hit or miss sends it to us@foxnews.com and visit us at the web at foxnews.com/journal. that's it for all of us here, and thanks to my panel and to all of you for watching, i am and fox news watch. it's trifecta. minnesota, missouri and media attention, and most in the media short changed santorum and what is his win done to the coverage? >> i take the protection of conscious and religious freedom as one of my highest responsibilities. >> controversy builds to force religious organizations to provide contraception and other services against the beliefs. and most in the media ignore the issue, the conservative press go all out. so, which side wins?

iran's growing nuclear threat has israel on high alert and some here concerned about how the u.s. will react. are the media paying attention, too? mr. obama does a 180, flip-flopping on super pacs, and the liberal media yawns. and some interesting things going on inside the white house this week. >> on the panel this week, writer and fox news contributor, judy miller, radio talk show host, monica crowley and jim pinkerton the conservative magazine and daily beast columnist, kirsten powers, i'm jon scott, fox news watch is on right now. >> . >> jamie: welcome back, some happened, and wolf blitzer said omg. >> let me repeat it omg. look at this. and right now 64% of the

precinct are in. mihm is 775 ahead in the votes. >> it's o my god, wolf, you can say oh, my god. they didn't say you couldn't say oh my god. you can't say shotgun, but you can say oh my god. omg? >> and wolf blitzer reacting to the performance and wolf's performance on tuesday night. and santorum's win not anticipated by most in the media giving you shape to the g.o.p. race and the coverage as well. on the heels of santorum's success, a fox news poll asked voters what best describes the race for the g.o.p. nomination. 17% say it's over and that romney will win. and so, jim, were the media blind sided by rick santorum's performance? >> i think not only the media, but everybody else, including

all the highly paid consultants around romney, this is one of the times where reality just kind of bumps the scenario here pretty hard and now, a few people think so, including, obviously, the vast majority of the voters. what does it win. how does it change the coverage here on out? >> i would think that some would hope the analyst would be more humble. that's not going to happen and they're already drawing lessons as your client the at "the washington post" said the clear lesson, money isn't everything, duh. the new york times said, well, it looks like we're in for a long, drawnout battle. i think fewer predictions are probably the lesson i would draw. just watch it unfold. >> but the flip side of that, kirsten. many in the media said, rick santorum, his win a meaningless, he's not going to get the nomination anyway. >> well, that would be my opinion, actually, because i think if you look at the states, they're not probably, you know, they're not, they're

not. >> he didn't leave a lot of delegates. >> and this is a beauty contest and not where he's putting most of the efforts and romney will do well and a lot of states are coming up. that's a fair analysis, and we never can say who the nominee is going to be of course, but it's a job of political analysts to handicap what's going on and make some sort of informed judgment. >> and i saw this comment, in the new york star ledger, wrote that god must love pundits. just when you want to hit the snooze button during this g.o.p. race, he, meaning god, polled the rug out from under them, giving rick santorum-- >> it may be god or the voters who have a way of up ending the wisdom and the best laid plans of the candidates and the media and i think one thing that's interesting about wolf blitzer omg and stuck talking about the rick santorrum victories, the left

wing media and as well as the american people at large have bought into the conventional wisdom about the race, it's essentially built on economic issues, that's true and i don't think that's wrong. i think a lot of folks were taken by surprise, that a social conservative like rick santorrum would do a full three-state sweep. >> why can't the media remember, oh, about four years ago, a little known senator from illinois came out to sweep the rug out from hillary clinton? >> and evangelical minister, mike huckabee, won iowa. there's a blind spot in the media on social issues. they can't believe that the people in the heartland can believe this stuff and doesn't get through their heads and i think that santorum is attractive in the sense that he's new and fresh and keeps the reporters from going back to the dredgery assignment. he's unattractive and they don't like him in terms of

what he stands for and work it through. >> jon: are they going to be digging for-- >> certainly, a santorum rise in the polls and fall the way that others have, and kirsten is right, romney will probably get the nomination, but it's much more fun for us. >> jon: the media touted romney as the eventual nominee. i think he's the likely nominee, but he has a different race on his hands and the media are surprised they're covering it. because the traditional wisdom, the established candidate with the most ground game and resources and money is the one who ends up with the nomination and that's not always the case, i think it's probably still likely in romney's case, but the fact that the media has to go and cover rick santorum. remember, most conservatives, their heads are probably with mitt romney, to win the general, but their hearts now are increasingly with rick santorum. >> the question, does it all pay off in the end? there was a poll taken by

