about to take. because in our hearts we know it's wrong to pass this debt on to our kids and our grandkids, now we have to be willing, truly willing to make this problem right. the reelected speaker of the house, john boehner, addressing the new 113th congress on thursday, part after very busy week on capitol hill for lawmakers and the media. first came the hoopla over a done deal to avert the fiscal cliff and then some outrage over a vote that didn't happen. >> disaster relief was something you didn't play games with. but now in this current atmosphere, everything is the subject one upsmanship and for the political game. and it's just, it's why the american people hate congress. it's why they hate them. >> that was new jersey's governor chris christie, one of a few republicans who criticized the fact that john boehner's republican-led house

of representatives refused to hold a vote on a senate approved bill to spend 60 billion dollars on hurricane relief. now, they did approve a smaller chunk on friday. 9.7 billion dollars and they are promising to hold more votes, but here is how the media jumped on this. newark star, christy rips g.o.p. on sandy bill delay, cnn called it a bombshell. is that too much drama, jim? >> well, i mean, it works for christie, doesn't it? the governor of new jersey has now set himself up as a sort of triangulated figure looking down with mostly scorn at both the democrats and the republicans and in terms of the middle of the country, which feels very anti-congress and is sort of worried about the country's direction as a whole and not all that keen on president obama either, it's a pretty good position to be in.

>> jon: he does have to rin for reelection. the decision to delay the vote to make sure that the money was being well-spent, i know bill crystal defended it in the weekly standard, anybody else? >> oh, no, i think it's indefensible. if we're going to start talking about well-spent money you might as well shut down the entire congress. come on, this was clearly a political move. there was a response to a political move that was genuine, not only by chris christie, but by pete king, who said the same thing, disaster money should not be politicized and i think that was a theme that many americans agreed with. >> jon: i think the point, justin, that some of the critics of the bill were saying, the senate bill was that it wasn't all disaster relief. >> welsh let it go to the floor and the speaker should have done. he had an open vote on the fiscal cliff and members allowed to vote up or down and looks like he did the same thing here, pass it. >> jon: the mean seemed to be the g.o.p. was out of touch

and divided and maybe judy would agree. is that the way the headlines were casting this thing? >> well, politics were everywhere, from the headlines it was all politics. it wasn't substance. and if you look at the substance, this was political. you know, jim said that this works for governor christie, i think it only works for governor christie in new jersey because he's running for reelection. the campaign is in full swing. this was loaded with give aways, it wasn't just relief. >> jon: you know, the fact that eric cantor voted on the fiscal cliff deal, he was a no vote and john boehner voted for it, obviously, media were all over that as though there's there gigantic fracture. >> well, there was a gigantic fracture and it wasn't just the liberal media, it was eric rudolphson, speaking of erics, pointed out on red state that cantor had tweeted out before that he was going to vote for it. and then 24 hours later voted against it and ericson said,

look, it's not just a liberal conspiracy to call this confusion when in fact, eric rudol rudolph-- eric ericson talking, on this vote. >> and the g.o.p. in disarray, it wasn't what did or didn't get done in this fiscal cliff deal which was more can kicking. >> jon, i think that was the mean, if i can use jim's word. this is the political story that comes out of this debacle. there was only one column i saw that was really thoughtful by robert samuelson and real clear politics that said this is a failure of presidential leadership because the president wasn't talking at all about the fact that the country is spending more than it's taking in. >> it's a financial story, this is not a political story. no, it really was a financial story, this is about taxes. this is about budget. we should have had the financial reporters covering this. the political reporters, all

they did was talk about sparring and who is up and who is down. we got no news. the new york times coverage was atrocious, all coverage no finance. >> and we saw the schism coming with the hurricane sandy bill and we saw plan b fail and we saw the house vote where we saw the-- >> not all democrats voted the same way either. >> jon: we'll be talking about it more in couple of months, i'm sure of it it. next up in news watch, the media versus gun owners. >> here is a magazine for ammunition that carries 30 bullets. >> nbc's david gregory takes mainstream media arrogance to a new level, showing off a large capacity gun clip on air. and a new york newspaper publishes the names and addresses of gun owners is that their job? all next on news watch. [ loud party sounds ] hi, i'm ensure clear... clear, huh? i'm not juice or fancy water.

