The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour

Intro ROBERT MacNEIL: Good evening. Leading the news this Wednesday, the government reported the cost of living rose 4. 4% last year, the highest in six years. The White House slammed Democrats for suggesting President Reagan did not want peace in Nicaragua. Israeli troops changed tactics, using beatings instead of guns to quell Palestinian disturbances. We'll have details in our news summary in a moment. Judy Woodruff is in Washington tonight. Judy? JUDY WOODRUFF: After the news summary, our first and major focus is the issue touched off by Jimmy the Greek last week: blacks in sports. We look at why there are so few blacks in sports management with a former football great, a New York Times sports columnist, and a black sports consultant. Next, Kwame Holman reports on different kinds of fuel designed to battle air pollution. Then, a documentary look at the continuing violence in South Africa. Finally, a Penny Stallings essay on fashion that sells in the United States.News Summary MacNEIL: The government released the official 1987 inflation figures showing that consumer prices rose four times as fast last year as the year before. At 4. 4%, the consumer price index showed the biggest rise in six years. But the December increase of only . 1% suggested a trend towards lower inflation. The other important economic statistic was new housing starts. In December they were down 16. 2%, the steepest decline in three years. The number of new housing units, 1. 62 million, was the smallest since the recession year 1982. On Wall Street, an afternoon sell off drove stocks down more than 57 points, to close at 1879. 14. Losers outnumbered gainers by a four to one margin. Judy? WOODRUFF: A day after Nicaragua's Sandinista leaders lifted their state of emergency, President Reagan today again went on the offensive, urging Congress to approve more aid to the contras for fighting the Nicaraguan regime. Meanwhile, his chief spokesman Marlin Fitzwater accused Democrats, including Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd, of advocating surrender by the contras. Earlier Dodd had questioned whether the Reagan Administration really wants peace in Central America. In a speech to a group of private citizens who have supported his policy in Central America, the President said pressure has to be kept up through the contras until democracy has become firmly rooted in Nicaragua.

Pres. RONALD REAGAN: How can we expect a regime that has compiled such a history of broken promises, of outright deceit, to abide by the terms of the Guatemala Accord, unless we keep up the pressure by continuing to aid the Freedom Fighters? If we abandon them now, if Congress votes down aid,we will be abandoning the only real cause for peace and freedom in Nicaragua. WOODRUFF: But House Speaker Jim Wright joined the chorus of other Democrats today questioning what the Administration's real motives are in Central America. Wright spoke to a Democratic women's group in Washington.

JIM WRIGHT, Speaker of the House: The sudden speed with which the Administration hastened to announce that it was plowing straight ahead with more military money before even waiting to test the sincerity of the new concessions offered leads me to the reluctant conclusion that those in charge of administration policy do not really want a peaceful settlement. They want a military solution, aimed at the overthrow of a government in Nicaragua by force of arms, supplied by the United States. WOODRUFF: Another leading Democrat, Senator Edward Kennedy, also criticized the Administration's continued pursuit of contra aid today, saying that it would undermine the peace plan of Costa Rican president Oscar Arias. MacNEIL: The Israeli army used new tactics today to quell Palestinian disturbances, beatings instead of shooting. A United Nations official said troops severely beat more than 50 Palestinians at a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. She said doctors who treated them saw multiple fractures and cut wounds. On the West Bank, a Reuters correspondent witnessed troops with clubs kick in doors and drag Arab youths out to clear streets in the city of Ramallah. The army said those who risk being beaten were curfew violators. Palestinians said the beatings occurred in house to house searches. In Northern Israel, a squad of Palestinian guerillas who cut through a border fence were killed in a firefight with Israeli troops. The Israeli government said they planned a terror attack in Israel. The Fatah faction of the PLO said the squad were under orders from Yasir Arafat, the PLO chief. WOODRUFF: A three year old battle in Lebanon between Shiite Moslem militiamen and guerillas of the Palestine Liberation Organization came to a halt today, when the Shiites ended their siege of two Palestinian refugee camps. The Shiites are part of the so called Amal, operating under the leadership of Lebanese Justice Minister Nabih Berri, who announced over the weekend that they would make the unilateral move in order to bring the war of the camps to an end. The camps will now fall under the direct control of the Syrian Army. MacNEIL: The State Department added North Korea to its list of countries that support terrorism, saying it did not live up to the standards of civilized behavior. The charge followed the confession of a North Korean woman that she'd planted the bomb which killed all 115 people aboard a South Korean airliner. The other countries still on the terror list are Iran, Libya, Syria, Cuba and South Yemen. WOODRUFF: The powerful storm that hit the West Coast over the weekend continued to work its way east today, sweeping across Minnesota, Wisconsin and Northern Michigan, dumping more than a half foot of snow in its wake. At least 28 deaths have been blamed on the bad weather this week, including ten in five different plane crashes blamed on fog. In Colorado, nine people were killed when a commuter plane crashed in light snow last night as it was about to land in Durango on a flight from Denver. Nine other people onboard the Continental express flight survived. Some of them after walking in waist deep snow to look for help. In another story, federal investigators today revealed that Conrail officials had reason to suspect that two train operators had problems with drug abuse long before their train crash near Chase, Maryland, a year ago. At a meeting of the National Transportation and Safety Board, investigators singled out Conrail for not stepping in to take corrective measures, and cited both Amtrak and Contrail for failing to have automatic safety backup devices on all Northeast corridor trains. Sixteen people were killed in the accident, considered the worst in Amtrak history. MacNEIL: Democratic presidential candidate Gary Hart said today that he knew nothing about allegations of improper campaign contributions, but was looking into them. The Miami Herald reported that Hart's 1984 campaign received illegal contributions from video producer Stuart Karl, and that Karl subsidized the campaign in 1986 and '87. In Keene, New Hampshire, Hart told reporters, ''I will hold myself responsible for whatever happened. Obviously, a candidate cannot know every detail. '' The law prohibits a candidate from accepting money from corporations, or more than $1,000 from any single contributor. WOODRUFF: Finally today, in a key handicap rights case, the Supreme Court ruled in a six to two vote, the state and local school officials could not automatically suspend emotionally handicapped children, even if their conduct was considered dangerous. The courts said the ruling applied to emotionally disturbed children whose disability caused their disruptive conduct. That ends our summary of the day's top stories. Ahead on the NewsHour, blacks in professional sports, alternate fuels in the fight against air pollution, violence in South Africa, and fashion in the American market. Tackling Racism MacNEIL: Our lead focus tonight comes from the sports world, but it's far more than a sports story. The subject is race relations in professional football, in American sports, and some would say in all of society. The subject flared up last Friday, when CBS sports commentator Jimmy the Greek Snyder gave a controversial interview to a Washington, D. C. , TV station. Among other things, Snyder was asked why there weren't more black coaches in professional sports.

