gencies there have been discussions of $3.5 billion arms deal between moscow and cairo including fighter jets and air defense systems. it is an apt gift. thanks to all of you for being part of my program this week. i'll see you next week. a shock to the system. let's think about it. on monday a familiar face went missing. brian williams absent from "nbc nightly news," america's most watched nightly newscast of on tuesday williams was suspended without pay for six months with no guarantee he will ever return to the chair. that same night jon stewart announced he will sign off for "the daily show," which he's been anchoring for longer than williams has been anchoring "nightly news." fans liberals felt lying they

lost a true anchor. wednesday night legendary bob simon died in a car accident on the way home from work here in manhattan. he had just finished a story that will air tonight. on thursday night my friend david carr died. david was the man who knew all these men, who covered them all, held them all to account. david helped us and helped them understand the revolutionary changes that keep coming coming coming in the media industry. david was the wisest most wired media reporter in this country. his monday column was the definition of a must read. he collapsed in the "new york times" newsroom he loved so much. david used to say, i just want to get in the boat and row. he just wanted to help cover the big stories in the world of media. today we will pick up an oar and try to row without him. i'm joined by the best person to make sense of this week's news

carl bernstein, one-half of the team that exposed watergate to the world. i wanted you to join us on set today because we've been talking about all these stories and how they are interconnected. they are different, deaths suspensions, retirement. it seems it me what connects all these stories is the word "trust." >> trust is a big part of it. also the concept of the best attainable version of the truth, which really is what good reporting, good journalism is about. if all of these people we're talking about understood including brian williams the ideal of the best attainable version of the truth, i think this week gives us a chance in all the horror an opportunity to look again at who we are, what it is we do and also maybe to throw away some of the sanctimony we've had washing over us this week. there's been too much sanctimony too much holiness about what it is we do. we should talk about that a bit, too. >> tell me what you mean by

that? >> i mean the best attainable version of the truth is an ideal. we don't meet it as often as we should. there have been failures by nbc news. not just bruin williams. we have jon stewart who understood the best attainable version of the truth. >> even though people call him a fake news anchor. >> much better than the evening news on all three networks does. maybe we'll take a look at that. what he was able to do was pick out what was really important, what was core put it up there with videotape and say, look at this america, look at this evening news you went right by this and this is what counts. we often do not understand what counts. we kowtow to the demographic. look at the evening news. let's talk about that. we've got a lot of time of the evening news is not really -- on any of the networks is not really about the news as it should be. >> what's it about then?

>> it's about satisfying a demographic. also we are all in the entertainment business. that's what i meant about sanctimony. we're all performing up here to an extent. the question is can we do the performing and look at the newspapers and entertainment. it has comics great feature writing. >> david carr was very funny. >> nothing wrong with entertainment. our core purpose, best attainable version of the truth. can we stay fixed on that have fun, be entertaining not be sanctimonious. we're not judges. we're not meant to be judiciary and pass judgment on everybody. i think it's time to lower the temperature about ourselves, look at ourselves with real introspection. this is a great way to do it. particularly because in david carr in bob simon, in "the

daily show" we have some real examples of people who understood news and what is good news let's talk about that? >> talking about blurring the lines. jon stewart would say he's just a comedian performing satire so many people thought it was more than that. so many people in my generation learned real news from it. at the same time brian williams criticized befallen by going on late night talk shows and seeming sillier than his "nightly news" job. >> many of us have been on late night talk shows and let's not forget that. the question is what is the core thing brian williams was expected to do? it was to be truth fulful. so the trust you're speaking of that has been lost is because he undermined his reputation for being truthful. that's where we've got to keep

looking at. what is it that we're about? incidentally truthfulness is not just about delivering a set of facts. it's about context. that again goes to jon stewart, goes to bob simon's reports on "60 minutes." goes to what david carr understood so well about the what the elements of good journalism are. what's the most important thing we do perhaps. again, let's look at stewart and the evening news. decide what is news. i would say stewart's agenda is a far superior one in terms of what is news than the evening news shows today. >> "60 minutes," "new york times," they all have agenda setting functions. we're going to explore that as the hour goes on. stay with me. i'm really good you're here. i want to dig a little deeper on the brian williams part. think about this for a second. an extraordinary situation, the nation's top tv news anchor sidelined and some of his past claims are getting a lot of scrutiny including one about his time with seal team six.

