national chinese congress, or, d, the national people's congress. stay tuned. we'll tell you the correct answer. go to cnn.com/fareed. you can follow us on twitter and facebook. also, remember, if you miss a show, go to itungs. you can get the audio podcast for free or you can buy the video version. itune.com/fareed. this week's book of the week is david shambaugh's eye china goes global." he talks to chinese leaders and demonstrates the nature and extent of china's global power and amount bishions but perhaps most surprisinglsurprisingly, i china is about to take over the world, you need to read this excellent book. now for the last look. tensions are high enough between israel and post revolution egypt but now they threaten to get truly biblical. you see the border between the

two nations has always been a point of contention. it's historically been one of israel's toughest spots to defend against illegal immigrants, against would be terrorists. there's locusts swarming over the border. if you remember your biblical history it was egypt plagued with locusts a among other things. when the plagues were over and the israel lights were spared, passover. guess what, passover is two weeks from tomorrow. and this time the swarms hit both countries so maybe those bright egyptians and israelis can use this as a way to come together for good against a common enemy, locusts, find a solution, and make these plagues truly a thing of the past. the correct answer to the gps challenge was, g, the national people's congress will culminate on thursday with the official anointment of the new leaders. it began this past week with a farewell address from the

outgoing premiere, a two-time former guest on gps. thanks to all of you for being part of my program this week. part of my program this week. thank you for reliable sources. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com it's not just bob woodward. now other journalists are saying that this white house plays rough. top officials can be abusive in pushing back against stories they don't like. >> plenty of reporters covering mr. obama have received angry calls and e-mails from his staff and frankly it began long before he was elected and it really never stopped. >> is this part of the normal sparring between the president's people and the press? we'll ask two journalists who have clashed with the white house. roger ales calls president obama lazy and vice president biden dumb. is that any way for the chairman of a news network to behave? the washington post abolishes the job of ombudsman after three decades.

we'll ask three editors about it. plus, this bombshell. >> our other breaking story tonight, john stewart has announced he'll be taking the summer off from the daily show. we wish him all the best in his new project, ruling the country of venezuela. >> john stewart taking three months off? what will this mean for the future of state news. i'm howard kirtzman and this is "reliable sources." every administration gets into its share of spats with the president. that's par for the course in washington. some journalists are crying foul. in essence what started as just some verbal frustration by the white house that i would even want a response about this story turned into a full-fledged shouting match on the phone with some choice words, shall we say.

>> even liberal msnbc talked about the consequences of displeasing the white house. >> they didn't like something that i had reported and i was disinvited to a dinner that night that reporters were having with the candidate. i was told, don't come. you know, in a fairly abusive e-mail. >> who sent you the e-mail? >> that one was gibbs. >> so is this plain old old-fashioned hard ball or something more serious? joining us, dana mill bank, columnist with the washington post. and ryan lindnah. how aggressive has the white house been against people like you? >> they make their case very forceful, right. when you're reporting a piece and when you're granted a certain level of access, i think sometimes they think that because of that they should have more say over what goes into

that piece. my stats usually come at the end when i'm going over and fact checking. there's a week-long process of going over everything in the piece. when they see something they don't like, they push back very aggressively. >> let me turn to david because he used the word access. is there an expectation in this democratic white house that if you are granted access, they expect you to kind of play ball? >> well, that part of it is true in any white house. there's always this sort of implied quid pro quo that you trade access for good coverage. doesn't always work out that way, but that's what they try to do. i don't think the idea of them getting in the faces is new or unusual. >> even if it's your face. >> i had to once clean ari fleischer's spittle from my face. it's more course, more vulgar.

