detained for violating environmental regulations, all part of the chinese government's crackdown on pollution, now in its fifth year. yet another area where as american leadership recedes, china fills the vacuum. thanks to all of you for being part of my program this week. i'll see you next week. all eyes are on helsinki. i'm brian stelter and this is "reliable sources," our weekly look at the story behind the story, at how the media really works and how the news gets made. this hour, "art of the deal" co-author tony schwartz is here with insight into trump's european adventure. and later in the hour, facebook says it's cracking down on fake news. why is this hoaxer still on the platform? but first, one of the world's big mysteries. how will we know what really happens when trump and putin get together? right now, hundreds of

journalists are descending on helsinki. reporters from 61 countries have applied for credentials to cover the u.s./russia meeting. but they're going to have very little access to the key events. pat putin and trump plan to meet for a private conversation before official talks begin. no aides, no note-takers. we'll never really know what is said. because, really, can we trust either man? no. we can't. in the past, the u.s. president's words have projected power and shaped global decisions. what the president said meant something. it meant a lot. but not now. not anymore. what president trump says is so frequently false or nonsensical that his words don't have the same meaning, the same power, the same impact as past presidents. it's a shame but it's true. trump simply cannot be trusted. he has proven this himself time

and time again. it's his own lies and his own contradictions that have proven it. and that is why this is a profound test for journalists. how do you cover a person who twists truth like it's a game? just saying, oh, well the president said, that is not sufficient anymore, if it ever was. this week we learned he called the mueller probe of russian interference a witch hunt, even after learning about the newest indictments. he knew the truth before the rest of us but he still lied. of course not all lies are created equal. some of his fabrications are pretty big. saying that america's gdp has doubled during his time in office. >> in fact the gdp since i've taken over has doubled and tripled. >> in 2016, the gdp was 18.6 trillion. in 2017, 19.4 trillion. clearly not doubled.

obviously other fabrications by the president are smaller. on thursday he took a question from a cnn reporter. then on friday he said this. >> cnn is fake news. i don't take questions from cnn. john roberts of fox. let's go to a real network. >> even the small lies confirm that trump cannot be trusted. merely repeating what he says or taking his word for it just makes a bad situation worse. look, obviously all presidents spin. but trump's deceptions are different both in volume and in degree. that's what's different. that's one of the reasons why covering this european trip is so challenging. typically, usually, the truth comes out. but it might not this time. not when trump and putin meet privately. of course nature and the media both abhor a vacuum. so the unknowns are going to be filled up by trump partisans who will proclaim him to be a strong leader, improving the

u.s./russia relationship. at the same time trump opponents will speculate that he's really a russian agent, having a meeting with his handler, betraying america. the divide is that stark. so with that in mind, how in the world should the press corps cover this helsinki meet? let's talk about it with carl bernstein, pulitzer-prize-winning journalist. sam vinograd. and jonathan chait. carl, if trump's words were currency, we would say it's been devalued, worth almost nothing at this point. what should journalists do after he comes out of the putin meeting and declares victory? >> there has been great reporting that's been done out of this white house. and i think we just have to keep going on with that, not with my

measu -- not with hyperbole, but we have to assume what we saw with rod rosenstein on friday is very much part of the dynamic of helsinki, and that indeed the president's object has been, throughout, to make this appear as a witch hunt. it is now demonstrable to all, for all to see, this is not a witch hunt. and if he tries to use helsinki with putin to once again claim that this is a witch hunt, as we heard in that setup, the idea somehow that the press or that the investigators are responsible for the horrors of undermining our elections in a way that has been shown definitively in what rod rosenstein laid out on friday, that's part of the story. so we've got a huge amount of reporting to do. i don't think

