The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

GWEN IFILL: Good evening. I'm Gwen Ifill. Jim Lehrer is on vacation. On the NewsHour tonight an update on the Firestone tire recall controversy; Elizabeth Farnsworth reports on how the peace talks are affecting the Palestinian refugees; and Ray Suarez talks with author Harold Bloom about reading. It all follows our summary of the news this Tuesday.

NEWS SUMMARY

GWEN IFILL: The Ford Motor Company said today tires that Bridgestone-Firestone manufactured in Venezuela were much worse than tired recalled in the U.S. Venezuela is also investigating certain Bridgestone-Firestone tires in connection with accidents there. As in the U.S.,on some Ford vehicles, the tires were standard equipment. Firestone is in the midst of replacing them. A Ford spokesman said this:

JASON VINES, Vice President Communications, Ford Motor Company: As we got the Firestone tires back from our replacement efforts, we started studying them, cutting them up, and we found overwhelming evidence of the beginning of tire separation and, importantly, a defect trend in the tires at least 500 times worse than the very worst tires in Firestone's U.S. recall that was announced earlier this month. Finally, we are confident this is a manufacturing defect in Venezuela with the tires as more than half of the tires we have analyzed show they were not built to Firestone's own engineering drawings.

GWEN IFILL: We'll have more on the tire story right after this News Summary. President Clinton said today he should not be disbarred over his testimony in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case. He made the statement in a letter to an Arkansas state judge. He said that punishment would be "excessively harsh" and without precedent. He was responding to a complaint by a committee of the state supreme court. Its judges claim that he lied under oath about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. A federal judge said today nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee should be free on bail by Friday. U.S. District Judge James Parker said in a hearing in New Mexico Lee could be released to his home on $1 million bail barring a government appeal. Lee has been in prison since last December on charges of mishandling weapons secrets at the Los Alamos National Laboratories. President Clinton returned today from a four-day trip to Africa. During a brief stopover in Cairo he met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to discuss the prospects for reviving the Middle East peace process. A Camp David summit between Israelis and Palestinians failed last month. The two sides still regard September 13 as the deadline for an agreement. Mr. Clinton said this:

PRESIDENT CLINTON: I think the time is short for resolving this. And I think the... all the parties understand that without the involvement and leadership and support of Egypt, they won't be able to do it. And President Mubarak has been critical to this process for nearly 20 years now, and certainly in all the time that I've been here. So we're going to work together and see if we can find a way to help the parties get over this next big hump.

GWEN IFILL: President Clinton plans to meet separately with Palestinian Leader Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Barak next week in New York. They'll all be attending a conference at the United Nations. We'll have a look at one issue of the peace talks, Palestinian refugees, later in the program tonight. Vice President Gore focused on children's health today; he told residents of Albuquerque, New Mexico, about his plan to expand an existing child insurance program at a cost of $100 billion in new spending over ten years. He also pressured George W. Bush to supply details of his proposals.

VICE PRESIDENT AL GORE: I hope that my opponent will also present to you specifics of how he would address the problem of children who do not have health coverage today. Presently, he has not presented any plan to address this problem. But there is still... there is still time, even before Labor Day, to offer these specifics. But again, it's all about you. You deserve a full discussion of all the issues that need to be addressed.

GWEN IFILL: Governor Bush refused to be drawn into the health care debate today, continuing his focus on education. Meeting with educators in Portland, Maine, he said some schools have given up on children. He again cited recent studies indicating that minority students lagged behind whites in standardized tests.

GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: It's unacceptable to me that there is an achievement gap in America. It should be unacceptable to the voters that over the past seven years, nothing has changed. In order to change the achievement gap, we must hold people accountable. We must have a different set of reforms. And the contrast is stark. It just is. It's the difference between a campaign that wants to hold people accountable and a campaign that has got the illusion of accountability.

GWEN IFILL: The average SAT math score hit a 30-year high this year. It was 514, the best since 1969. The college board, which administers the test, made that announcement today. It said scores have increased because college-bound students are taking more math and science courses. Verbal scores remained steady for the fifth consecutive year. That's it for the News Summary tonight. Now it's on to the Firestone tire recall, Palestinian refugees and the peace talks, and a conversation about reading.

UPDATE - ROAD TROUBLES

GWEN IFILL: Terrence Smith begins our look at the controversial tire recall.

TERENCE SMITH: The recall of six and a half million Firestone tires began three weeks ago. It followed a series of accidents, such as this one in South Florida, just days before. Members of the Smithwick family were injured when their Ford Explorer flipped; they were later released from the hospital.

BRIGITTE SMITHWICK: (August 9) The back tire blew out, and all I can remember is flipping and flipping.

TERENCE SMITH: The recalled tires have been implicated in 62 deaths since February. They have a high rate of what's known as tread separation. That tends to occur in under- inflated tires at high speeds in hot weather. Government investigators are looking into the causes, which may include manufacturing problems and design flaws. They're also looking into when the tire maker knew it had a problem. The models being recalled are certain versions of the 15-inch ATX, ATX II, and Wilderness AT. Many of those are standard issue on the Ford Explorer, America's most popular sport utility vehicle. The recalled Firestones are also found on Ford Rangers and F-150 pickups, Mercury Mountaineers, as well as Mazda Navajos and B-series pickup trucks.

