thanks to all of you for being part of my program this week. i will see you next week. stay tuned for "reliable sources." whip up your fans we being incendiary without flaming out in the process. after his crude attack in calling a law student a slut, rush limbaugh used his microphone this week to apologize. >> against my own instincts, against my own knowledge, against everything i know to be right and wrong, i descended to their level. when i used those two words to describe sandra fluke. >> but with president obama taking him on and many advertisers bailing on his radio program, is rush in as much trouble as the drumbeat of coverage would suggest? are journal is rougher on conservatives who talk their way into trouble? the hot political movie "game change" had its premier last

night portraiting sarah palin as stubborn, ignorant, and a bit of a head case. >> i was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this to stay informed and to understand -- >> i have read most of them, again, with a great appreciation for the press, for the media. >> what ones specifically? i'm curious. >> name one [ bleep ] paper. >> all of them. any of them that have been in front of me over all these years. i have -- >> oh, my god. what have we done? >> but is the hbo film an accurate portrayal of her campaign? we'll ask the director and the screen writer. mitt romney does it again taking the key super tuesday contest of ohio, but the media coverage practically made it sound like rick santorum was the big winner. why won't the press give romney a break? i'm howard kurtz, and this is "reliable sources."

rush limbaugh's verbal assault on sandra fluke was no slip of the tongue. he was calling the georgetown law student a slut and prostitute for three days before issuing an apology. on his radio show limbaugh said it was the left that kept distorting the facts. >> i abbinged too much like the lefts that despise me. i descended to their level using names and exaggerations to describe sandra fluke. it's what we have come to know and expect of them, but it's way beneath me, and it's way beneath you. it was wrong, and that's why i have apologized because i succumbed. >> sandra fluke, meanwhile, continued her media tour winding up with the ladies of "the view." >> he has not called you. >> let me be clear that i think his statements that he made on the air about me have been personal enough so i would

rather notes have a personal phone call from him. >> president obama was asked about the limbaugh furor, and he said such remarks have no place in pus public discourse. >> the reason i called ms. fluke is because i thought about malia and sasha, and one of the things i want them to do as they get older is to engage in issues they care about. >> why has the media kwaergs continued to mushroom despite rush's apology? joining us now in los angeles, stephanie miller, host of the stephanie miller radio show which will soon be simulcast on current tv, and in seattle michael medved. you worked in the early 1990s as a substitute host for rush, but you haven't had any dealings with him for a long time. even for somebody who is in the controversy business as limbaugh is, wasn't this a pretty bad mistake? >> it was a terrible mistake, and he has acknowledged that.

he has acknowledged it very directly. the real question here is the people that are trying to sponsor boycotts and trying to go after his sponsors. what is it exactly that they want? what they seem to want is for rush to go off the air and to damage the show and that's not going to work. i do know for a fact that there are other advertiser who's are just very willing to jump back in for any advertisers who bail, and it seems to me that it's inappropriate once the guy has apologized to continue this thing as basically a war on conservative talk radio, which i kind of personally don't welcome. >> stephanie miller, limbaugh says he is sorry. we just saw a clip of him saying i'm sorry for using words like slut and prostitute. why isn't that enough? >> i think if any woman talking is thinking, if you consider that a sincere apology, you don't know many women. first of all, he said he only apologizes for the two words. well, i guess he doesn't aplz for saying she's having so much sex she can barely walk.

what else. that he would like to see videos of her having sex on-line. i mean, as you say, howard, it was a three-day sustained attack. it wasn't a slip of the tongue. >> but you -- >> you said once and then apologize for it. >> you mock people on your show. you mock people on your show. in fact, you have a certain phrase you use to describe mr. limbaugh. >> oh. drug-adled gas bag. that is based on the truth. i wasn't surprise thad he had problems figuring out how many birth control pills you have to take since he has had a little bit of trouble with the number of oxycontin pills you have to take. >> has ever talked about you? >> i don't think i want sex advice for -- >> have you ever apologized for that, stephanie? have you ever apologized for that? >> first of all, his testimony was based on the complete falsehood about sandra. >> of course not. of course not. michael, as you know shlgs advertiser boycotts hurt everybody in radio. you know? a lot of advertisers have pulled their advertising from everybody that could be considered controversial, which you are right, could be all of us.

