ion. bless his heart for this, the attacks against him are nonsense. don't believe the hype. we're done countdown is next. stay right here. >> which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow, the second scandal of sanford florida. >> if the police want to leak information, why don't they leak the witnesses that saw him pursuing trayvon? >> we have aspect that is we can proceed from but as far as where the information came from at the time, i cannot disclose. >> there are simple answers, of course. >> he wanted to protect his neighborhood, just got a little over zealous. >> what would a lot have been? taking 25 hostages. >> hoodie wearing geraldo wearing a hoodie.

he presented topologies: short version, it's ok i blamed a 17-year-old dead kid because one african-american guy says it's ok. here's the national rifle association's hood area, complete with a packet for your concealed weapon. >> it's own structured casual design appears incable of concealing a heavy firearm but it does so with ease. >> day two with the supreme court, the justices pounce. >> assume for the moment that this is unprecedented. can the government require you to buy a cell phone because that would facilitate responding when you need emergency services? >> you can make people buy broccoli. >> he would run with him.

>> look, i would do in this race, as i always say this is the most important race in our countries history. i'm going to do everything i can. >> and murdoch gate phase three. >> he delivered the actual software with instructions that it should go to the widest possible community. >> now on "countdown." >> good evening. this is tuesday, march 27, 225 days until the 2012 presidential election. trayvon martin's family fighting back against the city drip drip drip of leaks supporting the man who shot and killed him neighborhood watch captain george zimmerman against the backdrop of clueless comments.

the fifth story, trayvon martin was shot february 26 character assassination from leaks that appear to be from the investigators began over the weekend. martin sprayed graffiti on a school locker and was found to be carrying a school locker and women's jewelry security officers calling the screwdriver a possible burglary tool, miami dade police saying the jewelry had not been reported stolen. if the lease want to leak information, why don't they leak the witnesses saying they saw him pursuing trayvon? they have only did things that are beneficiary to mr. zimmerman's claim of self defense and all the reason we can say that from day one they made a decision they were not going to arrest george zimmerman. >> even though abc news saying the lead home side investigator in the shooting had wanted a different result, representing george zimmerman be arrested for

manslaughter the night of the shooting, this after zimmerman was questioned, filing an after saying he was unconvinced by zimmerman's testimony. norman wolfinger decided there was insufficient evidence for conviction. interim police chief refusing to comment on the allegation that those leaks are coming from his department. >> we are looking into the leaks, the so-called leaks, if you will, and that is an internal process that's going to handle that situation. if there's something that i can bring to you all at a later time, i will. but as of right now there's nothing to report on it. >> congressional democrats taking their own look into trayvon martin's killing today. florida representative fredrique wilson laying out her version of the case. >> trayvon is the victim of a botched police investigation

full of incompetence or intelligent mismanagement. this investigation is laced with racial profiling lies, and murder. trayvon was hunted, chased, tackled and shot. >> trayvon martin's parents sabrina fulton and tracy martin and attorney saying: >> of course my heart is broken, but it breaks even more to know that we have not gotten justice yet and that this man has not been arrested for shooting and killing my son. >> i believe he was racially profiled. >> and we believe the investigation also had racial profiling aspects to it. >> the family collecting more than 2 million signatures demanding the arrest of george zimmerman and first lady

michelle obama prizing the national attention devoted to this case. >> we are just happy that there will be a thorough investigation, that the justice department is involved, and it's also good that the nation is focused on this. >> perhaps there are parts of the nation that should focus on something else. starting with rush limbaugh, who said this of zimmerman. >> he is a self appointed neighborhood watch commender and he wanted to protect his neighborhood, just got a little over zealous. >> i assume a lot over zealous would be mass murder. >> rivera apologizing. >> i think the hoodie is as much responsible for treyvon martin's death as george zimmerman was. >> well, if anybody considers this an apology here it is:

