constitutional judges. every nation has some limit. thanks to all of you for being part of my program this week. i'll see you next week. >> hey, good morning. i'm brian and it's time for reliable sources. a look at the story behind the story of how news and pop culture get made. in this hour we have a preview of super survival tuesday. two top political reporters in ohio and florida are standing by for an on the ground reality check. plus a special sit down with three foreign correspondents now covering the u.s. election. what are they telling their readers and viewers back home? i'll give you a hint. words like crazy are being used. the erin andrews trial concludes

and hulk hogans get started. donald trump's rallies have become stages. they're attackiracting all kind players, supporters, opponents and people wanting to see the spectac spectacle. trump is about to speak in blomington, illinois. thousands are inside the airplane hanger and thousands of protesters outside. we're going to keep an eye on this throughout the hour as this goes on. as we look at the live pictures, let's take stock at a troubling week. we seen one trump attendee sucker punch someone. it all culminated on friday in this chaos including the arrest of a reporter there. we'll have an update on him in a few minutes. bernie sanders supporters came to the event for a planned attack. trump defended himself against criticisms he's at fault. here's what he said.

>> we should report it right because we've had no injuries at my events with thousands of people. you just don't report it that way. do what you have to do. >> in fact, people have been injured including police officers. trump's not the only one complaining about trump coverage. i have a lot of questions for our panel this morning. let's get to it. doug, let me start with you. have you seen situations like this in the past. >> i remember as a historian 1840 there use to be boos rallies. a man would pour free liquor and people would go crazy.

there's always these moments of circus-like mayhem. this really rings the 1960s bell to me. it's the idea of a racial tension of like a george wallace populous candidacy emerging and starting to be taken seriously. >> left leaning site this morning was someone will die. could that be an over statement? should the press be careful not to over state? >> i think it's possible some will die. i was at some of the george wallace rallies in florida in 1972 working for another candidate at the time and these things feel and seem alike. so i think it's possible. i think the press in some ways is come police it. >> come police it in what? >> why the television cameras stay on a donald trump rally

forever. it's like watching a car accident. you think something bad is going to happen or he's going to say something outrageous. now the end is you think something's going to happen in the crowd. >> that's going to be violent or something. >> it could be violent. it is definitely his fault in the sense that he encourages it for sure. >> let's get into that in more detail in a little bit. carl, i want to come to you. you're in laos angeles. you've been talking about trump for months as a neo fascist. i want you to tell us why. >> the word neo has a lot to do with it meaning a new kind of fascist in our culture dealing with an authoritarian point of view. i think we need to look at the

past. a kind of american fascism we haven't seen before. this goes to authoritarianism and the desire for a strong man who doesn't trust the institutions and democracy and government. we need on cable news a historical debate on what fascism was and is and how donald trump fits in the picture. it's in terms of the 20th, 21st century. that's going on in print and online but not part of our debate on cable. no interviewer as far as i know

has asked donald trump what is fascism, mr. trump, how are you different from the fascist message? >> i think he's a neo fascist in the sense of his appeal and methodology that has to do with authoritariani authoritarianism, excitement which we're seeing now and again, i think it's a term i've never used to describe a living american politician. but i think you have to be very careful with this term and put it into some real connection that's not to say some of the things or many of the things he says about political correctness or anything else are true and he doesn't have real ideas. i'm saying we need press need to look at this as a moment to look at history and how does donald trump have a debate about how he fits into the context of fascism

or doesn't. but a new american kind of fascism that does not deny the real act were and grieve enss many, many americans feel. >> last night you tweeted you think the media is in freak out mode. do you think something like this is part of the freak out? >> i think one of the things is how they've handled the situation and made it so that they, they were freaking out months ago and it made people tune out what they were saying. it's not just how to media talked about donald trump but how they talked about republicans or conservatives going back decades and they like to blame them for any type of how we saw with sarah palin when she was blamed for a shooting in arizona and people in turn tend to discredit what the media is saying. so now we have a situation where

we do have a demagogue or someone engaged in some pretty scary rhetoric and how he talks about things at his protests but i think the media discredited themselves in how they've treated one side of the argument leading up to this. what's important now is everyone should calm down, be accurate in how they report things and stop covering donald trump like a celebrity and cover them like a politician. this will be hard for cable media to do. >> last night, i think fox news and msnbc were showing trump live when talking about the man who rushed the stage. it was a scary moment. a protester jumped the barricade and tried to rush the stage. trump claiming this person had ties to isis. there's no evident of that at all. i hate saying it. i don't want to use those words on air because i don't want anyone at home to believe it.

