no. just a little help from the president. the correct answer to our "gps challenge" question was "c." saudi arabia donated 3 million barrels of oil to its neighbor to the south this week in an effort to try to stave off all-out anarchy there. thanks to all of you for being part of my program this week. i will see you next week. the media have been ricocheting from one scandal to the next. arnold schwarzenegger, dominique strauss-kahn, john edwards. but the anthony weiner saga has got to be the strangest of all, a sex scandal with no actual sex but 100 questions about a congressman's digital dirty deeds. with him checking into rehab, how much of this story has been driven by his serial lying to journalists and how much by the sheer salacious content? we'll ask abc's chris cuomo who conducted the first interview with one of his online gal pals

and kearsen powers who struggled with whether to write about weiner, a man she once dated. while indicateky couric strikes a deal with abc, scott pelley takes over her anchor chair at cbs. but how do you start that show without introducing yourself to the audience? i'm howard kurtz, and this is "reliable sources." the media hunt was on once anthony weiner admitted to having sexual conversation and sending explicit photos to six women online. who were they? would they talk? would they track the congressman? "20/20's" chris cuomo landed the first interview with megan broussard. when the new york congressman apologized for what he called shameful behavior at the bizarre news conference on monday, cuomo got in a question. >> was megan broussard one of the women? >> megan broussard was one of the women. >> he said i'm an open book,

maybe too open. he was eager to hear about if i wanted him or thought he was attractive or that sort of thing. >> how much of it was sex talk? >> i mean, he would attempt all the time. >> reporter: broussard says she also received this bare-chested shot of weiner with photos in the background showing his wife and the clintons. and she says she received an explicit photo of a man's exposed private parts. when you got that photo, what did you think? >> i just thought it was risky, real risky. >> so what about it take for cuomo to get that interview? did money change hands, and how newsworthy was it? i sat down with him in new york. chris cuomo, welcome. >> the pleasure is mine. >> you were interviewing this woman, megan broussard, asking her about sex talk she had with a congressman. did that make you uncomfortable? >> it made me anxious. it made me make sure that we had everything right, howard, because as you know, growing up, learning from people like you in the business, you do not get a

chance to miss in a situation like this. so going into the interview, there was as much preparation as possible. and i had to make sure everything was right. >> ordinarily this would be the private business of two consenting adults. what made it news? news that warranted your involvement? >> i think his position and its reflection as a potential pattern of judgment or misjudgment, i think that's what did it because you're putting your finger right on the most sensitive part of this. the human frailty. the idea that it was some kind of sex, pseudo sexual relationship and struggling with that as a journalist as to whether or not it's news just because it's salacious. this was, i believe, it checked every box as a challenge in journalism. >> anthony weiner in a way made it easy because he went on 27 television shows and he lied about it, and then he acknowledged it. let's say nobody had ever heard of this. megan broussard calls you up,

the congressman tells you the senator did this. would you have put it in play? >> i'll say it this way. his party wouldn't have mattered to me. his position as a congressman might have. but ultimately i would have felt very good knowing that i don't have to say yes. this would have been one of those situations where i would have had the ability to walk away from this story. and i may very well have because there are the los of other people to do it. >> andrew brightbart who broke the story brought broussard's name to abc. why? >> because he trusted us. and when i say "us," i mean my senior producer. >> but breitbart hates the mainstream media. >> but not my producer. he trusts people that he knows he can depend on. he wanted mainstream media legitimacy on this story. he knew probably that he needed it not to reach into andrew's head. but he came to us because he knew that if abc news got involved, specifically vlasto

and cuomo, it would have the legitimacy of the case. >> if, look, breitbart was right on this show but he has a controversial background, making the agricultural department look like a racist, did any of that bother you? >> it makes you cautious. howie, you still talk to me, right? you have much better sources than i. every source can be 100% wrong or 100% right. everyone falls somewhere in between. when andrew breitbart took this, we took the name we could and we did everything we could to make sure this was right. >> was it difficult to talk megan broussard into sitting in front of a camera with you? >> it was very difficult. she was afraid. she's a single mother. she's struggling to go to school. she has a kid, a young kid. she's afraid of the power of the system against her. and what we were trying to tell her is if this matters to you that you didn't like that he was lying about this, that you think there are a lot of women out there, you're worried that he'll make them bad guys, you have to step up and you have to trust us