>> imagine the scandal if minority dared to wear this n.r.a. hood area allowing a firearm to be concealed with ease. for more on the latest developments in the trayvon martin case. thanks for your time tonight sir. >> hi, keith. >> the report that the initial homicide investigation and conductor who investigated it wanted zimmerman charged with manslaughter, do we know why he was not charged? >> we can venture a pretty good guess. i'll say it in three words stand your ground, keith. the real problem here is the law in florida and not only the law but the way it's been interpreted by the courts. a defendant can just argue self defense without really having any kind of proof. they just have to make a plausible case and the burden shifts to the prosecution to try and figure out how they can disprove. if they can't, the case gets an acquittal. it's caused a lot of local

police and law enforcers and a lot of local state's attorneys to use discretion and say if we can't get a solid conviction probability here, what's the point of taking it to trial. there's a lot of space there. >> you used the word discretion which doesn't seem to have been applied very often in the other meaning of the word in this case. the flurry of leaks, graffiti, marv traces in a book bag jewelry somebody thinks is stolen but is not linked against any crime. if that is the worst anyone can find against this poor man doesn't it further the case for his in sense? >> well, you know, in sense on the part of trayvon martin is really not the question here. easy not on trial. the real big issue here, well, there's two. the first one is what are they trying to move when they make these kinds of leaks? are they trying to say somewhere between buying skittles and walking over to his father's girlfriend's house he was casing

a couple of joints is this i'm not exactly sure what the points of these kinds of leaks were. the only thing we can say for sure is there is some kind of serious discipline problem emanating from the sanford police department for this kind of stuff to come out, whether or not it's intentional they've definitely got a couple of house cleaning issues that they've probably got to take care of now. >> in washington, the hearing on capitol hill, temperature seems to be rising, the charges of racial profiling murder, lying does that reflect in part the anger out there in the country and to that point are there nor protests planned in the immediate future? >> yes and yes. to be perfectly honest there's a whole lot going on in this case that's giving people cause for anger and bringing a diverse group of people together to sort of work out these issues. obviously there's part of a national discussion on race that i think has been kind of problematic and we really haven't had in an intense sort of way since i was in high school in the mid-90's since all of this came to a head.

you've also got the issues of the gun laws that have been pushed for the self defense kind of interpretations. all of these things are combining to really give cause for concern and there's the victim blaming which has added a new layer that is bringing a bunch of other people out to this issue and getting angry. a poll shoulder 73% of americans are inclined to think that george zimmerman should be at least arrested for something. i think that's going to continue. >> the investigation in florida is the assessment now that governor scott if he has not made it a priority is doing so and what do we infer from the attorney general saying what we do know is a 17-year-old boy was walking home and now he's dead and when you have questions like that they need to be answered. they seem to be cut to the chase there. is florida pushing for an investigation on a major scale? >> i think that they're trying.

rick scott and pam bondy have a lot on their plates right now. he signed a school prayer bill, signed another bill into law that would drug test state employees. pam has been on the hill trying to fight against obamacare and somewhere in there, they started to make trayvon martin a priority. you do have to question their priorities. they set up a task force to look at stand your ground, they will be selected by four of the leading conservative pro gun republicans in the state, so you do have to question it's not that they've done nothing but the things they have done are problematic and i'm not sure they are going to get the job done or satisfactory the people of florida. >> thanks for your time tonight. >> thanks, keith. >> for more on the trayvon martin story, fredrique wilson, the congresswoman who has been a driving force pushing this forward and a friend of the trayvon martin family. it's good to talk to you again

congresswoman. >> great to be with you, keith. >> what was the purpose of the hearing today from your perspective? >> to look at the law. we had experts there examining the law. we were looking at the crime scene and the botched investigation, and we were talking about hate crimes and how prevalent they are in the united states, and talking about racial profiling, and what we need to do as a congress to prevent something like this from ever happening again. >> you call the investigation botched, full of incompetence or intelligent mismanagement. it's an in streaking phrase, intelligent mismanagement. what did you mean by that? >> i mean that they really didn't know what they were doing and they thought that they did and that they -- maybe it wasn't