GARY CRIGGER, Vice President, Firestone: We are not limiting this recall. No matter how old the tires, or how many miles they have on them, we will replace the P23575R15 with new tires at no charge.

TERENCE SMITH: The maker of the tires-- Bridgestone/Firestone-- is providing replacements for free. In addition, it's giving customers who replace Firestones with other brands reimbursement of up to $100 a tire. Denver resident John McCulloch opted to replace his Firestones at Discount Tires.

JOHN McCULLOUGH: I was at Firestone this morning and Ford already, and neither of them could get me tires. They put me on waiting lists, so I called over here and they had them in stock and I'm going to have them in an hour.

TERENCE SMITH: Store employee Doug Schlagel says SUV drivers are coming in in droves, replacing a variety of Firestones, not just the ones being recalled.

DOUG SCHLAGEL: There are a lot of SUV owners that are pulling off merchandise that haven't been recalled. They just feel more secure by replacing the Firestone product with something else.

TERENCE SMITH: Ford officials are also analyzing the tread problems, which they say are very rare.

TOM BAUGHMAN, Senior Engineer, Ford: Clearly anybody can tell the difference from a tire which has catastrophically separated from the rest of the carcass and whether or not it's had a sidewall blowout or other kind of things. This is a day and night difference.

HELEN PETRAUSKAS, Vice President, Ford: There is absolutely no question in my mind that what we're seeing with tread separation is in no way related to performance of the Explorer, and my evidence for that is the superb performance of the Explorer when it's equipped with Goodyear tires.

TERENCE SMITH: To get the word out, both Ford and Firestone have purchased full-page newspaper ads and television commercials.

JACQUES NASSER, President & CEO, Ford: (Ford Commercial) To date, over one million tires have been replaced. And that's good progress, but it's not good enough. We now have commitments from other tire manufacturers, including Goodyear, Michelin and Continental, to double their capacity and help make replacement tires available sooner.

SPOKESMAN: We are maximizing production, airlifting tires from Japan, and working with other tire makers to increase total production.

TERENCE SMITH: The recall itself is estimated to cost $350 million. But the bad news for the tire maker doesn't end there. More than 50 wrongful death and personal injury lawsuits have been filed against the company; safety groups want to expand the recall to include all sizes of the recalled models, and today there were new questions about whether Firestone tires made in Venezuela failed to meet safety specifications requested by Ford. Congress is looking into the matter, too. Last week, investigators from a House oversight panel questioned Ford executives in Dearborn, Michigan. Yesterday, the investigators were in Nashville, visiting Bridgestone/Firestone.

SPOKESPERSON: Last Friday, committee investigators went to Ford's headquarters in Michigan to interview Ford officials and obtain certain documents, which we did. We're here today at Firestone's American headquarters in Nashville to do the same thing.

TERENCE SMITH: Congressional hearings are scheduled to begin next Wednesday.

GWEN IFILL: Joining me now is a representative from Bridgestone/Firestone, Christine Karbowiak, vice president of public affairs. The Ford Motor Company declined our invitation to participate. Ms. Karbowiak, could you...let's start by talking about Venezuela, because today, there is some question about what is good or what is bad about the Firestone tires that were produced there. Can you tell us about the extent of the problem?

CHRISTINE KARBOWIAK: Well, I'm not the expert on Venezuela, but what I can tell you is that our documentation indicates that the tires that were produced and delivered to Ford in Venezuela fully met their specs.

GWEN IFILL: And as you know, today Ford said exactly the opposite, that half of the tires did not meet the specs.

CHRISTINE KARBOWIAK: I'm aware of that, but I must refer again to our documentation, which shows that the tires that were delivered did meet their specification.

GWEN IFILL: Something for you and Ford and Firestone to work out among yourselves, no doubt. What... how long ago... let's go back to the beginning of this. How long ago did you know about the problems of these tires?

CHRISTINE KARBOWIAK: Well, we continually monitor the performance of all of our tire lines, and over the last several months, it became apparent that there was action that needed to be taken, and we moved very quickly, very swiftly to take this voluntary safety recall action. It was an extraordinary effort. We did not wait for NHTSA to act. The preliminary evaluation is still ongoing, but we acted quickly in order to make sure that our customers have confidence in our tires and that their safety is paramount to us.

GWEN IFILL: When you say "NHTSA," you mean the government safety board which oversees this?

CHRISTINE KARBOWIAK: That's correct. NHTSA.

GWEN IFILL: So when did you know about these mistakes - at first - these problems?

CHRISTINE KARBOWIAK: As I said, we continually monitor the performance of all our tire lines. Over the last several months, including the opening of the preliminary evaluation by NHTSA, the U.S. Government agency, it became apparent that we needed to take action very quickly. These tires were over- represented in terms of claims. So we moved quickly, swiftly to take this voluntary recall action.

GWEN IFILL: So now it's been three weeks since the recall took effect. Are you any closer to understanding what caused this tread separation to happen in these tires?

CHRISTINE KARBOWIAK: We are evaluating all the tires that we are bringing back from the field. We are working very closely with Ford. We are also working with our own international team of experts on this. As late as last week, we announced that we would like to work with independent experts in manufacturing, in the tire industry and academia to assist us in determining the cause or causes that resulted in these tire failures.

