yards over long island. developed by inventors elma spay and peter hewitt for the u.s. navy, it was the first pilotless plane. they had an unmanned bomb but the war ended before either of these models saw any action. i bet the inventers didn't think a century later they would make art, spy on your neighbors or deliver pizza. thanks to all of you for being part of my program this week. i will see you next week. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. hello, i'm jim chute tow in washington. reliable sources will begin in just a few moments. we have this breaking news out of iraq. the u.s. carried out a new round of airstrikes this morning. it is the third day in a row of u.s. strikes against the militant group isis, the islamic state in iraq and syria. it's aimed around the city of irbil. pentagon correspondent barbara

starr joins me live on the phone. we have anna coren live in the city of irbil. barbara, what do we know about and what u.s. war planes were targeting? >> reporter: this was the heaviest round of strikes in a five-hour period. this morning the u.s. struck five rounds, five rounds of targets in northern iraq. they went against isis trucks, armored vehicles, mortar positions, a number of strikes there. very interesting with a very heavy round of bombardment and in one case the planes, the fighter jets circled around and then came back and struck again when they saw a target not fully destroyed begin to move apparently. the pentagon is saying the strikes were carried out by both fighter jets and unmanned drones. we have seen that before. clearly continuing to take the military tact to try to be as precise as they can against these targets, use precision

weapons and be able to strike these targets even as they move. every indication this is going to go on for a while. >> the president said this operation will last months and not weeks. we have anna coren on the ground in irbil. some are stranded and some escaping. some being killed. what is the latest on the ground in terms of rescue efforts? >> reporter: we understand thousands of those yazidis who they consider to be devil worshippers have managed to get off mount sinjay and that is because of the airstrikes being conducted allowing the kurdish forces in to create a safe passage to get those people off the mountain, but we must stress there are still tens of thousands trapped on this mountain. on the south side, it is a dire situation. they cannot get out and they are trapped there. that is really where the humanitarian crisis, some are

calling it a catastrophe is unfolding. the humanitarian aid drops are happening. the united states has had three drops. the british one, the french foreign minister has arrived here in irbil to oversee the french delivering aid. it is happening. it is unfolding. it is getting to these people but then we are getting reports that there are dozens if not hundreds possibly even 1,000 yazidis who have perished over the last couple of days. they've been without food, without water, without shelter and the heat here is excruciating. so the situation is dire. we just spoke to the chief of staff of the kurdish president and he said what they're asking for is weapons. they need their forces armed with weapons from the international community. they're also calling for the united states to continue the airstrikes. they believe with the support of those airstrikes their forces can get in and push back isis, jim. >> humanitarian catastrophe for sure underway. thanks very much for barbara

starr and anna coren on the ground in irbil. back in the u.s., a bizarre and tragic incident on the racetrack. tony stewart is under investigation now for hitting and killing another driver. stewart's spokesman is calling it a tragic accident. we have the video that we have frozen just before the impact but a warning, it may be too graphic for some to watch. you may want to look away. the incident happened last night at a sprint car race in upstate new york. the three-time nascar champ clipped kevin ward jr.'s car knocking it out of the race. ward then jumped out of his car to confront stewart and that's when he was hit. the 20-year-old driver was rushed to a local hospital where unfortunately he was pronounced dead. >> this is right now being investigated as an on track crash and i don't want to infer that there are criminal charges pending.

i would only say that the investigation when it's completed, we will sit down with the district attorney and review it, but i want to make it very clear, there are no criminal charges pending at this time. this is an ongoing investigation. >> tragic moment for sure. cnn has just learned just minutes ago that tony stewart has made the decision not to race in this afternoon's nascar event at watkins glen. just a reminder to our viewers at the breaking news. more airstrikes today in northern iraq on five targets we're told by our barbara starr at the pentagon. the president said these operations will continue for months, not weeks. i'm jim scuitto. "reliable sources" starts right now on iraq and the latest events in the middle east. back in a moment. thank you, jim. it really has been a head spinning week of news. so here on "reliable sources" i'll talk with dr. sanjay gupta about the media's responsibility

