against the united states and south korea in the korean war. did you get it write? if you did, you can be proud, you're smarter than most u.s. high school seniors. less than a quarter of them got that question right. that's why we need to fix our education system, among other reasons. thanks for being part of my program this week. ly see you next week. stay tuned for "reliable sources." sources." e -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com now that anthony weiner has finally resigned, was he forced to quit by plight kalt pressure or because the press would not let go of this tawdry tale? a facility maker who says the media have mall lined sarah palin now says she runs her operation like the cia. we'll ask john sooeg her why he changed his mind. two prominent lesbian bloggers are exposed as really being men. we'll ask one of them why in the

world he engaged in that kind of internet impersonation. larry king on why his life became the tabloid sensation he hated covering and what it's like to have the media mock your marital problems. i'm howard kurtz. this is "reliable sources." it was a fitting end for the strange scandal that bae gan with the racy underwear photo that anthony weiner claimed he never sent, the new york congressman who tweeted his way into a career-ending crisis bowed to the political pressures, some hecklers, one from the howard stern show, practically drown him out. >> today i'm announcing my resignation from congress. >> yea! pervert! >> so my colleagues can get back to work, my neighbors can choose a new representative and most importantly that my wife and i

can continue to heal from the damage i have caused. >>. [ indistinct shouting ] >> looking back, should the media have tweeted this stuff for three long weeks as the most important story in america. joining us to talk about that and the sudden spotlight being trained on michele bachmann, jennifer ruben author of "the washington post" white turn black, julia mason from politico, in boston, john avlon, cnn contributor and columnist for "the daily beast." >> this proposition, agree or disagree. anthony weiner resigned, not because of barack obama and nancy pelosi. that was a factor, but because the media simply would not let this story go and there was no other way for him to stop the bleeding. >> it's so true. the new york media is so intense. that's a force unto itself. if he had been a representative from a different state, we might have seen a different outcome.

>> kentucky, oklahoma. >> plus we had pictures. that made the story different from some of the other sex-related scandal. >> rachel maddow said this isn't a congressman having to resign because of bad behavior, but because of the media treatment of his bad behavior. does that go too far? >> yes, i think it does. this is currently a self-inflicted wound. but it's the first future sex scandal. it's the new blue dress. the fact is the steady stream of photographs helped keep it in the news. he made it worse by lying for a week. it was politically untenable, absorbed 17% of all news coverage in its third week. it's because it had a tawdry aspect a political aspect and more information. >> i thought it was about 80% on cable. jennifer, clearly the fact anthony weiner lied to the media set the narrative for the way in which the press turned on him. i can't get away from the

thought that somehow this stayed in the news every day even when there weren't new women, new texts, new pictures, new developments. >> if that's true, it's attributable to andrew weiner -- >> anthony. >> anthony weiner. andrew breitbart was the other player. i think the press conference was indicative of what was going on. he didn't have to give a press conference which turned into a three-ring circus. he could have sent his resignation later to nancy pelosi. he was baiting them in some sense. when he is lying every day an his poor press person has to put out a statement that says, according to anthony weiner, no explicit pictures or statements were sent to a 17-year-old girl, this isn't the press's fault. >> part of what i think is going on here, julie mason, the media is fascinating by this world of sexting. this became a whole sidebar story that bubbled up underneath

what it was that weiner was doing. >> this is like a new evolution, a new era of sex-related scandal. you have to imagine there's going to be more. after this happened, members of congress started tweeting a whole lot less. >> looking back, now that the hyperventilating has gone down -- >> maybe for you. >> maybe for me. the day of the news conference when weiner came out and said yes, i lied, those are my pictures and i'm really, really sorry. scott pelley led with stories on iraq and afghanistan, didn't get to that story until the second commercial break. was that the right decision or was it those -- >> i don't know whether there's a right decision. you can make one decision or the other decision. we are a profit-driven industry. if you want the most eyeballs, you have to go with the thing people are most talking about. if you're trying to do a quality program, maybe you have to go

with iran and iraq. >> the media lost sight of this. bill clinton had sex with an intern in the white house, newt gingrich had an affair with a staffer, john ensign having an affair with the wife of his top aide. wasn't all that worse? yet, the media made anthony weiner into public pervert number one? >> at the time it was. just even in the last month you had arnold schwarzenegger and john edwards in the weeks before this scandal broke. i do think the reason it stayed in the news wasn't just the lies, although that did make a certain grudge match element to this, it was the pictures, the constant steady stream of photographs that were so grim and embarrassing and odd and awkward that kept it in the news. politicians should have to hold themselves to a higher standard. this new era is going to force a new accountability, whether they like it or not. folks are going to keep getting knocked out of office. chris lee was just the

