girls are married by the time they are 15. and some yemeni provinces the average marrying age for females is eight years old. incredibly these women want to keep it that way. and they are holding up their korans because they believe the holy book backs them up. thanks to all of you for being part of my program this week. i will see you next week. stay tuned for "reliable sources." victory and intimidation. is the press boosting the president after his health care win and linking the likes of sarah palin to death threats against democrats? tainted cash. why on earth did abc pay $200,000 to a woman now accused of murdering her daughter? junkie journalism. politico's top editors tastes great, but is it less filling? plus tiger talks, should two

sports channels have agreed to five-minute interviews? we all thought the health care story would fade after president obama finally got his hotly disputed bill through congress. on that point, we were wrong. the coverage took a dark turn this week with reports of death threats and vandalism against perhaps a dozen democratic lawmakers. some democrats started arguing that certain republicans were encouraging the threats and violence with their overheated rhetoric about the president and his supposedly socialist program. in much of the mainstream media, in tone and in story selection, they adopted that view. >> it can now be said that the debate over health care reform has gone too far. it's now veered into threats of violence. >> on twitter former alaska governor sarah palin told followers, don't retreat, reload. >> it turns out angry opponents of the bill unleashed threatening phone calls,

scathing words, even bricks thrown through windows. >> on her facebook page, crosshairs mark the districts of 17 lawmakers she wanted to see defeated in november. >> considering these concerns we've been hearing about regarding violence, do you recommend that your party use less incendiary ladies and gentlem language? >> i've seen this since i've been in politics. please. >> leading republicans have denounced the violence and accused the democrats of playing political games. so are journalists drawing unfair connection here's or holding republicans accountable for their rhetoric? joining us is the former managing editor of gadet broadcasting. terry smith, should the media be adopting this premises that there's a connection between some of these death threats and

sarah palin's use of the word reload? >> the reload is loaded as a phrase, that's for sure. but, no. basically they ought to cover this as what it is which is a law enforcement matter. i mean, this is -- some of the rhetoric goes beyond rhetoric. >> when you say that reload is loaded, don't journalists routinely use such phrases as targeting incumbents, air wars -- >> reload is loaded. come on. you know, yes, they do. of course they use military war-like phrases all the time. but that was not casually used. >> sarah palin responded to this at a rally yesterday. she called this whole argument a bunch of bunk. and fox news turned to them and said we ask for some fair and balanced reporting here. >> the problem here is the leaders of the country are the ones using the hate and

rhetoric, everyone else is following along. on september 11th, when the towers went down, everybody rallied against hate. what's happening now is in our country there's hate. we hear words like thuggery, and it's not until politicians understand the reason they're doing this is self-esteem that it will stop. >> i'm all for jumping on people who call others a baby killer, and then apologized. but the republican national committee saying fire pelosi and flames, seems to me like standard tactics. >> i think we're beyond that. i do. when you looked at last sunday night and you saw that final speech by john boehner, when he was saying hell no. i recorded it and just freeze

framed his face and tone. it was angry. >> but how do you go from that, his passionate opposition to marna program that does involve a lot of federal spending, to saying boehner and others responsible for death threats? >> it's not just passionate opposition to the policy. he said you behaved shamefully. it's personal attacks. it's like the language of baby killer. then that kind of disingenuous talk when he sid the bill is what i was talking about in this climate of people losing jobs, all the scary stuff happening in this country, for people like -- to go out there and especially the way sarah palin did, to put out that gun rhetoric into the middle of that, very dangerous and irresponsible. >> the conservative argument is that the media didn't seem quite

so concerned with civility when protesters were calling george w. bush a war criminal and a nazi. >> let's stop it. let's stop talking about it and can we just stop it? the only way to stop it is call people to task. there's one word for all of this it's didnkindergarten. i guarantee you john mccain's kindergarten wouldn't allow him to cross his arms like that. let's just knock it off. >> i think it's three to one against you. it does go -- it does cross a line it does go too far. it ought to be reported that way. >> where i was concerned is where you had sean hannity on fox news openly doubting -- remember the rally at the capital last week when all the protesters showed up before the health care bill passed, and you had people like barney frank and

