casual to so companies can turn down the air conditioning. it's called super cool biz. quite a slogan. go to our website for more. don't forget, tonight at 8 p.m. eastern and pacific, a special edition of gps "restoring the american dream: how to innovate." thank you for being part of a program. student for "reliable sources." we have spent a lot of time of a lewd photo. anthony weiner prompting anchors to ask uncomfortable questions. are journalists enjoying this tangle tale a little too much? i figure sarah palin's bus tour would be a nice little diverse for the media and we wouldn't have to spend too much time on it this morning. boy, was i wrong. palin mostly avoided reporters to the point of not giving out

her schedule. why are we again chasing a woman who says she's not running for anything, at least not now? plus, for the first time in 160 years "the new york times" will have a woman running the show as executive editor. jill abramson will be here. i'm howard kurtz and this is "reliable sources." this is a story about a photo that may or may not be of anthony weiner, that may or may not have been sent by anthony weiner to a 21-year-old college student. the congressman insisting from the moment the photo appeared that someone hacked into his twitter account and he never sent it. as journalists kept raising questions, the democratic lawmaker sounded increasingly defensive. >> why haven't you asked the capitol police or any law enforcement to investigate? >> look, this was a prank i've

now been talking about a for a couple of days. i'm not going to allow it to decide what i talk about for the next week or the next two weeks. >> weiner made the television rounds prompting the somewhat spectacle of anchors asking these questions. >> you would know if these were your underpants? have you ever taken a picture like this of yourself? is this a picture out there of you in your drawers that you are worried about? >> you can't tell me definitively that is a photo of you or not a photo of you? >> i think any normal person could say with certainty whether a picture was a photo of them or not. whether they had taken a photo like that. >> that's not a picture of you? >> i can't say with certitude. my system was hacked. pictures can be dropped in and inserted. >> have journalists been restrained or reckless in handling this rather salacious story? joining us here in washington, nancy cordes, correspondent for

cbs news and maureen o'connor writer for the website gawker and jeff jarvis, writer at city college of new york. nancy cordes, was it, shall i say, a tad awkward to be sitting there with anthony weiner asking him about this racy underwear photo? >> i can't think of anything more awkward. it was awful. i think nobody enjoyed it. and i don't think -- >> this isn't the -- >> no one says i would like to cover capitol hill because there will be a lot of sex scandaling with underpants. it wasn't fun. i don't think when we went into those interviews we thought he would have that kind of answer. it was surprising when he said, i can't say that was me or not. it threw you off guard. that's why interviewers were saying, you're not sure that's you? >> what was going through your mind? you have to push back? >> really, the fact that it's him is not the story. i mean, if it is him and he

never meant to send it out, then we're allowed to have any picture we want. if that is a picture of him, then it raises questions of, okay, so, it is a picture of you, but someone hacked into your system and knew your password and knew you had a photo like that and sent it out? it makes the whole story a little stranger. >> what about all the jokes about his last name? >> well, as a former weiner myself -- weaner is my maiden name, i sympathize with him as far as that's concerned. >> maureen o'connor, does gawker have a big advantage of covering this story in the way main stream media can, starting with the language you can use? >> i personally only cover capitol hill for the underwear scandal. this is what we do. is this relevant to anthony weiner's career as a politician? maybe. it's an interesting story. from our perspective, this is what we do. we cover human interest stories, we cover the strange case of a person, a powerful person, ending up falling to the except same ridiculously stupid followies everyone does, taking

a picture and get caught doing it. >> gawker has a different way of covering these things. jeff, i know you're not embarrassed to talk about these things. we talked about your prostate operation this story. how do journalists do, especially figuring out with a twitter account, if a photo can be hacked? >> i disagree when you say the media had no choice. they had a choice. it's a fine story for gawker, for jon stewart who point out bloggers did stories on this, but all in all, what's the real story? a congressman has a penis? there's stipulate that. there's no news in that. he wears underwear? who cares. he sent out the wrong photo on twiter? okay, big deal. we have to find medium deal between american that congress people are sexual and european view, they're sexual. the amount of effort put into

