what is behind the poll numbers and do the numbers reflect a media agenda? some big catholic organizations slap the obama administration with a lawsuit accusing it of stomping on our religious freedoms. did you see this covered in the mainstream? >> the facebook ipo gets a big buildup and then flops. did the media overhype and oversell. was this man really the most trusted man in america? a new bioraises big questions. and who is this man? and why should we thank him? on the panel this week, writer and fox news contributor judy miller. syndicated columnist cal thomas. ratner.erton and ellen ratter

i'm jon scott. >> i'm not about to sit here and indict private equity. we are getting to a ridiculous point in america. i live in a state where pension funds and unions and other people investing in bain capital, if you look at bain capital's record they have done a lot to support businesses and grow businesses. and i'm very uncomfortable. >> this is nauseating to me on both sides. it is nauseating to the american public. enough is enough. stop attacking private equity. stop attacking jeremiah wright. this stuff has got to stop. >> that is newark, new jersey, mayor cory booker on "meet the press" making headlines. h his comments seemed real and heartfelt. he ended up retracting them later. one surrogate, jim, called him the -- or i'm sorry, one democratic strategist called him the surrogate from hell. what is going on with corey

booker and the democratic party. >> are you suggesting that the sincerity with which he said the original words was not matched by the sincerity of the retraction? i think the obama administration said if you want to have a future in democratic politics you better volunteer to do the video he retracting what you said two hours earlier. >> anhe is a rising star. >> former rising star. >> later that day he is on youtube with a video. >> i found it so bizarre that the person who chastised him was a member of the media. chris matthews is kind of the disciplinarian of the democratic party saying shocking, awful. the guy paid a price for it and he will pay a price for it it i think to independents. it was music to our ears.

>> he is a smart guy, i will len. he he says that corporations have done good things for his city. he is media savvy. is it possible that the original -- >> there certainly was an article that said that he did not do this in a dumb, this did not come out in slip of the tongue that it was orgonessed and planned by him to say pretty much what he did say. and that is not terribly surprising. just as you point out, look, he did a video with chris christie and that was pointed out in one of the pieces. i think that he is not too dumb. >> doug: the washington post gives pinocchios to politicians who lie. i think booker should get three lamps for telling the truth. once in a great while a politician will speak with he or she really believes and cattalo all of the media hype and spin and tv commercials.

it is incredibly refreshing. his star in the media elights may be declining but among the people who will put him into higher office i think it could be rising. >> could i raise a question about the premise? why are reverend wright and bain capital not fair game? >> the fact of the matter is his relationship with obama hasn't been ex-be pained. why is pain not an issue when the candidate used -- we could say why is is that this massachusetts po lit cal figure with good hair, mitt romney in 2 20* 12 does not get the same treatment as john kerry 8 years ago. as media research the study you cited 13 to 1 ratio of more coverage for romney's wealth

than kerry's wealth. >> let's find out what ellen has to play. >> a, it is his wife. and b a picture in this media savvy world of ours is worth a few hundred words. all they had to do which is a picture of senator kerry on a surf board in nantucket. >> you are sayin saying if they hadn't done the wind surfing thing they wouldn't cover it. we agree. >> warren buffett supports his position on higher for the wealthy. same thing with john kerry even though he moored his boat to avoid prying higher values. >> the media research center a conservative leaning organization did a study of

mentions of john kerry's wealth on the evening news. the big three evening news broadcasts back be in 2004. he got two mentions from cbs and abc. one each. nbc didn't mention it at all. contrast that with stories about mitt ronney's wealth he got mentioned 27 times. bill o'reilly asked david westin about it. >> i think many americans are worried about their economic situation. they are worried about their jobs, their houses. their children. their 401(k)s and things like that. that was not true in -- >> you think it is economically driven. i don't see it that way. >> also driven by the opponent. the obama campaign is pushing this story hard. >> but certainly the media is picking up on that. >> former president of abc,

david westin. >> it is not fair game to ask about generics this wealth. in 2004 the issue was not really the economy. but also the issue then was the iraq war when the media focus on an issue they tend to focus on it in drove. >> for example the 44 signs on the front page about abu ghraib. what is hilarious is west win would hide the liberal media. obviously plants the assumption that everybody knows that -- >> asking a network news president if they are biased is like asking a drunk if he can hold his liquor. that is just not reelection

evacuate. >> what he did say, what happened is he did say bias is not just how things are done. we also tried to expand who who was there in terms of race, color et cetera. so he said that, too. >> we have to take a quick break. up next, do the media care about freedom of religion in this country? >> this isn't a fight that we asked for. >> the nation's top capital administrations. elimb nateing our freedom of religion. big news but the media don't seem to care. why? >> and he was abled the most trusted man in america but a new biography pops that balloon. details next on "newswatch. an whraps while protecting our environment. across america, these technologies protect air - by monitoring air quality and reducing emissions... ...protect water - through conservation and self-contained recycling systems...

