parliament. it's gotten so bad the prime minister has called on legislators to apologize. the correct answer to our challenge question was d, you might be surprised to know there are still 46 countries with combat troops in afghanistan. go to our website for more. thank to all of you for being part of my program this weeks. i will see you next week. stay tuned for "reliable for sources." >> no matter how much evidence mounted of a corrupt culture, the one thing i never expected is that rupered murdock would shut it down. today is the last day for the newspapers as a phone hacking investigates reveals in a "news of the world quest targeted ordinary people. how deep is it the -- casey anthony's lawyer complains about media

assassination after his client is acquitted. did the legal loud mouth it is go too far? and should television news be ashaped for turning this tragedy into a soap opera? this question -- is the press guilty as equally to blame when that may not be the i'm howard kurtz, and this is "reliable sources." that phone hacking scandal had been spinning out of the control for months, but this week they made some stunning disclosures that went well beyond rogue journalists they access the the phone of a 13-year-old, and hacked phones of families of victims of the

bombing. >> they interfere with her messages, raising hopes she might still be alive. >> it is frankly a staggering -- another staggering development in this whole phone-hacking scanned add. >> the news of the world is to be no more after this sunday. the final episode because of the problems that has beset it. >> an extraordinary moment, "news of the world" is to close, victim of its own phone-hacking scandal. >> the 168-year-old numbs has now fallen victim to scandal joining us emily bell, director of columbia for video media.

here at washington, toby harden, and matt frey of bbc world news american soon to join channel 4. how angry are people at the latest disclosures, and directed at rupered murdock. >> i think it's been an extraordinary six days here, because it really has -- this story has almost swiveled on a dime. that the guardian han bringing forth disclosure after disclosure around the story, but largely it was about celebrity phones being hacked and people who are in the public eye. the tipping point's when millie's phone had been hacked and messages had been erase d a

that point the temperature change and really willings in to speak out, a small group that had been willing to push this story and how there is no other story here. >> matt frey, tabloids do a lot of crazy things in londsen, was it that far out of the mainstream? >> yes, it was the phone hacking into the bereached people who are killed soldiers killed in iraq, it's something that's enough. but this is a general problem about the culture of tabloid journalism in britain, which has been addressed by people like david cameron himself.

almost a corporate shake speer and drama, it's about really a battle between two bruised institution. murdock's decision to close the paper, is it damage control? it because the goism is worried -- >> i certainly thin that's a huge part. >> you're saying he may be close

the paper in part because of business and finance reasons? >> clearly. >> this is a debacle. >> exactly. no and very, very strong opinion was this was to protect rebecca wade and a former editor who was the editor when her phone was hacked. >> she's now the chief executive. let me put this conversation on paw. we're going to go for a bit of breaking news regards the 135th and final space shuttle mission. john zarrella is standing by to talk about a docking manure which is under waite. john?

>> about sick feel separates it. this is the final time a space shuttle will ever dock with the international space station, less than five feet away. you can see in the live picture that you have a camera inside the docking ring on board the space shuttle "atlantis" action and looking at the docking ring on board the space station. the space shuttle ren day viewed with the international space station flying within tandem. >> docking is confirmed. capture confirmed, 10:07 central

time. you heard from the voice of mission control. >> so the docking has now taken place. remarkable, howard. we've seen this so many time. pinches john zarrella, thanks so much. great to watch it. it's almost become routine. more ahead in this program. let resume or conversation. emily bell, yes, we can come up

with business reasons, but in some way, hadn't it become a toxic symbol of gymism? >> i think the public sent meant, and potentially readers i think meant when they did the mental calculation, this enormous kind of gesture i have no doubt at the base of it there was a business decision here. it had to become a difficult symbol. it had been for a long time sort of a cheeky sort of reporting, slightly sleazy details of people's personalized type newspaper, everybody in britain grew up with it, kind of like a

cultural metaphor, if you like, for a certain type of very kind of intrusive investigation, but it employed a lot of journalists who were not corrupt. there's a great feeling of anger and regret as well. >> and most didn't have much to do with it. >> i think the crucial thing that's happened. it has overstepped the line where it's taken on not just the celebrities or politicians sore of considered to be fair game s. but for the first time, it's taken on institutions that represent the readers themselves. when you start talking about relatives, start hacking the phones of relatives many people in iraq, then you are messing

with your very constituency, with the blue collar workers. >> i think it's important to also remember how much this is about politics. this is about the influence of news international. david cameron's spin doctor was andy coursen, "news of the world" editor. >> and for people who don't know the names, he had been -- he became a communications director for the prime minister. he was arrested on friday, and that's a political problem for cameron. before we go to break, i want to ask you this question. where was the public outrage last year when the "news of the world" report, known as the fake sheikh, posed as a. >> the tipping point was when it was about a murder victim.