that we'll protect you because we have to become your advocate if you're telling us the truth. >> but she played along with weiner. she sent him a picture of herself in a bra. she didn't say much negatively about him. he's not a bad guy. he's got issues like everyone else. she didn't come off as a victim. >> she's not a victim. she's afraid of being a victim of the cover-up. if there were repeated denials, then anyone who became involved would have to somehow become a ma malefactor. >> you're very good at this, seducing sources, you said you have a responsibility to come forward. >> well, she felt a responsibility to come forward. >> you had to allay her nervousness about it. >> i had to let her know we're had it for the right reasons. you have to tolerate my vetting of you. you have to prove it. your name didn't come back. oh, you were under your married name at the time. that was difficult for her. she was afraid. i said you have to tolerate the vetting. you have to trust us because this is how we do our job.

and we have to make you airtight. and luckily for us representative weiner did a good thing. during the press conference, i asked him if megan broussard was one of the women. and he took the opportunity to answer that question in the affirmative. that made a big difference. >> abc paid megan broussard $10,000 to $15,000, i'm told, for those pictures, the ones that she sent him, the ones that weiner sent him. >> the ones that she sent him. >> no pictures of weiner. >> does that bother you? does it make it look like she's trying to cash in? >> yes, it does. that's one of the things we have to deal with in the business. we've talked about this before. the commercial exigencies of the business. >> did you think that she might go to someone else? >> true. and i appreciate the protection you're giving me, but i don't want it. it is my decision. i'm the anchor. >> you could have walked away from it. >> i could have said don't do it. i don't because it is the state

of play right now. i wish it were not. i wish money was not in the game. but you know it's going to go somewhere else. you know someone else is going to pay for the same things. the question becomes what you're paying for. you're paying for these photos why? because they are the key to the exchanges. and this became about photos. this became about things that had to be real. so i needed them. and that is the state of play, howie. i wish it were not. you do, too. but it is the state of play. to say otherwise, i think, is false. >> you grew up around democratic politics here in new york. your father was governor. your brother, andrew, is now the governor. have you ever met anthony weiner? >> i have. >> do you feel sorry for him in this situation? >> i do. and you know what? i'll take criticism from that from the women in my own family and some of the men who are saying he did this all himself. i don't know what you say you feel sorry for. i get the logic of that, and yet i do feel sorry for him because of the human failing. and it's tragic in that somebody who seemed to be trying to do the right thing with their public life winds up now in a

very precarious situation. >> so you've debated this with your wife and others in your family in. >> i'm a married man. i have to debate everything with my wife. whether it's on tv or off. and with these types of stories, you need those human connections around you to know where people's heads and hearts are. >> particularly growing up in a political family, andrew got a lot of publicity when his marriage broke up. >> it's a big reason why i'm not in politics. >> are all of us doing the same thing to weiner? >> i think this is different because i don't think this is a judgment on a regular activity. even divorce these days has become so common. i think we have to be careful. i think a good instruction out of this story when i think it's great that you are covering it is that it is a good reflection of where the media's heads are on cultural behavior. how do we treat it? what do we decide to chase? i did not do the follow-up stories of how many women. how deep.

what were the types of dialogues? because once we opened the door here, i believe that that was sufficient. unless we find illegal behavior, underage people, something that shows some type of illegality or furtherance of a wrong, i didn't want to traffic in just the salaciousness of it. >> but if you opened the door to saying this is an important enough story for me to do and here's megan broussard and these are the sexual exchanges she had with the congressman, why not publish -- why not read on the air the transcripts of the e-mails with this other woman from vegas, the radaronline published, some of which are very graphicplicexplicit. you're drawing the line, but i'm not sure i see the distinction. >> i have to see that line. >> did you turn it down? >> yes. i have to see the line for myself. to me, the pattern of behavior as a leader, him going after my colleague, jonathan carl, whom i have tremendous respect for as i know you do as well, saying how dare you ask me these questions, i'm a victim. and then i don't see any governmental side to the investigation of the hacking.

