have exclusive right to your services for a period of seven years but I don't think we should go beyond that.

JEFFREY KAYE: Henley co-founded the Artists' Rights Movement after numerous legal disputes with Geffen Records, his former label.

JEFFREY KAYE: To what extent are you biting the hand that has fed you very well?

DON HENLEY: Again, I take exception to -- I have fed me. I am responsible for my success. You know, my partners and I wrote those songs. We busted our butts touring for years and years before we made any money. Most artists don't see a penny of profit until their third or fourth album because of the way the business is structured. The record company gets all of its investment back before the artist gets a penny, you know. It is not a shared risk at all.

JEFFREY KAYE: The performers' struggle ranges from appeals and fundraising concerts...

DON HENLEY: This is to help recording artists get fair treatment. We appreciate your support very, very much.

JEFFREY KAYE: ...To lobbying before lawmakers in the California state capital.

KEVIN MURRAY: We know some of you want to catch red-eyes to get to the MTV video awards.

JEFFREY KAYE: In state legislative hearings held last September, performers, such as rock diva Courtney Love, cast their struggle as a David and Goliath battle.

COURTNEY LOVE: I too have a catalogue worth a billion dollars. I've made more for universal than the "Titanic." And are they even nice to me? No! They're rude!

JEFFREY KAYE: Disputes like Love's with record label only begin when performers start their careers. Young musicians flock to cities like LA or New York to launch their careers, often arriving with enthusiasm, but little business sense. Those looking for their big break can be found honing their skills in places like Hollywood's Musicians Institute, a music academy for young rockers. 20-year-old Brice Harris has come from Canada.

BRICE HARRIS: You know, on the legal side of things, I'm young and a lot of the players here are young as well too. If you get sucked into some sort of contract or whatever when you're young and stupid, and you don't have some sort of attorney to show you the way, you are going to get screwed so you have to be careful.

JEFFREY KAYE: Keith Wyatt is the institute's program director.

KEITH WYATT, Musicians Institute: They tend to be trusting and they tend to feel if there is a long complicated contract that is handed to them by an attorney, it is either more than they can understand or, because there's a big powerful corporation behind it, it must be okay in some way. And we have to teach them to look between the lines and not take anything at face value. But it's a struggle.

JEFFREY KAYE: But recording industry executives counter that it is their attention and investments that turn nobodies into music stars.

SINGER: All the people look at me like I'm a little girl

JEFFREY KAYE: To create a pop music sensation such as Britney Spears, labels can't just rely on the performers' talents and good looks. They have to spend money, lots of it, on what are typically seven album deals.

MILES COPELAND: For an artist going for the mainstream, you're looking at $1.5 million to $2 million is what it really takes to be in the game.

JEFFREY KAYE: That game includes making and marketing CD s, producing music videos, sending artists on tour and paying for the performer's house and car. The recording industry says upwards of half a million copies of an album have to be sold before a record label sees a dime of profit.

SINGER: My friend....

JEFFREY KAYE: The rockers' revolt comes at a precarious time for the music industry. Its profits are threatened by slumping concert attendance, declining CD sales and most worrisome, freely available music on the Internet.

MILES COPELAND: We're all sitting on the "Titanic" here and we've got a couple of artists arguing that the price of their first class cabin or size of the first class cabin is outrageous, meanwhile we've just spotted the iceberg and we say, "guys, let's argue later. We have an iceberg in front of us."

JEFFREY KAYE: Faced with such perils, music industry executives argue that open ended contracts with successful performers allow them to recoup their investments and launch new talent.

HILLARY ROSEN: When you spend money in investment, sometimes you have success. Most times you don't.

JEFFREY KAYE: Hillary Rosen is President of the Recording Industry Association of America, the record labels' Washington, D.C. Trade group. She says the industry's business model is sound and far from unusual.

HILLARY ROSEN: This is an R&D business to put it simply. When you have a success, that success pays for all of your investment in your new development. You know, fewer than 10% of records that get put into the marketplace make back their cost and those 10% pay for everything else. It's the same way in film. It is the same way in books. It is the same way in oil.