peer -- pejorative. >> samantha vinograd, what do we know about trump's attitude? >> we know that trump and vladimir putin have a few things in common when it comes to the media. both of them happen to be propaganda machines. they spread misinformation, disinformation, and sow divisions in the united states. and donald trump has proven himself to be a tool, a russian tool for spreading that m misinformation and disinformation. we have to remember that vladimir putin had the upper hand when it comes to the media around this helsinki summit. remember, vladimir putin and the russian government control most media within russia. russia is ranked 148th when it comes to press freedom. we know that vladimir putin will be controlling the message out of russian media. and we also know that the russian government has very successfully manipulated social

media to help spread the messages that they're seeking to get out. so putin definitely had the upper hand in that respect. he's also going to try to make trump into a media maven because he knows that president trump loves being in the spotlight and that when president trump is in front of the cameras, he goes off script, he undermines the u.s. government, and again, he helps to spread russia's messages. >> i wonder what it means, if anything, that putin has selected fox's chris wallace to have an exclusive conversation after the meeting. it seems like putin knows to go to fox. at the same time, wallace is a really tough interviewer. >> exactly. he knows that fox is the president's preferred outlet. and he knows how to play his assets. and donald trump, either wittingly or unwittingly, is an asset of the russian government. if you're vladimir putin, you're going into this meeting and thinking, okay, i have my playbook, i'm going to flatter president trump, he likes compliments. i'm going to talk to him about conspiracies within the united

states. and i'm going to talk about things that he likes and things that he trusts, like fox news. imagine if putin had said, no, i'm going to go give an interview to cnn or msnbc. president trump's spine would have been up, he would have been worried that putin was going to say something that he didn't like. this way, president trump is incredibly comfortable going into this meeting. to use president trump's words from a few days ago, he's easy. president trump is an easy target. >> you talked about him being an unwitting russian asset. jonathan chait, you went a step further in your article for "new york magazine," he talked about whether president trump has been a russian asset for decades. you acknowledge this is unlikely, but you're making the point that it's possible. >> yeah. >> talk us through it. >> well, what i was trying to do in this story is to make the case that we've been behind the facts on the russia story since the beginning, when the hack was first reported.

nobody thought that russia was actually trying to help donald trump. we keep catching up, we keep assuming the truth is just one or two steps ahead of us. and there's so much incriminating information. much of it has been forgotten. one of the things i begin with is the fact that the former cia director, john brennan, received intercepts from european intelligence agencies of russian officials talking about their connections to the trump campaign. and then brennan came out and said that he thinks putin has something secret, some blackmail leverage over the president of the united states. that's an astonishing charge. it's made by someone who actually has some information at his disposal. i think we should actually take it seriously. >> is there a risk, jonathan, these conversations end up sounding like conspiracy theories in the same way that sean hannity is accused of engaging in that behavior? >> there certainly is a risk. you can't get ahead of the

facts, you can't say this definitely happened when you think it just possibly happened. you have to look at other possibilities, as i do in every step, i try to show where there could be innocent explanations. sometimes when someone does something that doesn't make sense, sometimes people do things that don't make sense, and you have to be open to that. but look, when you have serious information and serious figures making these charges, i think you actually have to not blind yourself to the outcomes that they're putting right in front of your face, but say, this is one of the things that might actually be where the story is going. >> i sometimes wonder if a lot of americans have tuned this story out, this issue about russia's attack in 2016, because it is so complex, and it's become so partisan. carl, is that something you've noticed, that the people don't want to keep track of all of these revelations, no matter how damaging? >> i think as in watergate, a lot of the details are very hard to keep up with.

even for reporters. but i think more important, we have just seen, at the end of the week, on friday, a tremendous development, which puts an end to the fiction that the president, that republicans in congress, that fox, that others have promoted about a witch hunt. what we now have, and we just heard jonathan talk about and use the word "might," i think that maybe we don't want to use the word "might" too much in our reporting, but we do want to assemble all the known facts that are there. and what we do know is that the mueller investigation is going forward. we are seeing the president's narrative undermined by fact, not by "might," but by what we know as a result of mueller's investigation. and the attacks on mueller's investigation by the president