JIMMY ''the Greek'' SNYDER: Well, they've got everything -- if they take over coaching like everybody wants them to, there's not going to be anything left for the white people. I mean, all the players are black. I mean, the only thing that the whites control is the coaching jobs. The black is the better athlete, and he practices to be the better athlete and he's bred to be the better athlete, because this goes back all the way to the Civil War, when during the slave trading the owner, the slave owner, would breed his big black to his big woman so that he could have big, black kids, see? I mean, that's where it all started. The black is a better athlete to begin with, because he's been bred to be that way, because of his high thighs and big thighs that goes up into his back. And they can jump higher and run faster because of their bigger thighs, you see. The white man has to overcome that. But they don't try hard enough to overcome it. REPORTER: But the development in certain sports you have more prominent -- (unintelligible) tennis -- Mr. SNYDER: (unintelligible) Sure, because you don't need the thighs, the thigh situation as much as you need in other sports, you see? In football and baseball and any game that you have to run a lot. I mean, your thighs come into prominence. MacNEIL: Within 24 hours, CBS had fired Snyder, but his comments rekindled an issue that flared up just ten months ago when Al Campanis, then an executive with the Los Angeles Dodgers, appeared on ABC's Nightline.

TED KOPPEL: I guess what I'm really asking you, peel it away a little bit -- just tell me why do you think it is -- is there still that much prejudice in baseball today? AL CAMPANIS, former baseball executive: No, I don't believe it's prejudice. I truly believe that they may not have some of the necessities to be let's say a field manager, or perhaps a general manager. KOPPEL: Do you really believe that? Mr. CAMPANIS: Well, I don't say that all of them -- but they certainly are short. How many quarterbacks do you have? How many pitchers do you have that are black? I think many of them are highly intelligent. But they may not have the desire to be in the front office. I know that they have wanted to manage, and some of them have managed. But they're outstanding athletes, very God gifted, and they're very wonderful people. And that's all I can tell you about them. MacNEIL: Al Campanis lost his job, too, over his comments. But what both incidents underlined for many was the lack of black head coaches or general managers in professional football and baseball. Today in Los Angeles, the question was raised at a press conference called by the Los Angeles Raiders to announce the retirement of head coach Tom Forrest. No replacement was named. Raider general manager Al Davis said he would consider hiring a black coach, but offered no guarantees he would.