intentional, but it was mismanaged and it's just incompetence. it's all of the above, in my estimation is what happened in the trayvon martin case. there was never any jell-o tape surrounding the crime scene. have you ever heard of that? and the crime scene was 60 feet away from the home where he was living. or spending, you know, time, and it was just unconscionable. they never called anyone from the state attorney to the crime scene, no was called, no homicide investigators so there, this one police officer decided that this was self defense, and he told mr. zimmerman to go home. that was it. now, mr. zimmerman needs to be arrested. here he is, 100 pounds heavier than trayvon. this is a 26-year-old man who is

dueling it out with a 17-year-old, in his estimation and because his nose was bleeding, he shot him. now, first of all trayvon was not the aggressor. mr. zimmerman was told to stand down. leave the boy alone. do not follow him. but what did he do? he got out of his truck, and he followed him. he followed him and then he chased him just like you chase a rabid dog, caught up with him and what was trayvon to do? when someone chases you catches up with you, you've got to fight, and then he shot that sweet young man dead. trayvon lives in my district. >> let me ask you something

bluntly in light of what the initial state homicide investigation supposedly turned up, the objects report that the investigator wanted zimmerman charged with murder, at least arrested that night. let me ask you something bluntly and i've been asked this a lot. do you think george zimmerman is some way being protected because his father was a retired magistrate court judge in virginia or is that judge too remote and just a convince dense? >> i think that he has endeared himself to the police department, and i think that they see him as a protector in that community. this is what i think and i think that he has that first name recognition and they're buddy-buddy and friends. he actually sees himself as a member of the police department and they have that code of silence, and he's probably a part of the code of silence and i think that's what it is. >> the congresswoman who has

been at the core of all this coverage and expansion of the coverage of the case, fredrique wilson, friend of the trayvon martin family, thanks for your time congresswoman. >> thank you so much for having me. >> to the supreme court and a shaky day for health care reform and the man defending it, professor jonathan turley joins me next.

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i'm a lobster girl. top quality lobster is all we catch. [ male announcer ] don't miss red lobster's lobsterfest. the only time of year you can savor 12 exciting lobster entrees, like lobster lover's dream i'm laura mclennan and i sea food differently. >> when the presumed swing vote asks the health care question beginning with assume this is unprecedented, this is a step beyond what our cases ever loud, should we assume the mandate is in trouble? john turley, next.

>>people like somebody who's got a spine. >>determined to find solutions... >>we need government to ensure that people have freedom. >>driven to find the truth... >>what's really going on? >>fearless, independent and above all, politically direct. ?ñ i think its brilliant. >>current tv welcomes two new hosts. news and analysis with a washington perspective from an emmy winning insider. >>i know this stuff and i love it and i try to bring that to the show. >>and humor and politics with a west coast edge. >>politically direct means no bs, cutting through the clutter. >>bill press and stephanie miller, current's new morning news block. weekdays six to noon. >> clarence thomas stuck to his six years and counting of silence on the bench. he's just and you had at this

timing the supreme court his silence was hardly noticed today. the court split along ideological lines over the health care reform plan's constitutionality. solicit tore general was challenged over the heart of the health care law, the individual mandate. the chief justice led the charming: >> and scalia continued where roberts left off: >> he went further questioning the hand dates constitutionality:

>> meanwhile justice ruth bader ginsburg said a broader health care market reduces cost for those participating: >> joining me now to help us figure out what went on today jonathan turley, george washington university law professor. thanks for your time again tonight. >> hi, keith. >> it seems the justices were not heading toward a ruling that might find part off all of this unconstitutional. today looked like a different court with a completely different case. what happened today? >> we talked about this yesterday, i things that had really the two justice that were being watched most closely by most of us were justice kennedy for the obvious swing vote but also justice scalia.

