in the world, but it's gun homicide are very different from those in the united states. how is this possible? i'll explain that and much more in my special global lessons on guns tonight at 7:00 p.m. eastern for viewers in north america, don't miss it. thanks to all of you for being part of my program this week. stay tuned for "reliable sources." good morning and welcome to a very snowy washington. my name is brian stelter. 10 years i started a blog about tv news. i believe that cable media shape our society in all sorts of important ways. i've been reporting and writing about cnn and it's competitors ever since. and today i'm the new host of "reliable sources." i want to talk about what this show is, why it is so special and what it represents.

this week there have been major media partners, sam champion said good buy to "good morning america." what does that resignation tell us about television standards. we'll tackle that. plus president obama uses a main stream media interview to attack the media. >> the american people are good and they are decent and yes, sometimes we get very divided partly because our politics and our media specifically tries to divide them. and splinter them. >> was that a fair shot? or are we being too sensitive? i'll tell you what i think. how sensitive should news outlets be about the anniversary of the sandy hook school massac massacre. and a man who's name is

synonymous with new year's eve. ryan sechrest. >> i have said to all of my partners when i signed on to each of them, that i will work 110% for you. i will work just as hard for you as if i only had one job. >> and who would you name is most important media person of the year? the website i want media has surveyed thousands of people and we will reveal their answer. we do have a lot to cover so let's get started. it's time for "reliable sources." thank you for tuning in. you know, one way to learn about the state of the news media is to talk about the comings and going talent. a key part of the morning show's family left from broadcast to cable, from abc to the weather channel. and for martin bashir gave up

his job this week under pressure in the wake of his comments about sarah palin. bashir was outraged when palin compared america's foreign debt to slavery. so he went on his msnbc show, explained his point of view and then went a step too far, he suggested that she deserved a vulgar punishment. bashir later apologized on air, but apparently it wasn't enough. he resigned this week after meeting with the head of the cable channel. what can we learn from this mess? joining me from tampa, tv critic for ncr and journalism professor at american university. jane, i would like to ask that question to you first. what can we learn from an incident like martin bashir. >> what a premium there is an controversy. it was a vile punishment. it was a produced piece so it

was planned. msnbc if he had not left that -- depiction of a woman as they did about anti-gay homophobic remarks made by alec baldwin. i think they were really in an uncomfortable position, a lot of women have had a lot of ugly things said about them and on television and otherwise and there's sometimes not the same degree of consequences as there may be for other people. >> do you feel like, paul, do you feel like msnbc took too long to make this kind-decision? they took their time and put their thumb to the wind and found out that there was outrage about this. but there was a particular sort of outrage, the outrage was from the right, the idea that sarah palin and by the way a woman obviously was being attacked was part of the outrage and the campaign that just did not quit. >> i wonder if you think these

sorts of cases are proxior broader political fights that we have now for conservatives in the media as well as in the political arena? >> i think there's no doubt. but what concerns me about this issue is two things, consistency and hypocrisy, because you have these cable news anchors who to make waves and to be successful, they have to push the envelope in terms of how they talk about these issues. then when they cross a line, there's no sense of what's the procedure for disciplining them? who else made the decision to allow this to be aired and why haven't they been punished? msnbc resisted taking any responsibility for what he said and finally he resigns and there's no sense of account bltd, what other producers were involved. msnbc should have admitted he made a mistake and sub -- everybody know where is the lines are. >> let's put up msnbc's statement by the way, because i

thought it was kind of revealing, msnbc's president had this to say, martin bashir resigned today effective immediately and i understand his decision and i thank him for his years at msnbc. sometimes when anchors leave networks under clouds like this, we don't see kind statements at all. maybe it's telling that they do appreciate what he brought to the network? >> do we really believe that martin bashir walked out under his own power? he was fired but in the legal world in which we live, perhaps they couldn't exactly say that. >> couldn't say that. >> a lot of people really liked him. a lot of my students really enjoyed his really opinionated commentary. i think that's why phil griffin was saying what he said, but i doubt it was entirely his