and his acolytes no longer carry the same kind of even prospective authority that they did several days ago. >> can i respond to what carl just said? >> please. >> i think you have to separate the jobs of a reporter and an opinion analyst like myself. reporters put the facts together. analysts need to base their analysis off of facts, as i do. but it's perfectly appropriate for someone writing an opinion article to say here is what i think could be happening, here is the range of possibilities. >> i agree totally with jonathan on that. and all i'm speaking about is that in terms of our reporting, our reporting in terms of what we know, that the use of the word "might" can be undermining. but in terms of what jonathan -- what interpretative reporting and analysis is, absolutely it has a place. >> samantha, how should folks here on television, writing pieces as well, help keep the

story straight, for relatively casual news consumers who are not watching every single new development? >> i think there are two pieces of this story that get a lot less attention these days. the first is, the attack didn't stop in 2016. so donald trump is walking into this helsinki summit, meeting with his attacker. we're under live attack by the russian government. so this is not a meeting of equals. it's not even a meeting of rivals. it's a meeting of the attacker and at this point a willing victim, because the president has done anything to really deter the attack from going forward. >> our president, if he is going to be the kind of responsible president that is called for in this instance, needs to push back to putin and not give the kind of namby-pamby stuff that he said today, worse than namby-pamby, saying that this is fake news and this is rigged and the rest. the only thing that is rigged is the notion that he would go in

there and not say to putin, this must stop, there are going to be consequences, there will be more sanctions, there will be economic consequences, there will be more isolation of russia. and what this meeting in helsinki has to be about is stopping the conduct of russia in terms of what we have learned in washington in these past days. >> the table is set. carl, sam, jonathan, thank you for being here. >> thank you. up next, the art of the deal in action. you have to hear what "art of the deal" co-author tony schwartz says about president trump's psyche. that's coming up right after this.

changes? i've had a few. most impactful. my hair color. garnier nutrisse. nourishes while you color. plus avocado, olive and shea oils. changing my hair color changed everything. nutrisse. nourished hair. better color. we carry flowers that signifyn why we want to end the disease. and we walk so that one day, there will be a white flower for alzheimer's first survivor.

join the fight at alz.org/walk.

this endangered species is getting help from some unexpected friends. these zebra and antelope. they're wearing iot sensors, connected to the ibm cloud. when poachers enter the area, the animals run for it. which alerts rangers, who can track their motions and help stop them before any harm is done. it's a smart way to help increase the rhino population. and turn the poachers into the endangered species. ♪ ♪

like nothing you, ncy or she, has ever seen. filets of 100% real natural chicken or seafood. handcrafted, and served any way she wants. purely fancy feast filets. love is in the details. welcome back to "reliable sources." i'm brian stelter. rod rosenstein said something really important on friday. but it was kind of overlooked amid the shocking indictments of 12 russian intel officers. listen to this. >> the partisan warfare, fueled by modern technology, does not fairly reflect the grace,

dignity, and unity of the american people. >> i couldn't have said it better myself. rosenstein also said americans need to work together to hold the attackers accountable. and he's right about that too. but there are too many sean hannitys out there, too many belov bloviaters telling tall truths that deflect attention. this starts at the very top. when the dnc was hacked in 2016, then-candidate donald trump claimed the dems did it to themselves. quote, we believe it was the dnc that did the hacking to distract from their problems. quote, too bad the dnc doesn't hack hillary clinton's 33,000 missing e-mails. so trump did what he often does, immediately went the conspiracy theory route. then a couple of months later, he urged the russians to hack the clinton campaign. according to the new indictments, that's exactly what putin's hackers did. this behavior of deflection and

distraction has continued now that trump is in office. it's egged on by supporters like hannity who want the mueller probe to be wiped away. hannity is so blinded by his devotion to trump that he wants the rest of us to be blindfolded too that we never know the extent of russia's attack. sean, if you're listening right now, think about what rosenstein said. >> i want to caution you, the people who speculate about federal investigations usually do not know all of the relevant facts. we do not try cases on television or in congressional hearings. >> that is such an important warning, a reminder for pundits and lawmakers. but i doubt it will be heeded. what do you think? let's dig deeper on this. on trump's penchant for conspiracy theories and what it can tell us headed into helsinki. i'm joined by tony schwartz, the co-author of "the art of the deal," donald trump's famous

