tv Reliable Sources CNN February 10, 2013 8:00am-9:00am PST
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12 key rules at the end. but try the whole thing. and now for "the last look." i hope this isn't too soon. her office has barely had time to be repainted for her successor, john kerry, but i'm here to tell you hillary clinton broke the law in paris. as evidenced by this picture. former french first lady carla bruni was a scofflaw, too. laura bush also a violator of parisian law. angela merkel likes to take the french to task, but she could have found herself in parisian hot water, as well. their crime? wearing pants. you see, for more than 200 years it has actually technically been illegal for a woman to wear trousers in paris unless official permission was granted. it seems that during the french revolution the lady revolutionaries took to wearing pants and the powers that be at the time wanted to put a swift end to that. so they made it illegal in 1800.
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amendments came over the years allowing women to dare to wear trousers for riding bikes or horses. but the law remained on the books until this week, when it was repealed by the minister for women's rights. the correct answer to our "gps" chall question was a, richard iii was a plantagenets. that dynasty ruled over britain from 1216 with henry iii until august 1485, when richard iii was killed at the battle of bosworth at age 33. and a new battle has started over where his final resting place should be. in leicester, where he's been buried for some 525 years or in york, where he spent many of his living years, or westminster abbey, where most of britain's kings are buried? thanks for being part of my program this week. see you next week. stay tuned for "reliable sources."
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it may be just a small sign of change on the right, but fox news just dumped dick morris. the political pundit who loudly predicted, no, insisted, that mitt romney was going to wallop barack obama. >> i think that i was wrong at the top of my lungs. maybe i'm being made a poster child for that. but -- >> do you resent the decision? >> look, fox has given me the opportunity of a lifetime. 15 years, 3,000 interviews, and at some point a great marriage has to come to an end. >> is this part of fox news and the republican party softening their image? and is the press covering that fairly? senator robert menendez denounces a conservative website that published unsubstantiated allegations about him and underage prostitutes. should the media touch that story without proof? we're talking about chris christie' weight again. and you know who i blame? chris christie. >> i'm basically the healthiest fat guy you've ever seen in your
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life. >> now the governor is mad that others are weighing in on television. plus, more friends taking long vacations from america's most popular social network. the facebook fatigue taking a toll? and cbs cracking down on tonight's grammys with a memo against showing too much skin. is it time to take a stand against wardrobe malfunctions? i'm howard kurtz and this is "reliable sources." all that ahead, but first new england recovering this morning from that blizzard that dumped almost 3 feet of snow in some areas. as of this morning more than 350,000 people remaining without power. the storm is being blamed for nine deaths in three states and canada. the latest on the cleanup, let's go to boston and indra petersons. wanted to ask you what it's like standing in the show doing live shots hour after hour and what is the region doing to get ready
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for tomorrow's rush hour? >> reporter: yeah. you know, i have to say it's pretty unbelievable to stand on the lines of history. talk about a difference. 24 hours ago we were talking about pelting ice and snow, winds gusting 60, even 70 miles per hour. and now check this out. right? the sun is out. it's gorgeous. but that's only going to mean more problems. here's the problem. yeah, let me just take a look. we show you. we're talking about 24.9 inches of snow out here. this is what we have to deal with as we go through the next couple of days. here's the problem, though. we have one day to clean this up. the reason? tomorrow, another storm is headed our way. first of all, remember i talked about the sun in temperatures will be above freezing today. we'll start to see some of this melt. then tomorrow another storm comes our way, so first we'll start off with a wintry mix then by the afternoon we'll be talking about more rain. overnight the temperatures drop below freezing and what is that? of course more ice on the roadway. a lot of problems to talk about. as far as cleanup, we have to clean up the snow but we still have 250,000 people without