maybe this is how everybody is these days. the number of f bombs being dropped by this white house. scholars are going to look in the national archives and they'll be shocked by the language. >> i'm shocked that such words would be used in the discourse. >> i'll second the bipartisanship on this. i wrote a piece about eric cantor. at the end of that piece there was someone in an offhanded way said -- >> somebody who works for the house majority leader. >> if this is the way -- they wanted something changed. they said, well, next time you want to cover someone in the republican conference, that's going to be our response. you get this, you piss us off, we're not going to give you access. it's a bipartisan phenomenon. not unusual to this white house. >> is this different from other administrations. you mentioned clashing with ari fleischer when he worked for george w. bush. is there some difference in the

discourse and the coarseness of the language. >> no. i don't think the threats are any worse than before or the implied loss of access or being shut out if you don't do things -- that i've seen all throughout. i really do think it's just in the tone of the language. i think people writing from the executive office of the president or from the house majority leader, i've received those too, tend to be using language you would more expect to be used on -- >> some people are saying right now, ryan, these people are whining. if you want to play ball at this level you have to expect some brush back. >> i agree with them. there's nothing that says that the people we cover have to be nice to us. the first amendment does not say anything about the people in power, you know, giving you access or being polite, but i do agree with you. there was a chief mo attitude by the white house, led by rob emanuel. >> i would be stunned if rob emanuel ever used any f. bombs.

you gave us a couple that we have made graphics from. back in 2008 during the campaign "the new yorker" ran the famous terrorist fist jab cover showing barack and michelle obama there. it was a pair did i. the most amazingly offensive thing i have ever seen. i'm sure it was an attempt at parody but everyone here is in a fair amount of shock about it and we are not sensitive about things like this at all. i suspect you guys will get the kicked out of you over it. as a knowing as an e-mail like this, it's not as nearly annoying as having a furious boss who doesn't know why a piece in the new yorker bears no resemblance to him or having to spend the coming weeks and months battling an elite, right wing narrative that isn't true. >> we hate this cover, you're

going to get the you know what kicked out of you. the second one was you have cost us politically. >> the phone calls. disparaging your manhood. >> always a little of that. there was also the last one you read was a long e-mail going point by point through the piece describing what they thought was not correct. >> err they're entitled. >> i thought it was interesting saying the boss is really unhappy. a lot of this is we worked for people -- not we, dan and i, but the press secretary to the white house, a lot of this is shown to their superiors, don't worry, i went and i kicked that guy in the shins. >> i took care of him. >> before we leave you and go to dab in a. there was one last one i found amusing from last year. subject line, bleeding from behind. so here's where i pathetically ask you about attending "the new yorker" party. is it not earned after a year of being screwed, a lot worse than that, by good people. >> after an e-mail like that, i

thought it was hilarious. they deserved it. >> jay carney when he worked for vice president biden didn't like a piece you wrote. he sent you an e-mail. you are a hack. if you would read that key phrase there. >> oh, it closed with fabrication is a legitimate tool for fiction. you should try it. it suits you. >> so-called you a writer of fiction essentially making stuff up. >> yes, i'm going to give that a try. it would be easier than reporting things out. >> were you offended? >> no. i was a muzed. i stored it away for a while until he became the press secretary when i could use it again. i don't think either ron or i is complaining about this sort of thing. this is what you expect to do. you know, there's a question of is this an effective way to deal with reporters that are just riled. i think a lot of reporters worry about access and the threat of being shut off. as somebody who's been basically shut out by two different white houses from different parties, it's no big deal. >> the larger point is, look,

almost everyone who has sent me an e-mail who says we're not going to cooperate with you g n again, they do it when it suits them. it's strieblgtly business. >> otherwise, you get nothing. >> president obama, the gridiron told a joke about somebody saying i'm ignoring the washington press core. we're too controlling. i want to apologize, says the president. you can watch it exclusively on white house.com. before we let you go, all of that coverage of the automatic budget cuts, sequester, sky is falling, everything is going to go to hell in a hand basket, that hasn't quite happened and now the press seems to have pivoted to what's called the obama charm offensive. what's were the budget cuts and the closing of the white house tours to anger a lot of tourists. >> i love how easily the press tour is manipulated.

