eight: america in turmoil, continues with a look at the role of the media that year. we believe joined by marvin kalb and david hume kennerly. [video clip] >> somebody from the news -- said trump is one of the only people ever that actually accomplished more than he promised. it is true. i am a politician, i guess. but i accomplished more than are promised. and i am doing it for you. our great journey together is just beginning. ♪ host: the president last night in michigan, taking aim at his claim of fake media, focusing on the 2018 agenda as midterm elections approach. we welcome you to "washington journal." cbs news writes while

journalists, lobbyists, and white house staffers attended the white house correspondents dinner last night in washington, the president was in another washington -- washington, michigan, outside the choice, holding a campaign style rally, which leads us to this question -- do you trust the media? or, as the president calls it, the ache media? 202 is the area code. 748-800 for republicans. (202) 748-8000 if you are a democrat. for independents, (202) 748-8002 . send us a tweet. we will read it at @cspanwj. join us on our conversation on our facebook page with our question, do you trust the news media? say yes.poll 51% say now. thank you for being with us. a lot to talk about, and looting our series, 1968, which continues later in the program. we want to begin with media and

last night's what has correspondents' dinner. this is from cheryl ackerson, formally with cbs news and has contributed to "the hill" -- americans do not trust the media, and for good reason. she writes trust in the mass media is at an all-time low. two thirds of americans believe the mainstream press publishes fake news. there is still much good journalism to be found, if you know where to look. ask reporters who have been around for a while, and many will tell you a lot of good journalism is the left unpublished. good journalists hate what is happening in the news. we only have ourselves to blame. that one strictly separated news from opinion have been replaced by hopelessly blurred lines. we must correctly identify and admit our problem, and then take steps to address it. send us a tweet at @cspanwj and tell us whether you trust the

media. if not, why not? last night, the president said the following to those in attendance in washington, michigan. [video clip] >> is this better than that phony washington white house correspondents' dinner? is this more fun? [cheers] i could be up there tonight smiling like i love it when they are hitting you shot after shot. these people hate your guts. and i have supposed to -- got to smile. if you do not smile, they say he was terrible, he could not take it. if you do smile, they say, what was he smiling about? last night in michigan, the president at a campaign style rally, the second day in a row he was outside of washington, d.c. for the dinner. do you trust the media?

from silver springs, maryland, republican. caller: i do not trust the seat -- i do not trust the media at all, especially cnn and the others. i get my information from talk radio. i trust rush limbaugh can lately. i have -- completely. i listen to it him since he came on the air in 1988. i hits the nail on the head, would say, 99.9% of the time. use the media to get their message out, and they bash republicans every chance they get. i am telling you people out there, if you want, for example, men going into the women's becauseoom or restroom

they feel like they are a woman , you just vote democrat and tell me how your daughter or your wife or any of your female relatives deal when pervert,eel when some or to be a woman, goes in there and rapes somebody. host: we go to jeff in michigan. on the set,ume down otherwise we will get an echo, and it will be difficult to hear you. caller: ok. host: good morning. caller: good morning. i want to say that, yes, the fake news is at an all-time high. really, the only channel i trust anymore is fox news. this business of putting all the illegals on welfare and everything else and taxpayers having to pay for that has to stop. trump is the ticket.

host: is there somebody on the other side of the aisle that you listen to or trust? caller: mainly just fox news. that is about the only one i trust, because the rest of it has been corrupted. they need to get a handle on it and get back to real journalism. .ost: thanks for the call from michigan, where the president was. the full speeches on our website, c-span.org. mike from north carolina. caller: good morning. how are you today? host: doing fine. how are you? to say no.ly, i have i wish i did not have to say that. i have arrived at my opinion in balanceda fair and way. back 40e it all, going years, back when i was at college at the university of colorado boulder, which is a fairly liberal university.

i watch as this has developed. i think the seats were -- seeds watergate forith partisan journalism. i think watergate was justified. what nixon did was wrong. what happened after that, it attacka no holds barred from journalism, from the press, on any and all republicans after that. just assuming all republicans and conservatives were criminals, were evil, whatever. it just flowed from that. like i said, i believe watergate and what nixon did was wrong and that what the "washington post" and all that was great. but over the last 40 years, it is apparent to anyone that is paying attention that "washington post," "new york

cnn, npr, arebs, all liberal focused and liberal leaning authorizations. they will give a benefit of the doubt and -- to anyone with a "d" after their name. fox can make their mistakes as all off, i balance it as the prior caller said, with talk radio. i do not listen to rush as much as i used to pay about talk radio, the opinion page of the "wall street journal." various internet sites, which are pretty much all partisan focused, but i try to read a variety of both sides to see if i can navigate my way to some type of middle ground. host: thanks for the call. debate join in on the and weigh in on the poll -- unscientific, but many answering

the question do you trust the news media, yes or no? of those who participated say yes. 61% say no. eric manning has this tweet -- almost all media outlets, especially tv, have become tabloid news in order to chase viewers and profits. this from robert -- i do not trust the mainstream media. their agenda is obvious. -do i trust the media? depends on the outfit. do you trust the media? caller: not anymore. when i was in college, i learned the media was the fourth estate. they kept the government honest. since then, the climate has changed traumatically over the years. i have been active in property rights in los angeles. we would go to a board of supervisors meeting -- there was

selective reporting done. where,not who, what, when, and why, the basics of journalism, it has changed. story is not being told. it is like a computer. you put garbage in, garbage out. the fourth estate is aiding and abetting things it should not be doing. i do really respect c-span. is that you guys are dealing with a very liberal media. a factcould have checker, sometimes -- i wonder how you get through the day. but no, i do not. i had a friend with the "l.a. times," the food reporter. i talked about the press club. i said you go? -- do you go?

is for theo, it people in the paper to determine what to report the next day. that is not a free and open media. we should be working together. everybody, and i know the difference between right and wrong. unfortunately, it is not what it should eat -- should be. this is a great place to live, but all you get from the democratic party and the media is negativity, hate, and anger. we do not need that. we need something positive, something that creates things, and makes general discourse between people the way it should be. host: thank you for joining the conversation. our phone lines are open. 202 is the area code. 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8000 for democrats.

we listened our listeners on c-span radio. check out our free c-span radio app. potus,sirius xm, the which carries our program every morning. in the "washington post," when trump comes calling. a look at the fox news interview. next call is from illinois. rich, welcome to the conversation. caller: thank you for taking my call. i trust the media, but the media has always been biased, depending on the owner's views. i have known this since i was a teenager. this is how you have to look at the news -- you have to look at the company reporting the news. sit there -- and if you like donald trump, you will not say anything bad about

donald trump a but since trump has been in office, that price of gas has gone up, over one dollar where i am living at. to sit and say this is not being reported, is that a liberal or democratic or republican view -- it is what it is. the business of reporting is a business. donald trump got into office because he is a sensationalist. it is like watching these reality shows. that is the way it is. if you did not see that coming, it is sort of like because you do not know that. it is biased reporting. dependent on who is doing the reporting. is it true or not is another matter. spewing can see the man the word out, is that true or is that someone's opinion? if it is coming from the horse's mouth, it is coming from the horse. host: thank you. some tweets -- do not trust the

orbit news media is what he is writing. this from john smith -- the media is caught up in the fake news and are slowly destroying their credibility. another tweet -- the nerd prom used to be the one time during the year where people dropped respect at the president, could take most shots at him. insult him year. he did absolutely nothing wrong. the nerd prom is dying -- that was referring to the white house correspondents' dinner. is thet talev chairwoman. this is what she said. [video clip] >> tonight is an important for everyone who cares about journalism. we are here because we chairs the first amendment and believe in the power of reporting to raise up and better the lives of all people. that includes coverage of the white house. and suchlike international terrorism or russian and it --

russian election interference. but with the u.s. gymnastics schedule and #metoo and pilots amid disasterd -- landings and save almost everyone on board. but we reject efforts by anyone, specially elected leaders, to paint journalism as un-american. to undermine trust between reporters and readers. [applause] or to cast doubt on the relevance of facts and truth in the modern age. an attack on any journalist is an attack on us all. host: from last night's white house correspondents dinner. brian joins us from brooklyn, new york, independent line.

do you trust the media? are you with us? in florida,joe democrat line. good morning. caller: joan. host: joan. good morning. you.r: thank i believe the media. this president has torn this whole country apart. backs put in -- putin. where he was supposed to drain the swamp, he has not on it and i think he is one of the biggest liars and cooks. -- crooks. and the trump mafia, him and his family. host: joan from florida. we want to share this headline from the "new york times."

on the upcoming the term elections, they write the president is privately rejecting the growing consensus among republican leaders that they may lose the house and possibly senate in november, leaving party officials and the nervous.'s advises congressional leaders and party leaders, and even some trump aides are worried about the president's boundless self-assurance and politics will cause him to ignore or undermine their midterm strategy. -- next: from florida, republican line. caller: good morning. the sad thing about the news -- number one, there jokes are about as funny as cancer. the other thing is the news media knows how they can clean up, and they just will not do it. cite an example here -- what happened with ronny jackson, the

prime example. a unnamed sources say that he was handing out pills like candy, and he got drunk and wrecked a car. i know a senator said this, too. --e is the thing -- there is let's compare that to the most famous unnamed source in history , giving information about nixon. nobody ran out and said here is what deep throat said, let's get rid of him. they took us information and found faxed to back up that information. host: this headline from cbs news -- trump slams the media in campaign style rally in michigan. you're asking whether or not you trust the news media.

ernestine from nashville, tennessee, democrat line. good morning. how do you answer the question? caller: good morning. i trust the media. you to stopt looking at the news. if you do not look at the news, you will see how many lies he has told. he is in there to line his pockets and line his family and friends' pockets. host: thank you. go to derek, joining us from augusta, georgia. caller: hello. how are you doing? the thing about the media is it is more like a wall street than faith ing truth and the system. now, everyone is out for what they can get. they do not care if it is true or false. they are using that -- donald

trump is part of that, because whatever he says, it coincides with what the media wants. i think it is more of a systematic system of using the media as well as the propaganda that comes with it to obtain strength, status. fond of the media, but the fact is now, everything is about the currency and resources. host: your last point? we missed your last point. caller: and the most powerful person behind that are the wall street and banks -- what do you call it, the department of finances, whatever you call that -- that is the most important of them. all of that goes together. that is what i am saying. of thethe -- we are one

richest countries in the world, but we have the most severe problems when it comes to common communication with each other. host: george has this tweet -- you can send us a tweet at @cspanwj. mistrust the media. they play the lines between reporting and commentary. not fake news, but certainly agenda driven news. outgoing house speaker paul ryan had this to say on the media -- [video clip] >> it is great you get to see what your parents do every day. i want all of you to know something. i want you to know that what your parents do is really important. very important for our country. your parents are upholding and protecting the first amendment of our country. that is a really big deal, and you should be really proud of your parents for what they do. we do not always say it, but we are grateful for what they do. host: the house speaker praising

the fourth estate. this from "the detroit news" -- thousands of trump backers gather at the president's rally, the president at washington, michigan, taking aim at the other washington. from louisiana, republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i watched the correspondents' dinner last night. i went to that kind of shellshocked. gods --ed that these who are no gods, in washington, the reporters, the hollywood establishment -- it does not ring anywhere near like truth to all of the red states and all of us out here in middle america. we have a true,. a call, intellectual point of view. it is based, i and, indeed the illogical issues -- in deep,

theological issues. and i appreciate c-span so much for this -- we need for you guys to say how did we get where we are today? lots and lots of programming -- how did we get from where we civilization,try, to where we are today. a discussion of where we are today and where we want to go in the future and how we want to get there. i think middle america is crying out for you guys to help us have that national, international, conversation. host: jay, from louisiana, thank you. this from the "london independent" --white house correspondents' dinner -- conservatives walkout as michelle wolf brutally ridicules trump and aides. several people walked out.