i mean, the fake sheikh, 250 convictions, he's got a story today about a bull gardian and sex slaves, very legitimate stories, but yes it was a media class, an elite class that were campaigning and doing some amazing work on this, but a tipping point on monday. bhil margaret thatcher was taking on the mining union, he was taking on the immediate use -- david cam rho admitted as much the other day. we're going to talk about the close, some would atoo cozy relationships between british journalists and politicians, on the other side of the break. stay with us. it's the only complete multivitamin with ginkgo to support memory and concentration.

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david cameron attempting to distance himself on the "news of the world" scandal. he spoke on this friday after the arrest of andy colson. >> the truth is, to coin a phrase, we have all been in this together. the press, the politicians, and leaders of all parties, yes, including me. because party leaders were so keen to win the support of newspapers, we turned a blind eye to the need to sort this issue, to get on top of the bad practices, to change the way or newspapers are regulated. >> emily bell, ruper murdock's son endorsed david cameron. he's not kidding, is he?

>> well, no, but as somebody said, some of us are more in it together than others. that's undoubtedly the case that david cameron lives very close to rebecca brooks in a part of the countryside, there's a chipping norton set like a poughkeepsie set may in the united states, not very glamorous, but at the heart of the -- but previously there was a close relationship between brooks and the murdochs and blair and some of his ministers, too, so the working of that soft power network, where you have the politicians, the media owners and regulations, it's not like the sectors, a much closer nexus there already, and the murdochs have been absolutely superb at courting and capturing the political classes, and making sure that they -- that

they bend to their will. the political class -- >> let me jump in for a second. let me bring in toby. as he admitted, politicians sort of -- because they wanted support from the media and pleats were paid off. >> taking payments. some payments were in 1992, it was the sun what won it, the conservatives, an it's been a received wisdom that you needed the endorsement of "the sun" to get into power and get your messages across. that dam seems to have burst, but david cameron, his background is a pr guy. he had a great performance there. it suited him absolutely. i've got about half a minute to break. you worry this could lead to regulation of the press in britain? >> absolutely, yes. maybe that's a good thing on one level, could be a bad thing on another level. this is the crucial political question. he will have to put his own

commitment to the test, whether his government ends up approving the deal that he's interested in. that's about 12 billion pounds. "news of the world" only had a retch of 1 billion. if cameron and the government says yes to that deal, then the opposition has a very clear narrative in the next election to say they are in bed together. >> the telegraph had the best headline when it said good-bye cruel world. emily bell in london, matt frey, to be harnden, thank you. we saw the dramatic docking of the shuttle, and the final liftoff. we'll be back with this question. did the media's boredom with these launches help kill the program?

it was a time when i was growing up when the space

program was one of the most exciting adventures in the world. the last 30 years nasa has sent so many space shuttles into orbit, the launches have become somewhat routine except for the heartbreaking disasters. last friday, the tlas shuttle lifted off. >> 2, 1, 0, and liftoff, the final liftoff of "atlantis" on the shoulders of the space shuttle america will continue the dream. >> it is time to see what is in effect the end of the u.s. manned space program, as we've come to know it. >> and an absolutely perfect launch from the kennedy space center in florida. >> 30 years now of history concluding really today with this launch action and then of course, the return days from now. >> joining us is pbs science correspondent miles o'brien. you were down there in cape canaveral.