GWEN IFILL: Is the problem, as far as you can tell so far, in the tire manufacturer, is the problem in the vehicle it's attached to?

CHRISTINE KARBOWIAK: We haven't determined the root cause or causes as of this time. We are continuing our investigation. We're working very intensively twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week to come up with the answer for this dilemma.

GWEN IFILL: How about the question of whether consumers have been under-inflating these tires at the recommendation of the Ford Motor Company?

CHRISTINE KARBOWIAK: Well, we understand that Ford has cleared a range of 26 to 30 PSI for the proper inflation of the tires on their Explorer. We, as the tire manufacturer, are recommending the 30 PSI Range, but 26 is within the range of approved inflation.

GWEN IFILL: Is there any way of knowing... is this your problem and Ford's problem? Is this a problem that you have to undertake by looking more closely at your manufacturing, whether it's... especially since so many of these tires seem to have come from one plant in Dearborn, Michigan?

CHRISTINE KARBOWIAK: We are working very, very, very hard to determine the root cause or causes. We are looking at every aspect of this problem. We have not yet determined what the root cause is. We have focused some of our... much of our investigation on the Decatur plant. As you know, one of the tires that was recalled, the Wilderness AT in the P-23575R size, only these tires are manufactured at our Decatur, Illinois, facility have been recalled. We're looking at absolutely every aspect of this problem.

GWEN IFILL: That's Decatur, Illinois, not Decatur, Michigan. So for so many folks taking these cars... as you saw in our taped piece earlier, people are taking their Ford Explorers in, trying to get their tires replaced, and it's taking a tremendously long time. Why is it taking so long?

CHRISTINE KARBOWIAK: Well, the tires that are the subject of this recall are very specific sizes. It's one size. And we are obviously increasing our manufacturing capabilities. We have contacted our competitors to assist in increasing their capacity to manufacture tires, but there is a limited tire supply. We are doing everything we can-- including airlifting tires from Japan on a daily basis-- to increase the supply that's available in the U.S. so that we can quickly affect this recall.

GWEN IFILL: You're probably aware that many safety groups are asking for the recall to be expanded beyond the 6.5 million tires, which have now been recalled. Is that something which is likely?

CHRISTINE KARBOWIAK: We don't have any information that would indicate at this point that a wider recall is warranted. Obviously we are continuing to work with the NHTSA, but we believe that the recall as structured is proper.

GWEN IFILL: This is not the first time that Firestone has been involved in a recall of its tires, even though it's been many years and it was not as big as this one. Are you concerned at all that the Firestone brand name is going to be harmed in all of this?

CHRISTINE KARBOWIAK: Well, the Firestone brand is a 100-year-old brand. It is a strong, American name. And we are going to work very hard to make sure that that brand survives this.

GWEN IFILL: Next week you or some representatives from your company will be in Washington to meet and be interviewed at a hearing, I guess, by some members of Congress. What will you be prepared to tell congressional investigators?

CHRISTINE KARBOWIAK: Well, we're going to obviously cooperate fully with the committees and with the Congress people who are involved. It is our goal to provide them with as much information as they feel they need so that they can come to a determination.

GWEN IFILL: And do you expect you'll have to take action based on whatever it is that Congress finds?

CHRISTINE KARBOWIAK: We will work very closely with Congress. We'll work very closely with the NHTSA. Our goal is to get as much information to these organizations as quickly as possible so they can come to their own determination.

GWEN IFILL: Christine Karbowiak, thank you very much for joining us.

CHRISTINE KARBOWIAK: Thank you.

GWEN IFILL: And once again, to Terence Smith.

TERENCE SMITH: With me for analysis of the recall is Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization; she was administrator of the National Highway Safety - Traffic Safety Administration from 1977 to 1981; also John Casesa, senior automobile analyst for Merrill Lynch; and John McElroy, an automotive journalist and anchor of Auto Line Detroit, a television program focusing on issues facing the automotive industry. Welcome to all of you.

Joan Claybrook, I wonder, particularly after what we've just heard from a company representative, whether, in your view, these companies are being forthcoming in the way they're responding to this and disclosing what they do and when they do it.

JOAN CLAYBROOK: Well, first of all, they didn't just find this out several months ago, as the representative indicated. They've known about this since early 1990, when they were sued and clearly they assembled all their resources to take a look at this.

TERENCE SMITH: So you're saying this a problem of years not months?

JOAN CLAYBROOK: Many years, and even before that, Ford designed the specifications for the tires they want; they test them; Firestone tested them. They knew back in 1989/1990, when they designed this vehicle, what was going to happen. They were very worried, in fact, about rollover with the different tire pressures, so they've known for a long time. Now about the problem of the tread separation, they've known about that since they were sued.

TERENCE SMITH: Okay. John McElroy, can you tell me whether, in fact, they have got to the root cause of this problem.

JOHN McELROY: Well, obviously they've not. I mean, they've been talking about studying the problem certainly publicly, but they're saying they have not reached the root cause of the problem. They'd very much like to be able to come out and say this is exactly what's causing it; we're going to solve it and put this problem behind us. The fact that they haven't been able to do that suggests that they probably have not come to exactly what - why these things are coming apart like they are.

TERENCE SMITH: Is that a genuine search for the answer, or are they covering up -

JOHN McELROY: Oh, you can bet that they've got their top engineers really trying to determine statistically through very thorough analysis why these tires are coming apart.