many people did not realize that scalia had said things in past cases that made his vote somewhat in play. i think that the administration was trying to see if they could nudge him to stay consistent with that prior statement. what we sauteed is that scalia does not appear to be in play, which means it's a greater burden for the administration. they really need kennedy. and kennedy's questions seemed quite skeptical if not hostile. he really hit all the themes that were coming out of the briefs challenging the law and he really did not get an answer to those questions by the solicitor general. >> reading what i was able to read on this today it seemed as if the solicitor general did not have a good day at least in terms of the arm chair quarterbacks. was he ineffective in fact, there were several assessments that the liberal leaning

justices almost took the case out of his hands and began arguing for him. >> i have to say, i feel very sympathetic for him. i've been in appellate argument and there's few arguments that have this much pressure. you have to be built of titanium not to be a bit flustered. the justice did seem to come to his aid and more clear in their answers. i think that the problem with the performance by the solicitor general is a problem that the justice department as a whole has had. the justice department has not covered itself in glory in this litigation. they changed their position on a number of issues, on the trial and appellate level. that's never a good idea in a major case. and they lack a certain degree of clarity in their position, and when kennedy is asking you give me a limiting principle

let me feel comfortable with this, there really wasn't an answer coming back saying here's a way we can spread that needle. this was your one opportunity in that accepts, you know, keith, most of these justice aren't swayed by the oral argument. in this case, you basically have a court of one and whether you can give kennedy a reason to feel comfortable in favor of voting with the law, i think kennedy left without given that comfort factor. >> clarify it for us again. could they still wind up stripping out just the mandate for this with the rest of the reform remain in some measurable way and what's the problem with stripping out the mandate since it was the raw meat thrown to the insurance agency that. >> that's going to be the issue one of the two issues for tomorrow, which is called severability. most of these laws have a

severability clause designed for this. if any part is found unconstitutional, the rest can stand. for some reason, the administration decided to take out the severability clause, so this law doesn't have that provision. so the question now is if they take out the individual mandate is it so important to the scheme that they might as well strike down the whole law. it's a problem of the administration's making. they chose not to put in that clause. it is also a problem that previously, they suggested that it was not severable sort of a sticker shock approach. they were told if the trial judge, if you turned down the individual mandate the whole thing goes down in flames and then they changed that position later and said actually later you can take it out and the whole thing won't go down in flames. that's what i mean by a lack of clarity. at points, you wonder whether in terms of how this was presented

in courts, it was not the finest hour for the justice department. >> doesn't sound like it's going in the textbooks in a positive sense. as always, thanks for helping us make some sense. >> thank you keith. >> >> governor romney now saying maybe he's the godfather of health care reform and he has a right to kill health care reform. rick santorum saying he is the worst governor on health care reform and maybe you want to stick with the incumbent president if he runs and sure, he'd still run on the same ticket as romney coming up. but say the sun rises on december 22nd and you still need to retire td ameritrade's investment consultants can help you build a plan that fits your life. we'll even throw in up to $600 when you open a new account or roll over an old 401(k). so who's in control now, mayans?

>> as late as last weekend, rick son was saying at best mitt romney was on health care the worst republican to run against president obama, now says he might run with him. first the sanity break. the greatest movie actresses born on this date, gloria swanson. she starred at age 15, by 19,

hollywood's leading lady she turned down a contract for a million dollars a year, nominated for the first academy award at 30. she worked in getting persecuted jews out of europe, made a comeback in t.v. and gave the single best performance in t.v. history as the silent film star driven mad by her career collapse. she kept acting, lived to be 84, made her last film appearance in airport, 1975, just 60 years after her film debut. all right, mr. demille i'm ready for my close up. time marches on. >> we begin with the pope wearing a com brother row. while in mexico, the pope donned a sombrero. when in rome... actually, when he's in roam he wears a different hat. he said he liked wearing it, it was just like his favorite movie, the three amigos.