to educate people on ebola without exaggerating the threat. and i'll show more of my exclusive interview with glen beck. first back to the conflicts, conflicts, plural, in the middle east. there's iraq and there's gaza and israel. we have heard dualing accusations and in recent weeks we've talked about what has been said by both sides. what about the bias that comes from what's not said. what about bias by omission? this was raised by cross fire co-host s.e. cupp. she joins me along with james ogby, the president of the arab american institute. thank you both for being here. s.e., let me start with you. you say when this conflict is covered there's sometimes a giant glaring omission so what is it? >> yeah, it's not sometimes, it's often. it's par for the course. in discussing the demands that hamas has in the negotiations with israel, most reporters omit

the fact that hamas's stated main priority, its main objective is the total destruction of israel and the annihilation of the jews. >> see, i feel admittedly i've watched a lot of cable news but i feel i've heard a lot about that charter and seen that line quoted many times. you don't think it's come through enough? >> no. i think it's something that should be said. any time you are discussing what hamas wants and most of the time you hear hamas wants a cease fire, hamas wants a palestinian state, hamas wants the blockade in gaza lifted, hamas wants its tunnels left alone. any time it is omitted that hamas wants the annihilation of the jews and the destruction of israel, that is an omission that has serious consequences. it has consequences in the political realm, it has global consequences, it's framing the story inaccurately and, again, it creates a false sense of

moral equivalency that is not there. >> you know, that's one of the -- i'm sorry. i would like to be polite, but that's one of the most bizarre arguments i've heard. let me say that if we adopted that line of argumentation, then every time we mentioned benjamin netanyahu or his coalition partners, we'd have to include pain they theically what they believe. we'd have to say in the could charter there is a total claim for the entire land of israel without palestinian present in that land of israel. we'd have to take, for example, the deputy speaker of the kineset and say he's called for genocide against palestinians, total ethnic cleansing from the gaza strip and deporting them to places unknown. >> this is part of the founding of hamas. it continues to be repeated, and to ignore it and treat hamas just as if it has a set of political demands is not fairly

setting the stage for this story. >> but the same is true about the story on the israeli side. >> show me where in the israeli charter or in the israeli -- >> look at the liquid charter. >> it calls for the destruction of all palestinians. >> no, there is no palestine that it mentions. no, actually, they say they want peace but the lequid party, as opposed to other political parties in israel, has been very clear about maintaining from the very beginning that there was no palestinian -- legitimate palestinian or indigenous native presence in that land. they were strangers, foreigners, they were to be expelled. the necessary part of the story is what is happening today? what is being done to people today? and that is what i think the press has not adequately covered. >> well, listen, your condescension aside, i'm not suggesting we need to go back thousands of years, but to omit

that -- >> i'm not saying that. the deputy speaker of the kinesent is there now. he was appointed by benjamin netanyahu. he got 1/4 of the votes. he is not an insignificant character. >> there is a desire -- >> when he talked about total genocide -- >> there is a desire in the media to create a balance in this story between hamas and israel, and it's something we've seen play out not just in this conflict but in every time we discuss these two players and the balance simply does not exist. it doesn't exist on a number of levels, both practically and existentially, and i don't know if that balance -- if the desire creates that balance is motivated by bias or simply a successful hamas pr strategy, but it's dangerous both ft. meade yeah and dangerous politically. >> let me ask you, james, about something i noticed the other day.

