>> howard kurtz coming up right now. on a buzz beater, barack obama finishes a very tough year, battered by negative headlines and sinking polls, hammered by a media that once gave him sympathetic coverage. >> when you take this altogether, has this been the worst year of your presidency? >> is the press now piling on the president or giving him the kind of tough strutny he should have gotten all along? a&e back down and reverses phil robertson's suspension from duck dynasty. what's behind this embarrassing cave-in? >> the twitter universe erupts over racially incentive tweets by steve martin.

what they said was dumb, but is online anger spending out of control? plus, it's a website for political junkys that delivers plenty of inside the beltway chatter, but does it promote speedy and superficial coverage? we take our cameras inside politico. i'm howard kurtz and this is media buzz. president obama is enjoying a sunny respite in hawaii along with some of the reporter who cover him. that tone was clearly on display at his year-end news conference. >> you may not want to call it the worst year of your presidency, but it's clearly been a tough year. and the polls have gone up and down, but they are at a low point right now. >> how do you expect americans to have confidence and certainty in this law if you keep changing it? >> i'd like to ask you what your

reaction was to the nonpartisan truth telling group, politifact, when it said that the lie of the year was your statement if you like your health care plan, you can keep it. >> was the press simply holding the president accountable for a lousy year? joining us now, laura ashburn. judy miller, fox news contributor and kirsten powers. lauren, i thought the media were having this wonderful romance with barack obama. what happened? >> i think despite what many people think, the bloom is off the rose. he's been hammered on health care. he's been slapped over the sluggish economy. he's been add mon initialled about access issues. >> and judy, you've been through legal wars as a journalist. was the disclosure of the

administration's surveillance of ap and fox news journalists maybe a turning point this year? >> i think it really was and it was long overdue. this love affair between barack obama and the mainstream media, it took something like the associated press, the sustained war on the media to turn the media around and say what's going on here? we have eight government officials or contractors either in jail or under investigation. that is more than all administrations put together. so they finally woke up. >> is it also now a piling oefk that perhaps some journalists try to overcompensate for what might be seen as earlier coverage? >> i don't -- i mean, do we really think journalists do that? i don't think people -- you do? you see, because i feel like it's been a long time coming, let's face it. >> i think sometimes they do makeup calls. >> like in the fifth year?

>> that's not happening. >> i feel like this is -- if they're going to overcompensate, they could have done it in year two or three or something. now it just seems that the news is clearly -- i mean, i think you astutely picked out a turning point where people started to say this is too much. and you can't tell us you're so transparent and different and you're spying on -- you basically feel like you're spying on the media. >> we strive to by ataught tas this program. the administration's role over oh bam incare this year was a disaster. >>. >> disastrous on many different levels. he even had at this point clarence paige from the "chicago tribune" turning on him who is his biggest advocate saying, well, he probably lied but it's a political lie and sometimes that kind of stuff happens and the liberal media, huffington post, went after him on the botched rollout, as well. >> it's happening this morning. politico has a piece saying

obamacare has a flood of good stories. >> and adam peterson's life is about to change, one of the many millions of americans lives changing because of the oh b obamacare act. >> we should have that happening. it's part of the story. >> people who lost their coverage, having to get more expensive coverage, it's not like the media going to forget about that. >> no. but nor have they ignored it. this was a huge focus, but latedly sure, but at long last a legitimate focus on an issue that need attention. >> but is the idea that obamacare is getting better, even though it has millions of people who had no coverage at all are able to sign up. is that going to be a tough sell for, you know, hard bit media types? >> i think over time if obama

care starts to work properly, people get their health coverage, that stops being a story. >> or just fades into the background? >> well, what i'm saying is they've already lost their insurance, right? so unless there's another group of people who loses their insurance, that story will recede because it's eventually old news and the new news is the people who are getting insurance and who are benefiting from oh bam incare. >> i think it's going to be harder at that point for people who -- we often talk on this program about add and the media have a very hard time focusing on one things. now you have to stories of people who are going to say i'm so happy, this is so great, and the rabl rousers aren't going to get as much attention. >> and i don't mean to suggest that journalists ask because

they're happy or sad at the administration they're covering. but there are serious tensions now between the white house, jay carney and reporters. >> i think there always are tensions, but it has exploded in this year, 2013. you have the white house press filing formal complaints for using their own internal photo journalist. but he's not a member of the press. but sometimes what's happening is the news media isn't even invited to certain events and the white house are bringing people in to have one-on-one interviews with white house people and not even telling the press, which is outrageous. >> but this is what was going on in the first administration. i don't know why it didn't come up before he was re-elected. there was a politico story, i think a year ago, about they called it the puppet master. it was all about these things, this whose tv where it's very

orwellian. they hadn't met with a "new york times" beat reporter in a year. that's unacceptable. >> and president obama takes very few questions about these photo-ops. he took 107 in his first term compared to president george w. bush 354 in his first term and that's a vital way of getting the president on the record in day-to-day news coverage. absolutely. and it hasn't happened. if we go back to the foe tol to go fers again, because in our culture, so much is the presentation, the picture. when you're invited as a white house photographer twice in a year into the oval office and both times you're taking a picture of the president on the phone, really scintillating photography, you've got a problem there. his new year's resolution is ooeg he's going to reach out more to the press. i'm not sure they're going to like that, either. >> but in the beginning, he was

overexposed. but he was not reaching out to the white house press, as you say, but it was "people" magazine, all these different spreads. >> and he continues to do leno and the view and espn. he had steve harvey in. he said look, the president gives three or four times as many interviews as george w. bush or bill clinton. >> but many of them are softball interviews. >> let me get a break here. send me a tweet about our show. when we come back, steve martin keeps apologizing for bad twitter jokes about a racially incentive tweet cost a top media executive her job. has online harassment gone too far?