book from back in the 1980s. tony, great to see you. >> great to see you. >> are you seeing president trump applying the heart of the deal on this whirlwind trip through europe? >> well, i'm seeing him apply the roy cohn version of the art of the deal, which is pound, demand, insist, and say the same thing over and over and over again on the assumption that at a certain point people will collapse and accept what you said, even if it's untrue. >> is that what he does with these conspiracy theories that i'm talking about as well, where he'll dig deep into some outlandish theory but say it so many times that he tries to trick people into believing it? >> i don't even think it's a trick. i think it's a very conscious approach that he takes to -- and we all know that he's repeated the words "no collusion" hundreds of times. >> hundreds of times. >> because it's like a lullaby that he wants to get you to go to sleep to and wake up

believing. and he's very, very intentional about doing it. >> i noticed in rosenstein's comments on friday, he was talking about the danger of speculation. but i wonder if some of trump's critics are falling too much into that trap. on twitter the other day, he said trump is russia's most prized asset, quote, i suspect this goes back decades. it will i believe be mueller's most explosive finding. isn't that kind of speculation part of the problem? >> i don't think necessarily it's a problem. we need to keep front and center that this is a person who is far outside the norms of ordinary behavior. and i think what we're watching, actually, and we watched this most recently when he was in europe, is -- or continues to be in europe, is the continuing meltdown, you know, in psychological terms, the

decompensation that's occurring of a guy who has simultaneously been unleashed because he's pushed away all his potential critics even internally, and at the same time feels under siege. and the collective or the total amount of pressure that he feels i think in a very predictable way has taken a guy and made him behave in ways that are more grandiose and more out of touch with reality. he lives now inside his own version of reality almost 100% of the time. and that reality has almost nothing to do with reality as the rest of us know it. >> what you're saying is more extreme than the way he's usually characterized on tv. you're saying he's having a meltdown. we don't normally hear that in the conversations about trump. why do you feel it's within your realm to describe him that way? >> because i spent an enormous amount of time with him over a period of 18 months. because i am a 25-year student

of psychology. because i've spent an enormous amount of time with psychiatrists over the last year who are trying to understand trump, was one of the co-authors of the book "the dangerous case of donald trump," and because i believe the republic is at enormous risk that goes far beyond what most journalists are comfortable saying, and what the general public therefore doesn't really fully understand. >> that this is more of an emergency than we are willing to say? >> absolutely. we are in a true emergency. and the rate, the accelerated rate at which his breakdown or decompensation is occurring is cause for us and certainly cause for me to come on tv more often, to tweet more often. >> to try to sound the alarm. >> i am. i'm trying to be paul revere. >> last fall you said i think he's going to resign, i would be surprised if trump doesn't resign by the end of the year,

that was 2017. now we're 2018. >> you're absolutely right, i completely missed it. i think i got it wrong. i think i underestimated the enormous attachment that he would have to being in that office. >> he sure seemed to like meeting the queen the other day. >> i think he likes meeting all of these people. he particularly likes dominating these people. >> so i think what i hear you saying is, journalists need to have more courage when talking about this man's fitness for office. >> look -- >> something that comes up from time to time. it's not a regular part of the conversation. >> he has blurred the line for all of us, between behaving in the ways that we ordinarily would, and doing what we think is necessary in the face of an extraordinary danger. and i think journalists are in a challenging position as a consequence. and i'm relieved not to be a journalist right now. >> that's so interesting.

