motorcycle trip. his motorcycle and remains were found in a shallow grave. his mother is in mexico to try to identify his body. police are also running dna tests. i'm erin mcpike in washington. "reliable sources" starts right now. good morning. i'm brian stelter, and it's time for "reliable sources." this is called pebble beach where you always see reporters doing live shots. i'm here for an exclusive interview with the brand new press secretary, josh irwin. we also have a lot more coming up for you including a fascinating conversation that we are calling the arms race. it's about women, television news, and attractiveness. hear how the on air dress code has changed quite a bit over the years. we'll also tell you about two very different books involving hillary clinton and why one of her spokespeople says they

should be hooked up it a lie detector. our interview with josh earnest. being press secretary is tough at any time. it's especially tough right now. this may be the low point of the obama presidency. he's facing an immigration crisis on the border and a threat of a lawsuit from the gop. go jo josh earnest, he's having to deal with all of it. imagine your first few weeks, kind of intimidating, right? now imagine that literally the whole world is watching. josh, thanks for joining me. >> thanks for having me. >> i thought it would be fun to change it up to you and have you sit out where the reporters sit. >> it's nice to be seated as opposed to standing up. >> i guess it is. let's start with the big story of the week. humanitarian crisis on the border. what we heard all week was a drum beat about photo ops, symbols. so much of the presidency is symbols. why not have him go to the border even if it's a symbol.

>> that's a good question. it's important for people to understand what the president's priority is. in this situation the president's priority was on solving the problem. we've talked through what he's trying to do to solve this. he's asked for resources from congress. prior to that the president made some unilateral decisions about moving it from the interior to the border. the president has asked for congress to provide greater authority to the secretary of homeland security to more efficiently implement the law. we saw greater authority to crack down on the trafficking groups that are responsible for so much of this situation that we're seeing there. those are all policy-based solutions to a difficult problem. those don't lend themselves to sexy pictures. the president's putting the policy solution first even though he's being criticized over photo ops. that's leadership. >> the president does think a lot about photo ops, i would think. he's been traveling around the

country to spend time with regular people. those are photo ops. >> any time the president and the symbol goes, that sends a message. >> you turn on the tv and you hear all of the chatter about photo ops. do you think the press is featuring on the small thing versus the important thing? >> i want to be the media critic in chief. there's a responsibility for the news media to try to make sense of a really complicated, fast-moving dynamic environment, and that's particularly true when you're talking about a story like this. look, i think the president made exactly the right decision. he's focused on results. sometimes the media environment doesn't reward somebody who's willing to absorb a little criticism and not pay attention to the optics or pay less attention to the optics. >> there's always some attention to the optics. >> there's always some attention to the optics. look, particularly a news organization like cnn, television is a visual medium.

your stock in trade is going to be the optics. i understand there's value in paying attention to that. the responsibility of the leaders of the country is understanding how to use the optics to solve problems. the other side is they're using photo ops to avoid having to deal with tough problems. >> you talk about tough issues. do you feel this is the lowest point in the obama administration? >> i don't feel that. >> one person when i asked for questions from twitter for this interview, one person asked, what were you thinking by taking on this job at this moment? >> yeah. yeah. look, it is -- it's -- it's a really interesting time to take on this job. >> what were you thinking? >> i was thinking about what a tremendous opportunity it would be to stand up at that podium on a daily basis and fight for something that i really believe in, and that is a president who has the right priorities for this country. he's somebody who believes passionately in the american government being a force for

good in the world but he also believes passionately using the influence he has in washington d.c. to fight for middle class families that i grew up? >> it's quite a fight. how many days have you stood up there having dreaded doing it so far? >> none so far. each time i've looked forward to the opportunity. it doesn't mean there haven't been touch questions and that there aren't questions that i worry about. it is a really interesting symbol of our democracy for somebody who works here at the white house to walk out here every day that the president is in town and say, ask me whatever question you've got. let me know. >> by the way, i bring it up. should we keep televising this? >> if you think it's good for your ratings, you should do it. if you decide at some point it's not, you shouldn't. it's not for me to judge. i think that adding a television camera definitely changes the dynamic but i don't be think it would be appropriate for me to say what you can or can't film.