he is now in cuba, we hope to have a picture wearing a hat and smoking a stogie. >> it's an 800 pawned paper airplane. it was designed and attached to a helicopter to see if it could fly. it does fly for a few seconds on its own. but then again if you dropped an anvil from a helicopter, it would fly for a couple of seconds, too. the governor is accusing people of trying to cross the border in the airplane. >> my headphones aren't working the squirrel probably got to them. apparently squirrels love chewing headphones. at least this one does. says he finds something with a latin flavor to be most

delicious. time marches on! >> the newest rupert murdoch scandal, his pay t.v. people, steal secrets, gave them to a pirate website in order to put the rival out of business. coming up.

attack on women that perhaps the majority of the population woke up? >> idaho is not known as approaching act i.v. you had hundreds of women show up, thousands signed petitions. they made their voices heard. what happens is that now, the legislators are running scared. very similar laws have passed quietly in other states for the past 10 years, really in the past two years have intensified. pennsylvania a similar law was shelved, idaho this proved to be political poison. women are paying attention and having their voices heard. >> thanks for coming in. >> the aclu considers a demand that to get a job you have to

let an employer open your private mail, the senate wants to make it illegal to hand over a password to your facebook account. was we might as well stick with what we have. now it's something new in the eyes of rick santorum, a guy he would be willing with whom to share the ticket. he spoke about the possibility of a romney nomination. he apparently decided that being second fiddle to the worst republican in the country was better that that going home. >> if he asks you to be the vice

presidential candidate on his ticket after all is said and done, would you even consider it? >> of course. i mean look, i would do in this race, as i always say this is the most important race in our countries history. i'm going to do everything i can. >> of course no one thinks romney would choose him as running mate unless he thinks he might help assuage fierce about romneys religion, but most republicans aren't sure what is religion is. only 42% of catholic republicans know santorum is catholic. evangelical republicans they he is an evangelical. there does appear to be some positive buzz for santorum. his outburst over the weekend drew support. >> santorum's response to that liberal leftist in the tank for obama press character really revealed some of rick santorum's

character, and it was good, and it was strong and it was about time, so when i heard rick santorum's response i was like well, welcome to my world rick. >> i love julianne moore. let's bring in chief investigator reporter for politico, ken, good evening. >> thank you. >> santorum's willing to run with the worst republican to run with on health care reform. i know george w. bush was able to come back, but how could rick santorum say these two things in the same millennium? >> he can say the one and he has said repeatedly that mitt romney is the worst candidate to run against president obama on health care. that's a good point. it's a valid one and one that really underscores the premise of his candidacy to raise concerns about mitt romney among conservatives, to hear him say now that he would consider running with him is at best

discoordinate and undercuts the presidency. >> would romney ever consider santorum? >> on paper, he might not be a bad running mate for mitt romney. he would have appeal insectors of the republican base that mitt romney is sort of lacking in appeal among those evangelicals like you said, tea partyers even, he knows how to deliver an attack line, and that is really a key thing for a vice presidential candidate to be able to do. however, the fact is he continues to deliver these attack lines against mitt romney and drag out the process the longer it goes, the less likely it is that mitt romney would even consider him. >> plus would not what he said to this point ready made commercials for the obama reelection campaign, rick santorum discussing mitt romney and then it says rom-santorum 2012? >> he's the guy waving around

the etch-a-sketch and going after mitt romney for being out of touch. in some ways the same arguments that the democrats will make, so it's nice having the running mate making them for you that diminishes the chances mitt romney would be elected. he has stockpiles of things he said along the way that is surprisingly, mitt romney has really to my mind laid off on of late, which suggests that he doesn't think santorum is as much of a threat. >> something else, the open mic story of the president and medvedev after which mitt romney called russia our number one geopolitical foe, which was news probably relative to north korea, iran and china. president medved he had responded it's 2012, no matter what candidate a party represents, he has to take the current state of affairs into

account. is that as much of a slap to mitt romney as it sounds or something mitt romney can say look, i got insulted by the president of russia. >> the fact that he thinks russia is the number one geopolitical threat does hearken back to a different era. there isn't a number one threat like there was in the cold war like soviet russia. but this underscores anyone running against president obama, in that the president of the united states has this vast foreign policy experience, even if he didn't have it when he was running in 2008 has it now and there aren't a whole lot of openings with the death of osama bin laden and other foreign policy success to go after president obama on on foreign level policy. >> which brings us to the split