why? >> because you i do think that critical that anybody who feels and sees what's actually happening feels comfortable speaking out. >> the other day, president trump was asked about his tweeting habits. he once again used that line about being a stable genius. here is how he said it. >> i'm very consistent. i'm a very stable genius. >> is this one of those cases where he's projecting? what do you think that is, when he says "i'm a very stable genius"? >> well, i think it's partly simply his grand i don't siosit self-worth at the core of this. and it's a way of describing himself that is actually the opposite, as is often the case with stuff he says. >> he hears people like you saying he's unstable. so he says he's very stable. he hears people accusing him of collusion so he says there's no

collusion. >> that's precisely what he does. and he also, another very analogous tactic is, he describes other people in ways that fully characterize himself. that is projection. and he is endless in his projections. >> tony, thanks so much for being here. >> thank you. after a quick break on "reliable sources," why rupert murdoch had a successful week. plus is trump's next target "me too"? you get another day in paradise. get a sunset on a sunday. get more stories to share. get more from your summer getaway with exclusive hilton offers. book yours, only at hilton.com

(door bell rings) it's ohey. this is amazing. with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis, are you okay? even when i was there, i never knew when my symptoms would keep us apart. so i talked to my doctor about humira. i learned humira can help get, and keep uc under control when other medications haven't worked well enough. and it helps people achieve control that lasts. so you can experience few or no symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. be there for you, and them. ask your gastroenterologist about humira. with humira, control is possible.

(vo)have to happen?idn't i didn't see it. (vo) what if we could go back? what if our car... could stop itself? in iihs front-end crash prevention testing, nobody beats the subaru impreza. not toyota. not honda. not ford. the subaru impreza. more than a car, it's a subaru. ♪ it is such a good time to dance ♪ ♪ it is such a good time to [ laughing ] ♪ scoobidoo doobidoo ♪ scoobidoo doobidoo [ goose honking ] ♪ [ laughing ] a bad day on the road still beats a good one off it. ♪ progressive helps keep you out there.

♪

does your business internet provider promise a lot? let's see who delivers more. comcast business gives you gig-speed in more places. the others don't. we offer up to 6 hours of 4g wireless network backup. everyone else, no way. we let calls from any of your devices come from your business number. them, not so much. we let you keep an eye on your business from anywhere. the others? nope! get internet on our gig-speed network and add voice and tv for $34.90 more per month. call or go on line today. smiling. his british paper "the sun"

owned the news cycle the other day by scoring that exclusive interview with president trump. and now murdoch's fox news is poised for another exclusive, this time with vladimir putin, right after monday's meeting. meanwhile, back here at home, trump's justice department is still tangling with cnn's new parent company at&t. you'll remember a judge ruled in favor of at&t buying cnn and the rest of time warner about a month ago. but now the doj is appealing, which once again raises questions about political meddling, aka, is trump using his government to punish his fello foes and help his friends. we know that murdoch speaks with trump all the time. now he has another link to the white house through former fox news executive bill shine. a few weeks ago, shine was basically unemployed. but now he's the deputy chief of staff for communications. and he's on the list for the helsinki summit.

but his new role is deserving of scrutiny. shine was forced to resign from fox news last year amid allegations that he covered up sexual harassment by his boss roger ailes. shine has denied the allegations. but his appointment at the white house has been met with criticism from both sides of the aisle. michelle goldberg handwriting about that. she's an op-ed columnist for "the new york times" who covers politics, gender, religion, and ideology. the title of your column, michelle, kind of says it all. we can put it on screen. you said it's all about lying back and taking it, america. you're saying that's what the trump white house expects us to do? >> this is so shocking. and i actually think that even five months ago, i don't think that trump could have gotten away with hiring this person, who, again, was too complicit in sexual harassment for fox news, and was intimately involved in decades-long, or at least according to reporting by

gabriel sherman, intimately involved in the decades-long almost torture and sexual servitude of one fox employee who was taken to meet roger ailes, was paid in cash for their assignations, was then told she had to go out and recruit other women for roger ailes. ultimately bill shine ended up having her committed. the whole story is so disgusting and so tawdry. and bill shine really couldn't be hired almost at any private company in the united states, with his background. just his hiring would make that company liable to potential sexual harassment lawsuits. >> he's been named in multiple lawsuits. >> he's been named in not just sexual harassment lawsuits but racial discrimination lawsuits. this is basically trump saying screw you to the "me too" movement. part of the reason he's able to do that is because he has this strategy, i don't even know if it's a strategy, but at least a technique of doing so many

