edition of the journal editorial report. thanks to my panel and especially to all of you for watching, i'm paul gigot, thanks for all of you watching, see you here next week. >> on fox news watch. >> i've just concluded that i think same sex couples should be able to get married. >> following years of confusing comments, flip-flops on the issue, a surprise statement from his vp, pressure from the press, partisan groups, mr. obama finally said it. did the revelation get the positive press he might have opened for. and the position of the washington post, mitt romney, detailing the g.o.p. front runner as a gay bashing bully. what was behind the timing of this? >> that simply is not accurate. >> and another underwear bomb plot is uncovered, foiled by a british double agent.

the associated press breaking the news of the plan this week, but they he knew about it last week and was holding the story the right thing to do? >> joe biden strikes again, giving his off the wall take on the iran's nuclear threat. is it time for the media to i go dor the vice-president. and does dancing on stage bake you a bad journalist? on the panel this week, writer and fox news contributor, judy miller, syndicated columnist, john thomas and jim pinkerton, the magazine and daily beast columnist, kirsten powers. i'm jon scott. fox news watch is on now. >> at a certain point i've just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that i think same sex couples

should be able to get married. >> jon: after a bit of hemming and hawing there, president obama making it crystal clear where he personally stands on gay marriage. here is a quick look how the media reacted. >> president obama today became the first american president to say he approves of same sex marriage. >> president obama's stand on same sex marriage completed its evolution today, changing from opposition to support. >> announcing something no u.s. president has ever said, that he supports same sex marriage. >> the president did not mince words. he didn't say there was work to be done or his position is evolving as i said so often before. he said in no uncertain terms that he thinks that same sex marriage should be legal. >> evolution or damage control? president obama reverses his stance on gay marriage. >> after years of conflicting answers, mr. obama's evolved position on gay marriage was

big news, but why now? was it big news? and deserving the coverage that it got? >> the coverage on "the washington post" and the step on gay marriage and friday, obama's evolution, next to mitt romney's piece, evolution is a great word, given the fact that barack obama first had the pro marriage, gay marriage, 1996 and obama moves from supporting gay marriage to opposing it back to supporting it again, that's evolution. when mitt romney does it, it's a flip plot. >> jon: why isn't it a flip-flop? of course it is, and when mitt romney changed his opinion on abortion, for example, he would say is evolving they call it a flip-flop and see it as a craven move and when obama switches his position twice, hardly anybody, if anyone referred to the fact that he used to support it in 1996 and pretty, in a very

craven way switched his position and you know, somebody said this is less evolution and more intelligent design. and he really-- >> very good. >> not just some accidental thing that happened. >> and joe scarboro called it the big fat nothing burger. but most in the media were pretty euphoric over this move by the president. >> yes, i think most were because as we know, most journalists admit that they are liberal and most admit that they are democratic and most people who cover the news think that this is a great thing for the president to do. now, i think what we think about this as individuals is irrelevant and i'm just delighted to see that after the hosannas, isn't it wonderful and the media calmed down and went back to covering what it should be covering. which is how did this happen? was vice-president biden's statement a gaffe or a kind of sensing of the waters? could they get away with this? and what does it mean for the the election.

>> jon: what they got, cal, was several days of coverage of the president's evolution on this issue. >> it's a diversion and a distraction, as the romney campaign has said from the real issues, and that would be the economy and jobs, and the threat of iran. the media always liked to be a crusader. they crusaded properly on civil rights for african-americans and now see this as a crusade. led by the new york times. on same days, i have read a pro gay story on the front page, on the op-ed page, on the editorial, business, science and sports page. now, that's a crusade. >> the terminology is interesting here, jim, because the people who are in opposition to gay marriage are often described as haters or bigots, where those, you know, who have evolved to the president's position generally get more positive terms. >> right. let's take what judy said and savannah gu

savannah guthrey. >> we're all supporters. >> we're all supportive of this and the civil rights analogy exactly what jonathan crouch, the national journal said president obama crossed the bridge at selma, reference to the civil rights mark and which is historic, that's the way it will be remembered. in the liberal memory of american history president obama put himself in the history books next to lyndon johnson. and there's the cover page describing mitt romney at least as a teenager as essentially a gay bashing bully and the family of the young man who supposedly had his hair cut in a vicious way by mitt romney is now saying that he didn't even talk about this event, he died in 2009. and that one of the main witnesses was apparently not even there when all of this happened. and here is what mromney had to