this was pathetic. >> jeff, i take your point that perhaps we have overplayed it. the reason i said we have no choice is because congressman weiner kept giving interviews in which he clearly could not answer basic questions, including the clips i played, whether i have no idea if that guy in underwear is me. >> okay, but carry it so the extreme. what is the story? if he had sexually harassed someone there's a legitimate story. but a -- at the most. he sent out a photo from his hard drive, what's the big deal? what's the news there? what's the impact on democracy and how we live our lives? zippo. >> i wonder whether the mystery aspect here, little things like he mentioned -- -- congressman weiner mentioned in an interview he would be doing an interview in seattle is not helping to drive the story and these unanswered questions? >> i took that tweet to be a joke. he said he was going to be on at 9:00 that's 5:45 in seattle. i think that was a joke that got

built up into something bigger than it was. no, i don't think it's a big deal and necessarily a news story if he has pictures like this. but if he's sending them to young women, i think that's someone -- that's something someone would want to know about heir member of congress. >> what about jeff's point, did this deserve air time on cbs evening news? >> we didn't cover it on saturday, on sunday, on monday, on tuesday because there were a lot of red flags to the story. as you have pointed out. >> maybe he was a victim. >> maybe he was a victim. he insisted from the beginning he had nothing to do with this, it was a prank. the person who reported it, andrew brightbart has a history of smearing people. >> that was not the case here. >> the person who discovered the tweet -- but that was a reason people were going slow on the story. >> you were wary? >> we were wary? >> what is the tipping point? >> the tipping point on wednesday when he came out and did interviews about this. on tuesday he grew increasingly testy with the press and that raised some alertness about,

well, why is he so defensive? on wednesday he did interviews with us and we went in and did the interview. we were not necessarily intending to do the story on the cbs evening news but it was in the mix. when he gave that series of interviews where he couldn't answer that basic question, that became news. >> in your view, he helped catapult it by not being able to answer the questions? >> absolutely. >> maureen, do you see a serious side of this, outside the world of gawker or is this story kind of shear entertainment? >> one thing i do take issue with is, as nancy mentioned, at first people people didn't i take the story seriously because it showed up on andrew's website. even if that's the case, it was quickly you could have looked into this story and verified it for yourself. it didn't take a lot of effort to realize that anthony weiner admitted, yes, this showed up in my twitter feed. it clearly wasn't some imaginary thing. he admitted, yes, this happened. so, i think it makes sense people asked questions. after that, once he answered

questions, it was by the time he got to interview four, five, it was in his power to make it stop but all of a sudden we have a man who wants to give many, many interviews about his own genitals, so i think on that hand, that's why in the beginning it was a relevant story. and i think it is important for people, even if a story burbles up through nontraditional main stream media, if it is a story, people have an obligation to investigate it. after that, once you figure it out, it's sort of a little anthony weiner's hands how he's going to handle the story from there on out. >> let me ask you this question, jeff. we had chris lee, congressman who sent a shirtless photo of himself to a woman on craigslist and he resigned, brett favre sent a picture to new york jets staff, that was exposed by gawker website. what does it say about politics and median culture these public figures keep getting caught or covered by the media doing these sort of dirty digital deeds? >> i think it says media are

sophomoric and immature. having prostate surgery, and listening to howard stern, i'm immune to the giggle factor and that's healthy. in munich, you'll see people naked. we all have them. it's puritanical childish nature we have about sex in america that we see in media coming out that makes this an important story. i love gawker dearly but for gawker to say this is an important story, come on. it's a chance for a lot of jokes. the person who usually produces these kind of stories best is jon stewart. >> who had a lot of fun with that this week as well. on this question, you say the coverage is sophomoric. let me play for you a couple different commentators and journalist having a little fun with it. >> the long and short of it is over the weekend you discovered that a photo of a man's crotch was sent to one of your twitter followers. when did you first hear about this? >> you didn't just introduce that by saying the long and the

short of it, did you? >> is weinergate big enough to investigate? the weinergate story to me seems like it's hard to swallow. >> the longer you look at the picture, especially the unpixel ated version, the more you begin to understand why congressman weiner might not want to deny that that is a picture of him. in fact, the longer i look at it, the more i don't want to deny that it might be a picture of me. >> nancy weiner cordes, let the record show you laughed during those clips. has the coverage been sophomoric at times? >> i suppose, but there are a lot of different media outlets with a lot of different audiences and a lot of different agendas. you know, we tried to cover it as straightforwardly as possible. we did the story once on the cbs evening news, one on the "early show" and we moved on and i don't think we'll cover it again unless there's new developments. >> new developments, as they

