long-endingtincanti-masonic party. the meeting was held in baltimore in 1831678 the platform, as you might have guessed, was operation to secret societies like the free masons and the powers wielded in u.s. politics, real or imagined. thanks to all of you for being part of my program this week. i will see you next week. stay tuned for "reliable sources." we are in charlotte this morning for the democratic convention, and the horns of journalism just finished covering the republican extra extravagranda are starting to arrive. we'll look ahead to the renomination and whether the media will be as sympathetic to president obama as they were four years ago. we were scrutinize reporting on mitt romney's convention which often seemed to be about everything else but the nominee, from the tropical storm to, yes, clint eastwood. plus, yahoo! firing a top

executive for a crude anti-romney joke. was the punishment too harsh? i'm howard kurtz, and this is a special convention edition of "reliable sources." the challenge for journal t journalists here in north carolina is how to chronicle a convention that will never match the excitement of the one four years ago when barack obama was a brand new cultural phenomenon. the challenge in tampa was very different -- scrutinizing and analyzing a nominee the country doesn't know that well when other storylines kept overshowing mitt romney's moment. when romney finally gave his big address, he had the unenviewable task of trying to match the sky-high expectations set by the pundits. >> you know there's something wrong with the kind of job he's done as president when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him. >> this was not a speech that -- that was designed to move an audience, although romney

himself was moved. this was a solid speech. a good speech. not a great speech. >> but there was stuff at the end that began to be very dark, very jingle-istic, very scientific and no-nothing. >> romney delivered a well -- competently delivered a well-written speech that was utterly predictable. >> but with tropical storm isaac finally over, romney faced competition from what i thought was a manmade disaster. the strange spectacle of clint eastwood. >> but what do you want me to tell romney? i can't tell him to do that. can't do that to himself. [ laughter ] >> you're absolutely crazy. >> that was the weirdest thing i've seen at a political convention in my entire life. >> i thought that clint eastwood was bizarre, and i thought it was demeaning to the presidency. >> he was confusing, he was rambling, just a big mistake. >> i did think it was a little bit weird.

but after dwelling on it and watching the replays a little more, i thought, this was -- this ended up being an unintendedly fantastic performance. >> joining us now here in charlotte to talk about all this, david drucker, reporter for "roll call." christina bellantoy, pbs news hour, and lauren ashburn, editor-in-chief of daily download, a web site where i'm contributor. lauren, you were in tampa, was clint eastwood's performance so, shall we say, unusual, that it warranted this tidal wave of media chatter and analysis? >> duh, right? i immediately tweeted out watching this crazy performance, this as some said, bizarre-o performance, that the rnc is going to regret it. they're going to regret it because you all of the hot air is going to be spent on clint eastwood, as it was. it took away from the romney message. i remember sitting there in the hall thinking, what? what's going on?

like -- what? like a chair? you know, and i mean, i -- shocking. >> it was incoherent. >> he was mumbling. i couldn't hear him in the hall. >> we talked about the media coverage. yesterday was the final day after the convention. "washington post," front page story, clint eastwood. not the mitt romney speech. ago, ""politico,"" not making this up, i counted 17 headlines on the home beige about clint eastwood. a bit much? >> yes and no. >> take a stand. >> at the news hour, a youtube feed where we put up all of the videos from the speeches. and the clint eastwood speech last i checked had more than 300,000 views. the romney speech was less than 10,000. so this is something that people are interested in reading about or watching. they are googling it, they are trying to sort of guest a sense of what happened. of course, the media builds that up. that makes people want to go see what everybody's talking about. what's something about this is whether or not it was a mistake for the rnc isn't really for me to determine. but i will say that even if he had given a really effective speech, there are a lot of people in the younger generation that just don't know who clint

east ood is. there were several members of our staff who were -- what's that movie again. didn't know the dirty harry line. for a party trying to connect with the younger audience as the democrats tended to be more successful at usually, that may not have been the right menchler. >> at the end i loved when he said, all right, everybody, you know, fill it in. make my day. they did that. >> clint eastwood made the media's day. and i did talk to romney advisers, david drucker, said they didn't know what eastwood was going to do. a topistra strategist said he tt it played on the whole, in america's living room, we don't know. doesn't care how it played in the green room, meaning the fact that most people in the press panned it. >> face it, who cares what we think? we're not the majority of voters. who i found interesting is of course as journalists covering these conventions, what do we always complain about? things are so scripted, everything's so predictable. >> right. >> the minute something -- minute something happens that's not scripted and not predictable, oh, my god, how could they allow this to happen? how could they do something so