appetizer. this is the first main event. >> he was the congressman who resigned after sending a shirtless photo to a woman on craigslist. that seems mild in comparison. >> if you're going to get into trouble on this front, make sure there are no pictures. coming back to julie mason point about a quality newscast, unemployment, war, all this got overshadowed. they cut away from nancy pelosi once she made clear she was not going to talk about weiner. >> i'm not going to defend the obsessiveness of cable news. that said, i think this was a relevant story and i think there is perhaps a generational or even a gender difference in how these are perceived. i think women see this as a character flaw, anthony weiner as a deeply flawed individual who should not be inhabiting office. i think younger men are more more willing to turn this aside

or think this is nothing much. i actually think there is a difference in perception. is this a moral failure? or is this just a little trivial thing he's down on the side. >> the facebook and twitter generation may view it differently. let me turn to michele bachmann. at the cnn debate on monday with various republican presidential candidates, i would say she stole the show, everyone regarded it as a strong performance. here is what some of the pundits hollywood to say about the minnesota congresswoman. >> i think she's a very strong candidate or could go back to minnesota and run for congress sglp michele bachmann got through the debate with no recurrence of the shake kins she's shown on american history. >> michele bachmann, scary enough, presented the reasonable face of what has often been a vicious and vitriolic expression of partisanship and ideology. >> she did well by what standard? because she's able to speak in

complete sentences. >> some of the liberals not so crazy about her. julie mason, why was this collective news flash, hey, she's not so crazy, she did pretty well, she'd be a good candidate. >> part of it is a collective on we, everyone, including the republican party is looking for some new star. but what we're seeing with michele bachmann, the start of a very familiar trajectory, someone new is discovered, they burn brightly, here comes the media scrutiny that comes with being a new star and everyone will be tearing her down. >> i would say there's a media caricature that omits that she's a lawyer, an experienced legislate tour. people compare her to sarah palin, but she has a lot of experience in government. >> i did an extensive interview in her office in late march. my conclusion was this is a smart lady, she's able to weave details and principles together, very methodical in her decision-making process.

she has gone on some of the cable news shows. when you go on "hardball," you can't be expecting to discuss plato. i also think there's a real sexism in the media that attributed sarah palin qualities to mish shul bachmann. her competitor is not sarah palin, it's mitt romney, tim pawlenty and the other candidates. >> john, it's not just that she went on "hardball," it's that she's said provocative things on cable. that does contribute to the image she has in the media. >> of course it does, directly. that's the context. when you go on "hardball" and introduce your to the people about why barack obama has anti-american views, remarkable stuff using words like slavery and tyranny to describe the impact of the obama administration on america, that's the context in which this caricature has come from.

yes, she did very well in the debate. we need to be honest and balance those facts. she did very well in the debate because she exceeded expectations. she has $14 million in the bank and used it to hire fantastic consultants. she clearly is politically talented. you need to root it in context. what she has said, that is the sum of her record. you need to balance both. when you forget one or the other, you're missing the whole picture. >> i don't think that's the sum of her record. she has a very strong political background. she was a tax lawyer. she served three terms in congress. the debate, what she did was weave in her votes, her personal experience and because the media i think has set the bar so low, she'sly exceeded it. >> the expectations thing may have been key. before we go, i want to play something that happened yesterday at the republican leadership conference where an obama impersonator, reggie brown, told jokes. first a series of risque and racially sensitive jokes about

the president, then he turned it toward the republicans and was yanked off. >> my father is a black man from kenya, my mother is from kansas. yes, my mother loved a black man and she was not a kardashian. unfortunate that tim pawlenty couldn't make it here. come him some slack, he's having his foot surgically removed from his mouth. luckily for him, it's covered under obamni care. that along with spinal transplants. >> a one syllable president -- >> and he gets escorted off -- >> is this going to be a big story because we can all play the tape that when this guy started making fun of republicans, suddenly the music starts playing and he's off the stage? >> i don't know if it's a major story. it's an interesting, funny, sad story about this comedian. >> the republican official who

