he had traveled there before as vice president in 1959 when he took part in the infamous kitchen debate with soviet premier krush shauf. i will see you next week. stay tuned for "reliable sources." around the world this week, the news about syria raised questions about america. what are america's motives? is it a nation of war or the great defender of human rights? public perception may hinge on where the news comes from. >> the senate foreign relations committee gave the president the united states what he wanted. the authority to use military might against syria. >> president obama and secretary of state john kerry keep asserting over and over again that they believe they have the right to go on their own, even if congress says no. >> it seems that washington's priority at the moment is to send a message to help the

syrian people a way out of their crisis. >> and if you're a fan of hbo's the newsroom, you know them, obsessed with social media. but a report this week from the real world says twitter may be ruining presidential campaign coverage. we'll talk to the author of the report along with a campaign insider. and amazon's jeff basos gets a look inside his very own washington post. former executive editor lynn downey was in the room and today he's here to discuss the future of the post and the future of news. i'm frank cesno and this is "reliable source." each day the united states debates the use of military force in syria is another day that new imaging of war emerge online, in print, and on television. fair warning, some viewers may find these images disturbing but earlier this week new video

posted on youtube and around the world reported to show the impact of chemical weapons on children. then, more video of attack aftermath. first obtained by cnn on saturday. 13 videos in all being shown to members of congress. and then there was this image, published in wednesday's new york times claiming to be recent video showing syrian soldiers about to be executed by rebel forces. perhaps the same rebel forces who would benefit from an american miss still strike. then it was reported that it was a year earlierer. we'll talk about whether these images are reliable sources and how this story is getting told around the world. we start with cnn correspondent arwa damon. arwa, how is this story being reported by the various media there? >> well, it's quite interesting because when you look at the region, there's not a lot of independent tv stations or

publications. everything is either state-run or affiliated with one sort of political party or another. so at the depending on which side of this, whether a nation or publication is with the assad regime or with the opposition. they are either for or against a strike. that being said, when we look at what is coming out of syria, for example, syrian state television has been broadcasting a multipart documentary that is focusing on america's relationship with the middle east, playing this up very much as being yet another act of american aggression reminding people what happened to iraq and also emphasizing this access of resistance that, in their view, extends from iran through syrian and it's an incredibly polarizing issue. the other thing is, whe it comes to this region in particular, conspiracy theories tend to dominate much more than

the facts. >> talk about that conspiracy theory seen in much of the press. what's the theory? what's the conspiracy supposed to be? >> well, it depends on who you are talking to and which publication it is but people will say this is exactly what america wanted to see happen in the region, that american policy towards the middle east is to create more chaos to keep arab nations at their weakest, that it's all for the benefit of israel and trying to make sure that any entity that could pose a threat to israel, hezbollah, for example, is being deliberately weakened. they very much view this as being foreign meddling and that's what we're also hearing coming from the syrians themselves. this revolution against him was part of a foreign-backed conspiracy theory to try to weaken him because he was becoming such a formidable force in the region. all that being said and done, though, when we talk to people here, they are absolutely terrified about what is going to

be coming next because from everyone's percent speck tif, whether the u.s. does or doesn't strike, there are going to be much more bloody days ahead. not just through syria but other regions as well. >> what about the use of chemical weapons on children and others? is that being eclipsed in this coverage that you're talking about by american and itself? what about the story itself? >> well, again it goes back to which broadcaster or which publication you're dealing with. is it getting coverage? yes, absolutely. but you also have those syrian publications, the iranians for example, who are saying that this was all faked. the syrian government has said that all of those videos that you're seeing on youtube are staged. that didn't even take place. so it's very polarizing but at the same time when we've been talking to the lebanese about this, they do believe that a strike took place, a chemical

