>> that is it for this week's edition of the journal editorial report. thanks to my panel and especially all of you for watching. i'm paul gigot. hope to see you right here next captioned by closed captioning services, inc. only fox news watch. the new york times reveals president obama has a kill list. targeted terrorists who could be taken out by u.s. drones. the story igniting concerns over legality. morality. security and with an election just months away the timing. >> this is not the kind of building that is built by private enterprise. >> mitt romney and his supporters start to fire back at the opposition. the liberal press take aim at romney. a push for a recall election for governor protesting in the streets and in the state house. how about the same media react once the results are tallied on

tuesday? massacres and atrocities in syria. the images captured by the victims and reported on social media sites. are the reports too one sided? and are the professionals failing to do their jobs? this book hits number one on the book list. but gets the bum's rush from the press. >> good morning. >> good morning. i'm happy to be in the studio. >> the first lady has a new book and the press can't get enough. and this book tells about young barry obama. what kind of attention is it getting? >> on the panel this week, writer and fox news contributor judy miller. syndicated columnist cal thomas. jim pinkerton, and daily beast columnist kirsten powers. i'm jon scott. fox news watch is on right now.

this week the "new york times" published an extraordinary story which got a lot of attention and stirred up a lot of concerns. titled secret kill list proves a test of obama's principles and will. it was the front page story. here are a couple of the quotes. mr. obama has placed himself at the helm of a top secret nominations process to designate terrorists for kill or capture of which the capture part has become largely theoretical. mr. obama is the liberal law professor who campaigned against the iraq war and torture and then insisted on approving every new name on an expanding kill list pouring over terrorist suspects biographies on what one official calls the macab baseball cards of an unconventional war. first of all, jim, the story is pretty extraordinary but the paper must have had some extra

other access to get it? >> i suspect they did and got it right from the oval office right from the president because they understand that any story like this even if it upsets the aclu and liberals and antideath penalty activists and so on that is all good, they need framing in the center. everybody on the left criticizing obama over some aspect of the drone strike business still going to vote for him. the idea of president obama running a kill list against terrorists sounds like president bush to me including the baseball cards. whether it works in the election remains to be seen. but clearly a strategy from the white house. >> the same president who campaigned against waterboarding and outlawed it when came to office but killing is okay. killing the terrorists. >> now, we have his aides on the record explaining not a flip flop but evolution of thinking about this issue and, of course, this was a concerted campaign strategy because the same article appeared in news week a day before the new york

times which is never mentioned by the times. clearly an issue they want to address and highlight the presidents it role as a tough counter terrorist warrior which he has been. >> and didn't it say that he even invited his campaign manager to sit in on some of the meetings? >> yeah, well, i think the way that this was covered is interesting because you can imagine if this was about george bush how it would have been covered versus how it is being covered with obama. ic andbama it is hero eck and decisive and with bush it would have been he was a war criminal and back to the days of henry kissinger targeting village. >> remember when george w. bush made the dead or alive comment about osama bin laden just days after the 9/11 attacks and he was la mbasted.

>> they did the same thing with ronald reagan. a cowboy. the new york times which almost never finds anything to criticize this president about in the lead editorial on thursday said that his ability to decide like cesar thumbs up or thumbs down on the coliseum is too much power for a president. so at least we know according to the new york times where the line is with this president for too much power. >> does this kind of leak,. >> doug: did i, have any effect on national -- does this kind of leak, judy, have any effect on national security? >> it can but in this instance since everybody being targeted knows that america is using drones out there and since there have been many, many articles on the use of drones to kill people i don't think it compromises something to understand the process by which someone's name is added to the list. i find it extraordinary that the left has been silent about what is basically a king like assertion of power on the part of the president. that is unusual and it has

gotten very little comment. >> some of the names on the list are american citizens. very little outcry about due process here. >> well, again, when your team is doing it, it is okay whatever it is and that includes the media team on the. there was william salata pointed out something very important the definition of who is a target is so broad that it minimizes the number of people killed collaterally who have nothing to do with terrorism. and a second point is this president has been living off of the intelligence provided by the previous administration. we are not capturing more terrorists. we are not interrogating more terrorists we are just killing them. >> kudos to jake tapper of abc who challenged the white house press secretary saying there is almost a quality of guilty until proven innocent and carney said well, this is kind of new technology that the previous administration didn't

have. also not a lot of debate in the media about the wisdom of killing these guys as opposed to capturing them and getting intelligence. these people have information that could prevent other terrorists a attacks. >> we are talking about the actions of the president here. let's shift our attention to the guy from the other party who wants that office o, mitt romney. earned enough delegates this week, kirsten, to officially become the republican nominee assuming everything goes well for him at the convention and yet the press seemed to pay more attention to his associations with donald trump all week. >> it is not big news that he is the nominee. i will give them a pass on that. the obsession with donald trump is little strange. he is being asked to disassociate himself from donald trump when you rarely here barack obama being asked to disassociate from any one, for example bill maher just off the top of my head.

