>> next week, facebook ceo mark zuckerberg will testify before senate and house committees on facebook handling of user information and data privacy. tuesday at 2:1 5:00 p.m. on -- 2:15 p.m. on c-span3 and wednesday before the house energy and commerce committee. watch live coverage on c-span3 and c-span.org. listen live with the free c-span radio app. >> "washington journal" continues. host: armstrong williams is back with us as we continue the discussion about fake news and the state of journalism. on the term of fake news, how do you define that? guest: well, it is deceptive. it is misleading. you are more concerned about your agenda than you are about the truth and the facts, and it

happens on all spectrumsit happens on all spectrums -- the left and the right. when the things that people should always be guaranteed is when they listen to satellite radio, whether it is serious or broadcast networks, or paid tv providers, is that what you are reporting is the fact, the truth -- sometimes you can get your facts wrong. your sources can mislead you, all right lie to you and manipulate you because they have an agenda, but you have an obligation to correct immediately or two that the source of much as possible. if there is any inclination the story does not add up and may not be verifiable, you should can the story. when we talk about the threats to journalism today and fake news, are you more concerned about misinformation or editorial bias creeping into

new stories? guest: listen, i don't think, john, facebook is in the news today -- along with google -- they are in the spotlight. this is not unusual position they find themselves in. there is so much under scrutiny today that would have been unimaginable a couple of years ago, and with cambridge analytica, and what has, with facebook, i ask this question. what facebook has done, they have done it through algorithms. no different than what newspapers, cable networks do in the editorial room. they decide what is going to go on the air. they decide the importance of a story. is when youmeans are in a position as an executive producer and you are sort of,networks, you, have a lot of influence because there is no such thing as freedom of speech in my opinion unless you own the media.

what i try to do as the broadcast owner of television stations across the country, look, ia columnist -- am conservative. i am unapologetic about the fact i am a third-generation republican. my views are about my upbringing. i grew up in a strong pentecostal faith. my parents believe in god, the 10 commandments of the bible. that ships my value system, but as a media owner and as a writer , i want to remain neutral in what i bring to the marketplace of ideal and -- ideas and of journalism and commentary. no matter how i may feel about guns, and i'm a licensed gun owner, i try to keep my personal opinions and feelings out of my writing, reporting, and out of assignments we get to television stations across the country. and guess what, john, this is very difficult. we all have biases.

we all believe we have a certain vision of how the world should run, and what we believe is what we think is right. what is unfortunate, and what has happened today -- i used to be one of these people -- are invested so much on the red, believing the republican party, the conservative party, their ideas, and i believe in the targeted -- the party. until i went through no child left behind, i realized i lost my identity. you are here to give both sides and allow people to come to their own conclusions. host: you mentioned the guidance you get to television stations that you own. can you talk about the process and put on the television station owner hat for a second? what is the guidance -- specific stories they should cover, trends in the media you think the audience cares about?

host: i'm glad you asked that quick -- guest: i am you asked that question. the newsrooms, whether we buy in michigan, birmingham -- las vegas, nevada -- host: it is seven stations you have. guest: basically you say it is liberal. i try not to get involved in a newsroom. you will not hear me on the phone saying we should run this story, do that story. i think what cnn labeled some of the sinclair anchors as zombies is unfair and downright silly. why do i mention sinclair broadcasting -- were not for david smith on the sinclair broadcasting group, i would not be on television groups -- stations across the country. sinclair broadcasting group gave me that opportunity. you have to be careful. you don't want a heavy hand in the newsroom. i know onalists that

the left and the right really want to have integrity. they really want to do what is right. they really want to be fair and honorable in their reporting, which is very difficult sometimes. so, the newsroom you leave alone. what you do have -- you have what is called commentary. sometimes at the end of my broadcast i may offer a 30-minute commentary. i feel so strongly about what is going on with guns, going on in florida, with terrorism, the economy, daca -- i don't want it to spill out into my newsroom. i will step away and offer a commentary that is my own where i give my opinion. you will see those commentaries -- it is unscripted, my opinion, it is what i believe. it never spills over to the news department because i have the opportunity included on other shows that i do. host: we can talk about that process. armstrong williams with us for the next 35 minutes on