decision to leave. >> alec baldwin had some really interesting tweets on this. broadcasters are called pong to offer analysis of events and public policy. if ovthrow a flag, but to end someone's job? i those that's the tension that many in cable news face. >> the different responses in the media have run media organizations to outrage and controversy. 60 minutes did not fire lara logan for the flawed report that she put on the air. msnbc waited to essentially ask martin bashir to leave. ap fired three journalists for a mistake they made. suspension, firing? what's the standard? we don't have a standard. >> that's a great point. >> one of the things that also

bothers me is that i feel like the institutions are acting to protect themselves at the expense of learning what happened and journalistic transparency. one of the things that i think that we see in common with the 60 minutes case and with msnbc is that cbs news a and msnbc seem to be trying to shut down the controversy before it harmed their brand publicly. rather than being journalistly transparent about how the mistake happened both them as a news organization and us as viewers. so we have no sense of where the line is for msnbc except you can't embarrass msnbc without getting fired and that's not a great lesson. >> that's a great point. let's briefly talk about something that doesn't involve scandal at all. that's sam champ going to the weather channel. do you think that "good morning america" will be affected at all

by having sam depart in such a way? >> sam's going to a better job, they had the handoff publicly and he was very gracious and everybody was happy and there was no sad faces other than people missing him on gmz. and people who like the show and like sam probably know and like her too. so i think this transition is very important, everybody wanted it to happen. everybody understands he's going to a better job. and so i think fans of gma have another reason to tune in because maybe the anchor mix will just be different and newer and fresher. >> that's interesting. >> i was kind of surprised to see sam champion go, i thought abc would find a way to get the gang together. i dug around at three difference sources who said part of the reason it was so appealing to sam champion, he's also getting

stock in weather channel. maybe that's one way for these cable channels to attract talent. >> you and i both wrote a lot about morning television and the idea that family is sometimes foe. you had ann curry about what she said about feeling pushed out. there seemed to be genuine sadness about sam champion leaving. it is interesting that he had a managing editor role and if you're an employee of the network, you're going to have stock but you're not going to have skin in the game like you could have here. >> he's going to have a management role as well as being the face of the network. >> i do think it affects the viewer ship of "good morning america," you knock this idea of family but that is what people watch on television, they don't want the news, they watch the people on the news, sam champion was a very big part of "good morning america" he's not the

lead anchor of the co-host, nevertheless, you mess with that at your per little. >> i've got an exclusive interview with the media maker whose career spans statement sports and news. how does ryan sechrest juggle all those desks. i asked him and you'll hear it coming up next. ing what makes you different is what makes us different. we take the time to get to know you and your unique health needs. then we help create a personalized healthcare experience that works for you. and you. and you. with 50 years of know-how, and a dedicated network of doctors, health coaches, and wellness experts, we're a partner you can rely on -- today, and tomorrow. we're going beyond insurance to become your partner in health. humana.

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from 40, t ryan see crest media -- i wanted to ask him about his career, where it's been, where it's going and what's been most rewarding about it. we found time on friday in los angeles as he prepared to host the annual jungle ball concert there. so this is ryan sechrest. >> ryan, thank you for joining us. >> good to be here. in the basement. >> i hear screams outside, where are we? >> they're cheering for you, your fans have arrived. we're actually at the staple center in downtown los angeles. >> this is your dressing room? >> isn't it up lent? >> we're putting on a -- celebrate the year that was pop music. >> that points out that radio is a big part of your career? >> yes. >> it's part of clear channel,