>> on a personal level it's sad. i've watched 40-plus launches, it's a part of my life, but the truth is all good things must come to an end. the a time to say good-bye. it's complicated, expensive and frankly not the safest way to get to the station. and frankly it's time to think of another mission. it was my sense the media's interests really plummeted. remember when walter cronkite would narrate. america stopped. i wonder if the declining public interest is related to the declining media interest. >> there is a lot of that, but let's go back farther. really, the weighing interest on the part of the american public began with the splashdown of apollo 11. thing about it for a moment. the perfect navy tiff. let's beat the russians to the moon, honoring the wishes of a

martyred president. it was mad for tv. so we did it and americans began tuning out. think about the shuttle. it was built as reliability access to space, a space truck if you will. that's a snoozer if you're trying to think of a way to selling the story. >> but talking about selling the story, and i think in the '60s, there were cheerleaders for the system, but how much access did you ever have to astronauts? it's still a human story. i don't know the names of most of these people. >> first of all, nasa at the outset wanted to make it seem routine, right? so to the extent they didn't want to create another set of mercury 7 superstars, they wanted to make them more like airline pilots, but when you think about that'sa in the 1960s, the public affairs people had a palace guard mentality, protect the astronauts and their families. you transition to the shuttle

program, and the onslaw wasn't there, but the palace guard remained. there was a sense of keeping the astronauts in a bubble there were many instances when i was rye buffed. that's a shame. truly the human stories are what sell newspapers and make people watch. >> and the one, of course, that jumped out recently was mark kegly, because he's married to congresswoman gabby giffords. you were let go by cnn 3 years ago, the unit you headed was largely disbanded. >> no, it was completely disbanded. is that another sign that television cares less about nasa and space? >> yeah, let's face it, you work in a newsroom. i cam in as a history major. i learned science are not along the way. we deal with editors who are the political science, english, history majors, maybe

scientific-phobic, there is not a sense that this is necessarily important. they don't embrace thinks subjects very well. >> or are they reflecting the judgment that the public has largely tuned out, it's not the hot story, lever let's do other hot stories, and this doesn't deserve front page or top of the newscast coverage. >> you could do a dive to the bottom. you've been talking at the top of your show twha happens when you start going after those stories. the fact of the matter is, there is an audience out there that wants this kind of coverage. i've been doing webcasts, for the last ten shuttle launches. we draw in about a couple hundred,000 people watching us for six straight hours talking about space. inch wining, 500 miles deep. so there is an audience out there. the mainstream media, for whatever reasons, feels they could gather up enough eyeballs, because it's probably a bit too expensive. will nasa be covered at all

now that there's no exciting new mission, president obama's idea of going doesn't leave much of a story line. >> it's tough in the human space program, because we don't know precisely where it's headed. there's a very exciting world right now in commercial space, trying to make a buck in space. >> mylobrine nice to have you back on cnn. >> a pleasure. coming up in the second part of "reliable sources" the casey anthony frenzy. why was twist so obsessed. did the legal pundits engage in character assassination? plus as the president and congress struggle, are journalists wrongly portraying democrats and republicans as equally to blame for the impasse?

we have never had a segment on this program about the casey anthony case, an that's not by accident. i saw no reason to join the frenzy. but with her mother acquitted of murder and manslaughter, most television news outlets, even cnn which had been playing down the story went utterly bongers. many of the legal pundits made clear they disapproved. >> the jury delivers a stunning blow to justice with a not guilty on all major counts. >> i was shocked and i was stunned, and i stared at my television set in utter disbelief. >> obviously anyone who listened to this case who heard about this mother waiting 30 days to report her daughter missing, i mean, you couldn't help but be outraged. you couldn't help think this is a bad person or bad mother.

>> obviously casey anthony doesn't defer to walk free. just the fact he doesn't report her 2-year-old miss fog 30 days means the woman should spent a long time in prison. and impassioned words from her lawyer. >> i hope this is a lesson to those of you who have indulged in media assassination for three years, bias and prejudice, and incompetent talking heads saying what would be and how to be. i'm disgusted by some of the lawyers that have done this, and i can tell you my colleagues from coast to coast and border to border have condemned this. and don't have the experience to back up their words or the law to do it. >> he has a point, doesn't he? joining us to talk about the

coverage, diane dimond, and lauren ashburn. lauren, what do you make of the sheer overwhelming volume of the coverage. >> let me guess, you think it's outrageous and overkill. so do i. i think we have gone crazy. why this case? why now? why her? i'll tell you one reason. the only reason is ratings, which equals advertising dollars, which equal profits. >> diane, this is your job to cover crime stories, but when you look at the broad landscape, how can this excess possibly be justified? >> well, because people watch it, frankly. let's talk about the elephant in the room that you haven't mention. it'sen cnn's sister station,