cleaver having the "n" word thrown at them, and hannity says how do we know it's even happening? there's no video of it. that's where i would have a problem. let's turn the conversation to the way the media have covered the president after the passage of the health care bill, finally got it through after 14 months. let's look at some of the reports, including one guy on the end there who doesn't like barack obama very much. >> tonight, making history. the house hands president obama his long-awaited victory on health care reform. a bill that inspires. >> tonight on "world news" from washington, making history. president obama celebrates landmark changes in american health care. >> this vote on health care was the end of the democratic party as we know it. >> gosh. >> have the mainstream media flipped from calling obama the

new jimmy carter to the new fdr? >> yes, they've flipped, but the facts on the ground flipped, too last summer when they were most critical, obama and his administration, they were in trouble. they were losing control of the debate over health care. and so it was reported that way. by the time the world had turned and the thing had changed, it was a major victory, and it was worth reporting. >> maker victory, absolutely, but for months we heard pundits calling barack obama too detached, do too ineffective, a now -- >> we love to win, we love to lose, we love to affiliate ourselves with the winners and losers. we do it when people win. now, he's not a failure. he's doing the great things. now we can say, okay, let's promote the winner. our country loves to be number one, nobody wants to be number

two. we all want to report on who's number one. >> it's not just that he won. even before that, you know, the day before the vote last saturday when he came and made that speech to the house congressional democratic caucus -- >> yes. >> that was an inspirational speech. that was as good as it ever gets. i think americans -- at least i did, i saw something there where a guy was down and said, a, sometimes in our lives we find out what we're really about. and this is what i'm about. if i go down with this, fine. but i'm going to go down with it. people react -- i know i did as viewer, i said i'm with this guy. >> finally we saw the barack obama of the campaign, he came back it was from losing the olympic bid to this health care mess. >> i don't think it got the coverage it deserved. we know what the conservative position is. the weekly standard, it says repeal. and let me talk about the

pundits on this. speaking of "the weekly standard" fred barnes wrote back in january, the health care bill obamacare is dead with not the lightest prospect of resurrection. and here is chris matthews with alan grayson telling him about the idea that health care could pass in the senate through reconciliation. >> reconciliation is 51 votes not 60 votes. >> nobody has done a program with reconciliation. just name the program that's ever been created through reconciliation. >> tax cuts -- >> that's not a program. you can raise taxes or cut program spending. you cannot create something. >> videotape is a wonderful thing, isn't it? >> there's nothing -- it's not that matthews turned out that he was wrong, it's that he's

mocking his guest for taking this position. >> it's a good thing in the end that chris didn't run for the senate, because the rules got away from him there. >> mr. television critic? is that good television? >> it's great television. it's incredible television. are you kidding? it also shows -- it also shows what -- how foolish cable television cans will be in this. and that's part of the larger issue that we're talking about here in terms of how they're throwing fuel on the fire. that -- >> how foolish when people try to predict the future, which is something i studiously avoid doing, because sometimes you're wrong. let's get a break here. when we come back, abc hands over big bucks to a woman accused of murder. can this payment possibly be justified? you know, when i grow up,

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has gingko for memp$y and concentration. plus support for heart health. ( crowd roars ) that's a great call. one a day men's. when casey anthony's

daughter went missing nearly two years ago, abc devoted considerable attention to the story on "good morning america"

showing exclusive videos of the photos of her mom and daughter. casey anthony was charged with child negligent that day and weeks later charged with murder. but only now are we learning that abc news paid anthony a whopping $200,000 for the material. lauren ashburn, networks oftentimes pay for these things, but do you find this offensive? >> of course. well, somebody needs to stimulate the economy, right? of course whoever is a journalist would say no this is ridiculous. it comes down to the bottom line of ratings, money from advertisers and kieeping the nes relevant. abc cut 25% of its news staff and it has to somehow show that it can entice viewers in this age of the internet. >> let me read a statement from an abc news spokesman it was a mistake not to disclose the

