to the podium. one set a new american record along the way. i'm fredricka whitfield. "reliable sources" with brian stelter starts right now. >> good morning from new york city. i'm brian stelter. it's time for "reliable sources." here's what we have coming up on the show today. an nfl prospect says he's gay. and pro football players applaud his courage. but are they saying one thing to the cameras and something entirely different behind the scenes? we'll talk to a writer who says that's exactly what they're doing. hillary clinton, digging deeper into a newly discovered archive of her private thoughts, with a man who knows her well. clinton biographer and pulitzer prize winner carl bernstein. and why is one of the biggest stories in the country barely being covered? a big state full of people afraid to drink their water or even wash their hands, where are the networks, the national media? a reporter who's been there

every day says we need help. we'll get to all of those stories in the show today plus comcast mega merger announced this week. first there's been a mountain of media coverage in recent days about michael sam, the college football star who made this announcement. >> i came to tell the world that i'm an openly proud gay man. >> how does it feel to say those words to the world? >> it's a load off my chest. >> what a moment for football. and the vast majority of stories about him painted a bright picture, that the nfl might finally be ready for an openly gay player. there were twitter messages of support from all across professional football and celebrities like ellen and even from president obama. one of those nfl twitterers was richie incognito who's been accused of bullying teammate jonathan martin. here's what he wrote. it takes guts to do what you did. i wish you nothing but the best. but then on friday, the wells

report came out. that was the blue ribbon investigation ordered by nfl commissioner roger goodell. >> what really happened in that miami dolphins locker room. the report made clear that incognito hurled homophobic teammates slurs so ugly we're going to be repeating them here. this brings up a key question, are people in pro football saying one thing in front of their cameras and keyboards but another thing in private. has this story been accurately reported this week? joining me to dig deeper into this, in los angeles, howard bragman, founder of 15 minutes pr which represents michael sam and oversaw the rollout of his announcement this week and in boston, daniel flynn, the author of "the war on football, saving america's game" who wrote on breitbart.com about what he thinks is the hidden negative reaction to sam's coming out. daniel, i want to start with you, before earlier this week before the wells report came out you wrote you feel players and coaches are saying one thing in public and another in private. why do you say that?

>> i think there's something inherently dishonest in the whole conversation that, you know, there's an expected opinion that you're to give publicly on twitter when you make announcements and if anyone sort of veers from that accepted position on homosexually or michael sam you will get in big trouble. think about the two players in the cfl who tweeted negative reactions to michael sam coming out, they got fined by the cfl. if you think about peter king at "sports illustrated" all he did was get some anonymous sources to talk about what the reception might be for michael sam if the nfl, how this -- his announcement would affect his draft stock and when they gave their honest assessments they didn't put their name to it for obvious reasons, but when they gave their honest assessments peter king is being called all sorts of nasty names in the media, on-line. it has a real chilling effect to speech and i think it puts journalists in a real dilemma. you can either write a story

that comes across as a press release from glaad and people will applaud you or you can go and dig up the truth as peter king did and people will slam you and call you a bigot and homo phobe and say you have ulterior motives for writing this. it's a highwire act sports journalists face in reporting on the story because they're almost compelled to report on it in a very puff piece kind of way. >> glaad the leading advocacy group for gay rights encouraging positive images of gay rights in the media. as someone who orchestrated michael sam's announcement, who helped him make things historic announcement, how do you feel about what he's saying? >> well, i have a pretty good feel for the macro reception for this announcement and i can tell you it's about 99% positive universally. owners of nfl teams, coaches like bill belichick, people who

really know this, are saying hey, he made his announcement, get over it, let's give him a chance to play football, which is by the way all michael was asking. peter king's story has been torn apart by deadspin and other media outlets rightfully so, but -- >> do you feel it was bad journalism to use anonymous sources like that? we've seen other stories like it this week also. >> well, the bad part to me was, he didn't even try and ask them to go on the record. he said, we're going to do this anonymously, i think as a journalist you want to try to go on the record first and there were some very low-level anonymous sources and then peter king followed up with a second piece where he had somebody who had quote unquote never heard of michael sam, who by the way is the defensive player of the year, co-defensive player of the year in the sec, the strongest league in football, looked at his tape and said, oh, i don't think he's that good a football player which is just crap at this point because michael was

mvp on his team, the ap, the coaches, people who know the league, know the play, saw him as a very competitive football player, let michael be michael, let michael play football and judge him on that basis and get rid of the rest of the other talk which is mostly low-level homophobia, really masked by other words like distraction. >> well, that's a pretty big aels. daniel, do you feel -- you're not feeling like this is homophobic, do you? >> no. howard says let's judge him on the basis of his playing on the football field rather than who he dates and i think that's a very reasonable request, but it's almost, howard, he wants to have his cake and eat it too. the only reason we're talking about michael sam, the only reason michael sam is on the cover of "sports illustrated" is because he's gay. not because he's a good football player. the only reason the first lady of the united states has publicly praising him, not because he's the second coming of lawrence taylor, it's because he's gay.