unscripted and not control the message. here's what i found interesting, while i think they could have done without this, what i think is important is how did it play at home. and for the 50-plus voter in the heartland, out all over the country, i was checking with my family, checking twitter. they loved it. and -- and republicans -- >> true -- >> want to keep the younger vote down. how are they going win this? with the 50-plus voter concerned about medicare, who's concerned about the economy. so again, maybe this was a mistake, but maybe it wasn't. >> after the tweet that i sent out, i got a tweet back from somebody who said, are you so wrong. this played so well in the flyover states. that's exactly the term he used. >> maybe the media is out of touch. i will say this, what you want if you are the nominee of the party is everybody talking about your speech the next day. to the extent that it was clint, clint, clint, make my day, i think it sucked up a lot. let me turn to ann romney, who got almost as much attention as

clint eastwood. speech on the first night of the convention. let's play how the reaction was and talk about that the other side. >> she was very witty. obviously attractive. and obviously loves her husband. >> ann romney, on the other hand, looked like a corporate wife. and you know, the story she told about struggles. hard for me to believe. i mean, she's a very rich woman. and i know that in america. >> wow. okay. >> ann romney was electric, strong, and stunning. >> carol costello there. what struck me in talking to journalists, i found a gender split in the way males felt and females -- >> carol costello nailed it. for women, not just journalists, but everybody -- my mother, for example -- aarp saying, wow, i've never heard her speak. fabulous, genuine. remember she got up and went, yea! you know, she was just so real. and really stuck by her husband. he said he will not fail, and i

think that the media concurred. >> i thought it was an effective speech and her job was to humanize her husband and all of that. when she said, i love you women, and went on and on about the problems of working women paying the bills, obviously not a problem she had. it struck me over the top pandering. let me get a male voice that might agree with me. >> i disagree with you because the job of a politician is to communicate to and for the voter. no president, no first lady shares every single experience with the voter. barack obama, president of the united states, is a millionaire, as he likes to remind us. yet, he still speaks to and for people that are hurting. so to the extent that ann romney was successful in talking to women about how they feel, which i thought she did well in doing, i think the coverage that she got from us was well deserved. >> and you have to keep in mind, this is somebody that the majority of the american people aren't necessarily tuned in to this election yet. certainly many aren't paying attention to the candidates -- and they're up against the most popular first lady in a very long time.

>> let's talk about that as you as a woman and did other women you talked to whether they like the romney ticket or not feel a resonance with ann's snej>> the best line she gave is that it's not a storybook marriage, what i have a real marriage. i think that connected with me as a woman. she talked about some of the fights they have. what was also effective was that biographical video that they played thursday night, before clint eastwood came out. it was either before or after -- >> right before. >> it showed you're in their kitchen. shows the kids. >> great. >> that's exactly what mitt romney's team said they wanted to do last week. and they really did it. they showed every facet of his life. they showed a little behind the curtain of him. that's what they're trying to do for the american people to give them a sense of what he's about. >> but where were they, you know, where were they for the last five months? i mean we've been begging the romney campaign to do something like that. >> where were they for the last five years? >> right. trying to make this image, that was a caring father. >> stories about what he does through church and what he -- all of those human stories about what he did as governor. those are the things you're

probably going to be seeing in ads from here on out. didn't do it before -- >> in the last two weeks, there was a front page "new york times" story that talked about how he -- his -- when he was in france, he was pronounced dead. he was in a car accident, i thought, i didn't know this story. >> journalists have had to go dig this out instead of the romney campaign -- >> pushing it out. >> pushing it out. interesting. one more thing i want to get to. that is the way in which tropical storm isaac really overshadowed, some would say rained out the convention. obviously the first night was canceled. by midweek, thursday, it was still the lead story on many morning shows. look at the split screen coverage. >> good evening, as we come on the air, the republican national convention is finally underway. you can see it right there behind me. but it is still storm watch. >> i'm anderson cooper live in new orleans where all eyes are on the sky waiting for the full force of hurricane isaac to hit. >> and i'm wolf blitzer here in tampa. >> christina, big storm deserves