AL DAVIS, Raiders general manager: With everything we've done in professional sports, one characteristic of the Raiders is that race, color, creed, and even sex has never interfered with the idea of winning. I want the best people, I want equal opportunity, and that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to choose the best person that I feel can lead the Raider organization, as I said, wear those colors, and as Tom said, just win. That's what I'll do. MacNEIL: Despite defenses such as this, Davis and his fellow owners have been attacked by Democratic presidential candidate Jesse Jackson who said over the weekend, ''Jimmy the Greek should not made a scapegoat for owners and managers who promote institutional racism in their patterns of hiring coaches and managers and front office personnel. We discuss all these issues now with three people who thought long and hard about them. Harry Edwards is professor of sociology at the University of California at Berkeley, and special assistant to baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth, and special consultant to the San Francisco 49ers football team. He joins us from San Francisco. Ira Berkow is a sports journalist for the New York Times. And Jim Brown is a member of professional football's Hall of Fame for his exploits as a player for the Cleveland Browns. He's now a well known actor, and he joins us from Los Angeles. In San Francisco, Harry Edwards, what is the lesson, the moral of the Jimmy the Greek episode? HARRY EDWARDS, University of California, Berkeley: Well, I think the basic moral is that we must begin to deal with this problem in all of its various aspects. In every arena that impacts upon sport in this country. We've had a great deal of attention paid to what is happening in the front offices and executive suites of baseball, and football and basketball. We've had very little attention focused upon the media itself. And while many of us have taken Mr. Snyder's remarks as a reflection upon what's happening within the sports arena, the reality is that there's a tremendous problem withinthe media itself, and I think that that is where the focus has to be in this particular instance. MacNEIL: The focus has to be in the media, Ira Berkow? IRA BERKOW, New York Times: Well, the media is part of the problem. If there is a problem, and certainly there is, then it society wide. The media is part of the society, and I think that the hiring practices in the media have been deplorable. I hope that things will change, and it looks like there is progress being made. MacNEIL: Jim Brown, how do you see the lesson, the moral, from the Jimmy the Greek episode? JIM BROWN, former football player: Well, first of all, Jimmy the Greek is a victim of misinformation by Mr. Webster of dictionary fame. If you study him from the 1900's to 1987, you will find that he feels that we are non Europeans, that the only way we can be described is in physical terms, we have no culture, and we have no language. Of course, he goes on to say that we have long arms, long forearms, we have long legs, small calves and protruding heels. These definitions have been a part of our American culture, which means that the general population can only go to those things as facts. So no wonder Jimmy got confused. We must do something about the general conception of blacks in America. MacNEIL: Okay. Now, let's go back to the point that Jesse Jackson raised. Here is another quote at the same time, Jesse Jackson over the weekend, after he talked to Jimmy the Greek, and accepted his apology, Harry Edwards. Jackson said that, ''More significant than Greek and Campanis saying it, is that there are still not black baseball managers, there are still no black national football league coaches. Beneath that statement, that's the real rub. '' Why are there none? Mr. EDWARDS: Well, I think that that's a very good question, it's a question that I think confronts the sports institution in this country. There's absolutely no excuse for there not being any black managers in this country today. There's no excuse for there not being any black head football coaches in the National Football League, and there most certainly should be black owners in partnership in terms of owning various franchises across the spectrum of sports in this nation. The reality is that 90% of American sport is for all practical purposes still lily white. While we focus on those sports that have substantial black involvement, the reality is that 40 years after Jackie Robinson supposedly shattered the color line in American sports, the overwhelming majority of American sports activities literally from the fields to the suites, are still lily white. MacNEIL: Now, you're a consultant to the 49ers. I don't wish to single them out. Incidentally, we tried virtually every management in the country today, but could not secure one representative to come on and discuss this issue. Is it as Jesse Jackson says institutional racism? Is it deliberate? Is it intended? Mr. EDWARDS: Well, I think that you have to look very carefully at the various franchises to determine exactly the extent to which each franchise is involved in perpetuating institutionalized racism. The San Francisco 49ers have half of their coaching staff black. In fact, the pool from which Denny Green, the individual tabbed purportedly to take the job at Los Angeles would have come, would have come out of that pool that Bill Walsh and Eddie DeBartolo, Jr. had developed and cultivated over recent years. If you look in the front office of the San Francisco 49ers, you also find blacks in significant positions at the executive level in non coaching roles. So I think one has to look very carefully at each team. On some teams, not only do you not have four black assistants as is the case with the 49ers, you have no black assistants and no one in any front office position. But institution wide, in the National Football League, I don't think that there's any question that we're perpetuating a kind of occupational apartheid that we're simply going to have to come to grips with. But again, let me reiterate, that the greatest problem in American sport today is the fact that the most segregated corner of the sports arena is the press box and the broadcast booth when it comes to black (unintelligible). MacNEIL: Well, first of all, is that right? The most segregated corner is the press box? Mr. EDWARDS: Without question. MacNEIL: I'm asking a member of the press box. Mr. BERKOW: In some areas he's right. Not in basketball. There are a number of black reporters now in basketball, and more and more there are black reporters appearing in press boxes. In football there are very few black reporters. One of the best is Bryan Burwell of the New York Daily News. But in baseball there are also a few. Again, more are coming. But -- Mr. EDWARDS: (unintelligible). Mr. BERKOW: Let me finish my thought, Harry, please. I'm not -- as far as the press box is concerned, I think he is picking the wrong place. Most reporters, or a great number of reporters, sports writers, sports columnists, have been in the forefront of attacking bigotry, of attacking the ways that the football and the baseball -- in some of this institutional racism that he talks about in professional sports -- has been applied. There are numbers, large numbers, maybe even a majority, of reporters, white reporters, who have been very strong in their condemnation of racism and bigotry in professional -- MacNEIL: Let's ask Jim Brown about that. Do you agree with that, Jim Brown? Mr. BROWN: Well, I don't want to say I agree with that. I would like to put it in my own words. First of all, I think that the sports situation is a very small part of the situation. Black youth in America between 16 and 19 represent about 40 to 50% of all unemployed people. That's a tremendous injustice that we have going on. Yet we're talking about a high profile situation that represents a very small population of black people. Of course there is racism. But in order to say there is racism, we must look at every situation. Each situation is quite different. Because you have nepotism, you have economics -- if an owner decides he wants to hire a particular person, what right do we actually have to tell him that he can't? The other situation is the black athlete, the superstar today who is benefiting by the high salaries, the endorsements, I don't hear a word from these people. So I'm trying to talk about a balance and focusing on the total plight of black people in America. MacNEIL: Mr. Edwards, is that right, that the star black athletes are not helping the situation? Mr. EDWARDS: Well, I think that that's part of the problem, that there's a tremendous amount of education that has to be done in that regard. MacNEIL: What does that mean, a lot of education? Do you mean you have to teach those guys to get up front, is that it? Mr. EDWARDS: I think that you have to not only teach them to get out front, but to get out front intelligently and productively and constructively in terms of the institution that they're so principally involved in. Let me go back to something that Ira said. I think he is absolutely right that you have a tremendous number of white journalists who have in many instances shed tremendous light on the inequities in American sport. Where the camera has not been turned, where the light has not been turned, is on the media itself. While they're very quick to point out the inequities in the NFL and in major league baseball, they have not with equal vociferousness gone after the publishers, the editors, the news directors and so forth, who have -- even in sports journalism -- where we have an excess of 650 beat writers, basketball and football and baseball, yet fewer than 20 blacks and a majority of them, a disproportionate number of them are assigned to basketball. So when we begin to talk about the impact of the sports journalist upon the situation in the sports institution, Ira's quite correct. They have shed a great deal of light. But what we're now saying is that if we're going to move beyond here, the sports journalist industry itself must begin to look at itself and to do so is not just good ethically and morally, it's good journalism. And we're not getting a lot of that in terms of what is being generated now. MacNEIL: Let's come back to the point of why actually, starting with you, Ira Berkow, why actually there are so few head coaches and managers, blacks, in baseball and football. Is