>> your first briefing in june was described as testing. i thought, wait, that's the way it's supposed to be. it's too adversarial now. do you believe that? >> it's a battle and not an exchange of information. >> right. i would say there is built-in tension in the relationship. if there's ever a day when the white house press core sits back and says, we're getting all the information we need from the white house, everybody in the press core won't be doing their jobs. the question for me is does that tension help you get answers? does it help people get a better understanding into what's happening here in the white house or does it get in the way? sometimes i do think it gets in the way. there's a premium based on what gets the answers. >> some would say it may be more adversarial because you are all withholding more than ever. have you seen this letter from the society of professional

journalists? 40 press groups all sayings the president should be more transparent. >> look, i think the president's record of transparency stands up to any of the record of his predecessor. >> you did see the letter and hear from the groups? >> i did. >> you didn't have legitimate concerns? >> again, they're all journalists. the day that they sort of sit back and say, we don't need to write a letter, the white house is telling us everything they're supposed to, is the day they're no longer doing their job. >> they say many federal agencies are imposing terrible restrictions on freedom of the press. is there anything you can do to stop that, improve the flow of information? >> i am definitely committed and have a responsibility to try too help the president live up to his commitment to be the most transparent president in history. if you look at some of the steps -- >> i'm surprised you say that. most transparent president in history. >> he has been criticized saying that given the prosecutions of whistle blowers and other steps.

you will still stick by that? >> absolutely. if you look at the president's record of releasing wage records. this administration releases it voluntarily on the internet on a quarterly basis. reporters for years clamored to get access to fundraisers that presidents hosted or attended that were hosted in private homes. reporters now have access to those when this president goes to a private home. >> this week. >> there are a number of steps we've taken. >> i notice this week the between two ferns interview was nominated for an emmy. >> it's an honor being nominated. >> of course. >> we certainly have our fingers crossed. that was a tremendous opportunity that the president took to deliver a message. >> even though it was criticized there's evidence that it worked for its purposes. it got more traffic to the obama care website. >> it got as much traffic to the

obama care website as any other online project that we were engaged in. it was a really powerful thing. >> where else might we see him go? >> we're always looking for new ideas. some can be online. maybe there's a great print idea out there that we haven't come up with yet. we're going to be looking for over the course of the next two and a half years to push the envelope and put the president in unique formats where he can connect with people in a different way. >> let's talk about you and your media habits. what newspapers do you read every day? >> i -- well, i benefit from two things. an ipad. that's transformed the way that a lot of people get the printed product. >> "new york times," washington post, wall street journal? >> ap has a really good app, too, at the risk of plugging them. the other thing i bet fit from is we have an internal service where there is a staffer that starts sending e-mails before

7:00 a.m. with an individual news clip. so i benefit a lot from reading through my e-mail. >> television? what network do you go to first? >> first probably espn. but if it's -- >> easy answer. >> that is an easy answer. if it's for work i definitely spend some time on cnn. i've found them to be a pretty good barometer of what a lot of people in this room are going to be interested in on a daily basis. >> you must turn on fox and msnbc? >> yes. there is a function where we can watch four stations at the same time so we can pull up -- >> do the broadcast networks still matter? >> absolutely they do, in a different way than they used to. there's still a tremendous audience. there are very serious -- >> we're sitting in two of their seats. what about the web? are there any particular websites that are most important in terms of the news? >> politico has done a lot to

really transform the way that the news is reported here in washington so that is an outlet that i know a lot of reporters go to for news and it's certainly one that i look for, too. they style themselves as the espn of politics. >> even though we think of this as being so adversarial, you're describing a way you can help the press. >> look, my first responsibility is to be an advocate for the president, there's no doubt about that, but i am serving the president really well if i'm doing a good job of serving the press core. sometimes that means helping them, sometimes that means being an advocate internally getting them access to things. it's a unique role. the other thing i like about the white house, through that door reporters have an opportunity to wander through press offices. >> something viewers don't realize? >> right behind that wall is where my old office used to be. that meant that i was often the stop of first resort for a lot of reporters if they were desperate for a piece of

information, if they were frustrated with the white house. if they needed help on a story, i was the first door that they came to. that allowed me to develop important, strong relationships in working with reporters and that's something you can't do over the phone or by e-mail. by doing it face to face it has been an interesting thing. something old-fashioned about the white house but it serves the white house well in the 21st century fast moving viern zblmt thank you for taking my questions. >> thanks for coming, brian. >> nice to see you. now we're back here in the studio. i would love to talk to mr. earnest in a year to see how he's feeling. coming up on "reliable sources." there is a double standard in the media. we'll talk about why and how it's back in the news right after this.