it made us look at it. he is an elected leader. he's a strong voice within that party. he has to have credibility. and that was worth going after. >> the fact that weiner not only lied to the media repeatedly, how dare you to some extent, in a way justifies the story because journalists don't like being lied to. he helped put it in play. >> the people can't have that happen from their leaders. that's one of our main jobs here, right? other than being handsome guys on television, howard. >> in your case. >> you beat me to it. but they deserve better than that. and that's part of our job. his sex life or whatever kind of life you want to look at this internet stuff as, it's not really my business. i don't make it my business and my reportercord as a reporter w show that. he is a leader. they have to take him at his word. if this is a lie, what else could be a lie? that's what drew me to it. zbl as was often debated during the bill clinton imimpeachment,

it's not really about the sex, it's about the credibility. but, of course, the salaciousness of the story, chris, is what drives the ratings and the online traffic, let's face it. >> look, there's no question about it. i'm saying to you, hey, i wish this were about a congressman and a contract that a company shouldn't have had. but i don't know that people would have cared the same way because as much as they want to condemn us for covering the sex involved and saying we have bigger things to worry about, this draws their attention. so it probably drove some of the volume of the coverage. but the underlying issue of whether or not this congressman was telling the truth is very important. it's a very important aspect of public life that i appreciate maybe even more than others because i see the sacrifice in my own family. >> you've seen it from both sides. chris cuomo, thanks very much. >> what a pleasure. when we come back, if you didn't expect to be drawn into the controversy, but kirsten

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it's a very tricky journalistic dilemma. someone you were once close to, a congressman you dated years ago, is suddenly enmeshed in a scandal. do you defend him? write about him? talk about him? or should you just stay quiet? fox news commentator kirsten powers decided to write an explosive piece about weiner for the daily beast. she joins me in mstudio.

>> good to be here. >> you were in touch with anthony weiner by e-mail. what did he tell you? >> that the allegations weren't true, he did not contact her, he had hired a lawyer and that they were very close to figuring out who actually did send the picture. >> the college student who we first heard about. >> right. it wasn't just that he didn't do it, it was that they were just about to figure out who did to it. >> based on that, you went on fox news, sean hannity's show, and this is some of what you said. >> all right. he said he doesn't know if it's him or not. >> he says he didn't send it. really to put him on that list of a bunch of people who cheated on their wives -- >> doesn't he sound guilty in. >> no. he's not guilty. the point is he didn't send it. he said he didn't send it. >> how does he not know -- >> they also asked you to talk to "the new york post." were you 100% sure at that time that he was telling you the truth? >> yes. i would never, ever have gone on air and said that if i didn't think that it was true. >> when the initial picture of

the shirtless photo first surfaced at the washington bureau chief of the daily beast, i asked if you would write about this. you declined. >> right. >> why? >> because i felt i didn't want to get involved in it. i wasn't quite sure what was going on. i thought it was possible but unlikely that he did it, and i just sort of thought, you know what? i'm just going to stay out of this. i really never would have talked about it. as you know, i work for fox, and so i was going on that show. it had been booked a month in advance. and when they gave me the topics, i had to go on and talk about it. i had no choice. >> but anthony weiner is not someone you dated briefly some years ago. he remained a friend of yours. you once spent thanksgiving with his family. he helped you when you had some problems. so you were pretty close to him. >> i was in the past. i wouldn't say right now or in the last couple of years, no, absolutely not. we were friendly. i think i mentioned in my column, i did reach out for help, and he connected me with his wife who connected me to the

