my favorite here in new york is literacy partners, go to cnn.com/fareed for a link to it and some nationwide institutions, including the late former first lady's organization, the barb bra bush foundation for family literacy. thanks to alps of you for being part of my program this week, i'll see you next week. \s. this is or weekly look at the story behind the story and how the news gets made. ahead this house "new yorker" ed tore david rem nick is here. and comey is not the only one on a media blitz. michael avenatti is here. he says sean hannity should be worried, and i'll ask him why. there's a rebellion at the "the denver post "and there's an

unlikely ally coming to its defense. third-race reporter flungies, is there no end to the commander in chief's name-calling? president trump is putting the bully in bully pulpit. he's on the attack this weekend, seemingly supporting calls for a justice department probes into his opponent, but of all the tweets, up to hone in on one. this is think bold-faced lie about maggie haberman. it says michael cohen could flip. now, trump took exception to some of the quotes in the story. the quotes saying that he treated cohen like garbage. so i guess now he's treating hmm a haberman a flungie. that tweet is wrong in at least four different ways. he didn't even spell her name right.

he called her a third-rate reporter, heck, she just would not a pulitzer, next weekend another award at the correspondents' dinner, showing a deep understanding of what makes president trump tick. that's what makes this tweet a lie. you know, sometimes covering the president is difficult to determine what is actually a lie, but this one is crystal clear. trump said, quote, i don't speak to her, appeared i have nothing to do with her. here they are in the oval office together. haberman has interviewed trump on the record more than a dozen times. by the way, she doubles as a political analyst here at cnn. i know she takes these attacks in stride, but i don't want to. lying is disrespectful. it's not disrespectful to haberman or the journalists, but to the public. we know he delivers talking points to the base, but it's also disrespectful. is he really -- does he really

think that had is believers, his supporters are going to believe this lie? you know, when there's photographic proof to the contrary? it is disrespectful to his fans, to his twitter followers to post this kind of stuff. we haven't even gotten to the tweet about chuck todd. so what do you do about a will bully? , joining muss a truly all-star panel. john avalon, ed fessenfall and sarah ellison. there's lots for us to dig in on this hour, including the news about sean hannity and michael cohen. let's save that for later. let's start with bullies. the ump calling chuck todd sleepy eyes and calling nbc fake news. we have heard it all before, but this is bullying bied president of the united states. i think it deserves to be the later story. >> you're damn right.

president trump is proud about putting "bully" bat in the bully pulpit, but it didminishing the presidency. we have 44 other presidents to compare him to. nothing look this has happened. even the comey memos this week. we know he talked about jailing journalists in the oval office. that doesn't even rise to the level of our story cache, because it seems part of a theme. it is, but it's dangerous, it dumbs us down, and it really shows the extent to which he's part of a piece of replied cal leaders who attack the press as a matter of principle. that's usually seen in autocrass, not the united states of america. >> this is one of those words versus actions issue, the president talking about it with comey more than a year ago, now it's revealed in the comey

memos. do some look at that and say he's talking about it, not actually doing it, so is it a big deal? >> i don't think most journalists do say that. i think a lot of journalists even recognized under the obama administration that that was not an administration particularly press friendly, but they attacks -- he's always opposed the press, alternates a talking point for him. his fans like to hate the press. the effect of that, though, is that it's very fertile. steve bannon has talked about this. as soon as you have people not believing what's in the press, then you open a whole other avenue for you to deliver a different message, one that is entirely whatever it is you say is the truth. >> an alternative reality. >> and i think this is alternative facts, we're all sort of familiar with this, but it's the public opinion of the press really does lead the way, i think in some ways for a

greater kind of legal action against journalists. i think people will be more primed for that kind of activity. >> you're saying it softens the ground for future action. >> i think it could. >> ed? >> i think it eddos something john mccain has been saying, sarah is certainly right, we can worry about what happens in our own country, but this empowers -- this kind of talk empowers repressive regimes around the world that are already jailing journalist, there are already two in jail in myanmar that led to a pulitzer price. >> you have ted cruz this week praising president trump on the pages of the "time" 100. ted cruz who was attacked by the president, and yen he turned around, praised him lovingingly. if he's going to turn around and

