>> if it had just been an average african-american arrested by cambridge police for disorderly conduct even at his own home the case wouldn't have rated a paragraph in the "boston globe." but because it was gates, especially when he charged the white police officers with racism. from that moment you had the combustible mix of race, class, bias, law enforcement and is it any more kerosene was needed for this blaze, some blunt words from the nation's first african-american president. at the outset, the racial angle many journalists treaded carefully. >> a case of mistaken identity has raised questions about civil rights and racial profiling. a 58-year-old black man was arrested at his own home by police looking for a suspected robber. >> police say henry lewis gates was disorderly. gates said the police were guilty of racial profiling.

the charges against him have been dropped but gates said he's due an apology. >> to gates it was a matter of black and white but the sergeant, james crowley said his decision had nothing to do to arrest the professor. >> what made me realize was how vulnerable all-black men are, how vulnerable all people of color are and all poor people to forces like a rogue policeman an this man was clearly a rogue policeman. >> i was telling him to calm down because i really didn't want this either. nonetheless that's how far professor gates pushed it, and provoked and just wouldn't stop. >> so, are the media covering this sensitive story fairly or was there a rush to judgment that cambridge cops must be biassed. joining me from san francisco a media commentator and here in washington, managing editor of gannett publishing.

many people initially reacted to the henry lewis gates arrest with outrage. should the correspondents who introduce this story have done so in neutral he said, he said terms? >> well, i think, yes. absolutely they how old do that. at the same time they have to take in the context and the context were two fold. first, there is a history of racial profiling of black men in this country. so that has to be dealt with. and also the phone call that came in injected race into that at the beginning. the phone call said two black men with backpacks are breaking into a house. and so right away that, you know, sets the framework for what we're dealing with here. the other thingcy live in cambridge and there's a tension between both the harvard university police and persons of color and the cambridge police and persons of color. so you got all of that going on and i think you can introduce it in a neutral tone but you need to put the context and the

framework around where this incidence fits. >> that's why you can't handle it as a ply blotter story. was there an assumption on the part of many media people in the first 24, 36 hours this had to be an instance of racism and was it unfair to sergeant crowley? >> it's interesting. "usa today" on friday decided to play it the policeman, the professor and the president. so, i think in the beginning you're right people thought this could be racism. but by the next day, the next news cycle everybody was culpable. that's why we decided to play all three of them above fold. >> the morning after the obama press conference this week which was roughly 40 minutes on health care what, three minutes on the gates arrest i turn the set, "good morning america" leading with the gates arrest. for the media how irresistible was it? >> very irresistible.

no president ought to begin with a sentence with the words i don't have all the facts and end the sentence with the police acted stupidly. he was briefed on this question. the president answers a dozen questions or less and he practices 20, 30, 40 questions. >> you have a judgment to be made by media professionals whether health care this huge debate facing the country, the press conference was devoted to until that last question if it deserved equal billing. >> we can't protect the president from himself. the president really through gasoline on the flames with something that he walked back to the next day, handled properly the next day and called it what it was, a teachable moment. >> we put the cover which was on thursday health care. and then halfway through on front page we said in other news. >> that lasted one day. by friday there was no health care. >> it lasted one day but it didn't on the networks.

we at least framed it what the news of the day was. the news of the day was health care. you said you didn't think that it made any dig news but the fact that he got an hour on prime time is news. >> go ahead. >> have to say that i think more than the president kicking it up a notch which he did, you had to also think, hey, this is the first black president talking about race from a position of understanding and having experienced racial profiling. i think that deserves a little coverage. >> a little coverage, absolutely. let me come back to a word you used, that's context. when anchors and other correspondents are handling this story they don't have a history, it seems to me, of ever having been pulled over by the police or asked for an i.d. the way so many african-american journalists have. and isn't that -- doesn't it make them view this story differently >> absolutely.

