news channel eljuzeera english. at the top of the hour, stand by for fireworks. mary madeline and democratic strategist james carville will both be here in our studio. it's a faceoff you'll see right here on "state of the union." first, howard kurtz and "reliable sources." you have a full hour of hot news. >> you're anchoring the sonia sotomayor confirmation hearings will it be a challenge to cover days of hearings if there are no fireworks? >> i don't know about fireworks, but on tuesday interesting discussion. 19 senators and each one, howie, will have 30 minutes uninterrupted to grill the supreme court nominee. can you imagine, 19, 30-minute interviews that she's going to have to go through in one or two

days and i'm sure some of it will be fascinating. >> you'll need endurance like the nominees. tsunami of coverage bidding farewell to michael jackson this week. overwhelmed everything in its path, even the presidential trip to russia, africa and the vatican, but also a journalistic earthquake that was heard above the endless jackson tributes. just as michael jackson became a cultural icon who transcending the world of music, sarah palin is a polarizing presence whose presence has taken her beyond politics. hailed by some, detested by others and likes by the likes of david letterman and "saturday night live." the aftershocks of palin's surprise resignation as alaska governor are still reverberating in part because it's hard to decipher just why she's quitting. palin's response, she secured the media on twitter and facebook for questioning her

explanation and put on her waders and went fishing with several members of the media from the same. >> i knew i wasn't going to run against, i was going to say one term was enough. >> you wouldn't have finished the job, some would say. >> you're not listening to me. >> the pundits are having a grand time sioanalyzing palin for saying ditsy or somewhat suspicious. >> it made stanford sound shik shakespea shakespeare. >> why would you want to run for president? >> at what point do you say i'll raise my metphorical middle f g finger to everybody. let me go out and get a deal for hosting a show and the dealmaker for 2004. >> she may be crazier than a fox and crazy busy on the political radar screen for a long time to

come. >> she sort of reminds me in a way of princess diana when she was unraveling. she is both obsess would the media and saying she is victimized by it. >> so are the media fairly analyzing the latest move or piling on, once again? joining me in new york kelly and analyst, blogger and author and here in washington and always here because i can see him, matt frye anchor of bbc world news america. matt, why would palin gripe about the media coverage, yet again of her surprise coverage and then turn around and go fishing with andrea mitchell and the gang? >> she can gripe about the main stream media. she represents the vote of resentment. it's about emotion and not about policy. she represents a part of america outdone by. >> does she have a legitimate gripe? >> not really. i think if you caught the media you don't have a legitimate

gripe, but a lot of people out there listening to her and people still in love with her politically think she has a legitimate point and the more she makes that point especially in waders while trying to catch a few salmon in alaska, the better it sounds. >> on the cover of "time" magazine this week. the headline, i believe, is the renegade. doesn't palin thrive on the media coverage that, let's face it, made her a superstar, even as she denounces that very coverage as being terribly unfair? >> she does. to some extent her decision is to embrace the role of celebrity and to sort of reject it or leave the side of administrator which doesn't seem to relish or enjoy anyway. the one area where sarah palin has a gripe is the focus and media on her children. you can't think of any other politician, not a president, vice president or candidate whose children have been so readily focused on and trashed and ridiculed by main stream

media. people left amy carter alone and they certainly left chelsea clinton alone and even went relatively easy on the bush girls. but sarah palin's children, with the coverage of the levi johnston statements, it's extraordinary and i think it's unprecedented and she deeply resents it and so do millions of americans. >> let me move on to kelly because she's also, governor palin on the cover of "the weekly standard." we have a graphic and in an interview with the magazine that did a lot. the conservative magazine did a lot to boost her candidacy for vp, she says of the coverage of her explanation for stepping down, i'm like holy geez, i spoke for 20 minutes. like why don't the media understand? does she have a point about journalists seemingly puzzled by just why she is quitting? >> you know, howard, i think she has about as much gripe about the media as dan quayle might.