this is what he said in the past once on nbc and once on letterman. >> about six weeks after the bin laden raid i got a white envelope. in it was a thank you note unsigned. attached to it was a piece of fuselage the fuselage from the blown up black hawk in that courtyard. i don't know how many pieces survived. >> sent to you by one of the -- >> yeah one of my friends. >> williams also said that he promised at the time he would never speak of what he saw on that aircraft what they were carrying and who they were after. there's been no definitive trust about those claims but they are raising a lot of eyebrows in the seal team six community. nbc has not commented. don mann a former member of s.e.a.l. team six. thank you for being here. >> you're welcome. >> you've spoken to other

s.e.a.l. team members, what have they told you about the possibility of what brian williams is saying is true. >> by all accounts any s.e.a.l. member anyone in a spec ops community. it's unheard of. what brian williams is saying none of it can be true. for a reporter to be embedded with s.e.a.l. team six or any tier one unit that just doesn't happen. the objectives of s.e.a.l. team or s.e.a.l. team six or any tier one unit is to conceal our faces. the team one faces, tier one faces, their identities tactics, techniques procedures equipment they used. the last thing in the world we would want is have a reporter sitting in a helicopter embedded with one of these units. it hurt the united states in many ways. >> it's sort of hidden in plain sight these allegations. did you notice him at the time

saying this stuff? >> no i have never heard of any reports at all or any accounts of brian williams or any reporter being with s.e.a.l. team six. >> now that we have seen all these sound bites and now that we've seen they can't be backed up what would you like to hear from nbc? they are not letting brian williams really comment on these issues? >> brian williams can actually show that piece of the fuselage show that piece of the tail of the stealth helicopter bring it on the air and that would clear it up. >> since you mentioned that do you mind if i play a little bit of sound from him? i'll play the sound, this is about souvenir issue. you're describing this other allegations, that he was given as a souvenir part of the fuselage of the helicopter that crashed on the night bin laden was assassinated. tell me about what -- how could that be true? let's give him the benefit of

the doubt here. how could that be true? >> okay. s.e.a.l. went in attacked the compound got bin laden, got his bodyguards got his son. they collected all this intelligence hard drive computer information, a the loaf documents. they ran out. the helicopter that was in the courtyard, they put a grenade in it to destroy it so people can't get ahold of that technology that stealth technology. and then in the midst of all that a s.e.a.l. would have to grab a piece of that tail bring it back with him and give it as a gift there's no way in the world that would happen. that would be criminal. >> wourks it'sw, it's so striking to hear you say that. here he was making these claims repeatedly and no one really pointed it out at the time. >> there are accounts of

s.e.a.l.s in other teams giving gifts, war mementos to presidents cia directors but never a reporter. a reporter's objective is in contrast to the military. the military has to conceal all this. a reporter wants to expose everything we're trying to conceal. the story doesn't match up at all. >> don, thank you for being here. >> i want to try one suggestion here. nbc has a real obligation to publish the results of its investigation of all of these claims counterclaims, to publish in full much like "the washington post" did after it had return of pulitzer prize because it involved invented story by a journalist who was a fabulist who made up the story. it's incumbent on nbc we learned what the facts are. what we do understand at this point is brian williams clearly

was inventing some things. not necessarily on his air with regularity but in some other public appearances. nbc also apparently was aware. in the newsroom we think we're aware of this. nbc needs to address its own procedures and what it knew and when it knew about these tendencies if they existed. >> their comment for now is no comment. they say they want to get to all of it fact check it in the meantime there's this vacuum. when we come back more about this issue. words from veteran war correspondent and ask is there anything brian williams can say or do to regain his credibility? we have exclusive new research to show you on that. later we'll look at jon stewart's did he perfect you're for "the daily show." who is going to hold fox news accountable when he's gone?

