all 18 countries was able to tackle the most financial literacy tasks. as your teens start the school year spend time making sure that in addition to reading and math they are developing the skills necessary to make sound financial decisions. according to this study, we all have a lot of work to do. thanks to all of you for being part of my program this week. i will see you next week. good morning. i'm brian salt ter. it's time for "reliable sources." we're asking what is a good question. are government officials overblowing the threat to the homeland and are media figures helping them do that. first, something we should all know more about. how radical islamic views are spread. my first guest is a radical, an extremist. he has a strong following on youtube where he posts videos of his sermons and tv appearances. he believes that islamic law known as sharia should be

implemented worldwide. british prime minister david cameron has called his views absolutely dispitchable and appalling. they've raised the terror threat to severe. i want to ask my next guest about that. his name anjam chowerdy. his rhetoric comes across like catnip. here he is on "hannity" wednesday night. let's be honest the appearances often devolve into shouting matches that involve a lot of heat but not much light. i have a lot of questions myself. he joins me from london. when you saw the video of jim foley being beheaded earlier this month, how did you react? everyone here reacted with horror. how did you react? >> beheading someone is a very gruesome and terrorizing act and i believe that that is precisely

the agenda of the islamic state, to terrorize those so that they leave muslims alone. remember that, you know sfarks they are concerned, the americans and the british committed all kinds of atrocities in the same area. >> how can you not look into the camera and not condemn the beheading of the journalist there telling the story of the people affected by the bombings in syria. >> quite honestly, i think it's absurd that you say that. people have been raped and humiliated. we have our people in america who was beaten and tortured. >> i'm talking about a specific case that has been widely publicized about a journalist who was trying to tell the story of muslims in the middle east.

>> as i say, i think this is the result of the barbarity of the -- >> you've said that again and again, but don't you understand that journalists are in a unique category. the others that are being held by isis are in a unique category. they're trying to tell the story of this population. >> actually, i think your own assessment is completely different to the muslims, you know? as far as the muslims in the region are concerned, they're not making a distinction on the one hand with civilians in military. they see the general populists have revoted for people like obama and bush who have tyranny in the area. they see the journalists as the propaganda machine of the obama administration. look at -- >> that's a crazy thing to say given that the even reason why you know about abu grave is by

american journalists. the only reason why you know about the abuses at guantanamo is because of american journalists. >> that's not true. everybody has a camera, let's face it, on their phones. >> oh, come on. >> you can see it via social media. if you're not going to allow me to finish a 12e7bs. we can have a shouting match if you prefer. allow me to finish a sentence. you invited me on to your program and what i'm trying to say to you is that people perceive that journalists in general, particularly western journalists, in a bad light. >> when you talk about propaganda, many people believe what you post on youtube is propaganda. there's been calls to sentencse censor that. how do you react? >> from the time a llah created man, they will lie about each other, use propaganda. there's a war taking place. undoubtedly demonizing the enemy, trying to undermine them, this is all part of it.

>> i think you say you do use propaganda and use it of your own. i think there's a big difference where you use a legitimate government official say and what you would say on youtube. >> what i say is that i'm willing to be, you know, if you like, questioned and to be interrogated. i think that you would never find something different from what i say publicly to what i si privately. i believe the sharia is the best form of life. i believe we'll come to america. >> i know you've said it in the last few days. it reads to me something that's preposterous but i respect that you try to get your message out however you can. what i wonder, aren't you abusing the press freedoms? >> no. i believe the allah created a right to speak. nobody said you have the right to speak.

allah gave you this. one day people are freedom fighters, the next day they are terrorists. at the end of the day what i say is we act within the boundaries of divine law. that allows me to speak and i will use every means at my disposal. now if that agrees with your principles or democracy and freedom -- >> this kind of network and this kind of conversation would not happen under the kind of environment that you would like to see exist. >> actually, no, you are wrong about that. i believe in an islamic state where we can have a decent debate and discussion. >> including independent media? there's no ichbndependent media syria. >> there's an uprising. but all accounts the christians are returning to muslim. i don't believe your own propaganda. >> when you say the yazidis have embraced islam, that's under the sword. that's happening under the threat of death.