important coverage. this wasn't even a hurricane. had it happened the week before, it wouldn't have gotten so much attention because it was intertwined with the storyline of the republican convention. >> sure. and everybody joked, why would you ever hold the convention in florida during hurricane season. and then it -- >> even if the storm was in louisian it was still overshadowing in television terms. television loves extreme weather. >> exactly. a television story and we remember four years ago when the republicans were in st. paul. you know, in both cases, this actually benefited them from a convention perspective. in 2008, you ended up canceling george w. bush's night to speak. he delivered a speech via video instead because of the storm that was headed toward the gulf then. and then this time they were able to truncate things into three days that allowed them to trim up some of the speakers. make sure that they got ann romney on tuesday night instead of monday night, which the network said they weren't going cover. in a way, it benefited them. >> can't we just shrink it to maybe two days total? >> i mean, i think mother nature is telling us that three days is plenty. >> too much. >> let's move on to romney's speech.

he was the guy who came after clint eastwood going -- i think the media consensus was good speech, solid speech, well delivered. but there have been so much chatter about how he had to connect with voters and talk about himself more personally and grapple with -- and reveal more of himself. he didn't really try to do that. i think that influenced the way the pundits graded the speech. david? >> i think that the problem the romney campaign had was that there was only one campaign telling the romney story. that was the president's campaign. and that's why i think it was so important for -- >> you're leaving out the florida state which keeps describing romney as awkward, stiff, not a real politician -- >> the romney campaign was not telling us all of these things that they finally told us during their convention. and i think that's going to change the coverage of romney going forward. it gives another narrative that's going to go up against the president's narrative. change our stock description of who romney is. >> but did this -- let me go to lauren did. special their speech change our -- did this speech change our perception of who romney is? he got a b-plus from the media,

but wasn't seen as hitting it out of the park. he didn't talk -- no oprah-esque moments. >> the word i kept seeing in coverage was workman-like. it was solid, he did what he had to do. he looked presidential -- >> was that a fair assessment? did we set the bar too high? he had to somehow break through the screen. most politicians can't do that. >> it's not for the press to -- to describe what this guy has to do really. right? he's got to give a message -- >> do you know how much airtime has been devoted, you're saying we shouldn't do that. >> it's not our role. and the man was able to portray over the course of the week being very humble. not liking to talk about his charitable giving. you know, being cheap. none of those things are accidents. and there are bits and pieces that he let other people tell his story. >> i think it's important to stop reporting on a speech in terms of what we think but try to interpret what the voters in the states are going to feel about it. and in that regard, that's why i thought he did well. >> good ad vie. lots of luck with being found.

i've got to go to see break. coming up, the political press of accused of swooning er barack obama in 2008. will the tone in the convention change as this democratic convention gets underway? the tone of the coverage in charlotte. when you build an aircraft, you want to make sure it goes up and stays up. [ chirp ] with android apps, you get better quality control. so our test flights are less stressful. i've got a lot of paperwork, and time is everything here. that's why i upgraded to the new sprint direct connect. [ chirp ] and the fastest push-to-talk nationwide. [ male announcer ] upgrade to the new "done." [ chirp ] with access to the fastest push to talk, three times the coverage, and android productivity apps. now when you buy one motorola admiral rugged smartphone, for ninety nine ninety nine, you'll get one free. visit a sprint store, or call eight five five, eight seven eight, four biz.

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encapsulated in one moment on cable television. >> it's part of reporting this case, this election, the feeling most people get when they hear barack obama's speech -- i felt this thing up my leg. i don't have that too often. >> steady. >> a dramatic event. he speaks about america in a way that has nothing to do with politics. has to do with the feel being our country. and that is an objective assessment. >> david drucker, four years later, for the media covering president obama. is the thrill gone? >> i think the thrill's gone too a degree. but i think he still gets the benefit of the doubt at times with coverage, as i've watched, for instance, the mnthly reporting of the jobs numbers. we've seen sometimes about 100,000 little, under 100,000, maybe 150,000, and where i think for presidents past, both democrat and republican, the focus would be on the fact that there are still so many people hurting. the focus at times has been but hey, we're still making progress, and we -- we met