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power today. the upside, people can already drive, yes, the emergency is still in effect so no one can park on the roadways so they can try and clear this in the short period of time they have. obviously, no flights. they're trying to resume over 5,000 flights. >> thanks. >> reporter: logan about 20 joud bound and 10 inbound flights already today. >> thanks very much. indra petersons in boston. not a snowflake in the beltway. maybe it's all that hot air. the political coverage this week has been about republicans trying to project a kinder, softer, gentler image. network most closely associated with that cause seems to be inching that way. fox news is might sign scott brown, former massachusetts senator, as a commentator. and it dumped the man who kept making predictions like this one. >> romney is going to win by four to eight points. he's going to get more than 300 electoral votes. and ohio is not going to decide the election. >> dick morris explained his
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stance after the election that he was being something of a gop cheerleader. >> i spoke about what i believed and i think that there was a period of time when the romney campaign was falling apart, people were not optimistic. nobody thought there was a chance of victory. ened i felt it was my duty at that point to go out and say what i said. >> so are republicans and fox news engaged in a bit of rehab? steve robert, professor of media and public affairs at the george washington university, ryan rizzo, washington correspondent for the new yorker and cnn contributor, and lauren ashburn, editor in chief of daily down load dotcom, where i am also a contributor. is fox news going through a repositioning? >> they are. but i feel like dick morris is paying for the sins of an entire network. he was not the only one at fox news that predicted a crushing romney victory. right? a lot of republican pollsters predicted that -- karl rove, hannity, half the named commentators on fox said things
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that -- like dick morris. >> so why him? >> he was probably the most over the top. and in the media he became -- what's the word -- he became a thing, that dick morris made these ridiculous over the top predictions. but this was something that was, you know, across the network at fox. >> lawmaker ashburn, did fox drop dick morris for basically making a wrong prediction about the election? >> no, they dropped him because it's been 15 years of dick morr morris. you get to a point where you need to hit the reset and refresh button. you want fresh voices and fresh faces and there's nothing wrong with that. there's no saying -- onlier ayles is isn't saying he's not going to come back. he's just saying we're going to take a break. it's dick morris who's saying -- >> your contract is not renewed. it's more than taking a break. >> listen to me. he's on the record as saying that he is going -- it's just not quite a divorce. we're going to take a break.
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i mean, you know what, people come back all the time. we thought dick morris was dead when he had a political scandal. right? and look at him. he's been on fox for 15 years. >> okay. but sarah palin also out. scott brown, the moderate, looks like he's in. fox has a pretty big megaphone when it comes to the right. >> that's true. there is a larger problem with fox. their audiences are down. truth in labeling, they're still bigger than any other cable but they are down. their trust level is down. the latest surveys, the public trust, fox has taken a significant dip. look, dick morris is a buffoon. but roger ayles is not. and roger ayles is a very, very smart man who created fox as an alternative to many mainstream media. but roger ayles wants to be taken seriously as a credible person. dick morris is not a credible person. sarah palin is not a credible person. and i think he got rid of them in part because he wants fox to be taken seriously, and those people diminish their credibility. >> i getsz he's not coming to dinner at your house.