payment to viewers. we instituted a policy going forward that if someone is a subject of a story and there's any arrangement made to license material from them that will be disclosed to our viewers. >> the answer is we'll disclose in the future. they shouldn't have made the payment. i was astonished by their first response and to see snyder double down on it, that's not the problem. this has escalated. it is mainly the morning shows and the magazine -- prime "time" magazine shows where the big money is where they'll do it. we used to be -- really we used to jump on it. there's so many problems in the media that we almost let this slide, but we shouldn't. >> this is checkbook tabloidism, it's creepy, frankly. >> everybody this week, everybody from society professional journalists to people like us have said this is terrible. this is horrible. okay. it's terrible, it's horrible. let's step back and look at the big picture. the news industry now is under

fire. they will start aligning content and advertising and advertising is going to start making the needle move this way when it comes to ethical guidelines and ethical rules. let's learn from this and let's figure out how we can make the newspaper industry and the television industry strong without breaking ethical rules. >> $200,000? this is the same abc news, is it, that just, as you said, laid off 25%, 400 people, 25% of its news force. $200,000? >> these kinds of payments always make me uncomfortable and the way of getting around the restriction, they all say they abide by it, which is we don't pay for news. let's one other topic i want to get to that i know you want to talk about. a lighter subject, but it's gotten a lot of attention on the morning shows, not so much elsewhere. let's roll the tape. >> we turn now to the latest on sandra bullock's marital woes.

there are reports that he is hoping for forgiveness from the oscar winner. >> sandra bullock moved out of her house after revelations, and allegations that her husband may have been having an affair for 11 months with a tattooed stripper. >> big news breaking today on "show biz tonight" sandra bullock's brand new humiliation over her husband's alleged cheating. >> here is my question. she just won an oscar. there hasn't been a word of this in the "new york times" or usa, one paragraph in the gossip column of the "washington post." do serious news outlets times just pretend these things are not going on? >> they are not in touch with the conversation that is really happening in america. people love this stuff. why do they love it? here's a woman who has an oscar, a hot body, she's got great clothes, right? and now she has a cheating husband. now, my self-esteem has risen because hers has been taken down. and it's the same thing --

>> i'm glad there's some benefit. the tattooed alleged stripper, michelle "bombshell" mcgee -- >> this is why you wanted to do that, you just wanted to say that. >> my belief is this -- it's sort of going with lauren, my belief is if there's a large audience out there interested in it, there is usually something going on that's important sociologically with the story. our job as journalists is to find out what is going on sociologically with the story and explain it. >> am i the last man in america who has never heard of jesse james. >> probably. let me get you in touch. >> i'm so out of it, it's pathetic. >> you have the meat and potatoes, but you can have some dessert, too. >> we just served it up for you. coming up on "reliable sources," is the rush for online scoops helping or hurting

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. it's become a media brand name in a remarkably short period of time. politico is a website and a capitol hill newspaper fixated on politics. it was launched just over three years ago by two "washington post" reporters who hired many other journalists from the so-called old media and it contributed to a speeded up media where scoops are measured in seconds. it sure has changed the playing field. last week, we brought you an editorial meeting from the politico mu newsroom, now here my conversation with the founding editors. >> a phrase by your star column is "win the morning." what does it mean to win the morning? >> nobody wins more mornings than mike allen does. we use the phrase light hardly but it's a serious meaning behind it, because politico is a