this is for kiss-fm. >> this is something that i have done every day of my life. i have gone to a radio station since i was 15 years old so it occupies the first half of my day, every single weekday and we have since, when i started in radio, it was just radio. but we have since launched digital, i hart radio music festival previews, so it's being more than just radio. as is everything, it's media. >> it's willing like we need a new word for it. radio is such a small word for what it all is. >> i used to come dressed in a hat and not shave at all for radio. >> everybody always wants to know how you juggle everything. >> i don't go out for lunch. i don't think i have been out to lunch in five years. and actually i joke about it. but i find that the second half of my day is very, very efficient. i don't like a lot of down time. i'm pretty good at going from

one thing to another. but once i finish the radio broadcast, i'm up at the production office having some sort of salad out of a plastic container. and then the day depends. last week we had a series of meetings with the staff. some days i have american idol. some days i've got to travel for the olympics. >> there's abc, nbc, fox and career clear channel. how do you keep all of those companies happy? >> usually when you're on the air, you try and say the right company name. that's the first step. you want -- when you're on abc for new year's eve, you want to say abc not fox. when i'm on fox, i want to remember fox. you know, honestly, i have said to all of my partners when i signed on with each of them, that i will work 110% for you.

i will work just as hard for you as if i only have one job and i treat them all that way. i really believe that every single one of those partnerships is equally important. >> you must be bullish about tv to have so many relationships in the tv business. >> a it's fun because when i first moved to los angeles, i didn't know one person in the tv business. not one single person. i knew one guy who let me drive the radio station van, he gave me the keys to the van to drive around and give out bumper stickers. but i didn't know one person in the television business when i moved here. >> you're as much a producer as a host. your company is producing so many different shows. do you feel like more of a producer than a host at this point? >> i'm used to wearing so many different hats, being conditioned as a kid that did radio and hosted tv when i was 16, 17, 18, 19, i'm used to running around doing different

things. but i will say the tremendous success of the kardashians and that franchise has helped us build that company and opened the door to produce other series and other shows. so my nights sometimes are with a stack of disks or something on a computer that's a show that we're looking at for the next day's delivery. but i enjoy all of it. >> people were writing about maybe you hosting the today show some day, you've got this big deal with abc, so is that still a possibility? >> as far as i'm concerned, everything is a possibility -- i hope everything is a possibility. i like to leave every door open, if it is open, that's up to them to decide. >> you've been contributing a few pieces. >> i certainly -- i am a type of person that likes to try and leave every door open and say yes to as many things as i can. so hopefully, you know, if that door is open, sure. >> but it is the kind of show that you would enjoy doing? >> i like -- >> you have to wonder sometimes

if you're too big for the "today" show. you got so much going on already. >> i like live broadcasting and i think that morning shows have evolved. there's been a paradigm shift in the style of those shows. the style of show that i watched when i was a kid and you watched when you were a kid is a little bit different than it is now. so, yeah, i'm hoping to. if i truly thrive, just like hearing this music here, this concert, i truly thrive off of being on air or on stage in a live environment. >> that brings up the biggest one of all, american idol. it's not as big as it used to be, what's going to change in this coming season? >> we obviously did not deliver as -- the numbers that we wanted to deliver last year. and -- >> you think all television is down? or is it a specific reason? >> i would be lying if i said i

didn't lose sleep over it. i have been on the show since the beginning, i have hosted every single episode of that show for 13 years. i want people to watch and i want people who perhaps didn't watch last year to come back and see their american idol this season because we have put the show back together in a fun way and in a way that i think people who have watched the show, who maybe didn't watch it last year will be satisfied and happy to see it back. >> your contract is up at the end of next season. will you continue to host after next season? >> i hope to host as long as they want me to host. >> it's the kind of show you can't imagine being without? >> i'm so used to it. after doing something for over a decade, it becomes part of your every day life. so as long as they're asking me and willing to have me back, i think it's a good option. >> what part of your work or what part of your life are you most proud of right now? >> i would say cutting out gluten. >> does that work for you.