strike took place and a lot of them do want to see action being taken against them because the images are so incredibly difficult to look at and people are very worried that that could be repeated and even possibly repeated here in lebanon. so there's a lot of concern at this point. >> arwa damon, thank you so much. what is the impact of these images on public opinion around the world? how do news organizations decide whether they are legitimate? what impact do they have on government officials who must a act? joining me until recently was at the state department is now a distinguished fellow. professor for peace and development at university of maryland and author of the world through arab eyes. arab public opinion and the reshaping of the middle east and lynn downey, current vice president at large teaches at arizona state university. first to you, you heard arwa damon describing this mow say

kick of coverage, some of it riddled with trends and disparities that you see? >> first of all, the coverage in the arab media is very graphic, particularly a war on death. we see that. this is not new. i saw the images and they are chilling. even without chemical weapons, the people mutilated has been constant. the chemical weapons issue does not add a lot to what they have seen. the arab public opinion is reacting over different issues as, you know, we heard in terms of the polarization, this is a time -- it's like the time of war here. when the media is absolutely polarized. so we see three issues. one is humanitarian, people who really see that assad is attacking its own people and that's separate from the chemical weapons. second, is the sunni/shiite

divide and reflected in the debate and finally the reaction to the u.s. where people don't trust american's intentions even as they want something. >> that's what i was going to ask you about, the notion of the conspiracy theory. how prevalent is that? >> it's huge. i think it's silly to talk about american credibility because frankly the public in the arab world and governments don't trust what we say meaning not our threats. they know we can use military power. they see our hands in everything small and big, whether it's in egypt or syria or somewhere else. it's not that we think that they are not acting. they think we are doing it all for the wrong reasons. when we si even in egypt it's related to the muslim brotherhood. >> lynn downey, big problem in this world that the world is talking about is there precious

little journalism on the ground to see and report on what is happening? >> that's a double problem. number one, trustworthy reporting is hard to come by, very few of them are there. when a reporter is in syria, they are often risking their lives being there without notice to the government. when they are allowed in by the government, you wonder what restrictions they are under. so there is this increasing reliance on other sources of information, other source us of videos, pictures that are smug belled out of the internet and so on. >> here's "the new york times" from thursday, september 5th, with this horrible, graphic picture of these reportedly syrian soldiers on the ground about to be executed. turns out that this was first identified as a picture from 2013. now "the new york times" says it's from 2012. okay. you're the undersecretary for public diplomacy. you're the one that has to

convey america's story. a picture like this hits, how does it change your day? >> first, if you work in government, media changes your day bus because we live in an environment where every tweet may go viral. the next day the new york sometimes has a still photo of victims of a gas attack and it's from iraq in 1988. so here you have something that may be threatening to the position that we need to strike because the opposition is not coherent in this picture but on the next day you have this. and the video you showed yesterday may not change hearts and minds in the arab world but i do think the chemical weapons issue for an american and even the european public is likely to move that hearts and minds meter. >> len downie back to you.

one opposition group said we weren't even in existence when this picture was taken so don't go blaming us. how big of a problem is this for "the new york times" to misidentify the date around a photo? what does this tell us about pictures and videos coming to us? >> it's obviously a serious mistake for "the new york times" and not being part of that decision-making process, i don't know what they did to determine the accuracy of it at the time. at a time when there was less social media and that sort of thing where there is now, when we got the abu ghraib photos, one of the first things we did was check very, very hard on exactly what the providence of those pictures were. we actually talked to soldiers involved in taking some of those pictures in order to make sure that they were real, what they depicted and then we made a difficult decision about what gets published and doesn't get

published. that picture on the front page -- if it was on a-22 -- >> would you have put that picture on the front page? >> given what we know now, i wouldn't have. >> there are times where you don't use pictures of abu ghraib. >> of course. there are other kinds of photographs we have not used. >> what's the threshold for what you use and don't? >> well, you're carrying it in your pocket and children are able to see it on your computer screen. and so part of it is taste and part of it is also credibility and are you conveying an unintended message? you need to think about that. >> we don't see in this country and "the new york times" video and picture are part of that pattern the actual moment of death. very seldom do we see that. "the new york times" video fades to black before the shots are

fired. >> personally on the moral ground i go back and forth on this whether we should show the death more because people need to know what is happening. the new york sometimes describes that the people were executed after this photo. but i do go back and forth. there's a huge difference. in the middle east you see graphic pictures and bodies are mutilated, not only their own but of the enemy. >> so does that inform, shibley or does that inflame? >> it inflames but over time you start taking it less seriously, unfortunately. >> quick break. president obama is preparing for a nationally televised address. playing out in the media when we come back. how much protein does your dog food have? 18 percent? 20? new purina one true instinct has 30. active dogs crave nutrient-dense food. so we made purina one true instinct.

