edition of the journal editorial report. join me on the fox business network. next week, we hope to see you all then. . >> jon: on fox news watch. >> we believe that you all ought to do your jobs on report on context. >> jon: white house spin man jay karnney wants reports on context. who has the context, leaks, and congress's charge against the attorney general, commerce secretary hit and run accident after a seizure. all stories plaguing the white house and getting media attention. >> there will be no shortage of gas and controversies and so i briefly made my own unique contribution. (laughter) >> and the private sector is doing fine comment is getting coverage, the meaning of the

mental. civil war in syria, relations with russia, tensions with iran and the economic meltdown in europe, all raising questions about mr. obama's foreign policies. but, have the media been glossing over the concerns. >> i would say in a hundred years, this country will be-- it's a stupid religion and a stupid country. >> liberal loud mouth bill maher attacks the religion and calls our nation stupid. and bush 41 gets the h.b.o. treatment. was it fair? >> on the panel this week, writer and fox news contributor, judy miller. richard grinell, former spokesman for the the last four u.s. ambassadors to the u.n. jim pinkerton, contributor, american editor magazine and daily beast columnist, kirsten powers. i'm jon scott, fox news watch is on right now. >> and you're sure that the white house and the people

involved will not take someone's-- out of context. >> what's the white house's view of-- >> what is the white house overall reaction to unite health care's announcement. >> and the house to vote-- what's the white house doing. >> unequivocally that it's wrong and absurd if there's no an investigation. >> and the supply routes in trouble at this point. >> could it be tougher for white house press secretary jay carney to spin the news in favor of president obama? you've got to feel for the guy. he took a whole load of questions like that at that white house briefing on monday and the reporters wouldn't let up. >> they wouldn't and didn't let up all week and this is all supposed to change with president obama's speech in cleveland and in a complete man bites dog, news worthy

spin turn around, the liberal media clobbered the president. i know i'm-- have a hard time hearing the words to say that, but when you see jonathan alter, and they will pounded on the speech and that's a pretty tough week. >> alter says it's one of the worst he's heard. >> yeah. >> interestingly, mickey couch who writes for the daily caller citing a blogger richard rushfield out in l.a. says it's a phenomenon of twitter. what's happening now when you do the same old speech over and over again, same old stuff, the media are so bored with it, even if they kind of like you, they nonetheless tear it up. they want something new to do, as opposed to simply rehash the old stuff. >> jay carney challenged reporters to put it in context. who is minding the context? >> the media decides the context and says that jay

carney was unhappy with the definition of it. but i don't know whether the reporters ate their spinach or what's going on, but they were acting like reporters, what they're supposed to be doing, asking the tough questions and poor mr. carney just came in for it this weekend. >> the president when he made the private sector doing fine remark, he it was described as a gaffe and in fact, he even seemed to say the clip he played at the top of the program, is that kind of an easy out for what it was, and what he meant? >> well, that's the question. the question is, was it a gaffe where he just meant to say as compared to the private, the public sector, it's doing fine, or is this actually what president obama thinks about the economy? and so it's depending where you're sitting, you might have a different perspective on that. whenever a politician makes a gaff, they're saying the context, the context, the context, but, look, it's not the media's job to clean up his mess. so the idea that they are he'

being told, you know, why aren't aren't you fixing this? that's not their job. >> i think that the context was worse for this white house. when you look at the context, this wasn't a gaffe, the gaffe when the president says a polish death camp. and when you rethe context, he doublings down ott philosophical, that he says the economy is 4.3 million jobs 800,000 this year alone. this was in the a gaffe, this was a well thought out contextual argument na the private sector is fine and the public sector is what needs to grow. >> i think rick has a point and that is if the context, the media point of view is paul krugman, saying this every day for three years now, that the public sector is being pumped up with more money and deficits and spending and so on. yeah, if you're reading the new york times like everybody in the obama white house is,

daily dose the public sector is shrinking because we're not spending nuture on government. >> he made the point in the friday column. >> i think that the issue the president didn't mean for this, that line was a gaffe in the sense it just gave the opponents just a perfect line to make him look like he's out of touch. >> we also saw a first in the media this week, take a look. >> of in washington today, attorney general eric holder took heavy fire from republican critics in a senate hearing and calls for his resignation are growing louder, but democrats contend it's all about politics in election season. >> why is that noteworthy? after months of coverage on fox news channel and other outlets, that was the first mention of fast and furious by nbc nightly news, rick. >> it's remarkable, right? this is a story that's been out there a very long time and the mainstream media just has not covered it. they viewed this as a partisan