Jimmy the Greek right? Do the white owners and present managers simply feel that the blacks'll take over the whole thing -- are they actually consciously resisting it? Or is it just neglect and lack of attention and --? Mr. BERKOW: None of those. I think that they hire people who they're most comfortable with. The owners hire -- they're more comfortable with white people, they'll hire white people who they feel perhaps more confidence with. There may be, and probably in many cases, a subconscious racism. Maybe that the owners are not even aware of. Maybe they feel that as Campanis said, that blacks may lack the necessities. Most thinking people disagree vehemently with that position. But the owners of teams may without even realizing it, think this way, and therefore pick the people who they're most comfortable with. MacNEIL: Jim Brown, do owners, white owners, believe what Al Campanis said, that blacks lack the necessities, to use his words, to be managers and coaches? In your experience, do owners really believe that? Mr. BROWN: Well, once again, you must remember that each owner's an individual, has the right to make his own decision. I have experienced tremendous racism in the National Football League, because I started in 1957. There was segregated rooming, there was segregation positions. There was a tremendous amount of segregation. A lot of that has changed. But what you have now is a fraternity. The fraternity is made up of the news media, the owners, the football players, both black and white. They are in cahoots with each other, because as I said earlier, if there's no attention called to it, then the ones to call their attention is a superstar. If they don't do that, then why should it take Jimmy the Greek or Al Campanis? MacNEIL: Mr. Edwards, in many other areas of American life, either by legal requirement, or by conviction, institutions are practicing affirmative action. Are the -- whether it's racism or not, are the white, the present fraternity, as it's just been described -- are they failing to practice affirmative action in this regard? Mr. EDWARDS: Well, I think that it's not just an issue of failing to practice affirmative action, I think that they're failing to practice good football. I think they're failing to practice good baseball. I'm saying that not broadening the bases of democratic participation in the institution of basketball in this country in both the collegiate and the professional level, is bad basketball. It's good business when you can bring people into the front office who are reflective of those individuals who make up the majority of the player personnel, the productive labor personnel in any industry. And on top of that, it broadens the input and dialogue and discussion, even on an informal level, so that you do not get a person such as Mr. Snyder who becomes so comfortable with (unintelligible) kind of racist ideas and ideologies that he feels that he can come out publicly with the cameras rolling and utter those kinds of sentiments. So I think that it's not just an issue of not practicing affirmative action. I'm saying that it goes beyond that. They are not practicing good business, they are not practicing sports. MacNEIL: Okay. Let's go to your case. You were hired by Peter Ueberroth to help in the baseball situation. You in turn hired Al Campanis. And that was very controversial. You got criticized for doing that. What kind of progress have you been able to make in the baseball field? Mr. EDWARDS: When -- in the pre Campanis era, there were approximately 17 blacks, according to research carried out at the Institute for the Study of Social Change, at the University California at Berkeley -- there were approximately 17 blacks holding executive level positions in all of Major League baseball. Since April 17, in the post Campanis era, we have now arrived at the situation where we have 86 blacks in executive level positions. We've had two black individuals turn down managers jobs in Major League baseball. We've had a number of individuals who have turned down managers jobs in Minor League baseball. And I think that that situation is unfortunate but I also recognize that the right to reject a job goes along with the right to have access to a job. So we're not fretting about that. MacNEIL: So you're claiming progress? Mr. EDWARDS: Oh, yes, there's no question we're claiming progress. We have gone nowhere near as far as we're going to go, that we aspire to go. But there most certainly has been movement. MacNEIL: Do you, Jim Brown, do you see progress since all this flared up ten months ago with the Jim Campanis episode, and Mr. Edwards' efforts? Mr. BROWN: Well, I always liked Harry. But he's always out at the forefront in doing a lot to espouse the opinions of black people. I don't know the details of what has happened in baseball, but I know that it really hasn't been publicized. But I do know that there have been a couple of major league stars that have turned down opportunities. I think Joe Morgan is one of them. So I don't have the facts to really say that there has been a lot of progress in baseball. I do know that Bobby Mitchell of the Redskins who's assistant general manager is probably the most highly qualified general manager, possibility of a general manager, in the National Football League. Bobby probably has not been considered by any owner. And I think if we start somewhere in football, Bobby Mitchell or Gene Burroughs would be two candidates that are highly qualified. MacNEIL: Just to go to that point, would he be considered, and is he being considered? Mr. BERKOW: Yes. And I think the furor caused by Campanis and Snyder has meant progress in this way. That there is pressure as never before being exerted on professional baseball and professional football to hire more blacks, and especially in visible positions such as field managers, or head coaches. I would -- I have a pretty good suspicion, well my feeling is that Green of course is not only highly considered for the new Raiders coach, as the new Raiders coach, but he would probably get it. There is just this kind of pressure being brought to bear on these individuals and in this way change is going to be brought about. MacNEIL: Do you -- would you corroborate the claims that Mr. Edwards is making in baseball? Mr. BERKOW: That there is improvement? MacNEIL: Yes. Mr. BERKOW: I would guess so. I don't have all the facts of it, but I know that people like Billy Williams who was the other star who turned down a coaching -- managing job in the minor leagues -- he has accepted a job in the front office of the Cubs now. And I'm sure that there are a number of other Billy Williamses around right now, and to come. MacNEIL: Harry Edwards, Jim Brown said a moment ago that it really isn't just sports, it goes throughout American life. Are sports in this case ahead of, or trailing behind, or do they just mirror the rest of society? What would you say? Mr. EDWARDS: I think that sports is in one sense ahead of the rest of society, because there are conscious efforts on the part of people inside of sports to make changes that will move the situation ahead. Sport inevitably recapitulates society, and there's absolutely no way that sports can really outdistance society in terms of hard, concrete change. But it most certainly can lead the way, and I think that this is something that everybody in sports should be very proud of, the people such as Bill Walsh, people such as Peter Ueberroth, people like Jim Brown who years ago started fighting this battle long before it became popular in sports. Many of the writers in the press, white and black. I think that all of that is on the cutting edge of something very special as far as the society as a whole is concerned. MacNEIL: Where do you think it is, Jim Brown? Ahead of, as Harry Edwards does? Ahead of society? Mr. BROWN: Well, it's ahead of it because it's a high profile situation. It gets tremendous media coverage, it's very glamorous. The black athlete has made tremendous strides over the last 20 years. People love sports. It confused white Americans when they had to love -- in my day -- when they had to love a football player, and they really loved him, and then he came to their house and they didn't know what to do with him. So I think that because of the media coverage and the glamour in it, it is ahead of society. But I don't think we should overfocus on sports, because sports is only going to reflect what is in your society, as drugs and sports only reflect what is in the society at large. We must attack the root of the problem. And the first thing we should try to do is to find a true definition of what a negro, a black man, is. Because there is really no definition that anyone can go to, which has caused a lot of confusion as people try to describe us and fit us in categories. MacNEIL: You mean there's still racism because people have stereotyped ideas that are not accurate of what a black man is, compared to what a white man is? Mr. BROWN: Well, I would like to ask the three of you. Can you tell me what a negro is? MacNEIL: Well. I don't know. I'm going to ask Harry Edwards on that one (chuckle). Mr. EDWARDS: Well, I think that sociologically speaking one can come up with all kinds of definitions. Anthropologically. Even biogenetically one can come up with a series of definitions. I think that the definition that really matters is the one that is a sociopolitical definition, and essentially under those definitions, anyone who is black or classified as a negro, fits into a particular socioeconomic class, and is treated differently than other people in this society who are classified as Caucasian or white. That is what we really have to deal with. And in fact, that is what we must dispense with. MacNEIL: We need to leave it there now. Harry Edwards, thank you very much for joining us, and Jim Brown, thank you. Ira Berkow, thank you. High on Oxygen WOODRUFF: More than a decade and a half after Congress passed the Clean Air Act, 65 cities in the United States still have so much carbon monoxide pollution they are in violation of the law. The deadline for cleaning up the problem areas was supposed to have been New Year's Eve. But just before Christmas, Congress extended the deadline to August 31, the third time it has granted an extension since the law was passed. Tired of waiting for federal action, Denver, Colorado has already mandated a clean air program of its own. Correspondent Kwame Holman reports.