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welcome back to "reliable sources." we talk about the media and the crisis in syria. folks, here's what you see if you go on to -- if you went on to huffington post not very long ago about president obama. full-court press interview on monday. what's he trying to do here? >> he's trying to convince the congress and american people that this strike would not only be a good idea but i think he's

trying to make the moral case for it. that's why these videos are being shown. he very rarely speaks to the nation. >> through the media, six anchor videos, a full-court press, some of the information coming from the government. is this information or is this propaganda? >> you know, for a long time so many of us have argued we need a vigorous public discourse around foreign policy and global engagement. so for many of us we are happy that we are now engaged in a public debate, a public discussion about two issues. what do we want to be doing in the world and shape actual events. i think what the president is doing is bringing the global foreign policy home so that it is not such a foreign issue. this is about our security. >> let me ask you this question. six network anchors going -- i mean, is that yesterday's news? once upon a time if the president of the united states had done that, he would have reached all the people in the

country. now i don't want to say it's inconsequential because it will reach millions and millions. >> everyone will tweet. everyone will have their blogs. you can, in a sense, everything is redistributed in multiplatforms. >> this has also become a vital issue for americans i think for two reasons. iraq, the worry that we're doing that again, that we're a slippery slope, somehow we're going to end up at war with syria. the poll shows that americans are engaged in this news story as they very seldom are for a foreign news story. i think the president is doing what he needs to here. >> how do you think it changes the way the media will listen to the pitch? >> one of his problems is people are skeptical about the evidence. >> and the media are skeptical about the evidence, more skeptical than they have this been in the past? >> i want to know more, explain

to me why assad used them. besides being hugely immoral, it's stupid. i need to know what his aim was. but also he has a problem on the moral issue. if it is a moral issue, how is it that you world isn't applauding this internationally? how do you maintain the norms internationally while you're breaking the consensus. >> there was absence going foo the iraq conflict and into an unhealthy suspicion where the president's words are pulled apart unfairly? >> i think there's a difference between the united states media and this is also taking place against the backdrop of what we know about nsa surveillance and one of the interesting things in response to your question is, they know some things from surveillance here and the interesting question will be how much will they reveal about what they know about the surveillance

of the decision making going on in syria because they know some of the answers to your questions. >> members of congress who saw the classified evidence still came out skeptical. >> but they hadn't yet released declassified videos. i want to add one more thing before we lose time. a war-weary nation is one thing. but america also does not like be tagged a weak nation. so i think some of this will get framed around american credibility, which may not have as much drive overseas but still resonates here. the second is, this politics stuff at the water's edge. we remember that question and do we rally around presidents and countries when there is a big issue? >> one thing, this weak nation is actually one of the themes that comes out of the media that we've seen in the middle east. here's one quote from a paper we've got from ba shash al

assad. it's not surprising that he he continues to strike because his strength comes from obama's weakness. >> that's if you look at public opinion, public opinion thinks that america is too powerful, meddling in everything and even when it doesn't act there's a conspiracy. when it acts there's a conspiracy. it's helping the opponents and they've witnessed what america could do in iraq and afghanistan for a decade and to tell me that they think america is weak is ridiculous. i think the main problem for them is they don't trust our aims. they think our aims are nefarious. >> the media reflects the public opinion which is confused and skeptical and unfortunately we're going to have to leave it right there. coming up, is twitter altering, maybe ruining news