we saw there escorting him off said he had gone too far -- the first 10 or 15 minutes was fine. that's when he was making fun of obama, talking about i grew up in hawaii but it was actually kenya. then it got inappropriate. seems like a double standard here. >> this is a lesson in you have to know who you're hiring. this was a bad hire. we've had all week long, bad behavior in public places. this is an example of that, of people who have no self restraint, no inner check. i think they should have gotten out on the straj earlier. >> briefly, john avlon, it was tweeted that this is why many people have the problem with the gop. is that a fair criticism? >> sure. i think this failed on a judgment call from the initial impulse to hire an obama impersonator and then it just got worse. the fact he got yanked when he started taking on republicans, clearly situational ethics

there. there's a certain tone deafness which is pervasive. this will become a new symbol of that. >> john avlon, julie mason, jennifer rubin, thanks for joining us. when we come back, he once accused sarah palin of malpractice, but now she has less than flattering things to say about the former governor and why he wants no part of any presidential campaign. he'll join us in a moment. new citracal slow release... continuously releases calcium plus d for the efficient absorption my body needs. citracal.

on every surface in your mouth. but did you know those same germs can build up and form a resilient layer called biofilm? biofilm germs are strong enough to survive daily brushing. thankfully, there's listerine® antiseptic. its triple-action formula goes deep to penetrate biofilm, kill germs and protect your mouth for up to 12 hours. aaaahhhh... [ male announcer ] for a deeper clean, fight biofilm with listerine®.

palin hit the national stage, john sooeger has been one of her fiercest defenders. he got her cooperation for a film called "media malpractice" but now s.e.a.l.er announced he severed ties with her. good morning, what did you mean when you wrote her tiny and dysfunctional circle is increasingly managed like a cia field office and she's adopted a bunker mentality and even people loyal to her get tossed under the bus? >> well, howard, this is part of a 6,000-word essay i wrote about my 2 1/2 year experience with the palin camp which was probably 80% to 90% positive. there were an awful lot of trials an tribulations in trying to deal with her camp. frankly, my theory on the palin camp is the media coverage of her almost forced her into a

bunker mentality. she had no idea who to trust and had good reason not to trust anybody. she only trusted herself, todd, and maybe a couple other people. that had positive attributes but also has negatives. >> when you talk about the way she dealt with you, you couldn't get her to commit to making appearances, couldn't get a ticket to seeing her on "the tonight show." you seem to be conceding that her critics have a point about sarah palin? >> well, no one is perfect. and i think i got a chance to see sarah palin, all of her positives and her negatives. unfortunately, i think what's happened here is the media coverage she endured and my fal "media malpractice" certainly documents that, created a situation where she had a horrible set of cards and she had to play those cards in a way that allowed for her survival. this is really what led to the resignation. most people don't understand the resignation from the governorship of alaska which is

the main reason i don't think she should run for president. it's an issue that's absolutely dead on arrival. >> you say a presidential run would be suicidal. that's pretty strong language. >> it would be suicidal for the republican party. i think it would be good for her brand. i don't know that she has much choice but to run for president to con her brand. for the republican party it would be devastating. she is absolutely, positively, 100% -- keep in mind, howard, nobody has more incentive than i do to believe she has a chance. she has no chance of beating barack obama and the media narrative created about her is the number one reason why. it's not her fault. it's not fair. >> when you say it's not her fault -- i'm not saying you don't have valid criticism of the way some in the media have treated sarah palin. but doesn't she bear some responsibility for the fact that she basically speaks on fox, doesn't really engage with the mainstream press, she spends an awful lot of energy going after

the press which pleases the base but doesn't do much to elevate her as a serious policymaker, shall we say? >> that's what i meant when i referred to how she dealt with the cards that were dealt to her, how she dealt with with that hand of cards which was horrendous. she made lemonade out of lemons. i disagreed strongly with her decision to go on fox. i told her that. i thought, well, the last chance to try to get her message out to the middle of america and not just preach to the choir would be going on a major network, maybe do abc sunday mornings, something like that. she has chosen to play to the base. that's fine if you want to sell books. that's fine if you want to do a reality show. that's fantastic if you want to make money for your family. she deserves all that. i think it's great she survived. >> but not to run for president. >> exactly. she can't run for president. >> ironically, i'm quoting you, the media are acting as her