do that's an example of maybe bullying working. >> loving up your opponents that you fought officially, is a time honored tradition, though i think this one went further. >> kudos for you guys to get him to write it. >> this is more pending fences that stockholm syndrome. people saying things in private totally contrary to what they're saying in public much of the time. the press and the president will be in tension, that's time honored, but there's a problem that goes well beyond partisanship, that too many republicans will only acknowledge in publrivate, beca in public they're afraid of angering their base. leaders around the world, assad, erdogan youths it, putin uses it, the legitimacy of the american president helps to mainstream that. let's talking about some of the administration's sloppyness

and why this matters. accuracy is part of the job for doctors, for engineers, for reporters, for lots of people. every time i make a mistake, i have to run a correction, i am mortified, but it doesn't seem to be true for the white house. the spelling mistakes are infamous. shady comey misspelled on twitter, also factual errors, the president went to key west on thursday, then on saturday he said i had a great time there yesterday, he meant two days ago, we could go on and on, special counsel spelled the wrong way. all of these examples of the errors that he shares on twitter. i think it trickles down to the staff as well. i thought the most embarrassing was in a statement on the occasion of barbara bush's passing, the date was wrong. i would have been happy to proofread or fax check it for them. i wonder what the -- i know this

is not the most important issue, but i think it's important, if you can't get the small stuff right, can you get the big stuff right. does this matter at all? >> i think it's more of a reflection of the way this white house operates, which among other things is seat of the pants fashion we all know from being part of news organizations, you make the most errors when you're flying off on dead likes or, you know, there's not an orderly process. i think that's more of what this is an indication of than a critical national issue. >> does it matter, john? >> of course it does. tone comes from the top. that's the key thing in any organization. if the president has an untidy mind, isn't paying attention to details or pesky things like facts, it flows through the organization. it's worth assuming that the president of the united states should be held to at least the

same standard of a cub reporter. if we let him off the hook there, i think that's a sign of a slippery slope. i wonder if this is exactly what his base would mock, they would maybe see this as sort of authenticity. obviously he's doing his own tweets, he's not getting someone to manage -- >> some people suggests that he makes errors on purpose, in order to appeal to ordinary folks who -- >> see, i can just -- >> maybe he's trying -- >> maybe it works for him. obviously those kinds of things work for him in a way that doesn't resonate with this panel, but i think there could be a deliberate effort to do that or it's just something that shows hey, i'm busy, so what if i have a misspelling or two? >> i think we should all be more concerned with the facts than the spelling. >> and the issue with the tweet this morning about chuck todd talking about due nuclearization, there's a real question whether that is accurate or not, what the north

koreans mean is very different from what the americans mean. even though it's on twitter, and just a tweet -- >> precision matters in policy. governs is not the same as grandstanding. every tweet we know is an official statement. >> he's issuing policy on twitter so what he does on twitter is not just a tweet. it's his organ of communication. misspellings shouldn't be there, but it is something that's kind of important. quick break here. more from the page later this hour. right after the break, david remnick, he interviewed comey and noel we'll talk to him about the book tour. we'll be right back. investing strategies, and a dedicated advisor to help you grow and protect your wealth. fidelity wealth management. yobut life can throw them off bibalance.f bacteria, wealth.

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welcome back to "reliable sources." james comey's book tour continues for several more days. he's crisscrossing the country, talking about his new book. it will debut at number one on all the best-seller lists, but it's also stoke a lot of controversy, with some saying he oversold parts of the book, some saying that this is overblown. i do think one of the big revelations came from the memos that were released earlier in the week. we see in the memos that president trump and comey sharing a common enemy --

leakers. leakers to journalists. let's put on the screen what the memo says, talking about jailing journalists. comey says -- i said something about the value of put a head on a bike as a message. then he quotes the president. they spend a couple days in jail, make a new friend, and they're really to talk. comey says he laughed as he walked to the door. dame remnick is here, editor of "the new yorker form" the illulgz is to prison reign, prison veal iniolence. but to see the head of the fbi recountings his conversation with the president of the united states, to hear the head of the fbi, and then the president of the united states talking about the press in such terrence,

