Transcripts For KPIX 60 Minutes 20170327

Im on 60 minutes, right . Pelley tonight 60 minutes reports on the real consequences of fake news. Lies on the left and right fed by fraudulent software that scam our social media accounts. Click on a fake news site, and publishers like jestin coler make money. People in general are quick to believe anything that is. Not anything, but, well, yeah, basically anything thats put in front of them in a format that is newsish. Alfonsi until a couple summers ago, the ancient game of chess was still mostly a mystery for the folks of rural Franklin County, mississippi. Whats this called . Alfonsi so imagine everyones surprise when a tall stranger arrived from memphis to bring chess to the country. I was like, what . Why would somebody come down here . Alfonsi less than two years later, a chess boom is under way in the unlikeliest of places. People said that country kids couldnt learn chess. Alfonsi and . We showed em different. We proved em wrong. We proved em wrong. Im steve kroft. Email lesley stahl. Im bill whitaker. Im anderson cooper. Im sharyn alfonsi. Im scott pelley. Those stories tonight on 60 minutes. Doe. See me. See me. See me to know that psoriasis is just something that i have. Im not contagious. See me to know that. I wont stop until i find what works. Discover cosentyx, a different kind of medicine for moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. Proven to help the majority of people find clear or almost clear skin. 8 out of 10 people saw 75 skin clearance at 3 months. While the majority saw 90 clearance. Do not use if you are allergic to cosentyx. Before starting, you should be tested for tuberculosis. An increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms. Such as fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches or cough. Or if you have received a vaccine or plan to. If you have inflammatory bowel disease, tell your doctor if symptoms develop or worsen. Serious allergic reactions may occur. 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In looking into what happened in garland, we were surprised to discover just how close the fbi was to one of the terrorists. Not only had the fbi been monitoring him for years, there was an undercover agent right behind him when the first shots were fired. The target of the attack was an event taking place in this Conference Center on may 3, 2015. A selfdescribed free speech advocate named Pamela Geller was holding a provocative contest, offering a cashprize for the best drawing of the prophet muhammad, whose depiction is considered sacrilege by some muslims. Security outside was heavy. There were dozens of police, a swat team, and snipers. More than 100 people were gathered inside and the event was ending when two terrorists drove up to a checkpoint manned by a Garland Police officer and a School Security guard. This grainy image shows both Law Enforcement personnel standing next to an Unmarked Police car seconds before the attack. Bruce joiner, the security guard, was unarmed. Joiner its like they pull up, stop, and the doors open. Cooper do you remember seeing the weapon . Joiner oh, yeah. Definitely saw their weapon. And thats when i locked onto his face cause hes got this smile. Cooper he was literally smiling . Joiner yeah, like, i got you. I got you. gunshots cooper the two terrorists opened fire with automatic rifles. Joiner dove for cover, but was shot in the leg. Officer greg stevens, returned fire with his handgun. Police nearby ran toward the scene. And right here bleep just started shooting at this convention cooper when this video was recorded by a passerby, both terrorists had been mortally wounded by officer stevens, and were laying on the ground next to their car. They still shooting, man cooper a swat team shot them both in the head. Joiner because they kept moving and they werent sure there were explosives involved they had to shoot them. Cooper how quick did all of this happen . Joiner oh, its a matter of seconds. I would say 20, 30 seconds. Its very quick. Cooper the next day as the fbi picked through the crime scene, the evidence showed Garland Police had prevented a massacre. The terrorists brought six guns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, bulletproof and tactical vests, and xeroxed copies of the black flag of isis. They were identified as 31year old Elton Simpson and 34year old nadir soofi. Just hours before the attack they had sent this tweet pledging allegiance to isis. But simpson was already well known to the f. B. I. He grew up in the suburbs of chicago, and moved to phoenix, arizona in middle school. He briefly played College Basketball before dropping out and converting to islam when he was 20. According to leaders of the phoenix mosque he attended, simpson was wellliked and soft spoken. Shami he was always asking questions, attending lectures. Cooper usama shami is president of the Islamic Community center of phoenix. People here thought so much of the young muslim convert, who took the name ibrahim, that he was included in the mosques promotional video in 2007. When you come together and you pray five times a day with the brothers and youre reminded about the hereafter. Cooper but at the time of this interview, simpson had already become interested in radical islam, and the phoenix fbi, which was investigating one his friends, hired an informant, a sudanese refugee named dabla deng, to check simpson out. Cooper there are informants inside the