winthrop university asking who is the united states vice-president? 29.3% of those answering the poll could not identify joe biden as our vice-president. 23 couldn't remember who the vice-president is. 3% supplied the incorrect name and 3% said our vice-president is dick cheney. (laughter) >> well, he certainly made an impression. >> jon: made a name for himself and i-96 to take likes the media. >> religion over conscience and the constitution. >> attacks on religious freedoms, forcing contraception coverage and komen pulling funding from planned parenthood. which receive the most from the mainstream media and why. the president makes an about

face, flip-flopping on big political pacs, saying, show me the money. are the media passing the hats? next on news watch. prescribed lipitor, i won't go without it for my high cholesterol. why kid myself? diet and exercise weren't lowering my cholesterol enough. now i'm eating healthier, exercising more, taking lipitor. numbers don't lie. my cholesterol has stayed down. and here's another number you might be interested in. lipitor may be available for as little as $4 a month with the lipitor co-pay card. terms and conditions apply. visit lipitor.com for details. [ female announcer ] lipitor is not for everyone, including people with liver problems and women who are nursing, pregnant, or may become pregnant. you need simple blood tests to check for liver problems. tell your doctor if you are taking other medications or if you have any muscle pain or weakness. this may be a sign of a rare. [ man ] still love that wind in my face! talk to your doctor. if lipitor has been working for you, stay with it. don't wait. lipitor may be available

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the most highly recommended bed in america. it's the perfect time to save up to $200 on your own ergo. find out more at tempurpedic.com. >> freedom in america is indivisible from the freedom to practice one's religion. that is why there is a mosque in every state in our union and over 1200 mosques within our borders. and that's why the united states government has gone to court to protect the right of women and girls to wear the hadji and to punish those who would deny it. >> jon: that was president obama in 2009, addressing the islamic community from cairo about religious freedoms in this country. but those words rang shallow to many people this week as controversy built over his administration's position to force religious organizations to provide employees contraceptive services and

other services free, a direct violation of their religious freedoms. then, this from the white house on friday. >> if a woman's employer is a charity or a hospital that has a religious objection to providing contraceptive services to the health plan. the insurance companies, not the hospital, not the charity, will be required to reach out and offer the woman contraceptive carefree of charge. without co-pays and without hassles. the results will be that religious organizations won't have to pay for these services, and no religious institution will have to provide these services directly. let me repeat, these employers will not have to pay for or provide contraceptive services, but women who work at these institutions will have access. >> so the white house pack tracked from its original position. what about the way they did so, monica.

is that going to solve the controversy? >> well, i'm not sure that it solves the controversy, but i will say this is the power of the media. and the media research center did extraordinary investigative research into what broadcast networks and cable networks were doing on this issue. what he found was that ab c & n bc did not cover this for a full 16 days and cbs covered it only after ten days and cnn mention it had briefly originally when the decision came down and once he publicized the,networks were forced to cover it and fox was covering it relentlessly and it became a huge issue and forced the white house to change tact on that. >> jon: and compare that with the komen organization, a private organization, funding organization decided did not want to give a minuscule amount of its money to planned parenthood and according to the media, the earth was falling down. >> because their friends were

caring about it and everybody they know was talking about it and must be be the most important thing happening in the world. the coverage was relentless and then you have this issue, which is a major issue that affects so many people that they weren't interested in it. what i would say, i think it was a lot of liberal catholics came out, you know, ej dyan and mark shields and people who support obama on pretty much everything saying this is not okay. >> jon: i think, jim, the coverage got confused, it was presented in a lot of cases as a birth control issue and it really is more about government control, isn't it? >> you mean, the obama administration's thing. >> jon: yeah, right. >> well, look, i mean, this is the one area, as howard kirtz at the daily beast and the at the new york times, one area of the media bias is so unmistakable any observer has to say, you can argue where they are on foreign policy and other issues, they're mixed, but in this issue they are he,

in terms of the washington d.c. to new york city access almost completely united on this, it has to happen and occasionally, there's a deviation, occasionally, but you assignment editors, the news judgment, and the komen story to page one and bishop story to page 50 until it's forced by talk radio and others to put it higher. >> jon: i wish we had a split screen because judy was giving you a look that you disagree? >> i disagree. i believe that this was essentially, as the president framed it an issue of access to medical care that's essential for women. now, one can argue why they chose, the white house chose this formula, which was perhaps bound to generate controversy, but i think the climb down, the flip-flop, the about face, whatever we wind up calling it was a fair compromise for which he should be given credit because it