whatever our faults, that is highly alarming. by the way, the president of the united states talks about these terms in plain sight in public. he refers to us as enemies of the people, which is a term out of the french revolution and this from josef stalin. >> there are comments he made in public, if he made them in private it would be a huge scandal, but because it's on twitter, people shrug. >> this president hides in plain sight. hides in plain sight. for the most part the ugliness that's displayed in private is displayed at the lectern and in public. >> i remember you said early on, this is an emergency, the president is unfit for any office, about you do you worry you're not persuading anybody, given that we haven't seen any movement in the polls? >> i don't think my job, brian, is to persuade this one or that one. my job and my colleagues' job

and your job, is to tell the truth as you know it, with depth and rigor in reporting, and with integrity, no matter how it cuts. i can't think about this percentage of people believes x. we know the reason for this. people have honest disagreements of opinion and also people live in their silos and filter bubbles because of the nature of the media today. >> you're saying your job is to describe as accurately as possible. >> reality as we best can discern it. >> you interviewed him on stage at a town hall. a new yorker radio podcast. have we learned much of comey through this book? >> there's facts and then there's my emotional read of james comey. i think the facts are out there. so let me go to the latter. i got the sense that james comey's own sense of righteousness and what he

thought was right, he was making decisions in real time, really difficult decisions that had bad options and worse options. now, i disagree with a number of things he did. i think what he said -- it was not his job to talk about the sloppyness or non-sloppyness of hillary clinton. his is it job was to prosecute or not. the next time on october 28th when he decided he had to reopen the investigation because of the anthony weiner's e-mails, that was an absurdity. that got cleared up in a few days. they went through the e-mails and saw these all duplicative. he feels horrible about it -- >> he doesn't say that explicitly, no.

>> but it's very evident to anybody you talk -- and you read the book carefully, he feels an enormous weight of conscience, as opposed to donald trump who never feels a sense of conscience about anything. they're very different characters. i think that's why there's a huge disconnect between the two of them. you may loathe what comey decided on one thing or another, but i think in his own terms, he sees himself as a man of conscience. it's hard to read otherwise in that book. even though you may disagree enormously and blame him for a lot of what we're living through now. and so many critics, as you're alluding to, the president talking about jail time for comey, again an example of hiding in plain sight that's absolutely shocking. you mentioned orbonne. for those who don't know. >> the eselected leader, and has

become an avatar of ill-liberalism as fareed zakaria would put it, he's a real warning to us americans. >> but in hungary, the government has taken over the newspapers and -- >> the leader of turkey is elected. he's doing the same thing. >> there was a rally with tens of thousands of hungarians protesting the control of media, so you're seeing people rising up against this man. >> look, you're seeing this pattern all over the world, elected leaders becoming semithor terrence and resistance from the press, civic institutions, the courts, sometimes let furthers. that's the dynamic everywhere, include the united states. we put together a bit of your coverage, some of the critiques that comes through

these covers. the question i request is, how do you find time and make space for stories other than trump, other than the administration? you defeated time and energy to ronan farrow's investigation of harvey weinstein. he shared the pulitzer price for public service. how do you make sure those get ample time and space. >> thank got there's other things in life than donald trump, good and ill. we publish stories about all kinds of things, and ronan farrow, and his colleagues at the times -- our colleagues at the times, won for really brave reporting, but i should say the bravery there, the real bravery there is of sources. the women who came forward and spoke the truth. so susan shearer is writing about factory workers at a ford factory plant. that's an unbelievable act of

bravely to go on the record, an actress lie temperature argento, despite all the threats, and her reward in large measure in italy, for example, is to get denounced by the italian tabloid press. she continues to show enormous strength in the face of all that. i think ronan and the reporters would say that award goes to the sources who were so brave to go forward. harvey weinstein might call them them leakers. i think we would call them whistle-blowers. >> i think we would call them people of enormous courage. >> thank you, and congrats on the pew lit zest. stormy daniels' attorney has a message for one sean hannity. ,