say. >> i had no idea what that individual's sexual orientation might be. going back to the 1960's, that's not something we considered. and going back to the incident, i've seen the reports not going 0 argue with that no question, but i did some stupid things in high school and obviously if i hurt anyone by virtue of that i would be sorry for it and apologize for it. >> so, where is the 5,000 word report on the president's cocaine experimenttation, for instance, when he was a teenager? >> that's right. if we're going to start looking at 50-year-old pranks or things that mitt romney may be embarrassed about now? you have to ask where are the comparable pieces about barack obama's missing background? where is the law school period in new york? where are the string of girlfriends he now doesn't want to talk about and you know what?

i don't care what mitt romney or barack obama did when they were 15 or 17 or in law school. i really don't care. i want to know where they stand now on the issues and i think that's what we should be concentrating on and frankly, i'm just puzzled by "the washington post" playing this story. >> jon: all right, we have to take a break now. up next.... >> a new and improved al-qaeda underwear bomb plot, exposed and foiled. the story breaking this week. but, the associated press knew about it last week. why did they wait to report the details? >> we were the problem. >> another joe bomb launched by vp biden, trying to blame the bush administration for iran's nuclear threat. how should the media react to old uncle joe and his off the wall antics? the answer is next on news watch. wake up!

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. >> jamie: our whole efforts is to try to get individuals that can provide intelligence and work with us and to be able to do that and do that effectively, you have to protect these people and you have to protect the confidence and the classification and the covert nature of this kind of work and when these leaks take place, i can't tell you how much they damage our ability to be able to pursue our intelligence efforts. >> paul: that's defense secretary leon panetta, addressing the leak of information to divulge a plot on a plane one years anniversary of the death of osama bin laden. and a mole inside al-qaeda. we're discussing it today, judy, because the ap apparently had the story for a week and held it that long and the white house asked them to hold it for an additional day

and let the story out the day before the white house wanted it out. why all of that cloak and dagger? >> the ap was asked to hold the story to protect americans and to protect the saudi double agent, a fact that the administration has not yet confirmed. if ever, if ever there was reason for secrecy, this case was it. this investigation was it. this was a tremendous coup by the saudis to penetrate al-qaeda in the arabian peninsula, to win the confidence of senior people, a number of lives were at risk and the ap should have absolutely held the story for as long as the administration-- >> you argue we should not be knowing about, shouldn't be talking about it today. and they should still be a secret. they were going to make an announcement on tuesday and the ap was asked to hold the story until tuesday, just as the-- and the l.a. times, by the way, did additional damage by reporting that there was a

saudi double agent involved. and that story broke so quickly, that the administration didn't even have a chance to ask them not to run it because the man might still be at risk or his family or his friends. >> jon: if the story hadn't come out, could we be gathering more information about al-qaeda and terrorism operation? >> sure. the crack of the codes of the japanese and germans early in world war ii and spent the rest of the war enjoying knowing what tojo and rommel would be doing in advance. what if that leaked out. we haven't won a war since the dawn of the information age television-wise and this proves how it happened, your stuff is blown the in the middle of it. >> there are leaks and then there are leaks. there are leaks that this administration and any administration don't want out and then there are leaks that they do. for example, israel's efforts at defending itself against what they consider a very likely attack from iran. na gets leaked by the obama

administration because the administration doesn't want israel to attack iran. so, that kind of leak is okay. but, this kind of leak is not. so, which is it. >> jon: and then there was information that came out about, from defense secretary leon panetta, this after the president was accused in some circles of spiking the football over his reaction to the anniversary of the death of bin laden. and this leon panetta memo said this, the timing operational decision making and control of his bin laden operation, are in admiral's hand. the approval is pro he vieded on the risk pro vile presented to the president. any additional risk are brought back to the the president for his consideration, admiral mccraven obviously in charge of special forces. the media reaction to that. essentially the memo seems to say, you guys do this thing, but if anything changes it's not necessarily with the president's approval and