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welcome back to "reliable

sources." i want to turn now to women and television, and more specifically women on television, anchor women, and how they dress. check out this headline from the "huffington post" this week. this is the kind of bs that women in television have to deal with. the "huffington post" was talking about a morning show war over in brittain where executives from one network were apparently so anxious to hike up the ratings they suggested the anchor woman should hike up her skirts. the coverage of that controversy had me pondering how much change there has been in this country in the way television anchor women have changed their dress. we're trying to see if there is a dress code. it sure seems like there's an arms race. almost no one wears dresses with sleeves anymore. let me start with fox news. the new program called "outnumbered" shows four women and one man. when we looked elsewhere on this network, msnbc, cbs, abc, we saw sleeveless dresses and shorter

skirts than there used to be. go back 20, 30 years you see a big difference s. this a fashion choice. what kind of pressures do female journalists feel to look a certain way on the air. it actually came up on wabc, new york's abc affiliate on friday morning. watch this. >> our little micro climate in here is like a refrigerator. >> it is. >> our micro climate. >> our macro climate is different. >> should we tell -- should we reveal how all the ladies here wear sleeveless outfits when it's only 37 degrees in this studio? >> good question. >> i have a blanket or cardigan. >> shivering when we're off camera. >> i have the two perfect guests to discuss this issue. two generations of women in television news. karen is a former network anchor --

>> are we perfect because we're wearing sleeveless? >> that's the perfect place to start. >> we didn't know this ahead of time, by the way. >> i one be derd because you were at cnn for many years, how have you seen the attention to female anchor outfits change? >> when i was a local news reporter and anchor in atlanta, i wore a blazer that had a pocket that said action news 5. we've come a long way. gray blazer, very attractive. >> takes the guesswork out of choosing your outfit. >> i think what happened in london is outrageous. think about it, back then people were openly discriminating against women. >> you've brought some notes with you, all of the different things you have been told on how to dress over the years. >> when you called and said, you know, do you want to come join us to talk about this, i laughed. i started thinking. i don't think it's changed that

much. obviously we have come far in terms of assignments. it was unheard of back in the day twhat you would have a femae war correspondcorrespondent. i think attention to women's appearance, that's not just news, that's sort of society. we can take it with a grain of salt or we can get very insecure about it, but i laughed over the years. people said i should buy a wig, which i'm thinking i should have. my hair was too thin for television. they didn't like that. i was told don't wear bare arms. michelle obama changed that. don't wear taupe. dye your hair blond. wear your skirts shorter. wear your skirts wear longer. they said get botox. when the sun is on you you look angry. nobody likes angry women on

television. it's harder. you're trying as a woman to show that you know as much and that you deserve to be informing people about what's going on and then you have to worry about lip gloss and eyelashes and high heels and all of that stuff on top of it. >> i think it's tough because news is at the intersection of television. if you're doing news on television, you're at the intersection of what is in large part an entertainment media. >> the ven diagram. generallism and television and there's a lot in the middle. >> exactly. you're sitting right there in the middle of it. there are plenty of guys doing the news. there are plenty -- more anchors like brian stelter. the wind -- i think kieryn is right. we are judged by a different standard because society has a different standard for women. i believe we can't -- i think it's crazy to get so focused on this because we have come vi a very long way. there are women doing serious news reporting. they're covering wars, they're covering the state department. they're not only covering the white house. they're putting themselves at

risk, and i think it's -- i think we make too much if we sit and worry too much about how women look. i think, yes, they're going to be executives in news organizations who worry about it, but i think women have to take a deep breath and think, what am i doing here? am i here to be a reporter, to gather the news, to make sure it gets out and do the best job i can. if that's what you're trying to do, that's what ultimately is going to matter. >> do you ever look at women in television, someone on a local broadcast or something and think, my god, what are they wearing? >> of course. everyone does that. but it's for guys, too. what i laugh at. >> what do you mean it's for guys too? the only real feedback i've gotten was i wore glasses. then a cnn executive said i like you better without glasses. that's the only kind of feedback i've had to face so to speak. >> i thought it was interesting when anderson cooper was covering the aftermath in haiti.