how forceful should the press be to cut him off to correct it or verify it? steve, let me go to you first on this. >> he was one of my friends and idols. i think having a big debate object neo fascism not only insults the people who insult trump but doesn't do the reporting carl is famous for. the way to deal with trump is to deal with the facts. when he says it's happening and he's making it up as you just pointed out, the press has an obligation to say that. what i mean is that if i say right now it happens to be

snowing outside when in fact it is sunny and 60 degrees, you can't give false equivalency to that argument. you can't put my side of the story on and your side of the story about what the weather is. when trump says he's got 98% approval from trump university, when he says his water accompany still exist, when he says that guy had a tie to isis, he's making stuff up. the way to deal with a demagogue is cut through and do real reporting resentlessly about how he's deceiving the very people. >> this is where he makes an important point. because trust is the media and eroded, every website looks the same. chuck todd challenging

repeatedly said we luked it up and trump's quote said all i know is what's on the internet. that's scary because all websites are not created equally. >> ultimately, we have to rely on the american people to cut through that. the press gave this guy a free pass for months. the only story was how well he's doing in the polls and how many people are showing up to his rallies. not that he's making up things and trump university was a scam and not that everything else was a scam. the obligation of the press is to call a spade a spade and not give false equivalency to the arguments. >> let me go to carl and have him respond. >> i agree with steve about what we need to be reporting on in terms of whether trump's statements are truthful or not. my point about fascism is this is a teachable moment about history. we also need report about history so there's a context.

i think molly wrote a piece or a tweet about the fact so few people in this country know what the issues were about why the civil war was fought. i would say that look, truth has an awful lot to do with what we're witnessing now. we need truth about what all of the candidates are saying. we need not just fact checking but real investigative reporting on all of the major candidates in both parties and we need a context that has to do with the history. should we be looking at this dancy in terms of what presidents exist and don't exist

and what authoritarian message nativist, bigged and wrecklessness with the facts that appeal as well as to sometimes appeal to good sense. >> i want to keep it all going after a quick break here. we heard donald trump earlier this week say that islam hates us. we have a young muslim american journalist standing by to respond. that and much more. stay tuned.

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welcome back. looking live at a trump rally in illinois. he's expected to speak any minute. as we look at these live pictures, we're going to keep an eye on this. trump was speaking earlier this morning. he said he's looking into how to pay for the legal bills of the protesters of the trump supporter who sucker punched a protester earlier this week. a saw a lot of reactions online to this. trump is encouraging this violence. it's a far cry from the mid-2000's when republican politicians were confronted

acknowledging their descent not offering to pay for legal bills. let's bring the camera back in here. carl, you were making a point for doug to comment on. >> yes. fascism is a real strain. >> define it for us briefly. his viewers don't have a good definition of the word. >> hard right authoritarian belief you need somebody that's going to be an ironclad leader. it's something more. it's spectacle. people watching this rally today want to see somebody ejected. they want to see the kir suss in

town. >> do we have an option not to run these pictures. cnn went to tape at 8:00 and the other networks had the rally. >> you have a problem coming up in four or five minutes which is your control room and your boss have struggled with the problem that a ton of your audience when he starts talking is going to stay wow, you let him talk. zblp he is the front runner. we should let him speak. what's the argument against? >> letting him speak live all the time as opposed to letting a governor kasich speak or secretary clinton speak. you saw me grin when you heard me say trump offered to pay the legal bills and the people involved in that. the reason i grinned was trump was notorious in saying his own

legal bills all across the country. there are law firms that laughed at that. >> do you think trump should be allowed to call into shows? this morning he was on camera. often times he calls in. cbs this morning has a policy against him calling in. those are the exceptions to the rule. what do you think? >> this is a tricky issue. the reason people are allowing trump to call in is because people are enjoying this show. it's good for everybody's bottom line. we can take advantage of the situation and we have more than enough time to coffver trump. even right now we're talking all about donald trump. mostly why this protest thing is happening is because of another group. there were organized protest.

people attempted to shut down the speech. good reporters have talked about how the protest changed the nature of the donald trump rallies and how he's incorporated a routine dealing with protesters. they wrote about it back in december. it's been going on for quiet sometime. we need to look at both sides. it's interesting bernie sanders supporters are protesting trump and not hillary. they said they're trying to shut down speech. both sides have scary things people should be thinking about i. >> not letting the government enfringe on my speaking rights.