outside cnn there was an anti-hamas rally and it looked like an antimedia rally. the media fuels terror. i wondered what that meant. from your perspective, what could that mean, that the media fuels terror. >> even the fact that they've had people on the ground in gaza has created ire among some supporters of israel who simply don't want that story told. it's as if there's a parallel universe going on here. israel wants to devastate gaza but they don't want the story told about it. >> let me turn from this topic to iraq because by the end of the week we saw iraq dominate cable news. s.e., i wanted to ask you about what you said thursday night. you said there will be boots on the ground in iraq. why do you have that prediction? >> yeah, and i said it -- i said it over a month ago. >> right. >> when we first learned that isis was creeping into iraq and taking iraq over because there just isn't -- you know,

president obama has this -- has this desire that i think informs all of its foreign policy. that desire is not to be george w. bush. he does that until that becomes completely untenable. >> isn't he also reacting to what the american public wants though? here's the headline from the washington post on friday. iraq airstrikes will test a war-weary american public. every poll shows the same thing. this country has an awful hangover from the iraq war. >> a real -- >> yeah. it's the president's job to convey accurately and effectively to the american public and the international community the dangers and urgency, and i think actually he did a great job of this in talking about isis and the yazidis and the humanitarian urgency for at least humanitarian aid and why airstrikes might be necessary. that's his job. >> i know you've been in touch with u.s. officials about this.

what have you heard from them? >> i think they are very aware of the dangers of going forward and this is a grave step that we're talking, but it's an important step. it's a step that is saving human lives, people stranded on that mountain are facing, you know, a life and death situation and this isis group is a menace. it's not only a menace in iraq but it's a menace in syria and in the broader region. it's already having reverberations in israel. the issue is it has to be done but it has to be done carefully and in a way that can be sustained and it has to be done in a way that actually takes us from where we are to where we want to be as opposed to the rather cavalier way we got into the iraq war in the first place, which was without an end game, without an exit strategy and without clear goals that were achievable. >> james zogby, s.e. cupp, thank you both for joining me. >> thank you. >> thanks.

of course, it is the job of the press to hold this administration accountable and ask the tough questions that need to be asked about this new mission in iraq. that is, of course, something the press did not do enough of back in 2002 and 2003. i've got to fit in a break here. we have a lot more ahead for you on "reliable sources" today. ebola is a clear and present danger, but are reporters being clear in their coverage of the crisis? we will talk about how to inform without fear-mongering. that's next. when it comes to good nutrition...i'm no expert.

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if you've spent any time watching the news lately, you've surely heard some of this. >> breaking news, an ebola scare in new york city. doctors now waiting the results of tests on a man at a major manhattan hospital. chasing down ebola as reports multiply. >> breaking news on the ebola outbreak. the cdc declaring a level 1 activation of its emergency operations center. the head of the centers tore guess cease control calls the ebola outbreak an unprecedented crisis. at the same time, there's concern that fear and misinformation are making the crisis worse. one who official actually brought that up earlier this week. i can hardly think of a more important topic for "reliable sources" so let's examine the

media's responsibility with cnn's chief medical correspondent, dr. sanjay gupta. sanjay, you've been on the air seemingly nonstop. how do you inform viewers without needlessly scaring them? >> there's the two extremes. there are people who are really, really nurturing that hysteria and be very irresponsible especially on a story like this. the other side, the other extreme is people are completely dismissive of fears, very clinical, just presenting the science. as you might guess, i think the right way for television is somewhere in between, obviously making sure the science trumps it. so i think it's important to acknowledge that people who are very thoughtful, considerate people, people who have given it a lot of thought can still have fears and not to just dismiss those fears outright because i think people sort of tune out if you do that. so acknowledge the fears, maybe acknowledge where some of these fears come from. it's in our collective conscienceness through books like "hot zone" and movies like

"outbreak." and bolster it up with the science and make sure the science is actionable. here's the science and here's what it means for you. it's a teachable moment, i think, if it's done properly. >> how do you think the media has performed overall? i think sometimes the words that come out of the mouths of anchors are very responsible. sometimes the graphics, the packaging can make it seem more frightening than it should. how have you perceived the coverage so far? >> i think that's a real concern, brian, what you're saying sometimes a disconnect between what people are hearing from the people on tv and what they're reading in the banners. i think it's a disconnect, frankly, probably for all media organizations. >> yes. >> i see them all making mistakes. i see banners coming across very responsible news organizations saying ebola going to spread like wild fire in the united states. had nothing to do with even what the person was talking about. that can be a problem. i think when it comes to these medical stories, it's even more of a problem because people --