one of the articles was anderson cooper wore a black t-shirt. what else is he going to wear? you have to take it with a grain of salt like judy said. you have to say i have enough confidence in myself and what i'm saying is relevant and hopefully informative. there is an element of attractiveness you have to have, by that i don't mean beauty, i mean you have to have either an authenticity about you or a relatebility so that -- i mean, it's tv. it's tv news. if the ratings aren't good, meaning people aren't attracted to you -- they use the term attract viewers. if people aren't attracted to your persona, your person whether it has to do with looks or how you talk or what you say, then where are we. >> there is a difference about outlets. judy, at pbs, is it a luxury to not have to tli about ratings

every 15 minutes? >> clearly we want an audience. gwen and i are very focused on putting on the very best program we can every night and feel very blessed to be the first two women anchoring a national newscast. no, it's not the same as commercial pressure where every morning there's a lot of focus on the part of executives what were the ratings, every 15 minutes, every five minutes the night before. that doesn't mean we don't care about an audience. we do. it's the content that matters. i would argue that it's the content on commercial television. ultimately people will come back to you if you're doing a good job, getting the story right, if you did a good interview, if you had a good exchange with somebody you were talking to and you shone some light on the story. whether you're covering a hurricane or an election or an immigration crisis right now. what matters is the story.

you know, i have long believed that there's too much focus on how we look. it's inevitably part of the job because it's television. it's a story when hoda and kathy go, we're not wearing makeup or when robin roberts took her wig off. there was a huge amount of emphasis put on looks. i don't necessarily think it's a horrible thing but it's definitely trying. >> let me go back to what you've heard about feedback wise. can you tell me what that's been like in a newsroom in the past? >> sure. how much time do you have? i remember even when i was younger, i was 22 when i was an anchor at the coveted nbc affiliate in eerie, pennsylvania, which was a great news town. they wanted me he to look older. i had shoulder pads out here and my hair was poofed out.

i show pictures for fun. that is not you. but there was -- for me the problem was they felt because i was so young even though they knew i was smart and i knew what i was talking about that i appeared to be too young. >> when you were at fox news was there more of a focus on your looks than there was at other places? >> yeah. one of my favorite quotes ever. i can't -- i just realized i can't say it. the joke was we should all buy stock in mac lip gloss because we go through it. we used to call the hair and makeup studio, we used to ka you will it the magic shop. we'd drag ourselves in at 2:00 in the morning and come out looking completely different. >> at cnn i go into makeup and they give me 1,000 milligrams of confidence. >> i get to sit next to you guys and get makeup and get air brushed. coming up here on "reliable sources" we're going to be talking about one particular

woman who we're all used to seeing on camera. that's hillary clinton. who is the subject of two new books, one by herself and one most definitely not. one that is filled with sensational and frankly very hard to believe claims. we're going to dissect it with someone who's read it and written about it right after this. hey're about 10 times softr and may have surface pores where bacteria can multiply. polident kills 99.99% of odor causing bacteria and helps dissolve stains. that's why i recommend polident. [ male announcer ] cleaner, fresher, brighter every day. i'm j-e-f-f and i have copd. i'm l-i-s-a and i have copd, but i don't want my breathing problems to get in the way

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take a look at "the new york times" hard cover nonfiction best seller list. everybody in the publishing world studies this list. and number two this week is hillary clinton's memoir "hard choices." now scroll up. look at what's at number one. another one about the clintons, "blood feud" by edward klein. president obama and the clintons hate each other. to call it poorly sourced is a compliment. a lot of the book passages honestly sound too crazy to be true. like when klein claims that one of hillary clinton's arguments turned physical with her jabbing him in the chest. normally we wouldn't be repeating these kinds of allegations, not when there's no evidence for them and lots of evidence against them. we're only talking about it on "reliable sources" on a book that's selling like hot cakes. let me bring in someone who has

read it and written about it. david sweigel. tell me what "blood feud" is all about. >> "blood feud" is a version of the last couple of years between the clintons and the obamas. this is kind of the latest of the series of ed klein books. >> you've called then clinton hate books? >> clinton fan if i can shin. there are people that resemble the clintons and it's great detail that ed klein could not have seen. in a room where no one else is present and will claim that he has around 200 sources he claims in spiral notebooks under deep cover that swore to him up and down that this all happened. >> most of the press has avoided detailing what's in the book because most of the press

doesn't believe a lot of this stuff. is that the right decision? to basically ignore it even though it's number one on the best seller list. >> there is. what is the point of rereporting something which would be the response. if there's a change from game changers, a lot of great books use anonymous sources. in this it will be in a room that contained the president and the white and the president and valerie jarrett. we know that ed klein did not get them for the book. he would say so. >> of course. >> if you can't verify it in any ore way, if the guy has a record of making stuff up, it's an assumption you have to go with. >> "the new york times" said, quote, i don't make this stuff up. the quotes come from sources that were present when the statements were made or who were told about the statements shortly after they were made. let me read what i thought was an amazing statement.