And why these - I mean, Ford's been out pointing out that. Geez, when you put Goodyear's on, there's no problem whatsoever.

TERENCE SMITH: John Casesa, as you watch this unfold on an almost daily basis, what's the impact on the financial health of these companies?

JOHN CASESA: Well, I actually don't think this is going to have a big impact on Ford because it looks like the Ford Explorer is fine, that it's a problem with the tire. I do think it could have a very severe impact on Bridgestone-Firestone, the parent company. You may know that the company took a very big charge to earnings in its most recent results, and longer-term, even after the cost of recall is covered, one has to wonder what impact it'll have on the company's market share and brand position and all that kind of stuff.

TERENCE SMITH: Well, particularly the brand position, I would think, given this kind of publicity.

JOHN CASESA: Absolutely. And, you know, it's quite possible that Firestone recoups some market share in replacing market - people really believe it or not forget this stuff and will buy a bargain. But I think in the OE market - that is sales to customers like Ford - original equipment auto makers - this will hurt the brand. I mean, I think auto makers will be more wary of equipping their vehicles with Firestone tires.

TERENCE SMITH: Okay. Joan Claybrook, why didn't the Department of Transportation know about this earlier if, as you say, there were suits on record going back years?

JOAN CLAYBROOK: Well, there's really been a cover up by Bridgestone-Firestone, and Ford, when they settled these lawsuits, they insisted on gag orders, and that meant that neither the family nor the lawyer could ever talk about it. They did a recall in Venezuela, and they - other countries in the Middle East. They never told the Department of Transportation. I believe the statute requires it. Even if you could argue that it doesn't, they certainly had a moral obligation to tell the Department of Transportation this because the statute says when a company has reason to know or knows that there's a problem with one of their products, they're supposed to inform the Department of Transportation, and they're -

TERENCE SMITH: And you're saying they did not do that.

JOAN CLAYBROOK: And they did not do that, and they're supposed to send the notices when they send them to their tire dealers.

TERENCE SMITH: I mean, that's a pretty serious charge.

JOAN CLAYBROOK: I think that it is a serious charge, and I would think that if there were criminal penalties in the Department of Transportation statute, this never would have happened, but there are not such penalties, and the only penalties - they were dollar penalties -- $950,000 maximum penalty - which for these companies is chump change.

TERENCE SMITH: And yet the insurance companies knew about this as well. Why wouldn't they share that information beyond the limits of that gag order?

JOAN CLAYBROOK: Well, the State Farm Insurance Company did send 21 cases to the Department of Transportation in 1998, and no one even looked at it. So I think that there's been a lack of an enforcement attitude at the Department of Transportation. And in addition I think that the issue of Ford Motor Company versus Bridgestone has been quite interesting because Ford's vehicle, compared to the 500 Firestone recall in 1978, they are the - the tire separations occurred on cars, and they didn't roll over, and so the number of deaths are much smaller. Here, because they want a vehicle, which has the - has the capacity easily to roll over when it has a tire failure, they're rolling over, there are many more deaths. I believe 62 is a gross understatement, and so they should have provided a much larger margin of error but, in fact, Ford knew when it was testing these vehicles in the early 1990's/late 1980's, that there was a possibility that they would roll over with the tire - the right tire pressure - that is higher than 26.

TERENCE SMITH: John McElroy, why is this replacement taking so long?

JOHN McELROY: It involves 6 1/2 million tires - this in a market where every auto maker is selling just about any vehicle that they can build right now. We've never seen it stronger than that. There's not a capacity to turn around tomorrow and say, hey, instead of these Firestones I'll take 6 1/2 million of your tires. That's why we heard earlier in the program Ford's come out and said, we've got Michelin and Goodyear and Continental working on this whole thing. The real issue for the Ford Motor Company right now is how is it -once it gets this issue behind it - it will at least in terms of replacing the 6 1/2 million vehicles or 6 1/2 million tires involved, how's Ford going to go out and get a bunch of other tires to keep on building new vehicles? It's going to be a very difficult thing for them to be able to do, even with every other auto maker working flat out overtime trying to fill up the system.

TERENCE SMITH: So there's an industry wide shortage?

JOHN McELROY: Well, I wouldn't say there's a shortage per se; I'm just saying that it's not like you can run out tomorrow and buy 6 1/2 million tires from somebody else. Ford has committed itself to buying these tires from Firestone. It sourced these tires years ago to be on this program. It's not something that you can very easily just switch over to something else tomorrow, and I should add that doesn't just involve tires. The same thing would be effective it were steering wheels or seats or anything like that.

TERENCE SMITH: All right.

JOAN CLAYBROOK: That's why it's such a high risk for Ford and Firestone to get involved in this dispute, and they're backstabbing each other all over the place the last three or four days in the media, and yet Ford is going to have to have some Firestone tires on their Ford Explorers.

TERENCE SMITH: Right.

JOAN CLAYBROOK: Which is going to be a marketplace problem for them.

TERENCE SMITH: Let me ask John McElroy to respond to the point that you made. I mean, you said there's a cover up by -

JOAN CLAYBROOK: By both companies.

TERENCE SMITH: By both companies. John McElroy?