>> actually, you know, it's not entirely true. i think there are many -- >> not entirely true. what do you mean? >> it's not entirely. because basically, look, if you look at the yazidis, those neem charge, thurp supporting nuri al maliki under the american occupation. some need to be caught and arrested. the vast majority, the women and children, the vast majority of people they can embrace islam and they can live according to allah. the people being targeted are the criminals. the people committing crimes need to be tried according to islamic law. you may not agree with that but that is the law of the land in this region now. >> let me ask you about friday's report that the u.k. has raised the level. 46 isis related videos have been taken down. have you and your videos and your material been affected by in? >> not at all. i think that, you know, i don't

pose a threat to anyone in this country. i pose an ideological and political threat. i can counter the arguments of the government and those people banging the drums of war in muslim countries, but at the end of the day, you know, i think that ultimately david cameron has lost the argument. if they're going to run rough shod over the values of the places that they're fighting for, why are british and american soldiers dying if not for the same freedoms and values which they are stifling over here for the muslim community. >> you pose no threat to the u.k. and yet wouldn't you agree that you convert people to a radical form of islam? >> you know, there's nothing a radical or moderate form of islam. a woman is either pregnant or not pregnant. if you abide by islam, you abide by the koran. anything i say does not have

islamic basis. >> so many muslims would say you are warping your religion for terrible purposes. >> i think you will find be that those people who differ with me believe in secularism, freedom. maybe they're being paid by the government to say what they say. give me a break. you're making up stuff. >> no, it's not true at all. brian, look, i've been in prop pagan dick islam and i believe most of the islams believe what's out there. muslims who are practicing around the world, in indonesia, in the middle east, you will find they say exactly the same thing. i'm not calling for leadership for individuals, i'm calling for leadership for islam. i make sure what i say accords to the koran and the prophet. >> i've been trying here to have you answer in full sentences, full statements, but i wonder why you agree to go on shows like shawn hannity's, it's a shouting match 9 whole time. both of you barely get a sentence out at a time. why do you agree to go on a show

like that? >> you know, i don't believe that there is any platform which should not be utilized to pass the message of is lamp. i know hannity is going to interrupt and he's rude to some of his guests. at the end of the day i'm trying to pass the message of islam and counter some of the arguments. if there's a platform used against the muslims, from time to time you go there. i don't mind if they insult me or insult my behavior, but at the end of the day i believe that the tloout prevail and i think you can see from the reaction on the social media that i won that debate and many people are looking at what i said and they're ignoring what shawn hannity is saying. >> you're talking about wanting the truth to prevail. here's what bothers me. when we were setting up for our video the audio engineer asked to you do what every guest does. you said 9/11, 7-7, 3/11. is this all some sort of joke?

>> if you had a sense of humor. you would have laughed. it was a sound check. you shouldn't take any of these -- >> a sense of humor? a sense of humor? >> we were setting up -- we were setting up the sound check and i said 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9/11, 7-7. making sure you can hear me isn't a big deal. it makes you look much more shallow than me if you make it a big zbleel i have nothing more to say but thank you for joining me. >> you're always welcome. what a world we live in. i've got to take a quick break after that, but let's stay on this topic and talk about how islamic extremism and isis in particular gets portrayed on television. we have a great debate coming up you've got to see right after this. special care in keeping the denture clean. dentures are very different to real teeth. they're about 10 times softer and may have surface pores where bacteria can multiply. polident is designed to clean dentures daily. its unique micro-clean formula