24/7 operation, and we are attuned to how people get news. we think it's important to put a lot of our best content out in the morning and to be driving the news story in the morning. that's different rhythm than the one i grew up with at the "washington post" where the most intense reporting activities were in the late afternoon, early evening as we approached deadline for the next day's paper. >> you both spent your whole career in newspapers. how is life different. >> the speed is definitely different. we don't think about what will be happening at night. we're thinking about a continuum of different news cycles. particularly when you talk about winning the morning, one thing that i think a lot about, we think a lot about is most of the information consumption that's done by the people that matter in this town is largely done between 5:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. after that, you're in a meeting, too busy to sit down with a newspaper or sit at a website and read a full story. our feeling is if you can shape

that conversation early in the morning, set the agenda for what the cable stations will be talking about, the networks what other reporters are following, you're already one step ahead of the competition. >> one way to win in the internet business is to get a lot of clicks, hits on your stories. this morning you have the 44 column, mike allen's play book, live pulse, morning score, pulse, huddle, click. these are all features that you developed in order to get more people to click more often? >> we like getting traffic and we get a lot of it. you know, the editor, publish, neilsen net ratings typically puts us in the top ten among newspaper websites nationally. we love when people see our content. our fundamental model is not driven by traffic. it is trying to be as essential to the conversation of washington insiders, people who live and breathe this, whose careers depend upon it. that's a rather small audience,

core audience, kind of at the center of the circle. that's the one we care about. that's not chasing traffic. that's not chasing a huge number, but for the readers who matter most to us, does our content matter to them? is it indispensable? if we can answer that with a yes, we're succeeding. if not, or somebody else beats us to it, then we're not. >> you are constantly on deadline, in a way that newspapers have never used to be. does the need for speed sometimes effect the depth of reporting? substance? >> i think it can be intention. to be a first-class news organization you have to do both. i think you can do the quick hits, you can do the information people need to know at that moment. one of the problems with conventional journalism, the way i practiced it for most of my career, the truth is people were not reading our stories. we might write a thousand words, but people were only reading 200 words of information, often that

will suffice what we try do is balance getting people the quick-hit information that is perishable but also take the time then to sit back, when a piece deserves a thousand words, deserves a couple days of real thinking and editing. if you can provide that mix it's mission accomplished. we are informing readers, educating readers and keeping people in the loop. >> but since you can measure how every single story does, every column, every item does that distort news judgment? if that story is about lobbying and it don't do well, would you shy away from doing lobbying stories? >> i think what's important is connecting to what's important to readers reading us. we want a large national impact and we want to be indispensable here in washington. so different reporters would measure success in different ways. i'm not expecting a reporter who

covers an essential policy subject or covers lobbying in washington to be among our huge traffic drivers. >> it's interesting, you talk about driving this conversation. you don't feel like you succeeded unless you are either in the mid official debate or starting a debate or getting people talking about what you're doing at politico. does that lead to -- a while back you did a story about obama's team was sort of starting to talk about who would play roles in the 2012 re-election campaign. a lot of team said, well, of course he's gearing up for 2012. where is the great scoop there, but you played it as your lead story? >> was a great piece of reporting that had a lot of internal intrigue that gave you an idea of who might do well what for the campaign in 2012. for our audience, political junkies, that's crack. people love that stuff. people want to know who's up, who's down. you can do those pieces and very sensitive health care coverage. >> so you basically are dope suppliers. >> we add to our junkie audience. we do think of our audience as

political compulsives, junkies. they thrive on this stuff. they know a lot of information, so the bar is kind of high to make sure you're telling them something that they don't know or giving them a new analytical context to view information, so you can help them do their job better, help then understand politics better and understand washington better. >> is there such a thing as being too far inside and missing the larger landscape? there's such a thing. that's why you have to do both. if you've been in this business, you have to walk and chew gum at the same time. politico is not edited for the casual observer who maybe once a week wants to check in from wherever they live in minneapolis or san francisco and say i wonder what is happening in the political world. those people are welcome and they might enjoy it, but we edit this publication for the people who are clicking three, four, five, half dozen times a day who are not casual observers of this