analysts' expectations as though that's the point of this. >> christina ballatoni, are the media more aggressive in covering not just the obama presidency after 3 1/2 years, but his re-election campaign compared to 2008? >> probably. you know, i certainly think that i have been the same in my coverage. but it is something that particularly because you've got a lot of people on the right sighing that peop in-- saying t went easy on president obama, they respond to that. the way they set up conventions is no accident. they have giant media parties. by the way, both parties do that. people aren't always necessarily aware when they're watching at home that the press is treated pretty well. they're taken care of. they're given this party with the alcohol and food. and the republicans invited delegates, too. they limited the number of media who could attend. the democrats had a party where everyone was invited. they've got cell phone charging stations out there. everyone's looking for friendly coverage. it's important for journalists to give fair coverage, no matter what party you're at, no matter what parties you've been to. >> it is important, but you asked about the thrill up the leg. chris matthews is -- in the tank

right now for president obama. and so is the majority of more than. >> he's a liberal commentator. >> of course. >> most of the people anchoring the msnbc coverage are liberal commentators. they don't hide that. >> but it wasn't like this four years ago. you can just see the transition msnbc has made between four years ago and now. >> okay. msnbc clearly has moved sharply to the left. i don't think anybody there would deny that. but when you look at the mainstream -- i don't mean information -- when you look at the straight reporters, the newspaper writers, not the columnists. when you look at the tv reporter, not the commentators, i had a number of conservatives in tampa saying they think the press as a whole, not just the opinion monitors, in the tank for obama. >> no, i think that there are shining examples of people who aren't judy woodruff, you can go bret baier, you can go down the line, howard kurtz, who are not in the tank for obama. and make it a big, big point not to be, as christina says, as

they should. >> but there is that perception. >> and for every person that goes on the air, they might say something, they're going to get an e-mail saying you're in the tank for romney, or you're in the tank for the president. it's about how people perceive it. if the media radio -- the media environment is so polarized with the rest of the country that people want to hear what they're going to hear. which is one of the reasons that networks with a side have the challenge. >> i think it's an something story, the renomination of a president is more predictable than, say, a new nominee who we're still learning about as in the case of mitt romney in tampa. and when obama gives his speech, and i'm sure he'll give a terrific speech at the bank of america stadium, how are the media going to grade that? are they going to use the same criteria that were applied to romney? >> i think the media should. what we're supposed to do is not make this interesting. i think we're supposed to report what we see and try and be fair in the context in which we put it. and i think the way -- the one difference is you grade a challenger based on what they say they're going do. you grade a president in part on

what he has already done as well as what he says he wants to do in the next four years. and that can either work for you or against you. if you're bill clinton in 1996, that's a winning campaign. if it's barack obama, 2012, it may not. >> and four years ago, i covered the president's campaign. i was on the trail most of that time. i'm able to point out in this speech, i imagine he's going to repeat some of the things that he said in 2008. i think it's important to provide that context of things that barack obama promised four years ago and maybe wasn't able to deliver. >> there's a record we should remind viewers of, david says it's not our job to make things interestingly. instinctively, reporter don't want to cover dull events. we want to spice things up. >> we have to. i was watching c-span last night, total geek thing to do on a saturday night. very bad. but they were showing the dnc nominating speeches back through history. you know, it's -- adelaid stevenson took three ball odds to get actually on -- ballots to

be nominated. i'm saying there is no news at the conventions. hence, the drama has gone, hence, the need for journalists to spice it up. >> and i will say you're going to see a ton of coverage of the protests here expected here this week. that doesn't make the democrats look good. you know, there's obviously all these labor disputes. many other protests that are coming. journalists are showing all of that. they're not just making it look like this is a great, big, wonderful party for the president. >> what we need in charlotte is the equivalent of a clint eastwood spicing things up for us. incidentally, fox news, at the republican convention, had the highest ratings of all the broadcast networks. same thing four years ago. four years ago, cnn had the highest ratings of the democratic convention. we'll see how the pattern change when the numbers are in for charlotte. up next, yahoo! fires a top journalist for an offensive remark. did he deserve to lose his job? and whatever happened to sarah palin on fox news this past week? that's the power of human resources. the society... for human resource management and its members know...