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welcome back to "reliable sources." a weekly look at how partisan media sometimes only shows you one side of the story. this week's story is very important. let's stipulate that the extremist group isis is a force to be reckoned with and its actions are atrocious and its beliefs are backwards. let's consider whether there is a direct threat to america that is being overstated and whether

the press is doing what it should be doing, which is challenging people in power and demanding evidence for their assertions. i think the tone of a lot of the news coverage about isis has been reflecting the government position. i mean, here's what defense secretary chuck hagel said last week. >> isol is a sophisticated and well-funded as any group that we have seen. we must prepare for -- for everything. >> when members of the news media hear that kind of rhetoric, alarm bells have to go off. beyond anything that we've seen? now there has been some solid reporting about who i capable isis is and is not, but too many talking heads on tv have picked up where hagel left off and assumed the very worse. every day there are new insinuations that the terrorists will infiltrate the united states. >> we have a flood of people coming over from south america and mexico, we don't know who they are. hey, ang --

>> wait, did you see what he did there? he dropped that mexico reference and then moved on from it. texas governor rick perry has warned about isis sneaking in through the southern border but the evidence is not there. yet, the people who say this stuff don't seem to be held accountable. on fox this week house intel committee chair mike rogers used one of the biggest weasel words there is, the word they, to warn of a threat at the northern border. >> don't forget about canada. they believe there are as many as 500 canadians fighting. you're just a car ride away from driving across that border and doing something to the united states. >> they believe? who is they? he didn't say and megan kelly didn't ask. but his claim still got picked up and repeated elsewhere. that's some red news. truth be told, there's not a lot of blue news out there about this. this is a montage from msnbc last word using msnbc dplips

last week. >> growing threat of a terrorist group isis. >> islamist murders. >> they are a clear and present danger. >> dozens of americans are potentially becoming radicalized. >> how close is the u.s. on airstrikes against isis in syria. president obama made it clear that airstrikes in syria are not imminent. he seemed at least to me frustrated that the media had gotten ahead of him, almost as if the media was pushing him to attack. so our question this morning is whether the threat to the homeland is being exaggerated. for the record, the department of homeland security came out on friday and said it's, quote, unaware of any specific credible threat to the u.s. homeland from isis. let me bring in two people who come at this issue from very different directions. josh rogan, senior correspondent for the daily beast who is covering further airstrikes against isis and nahomi wolf, author and political activist. nahomi, let me ask you about

this. you wrote, you know it's terror hype when the pentagon calls a press conference to use action movie terms such as apocalyptic. is that what you think is going on here, terror hype? >> we can't know what is true about a lot of these assertions that are being made because the news media is not verifying them or confirming them or asking for more evidence or more accountability which is their job. you just can't say there are 100 americans fighting or there are 800 british people fighting. the pentagon asked for $500 million from congress in a time of peace when there are no -- there's no war. you know, congress hasn't declared war which is what our constitution obl dwa cons stitution obl galts congre to do. >> josh, let me ask you about this mp you're interviewing sources and writing about war planning for the daily beast. have you seen evidence of a

threat from isis, not just an interest in attacking but ability to attack. >> yes. i think it's too cute for the administration to hype the isis throat on day one and then two days later come out and blame the media for hyping the isis threat, right? there is a reason that journalists all over washington have thought that the administration was preparing to strike syria, because they were preparing to strike syria. ultimately it seems they won't do it. >> you've written for the daily beast about how some of the administration is frustrated by lack of action. >> right. if they were all talk and no action, well, they field a lot of people inside their own administration. it's all true that a lot of reporters have come late to the isis story. it's also true that the administration has come late to the isis story which has been well written about for over a year. it's also true that isis benefits from hyping their own threat. they have been a huge social media campaign just for that purpose. so that's kind of a perfect

storm of interest of both us and them hyping this threat but there is some there and there. let's not -- i mean, what would they have to do to actually be a real threat? they've taken over huge parts of two countries. they have cities. billions of dollars. they're committing atrocities on youtube. let's stipulate here that beyond the rhetoric this is a persistent and serious threat that is getting more coverage as it rightly should. let's also point out here that those reporters who actually are doing the on the ground reporting are putting themselves in grave danger. james foley is the perfect example of this. there is a huge effort to verify these facts. it's extremely difficult. everyone who does this does this at the risk of their own life. >> i want you to keep in mind steve sotloff and others missing in syria. nahomi, i heard you want to jum in there. >> what i'm worried about from where i sit is that the same story and the same talking points from officials about how