say. maureen o'connor, do youment to say what mr. jarvis said earlier about can this be a serious story, even for gawker? >> i don't think anybody is freaking out too much about a congressman tweeting his penis. it's sophomoric, yes, funny. i do take issue about the idea this is puritanical americans. for instance, if you look in italy, everybody's freak being berlusconi's sex life. for better and worse, our politicians are famous people so we're curious about the way he leads his private life, what he does in mediums that sort of put his private life and public life next to each other, like on twitter. i think, sure, it's ridiculous to talk about this when we could be talking about any number of important issue. but one thing doesn't always preclude the other. we can be curious about this without, you knowing giving up every other story in the news cycle. >> jeff jarvis, let me ask you about the college student who received this picture of somebody's -- somebody in their underwear. she says she doesn't know

anthony weiner and she says she was labeled mistress, her phone numbers were gwynn out, relative members were contacted bit press. are we guilty of invading her privacy? >> that's the unfortunate thing of being brought in accidentally. we're living more public lives and i celebrate that f you choose to be public. when you're pulled into the public eye against your own will, that's difficult. yes, that's easier to do today. >> i like this tweet that she sent out, saying she had turned down probably 1,000 interviews. she said i even turned down the "today" show and i freaking love matt lauer. i want to apologize for that one term used, penis is better for cable television. jill abramson on becoming the first woman to run the news

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it took 160 years but the new york city "times" is about to have a woman running the news room as bill keller stunned his staff saying he's stepping down as executive editor, the paper says jill abramson will take over the top stop, she ran the times washington bureau before becoming number two editor eight years ago. jill abramson joins me now from

new york. good morning. >> good morning. >> you've been part of of the "time" team running "the times" with bill keller. tell me one or two things you'll do differently that readers may notice. >> well, i think, you know, just the time period that i'm going to be leading the news room will mean an acceleration in what bill and i have been working on, which is making sure that the times is in the strongest position possible, kind of making the transition from print-dominated world to a digitally dominated world. >> since you are the first woman to get this job, in a century and a half, do you think you look at some stories a little differently than a bunch of white guys might? you know, talk about the female perspective. >> you know, i'm not sure it's a female perspective. i think i do look at some stories a little differently.

but, you know, my background is as an investigative reporter and everyone at "the times" knows the kind of story i love is a story behind the story. and i don't think that that's influenced by gender at all. >> well, i was going to say, your new managing editor, a former editor of the los angeles times, you know, may also look at things slightly differently because he's an african-american. do you think this gender question around your appointment has been a bit overblown? >> i don't think it's been overblown. you know, i was very conscience on the day that arthur sulzberger jr. announced i would be getting this amazing job. that i stand on the shoulders of so many other women who have been in our news room going back two centuries. and the ones who came, you know, in the late -- very late 1800s, only two women reporters at that time, through the 20th century,

through now. they went from, you know really having to beat their way into the news room in a journalist job to, you know, rising up through the editing ranks from the period i joined the paper to now. and, you know, i'm honored to be the first woman to serve as executive editor. it's a wonderful piece of history that i'm very proud of. >> on that point, you told me on the phone this week in about ten weeks you almost quit the paper. tell me a little about that and why -- who helped persuade you not to. >> i was having a rough patch. i was washington bureau chief and i was clashing a lot with the top editors in new york at that time. and i had a very attractive offer from a very distinguished news organization. my phone rang and it was janet

robinson, the ceo of "the times." and i had a conversation with her. i remember she said in, you know, a very commanding voice, you will quit over my dead body. and that was pretty influential in my decision to stay right where i was and just battle on. >> in the first online story about your appointment in "the times," there was this quote from you -- in my house growing up "the times" substituted for religion. that rubbed some people the wrong way. do you regret saying that? >> it did. i was saying it really in jest. you know, my comment was my comment. >> "the huffington post" in recent times has hired a number of top people from "the times" is ais it part of your competition? >> they are definitely part of my competition.

i read all the sites that you just mentioned pretty avidly. i certainly throw bloomberg in there, too. it's true that now that the business has picked up for a lot of our competitors, one of my biggest challenges going forward is going to be to retain the amazing talent that we have in our news room. >> some years ago the first ombudsman at "times" wrote a piece saying on social and cultural issues like gay marriage, the news coverage, not editorial page, the news coverage leans to the left. do you agree with that or do you think it's a perception problem for your paper? >> i do think it's a perception problem. i disagree with that. howie, i think you recall i spent ten years in the news room of "the wall street journal." a newspaper that everybody viewed as conservative. you know, i saw firsthand there that the news room always played it straight. and i feel the same way about