i mean that's why we saw the kind of discussion that's going on and online comments and on talk radio. it's absolutely experience. that's where the president was coming from, albeit he probably shouldn't have said what he said but he was coming from a place of history and a place of personal experience. >> but let me stick with the question of how journalists handle it. i've been so struck by the "new york times", an editorial writer wrote how he was in a college in louisiana he was topped by police officers who said we could shoot you and leave you in the road here and nobody would raise a question. almost every african-american journalist who has spoken about this, they have a story. it has to affect the way we look at it. >> i was talking to people all across the country and so do hispanics and cause i can chance with police officers who are also white, african-american or hispanic. i think that there's a natural clash there. however, in this instance, i think that the president is the one who really did inflame it.

take a look at the past action of president. nixon said he's for the silent majority. bush for the plain talking guy. this is a african-american president with real life experience. in his book he's being thrown keys as a valet person. but we've never had somebody who can speak from actual experience. >> right. we're going to come back to this topic later this hour but i want to turn now to the birthers, the people who are fringe of a fringe who make the claim that barack obama is not an american citizen and in the last week or so they are getting a lot of air time. thets roll that tape. >> a story in the countdown some people still saying president obama is not an american citizen. >> a lot of questions remaining and seemingly the questions won't go away because they haven't been dealt with, it seems possible through

straightforwardly and quickly. >> barack obama has yet to have to prove he's a citizen. all he has to do is show a birth certificate. >> you're feeding the whacko wing of your party. do you believe that barack obama is a legitimate native born american or not >> that's not what this bill is about. >> congressman campbell getting the treatment from matthews. why give them any air time? >> that's a good question. the most difficult thing for the media to do is divert their eyes from the car wreck, make the clown show not go on any longer. too many times journalists use a figure leaf, there's a bill introduced saying presidents ought to present their birth certificates or the other figure leaf is this is a huge story in the media so we'll cover it as a media story. it's just an excuse not to act

responsibly and not to use any judgment of our own. >> one of the only newspapers and here i am, "usa today" to not cover this. since the election is "usa today." why? cottage industry of conconspiracye conspiracy theorists. drive the dialogue forward on issues that are important to americans. like health care. and other things that need addressing. >> lou dobbs on his radio show said he believes the president is a citizen of the united states. is it responsible for dobbs and others to go on the air, talk about these claims, demand proof when we have seen a copy of the birth certificate, when hawaii officials say barack obama was born there in 1961? >> it absolutely is not responsible. here's where i think there is a

story to report if anything about this because i'm open-mouthed that it got this much attention and that is the pressure that's being brought to bear by certain republicans by some of the people in these groups to address it. that to me is an interesting story that, you know, is there a pressure from these groups brought to the republicans who are struggling to try to find where they are going to go in terms of leadership and where they want to be as a base and as a party, and that to me is a story. but the rest of this is crazy and for people to keep raising it as if it's legitimate to even think about i'm open-mouthed about it. i really am. >> the president put out a memo seems this story is dead but the dobbs show keeps raising it. there was a statement read on the air saying there's overwhelming evidence that proves his birth certificate is real. is this giving air time to flat earth people?

>> it does. some people are flat earth people. they believe we neverlanded on the moon. there's a racial element to this story too. some people quite frankly cannot accept the fact we have a black president so they are seeking, not all of them, are seeking to delegitimatize his presidency. >> with some assistance by the media you would say? >> with too much assistance snoop i would go a step further it's unethical of the media to be taking this issue and putting it front and center when all of the proof is there to the country. >> got to go break. we'll talk to you later, roger. up next video outrage a peep hole tape shows erin andrews naked in her hotel room. "usa today's" christine brennan shoins our discussion. ggggg

the story is deeply creepy and some of the media's behavior isn't much better. in an unmanageable invasion of privacy some moron drilled a hole and shot a video of report earlierin andrews. the video was bouncing around the internet and drew some chatter on the sports blogs. then the "new york post" gave a front page splash to the tale of the peephole pervert who inflicted a nightmare on andrews making sure to include no less than three still shots of the very same nightmare with small banners carrying the key part. we won't play that game.