DON HENLEY: They will admit to you that they have over a 90% failure rate in this industry. It is the only industry I know of that operates this way with 90% plus failure rate. They say that's okay. What that says to me is that they don't know what the hell they're doing.

JEFFREY KAYE: Rebellious rockers promise to step up their activism, vowing to become as much as a political force in the music industry as an artistic one.

SINGER: Don't say it ain't so you know the time is now...

RAY SUAREZ: Still to come on the NewsHour tonight, Title IX and sports, and a conversation on John Adams.

FOCUS LEVEL PLAYING FIELDS

RAY SUAREZ: Now, leveling the playing field for women athletes, and to Terence Smith.

TERENCE SMITH: One of the most visible signs of the fast-paced growth of women sports is the WNBA, the pro-basketball league that is now five years old. Here in Washington, the WNBA Mystics are practicing under Coach Marianne Stanley.

MARIANNE STANLEY, Coach, Washington Mystics: She's responding to defense. What is she going to do she just walks in here and...

TERENCE SMITH: Stanley says the quality of the women's game has improved at every level, in large part because of Title IX, a 30-year-old law designed to bring equality to women and men in a aspects of public education, including sports.

MARIANNE STANLEY: Each year, the talent level and the talent pool gets bigger and bigger and competition gets better. I think we've seen, you know, the first phase of what Title IX can do for women in terms of their opportunities and their abilities to compete at a very high level.

TERENCE SMITH: It was a different story in the early 1970s, when Stanley was an all-American point guard at Immaculata College in Pennsylvania. Back then, women sports accounted for 2% of collegiate sports budgets, and almost zero athletic scholarships.

MARIANNE STANLEY: You didn t have the facilities, and all the trappings of success, and all the trappings of equipment, travel, those kinds of things that you see the players today enjoying.

TERENCE SMITH: The long process of change started in June 1972, when President Nixon signed into law a new title to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Title IX. The statute bans sexual discrimination at all schools receiving federal money. In practice, it applies across the board at the college level, where virtually every private and public institution admits students who receive federal financial aid. On the sports field that means schools have to give men and women equal opportunities to play, scholarship dollars that reflect overall rates of participation in sports, and equal treatment in equipment and facilities. Since Title IX became law, the number of college female athletes has increased five-fold, to 150,000. There used to be five male athletes for every female athlete. Now it s about one and a half to one. At the highest level of competition, including the Olympics, American women athletes frequently credit Title IX for their success. But recently, the law has attracted controversy. In the past decade, colleges have canceled some 400 men's programs in lower-profile sports like swimming and golf. At the same time, other men's teams have been added, but the casualties often blame their fate on Title IX. This past year, when the University of Minnesota put its national championship golf team on the chopping board, it cited budget issues, as did the University of Massachusetts when it canceled its men's gymnastics team. The gymnasts blamed what they called a quota system, noting that men's football and basketball are deemed untouchable.

BILL STRICKLAND, Interim Athletic Director: It's important to the alums, it's important to the visibility and the exposure to the university that these high profile sports remain competitive.

TERENCE SMITH: Men s college wrestlers may have been hit the hardest, losing some 170 teams in the last few years. Two of those teams, as well as the group representing wrestling coaches, sued the Department of Education in May, challenging the way it enforces Title IX.

TERENCE SMITH: We pick up the Title IX debate now with Mike Moyer, executive director of the National Wrestling Coaches Association. As we heard, they filed the lawsuit challenging federal government enforcement of the act. And Donna Lopiano is executive director of the Women's Sports Foundation. She was a nine time all-American in softball, and has coached collegiate men and women's volleyball, women's basketball and softball. And Marcia Greenberger, founder and co-president of the National Women's Law Center. She has been involved in numerous Title IX and athletic discrimination cases. And Melana Zyla Vickers, visiting fellow at the Independent Women's Forum; her organization filed an amicus brief on the wrestlers' behalf. Welcome to all of you.

