award, one of journalism's most prestigious honors. the committee awarded the prize for my commentary's last year on iran as well as for our fixing education primetime special. thanks. i will see you next week. stay tuned for "reliable sources." let me see if i can explain this. good morning america wanted to stick it to the "today" show, so it hyped a week of appearances by katie couric, who used to work at "today," but "today" didn't like this maneuver, and instead they gave a co-hosting gig to sarah palin who famously clashed with katie couric, and you get the idea. >> i first woke up at 1:15 this morning, like, i'm ready to go. i was, like, wait a second. i don't have to get up this early. >> we also want to mention it is a pleasure to welcome the former alaska governor sarah palin to our program this morning. oh, man. see, she's doing her homework. sdoo thanks for letting me crash

your dressing room and now that i have your hair products -- >> what is all this telling us about the network morning wars? what's the impact of matt lauer reupping at "today?" keith olbermann and current tv filing scorching suits against each other just days after his firing. in the court of public opinion, keith takes his case to david letterman. >> i screwed up. i screwed up really big on this. >> but is he. >> the media endorsing mitt romney wroosh. >> nothing will stop him from being the man. the race is effectively over. the only person that doesn't seem to understand that is rick santorum and newt gingrich. >> and, of course, the pundits are never wrong. i'm howard kurtz, and this is

"reliable sources. >> we'll get to all that, but, first, breaking news this morning. we learned within the last 90 minutes that mike wallace has died. mike wallace, the legendary, and i don't use that word lightly -- legendary talk show host, correspondent for "60 minutes" really a giant in the broadcast news industry, he was 93 years old. his son, chris, of course, is the host of "fox news sunday." mike wallace has died. he has been ill for a while, but still somehow the news coming as a shock. so i'm going to turn to our panel here. let me introduce everybody. david zurich sitting over here. the television and media critic for "the baltimore sun." in los angeles sharon waxman, the founder and editor in chief of the rap.com. and marissa guthrie, senior reporter for "the hollywood reporter." let me start with you.

it's hard to overstate wallace's importance because his career lasted so long, and he did so many different things. >> yeah. you know, mike wallace is one of the people when you think back born in 1918, that's before radio really. that's how long he has been there. he is one of the true pioneers of american television. you know, we take all of these things about television being for granted in the living room, and it's people like him who not only make television the medium it is, but made television journalism a force it is in american life. he is a part of of the cbs news, and i think back to that era. look, he was not a great journalist when he came to cbs news. >> he was a talk show host. >> all of that is wonderful about him. he brought all those skills there. he worked with great journalists, and he found a great producer in don hewitt, and the two of them, their mentor and his tormentor is the

way he once referred. he is my mentor and tormentor. it's absolutely true. mike wallace really is how you can't overstate what a giant this guy was. >> i have to say he was controversial. he did a lot of controversial stories. his techniques were sometimes controversial. he was also remarkable that he continued to work even after several announcements that he was retiring, coming back. you know, well into his late 1980s. >> yeah. that was kind of amazing. i mean, we all can track our lives as journalists a bit against the career of mike wallace, and he just never seemed to age. he never seemed to flag. i do think that is why it's so sad for those of us who grew up kind of aspiring to do great journalism because mike wallace was always there, and that kind of stamina, i mean, i met him and got to know him when he was in his 80s, and he was going strong, so, i mean, there's also, like, a whole generation of journalists who were producers for executive producers for him who learned from him and who went out into the world and have done great journalism on television since

then. the important thing, i think, especially on this show to mention is that this is the kind of journalism that television so rarely does. it's what "60 minutes" established as this enormously credible and enormously important and enormously profitable center of journalism on television. it's unparalleled, as you know, on television. there's no show that comes close to it. mike wallace really epit mized that show. >> mike wallace began his career in the 1950s as a talk show host and a program called "night beat" that he was there in 1968 when cbs created what was the first news magazine show "60 minutes" and really along with morley safer and ed bradley really became the face of that program. >> i think that his death sort of reminds us how rare these brands are in tv news. i mean, "60 minutes" has been on for more than 60 years, and as sharon said, they continue to do