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surfaces i think will be very embarrassing to sean hannity. >> joining me now is that lawyer, michael avenatti, from los angeles. good morning. >> good morning, brian. >> what do you think is embarrassing? >> i shy sean hannity has described the relationship as one on real estate, he paid michael cohen -- by the way, i think he overpaid if that's true, but he described it as a $10 attorney-client relationship. there's no question that there are documents relating to whatever in the representation was. we know that, because the context in which mr. hannity's name was disclosed in that courtroom on monday, and so what i meant by my comment is that i think the relationship will be far more extensive that is mr. hannity has led people to believe. i don't think there's any nefarious that went on between mr. hannity or mr. cohen or any nda type of involvement or anything of that nature, but

what i do know is i think it's going to be far more extensive than people have been led to believe. >> do you have some sore of mole that's giving you clues about what's going on? you hinted before there was even a raid on cohen's office. >> i don't have a mole. i have a fair amount of information at my disposal. i'm really at ground zero of this. i have about two decades of experience. i've been involved in similarities cases, but my intuition is pretty spot on. we'll keep shooting until we miss, and we haven't missed yet. >> you're out there saying that you think the president will resign on what's to come. are you feeding on anybody's fantasy? >> no, i'm not. if you look at all the people in mr. trump's orbit, and who would

have the most damaging information on mr. trump other than himself, that person is michael cohen. mooically cohen has not had his office, home and hotel room raided. he is clearly not that bright, unfortunately. it is clear to me that mr. trump trusted mr. cohen with his innermost secrets. mr. cohen knows where there's the bodies are buried. if it makes anyone vulnerable, it's mr. cohen. i read the tweets and the attack on the columnist, which i was outraged by. this woman is nothing but a professional. she didn't deserve that from anybody, let alone the president. i read those tweets. what is most interesting, brian, why is the president suggesting that michael cohen will not flip? shouldn't the president, if he was innocent of anything, or of

everything? shouldn't he be saying, i don't care whether michael cohen talks or not, because i have nothing to hide? that's what you would expect, but that's not what has happened. >> i'm interested how you're using television with regard to the stormy daniels case and also more broadly in your critiques of the president. tell us about the strategy here. i'm not going to be critical of it. you're on my program now, you're clearly willing to come on and give the interviews, the other side is not nearly as willing. how much of a thought-out strategy is this to be on tv every day? >> well, we keep being invited to come on television, on various programs. i only appear on about maybe 25% or 30% of the programs i'm invited on. >> okay. >> we have a message to provide. this is a constant evolving case and situation. there's new information coming to light, you know, almost by the hour, at least every day. i'm willing to comment on it and provide my critique or what

information i have, and people should be interested -- >> launching the sketch on "the view" for example, revealing the sketch, did it work? have you received a lot of tips? >> at this point we've received over 2500 leads. i would classify about 500 of those legitimate, we're spending a lot of time and energy trying to get to the bottom of that. i think that was effective, but i want to go back to what you just asked me a moment ago. people have a keen interesting in the facts and circumstances, and the bay of the $130,000, and what michael cohen knew. you know what, brian? they shall. these a very serious matter. the american people need to know the truth, and if there was a cover-up, and i absolutely believe there was, and i absolutely believe that michael cohen will be charged with very serious crimes. that needs to matter to people. this isn't about the sex, this is not about what happened in

lake tahoe many, many years ago. it's about the truth and the american people being entitled to know exactly what happened here and what their president knew and whether they've been lied to. >> have you been invited on by fox recently? are you avoiding fox? are they avoiding you? >> well, for the first two weeks i wasn't invited at all. i actually happened to mention that on msnbc, and lo and behold i was invited the next day. i made an appearance on fox. i'm planning on going on fox next week. i'm not avoiding fox, but they don't seem to want me on their shows much. >> what about stormy daniels, will she continue to give live tv interviews? >> we're looking into whether that makes sense, this is very serious business at this point. we've got a criminal investigation, we're cooperating with the u.s. attorney's office in the southern district of new york, which i might add is one of the best offices in the country, very diligence, very

strong attorneys out of that office. the lead lawyer, tom mcvay, who appeared in court on monday and the preceding friday, was exception exceptional, nothing short of exceptional. i know at the end of the day they'll get to the bottom of this and what transpired. i have a lot of confidence in him and his colleagues. >> michael, thanks so much for being here. >> thanks for having me. should sean hannity just have a desk at the white house?

accused of obstructing justice to theat the fbinuclear war, and of violating the constitution by taking money from foreign governments and threatening to shut down news organizations that report the truth. if that isn't a case for impeaching and removing a dangerous president, then what has our government become? i'm tom steyer, and like you, i'm a citizen who knows it's up to us to do something. it's why i'm funding this effort to raise our voices together and demand that elected officials take a stand on impeachment. a republican congress once impeached a president for far less.

