the first place. >> paul: that's it for this week's edition of the journal editorial report and thanks to my panel and especially to all of you for watching. and we hope to see you right here next week. . >> jon: on fox news watch. >> thank you pennsylvania, delaware, rhode island, connecticut and new york. >> jon: no surprise, mitt romney becomes his party's presumptive nominee, telling supporters he's the guy to take on barack obama and gearing up for a tough battle for the white house. are the media gearing up for a fair fight? >> oh, you should listen to the president. president obama takes his show on the road starting with late night laughs and on to college campuses to try to win back

young voters. how is it playing in the press. i want to say if police chief lee is guilty of thinking, a poor press conference. >> and how their city has been slammed by bias media coverage and over the trayvon martin shooting. is it too late for the media to make things right? former democratic presidential hopeful john edwards on trial, fighting charges of using campaign cash to hide his affair. he was once a favorite of the liberal media. now what kind of trooment is he getting from the mess. >> the new york times on the liberal bias and love affair with president obama and the hit comes from one of its own. and who is she trying to be? >> which one of you guys farted. >> and on the panel this week, syndicated columnist cal thomas and jim pinkerton, editor magazine and daily

beast columnist kirsten powers, i'm jon scott. fox news watch is on right now. now. >> and tonight i can also say thank you, america, because after 43 primaries and caucuses, many long days and more than a few long nights, i can say with confidence and gratitude that you have given me a great honor and solemn responsibility and together, we are going to win on november 6th. hold on a little longer. a better america begins tonight. (cheers) >> mitt romney there, following his primary wins this week. getting set to take on barack obama for the white house. that was tuesday night. and so was this. >> keeping the interest rate low isn't the way to help our students.

they say we should be doing everything we can to pay down the national debt. well, so long as it doesn't include taxing billionaires, but first the students just have to make this rate increase work. frankly, i don't buy it. ♪ mmmm the barack ain't buying it. >> jon: there you go, if your candidate gets a lot of air time on television or maybe if he doesn't go on the jimmy fallon show and do it there. >> bill clinton played the saxophone on the arsenio hall show and won that race 20 years ago. i suspect you'll see mitt romney on some of the shows (laughter) >> and nixon went on laugh-in in 1968 and nixon makes romney looks like a riot. >> and clinton was running for president. barack obama is president, i agree with dana perino and

some the former white house press secretary, a commentator of the network and co-host of the "the five", can we plug that? there's a certain decorum for the presidency, he when you take it on a level. i think it does damage to the office. >> jon: what about the media reaction to the appearance. what's interesting about the media reaction, i would have thought this stuff like this played well to the media because it's funny and clearly got a message, which is i need the young people back, which is obama's message, but actually, the pew research group said as it turns out obama's coverage has been more negative than positive and i think that's the way a lot of this is going down. i was quite surprised by that. >> but today show spent something like 11 minutes fawning over the president's appearance on jimmy fallon's show. >> i think the media mostly likes this kind of stuff because it's funny and it's light and i watched--

actually, i didn't think it was that funny and obama was pretty straight-faced through it and i didn't find it demeaning, i think he's reaching out to the youth vote, but we have to use the different types of media that you have. and i wouldn't begrudge him or a republican candidate who did this? >> but it's a distraction from the really important stuff going on. jobs, economy, foreign policy issues and it's like covering shark infestations in florida just before 9/11. and then when 9/11 happens, then you say, gee, how come we didn't see it coming? answer, you were covering sharks in florida, that's why. >> the media do seem to be taking on the president over some of these appearances. abc's jonathan karl called out mr. obama over comments he made about how poor he and michelle were and they had to pay off their college loans after they were, i guess, making a six figure income. >> right, look, this is a close race. if romney were ten points down easy for the media to say obama is great and romney

stinks and look forward to a second term. they've 0 got to cover their bets and could be covering president romney in nine months and they don't want 0 antagonize them. >> how much longer do we have to pretend that the podu schpod aren't campaign events. >> sauls when there's an incumbent president. this man is president now and more than hath of appearances are almost nothing, but campaign events, but how do you distinguish? and who distinguishes? it's a really tough program for romney. >> jake tapper asked at the white house, how you distinguish presidential travel from campaign travel. >> well, congress has done the same thing for years, they'll go on these junkets they call fact finding mission and hold them for an hour and go out golfing for three days. they're not an example of how to properly spend the