"washington journal." phone numbers, if you want to join the conversation -- host: it is armstrongwilliams.com a few was want to check out your recent pieces and some of your work. we start with miriam in aberdeen this morning. good morning. caller: good morning. it is marion. back in 2013, when i was watching channel 15 in south carolina because my sister lives in south carolina, and i was interested in what it was going on in her state, and i noticed these hideous looking people -- you expect people on television to be moderately nice-looking -- they start reading scripts. identified this way back then, and i was furious. , j, they weretine featuring the tea party, the

heritage foundation, the taxpayer alliance, and it was so insulting to president obama, such fake news, and when i called the news director on a number of occasions, she said well, i have been here for 20 years, though we have been bought present their broadcasting and there is nothing we can do about it. i am so angry at the general media for taking so long like and i'm york times," glad they are following it, but isn't it late, like five years late? host: well, -- guest: well, the torilla was also our news director. listen -- victoria is also our news directed. listen, john, all news, whether it is abc, the big networks, it is scripted. sometimes it has to do with the litigious society we find ourselves in -- broadcast

networks can get sued. cnn, if you watch their anchors, they are reading from a prompter. that is the way it happens. spoonfed to them by producers, staff -- they are never unscripted. that is the way the business works. host: when it comes to your anchors and the scripts they read on here, how far of do they go to get reviewed? level.to the television it does not come up to the corporate level. you may say i want this commentary on the show. commentary and say i wanted to run my commentary at this time, but separate that from the news. it is all scripted. it is where we find ourselves today. listen -- there are a lot of lawsuits. you imagine when "60 minutes" decided to do the story how manymy daniels lawyers reviewed the script before they went on the air

because they want to make sure they do not get sued and want to look at the story carefully. lawyers have a lot of influence. host: the statement from one of the news executives at sinclair after this story came out. edition ofm today's "the new york times" in their continued reporting about the controversy surrounding sinclair. the executive saying we are not sure about the motivation for the criticism, but we find it curious that we would be attacked for asking news people to remind their audience that unsubstantiated news stories exist on social media that result in an ill-informed public." the specific controversy in what they were talking about in the video that has made the round -- how controversy do think it is? brill, whonk steve i've known for a very long time, said it best earlier on this

show. i read verbatim the script. sinclair was not only talking about fox, msnbc, cnn. they said if you see we are doing the same, you take issue with us, our anchors, call us. they want to in store -- restore integrity to journalism. everyone is impacted by the loss of credibility. don't think just because they group weair broadcast get a pass. we want to say we're not in the business of fake news p we believe in journalistic integrity, standards, honesty and fairness, and we believe we should not be biased. we need to say it, people. one of the things sinclair decided to do -- they decided to do market research if they were to use this particular message on national tv, how would you respond. over 70% of the people who watched that before it went on the air said they would watch our news and more decidedly trust our news.

so, it is not about sinclair, but the integrity of the entire industry. host: california. steve is an independent. good morning. steve, are you with us? caller: yes, i am. thank you. host: go ahead. you are on with armstrong williams. caller: well, and when to keep this short. i am listening, and i am not very educated, but i got to look at you and hear all your words, the best thing i can go go by because once money is involved, big-money, it trickles down and that's power. and skeptical.l the best thing i've learned through life is to believe that everything is a lie. and i go by that, i can judge the truth for myself. a point. makes many people feel the way he does. not that everything is a lie,

but everything is suspect. everything is questionable. and at some point you have to remind people, i get in the morning in search for the truth. not for lies and not for deceit. i'm not here to mislead you. i am not here to be a sycophant for the president or anybody else. i'm here to make sure you understand through our networks and broadcast stations that you can watch us and find that what we report is as close to the truth is you're going to get and there's no bias, no right-leaning or any kind of leaning except towards the truth. this is why you guys do a great job here. you have the republican line, the democratic line and the independent line. every voice matters here. the truth transcends all of it. host: do you think people are too casual about throwing out the term fake news? guest: there's a war between the president and the media. whether people want to admit it president trump has a lot