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welcome back to reliable sources. carl bernstein beside me. almost everybody in the news industry has weighed in on the brian williams controversy except for brian williams. the newsman at the center of it all has yet to utter a peep since his self-imposed suspension. even as new allegations against williams are surfacing nearly every day. my sense is he's not being allowed to speak by nbc. sources at the network tell me

fact checking into his past claims is quote, nowhere near done. while there's some that think williams should get a break, a second chance others say he should not return to the chair. carl before the break, you were saying to me it's clear he invented stories that he simply didn't misremember innocently. >> i don't know what the extent of it. that's what the investigation is for. let's withhold any kind of final judgment here. let's be careful and not sanctimonious. we do need to hear from brian. i expect and hope we will. nbc news we also need to hear from, as i mentioned. >> i checked in again, no comment. >> i think it will be a while incidentally. let them put the facts together and let brian collect himself also. it's a terrible experience for any person. >> a good reminder. on a very human level this is a pretty rough story. let's bring in michael joining us at the table, former cnn war correspondent who spent decrease aids reporting from conflict zones. in iraq for years. michael, you've heard stories

brian williams has told. do they sound like tall tales to you? do they sound like something more than that? >> put it this way, it eludes my understanding to's see what it is brian williams is saying about conflation of this notion he was in a helicopter he was never in. simply put, it's like arriving on the scene of a downed chopper or arriving on the scene of a vehicle that's been destroyed by an ied roadside bomb and eventually deciding that i was in that vehicle, i was in that chopper. i just don't see how that happens. somehow or other, brian williams has committed a fraud of memory either upon himself. or worse, upon all of us. >> have you ever been in the field and found yourself wanting to take it on a step beyond what's true. is it true war correspondents understate what happens to them

rather than overstate. >> it's a hard won right of every old veteran to embellish the story as each year passes at each reunion. the bullets in the air get thicker, the enemy becomes more numerous. as i say, that's their right. but journalists, embellish men is poison. for a journalist invention is a kind of professional death. we can be sanctimonious about ourselves and our role in society and inflate our importance but i do believe that we all must be high church when it comes to these things comes to matters of integrity. we have to hold ourselves to the highest standard. a standard higher than that which we hold anyone else because what we have with the public with the viewer with the reader quite honestly is a sacred trust. and for me a betrayal of that

a breaking of that strikes at the core of what it is to be a journalist. >> i think that point about the high church separation is really right. we do have to obtain and strive for that standard. one of the things again that i think and hope will be looked at is what is the standard of news. what is it we're putting on the air? let's forget about brian williams for a moment. let's look at his show. let's look at the "today" show. let's look at the morning show we put on the air. what is news what ought to be on there. incidentally what is entertainment, fine but let's try to define what it is we do be honest about what it is we do. i think that's part of the problem. we're not honest enough about what we do. that's why i keep saying look there's an element of performance. walter cronkite knew. he had a certain delivery that

was about performance. this is part of what we do on television. and also in print, how we write. our style, one thing and another. but let's cut out the bull about what it is we do. be honest and up front about what we do. bring us down to earth and then be as you say, high church about getting there in the right way. >> tv news particularly is a lot more about theater than say, even print news is. it divorces itself or separates itself to some degree from the news itself from journalism. >> unless you read the "new york post" every day. >> there you go. >> vitriolic. >> it's not the only one, not just murdoch papers. >> a hard look at what we do and this is an occasion to do that. >> hopefully this will be an opportunity for reflection across our industry. one of the questions we they'd