>> well, apparently not. but in the last three days, i have tried, it seems to be the thing. no, seriously, i would say that i get a chance to do a lot of different things, from being on the radio to hosting different tv series and specials. but one of the things that i'm most proud of is the ryan sechrest foundation. it's something i thought of with my folks, we were talking about how we could give back and i visited a children's hospital that day and i talked to parents and i said what do your kids do? they said they get bored, they run out of things to do. they're going to be in this bed, we don't know how long. so i thought we have got to build something in these hospitals that they can use and play with. so we built little media centers in children's hospitals, we built six of them so far and we're going to get to ten by mid next year. and they really are radio and tv

studios for kids to use in the hospitals and if they can't get out of a bed, they can call in just like you can call in from your car and listen to a radio station. >> they can also learn about broadcasting. >> i'm probably going to be sorry i did this because somebody is going to be up and coming and better than i am and be discovered in one of these studios. but the colleges used the interns to help run the station, so hopefully everybody's winning and it disstrakts the kids from what they're going through. >> thanks, ryan. great to see you. got to get a plug for the website in here, if you go to the website, cnn.com, you can see one of ryan's other projects, a keyboard that attaches to your iphone. i wonder, can we get through a segment without inadvertently proving his point? watch and find out. ♪

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welcome back. president obama gave chris matthews an extended interview on msnbc on thursday. the appearance raised a few

eyebrow s and riled up some mea types. >> the american people are good and they are decent. and yes we get very divided partly because our politics and our media specifically tries to divide them. and splint ter them. >> ah, yes, president obama as media critic. i personally love when any president jabs the press because it gets us talking about fairness, both the medias and the administrations. eric dagen is the critic for the npr. jane, you used to be a long time fox news contribute for, so i wonder, do you think the president's right? i think he believes it. he was speak to an audience of young people at my university and he was saying that the idealism of young people was a great thing, clearly he wanted to address that audience and it is true that the media are

divided i'd logically in cable use. i think he didn't want to call out fox necessarily because they haven't figured out how to deal with fox, frankly, but there's splits in the media. >> i think it's hypocritical to come on a channel that's known for catering to liberals and criticize the press for being div divisive. >> i spent 250 pages in my book last year that came out last year, race baiter talking about this exact issue, that there are cable channels that segment the audience and one way they do that is by pitting people against each other. they may use race, they may use class, they may use other hot button issues, but the idea is to serve their audience and sometimes that can be very harmful whether you're talking

about fox or msnbc or even >> i'm going to change gears here, because the end of the year is coming up, and one of the my favorite media digests has completed it's 12th annual poll to pick the media person of the year. two years ago it was steve jobs, and this year let's coup the cheesy drumroll, it is the head of amazon and the new owner of the "washington post," jeff bezos. i also wonder if he's also marketer of the year. take a look at this clip from 60 minutes last sunday. >> let me show you something. >> oh, man. >> these are o'clocto copters. >> i personally can't wait to get my media delivered by drone. >> i think they got the better of them. i think -- i really like charlie

rose, but i think this was gee whiz journalism. they got the access and this is a great company. there's not about whether we think this is a good idea. whether they're surveilling us while they're dropping off "the washington post." it was the great pr right before cyber monday. >> it's been a little while, it's been a few months since he did take over the washington post. have things changed over there? it's hard to find anything of jeff bezos on "the washington post." we know they're coming, but we just haven't seen anything. >> and one more topic to bring up. on monday, chris cuomo, the anchor of new day, interviewed his brother, the new york governor andrew cuomo, and by the end of the day, there were people online saying it seemed like a big conflict of interest. >> i knew there was no conflict

here, there's no question of conflict. because he's got a job to do, so do i, this was all fact based and it was something that didn't involve him in terms of the accountability. that changes everything. if there's something that's been done wrong on the state level that he deserves to get hammered, he's got to answer for it. i wouldn't put myself in that position. >> paul, you just mouthed the word outrageous when you were listening to that clip. >> that's outrageous for a network like cnn that prides itself on its hard hitting news reporting straight up for him not to say there was a conflict of interest. that's why i don't interview my mother on television or in print. you have to have an impartial person interviewing people. that's the way you get information. >> jane, was that your impression as well? >> i think he came on very strongly about that. >> the revolving door between politics and media is spinning. chris cuomo is a terrific