of credibility. and a lot of cachet. and people want to believe their theident and give them benefit of the doubt and i think president trump has said it enough that it's beginning to have the impact. and when you have networks like and msnbc and others having to retract statements, having to apologize, they get stories wrong. it could be 25% of the time but if that's the 25% of the time that people remember. not the 75% of the time you get the story right. so unfortunately people will remember those stories and with the president and this war and hopefully at some point along the way the mainstream media will at least make an all-out effort to be fair to the president and not to harp on every little petty issue. voters really don't care about -- people did not like donald

trump to be there moral compass. they knew exactly what president trump was when he decided to run for office and what the american people are saying is get over it. let us deal with the real issues. host: explain the advice you give to president trump in the column. make the story was about the oval and more about america. at allthe president has times and understand i respect the office of the presidency and i also respect the president. and i takeesident pride in who we are as americans. thereere are times when are certain things the president really doesn't need to tweet about. he needs to find the discipline, the judgment, the temperature -- the temperament to not always respond because he sets the tone for the country. i don't think he understands the impact that has around the world.

the president needs to do a better job of finding in himself to bring the country together instead of always feeling that he has to respond to everything. the president has done a lot of good that often is overlooked. democrats saidth would be the worst thing since sliced bread. they are more interested in winning and demonizing the president instead of working with him. talking president is about in terms of immigration, restoring credibility and creating jobs and opportunities. even talking about putting the national guard on the border. that may not be the best solution but at least he's proactive. he's being fought at every turn. the president does a lot of good. the bible that i read going up said don't allow your good to be

evil spoken of. the president at some point has to focus on the more important issues of this country and the trivial things just leave them alone and move on. sometimes they create more chaos than goodwill. host: armstrong williams taking your calls. samuel is on the line for republicans in laurel, maryland. go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. i would just like to point out when we talk about fake news it's not only the news itself but also i think as i was listening to the journal this morning there's a lot of bias. we cannot get over that. let me give you an example. march at prime scully's hadsteve

a series of news that he was going one after the other. to give you an example the hearing on betsy devos. house hearing highlight in congress. and here was c-span highlighting all of the stumbles and the from theeraction congresswoman from connecticut. then they talked about mcdougal. the effort with donald trump from the inquirer. in the same section they went on to stormy daniels. know who isi don't the program organizer for even c-span and i listen to it for several years. host: how would you like to have -- that hearing that you are referring to, how would you like to have seen it covered? caller: once in a while can put

something positive. let me ask you. i have still yet to hear a primetime morning call on the fisa issue. the inspector general is looking into whether they should be an independent hearing on this. once there was a morning question to the people should there be another independent counsel looking at this. giving more positive things that he has done i agree with you. there are things the way donald trump does even me as a conservative sometimes i cringe. however when you look at the broader things there are some good things once in a while. anytime you put on cnn, anytime you put on cnn it is all negative. i used to listen to cnn quite a lot.

i think when we talk about fake news we also should remember that we are educated. we know what is what. some things that are positive. that's my comment. excellent point. i am mentioned don't allow your good to be spoken of. if you find something good in somebody, praise it. he's absolutely right. they are trying to put horns on the president. that determines who gets to where the horns and who gets to be evil. and the other label is who gets to be the to good letters -- do-gooders. we have awakened a sleeping giant in this country. the american people are awake and they are not going back to sleep. very insightful. they know not everything donald trump does when he gets up in the morning is bad. do a little balance. stormy care about

daniels. they don't care about mcdougal. they don't care about donald trump and what he's done in his sex life. if melania trump is willing to stay with him for better or worse in sickness and in health, that's between him and his wife. many marriages in this country involves infidelity and betrayal and yet they find a way to patch their wounds together and move on. people want to know what impacts their lives every day. if your television station had a chance to sit down with stormy daniels would you have aired that? guest: i would have no interest in that. absolutely not. i make no apologies about it. to me, why give her that kind of credibility? is she a role model for your kids for america and for parents? she's going back to selling porn videos. i wish she would go away.