hln, who has covered this from the get-go, top mom. flag flag has something called a sunshine law and everything that the police know gets released to the public. if the immediate gentleman does not cover it, i would tell you i think they're remiss. i think where the overkill happened was on the national scene. how many young children are killed every year in this country, it's a sad fact, and we don't do nearly this kind of coverage for any of them. yes, it was overkill. >> on that point, you've covered murders of children. >> of course, by their mothers. >> that don't make national news. >> right. i was a local reporter for five years, harrisburg, new york, washington. in harrisburg, on a hot 100-degree july day, police found two children in a soiled crib with baby bottles that had

roaches in them. they were did. that woman, african-american -- african-american we got a vosot on the air, talking about in outrageous case. why didn't that become national attention? well, at the time there were no cameras in the courtroom in pennsylvania. and i'm not saying that sunshine laws shouldn't exist and we shouldn't have cameras, but that is one of the deciding factors on whether or not these cases come to television. second of all, there were no racy pictures of this woman, as there were with casey anthony. number three, there was not a cute toddler and pictures of those children. >> i think you hit on something. diane, you say we put it on tv because people to watch. but casey anthony is white, middle class and attractive. you don't get these friendsies, for example, over

african-american families where these things happy. >> there's enough hi pawaii poc sills to go around. i listened to a bite of cheney mason this morning online where he said, the defense is full of beans. well, then he became one of the defense. >> let's put up a picture of him telling the media with a sing the gesture -- >> class act. >> diane brought up the question of hln, which has carried a lot of the live testimony in this trial, nancy grace, of course, the billing star there. when nancy grace and other legal pundits say this woman is guilty, guilty, guilty, are they part of the problem? >> of course they were. but before we get to that, in helping you keep your job here, i think it's amazing that cnn has this program to attack or to

analyze and talk about this case on a cnn network. i think that that is great journalism so, okay? you happy with that? let me answer your question. >> kudos. >> the question then becomes, is this something that we should pay attention to. there are a lot of people that want to make their careers. don't you think the attorneys saw an opportunity to become a national figure? does that -- i want to know, does that affect the outcome of the case? did nancy grace getting up there talking all the time about this tot mom, a murderer, affect the outcome? >> of course these people want to become famous. a lot of people who are legal analysts today, cut their teeth in the o.j. era. they've been on television so much they got their own shows. >> johnnie cochran was a household name. >> go ahead, diane.

>> here is my big problem. network executives, television executives have decided to give programs to -- and nancy grace is a friend of mine, i want to say up front, i worked with her at court tv, i co-hosted a baby shower, but let's remember, i'm are trained journalist. she's a lawyer. she's a former prosecutor. there are beauty queens, there are doctors, there are 23450edians, who all have national programs on that talked about this case on television who i would submit are not trained journalists and not really qualified to talk about a case like this, and that's where it gets mixed up. >> i don't think she's qualified, either. i don't know nancy grace, i didn't host her baby shower, i'm sure i would like her as a person, but i think she's wrong. >> i'm not arguing --

>> she influenced the outcome. in the case with the african-american woman. that was a public defender and three-day trial. do you think that jurors sitting in that jury box don't have for a month, wasn't it or three weeks, don't have some sort of relationship with the woman who's sitting in that jury? isn't there something to the woman who's sitting there as a defendant, isn't there something to playing this so big there's an influence? >> here is what i see as the problem, diane. do i think that casey anthony is probably guilty? yes, i do, like most people in america, frankly, but it's one thing for legal pundits to say she seems guilty, look at this, look at that, and it's another thing for the prosecution to go into court and prove the case. that's where i think a lot of the legal lowe mouths lost sight of. you still have to convince a jury that you have a case. >> but again we label soup cans

in this country, but don't label the people who are giving the public information. i am an objective journalist. i write a syndicated column where i take off that hat and give my opinion, but i'm a frand journalist, but people who have other programs that executives put in as the voices of authority are not the voices of authority. many are biassed, many of them do taint cases. i would submit night after night for three years that's a bit of overkill. >> the bias that tends to put on -- bhu with o.j. simpson, lawrence, you know, he was one of the world's most famous athletes, michael jackson. you can understand these becoming big celebrities. then you have these people, missing women like. >> shandra levy. >> but casey anthony -- television turns it into a soap opera so we care enough, and then you get the ratings. >> a lot of it has to do with