he takes out a few of them at the jefferson hotel and has lunch with paul ryan and suddenly he's reaching out and there's all of these efforts to have coombaya. he's had two meals. >> right. the white house is not going to change it overnight by having two meals. >> i think the jury is not in yet. it's the 10th today? >> absolutely. some people felt the administration went too far in protecting all of this instant doom and gloom and the press swallowed it. there was very little independent reporting from some of what they're saying is exaggerated. >> there's no doubt, they make decisions. charlie peters at the washington monthly, he had some funny line about this. i think he called it the fire house rule. when there's a budget cut, the first thing they say is the fire house will be cut. >> the washington monument. they've done the white house tour. >> is the press so easily

manipulated that the president who has been criticized even by his own party for not schmoozing, members of congress, kind of referring to hanging out with his family can have a couple of meals with the gop and suddenly he's reaching out, he's got a new strategy? >> i think there's a lot of that. it changes the press narrative. there's probably some benefit for him actually going out to dinner. >> there is. >> you know, i've been writing about this recently. i think it's all overrated. politicians are successful when they have large majorities. usually schmoozing is overrated. he had big numbers in congress and he was a bum when he didn't. >> i'll be sending you both angry e-mails at the end of this show. >> send you party invitations. when we come back, facebook unveils a major change deciding to put the social networking site in competition with newspapers, maybe even television. we'll take a look. she can't ae the way she wants. now you can. with stayfree ultra thins. flexible layers move with your body

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i'm like, what is this, a drainpipe slipknot? wherever your business takes you, nobody keeps you on the road like progressive commercial auto. [ flo speaking japanese ] [ shouting in japanese ] we work wherever you work. now, that's progressive. call or click today. facebook was originally launched as a way to share things, family photos, status updates with your friends. when mark zuckerberg announced this week that he was revamping facebook's news feed, the first thing you see on the screen, it is clear he has much grander ambitions. >> what we're trying to do is give everyone in the world the best personalized newspaper we can. it should have a high quality public content from world renowned sources and it should also have socially and locally relevant updates from family, friends, the people around you.

>> so is facebook now kind of a news organization? joining us from a sunny spot at the south by southwest conference in austin, texas, te kera swisher. will some of them start using facebook as a version of their daily paper? >> no, i don't -- it's an unusual word he picked. they're not going to be doing any original content. just like google and the "huffington post", they'll aggregate it for you. they'll use a social graph to do so, leaving your friends signals, signals you go to. photos, things like 245. they're he just prettifying the news feed. they're making it prettier with more news feed and video. >> if it's prettif i.e.d., to use your words, the key they'll have is people may be more interested in the news from their friends than from journalists they don't know. >> well, no, i don't think it's

news. i don't think your friends are going to start being howie, people will share sources from, you know, world class news organizations and they'll aggregate it there on facebook. so it's going to be more like a news reader than anything else and so they're not getting -- i know journalists all go, you know, crazy thinking facebook's going to take over their business, but it's more they want to suck in all the information that journalists write and make more money from it than news organizations, so they will aggregate it and shoot it all over the place all over the site depending on your social graph. >> i have a different complaint. i've seen this echoed by other journalists and columnists. they tinkered with the secret sauce algorithm. i was getting less information from the stories i was putting up. at the same time twitter became

the place where you went to get the links on what was happening. is facebook trying to compete more with twitter in this regard? >> well, yeah. i think they're all competing. so is google. google is trying to do this, bring you relevant news. so is the "huffington post." they read it there and you can sell advertising again. the facebook algorithm is over blown. they move this around to get the speed, not spamming. things change all the time. google does it all the time. twitter does it on occasion. twitter is more of a time line. twitter will also be aggregating in a more sensible way so, you know, i don't know -- i mean, where are you getting your traffic now? you've got to get your traffic from somewhere. unfortunately, journalist the are at the mercy of the twitters, facebooks, goingless of the world. >> you say mercy. it can be a great help in broadcasting your words or images to a large audience. i noticed that facebook now has