the only reason michael sam's agent is saying he has fortune 500 companies banging down his door trying to pay michael sam all sorts of money to endorse their products isn't because he's going to be an all-pro nfl player, it's because he's gay. so to say that we should judge him on the football field, i mean, be careful what you wish for. people are judging him as a football player. my sense is, like howard, he is going to hook on with an nfl team, he's that good of a player, but, you know, he's a late round nfl pick and there's not too many late round nfl picks that you see on the cover of "sports illustrated" before they even get drafted. the only reason we're having this conversation is because michael sam is gay. it has nothing to do with his performance on the football field. when howard says let's judge him based on how he plays, howard is not doing this, why does he expect anyone else to do that? >> let me clear up a couple misconceptions. first of all we don't know when he's going to be picked. you can say he's late round. the last 10 top defensive

players in the sec have been picked close to first round, second round, third round. second thing is, michael sam did not have a choice in this. his choice was in coming out ahead of the stories that were going to out him. i'm very clear in this. michael was out as a player in missouri. people in the local papers there, people at "sports illustrated," other publications knew. this was something that was going to break inevitably. what i find painfully sad we think of jackie robinson and we think of the fact that, you know, many years ago, people said he can't play because he's black, it's never going to work, and yet there were some courageous people in sports who said, we want the best players possible and we think this guy is one of them. sports has fallen behind. we're in 2014. we have a gay congressman, a gay senator, we have people running fortune 50 companies who are openly gay. we have gay people in every

level of our society, except gay men in the big four professional sports. they're behind the 8 ball on this issue. as "sports illustrated" noted on the cover, america is ready, is the nfl? the nfl has lots of problems. they need to clean up their act and i think they understand that and they're embracing michael sam shows that they get this. >> howard, thank you for coming on and sharing your experience this week. daniel, thank you for coming on an sharing your column as well. >> thanks, brian. >> thank you. and coming up, the giant cable deal that's got everyone talking. is it a good thing for consumers or a monster company with so much muscle, that it decides what channels you get to watch? i'll give it to you straight when we come back. [ male announcer ] this is the story of the little room over the pizza place on chestnut street the modest first floor bedroom in tallinn, estonia and the southbound bus barreling down i-95. ♪ this magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins.

and of those who believed they had the power to do more. dell is honored to be part of some of the world's great stories. i'll give it to you straight in a little dorm room -- 2713. ♪ this magic moment ♪ and better is so easy withrning you cabenefiber.o something better for yourself. fiber that's taste-free, grit-free and dissolves completely. so you can feel free to add it to anything. and feel better about doing it. better it with benefiber. humans -- even when we cross our "t's" and dot our "i's," we still run into problems. that's why liberty mutual insurance offers accident forgiveness with our auto policies. if you qualify, your rates won't go up due to your first accident. because making mistakes is only human, and so are we. we also offer new car replacement,

so if you total your new car, we give you the money for a new one. call liberty mutual insurance at... and ask us all about our auto features, like guaranteed repairs, where if you get into an accident and use one of our certified repair shops, your repairs are guaranteed for life. so call... to talk with an insurance expert about everything that comes standard with our base auto policy. and if you switch, you could save up to $423. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? welcome back to "reliable sources." a new wave of cable consolidations came crashing ashore this week when comcast

made a surprise move to merger time warner cable. comcast is already a giant, the number one cable company in the country and if this deal is approved by the government it will take over the number two cable company and get even bigger. here's what you need to understand about comcast. it's unique because it doesn't just distribute other people's television channels but it owns some of the channels, nbc, bravo, msnbc, usa, with this new merger the fear is comcast will use its muscle to help out its own channels while hurting other channels you might want to watch. opponents are lining and, in fact, when this deal news broke wednesday night and i started scurrying trying to write a story for cnnmoney.com my first e-mail to the free press because i knew he would be shocked and appalled by the news. he was and his group came out against the deal that very night. craig joins me now from washington to tell me why. craig, you wrote in a petition that's now up on free press' website putting this much power in the hands of one company is