Donna Lopiano, let me begin with you and ask you, look back on Title IX, its 30th birthday, and tell us what difference it's made.

DONNA LOPIANO, Women s Sports Foundation: Well, it really should be a celebration. You know, if it weren't for Title IX, we'd still have 300,000 high school girls participating in sports instead of the current 2.8 million; we'd still have 30,000 women participating on a college level instead of the 150,000; and, you know, women would still be getting $100,000 a year in college athletic scholarships instead of the $431 million they're getting right now. There's still little more to be done, however. Male athletes still have 30% more participation opportunities and $133 million more per year in athletic aid, so good news and some work to do.

TERENCE SMITH: All right. Mike Moyer, your organization has filed a lawsuit against the way the law is administered. Tell us why. What's your problem with it?

MICHAEL MOYER, National Wrestling Coaches Association: Well, I'd like to start by saying we completely applaud the opportunities that women have gained in intercollegiate athletics over the last 30 years. It's... we don't dispute for a second that the women were discriminated against in the early '70s, but a lot has changed over the last 30 years as evidenced by the fact that there's over 300 more intercollegiate programs for women today than there are for men. But we completely embrace Title IX as it was originally written, but we want to see a more fair and reasonable regulation; one that provides for equal opportunity based on interest, not based on this strict quota system that was the result of a 1996 interpretation that came out of the Office of Civil Rights.

DONNA LOPIANO: Mike, are you contending that men are more interested in sports than women? You're going to buy into that stereotype?

MICHAEL MOYER; No, I wouldn't go there. We know today that 41% of high school and college athletes today, as we speak, are women, and 59% are men, and I don't say that to suggest that those numbers won't continue to change, and in what direction, I really don't know. But what we do know is that Title IX is essentially in place to prohibit intentional gender- based discrimination on campuses that receive federal aid. And what we're seeing in the last decade is the elimination of 355 men's programs; many have been directly attributed to the application of this gender quota.

DONNA LOPIANO: During the...

TERENCE SMITH: All right, let me... let me...

DONNA LOPIAN: ...During the same period.

TERENCE SMITH:...Donna, let me ask Marcia Greenberger to come in on this and tell us about those numbers, as you interpret them.

MARCIA GREENBERGER, National Women s Law Center: Yeah. Well, first of all, I think the numbers that were cited by mike are actually very misleading. In fact, during the whole period of time that Title IX has been in effect, as the government studies showed, looking over this period, the number of opportunities for men has gone up. The number of participants for male athletes has gone up. Of course it's gone up dramatically...

TERENCE SMITH: So on both sides. Men and women.

MARCIAL GREENBERGER: ...For women, too. So it's been a win-win situation for both men and women during the time that Title IX has been in effect. Of course it's also true that for every two dollars that's spent for the women's... rather, the men's program, only one dollar is spent for the women's program. And so as Donna said, the big bucks are still in the women's... in the men's program. The women's program is still struggling to move up, and it hasn't operated by any means as a quota, when not only twice the dollars are put into the men's program, but as Mike himself said, only 41% of the opportunities are going to women.

TERENCE SMITH: Mm-hmm.

MARCIA GREENBERGER: Courts across the country reference the wrestlers' lawsuit that Mike has brought. Every court across the country that has looked at these quota charges has rejected them out of hand. Most courts around the country have looked at the issue. They've gone nowhere because the Title IX standards, they're not new standards in 1996. They're standards that have been in effect for over 20 years, and, in fact, the wrestlers' case tries to set aside the 1975 regulations issued under the Ford Administration, '70s policies, all the way along the line. So we're really talking about a struggle to be sure that the strong policies that have led to the increase of women, and not to the decrease men's opportunities, remain in place.

TERENCE SMITH: Okay. Melana Vickers, let me ask you, your organization has in fact joined the wrestlers with... in that suit, and...

MELANA ZYLA VICKERS, Independent Women s Forum: Well, written an amicus brief yes.