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welcome back to "reliability sources." with high ratings comes high headaches. the relationship with sean hannity -- quoting here -- they usually speak several times a week. and occasionally speak specifics. the frequency means that, he has a desk in the play. . sarah, you're suggesting that he's also a producer of the show? >> so, donald trump is actually helping produce what hannity and the message, the funny thing about it is he's also helping

produce the president's message, which i thought was the most surprising about this story. >> and ed fesenthal, you have him on the "time" is 00 this week. >> the "time" 100 is a measure of influence, for good or ill. i think the supporting case is it, you know, sarah's reporting on the desk and the white house, that's influence, but newt also points out he hayes three hours a day on the radio, and an hour on the television, and he played a major role in getting trump the nomination so i think that sums up the case. there's always talk about fox being state-run tv. what to you make of this

suggests? you know, there was outcried from conservatives. litman, ed murrow, walter cronkite. >> our how about ben bradley and jfk? >> maybe even more relevant. >> it was those relationshipses that let it decry the close necessary, and democratic presidents. we've never had media outlets staffing an administration literally to the extent that breitbart have been, and for hannity -- remember trump-tv was plan b for the president. the enormously dynamic relationship, of course it should be divulged. it ends up demeaning the independence of the good reporters at fox, people like

bret bahr, and -- there's no obvious parallel. versus what is set on fox. >> by democrats -- >> really a hoax created largely by the democrats. >> as an excuse. >> that was never supposed to happen. >> softening the blow of a loss, which is a loss that frankly they shouldn't have had. >> the fbi was never actually able to look at the dnc servers. >> the dnc server was never gotten by the fbi. why did the fbi take it? >> the robert mueller investigation is tearing the country apart. >> it is a bad thing for our country, very, very bad things for our country. >> there was no collusion.

everyone has known that. >> there's been no collusion, they won't find any collusion. it doesn't exist. >> the administration doing some pretty tough things against russia. >> there's been nobody tough other russia than president donald trump. >> trump is not getting tough on russia, it's spinning in circles. in that claim he -- >> with the media, no matter what i did, it's never tough enough. that's their narrative. >> fox said it first, the president said it second, john, your reaction? >> that's extraordinary. typically talking points in the past have gotten from politics to partisan media. this is a two-way street in something close to real time. it's self-reinforcing, and then it increases the tribalism on twitter, the social media mob that dumb down our debate that makes us meaner, dumber and -- and those conservatives decried

the too cozy relationship, they're actively complicit or by their silence, the laziness, they're complicit in it as well. >> to our panel, thank you. my question -- i don't think any of us know the answer to -- whether the murdochs are really proud. we're back with a newsroom revolt. i'll explain what i mean with the mayor of denver, right after this. tailored recommendations, tax-efficient investing strategies, and a dedicated advisor to help you grow and protect your wealth. fidelity wealth management. to help you grow and protect your wealth. mi'm evenarts win the kitchen. i need my blood sugar to stay in control. so i asked about tresiba®. ♪ tresiba® ready ♪ tresiba® is a once-daily, long-acting insulin that lasts even longer than 24 hours. i need to shave my a1c. ♪ tresiba® ready ♪ tresiba® works like my body's insulin. releases slow and steady.

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local news rooms versus multinational hedge funds. there is a rebellion brewing in local papers like the "denver post." the paper is owned by ald and global capital. the paper sending out an sos, condemning the quote vulture owners for cutting more than half the newsroom staff. the paper went a step further,

calling for help from the local community. and there has been a remarkable response from local leaders. the governor, the mayor, senators, local lawmakers. there's even an effort by area investors to raise $10 million, almost as a down payment to try to buy the paper. now the hedge funds is not commenting on this, but it seems "the denver post" has lit a fire that is starting to spread. the southern california news group mimicked the post's approach with a series of articles calling for support from the public there, as well, to try to combat steep cuts that have gutted news rooms. you can see here the executive editor for that paper's news group talking about journalism jobs disappearing, causing democracy to be at risk. i wanted to zoom in on what's going on in denver, with michael hancock. he's the mayor of denver, colorado, and joins me now. mayor, thank you for being here. >> you bet, brian. my pleasure. good morning. >> what's going on with "the denver post?" you have spoken out, and it seems to me you would like to