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>> who? >> dick morris. >> he is a buffoon, but as i say roger ayles is a very, very smart man and he knows he has to be more credible. >> by the way, you talked about credibility, new survey showing that 40 -- the problems of working families, talking about working moms. it does seem like there's an effort by the gop to soften the tone on issues like guns and immigration. is that real? how should the press cover that? is it real or spirits? >> it's real. i mean, the republicans lost the election and in their election results were some signs that the party's in real trouble and unless they reach out to constituencies they haven't been doing well with. we know the demographics -- asian-americans, hispanics, women. they're getting killed among these demographics. there's a debate within the republican party over whether it's just messaging and pr and
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marketing and if they didn't communicate properly in the 2012 election. others are saying no, at the core, the policy agenda needs to shift to attract voters they're losing. that's a big question about what eric cantor is doing with some of their republican leaders. is it a marketing offensive or a change in the actual agenda? >> so you're answering our question. a credible journalist with the new yorker find this west interesting. why wouldn't wekov it, howie? i don't understand the question. >> first, let's look at the cover of the new "time" magazine, marco rubio, headline, "the republican savior." the more we focus on voices like rubio's -- young, next-generation republican -- and the less we talk about john boehner and the endless budget fights with president obama, we are helping to shift the tone as well. maybe journalists want the gop to moderate a bit. >> well, of course they do. i mean, then -- you know, that's what makes things interesting. you have karl rove coming out
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with a new super pac that is going to be funding people who are more moderate. and then you have, you know, other people in the tea party, et cetera, who are still trying to shift things as far right as possible and stand up for their morals and principles. >> we have to do both. i do think we have to take seriously this attempt by republicans to rebrand themselves. >> but if there's no change in vote, if there's no change in policy, then are we to some degree -- >> that's true. >> -- perhaps being taken in by the packaging? >> fair point. but let's see what happens on immigration, for instance. are there going to be republican votes that back up the four senators, to take one example, four republican senators led by john mccain, who said let me give you some straight talk, we are losing the kinds of people ryan was talking about. that translates into real votes and policy, it's serious. it's beyond packaging. at the same time, there's a whole group of people who don't go along. we've got to cover the tea party
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dead-enders as well as the mccain reformers. >> you call them dead-enders. they would say they're fighting for the principles they believe in. let me shift gears pap fascinating deadly story has emerged involving christopher dorner, the former l.a. police officer who was accused, a great manhunt on right now, of multiple murders and violent rampage. and a manifesto written by him rambling, 11-page rant, really, emerged in recent days. he has a lot of opinions on people on television. chris matthews, joe scarborough, pat harvey, brian williams, soledad o'brien, wolf blitzer, keep up the great work. willie geist, you're talent pd stop with the talk-show shenaniga shenanigans. it's bizarre. how much should we care about what this guy says? >> it's bizarre.
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i think, you know, first of all, that's one list as a journalist you probably don't want to be on, the killer's list of favorite journalists. we should care about it because he's a murder suspect and it's worth covering. the other media story here is there's all these allegations in his manifesto against the los angeles police department. you know, a question for the media. should they be investigating that stuff? is he credible given the fact he's probably killed people, is he credible in the accusations he's throwing out at the lapd? >> it's fascinating that all of these people that we know and see on tv are on this list. but the question really is do we want to publicize what this person is saying? he put it on facebook. facebook has a billion people on it. everybody is going to read this. so "the new york times" made a decision not to actually talk about this and only use quotes sparingly from him. and i happen to think that for "the new york times" is a wise decision. you want to see it on facebook, go look for it. >> let me mention that dorner
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also sent a package to cnn's anderson cooper which contained a dvd having to do with his being kicked off the lapd and also a bullet-ridden souvenir coin. take a look at cooper's reaction. >> what i find so interesting and puzzling is that, i mean, big parts of this manifesto don't sound like they come from an insane person or someone capable of doing these killings. he seems aware of reality, the consequences of his actions. >> i've been getting a lot of heat on twitter saying this guy dorner likes all these liberals on tv, the media is covering this up, it's somehow tying the fact of these media personalities to this murder's alleged rampage saying we blame conservatives. it would be different if he said he liked rush limbaugh or sarah palin. i don't know what to make of that. >> i thought the more interesting part of his manifesto was his analysis of the lapd. there is a long history of racism there. and i agree with anderson.
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there was an intelligence there at work. now, this man has obviously gone on an murderous rampage and not in any way excusing that. >> allegedly. >> but there is a very serious and careful analysis of the endemic racism in the lapd, a historical sensibility. that to me is worth paying attention to despite the murder -- >> the force from which it comes. >> i think there's a kernell of truth to the criticism on twitter. sometimes the media has a hair trigger when you find out a murder suspect has ties to say the tea party or a radical right group. >> i have emphasized that. >> sometimes we go over it fairly and sometimes not so much. i understand the sensitivity on the right. but there's nothing in his manifesto that ties him to any organized political group. >> he was talking about movie, talking about people he likes on tv, talking about politics. i mean, this seems like a very normal joe. >> yeah. got to go.