let them deal with it privately. i don't want to hear from stormy daniels. in augusta,s georgia. caller: good morning. i have been watching mr. williams and of course have andd him over the years again i'm not taking a political position but the position and the role of media is to do one thing in america and that is to tell the truth. and honestly speaking mr. williams, you are sitting there just simplyutlet, tell the truth. that's all that one needs to do. media has got responsibility. the new york times has had running analysis of lies coming out of the white house.

i think there's almost 4000 lies. that is utterly ridiculous. utterly ridiculous. trust?ho do you you mentioned the new york times. caller: i trust all of them. i watch right-wing, i even look at foreign publications. the reason for that is because it's news. it's news. it's news. for a conservative and let me also point this out historically speaking and mr. williams had an opportunity to do this. the reason why he was a republican and blacks were republicans is simply because his thrustcoln and in the civil war and his so-called emancipation of , i have relatives

that are republican. host: we will let armstrong williams speak to why he is a republican. guest: my great great grandparents were republicans. soparents were my heroes and i embraced my parents values and i embrace the party of their choice. caller sayingious they don't trust anything, that caller when i asked him what news stations he trusts he said he read them all. that's the beauty of c-span. that's why i always come back. i started at c-span. because no one can see any bias here. everyone has a voice. i have tried to duplicate the c-span experience on my nightly series where everybody has a voice. everybody has an opinion. here's what i've learned. the more people get a chance to

talk and express their views and realize that journalism are purveyors of the truth where that guy was when he said he starts out believing he's all alive, he begins to change. that is our responsibility to restore the trust and credibility and the institutions that ought not only have we invested so much in the we can continue to care about the important role it plays in this country. host: i wonder your take on the president's tweets about the washington post and amazon. the president tweeting again this morning just a few minutes ago the fake news washington post, amazon's chief lobbyist has another of many phony headlines. read trump defined as end ads trade penalties to pairs and massive ip theft. typically bad reporting. a declaration of war between our president and the mainstream media. is the washington post fair to

the president? do they call it down the middle? i don't necessarily think so. does the president sometimes go overboard in his criticism of jeff bezos and amazon? is there a legitimate argument that jeff bezos amazon is impacting the u.s. postal service? argument there. there have been corporations that have talked to the president in the white house about the impact amazon is having on their business. that is a legitimate conversation to have on how to make the situation better. when it begins to become and indicative on both sides there are no winners in the process. host: what do you think about the president picking a fight with a specific headline in a specific newspaper on a specific morning? guest: he does it all the time. earlier it was cnn. it's what he does. it could be nbc. the president did the very same

thing during his campaign. the thing about the president is not complicated. he is easily understood. he does not discriminate. he has no special person. when he's irritated about something he thinks it's unfair and his judgment, twitter is his media organization. it is his way of getting his sure thatt and making people understand where he is and what he thinks about what is being reported in different institutions. guess what, he's never tweeted about c-span. host: armstrong williams twitter handle if they want to check out your twitter presence. robert is in mississippi. line for independents. my name is robert and i am --

host: i'm so sorry, i can't understand that. please do try to call back on a better line and we will try to get you in to mr. williams. tina's in alabama. republican. go ahead. gentleman, it's an honor to speak with you. serve as at we principle that there's always evidence for the truth. and anything that we hear we should be discerning, we should be speaking out through his word. what does he intend here. .hat is the evidence for it i find that in the free press you will find people who will find the truth and it will be reported. there's also an enemy of propaganda and i have never before experienced in my 60 years in government that has gone against a party with the

force of the government as the tea party was. and experience acknowledging and i appreciate many many voices. but i don't appreciate the propaganda in the mistruths and they will be known. host: how do you discern one from the other? caller: i read many sources. behaviorsce is in the and what people say. when there's an accusation typically what you can find as soon as that accusation is made thein three or four months one who made the accusation is found guilty of that very accusation because that's what's in his heart. it's just one of those god principles. guest: i want to respond in a different way. i did a show on what do we learn from reading the news.

i took the washington post in the new york times and other newspapers and ran it from cover to cover. even though there was not one positive story uplifting. everything is bad. whether you're talking about the democrats, the republicans, the white house. it doesn't matter. they tend to believe that all we want to read are the horrible , the litigious things going on in our society. i want to go back to what the caller said. that is exactly what you become. just like ben carson. host: you worked on his campaign. guest: new york times had a piece today on david smith which i thought was very fair and very balanced in their reporting about sinclair. i read ther. carson article in the new york times.