KWAME HOLMAN: The people of Denver, Colorado no longer are allowed to buy normal gasoline. Instead, this winter they must buy something called blended fuel, fuel with additives mixed in that make car engines emit more oxygen and less carbon monoxide. It's all part of a plan to reduce Denver's wintertime carbon monoxide pollution. Auto exhausts in Denver tend to be rich in carbon monoxide because of the oxygen poor air at Denver's high altitude. In cold weather, combustion is even less efficient, and temperature inversions trap the cold, dirty air close to the ground. The Air Quality Control Commission has tried other strategies to combat pollution. It has enforced strict auto emissions testing. And it has put together a media blitz, pushing voluntary no drive days. [film clip of commercial]

HOLMAN: But despite those efforts, Denver still has the worst carbon monoxide pollution problem in the country. So the Commission ordered the high oxygen additives for gasoline sold in winter. Gov. ROY ROMER, Colorado: The mandated fuel program will have two choices: one, MTBE, which does not have alcohol in it, and ethanol, which is alcohol based.

HOLMAN: Ethanol is not new. Called Gasohol, it was sold extensively in rural areas because it was made from surplus grain. But it was marketed heavily in Colorado a few years ago. Some critics claimed it caused vapor lock in newer cars, and eroded rubber and plastic parts in the fuel systems of older cars. Engineering student Jon Lesko who works as an auto technician said he saw such problems. JON LESKO, auto technician: We were seeing failure, premature failure, of fuel system components, fuel pumps, fuel filters, fuel distributors, they were all failing quite early.