a deal where if you pay the company a little money, it will make sure that you get better distribution and your likes and people who like what you do, they tell their friends goes way up. is this also about generating revenue for zuckerberg? >> well, of course it is. of course it's generating revenue for facebook but that's not entirely true. what you're talking about is if you buy an@anywhere. if you tauted your website anywhere, yahoo, anywhere else, you'll get placement. it's not a pay for placing here, but if you buy an ad, you certainly can do better in any medium. if you bought an ad in the washington post you would be more noticed than if you didn't. >> right. >> it's a little different than that. journalists like to whine about this kind of stuff but, you know, you want to be on these sites because you want to reach as many readers as possible in all different kinds of device the and ways.

the difference is why didn't news organizations think about this. >> the question i've asked myself many times. >> it's too bad. >> facebook has 1 billion users. care ra swisher, thank you for stopping by from austin. >> up next, abc news and the washington post challenge that disputed daily caller by bob menendez and prostitutes. my two cents in a moment. yeah. ♪ dad: you'll be fine, ok? girl: ok. dad: you look so pretty. ♪ i'm overprotective. that's why i got a subaru. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.

they're coming. yeah. british. later. sorry. ok...four words... scarecrow in the wind... a baboon... monkey? hot stew saturday!? ronny: hey jimmy, how happy are folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico? jimmy: happier than paul revere with a cell phone. ronny: why not? anncr: get happy. get geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. the sensational story about robert menendez supposedly patronizing prostitutes in the dominican re pub blik unraveled this week. the daily caller said that two women would not provide their names alleged they had had sex with the new jersey senator. most news organizations shied away from the you be substantiated allegations which menendez vehemently denied. they reported on affidavits in

which one prostitute said she was paid to lie about maine den dez. who are's carol lenick. >> what we now know is one woman who was an escort in the dominican republic have gone to dominican authorities, sought immunity from prosecution for any involvement in a smear or slantder campaign, and have sworn in affidavits that they were hood winked into making a tape of some sort where they recited a script about having sex for money with senator menendez and also a wealthy donor friend of his. >> the daily caller is standing by its story says that they have a prostitute. here's tucker carlson with a somewhat skeptical bill o'reilly. >> i'd say the washington post story is ludicrous. the washington post story was an attempt to take down our story. if you read it carefully, trust me, we did, it doesn't achieve that.

they hold up an affidavit in their piece as evidence that the woman we interviewed was lying. we're not mentioning the affidavit. it has nothing to do with the story we did. in fact, it's not at all clear that the woman they're talking about is the same woman we interviewed. >> that person is pretty much protected, they're anonymous. it makes me a little queasy, tucker. >> i get it. it's one of the basic conundrums of journalism that we deal with every day. >> it turns out abc news refused to carry a juicy story because it was too flimsy. chief investigative reporter brian ross recounts what happened. >> as menendez campaigned for re-election last year, republican on poor tants went into over drive to implicate him in a sex scandal. >> is that the same person you had sex with? >> si. >> they all provided the same story almost word for word as if they had been coached. now i can't prove that the daily caller is wrong in that its reporter spoke to different

prostitutes, but the fbi has found no evidence in this case and the caller hasn't proven these case. they say someone was out to smear menendez and to use the media in doing so. roger ales under fire for comments about barack obama and joe biden. did some criticism go too far? concerns as we age. h it has 7 antioxidants to support cell health. one a day 50+.