dangerous. why do you say that? >> shocked and appalled is absolutely right, brian. i think this deal, if it goes through, would give comcast way too much power over what we watch watch, see, hear, read and download every day. this would make comcast a gatekeeper basically over all our forms of media and communication, giving them a lot of power to dictate the terms of the business, to decide what goes on the internet and what doesn't, certainly what goes on your cable system and what doesn't and i think that's too much power in the hands of one company that if this deal goes through would stretch to more -- nearly two-thirds of american homes would be offered service by the new giant comcast. >> let me play devil's advocate with you. if comcast is so bad why are 20 some million subscribers to it seemingly happy throughout the country. >> i don't know about happily. comcast regularly ranks among the worst companies in surveys

of customer service. >> they have nobody to switch to? >> they're the only game in town. if you want high-speed internet in most of the country your only choice is the local cable company and for more and more americans and maybe a lot more, that company is comcast. now that doesn't mean that, you know, people want to give up the internet or don't want to be able to watch shows like this, they absolutely do, but it does mean that consumers don't have a lot of freedom. they don't have a lot of choice. if they're unhappy with a company they have nowhere else to turn. >> this media war can feel small sometimes. that's what you're getting at. the channel that we're an cnn owned by time warner until 2009 owned time warner cable being bought by comcast. full disclosure my fiance who i'm going to marry works at time warner cable, she will be a comcast employee, seems like these are companies so big and i wonder if they're journalistic or other ethical questions you think this brings up when one company in this case comcast owns so many news channels and

entertainment channels. >> i think there's real concerns for people with comcast having this much control. they do own and operate one of the biggest news operations there is, nbc. and all of the nbc cable channels as well as dozens and dozens of local television stations and there's a lot of incentive for comcast if they could get away with it to give a leg up for their own content and services. that's true on the news side, that's true on the entertainment side. >> now comcast, we asked them to come on this week, they declined. i know what they would say here, they would say we haven't done any of that. we have been responsible corporate citizens since the nbc merger three years ago. have you seen any evidence that contradicts that? >> i think content wise they've continued down the path. one question will be are msnbc cnbc going to cover this merger. >> you mentioned the internet, maybe the most important part of this. talking about television, but comcast wants to charge more and more for faster internet.

is that where the regulators in washington should be paying the most attention when they scrutinize this deal? >> i think so. i think at its core this deal is about broadband internet. that's the future. that's the market that comcast is really trying to lock down with this deal. it's vastly profitable for them right now and they know if they can position themselves as the gatekeepers on-line, everything in the future has to go through them. i think we have real concerns when really the only high-speed offering in many places is going to be that comcast cable connection. >> you say that, but i've noticed on my at&t phone it's getting better and better. i can watch netflix on my phone, it gobbles up a lot of data and bandwidth but wonder if comcast has to get more scale because in the futures those will be the big internet providers. >> these are vastly profitable companies and i think you're right, they do see this as a play for more scale. my concern is that what we're doing is we're essentially building a new cartel where the cable companies divide up their

side of the market, it will be almost entirely comcast with a few other people way down the list, they're going to take your home internet connections, your wire line service, the phone companies are saying okay, we're going to take the mobile market and we like it if there were fewer than four of us, we've tried that, but the big two will be dominant and all of a sudden as a consumer you have very few choices and if they sdecide to start discriminating, blocking websites you don't have anywhere else to turn i think that's the real danger here and the one thing in all the consumer benefits that comcast has been touting about this merger, the one thing you never hear them say is that prices are going to go down. they're pretty clear that's not the case. prices will keep going up and if they can do it they're going to go up rapidly. that's why all consumers should be cautious and skeptical about what comcast has proposed here. >> it's understandable talk about consumers and what it means for them. on that media conference call i never heard anybody say prices will go down. >> i think washington needs to

take a close look at this. that's what we're going to be advocating for. i'm sure comcast will be spending money to push their position and they're close to both parties in washington but this is certainly no slam dunk and i think the more the public speaks out, gets involved, says wait a minute, i don't like the cable guy very much, i really don't think i'm going to like the cable guy on steroids. >> greg aaron, thank you so much for being here and expressing your point of view on this. >> thanks for having me, brian. >> when we come back, it's the hillary clinton you've never seen, with someone who knows her well. he wrote a book about her. one half of woodward and bernstein. carl bernstein up next. ♪ [ female announcer ] most of the time it's easy to know which option is better. other times, not so much. so it's good to know that mazola corn oil has 4 times more cholesterol blocking plant sterols than olive oil. and a recent study found