embassy. we have that kind of relationship. it wasn't that we were best friends. >> he was a friend. >> yeah. >> who am i cared for very much even if i thought he had issues he needed to deal with. so what went through your mind on monday when he says yes, i lied, yes, i sent explicit photos after telling you the opposite. >> i was shocked. i was -- i think my initial reaction was as a friend, as looking at this person's life unraveling on television. he seemed he was in a lot of pain. i imagine his wife was in a lot of pain. i had a much more human reaction, i think. i knew he had lied to me, you know. but i really wasn't focused on that. i was really much more focused on the fact of just really feeling sorry for him and what kind of situation he was in. >> and then after a day or two to think about it when you did decide to write the piece for the daily beast, how did your thinking change? look, let's not mince words here. he betrayed you. >> yeah. i still felt sorry for him and i still do feel sorry for him. but what changed was i hadn't

seen the 27 interviews. well, i hadn't watched those interviews. i had seen some outtakes. and then the next day i saw a bunch of clips. and i thought, this is sociopathic. this is not just him lying to a couple people. this is him, you know, as chris cuomo brought up, coming on and accusing reporters of things, pointing fingers at andrew breitbart. that started to shift. as more information came out, i started to become concerned as a feminist perspective. as you know, i write about feminist issues. i felt i can't stay silent on these issues because this is somebody i was friends with. i have to hold him to the same standard. the fact that he lied to me is the least important issue of all of them to me. >> but there was great passion in your page. you said he should resign, he's a misogynist.

>> you have a responsibility to the american people. it's not just that he was lying to reporters but to all americans. he's doing it in a way that makes him untrustworthy. i don't think people can say you can do 27 interviews and lie like that? how do we know that you're ever telling the truth? i don't want to say he's a misogynist. i think he needs help. i mean, he is getting treatment now. and that i think -- >> lately. >> yes, and that he is a distraction to the democratic party. he's dragging the democratic party down. and this would be my analysis if he was a republican. >> were you angry? was this a painful piece to write? when you had to sit down at that computer, put your thoughts together, was that hard? >> it was extremely painful and extremely difficult. even if we aren't as close a friends as we used to, you don't ever want to have to write something like that about a friend of yours. my credibility was also on the line. i try to be very honest in my analysis. i try to be very fair. i try to hold everybody to the same standard, not give someone a break because i agree with their politics or i know them

because, look, we all know each other. and so for me, i really felt like, you know, i owe something to the people who -- the viewers who heard -- saw me do this. and i got a lot of e-mail asking me, how could you do this? i felt i had to set that record straight. i didn't want to do it. we had a long conversation about it. i didn't want to do it, but i felt i had to do it. >> has there been any negative fallout of you been lumped together with weiner's girls? >> i don't like it. i've gotten a lot of positive feedback from people in the media and in politics. a lot of people are angry at him of what he did to me as well. i would much prefer i had never been involved in the story. frankly, had i not had that hannity interview that had been booked long before, i probably never would have gotten involved in it. >> i'm glad that you wrote from the heart when you did, kirsten powers, thanks very much for coming by. coming up in the second part of "reliable sources," more on

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there may well have been people in america who never heard of anthony weiner before the sexting scandal that put him in the eye of the media hurricane. from the picks and x-rated messages to the women to the political fallout to the "new york times" reporting that his wife is pregnant, every news outlet on the planet seemed consumed by the story, and there was no shortage of opinions. >> congressman, there is only one person who can end this story. you. you've got to take one for the team. the country. your constituents. and your party. they all deserve better. >> here he is saying that he's not going to resign. may i ask, is there no shame in america anymore? >> look, he has an illness. he has a very -- he has a sickness. it is not going to get better by him remaining in congress and digging in and just sort of basically trying to bully his way through this thing. >> but him screwing up his

marriage in itself i think is more gossip than news. this is not a matter of political hypocrisy. >> joining us now on the media's frenzy, jane hall, associate professor at american university's school of communications. and dana millbank, columnist for "the washington post." amy holmes, are the media wallowing in the salacious details of the weiner story? >> there certainly is that aspect. and andrew breitbart had the uncovered photo. >> we'll get to that. >> which i don't think actually that news organizations would have run with. >> give me your overall assessment of the behavior here by news organizations. >> the behavior by the news organizations, i think, was responsible. i think that the congressman was going out telling this absurd story about a hacker. and the media had an obligation to get to the bottom of it. he is a u.s. congressman. if there was a hacker, he was