mosque . Shami yeah. I mean the whole case with Elton Simpson was with an informant that he was befriending elton and taping his conversations. Cooper dabla deng spent three years pretending to be simpsons friend, and was paid 132,000 by the fbi. He taped more than 1,500 hours of their conversations and finally recorded him talking about traveling overseas to wage jihad. Simpson lied to the fbi about it and got three years probation. Shami when he found out that this guy was spying on him, and taping him and then finding out that the government was doing that, i think something clicked in him. And the mosque we couldnt do anything. Because we dont know what he did. Cooper he felt that the mosque had abandoned him . Shami yes. And he felt that a lot of people had abandoned him. And thats why he stopped coming to the mosque. Cooper he moved into this phoenix apartment complex with nadir soofi, who he knew from the mosque. Soofi had just had a bitter breakup and the pizza parlor he owned was going out of business. It was here in this apartment that simpson and soofi began closely following the rise of isis, reaching out to their supporters online, and acquiring weapons for a terrorist attack. Hughes simpson and soofi knew what they were getting into and i think they likely knew they were going to die. Cooper Seamus Hughes tracks the online activities of isis sympathizers in the u. S. He served at the National Counter terrorism center, and is currently Deputy Director of George Washington universitys program on extremism, where he also trains fbi agents on how to identify american jihadis. Why is the garland attack so significant . Hughes the garland attack is essentially the first opening salvo when it comes to attacks on the homeland. Cooper attacks in the United States . Hughes attacks in the United States. These lowlevel attacks by ones and twos of people who are drawn to the ideology and decide to act. You got to make sense of it all. So what you do is you bring it all together and put it on a board and say whos connected to who. Cooper using an Old Fashioned Law Enforcement tool, hughes maps out isis online tentacles into the United States. Hughes so you have the two attackers, soofi and simpson. Theyre also talking to mohammed miski, whos an isis recruiter in somalia. Cooper this is somebody in somalia who theyre talking to online. Hughes uhhuh. Yep. Through an encrypted app, surespot. Theyre also talking to junaid hussein. Cooper and hes in raqqa . Hughes hes in raqqa. Cooper raqqa is isiss stronghold in syria. Hughes calls Junaid Hussain an isis rock star, a british citizen, who communicated online with englishspeaking recruits worldwide. He was killed in a u. S. Drone strike a year and a half ago. Miski, an american living in somalia, tweeted this link about the draw muhammad contest, in garland texas, and direct messaged Elton Simpson urging him to attack it. Hughes the most interesting part about this is were in a hybrid time, right. Before we used to be worried about these network attacks, think of 9 11 with the hijackers training for years and then coming over here. And then, we had lone actor attacks, individuals who were kind of drawn to this and decided to act. Now, were in this weird moment in between, where you have a number of individuals in raqqa, reaching out to americans in ohio, new york, and other places and saying so heres the knife you should use. Heres the address of the local u. S. Military officer and do what you can. Cooper do you think Elton Simpson would have launched this attack if it wasnt for people in isis overseas who were online whispering in his ear . Hughes i think the folks whispering in his ear was a big part of it. Cooper the f. B. I. Closed the case on Elton Simpson in 2014, only to reopen it several weeks before the attack because of statements he made on social media. Hughes it speaks to a larger problem the f. B. I. Has, which is you have an individual who pops into your radar in 2006, but doesnt commit an attack until 2015. So do you want the fbi to watch this individual for nine years . Cooper after the attack, phoenix fbi agents became convinced the two men hadnt acted alone, and began investigating Elton Simpsons friends. They arrested this man Abdul Malik Abdul kareem, a 43year old convert to islam who grew up in philadelphia, and accused him of funding the attack, as well as training and encouraging simpson and soofi. Witnesses at abdulkareems trial testified the three men watched isis execution videos together and discussed attacking a military base or the 2015 super bowl in glendale, arizona. Abdulkareem denied taking part in any discussions about a terror attack and says he rejected his friends growing radicalization. He was found guilty on multiple counts and sentenced to thirty years in prison. But his attorney dan maynard continued to investigate, and uncovered new evidence the fbi was much closer to the garland attack than anyone realized. After the trial, you discovered that the government knew a lot more about the garland attack than they had let on . Maynard thats right. Yeah. After the trial we found out that they had had an undercover agent who had been texting with simpson less than three weeks before the attack to him tear up texas. Which to me was an encouragement to simpson. Cooper the man hes talking about was a special agent of the fbi, working undercover posing as an islamic radical. The government sent attorney dan maynard 60 pages of declassified