"the times," which like "the wall street journal," because of its editorial page, is seen as liberal. but i think our reporters all try to be fair and second guess their own views when they may be influencing coverage. >> i'm sure that's an issue of along with many others you'll be grappling with. good luck in the new job and we hope you'll come back on the program. >> i sure will. thank you so much. >> jill thank you. coming up in the second hour, are media outlets dumbing down news by lavishing so much attention on these tabloid tragedy? a candid conversation with lisa bloom. sarah palin's press parade, why did hoards of journalists chase her bus tour even though she keeps telling us she's not a presidential candidate? and today, we're re-inventing aspirin for pain relief. with new extra-strength bayer advanced aspirin. it has microparticles so it enters the bloodstream faster

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sarah palin had been keeping a low profile for months but she didn't have to go much to revive the media obsession. this sent small army of reporters chasing after palin. >> you know, i don't know if i'm going to be ready yet. i'm sorry i give you the same old boring answer on that one,

but nothing's changed. i'll decide when the time is right. >> former alaska governor seemed to delight in not putting out her schedule and fake, out the press. take that, lame stream media. >> if i was a driving the media nuts, i don't know if you've noticed that. >> a, i don't think i owe anything to the main stream media. tell them to come along and we'll orchestrate this, script this and basically write a story for you, media, about what we're doing every day. no, i want them to do work on a tour like this, and that would include not necessarily telling them beforehand where every stop's going to be. >> so, have the media, well, been taken for a ride by the woman from wasilla? joining us now, lynn sweet, washington bureau from "sun-times," margaret collins, and matt lewis, senior contributor to "the daily caller" and author "the quotable rogue" the ideals of sarah palin

in her own words. lynn, what possibly explains all these reporters driving up and down the east coast trying to find the palin bus and all the attention this tour got? >> a few reasons why. she's a mesmerizing political figure. she is great for hits on everyone's website and broadcast -- >> ratings. >> ratings. she's an asymmetrical political candidate and everyone finds that fascinating because if you were just looking at the schedule, huntsman, pawlenty and romney, you would find it at this money being very predictable. iowa, new hampshire, a speech -- >> nobody has said sarah palin is predictable. margaret, an incident in gettysburg she used the bus as a decoy and she went in a different entrance in the hotel to avoid reporters. didn't the press look ridiculous here? >> other than -- yes, they do, but also, i mean, she's giving her passive, not informing the press to actually trying to, you know, make them chase around

like rabbits with her heads cut off. it's not a neutral thing sarah palin is doing. she really wants to get at us. the one thing i would add is, you know, sarah palin comes in second to mitt romney in the polls so she needily by just, you know, coming out of her front door kind of ratchets this up. this could be a bizarre family vacation or a way of upping her speaking fees. but she still rates in the polls second to somebody who's been campaigning solidly for a year. >> with all of us about fodder, she get it both ways. i want reporters to work, i'm not going to tell them where i'm going to be, but she wants the coverage. she's pleased she made such a big splash and she gets to ridicule us in the process. >> yeah. look, everything you guys said is entirely true. >> you have to disagree with them. that's why you're here. >> you're totally wrong. let me say this, i think you're right, she been fits from the publicity and i think if nobody followed her, then there might be some complaining about nobody following me.

but, look, you know, i don't blame her for being a bit hostile toward the media. there's no law that says she has to sort of inform them where she's going at all times. but even more interestingly, peter hanby from cnn wrote, despite the media narrative that says palin ignored the media, according to peter at cnn she held 17 press ops in four days. pretty unprecedented. i think he's the only person to actually bring that up. >> i think that's a good observation. she did talk more to reporters than probably she ever has in unscripted settings. at the same time, she made it difficult -- i mean, she not only made it difficult for us to know where she was, but, of course, the people who love her and wanted to turn out, since there was no schedule, couldn't do that as well. >> since she's a master of scheduling, between her facebook and twitter, and local networks, she's a master at getting, you know, crowds out in short

notice. >> you say because she's high in the polls -- >> margaret said that. >> i'm sorry. you said that. obviously, she has high negatives, too, but she has a passionate following among conservative republicans, therefore, essentially anything she does is news. if she ends up not running, she's still a fox news commentator, hasn't given notice, i wonder if we'll look become and say, we were kind of taken? >> i don't think so because she's a political phenomenon in the united states, howie. and isn't -- the only justification for following her is not whether or not she runs for president. she has a lot of views that people do want to hear about. she is closely watched. you know, she made a mistake in boston about who the -- you know, when talk about paul reveer, who -- >> two if by land, two if by sea for the british. >> and that actually started the hysterical rung from "the daily show" that had a hash tag -- >> we taped it this morning.