JOHN McELROY: I think that's a very strong charge. I think that the facts will have to bear that out. You have to remember that the automobile is an extremely complicated piece of machinery. Just because somebody gets killed; just because there's a rollover does not necessarily implicate the vehicle itself.

JOAN CLAYBROOK: No, but I'm talking about Ford -

JOHN McELROY: There's a lot of drivers out there who are not very good; there's a lot of drivers out there who drive like jerks. There's plenty of people who don't properly maintain their tires or their vehicles themselves. I think that you've got to look at these things on an individual case basis. Now I'm not saying that there's not a problem in this case. There very obviously is. But to come out and say that there's been a cover up.

JOAN CLAYBROOK: Oh, yes, but you should -

JOHN McELROY: -- on the part of them - I think is overstating the case by the facts that we know them today.

TERENCE SMITH: All right. Let me get John Casesa in here and ask him what impact you think this is going to have on Ford's attempt to project itself very vigorously as a very consumer - conscience - consumer responsive company.

JOHN CASESA: Well, I think this whole case will undermine the credibility for some time, not for a decade, but probably for years. And I think there's a sincere effort on Ford's part, particularly because the family's involvement, to make it a more consumer-friendly company, not so much for public relations reasons but because it's good business. Consumers and, indeed, the investors who are my clients are much, much more focused on ethically responsible companies that behave well. And I think investors right now are particularly anxious for Ford to resolve it as quickly as possible, as responsibly as possible, and they don't care if it costs a lot of money. It cost the company $100 million in the first quarter; it will cost more money in the fourth quarter to satisfy these customers, and that's good business, because a satisfied customer is a repeat customer. So I think that the economic interest and the moral interests of consumers and investors are very much aligned in this case.

TERENCE SMITH: Joan Claybrook, what would you advise a consumer to do, a consumer who owns these tires? What should he or she do?

JOAN CLAYBROOK: Well, first of all, I wouldn't drive over about 40 miles an hour because when there's a heat build up over continuous driving at high speeds, that's when you're more likely to have this problem. It's also - as the data shows - more likely to happen after the tires are about two and a half to three years old, so I'd certainly be more careful if my tires are a little bit older, and I would certainly try and get them replaced as rapidly as possible.

TERENCE SMITH: And would you take the reimbursement offer?

JOAN CLAYBROOK: Oh, absolutely.

TERENCE SMITH: And go out and get another set of tires?

JOAN CLAYBROOK: Absolutely, I would definitely do that, and I would advise people whose tires are of the same category but haven't been recalled, that is, the non-Decatur wilderness tires and so on, I would definitely urge them to do this too.

TERENCE SMITH: Because you think those may be suspect -

JOAN CLAYBROOK: I think that - the reason I think that they may be suspect is that there are other tires manufactured in Decatur that no one says are a problem so what is it in particular the Decatur plant did to these tires? I think it's a tire design issue, and if it's a tire design issue, then 16 inch as well as the 15 inch and all the 15 inch ones are suspect, and -

TERENCE SMITH: All right. Let's ask John McElroy, what your response is to that.

JOHN McELROY: Well, no, I would agree entirely with that. I would say first off try and get the tires replaced. If they'renot in stock right now, get that tire pressure up to 30 PSI; try not to overload the vehicle either. I'd keep one passenger in it and not put a bunch of people in with a bunch of luggage, which also may be a contributing factor in these things coming apart, but the main thing is get some other tires on there as fast as possible.

TERENCE SMITH: Now, John McElroy, the - Ford has had to suspend or cut back its production of some of these vehicles, the Explorer. What's the ripple effect of that?

JOHN McELROY: Well, Ford has announced that it's closing three plants. It's going to take 25,000 vehicles out of production, so instead of putting those tires on those new vehicles for sale later, they're going to throw that into the recall to address consumer needs more quickly. It's a big ripple effect; 25,000 vehicles times an average $22,000; you're looking at a 5 to 5 1/2 billion dollar decision. We've already seen and probably John Casesa can address this even better than I can - that other companies - supplier companies have come out - notably Laird - Arvin Meratory has already said that it's going to be impacted - a company like - those suppliers which supply components to those vehicles that are now going to be taken out of production are definitely go to see an economic impact.

TERENCE SMITH: John Casesa, are you seeing some of that ripple effect?

JOHN CASESA: Absolutely true. The largest suppliers are all seeing their earnings reduced because of this and I think there will be a long-term economic impact for Ford because it will have to pay premium costs to get suppliers, as John alluded to, to get tire suppliers to supply enough product for the next few months. There isn't a long term shortage of tires but for the next few months it will be very difficult to find enough high quality tires for Ford vehicles, and it's going to mean overtime and premium freight and air shipping, and Ford's going to have to bear the burden of that for as long as it takes.

TERENCE SMITH: But you argue it's good business. Joan Claybrook, a final word, what you think the lesson is here. What should we learn from this?

JOAN CLAYBROOK: Well, I think the lesson for these companies is that they shouldn't try and cut corners when they design vehicles, which is what happened with Ford, and the inside documents show that. I think that when they have a vehicle that has the tendency to roll over, they need a margin of safety, but consumers I think are furious about this. Remember, these are buyers of expensive vehicles; these are people who vote; who know their member of Congress; who know how to raise a fuss and write to the newspapers, so I think that Ford has been hurt badly, as well as Firestone, and my view is that the company should - as I think Ford by the way has tried to do - should try and be really pro safety in their design decisions up front.