no matter who you are, it seems you're one twitter comment away from ruining your career. even with comedy writer steve martin. how do you spell lasonia? depend on whethre you're at. this fold an explosion when justine saccho. going to africa. hope i don't get aids, just kidding, i'm white. sacho took all kinds of abuse and when she landed, she was fired. she apologized profusely but it was too late. what is it about the twitter culture that when people make a mistake they just get beat up? >> i wish it were the twitter culture. but that's the problem. there's been a decline of civility in our culture. when you have martin bashir say what he says about sarah palin,

when you have alec baldwin on and on and on to miley cyrus. we are no longer sensitive to the opinions of others and, of course, twitter is the forum where that's most obvious. >> it was very important to work miley cyrus into this segment. >> steve martin writes, it continued on to spread and i couldn't get out of hell. >> first of all, twitter is a weirdly humorless place. i don't know if anyone has ever tried sarcasm or irony. don't do it. don't try it. they're completely lost. i think these two tweets are completely different. steve martin was making a joke, i guess, you know, thinking that it sounded like lasagna. it's best not to do anything racial. >> that's a rule of life. >> but it was 70 degrees in d.c. in december, i tweeted, boy, now

i am pro global warming. i got attacked for that. but even the misquote i referred to, steve martin said once i left the headline racist tweet so it continues to haunt you. >> that's a problem online is that we're moving so fast online. and you put up a story quickly and you realized, oh, boy, i need to correct this story. you throw a correction at the bottom of the story online and that's what you can do as a reporter. but the editor never gets in there to make the change to the headline. and the second point about this is i think that apologies really don't matter any more. martin bashir apologized. that was an extreme case. but it doesn't matter when you say, oh, my gosh, i really made a mistake. sometimes for the wrong reasons. >> justine sacco wrote letter that she was ashamed for the

pain she caused. she said it was stupid and offensive, but then she was practically burned at the stake while she was on a plane unable to respond. >> yeah. she was ready, waiting for the plane to land. has it landed yet. >> i haven't gotten a satisfactory explanation for what the joke was and what -- i mean -- >> it made no sense. >> it didn't make sense and it seemed very insensitive and you have to wonder do you want somebody to be your spokesperson if they're going to do things like this. >> you have tens of thousands of people using this #hasjustinelandedyet. and it seems like it was virtually a forum over a woman who virtually no one had heard of before. >> part of it is there is a competition to be short, to be fast, to be witty. so if you put all of those things together, it's an explosion.

and it leads to pushing the envelope to people in a way they normally wouldn't do. >> on that point, jeff of forbes magazine, who knew justine sacco, he said that she had noticed in a lunch he had with her that people seemed to like tweets that are riskque or outrageous. >> everybody is. everybody wants to increase their twitter followers. in order to do that, you need to be edgy. and then it's group think that happens. everybody thinks, well, if this piled on who is my friend and if this person piled on who i respect, then it's okay for me to pile on. >> do you buy judy's analysis? isn't there something about twitter with a lightning speed and sometimes people don't use their real names, they have these stupid handles that encourages the viciousness? >> you see, i tend to think people have always been there

way and now an outlet for it. >> it just brings -- yeah. you didn't used to have a situation where somebody could get out and mouth off and just say something, right? and for some reason, they don't think there's going be any kind of blow back. i don't know why. justine sacco may not be a public person in the sense that she's not a celebrity, but she is a representative of a company. >> she had an important job. >> yeah. >> who at this table -- who at this table spends a lot of time reading their twitter comments, what people say about them? >> forget it. i don't any more. you all made a decision not to do it. >> i used to when i had viewer followers and i felt like i had more of a relationship. and now it's become toxic. it is very toxic. >> especially for women. >> especially for women because it's all derogatory comments, not just about the substance of what you're saying, but about your looks. there are death threats, there

are people saying, oh, you're incompetent. why read all of that stuff? >> i'll be checking my twitter after all of this segment and we'll see what you have to say. after the break, a&e decides, hey, you know what? there's no need to suspend phil robertsson from duck dynasty after all. what's behind that sigz in a money. >> it's through him a pray, amen. [ grunts softly ]