next, "fox & friends" owned by the parent company showed some shots that were only slightly obscured which we now covered up almost completely and for a briefer period so did cbs early show which pixalated the videos a bit more. is the media exploiting this? joining me now is christine brennan. christine, should the "new york post" and "fox & friends" and roberts thong outrage have used those screen shots of a very nude erin andrews? >> absolutely not. it's desspeckable behavior. what happened to erin was gross and awful. it seems to me what they are doing in a got dragged into it by being completely out of context, what they are trying to do then is create a story line so that then they can show it again. what they will do in the case of fox, is say oh, this is terrible, this is awful, get that off the air as they've shown it again and again and

think about poor erin andrews and what she's going through and that, to me, is shoddy journalism. >> we're not as journalists in the porn business. and, even if we were we couldn't find the video right away. it was pulled. >> remember the janet jackson wardrobe malfunction was shown 10 million times snoop but it shouldn't be. let's go back to that. >> bill o'reilly who showed the video for only a few seconds was putting it up on the screen to show criminal intent on the part of anybody who did this. >> okay. i'm sorry. i think showing it is disgusting and everybody knows they show it exactly what kind of viewership they will get. it's ridiculous. at the very least it's a cautionary tale for women travellers, it's an invasion of privacy story, absolutely, but to put any of these pictures up is really just about what folks want to do when they look at the

center fold of magazines. >> christine you mentioned an interview you did this week that drew some controversy. let me roll some of that. >> if you trade off your sex appeal you trade off your looks eventually you'll lose those. she done deserve what happened to her but part of the shtick, seems to me, is being a little bit out there in a way that then are your encouraging the complete nutcase to drill a hole in your room? >> some people jumped on that as you know and said it was some version she asked for it. >> there's a sound bite there that's missing. i said and i want to have a long career. i was talking about myself. that was taken out of those clips. >> as a female sports writer and you're covering a male dominated sport world. >> i was talking about myself and that was literally taken out of the clip. also if i may say that in the

course of that interview, nine minutes and 20 seconds, with that north carolina station, the first words out of my mouth were that this was gross and despicable. eight times i said she didn't deserve this, it is terrible. >> what about the part of creating a climate that encourages, creating a climate by flaunting sex appeal. >> i was talking about myself. >> do you feel that you have to flaun your sex appeal. >> i've done this for 28 years. i talk for example in the interview about how when i covered the washington redskins for "the washington post" if i said hello or gave a quick little hug to say a sportscaster who was a friend of mine, all the redskins would talk to him about was ef-dating me. what i said in a very kind way, very concerned about erin, i've always been very concerned about erin in this, i was talking about the pitfalls and problems in this country today for women in the sports media.

>> lauren, we could agree erin andrews in no way deserved this. this couldn't be an accident that the networks pick attractive women to be sideline reporter. >> let's talk about the ugliness of beauty. if you're a beautiful woman, are you supposed to deserve something like this? are you supposed to be treated as a sex object? beauty is easy as you know. reading on tv is difficult. so that means that you have to have skills to go along with this. this is 2009. why are women still being treated like this in the media? this is a media person being treated by the media as an object. >> kelly, espn reacted to this story we showed the cover earlier, by banning "new york post" reporters from appearing on the sports network and then the post retaliated -- no one would have known that someone taped erin andrews nude in her

hotel room if the mickey mouse sports network hadn't sent a letter to an obscure website demanding that it take down its link to a fuzzy video of an unidentified blonde. >> espn had to do something and make a statement about these pictures in some way, whether or not it's fruitless, just need to make a statement about it in a way, in a definitive way of expressing this was a disgusting way to proceed. and that had happened. >> christine, you've done some work for espn over the years. is banning the "new york post" an appropriate step? >> sure. absolutely. i have no trouble with that. the network espn controls what it airs and they have every right to do that. >> one more espn controversy to throw at you and that's the story involving pittsburgh steelers ben roethlisberger who was suddenly confronted with allegations from a woman who filed a civil suit against him saying he sexually assaulted her a year ago.

