happening to facebook today was predictable and inevitable. i think essentially you have a brilliant platform-based advertising model that essentially emphasizes precision propaganda. that precision propaganda can be used for good or evil. i think you have this mythology almost in the opening decade of the internet that information always wants to be free and available. that openness is always good. i don't think there was a full thinking through of the way that one could inject into that social graph stream evil. and negative behavior. various forces have matured and learned how the products work, learning how to take advantage of them to -- for their own purposes. announcer: push the communicators monday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span two. a look at politics

and the media from today's washington journal. it is under 30 minutes. >> siraj hashmi is back at our desk. your work revolves a lot around the intersection of politics and social media and pop culture. historic with this story from the washington post today that has a lot of attention in the last couple of days. it is about laura ingraham taking a holiday amid controversy. the headline from the washington post, the fox news host taking a one-week vacation. the story notes that the break is coming, as she is facing her harshest criticism in her five-month-old fox news show. a growing number of advertisers have left her after she made comments about david hogg, an activist and survivor of the school shooting in parkland, florida. the intersection here of those issues and some of the

pitfalls when it comes specifically to this gun control debate? with: it is a classic case lauren ingram and david hogg of attacking the person and not the idea. i think what laura ingraham has hit a lot of people -- and a lot of people tend to cross a boundary where they get into personal attacks rather than rebuking or rebuffing on a particular policy agenda. with respect to laura ingraham and mocking david hogg over being rejected from several colleges, even though he was accepted by several colleges, and it is not like colleges halfway into being successful, it is one of many pathways. david hogg happens to be successful already in high school with being able to capitalize and find a way to build momentum on the policy proposal he feels strongly about with respect to gun control. with laura ingraham taking a week vacation, of course it happens out of a

convenient time with it being easter. it is obviously inconvenient for her to lose so many sponsors. host: the network said this was a preplanned vacation. it comes at a time of controversy surrounding her. hannity and bill o'reilly, both of them have taken weeklong vacations after otherer the bullseye of things something controversial or doing something controversial or downright illegal in terms of bill o'reilly who was accused by multiple women of sexual harassment. who has faced a barrage of attacks. host: high school students with a very large social media microphone have been a newer voice in these debates, specifically the gun-control debate. how well do you think the media has done in covering them and the movement that they have come to represent? media outlets have given them a pass on many things.

what i mean bypasses that they have not challenged them on their ideas. they use their pot form -- of their platform as an open -- like the march for our lives. they basically can speak their views to a friendly audience in which their challenges were not raised her question. that was problematic in terms of talking about something as contentious as gun control. gilad of americans feel strongly about. what is interesting about this is that when that is presented, a lot of media outlets from right-leaning in conservative circles kind of went on a very aggressive campaign to rebuke those agendas. agenda --ntrolled pro-gun-control agenda and that set the tone for why this

conversation has evolved into this mudslinging fight. ont: siraj hashmi with us the washington journal. if you want to join in our conversation about politics and the media with him, republicans can call in at (202) 748-8000. .emocrats, (202) 748-8001 if you want to follow him on twitter, a prolific twitter presence, you can. one of your tweets from the past week talked about this issue of david ogg. and brings another aspect of this debate or you can make the argument that colleges rejected him in the same way that nfl teams ever decked a colin kaepernick and tim tebow. being a media distraction is a powerful thing. explain. ways: david hogg in many has become a spectacle -- a media spectacle. thatny ways, you can argue the attraction he brings and the

following he brings to any school undoubtedly gives that school a lot more media attention. probably you will find media vans parked outside these schools, whichever when he attends. i think some school administrators probably do not look on that favorably. the same way that colin raised police brutality as a strong issue by kneeling during the national , a lot of teams will say it is because of their ability. some part of it has to do with the fact that they bring so much media attention, it is a distraction for the team, it is a distraction for the culture or campus. in terms of david hogg. host: if you had a chance to interact at have you had a chance to interview david hogg? siraj: i have not. for the most part, when it comes