roger ales speaks his mind. given all that he has done for fox, have they gone too far. ales says that president obama is lazy. he likes joe biden but the beep is dumb as an ashtray. show to show you fair and

balanced. ailes calls gingrich a word i can't use on air. in new york, we have ma lisa guthrie who covers the media for the hollywood reporter. does he get to play by a different set of news as the fox news chairman? >> yeah, it's really roger ailes world and he lets us live in it. time after time he gets shot at and he keeps getting back up and he always has the last laugh. the guy's brilliant. he's a brilliant self-promoter and a brilliant promoter. it's tough to nail him. >> marisa guthrie, if another network boss had made those kind of strong political remarks, would there be more of an unroar? >> yeah, there definitely would be more of an uproar. roger lives in this bifurcated world where, you know, he's got the news portion on his network

during the day, the opinion at night. he's made a lot of money and built a very successful business by allowing those people that are on in primetime to go right up to the line and that's what he was doing here. >> okay. now there was some blow back against particularly the comment calling a president lazy. here is the commentator torrey speaking on msnbc. >> this sort of lazy term we've heard flung at us as black people going back to slavery. they perceive them as not wanting to work. of course they didn't want to work, they were slaves. >> the reason i thought that was a little unfail, gail shister, is as ailes says in this book, he's quoting barack obama talking to barbara walters saying he feels a certain laziness in himself. it may have been an unfair thing to say. this president works very hard, didn't take many vacations but i didn't see it as racial.

your thoughts? >> oh, i didn't see it as racial. if you take it out of context, it looks bad of course. you look at everything in context. another thing to keep in mind is ailes is a quote machine. joe biden is dumb as an ashtray. that's such a great line. i'm going to find a way to steal it. i'm saying that had ahead of time. if you look at the context, i have no problem at all. >> marisa, he kind of softened it by saying, i kind of like joe biden but -- here we are all talking about it. maybe it is a smart bit of marketing. >> oh, yeah, definitely. look, roger knows exactly what he's doing. i think it was a calculated bit of mischief on his part. i think what the quote actually reveals more is a hostility toward government and, you know, that is a reliable republican position. >> right. >> so that's how i took it, actually.

>> they seay obama has never doe anything but earn public money. bill o'reilly got into a high decibel argument, shall we say, with fox commentator and liberal allen combs. >> hold it. hold it. now i'm getting heat off of you. give me one damn program he said he'd cut. >> entitlements. >> not entitlements. one program. >> why do you want to yell a at me. >> because you're lying. >> you are lying. >> don't sit there and call me a liar. >> no, you're lying. >> here's the proof. >> you don't like the president. you don't like what he's doing but don't sit there and call me a liar. >> obama -- excuse me, o'reilly later apologized for calling him a liar in president obama's budget plan, but that was talked about for days, particularly on fox. >> well, i for one am relieved that they had a defibrillator on the set because it was -- it was

getting kind of scary. and -- but, again, o'reilly, there's a reason that o'reilly works for ailes and they're so good together. they both know how to go right up to the edge and sometimes go over. o'reilly and geraldo, the decibel has been high. i'm glad allen fought back because he's way too passive and he gets bullied. entertaining tv. >> it was loud but it was good television, right? >> it was great tv. i'm with gail. i sometimes don't understand why alan colmes goes on that network. they're paying him. he seems to be the liberal strong man for bill o'reilly to take the bat to. it's like he's a pinata. yeah, it's great that he's standing up for himself a little bit there. >> colmes has a really thick skin. before i go to break, a little bit of breaking news. this is the kids post section. there is an illustration here, if we can put it up on the

screen, of spring flowers by abby kurtz. we wanted to share it with viewers. after the break, a very real report from the world of fake news. john stewart abandoning us for three months. how can that be? ttvwkun+og#wvs# try charmin ultra strong. it cleans so well and you can use up to four times less than the leading value brand. oh! there it is. thanks son. hey! [ female announcer ] charmin ultra strong has a duraclean texture that can help you get clean while still using less. and it's four times stronger versus the leading value brand. charmin ultra strong helps keep you and your underwear clean. we all go. why not enjoy the go with charmin ultra strong?

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elected pope. >> any male catholic, huh? i already know a male catholic who's got an inside track on infollibility. the question is, would o'reilly accept a demotion? he's become so much of a part of television culture, that when someone does something dumb, whether it's a politician or pundant, you know the next step is being mocked on "the daily shoe." jon stewart will use his summer vacation to become a hollywood director. jon stewart is stepping away from the daily show, not for every but four months while he goes overseas to direct a feature film.