it hurts everybody. it hurts the radio business. you know, thanks for that as well, rush. >> it seems -- it seems to me that there are a lot of people who hear about this and are thinking, you know what, i'm really glad i don't listen to rush limbaugh because i don't like the style that he use uses. there are 15 million other people who do like listening to rush limbaugh. what i don't understand is why the left is so concerned about attacking those 15 million people rather than building your own shows and building shows that can offer an alternative. why not? >> michael, that's what i'm doing. i mean, you know, i have said very clearly a lot of his advertisers are my -- a lot of his advertisers, by the way, are my advertisers, so i have said on the air, don't boycott that advertiser. if you want to let -- this is what happened. they let their feelings be known to those advertisers. those advertisers made their decision. you know? that's -- that's the way capitalism works. >> let me jump in for one second. >> i think we have an agreement

here. >> i don't want that. isn't there a difference between stephanie miller making fun of, mocking somebody like rush limbaugh, who is a public figure. he has a big mega phone, or people in politics, and rush picking on this law student, who is not a media figure and no one had ever heard of. isn't there a difference there? >> well, she became a media figure when she decided to testify before congress and before nancy pelosi. it seems to me -- this is one of the things that bothers me about the way this story has been covered. it's been treated as if, oh, rush is picking on this college student. she's not a college student. she's a 30-year-old law student, and she's a long-time activist on this issue, and she decided to testify before nancy pelosi. by the way, she's doing great with this. she's going to get a book contract. she's on "the view." she is suddenly a public figure. the president of the united states calls her. part of what's happening here -- and i know, stephanie, you'll acknowledge this -- the democrats would love to run against rush limbaugh in the presidential campaign. they don't want to run against mitt romney. >> if he were -- yeah.

>> stephanie. >> well, if he weren't the face of the republican party. the republicans are terrified of, we wouldn't say that. mitt romney, the best he can manage is, oh, i would have used different words. are there better words to call a woman a slut and prostitute? maybe something more old-fashioned like trollop or something. that was a profile in courage. >> i want to get to an usual here. i want to circle back, and that is a question of whether there is a harsher standard in the man mainstream media. bill maher, people are focussing on him he has used the c-word and a sin nom nonvery close to the c-word, and he has called her a category five moron. he defended hemgs on his hbo show, and here's what he had to say. >> i am a potty mouth. that's different than a massagenist. if i offended women, i'm sorry. i have no problem saying i'm sorry. i don't know why women would want to align themselves with sarah palin. i don't know why an insult to her is an insult to all women, but if it is, i'm sorry.

>> why have -- until now, until rush started this whole flap, stephanie miller, maher has gotten a pass on this kich crude language. >> i don't think that he has gotten a pass, but as he pointed out, he doesn't have sponsors. he is on hbo. dr. laura, you can yell the n-word 11 times on your radio show, howard, but you also have -- then you have the right to suffer the consequences. no one is taking away your first amendment rights. >> it dr. doctor laura is no longer -- >> advertisers don't want to be aligned with that. >> dr. laura is now on satellite radio, and the point is bill maher has gotten a pass. he gave $1 million, $1 million, of his own money to the president's super pac. if the president is so worried about people calling m his daughters names because they speak out in public, then why no sympathy for sarah palin? actually, if he turned down that million dollars and said, you know, in the same principle that i'm defending sandia fluke, i'm going to defend sarah palin, even though i disagree with her, the president could have gotten a lot of credit.