former press secretary sean spicer took to twitter to call the performance a disgrace. as the barbs showed no sign of up, presidential assistant mercedes schlapp walked out during the performance. she later tweeted completely appalled by the so-called interested comedian at the dinner. she added such shows were white america hates the out of touch leftist media elite. [video clip] >> there is a von god -- he is supposed to be an advocate for women. but it turns out she is as helpful for women as an empty box of tampons. she has done nothing to satisfy women. so i guess -- like father, like daughter. you don't think he's good in bed. she does cleanup nice, though. she is the dipaer genie --

of thegenie administration. on the outside, she looks lead. but on the inside, she is still full of shit. host: do you trust the news media? caller: i do, to a point. but they could do a better job of holding politicians' feet to the fire. i believe the old saying "the truth shall set you free." they need to have a more accurate bs meter and say what it is a lie, it is a lie. to quote an old senator. you have a right to your opinion, but you do not have a right to your own facts. , especiallye skewed by fox. i cannot believe how many people drink the kool-aid of fox. i watched various media. i actually tuned to global news and japanese news and bbc on one

of the upper channels. i never watch fox, because it is there he biased towards republican conservatives. i believe myself to be a center of the road, semi-liberal, especially on social issues. that when trump's adultery is accepted and lie after lie is acceptable to supposed christians, they need to read their bible a little more closely and pay attention to "thou shalt not bear false witness" and "thou shalt not commit adultery." for president to believe drug dealers to be executed, in the bible, they executed of the altars -- adulterers. host: thank you. randolph, do you trust the media? caller: i do -- to a point.

61-year-old,d, black man. i am pretty intelligent. one reason i trust the media, and have two, is because if it were not for the media, then minorities and blacks would not have the rights they have today. they were the ones who reported the civil rights movement. if it were not for them, we would not have any rights. so i do trust them, to a point. but i have to tell you the people who were calling are all white and to the right. we know that the republican party is easily over 90% white. care about only what is important to them. but they have to understand two things -- first of all, you have to learn to accept diversity. they do not want to accept diversity. you have to understand that, because of technology, things are changing in this country.

barack obama did not divide the entire country. barack obama, what he did was divided white people. liberal white people and far right whites. host: thanks for the call. tweet -- the following could not agree more. such amazing journalism this year. that should be the focus, when truth matters and is needed more than ever. it was an embarrassment in the room and surely to the audience at home. that was a reference to michelle wolf. this from another viewer saying i do not trust him that pretend to be news and are more propaganda advocates. fox is clearly a political tool. they go to georgia. caller: how are you today? but i thinkuestion,

there is a diversity of media. they are all different. you cannot just say "do you trust the media?" i trust some of the media, and some of it i take with a grain of salt. i think what i find most offensive about the media is ver with diverse opinions are attacked by the host of the show. on fox news the other day, one reporters,tars, news whatever you want to call them, was interviewing a man. she would ask a question. he would try to answer. every time he did, she yelled over him. i do not respect that sort of behavior. by a newsperson. -- athink the media has least part of the media, in this case fox media is probably as guilty as any, maybe more so

than most, a fueling a strict -- hatred and anger and fear against what they call the mainstream media. but there is no such thing as the mainstream media. it is all diverse, all different . we have to recognize that. for adding your voice to the conversation. on the republican line from washington state, brian. good morning. caller: good morning. i have been listening to the show. it is refreshing to listen to the openness and comments. i am almost surprised the show is even on television. when i turn on the tv now, most of the media is all about trashing trump. good,ys are taking the the bad, and the ugly.

--lly, it is an honest, open this, to me, is the way journalism and news reporting should read. and the people are actually getting to voice an opinion. thewhen you listen to mainstream media -- and there is a mainstream media -- all you get is trump has not done anything. he is a blowhard, he's a philanderer, he is all of these things. he has actually accomplished a number of things that are good for this country, including a raise on my paycheck. and i think the average working person, working for a weekly wage, notices that. they also notice the silence of the past four presidents that have not even made it, about him

or even come alongside and tried to encourage or help him in any way. and the people are very smart. american people are the smartest people in the world. host: thank you. i will leave it at that point, but thanks for the call. i hope you keep watching c-span. caller: thank you. host: thank you very much from washington state. joining us is judy kurtz. she writes "in the know" for "the hill newspaper -- "the hill" newspaper. there is a famous saying that you want to singe but not burn. did comedienne michelle wolf crossed the line? caller: that is the big question. the problem with many performance -- the problem for many performance is it is one of the toughest gigs in washington.

if you are too edgy and cross the line, you get blasted. you get criticized, which we are seeing a lot of, and if you are too bland, don't make the room laughed, you're considered a flop. it is a tough balance. i think michelle ballance anticipated that -- i think michelle wolf balanced that. host: this is a headline -- michelle wolf goes low with raunchy humor. she delivered a mostly unfunny and profane performance at the white house correspondents' dinner. trump lookde donald classy, making fun of the trump administration and its motley cast of characters should be a cakewalk -- michelle turned it into a cake left out in the rain. [laughter] caller: that is a great line.

i was in the room when she told the jokes. i think a lot of the folks were not really sure whether to laugh or whether they should be horrified, or whether they were horrified and a lot of her jokes. we perhaps should have suspected that would be the case. i was told out of the dinner in an interview that she was taking the approach that if you offend everyone in the room, then you offend no one. she certainly managed to offend a lot of people in the room. host: one moment getting a lot of attention -- her reference to the press secretary, sarah centers, -- sarah huckabee sanders, who was on the deus -- dais. [video clip] >> every time sarah steps up to the podium, i get excited and i do not know what we are going to get. a press briefing, a bunch of lies, or a dive into softball

teams. this time, don't be a little bitch, jim acosta. [laughter] i actually really like sarah. i think she is very resourceful. she burns fat, and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye. like, maybe she is born with it -- maybe it's lies. probably lies. host: that was michelle wolf. joining us on the phone is judy kurtz. some reaction first from maggie, who received an award last night he did she wrote the following -- the press secretary sat and absorbed intense criticism of her physical appearance, her job performance, and so forth. instead of walking out on national television. calling it impressive. hey, mags,sponse -- all these jokes were about her

despicable behavior. sounds like you have some thoughts on her looks, though? your reaction? caller: i think it was those jokes, especially about the press secretary, was the face of the trump administration at the dinner, giving that the president declined to attend for the second year in a row -- those really made people at the dinner most uncomfortable. i would say they would be considered the most cringe worthy, since she was sitting just steps away from michelle wolf while she was telling these jokes. i think the jokes that were a hit or more about the ineffectiveness of congress. that is always a hit here in washington, when michelle wolf set i have no agenda, try not to get anything accomplished, so everyone in this room from congress should feel right at home -- those were more popular

with this kind of crowd. not so much these personal attacks on members of the trump administration. host: we mentioned the press secretary was on the dais. last year, no one from the administration attended. year, wilbur ross, kellyanne conway, and other white house staffers -- we mentioned earlier that mercedes schlapp, the president's communications director for strategy, walked out. your comments on that? caller: it was definitely a different crowd this year than in years past. i often cover the hollywood and celebrity element did we really did not see much of that again this year, just like last year, when most of hollywood shut out the correspondents' dinner. the stars of the show were essentially the members of the trump cabinet and the former members of the trump cabinet that came out. sean spicer was spotted a lot

this weekend. michael aven a-day -- michael avenatti, stormy daniels' lawyer, was spotted at the parties. and happy person -- kathy griffin, the comedian, was there as well. host: judy kurtz. she is the columnist for "in the know." thanks for being with us. caller: thanks for having me. host: back to your phone calls. brett is joining us from searchlight, nevada, hometown of former number credit leader harry reid. caller: good morning. -- i find it hard to believe the media. i listen to them when they say, this poll, 93% of americans do not believe the president is

doing a good job -- then you look at how may people are asked. 300. 600. 900. 1187. -- 93% oft 90 americans? that is 93% of how many people are asked. i watched the interview with the russian lawyer. where she said i am a lawyer, and i am an informant. said she said "i'm a lawyer and a spy." that is not what she said. host: thank you. we have our own unscientific poll on our facebook page. more than 1400 people have weighed in. we are asking do you trust the news media? 42% say yes. 58% say no. add your voice by voting in this poll at facebook.com/cspan.

or send us a tweet. on the republican line, don. good morning. caller: good morning. i do not trust the media at all. about the only channel i watch is fox news and c-span. course, the delusional democrats, left-wing progressives, they do not watch fox. they do not like fox. but i will tell you something -- fox news put out the facts. a couple examples -- donna -- donna brazile leaked questions in the presidential debate to anderson cooper -- host: they did report that. she even talks about it in her book. that has been reported. jackson, that.