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it's hard to believe but when barack obama announced he was running for president in february 2007 there was no iphone, twitter had just been launched and this thing called politico was less than a-month-old. by the time the 2012 campaign rolled around, politics and journalism and media had collided, a big bang that completely changed the conduct and coverage of political campaigns. peter hamby writes with instagram and iphones and a journalistic reward structure in washington that often prizes speed and scoops over context, campaigns are increasingly fearful of the reporters who cover them. any perceived gaffe can become a full-blown narrative in a matter of hours, if not minutes, thanks to the velocity of the twitter and national reporters. so does that make campaign

coverage even more superficial and silly? joining me is peter hambycnn digital and kevin madden, political and adviser spokesman for the romney 2012 campaign. peter, i've got to read those words again. a journalistic that prizes over context. so what's new? >> right. the obsession with political process among political reporters is as old as time itself. when i set out to write this study, i had read all of the great books about past campaigns. i had covered the 2008 campaign on the plane, on the bus with hillary clinton and john mccain and sarah palin and then when 2012 came around, i noticed that there was no real value other than logistical purposes of being on the plane editorially. so i set out to write what's the

value of being on the bus with the presidential candidate a this point but found in the course of writing it and talking to reporters and members of the romney campaign that it became impossible to separate the anxieties of being on the bus from these changes currents in washington and the washington media ecosystem. i started working at krchl cnn in 2005 before twitter existed and i really think all of these new platforms have really accelerated the news cycle and changed not only the tone but also the content of what gets covered during political campaigns. this paper was almost kind of like a ka thar cyst for me. >> it's 95 pages and i'm glad that it's cathartic. christina bella tony, what he says it's angrier, snarkyier and from younger journalists. what's the i am impact? >> i think mitt romney gave a speech in a big stadium and a

reporter who was traveling with him took a photo and put it on instagram and it looked like it was a giant empty stadium. that became the discussion point for what he did in the speech, not what he said, not the content but the policy and the fact that here was a romney campaign doing a big event in an empty place. i hope peter got an a on his paper here because it was very, very good and gets at the heart of the issue. the flip side i will say, there are a lot of good things about social media that can make reporters stronger. >> kevin, boys on the bus and i've been on the bus, i've been on the campaigns and i know a lot of those boys. >> now it's boys and girls on the bus. >> but in that book, part of the purpose was to show the bonding and how people got to know one another and drank late into the night. the premise was you knew that campaign so well you could bring so much context to it and you could write long and the rest of it. and now this, 140 characters.

what does it mean for campaigns? >> well, i think in this particular instance, the 140-character campaign, you know, a lot of the focus was reporters reporting on themselves. i think one of the great frustrations that we had from the campaign perspective was that so much of what was being written was not in proper context and was snark and they were missing a much larger context of who is this candidate and why is he wanting to be the leader of the free world. that was the big frustration, what was one of the negatives. >> let me show you some -- we pulled some random tweets. okay. so here's one. etch-a-sketch stocks stores. thank you, mitt romney. i'm sure that was a favorite day of yours, kevin. here's another one. yesterday obama went off script and showed real self government omnipotent individuals secondary. and here's another one.

good news. new plane expected in an hour and a half. bad news, new plane expected in an hour and a half. is it more superficial because of this now? >> i think one thing in talking to a lot of reporters for this paper is that twitter has just become the central news wire of political campaigns. >> wait. a central news wire? really? >> yeah, absolutely. absolutely. every reporter, every editor, every assignment editor, producer back in d.c., political operator is looking at twitter from the time -- >> so do they have less time to report? >> yes, that's what i think. look, washington has a tendency towards droop think. i think twitter makes it worse. a lot of reporters have said this, too. if someone in the campaign had a bubble, some legislator endorses mitt romney and say the reporter