to ask coming out of this to what degree do we decide what is the news and how we define that and to what degree we lead our viewers and readers and what degree we react to them will let's face it news these days is so ratings driven by necessity. it's about the matter of relationship with those ratings and that business necessity. that's also in jeopardy right now. never could trust in journalism be more important than it is now. technology accelerating at an exponential rate has forced a revolution on our soul. there's a social revolution with social media and instantaneous nature of things. >> that's how brian williams found out as it were. it was on facebook driven as it

were picked up by the fresh. now this rolling thunder that everyone is under scrutiny 24/7. >> i want to take a break. i want to talk more about nbc news and systemic issues. thank you for being here. carl stay with me. latest blow, look at all the problems in that division when we come back. con men at their own game when you think aarp, you don't know "aarp." the aarp fraud watch network helps everyone protect themselves and their families against scams and identity theft. find more real possibilities at aarp.org/possibilities. meet the world's newest energy superpower. surprised? in fact, america is now the world's number one natural gas producer... and we could soon become number one in oil. because hydraulic fracturing technology is safely recovering lots more oil and natural gas. supporting millions of new jobs. billions in tax revenue... and a new century of american energy security. the new energy superpower?

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welcome back to reliable sources. is brian williams going to be the only casualty of the swirling controversy over his misstatements? i kind of doubt it. this has become a full blown crisis in nbc news. that's what they are telling me not what i'm telling them. this news division was hurting before williams was suspended. >> the chairman and ceo of comcast brian roberts -- >> what a difference four years makes. >> best quarter we ever had. >> listen to comcast ceo briar roberts when he first acquired nbc universal. >> tell you my view on news crown jewel of comcast. >> it appears the crown jewel and other gems in the safe may

need a polish or more will the news division once famous for huntley and brinkley katie and bryant for tim and for tom, for a long time it was the envy of the tv news business, a place others wanted to work a place that was number one in every ratings race has mattered but now nbc has been struggling with a host of problems ones that predated this scandal. >> for all of you who saw ground breaker i'm sorry i didn't carry the ball over the finish line but, man i did try. >> the biggest ratings king lost ground to "good morning america." >> sorry i turned into a sob sister this morning. please forgive me. >> downfall began with messy 2012ous ouster and break up scene that was almost as painful for her as matt lauer e bosses just

finish a deal for lowery to leave the fet new york. then came to fix and guide but some losing confidence in capabilities. last fall david gregory of "meet the press" was left to meet the door after a year of waiting in what can only be described as employment purgatory. forced to announce the news of his own departure via twitter after it had already been leaked to various news outlets. more recently nbc trying to rehab dr. nancy snyderman who violated a -- >> good people make mistakes. >> factual mistakes like bowe bergdahl charged with desertion. it still hasn't happened. management mistakes. a new captain at the helm of the "today" show former espn executive jamie horowitz brought on to right the ship as general

manager. just ten years later, this. she wrote in a memo to her staff she and horowitz came to the conclusion this is not the right fit. what? yes, he was dismissed. a head spinning change that triggered new doubts how the executive confidence. not the only one with the weight of the peacock on her shoulders. also oversees two other failed assets cnbc and msnbc. they have both seen viewers turn away in droves. 2014 was cnbc's least watched year since the glory days of the anyone 90s when they were the dominant financial network. just last week msnbc had its lowest full day rating in close to a decade. parent company comcast stands to lose millions of ad revenue. meanwhile $45 million merger with time-warner cable is still pending and comcast hates distractions. >> they sure do. this weekend the news division is trying to move forward.