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when we come back, chris christie downs a doughnut on letterman and lashes out at a doctor for questioning his health. are the media gorging on his weight? [ male announcer ] this is sheldon, whose long dy setting up the news starts with arthritis pain and a choice. take tylenol or take aleve, the #1 recommended pain reliever by orthopedic doctors. just two aleve can keep pain away all day. back to the news.
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happened right in the middle of their conversation. >> i didn't know this was going to be this long. >> that of course triggered lots of cable segments about the governor's girth. >> i worry that he may have a heart attack, he may have a stroke. i'm a physician more than i'm a democrat or republican and i worry about this man dying in office. >> what was christie's response to those comments on cnn by former white house physician connie mariano? >> she must be a genius. she should probably be the surgeon general of the united states i suspect because she must be a genius. listen, this is just another hack who wants five minutes on tv. if she wants to get on a plane and come to new jersey and examine me and review my medical history, i'll have a conversation with her about that. until that time, she should shut up. >> lauren ashburn? >> obesity is a big epidemic. go ahead. ask the question. sorry. >> would you like me to shut up? >> i'm telling you to shut up. >> christie goes on letterman, eats the doughnut, makes the
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joke about his weight, self-deprecating and he's complaining everybody is talking about it? >> a little thin skinned. i have a hard time with him eating a doughnut then lashing out at someone for actually talking act htalk ing about his weight. the larger point here -- no pun intended -- maybe he's healthy as he says he is, but obesity is a big epidemic costing billions of health care dollars. and i think that just needs to be addressed. >> i agree with that, and i think -- you know, as one commentator said, his biggest physical problem is not his big girth, it's his thin skin. he clearly showed that he -- and if he's going to run for president he's got to get used to this. a lot tougher. >> excuse me. sorry. somebody accused me of being a bully by saying that we should talk about obesity, saying that i have a prejudice against fat people, which i don't -- i've struggled with my weight. i think that the question is
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really do you want to be projecting the image of an obese person? >> it's not just that. there's another issue. we have a right, if someone's going to be in the national spotlight, to know something about their discipline and judgment. >> that brings me to one of the questions i wanted to ask. the only reason we in the media are obsessing on this is because we think christie may probably run for president in 2016, which is three years from now. new jersey is happy with him. >> he has a re-election in new jersey. >> of course. >> his popularity is high, looks like he'll have an easy re-election. his whole media strategy this week was i'm going to make a joke of my weight. >> put this behind me. >> it backfired. he can't take a joke about it. he can't kid himself. this woman made, you know, a comment that any doctor will tell you and he comes out there, doesn't laugh about it, doesn't do any self-deprecating humor and attacks her in sort of a
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vicious way and that becomes the story. >> he calls connie and she tells the press he yelled at her on the phone. >> it backfired. >> we're talking about him. >> not in a flattering way. >> not in a flattering way. >> you're the professor here. before i move onto another subject, the whole convention which television puts on doctor, psychologists who then purport to analyze people, patients they have never met, is there something wrong with that? does christie have a half a point? >> half a point in that she has not looked at his medical records. her saying she's worried about his health, he may die, i didn't particularly like that because she hasn't looked at his records. the point that is legitimate, he said over and over again, i've tried to lose weight and i haven't done it. does that tell us something about his discipline? does that tell us something about his judgment? i think the answer is yes. >> i think somebody else says the answer is no. >> going to start to rumble here. >> when you look at -- it is true. that to me is the more important issue. >> got to move on.