he didn't do that. >> technically, he can't turn down any money because the super pac is supposed to be independent. all right. another liberal who spoke -- >> i'm sorry. she's not a public figure. you can't say that sandra fluke, like she enjoys being called a slut and prostitute for three days in a national arena. she was asked to testify. >> sarah palin doesn't enjoy it either. one of the things that i thought was very good in that game change movie on hbo, they show -- >> she's not a public figure. he distorted her testimony in the first place. she wasn't testifying about her personal sex life. she wasn't asking taxpayers to pay for her birth control. >> it was totally inappropriate. >> it was incorrect. >> we agree that rush was totally out of line and totally inappropriate with what he says. rush agrees with that. the point is that to treat sandra fluke as some -- >> oh, he does not. if anybody -- he continued to attack her in his apology. >> it is very difficult to interrupt two radio hosts, but i'm going to do it anyway because another liberal has spoken out, keith olbermann, on

his current tv show, suspending his worst persons in the world segment, and he had this to say about this past comments he has made about michelle and two conservative commentators. let's roll it. >> i said ms. malkin was animated by "mindless, morally bankrupt, knee jerk hatred without which michelle maldin would just be a big mashed up bag of meat with lipstick on it." so in neither case were my remarks -- nor were they things i did not say or could not have said about men. nevertheless, they have apparently distressed them, and i apologize to them both. >> we're running out of time. brief comment from each of where you, michael first on the way that liberals are treated when they make these kind of attacks. >> it's lewd kiss are. look, i don't think we should all spend all of our time apologizing for one another. i think stephanie is fairly clever in anointing sarah palin caribou barbie. i don't think you need to apologize to that. >> thank you. >> when i have disagreed with you, stephanie, i don't think i have said anything that i need

to apologize for. >> you are an officer and a gentleman, michael. listen, rush has only called me a babe on the air, so i don't know if that's a gateway word to slut, but so far we're okay. >> on that rare moment of civility, we're going to have to end. thanks for joining us. when we come back, the debate over "game change". is it fair to sar wra palin as it depicts her run for vice president. is the film embellished? i'll ask the director and the screen writer of "game change" in just a moment. okay-y... okay??? i've been eating progresso and now my favorite old jeans...fit. okay is there a woman i can talk to? [ male announcer ] progresso. 40 soups 100 calories or less. i don't want a plunger anywhere near my coffee. not in my house. with maxwell house french roast, you let gravity do the work. [ male announcer ] maxwell house french roast. always good to the last drop.

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the filmmakers faced a stiff challenge, which everyone watched sarah palin unfold in real-time, but how accurate is "game change," the movie that premiered last night on hbo featuring julien moore as the governor and she studied hard for the part. >> there were times actually in the script where if i wasn't -- if i didn't quite understand something as seen, i would go back to try her own language, things she had actually said to put it in there. >> palin herself denigrated the movie before it was released. >> goodness gracious. you know, i am really not too concerned, though, about an hbo movie based on a false narrative when there are so many other things we need to be concerned about. >> i wanted to ask you -- >> was that narrative embellished or just revealing? take, for instance, palin's call of mccain strategist nicole wallace after the disastrous interview with a certain cbs anchor. >> why did you make me do katie

couric? are you there? are you listening to me? >> yes, governor. i'm here. katie was a logical choice. she had been very fair to us this entire campaign. >> you call that interview fair? >> yes, governor, i do. >> i certainly don't. she was out to get me from the get go. >> no, she wasn't. the interview sucked because you didn't try. >> you have ruined me. you have ruined my reputation. i am ruined in alaska. >> hbo, by the way, is part of cnn's parent company. i spoke about the film with the director of "game change" and danny strong, the screen writer. they join me from new york. >> jay, danny, welcome. >> thanks for having us. >> thank you. >> jay, you have said that this film is a dramaization and can't always be perfectly detailed accurate. does that mean that some of it is a little embellished? >> no. it means that any time you squeeze 60-day story into a two-hour movie you're taking

some kind of adjustment to make it fit, but you are never giving up on trying to make it completely true in its essence and you spend all your time double-checking, triple-checking all your sources. in this case, we had the great book, we thought, "game change" that -- where john and mark had done so much research that started it all off. >> you spent time with mark halprin and john, who did a lot of reporting for this book. when you talk about double and triple-checking and, danny, you can jump in here, who else were you -- who else were you interviewing as reporters? were you able to talk to senior people on the mccain campaign? >> yes, absolutely. i did 25 interviews with people on the mccain campaign pretty much covering every level of the campaign from, you know, low level aides to people at the highest levels in the campaign, and we were able to interview almost every character that appears on screen and several, you know, people within the