outrageous and grotesque things, breaking so many norms, creating so many shocking headlines that something like this that have been a multiday story in another era just sort of gets swept under the rug. >> he's a smart tv producer. he's had decades of experience, he knows how to produce tv. that's valuable, isn't it? >> it's valuable i guess if you think that what you're doing is putting out a reality tv show and not purporting to serve the american people. i know that might be naive, to treat any of these people as if they're public officials. they certainly don't see themselves as if they're public servants. that is nevertheless why his salary is being paid by the american taxpayer, is to communicate information, not to mislead people and to work for just one faction, one small minority faction of the american populace. >> i would love to hear from shine. i hope he starts to do interviews. i hope he is able to speak in his own words so that we're not guessing about what he thinks or what he believes. >> but i don't care what he

thinks or believes. i care about what he did. he was a party, according to both reporting and lawsuits, to really egregious abuse of women. his wiring makes the white house, if it wasn't already, a hostile work environment. >> in another column recently you talked about the amount of passion against trump. you were making a really interesting point that approval ratings, approval polls, can't measure just how intense the disapproval of trump is, especially among women who are trying to now run for office. >> right. you've seen this huge flood of women into the democratic primaries. they're doing really well historically in democratic primaries. not just people who are running but also volunteers. i talk to these women all over the country, in pennsylvania, in georgia, in arizona, these women whose lives were completely transformed by the trauma of the 2016 election. you can't overstate the extent to which these women have

retooled their whole lives around kind of getting some sort of representation in a government that they feel, you know, kind of shocked them into qualifying. >> michelle goldberg, thank you. next, the host of "the young turks" has a lot to say about this, after the break. not us. because southwest has $69 one-way sale fares for travel throughout september and october. so you can fill the rest of your year with amazing trips. from football games to reunions, or just a break from the office. these $69 one-way sale fares are ready to make your september and october a whole lot better. book now at southwest.com. low fares. no hidden fees. that's transfarency.

by staying in rhythm. and to keep up this pace, i drink boost optimum. boost optimum with 5 in 1 advanced nutrition helps support muscle, energy, bone, normal immune function, and vision. boost optimum. be up for life. if these packs have the same number of bladder leak pads, i bet you think bigger is better. actually, it's bulkier. always discreet quickly turns liquid to gel,

for drier protection that's a lot less bulky. always discreet. we're listening to what matters most to you. and we're committed to improving every ride. starting with features designed to make it easy for your driver to find you... taking the stress out of pickups. ♪ we're putting safety at the heart of everything we do... by making it easy to verify your car, and driver. uber has new leadership, a new vision, and is moving in a new direction... forward

my dai need my blood sugar i'to stay in control.en. 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. providing powerful a1c reduction. my week? hectic. my weekends? my time. ♪ tresiba® ready ♪ i can take tresiba® any time of day. so if i sleep in, and delay my dose, i take it as soon as i can, as long as there's at least eight hours between doses. (renee) once in use, it lasts eight weeks with or without refrigeration, twice as long as the lantus® pen. (announcer) tresiba® is used to control high blood sugar in adults with diabetes. don't use tresiba® to treat diabetic ketoacidosis, during episodes of low blood sugar, or if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. don't share needles or insulin pens.

don't reuse needles. the most common side effect is low blood sugar, which may cause dizziness, sweating, confusion, and headache. check your blood sugar. low blood sugar can be serious and may be life-threatening. injection site reactions may occur. tell your prescriber about all medicines you take and all your medical conditions. taking tzds with insulins, like tresiba®, may cause serious side effects like heart failure. your insulin dose shouldn't be changed without asking your prescriber. get medical help right away if you have trouble breathing, fast heartbeat, extreme drowsiness, swelling of your face, tongue or throat, dizziness, or confusion. ask your health care provider if you're tresiba® ready. covered by most insurance and medicare plans. ♪ tresiba® ready ♪ do you hear it? the left in the united states is roaring.