taxpayers' money. >> and judy mentioned the coverage that president obama received and mitt romney says, well, gotten most of the coverage, obviously, on the republican side. >> yeah. >> jon: but even there, the pew research center broke that down and said he is received positive coverage 47% of the time ever since the michigan promissory. >> well, they said his coverage is twice as positive as the president's coverage, actually, so, i guess that, you know, mitt romney is saying he's getting unfair coverage, but that's a pretty typical republican tactic, pretending to have a fight with the media and pretending to get you so everyone will rally around your side. >> there's a cleverness to romney. when you talk about the vast left wing conspiracy, he says the quote. he put his own ironic detachment to the paint to signal to the media, i'm not against you, i am adoing this

for the base, but we'll get along fine. >> jon: up next on fox news watch, is it too late, for the media, i should say to make things right in the trayvon martin shooting case? >> i've been in trayvon's shoes when i was young, it's scary being black and growing up these days. >> 20 years after the l.a. riots, the media compare images of then to the trayvon martin case of now. but is that a fair comparison? and john edwards once a darling of the liberal media. now what?

>> one of the problems is because he's been indicted for second degree murder, and nothing suggests that, the elements. second degree murder is here, reduced. some saying there'll be riots on the the streets if there's

acquittal. if there are riots it will be the prosecutor's fault. because she overcharged and raised expectations, no reasonable jury is going to convict based on the evidence i know of second degree murder. so, this prosecutor not only may have subborn perjury, she may be responsible for riots by raising them to unexpectable levels. >> wow, alan dershowitz, talking about the trayvon martin case. and the photos, showing zimmerman's bloody head. if they had that photo and didn't mention it, that would be-- affidavit are supposed to contain all relevant information. the supposition is that his head was bloodied in some kind of a confrontation with trayvon martin.

so, here comes alan dershowitz acting as an impartial obje observ observer, i would add to it, the reason the prosecutor filed the charges, the firestorm over the media did with this case and talking about al sharpton 15 years ago riot ideology, if you don't do what we want you to, we'll riot and now they've got ten this prosecution that even michael, an obama supporter, says they'll never convict him and what happens then. they will set it up and then a real cataclysm if zimmerman, i imagine, if he's acquitted. >> if he's acquitted dershowitz, you heard him say, judy, that there could be riots. should the media bear some blame? >> i think the interesting development was the kind of change in doan of al sharpton, who had been leading rallies and saying that this is a racist act, and being both

commentator on the air, but also, an activist, on behalf of trayvon. now, this week the tone is very different. he's saying, oh, you know, we need to deal with the lingering problems of racism in america and we need to build and work together. i think he's very worried about the tone that he set in the beginning and they're trying to ratchet it back. >> reuters and some of the other news services and news outlets did a little digging into george zimmerman's background and turns out he was an altar boy. he had purchased the gun, that was used in the shooting, in part on advice of police because he'd been confronted by an aggressive pit bull. is it too late to change the picture that is out there? >> well, yeah, to a certain extent, yes, once the picture is created and i mean and ingrained. >> by the media. >> by the media and people kind of tune out and the reutest stories really didn't get the kind of that he thinks at that it should have gotten

and i think certain people-- it goes against the narrative that set. >> readers have made their mind up. >> the media made their minds up, that this person got a gun to kill a black kid and that's the story they told and to now find out he was told to get the gun by the police, because there was a dog, ruins that narrative. >> and nbc editing of that 911 calling that seemed to make it about race. >> similar one from a reporter. wtbj in miami who was subsequently dismissed. there's a law against incitement to riot. if we go out on the street and say, let's go out and kill somebody, we could be put in prison. if the media does it, it's okay. how do you go after these people, for al sharpton and some of the others to now try to pull back from the insend air ry language they were using is outrageous.