enabler because otherwise the republican race would be a commercial disaster. you're saying the press wants her to run because otherwise we'll all fall asleep covering these other guys? >> howard, one of the dirtiest little secrets in ideological media is that both the liberal mainstream media and the conservative media are not only ratings-based, but they don't want their person in power. so what we have here is the liberal media wants another shot at destroying palin and she's great for the narrative of the campaign and ratings. the conservative media doesn't want to say anything bad about the her because they'll offend millions of palin fans. i had the guts to do that, believe me. i'm getting the blowback. this isn't a financial decision i made to come out and tell the truth. i think the conservative media has a disincentive for obama to lose. obama has been great for business in the conservative media. that's the dirty little secret that very few people want to talk about. >> conservative commentators don't want their side to hold

power because obama is a great target for them. you've taken heat from your own side as a conservative. you've thrown down a challenge, you'll give $100,000 to any republican or conservative who does what? >> here is the bet, for my fellow conservatives that are attacking me. any prominent conservative, the first one that takes me up, it's $1,000 bet at 100-1 odds that sarah palin won't be elected 20 president in 2012. if you're one of those conservative commentators that think i'm crazy, put your money from your mouth is, $1,000 at 100-to-1 odds and i'll pay up. >> coming up on a break. i need a short answer. you say because of your defense of sarah palin, you've become practically unemployable, is that right? >> i'm turning a phrase. it's been a rough ride. i did a right thing in making "media malpractice." it's the truth in that democracy. defending sarah palin is not

exactly good for trying to be employed, especially here in los angeles. the media bias against her is incredible. >> john zeigler, thanks for joining us. coming up, not your usual interview with larry king. he talks about the ordeal of having his marital problems turned into tabloid news. ap! ] [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium rich tums goes to work in seconds. nothing works faster. ♪ tum tum tum tum tums down the hill? man: all right. we were actually thinking, maybe... we're going to hike up here, so we'll catch up with you guys. [ indistinct talking and laughter ] whew! i think it's worth it.

working with a partner you can trust is always a good decision. massmutual. let our financial professionals help you reach your goals. [ male announcer ] the inspiration for its shape 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. 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 and rushes relief right to the site of your tough pain. ♪ in fact, it's clinically proven to relieve pain twice as fast. new bayer advanced aspirin. extra strength pain relief, twice as fast. ♪ well, you know i love it too ♪ ♪ you love money ♪ well, you know i love it too ♪ ♪ i work so hard at my job

♪ and then i bring it home to you ♪ ♪ i love money in my pocket

larry king had a tumultuous final year before calling it quits at cnn. he had to negotiate over the winding down of his iconic talk show, battle cancer and deal with a divorce filing that made headlines and put him squarely in the pot light he used to turn on others. he writes about this in his new book "truth be told." i sat down with him in new york. >> larry king, welcome. >> howard, a pleasure. >> you open up in this book -- you've covered a lot of tabloid stories. you open up about your marriage, you wrote about the day you

filed for divorce, you had a big argument, drove off. why did you decide to write about this? >> it made the press. if i'm writing with this last year of "larry king live," once we decided to write it, i think the best thing is to come out and you take the ball. i didn't discuss any reasons because i don't think that's anybody's business. but i did discuss what it was like, what it was like for the kids. >> speaking of the kids, you went to a little league game not long after that. what happened? >> one of the worst experiences in my life. the reason i wrote it is because of paparazzi who i'm not very fond of. my 12-year-old is in a little league game. the 11-year-old is watching the game, along with my mother-in-law, father-in-law and wife. we're all there. it's big game at a field in beverly hills. there's 30 paparazzi there, all with their cameras and lights going. the umpire is asking them to shut off the lights because it's blinding the players. they don't shut them off. they keep playing the game. my mother-in-law trips

running -- trying to run toward the car when it was over. the 11-year-old is crying. they keep shooting. my friend sid almost belts one of them. it was unbelievable. as a funny ending, my 12-year-old said, you know, some of them could have been scouts. >> that guy has a future. this sets up my next question from the book. if i dislike tabloid shows in the first place, imagine how i felt doing one when my own life had become one. >> that's the sad part. there was a separation that was brief. we're back together. my wife is openings for me in las vegas. i'm doing a comedy act. the boys are going to summer camp, one to baseball camp, one to football. in the spectrum of things this was not huge. yet in today's world -- >> that's what interests you, you're used to being the bunch line because you've been married seven times to six women. you say late night comedians