TERENCE SMITH: Okay. Thank you all three very much.

GWEN IFILL: Still to come on the NewsHour tonight, a report from the Middle East, and a conversation about how to read.

FOCUS - UNSETTLED LIVES

GWEN IFILL: One of the most contentious issues last month at the Camp David peace negotiations, was the fate of nearly four million Palestinian refugees. Most are now living in Jordan, Lebanon, the West Bank, and Gaza.

Elizabeth Farnsworth traveled to the area earlier this month. Here is her report.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: These are the faces of Palestinian refugees whose fate is at stake in peace negotiations underway now. Rasslan Sukkar fled Jaffa in what is now Israel in 1948 when he was 12 years old. His wife left Jaffa as a child too. They, their children, and grandchildren -- three generations -- have lived most of their lives in a refugee camp in Gaza. They live in this house in the 'Beach Camp,' as it is called. It is a small city now, with more than 75,000 people. The United Nations has helped refugees construct houses here, building up, not out, because of limited space. This is one of the most densely populated areas on earth -- and one of the poorest. The annual per capita income here is $800. Thirty-four Sukkars live in this three-story house. They all say the main thing they want from peace negotiations is simply to go back home to Jaffa. And that is a desire Israeli negotiators resolutely oppose. The places refugees like the Sukkars consider home, are mostly inhabited by Jewish Israelis now, many of them refugees from Europe and the Middle East. Yuli Tamir is a member of the cabinet of Prime Minister Ehud Barak:

YULI TAMIR: Can you imagine now a Jewish move back to Europe, saying to people in Poland, or in Germany or in Czechoslovakia, go back, leave your houses -- those were our houses?

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: In Gaza, the Sukkar family gathered to explain their desire to go home.

RASSLAN SUKKAR: (speaking through interpreter) We are determined....if it's not us, it's the sons of our sons -- one day they will go back.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Rasslan Sukkar's father was a manager of stevedores at the Jaffa Harbor until 1948 when the family fled the chaos of the war that followed the declaration of the Jewish State in Palestine.

RASSLAN SUKKAR: (speaking through interpreter) In 1948 because of the war, we had to leave there and emigrate through Egypt; and after two years there we had to come and live in Gaza. The UN was the only organization helping; otherwise a lot of people would have been dead by now.

AMERA AHMED SUKKAR: (speaking through interpreter) I remember when I left Jaffa I was even years old. My father was always telling us tomorrow, next month, next year, and until now look what happened to us.... we didn't go nowhere.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: You still have your key?

AMERA AHMED SUKKAR: (speaking through interpreter) I remember my aunt at that time, my husband's mother, when we were leaving, she locked the door and put it around her neck.

DEEB SUKKAR: (speaking through interpreter) When I look at this key, I say where am I from? Fifty years I'm waiting to go back to my Palestinian soil in Jaffa.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Jaffa, which is just south of Tel Aviv, lies tantalizingly close to the Sukkars' Gaza home -- a 40 mile drive up the Mediterranean coast. The family has returned to Jaffa occasionally, but they need a special permit from the Israelis to cross the border, and it is often refused.

Standing here next to the ancient port of Jaffa , it's easy to understand why refugees like the Sukkars want so intensely to return. They remember this beautiful light, the graceful homes, the fragrance of orchards that used to surround the city. Even Palestinians who didn't flee, who are still here, remember the old times with longing. One of those Palestinians is Fakhri Geday, a pharmacist who is writing a history of the Arabs community here. On a tour, Geday described what Jaffa was like before the 1948 fighting drove people like the Sukkars out. The city was mainly Arab, he said, but with many Jews. Of more than 65,000 Arabs in 1948; all but a few thousand fled. Today, Jaffa is part of Tel Aviv now and is mostly Jewish-Israeli. Geday said 75% of the old Arab buildings in Jaffa, including the Sukkars' home, have been destroyed. Those that remain are much in demand now, and some are being restored.

FAKHRI GEDAY: This building used to be an Arab building. it was bought by a Jewish lawyer, who is my friend, Sewkawalski. And he repaired it and is now renting it.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Israeli Artist Etti Barchil has been a leader in the effort to protect the old Arab homes. She and her husband restored this 150-year-old house themselves. Her family fled anti-Jewish persecution in Iran in 1949. She has little sympathy for the Palestinian refugees' desire to return.

ETTI BARCHIL: (speaking through interpreter) The truth is I cannot blame people who fled out of fear, I cannot judge them, but the fact is that a lot of people stayed. Over a million people in Israel today are Palestinian Arabs who chose to stay. I have no problem with that. But we were forced to flee, and that's important to emphasize. We've got a small piece of land. damn it, let us live!

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Gaby Aldor also lives in a restored Arab home. She bought it from the Israeli Housing Authority, which took over abandoned Arab properties after 1948. Some of Aldor's family came from Europe in the early 20th century, some later, fleeing the Holocaust. She's a choreographer/director who has produced a much-awarded theater piece about the overlapping claims in this city.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: How do you justify living in a home that, that perhaps belongs to somebody else?