>> there was rioting and a comparison story, riots and the flames versus the trayvon martin march on the other side of the picture. >> i read that article in friday's paper and outraged. all they could talk about is rodney king and trayvon martin and beating the comparison as hard as they could and reminding people, oh, yeah, there should be a riot if we dent get what we want. >> media would never admit it. they'd love to see the returning cars and buildings, and riots in the 60's, great tvs and how to sell newspapers. >> one thing in defense of the media and if they're in for social media in the beginning, trayvon martin would not have become an issue, in the beginning, media played a helpful roll. >> more news watch ahead. if you see something that's media bias, e-mail us at foxnews.com. up next, how are the media treating former senator and presidential candidate john edwards these days? >> from campaigning for

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>> the trial of u.s. senator and presidential candidate john edwards began this week and he as you might know is accused of nearly a million dollars in campaign cash to try to cover up an affair with his mistress during his run for the white house in 2008. so, how are the media treating mr. edwards?

>> it's a double standards. since bill clinton and all of his defenders in the media, hey, it's just sex not to worry about it doesn't have effect on the policy this is a character issue which the media are not going to explore because they have character problems of their own. but you know, he was a fair-haired boy. i mean, it's an amazing story. it's got every element you can think of. it's jaw dropping and certainly a media story, but for them to get huffy and puffy in the media this is somehow kind of fidelity is a financial institution is amusing after bill clinton and t bill clinton. >> and i've never been a john edwards fan, and i don't think it's news. the guy is a has-been, he's not running for president and will never again. >> he could have been president. >> he could have been, but he wasn't and this had nothing to do with why he wasn't. you know, he was already rejected otherwise. pan so, i just, i'm shocked

that it's being folly guess because it's salacious and people are-- >> rich lawrie who sometimes appears at this panel over at national review wrote a column titled "john edwards slimy, not criminal, dishonesty and betrayal weren't campaign activities for edwards, they were a way of life." you know, there's just no one to root for in this sleazy melodrama. you have andrew young, now accuser, clearing testifying to avoid blame himself. admits he used some money supposed to go to john edwards mistress for a pool house, a theater room, and a guest room, and i mean, there's nobody you can feel warm and cuddly about in this drama. >> jon: let's move on the arthur brisbane, the new york times ombudsman took his paper task for its reputation of being in the tank for barack obama, suggesting the gray lady start taking a critical look the at our current

president and his attempt to earn a second term and brisbane wrote many critics view the times as constitutionally unable to address the election in an unbiased fashion. like a lot of america, it basks in the warm glow of mr. obama election in 2008. and mixed record on housing crisis, banks, economy, afghanistan and other issues, now is a time to shift to a campaign coverage paradigm that compares promises with excuse, sheds light on campaign operations, and assesses the president's promises for a second term. jim? >> well, there you have the facebook fair and balanced argument. you have the institution and thousands of employees and one guy and duke it out between them the next campaign season. >> look at the new york times after the inauguration, obama

takes oath and the nation in crisis embraces the moment. is it going to change? >> i think that arthur brisbane and i agree that it should change and there have been hard hitting pieces on president obama how he's spending his money, who he's raising it from, on the gap between what he promised and what he's delivered. i just think there needs to be more of all of that. >> jon: well, mr. obama can get some love from other media, including rolling stone. a quote from the president in that journal. >> i don't watch a lot of tv news, he says, i don't watch cable at all and we're frankly very hurt by (laughter) . >> patti ann:. and the major papers, thumb through all the major papers and the morning, times and waurt journal and all of the new york times columnists. and it's like saying chickens lay eggs.

nothing's going to change. they're going to endorse him for reelection and put as positive a face on it as possible, this is not news. >> editorialize romney, they said the best of a very bad bun. . >> i think it's analysis by the new york times. i wish the new york times would stop pretending that it's something that it's not and just, look, i read it. i know what they are. you know, they're liberal leaning, that's what they are. >> jon: one more break up next.

>> jon: take a look at this clip we found on youtube. does she look familiar? >> what are you saying? are you saying the economy is obama's fault? are you saying the unemployment elevate obama's fault? are you saying that the

ridiculous amount of people on food stamps is obama's fault. she is just the president. he is the one man. he can't be expected to do it all. but run the ad? the government should take from the really wealthy and give to those who can't afford -- i don't know. obama is wonderful. that is all i know. >> jon: one quirky girl. and she never shies away from defending and giving props to her favorite president. sometimes it gives us a little laugh. that is a wrap for news watch