it's actionable. people read that stuff and then they have some particular opinion or they may take some action based on that. we try to have conversations with the shows ahead of time, when i'm doing segments, to make sure that doesn't happen. it's a real concern. >> let me play a clip from my friend pat kiernen. he's on new york 1. full disclosure, my wife works with him. he was doing a priceless moment of media criticism. he showed all the new york papers when there was a report of a possible patient with ebola in new york. turns out it was not a case of ebola. let's play that clip and discuss it. >> a-19 down below the fold the headline says, ebola symptoms a concern in city hospitals. let's compare this to the tabloids. ebola! ebola scare in the city! so you've got "the new york times" on the one side, the tabloids on the other.

i thought the press in general blew this way out of proportion because health officials in new york made it clear right away this was unlikely it was a case of ebola. a couple of days later we found out it was not. what do you think of this case? >> let me give you another layer of that. even before that patient went to mount sinai and we had all of that coverage, there had been six other patients tested around the country who went into their hospitals with concerns about ebola, blood samples sent to the cdc and they were all negative, but you didn't hear about them. >> ah. >> the only reason i bring that up, i think it was interesting to observe this, is that the new york hospital before the department of health came in and said, look, let's slow this down. this guy does not look like he is high risk by any means, they had already done a press story. they had put it out there. this was a situation in some ways because the hospital had started to put the message out there about this patient, the media's ears sort of perked up. we didn't hear about it.

all of a sudden the hospital is saying this. is there something more here? you know, i think that really made it take off. i will say one more thing, brian. you do such a great job about adding these layers to the stories. i find them colorful, important, something i wouldn't often hear. i think the layers to this story are really essential, really. you can't do the story without adding the layers, like in the clip you just showed. just the headline, that's a real problem. but adding one more layer over that is absolutely essential. tom freiden, cdc director, said ebola is going to come to the united states. that's the headline. the second line he says after that, but it will not cause an outbreak. >> that's the more important line there, yeah. >> you can't have the first without the second. >> dr. sanjay gupta, thanks for joining me. >> any time, brian. thank you. i need to fit in another break here. on the other side of it, my candid conversation with glen beck. he says walt disney is his role

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welcome back to "reliable sources." we will get back to our stories. first, glen beck and the future of media. i showed you glenn beck and his political views and how he says he has changed over the years. here's part 2 and it's all about the future. think of beck as the face of beck, inc. a giant business that includes his daily radio show, book, live events and a popular website. forbes says his company earned $90 million a year. beck's biggest opportunity at all is here on cable television. he is trying to do what so many other big media personalities have only dreamed of doing, that

is, to have a cable channel of his own. it's called the blaze. it has 12 hours of programming every day. you might not know about it. right now you might have the blaze on your cable lineup, but you probably don't. it's only in a fraction of the 100 million homes with cable and satellite in our country. the fact is it's very hard for independently owned channels to get carried but beck has a plan and it involves not just talk shows like the one he hosts now but scripted dramas, too. check out what he told me about where he's going. >> we're sitting here in mercury studios. this is a 72,000 square foot facility right outside of dallas. what is all this space for? >> that's what my business partners ask me when we bought it. >> this is a nice office, but not too big. you've got a studio for your show, another studio for other shows, but what's all the rest of it for? >> my focus is on culture and i

believe that we're working on a few projects that are mainstream television that are rooted in history, so to speak. >> scripted projects? >> scripted. scripted. we're working on those. working on a movie. actually, we had a couple of them that we're actually working on. one is farther in the pipeline than the other. >> when might we see the first glenn beck feature film? >> i don't know. maybe -- i don't know. i hate to speculate. maybe -- my hope is 2015, but i don't know. that could be our first. >> for scripted television as well? >> i hope 2015. >> you've been running the blaze, your cable channel here for a while now. originally the blaze started online. it was subscription only service. you had 300,000 subscribers in the first year which means you were making a lot more than you could have made at fox news.