therefore, gets plausible deniability. >> i don't read it that way. he's confident. i'm approving what's in front of me. if anything changes come back for more approval. that seems like a basic competency issue and what he should be doing and this memo handwritten scribble and they say it was meant for historical records, just going in a file and it wasn't meant as any cya or anything like that. and the president, if something changes he didn't approve if and it should be brought back to him. >> jon: jim. >> parallel d-day. general eisenhower wrote a note, if anything goes wrong it's my fault, eisenhower's fault, and there's a lot for the history books stuff written here including in 1944. i can't see something that you lay at president obama's feet. >> jon: more news watch ahead. if you see something that you feel shows evidence of media bias e-mail awes at news watch

dot foxnews.com. up next, another week and another joe biden moment. i promise you that the president has a big stick. >> known for some whacky comments, the vice-president's at it again, giving everyone his take on who is to blame for iran's nuclear buildup. what's a responsible press do with old uncle joe? find out next on news watch.

>> virtually no international pressure on iran. we were the problem. we were diplomatically isolated in the world, in the

region, in europe. the international pressure on iran was-- >> vice-president joe biden going off trying to blame the bush administration for failures to stop iran's drive toward a nuclear weapon. the fact is the bush administration pushed for resolution through the u.n. security council, calling for iran to halt its nuclear program, and the last three ratcheted up the sanctions against iran. so, did the media go after the vice-president on this one, kirsten? >> i mean, he never lets facts get in the way of anecdote or story and the problem so often, the attitude, there he goes again and you never have to report any of the things that he says. >> jon: and the media let him get away with it. >> if they applied the same standard to joe biden as they did to dan quayle, for example, over the misspelling of the word potato, then biden would be a raging idiot and

quayle an intellectual. i mean, this is so -- everything he said is so objectively untrue that somebody in grade school could have put holes in it. >> jon: all right. let's move on to another story of buckling under pressure. this one political correctness run amok. >> on thursday, the chronicle editor said, well, we think this is a provocative piece, but this is an invitation to debate. so that was thursday, you know, a long weekend goes by, by monday night i was fired, he so can't tell you what happened in the chronicle, but seems like they caved to public pressure and these people who were calling me names and you know, saying horrible things about me, at the chronicle, i guess can't take the pressure. >> jon: that's naomi sheriff riley, a woman writing a blog. one of the entries in her blog was titled the most persuasive case for eliminating black studies, just read the

dissertations, that's what got her fired, judy. >> well, that's not what the chronicle says, the chronicle says she was fired because she failed to back up her 510 word blog what is the quote, the cursory research. and of course she was fired f for-- this is an outrage. >> it's worth noting she's married to an african-american so she's probably not, obviously, a racist by any stretch, but, and even andrew sullivan strongly pro obama, this is obviously a case the chronicle caved into pressure and unfairly firing someone. >> jon: it was suggested that maybe she was fired from the chronicle of higher education simply because the readers of the chronicle of higher education didn't like the views that she wrote in her 500 word blog post. >> i think that's perfectly legitimately. she crossed the line of

liberal dumb, you don't tug on superman's cape and don't spit in the wind and liberal women, african-americans and gays, that's it, you touch any of those and you're out (laughter) . >> jon: kirsten, follow that one. >> well, i don't know about that. but, look, i find it troubling that we now live in a word where people cannot hear opposing views and that people need to be able to just respond. the person doesn't need to be fired, just have a debate. >> jon: up next on news watch, a journalist, other job gets her fired. ......

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>> jon: at the end of another news watch and we try to pick stories that will bring you entertainment. this one this time we picked just for cal. cal meet journalist sara tresler. >> i felt very lucky to land a job for the houston chronicle. i like the work and i felt i had good editors that provided me with opportunities to cover stories in houston that might have otherwise have been overlooked. i was very upset i was fired because many editors told me i was doing a great job. i was covering high society and doing general assignments doing interest stories, men's and women's if a fashion and other stories. i don't believe that i should have been terminated because of a claim that i did not disclose on my application that i was an

exotic dancer. >> jon: a society reporter sara tresler partying with her attorney she has filed a gender discrimination complaint against the chronicle. she failed to reveal the fact that she worked as an exotic dancer, someone would call a stripper. all ads the work is lawful and into the crime and has not and will affect her ability to perform her job as journalist. she writes on her blog, diary of an angry stripper. no comment from the houston chronicle but we are keeping an eye on what might come next. she said she did a great job. >> i'm not touching that one, jon, thank you for the opportunity. >> i'm not sure if there is a moral clause