impersonating a congressman. there were ethical and legal issues at stake here. >> absolutely legitimate story, dana, but how much of it has been driven by journalistic anger which is that he lied to all these journalists at press conferences and television interviews. and is there a point where it just becomes excessive? >> i think this was a minor story until that extraordinary interview with cnn's dana bash and ted barrett who weiner called a jackass. and i think that had the effect of saying wait a second. there's something more to this story. he could have easily put it to rest with, i guess, a more clever lie, but it wasn't just what he said. it was the way he said it. and i think a lot of journalists were passing around that transcript and that clip saying, this is extraordinary. and this story has a new life as a result of that single encounter. >> once weiner admits he lied and so clearly it was going to be a huge story, it seems to me, jane hall, there aren't

gatekeepers anymore. if radaronline gets a bunch of instant messages between weiner and the woman who is the vegas black jack dealer, it's on 10 million websites in half an hour. >> i said it showed absolutely how the mainstream media worked, which is you give it to breitbart. he puts it out. it's all over the place. the media follow. i thought abc did a responsible job with the story they did. i think they're focusing on whether he lied or not, that is personal pique on the part of the media. i think the bigger story is the story that most people i know are resonating to with what is with these guys? that's what ruth marcus asked in "the washington post." what is it? is there some connection between power, intriguement of women and anonymous sex. rachel maddow did the chart on the number of politicians. i mean, that to me is a story most people i know are really focusing on. >> radar's editor told me they didn't pay a dime for those

messages. but, you know, since you brought up breitbart, let me play a clip of him on the "today" show talking about this one picture that he did not release, and we'll pick it up on the other side. >> you have also said that you have another image. and you've described it as x-rated. under no circumstance will you release that, in other words, let's say anthony weiner supporters talk to you. >> if anthony weiner decides to make this a jihad against me for his interpretation of putting me into this situation, you know what? i'll take that as, you know, you said an insurance policy. >> does that sound like a threat to you, amy holmes? >> well, certainly it was a challenge to anthony weiner. and let's not forget that the congressman told luke russert that he couldn't use certitude in saying that that photo wasn't him which, of course, raised a lot of eyebrows, meaning is this behavior more extensive than anthony weiner is willing to cop to? and if so, what were his

methods? >> i've been critical of him in some other contexts, the shirley sherrod story for one. but on this story, did he do anything wrong? >> i don't think he did. i think he went with the news. and clearly the story blew up. >> up to the point where he apparently was showing this picture to opie and anthony. >> he was in the video. let's explain to people, opie and anthony have a satellite radio kind of a raunchy show. breitbart said he was not going to release this. it's a naked picture of weiner below the waist. sort of a frat-room atmosphere. i take him at his word that nobody is going to snap a picture of the picture. >> well, then he's never been involved in that show before because that's just the sort of thing that they do. i don't buy that at all. >> actually, one of the cohosts was not pleased this photo was put up. >> that was a way of letting people know that it's out there. >> you're just annoyed because breitbart who doesn't like the liberal media has actually

gotten some credit on this story. >> no, no. i think up until that point, it was right on. i think that was completely over the top. i think sort of midweek this week we reached the overkill point. and part of it was that photo and part of it was the pregnancy. i got this e-mail of all the key words you're supposed to put in your stories. it was like houma pregnant, pregnant, pregnant. and i said, we've gotten a little carried away. >> the breitbart thing, his moral outrage was what got me. he got this one right. the shirley sherrod one, he libelled someone pretty badly. him trying to say weiner's family? >> let's ask you about the pregnancy thing. politico reported that it had the story that weiner's wife was pregnant, held it for a day, that friends of houma said she did not want this reported. she's still in the first trimester. "the new york times" had