>> in terms of what's fair and unethical, i want to say this narrowly. this does not excuse mr. trump from exciting violence. i do think that if trump supporters by the dozens or hundreds planted themselves at a hillary clinton rally or bernie sanders rally and stood up and disrupted it and that was the intent that the press could cover that differently. >> i think you're right. we talked how the folks on the screen make more money than the average american. although, doug lives in austin and molly is out at an arbor

michigan this morning. >> we could bring in more people from the media from elsewhere in the country to the discussion. more importantly, this question of protesting, these protesters are wrong to try and shut down a legitimate political exercise. the idea of shutting down speech is wrong. even though trump is inciting in his words. there has to be restraint on the part of the protesters. part of the problem that we have here is the methodology of

incitement. some of this is purposeful in donald trump's words and we now have an intersection of celebrity culture and neo fascism. it is crew anemic, dangerous and we need to be covering the phenomen phenomena itself as well as testing each and every one of these candidates past, records, what they're saying and no more free air time we give to one candidate and we don't give to the others. that's how this candidacy has been so powerful is being of the free air time. we've got to ask yourselves serious questions about the rallies to steve's point. have a video camera there.

we don't have to be live. we don't need to be covering something with the expectation that somebody's going to throw a punch. that's not really real news. if it happens we'll be there. >> it reminds me a bit of the coverage of baltimore and ferguson and locations where there may or may not be unrest. i see some cable channels not shoeg lye. we could talk all morning long but i've got to leave it there. coming up after the break, we'll continue this conversation looking ahead to super tuesday. two of the smartest political reporters in florida and ohio join me for an on the ground look. stay tuned. we'll be right back. so come try the largest variety of lobster dishes of the year, like lobster lover's dream or new dueling lobster tails. it's a party on every plate, and you're invited. so come in while it lasts.

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s what does that tell you? >> the survival to that. early on they need to win her respected home state florida and ohio. no chance of stopping trump from the g.o.p. nominee. that's the national media narrative. what's happening at the local level? let's bring in two top political reporters in florida and ohio. the tampa bay times and cleveland.com and dealer. let me start with you, adam. is that correct? this is their last chance tuesday is make or break? >> yeah, absolutely.

florida is a must win state. >> and yet it doesn't look close at all in your state, does it? >> there's so many polls. an absurd number of polls. worst case rubio down 23 or so. >> now, we're seeing in ohio a much closer race achlt new poll showing kasich ahead. >> yeah, that's correct. john kasich six points up. the polls have been a little bit all over the place too. i've seen polls that show john up six and kasich up six. >> talking about the polls. i'm curious how much stock went into the polls. last week, 538 said if bernie

sanders defeated hillary in michigan it would be among the great polling in history. sanders did win and they're in a lot of embarrassment for the people to focus on polls. how much stock do you put in them when you're writing your stories there? >> i tried to put in less and less. we certainly took notice of what happened in michigan. i think there's a better history of polling. still, there's so many. if the average of 10 polls suggests rubio's down that's grim for marco rubio. >> let me ask you about the situation in ohio. are you finding the tv adds are just as overwhelming and saturating the markets or is donald trump's strategy changing the game? >> well, it's wall to wall tv

adds. this morning i don't think i saw a nonpolitical add among them. he's not only doing earned media, he's doing paid media here. the voters are being innovated. have either of you found that at a trump rally, it feels different than other candidate's rallies? >> oh, it is night and day. absolutely night and day. both sides hearing your prior people on there. people are interrupting or disrupting every two minutes. it's constant. there's that element and also