was going to be the head of the the extreme left media, msnbc, abc, and cnn, they did not report that the secret service checked the if he was drunk, and they reported that he was not drunk -- host: nor did he have the accident that was initially reported by senator jon tester. the "washington post" did have the store yesterday, with rate detail. let's go to james from ohio, democrat line. do you trust the news media? caller: for the most part, i do. just like the gentleman just aoke, he said gas went up dollar. the minute race from that tax cut got wiped out. my point -- how do you define

news when you say fox news? there are a lot of talk shows disguising themselves as news. they are not journalists. they are commentators. media celebrities. but those are not really news shows. nowadays, we are getting the news confused with opinionated shows. the news is facts. gas went up a dollar. that is a fact. economy's, well, the doing great. what part of the economy are you looking at? then you listen to people say i only listen to talk radio. for the most part, talk radio is not news. those are opinionated shows. so i have a problem with a lot of people, mostly republicans, that confuse talk radio,

celebrity-based fox shows, as being news. those are opinions. host: thanks for the call. to the earlier caller, the president tweeted the halloween, very critical of senator jon tester, saying he should resign. senator tester for election in montana, estate the president won easily. the secret service just an on me that senator jon tester's statement on admiral jackson are not true. there were no such findings. a horrible thing we in d.c. must live with, just like phony russian collusion. tester should lose race in montana. very dishonest and sick. from fairhaven, massachusetts. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. how are you today? host: doing great. how are you? caller: i am hanging in. i am 81 years old, korean war

veteran. i just want to say this. it is unfortunate, because what is happening to this wonderful ofntry that has made a lot mistakes -- we have to learn to be contrite and we want to do better. we want to make america great. but i heard mr. trump speak at washington, michigan. to hear what he had to say, the words that came out of his mouth, is something that the average working class person would like to hear. -- the fact of the matter the devil is in the detail. you do not know if he is telling the truth or if he happens to be a good concert is ringmaster. the average person that goes to these things, they are not your above average, educated person. working class,e more or less -- when i say "ignorant," i am not insulting anybody.

it just means you do not know. i feel very hurt, as an american citizen, that i go back and --th between americans and between democrats and republicans going back and was come off fighting. the little people always end up getting hurt. when they say things are getting better and you get a little more money in your paycheck, you asked the average woman, who keeps track of what she buys -- the prices of the food in stores are more, and they are giving you less in ounces. it hurts me, as an eagle scout, to see america reach this point. i do not know what trump said sounded good, but is he a chicks there, a hustler? -- a trickster, a hustler? saying what people want to hear, so he can be president longer, not get impeached? and the native american and

african-americans are still suffering. mike parents came here from kim verde island -- cape verde island. it is a great place. but there are a lot of lies. you do not know whether to believe the media or not to believe. i read several newspapers at least three or four times -- host: we have to move on, because others are waiting. i want to say thank you for adding your voice. this from crack barnes -- mcconnell looks on the bright side. the senate republican leader is not depressed, writing republicans are better off than they look to the midterm election is six months away, and their chances of preserving a good check of their power in washington are good. the the full essay at weekly standard website. chris matthews is going to be joining us in a couple minutes. he is out with a new book on robert f. kennedy.

later, america in turmoil, a ago, 1968.t 50 years david hume kennerly and marvin kalb will join us. we go to james, though come on the democrat line, from kentucky. good morning. caller: good morning. what i would like to discuss is how the media really has become, pretty much, orbit media. and how that happened is in the 19801970's, around 1979 or , with the advent of cnn. prior to this time, the three major networks were stand-alone news divisions. with the advent of cnn, they began to move those news divisions into the entertainment, and that made them subject to and responsive to profits and ratings. prior to that time, they were stand-alone news divisions protected from ratings and

profits. there is an excellent example of play -- the author of the play "network" kind of foresaw this happened. what you basically have now is news basically driven by ratings and profits. where you had just a standalone division. it was basically the cost of doing business. you can broadcast over the airways, but you must provide a 30 minute spot at noon and 6:00. basically just straight news. and you were actually able to operate at a loss. you were not required to earn a profit. thanks for the call. this is the headline from "usa today" michelle wolf obliterates sarah huckabee sanders.

the president tweeting the following -- while washington, success,was a big washington, d.c. just did not work. everyone is talking about the fact that the white house correspondents dinner was a very big, boring bust. so-called comedian really bombed. greg gutfeld should host next year. up next, republican line. caller: good morning. i want you know -- want you to know that i have called a couple of times, and my grandson is listening. they really tried to do in sarah she standsnders, -- there, week after week, and takes it a i adore her. i wish i could be like her, and

i do not trust cnn. i do watch it for the dirt, sometimes -- i am human. i must admit it to you but i have to go over to fox and check if it is the same thing. i love c-span. host: thanks. and your grandson, 9-year-old, you say? caller: yes. host: he is of early watching this. caller: yes. he is interested. i am glad. host: this from cheryl atkinson -- americans do not trust the media, and for good reason. available at thehill.com. next is mark, independent line. the you trust the media? caller: of course i do. that is our democracy right there. i hear all of the stuff all the time for my friends. -- i try to teach kids

in my neighborhood the way that we came to america. european americans really think they own america. her grandson -- this is where racism begins. at the early stage, right there. she is teaching another european-american, a male european-american -- watch fox only. that is so crazy. sarah huckabee is a liar. just like donald trump. there is something that hillary get mail him. not a hillary supporter. show me where you walk, i will show you where you are. you arewatching with -- walking with sarah, walking with mr. trump, you are a liar, too. host: howard is next, republican line. want to respond to that, any

thoughts about the media? caller: wow. wow. good morning, america. we need morning in america, don't we? bad.s are looking pretty i really do not understand it. we do have some problems in the news. kind of funny. up until 2016, i do not think i ever heard the term "fake news." do you remember ever hearing "fake news"? host: we have heard it over the years on both sides. .aller: very little mainstream media did not like the term, i do not. i studied journalism in 1978. i cover the opening of c-span, of you guys. it was a great situation.

you and a couple of other things responded -- host: we are just approaching our 40th year on the air. caller: it is amazing. great. that is an interesting thing to me, is that you guys did a great job of covering the white house, the senate, the house. all of the issues, for years. let me ask you -- who was your last pro trump person part of the administration that you had on? and had on for an hour? and when people called in, you were steering in the direction --being supported of a supportive of the administration? host: sebastian gorka. we just had him on. and kellyanneucci

conway are expected in the coming weeks. we have an open invitation for all trump administration staffers. we go to aubrey, getting the last word from richmond, virginia. good morning. caller: good morning. i always listen to washington journal. i also watch a lot of c-span's content to you i see a lot of people calling in criticizing the media. then they come back and say i watch foxnews to get the truth. the problem is -- and i do watch fox news on occasion, to see what they are talking about. but more often than not, what some truth is mixing with a lot of misrepresentation. i wish a lot of you fox news consumers would spend a little more time watching some of the

committee hearings and content from c-span. they would find out a lot of what was going on with donald trump. the so-called mainstream media -- what the so-called mainstream media is giving is actually the truth. host: thanks for the call. coming up, his latest book, looking at robert f. kennedy 50 years after his. chris matthews at the table, longtime host of msnbc's "hardball." later, we continue our series, 1968: america in turmoil. joining us is pulitzer prize-winning photographer david hume kennerly and cbs and nbc reporter marvin kalb. "newsmakers" follows "washington journal." our guest is representative mac

the house, chair of armed services committee, discussing the koreas pledge to work to denuclearize the korean peninsula. here is a portion of that conversation. [video clip] >> i am curious where you stand on the deal. we are getting close to the may 12 deadline. >> i am not good at predicting what is going to happen in the next few weeks. i opposed the deal when it was negotiated area the question now once it is in place is what happens if the united states walks away? amongk secretary mattis, has beeno my ear, consistent saying whatever you thought of the deal to begin with, you better understand what the concert answers of walking away from it are. at the same time saying, as

president macron was arguing in congress this past week, that there may well be improvements that could be made to the deal or around the deal, as far as iran's other activities are going. should try to work for improvements. maybe enhanced verification of the deal. other curtailing iran's aggressive activities in the region and some of their -- their missile program, for example. but for me, i would not think it was in the best interests of the united states to walk away from the deal unless we are very clear about the consequences of that. if we walk away, i think we are going to be on our own. it is going to present a number of problems. >> is their time to make these changes to the deal, and is f ofe willingness on behal

our allies -- you mentioned macron, but it is not just france who signed onto it. >> they're interested in seeing if improvements could be made, but they want us to stay in the deal while everyone works on those improvements. that would be my advice. host: c-span's "newsmakers" follows "washington journal." our guest is mac thornberry, chair of the house armed services committee. you can also listen to it on our free c-span radio app, and online any time at c-span.org. we want to welcome back chris matthews of msnbc. how many books have you written? guest: 8. host: i want to begin with a picture -- this is from an earlier this month -- for our radio audience, three african long,an women saying "so bobby."

guest: the affection the people felt for this guy, when he died. black and white. there was that wonderful scene in philadelphia, where 20,000 african-americans saying the "battle hymn of the republic was repblispontaneously -- -- republic" spontaneously for the guy. this is gone. the unity of black and white communities. very patriotic and democratic already so tied into pager does them. what has been missing? bobby has been missing, that spirit. host: in the beginning of the book, you talk about the politics of 1968. you wrote young people were obsessed with the daily spectacle of a war -- the vietnam war -- a conflict that their country could neither win nor end. -- the news of robbie kennedy's decision to run struck

many antiwar activist as both a threat and an insult to those already in the fight. guest: i remember that period. i was in chapel hill in grad school, university of north carolina. people like me were for gina mccarthy. we are coming off of the march on pentagon, and bobby was holding back. bobby held back until it was clear johnson was in trouble. party was clearly divided, bobby couldn't be accused of dividing the party. what mccarthy had shown party a weakness of johnson with the strong support up in new he really was torn. bobby wanted to run in 72. running in 1968 he knew very much threatened that. why did he do it at that time? why not announced before? guest: he didn't want to break

up this party and destroy his chance of being president someday. of is theconvinced most powerful emotion of this book is his love for his brother. it drove him from 1952 all the way to 1962. when jack died, he was heard in the lincoln bedroom in the white house, talking to god. so religious. said, "god, why? " that brotherhood, that love. how did you research the book? guest: i had a tremendous advantage in the fact i came across some interviews with canny o'donnell. bobby's best friend. they went to harvard together and played football together. there was tremendous insight

through that guy into bobby and two he was. i have done these other books on the kennedys next and and jack kennedy. the closest people like ethel ofnedy, chuck spalding, course, i worked for tip o'neill and he knew all of the political stuff. six years of sitting with two bone meal in the room, he told me all these stories, he would sit and start talking to me and i thought, i am sitting here with a treasure chest of history here. host: as he walks into the kitchen at the ambassador hotel. you talk about his relationship officers.ehost: why is this significant? guest: i was sitting in the capital one night and i was

looking at it, and i was a cop on the 3:00 to the eleven o'clock shift. i would work in an office all from morning, andicers then put on a uniform and be a police officer until 11:00 at night. a lot of time with quiet night -- quiet time at night. of all the liberal democratic senators, they are all highbrow and big thinking and they care about evil and all that, but the only one who ever said hello to capitol police when they lost i was bobby kennedy. that struck me. that was a true good guy who truly believed in law enforcement. he also was not a snob. a lot of them are country guys from west virginia and they were double doubles -- double dippers. regular guys. that is so much who bobby was. his friends are not aristocratic. it told me a lot about the guy. host: he had a lot of political