for "the wall street journal" reports that, then all of the other reporters on the bus are hearing from their editors back in d.c. and new york, do we have this, can we confirm this and time is spent chasing little things and there's not a lot of time to do enterprising reporting. talking to journalists, looking ahead to 2016, want to have a little more confidence to step off the ball, playoff the ball a little bit and go out and step away from this sort of--mind which is what dave weeg gel call it is. >> christina bellatoni, how, then, in 2016 are you going to do better? >> i'll point out the positive of it. yes, it becomes more shallow but it does open you up to a whole flood of people. if you're in ohio and at an event and someone says i'm going to find you on twitter, you can have a conversation with people and share -- >> wait a minute. globalized world, we're talking syria, okay, we're talking about

spending debt ceilings and shutting down the government. these are complicated global issues. they cannot be brought down to 140 words. so how do you connect the american public to what their candidates are actually thinking and proposing? >> i think that everybody in the news media can do a better job of that. i think twitter can be a way of sharing off of that information but it's about getting at all of the different types of way that you communicate with people. sometimes a picture can tell a thousand words. it's all about context. >> kevin madden, to serve the american people. >> the news cycle is something that you have to get used to. it's happened and it's going to continue to happen even more. what is really important is that candidates in their campaigns have to adapt. you can't complain who it is that is covering you and instead adapt to the situation at hand. >> kevin madden and christina and peter hamby, thank you very

much. let's go to the future of long hand journist. we'll delve into the effort to revive what the numbers indicate is a dying brand of journalism. you have time to shop for car insurance today? yeah. hand journist. we'll delve into the effort to revive what the numbers indicate is a dying brand of journalism. . we'll delve into the effort to revive what the numbers indicate is a dying brand of journalism. . we'll delve into the effort to revive what the numbers indicate is a dying brand of journalism. . we'll delve into the effort to revive what the numbers indicate is a dying brand of journalism. . we'll delve into the effort to revive what the numbers indicate is a dying brand of journalism. . we'll delve into the effort to revive what the numbers indicate is a dying brand of journalism. . we'll delve into the effort to revive what the numbers indicate is a dying brand of journalism. . we'll delve into the effort to revive what the numbers indicate is a dying brand of journalism. . we'll delve into the effort to revive what the numbers indicate is a dying brand of journalism. . we'll delve into the effort to revive what the numbers indicate is a dying brand of journalism. . we'll delve into the effort to revive what the numbers indicate rn.a dying brand of j. we'll delve into the effort to revive what . .

i'm on expert on softball. and tea parties. i'll have more awkward conversations than i'm equipped for, because i'm raising two girls on my own. i'll worry about the economy more than a few times before they're grown. but it's for them, so i've found a way. who matters most to you says the most about you. at massmutual we're owned by our policyowners, and they matter most to us. ready to plan for your future? we'll help you get there. she took an early spring break thanks to her double miles from the capital one venture card. now what was mrs. davis teaching? spelling. that's not a subject, right? i mean, spell check. that's a program. algebra. okay. persons a and b are flying to the bahamas. how fast will they get there? don't you need distance, rate and... no, all it takes is double miles. [ all ] whoa. yeah.

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and welcome back. with attention spans shrinking nationwide, thanks to instagram photos and 140-character tweets, you may not be surprised that there's a decline in the long-form journalism in national newspapers. according to dean stockman, the los angeles times published 86% less stories of 2,000 words or less. the decline was 35%, a 25% drop at "the new york times." however, there are some signs of life, politico, of all places, has revamped its features for more long-form reporting. do readers have that attention span? i'm joined by susan glasser,

former editor-in-chief of foreign policy and recently hired by politico. we talked about the explosion of these short verses. is there really a market for the long, deep, delicious read? >> you know, honestly, i'm really bullish on this. i think what you described could be described as the editorial opportunity that exists to come back and say at a time when news has become commodified that tells you something truly original which is a great ambitious of journalism. >> so what are you doing at politico? >> we're going to launch a magazine later this fall. you're going to be able to hold it and read it every day online and interact in a variety of different ways. certainly if you want to shape the conversation on politico's