campaign that don't appear on screen. >> does that include john mccain? >> no. senator mccain didn't respond to our request for an interview, and governor palin decolumbined our interest for an interview, and mark salter also did not respond to our question, but we pretty much got everyone else in the film. >> well, you know, when i watched this, i couldn't help to think back to when i was covering the 2008 campaign, and there is a scene early on where steve schmidt played by woody haralson is surrounded by a mob of reporters shouting questions at him. >> uh-huh. >> and, you know, i talked to steve schmidt at the republican convention, and he was very agitated about what he saw as a media putting sarah palin under siege, printing or repeating or asking about every rumor and smear, as he put it. >> she claimed as mayor she tried to ban backs. is that true? >> what about the allegations that trig is not really her child? >> did she attend the church where they speak in tongues? >> there was no mob scene of reporters, so that scene didn't actually take place.

>> you know, that did take place for him during the campaign. there was different times that he was getting cornered by reporters during different phases of that convention. >> put that all together into one scene? >> exactly. that's part of the dramaization process. we're taking 60 days and we're narrowing it down into a two-hour period. now, during the convention was when all of the stories started to break about governor palin that he was having to refute, which was what you were talking about and what was happening in the movie. >> i remember is t vividly. you also have a conversation between sarah and todd palin while they're in bed, and he is kind of talking with her about the upcoming debate. since you didn't talk to the palin family, how do you know what was said? >> well, we had the vac of having her book "going rogue" which is a beat by bibeat account of her experiences during the campaign, and also from interviewing people within the campaign as well and would talk about their relationship and how they would interact with each other and in that particular scene, all of that dialogue is compromised -- is

comprised of things that are actually true, so nothing said in that scene is fictional. you know, the anecdote about how she ran when she was governor of alaska is something she's discussed before, and those were all dialogue that is built upon true anecdotes. >> as you both know, former member of sarah palin's team, kind of had a preempt i have strike against "game change" and on a phone call of reporters -- i want to put this up on the screen -- meg stapleton said we all know palin and the more dramatization of palin sells even more. this is sick. the media has gone too far, she says. you accepted the false narrative of a couple of people who sought revenge and fabricated a story more than three years ago. your response? >> well, the most obvious response was that when she made that comment, she hadn't seen the film. we assumed she still has not seen it, so it was tough to take it seriously. i also want to respond, though,

to the allegations that the film is based on a false narrative of a couple of people. that's totally inaccurate. the film is based on, you know, not only the book "game change," but interviews that i and jay conducted with 25 people, and, you know, the stories that we heard were corroborated by 10, 12, 5 15 people. it was never just one or two people's account of event. there were many, many people. some who are opposing views of governor palin who still told us the same stories. >> well, look, in fairness to palin, there are fabbings in any campaign. especially in losing campaigns. so you are presenting in some of these very dramatic scenes, you know, steve schmidt and nicole wallace two of the highest level strategists for john mccain in that campaign confronting sarah palin, trying to get her to prepare, being somewhat disgusted with the way she's conducting herself, but it's entirely possible this is their side of the story, and they are trying to portrait this in a way that makes them look better and makes palin look like she was

the problem. >> interviews with them were consistent with intuz with a dozen other people. it was the same story told by all of those people. >> yeah. what you said was our concern too. we had to double and triple-check all the accounts to make sure that it all added up because we wanted to make sure that not only was the book, you know, based on very reliable accounts, which we found that it was by interviewing many of those people ourselves, but also that since the book had come out, no other version of the story had come out and it hadn't. in fact, the film in a way updates what they found and we did most importantly have access to sarah palin's books themselves, which, as you see in the film, added a layer of empathy that the audiences who are seeing it now have remarked upon, that people are actually

connecting with her through the accounts of the scenes with her, and much of that is -- i personally listen to it and julianne moore listened to it, and i was frankly surprised by some of the empathy that the story added to the story i already knew. there were difficulties that she faced that i was much more understanding of once i understood all of the details. they didn't have access to that. >> more of my conversation with the hbo filmmakers in a moment.