reporter but to declare there's no conflict. there may be a conflict. what if the state is engaged or involved in some way that we don't know after this accident? we don't know that it's not a conflict. it's the appearance of a conflict for sure. >> my impression was that was great to see them next to each other. maybe it wasn't great journalism, and in tv, there's both elements involved. >> i don't think people care as much about these things, i don't sense that people care as much as journalism critics care. >> jane, paul, thank you so much. coming up, how should the press handle the one-year anniversary of the shootings at sandy hook elementary school. hey wayne, quick question... did you try restarting it? no, not that. i was thinking about getting a tablet as a gift... verizon has tablets. they got a lot of them? accessing brain information... yes, they have a lot to choose from. did you really just... and now you can get $100 off any tablet. thanks, wayne. save like never before on any tablet at verizon now. get $100 off any tablet. plus trade in your old tablet for up to $150 or more.

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welcome back to "reliable sources." there was a lot of talk this week here on cnn a and elsewhere how about the national media should approach the one-year anniversary of the murders at sandy hook elementary school. maybe they should take their coup from the local newspapers.

tell me about what your plan and what your newspapers plans are for covering the anniversary, considering the fact that the families in some cases read your newspapers? >> that's absolutely true and we're keenly aware of that. i think our plan is, we wanted to do something that was really insightful, thoughtful, intelligent, to be honest, i really don't know how much you gain by going to sandy hook on saturday and collecting quotes and going to the local diner or starbucks or those sort of places. to us, this is a very personal story, i live in newtown, many of our employees from reporters to editors to the folks who distribute the newspaper, they live in this community. and what we wanted to do was to really find a special way to acknowledge the victims, acknowledge the families that lost loved ones that day, acknowledge a community that's very much in the stages of grieving. i don't think the grieving process in newtown is anywhere near over.

you know, i look at some of the obvious stories, how newtown has shaped the gun debate. how newtown has shaped the mental health debate, the police response debate. these are obviously stories, but they're also obvious because they are obvious i. what we're trying to do is really be a little bit more provocative, rather than predictable, so what we have tried to do all this week starting with today, we have reached out to members of the community and with today's newspaper, you as i look through the monitor here, thank you very much, the husband of dawn hocks, from the principal of sandy hook elementary school who was killed that day. and what we have on the front page of our paper and our other papers with hurst connecticut newspapers are excerpts from diaries that they shared.

let me just read one excerpt. i love you, i want to be with you in all ways for the rest of my life. trust me to love you the way you deserve to be loved. i am good for you and i'll help you as you help me. we can be each other's strength and support. we can laugh together and cry together. you are the piece of my life that's always been missing and you fulfill me completely. i love you. a story like this, you don't get arbitrarily, you don't get from dive bombing journalism, this was a story that came to us through eileen fitzgerald, a wolf reporter who had established a relationship with george hocks, a relationship of trust and that's how we plan on really marking this anniversary throughout the work, we're going to have essays on the front page of our newspaper in danbury as well as we're going to be picking those up in our other papers in bridgesport and greenwich and stanford, connecticut. we're going to have a

connecticut resident who's an expert on mass shootings whose wife is a minister in danbury which isn't too far from newtown. we're actually going to have an accomplished banjo player who lives in sandy hook to talk about how music can be a healing force. we're going to have a novelist who lives in sandy hook describing their reaction, and how they have changed, how the community has changed a year later. so i think that approaching it this way, trying to find some kind of meaningful insight beyond just the headlines. i mean we don't, you know, take any kind of pleasure in people's misfortunes in this tremendous heart ache that people have experienced in sandy hook, however what we do take pride in is the job that we have done and i think we have been very careful to report with clarity, with accuracy, with honesty and perhaps most of all compassion. >> in the 30 seconds we have left, do you think the national