amazing journal wrichl, utsz a reminder how hard it is to launch brands like that now. his passing and the passing of andy rooney too earlier is just -- it's an end of an era. he had some trouble remembering things from long ago. his voice was very strong that unmistakably strong voice. he once interviewed for me for "of 0 minutes," and he was a pit bull, as you might imagine, and he was on this program once, and a couple of times, actually, and i pressed him about why are you still doing this? he was probably, you know, 82 at the time. why are you still getting on and off airplanes. he made it pretty clear -- he joked around about it, but this is what he did. he didn't want to give it up, and he really had this passion for journalism. at the same time, david, more than anything else particularly in the early decade or two of "60 minutes" he became known for the confrontational ambush interview in which he or others would go up to some bad guy,

somebody who wouldn't talk to the program and confront him on the street. that later fell out of favor, and even wallace, you know, i think moved away from that at a certain point. >> he was the architype. it created this notion of, you know, you see all the phony versions of it. we're the i-team. like any arky type, it loses its energy. when they did it, it was powerful, and it was, howie, always, you mentioned -- you just said this. he stood for a tenacious kind of journalism, and he also an accountable kind of journalism. i remember interviewing him a while ago about the malcolm x interview. you know, we went at it. he stood in there and he defended it. he made a great argument for within the context of that period, the interview he did. i really -- this is really a guy you have to admire. >> i once reported, though, where he had gone too far and conducted a hidden camera interview with another reporter who thought she was just providing some background information to "60 minutes" he

was reprimanded by cbs for that, and he called my a bad name, but he did it in a good-natured way. sharon waxman, some thoughts about the impact of this man's career. it's hard to avoid the use of super latives because did he it for so long, and he did high impact stories and interviewed everybody from presidents to he once asked ayatollah whether he was crazy. >> good question. >> he interviewed ayatollah and it gives you a sense of his longevity and his ability to sustain, you know, that -- those really hard-hitting interviews. i mean, his mental strength, i mean, really all the way through until he retired was something that was really remarkable. i'll just recall -- the first time i met him in person, he was stripped to -- he was bare to his shorts and walked in glowing. it was on a summer day. the east coast on martha's vineregard. i was at someone's house, and he came in, and he immediately started peppering me with questions. who was i?

where was i at? where did i come from? he was just a natural intufr, and he had this dazzling smile. he was late in his 1980s. he was just a remarkable person. >> force of nature. final thought, marissa guthrie? >> i this i that, you know, the ambush interview -- i mean, he did later if his career kind of distance himself from those, but i think it also underscores how few interviewers can actually get to the heart of a question, the heart of a matter, and really ask the difficult, tough questions and not give up after one follow-up, but really kind of keep going in there and hammering and hammering, and mike epit mized that, and it's rare now. >> he certainly did. mike wallace, dead at 93. remarkable man. remarkable career. we have just learned about thshg as i say. when we come back, sarah palin, katie couric, and the morning show wars. all energy development comes with some risk, but proven technologies allow natural gas producers to supply affordable, cleaner energy,

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zoirchlgts if you are just joining us, mike balance yas has died at 93. joining us by phone is a cbs news white house correspondent who has worked for the network almost as long as wallace. bill plant. thank you for calling in. some reflection. >> good morning, howie. >> some reflection on mike wallace. >> sorry to hear about this. it's a loss for cbs and for the industry. >> what -- when you think about mike's career, what do you think about, bill is this. >> the first time i heard mike on the radio was when i was a kid, and he was doing a show from the nightclub in chicago with his then wife. when i came to cbs, he was doing no the morning news show. he was a tough interviewer, one of his big interviews on his show from parliament with a mob boss whose name i can't remember. and mike was so tough on this guy that everybody thought that mike was going to -- >> was he kind of an