more now on my interview with "game change" creators. she is connecting with voters on the rope lines, but in terms of the way she performed as the vice presidential nominee, this is a movie that pour trays sarah palin as sometimes acting irrationally, as having a temper, as being ignorant, perhaps even more than we had been told before.

kind of a blit ering idiot. is it hard to accept that as a sympathetic portrayal by julianne moore. >> her convention speech was phenomenal. we show her roll-out speech. we do show some aspects of both gaff that she had in knowledge about international affairs, which she just didn't have frankly a lot of time to get ready for. she was chosen very last minute, and we also show a few tough moments when she had trouble and almost a kind of traumatic experience during the debate prep, which, remember, there were many people in those rooms during that debate prep, and we spoke to many of those people, people who were actually, you know, involved in preparing her, and we heard consistently the exact same account of those moments which where she had great difficulty. we also show her coming out of that and going into the debate and doing quite well and being celebrated for it, and by the end of the film, she emerges as

the strongest of all of the people, i think, in the entire movie. it's hard to argue that it's some kind of deliberate attempt to diminish her. it's very consistent in our opinion with the actual history, and we think it's a true story. >> although, you know, the schmidt character and the nicole wallace character seem to blame palin a lot for the failure of the campaign. you do use a lot of footage from cmn and other network. at one point in time i thought wolf blitzer was one of the co-stars of this. you both know that are you seen as liberal hollywood guys. you both contributed to obama's campaign last time around. as did julianne moore. does that not create a perception problem for you, and did you know that going in? >> look, i understand how there would be that perception. i think it's completely fair to talk about, and i think it's fwood for the audience to know those sorts of -- that couldn't boogss like that have been made. that doesn't enable us to be fair, and it doesn't enable us to portrait the events as accurately as possible. in my own opinion, it doesn't

really matter as much as my commitment to telling the story the way it happened. i make a deal with the audience when we say it's a true story. i know the audience is expecting that. it would be not a very good story if it was deliberately one-sided. the best stories are layered, and this story is complex, and in this story there are no real heroes or villains and because it's all told within one campaign, and our commitment was only to the truth. we had no agenda other than just telling the story as faithsfully and accurately as we possibly could. >> right. it really does come off as the sarah palen story. even john mccain, a morrow moat figure than the star of the movie. at one point, steve schmidt, played by woody haralson saying they had smear after smear from the liberal media. looking back and since you both have heavily remped this, would you agree that the press in some ways was unfair to sarah palin? >> well, i think they were coming at her really hard. i think some of the allegations were false. i think many of the allegations

were true, and in the case of what steve schmidt was talking about at the time was, you know, that the press immediately was jumping on her as the vice presidential nominee in a way that a candidate had never been jumped on before. what was actually happening was that the press was vetting her in those few days better than the mccain campaign vetted her. i feel like a majority of what was brought up not only was accurate, but it was information that the mccain -- that the campaign itself should have known but didn't. >> she needed to be vetted by the press, but at the same time there were all kinds of questions about what -- i thought were unfair. >> i think there are a number of things that were very sexist. >> for them to accuse her of somehow hiding the pregnancy of her daughter, et cetera, i mean, those things were -- those things were, you know, not cool, and i think we show a lot of that in the film.

i think we -- >> i think we showed both sides of it. >> we help to show how difficult it was to do what she did and actually how amazing it is that she accomplished what she did under that kind of pressure and those kind of unfair attacks, but it also shows the other side that some of the questions were valid. >> it's fascinating to have a chance to talk to you about how this movie was put together and the research that you did. jay, danny, thanks very much for joining us. >> thank you. >> excellent. i saw the "game change" premier where i had to chance to talk to julianne moore. they're handing out the show bill that calls this a false narrative and a work of fiction. they have not given up. up next after super tuesday why does the media keep making mitt romney look like such a loser? i think about the future every morning when i wake up.