satisfies a lot of different constituents. >> and what we're talking about is different. we're talking how the the media reacted to it, i think he's right. they are united in believing, a, they're pro choice. they're united in saying that planned parenthood is an organization and no one can question and they're united and don't question these. they saw it as a contraception issue. it's a religious freedom issue. >> no, it's not though, because they're not equal. there's nothing in the constitution about access to contraception, now, and you equate these two things, is to ignore our entire history. >> to say there are various frame, a conservative frame and liberal frame. that's fair and argue a different opinion, but you can't argue there's a conflict. there's bishops and catholic church and evangelicals didn't like it and the media ignored that outrage. >> it was relegated to the opinion pages of newspapers and then, when the political angle was discovered, and

emphasized, it shouldly became news. >> the political angle there from day one and the editors didn't care. >> you discovered it, and looked at media coverage when it did move in to reporters it was still framed as a contraception issue. >> jon: we have to take another break. if you see something that's media bias, e-mail us at news watch@foxnews.com. are they down playing the iran? >> and iran, a big threat to israel and a threat to us? are the media ignoring the dangers? what wild and crazy things are going on inside the white house? all next on news watch. if something is simply the color of gold, is it really worth more? we don't think so. chase sapphire preferred is a card of a different color.

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>> are they or weren't they? an iran close to building and perhaps using a nuclear weapon? some american and european officials believe iran is planning to build nuclear weapons and close to attaining them. iran says it's developing a nuclear program only to generate electricity. well, in november the international atomic international agency released evidence that they say makes a credible case this they ever he' carried out activities relative to the development of a device and that might still be underway and the question, judy, are the american media paying attention? >> i think they are, the large newspapers and the networks are paying attention, clearly this issue does not have the kind of emotional clout that it has in israel where i've just come from there every single day. there are two, three stories on aspects of the program and what the choices arement now, the united states has focus on it and obama is focusing on it, bebe netanyahu says, yes,

we want you to act now, and we can't wait. and when iran crashes the threshold, it's a complicated issue to cover, but i think the media has woken up and you're start to go see front page stories as we did last week in the new york times, very, very essential, crucial issue on which a great deal is going to depend. >> yeah, it seems that every time an israeli leader says we have to bomb iran it makes front page news everywhere, what's not getting out is according to rasmussen only 35% of americans support military action against iran. only 51% even would want to help israel and that's the public is not anywhere near where the chattering classes are on this issue. >> that's not media per se, but i think it's a failure of our leadership to be out there educating the people why iran with a nuclear weapon is a direct threat to the united states and an exessential threat to israel and to the united states because it will

destabilize the region including our oil supply which means, 5, 6, $8 gas for every american. >> i have an alternate theory. i think that people are tired of going up to war after two wars, ten years, people just are probably like, no. >> but ultimately, i think the media has to ask questions like does it help to kill iranian scientists as someone is doing and we now believe according to the media that it's israel and the mek, a cult-like group on the terrorist list which some people feel should not be. i think we'll see more and more attention to this issue. >> jon: we'll continue to watch it on news watch and talk about this, president obama now wants to be a super pac man. >> and the president's position, his approval of the democratic super pac, as now he's on record as saying these pacs and the way they have money to drive elections is a threat to democracy and how he's given his stamp to that kind of organization so that

the democratic pac, and face the republicanings, and this campaign says basically these are the rules and they stink, but if you want to compete you have agot to play by them. i guess my point is, what is the point of taking a principle stand campaigning and then you switch course and abandon it? >> i will refer a lot of these questions have to do with a strategic campaign decisions to chicago, but the president, obviously, agrees with this decision because of what the campaign has said, is that the rules are what they are, and you can't-- the campaign, you i mean i've read the same reports you've read the campaign says they cannot engage in this campaign, cannot compete in these effectively, if there are two sets of rules, if they play by a different set of rules. >> jon: the the president says that super pacs are a bad thing, but now asks that you give to his super pac. >> what a shocking surprise. what surprised me or maybe not

surprised me the failure of the media to cover the hipocracy. and 2008, barack obama said he would take financials and federal funds and lasted five minutes when he realized he could rake in, he dispensed with that, this is a very similar move. >> i agree with monica, but a small salute to jay carney for having to wrestle these 20 clause questions and any one of those clauses wrong. >> jon: so he hands off to chicago. >> duck, when in doubt, duck. >> jon: all right. we have to take one more break, and when we come back, some interesting going on-- goings on inside the white house.

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>> jon: president obama taking a shot inside the white house on saturday firing the extreme marshmallow cannon in the state dining room. joey beat the device that was a science affairer at the white house. he did ask members of the press to get out of line of fire before he pulled the trigger. surprising? then mrs. obama took on jimmy fallon on tug of war and other activities. no members of the media during that program. [ laughter ] >> i'm sure the president would have liked to have the press line of up