inspirational figure for those who worked with those that are younger for cbs? >> there was nobody that did better interviews or tougher interviews than mike. he was also a very tough colleague. he would ask you questions about your work, and sort of demand to know what you were doing, why and where you got the stuff and whether there was not something better, and he wasn't even involved with the story. he was just doing this naturally. >> and he had sharp elbows when it came to trying to get a good story against some of his competitors. >> absolutely. >> he didn't want to get in the way of mike. >> bill plant, thank you so much for joining us for a brief remembrance of wallace. he was on tv so long, you saw him smoking there when that was weedily acceptable. let's turn now to the morning show wars. we showed you a little earlier sarah palin doing the co-hosting on "the "today" show." katie couric with her week at "good morning america." sharon waxman, was this a savvy move by the "today" show to let sarah palin be co-host for "today," or did it hurt their

brand? >> it was a safy move. she's so watchable. you have to hope that she's going to say something that's going to be tweet-worthy and buzz-worthy and get you attention. you know, the "today" show has got to worry a little bit. "good morning america" has been gaining on them. they've had dominance in that morning position for so many years that i think it was the right thing to do. more sarah palin, i say. >> do you think it was something of a letdown. she didn't come on until the 8:00 hour. she participated in a few segments, but, boy, the level of publicity and hype that surrounded this was incredible. >> i think that sarah palin isn't quite as white hot as she was, you know, a couple of years ago during right after the election, but, you know, she still is very charismatic. she still is going to draw some interest, and she certainly helped to, you know, promote the "today" show on a week where "gma" was pulling out all the stops and, you know, katie's

guest turn was, you know, major news. top trending topic on twitter. i think that she helped people -- she helped the "today" show remind everyone, you know, that they're still formidable during a week when they really needed that. >> i'm going to tee it up for you. i'm sorry to interrupt you. >> okay. go ahead. >> i want to play a little bit -- i want to play a little bit of sarah palin's star turn on nbc's "today." >> oh, jeez, matt. nicest lady in the world. she stopped me. asked me where i was headed. she said 30 rock. honey, i told you tina fey is here. >> if you were advising mitt romney, would you say go out and get someone who is battle-tested on a national level? >> i would say it doesn't matter if that person has national level experience or not. they're going to get clobbered by the lame stream media who does not like the conservative message. >> i don't know how much weight you gained during your pregnancies, but would you have -- how would you have felt had someone criticized you for

gaining too much weight? >> i would have wanted to purchg punch them in the neck because it's none of anybody else's business how much weight i gained. >> i am gagging. please. stop it. >> you filed a piece from vacation. >> yes, i was. for once i agreed with john stewart. he spent nine and a half minutes attacking this. i did file from vacation. here's what it is. howie, a couple of things. when you saw that thing where the person she met on the street and said -- that's so phony. it's such a lie. it's such a filthy lie. she's such hi hypocrite. cease so inauthentic. >> sarah palin. >> new york but -- no, no, no, here's why i would respectfully disagree with sharon. i don't think it was a good move. it showed how frightened they are by the move that "gma" is making on them, number one. i also think the fact that "gma" and abc said we could throw couric out here occasionally and scared them and rattled them. bringing sarah palin on that show, even if it got you a

little ratings bump for the day she was on and it deflected some attention from katie couric, was another case of "today" cheapening the journalistic brand of nbc news which runs that show. sarah palin is incredibly -- if you have a new show, you don't want sarah palin on there. don't forget, this is -- let's get a new news woman on there. >> wow. >> i can't -- i couldn't disagree more. >> go ahead. >> i couldn't disagree more. are you actually trying to argue that the "today" show should try to protect its journalistic brand in the era of fox news and msnbc? >> yes, sharon, i would. yeah. >> absolutely. okay. we lost that -- the ora of that journalistic credibility back when mike wallace used to -- was in his heyday, honestly. the news is not about journalistic purity anymore, and the "today" show really is not the showcase for great journalism. let's be honest. >> all right.