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>> new one argues that mitt romney had a great night, but he won most delegates and he won the marquee contest in ohio against rick santorum, even if it took him until well past midnight. many of the media seem to delight in kicking him around. voo i think the biggest issue for mitt romney is that he can't seal the deal. >> you have mitt romney showing that he still is struggling to connect with very conservative

voters. >> mitt romney won the math, but i think he lost a big part of his mojo. >> was this a realistic assessment of a battered frontrunner, or do the pundits have it in for many this guy? erin mcpike, and eleanor cliff and ramesh, senior editor at "national review." eleanor clift, i should mention that santorum crushed romney yesterday in kansas, but romney won wyoming, and the closely watched contest of guam and the northern islands. why does the media keep saying it was a bad night for romney even when he wins a bunch of states? sfli think the media has a vested interest in prolonging a contest because it's what we do, and all those cable shows have had something to talk about. >> you don't want it to be over. >> that's right. they've turned the primaries into an extended psychoanalysis of myth mitt romney and why he can't connect, why isn't he wrapping it up which the truth is if they had kept the same rilz that they had four years

ago this would be over by now. >> would you agree? let's concede he is not the greatest candidate ever to run for office, but extended psychoanalysis. i mean, there's a lot of negative assessments. >> i think so, and i think that eleanor is exactly right. it's not taking account of changes in the environment from last time around. if we had the series of, you know, dozens of debates that we had this cycle last time around where you had a much broader field of people that the voters were considering, who knows how that race in 2008 would have rolled out. >> right. erin, we in the press said that romney had to win michigan. then we said he had to win ohio. he does, and the press still trashz him. >> it's true, but we're talking about whether or not this is fair to mitt romney. what about the voters? you know, the romney campaign said it would take an act of god for rick santorum or newt gingrich to beat them, and that newt gingrich would need 70% of the delegates, but what if something like that happened? if i'm a voter in texas or new mexico or in rhode island or

south dakota, i would be down right livid right now that the media is trying to call it or decide whether or not we should know. i mean, the voters should have a say. that's the point that's been left out. >> there are many, many states that had a chance to vote. look, journalists like candidates who are flashy and who are exciting. mitt romney not exactly the most colorful guy to run for president. >> i think the republicans were looking at the 2008 contest between barack obama and hillary clinton and thinking that they would energize the country. they went on and got all the voters involved, and they wanted to replicate it because they did away with the winner take all primaries. they wanted a longer contest. now that we have it, i think a lot of republicans are having second thoughts because i do think that romney is getting battered through that process. >> do you think it's a national instinct for the race to go on so we have something to do between now and the conventions. i have the impression that a lot of reporters -- >> i have that impression as well. you know, i have that impression

in some previous races too. i think in 2000 a lot of the media didn't like him, and i get the sense that people neither like him nor particularly wish him well politically. >> one thing that's interesting here is that mitt and his top aides for all this campaign have been remarkably inaccessible to the press. >> i think part of the coverage that you are seeing is on a subconscious level the media is holding him hostage for more access. you know, yeah, of course, a lot of the press core has been upset with that because they have not gotten to know mitt romney more, and he hasn't told us a lot. >> thoelding him hostage like nice candidate. be a shame if anything happened to it. >> it's on a subconscious level, i think, and the media certainly wants more access to mitt romney, and, you know, in the debate when john king asked him what he thought the biggest misconsinges about him was, and he wouldn't really answer the question. i mean, we're not getting a lot in the way of answers out of mitt romney, and the media wants more. >> in the last few days it seems