discussions about whether they should do this. isn't that -- i mean, i don't know, it will come out eventually, but isn't that a tremendous invasion of her privacy when she had nothing to do with her husband's antics? >> well, i think that would be a tough call. i didn't realize she was saying she didn't want it out because, again, this is totally reported, that she may want him to stay on. that they may be talking that way. unfortunately, i don't think the media did this to her. i think that unfortunately he brought her into this. >> anyone think that story should have been published about the pregnancy? >> i don't think that it should have been. i think it was an invasion of her privacy and it was not relevant to the congressman and his future as a politician. but like you, i had read that, you know, friends are possibly putting this out to gain him sympathy as she was behind the scenes making phone calls to try to rescue his career. >> it just made me sad to see the story. i wouldn't say they should not have done it, but that's why -- that was the most compelling reason why weiner should have gone in the first place to avoid that because that story wouldn't

have been reported had he stepped down or it would have been a footnote. >> you check into rehab on day two, not day nine. have the media set a new standard here? where you don't have to have an affair, you don't have to have a love child, you don't have to be sleeping on your payroll, but if you engage in stupid may have online, you get savaged. do we keep lowering the bar for what's reportable? >> i think unfortunately if you have waxed chest naked below the belt photos of yourself that you're putting out there and the internet world allows you to do that, we're into -- i don't know if it's a new low, but we're into a new world where people -- if you were doing this, then it is going to be found out. and that is the recklessness that is shocking about this. >> and let's also say that this is not just about his private sex life. he was sending these photos to people that he admitted he didn't know if they were who they represented themselves to be. they could have been minors. they could have been political opponents. and they actually were. "the new york times" reported he

knew he was under surveillance by political opponents for his tweeting habits. and he still continued on. >> that's pretty amazing. you made the point that the media have spent a lot more time and space on weiner than on members of congress screwing the country by failing to solve these problems like the dealt crisis and libya. >> to me it's the same sort of recklessness, drunkenness of power. i got away with this. let me try something else. i think that goes on all the time. i think that had this been a run-of-the-mill affair, it probably wouldn't have gotten anywhere this interesting. it was the recklessness, not the sex. >> sending these photos unsolicited. the woman couldn't believe ha she was looking at. >> unsolicited, not a good idea. on this program last week, jeff jarvis was critical of the coverage of the story as we knew it then. let me play a clip from that program. >> it's a fine story for gawker absolutely, it's a fine story for jon stewart who pointed out that bloggers did reporting on this. but all in all, what's the real story here? you know, that a congressman has

a penis? let's stipulate that. there's no news in that. >> to his credit, jeff jarvis went on his blog the next day after weiner admitted he was lying. i think he deserves a pat on the back for that. after the break, many news outlets have been asking you to help examine the 24,000 sarah palin e-mails. are journalists just looking for dirt? at 190 miles per hour, the wind will literally lift ordinary windshield wipers off the glass. so, did we build a slower car? or design wipers that could handle anything? what do you think? the cadillac cts-v, the world's fastest production sedan. we don't just make luxury cars, we make cadillacs

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the state of alaska released all those sarah palin e-mails under a request from the media, what happened is that news organizations did what bloggers have done for years. jane hall, they asked their readers and viewers to help them sort through 24,000 e-mails. is that a kind of a milestone, or is this just unique to palin? >> well, i think it's unique to palin, and i think the media should cop to that. they think they're going to find something entertaining. i mean, it's not, you know, something -- in my mind it would have been better to have crowd sourcing on the war in iraq or health care or something -- you know, this is not a big, serious subject. it is an entertaining subject to the media who care a lot about

sarah palin. maybe more than the republican voters do. >> here is what somebody wrote to "the washington post" about this exercise, dana millbank. sickening, trying to recruit 100 palin haters from the general public to sift through palin's personal e-mails looking for dirt to generate more anti-palin stories. wow! that's how it looks to a lot of people. >> i can see why it might look like a waste of time. i think our newsroom had actually ordered in pizza for all the people doing it like it was an election night. i'm glad to say i was home doing other things, sending out twitter pictures. but, you know, look. it's going to be done by somebody anyway since the information's available in a public realm. wouldn't we do the same thing if it were, you know, from george bush's white house or obama's white house? it's just something out that everybody can't get through in that period of time. turns out it was a dud. >> well, a dud in the sense that the politico headline, palin e-mails, no bombshell, but because -- and a lot of it was about her doing state business as governor. i think she looked good, not