who knows whether this is true. a lot of news organization reported it. espn initially did not. told their talk shows not to talk about it. can you ignore a story like that? >> no. when you have a civil suit you have to jump on it. it's journalism 101. the public domain is out there. having said that i feel because espn is so involved with networks and of course we understand that, that the reality is that you have to make sure to bend over backward, perception being more important than reality in journalism. >> roethlisberger denies those allegations. then after a couple of days espn took its head out of the sand and reported the story. >> they are reporting it very vigorously and that's important. who knows the story lines behind that. but i would say this they did jump on it and they will cover it the way they should. >> one thing about roethlisberger. that is usually we don't in the media report the identity of those who are charging sexual

assault. but this woman, whose name i won mention, her name every where, her picture is in the daily new york news. does that trouble you? >> yes but after the week i've had and thinking of poor erin andrews, this is a whole different world and what does it say about journalism in the 21st century. >> we're playing to the lowest common denominator. if it drives ratings we'll talk about it. we'll have the food fight. is it right? is it ethical? no. >> on that note we got to go. thanks very much for stopping by and coming up in the second half of reliable source the accidental billionaire. the new book breaks down how a couple of college kids turned facebook into an empire. but first, getting side tracked. health care as i mentioned was supposed to be the story of the summer. the most crucial answer of the

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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. i'm john king and this is "state of the union." french president is in the hospital undergoing medical tests this morning. presidential pal lays said mr. sarkozy became ill whilinging with his body guards. the 54-year-old president underwent a physical early they are month. his blood tests were normal. moscow said it's perplexed by controversial comments made by vice president joe biden. biden told the "wall street journal" that russia has a withering economy and a leadership that's clinging to the past. his remarks come weeks after a

summit meeting between the united states and russia that was intended to promote thawing relations. sarah palin's last day in office. she resigns tonight during a ceremony in fash banks. the lieutenant governor will be sworn in as her successor. she's leaving office because of a slew of ethics complaints against her. it cost the state millions to represent her and distracted her from her job. that and more ahead on the "state of the union." now let's get right back to reliable sources. >> the media are in rare agreement health care was the issue facing america. barack obama's news conference was a make or break moment and the fate of his presidency was hanging in the balance but journalists found the prime time press performance dull. that is until the final minutes when the journalist from "chicago sun-times" changed the subject and then you could hear

them pumping their fists and talking about race and privilege and law enforcement. the question was about the arrest of henry lewis gates obama's friend at his home near harvard. >> what does that incident say to you and what does it say about race relations in america? >> the cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was proof that they were in their own home. >> the next day as the president's sharp edge comments dominated the air waves and front pages he told night line hey, it wasn't his fault the media were obsessing about this minor little arrest in cambridge. >> i have to say i'm surprised by the controversy surrounding my statement because i think it was a pretty straightforward commentary, your don't need a middle aged man who uses a cane who is in his own home. >> excuse me? you wait until a racially charged debate on television and

it's the media's fault. that lasted until friday afternoon when the president announced he called the police officer and accepted a bit of the blame. >> to the extent that my choice of words didn't illuminate but rather contributed to more media frenzy, i think that was unfortunate. >> so, what on earth happened to health care? joining us now in san francisco, deborah saunders cloumist for the "san francisco chronicle." and washington correspondent for "the new yorker" magazine. and chief cloolumnist for politico. >> journalists refused to let it go. everybody recognized it was a newsless press conference until the last question. i was there and on the way out all the conversations were about two things, one frustration in that he took a long time to answer all the health care questions. >> there by making few opportunities to ask questions. >> right. the second thing was also what