encrypted messages between the agent and Elton Simpson and argued tear up texas was not an incitement. But simpsons response was incriminating, referring to the attack against cartoonists at the french magazine Charlie Hebdo bro, you dont have to say that. He wrote you know what happened in paris. So that goes without saying. No need to be direct. But it turns out the undercover agent did more than just communicate online with Elton Simpson. In an affidavit filed in another case the government disclosed that the fbi undercover agent had actually traveled to garland texas and was present at the event. Maynard i was shocked. I mean i was shocked that the government hadnt turned this over. I wanted to know when did he get there, why was he there . Cooper and this past november, maynard was given another batch of documents by the government, revealing the Biggest Surprise of all. The undercover agent was in a car directly behind Elton Simpson and nadir soofi when they started shooting. This cellphone photo of School Security guard bruce joiner and Police Officer greg stevens was taken by the undercover agent seconds before the attack. The idea that hes taking photograph of the two people who happen to be attacked laughs moments before theyre attacked. Maynard its stunning. Cooper i mean, talk about being in the right or the wrong place at the right or the wrong time. Maynard the idea that hes right there 30 seconds before the attack happens is just incredible to me. Cooper what would you want to ask the undercover agent . Maynard i would love to ask the undercover agent are these the only communications that you had with simpson . Did you have more communications with simpson . How is it that you ended up coming to garland, texas . Why are you even there . Cooper we wanted to ask the f. B. I. Those same questions. But the bureau would not agree to an interview. All the f. B. I. Would give us was this email statement. It reads there was no advance knowledge of a plot to attack the cartoon drawing contest in garland, texas. If youre wondering what happened to the f. B. I. s undercover agent, he fled the scene but was stopped at gunpoint by Garland Police. This is video of him in handcuffs, recorded by a local news crew. Weve blurred his face to protect his identity. Maynard i cant tell you whether the f. B. I. Knew the attack was going to occur. I dont like to think that they let it occur. But it is shocking to me that an undercover agent sees fellas jumping out of a car. And he drives on. I find that shocking. Cooper that he didnt try to stop. Maynard he didnt try to stop them. Or he didnt do something. I mean, hes an agent, for gosh sakes. Cooper if this attack had gone a different way, and lots of people had been killed, would the fact that an undercover fbi agent was on the scene have become essentially a scandal . Hughes it would have been a bigger story. I think you would have seen congressional investigations and things like that. Lucky for the fbi and for the participants in the event you know, here in texas, you know, everyones a good shot there. Cooper the f. B. I. s actions around this foiled attack offer a rare glimpse into the complexities faced by those fighting homegrown extremism. Today the battle often begins online, where identifying terrorists can be the difference between a massacre, and the one that never occurred in garland, texas. People brag about stuff. People talk big. One of the difficulties for the f. B. I. Is trying to figure out whos just talking and who actually may execute an attack. Hughes thats the hardest part when you talk about this, right. Theres a lot of guys who talk about how great isis is. Its very hard to tell when someone crosses that line. And in most of the cases, you see the f. B. I. Has some touch point with those individuals beforehand. There had been an assessment, a preliminary investigation or a full investigation. Its just very hard to know when somebody decides to jump. man vo it was may, when dad forgot how to brush his teeth. woman vo in march, my husband didnt recognize our grandson. woman 2 vo thats when moderate alzheimers made me a caregiver. avo if their alzheimers is getting worse, ask about onceaday namzaric. 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Movantik may interact with them causing side effects. Why hold it in . Have your movantik moment. Talk to your doctor about opioidinduced constipation. If you cant afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. Pelley in this last election the nation was assaulted by imposters masquerading as reporters. They poisoned the conversation with lies on the left and on the right. Many did it to influence the outcome; others just to make a buck. The president uses the term fake news to discredit responsible reporting that he doesnt like, but were going to show you how con artists insert truly fake news into the National Conversation with fraudulent software that scams your social media account. The stories are fake, but the consequences are real. This past december, edgar welch opened fire in a washington d. C. Pizzeria. He told police he was there to rescue children forced into prostitution by Hillary Clinton. The story of secretary clintons child sex trafficking operation, in a pizzeria, was invented before the election by fraudulent news sites and shared by millions. James alefantis owns the restaurant. Alefantis it started on november 4, 2016, where i started to get strange messages directly