media should be in your backyards this saturday? or should they stay away? >> i don't think they should necessarily in the backyard -- newtown's similar function of a mayor, she would appreciate that that, there are no public memorial services. i understand this is a national story. but i think folks might be better served about what has been the impact of the shooting. getting back to my earlier point, i don't way he -- >> most reporters will stay away is that stay away that day. you'll be in our thoughts and our prayers this week. >> i appreciate that. there's no doubt that it was the biggest news story of this week t passing of nelson mandela, hear from a writer from the "new

york times" the writer of a 6,000-page obituary that actually got to interview mandela for it. # ♪ stacy's mom has got it on ♪ ♪ stacy's mom has got it goin' on ♪ [ male announcer ] the beautifully practical and practically beautiful cadillac srx. get the best offers of the season now. lease this 2014 srx for around $349 a month. during the season's best event from cadillac. ♪

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to become your partner in health. humana. . welcome back to "reliable

sour sources." at around 2:30 p.m. on thursday, there was a flurry of activity around newsrooms. anchors were notified and special evempblts producers were called in, but this network and all of its rivals waited until the official announcement at 2:45. nobody wanted to get it wrong. of course the mandela obituaries have been ready for years. which brings up an interesting question. would you cooperate with a writer if you knew they were working on your obituary? well, nelson mandela did. in -- he has since become the executive editor of the newspaper. full disclosure here, i was a media reporter at the time, which means bill was my boss for several years, he is now a columnist and i spoke with him in new york. bill, thanks to be here. >> it's nice to be here.

you were able to interview nelson mandela for his obituary on one condition, and what was that condition? >> the condition was that we didn't call it an obituary interview, in fact we didn't call it an interview at all. it's a fairly common thing in the news business, that you interview a subject in his advanced obituary, in the hopes that he would say things he wouldn't be so comfortable saying things he wouldn't say in this life. reporters think it's a perfectly normal thing to do. some think it's kind of creepy. mandela's people thought it was incomprehensible. we wouldn't call it an interview, we would call it a visit for old times sake, i brought along my 10-year-old daughter who was with me in south africa. we were allowed to take notes, but no taping and we chatted for a while. >> must be a cherished memory now. >> it's particularly cher wished

because my daughter got a chance to actually meet this towering figure and was even at age 10 cool enough to realize that this was really somebody special. >> in the days since his death, what are your impressions of the national or international media coverage of nelson mandela? do you feel like his more controversial parts of his pass were -- >> there's no question he's one of the towering figures of the 20th century, and everybody who covered him pretty much came away with a bit of awe from the guy. but he was a complicated human being. and he had rough edges and he was not universally revered in the early days. the way government regarded him as a terrorist. a lot of blacks who hated the idea of apartheid thought that mandela was an accommodate for,

was too soft, gave away the store, a sellout. amend there were a fair number of black who is really didn't want to rock the boat at all because they were afraid of the >> it was a hell of a story for you as bureau chief of the time in johannesburg. >> he was a gift to journalists. not just mandela. you had history. you had drama. you had the suspense of knowing that while rule was over but not knowing quite how it was going to end, whether a bloodbath or an election. and then you had all these amazing characters. mandela first among them. and one of -- maybe a dirty little secret of south africa is that it has first world infrastructures. so unlike a lot of other places where you're covering upheaval and bloodshed, the airplanes fly on time. there are rental cars, well-paved highways, fast food joints, telephones that work,

gas stations. you may be traveling to scenes that feel like the third world upheavals but you're doing it with a first world comfort level. >> how do you characterize his relationship with the foreign press over the years? did he seem to seek out that attention? was he aware of the benefits of bringing in foreign reporters? >> he was very shrewd about the press. i always had the sense that he knew exactly what he was doing, and you could see he was sort of gauging what he had to give and what he needed to do in each interview. if it was somebody who was sort of dropped in from the foreign world that just wanted to bathe in the presence of nelson mandela, they would get a very uplifting speech which was a good speech but one he had given a thousand times and could give in his sleep. if it was somebody who was based there and he knew and had been interviewed by a few times, he knew he had to be a little more analytical. i remember a couple times talking to him about f.w. de