cross the line. why? >> because there are children involved. it's bad enough for children in any kind of tragedy that october kurs. i don't think this was ap tragedy. it was an event. everybody who has been married has had some kind of event in life. but to kid about it every night. jay leno, i will say this, called me up and said i heard you were unhappy with some things. i apologize. i meant nothing by it. it was showbiz. >> haven't you and i and lots of people in the news business done this with celebrity breakups. >> i never liked it. we did it because we do it. >> did it on "larry king live." >> we did it. the public is enthralled with it. i never felt comfortable, unless, unless, there is a proviso, you were a paid public official. if we are paying the collective salary of congressman weiner, we have a right to this.

if it's a movie actor or larry king or howard kurtz or anybody, i don't think it's anybody's business. >> if you felt uncomfortable, why did you do it? competitive reasons? >> competitive reasons. you work at cnn. i don't own the camera. the producer says we have to cover this. it would be like don't cover this -- i couldn't not not do it. there are other things. you don't like everything you do in this business but you love the business. >> you soy a lot of what appeared in the stab lloyds was not true. there were stories about you and another woman. you didn't want to get into detail in knocking them down. how did you feel reading about yourself? >> with the weekly tabloids, they really go away. they really do. if it ever happens to you, howie, i hope it never happens to you, weekly tabloids go away. what you don't want is a story with, as they say in the business, legs. the story keeps running.

you've got to learn to deal with it right away, especially if you're in a position like weiner. >> you were dealing with it at a time when you were also dealing with the eventual end of your program. that had to be a lot of conflicting pressure. >> that's why i wrote about it. to try to describe what a last year is like. i had prostate cancer. i received radiation for that. but you go on to other things. there's a lot of -- you may be the first to learn, there's a lot of things coming larry king's way which i'm looking forward to. >> feel free to share ex-clue stif details. before we leave the subject, from your book, a man you had breakfast with every day gave information to the tabloids. you don't name him. how do you know? >> because a close associate of his, i won't reveal the name, told me that he was with michael in his last two days and he told him -- he apologized -- a lot like lee atwater did at his

death. he apologized that he sold those stories for money. how do you feel about that? i don't know what kind of feeling to have. you can't walk around with hatered. he's gone. >> a very close friend of his. you were seeing him virtually every day. he betrayed you, but yet you -- >> betrayal is one of the hardest things to deal with. freddy wilpon is a close friend of mine. the madoff guy. he knew madoff for 30 years. >> owner of the new york mets who also dealt with bernie made dof. >> i said are you angry? he said i'm not angry, i'm betrayed. there's nothing like that. i shared so much with michael. i liked him. he was a different kind of person, kind of more rose, but he was very supportive to me. he published talking books and i

did three of my books with him. i read books by others for him. i saw him socially. he came every morning to breakfast. i will admit my wife wasn't crazy about him and i had two close friends who never -- they didn't buy him. >> was it the fact that he and shawn didn't get along. >> maybe. that could have been. i put it away. i wrote about it. >> it's another thing that happened to you in this tumultuous year. >> it was. after the break, larry on the difficulty of leaving behind the daily grind and what he thinks these days of the media world. [ male announcer ] breathe, socket. just breathe. we know it's intimidating. instant torque. top speed of 100 miles an hour. that's one serious machine. but you can do this. any socket can. the volt only needs about a buck fifty worth of charge a day, and for longer trips, it can use gas. so get psyched.

this is a big step up from the leafblower. chevrolet volt. the 2011 north american car of the year.

and started earning loads of points. you got a weather balloon with points? yes i did. [ man ] points i could use for just about anything. ♪ ♪ there it is. [ man ] so i used mine to get a whole new perspective. ♪ [ male announcer ] the new citi thankyou premier card gives you more ways to earn points. what's your story? citi can help you write it.