how can it. when a fact checking investigation is still going on and williams is still sill enand the staff is still seething. carl burnstein is with me on staff and we're with someone who faced something like this. thank you for being here this morning. >> good morning. >> your read on how nbc has handled this so far. have they done subpoenas they can purchase it's easy to second-guess seeing that litany i'm getting a rash under the sweater. it's hard to pile on after the whistle. there's lots of ways to handle these things. nbc is trying to be responsive get back to business. six-month suspension, an inquiry that continues of let's, as carl said earlier, let time elapse and see what the response is. i don't think you can overstayed pressure on these executives when every single thing they do is second guessed, third guessed, fourth guessed by the likes of us. i'm not going to contribute to

that. i do think there are unanswered questions as you and carl have been discussing. i think we will get answers. meantime hundreds of dedicated men and women coming to work and put on news programming. when you say it's a mess they are still absolutely in the news business and they are still going to cover the news tomorrow as they did last week. >> that's a great point. deborah turness, he showed in that package, her message to staff, we're not going to get through this with words. we're going to get through this with actions. we produce great journalism and that will win people back. a consulting firm nbc news is a client. headlines from a survey over the weekend, we're sharing for the first time today. many think williams actions were intentional but most don't see it as a career ending offense. most don't want to see him fired. finally, nbc news actions to suspend him was an appropriate result. i guess what i'm wondering, andrew if all that's the case that's what nbc is hearing in

research that's the case lester holt in the chair for six months as long as the audience doesn't reject him, get through all of this have lester holt stay in the chair and say good-bye to brian williams? >> theoretically yes. from what i understand there's a great deal of sentiment inside the company, including high levels in some ways hope that doesn't happen. there's a lot of goodwill towards brian. i don't think by any mean this is a way to usher him out the door with six-month delay on how the lock clicks. there's a good faith effort to see how deeply the inquiry goes and see what happens next. you guys made a big point of his not commenting. i'm sure he's not allowed to comment. i'm sure he would love to. i'm smur he's going through hell. >> i was struck by the setup piece, .9 was about ratings. it's about an institutional failure to get the ratings and it's about money. we ought to talk a little bit, i think, about money driving news values and determining, look

the morning shows are more important than those three evening newscasts. three evening newscasts are 22 1/2 minutes. how much of that 22 are news. >> 17 or 18. >> how much of the 17 or 18 is real news? >> again, i thought frankly, carl you're a friend unfair in saying they are not in the news business. they are. >> i misspoke they are stem in the news business. >> evening newscasts are rashable the degree which they continue to cover serious topics given the sea of trivialization and tabloidization of television around them. we underestimate the importance. not only is the collective audience between 20 and 25 million a night. as you carry out they carry the brand, news brand, to a large degree. also the revenues while they are not terribly profitable that's because a lot of the revenue actually supports news gathering infrastructure that the networks depend on. they are still very important.

one of the ironies of this whole affair evening newscast yet this giant outcry when anchor people -- >> i've got to fit in a break here. andrew thank you for being here. >> can i ask one quick question. >> they will give me the wrap. bring it up in a moment. jon stewart, talking about that stepping down from the anchor desk of "the daily show," leaves me to wonder who is going after fk news and cnn and what's up next for the so-called fake news man. up next. [guy] i know what you're thinking-

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sensitive bladder? try new always discreet up to 40% thinner, for superior comfort. absorbs 2x more than you may need. no wonder more women already prefer new always discreet pads over poise. visit alwaysdiscreet.com for coupons and to learn more. jon stewart's announcement he was leaving "the daily show" drew so much sadness from his fans he wondered the next day, did i die? the comedian's followers were heart broken but nobody was happier than those he targets, cnn especially fox news.