>> i have a piece on the morning show wars coming out in newsweek tomorrow, and i talk to former today show bryant gumble who said he was embarrassed to see sarah palin on his former program. i do have to say katie spent the week, you know, at "gma" as we all noted to help gma and the ratings. it was a reminder that she's really, really good, and the other big news is that even though there was a great tease that ryan seacrest, might succeed matt lauer because his contract was up at the end of the year, and i thought that was basically a horrible idea. matt lauer then now resigning for as much as $25 million a year. he will be around for at least a couple more years. the significance of that. >> oh, my goodness. it's hugely significant. i mean, matt is the "today" show, and i think that this -- they obviously need him more than ever right now because "gma" is gaining. he has -- matt has this ability to do interviews with sarah palin, interviews with vladimir putin and interviews with nicki minaj and feel comfortable and

easy and natural, doing all those different kinds of interviews, and that's so important in morning television. >> all right. let me great a brael break here. keith olbermann's war against current tv with a stack of embarrassing emails. how did this divorce get so vicious? thank you so much, i appreciate it, i'll be right back. they didn't take a dime. how much in fees does your bank take to watch your money ? if your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense.

>> he took to david letterman's couch to discuss the unhappy demise of "countdown." >> i screwed up. i screw youed up really big on had. it's my fault that it didn't succeed. i didn't think the whole thing through. if you have a chandelier, you should have a house to put it in. >> i think you're being contrite to almost a fault hire because sdsh my inference is they got you over there and they didn't

know what to do. >> "friday current tv filed an equally blistering kousht suit against olbermann, and you have been -- anyone have the upper hand here? >> well, it will come down to if current can prove that keith had unauthorized absences. i mean, one of the things that everyone always says about keith is that he actually knows his contract better than the lawyers. so if he is out there pounding the table, as joel hyatt put it, he probably knows that he can pound the table. will he get $70 million out of current? that would probably bankrupt current. there probably will be some sort of settlement here. >> okay. i want to read a couple of the internal emails that have come out in this litigation. we put the first one up on the table. this is altman writing to the current ceo joel hyatt after a frukz snafu. giver me the name so i know which one of them to kill with my bare hands. after another production difficulty, olbermann rights to

joel hyatt, can you assassinate please. this does paint a picture of olbermann who had his bitter break-up with msnbc as a bit difficult to work with. >> yeah. the story of keith olbermann is it's always about keith olbermann, and so at a certain point -- and i think we've hit that point -- we're tired of hearing keith olbermann talk about keith olbermann or other people talk about keith olbermann. you are there to entertain us with a fantastic news reporter, and this is at least the third time where a relationship with his bosses has ended badly. at some point you got to say, well, hmm, maybe it's not the bosses every single time. not that i'm trying to defend the establishment. just -- i think he is just worn out his welcome with the audience. just judging by the comments on our stories, there's, you know, very few people defending keith olbermann, and this huge massive readership saying can you just go away with this stuff? we've had enough of it. >> let me put up one more e-mail in which keith olbermann is

writing to david boreman, former executive at cnn after boreman questioned the purchase of a $5,000 desk for countdown. we can only conclude here that you have now moved from unjust fewable i guessotism and outright sabatage of this program. >> i couldn't agree with sharon more about this. olbermann is really a nasty kind of arrested adolescent, and, when he left -- when he came over there, i said his audience of a million viewers is not going to go with him, and it's not current's fault. it's his fault. he never had that kind of loyalty. he only brought an audience of about 177,000 with him, and that is when he started going psycho, when he realized that he was going to be embarrassed by this. you know, now we have mike wallace's death. let me say two things. mike wallace was a material guy as well. you see a career where that was channelled into doing great journalism. this is something he did nothing