, this is as good as it gets. about carson, the new chinook, all you ever read about is there's a problem. they are about to be fired. trying to privatize this. these secretaries spend so much of their time trying to make this country better. doing is dealing with furniture. you never hear the good that happens that these agencies. that's the problem. host: give me an example of good news we missed this week. guest: i think the president whether you like it a lot has said, i tried everything -- it appears since this fall may not be built and congress is not going to support me, i'm going to do something. you may not like what am going to do it i'm going to ask the national guard to protect our borders and protect us against would-be criminals, drug trafficking and other offenders. host: you don't think that story

was covered today? guest: you asked me about good news. i'm telling you about what was in the news that was good. it's not unprecedented. george bush and barack obama have done it. you will be hard-pressed to find this kind of good news in the media anymore and while you may criticize the likes of dr. carson and other people in the white house also take the time to write about the good that they do to push this country forward. that theed to hear people they elect and are appointed are working for the greater good a need to see it on tv. it reaffirmed their belief in what we call democracy. the: you think the folks in agencies are doing enough to get the good news out? could they be doing more? guest: yes. they don't want to print it. they are not interested. dogs.dia are like bird they want smell.

they want to stink up the place. if you are giving them something that stinks up the place they are interested. host: what do you do on your television stations? do you take time to highlight specific the good news? guest: every day. you must. it is their job to find the good news. not just for a minute or two. we take segments to talk about the good news. we talk about what the congress does. we talk about it. when i'm on the street talking to every day joe blow they say we really appreciate you giving us hope. that's what it is. hope that not all is lost, not everybody is corrupt, out for themselves and greedy. some people do work for the greater good. host: chad's in baltimore on the line for democrats. go ahead. caller: thanks for taking my call. i think it's fascinating we're talking about hope here. why do we throw in change which

that -- with that, which is the obama slogan which is democratic. my call is about thinking critically because i'm listening to this call. it's going a lot of directions but it's going in one consistent perspective here where the president is good. the president is doing great things. the tax bill is amazing. peopleetting calls from saying money is part of the influence here when we are talking about credibility calling saying 70% of our people in our study said they would watch our news. everything is driven by credibility and news. but then we talk about the media in general give us something that smells. we want something more about that. to me ask you, do we need take bad things and wipe it under the rug?

or do we want to hear the bad stuff so we know what to fix? we are talking about very subjective things here. i don't think the majority of people according to polls that even the president likes to pay attention to or even the voting booths where the populist vote didn't go his way i don't think he has built a bigger following since he took office which if you want to take that part and run with it then find as opposed to the other things. you are trying to influence a propaganda perspective and of right and left all called you out on it. i'm educated and you need to pay attention to what you're doing. host: we will let armstrong williams respond. appreciate his perspective because here's what he's actually saying. if you are not demonizing and weaponize and the president of the united states and going along with this narrative that we hear every day to the media and all of a sudden you're trying to say we are giving him and you are not reporting

and so we can't report on the bad news. sarah things written about president trump in terms of his character and morality that deserves attention. i always believed to have real leadership anywhere it has to be courageous, discipline and righteous. of thecriticism president in many ways is warranted. all i'm saying is as you criticize him also find the good . not only about the president but democrats in congress, republicans in congress. my argument was not just about republicans in the white house. it was about america. you are going to report those things that give us a little theyce that believes that someday would want to serve in government and capacity. not turn them away like all government does. that's the only point i'm making. host: cheryl, republican.

go ahead. caller: it's good to see you again mr. williams. you kind of still my thunder of it when you used the word demonized. because the president is so demonized that a lady was beat up earlier this week simply because she said she's a supporter of the president. and i do remember louis farrakhan saying the thought control and mind manipulation is practiced by people in the media. it's even more true today. demonize everything about the president and everybody around the president to include secretary carson and all of his cabinet members. there's a cultural difference in the way people look at the media. my family, black family, they talk about media being black news or white news and they think that cnn is more