let's strap ed klein to a polygraph machine and let the needle do the talking. >> they feel like they've bested ed klein before. this time hillary clinton's camps have pointed to the past and have dismissed the guy which indicates, one, they feel they have moved on from this. two, they don't mind when the opposition to hillary clinton is seen as ludicrous. the clintons have been at their best. >> they may think it helps them. >> one more thing we should point out, "hard choices" has sold more copies. the clinton camp, rather, their allies, have been aggressive about saying "hard choices" has been a hit. so there has been that tension recently. let's get to the issue of why a book like this does sell so well, why it does hit number one on the times best seller list. what is it about a book like

this that you think is so attractive to some conservatives? >> it feels true. some of the reviewing in the conservative media, not a lot, clinton is not taken that seriously, there is a sense that the clintons are probably like this, the obamas are probably like this. they know the liberal media, most of the media that's not outwardly conservative, they assume they're lying and covering for the guy. so if it's believable, they cover for him on benghazi, believable they cover for him on the irs, it's believable they cover this up. i would not ascribe that to the mainstream but that's enough to sell the books. >> do you worry that by dismissing the book, talking about it but dismissing it, gives the book more publicity, more weight? this was a debate in one of cnn's editorial meetings about this book. should we be talking about it at all? >> there's a lot of stuff that bubbles up from the fringe, if you don't cover it it is going to get covered because of the way media has been established.

media doesn't have that role in determining what people get to talk about. >> dave, thanks for joining me. >> thank you. let me know what you think of this issue. send me a tweet or facebook message, my name is brian stelter. i'll be responding right after the show. coming up on "reliable sources," red news and blue news. the different views on the crisis on the border you might get depending on what channel you turn on. i'll show you exactly what i mean right after this. for $175 dollars a month? yup. all five of you for $175. our clients need a lot of attention. there's unlimited talk and text. we're working deals all day. you get 10 gigabytes of data to share. what about expansion potential? add a line anytime for 15 bucks a month. low dues... great terms... let's close. introducing at&t mobile share value plans... ...with our best-ever pricing for business.

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get right to red news/blue news. how the media portrays stories in ways that will make your head spin. this week it is immigration. such a contentious issue, and such an emotional one. if you've watched a lot of the coverage, you've noticed a lot of tugging at the heart strings. let's start with blue news, two congressional democrats on msnbc. >> we have to remember that these are human beings and that these are kids and show the compassion that we should for that. >> visuals are powerful. people love children as much as there may be concern and a lot of emotions, i can tell you that your heart wrenches when you see the children. >> the contrast could not be more vivid between those sound bites and these red news sound bites i'm about to show you. check these out. these are two fox news commentators from earlier this week. >> the federal government is

covering up the extent of the health crisis. they say kids have skab bees. they also say they have chicken position and an all out epidemic of lies. it's so severe they say the bugs can be seen crawling down the faces of the children. >> the ms 13 gang members are minors and now we're also seeing these dangerous people bringing drugs into the country who aren't being watched by border patrol. >> keep what they said in mind. this is a clip from fox news. i noticed on "hannity's" show. where do you think she heard about the lice. >> they're coming with lice, skab bees, leprosy. they're going to give it to my little brother? i don't think so. >> you can see the feedback loop there between what news outlets tell us and what we believe, what we worry about, what we

then fear. so if you're on the left, you might believe there is a red news effort to dehumanize these desperate immigrants, to portray them as unworthy of our help. and if you're on the right, you may believe there's a blue news effort to discredit, to demonize opponents of immigration. here's what bill o'reilly said about that. >> some on the left believe that the u.s.a. should accept all so-called refugees, all of them. if you oppose that you are inhumane, uncaring, unchristian and so on. the dem mon mization has been effective. >> right now this topic is topping the news agenda. you feel like immigration is the story of the summer. but how long will it really last? let's end on this sound bite from bill burton who's very worried it will not last that long at all. >> it is a real crisis and children are at the center of it. the thing that is so sad, because of this media environment, we're talking about it, it's a big deal, in two