brittains, australians, canadians, americans are joining this fight is identical in an echo chamber around the world. >> that's true. >> how do you know? how do we know? >> because we have extensive intelligence assets on the ground. all of these countries have cia, mi 6, turkish intelligence. there's a ton of evidence. let's also remember that the administration's declaratory policy and functional policy are two different things. they're hyping isis and the president is deciding not to confront isis in syria. it's not as if the pentagon is pushing us. >> not what i'm suggesting. >> right. >> so what's the point of the hype? the idea is the point of the hype is it's sort of a cover your butt mission by the administration. they know that americans after the death of james foley are very concerned about the isis threat. i think the bottom line here is that we have a lot of first-hand

information because people on the ground without the filter of -- >> who? who? >> you're saying youtube videos. that is not a credible source for a journalist to cite. >> we need to vet it. >> where is the video? who was it taken by? just bear with me. what we're pioneering is a connected world. everyone has cell phones. if you're saying that a major city in syria, 1/4 million people are being crucified upside down and various atrocity stories, they may be happening, but verify. there are credible people on the ground. we did this in gaza, south of israel. >> i can understand why you -- that is going on. there are 1,000 people -- >> just source the videos. source them. if you're a real journalist you can't say it's on youtube. it's a video of atrocity. >> that's a total straw man. let's take the james foley video

for example, right? that was put out by the official isis media hub and propagandid by isis. they were saying the person doing the talking wasn't the killing. it underwent through a very sort of crowd sourced method by journalists, activists, eye witnesses on the ground, a lot of vetting. >> that's good. that's great. >> exactly. i don't understand your criticism. >> i'm criticizing the major news media for not doing that vetting and leaving it to citizen journalists. >> it's imperfect, it's a mess but that's the best we can do. we need to do better and the government needs to do better. in the end we can't blame the media. >> i agree with a lot of both of what you're saying. i'm going to wrap up there. josh and nahomi, thank you for joining me. >> plesh our. thank you. let me close with one more thought. this is from the journalist curt ikenwater. isis can't hurt the u.s. in any

significant way unless americans let it, that is, unless americans give in to fear and hysteria. let me know what you think. look me up on twitter and facebook. i'd love to hear your feedback. i need to fit in another break. when we come back, we'll switch gear and look at the incredible career of joan rivers. entertainment host nancy odell joins me next. there's no reason we can't manufacture in the united states. here at timbuk2, we make more than 70,000 custom bags a year, right here in san francisco. we knew we needed to grow internationally, we also knew that it was much more complicated to deal with. i can't imagine having executed what we've executed without having citi side by side with us. their global expertise was critical to our international expansion into asia, into europe and into canada.

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joan rivers is a true entertainment television pioneer. from standup appearances on the "tonight show" in the 1960s to her own late night show in the 1980s. and, of course, her coverage of red carpets. now she's a staple on the cable channel e and even on twitter, but she was hospitalized on thursday after she stopped breathing during throat surgery in new york and since then we have seen an outpouring of support and well wishes from her

fans and tv counterparts. a little bit earlier i spoke with one of the best known tv anchors in hollywood. nancy odell. she's the co-host of entertainment tonight. once we started talking about joan, we couldn't help but laugh. najs si, thanks so much for joining me. >> thanks so much for having me. >> i'm struck by her red carpet shows. was there something she did on the carpet that was different, that was pioneering? >> i think it was pioneering in terms of the way she covered fashion. i think people were afraid to be honest about what they saw on the red carpet until joan came along. she did it in a comedy way. nowadays you've seen not only best dressed lists but you see worst dressed lists because of joan, probably, because she did it in a comedic way. somebody steps up, you want to go, oh, that's so beautiful even if it's not. >> it usually is but maybe joan brought some more honesty to the business. >> yeah, i think she brought a

little more honesty to the fashion arena on the red carpet. >> since you're so well known for your red carpet interviews as well, did she have an impact on your career? >> she had an impact as far as being a woman in this business because she broke the glass ceiling, being a woman on the "tonight show" with johnny carson and subbing for him. the same thing with being on the red carpet. obviously she does her comedy in a biting way but here me is someone 81 years old and is a little bit relevant. you know, as i would like to call it, women can have a long career. she is so busy and has her hand in so many different things in between her jewelry line, the fashion police, the book that she had coming out. she's still doing standup. it's just amazing the longevity of her career. that has certainly influenced my career as well as so many other.