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at the memorial day sale, save 40% on our innovative sleep number silver edition bed- plus receive special financing on selected beds through memorial day. only at the sleep number store, where queen mattresses start at just $699. they said which the way we will define what a church is and what you can and can't do and we will set the parameters as to how you minister and to

whom you can minister and the motives that will direct the menster. that is the tone of the straight jacketing exemptions. we said from the beginning, mr. president, just eliminate that definition of religion that seems to be intrusive and radical and unprecedented and rather unamerican. if you can just eliminate that attempt by a bureau of the federal government to define religion we will step back. >> timothy cardinal dolan commenting on why top catholic leaders and organizations are suing the obama administration for stepping on their religious predoms. on the day that i think 3 of them joined in filing the lawsuits this got no mention on abc or nbc evening news programs. i think it might be liberal bias. brent bozell said it is the

worst bias by omission, that is not covering it i have seen in 25 years at the mrc which is a big statement. >> it is a monumental loss. >> it was covered in the print media, not on broadcast. it is true because nbc was busy cover, the important news of the day which is the lunar are eclipse. there is bias or the feeling we know this and we covered this story before and we know that the catholic church has problems with this portion of what obama is trying to do so it is old news. either way it should have been covered. >> and when they cover it, ellen, they are lasten dee dee scribing it as a bo -- i don't tornado to see it that way but to go back to the coverage they did say and it was pointed out that susan b.koman crisis hit

the papers in a big way. there is more than one lawsuit. there is several lawsuits that hit at the same time. and whether these have a possibility of success and how. i didn't see any analysis of that. >> the media for years have suffered from a religion deficit disorder. they just don't get the subject. they don't like the subject. when they deal with the -- this is not about contraceptive or some of these other things. this is about the federal government's right to define what the church is. the hhs department wants to define this issue as a church being people who meet on a sunday morning in a building. not the catholic hospitals. not notre dame university or other universities. the media would rather pore train it as one else.

>> i think the weed value voters reminds myo how any handled the apportion issue by oh v. wade. maybe there is something going on here that we never heard about that we better start covering. perhaps the election before the media realizes the catholics had a point. >> one of the institutes that brought the suit was notre dame which gave barack obama an honorary degree in 2009. npr says religiousews in one groups complained about thion. ion. they could have said we object to it or we really hate it but they complained about it. >> there were negotiations with

the white house and with the administration and they felt like those negotiations weren't going anywhere which is why they brought the suits. >> and this gem of a quote from chris matthews on. >> the boy tops? >> her i heard that i felt a thrill up my leg. >> all right. more news watch ahead. you can't topical. >> top cal. >> up next, walter con kite and some questions ethics. >> he was america's most trusted newsman but new details about walter cronkite faints a pig bigger picture. dismal outlook? answers next, on news watch. ♪ i can do anything today

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cronkite a new biography of the most trusted man in america reveals that maybe he should haven't been. here is a sample from what howard kirtz wrote for news week. he said i came to realize that the man who once dommy nateed television journalism was occasionally uncomplicated. judy? >> i think that is right. amazing how over time the standards change and by the way, what is considered fair game changes. you know, dick salant who was

then the president of cbs news, this is what surprised me. knew about all of this unethical behavior and did nothing about it because cronkite was just too powerful and he didn't want to disturb the brand. i mean i found the kurtz review and information itself rather interesting. >> or maybe it is okay to do it if it is for a good cause like -- >> you couldn't do that today. come on. >> was it a simpler time in america, cal, when people would sort of accept spoon fed news from a guy without question hing an agenda? >> well, there were only three networks then and really only two powerful ones. it is like trying to compare an athlete from today with one of 0 years ago. you can't apply the standards of today to the 950s. a lot kim out of a rough and

jumble print journalist. read mike royko. he would pick up tips at bars from sources and things and then go on and write about it. walter cronkite was a great journalist. was he is a liberal? absolutely. nobody was in doubt about that. journalistic ethics, something else. >> what does this do to his legacy? >> i don't know what it does to his legacy but do i agree with cal. >> what? >> she's coming my way. >> in the olden days there was a bar at the press secretary's office at the white house and after hours they used to go this there and drink and have a good time. can you imagine that happening today? it as very different time and it is hard to judge walter cronkite in today's times. >> let's turn our attention to another big media story of the week. it was the big news last week

the data facebook went public. selling more than 450 million shares and then this week it was big news again as that stock fumbled and tumbled and calls for investigations and lawsuits to drown out the cheers ringing out on the day of the company's initial public offering. did the media have a role to play in all of this? >> i think facebook has had a term and now the media are reversing course on them. this whole business with whether more are began stanley alerted certain investors and nor not others are kind of astonishing and potentially criminal. >> it seal like the media did a lot of cheer leading ahead of the initial public offering. >> it seemed to be an irresistible story. the young guy still in his hood or hoodie taking this company

from nothing to everything. the greatest biggest most successful. i suppose some reporters played into that. but it was the -- it was very soon after that that people began asking questions about facebook. and i think the stories about whether or not it was overvalued occurred almost immediately. >> but they didn't occur before and sig simon lack did talk aba stock for those who would not want to be retracted by financial statements. we get vacation buying guides. we didn't we get a guide on this? >> up next, the man who has helped you tune in to fox news channel. [ male announcer ] knowing your customers

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>>. >> jon: think about all the inventions that have really truly change the way we live our lives. elect, the fork, the cellphone. what one device is misplaced it gives a panic search to find it? we're talking about the tv

remote. eugene pauley died this week, the inventor of the first remote. debuted in 1965 it was shaped like a gun and fired light signals. the ads just think, without going from your chair you can turn your set on and off and change channels. you can shut off annoying commercials. it was card luxury, today with hundreds of channels the remote is really a necessity. it gave birth to new group of humans called couch potatoes. he told an interviewer that the flush toilets may have been most civilized invention devised but remote control is next most important, it's almost as important as sex. thanks to the panel this week. [ laughter ]

>> i'm jon scott. thanks for watching and don't touch that remote. please remember our troops this holiday weekend. all those that have given their lives for this great nation as we mark memorial day. >> john: i see signs of poverty in my town and i'm told it's getting worse. >> poverty levels have gone up in 38 states. >> with poverty rising. >> the poverty in america is in fact a death sentence. >> john: is it really? >> you have television? >> yes. >> how many channels? >> liberal politicians say government must help the poor. >> my brother's people. >> they say some are m