weeks i promise you we will not be having this conversation anymore. immigration comes and goes as an issue. republicans haven't had to pay any meaningful price because the media environment cycles through things so quickly that they're being tagged for -- >> some media outlets are very intent on covering this 3 6 5 days a year, i'm not going to name names. >> go on, alex. all news outlets should stay on the immigration beat and not let bill burton be right about the media's tendency to move on for some other topic. that's all for red news/blue news this week. stay with me. i have a crazy story to tell you about. it's about anonymous tips, prostitution and ideological news media. this has been cascading for two years. you're not going to believe what happened this week. stay tuned.

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now to a shady story of a senator, sex, lies, and videotape. and maybe the cuban government. you might remember back in 2012 when allegations surfaced that senator bob menendez, democrat of new jersey, had paid underage prostitutes for sex while on a trip to the dominican republic. one of the women said she never met menendez. another told dominican authorities that she had been hired by a lawyer to make false allegations. the quote/unquote scandal reemerged when the cia said they had evidence linking cuban agents to the prostitution allegations. the post cited anonymous sources

for that while other sources denied it. there's a lot of confusion about it. menendez reacted on tuesday in this exclusive cnn interview with dana bash. >> it should be pretty appalling that a foreign government would be engaged in trying to affect an election and/or the position of the united states senator. >> cnn's justice correspondent evan perez has been deeply involved with this story. when he was working at "the wall street journal" he received one of the first anonymous tips about the prostitution claims. i want you to hear his story about how this is all unfolding. he's here in the studio with me. evan, thank you for joining me. >> thanks for having me. >> this is one of the journalism 101 stories about double checking and triple checking the facts. tell me about the tip you received more than two years ago. >> it was in the summer of 2012, a colleague of mine both received these e-mails which came from this anonymous

tipster. it included allegations that the senator -- >> this lands on your doorstep basically? >> right. right. later on another reporter at the journal received the same set of e-mails. what was fascinating, we could see that this story had been shopped first to abc news before we got to it. it had been sent to crew which is a government watchdog group and been shopped and sent to the fbi and the fbi had exchanged e-mails with this peter williams character that was purported to have this information. >> a pretty eager tipster. >> a pretty eager tipster except the tipster would never come forward to consummate the information. >> every time you'd follow up you'd ask for more information and evidence and get nothing? >> we could tell it was not something that we could ever really publish. somebody who was not willing to provide any kind of, you know, meet with anybody or provide any additional information so we decided we couldn't do the story. we could tell that abc news had obviously backed off the story

as well. >> what happened next? >> months later it shows up in the daily caller. >> conservative website. >> controlled by tucker carlson. >> right. >> which is a mix of news and opinion. >> right. >> how did you feel when you saw the story? >> well,immediately of course we got calls from our editors and they nt waed to know if we could match the story. there was some pressure. especially big stories that were part of the conversation. this was as you remember a big part of the conversation. >> it was. were you willing to do it? >> we decided not to do it. we waited several months before we even touched it. and only after it became more of a political story of the senator's poll numbers showing that it was doing some damage. >> this is one be of those situations where you think you're trying to do the right thing, trying to hold back a story that doesn't seem to be true. >> right. >> yet because of the internet, because of the way information

flows these days the story still got out. >> right. exactly. this happens in news rooms around the country. you have a story that breaks on tmz that you would never do yourself. >> it seems >> can only be seen months and years later. >> right. >> and maybe can't be seen yet. >> no, i don't think we've seen the last of this. and the justice department is still investigating the senator, and -- >> let's talk about that. that's maybe one of the keys here. he's being investigated for what? allegations about fund raising. >> well, whether or not he broke the law in reaching out on behalf of political donors, campaign donors. now, that is still being investigated. we know that the justice department is working on that. and so part of this also has to be seen within that scope of perhaps a legal strategy. >> some have said that the cuba references, the issues here are distraction from the fund raising issue. >> well, it is one way for the lawyers to sort of tell the

justice department, look, if you bring charges, these are the things we're going to bring up. i mean, you know, their point is that the entire investigation is tainted by the fact it began with this false attack, right? the smear campaign. so they're going to say, look, this shows you your investigation is tainted from the beginning. >> adam perez. thanks for joining me. >> thanks. >> i've got to fit in a break here. but on the other side of it, we're talking about the power of photos. and what happens you when think you're being shown one thing and you're being shown the exact opposite of it. this is a huge media mistake i'm going to show you after the break. [announcer] who could resist the call... ...of america's number-one puppy food brand...