but are intensive observers. and in most cases also participants in this process. >> how many editorial employees do you have roughly? >> i think we are around 70, 75. >> so, is one reason that you're trying to be part of the conversation and cater to the insiders is because, look, we're in washington, there's a zillion news organizations here, the big networks have bureaus here, the "new york times," "washington post," and you need to have turf somewhat different or are you playing on the same turf. >> there's a lot of people covering politics what we focus on, we are confined by our name of politico. >>s have you no sports section. we are not going to talk about metro. we will talk about politics and government. some day we want to be the dominant washington news organization, that requires a big editorial staff t requires us to expand our reach into other topics we might not be covering as heavy as we are,

say, health care right now. that's what we want to accomplish as a company. >> could you ever see charging for some of this content. >> it's conceivable. i never -- the bet that jim and i and our publisher, robert allbritton, a true visionary right now, the bet we placed is on information as a niche. i think the way to succeed in media these days is to define your niche that you want to own and work to dominate that. and that can work as a business because when you got such a highly defined and attractive audience, advertisers want to be next to that content so you can make a lot of money that way. the difference i go back to, we define ourselveses by dominating a niche. you don't come to politico for washington redskins news or for d.c. city council news. that's different than the broad focus that major metropolitan

papers have. >> even on the political battlefield, do you think newspapers have become too bland? too cautious? too dull? or are they now adapting to try to compete with you? everybody has a website and newspapers have bloggers, the "new york times" has the caucus column and all that. >> everybody is adapting. the days of sitting back and saying the web is not for real -- i remember when i was at the "washington post," there was a lot of folks, to be honest, like ourselves included at times thinking, well, this web, maybe shy do a couple more videos or something for the web, but did not think it has the dominant presence. everybody knows it's the dominant vehicle now. everybody is trying to play catch-up. i think the advantage we have is we focus laser-like on politics and washington governance. so if you're the "washington post" or "new york times," yes, you have a robust bureau but you have to focus on so many different topics, you have to do style, business, politics, government, foreign policy coverage. it's harder to dominate six or

seven things simultaneously. we're focused and readers appreciate we're focused because they know what they'll get every morning when they wake up and logon. >> what do you wish you could do more of? >> be interesting every single day is hard work. that challenge is no different than the one i had when i was at the "washington post," but being interesting every single day and not -- >> because people are getting it home delivered to their doorstep, stle to make a firm decision to click on to this, and not the l.a. times, the "new york times" -- >> you have to keep the discussion all the time. ben smith, one of our popular bloggers, he says you can't coast, if you're going to be a successful blogger, you can't coast for a week, go on vacation for a week and let the blog go dead. he does go on vacation, when he does, we make sure he gets a great substitution writer in. >> you are in favor of people going on vacation.

>> i am. but we are not -- everybody here is acutely conscious of we can't let the conversation die because even for a few minutes, you know that audience has expectations. and if those expectations are not being met in this competitive world, they'll go elsewhere. >> john harris, jim vandehei, thank you very much. >> our conversation with political, part of allbriton media. >> up next, erick erickson, we'll ask about some of his inflammatory comments after the break. national car rental knows i'm picky.

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erick erickson made his debut this week as a cnn contributor. he is a georgia lawyer, church deacon and managing editor of the website redstate.com. his hiring generated a great deal of publicity. i spoke to him earlier from atlanta. >> erick erickson, welcome. >> thanks for having me. >> you have been getting hammered by liberal commentators since cnn decided to bring you

on. it revolves around the things you have written on the administration's health care spokeswoman you wrote linda douglas is really the joseph gergles of the health care shop. you compared her to a nazi. >> i probably shouldn't have said that. i got her confused with the congressman who the same day she was outed wanted e-mails forward on from friends who were misrepresenting the president's health care plan. a congressman came out and referred to people as brownshirts. i got my wires crossed and thought if they're going to go down that road, i will too. >> she never said that and assures me she never said that the first lady, you wrote the following, is obama shagging hookers behind the media's back? is a sometime now the. i assume that obama marxist