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one morning in tampa, i watched as david challin, yahoo hoo bureau chief, questioned mitt romney's staff under pape with abc news. the next morning as tropical storm isaac was barreling down toward the louisiana coast, as

the webcast was about to begin, he uttered these words about the romneys which were picked up by a mike. >> not concerned at all with the character -- >> yes, it's,age rated -- >> yahoo! fired him almost immediately saying the statement was inappropriate and does not represent the views of yahoo!. he's been terminated effective immediately. chalion apologized saying i am profoundly sorry for making an inappropriate and thoughtless joke. i was commenting on the challenge of staging a convention during a hurricane and about campaign optics. i've apologized to the romney campaign. i want to apologize public to governor and mrs. romney. christina ballatoni, chalion was your predecessor on the peanut butter news hour. he talked about while black people are drowning. can such a racially charged joke be dismissed as a misstati -- mistake? >> i disagree with the statement, but i consider david a friend and someone i've had

professional respect for. he is a good journalist. i think what this event shines a spotlight on is how important it is for us in the media to demonstrate why we should be trusted. there are people who look to us and trust us to explain to them not just what's going on but to give a sense of what these people want to do for the country. and that's where you have to just come back to that. it's unfortunate, we tell all of our staff, you have to remember that particularly in this day and age, everything that you put out there is a reflection on your organization. and that there can be microphones everywhere, you is to be careful of that. particularly in television. but it's about building trust with the people. >> i'd have to debate the trust piece of it, christina. i think media professionals are below lawyers in terms of people -- >> wow -- >> you would want to trust. >> we need to rebuild. absolutely. >> i think that when people -- people are so jaded in looking to people in the media to trust that an incident like this just, you know, stirs the pot. and makes it so that people who

are good in our profession become tainted by association. >> now one hour about -- after this was picked up by the conservative site newsbusters, yahoo! chanced chalion, some said it moved too quickly. on other hand, those words, unconcerned that black people are drowning, were out there. >> i think yahoo!, which recently partnered with abc news -- >> still partners -- >> yeah, recently partnered. had to make a strong statement. i mean, yahoo! news has been no abc news. and if you're affiliated now with the network as respected as abc news, you better make sure you are making decisions like that. >> and i've heard a lot of people who know david chalion well say he is not just a terrific journalist but a fair-minded journalist. that this joke did not reflect, you know, the way he approaches his job. he's worked at abc, ps, and worked for yahoo!. i wonder whether or not we're cutting slack for somebody who is one of our colleagues. >> i think everybody that knows him, and i don't know him well.

but everybody that knows him that i've talked to has said what a nice guy he is. what a nice person he is. whenever i would pass him in the hall, he was always -- hey, how you doing with a smile. when you have the kind of position he had and you're representing a news organization, what he said cannot be tolerated on a professional level. i don't know how many times per week i write up an e-mail with a snarky joke to somebody or a tweet that's snarky or sarcastic. and then i delete it. because you have to be careful how your words are going to be interpreted and represented. had he simply made a joke or discussed on the open mike about, gee, i wonder what the political -- i don't think it would have been an issue. what he said was horrible. >> this happens all the time. local news. i mean, off-mike comments about horrible, you know, how people look. like apes or, you know, something like that, gets people fired. >> don't do it near a microphone. >> don't do tit at all.

>> better advice. let me briefly touch on an incident involving the cnn camerawoman, whose name is patricia carroll. an incident at the republican convention where two delegates through peanuts at her and said, this is how we feed theages. she's african-american. -- animals. she's african-american. she gave interviews and said people think we've gone further than we have in terms of race relations. horrifying incident. some people, cnn and the press in general, saying more should have been done. do you think so? >> should have done more? a difficult question. i don't work for cnn. >> how about any news organization? >> you don't want to see this happen. it's a reflection poorly on everyone. particularly when many in the media try to paint the republicans a certain way. it's just giving ammunition. it could happen anywhere. i have seen awful things happen at political rallies, protests. it does happen. two people go out of line -- >> yeah. cnn did cover and report on the situation. it's a couple of delegate. i don't think it should be blown out of proportion. it was something where everybody raised eyebrows. before we go, sarah palin did phone in to fox news this morning. during the republican