enemies. , an officey hoffa right down the street here. hoffa was evil. even like some people. he believed they were bad guys. host: would he have gotten the 1968 nomination? primary byad won the four or five points. i think he would have one in the new york primary six years later but that would've been tough. bosses, irishty guys, i think you could predict they would have all come in for him. comingnson thing was down, humphrey was not that popular. i think when you got to chicago was --st of 1968, there

there were things to the cops, you could not believe. feces thrown with razor blades in them. get some pictures of these students, they are frightening. they are not just on summer break. they are in there for trouble. and the cops were bad. i think if bobby had committed that as the leader of the war movement there would have been a thrill and i think he could have beaten him. this is what happened when he walked into that convention in 1964, it was unbelievable, a sacred event. i think the aura would have been overwhelming. he brought back his brother's memory. one of the moments you write about in the book, in indianapolis, a speech on the evening of dr. king, we will hear about it in a moment but

set this up. bobby -- bobby -- the minorities go fight the war in vietnam. getting on the plane to indianapolis, dr. king was killed. those were the days when you waited for the evening news to find out what was going on. people didn't know. and the police would not go in with him because it was a tough neighborhood. he is with john lewis and people like that and he walked up onto a flatbed truck onto a crowd that didn't know that. i'm listening to it and he said to the guy next to them, do they know yet? history in the african-american community has

been shot by a white guy in the guy says no. he had to tell a crowd of people who were so enthusiastic to see him that there other and perhaps king, hero, martin luther had just been shot. bobby had to tell him. here is a relatively small white guy walking into a crowd of angry african-american people, they are going to be angry, and riding had begun to break out across the country and bobby told him about it. andmember watching it thinking, how awkward what he said was and it was so soulful. he clearly was killed because he was white, it wasn't a racial shooting but it was his way of saying, you know, we have to get through these horrible things together somehow. we cannot just break apart. pilloried --lful soulful.

people just enjoyed jack kennedy's company. bobby was sold. -- soul. people had an affection for him. i keep coming across reporters, so tough, and how much they love the guy. it was real. april 4, 1968. let's listen. martin luther king dedicated his life to love and to justice between fellow human beings. died in the cause of that effort. day, thisfficult difficult time for the united states, it is perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are in what direction we want to move in.

black,se of you who are considering -- considering the evidence evidently is that white people are responsible, it can be filled with bitterness and with hatred and a desire for revenge, we can move in that direction as a country, and greater polarization, black people amongst blacks and white people among us whites -- and whites, or we can do it martin luther king did, to understand and comprehend and put deaf replace the violence and stain of bloodshed across within effort to understand, compassion, and love.

host: what is amazing when you listen to that is how quiet the crowd was. guest: love. --t is not something politicians talk about anymore. .n the left does it trump does it, both sides to it. people get excited by division. and bobby, i still think his ability to appeal, a very liberal guy from new york said, he looked upon waitresses, cops, construction workers, and firefighters, as his people. is basic working-class mixture. that group has been driven to that point of view. it was interesting, his

grandson, joe the third, i love the name because it is a risk to track -- aristocratic. everyone talked about, lip gloss, which i didn't notice, he had a comment about both p or i wrote about it in the book. it work in wisconsin lost his job and has no health insurance and the whole family is worried, what happened to our factory, and an american can grope where i grew up in philly, these kids grow up with nowhere to go, maybe a service job somewhere maybe. why are those two people at war with each other? i think both parties ought to take a look at trying to help both people. they should not be at a war with each other and they are both american and have been here a long time. we have to deal with -- everything can't be zero-sum. unfortunately with politics,

people think if they get it, i won't get it. i'm not sure that is the way it works. i think helping out the african-american kid is a better thing for society than not doing for everybody. it is clear to me. host: our guest is chris matthews from msnbc. line for democrats, new york, good morning. so, two observations. i watch chris's show relatively often. cavett -- to cavett -- dick asked whaton and he it was like interviewing back then versus now and when dick ca vett finally got a word in, he said back then, we could get a word in.

i was always waiting for the opportunity to say, i blame chris more than anyone else for trump's election because at 7:00 when the other tv shows were showing an empty podium waiting for donald trump -- bullbowl cracked, not asking why is my boss requiring me to keep his empty podium visible for a half hour to three quarters of an hour when the president has nothing to -- nothing intelligent to say. guest: we covered him and trump won the election. dick cavett apologized for that comment.

people often think questions that aren't really questions, they are prompts. i want questions answered and i push them. i drift off and keep pushing. that is my style for 25 years and i will not change. host: mike, you with us? caller: yes. thank you for taking my call and thank you for appearing on c-span today. guest: we are americans, too. caller: it gives me the opportunity to ask you a question. a comment and a question. we can probably all agree

germinal -- journalism has changed a lot in the last few decades. my mom, a 31-year-old. my mother would talk about the network leadership of their time , a , a loop -- a belief that reporting the news accurately was a public service and they were not concerned about making money off of it. it was done in a much more professional and anti-inflammatory manner. it seems now with the consolidation of the news media by a few very powerful business conglomerates or interests, it seems journalistic integrity has suffered. with target marketing introduced and the national audiences were sliced and diced -- host: stay on the line. you brought in something before. has corporate ever come to you and said you need to do this or that? what has changed,

my first job in journalism, i had a bigger root and a couple working for me. every day, i delivered the bulletin. it was an afternoon newspaper. i worked for one in san francisco for all those years. the examiner. the newspaper was very similar to what we had on prime time television. printing presses around noon, , it is fire station mainly an opinion columnist. and in thee guys later days of that, you got an opinion. andre reading columnists feature pieces. it is a lot like what we do it cable night, whether it is

rachel or hannity, they are opinion people on the news. i do not think it has changed. it is a different format. will tell you the local andpaper was all opinion may be day sometimes read the paper afterwards and they have all of these opinions from people and it was mostly conservative but liberal and i think that is what we do tonight. if anyone turns on the prime support theirthey own opinions, which i think it is normal, it will be the other side. that is what it is about. it is not about delivering the but abouthe news delivering the angle if you will. you always look for the angle. just a question and

response pair what i'm concerned about is the other generation, 30-year-olds, this is all they have known, finding a news on the internet and the opinion pieces and cable news and maybe they do not quite understand it is opinion. agree with you. i know i should not interrupt but i completely agree with you. i always say to young people, put your own stew together and listen to npr for a while and news pages, read a good local newspaper. put it together. switch the channel once in a while. i would like to turn it over and say how are they doing? you cannot just be a student. you have to be a boss, take responsibility for deciding who is telling the truth. my older brother is a moderate republican.

he said he is a liberal but he is the best. if you can discern like that and , because we're learning something every night and he would say to me, we are teachers. when the show stopped putting on people like other journalists, people don't just one opinion. they want to walk away and say where did you learn that? i learned it on hardball. something, i go, i heard it on hardball p are great. we want to be a source of information. my show is a lot more complicated than some -- than some of the other ones. >> republican line with chris matthews. >> a question for you. you mentioned how bobby kennedy was an advocate for the working-class bank. did not matter if he was a white guy or not.

11 million plus, depressing wages for the working-class bang americans.ing-class ban here is my view about immigration law. no one should serve in congress unless they believe in the law passed and enforce it. good immigration law. stop hiring people illegally. there is a job here waiting for someone, working in the kitchen somewhere, and they have to find a way to get there. pass a law, make it liberal, american, but enforce it. andries of left, right, center, they are not serious about doing it.

labor in the country, a woman just got here, we know that, and i think democrats like the votes. no one is getting serious about it. they are kicking the can down the road. years ago, 10, 20 they have got to pass a law they enforced. generally, they have to respect our border. host: chris matthews books --lude his most recent book, "bobby kennedy: a raging spirit." we covered him in annapolis and that will be on c-span two's tv. caller: i know you are a big fan of the kennedys and wrote many books about it. an issue that does not get

covered in tv media that has changed so much since that era is the population has a most double to we added 3.5 billion people to the planet since jack kennedy was in office. america itself has grown by well over 100 million people since the kennedys were in their heyday. the growth of human population, it affects everything. the environment, global warming, , the labornge market, why working-class bang working-class people can't make a wage, workers are more productive now, so why doesn't the media cover the growth of human population and what it is doing to say the middle east and africa. /? the rockefeller family was very concerned about population growth. you are right in terms of the

future of humankind, you are right. i have to watch this because better medical care people are living. if they could pass birth, well into the 80's, if even they can get enough food to survive. trees are gone in africa. woman has to jewett job, walks for five miles, and eventually, the trees are torn down. it is a real problem. everyone talks about the weather and known does anything about it. what will we do?

people have kids. agreement on population, but it really -- it is a problem. a headline, the president rallies in what he calls "trump country." washington, michigan, was a big success, washington, d.c., just does not work. the white house correspondents dinner was -- i do not know who this was last night, but it wasn't for me. i did not like it. year, they get in trouble with a comedian. it did not click.

no more movie stars, hip-hop the only person was brooks robinson and they said we will go back to basics. and add something is as next year. clever knocks about yourself. i do not it is a funeral. everyone watched and felt great about being a human being. we felt better, we were elevated and joyful about this woman's life. there was some celebration last night.

cynical. putting people like sarah huckabee down sitting right there on the stage, trump will win the fight because he is in the home of the reagan democrat. that is the center, reagan democrat country. caller: i watch chris matthews nightly during the week. i feel like he gives it to us straight. i like the fact that you have tip o'neill, that was pretty great. i was listening to your views on immigration and i think that is why, for the most part, i watch, because you are saying it in a , kind of a keep up the good work.