but saeflt absorbed craziness that's all about him. >> from olbermann's point of view, he went to a much smaller network. maybe he had unrealistic expectations. there were times when the lights went out, when the cameras cut away in midsentence. there were a lot of production snafus. naturally, he and his team were exercised about that. >> as someone said elsewhere, why did he take some of the money and put it into that production? number one. i'll tell you something else, i went back and looked at the opening week reviews, mine included, and you was looking for a cable access bad looking show, and i didn't find it, and howie, if you go through there, you will find only a few slight mentions of glitches in technology. it didn't start out that way. this is a guy who hasn't come to work -- i think the lawsuit says 19 of 41 days in january. >> january and february. >> that's outrageous. this is a child, and the faster they get rid of him, the better off they are. >> what i would say is that when you hire a pit bull who knows how to growl on tv and, look, he is a talented broadcaster. he knows how to draw an audience, whether you like him

or not, you can't be surprised that he claws the furniture at home. what about going on letterman? is he out there, and he is telling his story in public, and he is being a little bit funny and self-depp crating. al gore isn't out there on television. does that give him an edge? >> yeah. i think, you know, again, i think it goes back to whether or not he has crossed the line. no, it's smasht to go on letterman, and he has this massive twitter following, and i'm sure you followed him, and we all follow him. he is putting out these tweets. you know, every five seconds saying how terrible current is and all of that. the question is how much credibility he has overall with this kind of stuff, and i just think that he is just over the line on that one. >> brief comment from you. >> that's it enough times. >> i that i what happened -- the inconvenient truth of this situation is that -- sorry. i couldn't resist. is that current, they tried to tame one of the wildest, most outspoken, most difficult personalities in tv news. they get this guy. they know his background.

they put him in there. he is demanding. he is difficult. >> they give him a management role. >> they give him a management role. they are surprised when he baifz in a way that they don't quite know how to handle. >> all right. we have to leaf it there. thanks so much. this story obviously not going away. marissa guthrie, sharon waxman and the mild-mannered david zurich here in washington. up next, my 2 cents on a national review writer's racist rant, and rupert murdock's sky news and the latest scandal of his empire.

john derbyshire has been a columnist for the national review for 11 years, and based on his latest writing he is a full-fledged racist. he recounts on a website called talky's magazine the advice he has gip his kids about black people. this includes avoid consequence trayings of black not all known for you personal where i wlsh stay out of heavily black neighborhoods. if planning a trip to a beach or an amusement park -- do not --

the national review editor richard howie was trying to g get -- >> the latest from the politically incorrect and we would never have published it, but the main reason that people noticed it is that it is by a national review writer. he is effectively using our name to get more oxygen for views with which we've never associated ourselves otherwise. there has to be a parting of the ways. derb has long danced around the line on these irz, but this column is so outlandish, it constitutes a kind of letter of resignation. lowery did the right thing in separating the publication from this racist trash, and another rout rage. when the phone hacking charges surfaced at rupert murdock's news of the world, the company tried to portrait is it as the work of a rogue reporter. that was far from true as a spat of high level arrests has shown, but the company is making no such claim now about a new scandal at sky news.

murdock's british satellite channel. >> sky news, which i'm told tuesday, was under the chairmanship of james murdock, admitted today that it had twice hacked into private emails to get stories. one case resulted in a report about the run-away canoeist, johns darwin, which was nominated for an award. >> that's a case in which a man faked his own death in an insurance scam and sky news obtained emails from his wife who was later sent to jail. the sky news shen an gajs were reported by the guardian which also led the way in the phone hacking debacle. now, you might think that sky news would be remorseful over doing something that is against british law. especially since the e-mail hacking laws approved by its managing editor john cole. he says we stand by these actions as justified and in the public interest. we do not take such decisions lightly or frequently. they require finely balanced judgment based on individual circumstances and must always be subjected to the proper editorial control. excuse me, but that's bloody rubbish. the folks at murdock's channel

are saying they reserve the right to break the law whenever they think a story is worth it, but why stop at e-mail hack sng why not break into someone's house to get the goods? the failure to recognize right and wrong here is as troubling as the hacking itself. when we come back, we'll turn our attention to politics and this looks like the pundits and the progress nost indicators are declaring the republican race over. that's 234 a moment. [ artis brown ] america is facing some tough challenges right now. two of the most important are energy security and economic growth. north america actually has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands.