>> wonder what goes on with the other network who doesn't suspend or fire employees for backing candidates but instead goes ahead and hires the candidate thus cut out the millman. >> these people putting their job on the line for us [ bleep ] you and patriot im. >> exaggerate scope of publicist answer abuse through random unprovable anecdotes, this hand bursting through the heart of america. >> i simply would like to know as an honest and balanced news person when you're going to pull your stalinist out of your -- that was 2009 lie of the year. fox news is like a lying dynasty. oh my gosh fox has been manufacturing even their [ bleep ] manufacturing jobs. this is crazy. >> without anything as popular as fox on the left "the daily show" really filled in

sometimes, in some ways counter-weight to fox news leaves me wondering who, if anyone will step up and replace him. joining me now from sirius radio, and carl you said you think there's more real news on jon stewart show than the newscast. who would you nominate to replace him. >> i don't know. i'm not in the -- >> i think this guy here. what do you think? do you think we needed "the daily show" to hold fox media accountable. >> we need regular media to hold them accountable. i don't know why cnn doesn't go after them more. >> the idea jon stewart did only liberal oriented stuff is wrong. >> it is wrong. >> he went after left political correctness. >> i would submit to you that is liberal. liberal is not defending the party but going after all sides. >> cnn, the networks. he was hitting all around the

infield and outfield. >> took a shot at cnn. a lot of times found myself agreeing with him, the bosses did, too. that was the genius of jon stewart. >> wasn't a counter-weight to folks, didn't go for liberals. they get news from variety of sources. he went with millions of americans who identify with liberal positions but don't identify themselves. 2007 gallop poll shows 77 agree with abortion right but only 40% want to call themselves pro-choice. much the disaim same with liberals. fox news over taken dictionary definition. what jon stewart, with colbert, reach out to those who weren't necessarily news junkies, but agree with marriage equality not locking people up for smoking marijuana and use entertainment first, preachyness last to make it a fun show and that's the way you beat fox

news. >> also went to young people. that's what we talked about. deform demographics of news up there with my age and a little younger and comedy central is much lower where the networks would like to be. >> billy wilder said if you're google to tell people the truth, make it funny or they will kill you. that's an arbiter what it's supposed to be. attacking up attacking in power, a ridicule is a powerful tool of satirist to take on. this is not defending political party, to their credit. they went after democrats almost as much as republicans when they deserved it. that's in a sense why they will be missed. if they hire someone a great joke teller, a funny show lose social relevance. i want to see them be a media watchdog as well as a watchdog with the two-party system. >> we need to look at the reply tore -- rep torial manner look what

he said that the mainstream journalist forgot. a great journalist i.f. stone shut out because he was a liberal guy in the '50s and '60s. what he did was found things in print that the rest of us totally glossed over. he knew what real news was. bill maher, go after terrorism. not just about being politically correct. these guys have a function that's rep torial and more where we belong. >> we're in an age we trade information for access. they don't want to ask the question because they are afraid of losing the booking. by a comedy show you take that on you care more about the laugh than the return booking. that's why the show had so much power and fearless. >> had a lot of power. when he leaves sometime in the

summer, fall. thanks for being here. >> thank you. >> when we come back frankly something i've been dreading, discussion with anthony bourdain about the life of a man who influenced the discussion what we learned from david carr after this. no branches equals great rates. it's a fact. kind of like shopping hungry equals overshopping. you get sick you can't breathe through your nose suddenly, you're a mouth breather. a mouth breather! well, put on a breathe right strip and shut your mouth. cold medicines open your nose over time, but add a breathe right strip and pow, it opens your nose up to 38% more. so you can breathe and do the one thing you want to do sleep. add breathe right to your cold medicine shut your mouth and sleep right. breathe right. and look for the calming scent of new breathe right lavender in the sleep aisle.

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david carr was the editor of "the new york times." that's what the actual editor of the "times" said this week. in title, david was the newspaper's monday media columnist. but he was so much more than that. he was an ambassador for the "times." he was the embodiment of its values. and beyond just the "times." he was the cheerleader for good journalism and a coach for young people. and the announcer in the booth, somehow able to explain every play and decipher what is happening to the media industry. i was so lucky to have him as a