like the team romney have loosened the reigns a little bit to let some of the top officials talk occasionally, which seems to me to be a basic tenant in the presidential campaign. >> i talked to reporters, and they made the case that their candidate was inevitable, and that angers everybody, but i think it does send a message to voters that -- >> they can make their best case. too they are, bugt you were just saying they weren't talking. now they are talking, and they're making their best case. we're still not happy. >> you just -- just briefly, do you think the lack of access to the lack of news conferences, the facts that many calls and emails aren't returned also hurts romney, at least at the margins in the coverage. sn. >> that's part of it, but that is of a piece with the overall tenor of the campaign, which is it's a corporate machine that is hard for the press corps or obviously for voters to fall in love with. >> i want to turn now to newt gingrich. as you recall, he has been the frontrunner a couple of times. lately not doing so well. it seems to me that a lot of the chatter about gingrich has to do with why are you still in the race? let's take a look at some of the coverage this past week. >> pressure is building on newt

gingrich to drop out of the race for the republican presidential nomination. >> with santorum's strong showing on tuesday night, some of his supporters think gingrich should drop out of the race now. >> it seems to me that the only candidate likely to drop out would be newt gingrich. on the sunday shows this morning both bob schieffer and chris wallace, and why aren't you going to get out? why is this their clambering in the media for one candidate to hang it up? >> because everybody is starting to do the arithmetic now, and if there's any way to stop romney, the conservative vote has to coaless, and that means they have to get behind one candidate, rick santorum. conservatives try this. >> why do journalists care whether he stops romney? >> i think it's fine to have him in the race, and i think romney loves to have him in the race because he wants that vote divided, and i think you are cherry picking various commentators out there who are looking at -- >> cherry picking. >> hello. boot newt was on "hardball."

and that one said "the newt nuj." >> the larger story is that candidates usually get out and they run out of money, and he hasn't run out of money because he has a billionaire, and -- >> and a super pac. >> remember, when he was the ahead of santorum, he kept making the argument santorum should drop out, and he would consolidate the anti-romney vote. he having validated this line of argument now that the numbers work against him. there is no defense. >> when candidates were constantly asked by the press, when are you going to drop out, doesn't it tend to drown out whatever message they're trying to deliver? >> i think there's a little debate about this, and whether or not gingrich getting out would mean that the conservatives could coaless around rick santorum. i think if gingrich stays in, actually, it breaks up the delegate count and makes it hard are for her mitt romney to get 1,144 delegates, and the media wants a brokered convention. >> that's the hidden agenda

here? >> i think -- i think all reporters would love to see a brokered convention. >> that's a statement i am not going to contradict because it's the fantasy of every journalist i have ever heard of. let me just play a little tape here because on tuesday night as it was very, very close in ohio all of the networks were looking to call that race, and all the cable network, fox, cnn, msnbc, were kind of the calling it without saying something. >> when you look at this map tonight, it is very hard, very hard, i would say, it's impossible, looking at the place that is are still out now for in the vote count tonight for me to see a path for senator santorum to come back. >> at this point everything is indicating all of our models are indicating that romney probably is going to hold this lead that he has right now. we're still waiting. >> they didn't take the risk of actually calling ohio, but you can see from chuck todd, chris wallace, jon king that they were sort of saying romney has got it. after the break sean handnity

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brightbart, the conservative activist who died a couple of weeks ago, said it had incriminating footage of barack obama and brought the tape to sean hannity. on his fox news show, he said it had been posted by buzz feed and trumpheted what he had as a major exclusive. just to set the scene, this is obama introducing harvard professor derek bell when he was a law student there in 1991. >> now, this is an edited portion of the future president's introduction of bell that was released by buzzfeed.com earlier today. >> and i remember that the black law students had organized an orientation for the first year students, and one of the persons who spoke at that orientation was professor bell. open up your hearts and your minds to the words of professor derek bell. >> then hamnity played what he thought was the explosive part of the video. he also showed a clip of harvard professor charles ogletree saying we hid this throughout the 2008 campaign. >> open up your hearts and your

minds to the words offá words o >> now, that hug and the president's association with a radical professor like bell is no doubt going to become a hot topic in coming days. >> actually2@q)e is some doub2á% and ogletree says he was joking with that line. because it didn't include the hug. explain to me why this is a story. >> i don't think that it is. iqok mean, it's a hug versus no hug. it's not. >> also that derek bell,ws$p controversial professor, isçó n dead. a lot of people take issue with the whites hold a y black harvard law student 20 years ago supported him and gave him a hug. why does hannity think this isñ such a scandal sf ?