>> i'm a devotee of fashion police thanks to my wife and her. longevity of her career, i heard you on cbs this morning describing her as a ground breaker. i hadn't thought of her as a ground breaker with the longevity of her career. what is the reasons for that? >> she's been able to keep herself relevant. she is on a cable network that is a young cable network. she's seeing all of these kids with the viewership that are watching e entertainment. she's doing it via what she's talking about. the fact that she is talking about fashion which is very current. that keeps her out there. i think the fact that everybody loves a wonderful comedian and that is certainly something that nobody can deny. that translates to you whether you are in your 20s or 80s. >> for sure. nancy odell, thank you for joining me. >> thanks for having me on.

>> our prayers and well wishes go out to rivers this morning. next we will turn from celebrity media to the business of media. every once in a while you have to take a 2x4 and hit the mule between the ears. that's a quote from my next guest, and that's what he wants to do to the comcast/time warner cable merger. he'll tell us why right after this. ♪ start a team. join a team. walk to end alzheimer's. visit alz.org/walk today.

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welcome back to "reliable sources." if you live in a big city like new york, i think it's safe to say you've never heard of my next guest or his television station. his name is patrick gotch and his channel is rfd tv. the r stands for rural and the channel features agricultural news and shows like national tractor pulling and cowboy church. gotch has become one of the most unusual critics of the comcast/time warner cable. it would combine the number one

and number two cable providers in this country. it's been a big week so i want to hear why his channel would be hurt if the government lets his cable companies go together. full disclosure here, my wife works for time warner cable. i always want you to know where i'm coming from when i'm talking about the merger. now let me bring in mr. gotch. he's in calgary this morning. thanks for joining me. >> thank you, sir. >> this time last sunday you were on the front page of "the new york times." my friend emily steel wrote about your concerns. she said you stirred up a dust storm about that. why is that? >> well, what's really stirred up the dust storm is comments, public comments to the fcc over the last couple of months. as you know, the comcast/time warner public comment period closed just this past week on august 25th, and out of the 75,000 comments that were made,

over 57,000 by our count were mentioned their concern for rural programming, rfd tv and rural tv. so we've just been the megaphone for that. those comments have got the attention of folks like "the new york times," wall street journal. >> what were their concerns about the merger? >> well, the concerns are is comcast hasn't been hiding their intentions with this merger even prior to the merger being approved. they've dropped rural programming, rfd tv, in two entire states, colorado and new mexico this past august. and when mr. cohen when comcast was questioned at the may 8th hearing in washington, d.c., his only answer for why they dropped rfd tv was comcast is primarily an urban clustered cable company. that really set off a firestorm not only in rural america but with a lot of rural senators and congressmen. >> you mentioned mr. cohen.

he's the chief lobbyist for comcast. he has suggested and others have suggested that you're speaking out against the merger or raising concerns about the merger so that comcast will take your channel more seriously and add it to more of its channel lineups throughout the country. is that the case? >> well, as an independent channel we always struggle with getting the attention of the big cable companies. this merger has given us a chance to raise the aware nsz of rural programming and, again, it's really the audience that's concerned and the actions of comcast that bring it about. this merger is a reminder that the industry is consolidated. a handful of companies like comcast get to decide what gets on cable. you're in 40 million homes. tell me the business implications here, what would happen if you were able to double that to, say, 80 million homes? >> well, comcast and time warner if that merger is approved, they'll control 23 of the top 25