GABY ALDOR: Well, it's the same as I can't justify or not justify the fact that somebody's living in my father's house in Vienna. I mean this is really the tragedy of history. in this century people have been moved, people move. So what I can do is recognize their pain and say yes, it is painful... you can't emotionally say "o.k. Palestinians, something was done wrong to them...because you can't cut it off from the history of the whole era; and the whole era's history is awful.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: In Aldor's play, the protagonist, like the Sukkars, long to go home.

GABY ALDOR: in my play, the guy has a key, but as a matter of fact, no one can come back because there is no way back . So I understand his longing. But my father was longing, all his life, for Vienna. there is no way back, ever. o.k. I say "you're welcome. Come here." where do I go? Vienna? I'm not wanted there.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Gaby Aldor said this issue is especially sensitive because Israelis in Jaffa and elsewhere worry a Palestinian Right of Return threatens Israel's existence as a Jewish State. Cabinet Minister Tamir explained.

YULI TAMIR: For us, the main motivation of the peace process, apart from living in peace with our neighbors, is that we would like to have a state which is a Jewish state, that has mainly a Jewish majority. And at the moment I don't think that the Middle East is ripe for some sort of mingling of populations and if the refugees will come back to the territory of Israel, Israel will turn into a binational state.

SALIM TAMARI: Well, see that's part of the process of negotiations where you try to intimidate the other side by making justice so catastrophic to your side it's unthinkable.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Salim Tamari is a Palestinian sociologist who has been closely involved in negotiations on the refugee issue. He has pushed for the Right of Return as an essential component of a just peace. His old home in Jaffa has become a drug rehabilitation center. He would like it returned to his family, at least in principal; but says they probably wouldn't go back.

SALIM TAMARI: The Right of Returndoes not mean the practice of the right of return by four and a half million refugees. It means the refugees have the principle right to return as a choice and then the modalities of return will have to be negotiated with the Israelis.

YULI TAMIR: In this respect I think the same advice I'm giving the Palestinians, I'm also giving our own people: you cannot turn the historical will backwards, and if you do, it will just cause disaster. Imagine if all the Jewish refugees who came here from the Arab world would now say, "okay, we want to go back to Morocco or Tunisia or Algeria or to Syria, or to Egypt. I think this would destabilize the area to an enormous extent.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: While experts and negotiators debate, researchers at the "Orient House," the headquarters of the Palestinian leadership in E. Jerusalem, are working to document Arab holdings confiscated by Israelis since 1948. Using records going back to the Ottoman Empire and the years when the British ruled, geographers are painstakingly identifying ownership of Arab homes and lands then and now.

In the past Palestinian negotiators had resisted discussing compensation; but it is very much on the table now, Tamari says.

SALIM TAMARI: Compensation is being considered now as part of a package which includes the right of return, repatriation, resettlement and restitution. Now compensation is acceptable only within this context because it will have to include, for example, notions of restitution which means people who had property, at least some of them, will be able to claim their property back.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: The Israelis have their own proposals too...

YULI TAMIR: First of all Israel insists it will not recognize the right of return to the sovereign territory of the state of Israel; however we are trying to put together a package deal that will alleviate the pain and suffering of the Palestinian refugees. we will also take into account that Israel itself has absorbed many Jewish refugees from the Arab world, from all around the world, and we'll try to work for the benefit of those individuals.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Specifically, there was discussion at Camp David about setting up an international consortium which would administer a multibillion dollar fund to provide compensation to Palestinians refugees and perhaps to Jewish refugees from Arab countries too. The money would come from the United States, Europe and other countries. No one can say at this point what a peace agreement might mean for the Sukkar family in Gaza. They have heard they may be offered compensation instead of the right of return, but they know nothing is definite.

DEEB SUKKAR: (speaking through interpreter) If they want to give me compensation, look, I mean, to give me back my life is cheaper than to give me money; I my land. I want my land. To give me compensation my suffering -- my suffering is in the heart; it will not go away.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: At sunset in Gaza that week, people cooled off in the Mediterranean Sea.

For Palestinian refugees here and all over the world, this is a time of waiting as negotiators discuss their fate.

CONVERSATION

GWEN IFILL: Now, another in our series of conversations with authors. Ray Suarez talks to Harold Bloom, the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University and the Berg Professor of English at New York University. His new book is "How to Read and Why."

RAY SUAREZ: I have to say, I got a kick out of the title: "How to Read and Why." It seems kinds of audacious, and at the same time takes on some of the tone of a late 19thcentury self-improvement book. There were a lot of them then. This would help you catch up to all the people around you. But then the Brooklyn boy in me says, "well, how to read and why? Says who?"

HAROLD BLOOM: Well, I'm a Bronx boy, and this Bronx boy says, "says me," because I've just touched 70. And I started to read-- I guess I was kind of a freak at that age-- I was maybe three years old, in Yiddish, and then I taught myself to read English, and I never stopped reading since. So you're quite right. The title, which has been somewhat attacked, is deliberate, is not an irony, though it is allusive. It's an attempt to restore the 19th century mode, but then I started primarily as a student and teacher of 19th century poetry of English. I've become a kind of generalist, a very general literary critic, and perhaps by now I'm not quite a literary critic. I suppose I regard myself now as a teacher.

RAY SUAREZ: Is this book a tool? Is it a handbook? I mean, if we consider that a hammer is for pounding nails and a plier might be to pull them out, what's this one for?