the news is at these press conferences is formed by conversations that journalists have at the very end. >> when the conspiracy goes out. everyone agreed the conspiracy was easy and agreed it was going to be a huge issue. >> a day or two into this obama said you may have noticed health care isn't getting much attention. was that the media's fault? >> no. i've bean white house reporter at the 57 minute mark in a press conference you're thinking what will my lead be. if you want the lead to be health care stick to health care. if you want to it be race stick to race. that's what the president did. >> deborah, i might be critical of the media for jumping off the health care bus. except in that prime time press conference what did the president say that was exactly new? >> he didn't say anything that was new when he talked about health care he basically said it won't cost much and it won't change much. like you, i sort of get sick of

these kinds of stories in a way. they are sort of -- there's an umbrage of stories where when the president says one thing another group can't wait to be offended. in this particular case, i think it was a teachable moment for barack obama, because he found out as president he can't recklessly talk about an incident involving a police officer without having real consequences to that man. and officer crowley fought back and when he fought back, that showed that the president has to be more careful when he talks about things like this. >> one thing for pundits to pop off. he didn't just hold his fourth prime time news conference of his presidency on wednesday night, he gave a whole bunch of tv interviews to drive his message on health care. let's take a look at some of that and listen to these questions that journal jichts ask.

>> mr. president this is now the obama push for health care reform in this country, is it not >> people look at that, mr. president, people are paying already high costs for medical care and think it's a joke. >> are your concerned at all that if health care reform fails it will be a huge and devastating setback to your presidency >> the easiest way to keep your poll numbers up and to garner good press is to do not that much here in this town. >> not much may be true. roger, does the president get much out of doing all these network interviews. does he get one inch closer to health care? >> i'm sure he does. politics is personal driven. when he dominates the stage as he does in these interviews helps not only get his message across but he fills the air waves with him instead of his opponents. he has given many more interviews than previous presidents at this time in their

presidency. peter baker points out from the "new york times" he carpet bombs the media, he fills the vacuum because his communication team knows if he doesn't fill the vacuum the other side will. >> it raises the question if he does too much of that. this is a complicated subject. we're talking about employer mandates and options. is the press coverage reflecting the nuances of this big complicated sticky issue? >> there is a tendency to move directly from the substance to the political implications for barack obama himself -- that's a very legitimate question. it's true this is make or break. the more complicated the issue the less, especially the television media where it's harder to get into the very detailed policy nuances, the less they will cover it. >> some of the newspaper coverage out there should know it's been substantive and detailed. debra, we have to cover the politics. republican senator says this

could be president obama's waterloo. how would you rate the substance of the media's coverage on the issue of health care >> it was nice to see at this press conference that there were finally reporters who were asking president obama about the sacrifices involved and what people will have to give up. i still don't think that we have gotten through that at all. i notice that we've all talked about the press conference where he talked about how there's a blue pill and red pill and they are just as good but no incentive for insurers to make you use a red pill. i don't know what universe he lives in. has he ever been to an hmo? they always make you take the cheaper stuff. that's what it is. so, i think we've got to start finding out what exactly are people going to have to give up, and reporters were trying to find that out at the press conference, but of course, we don't know which bill we're

talking about. it makes it hard to be as substantive as we want to be because we don't know what the package will be. >> one of the reporters asked what will americans have to sacrifice and he basically said very little, treatments that don't work or make you healthier. at a fundraiser a couple of days ago after the gates arrest was blonde up barack obama was quoted as saying media's lack of focus on sustained facts makes him unable to pass this legislation. isn't that like complaining about the weather? he got elected in this media. >> the print media spent an awful lot of time on health care. read the sunday papers today. read the opinion sections. read the editorial sections. it's laid out better than the president laid it out at his press conference what's at starks exactly what we think it might cost us, exactly what the public might and might not get out of it. in fact, the media is helping the president in making his argument that the status quo

won't work we need health care reform. >> is there a preoccupation with the congressional sausage making, the blue dogs, the august deadline. but, of course, you have to deal with that because it impinges on whether or not there will be bill. >> i think all of the hand wringing over this make or break moment for obama is the prerequisite to getting something done. so they will look back and see this as a moment when it created the pressure to get the blue dogs in line, to get the senate finance committee to start moving and, you know, these crisis moments always help push the process along. >> do you agree with roger's point that the media is helping the president? >> nobody likes the system now. >> people tend to be happy with their health care but frustrated with insurance companies. >> the media takes the assumption that reform is necessary and the system is