how many subscribers do you have online? >> you'd have to ask the accountants. >> are you holding up pretty well? >> yeah. >> then you decided to get distributed on cable and satellite. people wondered maybe you feel you're not reaching enough people online. >> i think there's a difference between, you know, a million people online and 70 million households, you know? my goal is to hit as many touch points as we possibly can, and i don't know what's going to -- >> radio, tv, live events, everything? >> everything. everything. >> it seems like you're having a hard time getting on to cable. a lot of smaller providers have picked up a channel. a lot of bigger ones haven't. comcast, directv haven't. what kind of feedback are you getting when you're trying to get on to those systems? >> i'd probably let our attorneys handle that one. >> why? why? >> some are -- some are not

as -- >> one of the distribution executives said to me, the reason why we're reluctant to pick up the blaze is what happens if -- forgive me this. what happens if beck gets hit by a bus. you've been adding a lot of other programming. that's the point, you don't want it to be your channel. >> i was against gb tv from the beginning and wanted it to be the blaze. it's not about me. and they won't be saying that in -- for very long. if that's your objection, but i've heard all kinds of objections so we'll see. >> some of it political? >> i think some of it is political but -- >> but they would deny it, of course. >> of course they would. >> you've opposed the comcast/time warner cable merger. why is that? >> i'm torn on this. i'm libertarian. whatever you want to do, you do,

however, this is already a regulated business and so i'm actually for deregulation of this because nobody can go out and start their own cable company without the government being involved. >> right. >> and so because it's deregulated, making something bigger, we would still have the old rotary phone in it was just at&t, you snknow? and these companies are getting so massive that they have almost total control of a portal. you know, when i left fox my thought was can a man still have an idea and a dream and go up against the titans and still make it? so far the answer is yes, but if you can't crack the cable code without having the big -- you know, some big corporation behind you -- >> right. >> -- the answer is no. i think that's a problem in america. >> before we go, krystal ball with me, where is talk radio

going to be in ten years? is it a viable medium? >> you know what, everybody said that in 1992. it constantly evolves. talk radio on the a.m. band, i don't know the a.m. band. in europe they dropped the a.m. band from the cars in europe so i don't know what happens to that, but there is a hunger, a real hunger for talk radio, whether it's left or right. and there always will be. look at podcasts. look at podcasts, audio podcasts. that's talk radio. >> what about fox news, cnn? you have them both on here in your office. >> i think that -- i think that they're all going to change. i think television itself is going to change dramatically. >> and become more like blaze style? >> i don't know yet. i mean, we're still the vining rod ourselves. it will be -- it will be more personal. it will be more human. it will be more authentic. it will not be led by a panel of

experts from, you know, this club or that club, it will be much closer to the user. >> glenn beck, who will he be in ten years? >> i hope a much better man. >> still doing this? still hosting television shows, stage shows, writing books? >> always -- always being -- always telling a story. always trying to find the story of the day and telling it in a -- in a most effective way. >> glenn, thanks for your time. >> thank you. after we finished talking in his office there, beck gave me a tour of his headquarters, and i had to ask him one more question about the media mandate that he's modeling his company after. it's not rich limbaugh, it's not even oprah winfrey. take a look at who it is. >> did you give all of your

staffers a copy of the disney biography last year? >> yes. >> why was that? >> orson welles and walt disney influenced me. i gave it to them because i wanted them to see where i was headed. i'm not headed towards edward r. murrow, i'm headed towards walt disn disney. >> does that mean theme park? >> no. >> people associate disney with that. >> yeah, no, disney was an innovator on everything. we went to space because of walt disney. you know, walt disney brought his an him in mater that did the seven dwarfs and said i have this nazi scientist that i need you to meet, warner von bran. the year is 1954 or '55. he said, he thinks we can put a man in space. i want you to tell that story. in 1955 just before he opens the park he does -- and he starts his tv show, "disneyland," he has a special called "man in space."