convention, she was not on the air, and she actually put up a statement on facebook saying she was disappointed to be on the air. especially during the romney speech, the v.p. -- she wanted to talk about john mccain, her former running mate. what happened between the relationship between sarah palin and fox news? >> for someone who despised mainstream media, i'm surprised that she was ever on fox, right? i mean -- >> she would see fox as an alternate -- >> she would, but it still is mainstream media. you still are in the mainstream covering things. anyway, it's a contract dispute, right? i don't know what's going on behind the scenes. her contract's up, and maybe they don't like her anymore. >> if she weren't in a contract. she is a newsmaker, i would like to hear what she thinks of the convention, paul ryan, compared to her convention four years ago. if she weren't in a contract, she could come on all of our air and discuss in an interview. >> she's paid a million dollars by fox. contract's up at the end of the year. i wonder if it's going to be renewed. >> there's a saying that my sister taught my nephew. it's called "no more whining."

she's paid a lot of money, they didn't want her on. if she's not happy, she can leave. somebody will sign her. >> fox claimed it was a scheduling matter because the convention got truncated to three days. lauren, christina, david, thanks for joining us. ahead, the romney campaign versus media factcheckers as there may be distortions in the v.p. speech in tampa. did chris matthews go too far with a rant against the republican chairman?

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we're here at the arena where the democratic convention will unfold beginning in just a couple of days here in charlotte, north carolina. joining me to continue our conversation about last week's republican convention, this week's upcoming democratic gathering in washington, jennifer rubin, author of the rightturn blog for the "washington post." in chicago, john aravosis, founder of americablog. i want to start by playing for you some heated sound, exchange that took place on msnbc between "hardball" host chris matthews and the republican chairman. >> he's looking to -- to europe

for guidance. >> what? >> that's -- that's the problem. where you've got a government -- >> this is insane. you mean -- a fiscal policy is so -- >> so far out of control -- >> one at a time. >> the fact that every president we've had is trying to offset the economic cycle with stimulus going the other direction is somehow your opinion -- >> get the debt under control. >> what's this got to do with europe? this foreignization of the guy -- you're doing it now. >> you think -- >> obama is influenced by foreign influences? you are playing that card again. >> jennifer, chris matthews accused the chairman of engaging in the foreignization of barack obama. did that go too far? >> yeah. he was out of control. i think more than has to decide whether they want to be liberal or whether they want to be unhinged. he also went after a group of -- >> that's the choice? >> yeah. well, they're obviously not trying to be mainstream anymore, and that's fine. they don't pretend to be. i'm fine with that. they are who they advertise themselves to be. there's a level of rudeness, a

level of unprofessionality. and i don't know what he's accomplishing for the network other than to get the people who are similarly unhinged to watch even harder. i don't know how big a market there is for that. >> john aravosis, wasn't al gore anchoring on current tv, which little unusual for a former vice president. but msnbc, unlike four years ago, went with an all-liberal lineup for covering these conventions rather than having -- you know, a chuck todd or david gregory serve as anchor? >> look, i mean, maybe more than has tried to follow the fox model and pick a side as far as coverage. i don't know. i do think that what you saw chris matthews do is what chris matthews does. i've been on "hardball," a few times. he yells, interrupts, he pushes you really hard questions. chris matthews is not a polite interviewer that asks you once and you ge away with it. i and i would say if -- and i would say that if you think the rnc chairman is foreignizing, as you put it, what are you supposed to do? not call him out on it? >> you're supposed to let him answer the question. you're supposed to make your

point and then let the man answer the question. now -- >> but not if you're doing chris matthews style, which is what o'reilly doesn't want -- i've been on with happnnity -- >> fox has real news people reporting. msnbc has these people anchoring the coverage. there's a difference. msnbc has bret baier and fair news people. they put out chris matthews as their news person? >> first of all, this wasn't anchoring -- this of not anchoring right now -- >> he is anchoring later on -- >> this is not brzezinski -- did he do it during the anchoring? >> no, the same thing. he has diminished his own credibility as any kind of -- >> no -- >> one at a time. >> what if the rnc chairman was race baited? we're supposed to say the media should sit back and say i disagree, you race baiting sir. >> john, i think it's a question of tone. nobody's saying he shouldn't push back. later, preibis said, mathews was