timing. if there had been something big happening, if we had had another, god forbid, 9/11 type of incident, we never would have heard about casey anthony. >> when there's a news vacuum. >> however, my mother made a good point. she said we always constantly need to be entertained. there is a reason that the soap operas are going off the air. it's expensive to produce. it's a heck of a lot easier to throw reporters -- i had a twitter conversation with dan abrams, who actually made the argument that we learn about the justice system through this, and i say that's bunk. the reason is i took a class from his father. that's how i learned about the legal system. >> this point about turning it into entertainment is what troubles me the most, when we take this tragedy of a child being murdered and it somehow becomes ratings and interstatement. lawrence ashburn, diane dimond,

thanks for jointing me. >> my pleasure. is the press afraid to note that one side may be more responsible for taking the country to the brink of default? stay with us. ♪ ♪ look at that car, well, it goes fast ♪ ♪ givin' my dad a heart attack ♪ [ friend ] that is so awesome. ♪ i love my car [ engine revving ] [ male announcer ] that first chevy, yea, it gets under your skin. ♪

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♪ yeah ♪ oh unlike fish oil, megared softgels are small and easy to swallow with no fishy smell or aftertaste. try megared today. the clock is ticking as leaders meet again tonight to try to hammer out a deal, even though john boehner is warning he wants a smaller deal. this high-stakes game of budgetary poker poses an unusual challenge. democrats have been saying they're negotiating in good faith, while the republicans are holding the economy hostage by refusing to talk about raising revenue. the republicans reject this,

saying they're protecting the economy by focusing on out of control spending. david brooks, the conservative "new york times" columnist called out the gop in a way that most mainstream have. he writes. if the republican party were a normal party, it would take advantage of this amazing moment. it is being offered the deal of the century. republican party may no longer be a normal party. over the past few years it's been more of a psychological protest than a practical governing alternative. catrkatrina vanden hovel is her and tony, a former press secretary. katrina, here's david brooks saying -- have most of the me a media -- >> yes, though i think in the last weeks we've seen more

attention paid for the fact you no longer have a republican party nixon would recognize. this is an extremist republican party willing to blow up the economy. a debt ceiling, by the way, republicans seven times voted for to lift under george w. bush, but i think the largest crisis, the media malpractice, howard, is the fact that i have the idea, the concept that america is bankrupt. it is not bankrupt. what is bankrupt is the inside the beltway consensus that the real crisis in this country is about deficits and debt. when you look at the front pages in the last days, the last few years, howard, what is it? it is a jobs crisis. so when you listen to bill daley and he said president obama came to washington to do something big, what we -- --

>> tony blakley, i'm not taking sides here. journalists could easily write that by saying we'll negotiate anything, except tax increases, republicans are blocking progress toward a deal. >> look, i'm in favor of objective journalism. when i was newt's press secretary, i would seek out the journalists who knew the substance and trying to report objective. there's not as many of those reports and organizations around as there used to be. if you have the choice between a transcription service, where the media reports what each side says, and cheerleading, which i think is sometimes what we get, i'll take transcription over cheerleading, but i prefer journalism over transcription. imagine garrett son, one of the best reporters, he's got a story on this budget, where he leads in the first two paragraphs characterizing boehner's position to watergate, because

he's standing firm on no taxes. you have to get down to the 13th paragraph before he says the democrats are just as much to blame for refusing to deal with entitlements. so he's one of the best reporters in the business. is that objective? democrats have their own sacred cows. medicare is one of them. but president obama has put nearly $500 billion in medicare cuts on the table, saying the republicans should give something on revenue. but, again, i don't see the press -- i think the press is so worried about appearing to take sides that they don't want to say, well, the democrats took another step here and the republicans, and, look, boehner is under a lot of pressure from his republican caucus, are still digging in. >> let me reframe it if i might. there's too much covering this debate in terms of political gamesmanship, brinksmanship. what we need is not the grid of negotiation but the sensible policy, context and history.