that it can help lower cholesterol 2 times more. take care of those you love and cook deliciously. mazola makes it better. that would be my daughter -- hi dad. she's a dietitian. and back when i wasn't eating right, she got me drinking boost. it's got a great taste, and it helps give me the nutrition i was missing. helping me stay more like me. [ female announcer ] boost complete nutritional drink has 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin d to support strong bones and 10 grams of protein to help maintain muscle. all with a delicious taste. grandpa! [ female announcer ] stay strong, stay active with boost.

yeah... try new alka seltzer fruit chews. they work fast on heartburn and taste awesome. these are good. told ya! i'm feeling better already. [ male announcer ] new alka seltzer fruits chews. enjoy the relief! well, did you know that just one sheet of bounce outdoor fresh gives you more freshness

than two sheets of the leading national store brand? who knew? so, how do you get your bounce? with more freshness in a single sheet.

welcome back to "reliable sources." fascinating an revealing new information about hillary clinton this week from writings left behind by her best friend the late diane blair. probably no other woman in the world more written about than hillary clinton. maybe joan of arc, maybe the queen of england? but really, hillary clinton is one of a kind. and yet the papers found this week at the university of arkansas reveal some things we didn't know. one of the journalists who's been pouring over the documents is clinton biographer one half of the famed watergate team woodward and bernstein. a guest we lv to have and joins me now. carl thanks for coming in. >> goo good to be here. these documents came up found by a conservative leaning website now teams from cnn and others are down there scouring them, looking for new revelations. anything you've seen so far contradicted what was in your book and you've seen over the

years about hillary clinton? >> let's say one thing here, that what happens when my book came out, other things come out, what has happened this week with these papers is, everything hillary or bill clinton usually comes into the media and is put in left, right, ideological box. the accolates of hillary clinton go out on the war path against the right wingers who have brought this allegation and that and so there is no context. we're seeing it again now. >> the laziest way to go about it, right? >> there's so little reporting. but also, you know, hillary clinton has xhentscommented on and one of the reasons she has such disdain for the press because of this tendency to do that. she has other reasons that she disdains the press, not very good ones, but -- and there's some comments in these papers and in my book about what she thinks of the press. >> one of the quotes i was most interested in talking about the press, saying that the press is a bunch of people with big egos

and no brains. she's kind of got us figured out. >> got us figured out when we don't do our reporting. i think that was always one of her complaints, that reporters don't do reporting often. >> she's quoted saying there's hardly a news story she couldn't totally refute. >> well, i don't think that's quite true because a number of the news stories and what made her the most sensitive, most angry were stories about bill clinton and other women and most of those stories were true. and she knew that many of those stories were true, at the same time she had been the person who partly on her own volition back in arkansas and partly at the urging of others had gone out and tried to smear some of the women who supposedly had relationships with her husband. there's a long account of it in my book. but i think she's got a real point. thoughtful people in public life, whether it's george bush,

bill clinton, hillary clinton, kay bailey hutchenson almost all people in life who have had great experience with the press, particularly in the television and cable news era, come away saying, there's no context to what we're doing and it's too often the case. yeah, she's got a real point and at the same time, she's got an ax to grind and we shouldn't to rgts that either. >> and i'm sure she still does even though these quotes are from the 1990s. >> you made this point about young people calling it for the first time. >> calling monica a narcissistic luneny toon. >> it's no secret in this book that hillary clinton thought that monica lewinsky was a stalker. she may well have been a stalker and bill allowed himself to be stalked. >> let me try out a conspiracy theory on you. these papers were reported on by the washington free beacon,

promoted by drudge. here we are in january of 2014. is it possible a reporter was, you know, led to these papers so they would come out now, these quotes would be rehashed now, as opposed to a year or two years from now? >> look, the great thing about being a reporter is, is that we don't have crystal balls and hopefully we got a notebook and go talk to people. i don't know the answer to that question. it's certainly possible what we -- what we do know, however, is some of the things that rand paul has been saying about bill clinton and about him being a sexual predator, et cetera and i think there -- and have talked to some republicans and democrats and thinks that one of paul's objectives is to try to push hillary out of this race and get other people in the democratic party to perhaps say maybe we don't need all this, maybe there is clinton fatigue and that this is going to renew clinton fatigue. as might this story.