>> i think if you're doing a videoigotcha, you need to have itçó self-explanatorself-explan. it's not self-explanatory. how?; radicalt( was he? what does this really mean for us? it's ac legitimate story. it's not a breakthrough orw3 blockbuster for precisely that reason. >> this tape actually aired on i "front line" back in 2008 and was availabled online ever it wasn't a deep, dark secret.xd >> you know, it's ammunitionxd r people who think that obama is a socialist and he's going to brt kenyan liberalism to thenof white house. he was introducing a black law professor who in many quartersq was respected. harvard students were pressing for more diversity on the oki] faculty. it does put liberal on the progressive side of the equat+=n

equation. the fact it's been picked up shows the judgment of the american people and maybe media, too.r >> it wasc on hannity's show a couple of nights. it reminds me of the film "game there werei] those who felt lik candidate obama'sg with bill ayers and reverend wright should have been a bigger issue than it was.ok?;t( in terms of people who don't like this president? >> i think in part, it's the race issue that's coming into play because derek e1bell was pt of this ycritical race theory. that's something he was known c for. away from many discussions about race. and i think in part, seeing a little bit of that side is what has made this a little bit more sensational. >> okay. we seem to have añr consensusñit journalism. >> no. >> all right. on that note, i actually got we will thank you for coming byf

morning. p!zñ still to come, the founder of gawker admitst( that his website can bexd pretty meané a new york station drops a popular anchor after three decades. could it have something to do with herw3 age?çó "media monitor" is next. the first technology of its kind... mom and dad, i have great news. is now providing answers families need. siemens. answers. i don't want a plunger anywhere near my coffee. not in my house. with maxwell house french roast, you let gravity do the work. [ male announcer ] maxwell house french roast. always good to the last drop.

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time now for the "media monitor," our weekly look at the hits and errors in the news business. ed schultz may be the most unabashed champion of labor unions on television. but it turns out the host was paid nearly $200,000 by unions last week. much of it from the communications workers of america. the payments from media research were for speaking fees and advertising on his website. he dismissed it as a right-wing smear campaign. >> the policy at msnbc is any speech must get prior approval. and any honorary must be donated to charity of the speaker's choice. i chose last year that all the money go to the american cancer society. i want to emphatically state tonight, nobody gave me anything. i work for a living. >> i'm glad schultz gave that money to charity as the network required him to do. but it gives the appearance he's

speaking for money rather than his mind. sue simmons has been a popular anchor for wnbc for three decades. her youtube moment came when she dropped an "f" bomb during a promo. >> paying more at the grocer. we'll tell you how to get the most. what the [ bleep ] are you doing? >> well, wnbc announced this week that it's dropping simmons sparking outrage online including a save sue simmons page on facebook. did the station decide that sue who had a multimillion-dollar contract was too old for the job? he's 68. guess who just got his contract renewed, her longtime partner, chuck scarborough. he is also 68. this just smells bad and more than a little sexist. gawker is the website that breaks most of the journalistic rules. it's usually fun. brian williams is a fan but can sometimes be vicious or unfair. to his credit, founder nick denton didn't deny any of this. in an interview with williams' show, "rock center."

>> here are the words most often used to describe gawker. you tell me true/not true. snarky. >> yeah. >> sexual. >> yeah. >> nude photos of private parts. >> if it's interesting. >> you report rumors. you don't always check it out. >> yeah. >> shameless. >> yes. >> irresponsible. >> defined by who? >> mean. >> mean. occasionally. and frankly, the standards are standards of publication. >> nbc's jamie gangel challenged denton when he needed to be challenged, and she occluded the flap when he published an embarrassing e-mail to brian williams. he felt no need to be fair but "rock center" was. that's it for this edition of "reliable sources." i'm houward kurtz. join us next sunday for another look at the media. "cnn state of the union with candy crowley" begins right now