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>> i'm a man who follows the rule of law. we're not talking about the rule of law anymore, we're talking about endangering our citizens. these laws were written almost 30 years ago. 30 years ago we didn't have computers, we didn't have facebook, we didn't have social media and we certainly didn't have google maps. i think that's what really broke the camel's back on this request. >> jon: dennis sant, the clerk for putnam county, standing firm on his position to not release the names and addresses of residents in his county who have legal pistol permits. he's denying the request from a local newspaper, the journal news, a paper which published and put on its interactive website a map showing names and addresses and locations of permit owners in other counties. now, the action that that

paper pulled has gotten quite a bit of reaction. why did they do it, jim, first of all? is it their job or is it just to make some headlines? >> i think it's possible they could be liberal crusaders or completely served theirs purposes by making them famous and look these are unbelievably complicated issues because as mr. sant was saying the notion of public records changes enormously when it now translates into the worldwide web and social media and tweeting. these are things that every issue of who votes and who pays taxes and who has guns and who is mentally ill all going to have to be rethought through from one to the many instantly. >> jon: these are all people who have legal permits to have weapons. it's not a guns right debate, it's a privacy debate. do the media know the difference. >> i'm nervous if the palm springs paper prints the fact

that i don't own a gun and i'm putting myself in jeopardy, i need a gun permit so i show up my house is armed because there are people who now want to go target the houses of those who do not have guns. >> jon: and judy, your thoughts. >> i think the newspaper was right to do what it it did. it can be faulted on not providing the context, which is what pointer said it it needed was lacking, why were they doing this, what were they hoping to show, were they trying to show the number of school teachers who had guns, the number of ordinary citizens who had guns and it wasn't clear. what pointer was saying we need more information not less. you cannot argue something that's public information and a newspaper doesn't have the right to publish it. they do. >> jon: it's an interesting take. in 2008, a memphis newspaper published the names and zip codes, zip codes only of gun owners and two researchers then did a study, a follow-up on impact of what happened there. the results, they noted, crimes more likely to be affected by knowledge of gun

ownership, such as burglaries, increased more significantly after the data base was published in zip codes with fewer gun permits. is that surprising? >> well, i mean, going back if it's public record the paper has a right to look at it. this isn't a public record issue. this is about responsibility. and at the end of the day reminiscent of the european newspapers published the cartoons of muhammad and then surprised when he there was a public outcry and that's the heart of it. >> jon: speaking of public outcry, des moines register published a column donald call, madder than hell i'm he not going to take it anymore for ending gun violence. he proposes repealing the second amendment and suggested, quote, tying our esteemed republican leaders to the back of a chevy pickup truck and drag them around the parking lot until they saw the light on gun control. did you see any media outrage over that? >> i didn't and he also said in that piece, that if you

have a gun illegally, then they should experiment in fact charleston heston voted the cold dead hand and effectively say we'll murder all gun owners who don't register guns to his satisfaction. i'm astonished that was one of the most heinous pieces of journalism i've read in my lifetime let alone this fresh new year, where are the media gate keepers and this culture, imagine if rush limbaugh said that. >> jon: and then nbc's meet the press host david gregory gotten more than a little bit of attention over this. look. >> let's stipulate that you're right that armed guards may work and widen the argument out. here is a magazine for ammunition that carries 30 bullets. isn't it possible that if we got rid of these fwe replaced them and said we could only have a magazine that carried five bullets or ten bullets, isn't it just possible that we could reduce the carnage in a situation like-- >> i don't believe that's

going to make one difference. >> jon: and for the record, shout out to virginia tech with magazine using ten round clips, which is ten rounds, i should say, which is fairly standard. you have a problem with what gregory did. >> yeah, the hypocrisy in the media is too much. emily miller at washington times has done a good job pointing out david gregory is getting off, nobody, they're still investigating after three weeks even though he did this on live television, illegal what he did. she points to a guy, adam mekler, a u.s. vet who stumbled into the vfw with some ammunition in his backpack and ended up going to jail, having to give a plea bargain and register with the registry. >> jon: you think it's appropriate? >> i think it's appropriate, i'm much more angry about david gregory's softball interview of the president than holding up an empty magazine clip. >> it's illegal. >> and if you see something that shows evidence of media bias, tweet us.

fox news watch on twitter. which is getting more attention, the controversial film about the war on terror or the real war? >> you believe this story? osama bin laden? >> despite the controversy, a new film about the capture of bin laden getting big media attention. with the ongoing war in al-qaeda in afghanistan, not so much. why not lack of interest? details next on news watch.