HOLMAN: Since the mandate went into effect, there has been some complaints about ethanol. This woman put ethanol in her car. So did this one. ERIN McNAMARA: It's been stalling out, and backfiring, and it's just been really hideous. REPORTER: Why do you think that is? Ms. McNAMARA: I think it's because of the new gas. Because I didn't have these problems before.

HOLMAN: Barbara Charnes insists the alcohol fuel has a good track record and is being blamed unfairly. Charnes heads a clean air group that gets some supportfrom the ethanol industry and from corn growers. BARBARA CHARNES, environmentalist: There has been about 8 billion miles driven in Colorado using ethanol. If the fuel didn't work, there wouldn't have been 8 billion miles driven.

HOLMAN: When the fuel program was first conceived, ethanol was going to be the only legal additive. But mechanics and oil companies fought that proposal. The oil companies argue that ethanol is used by a shrinking minority of customers, and that not all cars perform equally well on the blend. Oil company representative Jack Rigg: JACK RIGG, Rocky Mountain Oil & Gas Assn. : The concern that we've had all along has been that if the state were to require companies to sell ethanol, or mandate that it be sold, that it would be our investment into marketing that product, it would be our name on the pumps. And if the consumer did have a negative reaction to that product, that would reflect negatively upon us as marketers.

HOLMAN: The second legal additive, MTBE, did not arouse strong reactions, in part because very little was known about it. It has been used in small concentrations as an octane booster. The oil companies like it better than ethanol since it's a petroleum product. But still, they are nervous. Mr. RIGG: We've never used MTBE at these concentrations in our fuels, sold for our vehicles, sold to our customers. So we really don't know how it's going to perform in the marketplace. We think it'll be perfectly satisfactory to virtually everyone. There may be some problems with it, but you never know.

HOLMAN: Since the fuel was introduced, Jon Lesko has heard many complaints about decreased gas mileage. He also saw three to four times as many cars that had flooded. Mr. LESKO: This is what we're seeing. We're seeing vehicles that come in where everything is correct, and yet they're having extreme flooding due to the MTBE based fuels. This vehicle's been in twice this week. All of the tuning is right on on it. The only solution at this point is to drain the fuel system and put a different blend of fuel in.

HOLMAN: Jerry Gallagher of the Colorado Health Department denies that MTBE is causing problems. JERRY GALLAGHER, Colorado Health Dept. : We have not documented one problem yet that's been associated with the fuel. It's usually a bad battery or cold weather or something else is wrong with the car. But it's not been associated with fuel.

HOLMAN: Lesko disagrees strongly with Gallagher about the short term and long term effects of MTBE. Mr. LESKO: I'm pretty convinced that we're going to see some damage due to these fuels in the long term. But we're still at a point where no research has been done to substantiate that. Mr. RIGG: You're bound to have some real problems, but you're also bound to have a lot of perceptual problems. We've always feared that it was going to be difficult to sort those out. And to deal truthfully with the real problems. And sort out the ones that are perceptual problems.

HOLMAN: Despite their concerns, the major oil companies all chose to market MTBE rather than ethanol. MTBE now has over 90% of the market. Ms. CHARNE: From a clean air point of view, that's unfortunate, because ethanol blended at its present rate provides more than twice the carbon monoxide reduction that MTBE does.

HOLMAN: Increasing the amount of MTBE in fuel would reduce monoxide further. And indeed, that's the plan for next winter. But MTBE is very expensive. The oil companies fear that ultimately MTBE won't be competitive with ethanol at the pumps. They also are afraid that the Environmental Protection Agency will not allow the larger concentrations of MTBE to be used. Either way, they would be forced back into an all ethanol program. Jerry Gallagher says clean air decisions cannot be based on such concerns. Mr. GALLAGHER: I think the air quality benefits outweigh the special interests of economic incentives of the oil company, and that's the battle.

HOLMAN: Air quality decisions made in Denver already have affected the rest of the state. Because of how refinery distribute fuel, normal gasoline is not being sent into Colorado at all. In fact, Denver's program could be a precedent for the entire country. Congress is considering forcing other cities with high air pollution to adopt similar mandatory programs. And several presidential candidates have put forth a strong pro ethanol policy. Ms. CHARNES: I like the idea of a national ethanol program because I view it as a help to farmers and lessens our dependence on imported oil. But I think it really stirred up the petroleum industry. Mr. RIGG: By and large we would oppose a national mandate that all fuels contain and it doesn't matter to us whether it would be ethanol or MTBE, or methanol or any other substance. We think that the marketplace itself will determine which of those products is sold and most effectively to make that determination.

HOLMAN: And in Colorado the fuel debate is not over. A major fight is expected over the plan to increase the amount of MTBE in gasoline, and the state may be in for an even bigger fight when the legislature tries to put controls on pollution caused by diesel fuel. Bloody Rivalry MacNEIL: Next tonight, we have an update from South Africa. In the eastern province of Natal in the black townships that surround the white city of Pietermaritzburg, South Africa's black/white conflict has been overtaken by black on black violence. A struggle between two black anti apartheid organizations has developed into bloody conflict, hitting the radical United Democratic Front, known as the UDF, against the traditional Zulu based political movement known as Incarta. It is headed by Zulu chief Buthelezi, who has developed some following among conservatives in the United States and Europe. Today, South African authorities reported three more deaths, bringing this week's death toll alone to nineteen. James Robbins of the BBC prepared this report from Pietermaritzburg, under the government's censorship regulations.