you misspell potato the media will cover the fact that you misspelled potato. her speech was lacking and coherent. a few of us are still unclear. i reread it and watched the speech a few times and i don't think she can necessarily lay all the blame on us but we're not clear on what she was saying. you know the other thing i would say, i mentioned before i'm from texas and a blog called texas for palin and there's a headline on their home page that says "time" magazine gives palin a fair shake. how surprisingly balanced they consider the "time" magazine story you just showed. plays against the narrative that she just created, that is not resonating with the people who like her and support her. >> in the "weekly standard" rumors that pornographic pictures of her are about to hit the internet. she focuses in on what the critics are saying.

my question to you, most politicians resign, unless they're headed to the slammer, it's a two-day story. what explains this? >> she has undoubted political talent and not just talent, she is, look, we all now like to get that moment in the republican convention when she appeared on stage and electrified the rank and file and quite a few pundits that has been diszing her since. she has a speck tallier ordinance about her. she has these extraordinary kids and i think for her to say pornographic pictures, look at the coverage of my children is slightly disengenwise but she is courting that coverage because that's part of her appeal. >> let me go back to michael, i would agree with you that some of the coverage particularly during the campaign and particularly about her as a mom was unfair and even sexist and all of this coverage courting unnamed mccain aides calling her

a whack job and worse, but doesn't a politician at some point need to make peace with the media where palin sort of nurses the grievance. >> i think it's working for her. you ask why the coverage continues, it continues because she and mitt romney and huckabee are, according to polls, virtually tied. at the top of preference. this is after her resignation statement. what i found also truly extraordinary and where she has no legitimate gripe was the resignation statement itself. is she very, very clearly wrote it herself, what a lot of people don't realize is that she wasn't ad libbing, she had actually written it in advance and released it to the press and was reading it from a teleprompter. and it's extraordinary for a major statement by a major politician to be so casually prepared, this is unprecedented. now, a lot of people love it because it's so different. >> kelli, it took liberal

bloggers to poke holes in things. she said most of the ethics complaints were filed by democrats and that's not true. millions of dollars were spent on legal fees and acxhael the figure was less and these were staff salaries paid to state lawyers. so, where was the main stream media in fact checking these things? >> well, first of all, ironically, remember, some of them couldn't make it to the press conference. but just because of how sort of last minute her major announcements have been, which i found rather amusic. you're totally correct. yet again, this goes into the argument of the so-called citizen journalists and bloggers doing the work the main stream media used to even though they complain there is a place for them at the table. i actually have not found the majority of sarah palin's coverage sexist as a woman and i'm someone who actually does not dislike her more of my liberal friends do. i don't think you can have it

both ways when it comes to coverage. a lot of the coverage sarah palin received, she's very attractive. she's an attractive-looking woman and that has helped in some of her coverage. i don't think you can turn around and play both sides of the fence. >> let me jump in here because i have someone i want to move on to, another story that was overshadow oed this week, nevada senator john ensign and his former aide doug hampton whose wife had an affair with the senator gave an interview which he talked about, among other things, how ensign's family, ensign's parents paid $96,000 to cindy to make her go away. let's roll some of that interview. >> you need to be made financially hole because john ensign destroyed your ability to make a living. don't you believe that? >> there's no question about that. his personal pursuit of cindy spilled over to, i'm really sorry you have to leave the organization, this isn't

working. he was still in pursuit of cindy. he needed me out of the organization. >> little short on time, but here's my question. extraordinary senator family pays $96,000 in what some regard as hush money to the mistress and doesn't make the front page and wasn't on the cbs evening news and nbc "nightly news" what does it take. >> michael jackson dying and sarah palin in alaska. we have all the time on this coverage and spending more time on fewer stories across the board. that's what it seems. but the other point is this, you've got, i mean, it is an extraordinary story because you have mark sanford and john ensign, it's like a swarm of locust defeating one presidential hopeful in the republican party. what should happen in the same week, obama sees the pope and is the pope going to kiss obama's ring or the other way around? >> i'll come back to that. michael, a hand-written letter