see new ownership come in. >> you know, it's been difficult to watch over the last, i don't know, three, five years as we have seen the reduction of staff at "the denver post." we are certainly not seeing the level and breadth of reporting we're used to here in colorado. you might recall up until about ten years ago, denver was a two-paper town. one of the very few remaining two-paper towns in the country. when the rocky mountain news went away, "the denver post" was le standing, and now we see it diminish. it's difficult to see. begin to see it diminish is a tough thing to watch. >> i was struck by the fact that you issued a statement supporting the paper, because the paper has been tough on you. the editorial page recently said you had lost trust. there's been accusations from a former member of your security detail, accusing you of sexual harassment. "the denver post" covering this story extensively. why are you deciding to speak out in support of the paper?

>> one of the things we can trust as a reader, as a general public, when we have mainstream media like "the denver post," we can always trust they are reporting with standards. with the advent of social media, one of the things we're losing as a society is the trust and the, you know, belief that this is a -- these accusations, these concerns, these stories have been vetted and corroborated. and you can't do that in the social media platform. standards like "the denver post" bring to the market one in which many of us believe in and pick up on every day, we can trust that what we read is at least -- has at least been vetted. and to give at least those accused the opportunity like myself to, you know, give a response that is appropriate, and accurate, and but at least have the balance. and you can't count on that within the social media platform. "the denver post" is a responsible, objective medium

here in our city, and we've got to believe that it's important for democracy and for those of us who depend on getting good information in our city, that it survives. and i believe that to my core. >> but mayor, you're a politician. aren't you supposed attention to it's all fake news? isn't that the thing to do now, just to attack the newspaper if it's covering you critically? >> listen, i believe in democracy. i believe in the freedom of the press. and as someone who studied journalism in college, i also believe in the standards in which good media comes to the people. and once people are given good information, you've got to trust they'll make their own decisions and decide how they move one way or the other. unfortunately, again, with the lack of standards and lack of vetting and social media, we have people all over the place, and people don't know what to believe any more. and unfortunately, believe in the wrong thing. absolutely. so, yeah. >> sorry. i saw the governor saying he thinks the paper has got to be sold. there are these investors trying to organize something. but, look, $10 million is not

nearly enough. this paper would probably go for over $100 million. >> absolutely. >> what do you think is going to happen with "the denver post" as this hedge fund continues to try to cut, cut, cut? >> my hope is that it survives. but i've got to tell you, it doesn't look like there is much of a lifeline for the papers like "the denver post." i've got to tell you, it's really unusual, to your point, brian, the city of denver asking the question, what can we do as a government to save "the denver post." we move in and work wenties, institutions, private businesses every day to try to keep them in the city. because this is about jobs. this is about an industry that is very important. this newspaper is 125 years old in the city of denver. we're almost the same age. denver is 160 years old. so it's hard to emergenimagine f denver without "the denver post." i would love to maintain this possibility, venerable institution in our city. >> mayor, thanks for coming on. appreciate it.

>> my pleasure, brian. after a quick break here, another story about local news you probably haven't heard about. your digestive system has billions of bacteria, but life can throw them off balance. try align, the #1 doctor recommended probiotic. with a unique strain that re-aligns your system.

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ton to $800 a ton. we use 17,000 tons a year at the "tampa bay times," an additional $3.5 million in expense to us, which is a consequence that we simply cannot absorb. >> fewer staffers, fewer stories, it's a vicious cycle. you can hear more about it on this week's podcast, our reliable sources podcast is online right now at reliablesources.com. thanks for tuning in. we'll see you right back here this time next week. ♪ breaking point. president trump lashes out at james comey and suggests the special counsel's investigation is based on an illegal act. >> they won't find any collusion. it doesn't exist. >> is the president laying the ground work to fire robert mueller? >> we want to get the investigation over with, done with, put it behind us. >> counselor