to policy debates, i try to sit back and observe what is happening. when it comes to the high school in parkland, i went to the march for our lives. i spoke to a number of individuals. i tried to speak to as many young people as i could. trying to get their thoughts on gun control. i think their views happen to be a little more to the right of what a lot of these parkland survivors were preaching. host: the ones who we see on television? siraj: yes. i think their views are more further to the left in terms of calling for specific -- classify weapons as manslaughter. that is essentially all guns with the exception of muskets and other guns. many of these people who i spoke with who do not want to repeal the second amendment and don't want a gun ban. they do want school safety. some of them called for

improving -- modeling a lot of schools are rural they have a presence of security, they have metal detectors, metal detecting wands, and those urban schools did it anyway where they try to prevent gang violence from impacting their school. host: let's bring in some cal lers. siraj hashmi is with the washington examiner. good morning. i am calling based on the fact that most of the issues that i have heard this morning is based on the agenda of the united states republic. onch was established slavery. slavery was -- lasted for almost 200 years in this country. the problem that most people have in this country is that they don't read.

number one. number two, we look at the social media of attacking certain people like cap or nick -- colin kaepernick and how the issue of racial disparity and police brutality has been going on ever since the beginning of this country aced on the institution of slavery. -- based on the institution of slavery. when we don't address that, this country is so immoral when we talk about moral character. in the world, it is a beacon to white supremacy. host: siraj hashmi? ways, the united states has to atone for the sins of its fathers and its ancestors. in many ways, i agree with the caller. that we havemember to be better than what our ancestors were in terms of how they view the world, how they viewed other people, and i think

when we talk about things like gun control, there are going to be people impacted by this view this as revocation of their civil rights. brings up theer black lives matter movement. i wonder about your thoughts on the media coverage of the stuff on shooting and how it is being portrayed this spring as opposed to these police shootings in recent years? is there something different you are seeing in the coverage? siraj: i am seeing it as restrained. i think what happened in sacramento is tragic. it is terrible. there is no accountability on the part of the holy spirit what we are seeing from forensic evidence as well as the autopsy, is that stephan clark was shot 20 times, eight of those shots came from the side or from behind. police have not

given justification for why they shot him that many times given the fact even if he did have a gun i was not there, so i can't comment on what happened. there are a lot of questions that need to be answered. i don't think the media is doing enough to answer those. host: siraj hashmi is a video commentary and writer at the washington examiner. what is the job entail? siraj: oftentimes writing. media,a few pieces on politics, pop culture, i will make a video about it with commentary, sometimes i don't. in the washington examiner setting, rating about a particular issue. host: you can check out all his

work at washingtonexaminer.com. we talk about politics, and the big stories we have been covering on the washington journal. howard has been waiting. a republican. caller: good morning and happy easter to all. i was raised with god in my heart. i was raised with love in my heart. good raised to believe in and to fight evil. aboutis gun control talk how we need stricter gun laws, we need to ban assault rifles, we need to do this, do that. this is not the problem. the problem is evil in the person's heart. this is what we have got to get to. whenever we took god and discipline out of schools and homes, we opened up the door for

satan to take over. this is plain and simple. why is nobody talking about this? why do nobody come on tv and speak of the moral fact that the problem is not the guns, because one day is going to come one they're going to feel they are powerful enough to take over the people. they're going to come door-to-door with automatic weapons. host: got your point, howard. howard bringing up morality and whether it is being talked about enough. what is your view? siraj: in many ways i agree that the moral fabric of our society has faltered, at least while i have been around. i can't speak to arias in the past where we have gotten better. we have gotten better, with civil rights, with how we atone for our ancestor's sins of slavery and oppression of women. we have definitely got better.

we have a long way to go. with respect to gun control, evil is a big proponent in someone wanting to carry out violence in a particular way. guns, maybe we should have stricter gun laws in some respect. i don't think any of those will fully address preventing someone who has evil intentions, wanting to harm other people. there are an infinite amount of waste someone can obtain a particular weapon, a gun, a knife, what have you. big components we have to focus on. but not everyone is good, there is no way you are going to -- you are only going to reduce the number of incidents of violence. you can't eliminate, unfortunately. host: in florida, an independent. good morning. caller: the media is very

important. it sets the narrative. with listening comes wisdom. speaking, repentance. that is why the media is important when they have something truthful to say. with this david hot situation, i think his mother works for cnn. his father was a left-wing fbi agent. youtube is involved in censorship now on this. so his twitter. they are trying to get any right wing things off the air. -- the way you broadcast on the house floor the last time there was a gun incidents. you people have taken the left side of issues. even your questions seem innocuous, but the insinuations of your questions support the left-wing position, against the right. all of that to say for c-span is, at two c-span?