saying i used you for my own pleasure and not letting thoughts of you, your husband come to mind and it seems like maybe this was overshadowed. >> it was overshadowed to a great extent by mark sanford. he set a very high bar for weirdness and for embarrassment and the fact that senator ensign had the good sense not to do a tearful press conference where he confessed to everything, i think that largely saved him. >> just briefly, kelly, in a week when roland burris announced he wasn't going to run. scandal fatigue in the media. >> i think sex scandal fatigue and gamble fatigue and unless chris hanson catches a senator on camera in an underage sting operation at this point, the bar has been moved and no one will follow. >> one other thing i want to slip in here. a photo which ran in the "new york post" president obama in africa appearing to a 16-year-old brazilian girl.

everyone gossiped about this. let's roll the video and see what actually happening. you see the president looking down and not particularly looking at this particular young lady and it is amazing to me because i think, let's play it five more times. amazing to me the photo was misleading and not actually looking at her. >> not for sarkozy, though. >> he was definitely checking her out. okay, when we come back, wall-to-wall, the michael jackson coverage dominated this week with the big memorial service in l.a., but the media needs to give an overwhelmingly positive farewell to this troubled entertainer? dauv udfrost on his role in al jazeera english. gecko vo: you see, it's not just telling people geico

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i made it clear last week that i thought michael jackson's, so i thought tuesday's memorial service in l.a. was lots of big-name stars and worthy of media attention, but not eight to ten hours of wall-to-wall cable coverage as if there was nothing else going

on in the world. a little jarring to see the big three anchors narrating the event at the staples center. the tone overwhelmingly positive. >> michael jackson memorial service to be held at the staples center out in los angeles, this has been and it's a funny thing to say about a memorial service, a hot ticket. >> i don't know if images will soften those who hold a negative image, those who find all this aporant. >> michael jackson was an international superstar, unrivaled in terms of the interest in his life. >> even when someone of jackson's international fame, how much is too much? did news organization simply lose sight of the darker side of a man who repeatedly had to deny allegations of child molestation. >> right now it's appropriate to give him his due which is a pop culture icon, the likes of which i don't think anyone of us will

see again in our lifetime. >> the talking points is just about fed up. it's basically grand standing and the extreme. >> a cow cowardly media will exploit any event for media. the same people extolling jackson today was the ones giving his child molestation trial gavel-to-gavel attention. >> what did you make the tone of the day of tributes on tuesday? >> it totally, i couldn't agree with you more. i think it was way over the top, just vaulted over the top and one of the things that was very striking to me, you kept hearing michael jackson described as the greatest entertainer of all time. my question would be a month ago before he died when he was very tenuous and people weren't sure would this comeback come across. who is the world's greatest entertainer and the greatest entertainer of all time? how many people would have said michael jackson a month ago?

i suspect very few. so many questions people in the media never asked. his memorial service was a celebration of african-american identity with jesse jackson and al sharpton involved and the children of dr. king, no one asked the question about the fact that this guy went through 13 plastic surgeries to make himself look more white, he had two white wives, his only wives were white and three white children. it's a much more tormented, complex, serious issue than simply, couldn't he dance wonderfully. >> kelli, to be fair, touching speeches by jackson's friends and families that made him here real, to me at least, after ten days of media gushing. michael raises important points here. should the media go along as painting the guy as a saint? >> i find this amusing. white people are the ones most outraged about black people celebrating. >> i am not talking about the

celebration, i am talking about the media coverage. people who loved michael jackson should see glowing things, but shouldn't we retain some skepticism? >> sure, i am skeptical. the media coverage of the jackson story and found a difference in perspective based on race. one thing they found is two out of three americans thought the coverage was overboard and more than half of african-americans did not. while 22%. i think it's more than talking about celebrating him as an artist. for a lot of african-americans now that we have a black president it's not easy to forget that not that long ago networks like mtv did not play black artists. when i was a kid, they did not give contracts to black models.