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"washington post"-style story this week, speaking of weight, about michelle obama's behind. all because an alabama high school football coach was caught on tape saying the first lady has a big butt. isn't that a flimsy rationale for publish a story on the subject? >> absolutely not. i don't think so at all. it's an interesting sociological story. african-american women and other women have been targeted for their weight, how they look. if you're curvy and not rail thin like some models, then you are not as attractive. now, and the article did that. it turned it into a look at the history of this. and it also showed you that the person who made these comments is dumb. >> who cares about this guy? he's hardly a national figure. secondly, in my view, the article dressed it up with a lot of sociology and history and it was still about whether michelle obama has a big butt. >> she has beautiful arms. she's a beautiful person. and the fact that -- >> she's in good shape. >> in great shape and she
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promote, unlike chris christie, physical fitness. and so if she -- >> i'm not going to save lauren here. >> if she isn't rail thin, then, you know, who cares? >> i'm generally? a camp of once you go into the public life like that, you know, they're really stretching the limits. but this story just seemed kind of dumb to me. like howie said, it seemed like it was dressed up with a lot of bs, sociological stuff, when it was rally an opportunity -- >> because it's about a woman? >> no. >> there's another word we have to speak here and that's racism. and there is -- to my view, there was an undercurrent in that comment from that -- about black women and there was a racist ting to it and i think that's what made it a bigger story. >> give you the last word. >> no it wasn't. that's my last word. no. >> at least you're consistent. >> three words will do. up next, the more serious subject, senator bob menendez denounces unsubstantiated
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allegations involving prostitutes. is that fair game for the press? . if your tires need to be rotated, you have to get that done as well. jackie, tell me why somebody should bring they're car here to the ford dealership for service instead of any one of those other places out there. they are going to take care of my car because this is where it came from. price is right no problem, they make you feel like you're a family. get a synthetic blend oil change, tire rotation and much more, $29.95 after $10.00 rebate. if you take care of your car your car will take care of you.
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unsubstantiated allegations that senator robert menendez had patronized prostitutes in the dominican republic, the press has largely stayed away from the charges. now, despite the lack of evidence, the story has become a talking point on some fox news programs. >> there's one other point here. if, according to law, he had sex with an underage prostitute, regardless of it being legal in the dominican republic, he would be charged in the united states. >> you put something on the table that proves this happened then i'm happy to have a conversation about what sort of -- >> dana bash got a strong response. >> reporter: one last question. can you just answer the allegation that has been out there that you -- >> the smears? >>. >> reporter: you were with prostitutes? >> the smears that right-wing blogs have been pushing since the election and that is totally unsubstantiated. it's amazing to me that
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anonymous, nameless, faceless individuals on a website can drive that type of story into the mainstream. >> steve robert, are these unsubstantiated allegations worthy of coverage? >> no. i think that this is a huge problem for the mainstream media, that you get websites who have much lower standards of accuracy, much lower standards of verification, they put something out there, and i think there's still a responsibility on the part of serious mainstream media to resist repeating unsubstantiated rumors. at the same time, there were very serious allegations about senator mendez -- >> let's stick with this. >> but on the prostitutes i think this was a story that was not substantiated enough to merit mainstream coverage. >> let's go global and take a look at the website we're talking about. it's daily caller. it is funded by foster freeze, a conservative. the daily caller's agenda is
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conservative -- >> tucker carlson's website. >> tucker's website. is conservative bashing in many cases. this is the -- their reports interrupted president obama during a speech. we know where they're coming from. so the fact that they have two anonymous sources that are saying this has to be suspect. now, if it was another legitimate news organization that didn't have this kind of bent, it would be a different story. >> what about as we just saw, when the senator himself denies it on camera to cnn, does that not open the door for other organizations to cover it? >> you can cover it after he says that as cnn did. a great question by dana. good for her for getting the interview, for raising a prickly topic. but to go on the record talking about whether or not he had been with prostitutes before he even addresses it with two anonymous sources, isn't this program called "reliable sources"? isn't this what journalists do is not run anonymous sources?