level four car garage, he has hired a lobbyist to hire officials in san diego so he can built a flit level four vehicle garage and it has a car lift that can transport kubels between floors. is there a point at which somebody taps him on the shoulder and says stop with the money things until after the campaign? >> this has been a long running project for the rom niece. people have had those conversations or at least that's a part of his thinking, because in the run-up to his campaign, he got rid of a few properties and tried to scale back his lifestyle, but obviously this is something that the romneys care deeply about and just plays into this narrative that this is a super rich guy who has no clue how regular people are living. >> our vehicles need elevators. always a pleasure, thanks for your time. >> thank you, keith. >> what did an outfit calling itself national organization for

marriage have to do with passing prop eight in california and specifically trying to turn blacks against gays? answers, next.

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not on the runway. no. >> rupert murdochs latest scandal, deliberately sabotaging another television smart cards givinging the data to another website and watching it go out of business. as i understand it in radio they can't see you,

so this is big for me. >>tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's new morning news block. >>it's completely inappropriate for television. >>sharp tongue, quick wit and about all, politically direct. >>politically direct to me means no bs, the real thing, cutting through the clutter. my show is the most important show in the world. >> internal memos unsealed from the national organization for marriage exposed detailed and deliberate plans to cluster homo phobia in the united states and abroad. the goal is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks. the passage details the racially driven tactics:

>> the documents were released as part of the investigation into the financial practices. human rights campaign, one of the leading advocates for gay writes uploaded the pdf file on line, including plans to capture latino votes by developing spanish laying and t.v. ads that would spread anti gay propaganda: >> another section called side swiping obama calls for portraying the president as a social radical.

the mental row talks about plans to raise issues such as pornography, protection of children and the need to oppose all efforts to weaken religious liberty at the federal level. for more, the legal director for the human rights campaign. thanks for your time. >> thanks for having me. >> give me the background, the national organization for marriage, what is it where does the money come from, do you know? >> they claim to be a large grassroots organization fighting the rights of gays and lesbians to marry. we don't know where their donors are or money comes from, they have been doing what they did in maine, fighting finance disclosure laws all over the country. we know from the i.r.s. documentation that in reality about 90% of their funding comes from eight large donors. >> these emails, how did your organization get them? >> we've been following the case

in maine closely. we're expecting that the release would happen and had someone there at the courthouse to pick them up so we could take a look at what we could find out. >> the wedge strategy, latinos versus lgbt particularly blacks versus lgbt sounded like what fox news reported, although exit polls suggested that isn't what caused prop eight to pass. was part of selling the idea that that was what caused prop eight to pass, was that part of the strategy or did they just tell offensively to assign credit to it or was that part of a coincidence? >> i think that is a narrative they've been trying to construct for years and trying to put forward. we've seen that bear out that that's not the case in just the most recent marriage efforts in the district of columbia,

maryland, we see prominent african-americans on the side of marriage equality, african-american legislatures, clergy participating in these efforts. they're certainly trying to paint a picture that there's an opposition among some minority groups and that's not the case. >> there's another disturbing finding in these documents $130,000 to identify the children of gay parents willing to speak on camera. do you know what that was about? >> it sounded like a deeply cynical effort to identify people who might speak out critically of their parents and one more aspect of how deeply cynical and ugly the tactics of this organization are and now we're getting to see those in their own documents in black and white. >> tried to boycott starbucks

over the support of freedom to marry, that failed horribly, now losing this battle in maine. are they getting through? have they had any influence on prop eight or anything since? >> you're seeing the numbers on marriage and supporting marriage equality have moved all across the country in favor of the cause of equality. you're seeing more and more states move in that direction and sort of the three priorities listed in these documents iowa, new hampshire and d.c. to stop marriage equality were all they're failures we just saw the new hampshire reject appealing in that state. their track record isn't looking so good. >> good luck with this and thanks for your time tonight. >> thank you keith. >> the rupert murdoch sabotage scandal moves his woes from newspapers to t.v., next.