thank you very much. host: you can read into it however you want, we just want to have a conversation in show you what happens on the floor of the house of representatives. siraj hashmi, i will let you address concerns. point, i happen to lean right on gun control. , i think it's in a rebuke of his point. i happen to be very pro-gun-control in my younger days. shooting, the polls that was the watershed moment for me. they are looking at proposals in which they want to look at government watch lists where arbitrarily that on those lists, without a criminal conviction, and then being prevented from purchasing a gun. when i see how them across

propose gun control solutions, they seem to be very arbitrary. i happen to think that protecting the second amendment is very important. it's probably more important than a lot of things people seem to be focusing on. c-span, by inviting me on, has opened the conversation , considering the fact i am a muslim american who is very process -- pro-second amendment. host: laura ingraham, and the controversy she is facing. on twitter, what gets me is ingram apologized only because it is holy week. it says to me she would not have done it otherwise. is there a lesson other hosts should be taking them what happened? siraj: in several ways, yes. what people need to remember, and this is -- people need to have integrity when it comes to

-- personal attacks don't do anyone anyone favors. a few thousand retweets, does that satisfy you? when you look back on your career, at the end of the day, is that something you would be proud of? in laura ingraham's case, i think she realized that in addition to her sponsors leaving week, itt being holy probably was a good time to have that type of reflection, whether it was genuine or not, that's between her and the creator. host: more than a dozen advertisers announcing they pulled commercials from laura ingraham's show. they include johnson & johnson, hulu, jenny craig, ruby tuesday among them. democratnd new york, a

-- staten island, new york. a democrat. caller: it's a pleasure to speak to you. opinion, andike an everybody has one. we have different sides. that's why we have democrats, republicans, whatever. the bottom line is this. the youth of today are taking notice of what's going on.i'm 65 years old . the youth today are seeing columbine, i forgot where the movie theater -- siraj: aurora, colorado. caller: we are seeing all of these things, along with the fact of guns being in the hands of wrong people. whether they are law enforcement or not. that's the whole problem. is whitewashing everything, oh, we are getting fake news, the news is watered down. this is the world of chaos in which we live.

i'm a christian, myself. i'm listening to all sorts of people. you have just been attacked because of your last name, but that's another story. people have to realize one thing. it's those people who set the rules, that put the things in order, that is going to make a change. we need responsible people at the head. host: what do you want to pick up on? siraj: i think an interesting point he made is the importance of morality in our leaders. it is important for our leaders to have high moral character, considering that shaped their worldviews. their worldviews are -- if their worldviews are affected by low standards of reality, that sets a dangerous precedent. the fact that donald trump has been accused of sexual harassment, assault, and extramarital affairs.

it's important that -- and of course, it does not entirely impugned one's character. is after many many instances, you start to question someone's personal character. we should continue to raise those questions, regardless of whether it's republican or democrat. host: raise those questions to what end? siraj: you have to get them to be held accountable for their actions. if they have personally harmed individuals in the process, they need to atone for it, whether through apology, financial resignation, our public officials should be held responsible for their actions. host: in georgia, independent. good morning. caller: hi, how are you doing? i've got three points to make about propaganda in the media. it goes on and on. we've got no way of filtering

out the propaganda. propaganda can be stuff that is not put in the news. people are not reporting it. here's one. one senator mcconnell comes out with a year left, in president obama's term, and says we are going to let the voters decide who's going to be the supreme court justice, that's not the constitution. number two, the lies the people have told to get into department heads, you know, on the table with the president. now we are seeing, here comes there lies. nobody reported on it. when they did try to, they were hollered down. here's the biggest lie. to say that media is liberal? there fighting a battle against lies and propaganda from the