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pictures can be worth thousands of words. show me a story, this week, the danger of misusing that power. let's look first at these photos. of palestinians reacting to israeli air strikes in gaza. now watch this clip from abc's "world news" and listen carefully to how diane sawyer describes these same photos. >> we take you overseas now to the rockets raining down on israel today as israel tried to shoot them out of the school. all part of the tinderbox and here an israeli family trying to salvage what they can. one woman standing speechless among the ruins. >> she meant to say palestinian family. that is a really egregious error. it happened on tuesday night's show and amazingly no one seemed to notice until wednesday night. that's when activists accused abc of distortion and bias. to me, it sounded like an honest

mistake. was the mistake in the script or in her brain? keep in mind, most of the damage this week -- and i say damage, body count and buildings affected, most of the damage has been inflicted by israel. most of the ruins, she mentioned, are in gaza. now, on thursday on "world news," sawyer apologized. >> on tuesday evening, we made a mistake and i want to put up these pictures again. during an introduction on the story on the conflict, i misidentified these powerful images. the people in these photos are palestinians in gaza in the aftermath of an air strike by israel, not israelis, as i mistakenly described them. and we want you to know we are truly sorry for the error. and as always, we'll keep you fully up to date on the ongoing conflict. >> next up here, a photo that actually needs thousands of words of context. it shows army sergeant bowe bergdahl who is recovering after five years in taliban captivity.

the photos surfaced through a pro taliban twitter account this week and people jumped to conclusions about why he's smiling while in captivity. let me take you behind the scenes here at cnn for a moment. this is a great example of journalism 101. cnn cautioned anchors not to speculate about why he's smiling in the photo. there's so much we don't know and we can't ask him. here's how erin burnett handled it. >> we don't know the context of the photo. and we don't know whether the smile you see here was natural or coerced. we'll keep showing you this picture. you can make perhaps your own judgment on what you think. >> i think the best judgment is not to make any judgment at all. and lastly, a photo from air force one, on the right, president obama joking with the mayor of dallas. on the left, texas governor rick perry very clearly not joking. the photographers were hurried in and out of the room, so all we know perry was laughing for the rest of the flight.

but his frowny face has been repurposed all over the web. check out what a texas democratic party did with the photo. they added a character grumpy cat. that's all for this televised edition of "reliable sources." i snuck a little something into the script here. i want to say thank you to the senior producer of "reliable resources." he took me under his wing when i was just a guest host last year. and he has taught me a whole, whole lot about television. he's about to start a new job here at cnn. so thank you. we'll be next week, next sunday at 11:00 eastern time. and set your dvr if you're not going to be home. check out our media coverage on cnn.com. i have news about an amazing new movie called "boyhood" at cnn.com/reliablesources. stay tuned for a news update and "state of the union" with candy crowley.

good morning, here are the big stories we're following this hour. israel is warning people in gaza that more air strikes are coming, aimed at hamas sites. the israel defense forces dropped leaflets in gaza to warn people to leave. the gaza health ministry says 168 people have died so far in the conflict. israel says today it intercepted two rockets over tel aviv fired from gaza. one rocket that hit the city severely injured an israeli teenager. actor and comedian tracy morgan is back at home after being released from a rehab hospital center. he continues to recover from a car crash that left him critically injured last month. officials say a walmart truck rear ended morgan's limo on the new jersey turnpike. the crash killed his friend and injured two others with him. morgan is suing walmart over the incident. germany and argentina have a date with destiny a few hours from now when they meet in the world cup final for the third time in history.

argentina striker messi is considered the best player in the world but germany is the clear favorite to win, especially after that 7-1 victory over the host country brazil. those are the headlines, "state of the union" with candy crowley starts right now. more children weighed on to american soil while washington idles over what to do with them. today arizona senator john mccain on stopping the kids from coming and dealing with the 52,000 who have arrived since october. >> i have seen these children and they are being treated humanely, but it cannot continue. >> and the scene at the rio grande, as viewed by one of the u.s. border guards who works it. then -- >> he's been president for five and a half years. when he's going to take responsibility for something?