senator moynihan once said people have a right to their own opinions but not to their own facts. i think we need more reporting on stories, for example, what "the new york times" did in march of this year showing that ge profited $14 billion in 2010 and paid zero, nada, in federal taxes. these are the stories that should provide the context for understanding that there should be no moral, political, or policy equivalents between raising taxes on the very richest in corporations and taking away lifelines for millions of americans who have already borne the brunt of these cuts. sourcing journalistic issue. where are the stories? we need more stories about the consequences of what is going on inside the beltway around this country. >> i understand you want to broaden the the media's economic debate, but there is the august 2nd deadline, after which the united states government will be in default. let me bring tony back in because this whole argument act tax increases is an interesting challenge for the press. obama says close what he calls

tax loopholes -- corporate jets, the oil industry, hedge fund managers. and that's a modest amount of money, let's face it. republicans say that's a tax hike. we don't want to raise taxes. shouldn't journalists say most people wouldn't think of end ethanol subsidies as a tax hike. it's the closing of a tax preference that a lot of people think can't be justified. >> it's not a question of what most people think but what an objective journalist who's informed judges to be the reality. one man's tax break is another man's interest deduction, which is not a tax break but -- >> that's a tax preference that lot of people love. but still costs the treasury money. >> yeah. well, the phrase "costs the treasury money" insurgents it was the treasury's money in the first place. >> foregone. all right. >> but, look, i'm in favor of the journalism reporting in detail what each party is proposing and the history of those proposals. for instance, from the republican point of view, in 1982, i was with reagan and the white house. we had the tedford taxing deal

where reagan was promised $3 of spending cuts for $1 of tax increase. the history was that he didn't get all of the spending cuts. he cut all the taxes. when you analyze what's the likelihood of proposed spending cuts coming online, i'd like to see journalism report on the history of promised spending cuts and how many came out. >> sometimes they have. do you think the coverage, tony, has been fair or biased? >> oh, i think it's been in a broad zone of fairness right now. because it's largely been transcription, largely been the republicans say this about themselves, the democrats say this. >> it doesn't help viewers that muff. i asked eric cantor, the house majority leader, what are you willing to give up since the democrats have put an awful lot in the trillions of dollars of spending cuts on table, which they're not necessarily in favor of? he said, look, we don't want to raise the debt ceiling. we're raising the debt ceiling, that's our sacrifice in exchange for spending cuts.

do you think they've accepted that frame of the issue? >> howard, you know this better than i do. there's no more one press in this country. there are two, three, four different medias. eric cantor says if you don't play my game, i'm going to walk away. that is not politics. though i think president obama has too often led with compromise, there is no question that if you look at the compromise that the democratic party has made rightly or wrongly in my view over these last six months, a year, there is a sense of shared sacrifice. i come back. i agree with tony blankley, by the way. maybe our journalism can accommodate history or context, but we need to look back at the last 30 years and see how the tax burden on the very much rri today at the lowest point in decades. that should play a part about the debt ceiling and deficit reduction. the supply-side economics that have infiltrated the media, call it bias or whatever, that is leading the way our coverage is framed.

the idea that spending cuts lead to recovery or prosperity, no. >> there's a great debate about that. let me close with this, tony blankley. each side has its talking points. you talk about transcription journalism. you don't seem that uncomfortable with it, but i think it's a surrender to say one side says this, one side says that. >> i completely agree. i think there's a rich, recent political history to be reported on by the media and they're not doing enough of it. i agree. i wouldn't be -- as a conservative republican, i'd be very comfortable with a deep historic analysis and reporting by journalism regarding the history of tax cuts, budget, revenue raises, whether you raise the rates, do you increase revenue. a lot of good stuff there. >> we still have an opportunity with the debate just really heating up and the deadline facing us. let the record show, tony blankley and katrina van high-profihovell to agree on one point this morning. >> history. >> still to come, the end of cnn's spitzer experiment and an unusual hire. as a manager, my team counts on me to stay focused.

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from the moment cnn hired eliot spitzer as a talk show host last year, most critics thought he had too much baggage to succeed after resigning as new york's governor for patronizing prostitutes. dumping his co-host did little to improve. now a new program for former cnbc anchor erin burnett. i must say having been on the program a few times spitzer is one aggressive interviewer. this might be an even stranger choice than spitzer. "good morning america" is tapping former kidnap victim elizabeth smart as a contributor. she's going to specialize in missing persons cases, but isn't