queen luteatifah would not have makeup contact. >> with all of that, matt, this was an all-day affair on cnn and the other cable networks and katie was there, brian was there, charlie was there. did michael jackson warrant the equivalent of a state funeral? >> probably not. but i think what's going on here, howard, is several things. one is, yes, he was a great entertainer, but, two, what you saw here not just in this country and not just in britain, but in the middle east and in asia was a kind of nostal jufor that kind of celebrity. this is the era of dyi celebrity. we can all post of our children's clips on youtube and instantly fames for two seconds. here is a guy who was genuinely famous, like lady di when she died. so, this was celebrity for its own sake and one of those rare moments when we all come

together and let me tell you, i was in pakistan when he died. it was a call to prayer friday morning and every single channel on my hotel television, inclu h michael jackson's death on it. this is a part of the world that you don't associate with jackson mania. he is a global figure. it is about us as much as it is about him. >> let me also ask you very briefly about abc paying $200,000 for a reality show pilot from last year involving joe jackson, the father, and then happening to get an interview with joe jackson the father. abc says it doesn't pay for interviews but what do you think of the events? >> it seems like an extraordinary events. >> the report came after tmz. but let me play for you another guy who was in the news this week, his name is barack obama, he gave a bunch of network

interviews after his trip to russia and to africa and to the vatican and look what he got asked about. >> shifting gleers i was asked if he was surprised by the outpouring of emotion back in the u.s. about michael jackson. >> i think we saw it. >> i don't think there's any doubt one of the greatest entertainers of our generation, but, perhaps any generation. >> got less than a minute. michael, is this what it has come to. enough about you, mr. president, what do you think? >> i think he was putting it into a reasonable context. it is rarely bazaar. when you use the term state funeral, that's the problem here. michael jackson was as much a tabloid figure as artistic figure and we lost sight of that

during the coverage. >> keli, brief comment. >> if you google too much, 12 million hits. 12 million stories about people thinking there are too many michael jackson stories. i think that says a mouthful. >> thanks very much for joining us. coming up in the second half, dining for dollars. a publisher of "the washington post," new newspaper, has apologized for plans to host off the records that are sponsored by corporate interests but other news organizations have gotten into it. and later david frost on the dramatic license needed to turn his famous nixon interviews into an oscar contender. the famous headline about marien barry that we can't repeat on the air. here. a price gun? mm-hmm. so, i tell you what i want to pay. and we build a policy to fit your budget. that's cool. uh... [ gun beeps ]

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i think i'll go with the basic package. good choice. only meineke lets you choose the brake service that's right for you. and save 50% on pads and shoes. meineke. this is "state of the union." here are the stories breaking this sunday morning. four u.s. marines killed in afghanistan's dangerous helmand province. the marines died yesterday in

two separate bombings. a fifth service member died in the united states for wounds suffered during an attack last month. the health and human services secretary cathline sebelius says all options are on the table for a massive health care reform bill before congress and that could include a tax increase for the wealthnist americans. she appeared on "state of the union" earlier this morning and the obama administration wants a health care bill this year. a source confirms to cnn that the cia withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program on direct orders from then vice president dick cheney. leon panetta has informed lawmakers about cheney's role and efforts to stop so far unsuccessful. that and more coming up on "state on the union." first, let's go back to howard kurtz and "reliable sources." the publisher of the

"washington post" apologized for planning off the record dinners at her mome. administration officials, members of congress and the posts own journalists and $25,000 a pop. here's what she told her readers. our mistake was to suggest that we would hold and participate in off-the-record dinner with journalists and power brokers paid for by a sponsor. it is my job to make sure that we adhere to standards that are consistent with our integrity as a news organization. last week, i let you, and the organization, down. it turns out other major news organizations are also in the business of holding corporate-sponsored gatherings and consferences. david bradley holds off the record dinners, that, according to an ad, are designed to introduce ceos of hosting organizations to target influencers. corporate sponsors have included microsoft, citigroup,