coach. jake tapper was lucky to have him as a coach, too. jake said is so well on friday -- david was a one-person journalism school. allow me to speak from the heart for a moment. my dad died 14 years ago this week. since then since then david had been the closest thing i have to a dad. here we are with our wives at my wedding last year. david was so much fun at a party, he stayed until the very end. he was more fun sober than the rest of us were drunk. and now here's the part i haven't wanted to say. david died on thursday at the age of 58 after collapsing in the newsroom at the "times." and i'm angry. not at david. i'm angry at whatever took him from us. lung cancer apparently. i'm angry because he had so much

more to tell us he had so much more to teach us. he wasn't perfect and he would be the first to say so. and somehow that made him all the more perfect. i want to tell you what he taught me because at the "times," he taught me to report with curiosity, to make phone calls and to keep calling and to be prepared for those calls to change my mind. and he taught me to write with every muscle in my body to pour it out on to the page to write with confidence to live with confidence and with joy and with humor and with passion and with heart. with david's columns, explaining the media revolution you could be a media mogul or just a 21-year-old kid trying to get your first big break. what matter who you were you knew you weren't alone. we needed him. i needed him. and earlier another friend of david's was here cnn's anthony bourdain. >> david interviewed me many years back. we bonded right away.

i think we both made it through drug addiction. so there was that shared experience right away. and i think that's a part of what made david special, also. here's a guy who had really -- as a journalist had to be a professional cynic. >> right. right. >> who was fully aware of how ugly life can be and how ugly his own behavior could be. who looked into the abyss and yet who still believed in things who really ferociously believed in things and there are many examples of this that would leap to the defense of those things he believed in. >> such an optimist really. >> and i think that's why he was such an inspiring figure to so many people. one of the reasons is that in

spite of everything this was a guy who still believed in things who was such a ferocious advocate for the things that he felt mattered. one of the things he felt mattered was the real importance of words properly used and print journalism. >> he loved "the new york times" more than anybody i know. let me play a sound bite from the documentary that he and i were in a few years ago called "page one." this was taped toward the end of the documentary's production because he had started making a joke about me as this young kid at "the new york times." here's what he said. >> can't get over the feeling that brian stelter was a robot assembled to destroy me. >> if i was a robot, i failed. not only did he -- he grew stronger really over time. i feel like he grew from the young people he surrounded himself with and who he mentored and learned from us the way we learned from him. that's something you don't always see in newspaper news

rooms. >> he was -- coming from anyone else that kind of defense of print journalism in general and the times in particular might seem quaint. but from david carr it was absolutely convincing. he could single-handedly reinvigorate and re-inspire even the most cynical person. it was just a pleasure being around him. you really kind of just -- i'm sorry. i've had words fail me. >> they've been failing me ever since thursday night. >> i guess i just wonder -- i find myself wondering what we can all learn from him as a story teller. is there a take-away for all of us from him? >> that there are things worth believing in and that words really do matter.

that there's stuff still worth believing in. maybe even that there's real good in evil in this world. >> but he was helping to guide us all throughout this turbulent time. just don't know what we're going to do without him but thanks for talking to me this morning. >> thank you. i'm honored. >> i will carry a piece of david with me for the rest of my life. and we'll be right back. [ female announcer ] we help make secure financial tomorrows a reality for over 19 million people. [ susan ] my promotion allowed me to start investing for my retirement. transamerica made it easy. [ female announcer ] everyone has a moment when tomorrow becomes real. transamerica. transform tomorrow.

tonight 60 minutes will broadcast bob simon's final story. shouldn't be his last. he was actually working on several this winter. but it is because he died in a car accident on wednesday night. he produced the story with his daughter tanya. bob was the best writer in television news. so instead of words, we end here with silence.

terror hits denmark. isis threatens u.s. troops in iraq. and a former defense secretary says president obama made mistakes in the fight against terror. this is "state of the union." >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. and good morning from washington. i'm jim accosta. following breaking news from denmark which is reeling from a terror attack. a gunman opened fire saturday at a cafe near a synagogue in copenhagen leaving two people dead. the gunman may have been inspired by the paris attacks. let's go to cnn's nic robertson who is in copenhagen.