issue and it's really been remarkable and i think that nbc admitted this week that they are behind the story. >> and texas senator john cornyn says he wants him to resign. 's not considered a bomb thrower, but barely got any coverage, his request. >> i think this is a partisan witch hunt, but that doesn't mean that the media shouldn't be covering it. the valley plame investigation as a partisan witch hunt and they covered that, they covered it quite enthusiastically just as you know. >> and so the idea that they're so disinterested in this when it's something that has been going on and gets a lot of attention in the conservative media, and even at the daily beast where i write, they've actually covered it quite a light and the mainstream media mostly ignored is is the problem. >> under the heading of manipulation, time magazine cover story, we are americans,

only we just are not legal. the new york times on sunday ran a story on frustrated hispanic, the frustrated hispanic electorate and then on friday came the surprise announcement that the department of justice is going to ease up on deporting the illegal immigrant children or young people or offspring in this country. any coincidence? >> i don't know coincidence. (laughter) >> i mean, clearly, everything that the president does from this point on affects the hispanic community is going to be seen in a political light. whether or not it is the right thing to do, which in a sense is-- >> the interesting question, whether or not the new york times and time magazine had any inkling that the president would be doing this and wanted to get ahead of the story or get credit for-- >> no, you don't think they would have reported it if they had an inkling. >> as a matter of fact, i'm pretty sure they wouldn't have reported it, they wanted the scoop and didn't want to blow up their own story. if they get a wink from their friend eric holder or axle rod

or the administration does something good, they want to be a part of it. >> they wanted the story. >> they've got the story and now credit for impact. they can say we're moving the needle. >> as a former spokesman who used to brief reporters, i can tell you unequivocally, someone briefed times and new york times to say this announcement is coming, if you can hold it to a certain time, we'll give you access, that's how it works, and in this case, how it happens. >> that's the inside view, as the media acting as apologistiapologists for mr. obama's foreign policy. >> nuclear threats from iran, civil war in syria, pandering to pakistan. chilled relations with russia. president obama's foreign policies causing concerns around the world. are the media making excuses for his failures? >> i would say in a hundred years this country will be mormon. it's a stupid religion and a stupid country, they were made

for each other. >> is he a comedian, a political pundant or an anti-american bigot? bill maher strikes again. is it time for h.b.o. to pull the plug? all next on news watch. [ boy ] come on. ♪ wait. ♪ happy father's day. ♪ happy father's day. chances are, you're not made of money,

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>> this week, u.n. fishes officials-- officials and our secretary of state says that syria is closer to an allout civil war and that would trigger the geneva convention on conducting civil war and time magazine, u.s. officials revealed the time the obama administration has been providing media technology training and support to the syrian dissidents. is this another high level leak, rick, do you think? >> let's hope not. certainly, there's a pattern of leaks from this administration, now, it started early on in the administration, i hope it's

not. i hope it's just individuals trying to push positive stories about the administration and may be going too far and now, they're going to dial that back. there needs to be a longer take on someone who was dealing with intel and talking to reporters all the time. it's a very touchy situation, you've got to remember what's intel and especially if you're the guy who is supposed to be pushing positive stories and making sure that your boss looks good, it's a difficult road and hoping it wasn't a plan. >> what about this whole flap over the attack helicopters. secretary of state clinton said that russia was sending attack helicopters to syria and turns out apparently they were syria's own helicopters that had been refurbished and sent back to syria. did it get the kind of coverage that it deserved? >> i don't think that foreign policy generally gets the coverage it deserves. you can have theories why it is. part of it is because i think

americans aren't interested in it generally and add in the fact that the economy is doing bad and they're much more interested in what's going on here. so, i don't think it's unusual for them to not pay attention to even extremely important stories going on and i don't think there's any bias of liberal or conservatives, i think it's just an american bias. >> reporters are finally in syria, right, judy. why would the assad regime let them come in? >> they've not only let the reporters in, they're letting the united nations observers go to the areas where there have been massacres, and they're almost showing them the handy work of these terrible militias that are aligned with the administration. almost as if they're daring the world's community to do something about it. i think that the syrian regime has concluded that the world is not going to do anything about it and this is where you really yearn for something other than what the new yorker called obama's leading from