thank you very much. you wrote the following, he found good in politics. he found his mission in life and wanted dearly to go along. >> he thought he wanted by a he did.ajority fan people don't of the future and they always look at history and say they know what was coming to her they don't. i look at it over and over again , having the time of his life with a beautiful wife. the crowd that opened, all the wasen, her husband discovering something and

finally figured it out. he would be assassinated. when he died, he had a bullet in his head. that is bobby. host: i wanted to include what his brother said. >> my brother need not be , to be remembered simply as a good and decent man. he saw a wrong and tried to write it. he saw suffering and tried to heal it. he saw a war and tried to stop it. those who -- those of us who loved him and taken to his rest pray that what he

was -- to those he touched, and who sought to touch him, some men see things as they are and say why. see things that never were and say why not? host: -- guest: i thought about that speech and you are asking earlier, i think the war would have been half as long. the vietnam veteran and the vietnam memorial would be different. i think there was a candidate who really wanted to unite people. it is so hard to do it and it is getting harder and harder to

keepkeep lack and what together, young and old, the working kind, we keep talking about noncollege people as opposed to college people, what a ridiculous separation to we got to stop that but we know it it -- we know what it was about. the elite, a tremendous advantage over other people. it is not only the advantage of attic -- education. they were snotty about it or they look down on those people. thate that about the fact bobby said hello to the cops. he was not a snotty liberal who thinks i'm better than you because i have a better education than you. it is a real problem in this country. it hurt a lot of the democratic campaign in 2016, elitism. i think it killed them. chris matthews of nbc news and msnbc. thank you for stopping by. 1968, america in turmoil, we will continue the conversation and focus on the role of the media. the assassination of dr. king

and senator robert f kennedy, demonstrations in chicago, and the vietnam war. joining us is photographer david hume kennerly and journalist marvin kalb. our audience on c-span3 part of american history tv, we will take you back to summer of 1968, august of that year. walter cronkite. >> chicago, illinois, the convention of the democratic party, nominating tonight its candidate for the presidency. that man will be vice president hubert humphrey. right now, speeches are being made for senator mcgovern and then we will have nomination second speech for the reverend mr. channing phillips for washington, d.c., a favorite son

candidate of the black caucus convention, 212 delegates here -- negro delegates here. here in the amphitheater, new york, holding a caucus right now discussing violence downtown. [applause] >> you are wasting valuable time. several hundred of mccarthy supporters and others have gathered into the caucus room here, number one, to hear proposals that all of these -- all of those opposed to the action in the convention, the actions of police and other security agents against the delegates as they gathered together at the end of the speech and go forth and present their objections and be permitted to present a resolution and not permitted,

they say they will not return to the convention tomorrow. the proposal is not that they will walk out tonight that they will not come back tomorrow. one delegate said we are going to bring to a grinding halt this entire convention, and he was a rousing round of applause by standing delegates who applauded here in the caucus room. suggestioneen any that delegates attend the party meeting at the hotel and a new party is calling? >> the question of a new party so far has not come up but these people are very angry about reports they are seeing about the way that delegates are being treated. just going to walk out of this meeting. >> thank you.

-- of the so-called new party forming an old party. reserved a bank it -- banquet room. he expects 200 delegates to attend the meeting. >> washington journal continues. host: our thanks to cbs news for that fitted from 1968. we look back at 1968, america in turmoil, the role of the media. about 1968 and cbs news and nbc news. what role did he play? >> big-time. when it began in january of 58, and the economist seemed for a week or two to be in the

ascendancy and victors in the thought he could no longer sit as the anchorman in new york. see what was happening. he was a very old-fashioned reporter in that respect and he cbs, can president of he go? they did not want to send an anchorman but he insisted and he went and he spent a brief time there but absorbed a great deal. he realized while he was there that the war could not be won. when he went back to new york, he said, i have got to do something which expresses my opinion. he said, i do not want your opinion or you are the news man. tell me what happened. he said i have got to tell you what it means. and he argued with him but walter went on the air and he

had an extraordinary line, we are a great country and did whatever we could for the vietnamese people, but it is now up to them and this war is deadlocked. it is a stalemate. lyndon johnson was watching that with two of his very close aides at the time. said, whent that and i have lost walter cronkite, i lost middle america. he meant he had lost his basic support. was that significant and take us back to where the media was in 1968. we did not have cable or twitter. there were no websites. guest: a young david at 21. and for me,tions, what really affected me the most andre service photographs,

i think if you look at the biggest photo of the year, it shooting adam's photo the suspect in the head, it was on the front pages of every newspaper in the world. forward to, flashing watching the president of south holdingd north korea hands and stepping over the line, there was one particular image from the back, those kinds of images stay with you and those kinds of images affected everyone's life. did not have the torrent of information you're getting now. those things really locked into your psyche. of lyndonstory johnson watching, some people say he was on a plane and not watching at the moment. my understanding is he was at the white house, bill was with him, chris, his spokesman,

was with him. those two guys were with him. they remembered bill has talked about it since that time, they were in his office, he was watching it, he saw walter and walter said what he said and he said, i have lost middle america. host: let's talk about the larger role of what was happening in vietnam, the television war. what were americans seeing at home and how significant was that as the war was unfolding? really thethat was beginning of my career as a newsman, and i grew up in a little town in oregon and i went to portland to work on the newspaper and down to l.a. at that point, i had not been to vietnam. before i came on today, i was four ofback, there were my classmates from the high school and earned -- in oregon, who were killed in the vietnam war.

in 1968, bobas clarke was 21 years old, dale, these were all guys i went to school with. there was a profound effect for me. i was just getting it from knowing my friends were getting bumped off in vietnam, and then i wanted to go over there, but all you had to do was go on was living in l.a. at the time. i cover all of the adjoining areas and you could see the rising tide of people protesting the war. is from a cbs radio ad, who is this gentleman? i mention that because you are also the author of, the year i was peter the great, my question is what where we so concerned about with the soviet union? why was this a fear in the

government and by the american people? guest: we were still caught up in what was called the cold war. an existential quarrel, with thegument communist world. the entire world itself was divided up by the cold war. warnam was the pivotal which really turned the whole cold war around in my judgment. than in any other year, it seemed as if the united states had lost its innocence in the war. the media had lost its innocence in 1968 as well. we had been, there was a credibility gap, very famous, where the people in vietnam, the officers and majors and colonels, they would tell us what it is we had covered that day.

it had nothing to do with what we had seen and heard. there was a credibility gap. the lyndon johnson the ministration was up against it and it was a reason the president felt he had to get out and that is what he did march 31. -- het he no longer had he made up his mind that could no longer leave the country, that the war had captured and in effect brought him down. lyndon johnson was a very proud man. he had done in my opinion great things on the legislative front and the domestic front, a great society, but then the war was always there, pulling him down and ultimately, it tried him down and the american people had to face, in a sense, the loss of a president, the loss of innocence, the media itself, my god, our own government was lying to us, i was in moscow

correspondent. i had assumed the russians would like to me. but i had never assumed up until that point that my own government was going to lie to me. that was a big growing up moment for me and for many other reporters at the time. host: other things were happening at the home front. i want to show our audience, you are based on the west coast, escaped convicts, and explain what you saw and what you reflect on 50 years later. >> i lived in manhattan beach, california and got a radio report, there was a guy hold up in a little hotel motel, fairly close to where i live. thened over there, and went into the driveway and the cops were talking to the guy through a window and it turned

out, his name was arthur glenn jones and they tried to talk him out and there was a cbs cameraman, a local guy, the two standing in the driveway, i do not know how i did not get kills, and were there other pictures? just the one? ok. all of a sudden, there was an -- an explosion and they set up dynamite in the room. the cops started climbing out of the window and started shooting and i kept taking pictures and the cbs cameraman kept rolling in the and it up crawling over to where he is right there. the guy came over but it was i sat there and i shot the whole thing and that was right after lbj announced he was not going to run.

these pictures were all on the paper. myad a lot of close calls in experience but that was one of them. 62.5 million americans in 1968 received a newspaper paper in the morning or afternoon. you can see pew research, the number was down by 20 million and the most recent, just over 40 million received a daily newspaper. what does it tell you about the press? world of newspapers was big and alive back then. it has been supplanted by television and radio and internet. it is amazing to me there were as many newspapers as there are functioning. live in a world that is completely different than in 19 68. the moreed upon

limited group of people. because youegative have got the slant of only those people, but they were highly experienced professional reporters and today, people do reporters as professional or they regard them as propagandists. that is a horrible change to second-place but it is true. joining us here is david hume kennerly and marvin kalb. our line for democrats -- >> thank you for being on. and thank you for having me. get yournted to

comments or we were just talking to teachthose years, my grandchildren that we survived those years and no matter the conflicts we have, nine -- 9/11 and so forth, that the country will hang together and survive. i also want your comic about the fact that the vietnam war ended -- will end and 68, but it until 1975 and america until 1973 and became nick's war. thank you for taking my call and i will listen to your comments off-line. >> thank you for the call from texas. do you want to respond? >> it is a good point that it did not and when johnson left. a 20 euros in 1968, i could vote for the first time.

believed richard nixon when he said he would end the war in vietnam -- the anon. that had a direct impact on me. up --in college but ended i went into the army for six months, the national guard, i did basic training and all of that. richard nixon, i do not know exact numbers but during the administration, just about as were killed when richard nixon was president. >> right. it was about 50-50. 1971 afterietnam in he had won his pulitzer prize and all the pictures had been taken. on and i wason and there toward the end of the vietnam war. i was in the war -- in the room

when he pulled the plug on it. >> from connecticut, republican line, good morning. good morning. >> reporters described free and open access to combat scenes. they were able to see the fighting as it occurred. ted came along and the pentagon papers came along and they were just there were great surprises at how would you guys reconcile access,between the free and missing the main facts of the war? will have you answer the question and also explain how your thesis came back to the u.s. in the days before satellite transition -- admission, it was live. >> in those days, you had a camera crew in television, it consisted of a cameraman, light and sound and i have to quickly add i did most of the coverage of the vietnam war from

washington. cbsrother covered it from but what i know is you would go out with the team, there was no censorship. you covered what it is you saw and you brought it back. then had to be shipped up to japan and then shipped to new york and in other words, you did lies an instantaneous coverage. commentary is something you could do a day or two later. you would lay in over the footage, but you will not have a live commentary. it made all the difference in the world. let me try and explain when you're doing a live story now, you have to go and immediately know what you will be saying. or 40 years ago, we had an opportunity, and it sounds funny now, but we had an opportunity to actually think about what it is you wanted to say.

you have the opportunity to spend a day or two checking with people. you have the footage, that is what you saw, but what did it really mean? ago, we20 or 30 years might have had a richer diet of news than we have today. question, theis press was reporting things were going well. i'm not sure what he meant on -- when the pentagon papers came out, what you found was duplicitous activity in the white house, but the reporters were constantly talking about how things were not going well from there. washe time, the right wing blaming the press for us losing the war when it was really the government who should not have been there in the first place there,y, but having been

almost over two years spent there, i thought the reporting was good and it was true that we could go anywhere at any time and all of that. i never really bought into the idea that somehow, we lost the war for the u.s. that is not true. also in the coverage at least at cbs and other networks, you had the coverage from vietnam but also you had coverage of the war as seen from the nation's capital. and you look at the capitol building now and you realize that at the time, the war was being fought in this country as well. the country was split. it lester maddox a, almost violently split into between those people who supported the government and wanted it to continue, and the people by the hundreds of thousands who were out in the street objecting to the war.

there were two angles of vision on the war. where it happened and the impact it had on the country. you capture that in some of your photographs. >> i tried. another thing about covering the war, i was compelled. it was about a 50-50 split and two of my buddies from hice -- from high school were killed during johnson and two during nixon. explain the photograph and the blood on the face of that demonstrator. that college was partially antiwar and partially -- that is what route -- that reflects what was going on at the time. i got beat up by both cops and demonstrators. it was equal opportunity. vietnam, soldiers loved

it when someone like me showed up, and outsider who did not have to be there. contrary to what you may hear, we had an incredible -- incredible relation with gis and officers in everybody. they wanted to tell their story. it was important to them. this was another facet of what i did when i was there. on the media in particular in 1968. daniel is joining us from pennsylvania, in line. good morning. >> good morning. i'd could not tell in 1968 whether a journalist was liberal or conservative. today, it seems more flagrant. that is more of a comment than anything else. flagrant that the journalism today is more liberal. back then, you could not tell whether they were liberal or conservative.