just the charge and the vibe it does feel more like a mob than a rally in many cases. >> it must be hard for trump on stage getting his speech out getting interrupted all the time. have you found the same thing in ohio? >> yeah, the trump rallies here are kind of a major event. one thing trump does is turns his crowd against the media. he'll get the supporters to turn around and start booing. he always complains that the media doesn't show the large crowds of rallies. all i see on twitter is people tweeting out the pictures of the large crowds. it's been a mob mentally. not to the point we've felt in danger but he's clearly using the media as a foil and using them to get the supporters to buy into what he's selling even

more. >> last night he referred to lying and thieving reporters. not sure what the reporters are stealing but i thought that was interesting. thank you both for being here. >> thank you. quick reminder here, that final town hall before tuesday's primaries starts at 8:00 p.m. here on cnn. you're going to want to see what we have next. a special sit down for their view on covering the election. including this observation from one of them. donald trump's campaign strategy may be accompanied by campaign strategist around the world.

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time for a global view literally. taking a look at the newspapers and magazine covers france calls donald trump an american nightmare. of course, we can access all this on line now days. all media is local and global. is it portrayed as a comedy or tragedy? let's bring in three top

correspondents that are now covering the candidates in this u.s. primary. ruth, let me start with you. what word or sentence do you use to describe to your audience at home what the heck is happening in this amazing election? >> well, i mean, i'm not sure i would use the census but i think audiences at home see this as enterta entertaining. >> entertaining, yeah. >> bare knuckle brawl about the most important job in the world. for your viewers around the world, the question they ask us, what does this mean for us? everybody around the world is, of course, watching this election with a lot of interest and in some cases a bit of

anxiety. >> what about you? what about your audience in france? >> crazy. that's what we do each do and we're trying to describe what's happening. its crazy and people in france and europe are very concerned about this american presidential election. >> let me drill down on the word they tho ruth chose, entertaining. has this been fun to cover? >> it has. everybody, also was a television show and entertainer and now looking like he could be the front runner and potentially the next president of the united

states. >> is it different to be covering elections than it was 10 years ago because of the rise of the internet and the idea everybody can read everything from every country in the world? >> it has changed tremendously. >> i was based in the middle east and covering that region. in a way that sort of the combat support that we're watching unfold here in the presidential election is something we're more familiar with in the middle east. this is here a very vibrant democracy. >> you covered the spring and many other stories. do you find it disorienting this republican campaign is really about petty insults in many ways? >> it is quiet astonishing that donald trump managed to make reference to his append aj in presidential debate. arguably the most powerful position in the world. that does sometimes you stop and

just kind of less slightly astounded leading to the action. did he just say that? >> is it that unusual? did you see any unparallels between the u. s. and france politics. >> i think what's happening in the u.s. is going to be huge consequences in the french life in the politic and system. we know for instance, the french presidential election people are watching closely. watching the way those candidates in the united states are doing a new form of campaigning. >> kim, before we go, you covered regimes in the past, do you when you hear rhetoric and

television coverage that describes trump as an authoritarian figure and strong man, comparisons to hitler this week, does that ring differently to you as someone whose covered the middle east before? >> look, we have had our fair share of authoritarian rulers in the middle east and the region is paying the consequences with, you know, with a very high cost. there is no way to compare continents and countries. we're in a vibrant democracy. it doesn't compare at all. what it does do is raise concern about potential issues down the road when it comes to access to press conferences for even american reporters. there are no fair comparisons to be made here. you can do them about ted cruz bringing up god quiet a bit on his campaign trail. a lot of politicians in the middle east do that repeatedly.

when i watch the debates between republican candidates there's a lot of insults hurling and a lot of unintelligible screaming going on and reminds me in fights politicians have on stage and the only difference is in lebanon by the end they're throwing chairs at each other. that's not the case in the united states. people are watching from around the world and want to know how the results of this election is going to impact their lives and that's the question that resinates with all of them. what does this mean for us? >> thank you for being here. >> thank you. >> thanks, brian. thanks for having us. >> up next on the program, something you'll see nowhere else on tv today, a muslim american reporter encountering her experiences at a political rally. stay with us. but i only had a salad. it was a buffalo chicken salad.