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breaking news this morning is that mike wallace has died. i have just been handed a statement from cbs news about the irrepressible "60 minutes" correspondent. the chairman of cbs corporation says that his xreertd couldn't bugs as a broadcaster is immeasurable. jeff fashionan, chairman of cbs news talks about wallace's iconic style. turning now to the campaign, the biggest story in politics this week was mitt romney sweeping the primaries in wisconsin, maryland, and d.c. and their collective verdict of the media establishment. >> nothing is going to stop mitt romney from being the man. the race is effectively over. >> rick santorum has won 11 states. that's nothing to sneeze at. >> you have to say, he is running a very credible gain. he remains a credible candidate. i think it's all but over. >> two minutes are left, and he

is out of time-outs. it's really over. >> what is the impact of these journalistic pronouncements? joining to scrutinize coverage of the campaign, debra saunders columnist for the san francisco columnist, and aaron mcfibering pour real clear politics, and john, the founder of america blog.com. debra saunders, sure, mitt romney is very likely to win the gop nomination, but where does the press get off declaring this over? oits over unless there's a solar flare-up or something, and have you to start deciding how you want to cover things. ron paul came to the chronicle for an editorial board meeting on thursday, and i have to tell you, i din treat him as if he were a viable candidate. he is the like the candidate ameritus now. he is having a great time talking to college students, but

everyone knows he is not going to be president in 2012. >> why are newt and santorum still running? it seems like the media can now kill off a candidate just by cutting off his oxygen. >> i think that's true. i think as a reporter, though, you have a problem where if you want to analyze the news and you truly see that the guy doesn't have a chance, what do you do? do you not say it? sort of like the exit poll controversy we had in the past. now we don't release exit polls early because we're afraid people won't go out and vote. same thing now. it is true. if you prematurely call a candidate dead, is he dead? probably, because you called it, but what do you do if he is dead? >> every time santorum goes out and campaigns, he is peppered with questions. when are you dropping out? won't you lose your home state of pennsylvania? we don't let him talk about anything else? >> i talked to the campaign about this yesterday, actually, and their point to me was there are 3.2 million people who voted for him, and they're certainly not calling for him to get out of the race, so it's not fair to those voters. >> do you agree with that? >> i'm sorry? >> do you agree that it's unfair on the part of journalists? >> i think so, but there's a point i would make about this

versus 2008. when we were looking at the providary between hillary clinton and barack obama, we were much more interested in the math and showed the math to the voters. tim russert did a lot of this. we don't have him this time around to do this, so it's based on a lot of the presumption, which does seem a lot more unfair. >> do you know how i know that it's officially and unofficially declared as over, listen to the chatter about what we all now call the beep-stakes. >> did paul ryan's vice presidential stock go up or down today? >> i think it's much more likely that he picked someone like, say, senator portman. >> i'll start with you, amy. who should be mitt romney's running mate? >> cantor. >> interesting. ben? >> very likely to be rubio. >> debra, i don't want you to predict who you think will be the running mate. you do want to know what you think about five months before the tampa convention journalists

are now just playing this speculation game. >> well, i think this is an area journalists often get burned. that we look sort of silly. because usually we have no idea who they're going to pick. karl rove in his book talked about how as a practical joke they leaked the name of one person to a staffer who they thought was too friendly with the press, and sure enough, all these stories tumbled out. sometimes the media are right. you were right about biden in 2008. sometimes they just play us because they like to throw out names and see what happens. >> anybody want to disagree that this is silly, especially this far out, and romney probably doesn't even have a short list. >> i think media is at its best when we actually have intelligent informed people who are helping us understand what's going on. i think there's been a lot of criticism lately that people say to me is biassed or people aren't informed, but i used to like watching the sunday shows because i liked watching smart people who actually knew more than i did about politics, and i would say that's interesting what he or she thinks is going to happen. i agree, if you go too far, could you tell people what's