astrazenica and all-state. joining us now here in the studio is steve roberts, former "new york times" reporter that george washington university. and in los angeles, kara swisher, co-executor of the website. tough column out this morning saying this incident was monumental proportions and not only did the top editor and publisher know about it, but how badly is the "washington post" reputation damaged by this? >> badly. look, if you read this initial flier, it talked all about be one of the precious few to be in on altering the legislation. i mean, they were so explicitly selling access and influence. kay graham, publisher of the post, used to hold gatherings

like this all the time. very useful to everybody. now selling seats at her grandmother's table and that is way over the line. >> it seemed like it was selling access. by the way, the "post" editor declined to appear on this program. by the way, the president of the "post" company steve hill refused to be interviewed about this, what i find amazing. did the apology and swift cancellation of these dinners help here? >> she had to apologize, it was a marketing flier that went out before they approved it. they went a little far having it at the house and off the record and making it small and not to be covered as if it was a news event and they did a lot of things along the way and they never should have contemplated a small event. these things have to be public and posted and available to the public and, you know, everything is corporate sponsor. the ads in the "washington post" are corporate sponsor. just a question of how much

access you give people, the general public y think. >> the atlantic which has been holding the off-the-record dinners for years, david bradley put out a letter this week defending it, even though he brings together administration officials, members of congress, his own journalists and he says having opposing views and outside reporters have worked well to keep conversations to level of debate, but is that what it is about? >> to some extent. first of all, the atlantic is not "the washington post." it's central to the whole relationship of the media and government here in washington. >> and loves to blow the whistle. >> they should, that's their job. we depend on them to do that. secondly, you have to ask, what are these corporations buying? clearly, "the post" was offering them influence and access. "the atlantic" is offering something different. more visibility and prestige and a bit closer to buying an ad on a sunday tv show. >> how is it visibility if the

records a questions are off the record. what aim is being accomplished if it's just a bunch of people in a room. >> i spent many years as a correspondent and off-the-record conversations all the time which informed my coverage and my analysis. if you're allowed to do that. off the record you get a lot of canned speeches and talking points but the question is, do your readers and viewers benefit from the relationship? that has to be the bottom line. >> i can tell you since i worked there it has royaled the newsroom. you have conferences with corporate sponsors. tell me about, tell me about the guidelines you follow and do these sponsors have any influence? >> no, no, in fact at all. we do, we have an event that has corporate sponsors and they don't get to have anything to do with anything editorially. this is an editorial conference just as if we were putting together interviews in the "wall street journal" or else where. we can't let as many press as

they want to get in. it's available to the press and on the record and we put the thing on our website. for anyone in the world to see. it's all, we put it up and stream it so you can watch it yourself. we are thinking of doing it real-time next year. we do everything we can to possibly keep it as open as possible, despite the fact that it's an elite conference for people to go to. the second thing that is critically important, sponsors get no control of anything on the stage. >> but don't they also get some access to pretty important people? you have golf events, wine tastings. must be a reason that corporations are willing to pony up money it be part of this. >> it's like a conference that everybody, lots of people have conferences and they're supposed to question if they have any control over the editorial portion of it. these are gatherings that people meet each other and we're not promising access.

you can meet bill gates, we don't do that. >> the enormous problems all news organizations are facing. to support the "washington post" and "wall street journal" is the biggest question facing the media. it's understandable that people are looking for new revenues. i hope they are, because, otherwise, they're going to collapse. but as kara says, the key is transparency and the key is to your readers and viewers benefit. the key is, do you do it all openly. the one thing i would say, kathleen admitted her mistakes. one thing i tell my students, you're always going to make a mistake. you have to admit it as quickly and openly as possible. >> "the wall street journal" did similar gatherings and at one point the participants went to the white house for an off the record briefing with larry summers, so, that i have more of a problem with. but let me close by asking you, kara swisher, when you're inviting the likes of chief

executive of nbc to your conference, you want them to show up, any unspoken pressure that you feel to be nicer to them as a result? >> not at all. they don't get to ask what questions, they don't have any control over any part of it. just as doing an interview with "the wall street journal." s they certainly try to. what are you going to ask? you know, the most general thing is i'm going to ask about digital issues and television. that kind of thing. he should know that anyway and, no, they have no control. in fact, we had a sponsor that was a very ugly interview and they had been a sponsor and it was not a good interview for her. >> so i galther. thanks for kicking it around with us this morning. an arab network getting some exposure in the capital. we'll talk with david frost about why he's putting his prestige on the line for al jazeera english.