bad. there were some politics as usual, a few embarrassing things. we found out she doesn't think much of the media. but because so many journalists wen to alaska, they almost were invested in having to do stories to justify the initial expense. >> right, i think that's true. someone described it as if they were trying to record the moon landing with all of this. it's just totally ridiculous. i think it was as disgraceful as it was ludicrous. and no, the media does not do this to other politicians like president obama with this feeding frenzy and sending everybody everywhere to try to get the media -- try to get the public involved. >> private e-mails. i wouldn't go into the office for that. >> these were state government. but why -- >> she's not an elected politician. she is not sitting in office. she hasn't even yet, if she's going to, throw her hat into the ring to run for president or the united states senate from arizona. >> why was this a disgraceful exercise by the media? >> it seemed to me like they

were putting out an "america's most wanted" tipline to nail sarah palin. all we found out is that she wanted a tanning bed. i think the media needs to go to rehab with anthony weiner. >> you've got your marching orders. find a clinic for yourselves. thanks very much for joining us. a reminder, cnn will be hosting the new hampshire republican presidential debate. that's tomorrow night at 8:00 p.m. eastern. up next on this program, as katie couric cuts a lucrative deal for a daytime talk show, scott pelley takes the cbs anchor show. is this low-key reporter what the network needs? the planned combination of at&t and t-mobile would deliver our next generation mobile broadband experience to 55 million more americans, many in small towns and rural communities, giving them a new choice. we'll deliver better service, with thousands of new cell sites... for greater access to all the things you want, whenever you want them. it's the at&t network... and what's possible in here is almost impossible to say.

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plenty of fanfare when someone takes over one of the three network evening newscasts. when scott pelley succeeded katie couric this week in the anchor chair, not so much. >> good evening. we start tonight with the wars in afghanistan and iraq. this has been a day of u.s. casualties in iraq, and it is also a day that president obama met with his advisers about the future of u.s. involvement in afghanistan. and that is the "cbs evening news" for tonight. i'm scott pelley. for all of us at cbs news all around the world, good night.

>> pelley delivered the news without addressing the audience at all. joining us to talk about pelley's debut and katie's new career, adam buckman, a former tv critic for "the new york post." so explain to me now a new anchor takes over "the evening news" and doesn't say hi, folks, i'll be delivering your news. >> wasn't that refreshing to have a tv personality come on and not announce him initially or not at all. after i thought about it, i thought, this is nice. he's not coming on and making any big promises that critics like me will look at him in a couple weeks and figure out that they weren't fulfilled at all. he didn't promise what his newscast would be come on with the scott pelley era would be like. nor did they book him any high-profile interviews like president obama to open his week. >> nor was his face on buses in new york city like his predecessor. i know that he's a reporter. he doesn't view himself as a star. he's told me he didn't even want his name on the newscast.

he declined an invitation to talk about his debut on this program. but in the modern age, don't you have to try to build some connection with viewers? >> well, yes, that's the thing. you can only, as your on-screen super put it, you can't really sneak on the air and expect to lift the newscast out of third place. on the other hand, you can't stand on your head and wear a clown place. on the other hand, you can't stand on your had head either if you're going to anchor the cbs news. i'm thinking scott pelley is getting acclimated. they probably have ideas to put him out in the field in the midst of wildfires in arizona or other places so we can see scott pelley we've become accustomed to on "60 minutes". >> there was a map up behind him, almost like the old walter cronkite map, i wonder given this has been a no nonsense broadcast, he didn't lead with anthony weiner like others did last monday, whether you see this as a throwback as a broadcast from the cronkite era. >> well, whether it's back all