.epublican it's just the way sometimes people even look at the media and the way they view the news. so i'm concerned about the way the president is constantly being demonized. to the point where there is no respect for not even the hisident but his cabinet, administration and people that support the president are demonized. the point.makes can't evenle who admit that they think the country is making progress. if you support donald trump you have no passion for the poor, you are racist, you are a sellout. your insensitive and you have no idea of what's going on in america. we should never have to apologize for exercising our right to vote and our freedom of choice. host: lancaster, ohio.

independent. moana. go ahead. caller: that was mona. host: my daughter has been watching too many disney movies. caller: i've got two questions. one is for the host. what does -- mean? in the second questions for that sweet guest that you've got there. 90-year-old white woman and i'm in love. with mr. williams. but anyway my question to him is are you what programs -- i don't know where your programs are. guest: i'm flattered. thank you. i am on sirius xm 126 every

p.m. andm 6:00 to 8:00 i have a national television show on the sinclair broadcast network. you can check armstrong williams.com. i know my executives at hhs is going to like the fact that i mentioned that. you'll find out where all our programs air every day. greg is in jacksonville, florida. independent. good morning. caller: good morning. -- 39 yearear-old watcher of c-span. every 30 days before i'm able to get into a call which is fine. i just want to address some things that armstrong has talked about. with hisfamiliar career as a republican advocate and strategist but i have a andtion for armstrong talking about what i've seen

over the years as to the hypocrisy of the republican party. in particular the president has criticized amazon and jeff bezos about not paying taxes. with certain contracts they had with the post office. and people have failed to realize including mr. williams apparently that the president during his campaign boasted that he has never paid taxes for almost 2530 years. so my question for armstrong and the supporters of the president, do they not feel as though there are some form of hypocrisy the that het has boasted never paid taxes and then he gets on the air and criticizes jeff bezos about not paying taxes? itt really troubles me when comes to the integrity of journalism and the accuracy of journalism and we are talking about fake news. i watch all the stations, too. fox. i have been watching c-span for

39 years. there is hypocrisy that permeates through the republicans. my last comment very quickly. there was all the news about hillary clinton emails and also lack of getting troops into benghazi that captured the american audience from his 18 or 19 months prior to and during the presidential election of this year. again when people look at fake news and who is permeating -- they should also look at the conservative -- side. it's very detrimental to the country. thanks a lot. when you think about hypocrisy it's like a minister and the pope. he preaches fidelity in marriage. preaches righteousness. all the right things. vessels,ind he and sleeping with someone in the church congregation. does that diminish the truth of

his message and what they are saying? no. from ministers to politicians we we are hypocrites and sometimes don't practice what they preach and human beings are flawed and they are prone to the same addictions we condemn in others. it's always easier to condemn somebody else than to find it in ourselves. the point is it doesn't take away the truth of what someone is saying at the time. the caller is right and it's not just on the republican side. in all aspects of society where people are hypocrites. i do think what we all should take away from the day is the hardest work that i do 24 hours a day is working on armstrong williams. being truthful, being reliable, being accountable, being loyal and being fair. i find at the end of the 24 hour cycle armstrong williams is a

better person. when armstrong williams is better the world around me is better. need to doing you sometimes is improve yourself and your character and the choices that you make in the world around us >> expands washington journal live everyday with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up this morning, we will discuss the decision to have members of the national guard to patrol the u.s.-mexico border. former pennsylvania democrat congressman, jason ohlmeyer and tom davis on ways to make government more effective, less partisan. also atlantic jupiter will review his -- challenging whether big business is a bad thing for america. be sure to watch washington journal live at 7:00 eastern this morning. join the discussion. ♪

week, mark zuckerberg will testify before a senate and house committee on facebook's handling of user information and data privacy. tuesday at 2:15 p.m. on c-span3 in a joint hearing for the senate judiciary committee. on wednesday at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span3 before the house energy and congress committee. watch live coverage on c-span3 and c-span.org and listen live with the free c-span radio app. ♪ >> this month on c-span we feature our contest winners. we asked middle and high school students to illustrate why it is important to them.