into instagram and to facebook. And these direct messages were saying all kinds of very strange and bizarre things. Pelley like what . Alefantis many of the threats, death threats, i think were some of the worst. People saying that they wanted to see my guts cut out and spill on the floor of my restaurant. One person said that they prayed that someone would come and kill everyone inside. And it was terrifying moments. Pelley edgar welch fired into the only locked door in the restaurant and found, much to his surprise, no sex slaves. No one was hurt unless you count alefantis, an innocent bystander at a character assassination. Alefantis it went from a few people buzzing about something online or inside of chat rooms that we never would have seen before, to suddenly being blasted to millions and millions of people. Pelley the police say there is no sex trafficking conspiracy. But millions read about it on dozens of websites, including one called danger and play, which wrote, clintons inner circle includes child traffickers, pedophiles and now members of a sex cult. Danger and play is written by michael cernovich, a Southern California lawyer who describes himself as right of center politically but who has become a magnet for readers with a taste for stories with no basis in fact. Pelley these news stories are fakes. Cernovich theyre definitely not fake. Pelley theyre lies. Cernovich theyre not lies at all. 100 true. Pelley do you believe that, or do you say that because its important for marketing your website . Cernovich oh, i believe it. I dont say anything that i dont believe. Pelley that doesnt seem like a very high bar. Cernovich its a high bar because im an attorney, i know how to weigh and measure evidence. Heres the story of my life. Pelley cernovich streams commentary daily and publishes on social media. He reached twitter users 83 million times last month. Cernovich that was a slow month, too. We hit 150 million sometimes. What im doing is, its punchy, its fun, its counterintuitive, its counternarrative, and its information that youre not going to see everywhere else. Pelley in august he published this headline. Hillary clinton has parkinsons disease, physician confirms. You dont think thats misleading . Cernovich no. Pelley you believe its true today . Cernovich oh, absolutely. Pelley that story was sourced to an anesthesiologist who never met clinton. It got so much traction, it had to be denied by clintons doctor and the National Parkinson foundation. Cernovich she had a seizure and froze up walking into her motorcade that day. Pelley well, she had pneumonia. I mean. Cernovich how do you know . Who told you that . Pelley well, the campaign told us that. Cernovich why would you trust the campaign . Pelley the point is you didnt talk to anybody whod ever examined Hillary Clinton. Cernovich i dont take anything Hillary Clinton is going to say at all as true. Im not going to take her on her word. The media says were not going to take donald trump on his word. And thats why we are in these different universes. Pelley cernovichs website is just one of hundreds publishing nonsense on the right and on the left. We were curious how a particular fake news article breaks out from one website and becomes a popular trending item on facebook or twitter, for example. And we discovered that one of the reasons is fraud. Some fake news publishers use Computer Software called bots to make their articles appear much more popular than they actually are. Bots are fake social media accounts that are programmed to automatically like or retweet a particular message. Jim vidmar knows all about bots. Hes a consultant who helps products or people get noticed on the internet. So when were talking about these bots, these are twitter accounts masquerading as real people. Vidmar thats right. Pelley by the thousands . Vidmar by the millions. Pelley we did an experiment with vidmars help. We bought 5,000 bots from a russian website. They cost us just a few hundred bucks. Weve set up an experiment so you can show me how this works. And im going to tweet from my account, what happens when 60 minutes investigates fake news . So tweet that out. Normally, i could expect real people to retweet my message a few dozen times. Vidmar programmed our bots to retweet my message and then he turned them loose. Hit it with everything youve got. Vidmar lets hit it with everything we got. There you go. Now youve got 3,200 retweets right there. Pelley wait a minute. I went from 300 to 3,000 . Vidmar now, its 4,400. Now real people start seeing it. They start retweeting it, and, you know, responding to it. Pelley and it takes off. Vidmar and it takes off. Pelley that matters because facebook and twitter select articles to present prominently based mostly on how popular they are. They can be fooled by bots. Our imposters expanded the reach of our message 9,000 . But our tweet didnt catch fire the way so much fake news does because our message was not salacious. Jestin coler you need to talk in their language about very specific words that kind of get that emotional response. Thats really the key to it all, the key to all of the fake news. Pelley jestin coler says a fake news headline has to make blood boil. Hes not afraid to admit that he made real money on fake news. Hes know for two fake news sites one called national report, the other denver guardian, where he pushed peoples buttons on issues such as abortion and obamacare. Coler we did a piece on