behind policy. i mean, as people are being slaughtered, one wants more. >> the syrians, probably wouldn't be doing as well as they are without help from iran. the obama administration has announced with great fanfare, the sanctions on iran. are they working? >> it's absolutely clear sanctions are not working. they didn't work in the bush administration, they're not working now. and i think this is a terrible situation for the media, who keeps buying this argument that sanctions are working, and if oil sanctions worked, we would see it in two months. the nation would be crippled and cause iran to stumble quickly. >> oh, i think there's a different way of working and what i think the-- one of the goals of the sanctions at this point is to separate the sunni business class from the regime so that they lose their base. that may be a longer term strategy and the problem is people are being killed in the short-term. >> jim, the economy, the

number one issue for the elections in 2012, europe, obviously, coming into play. do you think the media are making the connection for voters between what's going on in europe and this country? >> i think they're covering the euro thing pretty heavily, i think that's getting a lot-- and what is astonishing to me, the dog that didn't bark, the egyptian semi coup and the egypt's old guard, if that's not a snooze headline, nobody has any idea. and the fact that they overturned the civilian government and that would be news to me, but i think the problem media, a, realized nobody cares and they also don't want to force the obama administration into doing something about it ab we've got enough to chew on. >> and goes against their narrative, change is coming and wasn't supposed to happen and-- >> iran clearly loved it, using the time. >> and the president invited

mubarak to get out of office, too. we have more news watch ahead, but if you see something that you feel shows evidence of media bias, e-mail us and please watch at foxnews.com, up next, bill maher strikes again. . >> liberal mig mouth bill maher slams mormonism and our nation. >> it's a stupid religion and a stupid country. this is the guy that cnn lets sub host in prime time? and h.b.o. paints a positive portrait of bush 41, but our cloud is not soft and fluffy. our cloud is made of bedrock. concrete. and steel. our cloud is the smartest brains combating the latest security threats. it spans oceans, stretches continents. and is scalable as far as the mind can see. our cloud is the cloud other clouds look up to.

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>> would it be better if the country got over the notion of american exceptionalism? oh, i think it would. this is, by the way, this is

one of the reasons why, and people laugh at me, i say in a hundred years this country will be mormon. it's a stupid religion and a stupid country, and they were made for each other and-- and i tell you, one of the things americans are going to love about mormonism when they find out about it, first of all, jesus is an american, jesus is an american in mormonism and they love the idea that mormons embrace more than anybody that we are the super-duper star spangled best country ever and if we had any flaw, it's that we make other countries feel bad because our awesomeness is so overwhelming. >> that's bill maher explaining his disdain for american exceptionalism and stupid and mormonism in the process-- h.b.o. gives him that show, i guess freedom of speech allows him to say all that, why give him the platform? >> maybe money. look it, it's telling there's an audience for it, too, at

least, however many people in that live audience in l.a. are crapping for him. look, this is, to think that his words kind of speak for themselves, but it does say something about where you can make a living in this country. >> jon: rick, what if you replaced america, say, with iran in that little diatribe and you started trashing islam, for instance, in that bit? >> you would have the entire liberal media establish. coming down on you, it's i can he's making the statements in los angeles not in cairo or at the united nations, to suggest that the united states is just one of 193 other countries is ludicrous. and it is the idea that americans are not exceptional, which i think will become a huge political issue this year and i think that bill maher is going to be on the losing end of that. >> he bought a piece of the new york mets and the new york times did a glowing story

about the purchase. and rush limbaugh tried to buy i think a piece of the rams and got hammered and basically told by the nfl he couldn't do it, why? >> the whole new york times piece was dilutional, actually, it described a person that does not exist. there's a description of bill maher that has no connection to reality, including, atheism, a part of the theme and he's a libertarian? he's an obama supporter, a liberal. i thought maybe they meant lieb lieb liebertine, but he says the most vile things and the idea that he would get a glowing profile is disturbing. >> jon: we have to take one more back. more back. h. [ male announcer ] introducing a powerful weapon

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>>. what was it like to see your son elected president? >> very moeshl for me, first time in the history of our country except for a dames. it was enormous. it was a source of great pride for the family. >> jon: hbo's documentary 41 debuted, 100 minutes of respectful biography, making no news but offering no fresh insneith the the life of george

h.w. bush who celebrated his birthday this week. the film producer of ocean's 11 and bush family friend is described as fond and friendly except the parted where he talked about the press. >> i know i am going to sound like am bashing the press but there was ui nap minute that i should loose and that makes a difference. >> jon: hbo received mostly positive reaction with fairness of bush 41, not so much for bush 43. also this week it was revealed that the hbo hit series game of thrones used a bust of george w. bush in a scene with decapitated heads. why? prourgs said they needed a head and that was just lying around. and prourgs of the series apologized saying the head was not