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>> there is something we might call a breaking side light to the trayvon martin case coming out of the los angeles times newspaper. the times spoke to the special prosecutor in florida, angela cory. i'll read you what they report. >> in a sign of how they are working on the case, the probe could possibly result in state charges that by pass the need for the grand jury slated to convene april 10 to hear the case. the quote "it's possible that we'll just make a decision without the grand jury." that's the l.a. times quoting angela cory, the possibility that a special prosecutor might act before a grand jury hears evidence or hands down indictments president trayvon martin-zimmerman case in florida. >> rupert murdoch's packing scandal has been limited to newspapers or had been. last night the bbc revealed evidence of hacking involving top secret info stolen from a competitor in an effort to force

them into bankruptcy, a television competitor. it alleges that in the late 90's, they hired german hacker to hack into on digitals smart cards. smart cards are used to determine the digital t.v. description of a consumer. once the codes were obtained, they were given to murdoch's head of british security ray adams. adams then fed the codes to a hacker who ran a web side calling the house of i will compute. >> you delivered the actual software with prior instructions it should go to the widest possible community. >> once the codes were released, consumers were able to create their own smart cards giving them free access to t.v. stations which cavity them millions. murdoch does not deny it had

those secret codes but as part of the fight against pay t.v. prize. they acknowledge that the material was passed on to adams but denied feeding the information to gibb ling. the creator sued nds but the suit never made it to court after rupert purchased the avets from the company. the legal case was stopped and the company broken up. joining us now former nixon white house couple and one of the experts on the many murdoch scandals, john dean. good evening. >> good evening, keith. >> this just made the jump from a they're rhetorical invasion of privacy story about newspapers, however galling that was to a very tangible one about murdoch t.v. and trying to sabotage the competition. the templates here do the back groups matter? >> they do indeed. this is big league industrial sabotage, keith and it's a

highly regulated industry here, but more so in the u.k. and off com the regulatory body has set up a special unit to look at whether or not the murdochs should have 39% which they now have, and whether they're fit and proper to run it. this is not going to play well for them in their current application process as they really hope to get more of this, even. >> does it make prosecutors set up and wonder does murdochs people try to sabotage t.v. competition in america, as well. >> it should. this is a pattern in practice. we have an example in the united states where news corps one of their subs did the very same thing where they hack the computers of a competitor, floor graphics that they were in competition with and did it some 11 times according to the civil complaint. the case was settled, same pattern, bought them out to silence them put them under

confidentiality agreements referred to chris christie's office. it disappeared there, went to the f.b.i. this is the sort of repeating behavior that i would think prosecutors here would want to look at. that case where canal for example, you mentioned had brought a lawsuit. they brought that in the united states. there might even be jurisdiction here. >> what if anything is changed by the fact that murdoch paid to have the allegations go away, bought the company that was suing him, made it good in that sense, but still got rid of the competitor, no matter however else they got to that destination. >> very telling. he didn't think he had a good lawsuit. floor graphics, paid $30 million for a $1 million to silence them. i don't know the deal with canal, but we see this pattern and it's something i think investigators should be looking at. >> does it tie into james murdoch? he was a director, but not an

executive director, but a director of this n.d.s. news core company. >> he seems to be an executive but never hears any evil, sees any evil, but yet there's evil around him. he's either got a very low tolerance for understanding what is going on in his operation or its willful denial of what's happening. it's sort of a willful ignores and that won't play too well with investigators once they start pressing him. >> once again, the $64 billion question, did this move closer to the united states today? >> i think a little bit. the pattern and practice is the sort of thing that would get the investigators here on this case and the f.b.i. is looking at it. it would give them another clue that this is part of a culture an an organization and it may well be in existence here. >> john dean as always, thanks for your in sight and time tonight. >> that is "countdown," congratulations on getting through another da