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cbs reporter arrested at trump's chaotic rally in chicago, now out, getting back to work later today. michelle fields, you see her here, is hiring an attorney, roughed up by someone, possibly trump's campaign manager, earlier in the week. the campaign denied that the campaign manager was involved and suggested she made it all up. cornell brooks tweeted out about the arrest this morning. if an indian member of press is at risk, how safe are other people of color, using the #trumprally there. most journalists are not being manhandled or mistrusted at trump events or any other campaign events but a strain of tolerance shows up amongst some people at these rallies.

joining me now from texas. thank you for being here. >> this tinder box of anger we're seeing is not new entirely. in 2014, you wrote something, a recounting of your experience, trying to cover a texas gop state rally. people referred to you as you people or you muslims. some looked at me and frown order shook their heads as i walked through the halls. how does that relate to what you're seeing on the campaign trail in 2016? >> i think what happened to me in 2014 at the texas gop convention directly predicate what had we're seeing now. i think it was something -- i think that what we're seeing now with the gop party, level of intolerance, has built up over time and could have been prevented, had there been steps to make reform within the party. >> but you say gop as a whole. you mean the entire gop is

intolerant or are you painting with too broad of a brush? >> i wouldn't say i'm painting with too broad of a brush? not all people in the gop have a level of intolerance. what we've seen in the past few years is a party shift where there's been increasing intolerance with more of the representatives being outspokenly intolerant. >> do you find a lack of diversity in media, in television, or in other newsrooms has contributed to a lack of understanding about what's going on in the country? i ask that. i know you're a young broadcast journalist, trying to break into the business, also pursuing a law degree. >> absolutely. absolutely. and that's something that i, from the very beginning, whenever i started out in journalism, something i began talking about within my own newsroom, when i was a student at ut arlington. it's something that i have been

very vocal about. specifically broadcast journalism. what we're not seeing america really. we're not seeing how diverse this country is. we're not seeing as many different groups of people. right now i know of two veiled muslim women in broadcast journalism and i feel like it's not necessarily due to a lack of acceptance, but i think that it's really important that muslim americans really get out there and like really show their presence in the media because we are, you know, an integral part of the fabric that makes america what it is today. in order for that to be properly represented, we need to be out there, in the media. we need to be showing what the average muslim american really looks like. >> thank you so much for being here, and saying that this morning. i was in your state earlier in the week in austin for south by

southwest. you see the diversity of new media when you're at a conference like that. it needs to be reflected across the media landscape. we touched on that in last week's show and i'm glad we could mention that. erin andrews trial ends. i'll fill you in on what happened. what it all means for the hulk hogan trial next. ed to relieve both itchy, watery eyes and congestion. no other nasal allergy spray can say that. when we breathe in allergens our bodies react by over producing six key inflammatory substances that cause our symptoms. most allergy pills only control one substance. flonase controls six. and six is greater than one. complete allergy relief or incomplete. let your eyes decide. flonase. 6>1 changes everything.

before we go this morning, news worthiness. erin andrews won in a trial against the stalker who videotaped her and against the hotel where she was staying at the time. it highlighted the safety concerns that female sports concerns and others, who travel for work, face. a sportscaster getting dressed

in her hotel room isn't newsworthy. but what about a professional wrestler getting it on with his best friend's wife? claiming it was newsworthy because hogan has talked so openly about his sexual exploits in interviews and talk shows. he says it was a blatant violation of his privacy. the trial got start this had week. it's been bruising for gawker so far. this is what gawker founder told me last summer. >> i am glad that the decisions that are taken on publishing, taken at the time and i'm glad that we only really look at whether the story is both true and interesting. this story was true and interesting and would absolutely publish it again in a heartbeat. >> denton will take the stand

this week. don't miss daily coverage of the trial at cnn.com/media. we'll see you next time this week. for reliable sources. "state of the union" is starting right now. out of control. donald trump cancels his rally as protesters descend and violence erupts. >> a planned attack just came out of nowhere. a disgrace, if you want to know the truth. >> has campaign 2016 reached a boiling point? donald trump will be here in moments. but will any of this violence change the race? >> it's called chaos. it's called anarchy, and that's what we're careening towards in