the story goes that eisenhower called him up and said, walt, you son of a bitch, you did it. i've been trying to convince the people at the pentagon. i don't need that. you just did it. disney -- a world without walt disney, america without walt disney, not just the parks, is a very different place. a very different place. he affected our culture in a positive way. >> is there a reason why you talk not about rush limbaugh or other figures but about disney instead? is it an attempt to mainstream your brand? >> no, i've always been a fan of walt disney. i've studied him. >> maybe separate from disney. isn't there a separate identity to not be a conservative that is polarizing and has said stupid things in the past and set out a figure that anybody of any political persuasion might buy jeans from. >> no. let me put it this way.

i'm a conservative. i believe what i believe. always have, always will. i might change if i find a pivot point. >> kerry for the blaze in 100 million homes, won't you have to broaden out? >> let me tell you something, i don't think anybody really truly understands this. i don't really care. you know what makes -- you know what really gives somebody real power? that twitchy eye. somebody who says, i don't care. i'll lose it all. i'll start all over again. i don't care. i'm not in it for money. i'm not in it for fame. i don't care. once you really say that and really believe it, you're not afraid of anything. >> check out my story about beck's business at cnn money.com/media. next, we will get back to our top story this morning, the two crises in the middle east with a woman who has reported from every spot we're talking about, gaza, israel, iraq, syria. you name it. she is standing by in beirut right after this. ♪

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welcome back to "reliable sources." let's get back to our top stories now, the conflict in the middle east. my next guest has been a reporter on the ground throughout the region. ann bernard. she joins me this morning. you and i used to being colleagues at "the new york times." the story on the ground sometimes is very different than the story that gets reported thousands of miles away. when you were in gaza what were some of the biggest misconceptions you were seeing about what was going on in the coverage from thousands of miles away? >> the most strange thing to me was the way that the coverage itself was discussed. there seemed to be an impression that people in gaza were reporting civilian casualties because somehow hamas was making us do that, that's what hamas wanted us to do. you know, covering civilian casualties is at the core of

what we do as journalists, particularly not just casualties but covering the impact of war on ordinary people and that's part of our mission and we do that consistently on all sides in all conflicts we do around the world to the extent it's possible. >> you were the bureau chief for the "boston globe" between 2003 and 2005. there were questions whether there was an american intelligence error to not see the spread of isis into syria and iraq. do you think there was a media failure? >> i think the surprise was that it had the capability and the desire to push so far into iraq so quickly. that, of course, was aided by people on the ground in iraq making what syrians call the same mistake that they made, locals who thought maybe these guys can help us get rid of a government we don't like but are likely to find in the end that they want to get rid of this group and may not be able to. >> correct me if i'm wrong, but this feels like a singularly

difficult, almost impossible story to be covering. have you ever covered anything like it? >> no. i have to say covering syria and all the ripple effects of syria around the region is by far the most challenging thing i've had to do as a journalist because you have access problems, both on the side of the syrian government and in the insurgent held areas and you have an incredibly complex array of ripple effects throughout the region. you can't be in the country on all notes. >> i hate to end on a down node, liz sly wrote on twitter this week. let me put it on screen. it caught my eye. she said, i don't think there is anyone in the middle east now who is not, a, scared to death, b beings massively confused and c, utterly depressed. do you share those three feelings? >> i share them, and more

importantly the people who live here share them. i mean, i live here but i always can leave. the issue is people who have dedicated their lives to trying to build a life in their country here are feeling as they look around the region that there really isn't a place that looks completely safe or stable or with a clear path to the future. so i think unfortunately liz is hitting the nail on the head there. i re-tweeted her. er, i'm afraid it's true. >> anne barnard of "the new york times", thank you for joining me. >> thank you, brian. >> we'll talk about the biggest media story of the week. that is rupert mourdock dropping his bid for time warner, the parent company for cnn. one of the smartest men in the business will join me next. for up to three years... and be covered?