governor palin was on fox news sunday with chris wallace. this came up. here's what she had to say. >> in a -- >> as soon as we recrew the tape. let's move on to another tape for you, margaret. mitt romney declared his candidacy for president of the united states in new hampshire on thursday. he was on page 3 of the manchester union leader. she was on page 1. she's not running, at least not now. he's been running for a long time. he made it official. it seems like something's screwed up here. >> listen, we're always go going to follow the shiny object. donald trump was not a serious presidential candidate -- >> and got plenty of coverage. and got more coverage when he had pizza with sarah palin this week -- >> the two coming together. you know, all the states in the lower 48 she picked new

hampshire. it's not an accident. she wanted to crash his party and she did and she can. so, throughout this campaign, have you to feel sorry for republicans who are serious about it. she can come in at any moment and upset their apple carts. that's just who she is and how much coverage she can get. >> jeff, do we not have that paul reveer sound bite? i'll have to tell our viewers when asked by chris wallace she actually said she -- she defended what she said about paul reveer was also warning the british, not just warning the americans the british was coming. she said it was a shouted out got ya question of making that -- >> that's like a newspaper question. >> katie couric asking -- >> look, i don't agree. >> i can't dispute this, a lot of coverage of sarah palin is hostile or at least mocking, i would say. not all, by any means. but it seems to me that she also makes a point of being hypersensitive to legitimate questions get turned into got ya

questions in the way she views the world. >> part of it, honestly, is the way the media went after her initially. i think what happened -- >> that was a long time ago. get over it. >> well, i mean, when you're questioning whether or not, you know, trig is actually her child, it's an emotionalal -- >> how many people did that? >> it set her on this path where she's uber skeptical of the media. sometimes things asked of politicians are ridiculous. i think asking her this question is legitimate. i will say this in defense of her -- when, you know -- i'm on tv here. i know i'm going to be interviewed. i prepped for this. we're both in suits and we're miked up. when you're a politician and you have 10 or 15 cameras around you, throwing random questions at you, then the selection -- this is where bias comes in. it's what videos they select. when i put together my book, what i noticed is the things i actually read that sarah palin said were much more eloquent than i knew. why is we see the one video of

palin talking about paul reveer? i'm sure there's a lot of other video where she gets it right. >> fair enough. but if you're going to be out there in the public eye, former govern governor -- >> every politician knows how to do this. do you know more than a fifth grader? it's not a hard question. >> i want to be charitable but for the grace of anyone, we can make a mistake. you're rattled, under pressure, whatever. i think the got ya excuse is isn't -- you could just say, oh, i made an oops. everyone knows it's the british are coming. and that ends it. >> that's the easiest way to end it. >> everyone knows -- >> i have to move on. when we come back, the john edwards' indictment obviously big news. would journalists care at this point if there wasn't a mistress and love child involved?

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as political dramas go, the john edwards saga of self-destruction has moved to a predictable place -- court. >> no one ever dreamed he would be the edwards in a case called the united states versus edwards. it's been a spectacular fall for a public man. >> edwards indicted on friday for legal contributions and lying. how much would the media care if

it wasn't for rielle hunter and this out of wedlock child? >> if this were the teapot dome scandal we wouldn't be talking about it as much. sex sells and that's a big component to the media. it's still a big story. the fact, he created this image of being, you know, such a jfk meets jesus sort of guy and we all knew his wife on tv as well. look, you're right, sex sells and that's the driver of this. >> you mentioned elizabeth edwards. margaret, haven't journalists enthusiastically embraced this story, fall from grace, which is undoubtedly is, because they think edwards is a low life who betrayed his wife? >> yeah. and, you know, the -- >> and his daughter, too, the court proceeding on friday. >> to see her standing behind him, the way elizabeth edwards did, who would -- who would do that to their child? is reinforces the notion that he's a low life. you know, the human condition, we want the guy to be punished.