klerk. she shared a nobel peace prize. de klerk was his partner in the negotiations, but there was a deep mistrust and very complicated relationship and, you know, he didn't talk about that a lot, but if -- he knew if it would be something useful to you, he would get fairly personal about analyzing his rivals and collaborators in the anti-apartheid movement. he once actually let me spend a day tagging along with him, which i -- >> it's hard to imagine many other presidents allowing that. >> no. i just read doris kearns good n goodwin's book on teddy roosevelt who used to invite reporters in when he had his daily shave. since roosevelt, nobody came close to that. it was quite amazing. >> and he was given it to an american reporter. he knew the audience he was speaking to. >> he knew if he gave it to an american reporter only, that was

caused some controversy. after i negotiated this deal with him, he invited a south african reporter along as well and the two of us had the day flying from pretoria to cape town in his presidential plane and then tagging along while he did all of his -- he didn't let us in on the security briefing or things that were sensitive, but spent a fair amount of time sitting in his office listening to him do business. i was -- he was a gifted journalist. >> it's hard to imagine having to write that 6,500 word obituary you filed probably years ago. >> my wife tweeted it took me 20 years to write that obituary. it's 20 years since i landed in south africa. i wrote the first draft eight or nine years ago when everybody was recognizing he was getting old, he had been out of sight and out of public life, and it was good to have the time actually to do it because there's a mountain of material,

some really good documentary films, footage that the producers gave me transcripts of. so i had the combination of my own and everybody else's stuff, and then the obit visit with him was a little sort of sprinkles on the cake. >> those are the obituaries we'll remember, the ones that have been in the works for decades. bill keller, thank you for being here. >> it's great to be here. >> after the break, my thoughts on what "reliable sources" is all about. the day building a play set begins with a surprise twinge of back pain... and a choice. take up to 4 advil in a day or 2 aleve for all day relief. [ male announcer ] that's handy. ♪ [ male announcer ] that's handy. so when my moderate to severe chronic plaque psoriasis them. was also on display, i'd had it. i finally had a serious talk with my dermatologist.

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welcome back. i'm brian stel ter. we made it to the end here. this program "reliable sources" was created in 1992 to cover how the media views the world. howard kurtz provided what he always liked to call a critical lens on the media. it's an honor to take howie's place starting today, although i have to admit this is all a little strange. for years i have been on the side of the camera you're on writing about cnn. the bosses of this network liked

some of the stories i wrote and strongly disliked some of the other stories i wrote there. that's probably how it's going to be here, too, and that's how it should be. i believe this program matters more than ever. these days everyone and everything is a source. people with cell phones publish news, presidents, athletes, celebrities, they all bypass the press. advertisers are producing things that look like news and news organizations are producing things that look like ads. these days everyone is a source, but who is reliable? what's reliable? and how do these sources shane our views of the world? that's what this show is about. and that's all for this edition of "reliable sources." this was pretty fun, i think, and i am new to television. i got a lot to learn, so i'd love to read your feedback about this debut show and about what you'd like to see or not see next time. you can find me on twitter and

on facebook. my user name is brian stelter and i hope you will join us on cnn.com where my colleagues and i will be covering the day's biggest media stories and we'll recap the stories next week at 11:00 a.m. eastern. "state of the union" starts right now. are we there yet? today, 'tis the season to be jolly, and the president may have reason to be. >> we're moving in the right direction. >> is it for real? the lowest jobless rate in five years may mean a new political equation. a conversation with two top economists along with annie lowry. and -- >> for the first time in over a decade, we have halted advances in the iranian nuclear program. >> a deal one of the world's leading state sponsors of terror and what it might mean to the terrorism threat.