more now of my sit-down in new york with larry king. >> when you were talking with cnn executives about whether you would continue with "larry king live," and, of course, the ratings were down and you weren't getting any younger. you said if ted turner had been in charge of cnn instead of time warner executives, he would have

given you another contract. >> because ted was loyal. in all honesty, it was time to move on to other things. >> it took you time to come to that? >> i'm doing three more years of specials. we've done one on alzheimer's. we've got real great ones planned. i'm going to do other things in television, going on to other things. sometimes it's time to move on, to move on to other things. i'm not leaving. i didn't retire. i never used the word retire. i never said i'm retiring. >> nor did you disappear, sitting on a rocking chair here. >> i was in korea last week, the keynote speaker at a major digital conference. i was in portugal three weeks ago at another digital conference. i'm going to brazil, moscow. >> larry king world traveler. after 25 years, do you miss the nightly game? >> when there's a big story. when they kill osama bin laden,

yes. i want to be in. when there's a royal marriage, i don't care if i miss that or not. it depends on -- i'm a professional. we had to do shows like that. i would go in and do them. you don't like everything. but once the light goes on, hey, you give it 100%. >> how is piers morgan doing in your time slot? you reported earlier he's not that dangerous. >> i went on and told him, when you promote something and say i'm dangerous, you better be dangerous. he's very good. i don't see dangerous. i told him, when you overpromote something, you can never live up to it. if i'm a special on alzheimer's, and i tell you this is the ultimate special on alzheimer's, the greatest special you've ever done. you can't equal that. >> you say bill o'reilly, sean hannity at fox don't have to be dangerous. >> well, their guests are props

for their -- fox is a forum. it's a forum for the republican party. msnbc is a forum for the democratic party. that's what they are. denying that is silly. i think roger ailes is a seen yous. >> you're not saying they don't intend to be fair, but -- >> they're not journalists, they're hosts of shows. >> they get ratings. >> that's what they do. it's such a small box in the world. look at the top 15 cable shows. you know what the most popular show on cable is? "spongebob." >> i hear he gets a pretty good salary. >> last point. the eat it up, spit it out culture we now live in. sounds to me like as that has gotten to be a sharper, faster-moving, meaner culture, you're not that comfortable with it. >> i don't like it. i think cnn does the best it can

with it. but this is -- when you're in a breaking news competitive business, there's a tendency, howie, you know this, to rush something. the demise of newspapers is one of the saddest things to me. so i question are we better off now with instant information than we were with edward r. murrow, huntley brinkley and the men producing news then? are we better off now? not so sure. >> we'll leave it hanging in the air. larry king. >> thanks, howie. always great seeing you. up next, a lesbian blogger who wasn't. we'll talk to the straight man behind the website for gay women and why he spent three years living a lie. 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. 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 is best absorbed in small continuous amounts. only one calcium supplement does that in one daily dose. new citracal slow release... continuously releases calcium plus d for the efficient absorption my body needs. citracal.

britta olsen is my patient. i spend long hours with her checking her heart rate, administering her medication,

and just making her comfortable. one night britta told me about a tradition in denmark, "when a person dies," she said, "someone must open the window so the soul can depart." i smiled and squeezed her hand. "not tonight, britta. not tonight." ♪

it turned out to be a media hoax of global proportions. she wasn't in syria, she wasn't a lesbian and wasn't a woman. she was tom macmaster, a straight man from georgia living in scotland. he apologized this week when the scam was exposed. then the story took another strange turn.

a lesbian blog helped publicize this blogger. paula brooks is a fictional character invented by a man named bill ghraiber. i spoke to him earlier from cincinnati. >> bill ghraiber, welcome. >> hello. >> you created this site, les gets real. a straight guy, former air force pilot. why have you pretended to be a lesbian? >> i was trying to provide a platform for lesbians to speak. actually i didn't do an awful lot of the writing. i have writers that write for the site. mostly what i was doing is news copy. >> but why would you not do that under your own name and you could hire all the lesbians you want, why do this impersonation? why be an imaginary lesbian?

>> because i'm a straight white guy and what lesbian is going to want to work for me. >> let me go back to the beginning. i understand you created this character who was a surfer and you have a couple that are gay and that you feel strongly about these issues. but how do you make the leap to saying i'm going to go online and pretend to be a lesbian? >> actually, it was a metamorphosis. it didn't happen overnight. what actually was going on is that i found out that people polled this little surfer girl things really good news tips. if you pulled the strings on them, they were very good news stories. >> why did you want to be a surfer girl in the first place? what went through your mind? >> that was a -- like i said, originally it was a fun thing, a

literary construct. it was never meant to be taken serious. she had a talking dog. >> it was kind of a prank on your part, and then it gathered momentum and you said, hey, i kind of like this? >> it gathered momentum. i saw people were were giving h stories that were news story, and i thought well, you know, this is important stuff. you could put this out and inform the community on this. >> so the thing that strikes me about this is for three years you were leading a double life. you were deceiving your staff. your deputy editor says she's furious about this. did you feel guilty about this at all? >> yes, i did. >> did you think about revealing yourself long before this? >> long before this. >> and why did you not? >> about every time -- every time that i thought that i could tell somebody i wound up with -- running into somebody that was not exactly stable.