>> right? the whole world's going to want to know this. >> ♪

>> part after trailer for the high tension and controversial film "zero dark thirty." a hollywood production about the war on terror and the killing of osama bin laden. the movie up for the golden globes best film and getting all kinds of media attention, but when it comes to the real war, not so much. pew research polled americans what they thought were the top news stories of the year, according to the poll the top stories of 2012 were the election, the tragic school shooting in newtown, superstorm sandy and gas and oil prices. war in afghanistan and u.s. counterterrorism efforts did not even make the top 15. judy, does that surprise you? >> it doesn't surprise me,

john, it depresses me enormously. this week, the new york times ran a piece that said that the president was getting a recommendation that we should have six to 20,000 troops left in afghanistan after the withdrawal of combat forces in 2014. that piece didn't make the front page. >> are americans losing interest because of the lack of media coverage or are the media not covering afghanistan because there's no interest. >> all i can say it reminds me of vietnam. and remember that in the early '70s and the public and policy makers lost enthusiasm and interest in the war long before the killing stopped and that's kind after tragedy that we're sending young men over to vietnam after the public had turned on to other things. i see the same thing happening again, it's very unfortunate and it's certainly a sobering remi reminder to those who

advocate. >> it started with the 9/11 attack, and this is our response to it. can the media afford to lose interest. >> absolutely not. and the disconnect is the fact that so many are introduced to john allen via sex scandal and not the more distressing information coming out such as continuing insider attacks and what not j rick? >> yeah, you've got issues like iraq starting to implode and moving towards iran, relations with iran and syria 60,000 people dead. we have a media, again, that's all political and not substance. >> jon: up next, on news watch, al gore's new pact with al-jazeera. altima is a better car than camry. to argue would be rude. nissan altima. with moving-object detection. lease now. just $199 per month. visit choosenissan.com. road and track called sentra an economy car minus the look and feel of an economy car.

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it's real news, you may not agree with it but you feel like you are getting real news around the clock instead of a million commercials and arguments between talking heads and the type of stuff we do that is not informative plus foreigners. >> jon: sharing her view of al-jazeera. that network referred to as the terrorist network by some critic. this week, al-jazeera made a deal with al gore and his partners to buy their current tv. it's their far left cable channel that not too many people

global warming, judy, sells his tv network for a tiny profit to an oil producing country. did anybody in the note the irony there? >> fox news noted. i think it's just marvelous that al gore has managed to take a station that nobody watched and turn it into a cash cow for himself. he has made a hundred million dollars. al-jazeera is very good when it comes to middle eastern news unlike american news stations but al-jazeera they are not very good by looking at corruption in their own country. >> jon: the corruption of former vice president for selling network for way beyond its value to a foreign oil power.

brian from the "new york times" said global warming guru al gore and hypocrite. it's so potent if the media were doing their job they would be taking it apart. >> jon: they say it will be -- they have dropped it from the line-up. >> a lot of americans don't really see that. al-jazeera when they saw in the eyes of the american public, but that was during the arab spring. >> jon: here a quote. at glenn beck tried to buy current tv he was rebuffed because the legacy of who the network goes to is important to us, meaning al gore and company and we are sensitive to networks not aligned with our point of

view. so how does al-jazeera fit in there? >> it's the same thing with sale of newsweek. outlets are trying to make it. i come from the standpoint that all media is biased and you have to deal with that and try to balance it out. i think al-jazeera is doing a better job today and you do get great foreign news. >> jon: and by closing this deal he doesn't have to pay such high capital gains taxes because he got it in before the fiscal cliff deal. that is interesting. that is wrap on news watch this week. thanks to our panel. i'm jon scott. we'll see you again next week. i gave you an order. >> he is not listening. >> john: had is on you are future. >> we can build machines much

smarter than our brains. >> but we have a sea a knew media to capture it. >> you the public will have five days online to find out what is in it. >> they are hiding that don't want us to see. what if you are hiding things. >> it isn't a sign they are doing something wrong. >> the founder of wikipedia joins us. >> it works because the more the mechanisms work the less we would need government. >> john: the future doesn't have to be scary. >> let's call it freedom 2.0. that is our show tonight. >> will increase. john: that's our show. ♪

>> john: what keeps you safe? what prevents fraud? most people you ask. government. government must lay out the rules and punish fraud. protect people. so government regulates. over the years as more regulations and america we now have 170,000 pages of rules. people think we can't live without these, but then came the internet. almost entirely unregulated, and it works. it is given us a new level of freedom. let's call it freedom -- "freedom 2.0". i could not have imagined it before coble, would compete. i assume the services like those could not work. what a joke. who would buy an unseen product from a total stranger without government regulation, it would make sure that the sellers are honest and a product for the.