>> marissa guthrie, how did jon stewart get so engulfed in the american culture that this makes the msnbc nightly news. >> what's so funny is people who are regular watchers of "the daily show" know jon's history with bill o'reilly. you see that underneath that commentary. poor john oliver. he's wonderful. you can never fill those shoes and he doesn't have the background that jon has. >> you're referring to john who will be filling in for jon stewart. gail shister, i have a feeling some things will happen and people who would get a pass will be mocked because stewart is not there. >> i have three words for jon stewart, all about eve. he shouldn't turn his back too long on john oliver.

we know what happened with steven colbert. they have the same first name. you have to worry about that. i want to point out that brian williams mentioned that stewart was going on a hiatus on the "nbc nightly news" because he and jon stewart were separated at birth and stewart mentions him on the show every other show. >> they do. >> there was a little insider trading going on there. >> they do appear together a lot. now stewart, for those who have not heard this news, is going to be directing a film that he came up with, a screen play called "roetds "rosewater." this is a serious film that jon stewart is undertaking. i imagine all of this is good publicity for the movie, right, either one of you? >> definitely. >> go ahead. >> it's okay. >> gail. >> i'll be o'reilly. >> okay. i said i can't lose. the more people who talk about

it, the more people will watch intrigued by the concept of jon stewart doing a serious movie. they've never seen him in that realm so that could be interesting too. >> okay. got about half a minute, marissa. could this hurt "the daily show" long term? if jay leno disappeared, some people may not come back? >> it ratings will go down. it will be eight weeks. they go down anyway because it's summer. i think they'll be fine. >> plus, we can publicize the comeback when he returns. all right. gail shister, marissa guthrie, thank you for joining you with us on this sunday morning. ahead on sources" the washington post has said good-bye to the job of ombudsman. is it now passe? 130 calories 7 grams of protein

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the washington post ombudsman was named back in 1970 and the last one finished his term last week. the paper, in part, because of budget pressures has abolished the job of an independent critic writing a column to hold them accountable. patrick picks ton whose tenure as ombudsman ended last week. ga november va ovelhauser and michael getler who serves as the first ombudsman at pbs. you went out this week saying this was a bad idea to abolish your job. >> yes. i think it's a terrible idea for the post because i think it dismisses readers whampt we do all day long is listen to readers and talk about their

complaints about the post. to suddenly say you have no more ombudsman who can make more judges about news gathering and what the post reports is a mistake. >> geneva, is this about saving money in these belt-tightening times or is this in part about shielding an institution from criticism? >> that is a good question and i wish we had a clearer expectation. i think one of the things that's most frustrating is it isn't clear why they did it. we can all sympathize with financial difficulties. >> you've been an editor. >> exactly. >> it's hard to make ends meet. >> right. >> but is this a special job to increase the paper's credibility because they were willing to post weekly criticism of themselves. >> absolutely. this is the most distinguished ombudsman position in the u.s. and has been for decades. i was privileged to hold it. i saw the real independence of it. when the "new york times" decided to do the public editor

position, i said you have to think about having independence and a stronger role. unfortunate unfortunately, they're tossing the post over. >> mike gel ler and i was an editor and i was never stopped from criticizing the paper. having a reader representative who's a post employee, on the payroll, who didn't have an independent contract as all three of you did, that's not quite the same, is it? >> it isn't at all. i think it destroys the concept of being an ombudsman or as geneva said, in the case of "the new york times", as being an editor. it is going to be a part-time position which is impossible. you cannot do that job part time. >> because of the torrent of phone calls and e-mails? >> not only that, the torrent of events. i was there for five years and i started in a deadlocked national