for me, photographers, speaking for myself, we really do not take sides. i was brought up that way. where the lines have blurred is between commentators, people like sean hannity, they are deathly not journalists. and the people who are true reporters, those are the kinds of people i have always worked with. i think that is part of the problem. you do not know why they are saying what they are saying. normally, a reporter will give you -- you're right about the impression p are a lot of people do think, i don't personally believe it is true in cases of real people in the news business. host: let's talk about a couple of photographs you have an significant players. how about the governor of

california, ronald reagan? >> the picture of the fairly young reagan at the time, that was 1968 and ronald reagan was governor of california, he had been a democrat and became a republican. i have had a long history with him because he was governor there and then he ran against my boss, ford, when i was the white house photographer. they had a showdown at the republican convention in 1976. then of course, reagan went on to become president. i covered the first four years of his administration. one of the beautiful things about my career, seeing people progress through it from the beginning to the end. in 68.s ronald reagan i covered his funeral. these are people i got to know. ronald reagan and the

influence he had that year. >> in 1968, i do not think reagan influenced on the war and on the domestic events, was all that great. i think it was later that reagan picked up steam. at the time, he was still a young politician on the rise. he had not yet become the governor of california. he was governor at the time. a young governor. he did deal at the time with student unrest. he became associated with the government cracking down on student demonstrators. a lot of people felt reagan had and one reason he developed a following among the right wing of the republican party was just reasons like that here he was capable of ordering a crackdown on young gem -- young demonstrators. >> i believe they had

helicopters going over uc berkeley and i have -- i have a son there now and i think i it -- i'm glad things have come down for his sake. but governor reagan was law and had cops definitely cracking down on universities and demonstrations. host: center you -- eugene significant another player. >> that was during the campaign. the first mainline politician to rise up against lbj. back to phone calls, thomas joining us from maryland, democrats line. >> good morning. i find it interesting in the conversation the journalists are having. they are coming across to me, in a white world, a white supremacists world, with perks

come whether you were liberal or conservative, it was still white supremacy. but i noticed you were talking about reagan and you showed that first clip of cronkite. you are talking about what was addressed to white people, for white people and by white people. you haven't talked about the south or anything that deals with people who are minorities and the great suffering that was really going on internally in the country. white supremacy was, at the roots of reagan, johnson, they were forced to accept a black people as people. let's be real. you are a renowned journalist and photographer. in the dirt,n let's say, and be real about what happened in america. it was not all about white people. all your pictures show white students and the police, just

like they are today, crushing people's schools, under command of a white supremacists. and maybe they weren't white supremacists, but under command of a white person. let's be real about what is really going on. host: thank you for the call. in a previousthat installment and this is a nine part series. today, we're focusing on the media. good point.s a we obviously cannot cover the most tumultuous year in american history and get it all in there, thefrank -- quite friendly, photographs taken by my colleagues, particularly of civil rights unrest and martin luther king, really, made a big impact on all of that. we were telling those stories. i think he has a good point, you know, as a young white person fa oregon,hite part of

that's what i knew growing up. i have certainly come a long way , and you did cover that in a previous segment as you mentioned. host: how powerful were these pictures as americans were watching walter cronkite on nbc and they saw the body backs of the servicemen being carried out? guest: in my opinion, television came of age in the 1960's. when we got in 1968, beginning with the tet offensive in vietnam followed by lyndon johnson's statement that he is not going to run for president, followed by the killing of martin luther king in early april of 1968 and then the killing of robert kennedy in june of 1960, then the effort to try to wind down the war, then

that democratic convention in chicago. at the beginning you are showing cronkite and his coverage. of one in the midst then of the great years in american history that touched every aspect of our lives, the war, peace, the extraordinary downfall the president, the killing of a black leader. not athese things great deal to a lot of people. television was one of the ways most people found out about this country, found out about what was going on, and it had an enormous impact on people. television absolutely came of age in 1968. i also believe that if it was tv that brought the war into your living room's, the still pictures still took it a little further into your heart and soul. adams, aat eddie

little girl running down the napalmed,r being name the indelible images of vietnam were principally coming at you from still photographers, many of whom were killed to take those photographs. host: would you agree with this time magazine special edition, it did shape a generation, 1968? guest: it did. there was a lance morrow piece in there. it was really good. having lived through it, the one thing about california. lot.ornia gets neglected a you are away from the center of power in washington and new york. it seems to me i got every element of the vietnam war, civil unrest, being in california.

1968, iyear-old in really got to see the show. host: one of the photographs in time magazine, the streets of chicago after the assassination of dr. king. guest: these pictures were taken by very brave photographers who wanted to tell the story. host: frank in new orleans, democrats line. caller: hello. this is frank. i appreciate the two journalists that are there, what they are writing about. i live to that as a black soldier -- lived that as a black soldier drafted in 1966 through 1968. coming home at the end of 1967, , andring for riot control now i have to back off grounds of writers after kings -- ri oters after king's

assassination. in the streets. americans playing the country would later get amnesty while the poor died overseas. host: as you answer that, david hume kennerly you are talking about photographs the day after dr. king's assassination. guest: you make a great point about coming back from the war and then having to stand off demonstrators, people who were protesting the war you were in. such sympathy for people like that, the african-americans who came back to the same old problems, racism and having to beings a soldier castigated by people when you

were in a war you had nothing to do about it it was not about the warriors, it was about the war. i spent a lot of time with black ,nd white soldiers in vietnam and everyone was going through the same thing. it was not good. host: from maryland. republican line. caller: good morning. . wanted to make a comment it is an absolute disgrace in my eyes. the trouble today we have no respect. we do not talk right about our leaders. we should. around the world we are made a joke of because this would never be allowed anywhere else. as far as 1968, my dad was a diplomat.

girl when a young president kennedy got shot, which i remember how it affected my father and mother. it touched my heart. i grew up with a passion to stop this bigotry and hate. i became president of the international club in college. say today i think the trouble is that we have no respect. adults need to grow up. people are not living and showing a good example to their children, which scares me. i am now a grandmother. that the me to think change does not happen to where we show respect for our leaders and each other. i don't know what will happen. all i know is mark luther king's dream has become a nightmare. host: thank you for the call. have we lost that? guest: i think with the lady was

just saying touches to the very heart of the central problem that now exists in this country, and that is that there appears to be what some people call a culture war, which is not necessarily just political, but it is a belief on the part of any number of people that their control of the world, of their country has been taken out of their hands. it is in the hands of strangers, put quites it is often. they wanted to be reconstituted. one of the reasons that president trump's slogan about making america great again makes people feel that they want to go back to a time when they felt more comfortable living in this country, and this country since 1968, great year in american history, now they have plus, we are still living with the

consequences of 1968 the way the country was literally torn apart in that year by assassinations, mass demonstrations, students being killed on college campuses , bible was going on in vietnam and questions that were raised at that time, is that war worthwhile? even in the senate, right across the street here, the argument was intense in the senate at that time led by arkansas senator fulbright. there were people who argued passionately that this war was immoral and had to end. on the other side, people like goldwater, on the republican side, who would argue that we were facing global communism, and it had to be stopped. nobody could really argue that point sensibly been. we still can't argue those points today. i hear people say we may be

facing in this country another civil war. i think that is overstating it. a reflection of the frustration of being able to deal with radical change within period of time. host: you mentioned some of the iconic photographs from that time period. this is one of them. give us the back story. how did this come about, and why was it so significant? guest: that photograph was taken in the chinese section of saigon. this was at the height of the here the viet, w cong had come into saigon, and they had taken over the u.s. embassy. they tried to. they got right to the edge. it was pretty rough. general on the left just had

d in veryis guys kille heavy streetfighting around that area. they arrested this vc suspect. film of an nvc -- nbc this happening. this photograph is one of the most powerful pictures ever taken, obviously. they brought back i over, and -- general over, and luan shot him right there. he was a reviled character after that. he lived right across the way in arlington after the war. eddie was always torn by this photo. he said two lives were ruined that day, certainly the vc who was killed and the general who

was subject to repulsion every day after that. war isthe cruelty of the what comes up in that photograph. there is a cold dispensing of life. is no feeling. this guy is on the opposite side. move on. there are three photographs taken by ap photographers. iwo jima photograph is the exact opposite of that. it showed marines raising the flag, red, white, and blue, honor and glory. this is the dark underbelly of it all. this is really what war is about. this is what i saw. bloo and violenced.

1968, america in turmoil. our guests are david hume kennerly, bullets are prize-winning photographer, our conversation with -- pulitzer prize winning photographer. carmen is joining us from new york. caller: good morning. great show. my question is for either gentleman. less than a year into the vietnam war, president johnson was given a report from our military that the incident in in asulf of tonk reported never happened. i wanted to know, did the media at the time know of this report? the answer to that question is at the time we did not know about that report. that particular incident is the one that moved the united states very dramatically into the vietnam war. it happened on august 2 and

august 4 of 1964. there were two attacks against an american destroyer right off the shores of north vietnam, and the first attack actually did take place. lyndon johnson did not take retaliatory action after that first attack. when the second attack took place on august 4, he did, but it turned out at that time we knew that it did not take place. it was bad reporting from the ship's captain of the destroyer. it was badew reporting. he knew the attack did not take place. lyndon johnson new it. johnson went on the air and declared that the attack had taken place, and therefore the u.s. was going to bomb north vietnam. that started the whole idea that the u.s. would be using air power to go directly against north vietnam.

that started with the gulf of tonkin resolution passed in congress. at that time is set that the id that the- it sa president of the united states to take any action anywhere in the defense of america's interests against the communists. that was a big statement. most of the reporters, did not, i am sorry to say, take that up. the people at cbs and the washington post did. host: the tet offensive in 1968, the chinese new year, proved the u.s. government was lying to the american people. why? guest: at that time, remember, it was already 25,000 american deaths into the war. we had been experiencing over a period of three years what it

was like to fight that war and to realize that you could take a mountaintop and lose 100 marines doing so. and that night willingly pull out from that mountaintop. the question was, why did you take it in the first place? questions about strategy came up. the credibility gap came up. the american people were beginning to realize when the people who were dying, when the man who spoke to us a couple of callers before, when you talk about the war, remember that most of the people who were dying on the american side were poor kids from poor families picked up from poor neighborhoods who had no way of saying they were going to college and did not have to be drafted. they were drafted. they were the people being killed. that had a big impact on minority communities in this country that led eventually in