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>> because we're reliable, we asked the daily caller for a response. they did not release their names and they obscured their faces. it is difficult and, inform, axe and "the new york times" say they have investigated this and tried to corroborate and have been unable to corroborate these allegations. therefore it is hard to confirm. >> yeah. abc my understanding this crew, this group this washington -- >> ethics. >> there is an anonymous person who's at the center of this that leveled these accusations. >> who now refuses to come forward. >> refuses to come forward. neither nbc nor crew could confirm the identity. this guy is getting smeared. i'm practically uncomfortable sitting here on tv talking about completely unsubstantiated allegations. >> what was if it was a
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republican, not just because he's a democrat? >> the same thing happened to senator larry craig a few years ago, unsubstantiated rumors about him being gay and some news organizes went with it -- >> until the incident with the police in the bathroom. >> then it became legitimate. >> back to your question having to do with whether the media going soft on the democratic senator. "new york times" and other organizations have reported extensively on senator menendez intervening for a major donor with a government contract, reimbursing the government after these stories. $58,000 for free trips taken on the donor's airplane. not like the press collectively has given him a -- >> "the times" called for him to give up his chairmanship. they're going after it as hard as they can. but they're not reporting allegations from an anonymous e-mailer. >> huge difference. the fbi is investigating the economic -- the financial fraud issues. that is a totally legitimate thing for a news organization to say. there's an official investigation. but you're right, "new york times," not soft on democrats.
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this is the new chairman of the senate foreign relations committee. they called for him to step aside. i applaud "the times" for being tough on him. >> until things can be resolved. as the blog hot air said if you lose "the new york times" you pretty much better hang it up if you're a democrat. >> you're in trouble. thanks for stopping by this morning. ahead on "reliable sources," has facebook peaked? lots of people taking a break from the social network. plus, bingeing on a miniseries, but it's not tv. is netflix changing the rules with its kevin spacey drama? frp to be the world's best sport sedan... ♪ ...people noticed. ♪ the all-new cadillac ats -- 2013 north american car of the year. ♪ for a limited time, take advantage of this exceptional offer on the all-new cadillac ats.
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facebook is more than a website. for many people it's a way of life. but is the social network losing its allure? a new study but the pew internet project finds 61% of facebook users have at times taken a break for several weeks or more and 20% of dulls online say they used to be februaries of facebook but no more. so is facebook addiction a thing of the past? joining us now in san francisco, sarah lacy, founder and editor in chief of the pandodaily.com. in washington, mario armstrong, digital editor. sarah, people taking long
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breaks, is it becoming passe? >> well, you know, i think when you get to a billion users you can't expect everyone to use the site in the same way. i mean, i think since facebook started getting mainstream people have been saying oh it's getting old, it's a fad. i remember sort of covering this story in 2007 or . i think what gives it a little bit more legs this time is that most people are using their phones for their social habits and their social -- you know, their social time while they're standing in line or waiting in traffic. and facebook has an absolutely horrible mobile app. i mean, that's why i haven't been to facebook in weeks. it crashes every time i open it. >> in weeks. the editor has not -- >> i haven't. >> haven't updated your status, posted baby pictures or anything? >> you know what, i even got some gifts over facebook gifts for my birthday and i never claimed them. i tried to go on my phone and it broke. >> you are out. mario armstrong, maybe some folks feel kind of overwhelmed by having to keep up with all
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the friends and the pictures and the updates and so they pull the plug to kind of get their balance back. >> that could certainly be the case. i mean, i feel that people are looking for what's their attention attraction. it's like how much time in the day do i have, how much time can i actually allocate to things and what's most important to me to allocate that time to? i feel sad for sarah's friends who have allocated time to get her gifts and they're bummed she hasn't cashed in yet. but i understand people need to take a digital diet, take a break from this stuff. it can be too much. you're finding people sitting around not having conversations, at the doctor's office, at location where is you would normally engage in other people because they're stuck to their phone and fixated on their social media. >> sarah, that was the question about mark zuckerberg's company, what happens when it's no longer considered the shiny new object. >> well, i think we have to resist this fadishness in covering technology. i mean, look, facebook, let's step back. they've done something no one has ever done in the history of