right that is a continuous onslaught against the truth. host: before you go, who do you trust when it comes to where you get your news? caller: believe it or not, i trust them all to a point. i filter it through -- i am retired. i have time to look at it all. i filter out all the stuff i hear, you can tell when they start to blow the whistle. you have to filter that out. they should not be able to do that. agentan we not put an fbi , when they lie to the camera, they lie to the fbi agent, but then in jail until they stop lying. way, everyone does live to an extent. it's good he gets his news from a number of different sources. you know, it is interesting now in the battle right

the media, fighting between fake news, false reporting, this is kind of a -- an old story that has picked up steam. there are objective journalists who only focus on one part of the story. there are commentary people who focus on another side. it's important on the part of the reader to try to do their due diligence of finding every aspect of every angle of the story, so they can be the most informed person they can be. it's important to not just trust one outlet, but to trust multiple. if you have a particular reporter were journalist in mind that you think does a good job, you should follow them and think of them as someone who speaks truth to power. just about two minutes left. roger has been waiting in kentucky. caller: thank you for the opportunity.

media, i guess they do the best they can. politicians are always going to be politicians. who's right, who's wrong? is not against the law to lie to each other or to be lied to. if you lie to any official, you can be arrested. , whoever isd trump in there, if they lie they should have consequences. also, i leave it at this. as -- i'm 64. they should have a common sense class and a class to learn respect. as far as gun control, you put a gun in a mental -- some things wrong with them, something that is going to happen. it's not the gun. thank you, have a glorious day. know if the't

president should face consequences for lying outside of the electoral -- unless he or to -- lies to the fbi lies under oath. what's interesting about this have no lying is we control over what a politician does. they have to be held accountable by their voters. anwe lose confidence in elected official, they should be voted out. it's how our democracy has worked. with respect to gun control, everybody does focus on, it's not the gun, it's the person. it's a little bit of both. we should put in the frameworks to protect people as best we can. but schools are the softest targets and we have to improve safety first. .

siraj hashmi with the washington examiner. if you want to follow him on twitter. appreciate the time, come back again. washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. monday morning, foreign policy fellow at the burkitt's institution on u.s.-russia relations and region -- recent threats by russia. and the founder of the free range kids movement talks about utah becoming the first state to pass a law legalizing free range parenting. -- formerson, for the director of the census bureau on the controversy surrounding the 2020 census. be sure to watch "washington journal," monday morning. join the discussion. c-span,r: tomorrow on cyber security experts and

election officials on how to protect u.s. officials from foreign influence. here is a portion of the hosted by the university of california security policy institute. >> it is important to recognize that with these threats, the security comes in multiple levels. there is information technology security that is what we talk about a lot and get the focus. on top of that, there has to be operational security. there has to be procedural security. and all of the things that go along with that. elections are a decentralized, localized function. they are complex. , if youall the time talk to people that work in polling places, what we ask of poll workers is insane, if you think about it. we would not design a system around that. the number of complexities involved in the points of full mobility are huge.

and the points of vulnerability are huge. we need to look at that and be sure we are addressing that as well. there is a lot to be done. there is a growing awareness in the elections community of the need for this. we are threatened by, from an elections administration standpoint, narrow markets of technology and providers for voting systems. it has actually shrunk rather than getting larger. we have a resource issue. you cannot talk about the heightened threat and the need to address the issues we are talking about, we talk about it booming termsge like the foundation of our great society. we do not funded the elections administration as if it were foundational to our free society. you are not going to achieve those detections with the way

elections are resourced. we have to talk about that at the local, state, or and federal level. watch cyber security experts on protecting u.s. elections for packing. us tomorrow beginning at 10 a.m. eastern on c-span. now, the acting deputy commissioner for u.s. customs and border protection on the effectiveness of walls on the southern u.s. border. comments came friday during a briefing with reporters to update on the administration's efforts. this is 20 minutes during -- 20 minutes. >> good afternoon, thanks for joining us. we are going into the holiday weekend, so i want to bring you up-to-date on where we are with the border wall project. a lot has happened since we left for a few. the presiden w