broken. that's a victory for the president. >> is that bias? >> it's not bias if it's factually true. >> there are a lot of people who may tell a pollster they are not happy with the system but happy with their coverage and if their coverage changes they won't be happy. the real question about this health care package for most people is, hey, i have coverage, what your going -- how much more will i have to pay for other people and what your going to take away from me. am i going to be paying for more less. >> deborah, what about the broadcast networks, abc, cbs, nbc, giving air time, they give up a lot of advertising money to the president for his fourth prime time conference in six months. is he going to get that free air time >> first of all, i think that this press conference showed arc for the president. and that a lot of people, a lot of conservatives i hear from the press are being nice. he's a new president.

clean slate. you're giving him a chance. with this press conference and i do think the networks will think twice about airing the next prime time, you're seeing people realizing wait a minute, this blue pill/red pill thing that's not telling me anything. the fact is that you're actually going to get your reform two-thirds with savings people will have to give something up and it's time we found out and report what is it. >> cost the networks $9 million an evening. >> big bill. thanks very much. when we come back, founding facebook, a new book promises sex, money, genius and betrayal. the biggest brand in social media. we'll talk to the author next.

sometimes it seems that facebook has taken over the planet. when i joined it was still largely the province of teenagers reason college grads. now i hear from businessmen and

journalists of all ages. how did an invention get so big and is its impact positive. joining us now from boston is ben mezrich. the author of a new book about-face book. you say in the book that this is, the development of facebook is one of the most important developments in the history of civilization. i like facebook but it sounds a bit grandiose. >> college kids, high school kids, there's a whole generation that spend three, four hours a day on facebook and everyone who joins it, you know, they stay on it, meet their friend through you it, people meet their which was. it's the next step in social evolution. >> i thought twitter was the next step. >> twitter is really fun. it's got it's moment in time.

it has its purposes. facebook you live through. a real social network place online which is new. >> my twitter followers will come after you for that remark. let me talk to you about the book. >> i love twitter. >> you say that mark zuckerberg was the co-founder in harvard, started this as a list to help him get girls. then you have this scene where mark zuckerberg breaks into a harvard dorm to hack into a computer server, hiding behind a sofa wall, a couple making out. who was that couple? did you talk to them? >> no. what that scene is, mark zuckerberg late one night hacked into computer systems at harvard to make this hotter than hot website. there were certain sites he couldn't get inside of. i talked to some engineers and they said the way he would have to have done that is go to different houses, steal photos off the houses. >> you didn't talk to anyone --

>> not for that scene. i was clear on that one scene by starting off saying, this scene this is how it probably happened based on my information. i go back and forth in the book between scenes that are the way they happened and scenes this is probably what happened. >> let me read an author's note you have at the beginning of the book. you say, you write in some instances, details of settings and descriptions have been changed or imagined and identifying details of certain people altered to protect their privacy. some of the conversations recounted in this book took place over long periods of time in multiple locations and some conversations were re-created and compressed. if some things were re-created or compressed or changed or imagined how can i have any confidence this is the real deal? >> the way i write, you know, my style, a lot of journalists have trouble with it and i understand that and the controversy about

it. it's fun. what i do is i interview the people, i get the thousand of pages of court documents and write it in this thrilleresque entertaining style. most would say this is what happened. when i do the dialogue i have multiple people with multiple points of view of who said what happened there and then i choose what is the most true, most real conversation that happened there and i write it in a conversational style. i could simply if this were an article for the "new york times" just say a conversation appeared here that said this. but because i'm a narrative nonfiction writer i try to be clear. >> the key word is nonfiction. when you say the details are imagined or re-created or compressed it sound like you're writing a novel. >> no, absolutely not. it's a true story. the story is true. i've written it in a cinematic

way. i write nonfiction. there's plenty of writers who do this form of journalism. >> who don't necessarily say that there are imagining, that word jumped out to me. mark zuckerberg had another co-founder. he talked to you. done that tell you, it gives account to the guy who gave you access? >> no. i know eduardo was angry and felt betrayed. the fact that he's angry done necessarily mean that everything he says is not true. he was angry and then i have to go inside everything he says. i didn't talk to mark. he opted not to talk to me after a year. had he talked to me woe have given a point of view that i also would have to fact check.