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the world. it has wired together a billion people who never have to lose touch with each other. i don't buy people will start cancelling their memberships to facebook. the danger is it's becoming like linked in where it's this aaa card in the back of your wallet where if you need to get in touch with someone you've lost touch with them, you go there and find them, but it's not this daily engagement point. that works for linked in because linked in has undercut the recruiting market and it's given people a big reason to make money when they go there. it's providing something very, very valuable that is a sub seth of -- so it can be a multibillion-dollar company without you going every day. facebook doesn't have that. facebook is trying to show you ads. something valuable and, you know, so it's too early to say it's peaked but it needs to recognize the mobile problem and the engainment problem. >> i spend more time on twitter because for facebook it's harder to get newsy developments and my news and everybody's news feed
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because the way facebook has changed the rules. >> i think you're on the other end of the spectrum. you're creating and delivering content. people are consuming it but not necessarily creating it. you're more likely to stay and use it because it's value to you. >> journalists like to broadcast continue innocent through social networks. netflix, 27 million streaming subscribers, first original series called "house of cards with the request kevin spacey. he was asked about it on the "today" show. >> oh, i drafted on our middle east policy. >> 13 episodes at once, released on netflix, which sounds unusual. >> yeah. >> but in some ways this is the way people view these days anyway, isn't it? >> it's part of the argument for putting it out there the way that we are, that, you know, you talk to any of your friends and what did you do over the weekend so, many times i'm hearing friends saying i stayed home and watched two seasons of "breaking bad." >> sarah lacy, is this the new consumption model, which is you
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get all 13 episodes if p you want to watch them over weekend, you do rather than waiting for it to come on temperature every single week? >> i mean, in my house it's not the new consumption model. it's been the consumption model for five or six years. you look at netflix streaming. this is why it's almost all tf that you see and not movies. that's how weem have been watching this stuff. i think it's smart of net lix to look at its own user behavior and be the one who's reacting first this. >> if a company like netflix with make an original series and attract enough audience to make a profit, does that compete with the old model of mass television, got to get a mass audience to tune in at a certain time? >> absolutely it does. this is really, really significant. because what this will say is, look, we don't need to only create shows that are 30 minutes in length or 60 minutes in length and have them fit inside of a traditional broadcast model. we can do shows that are 20 minutes or 90 minutes. doesn't matter. they can be home runs or they can be a nice double.
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reed hastings put it great -- we don't have to pit it out of the park every time we do a show on net flick. a decent enough audience is enough to make money. not everything has to be a home run like in tv. >> and people want to watch when they want. thanks very much for joining us. coming up, cbs cracking down on revealing outfits at tonight's grammys. has television had enough of wardrobe malfunctions? ather pat. i upgraded to the new sprint direct connect. so i can get three times the coverage. [ manager 2 ] it's like working in a giant sandbox. with all these huge toys. and with the fastest push-to-talk... i can keep track of them all. [ male announcer ] upgrade to the new "done" with access to the fastest push-to-talk and three times the coverage. now when you buy one kyocera duraxt rugged phone for $69.99, you'll get four free. other offers available. visit a sprint store, or call 855-878-4biz.
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right now they're only $14.95! wow-a grt deal just got a whole lot better. hurry. $14.95 won't last. it's become almost the norm now at the big awards shows or super bowl halftime for women to wear skimpy outfits and suffer the occasional wardrobe malfunction. but tonight's grammy awards on cbs are supposed to be different now that the network has put out this memo. the memo continues in minute anatomical detail, trust me. is this a welcome step towards decency or is the network going overboard? cultural commentator and former "new york times" reporter and maureen o'connor, features editor for "new york" magazine's "the cut." lola, is cbs taking a stand for
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decency with this carefully worded memo? >> first of all, they're using the word buttocks in 2013 so that's already a problem. second of all, if they think that these rock stars are going to abide by this rule, they are sadly mistaken. the one way to guarantee that a rock star does exactly what you don't want them to do so tell them no. it's like waving a flag at a bull. come on. >> maureen, the memo is so excruciatingly detailed about what you can and cannot show when it comes to certain areas, lola seems to think everyone's going to ignore it. do you think this is at least a step in the right direction for family friendly programming? >> well, you know, the thing is it's not even just rock stars performing. they said they didn't want the sides of anyone's bres to show. at the grammys, every woman is wearing her dress cut to her belly button. unless they're going to blur every woman from her neck to sternum, they can't enforce it. >> do you think it's selly? do you find it ludicrous? >> it is silly. more than anything, it's