markets. we're primarily an advertising-based channel. if we were blocked or shut out of 23 of the top 25 markets, even though there are urban markets, nielsen ratings would suffer. we won't be able to reach our full potential. for comcast to control post merger 30 million homes and for rfd tv to being blocked out of those homes, that would be a significant disadvantage forour channel. >> i know what you want to have happen but what do you think will snap there has been an era of inevitability to this merger. they certainly expect it will go through. >> and i expect it to go through, too. again, we're trying to do everything that we possibly can to raise the level of awareness. we feel that comcast while it has a responsibility, if they're going to control access to 30 million homes, they have to make sure that under served -- large under served audiences are being

addressed in this merger. even by comcast's own figures, 14% of their customer base post merger will be rural customers. we think the number is quite a bit larger than that, but even 14% of 30 million homes is almost 4.5 million homes. that's a significant audience and they want their rural channel, which is rfd tv. >> thank you so much for joining me today and sharing your point of view on this. >> thank you, sir. when we come back we will turn our attention to the middle east and this provocative question. is the media getting the gaza tory all wrong? if so, why is that? stay with us. ups is a global company, but most of our employees live in the same communities that we serve. people here know that our operations have an impact locally. we're using more natural gas vehicles than ever before. the trucks are reliable, that's good for business. but they also reduce emissions, and that's good for everyone. it makes me feel very good about the future of our company. ♪

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opinions. maddy freeman has covered israel for two decades, most recently for the associated press. for the jewish magazine tablet, he says is there anything left to say about israel and gaza. he got me thinking about how it is framed. he says there is a severe malfunction in the way journalists portray the country. i want to ask him what that is. he joins me from jerusalem. thank you for joining me. let me start with the truce this week. you wrote that you believe the events in gaza this summer will not be remembered over time as being particularly important. why is that? >> reporter: i think that if we look at what happened in gaza this summer apart from the tragic and senseless loss of life, we see another round in a war between israel and the arab world that's been going on for about a century. wasn't the first round. it wasn't the first round against hamas. it wasn't the first round in

gaza and unfortunately it won't be the last. >> is that why you say instead of calling it israeli/palestinian, it should be called israeli arab or jewish arab? >> when you frame it as israeli/palestinian, you think it is being taken place on a tiny slice with jews. the conflict between jews and arabs in this land has been going on for about a century. it started before the state of israel existed. it started before israel occupied the palestinian territories of gaza and the west bank. it started before the word palestinians was in use. implicit in the framing of this conflict israel/palestinian, the idea of the palestinian conflict is solved it will be over. i don't think there's anyone knowledgeable in this region who believes that to be true. i think the framing should be re-investigated and changed to reflect what the conflict is. >> mike, one of my take aways from your essay was also that

you feel there's not -- there's a moral equivalency applied to the situation that's not really there. am i taking that away correctly? >> i think that there's a disproportionate focus on israel. it's objectively disproportionate if you look at the staffing of the international news agencies. >> that was an important point that i think you made, there are so many journalists inner residential rus is a lem, in tell la veef as opposed to around the world. >> it's a striking -- the numbers are striking and people i think are not aware of them. when i started to work at the ap there were more than 40 full-time news staffers, ap news staffers and the palestinians is 12 million people by the way. far more than ap had covering 1.3 billion in china. more than the ap had covering all 50 countries in subsahara and africa. most importantly to my mind as someone who cares about this

region, more staff than the ap had covering all of the countries where the arab spring up risings eventually erupted. >> perhaps that's because the ap is based in new york and the united states and america has a special relationship with israel. what is the net result of that staffing situation do you think? >> the net -- the net result is objectively disproportionately focus on a country that, if you look at it with dispassionate eyes, isn't all that important beyond the emotional connection that some people feel with it. the numbers in this conflict are small if you look at it vis-a-vis the prominence that the conflict has. last year, for example, 2013, the entire death toll in the israel-palestinian conflict, staffed more than any conflict on earth. the death toll here was 42 people. 42 people, as i write in my essay is the death toll every month in the city of chicago. jerusalem, which is renowned as a city of conflict, jerusalem