1960 after the tet offensive to these nationwide demonstrations. host: why did people listen to walter cronkite? guest: he was a man who had come through world war ii. he was a great correspondent. he had a great background. i knew walter really well, not as well as marvin did. i went with walter to hanoi to watch the last american pows released. about a personal story how that, there is no way around it, voice and demeanor, straightahead manner of walter cronkite, when we got to where they were housing u.s. prisoners, a place called the plantation, not the hanoi hilton, where mccain and the

early prisoners were released two weeks before, they were in these p.o.w. pajamas and all that. i heard one of them saying i did not think they were really going to let us go until i saw walter cronkite there. then i knew it was true. that was the impact walter had. host: i want to go back to the convention in 1968. this is walter cronkite's reporting of the demonstrations taking place outside as the democrats are about to nominate hubert humphrey in 1968. [video clip] >> as we reported earlier, and this is not live, this is on film, had happened some time ago. 45 minutes to an hour ago. the demonstrators did get into .he lobby of the hilton hotel national guard was called. we do not see national guard in this scene. i assume this film is even longer ago than the last

videotape we saw. this was before the national guard was called apparently. that would put it at two and a half hours ago. >> wisconsin. most delegates of this convention do not know that thousands of young people are being beaten in the streets of chicago. reason and that reason alone, i request a suspension of the rules for the purpose of adjournment for two .eeks to relocate the convention in another city of the choosing of the democratic national committee and the presidential candidates. >> wisconsin is not recognized for that purpose! that is the speaker of the house. guest: i did not know he got so

twisted up. that was interesting to see that. host: the convention was in late lyndonto be timed with johnson's birthday. he was not the nominee. you heard that exchange where they said to move into mid-september. guest: first of all, that was wonderful footage illustrating how torn apart not only the whole country, but the political party was torn apart. outside the convention center, reporters were being beaten up by mayor daley's police because they were simply doing their job. you asked me about cronkite and why. walter cronkite in the late 1960's was regarded by 83% of the american people as the most trusted man in america. not the most trusted anchorman, the most trusted man.

he would end every broadcast "and that's the way it is." and people would believe that is the way it is. guest: he was calm. he is explaining what is going on. he was not interjecting his opinion. guest: he was not interjecting his opinion, but he was emotionally very moved that dan rather and other reporters were being manhandled by the police on the floor of the convention. going back to other political figures you covered at that time, richard nixon was also nominated in 1968 for the second time after losing in 1960. guest: when i first photographed him, it was at the mission bay at the republican convention where they came out in san diego . i got a picture of him and spiro agnew looking really chummy.

he did not know spiro agnew. this is one of my favorite shots because of the men on the right, agnew ended up in the white house because gerald ford replaced him. that is how i became the white house photographer. randy is joining us from florida. good morning. caller: yes, hello. i wanted to respond to a couple of the black callers because they were saying white supremacy and all this other stuff. if you remember, starting when

we only had three tv channels anchors, they would not tellyou that the democratic ones who were the segregationists, the ku klux them.like 95% of compared to the republican conservatives who were offering opportunity, but the democrats were saying that they hate you and don't want you to succed. -- sexy. s-- succeed.

host: we are going to get a response. guest: it is a fact that most of the southern states after world war ii were represented by democrats in congress. at the time, there were some of the most antiblack writing and lynching taken place. one became associated with the other. to democrats go line. caller: good morning. i am a frequent caller. i have been saving my every six week phone call to try to say something positive instead of something negative. i was a democrat for many years. i did leave after this most recent election and became independent. i want to thank these gentlemen here. photojournalism is something that seems to be on the wayside now. it is so important. ishm a little sophomore-

photographer myself. i was a sophomore in 1968. we would sit in the morning and listen to announcements. we lost two classmates from the class of 1968 in vietnam. then we thought cap state, and kent state, and we were preparing to go to college. i think my generation suffers from ptsd from this. this just draws so much for me. i want to thank you both for your work and all the photos you have done. i think they are great for being here after what the press is going through. i want to say one more thing, for the black gentleman that have called, i think it is very difficult for any white person to understand. we can say i am not prejudiced.

we will never have any idea of what the black people have gone through. we did not experience it. we will never know. my daughter had a friend who used to say to her you have no idea what it is like to go through a revolving door and have a white mother pull her daughter away from you as if you are going to contaminate her in some way. thank you. way, ken burns' pa rtner behind that vietnam war cap miniseries will be with us. guest: i would say to photojournalism done by the wayside, it has not. there are still photographers on the front lines of history every single day. and example i used earlier was the meeting of north and south, going back and forth across the line on the dmz in korea.

there is a good example of an image. photographers are out shining light in the corners of the world that people need to see. delusion be some because everybody is a photographer now, but not everybody is a professional photographer. not everyone is taking risks, putting their lives on the line to report the truth, which is the way i look at it. i think it is alive and well. as you were saying, it is a different world from your newspapers or television. you can get it from a lot of different angles. host: marvin kalb, your reaction to the cover story of life , 1968,e, june 14 following the assassination of robert kennedy. what does this image tell you? guest: that image, photo by bill

that init says to me family,e poor kennedy which in the 1960's was like a everyone, not everyone, but a lot of people were excited about john kennedy and the way in which he governed . then he was killed. then robert kennedy comes along and becomes a senator, and he is going to run in 1968 and take on lyndon johnson, a guy he really did not like, but a member of his own party. then robert kennedy is killed. you look at a picture like that of someone skipping off across a beach, it is two things, the excitement of being alone on a beach and running, and at the same time the end of a major chapter in the kennedy clan. host: we have photographs from the ambassador hotel that

evening. senator kennedy winning the california primary. tell us what happened. guest: very quickly, to go back to the photograph, the photographer who did that life cover on an oregon beach, and that is where i come from, and when i first photographed robert kennedy was in 1966, and i had never seen a big political figure like that. there was a photographer at the edge of this very crowded room, and he looked like he was traveling with that group, and i went over to him, and i said how do you get through these crowds? he said, hang on to my coat, kid. he took me through. he said, here is your photo. you will see the crowd in the background and the senator in the foreground. that was bill average who took that photograph for life magazine helping out a 19-year-old kid. flashforward, i was at the

ambassador hotel that night covering for upi, after he had been declared the victor of the california primary. primary thehe organ week for that. this is the moment, this is the little v. ron bennett was the other upi photographer in the room. he went off the stage. when i heard the senator had been shot, i ran outside and got this photograph of ethel in the ambulance. it was one of the worst nights in american history. it was one of the worst nights for me because i had met and talk to robert kennedy come in fact that area of the -- that very evening. this was his secret service agent. there was nothing he could do. that guy popped out of the crowd and shot the senator. when robert kennedy's body was being put on a plane, former

first lady jacqueline kennedy at the airport. this is a woman who has experienced this tragedy before. these are all pictures i took as a young guy photographing history and watching a nightmare unfold. host: we should point out that ethel kennedy just turned 90 years old. her daughter was with us a few weeks ago. back to your phone calls, jenny in hawaii, democrats line. andare with marvin kalb david hume kennerly. caller: good morning. thank you, david and margaret. -- marvin. i have to wonder about you guys. you have not mentioned bob dylan. he inspired our generation. in 1968, he was in woodstock. we were suffering some kind of

separation anxiety. on fm radio, his songs were playing every 15 minutes. nobody could escape awareness of what he had to say about american militarism beginning in 1962. in 1964 and 1965 you have not figured it out yet, none of us had. guest: i was still in high school. caller: i hope you will stop to think about this. i wrote a book about this subject. emphasizing dylan use of enigma to teach ethics. the title is singing in the christian era. he is a prophet. host: thank you. guest: bob dylan is one of the great ones, of course, but i would just point out that we cannot mention everybody who had anything to do with the year of

1968. she is right. that is why he was awarded the nobel prize. he is a great poet and put things into perspective and is still at it. texas, jerry is next. republican line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i remember the 1960's very distinctly. i am 82 years old. i lost a brother-in-law during the tet offensive. my brother served in recount afterwards. the 1964 democratic convention i remember very well. they would get up and make a speech. what the a big joke person said at the podium and what they took from the reporter were very different. we laughed at it at work how much difference there was. i had a neighbor who got so

upset watching it that he threw shoes at the television. the protests during the 1960's were financed by the kgb. this came out after the soviet union collapsed. host: you are laughing. guest: i'm sorry. i don't believe that. no. host: let me turn to the story that you did cover in 1968, the invasion of czechoslovakia. set the stage. what was happening in the cold war? what were our relations like in the soviet union. why would this be a significant element? ahead a968 rocked number of things in the cold war. brought to a head a number of things in the cold war. everyone in the west assumed

that because the russians had a very major force in eastern europe, it was there to threaten the west but not actually did ,ake action against the west but on october 20, 1968, the intoans moved tanks product, the capital of czechoslovakia. prague, the capital of czechoslovakia. i got a call that morning from walter cronkite. he said, did you hear the news? the russians have moved into czechoslovakia. i said, ooh. he said ooh is right. we want you back here tonight. you are going to be the lead of the program. take as much time as you like, that explained why the russians would move west at this point. takew that he did not mean as much time as you like. that was sort of one minute 20

tops. i was thinking on the drive to new york what i was going to say. was that that the idea the american president in the russian mind was sold sort in the vietnam war that we in europe, communists in europe have got to move west and take advantage of the american preoccupation with the war in vietnam. that is one of the major reasons they moved. there were others. i wrote this up. i handed it in about 1:00 in the afternoon. walter thought it was terrific. in those days, you had to get in front of the camera, do it. the film had to be processed and all of that. :45 thatabout 5; afternoon, he called me to his office. sorry to tell you. we just got footage of a fire in new orleans. we really want to run that footage of a fire.

i knew there was no point in arguing with him. i said, how much time are you going to give me? he said, can you explain why the russians moved into czechoslovakia in 45 seconds? i said, sure. it was sort of silly, but that was the nature of the news then. if you have footage of the great fire in new orleans, you are going to run that footage. that was on the day that the russians moved in. were you still believe? -- the lead? yeah, but it was 45 seconds. host: let's go to robert in missouri. good morning. caller: i am enjoying this program this morning. as a black american, i remember president kennedy.