r. F. I. D. Chips being mandated through the obamacare exchange. Pelley and what are those . Coler essentially a tracking device. So as part of signing up for obamacare you had to be implanted, essentially, with this tracking device. Pelley that story was read one point six million times. Coler wrote another fake story about an f. B. I. Agent investigating Clinton Emails who was killed in a murdersuicide. And then there was the fake Army Quarantine of a texas town infected with ebola got eight million page views. Coler its kind of almost an addiction, right . You kind of see something really take off, and then as its coming down youre kind of looking for that next high, i guess. Pelley his highs were profitable. With each click, he made money on ads over 10,000 a month he told us, writing fiction posing as fact. Coler facebook really was key to what we did. Pelley how . Coler well, we would basically join whatever group it is that youre trying to target on facebook. And once they kind of took the bait, so to speak, then they would spread this stuff around, they would be the ones that would essentially be our bots. Pelley what did you discover about the audience . Coler you know, people in general are quick to believe anything that is. Not anything, but. Well, yeah, basically anything thats put in front of them in a format that is newsish. Pelley did the environment in this world change during the president ial election . Coler it did. Sure. A lot more players joined the game. Pelley fake news flooded social media during the president ial campaign. This story said donald trump was caught snorting cocaine in a hotel. Another said after colonoscopy reveals brain tumor, donald trump drops from race. Phil howard part of political campaigning these days involves a very widespread strategy that involved manipulating Public Opinion over social media. Twitter and facebook are part of the advertising strategy. Pelley phil howard leads the Internet Institute at the university of oxford, which examines misinformation on social media. Theyve analyzed web traffic in the days before the election in the swing state of michigan. Pelley how much of this news on twitter in michigan was, as you call it, junk news and how much of it legitimate . Howard well, in the case of michigan, we found that the proportions were about equal. The junk news with stories that had not been factchecked and that came from organizations that were not professional journalism organizations was about as much as the amount of content coming from the professional news organizations. Pelley there was as much fake news as there was actual news . Howard there was. Pelley to get an idea of who reads fake news we turned to the trade desk, the Internet Advertising Firm that helps Companies Steer clear of fraudulent sites. Jeff green is the c. E. O. Green so the first thing that we found out is that it is definitely a phenomenon that affects both sides. Pelley liberals and conservatives. Green yes. There is no question theyre both affected. Pelley one fake story green examined claimed that the congress was plotting to overthrow president trump. He was surprised to learn that rightleaning fake news overwhelmingly attracted readers in their 40s and 50s. And he found that fake news readers on the left were more likely to be affluent and college educated. Green that shocked me. Pelley why . Green i think i thought the same way that Many Americans perhaps think is that fake news was a phenomenon that only tricked the uneducated. Not true. Just not. The data shows its just not true. Pelley greens analysis showed fake news consumers tend to stay in what he calls internet echo chambers, reading similar articles rather than reaching for legitimate news. Green what is most concerning is the amount of influence that they seem to have because the people that spend time in those echo chambers are the ones that vote. Pelley after the election, facebook and twitter recognized the threat to their credibility and changed their programs to make it harder for fakes to proliferate. Both companies declined to be interviewed. Cernovich and were back. Pelley michael cernovich, whose articles included the fake Hillary Clinton pedophile ring and her bogus diagnosis of parkinsons, is watching his audience grow. Cernovich im a skeptical person. And i know that theres a lot of people gunning for me. So im not going to be reckless. Pelley whos gunning for you . Cernovich you are im on 60 minutes right . Pelley what do you mean were gunning for you . Cernovich do i really think that you guys are going to tell the story that i would like to have told . No. Your storys going to be, heres a guy, spreads fake news, uses social media and these social media people better. I know the story you guys are doing before you do it. Pelley whats wrong with that story . Cernovich because it is an agenda. Another story is, here is a person who is able to bypass traditional media outlets, reach people directly, to tell a story. Maybe hes a good guy, maybe hes not. Im not going to serve as a mouthpiece for anybody. Pelley never in Human History has more information been available to more people. But its also true that never in history has more Bad Information been available. And once its online, it is news forever. This cbs sports update is brought to you by the lincoln motor company. Im greg gumbel in new york. In the south regional final, North Carolina is going to the final four for the 20th time. In the east