the way to walter cronkite in the '60s or not, it came across as old school. personally i admire this professional, efficient, fast id yus, flawless approach to delivering the news. however, i don't think many people are looking for news on tv that lacks personality to the degree that the cbs news lacked it in scott pelley's first week. i don't really know what you do, though, to sort of elevate your personality if you're anchoring the cbs news cast. it's a very challenging thing to do to sort of break out of a mold in order to break out of -- >> it is difficult indeed. now, the same day we got the announcement from katie couric she's signed with abc. she'll get the big syndicated daytime show that will launch next year. she'll also have a role on abc news. >> it will interesting to see what she does on abc news. the presses announcement disney made on monday indicated she'll start turning up on some abc news programs as soon as this

summer. i suspect that maybe they'll use some sort of platforms on abc news to elevate her profile or at least keep her in the public life for these 15 months it will take to prepare the daytime show. i believe that after the show launches in september 2012 you may actually see her less on the news programs because the talk show will take up all of her time. >> it's a very absorbing daily job. she will be reunited with her old friend are jeff zucker, the former chief executive of abc. katie told me she'll do a newsy show dealing with lighter topics but will pivot off the news if possible. what are the chances of her succeeding in a highly competitive syndicated market? >> not only is it highly competitive, but you're talking about daytime tv, one of the most volatile parts of television today. the traditional soap operas are on life support and indeed the leading shows in daytime remain the judge shows such as "judge judy," beat "oprah" the past few seasons and also the talk shows

of maury povich and jerry springer. the more i thought about katie couric's talk show, i wondered, whoes big idea is this? how do you take the former anchorwoman of cbs news and put her in the swamp of daytime television? i just don't know really what they'll do there. >> it's a pool she wants to swim in. she brings talent and a unique brand. adam buckman, thanks very much. >> thank you. still to come, a media stampede over a mass tragedy that wasn't. another columnist caught mraij ridesing and was that a picture of sarah palin on fox snuz? the afternoon tour begins with more pain and more pills. the evening guests arrive. back to sore knees. back to more pills. the day is done but hang on... her doctor recommended aleve. just 2 pills can keep arthritis pain away all day with fewer pills than tylenol. this is lara who chose 2 aleve

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time now for our media monitor. a weekly look at the hits and errors in the news business. hold on, i'm getting a premonition about a big story. sensational story. a story that, well, let me just check the facts here. on tuesday evening, there were reports in the "new york times" on the ap and reuters, on fox news, the bbc and here on cc cnn that police in tex tx were on a gruesome trail. >> authorities in texas say as many as 30 bodies have been found buried at the intersection

of two county roads in the southeastern part of the state. >> let's get some more on that breaking news. a horrific story coming out of texas right now. a lot of bodies have been foundz in a grave, including a lot of children. >> cnn has now confirmed that at least, at least, 20 bodies have been found in a home in harden, texas. we're being told that it includes -- that there were children involved. >> well, it turns out the tip came from a psychic. there was no mass grief. the authorities are now investigating the psychic woman who provided the information. oh, and the blood found on the house? the truck driver who lives there told reporters his daughter's boyfriend cut himself after getting drunk. now, what would have been lost if these esteemed news organizations had waited for confirmation before going with this bogus tale? i'm getting a little tired of journalists who think plagiarism is somehow okay. the latest offender is denver post columnist wood di paige who

wrote a column included quotes lifted almost word for word from the sports business journal. the author called out paige on twitter naturally and paige called him to apologize. i told him it was a mistake and he accepted that and said he enjoyed the column, paige says. why do journalists still think they can get away with this stuff? i don't like to poke fun of networks that put up the wrong had headline and graphic. but given the fact sarah palin works for fox news, i can't help but note that someone thought this picture of tina fey captured her just fine. chalk it up to the "saturday night live" generation. you probably noticed that a while ago we change the look of "reliable sources," better camera angles, music. now we've upgraded our web site as well. check out the new reliable sources blog where you can see segments from the program, leave your thoughts, get a sneak peek of upcoming guests