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problematic. we tune into the grammys to see these people break all the sartorial rules. they're rock stars. it's sex, drug, and rock 'n' roll. not sex, drug, and sensible dressing. no one tunes into the grammys to see that. >> go ahead, maureen. >> sure. they're caught in this sort of catch-22 and every single major network airing the awards show. they want to invite the provocateur, which causes people to tune in. but those people will be the most difficult. remember in 2010 eminem and lil wayne performed and it was like they bleeped out the entire performance because they were so afraid of them saying swear words on television, what's going to happen when you have these people performing. >> we showed j-lo twice, once was enough with that dress. >> that dress made her career, howie. >> i'm going to play -- >> household name. >> i'm going to play the role of a prude. i like looking at women as the next red blooded guy, but when beyonce does the super bowl in that getup, a lot of kids are
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watching this and do we want to expose them to this kind of wardrobe attire, in other words, not just aimed at adults? does that trouble anybody? >> it's not the job of the rock star to police what they're wearing. it's the job of the parent to police what their child is watching. >> but you can't let your 10-year-old daughter or your 9-year-old son watch the super bowl, how sad is that? because you're worried about what they might see at halftime? >> well, maybe i'm a bit less prudish than you are. i didn't find her outfit to be that revealing. she was covered up and that's the way she dresses in all of her videos. if you like the "single ladies" video she's in a unitard and she's in a unitard at the super bowl. >> cbs may be concerned about being fined by the federal communications commission, cbs that carried the super bowl in 2004 when janet jackson had the famous wardrobe malfunction, we see the famous picture there, played about 100 million times. so i'm wondering whether -- this
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is a defensive move by cbs? >> you know, justin timberlake is performing at the grammys so he will have another chance. in 2004 he actually in order to get on the grammy stage they said he would have to apologize for what he did at the super bowl and he did because he was accepting an award that year. they have a sense that, you know, they need to have everybody acknowledge their decency standards and even if people end up misbehaving they have to repent for it afterwards or say they're going to try not to do it again. >> have wardrobe malfunctions in the famous cliche become the new normal and something that both the stars and the pedia are complicit? almost every day on "the huffington post" i see a headline linking to a picture of some woman falling out of her dress or something like that. this is where the culture is now? >> well, it's definitely a way to draw views, web page views. if you've got a woman who's showing a little bit of a cleavage or a little bit of side breast, you can guarantee you're
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going to get more clicks than if a woman is sitting there in blazer and turtleneck, that's for sure. >> half a minute. if everybody obeys and winds up wearing relatively modest clothing. >> they better not. >> boring red carpet ever if everybody obeys those rules. it will be a snooze. you don't tune in to go to bed. >> this is not some side issue? this is the main event. if they take it away do you think the ratings will plummet? >> the ratings won't plummet but we know that's the talking point tomorrow morning and if anybody is going to keep on talking about what happens at the grammys you want to see something interesting happen. it doesn't have to be naked people, but certainly that's part of the whole spectacle and the show of it. >> now that we've talked about it i will have to watch and have a report tomorrow morning on whether or not cbs was able to enforce these rules. maureen and lola, thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you. >> after the break, nbc's big exclusive on the use of killer drones, bill o'reilly misses the mark on that subject and a comic
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hits and errors in the news business. here's what i like, nbc's mike issa cough changed the terms of the national security debate ob take an explosive justice department memo detailing the legal rationale for drone strikes against terror suspects abroad. >> this memo sheds light on what is one of the most controversial and secretive policies of the obama administration, not just its drone strike campaign, but reserving the rights to use drones against american citizens. >> issy cough pierced the veil of secrecy keeping the american people from knowing how assassinations were being carried out in their name. everyone gave nbc credit for the exclusive. bill o'reilly had a different view. >> remember the outcry about waterboarding. >> sure. >> everybody jumping up and down. >> yeah. >> nbc news, i thought they were going to like melt down over there. heard anything on nbc about the drones? >> not yet. >> no. >> that's
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