TERENCE SMITH:...in the form of an amicus brief. What problem do you have with the way the law is administered?

MELANA ZYLA VICKERS: Well, in effect, it harms men's teams, which we're seeing with the example... just take the last two months. In the last two months alone, there have been 14 teams dropped in U.S. colleges. That's a dramatic number. In fact, not all the teams are male. Some of them are female gymnastics teams, and I believe there may even be a women's swimming team in there somewhere. Now a policy that, in effect, gobbles up sports teams is not a policy that's working correctly. If it's all supposed to be in the interest of more participation in college sports, then surely the result should be more sports, but fewer.

TERENCE SMITH: But is it the policy that's doing the gobbling, or choices made by colleges?

MELANA ZYLA VICKERS: The policy is doing the gobbling. And Marcia mentions 1975. And I don't want to get too pointy-headed and bureaucratic about it, but there was a policy decision in 1979 under which in practice college administrators have to look at the number of women students they have, and render equal the number of sports slots for women... render equal the number of women students and the number of sports slots for women.

MARCIA GREENBERGER: Melana, that's...

MELANA ZYLA VICKERS: And in practice that means that you get... you have to chop back men's teams and you have to chop back, on occasion, women's teams when the two are locked close in together, and that's been a bad effect, really.

MARCIA GREENBERGER: I'm... I'm very puzzled. I really don't understand. I think it is true that some men's teams have been cut, and wrestling is one over the years. On the other hand, men's baseball has gone up dramatically-- over 200 new men's baseball teams; men's lacrosse, men's crew. Other teams for men have gone up; other teams for women have gone up. Title IX doesn't protect every single team. Schools have lots of flexibility. Overall, men'sopportunities have gone up, overall women's opportunities have gone up, and you're exactly right. Some teams get cut, some women's teams get cut, some men's teams get cut.

MELANA ZYLA VICKERS: But the real question is that...

MARCIA GREENBERGER: But the real question is do we have fairness of opportunity?

MELANA ZYLA VICKERS: No.

MARCIA GREENBERGER: Do we have an equal chance for women to play? And the arguments that I've heard both the independent women's forum make and the wrestlers in the lawsuit make is that women shouldn't be getting these kinds of opportunities because they're not as interested in playing as men. They're inherently-- and there are cites to Darwin about inherently women having different interests, and being hard wired to go into different areas.

MELANA ZYLA VICKERS: Well, presumably... presumably it's a group such as yours.

MARCIA GREENBERGER: And that's where these quota charges have come from and that's why they've been rejected.

MELANA ZYLA VICKERS: Presumably, if a group such as yours is happy about Title IX and happy about 30 years of Title IX experience, you'd use the... you'd use roughly the description that there is some rise in women s opportunity in female athletics in college.

MARCIA GREENBERGER: Sure.

MELANA ZYLA VICKERS: Now, given the fact we ve had 30 years of that kind of experience under Title IX, how is it that there are still four male athletes in college for every three women athletes? Isn't at some point the question raised... is it possible that women are simply less interested in college sports than men? I mean, my goodness, anyone who has a father or a brother or a daughter or a mother can make distinctions between how women and men feel about sports. I don't see what's so criminal about that.

DONNA LOPIANO: Let's talk about the elephant.

TERENCE SMITH: Donna, come in on this.

DONNA LOPIANO: Yeah, let's talk about the elephant in the middle of the room. What stops opportunities is money. And these are budgetary decisions. When moneys aren't allocated to start new women's teams, that stops progress in terms of opportunities to play sports. That s why there s 41%. If somebody's cutting an existing men's team, it's because of budgetary decision, not because of Title IX. And schools, instead of giving each sport a smaller piece of the pie, make a philosophical decision that says, "I want a few number of sports. I want to treat them like kings and queens, and I'm just going to cut off the low people on the totem pole because I want this size program." That is not a function of Title IX. It's a philosophical decision.