it's not when you talk to one and not talk to the other you can only have one story. i had numerous stories. one of the people that drove me was angry. >> kevin spacey made a movie out of your last week. he's inned in "the accidental billionaire." >> spacey is co-producing. it will be a big sony picture. >> when you said the book was cinematic you western kidding. up next the long good-bye. up next the long good-bye. after losing walter if i'm wrong kite and tim russert and peter jennings, are we losing the kind of journalism they championed? steroid. announceit keeps my airways. to help me breathe better all day long. and it's not a steroid. announceit keeps my airways. to help me breathe better all day long. and it's not a steroid. announceit keeps my airways. to help me breathe better all day long. and it's not a steroid. announceit keeps my airways. to help me breathe better all day long. and it's not a steroid. announceit keeps my airways. to help me breathe better all day long. and it's not a steroid. announceit keeps my airways. to help me breathe better all day long. and it's not a steroid. announceit keeps my airways. to help me breathe better all day long. and it's not a steroid. announceit keeps my airways.

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we in the news business have spent a fair amount of time saying good-bye lately, good bye to several titans of television spp it good-bye as well to the values they represented? people have been casting their ballots. >> four years ago we joined in the tribute to peter jennings. >> good evening. the state of korean airlines 7 continues to anger and mystify a lot of people. >> last summer it was tim russert the political junky and sunday morning inquestion it issor. >> people were sent to the convention center. no water. no food.

no beds. no authorities there. there was no planning. >> we now know who the democratic nominee will be and no one will dispute it. i'm tom brokaw nbc news and it's my sad duty to report this afternoon that my friend and colleague, tim russert, the moderator of "meet the press" and nbc's washington bureau chief collapsed and died early this afternoon while at work at the nbc news bureau in washington. >> the shockwaves cannot be fully expressed. tim was our friend, our leader, our cheerleader, our teacher, my mentor. >> and, of course, the country has just mourn the passing of the plain spoken man who practically invented the role of anchorman just as television news was coming of age. >> good evening from our cbs newsroom in new york on this the first broadcast of network television's first daily half hour news program.

>> at a funeral service this week one of cronkite's oldest friend grew quite emotional. >> he's been such a good friend over the years. please excuse me. thank you. >> these were all journalistic giants but are they irreplaceable? there's no shortage of talented anchors and correspondents today but they operate in an environment far different from cronkite. one where cable news and blogs and websites and twitterers bounce from president obama to michael jackson. to octomom, to chris brown, to mark sandford, to mark sanford's are a again tine girlfriend, in breathless pursuit of the new and the novel. >> no one wants to go back to the days of three networks but correct me if i'm wrong kite and jennings and russet remind us of

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good choice. only meineke lets you choose the brake service that's right for you. and save 50% on pads and shoes. meineke. if i'm wrong kite has passed on america is demanding to know who is our most trusted newscaster? 29% picked brian williams, 19% said charlie gibson and 7% katie couric. trouncing them all with a whopping 44% is jon stewart.

i can understand that. here is a guy who isn't afraid to tackle tough issues. he has a shrewd grasp of pop culture. >> the government set the cap for carbon emissions for a company say 100 metric tons per year. you produce less emissions you can sell the remaining cap -- >> the problem here for this here it's a bogus poll. it only counts people on the web and choose to participate. john king as i turn things back to you, i have no doubt that lots of people, younger people, would pick jon stewart who has pulled our business a if you tricks. >> i saw you voting