>> one of the other quotes from reportedly from hillary clinton about the media, how can history ever be written when those who do the contemporary stuff are so wrong. as someone who has tried to write the definitive book about her do you relate to that at all? >> i think she's got a hell of a point. in our my yope ya in journalism too often we look at what we think is the big story of the moment and we don't really do the in depth reporting. i think that might be what she's getting at. that one of the joys, as i say, of doing this book was to spend six years, seven years, researching every aspect of hillary clinton's life, every aspect of the marriage, every aspect of her background, so surprising, she is a surprising character and we still have a caricature view of her very much because we continue to cover her as a wooden puppet. this is a woman who is anything but a puppet, anything but

simple. doesn't fit conventionally into simple liberalism and conservative boxes. one of the things that's in these papers down in diane's -- and i talked to diane blair at great length for my book and that's why most of what i've seen is in this book. including the stuff about hillary saying how terribly bill clinton runs his office. and particularly in regard to the press. she really ran a tight ship and that included the way she dealt with the press and she thought that bill clinton's operation was, with some reason, that bill clinton was not disciplined about the way he ran his office and sometimes allowed the press to run over him. remember, she is the one who at every stage of bill clinton's career has saved him. usually by going on television after an allegation about women. she said it to diane blair. that she thought that the white

house was a golden cage that would keep these old habits of her husband and temptations at bay and particularly she said to diane blair, with a nosy press corps such as the white house has. well, she was wrong. >> carl, great to have you here. thank you so much for coming on. >> good to be here. >> remember, i love your feedback. look me up on twitter or facebook and my user name brian stelter and i've be reading your comments after the show. after a break here, chris christie as tony soprano. the media goes to town on the new jersey governor, is all the negative publicity paving the way for a new political player? a tale of two republicans after this break. [ male announcer ] this is the cat that drank the milk... [ meows ] ...and let in the dog that woke the man who drove to the control room [ woman ] driverless mode engaged. find parking space. [ woman ] parking space found. [ male announcer ] ...that secured the data that directed the turbines that powered the farm that made the milk

that went to the store that reminded the man to buy the milk that was poured by the girl who loved the cat. [ meows ] the internet of everything is changing everything. cisco. tomorrow starts here. the internet of everything is changing everything. iwe don't back down. we only know one direction: up so we're up early. up late. thinking up game-changing ideas, like this: dozens of tax free zones across new york state. move here. expand here.

or start a new business here... and pay no taxes for 10 years. with new jobs, new opportunities and a new tax free plan. there's only one way for your business to go. up. find out if your business can qualify at start-upny.com hey there, i just got my bill, and i see that it includes my fico® credit score. yup, you get it free each month to help you avoid surprises with your credit. good. i hate surprises. surprise! at discover, we treat you like you'd treat you. get the it card and see your fico® credit score. [ chicken caws ] [ male announcer ] when your favorite food starts a fight, fight back fast with tums. heartburn relief that neutralizes acid on contact and goes to work in seconds. ♪ tum, tum tum tum tums! suddenly you're a mouthbreather. well, put on a breathe right strip and instantly open your nose up to 38% more than cold medicines alone. so you can breathe and sleep. shut your mouth and sleep right. breathe right.

i takbecause you can't beatrning for my frzero heartburn.n. woo hoo! [ male announcer ] prilosec otc is the number one doctor recommended frequent heartburn medicine for 8 straight years. one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn.

welcome back to "reliable sources." chris christie said something revealing this week while speaking to the economic club of chicago. the past six weeks he said, haven't been the most enjoyable of my life. that's unkristie-like understatement, isn't it? his detractors continue to pound away him. the story headline "chris cli ti's entire career wreex" and a mocked up portrayal of him as tony soprano. sarah palin turned on him saying she doesn't believe his whole story on bridge gate. you can't turn on msnbc without hearing about the latest about his scandals. we don't know if he survives to regain his status as a presidential frontrunner but there's a new kid in town. senator rand paul of kentucky is muscling in on what used to be christie's territory. this week amid his constant

reminders about monica lewinsky, paul sued president obama over the nsa's collection of phone records. the two candidates, would-be candidates are very different. the question is this, if chris christie goes down over bridgegate is rand paul the heir apparent? cnn's newest political commentator michael smirconish has covered both closely and joins me from philadelphia. thank you for being here. >> thank you, brian. >> tell me about the story that you wrote about chris christie for the cover of "philadelphia" magazine last july. i gather he didn't quite like the story? >> well, i don't put myself in the category of detractors, those that you mentioned are now coming out of the woodwork over a period of years i've hosted him on my radio program on several occasions and had written several columns about him and overwhelmingly i think i treated him well. but when "philadelphia" magazine came to me and said we want you to write a cover story for last july's issue and put the context