going to happen, and then they don't vote. fair enough. i think that's our job is to help people analyze what's going to happen. >> well, assuming that mitt romney is the nominee, which we all think eventually he will be, the thing is boston and the campaign hasn't said anything about who he might choose as his running mate yet. it's all conjecture. >> you just wait. it's all conjebbing stur, and it's going to get worse. believer me. let me ask you about this one other huge story this week when ann romney, the candidate's wife, was interviewed on the radio show. >> you have to fight back some -- like, my husband isn't stiff, okay? >> well, you know, i think it -- he is not stiff. >> an important moment for journalism? >> ann romney has been make this point before.

she said -- >> using a different verb perhaps. loo she did say to piers morgan i wish the rest of the country would see what i see. i wish the media would see what i see. she was just making that point with different language. >> well, i mean, look, it was a -- she is much looser than had he is, and i enjoy lisping to her, even if she says something that are a little off color. i want to turn now to president obama, and this was widely reported, but i kind of think the press let the president off easy on this one, and this was his comments about the supreme court where he talked about the health care case, the justices overruled on it. talked about unelected justices and how it would be unprecedented for the court, the high court, to overrule a dually passed law adopted by congress and a largely party line vote. bill plant on cbs who ironically enough we talked to about mike wallace's passing got into it with jay harding. let's take a listen. hope we have that.

>> listening to -- >> because he made a mistake and you can't admit it. >> no, no, no. >> i'm acknowledging -- you're sharing in the righteous indig nation here. >> so debra saunders, plant saying president made a mistake, and he later walked it back, and you can't admit it, and i'm just wondering whether you think that more might have been made about a sitting president seeming at least based on his initial words to challenge the authority of the supreme court. >> i think there is something to be made of it. i don't want to get too huffy about it, but -- by the way, he also said, howie -- but he also said a strong majority in congress passed it, when the house vote was seven votes apart. that's not exactly true. the thing is he is a former constitutional law professor. he knows better than to say that this would be unprecedented. at the same time he is saying that the court shouldn't overturn a law passed by congress, he is trying to get the court to overturn doma, the

marriage act, so he is being hypocritica hypocritical. he is talking like a conservative. most important, it wasn't a smart thing to do. >> okay. >> he is signalling he thinks -- >> i didn't mean -- >> he is signalling he doesn't think it's going to happen. >> okay. i he is rolling his eyes. the camera didn't pick it up, but we had the same old partisan split where this is a very big story on fox news, and msnbc believes that -- or saying this was a phony -- it's not a phony controversy. words matter. >> words do matter, and this morning i rehad of read what the president said. he said the court ought to give deference to congress and realize that people are being affected by this law. that isn't the same thing as newt gingrich saying we're going to send the marshalls in, which he did in december, and eradicate any courts we disagree with. that's controversial. obama, if anything, showed a wee bit of backbone, and i agree that should be a story because if the president shows a little ayre, i think that's great. let's look at what he actually

said. i don't think it's that controversial. >> i wonder if the media would have been different if george w. bush had said i'm confident the supreme court would not take what would be an unprecedented step of -- by a strong majority. the court has done this on numerous occasions. true but i with you on this because i have a slightly different perspective in that i spoke to a number of democratic lawmakers on capitol hill shortly after oral arguments and they went a lot further than the president in saying things like i don't think -- or i think the court is patriotic enough not to create the kind of chaos that would come from overturning this law. >> what is your disagreement? >> i think the president was more measured. >> you want to -- the president was more measured and therefore, the mainstream media were justified in not making it a bigger story? >> i think it was enough of a story and i agree that he did show some backbone. most of what he was saying was based on precedent, a little less political than what i heard from democrats on capitol hill. >> i do think it is news,