the biggest jerk in the room. jennifer rubin, do you expect a different tone to the media coverage than that which surrounded the republican convention in tampa? >> i think so. but i also think -- and i was pleasantly surprised. my conservative friends, i think, should watch and read more of the mainstream media. the coverage there i thought was actually fairly accurate except for one incident which was the clint eastwood episode. i think what they did was that they looked at the challenges that mitt romney had, and they kind of measured the speeches, measured what he did. the coverage of romney's speech insofar as they had any was fairly, i think, balanced. i think many of the speakers got good reviews. i think the challenge in charlotte is whether they used the same standard of measurement, here or there in tampa, back now in washington, they were very interested in getting specifics for mitt romney. what exactly are you going to do? are they going to be that exacting with the president? i think that there is a standard that they've set for mitt romney, which is fine so long as

the same standard is then applied to the president. >> that's an interesting point, john aravosis. while clearly, you know, we have to talk about the presidential record over the last 3 1/2 years, that's the difference in covering an incumbent, i wonder when he gives his big speech, i'm sure a terrific oration, whether or not the media will demand specific business how his second term might differ from his first. >> i think they will. i think the media should apply the same standard which is, a, is he telling the truth and, b, did he give any specifics. i mean, from what we've heard from the obama team, i talked to them yesterday, they are absolutely planning on their convention, a, being positive, and b, being about the details. their biggest critique is that romney didn't give details about what he's planning on doing on fixing the economy. what he's planning on doing differently other than putting out these sort of platitudes and -- and subtle and unsubtle digs they did during the convention. i think it will be different. the media will reflect that pause it's the truth. >> let me jump in and talk about paul ryan's v.p. speech. the media fact-checkers got on him. let's look a little at the vice

presidential nominee and the coverage that followed. >> when he talked about change, many people liked the sound of it. especially in janesville where we are about to lose a major factory. a lot of guys i went to high school with worked at that g.m. plant. >> they announced that plant of shutting down in june, 2008. that's what was the push -- >> it's still idle. the point is this is a story of the obama economy. a man running for president in 2008 making all of these grand promises. and then none of them occurring. >> jennifer, on medicare, on that g.m. plant where the decision was made to close even before barack obama became president, the fact-checkers really went at ryan's speech. is that good journalism? it is in my view. >> no, i think the industry of fact-checker needs to be rethought. first of all, they don't deal in facts. secondly, they don't check very well. they went off that -- >> they don't? what do you mean by that? they don't deal in facts? >> no, they don't. when you say something is true

but it left a funny impression, when you say something is an inferen inference, but yes, technical at the -- technical at the's true, you're not dealing with jobs. they did a bad job that night. i would commend a front page story by the "washington post" rrcht reporter the next day after she got to talk to both sides, research the issue fairly. you had a much more balanced, much more accurate account of what ryan said, of what the president said when he went there, and promised to keep the plan open -- >> john? >> i think that's unfair. i think that's unfair. i think what's going on is ryan did get lambasted by the media and fact-checker because his speech was full of lies. you can absolutely, positively lie through insinuation. paul ryan wanted you to believe that president obama shut down that plant, let it shut down in his term -- >> he never said it. that's wrong, john. >> excuse me -- >> that's false. >> let me finish. let me finish. he wanted the readers, he wanted the listeners to believe that

president obama let that plant shut down. and what happened was that plant got shut down during george bush. i'm sorry, i'm from the midwest, that's a lie. >> i don't know how you think -- i don't know how you read paul ryan's mind. it's not what he said. the entire theme, if you've been following -- >> i read him, i watched that -- >> primary and election is that -- >> repeatedly. [ all talking at once ] >> we have to take this outside. i've got to go. i've got to go. ended on a dramatic note of disagreement, jennifer rubin, john aravosis, thank you for stopping by. after the break, we'll talk to a twitter executive about how social media are fundamentally changing the coverage of political conventions. you know, i have done something worthwhile. when i earned my doctorate through university of phoenix, that pride, that was on my face. i am jocelyn taylor. i'm committed to making a difference in people's lives, and i am a phoenix. visit phoenix.edu to find the program that's right for you.