JAMES ROBBINS, BBC: Night closes in on Pietermaritzburg to hide the faceless killers. Dusk means growing fear. Whites may call their cities sleepy hollow, but in the townships, sleep is difficult. Here, even neighbors can't be trusted. The coming darkness will be intense. As dark as the African daylight was bright. Cover for threats, for hounding, for murder. A ferocious battle is on. One that security forces seem unable to contain, despite their success against the wider black challenge to white rule. The battle here is for political allegiance, to compel support. The Zulus are once again a warring people, divided against themselves. In the morning, families of the dead gather in the offices of a Christian monitoring group. The staff hear their stories. During the night, this mother watched her eight year old son killed. The family resisted threats, ''Join us or suffer. '' Another bereaved mother is exhausted and bewildered in her grief. WOMAN: Their boys killing, their boys killing, all this killings, killingsomebody, killing somebody, why is this?

ROBBINS: Some blame the violence on this man, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Zulu Chief, head of Incarta, one of the warring parties. MANGUSUTU BUTHELEZI, Zulu Chief: They have accused me of criminal acts, which I'm not responsible for.

ROBBINS: But Chief Buthelezi's real enemies are not the press. They call themselves young warriors of the UDF. Groups like this, armed with traditional weapons, machetes, cane cutting knives, or daggers, catalogue victims on their side and select targets for murder among Chief Buthelezi's supporters. This woman is one of those supporters living with friends now. Twice her home was attacked. The second time the house was burnt down. WOMAN: I feel revengeful. If I had strength I would revenge, I'd (unintelligible) myself, because that's where I was born -- my house. And there's no place -- like home. WOMAN: We follow our chief, Zulu.

ROBBINS: So this is an appealing image of her chief, Mangosuthu Buthelezi. At a tribal gathering where the separate identity of the Zulu is emphasized. If blacks win real political power in South Africa, the Icarta will be a powerful force, with Chief Buthelezi at its head. GERHARD MARE, author: I think the people who perceive Chief Buthelezi as a stooge of apartheid are in fact wrong. He's not that. He wants to do away with apartheid, because he perceives it to be irrational to the interests of, say, capitalism in South Africa. But for the conservative stance of opposition to apartheid, it's a reformed stand. Whereas the opposing one, the one, let's place it around the United Democratic Front or the National Forum, or whatever, is one that actually wants to revolutionize South Africa, wants to do away with the structures, believe that one cannot just reform South Africa. And in other words, the clash is a clash between those two ideological directions as well.

ROBBINS: Power sharing, not revolution is the Buthelezi path. His brainchild, the Indava, a constitutional convention, proposes merging white ruled Natal with Buthelezi's Kwazulu homeland, one man, one vote, minority protection, Buthelezi the likely provincial prime minister. The plans look too revolutionary for the government. They look far from revolutionary to the UDF, tinkering within the system. Mr. MARE: Ultimately, too many very prominent business people have said that Chief Buthelezi stands for everything they want. He's conservative, he's Christian, he's pro capitalism, he has international standing in the right circles of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, Helmut Kohl. He stands for all of that. He's exactly what they would like in terms of their vision of post apartheid South Africa.

ROBBINS: What's good for business is not good for the United Democratic Front. Under the UDF banner, the largest affiliate organizations are trade unions, making no promises capitalism will survive post apartheid. When the rocks flew two years ago, the UDF strategy, make the townships ungovernable, brought in the army and emergency law, and brought more scorn from the gradualists, Inkatha and Chief Buthelezi. Pietermaritzburg was quiet through that turmoil against white government. It still looks quiet today from a seat at the royal showgrounds. Conservative farmers enjoying the summer holiday, lamenting the damage to their city's reputation. WOMAN: And just as a normal person that lives on the outskirts of Pietermaritzburg, we drive backward and forwards and you read it in the papers and hear it on television just as if you might as well be in another country and you know you were hearing about the dangers and the streets and things that are going on. But I must say that it's interesting to see that these Africans are having disagreements amongst themselves, which, I mean, we've known all along.

ROBBINS: Overlooking the showgrounds, the forum for white business interests, the Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber is trying to bring the two sides together. But the moderator in talks says Inkatha walked out. PETER VAN UYTRECHT, Chamber of Commerce: Inkatha appeared to be committed to talks, and we were speaking to local leaders, we were beginning to start addressing the issue of implementation of certain matters. And then something happened. And attitude seemed to change overnight. Became much more hardline. And at the moment they're refusing to come to the table.

ROBBINS: But Chief Buthelezi is insistent. He told me he couldn't negotiate with the UDF. They wanted to annihilate Inkatha. CHIEF BUTHELEZI: They see us as something they must remove. Something which is an obstacle. They have decided that there's nothing left to do with us except to kill, and therefore, we absolutely are (unintelligible) when we say that there is still a chance for a negotiated future. When we say there's still a chance for a strategy of peaceful change and nonviolence. And therefore you know they want to prove the contrary therefore. Because they see us as an obstruction.