harpy wife would go lorena bobbitt on him if he did. why would you describe her like that. >> a lifetime ago in blogging n 2008, at the time i wrote that the eliot spitzer story was breaking, the point was distracted by the language, that barack obama was as much a creature of the media as eliot spitzer was, neither have been investigated. since that time i've really learned, headed into the david suitor comment, that i don't have to get personal in blogging to make my point. >> let's deal with the david suitor comment. the nation loses the only go

expletive, do you regret writing that? >> i do it was the first time i realized, howard that what i do as a living effects miss family as well. having my 3-year-old heckled and booed in the front yard by a neighbor. having my wife being berated at her office. being a blogger, up to that moment i always considered i was just a guy chatting with friends on twitter. i reached a point that people listen to what i say and care about what i say it was a wake-up call to me that i had to grow up. >> you know, at a time when there's a great debate about threats against democratic -- mostly democratic and some republican lawmakers, i stumbled upon something you wrote about a washington state controversy in which you said at what point do people march down, pull them aside and beat him to a bloody pulp for being an idiot. i assume you're being metaphorical, some people might react differently to that. >> the left tried to blow up that, and i've written

subsequently about that with a legislator in new york who wrote banning assault weapons. i'm a local legislator myself, i'm afraid and have been since that time that we're reaching a point where reasonable people are just going to get crazy with government intrusion in their lives, in that particular case, with washington state banning phosphates from dishwasher d detergent -- >> let me make sure now, you now will forcefully make your arguments, and nobody disputes your right do that without these inflammatory attacks? >> i think so i've had to grow up overtime and realize it's not just me and friends anymore. i think everyone understands you talk in ways with friends that you don't in public. in some ways when you talk about things in private and public you use different language. i had to grow up and realize that i'm someone now on a national stage and platform and what i say and writes not only

effects me and my family but others. >> half a minute here. this week david frum, frequent guest on this program, was forced out by the american enterprise institute after he called the health care vote waterloo and criticized it as a big defeat. does the right have a lack of tolerance for dissent? >> good lord, no. you know, david frum, i think, is disingenuous to a degree. yesterday, i guess it was earlier this past week, said he wasn't forced out because of his waterloo comment, he was forced out because he wasn't spending any time at aei. in talking to several people the there, he was never there and never participated. his story has evolved and the criticisms have evolved. david frum calls himself a conservative when he has evolved but people still call him that. >> never might be overstating it slightly, erick erickson, thank you very much for joining us.

>> thank you very much. david frum says he was very productive during his time at the american enterprise institute, having written three books a thousand columns and made untold tv appearance with aei under pressure from donors, frum says his firing came a day after a wa"wall street journal" editorial denouncing him. coming up, candy crowley will reputatipereputatioperepupp with the superguarantee® shield. you'll get the job done right, or we'll step in and help to make it right. so, protect yourself with a business backed by the superguarantee®. only at superpages.com®. and let the good guys come to the rescue. well, the tiguan's great. mm. and the routan has everything we're looking for. plus, every volkswagen includes no-charge, scheduled, care-free maintenance.

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time for a look at what's happening on the other sunday shows. here is candy crowley. >> we were watching the other sunday shows and sort of seeing what everybody out there is talking about. we opened our show saying it's over. we have a health care vote, it's now health care reform law. let me amend that. it's all over but the voting and shouting. what's happening is it has moved arenas, it's gone from the legislative arena to the political. take a listen. arena to the political arena. take a listen. >> a house of cards, it is a ponzi scheme of the first order. it's going to blow up the deficit. it's going to affect every business, every family in this country. it was done by one party rule and it was a shame we had to go

down this road. >> six months from now by election time, this is going to be a plus because the parade of horribles, particularly the worry that the average middle class person has that this is going to affect them negatively will have vanished and they'll see that it will affect them positively. >> you know, one of the other big issues obviously has been the whole issue of civility. who started all of this. did the republicans, did they really add to the furor. we found one democrat at state of the union who did agree that perhaps democrats should not have fund raised off of some of these attacks. she called it strident. >> if we don't take ourselves seriously and act in a serious way, we're not going to be taken seriously by the american people. i have a suggestion. let's go back to the three rs, respect, rules of engagement that promote decorum and number three, stop the reward system that enables you to raise a lot