[indiscernible] he decided that he was going to take black citizens in this country dignity. i remember lyndon johnson said we were going to give minorities human rights, civil rights, voting rights. that caused a lot of seven democrats to leave the democratic party for the republican party. [indiscernible] over to the republican party. they took their hatred and bigotry to the republican party. from that point on, every republican president from nixon to the present time who has run -- hatred andhas

bigotry [indiscernible] . host: thank you for the call. we wanted to talk about that kerner commission report, which toert was referring generally. let me share what this report concluded in 1968. e have found a significant imbalance between what actually happened in our cities and what newspaper, radio, and television coverage told us. the news media have failed to analyze and report adequately on racial problems in the united states and the knee grows 'sgitimate -- negro legitimate expectations in journalism. his organizations have failed to mitigate the black and white audiences a sense of the problems america faces."

your reaction. guest: i think they were right. i will admit as a young , inographer at that time 1968, i did not cover any race riots in l.a. so i don't have first-hand experience of how that went other than what i was reading in the paper. margaret might have a better beat on that. guest: at that time i was covering foreign affairs, but that is not the point. the point is the caller makes a number of very poignant points. they ought to be taken very seriously. thatould make the argument the kind of coverage required to deal with the issue of racism in the united states is so profound and so deep and would require

almost constant coverage to be able to get to the heart of the problem, i think, in fairness to the press, that it has done a remarkable job of moving toward a solution of that problem. what it is that the coroner commission -- kerner commission said about the failings of the then and areght right today. it would be foolish to ignore this, there has been enormous progress. the number of active americans who are reporting today as anchors, key people of the three newscasts in the evening, one of them is an african-american. it is not as if these issues are ignored or shelved. it is being addressed, but it is so profound that it still needs more coverage. 19 68, c-span3, american

history tv, special coverage here on "washington journal." in california.us bakersfield. go ahead. to comment oned that timeframe, 1968, once robert kennedy passed away and pretty much for the heart out of re theerican beliefs -- to heart out of the american beliefs in truth. david touched on it earlier of what we believed journalists do, which is to bring the truth out. they should have more influence, and congress should listen to them. has pretty much caused the concerns and believes iefs that we don't trust the government. when remember in 1970

nixon, 12 of us sat down with our envelopes from the military, shot, anduted with a we all open to them at the same time to see what our draft number was. i lived in detroit. i grew up through that era. there was a definite not trusting the government. we are seeing that now as then. host: thank you. the book ends of this period, the vietnam war and watergate. now whereergate to you have the relentless attack on the first amendment and the on the first amendment and the press, i cannot tell you how deeply offensive that is to me having gone through first-hand experience of this with my colleagues being killed in the line of duty, not reporting fake

news, that is for sure. forrgate really rippled people. it took gerald ford, a fairly mild-mannered congressman, a world war ii hero, whose office was right across the hall from jfk's, they were both veterans from the navy in the pacific. he brought it back into perspective. donald rumsfeld, was the chief of staff for gerald ford, has a new book coming out in a couple weeks called the center hi ll. ind had been a center football. he held the line against the rip in the fabric caused by watergate. it was a great testimony to our system. i -- can survive that, as we can survive anything. host: he will be sitting down

with vice president dick cheney early next month. guest: dick cheney had to transcribe all of his notes of his conversations with the president. the book is his memos that he wrote at the time. it is a good book. host: we hope you tune into that. let's go back to your calls. john in illinois. good morning. caller: good morning. i was talking about photographs. marched inn king chicago, we all still marched -- also marched on the side. i made the local newspaper on the front page. that photograph changed my life. in 1968, i was 18 years old. me and my gang went downtown to beat up hippies and protesters. that is what mayor daley was telling us to do. that changed my outlook on the demonstrators and all of that.

said thecame by and .ar is full of baloney three months later i was talking my buddies into joining up the marine corps. vietnam,s leaving for a korean war veteran said when you call for help, you don't care who comes. it could be tall or short, black or brown, green, it does not matter. those things changed my life. i fight every day not to be prejudiced. i hope america is learning not to be prejudiced. guest: i love you. [laughter] host: i want to go back to another piece of film from the democratic convention. what was show that, happening on the republican side? but davidasn't there, duncan did an incredible photo

essay inside with net and. -- nixon. nixon in the pacific when he was in the navy. convention.e the it is a fantastic photo book. all i know is what i saw from those photographs, and it was a the more orderly than democrats, which is probably one of the reasons nixon. host: here is walter cronkite. [video clip] >> chairman bailey downtown. delayre going to be any in this convention has a result of what is going on downtown? >> i have been watching television. i understand there is some

trouble. 60 people were arrested. >> there has been a fairly large disturbance downtown. not to come back tomorrow, because of what they call the police state tactics being used around the convention hall and downtown. >> i assume the people here making sure there are no interruptions to the convention itself. this is a very serious convention. we're going to nominate the next president of the united states. >> the charge is undue force being used by police and national guard. >> i know nothing about. i am here in the convention. >> you see no delay in the convention? >> i sure the candidate for president will be nominated tonight and tomorrow the vice president. >> thank you mr. bailey.

john bailey, chairman of the democratic party. reporters attending to ask him what is going on at the convention and all the reports of undue force being used by chicago police. he was reading a news report and looked rather amazed and interested. marvin kalb, it is important to point out that this is pre-cable, the networks airing these conventions almost gavel to gavel. guest: it was a very exciting experience to watch. it was a great example of mr. bailey engaging in what was called the credibility gap. a claims he knew nothing about the police whacking reporters over the head. it was on television. you just have to open your eyes. job.s just doing his that is nonsense. the american people watching that knew it because they had

seen what was going on outside and inside the convention. this is one of these things that when people look back on 1968 and try to answer questions today about a lack of faith in the u.s. government, why don't we believe what it is that our president says or senator says? i'm not saying if you want back to 1968, would get all the answers, but you would get some of the answers. that is where it was spawned. that is where this whole idea of power talking lies to people rather than journalists finding out what is going on and telling it as truthfully as they could. carolina, jack, republican line. caller: good morning. about 50 years ago in june, my wife and i were married. the day we were married, i listened to teddy kennedy's eulogy on his brother.

i thought it was the best speech i had ever heard. that is it. guest: congratulations for 50 years. that is a real landmark. host: that speech that senator kennedy delivered in new york at st. patrick's cathedral. guest: it was one of the great speeches that teddy kennedy ever gave. he was capable of doing great speeches, and i think the american people over the years learned about this great skill he had, which was something in the kennedy genes. at that time, people realized that ted kennedy had taken on himself the responsibility of being the leader of the kennedy clan. people in the political world also recognize that. kennedy himself changed at that point. it was the chappaquiddick incident after that.

a full person and a full politician when he suddenly realized that there were none of his brothers around any longer. he was the kid called upon to be the senior member of the clan. i think, as a senator, most everybody right and left would agree that ted kennedy was an extraordinary senator after that time. host: the next call is william from new york city. welcome to the conversation. go ahead. caller: i would just like to say kennedy lostd that -- yes, i would just like to correct the record that kennedy lost the primary in oregon. that was the first time that kennedy had ever lost an election. i am very surprised that neither of your commentators knew that.

guest: you know, he is right. that was my mistake. as a native oregonian, i like to think everybody comes away a winner from oregon. you are totally correct. that.ccarthy won kennedy recovered intel point. good catch. host: good morning, independent line. caller: good morning. i appreciate c-span's programming in terms of having the courage to examine the media's role in america today. i think c-span is doing a great job and making sure that we have balanced coverage. this question is for marvin. i have watched your work and appreciate the intellectual approach you take and the objective approach you take to examining stories. you did mention that the media

has done a good job in moving america forward in terms of racial progress. i agree with that, but i am curious, do you think the local press is doing enough to make sure they are not putting negative images before the american people, such as latinos and african-americans in a very negative light, and causing primarily what americans to look at them from a very negative perspective? i just don't think that the intellectual growth and analysis that you put into your stories are taking place locally, and that is what drives a lot of the dissension and anger in this country. i will hang up and listen for your response. guest: you are absolutely right in that a lot of the current polling data indicates that most americans get their news from local news, and mostly local

television news. that is absolutely right. that puts a huge responsibility on the people who run local news as to what they put on the air. if there is an imbalance, if they put too much negative associated with one group, that is wrong. that is bad journalism, and it simply is not true. at the same time, if it is a fact that something negative is associated with african-american communities, you have got to report that. that is also part of the news. my own feeling is that for the most part, exceptions taken into ms.unt, for the most part, people locally and on network level try to do the best job they can. host: what did walter cronkite of richard nixon in 1960? -- 1968? guest: there were two walter

cronkite's. there was the one on the air that was objective. he always had a feeling that -- i don't know how he voted, but if i had to guess, i would say cronkite was a reluctant democrat in that his instincts would go to the liberal side on domestic affairs, but he was very tough on foreign affairs. it was very difficult for him to say that the war in vietnam was meantated, because that the united states was not winning. that is something the inside of walter cronkite rebelled agai nst. he loved the idea of america being first and winning. guest: he was a world war ii guy. guest: absolutely. host: we are still a year away from you are strong walking on the moon. -- neil armstrong walking on

the. is apollo program flourishing. guest: it was a big story. the russians were doing remarkable things at that time. i remember when the united states was sending one of its first rockets to the moon, i was called back from moscow to go to cape canaveral to help report that story with walter. that was story because he knew the entire story. i did not. the idea was that space was open to both superpowers at that time. there was a recognition in our therage that we understood russians would also play a major role. host: let me share with you this photograph from christmas eve, 1968. a capstone to a very tumultuous year. i think you can see the view of earth from space. -- also all

, pueblo, new mexico. when thatan diego group came off the airplane. they were playing the lonely bull, which was the theme song of that crew. that was one of the most emotional things i have ever seen. flash forward to possible e breaking out on the korean peninsula. i will never forget what christmas. 1968 host: our last call. caller: i am a student of history. i have a degree in history. i have studied 1968. todayorry that the media

is not close to what you guys were in the 1960's because i see a lot of terminology being thefined where it skews discussion. we are talking illegal aliens, but we say undocumented workers. we hear radical right all the time, but never about the radical left in the media. host: i am going to stop you there. guest: radical left, radical right, these terms that are used to distract, located processes, i find it very difficult most of the time to look at the reporter , are you a democrat or republican? i don't have a clue. i don't care. so long as you freshly do your job, which you do so well, from that point, that is all that is important.

that is the key. look at a result of what a reporter does. at the end of the day, if you think that reporter has done as good a job as a human being can do, that is enough. host: i was going to give you one minute 20,, but i will leave you 45 seconds. what are the lessons when it comes to the media? guest: i was glad to get out of it alive. i think we have come a long way. i have been doing it so long, and i am still doing it. i work for cnn now covering politics. i love my colleagues. i think we are still a band of brothers and sisters out there telling the truth and our professional. photographer, if you put something into a photo or take it out, you get fired. you have to know that the new

york times and the wire services and the networks, all these people really hold the line of integrity. host: marvin kalb, you get the last word. guest: i think journalism in 1968 learned one huge lesson, the government of the united states when it with two would lie. would lie wished to to the american people using the press. host: your signature red tie. of with cnn, to both wit you, thank you. next week, we continue our series