in perspective, he's then running for general election against barbara and he wants to win big. this is a magazine -- >> your magazine is going to be all over south jersey, right? >> exactly. so you would think this would be a lay-up, but he decided he didn't want to corporate with the interview, i nevertheless wrote the piece, i think the piece was fair. it never would have occurred to me that his rationale for not cooperating with the piece might have been something i had written about him previously but for the gw bridge closing and these mayors saying i think i was a victim of reprisal. >> and now this what is so many are doing, right, just like you going back in time thinking back and re-examining chris christie, wondering if he has this reputation as a bully. what was the column you wrote that you think may have turned him against you? wasn't the title "can you imagine how christie's son feels," what was it about? >> brian, we have four children, three of them are sons, and one particular day i picked up my

sons at school and i was driving my pick-up truck and i remember well when they got in the car they sort of slumped down in the seat and said dad, how many pick-up truck douse see in the lot? don't ever pick us up in the pick-up truck. pick us up in a car like everybody else has. their beef was that i had embarrassed them. remember the controversy over when governor christie used a helicopter to go to his son's baseball game and a huge kerfuffle about how much money could this have cost. i wrote a column and i said i'm sure the biggest problem the governor has isn't the money, the criticism, it's probably his son because if his son is like my sons, he probably got a workout at the dinner table over the embarrassment factor. that was the gist of the column. and to me it's pretty innocuous but i have to say when i went back with my producer and reconstructed our dealings it became clear that never again did he come back to the radio show and the tone and tenure of the e-mails back and forth

changed for the worse. >> it sounds like an example of a prickly politician and we've heard a lot of examples of this since the scandals started to break. do you conclude as other people seem to be concluding that he is a guy that's a bit of a bully and a guy who tries to keep score, so to speak? >> i think that's the right expression. he strikes me as a guy who's keeping score. i suspect that i became dead to christie christie and his office when i wrote the column about the helicopter. i would also be curious to know, did he ever read the column or just the headline? was it explained to him? but yes, i came to the conclusion that because i went there, never again was i going to get access. >> we've gone through for weeks now with these scandals and with people like you reassessing their relationships with chris christie, their past experiences with him, do you think there's an opening being created here for someone like rand paul who's been getting so much press lately for a variety of reasons? >> no. i don't see it. i think there's an opening for someone, but i don't think it's

for rand paul. the attraction for chris christie to me has always been that i thought he was the best person who could center the republican party and i would like to see the republican party center itself. i think it would be best for the party. i think it would be good for the nation. i also thought that chris christie was a person who sort of stood in opposition to the marco rubio, the ted cruz, the rick santorum, the mike huckabee and maybe the rand paul faction. it's hard to place rand paul in the gop in terms of where he fits ideologically, but i don't see him attracting the same type of traditionalist gop person that i think christie was going to attract. i think a john casic, paul ryan benefits but i don't think it's rand paul that benefits from christie having take an tumble. >> do you think the press is trying to search for a new person to focus on, rand paul or someone else? >> i know how you love to focus on the media.

here's my prediction. i think the media loves to build someone like christie up, frankly in retrospect now it's clear that he never received a close analysis during that last campaign, now he's been torn down, and my hunch is what comes next is he gets built back up again, especially if alls these subpoenas generate nothing that contradicts what he had to say and then that roller coaster ride will continue. i'm not writing this guy off yet. >> that's really interesting. this is a cycle and this cycle will just continue and maybe it's a question of where on that roller coaster we are 18 months from now. >> he's great copy. i mean, you know, look at christie in comparison to the other personalities that we're discussing. christie is the best copy among them and, you know, his verbose nature is both his greatest asset and his chief liability. >> i don't know, i think rand paul -- >> what i concluded in that -- >> i think rand paul filing a lawsuit against the president makes for some pretty good copy

this week. >> it does. but i always was entertained by his father. i thought his father made sense, particularly on the foreign policy issues. i never could quite wrap my head around some of the domestic views he had, but i'm not, brian, yet sure that whether rand paul has the ability to do what dad never did, which was to go mainstream. rather than being passing fancy among college students and hard core libertarian types to have a more broadbased appeal. thus far i don't see that happening with rand paul. >> what a wide variety of people to talk about in the months and years to come and you'll be doing it on your new show on cnn. michael, thanks for joining me. >> thank you, brian. >> what happens when journalists fail at their job? and i mean really blow it? the biggest story you haven't heard of, at least not in a while, when we come back. no matter how busy your morning you can always do something better for yourself. and better is so easy with benefiber. fiber that's taste-free, grit-free and dissolves completely.