we want a ritual humiliation. so, we're going along with -- >> is that influencing the tone of the coverage? >> yes. with a case very weak. i don't think the campaign finance laws envisioned this. i don't think the case is going to hold up. as a way for all of us to say, you know, some things are beneath contempt, this is why it's getting covered. >> the main stream media didn't get the story. you have to credit the national enquirer. people saying, we went easy on him because he's a democrat. we didn't have the goods. it's hard to prove two people are conducting themselves the way he did. this is the case where a supermarket tabloid nailed a guy. >> they did. they -- i give them their due but i think margaret has a good point, the legal case here is very thin. >> i don't see -- i mean, politico led with that. there's been so much focus on this cliche, the fall from grace -- >> this ch is the old story. >> the new story is justice department bricking charges that may or may not -- >> that most people, many people, think are just very thin

and tried to have -- take the finance campaign law into new areas. that is a very rich topic of discussion, too, but, you know, the other story, which is old, is the one that trumped that. >> gives us a reason to wallow in this story once again. >> well, maybe the case will get a little more coverage now that the shock value has worn off. thanks very much for stopping by this morning. up next, are the tabloid media making us all kind of dumb? lisa bloom on why she's fed up with sensational stories. was an archer drawing his bow. ♪ could that have also inspired its 556 horsepower supercharged engine? ♪ the all-new cadillac cts-v coupe. we don't just make luxury cars, we make cadillacs.

casey anthony trial, a sad affair in which a mother is accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter, has been getting plenty of cable news air time. it's another one of those tabloid tragedies that have no national importance but the television can't resist. cbs news analyst lisa bloom who is a critic and player in this culture tackles this in her new book "think." i spoke to her earlier in the studio. welcome. >> hi. >> there's a line in your book that jumped out at me. tabloid media are making a stupid, narcissistic and self-loathing. explain. >> well, there's no question about it that the more we read

tabloid media the more we start to think the sex lives of celebrities cosmically matter, what bag we purchase is extremely important. psychological studies show we become more narcissistic, more self-loathing, we hate -- >> why self-loathing? >> we compare ourselves to this impossible ideal. sitting here today with you, i just went through an hour of hair and makeup. that's the industry standard for women. i don't actually look like this. women we see on television and the movies don't actually look like that. when you look at a magazine, it's taken about five steps further because they're air brushed and photoshopped. >> first, tabloid media are making us stupid. no one is forced to consume this stuff. >> making isn't the same thing assing. of course, no one is forced. young american women purchase tabloid magazines 20 times more than real newspapers. and you've decried the downfall of serious journalism. if somebody --

>> because it bleeds into what we like to think of as the serious news business. >> that's right. >> a story about arnold schwarzenegger and maria shriverer or newt gingrich and his wife. >> that's right. >> but, on the other hand, somebody is making money by giving people what they want. that's the classic defense, right? >> not just somebody. it's giant corporations are making many hundreds of millions of dollars from tabloid media. at the expense of our intelligence and especially women's intelligence because we're the primary consumers of tabloid media. let me give you an example. i've been serving college students, young, female college students can name more kardashians than wars we are in. when i ask these questions and get thesis answers they stop and say, my god, something is wrong here. what am i doing wrong? >> okay, the more girls and young women read celebrity magazines or watch tv, the more they hate their bodies. >> uh-huh. >> now, is that the media's fault or the culture's fault? >> i ask that question in the book. i think the answer is both. it's a cycle that we all

perpetuate. we in the media put these stories out there over and over. we break into network news coverage with tiger woods bimbos, the thing reserved for assassination of a head of state and now we cover it, why? because it makes one of the mose on the planet. >> yes, but the breathless coverage month after month after month. >> squeezing out -- >> really any stories of international importance. very rarely do we cover any international stories. what is the fallout from this? because we know that americans are getting dumbed down. we know we obsess too much about tabloid media and silly stories. what i talk about in the book is the fallout, the run-up to the iraq war where the media didn't ask tough questions. we all know now that's the case, because the american public frankly didn't want to know. we've been sleeping through some of the most important issues of our times -- genocide, climate change. americans are more unaware of climb change than any other first world country because we're obsessed with tabloid media. >> there's a lot of blame here