HAROLD BLOOM: I like the analogue very much. Most people, myself included, rightly have a kind of contempt for those lists of books that many publishers call inspirational works or that many publishers call... what's the general term for it? It eludes me.

RAY SUAREZ: How-to.

HAROLD BLOOM: Yes, how-to books; how to do this, how to do that. It's in five parts, one on short stories, one on poetry, one on plays, and two on novels, one on the European novel and the other on certain elements in the American tradition of the novel starting with "Moby Dick" and ending with Toni Morrison. It tries to give a reader-- and I would think a reader on almost any level-- but a real reader, someone who wants to read better, someone who wants to immerse herself or himself in what they are reading, someone who wants indeed to open herself or himself up to the best that can be read, the best that has been thought. It tries to give them an entry. It sort of holds out its hand and says, "Come with me." It tries to serve as a guide. It is a handbook in many ways.

RAY SUAREZ: You tell us a lot about the authors of these works by way of illuminating the works, and I was wondering, how much do you really need to know if you're about to read "Swann's Way," that Marcel Proust was a Jew, a homosexual?

HAROLD BLOOM: You can pick up Proust the way you can pick up Dickens or the way you can pick up Cervantes or Shakespeare. You can count upon the passion and storytelling skill of the narrator. You can count upon the extraordinarily intense depth of characterization on Proust's part to carry you so deep into the interior of the crucial figures in the book that you will be concerned about their lives and deaths as human beings, not about the time in which they live or the political causes through which they're struggling. Indeed, even their particular sexual orientation in some sense becomes secondary because there's no essential difference between the sorrows and vicissitudes - you know -- that attend all human erotic relationships, whether they are heterosexual or homosexual.

RAY SUAREZ: You're a professor of literature. You've been talking to young people for almost half a century about these works. I'm wondering if we sometimes ask people to read some of these things too early in life. I mean, right across Washington square here I read "Ulysses," and, you know, I thought it was pretty good, but then I read it 20 years later, as a middle-aged man, married 20 years, a couple of kids, some disappointments in life, and the whole experience was changed, radically changed for me.

HAROLD BLOOM: Very good question. It's the kind of thing I frequently brood about also. And again, Shakespeare, since I spend about half of my time always teaching Shakespeare, is very much to the point. Teaching "King Lear" to a young woman or a young man age 20 or 21 is, in a sense, a premature activity. You are quite right. But something... If one does one's job at all creditably, something does get through. Some seed can be planted.

RAY SUAREZ: Were you called to do this because of a feeling, a conviction that reading is in trouble as a pastime?

HAROLD BLOOM: Reading is in horrible trouble. The problem is that we are, as everybody knows, increasingly what they call an age of information. And this book says information is... it begins by saying, "information is endlessly available to us. Where shall wisdom be found?" I suppose that in that endless ocean of information that is constituted by the Internet, there is wisdom to be found if you know where to look for it and are able to recognize it when you find it. But I don't think you can begin your education on the Internet and not drown in it.

RAY SUAREZ: It's interesting to hear you say that reading is in trouble when you look at bookstores, they've become huge. They are now mountains of books.

HAROLD BLOOM: There are mountains of books, and I spend much of my life in bookstores, talking in them, just browsing in them, reading in them. It's a question of what those books are. My e-mail is flooded with angry Harry Potterites denouncing a piece I published on my birthday two days ago on the op-ed page of the "Wall Street Journal," insisting that they feel their children are benefiting enormously by reading "Harry Potter." I think they are deluding themselves. I read the first "Harry Potter" book in order to write that piece. I was appalled that every sentence was a string of clich s, that there was no characterization, that every character in it spoke with the voice of every other character, that it was finally just a piece of goo. I think reading is in trouble no matter how many people crowd the bookstores and no matter what profits the publishers are turning. It's in trouble because we do not consider how to read and why.

RAY SUAREZ: So you have no truck with those who say, "well, at least they're reading," whether speaking of adults or children.

HAROLD BLOOM: Ray, they're not really. Their eyes are passing over a page. They are turning the page. Their minds are being numbed by clich . No demands are being made upon them. Nothing... Nothing is happening to them. They're being schooled in what you might call unreality or the avoidance of reality. They are going in every direction except inward into the self.

RAY SUAREZ: And that, finally, is the essential part of real reading, that confrontation with the self?

HAROLD BLOOM: It certainly is one of the essential elements in real reading, yes. There is perhaps in the end, since we cannot know enough people and we have such trouble really knowing ourselves and overhearing ourselves, it is Shakespeare, it is Cervantes, it is Dickens, it is Jane Austen, it is Virginia Woolf, it is Tolstoy, it's Dostoyevsky who will help us to encounter ourselves, accept ourselves, or realize that we are not acceptable by ourselves and perhaps we ought to do something about it.

RAY SUAREZ: Harold Bloom, it's been a great pleasure.

HAROLD BLOOM: Thank you very much, Ray. Thank you.

RECAP

GWEN IFILL: Again, the major stories of this Tuesday. The Ford Motor Company said tires that Bridgestone/Firestone manufactured in Venezuela were much worse than tires recalled in the United States. But a tire company official said on the NewsHour tonight, they met Ford's specifications. And President Clinton said he should not be disbarred over his testimony in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case. We'll see you on-line and again here tomorrow evening. I'm Gwen Ifill. Thank you and good night.