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you probably can't name a single anchor or correspondent, but one household name at the english spinoff and that's david frost. one reason you might not have thought of frost, one of the first hires four years ago which is seen in more than 100 countries around the world, but not in the states. at the beginning of this month, several large cable systems picked up the channel and slated for air in 20 american cities in the coming months. what better time to sit down with the man who became famous by landing those interviews with richard nixon some 32 years ago. i spoke to him earlier. >> why has it taken al jazeera english so long to gain a foothold in the american market? >> i think it was to do partially with politics where

people were a bit concerned. there was a period of amazing wild rumors about alg jazeera pa arabic and there was a whole host of rumor mill going -- >> you say rumor mill, but can you say why some u.s. execs weary to air those osama bin laden videos and put on other videos of terrorists? >> everybody, every company took delighted those osama bin laden talks. >> they seem to be dropping them but, i mean, once they decide interviews, once they decided it's used so did cbs, abc, nbc, they just happened to be the lucky recipients, if it were.

it was the first place a lot of arabs saw israelis speak and things like that. it was an impressive channel, but impressive and i don't know what he's saying. but then al jazeera english came along and it immediately people see it. they realize that it's independent, that it's international and it's for the south, as well as the north and you can see it's not barack obama any more than any other network is. sort of instantly reassuring. >> and you gave al jazeera english credit by signing up. was that a hard decision? some people say you sold out. >> it wasn't a difficult decision, i checked with friends in washington it seems absurd now to even mention this because

no one suggests it any more. they had no links with al qaeda or things like that and they got a clean bill of health in washington and clean bill of health and that's official washington. maybe not rumsfeld's washington, but -- >> do you think the shift from the bush administration to the obama administration has changed their climate here to the point where some cable and satellite executives feel comfortable putting on a channel like alzu yeara. >> i'm sure it helped. at the same time, when people watch the show what is really attractive for is showing parts of the world that we don't show and when britain and america are very much the same. we don't do enough about south america and south asia and don't do enough about south america and so on and so on. those are thing that people find refreshing. >> do you get any input on your program from management and al jazeera? >> i know they assured me from the beginning that the editorial

freedom and there has been complete, total, no interference, whatever. don't want to do anything from israel, we do it from israel and absolutely across the board and most delighted experience. >> not long ago you sat down with yokoono and you started by playing footage 40 years ago. >> 40 years ago. >> john lennon and yokooono, let's take a look. >> to david, a box of smile. >> the press gave you a hard time at various times, not now, but back, back in 1970 they said, some fans said that you were responsible for breaking up the beatles, but that's not true, is it? >> no, i don't think so. >> no, not at all. but i was a good scapegoat, i suppose. >> how did that interview come

about? >> well, the first, the first part of it actually, it was a fantastic, poetic way and it was a box and it said on it to david, a box of smile with love from john and yoko and you opened the box and there was simply in it, it was a mirror. you smiled at the idea and you had your box of smiles. >> and the more recent interview, yoko a friend or acquaintance of yours now? >> i haven't seen her for two or three years, but she was awarded two things last week and one major award being in venice and one in london and so on. so, it was very interesting to come back and in addition to being, as you can see, very familiar forthcoming in a way and, of course, at the same time, she looks remarkably good.