they are talking about donald trump, just kind of a clown, i don't understand why we spend any time discussing him. >> poll techo, the headline, two gop blatant, bias and vetting. >> they went through look why is romney's 50-year-old stuff about high school getting all this attention and all this stuff about obama everything else is not getting attention. this is not brent bozell saying it. it is politico saying it and caused a ripple and the media scrambling to defend the washington post and "new york times." >> it is a given. the media are so deep in the tank for this president and his reelection if they came up for air they would get the bends. >> up next, covering the serious crisis in syria and the challenges for the media in doing so. images of atrocities. men, women and children massacred in syria. the reports coming by way of

social media to the mainstream media. can we trust the details, and should the press be doing more to deliver all sides of the story? >> i'm not taking any bait. >> the first lady pushing her new book and getting first-class treatment be the media. but how are the media treating two new books about our answers, next. on "newswatch." ♪ rocky mountain high ♪ rocky, rocky mountain high ♪ ♪ all my exes live in texas ♪ ♪ born on the bayou [ female announcer ] the perfect song for everywhere can be downloaded almost anywhere. ♪ i'm back, back in the new york groove ♪ [ male announcer ] the nation's largest 4g network. covering 2,000 more 4g cities and towns than verin. rethink possible. you get a 50% annual bonus. and everyone likes 50% more cash -- well, except her. no! but, i'm about to change that.

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another brutal massacre there. >> white house officials say the president is not considering military action and still hopes he can change putin's mind about syria. >> the massacres and human atrocities against civilians in syria capturing the attention of news media worldwide. the problem, judy is there really aren't many news media there. the pictures coming out of that place are mostly shot by amateurs as far as we can tell. should we be concerned about the crisis that we are trying to document? >> of course. but syria is the greatest challenge to reporters because my friend marie colvin was killed there. other reporters have been killed trying to bring the news from there. hats off this week to paul wood of the bbc who spent three weeks undercover reporting on the kinds of atrocities that are coming out in the forms of video clips from partisans and activists. it is a difficult situation because you can't rather fee

the information coming out about its authenticity and context. you can't do it. >> and social media seems to be doing a lot of the heavy lifting in getting the story out. >> whatever the veracity of it and who really knows although clearly the syrian government seems to be the bad guy here there is an abundance of video and every day on the news the horrible footage of children being slaughtered and so on. sort of the modern day equivalent of the odyssey. we can see this stuff and can't really do anything about it. it is hard to find any foreign policy analyst who says here is the clear plan. it is just incredibly difficult to watch it happening without the capacity to really do anything about it. >> what would you say the collective media take is on the approach? i mean you don't seem to see a lot of clammerring for neglect whether it be military intervention, air strikes, you know, a know fly zone? >> i don't think i it is for te mainstream media to weigh in on that per se. there are certainly

conservatives arguing we should be arming the rebels and people that have ideas. i think it is more the problem is it is harder to cover. there aren't enough reporters able to be in there because it is so dangerous and they have to rely on activists. i would say between activists and the soa syrian government i would go with activists. the idea that the syrian government is a trustworthy source there i think clearly they are not. >> the media championed intervention in lebanon for the same reasons, the slaughter of the innocents and women and children, innocent men. now, we are little more reluctant. we don't know what we will get in egypt with the muslim brotherhood candidate strongly positioned to win there. a strong muslim brotherhood presence in syria and all over the middle east. it is a question of be careful what you wish for and i want to salute jim's superior education here tied to the map, having i have never seen that on cable tv. >> we will all be looking that one up.