election, historic, then came 9/11, then came afghanistan, then came iraq. those are huge, huge events. you cannot really deal with things like that, let alone newspaper problems. i mean, there have been lots of failings of newspapers, news organizations. exactly. you have to deal with that. you must be immersed in this all the time. and for me they've destroyed something which has served the public interest for 43 years actual pli. >> patrick, what are some of the shortcomings that you havally tackled that might have been swept under the rug. >> for example, i wrote about plagiarism three times and it occurred four times. that's something 35papers don't want to have happen. you talk about how it happened and here's how it was dealt

with. >> you're an independent guy even though you have an office there. >> that's right. >> that gave you a special status that i'm sure was uncomfortable sometimes. >> yes, it was. most everybody works well with an ombudsman. there are some people who don't care to. they don't have to. they're not required to talk to me. most people understands this serves a purpose and they're very cooperative. >> geneva, one argument is these days with all the bloggers, websites, tweeters, there's so much media criticism out there, do we need to have our own in house critic? would you address that? >> it is a good point. there are far greater opportunities for the readers to contact the post directly. i hope that the post will make a point of kind of really thoughtfully cure rating that conversation. the thing that i don't think that the publisher or the editorial page editor has addressed is it's one thing to say we'll have somebody listening to readers. it's another to have a strong,

independent person making sure that they're actuallyheard. i mean when i edited a paper i thought i was listening to readers but you want to explain why you made the decisions you made because you're responsible for it. the ombudsman is there, really, to listen and try to connect readers with the people inside the paper who can make a change, make a difference. it's a very different thing than sitting there saying i'll listen to a bunch of readers. >> when there's a big mistake, big scandal sometimes at a. ier, janet cook, famously conducted a huge investigation, four full pages, i always felt that it gave added credibility to any news organization to say we were willing to answer the questions and take our lum frps this in-house critic. the reuters media columnist says there's been no great outcry about this, a bigger uproar when a comic strip gets canceled.

>> i don't think so. i like jack but don't agree with what he said about this at all. in fact, letters have already published in the post yesterday were quite critical for -- >> ordinary readers. >> ordinary readers and informed readers and it is absolutely essential, it seems to me, that you have an internal person with the authority, with -- must have total independence, without management, looking over your shoulder. who cannot be ignored. they cannot be ignored by people inside the paper. reporters and editors know there's an ombudsman there, they know he or she is able to make an independent assessment of their work. they're more careful before they hit the send button and it's their audience they're talking to and also to follow up on a point, reporters and editors there i think they believe it's their newspaper too. it doesn't just belong to the owners. >> yes. >> it's them. they don't like it to see it mess up.

so they come -- you're almost like ap chaplin. you get a lot of people, reporters who come to you and say did you see this, did you see that? they don't like that. >> is there also confession? let's broaden this in the minute we have left. it may be 30, 35 newspapers at the peak had an ombudsman. what about television? why don't the networks have these in-house critics and should they? >> i think they should have them. it would make them more credible. they would have to create some on air space for it. it's an excellent idea for the networks. om budsmen are increasing abroad. >> we criticize from cnn interest time to time when we think it's warranted. but it's not the same. not just readers by the way but sources, people who feel they have been wronged by the paper, by the network, they can also it turn to an ombudsman. >> helping shape the debate about the future of journalism. nobody knows where journalism is headed right now.

we're all co-creating it with the people formerly known as the audience. om budsmen are important in that conversation. margaret sullivan at the "new york times" is one of the interesting voices, "the post" is reducing itself in that debate. >> i'm sorry. >> i read her religiously and we are out of time. one of the limitations of it television. geneva, patrick and mike, thanks very much for coming by. still to come, time warner and time inc, are splitting up. a fox news commentator embroiled in a plaj rich controversy. the media monitor is next.

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time now for the media monitor. our weekly look at the hits and erro errors. no question that one williams published a column that was plauj rised as salon reported his piece for the hill newspaper was filled with paragraphs limited almost word for word from a report from the center for american progress. williams blames the ripoff on a young researcher he says betr betrayed had him and the hill has accepted his explanation. i'm willing to give williams' the benefit of the doubt here,