TERENCE SMITH: All right, Mike Moyer, how... how... if equity is the goal here, how do you achieve it what does your organization argue is the best way to achieve it?

MICHAEL MOYER: Well, I'd like to make two quick points. There are statistics out there that suggest that men have received increased opportunities in intercollegiate athletics since the mid-'80s. The fact of the matter is the NCAA has added institutions over... about 250 new institutions have come into the NCAA with preexisting programs.

TERENCE SMITH: By institutions, you're referring to colleges and universities?

MICHAEL MOYER: Correct. There have been institutions, colleges and universities out there that were not NCAA member institutions. They were affiliated with other governing bodies, if you will, that have come into the NCAA. So there has been about... somewhere in the neighborhood of 33% to 35% increase in the number of institutions, but there's only been a 5% increase inthe number of male participants. So...

DONNA LOPIANO: Not true, mike. Not true. You know the GAO...

MICHAEL MOYER: Simply put...

DONNA LOPIANO: ...The GAO study has both NAIA and NCA schools, and you know the increase at the college level in male participation opportunities at NCA levels is 24%.

TERENCE SMITH: Okay, Mike, go ahead and finish your point.

MICHAEL MOYER: These opportunities that they're suggesting were preexisting opportunities. But to get to the next point about it's the way universities decide to spend their funds, at Marquette University, their intercollegiate wrestling program was almost entirely funded through private donations for a period of eight years. And I might add that Marquette University doesn't have an intercollegiate football program. Yet in the Spring of 2001, the Administration still was forced to eliminate its wrestling program because they weren't proportionate as required by this gender quota. It was clearly intentional discrimination against these wrestlers just because they were men, which flies in the face of everything that Title IX stands for, and it is...

MARCIA GREENBERGER: Well, let me just say what...

TERENCE SMITH: All right, that's a gender quota is what Mike Moyer calls it.

MARCIA GREENBERGER: Well, again, it's throwing quotas around as if they were forced to do it. I know Marquette just announced they're building a whole new $31 million athletic facility. So if they had wanted to put the money into continuing the wrestling program and expand opportunities for women and add more men's teams, too, they could have done it. These are all choices that Marquette is making. But to go back, this idea of quota, to pick up on the point you had made as well, is trying to say that women are not as interested as men, and so if they're not getting equal opportunities, that's fine because they really don't want them or they don't deserve them or whatever it may be.

MELANA ZYLA VICKERS: No, that's not the point I'm making.

MARCIA GREENBERGER: And I think that at the end of the day, what the law, what the policies from the '70s has said is that all schools legally have to do is accommodate the interests and abilities of the students. And the truth is, we've got, as Donna said earlier, close to three million high school girls playing sports today, and only about 150,000 opportunities to play intercollegiate athletics. Obviously there's enormous demand on the male side and the female side that isn't being accommodated.

TERENCE SMITH: Okay. Melana Vickers?

MELANA ZYLA VICKERS: You know, this is an area of discussion that's so just chock full of data that one person can throw at another. But just to take a couple of points, Marcia knows as well as I do that at all women's schools, participation in sports is below 20%. I mean, I'm being generous if I say 15% of women at all women's colleges participate in sports. So this notion that there are women clamoring to get on to such and such a team at a given college in the U.S. is... is really kind of misleading.

DONNA LOPIANO: Only 3%... only 3% of men at the University of Texas play sports. What does that mean? Throwing around 20% of a small school and 3% of a big school.

MELANA ZYLA VICKERS: Well, what it means is that a rule that in effect buffaloes college sports administrators into having the number of female sports slots reflect the number of female students in general is a rule that doesn't reflect the reality of women's interest in sports.

TERENCE SMITH: And Mike... let's let Mike Moyer comment on that. Would you agree with that?

MICHAEL MOYER: Yeah. I don't want to comment on whether men or women have more interest in sports. We know clearly today there's more men participating in high school and college athletics than there are women participating. The fact of the matter is equal opportunity needs to be based on interest, not on a strict quota law. And we can debate for days and hours and years and however long, but the fact of the matter is there's no mention of a gender quota in the language of Title IX itself.