>> i read it, too. >> back to the subject at hand. the president famously led from behind in getting nato involved in libya. why not do the same thing here? >> i think people understand the situation in is syria is different from libya. you can't say what worked in libya is going to work in syria bus for one thing in syria the rebels control no territory. who do you arm? i was just at the turkish border looking at the free syrian army. the only thing i can tell you for sure is it is not tree and it is not really an order because they are giving orders by phone and the only thing i know for sure is i think they are syrians. it is very hard to figure out what to do. and even people who are critical of governor romney who said let's arm the rebels, the reit wing and conservatives is have said as mike rubin said this week the american enterprise institute, he is

sniping from behind because nobody really knows what to do. >> judy, thanks. more news watch ahead. buffers, if you see something that you -- but first, if you see something that you think shows evidence of media bias, e-mail us. we'll take a look. up next, for the media, some books have it and some don't. even if in the too you tour that you might consider running. >> the first lady out and about almost everywhere getting the spot light as she pushes her new book. but when it comes to books about obama, the media spotlight goes dark. find out, next.♪ on "news watch." age where you don't get thrown by curveballs. ♪ this is the age of knowing how to get things done. so, why let erectile dysfunction get in your way? talk to your doctor about viagra. 20 million men already have. ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain;

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some books do well and get big media attention. some books do well and don't get big media attention. here is an example.

edward klein's new book about president obama. amateur barack obama in the white house is keeping the number one slot on the new york times list of best sellers for a second week but while the public seems to be embracing klein's exposee the media and "new york times" not so interested. why is that? >> might be that the new york times is not terribly interested in what ed klein has to say. >> no? >> that might hurt president obama. what is striking it the way the media trying to help the administration or even ignoring their own books. you think would have been available to people in the past and the washington post even downplayed that. normally on the front page and put it on page 6. >> according to amazon it as deeply the david moranes book a deeply reported generational biography teeming with fresh insight. masterfully drawn from hundreds of interviews and goes on and

yet not getting a lot of attention. >> byron york did a great article about this comparing it to the book that came out about george bush called fortunate son that has information about him allegedly using cocaine in his 20s that was treated as if it was just this absolutely credible book and turns out the writer had a felon who tried to blow somebody up. and they had no problem taking that and yet when you have the credible, you know, journalists reporting something it is being completely ignored. >> idealogical apartheid. bill o'reilly wrote a book, i it don't think it was reviewed by the new york times. a lot don't make the list because they are not in the right stores or b, if they do they are totally ignored. they would never do this as you have pointed out with books that affirm their idealodge

eckal perspective. >> one book called american grown and the author is the first lady michelle obama. for just 30 bucks you, too, can have this book. she has been all over the place peddling this, jim. >> she has. and look, let's face it, obesity, food, these are huge issues. robin roberts giving him 38 minutes as the mrc carefully counted out might seem a bit much compared to loot of things. michelle obama was smart to get off of recenting america into loving food and veterans. she positioned herself brilliantly and it is paying off for her. >> here she is during her appearance on the view. how was she treated? >> i'm not interested in politics. never have been. one of the things you learn after 48 years of life you learn what your passions and gifts are. one thing that is certain i will serve in some capacity. >> she is not interested in politics. yew dijudy?

>> he would use the word assert. see she asserted on the view. >> what about the teaming just before the election. >> these things, i mean you can't say there is a plot. she has gone from as you said heating america to vegetables. >> she never hated america. >> well,. >> it is not -- >> all i remember was for the first time in my life i'm proud to be american. >> that's right. >> what did you think of america before you were proud of it? that would be my question. >> i don't think there is anything wrong with her getting this kind of coverage. she is the first lady and well regarded and well liked by the country and it is an issue that people are interested in. to me honestly i think it was laura bush she would have gotten the same reception. >> and proceeds going not to the obamas but to the garden and perpetuation of vegetables. so i think that is a.

>> don't do a lot of farming in your new york city apartment, do you, judy? >> if she wants to sell a book it is great that she can go on ellen and the view band the abc programs and peddle it but the various editors and producers are saying edward klein's versus versus michelle obama's book. >> and possible the resources of the east wing of the white house used to write this book and help this along and it is possible some think this would possible some think this would help president obama's reecheck prospects. just a chance. >> coming up next a little confusion on nightly news. wer , let it blow your mind. [ male announcer ] for fruits, veggies and natural green tea energy... new v8 v-fusion plus energy. could've had a v8. the economy needs manufacturing. machines, tools, people making stuff. companies have to invest in making things. infrastructure, construction, production. we need it now more than ever. chevron's putting more than $8 billion dollars

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>>. good morning on friday more than. >> matt lauir pulling his co-anchor of the today, early to bed and early to rise schedule but he pulled double duty first on today and then taking the anchor on nightly news. >> i'm matt lauer. >> for brian tonight. >> savannah thank you very much. >> ron, good evening to you. >> hi, ron, i'm not in new york city. thank you very much. >> that is our broadcast, thanks for being with us. i'm matt lauer in for brian and i'll see you tomorrow morning on tonight -- today. i'm sorry. >> is