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so what is the future of time warner? you are watching this program on cnn, which is a channel owned by time warner. but a few weeks ago, cnn's fate and time warner's future were both thrown into question, thanks to this man, rupert murdoch. he's the chief executive of 21st century fox. the man who decided to launch fox news. some liberals loathe him. some conservatives celebrate him. he is a polarizing guy. and earlier this summer, he made an out of the blue $80 billion

bid for time warner. but the ceo quickly rebuffed him. and this week, he seemed to throw in the towel. murdoch told time warner he was walking away. what happens next? let me ask a man who has covered murdoch's career for decades. new yorker media writer extraordinaire. so do i no longer have to worry about how to digest a tabloid souffle? >> not unless you're very hungry. >> tell me where you think things go now. now that murdoch says he's backing off. >> well, i do think at some point, i suspect that time warner will be sold. they have been been a seller. they sold off aol, got rid of time warner cable. they got rid of the publications. so i think they are a potential seller. but the question is who is the buyer? i take murdoch at his word that

right now he doesn't plan to to buy it. he felt it hurt his stock, the stock price plummeted, which made it largely impossible for him to afford to raise that initial bid of $85 a share. >> at the very same time, the time warner stocks soar making it further out of reach. >> and with murdoch pulling back, the stock deflates some and murdoch's stock rises some. it's hard to imagine if he tried to make a bid again the same thing wouldn't happen and time warner would become more expensive. and therefore, he's at an impasse. but i think we're back to that same question. i believe that time warner's real game plan was they don't want to sell now. but if they sold, and i think they are prepared to sell in a year or two or three, the question is who would the bidders be? and that's a really big question. >> and all of this matters, of course, because we're talking about one of the biggest media

companies in the world. time warner not only controls cnn, hbo, warner brother studio. who might other buyers be a year, two, or three from now? >> well, you can imagine that comcast if it digests time warner cable might well want to be a buyer. whether the government would want to allow that is another question. you can imagine that at&t, if it successfully digests directv to at slight television provider might well want to buy it and have content because they're buying another platform. and then you look at, you know, cbs would love to buy it but they can't afford it. disney could afford to buy it but why would they? then you say, well, about the digital companies? well, google and amazon and apple could afford too it. why would they want to do it? they are neutral switzerland platforms where they buy content from everyone in order to display on their platform. why would they want to be

identified with a particular content provider. and therefore risk not being able to buy purchase content from other providers. >> let's wrap up where we started. is this a defeat for him. a rare defeat in his long career. should we look at it this way? >> well, it's certainly different for him. what he's done now twice in the last year and a half is listen to the shareholders, which is something he never did before. he acted arbitrarily and brilliantly in most cases. to build his successful company. but now what he said by breaking up news corp. into two different companies, he says, why did i do it? to enhance shareholder value. why did he step away from his attempted acquisition? enhance shareholder value. that's not the rupert murdoch

we've come accustomed to. >> don't be surprised if it's back in the headlines months or years down the road. and let me know what you think about this topic and the rest of today's show. send me a message on twitter or facebook. i think your feedback is constantly making our program better. up next here, an important update about american journalists imprisoned in iraq. why are they still in jail? it's the little things in life that make me smile. spending the day with my niece.

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welcome back. one final note before i say good-bye this morning. about the washington post correspondent who remains behind bars in iran. we first talked about him two weeks ago on this program after he and his wife were detained in tehran without explanation. anthony bourdain spent some time with the couple back in june. he was there taping for a future episode of "parts unknown." and he's as baffled as the rest of us are about what's going on. let me close today's program with something that bourdain wrote for the "washington post" website. this couple is dangerous to no one. they are without blame or

malice. why are they in jail? all of us await the answer to that. and all of us await their release. that's all for this televised edition of "reliable sources." you can watch us all the time on cnn.com. and set your dvr for next week's show. now stay tuned for "state of the union" with candy crowley. today -- >> clearly very ineffective to say the least. >> isis targets in iraq, we talk exclusively to senator john mccain on the threat to u.s. shores. >> the u.s. military cannot do it for him. >> the president's first national security