ambition has been to drive the washington conversation, you're not going to be able to do that six times a year. so we want to give you real-time reporting about issues that people care about as well as to use the form of a print magazine six time as year -- >> so six time as year? >> that's right. that's right. >> and what kinds of stories, what kinds of things fit the long form that people are actually going to read more? >> well, first of all, i must admit i hate the word long form it can only be 8,000 words -- >> that's why i say deep, delicious read. >> exactly right. in many ways, i think the same tools that you're talking about, whether five years ago it was blogs, now it's twitter or six second finds, the truth is, it's a golden age to be able to access things more easily than ever before and i think that's going to play to the benefit of a more ambitious journalism project as well because you're going to be able to find it and

read it. >> the atlantic has done very well with their longer, deeper narratives, their article that emery slaughter wrote, for example, can women have it all prompted huge traffic both with the magazine and print and online and all of the conversation after ward. what exactly -- what kind of stories in the political realm do you most want to see yourself engaged in? >> well, i think there's more accountability, investigative reporting, more deep memorable profiles around subjects who are shaping the national conversation in a way that is faded away so much now basically you have a small handful of magazines. so what happens? they profile chris christie. i don't want to follow that very small little herd anymore. i think we have an opportunity by taking all of the subjects that politico has a daily voracious appetite for and then come in and say, wait a minute, we want to do the memorable things and on the leading edge

of the story and tell you something you didn't know about. >> the print edition from last week the other day it felt like a pamphlet. it small breeze would have blown the thing away. we just ticked through the numbers of what has made long form decline. what do you think will make it be successful when the trend has been different everywhere else? >> people's whose business it is to understand politics and policy, they want to know really original things. they don't want you to tell them what everybody else is telling them. >> and the question is, can you make money with this stuff? all right, so -- >> that's the hard problem. i have the bigger challenge of looking at the journalism piece of it and i think finding a way to tell you a story that you didn't already know about what is going on behind closed doors on capitol hill, how does president obama really govern, those are the subjects that zsh when is your first edition?

>> we're coming out later this fall. stay tuned for more news. >> people back the curtains a little bit. what should we look for? >> i think you're going to see on politico's website something that is very different from the politico you've come to known and rely on for news all the time. but if you can start looking there for a big, ambitious read or two or three every day. >> and you'll tweet it? >> starting soon. absolutely. and you'll be able to find it on twitter. >> very good. susan glasser, thank you very much and good luck with it. amazon founder sizes up his latest acquisition, the washington post. len downie returns to tell us how that getting to know you event went. [ female announcer ] a classic macaroni & cheese from stouffer's

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it is a national institution that is about to start its next chapter. last month came the stunning announcement that "the washington post" is being bought by amazon ceo jeff bazos for $250 million. this week he visited the legendary paper and it's been a rough ride at the paper for the last several years, reporters have been laid off, bureaus closed around the country and

around the world. but the soon-to-be owner was upbeat. will it be profitable and what will it mean for the future of news? joining me is len downie. len, you were there. what did jeff bazos have to say about the future? >> i was very impressed with him and very well informed about the post and about the world and the world of journalism considering that had not been in his background. he emphasized several things. investigative reporting -- >> investigative? >> investigative reporting. "the washington post" is known for. it continues to place a great emphasis and our resources are devoted to secondly, he wants to rebundle news in some new form. >> what does that mean? >> because he loves the printed newspaper. he said that's still his preference. on the other hand, we want to read all these other platforms.

so you said the problem is that the newspaper is being torn apart with huffington post picking up something here or there, and people aren't seeing the whole bundle of news. he believes there is a way to do that and his to be cufocus is o. >> whether ipad or anything else. >> exactly. but he differentiated from the pc screen. trying to figure out some way to rer rebundle the content. >> so do other papers go tablet and stop printing? >> not all together anytime soon. because there is still an enormous amount of income that comes from print advertising. i would say 3/4 probably still the "washington post" income comes from printed advertising. >> numbers game, you know this well, at the height of its circulation, what was the post?