regional final, South Carolina beat florida and moves on to the final four for the first time in the schools history. Saturday it will be South Carolina and gonzaga in game one, organizacion editorial mexicana and North Carolina in game two. For more sports news, go to cbs cbssports. Com. Lease a 2017 lincoln mkx for 369 a month. Only at your lincoln dealer. Wanna get away . Now you can with southwest fares as low as 59 dollars oneway. Yes to low fares with nothing to hide. Thats transfarency. Tomorrows the day besides video games. Every day is a gift. Especially for people with Heart Failure. But today theres entresto. A breakthrough medicine that can help make more tomorrows possible. Tomorrow, i want to see teddy bait his first hook. In the largest Heart Failure study ever, entresto was proven to help more people stay alive and out of the hospital than a leading Heart Failure medicine. Women who are pregnant must not take entresto. It can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. Dont take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren. If youve had angioedema while taking an ace or arb medicine, dont take entresto. The most serious side effects are angioedema, low blood pressure, kidney problems, or high potassium in your blood. Tomorrow, im gonna step out with my favorite girl. Ask your doctor about entresto. And help make the gift of tomorrow possible. Sharyn alfonsi chess has been around for 1,500 years but until a couple of summers ago the ancient game was still mostly a mystery to the folks of rural Franklin County, mississippi. Few had ever played chess before, many confused it with checkers. A chess board was as out of place in the county as a skyscraper. But that all changed when a tall stranger arrived from memphis to bring chess to the country, with a belief that the game could transform a community. He was initially met with bewilderment. Who was this sixfoot six outsider and why would anyone come to Franklin County to teach chess . Less than two years later, a chess boom is underway in the unlikeliest of places. Tucked deep in the Southwest Corner of mississippi lies remote Franklin County, where the trains dont stop any more. Half the county is covered by a national forest. The other half it seems by churches. Hallelujah. Alfonsi this is the buckle of the bible belt. 7,000 people live here and no ones in a hurry. There are only two stop lights in the entire county, and one Elementary School. Jeff bulington whats this called . Alfonsi so imagine everyones surprise when dr. Jeff bulington showed up at school to teach the kids of Franklin County a new subject chess. Bulington so everybody say,i checkmate. checkmate. Alfonsi before dr. B came to town, had you played chess before . Braden i didnt have a clue how to move the pieces or nothing. Donovan only time i saw it was on tv. Alfonsi donovan moore, Braden Ferrell, parker wilkinson, and Benson Schexnaydre didnt know what to make of dr. B, as he is known, when he first appeared in 2015. What did you think of dr. B when you first met him . Benson this 12 foot man. Alfonsi the 12 foot man parker whenever he came into the room saying he was planning on teaching us chess, i was like, what . Why would somebody come down here . Alfonsi in the middle of nowhere. Youre a logical guy, and it doesnt seem to make a lot of sense. Bulington if there are people there, its not nowhere. This is somewhere. Its just a somewhere that doesnt get a lot of attention. Alfonsi Jeff Bulington was lured to Franklin County by a wealthy benefactor, who wishes to remain anonymous. The benefactor had seen how bulington had molded chess champions in memphis, in one of the most distressed zip codes in america, and wondered if chess could take hold in the country. Bulington where can you put the king . Alfonsi he convinced bulington to give a few demonstration lessons in Franklin County. Bulington does that stop him from coming here . Afterwards i was asked, so hey, what do you think . Do you think this, these kids have it . Could you have a Chess Program here . And i was, yeah, of course. Theyre as smart as any other kids ive ever met. Alfonsi motivated by the challenge, bulington signed a 10year contract with the benefactor and left the city for the country. Bulington what is he doing . Hes xraying the king. Alfonsi bulington has taught chess for the better part of 25 years. Bulington whats so wonderful about the bishop and why might we think of it as an archer . Alfonsi he may not be a grand master, but hes a master of using chess to tell a narrative, especially with beginners. Bulington this is a story about a little girl, and the stranger and tittle rls daddy. Elizabeth and the stranger is just my adaptation of little Red Riding Hood to the chess board. Elizabeth needs to get down here to e1 where school is where she can be safe. It involves just simply teaching how a pawn moves and a king moves. Oh no is she going to make it . Ricky i told you this was a bad idea bulington i remember my partner in this project saying to me, wed have maybe 12 kids playing chess. he didnt know what to expect. Alfonsi and how many kids do you have playing chess right now . Bulington well, a couple hundred. Alfonsi students flock to bulington in part because at heart hes one of them. He grew up in rural indiana and identifies with kids who have to feed the chickens, count tarantulas as pets and have different tastes in food. What do you like to eat . Parker fried rattlesnake. Alfonsi