was actually safer last year in terms of violent death than portland, oregon, which is one of the safest cities in america. the numbers are small. certainly syria and syria, nearly 200,000 people have died. 200,000 people is 80,000 people more than had ever died in the israel/arab conflict in the last century. the treatment of this conflict, i think, is an obsession that skews the way we understand the world. >> and you suggested it makes israel appear as the bad guy, as the enemy and, jews, as well, as a result. >> yes. the first part of the malfunction as i call it is the disproportionate staffing and focus. the second part is the content. and most international media organizations here adhere to a very strict script and the unanimity of opinion and thought among journalists here is quite striking. in this script, israel is the

aggressor and palestinians are passive victims. you almost never see real analysis of the palestinians as agents of their own fate as adults, as people making decisions about how to act in the world, the palestinians are passive victims of the party that people really care about, which is the israelis. >> thanks for joining me. >> thank you very much for having me. after a quick break here, big moves at two of the big television networks. and one of them involves chelsea clinton. i'll tell you all about it after the break. stuck in very old habits of cleaning their dentures with toothpaste, and dentures are very different than real teeth. they're about ten times softer and have surface pores where bacteria can grow and multiply. polident is specifically designed to clean dentures daily. it's unique micro-clean formula kills 99.99% of odor-causing bacteria and helps dissolve stains, cleaning it a better way than brushing with toothpaste. that's why dentists recommend using polident. for a cleaner, fresher, brighter denture everyday.

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to know you were watching tonight. look forward to being home early for some dinners again. and with gratitude for these years, i thank you, and i'll see you back here on abc news very soon. good night. >> notice how she said very soon there. sawyer's going to be working on in-depth stories and big interviews for abc. meanwhile david will take over world news tonight. and if there's any lingering doubt about her feelings for her replacements. well, listen to this voice in the new commercial for him. >> he's been right there. >> our first reporters david meuer. >> near the front lines. >> david meuer leads our coverage once again tonight with that exclusive. david? >> connecting us to each other and the events in our world that matter most. >> with meuer at "world news," it is a new era in the evening news ratings race. for many, many years, brian williams has been number one.

but lately, sawyer and meuer have been beating nbc in the all-important 25 to 54-year-old demographic. nbc says abc has gone tabloid. check out what the president of nbc news told the "new york times" this week. quote, if nbc started dumbing down and doing tabloid news, we would lose a large number of our viewers. interesting insinuation there. but it was a different quote from her that got the most attention. let me read it to you. and keep in mind here, she's only been president for one year. people in the organization from top to bottom recognized that nbc news hadn't kept up with the times. in all sorts of ways, for maybe 15 years. i think the organization had gone to sleep. gone to sleep? that definitely offended some of the people who helped nbc stay number one in the morning and the evening for most of those 15 years. nbc's "today" show, for instance, was dominant until it started losing to abc in 2012.

and top cop executives admitted to me they think a slow fade in the late 2000s. nbc news has been in need of investment and technology and digital infrastructure for a long time. she seemed to be clarifying what she said. but she also said she stood by her remarks to the times. in any case, what nbc revealed on friday might overshadow this brouhaha. here's the headline, chelsea clinton is leaving nbc news. "people" magazine notes she's looking forward to taking on mom duties. yes, clinton's three-yearlong period as a part-time special correspondent is over. her last story will be broadcast tonight on the "nightly news." her predecessor hired clinton. and it only got worse after politico reported she was being paid $600,000 a year. now, nbc won't have to deal with the ethical consequences of

potentially employing the daughter of a woman who might run for president. in fact, that was one of the first reactions to chelsea's departure on friday. here's rebecca berg of the "washington examiner." she took it as another sign that hillary is running. that's all for this televised edition of "reliable sources," but our coverage continues all the time on cnn.com. lots of great stories for you to read and watch this week. i'll see you back here next sunday at 11:00 a.m. eastern time and "state of the union" with candy crowley begins right now. weighing the options to confront aggression. both traditional and unimaginable. putin's power push in ukraine and a brutal march of isis. today britain's prime minister rings in. >> what we're facing in iraq now with isil is a greater and deeper threat to our security than we have known before. >> and the u.s. president tries