ROBBINS: The UDF deny it. Accusing Inkatha of collaborating with apartheid, enjoying state support in return. ARCHIE GUMEDE, United Democratic Front: We have no confidence in the South African police in this conflict with Inkatha, because every time they have demonstrated their bias in favor of the Inkatha. Now, there have been interdicts granted against Inkatha leaders. Not one of those people has been prosecuted. They have not been detained under the state of emergency. They have not been prosecuted in regard to the allegations that have been made against them. Why?

ROBBINS: That accusation of bias is dismissed by the police and angers the Inkatha leader. CHIEF BUTHELEZI: That is the propaganda of the UDF who states views, of course, to besmirch my image and that of Inkatha. You know my (unintelligible) in black society, in African society, you know, you can differ. We accept that in our tradition that people can differ. We say people are not like water, only flows in one direction. There is an expression, (speaks African) ''People don't flow in one direction as water, because they always differ. '' We accept that as well. But to go on to name calling, that is declaration of war.

ROBBINS: But in the war, who are the allies? When Chief Buthelezi and President Botha shared a platform two months ago, it was their first meeting in more than two years. Buthelezi keeps his distance. He still refuses to join Mr. Botha's National Council on Constitutional Change until Nelson Mandela is released. But any display of warmth between them is too much for the UDF. And that fight goes on. Mr. MARE: I think that unfortunately it's such that the violence is going to continue escalating. I think that the implication of that probably is that Chief Buthelezi will be forced into closer and closer cooperation with the Central State, and with some very conservative directions in South Africa.

ROBBINS: The green hills around Pietermaritzburg are today's front line in the clash of ideologies. The UDF claims to liberate areas, renaming them as if to confirm the worst fears of opponents. These are not the models universally favored for a future South Africa. Although South Africa's reporting restrictions make it impossible for us to get a complete picture, the evidence we have been able to gather suggests that Chief Buthelezi's Inkatha supporters sense they're not winning this war. Until they're stronger, they're not prepared to discuss peace. Without any immediate prospect of peace, tonight in the Pietermaritzburg townships will be another night of routine fear. The most powerful image of violence in South Africa is no longer a confrontation between black and white, but between black and black. The only possible winner is a white government, facing a hopelessly divided enemy. Fashion Victims WOODRUFF: Finally tonight, essayist Penny Stallings has some thoughts about what American women wear. [film clip of commercial] PENNY STALLINGS: We had a little fun with the Russkies with that one, didn't we? When they took offense, we said, ''What's the matter fellows? Can't take a joke?'' But this now classic burger ad pretty much sums up the way we see Russian fashion. Grim and dowdy, perfect for a night out on the town in Minsk. So who would have dreamed that the same folks who (unintelligible) the babushka would now go into the fashion business -- and in America yet? Yes, the Soviets are now making a play for a piece of our rich ready to wear market, beginning with the recent debut of Slava Zeitsev, Russia's most popular designer. By facilitating such exchanges with his new economic policy of perestroika, Mikhail Gorbachev hopes to liven up Russia's drab image, and not incidentally, get ahold of some cold, hard, American cash. A wave of anticipation swept the crowd as the models hit the runway. But -- oh, dear -- what's this? Floor length coats with shoulders a mile wide? Sack dresses? And, oh, those buttons and bows! Poor darling! Doesn't he know that shoulder pads are passe? That this season hemlines have headed north? Overscale, overdone, and outdated. Zeitsev's look was Butterick patterns meets Edith Head. Despite a decidedly cool audience response, the jubilant Zeitsev danced on the runway at the end of the show. A clutch of Soviets applauded him loudly. But the crowd remained unmoved. Viva difference, the following night as (unintelligible) New York gathered to preview the first American collection by the new crown prince of Paris couture, Christian La Qua. They cheered the plunging necklines, the soaring hemlines, and the bustles, front and back. They oohed over his conehead pillbox. They aahed over the stuffed pheasant on his platter sized hat. Brilliant, the crowd shouted. So zany! So witty! Such fun! But despite all the hype, La Qua's designs were just as far off the mark as Zeitsev's. At least for peasants like you and me. Modern day life is simply too complicated for even the most deflounced De Qua. You can't commute in a bustle. Or carpool in a pouf. So what do American women really wear? Come on, admit! Sweat pants! Sweat pants and jeans, and tee shirts and tennies. And for work? Safe separates, or the dress for success suit. While they weren't looking, we had our own mini revolution. It started with the dress down sixties, and evolved into the proletarian chic of today. We wear whatever best suits our lifestyles, which usually means whatever's handy, or whatever's clean. If you ask me, Zeitsev and La Qua had better get hip to the marketing gospel according to Gloria, Ralph and Calvin. Americans want casual basics, with a cachet of the designer label, even if it means paying a ridiculously inflated price. Play your cards right, guys and your name could end up plastered all over millions of Americans. But in the meantime, don't give up your day jobs. Recap MacNEIL: Again, the main points in the news today. The consumer price index for 1987 was up 4. 4%, the largest increase in six years. But the December figure pointed to lower inflation. The White House sharply criticized Democrats who suggested President Reagan did not want peace in Nicaragua. Israeli troops changed tactics from shooting to beating, to quell disturbances in the occupied territories. Good night, Judy. WOODRUFF: Good night, Robin. That's our NewsHour for tonight. We'll be back tomorrow night. I'm Judy Woodruff. Thank you and good night.