fried rattlesnake. Parker if you got to my house, if we ever find a rattlesnake in a course of like a week or so, youre getting some fried rattlesnake. Alfonsi bulingtons opened up a new world to his kids. Bulington check this is a famous game by morphy against count isowarde and duke of brunswick. Its played in paris. This is paris. Bobby poole we teach history. We teach geography. We teach science. We teach math. We teach it all using the chess board. Alfonsi bobby poole is a parttime preacher and a full Time Assistant chess coach for bulington. Poole says there were doubts that bulington could succeed in mississippi. Poole all the statistics, everything you look at, mississippi is the poorest. Its the dumbest. Its the fattest. We know that the rest of the nation has that conception of us. Parker people said that country kids couldnt learn chess. Alfonsi and . Parker we showed iem different. Benson we proved them wrong. We proved iem wrong. Alfonsi proof came last spring in starkville, where bulingtons team of mostly Elementary School kids from Franklin County faced off against much older High School Players at the Mississippi State championships. Rebekah griffin was in the fifth grade. What was their reaction when they saw you, a little fifth grader sitting across the table from them . Rebekah one of them started bragging to their friends about how he got easy pickings. Alfonsi is that a little scary, playing somebody who looked that much older than you . Rebekah i didnt really think about it until somebody told me, iyou played a guy with a beard . alfonsi you guys roll in, and they say, iwho are these kids, right . Braden they were basically, like, trying to say we were a joke cause we were kids. But after the game, we usually beat iem and they were like vey shocked. Alfonsi dont you guys feel bad you beat all those older kids . Braden never. Parker no. I dont want that to make me seem like a cruel person, but im, i really am just okay with crushing peoples spirits. Alfonsi in the end, Franklin County dominated the state championships. Mitch ham what happened is a bunch of hillbillies beat the snot out of a bunch of really highly educated, sophisticated people. So thats what happened. Alfonsi mitch ham was among the many parents in starkville. He thinks the victories served as a milestone for Franklin Countys kids ham that was very sobering for them, to suddenly realize,i wow, we are good. so them having the realization of their own potential was a beautiful moment. Alfonsi how did the teachers, the other teachers, react . Bulington over the course of my career in teaching chess people say things like, i did not know that he could do Something Like that, or even something as simple and as crass as i did not know he was smart or she was smart, or Something Like that. Alfonsi what does that tell you . Bulington it tells me some people got it wrong, that some kids have been underestimated or written off for reasons that are false. Alfonsi chess has helped bulingtons players see theres more to themselves than theyve seen before. Parker chess is, like, something that like im like really good at for once. Alfonsi has it changed you at all . Donovan it has. My grades have gone up. Alfonsi your grades have gone up . Donovan all my grades used to be like low, medium low bs. Now, theyre as and high bs. Rebekah i feel like chess could take us anywhere. But its not about where it takes us, its about how far it takes us. Alfonsi last year only seven of the 93 graduates from Franklin County high school went on to a fouryear college, but every chess player we spoke to plans to attend college some day. Jennifer rutland its really shocked me how far hes came. Alfonsi Jennifer Rutland is bradens mom, she runs the first and main cafee, one of the few places in the county that serves a hot meal. She believes her son wont be flipping burgers for a living. Is it fun to see your kids dream a little bigger than the county line . Rutland yes. Yes. So big that its almost like,i braden, come on, get real. you know, it just gets so big. Ham you always want to see your kids go further. And i think chess can be a vehicle to take them there, you know . This gives them a window at a young age, that, hey, theres a whole world out there. I dont need to set my goals at making 8 an hour, i need to set my goals at whatever i want them to be. Alfonsi chess has filled a social void and given main street a pulse. In october, a new chess center opened in the middle of meadville, the county seat. Do you feel like chess has made the community more hopeful . Bulington certainly parts of it, yeah, right. I mean, this flower hasnt bloomed yet. Its just starting to, right . Theres a lot yet to come. Alfonsi the chess center has become like a beacon in the county. Each day after school, kids who have the desire and aptitude receive more instruction from bulington. Bulington so, what does black do . Alfonsi theyve become so immersed in the game, with its infinite number of possible moves, that when these students finish playing chess, they go home, and play more chess. Can the best chess player in the world come from Franklin County . Benson maybe. Braden absolutely. Parker absolutely. Benson its super possible. Alfonsi before they could take on the world, they would have to face the nation. Bulington well take care of them. Alfonsi the week before christmas, 33 of Franklin Countys chess wonders and their parents gathered in the School Parking