TERENCE SMITH: Okay.

MARCIA GREENBERGER: And the policies explicitly say, as every court has recognized, that if a school meets the interests of the students-- male and female-- in a fair way, it's complying. And that's why they said there is no quota.

TERENCE SMITH: Okay, I'm afraid we have to leave it there. I think we see why this is such a hotly debated issue. Thank you all very much.

ALL IN UNISON: Thank you.

CONVERSATION

RAY SUAREZ: Next on this Fourth of July, a reprise of a Gwen Ifill conversation about the birth of the nation with Pulitzer Prize winning biographer and historian David McCullough, author of "John Adam." Adam was the often misunderstood second President of the U.S.

GWEN IFILL: So what made you decide to retell John Adams' story?

DAVID McCULLOUGH: I began thinking I would do a book of the intertwining lives of Jefferson and Adams, who is I know you know died on the same day. And not just any day, but their day of days, the 4th of July in 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. And my initial concern was that Jefferson with his fame and his aura and his glamour would outshine, outbalance, overbalance, stout short John Adams, who has been in the shadows of the two tall Virginians -- Washington and Jefferson -- all these years. But I very quickly realized that the pull for her was John Adams, because to me he was a far more compelling subject, a more, a more fascinating story because of the letters you just mentioned. They really take us into his life and we can know him and his wife, Abigail, which is very important, better than we can know almost anybody of that whole time.

GWEN IFILL: Was he popularly in history books misunderstood?

DAVID McCULLOUGH: Yes, I think he has been, not so much misunderstood as just forgotten, neglected, which doesn't reflect well on us, because there were very few in our history who have served more diligent little or have accomplished as much. Except for George Washington, he really had more to do with winning independence and with the establishment of the system of government we have than anyone at the time. It wasn't just that he was involved with the Revolution, he was involved with the Revolution and that very difficult and dangerous period really in the first 12 years of the country. And he's a great story. He travels farther than anybody in the service of the country. He's involved with the Revolution as early as 1765, ten years before Lexington and Concord. He wrote the oldest existing Constitution in the world, written Constitution in the world today, the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He was, as you said, a diplomat. He was the first president to father a president. And he married Abigail Adams, which was no small accomplishment, because she, in my view, and the view of many, is as interesting and as impressive a person from that period, as any from that period.

GWEN IFILL: In fact this book wouldn't have been written if it had not been for their exchange of letters?

DAVID McCULLOUGH: Well, she was part of the draw for me. Here was the chance to tell the story of a genuine love affair. A genuine true love affair, maybe as well documented as any in history. I remember once that Ann Merrill Lindbergh when I was doing a piece for PBS years ago, for the Smithsonian World Series, told me that true love isn't just gazing at each other; it's also looking out together in the same direction, and if ever there was an example of that, it's John and Abigail Adams.

GWEN IFILL: But a far more intriguing and complicated and prickly relationship John Adams had with Thomas Jefferson, as you alluded to, and to Benjamin Franklin as well. That was very intriguing to me.

DAVID McCULLOUGH: Well, he was often a difficult man to get along with, he could be abrasive, opinionated, vain. He was grumpy much of the time.

GWEN IFILL: And Jefferson could be duplicitous?

DAVID McCULLOUGH: Yes. And Adams, but also Adams was very warm hearted, affectionate, adored his friends, loved life, right up until his final days, he lived longer than any president in our history. And at the end he's lost everything, he's lost his wife, he s lost some of his children and some of his grandchildren, he's lost his teeth, his hair. But there's still that burning fire of love of life right to the very last week.

GWEN IFILL: He and Jefferson, as you mentioned, died on the same day, they were as close as friends could be at some points in their lives and great enemies at others. I'd like to refer to a portion of the book where Jefferson and Adams had been traveling together through England when Adams was stationed in London and this is where -- Jefferson s take on John Adams.