i mean, and then once you get into it, you're into it. >> and by pretending to be a lesbian and creating what was a pretty popular site, i mean, is there something about saying i'm the lesbian editor of this website that attracts more attention than bill graber being a blogger? >> well, actually, i -- the -- big graber being a blogger wouldn't have attracted attention. >> why is that? >> bill graber talking about lgbt issues wouldn't attract attention. nobody would listen to him. >> let me get into the situation with the syrian alleged lesbian blogger, amina. you played a role, your site played a role in publicizing amina, and of course she turned out to be an american man living in scotland. were you suspicious because you yourself were perpetrating this kind of scam? >> at first, i was suspicious because the way he was coming in

on my site, he was coming in from an ip in scotlandnd. i asked him or asked her at the time -- >> an ip, a web address, okay. >> her web address was coming in from scotland. i asked her at the time, i said, you know, i'd you to report. she was a fantastic writer, an incredible writer. and it sounded like an important story. i said but your ip address says you're coming in from scotland. i got that explained it was a proxy so the security people didn't get it. and i've dealt with that before where people were actually coming from proxies, from egypt or some other places where they were coming into the site through -- >> let me ask you this final question, because a lot of people think in some ways, beau cases, yours and tom mcmaster, the alleged syrian lesbian blogger, it's been kind of a setback for lesbians. now that this has all come out, do you feel like you owe anyone

an apology? >> i think i do owe the community an apology because i know that some -- we did good work on the site. i had some incredible writers that were out there. one developed a whole series on the corrective rape issue in south africa. and now the credibility on that is hurt. i mean, people are saying, well, look at your leader. what about the rest of you? and i only hope that the rest -- the readership doesn't hold that against them, because i wasn't being straight up about who i was. because everybody else on that site -- everybody on that site was real. >> everybody except you. all right. pretty stunning revelations. big graber, thanks very much for joining us. >> thank you. still to come, a fox news host flirts with racial stereotyping. why dick morris is stopping his criticism of mitt romney. and a miami newspaper blows the biggest local sports story in years. our "media monitor.

now on brakes. ng tell us what you want to pay. we do our best to make that work. deal! my money. my choice. my meineke. [ slap! slap! slap! slap! slap! ] [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium rich tums goes to work in seconds. nothing works faster. ♪ tum tum tum tum tums

down the hill? man: all right. we were actually thinking, maybe... we're going to hike up here, so we'll catch up with you guys. [ indistinct talking and laughter ] whew! i think it's worth it. working with a partner you can trust is always a good decision. massmutual. let our financial professionals help you reach your goals. her morning begins with arthritis pain. that's a coffee and two pills. 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 and fewer pills for a day free of pain. and get the all day pain relief of aleve in liquid gels.

time now for our "media monitor," a weekly look at the hits and errors in the news business. i thought we were beyond the this sport of thing in 2011, but apparently not. fox news host eric bolling used racially tinged language to describe a meeting between two black heads of state. here's some of what he said. >> mr. obama and one of africa's representatives. not the first time he's had a hoodlum in his house. >> an urban street term to describe the beating with obama. bolling later apologized. >> one editorial note. on friday we did a story about the president meeting with the president of gaban. we had a little fast and loose with the language and we know it's been interpreted as being disrespectful. for that, i'm sorry. we did go a bit too far. >> more than a bit too far in my view. one question i always ask about commentators on the left and the right is whether we're getting their unvarnished opinion or are

they toeing some kind of party line? fox news analyst dick morris said he'll throw his support to anyone the gop puts up or as conservative host mike gallagher put it, whoever the republicans prop up. >> he may have to carry this guy against obama. those are morris' own words. talk about falling into line. now, i'm pretty sure i was watching testimony that the dallas mavericks won the nba championship last sunday, and congratulations to owner mark cuban, who was on this program just a few weeks ago. but someone at "the miami herald" failed to get the message that the heat with super ego free agent lebron james lost