however. i read that quote from the president when it first came out and thought, wow, he is actually standing up to the court a little bit that is news worthy. i don't think it is extreme. >> go ahead. >> former law professor and what he said was inaccurate about it being unprecedented. >> we do have -- >> precedented is extreme? >> the president back tracked on this which many didn't say exactly the way he wanted to say it. i still think it should have been a bigger story. i want to get to one more element here in this segment. the president held a day-long, at least a lengthy event at the white house about women, trying to make the case, the administration has cared a lot about this important voting block. and republicans perhaps not so much. and moderating a discussion over at the white house was msnbc co-host of morning joe, mika brzezinski. let's take a look. >> i thank mika for helping moderate today and proving on

your show every morning, women really are the better half. >> we are going to be looking at the accomplishments of this white house as it pertains to women and the economy. we have clearly a lot of work still to do and many challenges before us. and the key is to talk about them, address them and overcome them as soon as possible, but also to celebrate what has been done, especially in the past few years by this administration. >> should an msnbc anchor be moderating a white house event and talk about celebrating what the administration has accomplished? >> no. she shouldn't be doing it it. >> you know, fox host does this and they have in the past. >> not the white house. >> not the white house, they go to campaign events. i don't necessarily like it. i think what -- i agree with you to some degree. mika brzezinski on a show which leans right, obviously, maybe the white house thought there is somebody from a right-wing show

there, is the balance there i think it depends how she carried herself f she was a real journalist and asked tough questions, it is good. >> mika brzezinski is entitled to have opinions, on an opinion show, no longer a reporter for cbs news but i think the optics of moderating at the white house are not ideal. i'm going to cut it off right there. i do want to mention in the last segment, talking about the firing of john derby shire of national view, we put up a picture of the national review, except we put up the wrong picture, sorry about that perhaps the right picture we can show up now to correct that mistake in realtime. there is rich lowry, sorry for that misidentification. still to come on this program, nbc finally admits a terrible mistake in the trayvon martin story. a fox anchor tweets out a bizarre conspiracy theory.

time now for the media monitor, our weekly look at the hits and errors in the news business. it took more than a week but nbc news has finally apologized for selectively editing the 911 tape in the trayvon martin case. as i said on last week's

program, what the today show did with george zimmermann's call shortly before the shooting was blatant distortion. it's worth another look. >> this guy looks like he's up to no good. he looks black. >> did you see what he was wearing? >> yeah, a dark hoodie. >> and here is what nbc cut out from the middle, this question from the dispatcher. >> this guy, is he white, black or hispanic? >> he looks black. >> so zimmermann was actually responding to a question. nbc says its investigation found "an error made in the production process that we deeply regret." nbc on friday fired the veteran producer involved but refused to identify him. nbc news president steve cap pass tells reuters that several staffers were disciplined and the network apologized to viewer bus not to zimmermann. heather childers is a weekend fox anchor rather active on twitter. there was this message, thoughts did obama campaign threaten chelsea clinton's life to keep

parents silent? i am not making this up. childers link to and article on a fringe website making you the ludicrous charge that bill clinton knows that obama doesn't have a legitimate birth certificate. these and related messages taken down and fox senior vice president michael clemente says the tweets have been addressed with heather and she understands this was a mistake. passing on conspiratorial garbage? i'll say. finally, aaron sorkin, famous for "the west wing" and the movie "social network" has given us a sneak peek at his new series "the newsroom," featuring a volatile anchor, jeff daniels, taking on critics. >> we are try dog a good news show and make it popular at the same time. >> what can possibly go wrong? >> good evening, i'm will mcavoy. >> can you move your blackberry off the desk? >> make sure everyone knows this is what blowing it looks like. >> get it together down there. >> he is trying to do good and he is risking a lot to do