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putting us in control of our energy future, now. joining us now in star lott is al sharp. i was looking at the numbers, the numbers compared to four years ago are monster numbers. >> over the week-long convention period there, were over 4 million tweets about the convention. compare that to 360,000 for the two conventions combined in 2008. >> what accounts for all this tweeting? >> well, conventions are a collection of moments. they are a collection of reactions. and what twitter does is bring you closer. it brings you back to that

experience of watching these events on the couch and being able to react to them with your friends and with other people watching. >> let's put up a graphic that shows how the traffic surges at certain moments. for example, this is thursday night at the republican convention and when clint eastwood came on, more than 6,000 tweets per minute. you can see that graph climb. marco rubio east speech, 9,000 per minute. mitt romney's speech, 14,000 tweets per minute. what do the numbers tell us? >> these are the moments prompting reaction. we would have turned to the person on the couch and would say, let me tell you about this. but instead people are reaching for that device in their hand and say, they have something to say. now these numbers are massive, particularly for a political account. romney's peak was larger than the peak of the president's state of the union earlier. also the build-up over the course of the evening. more than 2,000 tweets per

minute or messages every minute of the night leading up to clint eastwood. we saw that jump to 6,000, then rubio built on top of that and it built with romney later on with the crescendo this was created to make. >> not everyone is on twitter, but many journalists are, how much do you think the chatter drives the broader media political conversation? >> well, i think it goes back and forth. i think the conversation is coming on twitter and i think twitter influences the conversation. because these are not new conversations. they are ones a cycle ago would have been in shops and water cooler that is have been brought out for people to see. >> any person attracting a follower, friends, family or pele who think the person is clever can broadcast to lots of other people for a publication or newspaper. >> absolutely.

we think back to the ronald reagan moment, sir, i paid for this microphone. nobody has to pay for the microphone. if you have a quality message, you can find an audience for it and it can spread quickly. we look at clint eastwood's speech, the president later tweeted a picture of the president in the -- i think it was the cabinet room where he said, this seat's taken. that tweet went on to be the second most re-tweeted tweet from the president in history. >> let me ask you this, you have a team here at the convention, facebook has the same thing. google is running these hangouts where it is basically a webcast for people tuning in. and "the new york times," pbs is also doing the live-streaming webcasts. is that becoming the alternative to tell vision coverage, which after all the ratings are down from past years? >> it goes where the audience is. 60% of our users use twitter on a mobile device. people are not sitting in for the tv the way they used to, but now they can follow the convention, standing in line at the supermarket or waiting for a bus. and can actually engage in the

convention and participate and have those messages be brought back to the home and experience the convention through the eyes of their community members on the floor. >> these live streamings are relatively mod nest numbers, it is not going to put up numbers like cnn, nbc or cbs, but do you see it is growing? more people are heathered to their devices are going to be consuming political information through twitter, facebook and livestreaming? >> absolutely. 4 million tweets during the last convention. we'll probably see similar volume if not more during this one. >> essentially we are asking people to watch talking heads on their screens, whether it is a laptop or a iphone. >> es pra drills are participating in a conversation, it is bringing them closer to the other people experiencing these events with them. >> that's the secret on what social media is becoming so big, that you have a sense of the two-way conversation, it is not just me talking to you, you can talk back and many of you do on

twitter. adam sharp, thank you for stopping by here at the convention. still to come in charlotte, a look at robin roberts very emotional day on "good morning america." go-gurt? yep...doh. [ boy ] slurpably fun and a good source of calcium. dads who get it, get go-gurt. begins with back pain and a choice. take advil, and maybe have to take up to four in a day. or take aleve, which can relieve pain all day with just two pills. good eye.

finally an emotional couple of days at "good morning america" where robin roberts said good-bye as she takes a leave for bone marrow transplant. she is now battling the disease called mds. >> i was hoping to be able to wait until tomorrow, but this morning will now be my last show for a while before i begin my treatment next week. i'm having to move up my schedule to go home to mississippi to be with my ailing mom and family. i don't want to be bold again and throwing up again. and then i get, listen to you, i don't want to, i don't want to, do you want to live? yeah, i want to live. >> robin made it home to see her 88-year-old mother during the tropical storm that hit the gulf. and that night her mom died. >> you talked about robin's instinct, she knew where she had to be yesterday. >> she did. and she was there to hold hands where she should be. >> an