for the tabloid business and the establishment side. but you write about missing pretty white women stories, which can sort of hijack cable news for weeks at a time, aren't you an active participant? >> absolutely. >> you're a legal analyst for cbs. you have worked for cnn. you did the "dr. phil show," and you're asked to talk about this tabloid stuff all the time. >> right. >> you're not a conscientious objector. >> i talk about that in the book. am i part of the problem? for ten years i've been a legal analyst for the major networks. ten years ago, five years ago, i was covering serious issues like supreme court issues, voting rights, saddam hussein's war crimes tribunal. as time's gone by, i've become a celebrity reporter. 95% of the questions i'm asked are about celebrity stories. this week it's arnold and maria. regardless of how we started out, we've all become celebrity reporters. that's the beef we are all asked about. whether you're a medical analyst, legal analyst, political analyst, these are the

stories that captivate us. >> nobody puts a gun to your head. >> and i do say no probably to 90% of them. that's why i chose to take the time to write the book instead of doing many, many television appearances. but the reason i wrote the book is to appeal to consumers. it's up to us to make a difference, because the media is going to keep covering these stories as long as we click on those sites, we buy those magazines and watch those shows and if we care we've got to patronize and consume the more serious media or it dies out entirely. >> you do in part blame the consumers. >> absolutely. >> you feel like until they change their behavior -- this is a gargantuan talk -- >> it's an ambitious book. >> the media will continue to pander to them. >> that's right. >> are you part of the problem? >> absolutely. i've covered a lot of the celebrity stories, absolutely. but i've also pitched, and i talk about this in the book, serious stories like the khmer rouge international war crimes tribunal, which i pitched to many major networks. nobody wanted to cover it. most of us are unaware.

>> i said i would come back to your appearance. when you anchored court tv for eight years you write you would get there an hour earlier than the men had to. >> sure. >> then you say as a television personality i spent a fair amount of time keeping up with this, including hair color, manicuring, and i hate it. >> i do. >> i thought you were born with that hair color. >> i was but it was changed over time. >> you have to play this game and yet it makes you angry? >> absolutely. for women on television, i mean, look at fox news, for example. there's a certain level of appearance you have to hit if you want to be on tv over and over again. >> even if you're a really good journalist you can't be on tv? >> i think -- >> it's harder to be on tv? >> much more difficult, certainly. i mean, we expect women who are on to look a certain way. i don't mind a little hair and makeup, right, i like to look nice, but the level that is required i think, the bar has been set so high that serious journalists who don't have a certain look just don't get on. by the way, i think it often

skews white. it's much more difficult for dark-skinned, african-american women, many of who i know who are very bright and very capable who don't get the vob. standards for women, not just on television but in our culture where we poll college students, they'd rather be hot than smart. half of young women say they'd rather get hit by a truck than get fat. 25% would rather win a reality show than a nobel peace prize. we've absorbed this message that our appearance is the most important thing. that has to change. >> a lot of that is the culture. when you're taking on this tabloid culture you boat precipitate in and feel passionately about in a negative sense, are you optimistic or pessimistic this is ever going to change? >> optimistic, because all of the women i've talk to in the past two years have told me i don't want to live the way. i want to have a more meaningful, substantive life. tell me how. i have a step-by-step guide in

the book how to. we can look at the tabloids every once in a while. it's a question of balance. we have to have our vegetables before we eat dessert. dessert shouldn't be breakfast, lunch, and dinner. >> lisa bloom, thanks for joining us. still to come, what happens to a big-time television network when the lights go out. [ male announcer ] this is james. the morning after the big move starts with back pain... and a choice. take advil now... and maybe up to 4 in a day. or, choose aleve and 2 pills for a day free of pain. smart move. ♪

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getting television shows on the air is hard, but it's harder when you have no electricity. i'm used to blackouts at home because our local power company, pepco, is notoriously unreliable when it comes to keeping the lights on. this week the cnn bureau lost power for three frustrating days along with 1,500 people and offices on capitol hill. but somehow the troops here pulled off three hours a day of live programming with john king going to the capitol and wolf blitzer standing outside in 90-degree heat while producers got by with backup generators. when the power first went off an hour before air time, staffers scrambled down the emergency fire exit with tubs filled with cameras and computers and water for the anchors. a long week for my staff, as well. and "roll call" managed to publish with its editors and reporters holed up in a hot