i mean, she's now over 70 and she doesn't look over 70. >> you look remarkably good, too. you famously conducted that series of interviews with richard nixon in 1987. last time we talked ait was in front of watergate and now a frost nixon movie. i want to play a scene from that. >> look, when you're in office, you have to do a lot of things sometimes that are not always in the stricter sense of the law, legal, but you do them because they're in the greater interest of the nation. >> wait, just so i understand correctly are you really saying in certain situations the president can decide if it's in the best interest of the nation and then do something illegal? >> i'm saying that when the president does it, that means it's not illegal. >> was that film an accurate depiction of what happened? >> the overall film had 20

minutes and none of it particularly important. >> there were scenes that were invented for sin manic reasons. >> a call to me before watergate and that never happened. >> you, a lot of people want to interview nixen and you got the interview and you paid the former president $600,000 and that would be more than $2 million today. i think if you did that today, if the circumstances were today, you'd be criticized far more intensively than you were at the time. >> i don't think so, there's a curious point. in terms of the nixon interviews, nbc news were offering $400,000 or whatever and questions about journalism happened during the 18 months between when we signed and when we did it and they really sort of came to an end when the first interview went out and everybody said this is history. >> you were not rolling over for

nixon? >> yeah, exactly. this is history and this is valuable and so, so that sort of faded away. the other thing that interested me about this, which is nothing new to me, but what i was thinking when monica lewinsky and i think it was abc put her on and they said that she could not be paid for this interview. >> right. >> but they, the network, were allowed to triple their advertising fees. that's illogical, isn't it? >> is it a matter of journalistic integrity to pay the source, the subject of a news interview. that shows that the standards have changed. abc could not have gotten away, even if they wanted to, to pay her. >> but it was a -- i just don't see what, this has nothing to do with nixon here, but i don't see

why if the network can cash in why can't the source of the material? >> i got 15 seconds. >> right. >> those nixon interviews, you had elustrious career, but will that remain the most famous thing you've ever done? >> must be one of the real landmarks because of the scale as well as its success, as well. i don't know who else in the world there is to talk to for 28 3/4 hours, except perhaps my wife. >> sir david, thanks very much for stopping by and talking to us. >> pleasure. after the break, echos of vietnam. how robert mcnamara's death remind us that it took several years for journalists to challenge that ill-fated war.

took nearly three decades for robert mcnamara to admit he was wrong about the vietnam war. mcnamara's death this week was a painful reminder that both fell short. one of jfk's whiz kids celebrated by journalists and when lbj sent huge numbers of american troops to shore up vietnam against the north, he managed the conflict, even as both men initially denied there would be a major escalation. >> we wish to emphasize we seek no wider war. our response will depend upon

the action of the aggressors. in this case, the north vietnamese. >> the press was differential during those cold war days, especially when they were taking on the communists. as more american journalists went to saigon, they saw that mcnamara's war was going badly on what became known as the 5:00 follies. by 1968 newspaper reporters have grown skeptical and television reports were bringing the jungle war into our living rooms and, finally, walter conkrit went to vietnam and to believe in the face of the optimism the opmists that were wrong in the past. >> reporter: mcnamara doubted, almost from the start, that more troops and more bombing could turn the tide. it took several years after mcnamara stepped down and two

more presidents to pull the plug on a war that claimed more than 58 million american lives. the best and the brightest, as david called them, ultimately failed and the skeptical journalists so resented were right. mcnamara lived to see the media fall short when they challenged george w. bush over his false rational for invading iraq. robert mcnamara was 93. still to come, raunchy journalism. did a washington weekly obliterate any safety of good taste. naing onon ud r.

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it's not easy to go too far in chronicling. the former mayor, you may recall, was busted for using cocaine back in 1990. lured by a woman, not his wife, who was immortalized on an fbi videotape. now barry is a d.c. councilman who was arrested last week for stalking an ex-girlfriend who he happened to hire after his $60,000 city contract. but charges were dropped, but the city paper got hold of a voicemail that donna watts had left barry, complaining that he booted her from his hotel room at the democratic convention last summer because she wouldn't give him oral sex. i can't read the raunchy phrases on the air, but the headline said quoting the ex-girlfriend, you put me out because i wouldn't blank your blank. well, the a