but is the media really listening? i think this is a vital question right now, given all the talk of a likely blue wave in the u.s. midterms. alexandria ocasio-cortez's recent primary win here in new york has been cited as an example of this blue wave, of something that progressive media saw coming and helped make happen, while other newsrooms were caught flat-footed. let's get into it with one of those progressive media leaders, the host of "the young turks" and founder and ceo of the young turks network, which reaches millions of young people. jake, how would you characterize what's happening on the left? is it fear, is it outrage, is it something else? >> it's frustration with a system that isn't representing them. it's representing the donors, the politicians, and unfortunately the media over-focuses on the money race, how much big donors have they

raised, and that creates an incentive for what we would consider more systemic corruption. 60% of the country wants medicare for all. so we're right on the issues and we wish it would get the coverage it deserves. >> you said the press over-focuses on the other side. that's what i think is really interesting. that's a widespread perception on the left that traditional news outlets, the cnns of the world, we focus so much on what trump voters are thinking and feeling. there's not enough attention on the resistance. is sounds like you definitely agree. >> that's 100% right. and so, look, part of it is understandable. president trump is president so of course you're going to focus on trump, everybody gets that. on the other hand, when you look at what happened in 2016, trump got $2 billion of free media coverage and that was just in the primaries. where is bernie sanders was starved of attention. if he had gotten that much attention in the primaries, there is an excellent chance he would have beaten hillary clinton. that does make a difference.

if candidates like alexandria ocasio-cortez even get a little bit of media attention outside of what the young turks does and the progressive ecosystem does, they have an excellent chance of winning. but if the media shuts them out, it is an institutional advantage for the right wing that is fundamentally unfair. >> i noticed how you were covering alexandria ocasio-cortez very early on. you were talking about her race on the young turks many months ago. so were websites like the intercept, they were paying close attention to the race. i think it helped her in a big way. is this -- are we at the point now where progressive media has matched conservative media, you know, the hannitys of the world, in terms of supporting candidates that you want to see elected? >> yeah, in some ways we do one better. we're very honest that we're progressives. we call the young turks home of progressives and we support progressive candidates. young turks has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for democrats across the country.

that's through small dollar donations through our audience. when our audience sees alexandria ocasio-cortez, they see a victory for themselves because they made that happen. so we had alexandria on the show and did different videos about her 34 times before her election. so our audience saw that happen right with their own eyes. we said she would win, we told them why she would win, and she won. they helped to make that happen. that is a little different in media. that's what's coming. >> tell me about your business model of the young turks. there's been some headlines saying you've been laying off some staffers. at the same time, you're adding new shows. how do you keep this business thriving at a time when every single digital media company is having a hard time getting advertisers to spend more and more money? >> yes. so every business we prioritize every once in a while, we just did that at the young turks. we launched a new podcasting

network, we're super proud of it. we have "we the people" with nina turner. we've got rebel headquarters hosted by me. so it is the home of progressives. it has the entire spectrum. >> that's really interesting, there's a market opportunity, you're saying, around there. by the way, thanks for not walking off when i asked about your business. glenn beck walked out on me a few weeks ago when i asked about his business. great to see you. coming up next, facebook has an info wars problem. why can't the company explain how it handles downright damaging content hosted on its site? isease. and we walk so that one day, there will be a white flower for alzheimer's first survivor. join the fight at alz.org/walk. the winter of '77.uring i first met james in 5th grade. we got married after college. and had twin boys.

but then one night, a truck didn't stop. but thanks to our forester, neither did our story. and that's why we'll always drive a subaru. i love you, basement bathroom of solitude, but sometimes you stink. febreze air effects doesn't just mask, it cleans away odors. because the things you love can stink. i've had a few. most impactful. my hair color. garnier nutrisse. nourishes while you color. plus avocado, olive and shea oils. changing my hair color changed everything. nutrisse. nourished hair. better color.