>> over 800,000. >> today? >> i've lost track, but i think 500,000. >> so not quite half. >> but at the same time, the audience is larger than ever before. >> what's happened to revenue? good t >> print revenue is decreasing. still large, but much smaller than it used to be and you cannot make it up so far. >> so how do they make money? >> he doesn't know yet, but he will experiment in trying to figure it out. and he took us through experiments that he's done at amazon. amazon lost money for a long time and then even once it became a big successful operation, they needed to make changes to meet competition. he tried something, it failed within a year, so let's try this version. >> cleveland plain dealer, philadelphia q inquirer, "los angeles times," they will watch this era closely. what is the first and most

important thing to be watching as he takes charge? >> i think he'll be looking to see what he does in terms of new revenue sources number one. and the extent to which he is going to stop the cutting. and he sees areas where he probably needs to invest but he doesn't know enough about that yet. >> the other thick tether thing trying is post tv. >> and he was impressed by the innovation taking place. >> so should cnn see the "washington post" as competition? >> i don't know that cnn necessarily should, but i think all across the country, those news organizations that are learning how to convert themselves to digital, the post isn't a newspaper anymore, we're a multiplatform news organization. and that does mean we're competition for television and i think especially for local television news. >> what's the one they think you're most looking forward to or fearing for the next step?th you're most looking forward to or fearing for the next step?

>> only thing i would fear is that jeff realizes at some point it wasn't possible. i don't bet on that. what i'm most looking forward to is a new robustness to the newsroom's attitude. you can already see it after listen to go bezos, they came backfired up. it was like a football team. >> a little opt nichl imism in s business. not the a terrible thing to say. thank you very much. we're a little out of time, so -- >> i'm finishing up a report on the obama administration and the press examining the fact that most believe this is the most closed administration. >> headline? >> this administration that if the president's promise to make it the most transparent administration has not been yet. >> we'll watch for it.

thanks. appreciate it. up next, some thoughts on what really is all about involved and engaged in being a reliable source. [ male announc] let's say you pay your guy around 2% to manage your money. that's not much, you think. except it's 2% every year. go to e-trade and find out how much our advice and guidance costs. spoiler alert: it's low. it's guidance on your terms, not ours. e-trade. less for us. more for you.

now for a look at some reliable and not so reliable sources from this past week. first, say what you want about catch me if you can fugitive edward snowden who is somewhere in russia. stories from his leaks were all over the place. reliable source? the "washington post" thought so. the "post" published a story from sthoednowden's leaked mate about al qaeda's efforts to fight back against drones, reportedly assigning cells of engineers to remotely hijack the pilotless aircraft, all from a classified intelligence report provided by snowden. the "new york times" published a story, too, this one so what it called the national security agency's secret war on the technology that ensures privacy on line. the reports the times, the agency has cracked much of the encryption that guards global commerce and banking systems, protects sensitive gay take and

automatically secures the e-mails, internet chats and phone calls of americans, all part of a super secret program code named bull run according to documents provided by edward j. snowden. no one has said snowden's information is wrong. and and a government official tells me there is much more. the generals in egypt apparently think several islamist tv stations were more than unreliab unreliable, so they shut them down. and also al gezira english, accused of spreading rumors and claims harmful to national security and threaten the country's unity. which otherwise is what, just fine? al jazeera denied the claims. and said it was fair and balanced. finally, melissa milano ends up being a tape about syria.

just the basics, though. and it only takes two minutes. we'll leave it at that. and that's it for reliable sources. if you miss a program, you can find us at itunes or cnn.com. and if you you have comments, tweet them to you us. join us next sunday for another edition of reliable sources. state of the union begins right now. a picture is still worth a thousand words but will it sway a nation? today, u.s. intelligence agencies authenticate a series of horrific videos of what appear to be victims of sarin gas attacks in syria. a dvd designed to punctuate the president's argument that the u.s. must strike. >> we may not solve the whole problem but this particular problem using chemical weapons on children, this one we might have an impact on and that's worth acting on.