so you can feel free to add it to anything. and feel better about doing it. better it with benefiber.

we've always been] at the forefrontumman, of advanced electronics. providing technology to get more detail... ♪ detect hidden threats... ♪

see the whole picture... ♪ process critical information, and put it in the hands of our defenders. reaching constantly evolving threats before they reach us. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman.

welcome back to "reliable sources." i'm brian stelter. now to a feature we're going to be doing a lot on this program, called under cover. examining why reporters are not paying attention enough to important stories. i can't think of a more outrageous example right now than the water in charleston, west virginia. people there are afraid to drink it, wash with it, and they have been ever since the chemical spill that first contaminated the water more than a month ago. come on, if this was happening in new york or los angeles, don't you think we would be seeing basically blanket coverage of this? in this case in west virginia no one can assures residents when the water will be drinkable. there's been lots of mixed

information. some inspectors say it's safe now, but there's been all these conflicting comments even among state officials leaving residents frustrated and frightened. one local journalist has been on the story day and night since it broke and will join me, but first watch, here she is reporter cali cart insisting on getting answers from the president of the chemical company that caused the spill. >> at this moment in time i think that's all we have time for. thanks for coming. >> we have more questions. hey hey hey. we're not done. >> we are done. >> we're not done, no. anyone else have any other questions? >> what a viral video moment that was. joining me now, cali, the anchor with cnn affiliate wchs in charleston. welcome, cali, thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> so tell me, what i said in the intro, is it true or not? if this was new york or los angeles or even pittsburgh, wouldn't this be getting more coverage from the national press? >> absolutely true. i mean this happened more than a month ago and even in the

beginning there wasn't that sort of 24-hour news coverage. there was some national coverage, you know, a mention a story here, a story there, but for the large part it's been ignored and there have been a lot of, you know, media experts weighing in like yourself saying, you know, hey, there needs to be more attention paid to this and i think that's the feeling of everyone here and here we are a month after the crisis and a lot of people have just moved on from this story. but people here certainly do not feel like the water is safe yet, and actually frustrations are growing each day that the -- this crisis continues. >> i want to get into the reasons for the lack of coverage, but tell me first, because you're not just a reporter, you're a resident, you're a mom, you're nine months pregnant, do you think the water is safe? have you been drinking and using the water? >> i haven't been drinking the water. i have been using it on a limited basis. but the feeling of a lot of people we talk to is no, they don't feel like the water is safe. i know that the smell in my water at my house comes and goes

and that's a concern. they say the officials from the water company even with the state say, you know, the smell, just ignore it. it's going to be there. us i think as a rationale person you really bring yourself to drink the water if it smells. and the cdc said two days after the ban was lifted on using the water, pregnant women, okay, you shouldn't drink the water, then saying that was more of a recommendation to empower women to think about their own health. so it's definitely been mixed messages all along. so everyone's just kind of using their personal judgment on what to do. a lot of pregnant, expectant mothers are kind of in the same boat. i spoke with kind of a roundtable of moms this past week, and they said they're more frustrated and actually more concerned than they were when this crisis first happened a month ago. >> when i saw that quote from senator rockefeller this week saying he wouldn't drink the water if people paid him to drink it, that's when it got my

attention. i thought this is an ongoing crisis that isn't getting enough coverage in the press. i wonder, there have been media outlets that have done a better job than others? have you seen any coverage that's been impressive? any reporters come back to the state? or it's just been overall pretty bad? >> well, i mean, i think cnn's been here several times. "the huffington post" has followed this pretty closely. rachel maddow has talked about it on her show. but it's been really a venting of frustration. that chip you saw of me questioning the freedom industry president, the company that made the spill, that got a lot of coverage. but that was almost frustrating in a way because while, yes, i'm pushing for answers, that is just the tip of the iceberg of frustration and the story here. >> right. >> there's such a larger story that deals with people's health, their safety, and the fact that