with pg&e in the sierras. and i'm an arborist since the onset of the drought, more than 129 million trees have died in california. pg&e prunes and removes over a million trees every year to ensure that hazardous trees can't impact power lines. and since the onset of the drought we've doubled our efforts. i grew up in the forests out in this area and honestly it's heartbreaking to see all these trees dying. what guides me is ensuring that the public is going to be safer

and that these forests can be sustained and enjoyed by the community in the future. he claimed there was going to be a new civil war on july

4th. the latest example of a hoax, a story that was totally made up and designed. he does it all of the time. do tech giants like facebook have any obligation to stop infowars in its tracks? they say they are working hard to stop the spread of misinformation and they want to help people find reliable sources. i was at a press event and next day oliver was in a facebook event about this. he asked a simple question. how could facebook be serious about fighting this information and let infowars have a page with nearly 1 million followers. here to tell us what happened flexion is oliver darcy. they said we see pages on tlehe

left and the right for which others call fake news. we believe banning these pages would be contrary to the basic principals of free speech. we denote individual posts that are reported by facebook users and raided as false by fact checkers. that's the facebook explanation. why does it not hold water? i went to this press event where they aimed to tout their misinformation and conspiracy theories on line. after the presentation i asked a very simple question. how can you host info wars and sit there and tell us you take information online to be seriously. at the time the facebook executives didn't really have a good answer. >> they say we demote the bs stories so fewer people see them. that is action. >> right. it is action. that is facebook's argument. people are saying why would you poison 100 people with false information if you're acknowledging it is not good

information. it is not good enough for a large audience. i think that's going to be a question that facebook is going to have to answer going forward. >> you know, it says these sites might be opinion or analysis. the reason is they are suggesting it is an acceptable opinion. >> right. >> the sandy hook massacre is a hoax. >> it is a news and media web site. facebook is basically saying different publishers have different points of view. it is not really the case of a different point of view. it is really a matter of right and wrong. facebook could say it is bad information. we are not going to host this kind of content. they say we are not removing content that's false. it is kind of interesting from the company that's saying it is to fight information online. >> it is for twitter, you tube and others as well.

>> right. info wars has a twitter page. alex jones is live streaming using per scope, which is a twitter product. so it does beg to question do these tech giants have a responsibility to stem misinformation online and if it does does it stop with jones or also transfer to other outlets? >> that's probably why it gets so sofrply kated. >> right.

so i think the obvious question is how can you host conspiracy theories online while claiming you're serious about fighting fake news on the platform. >> that's the question. you can find more at reliable sources.com. we'll be right back in just a moment.

(door bell rings) it's open! hey. this is amazing. with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis, are you okay? even when i was there, i never knew when my symptoms would keep us apart. so i talked to my doctor about humira.

i learned humira can help get, and keep uc under control when other medications haven't worked well enough. and it helps people achieve control that lasts. so you can experience few or no symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. be there for you, and them. ask your gastroenterologist about humira. with humira, control is possible. a hilton getaway means you get more because... you get another day in paradise. get a sunset on a sunday. get more stories to share. get more from your summer getaway with exclusive hilton offers. book yours, only at hilton.com

this is not a screensaver.game. this is the destruction of a cancer cell by the body's own immune system, thanks to medicine that didn't exist until now. and today can save your life. ♪ ♪

i'm a small business, but i have... big dreams... and big plans. so how do i make the efforts of 8 employees... feel like 50? how can i share new plans virtually? how can i download an e-file? virtual tours? zip-file? really big files? in seconds, not minutes... just like that. like everything... the answer is simple. i'll do what i've always done... dream more, dream faster, and above all... now, i'll dream gig. now more businesses, in more places, can afford to dream gig. comcast, building america's largest gig-speed network.

we spoke with some of hollywood's top producers from the trump show, tv's new reality. our special airs this friday night at 10:00 p.m. eastern time. up next a special edition of state of the union live. the special council intelligence officers for hacking democrats in 2016. >> we need to hold the accountable. >>