of money after using outrageous and bizarre behavior. >> so far no takers on the three rs but hope springs eternal for a little civility in politics. the last issue, as you know, the president made some recess appointments. that is putting people in office that the senate had had not yet confirmed. this is always incendiary. in particular this time around for an appointment to the national labor relations board, which republicans had expressly asked the president not to make a recess appointment. he, of course, did that. two very different views this morning. >> we are in a position where the republican party has taken a position where we're going to try and slow and block progress on all fronts, whether it's legislation or appointments. >> what it's called is checks and balances. and what the president has done here is throw fuel on the fire at a time when the civil -- when the debate about politics is a very angry debate to begin with.

>> this "the new york times" saying this is a president who is unafraid to evoc a confrontation with the republican party. >> not a president afraid to go ahead and do this things. we've just received word, a little breaking news for you here in your show that president obama has just landed in kabul, afghanistan, for obvious reasons this isn't something they like to make public ahead of time. so far as i recall the president has not been to afghanistan since becoming president so a very big trip for the president because after all as we have said many times, this is really become his war. this is the man who has sent more troops there than george w. bush did. now in kabul obviously getting the lay of the land. that's quite a move on obama's part. >> it is. they think they have had some successes there, although they do understand as well that the more americans you put in afghanistan for what they believe to be a just war, the

more targets you have out there, so always a tricky situation to so always a tricky situation to be a war-time commander in chief, but indeed barack obama is. >> thanks, we'll be right back. s lots of discounts on car insurance. can i get in on that? are you a safe driver? yes. discount! do you own a home? yes. discount! are you going to buy online? yes! discount! isn't getting discounts great? yes! there's no discount for agreeing with me. yeah, i got carried away. happens to me all the time. helping you save money -- now, that's progressive. call or click today. i'm going to own my own restaurant. i want to be a volunteer firefighter. when i grow up, i want to write a novel. i want to go on a road trip. when i grow up, i'm going to go there. i'm going to work with kids. i want to fix up old houses. [ female announcer ] at aarp we believe you're never done growing.

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you've heard me sound off about how tiger woods had to get out of the bunker. no way could he head into the masters and keep ducking the press and hope to keep the focus on golf. this week, he gave in. now lots of people said i was

wrong. the scripted stage-managed apology was enough. that, at least, is what barbara walters told me. >> i have said publicly that i don't think tiger woods should do an interview. because i think that he made his statement. i think he did his apology. i think he has to get his life back and get his wife back. and to sit down with a journalist like myself or like you, what about the first one, what about the third one. >> that's true, and yet tiger was sitting on a pressure cooker. much of the public was not going to accept his return to golf unless he stopped stiffing the press. ari fleischer undoubtedly gave him that advice when the former white house spokesman signed on as an adviser. so tiger tried to lower the temperature a bit by granting interviews not to some big-name anchor but to reporters for the golf channel and espn. and while woods stone walled about what happened during his thanksgiving night crash when he was either pursued or rescued by his wife, he did answer most of the questions about his serial

infidelity. >> were there moments you thought you should stop but examine didn't? >> yeah. i tried to stop and i couldn't stop. it was just -- it was horrific. >> you went from being recognized as the greatest golfer in the world to becomein a punch line. how did that make you feel? >> it was hurtful. but then again i did it. >> you said you made transgressions the how do you in your own words describe the depth of your infidelity. >> well, just one is enough and obviously that wasn't the case. i made my mistakes. >> why not seek treatment before all of this came out? >> well, i didn't know i was that bad. i didn't know i was that bad. >> tiger's team limited those interviews to just five minutes. that prompted cbs sports president shawn mcmanus, whose network will carry the masters, to reject the chance to conduct a third interview with tiger. and