this could really happen anywhere so it's applicable across the nation. and the fact it's being largely ignored is incredibly frustrating for a lot of people here. >> let's dig into what the reasons could be. i'm thinking to myself maybe one of the reasons why is reporters were initially too gullible. they believed the officials when the water restrictions were lifted and officials initially said, okay, it's okay to drink again and they haven't paid attention since. is that one of the reasons why there hasn't been more scrutiny in charleston? >> maybe. i think the local media has done an excellent job of, you know, questioning what the officials are saying and, you know, doing follow-ups, because there have been ongoing lingering problems even after the bans were lifted. schools continue to be closed just two weeks ago. there was a student and teacher who passed out in the school because the fumes were so overwhelmi overwhelming. we've been highly critical, questioning. however, that's on a local

level. so nationally, yes, maybe. they said the bans are lifted and crisis over. well, crisis continues. >> sometimes local reporters hate it when national reporters bigfoot onto their turf but i feel like in this case what i'm hearing from you is come on by, please come back, there's a big story to cover. >> well, and i think we feel like we are still going through this crisis, and i feel like it has been kind of portrayed like, okay, the crisis is over. and we're moving in that direction. you know, hopefully our water supply is getting safer. they're now starting to do in-home testing and i think that will hopefully relieve lot of fears or maybe tell us things we've been wanting to know. >> a hell of a story and it is under coverage. people can go to your web sit, cchstv.com. thanks for joining me. >> all right. thank you. that's it for this week's televised edition of "reliable sources." a lot more online at cnn.com, lots of stories of the comcast

murder and the rest of the week's media news. hope to see you back here next sunday at 11:00 a.m. you stopped by the house? uh-huh. yea. alright, whenever you get your stuff, run upstairs, get cleaned up for dinner. you leave the house in good shape? yea. yea, of course. ♪ [ sportscaster talking on tv ] last-second field go-- yea, sure ya did. [ male announcer ] introducing at&t digital life. personalized home security and automation. get professionally monitored security for just $29.99 a month. with limited availability in select markets. ♪ with limited availability in select markets. (voseeker of the sublime.ro. you can separate runway ridiculousness... from fashion that flies off the shelves. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. and only national is ranked highest in car rental customer satisfaction by j.d. power.

(natalie) ooooh, i like your style. (vo) so do we, business pro. so do we. go national. go like a pro. yeah... try new alka seltzer fruit chews. they work fast on heartburn and taste awesome. these are good. told ya! i'm feeling better already. [ male announcer ] new alka seltzer fruits chews. enjoy the relief! smoke? nah, i'm good. [ male announcer ] celebrate every win with nicoderm cq, the unique patch with time release smartcontrol technology that helps prevent the urge to smoke all day long. help prevent your cravings with nicoderm cq. [ chainsaw whirring ] humans -- sometimes life trips us up. sometimes we trip ourselves up. and although the mistakes may seem to just keep coming at you, so do the solutions. like multi-policy discounts from liberty mutual insurance.

save up to 10% just for combining your auto and home insurance. call liberty mutual insurance at... [ thump ] to speak with an insurance expert and ask about all the personalized savings available for when you get married, move into a new house, or add a car to your policy. personalized coverage and savings. all the things humans need to make our world a little less imperfect. call... and ask about all the ways you could save. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? if your denture moves, it can irritate your gums. try fixodent plus gum care. it helps stop denture movement and prevents gum irritation. fixodent. and forget it.

a check of our top stories. a search is under way right now

for two skiers who went missing following an avalanche in colorado. three others were sent to the hospital with broken bones and a collapsed lung. the accident happened in lake county, colorado. attorneys said dunn was found guilty of attempted murder for shooting at a kor of teenagers. the jury in the loud music trial could not reach a verdict on the motion. dunn claims the act was self-defense when he shot at the car killing 17-year-old jordan davis. the proud funding start kickstarter is urging users to change their pass words after announcing it has been hacked. in a blog post, the company's ceo said users' personal information has been stolen. the site says it was told about the hack by law enforcement and immediately worked to close the

loophole. at 2:00, chelsea clinton stepping out of the shadows of her famous parents. hear what she's doing now that has people speculating. i'm fredricka whitfield. see you at 2:00 eastern. "state of the union" with candy crowley starts right now. peace talks in geneva all but collapse while syria implodes. today, the syrian government lays waste to rebel-held territories. anti-government forces turn on each other, and militants islamists use the chaos to get a foothold. >> it's bad for the region. it is bad for global national security. >> it's more than that and should be an affront to our conscience. >> more than 9 million people have fled their homes and an estimated 135,000 are dead. senator john mccain joins us on the horrific humanitarian problem in syria.