DAVID McCULLOUGH: Yeah, he's come back to Paris after several weeks with Adams and they've gone off on this very interesting historically unimportant but very interesting tour of the English Gardens together. And Madison, who is back here in the United States, doesn't much care for Adams, he's never met Adams or had any real dealings with him, but doesn't care for him. So Jefferson is writing to Adams saying, you know the opinion I formerly entertained of my friend Mr. Adams, yourself and the governor were the first who shook that opinion. I -- in other words I liked him at first, but you've persuaded me that he wasn't somebody I should like. I afterwards saw proofs, which convicted him of a degree of vanity and of blindness to it of which no germ had appeared in Congress. A seven months intimacy with him here, in Paris, and as many weeks in London have given me opportunities of studying him closely. He is vain, irritable, and a bad calculator of the force and probable effect of the motives which govern men. This is all the ill which can be said of him. He is as disinterested as the being which made him. Now to be disinterested, to be impartial was considered in the 18th century one of the great attributes. He is profound in his views and accurate in his judgments except where knowledge of the world is necessary to form a judgment. He is so amiable that I pronounce you will love him if ever you become acquainted with him. And I think that's a very apt selection, because he's saying that with all his faults he is loveable.

GWEN IFILL: You also write several times in this book, you refer to the fact that he and Abigail were both very disapproving of slavery, and didn't own slaves themselves. Yet you also say that he did not believe that all men were born equal, which we all hold these truths to be self-evident now.

DAVID McCULLOUGH: Well, he said look around, common sense, we're not all born equal, some are born betterlooking than others, some are stronger, some are weaker, some have handicaps, some are born into families with money, some are born into families of great poverty. But, he said, we are all equal in the eyes of God, and we must all be equal before the law. He is the patriot of that day who kept saying over and over again, we must be a nation of laws, and not of men. And he was the one who kept stressing that we must have a government that is in balance; that you have executive, judicial, and legislative branches, and especially we must have an independent judiciary. His point was, he was very distrustful of the majority if the majority had too much power. He said too much power in an individual, too much power in a majority is dangerous. And in this respect he differed greatly from Jefferson. There are also so many other fundamental differences between them, which is one of the reasons that makes the relationship so fascinating.

GWEN IFILL: Well, and it makes for fascinating reading. David McCullough, thank you.

DAVID McCULLOUGH: Thank you, Gwen, very much.

FINALLY - SPARKLERS

RAY SUAREZ: Finally tonight, some Fourth of July poetry read by former American Poet Laureate, Robert Pinsky.

ROBERT PINSKY: Here in Boston, the big Fourth of July fireworks take place reflected in the basin of the Charles River behind me. John Hollander's poem "Sparklers" celebrates fireworks on a grand scale, on a national scale, and also by the end of the poem on an intimate scale.

"Oh, say can you see how our old ten and two and one; our 13 starters twinkling, an original star flared up, a July Fourth supernova; memory watching starry rockets now in grandstands or along chilly beaches. Can you see how then it exploded westward, southward, urging the hegemony of light on hills of high, darkened cloud, unwilling plains, milky rivers and one-candled mountain-cabins of the night? Democracy which closes up the past against us, said Tocqueville, opens the future up; but as you sit here with me on the high rocks at Cape Eleutheria, truthful in your shawl, all the light that ever was shines in your eyes, later to burn off tomorrow's blankness."

RECAP

RAY SUAREZ: Again the major developments of this day: A gunman opened fire today at Los Angeles International Airport at the ticket counter for Israel's El Al Airlines. Two people were shot and killed before a security guard killed the gunman. The FBI said there was no indication that terrorism was involved. The attack came amid heightened security from coast to coast for the Fourth of July. And before we go, a reminder to tune in tonight for "A Capitol Fourth," the annual PBS broadcast of the celebration on the mall in Washington. Check your local listings for the time. We'll see you online and again here tomorrow evening with Shields and Brooks among others. I'm Ray Suarez. Thanks and good night.