lot. Yall are coming back right . Alfonsi to begin a tenhour journey to nashville, for their biggest test yet the national championships. Bulington queen g7, excellent. Alfonsi turned into night, bulington and his students were lost in what they call the chess dimension. Austen johnson where are we . Bulington well, i dont know where we are. Were in the middle of problem nine. Thats all i know. Alfonsi preparing in their own language. Bulington knight d4 attacking the queen and threatening the queen takes h3 check. Alfonsi for what lay ahead a weekend of intense chess. More than 1,500 players from 644 schools gathered in a giant ballroom at opryland. Please shake your opponents hand. Alfonsi for seven rounds of chess over three days. Every grade, k through 12, was vying for a national title. The best teams come from the best schools in new york city. And two hours into the tournament, it appeared as if little Franklin County was overmatched. After round one, the kids from mississippi had lost 30 of their first 32 games. Bulington you know, its a real struggle and theyre going to learn to struggle at this level. And theyre learning that they have to struggle at a different level than they ever have before. Alfonsi whats the feeling when you walk in here as a player, as a coach, as a parent . Bulington its a deep agonistic experience, right . Alfonsi deep agonistic experience . Bulington yeah, its real true competition based on skill alone, right . And you look around and you can see it in the parents faces as much as the kids that theres something significant at stake here. Alfonsi nervous parents from other programs tried to sneak a closer peek into the ball room, desperate for any news. After their shaky start, Franklin Countys players bore down. Taking more time, probing for openings, watching for threats. A bulington mantra played in their heads let your opponent show you how theyd like to lose. Bulington today is the last day, its the hardest day. Alfonsi by sunday, with the final two rounds looming, Franklin Countys fifth and sixth graders were hovering near the top 10. Bulington Everybody Needs to fight for those points today, we need them very much. Alfonsi parker wilkinson, Braden Ferrell and Benson Schexnaydre all delivered for Franklin County. That left donovan moore, who was mired in a twoandahalf hour struggle against a higherrated opponent from kentucky. On the verge of victory, donovan was asked for a draw. He said no. His opponent snapped. The tension of the event bursting to the surface. Donovan moore eventually won, boosting Franklin Countys fifth graders to number eight in the country. Making their debut to the stage, Franklin County upper elementary. Alfonsi the sixth graders placed tenth, two grades in the nations top 10, only a year and a half after Jeff Bulington first showed up to introduce chess to a small county in mississippi. Parker one thing that i dont think i say enough is thank you. Benson i was thinking the same thing. Parker for teaching us all this. Alfonsi what are they capable of . Bulington somewhere in the top three at least. Alfonsi you think you can stick it out for eight more years in Franklin County . Bulington i wont even think of it as sticking it out. Alfonsi what do you think of it as . Bulington i think of it as, doing what i want to do, being in a place i like to be. My friends think doing this at my age is scary. I say not if you protect yourself. What is scary . Pneumococcal pneumonia. Its a serious disease. My doctor said the risk is greater now that im over 50 yeah. Yaha. Just one dose of the prevnar 13® vaccine can help protect you from Pneumococcal Pneumonia an illness that can cause coughing, chest pain, difficulty breathing, and may even put you in the hospital. Prevnar 13® is approved for adults 18 and older to help prevent infections from 13 strains of the bacteria that cause Pneumococcal Pneumonia. You should not receive prevnar 13® if you have had a severe allergic reaction to the vaccine or its ingredients. If you have a weakened immune system, you may have a lower response to the vaccine. The most common side effects were pain, redness, and swelling at the injection site, limited arm movement, fatigue, headache, muscle pain, joint pain, less appetite, vomiting, fever, chills, and rash. Get this one done ask about prevnar 13® at your next visit to your Doctors Office or pharmacy. I wanti did my ancestrydna and where i came from. And i couldnt wait to get my pie chart. The most shocking result was that im 26 native american. I had no idea. Just to know this is what im made of, this is where my ancestors came from. And i absolutely want to know more about my native american heritage. Its opened up a whole new world for me. Discover the story only your dna can tell. Order your kit now at ancestrydna. Com. Other assassination targets, had links to sergei magnitsky, the whistleblower who died in prison after exposing russian government corruption. This past week, magnitsky family lawyer Nikolai Gorokhov barely survived a fall out of a window in moscow. And on thursday, still another putin critic, a former member of russias parliament, was shot dead on the streets of kiev. Im steve kroft. Well be back next week with another edition of 60 minutes. Dont look now chuck norris is right behind you. I bet you a buck he catches this salt shaker. Youre on. Hey chuck you owe me a buck. You cant always see whats coming. 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