[ ding ] i sense you've overpacked, your stomach. try pepto to-go. it's pepto-bismol that fits in your pocket. relief can be yours, but your peanuts... are mine. ♪ after less than two weeks from suspending the star of a&e's duck dynasty, they brought phil robertson back to the franchise without him missing a single show. joining us now, david, how does a&e look adjusting this

suspension and let me do the math here. so that it involved zero days? >> that was very good. i was going to give you the real dates. i had done it. >> so how does a&e look? >> i think a&e looks horrible. i don't think a&e cares. this is one of those howie if you've covered the media for a long time, you've go the come to understand the answer to almost every question is money. this is money, money and more money. you think what? you think about it, the robertsons actually have a business and they continue with duck calls. a&e has no business without them. they are their business. they had the leverage. >> you say it's only about money, but when phil robertson gave that "gq" interview and say what he said about gays and african-americans and making references to beastlty and those other comments came out about gays are arrogant god haters --

>> yes. a&e put out a strong statement saying not only was he being put on hiatus, but this was not in accordance of its network values. what happens to those values? >> i think this is the difference of somebody from washington and somebody from baltimore. i didn't think that was a strong statement. i thought that was a sort of laundered lawyered pr best pr you can buy kind of statement. .that's what really made me mad about this when they took him off suspension after -- with no consequences when they stressed inclusivity, tolerance, forgiveness and said to show our commitment, we're going to make psas. >> you can't ask more than that. in the latest statement, a&e says phil robertson and his family regret the misinterpretation of his core belief. i couldn't find anything in his statements or a sermon that he gave a few date days later where he regretted anything.

some people agree with what phil robertson said, some don't agree. i thought the language was unnecessarily inflammatory. i didn't think he necessarily needed to be suspended. i think a&e would have been happier had phil robertson said he was sorry. >> no, in fact, the family put on a statement last weekend saying we do not see how we can move forward without the great patriarch. they didn't say great. that's me. but that is a shot across the bow to a&e number one. and then he said in that church last sunday in louisiana i'm not backing down an inch. well, that's defiance. a&e rolled over instantly. >> well, you know, let me circle back to your earlier answer that when you get into these, it's all about money. there is no question there is a lot of money at stake here. merchandise and everything else. i guess a&e deserves credit for creating this show. people say they don't care about the beliefs of christians. but when you hire phil robertson, you probably know he's a controversial guy who is

going to say controversial things. a&e could have just put out a statement saying we deeply deplore him wrb blah, blah, blah, so when i go there, kick the guy off the show and then melt like a puddle? >> well, look, in terms of corporate pr, not the best move. >> certainly understated this morning. not the best move? it was an idiotic move. i'm usually the one that tries to dial you down. >> no, it's absolutely true. i think they were struck by the immediate blowback to his language in "gq" and how bad it was. when you coupled the statements about african-americans, howie, look, this is really ignorant talk by this man. this is right up there. you're this far from hate speech by this man. >> but a lot of people think he is a christian who believes in the bible and the bible says

homosexuality is a sin. the blowback stands coupled with politicians like sarah palin and ted cruz piling on made the -- think the franchise must be threatened here, correct? >> oh, absolutely. they didn't call it a suspension. they said it was a hiatus. so that is part of it. they could control the suspension and they wanted to somehow react to what came back at him. i think honestly, a&e is not stupid, people who run net woeshgs are not stupid. they knew this was a larger cultural issue. they knew that people who felt as if same-sex marriage was gaining too fast saw this guy as a champion. once you got that plugged in, it's also about masculinity. a&e handled it horribly. i hate what they did last friday. >> just wait to see the ratings

when the show comes back. up next, has politico boosted the metabolism of washington journalism or made it an inside ir's game?

>> and now to the "politico" news room, welcome "politico" is synonymous with the instant reaction. are you trying to change that? >> we are trying to expand the menu of our coverage and the menu of what people think of for

political to which is what we were good at. next month, howard, is our 7th anniversary from day one there was a certain story we did well and the stories put us on the map. >> you were criticized for being too fast or too superficial. >> i did not take that seriously. we are certainly fast and accurate. >> how important is speed in twitter age when you drive success by cable news. how important is speed? >> it is important but in a way less important than it was seven years ago. when we launched seven years ago, largely at the leadership level, people who grew up in an early era of media coming from the big name newspapers that is how we set ourselves apart for faster and fleeter, they were organized around 24-hour news cycle.

everyone had a website but the print is what organized their thinking, dominating the rhythms of the day and we decided to come in with a more digital focus and speed was important. there is no such thing as an old media organization and new media organization. everyone is digital. everyone is new media. >> now you have started "politico" magazine. >> ever the faster blogger is not fast are than twitter, right? >> twitter is hyper speed. >> you have to do more, be moisture creative and more enterprising and more original. >> now you started "politico" and bringing in a foreign policy magazine writer for the "washington post". >> what i want to do and i pressure myself, are we setting the agenda with audience or, overlapping audiences, that are important to us in if we set the agenda with kind of a quick hit

news story, i would say that is great. but if we doing it in a policy recommend, "politico" is the biggest policy newsroom or among the biggest policy newsroom if we do it in energy technology, health care, we are succeeding. another way of succeeding, to me, as a journalist that is attractive way to ice succeed is the deep enterprise story that could not be done as a quick hit taking weeks of reporting and in some cases weeks of writing and editing to get it right. and when it is right everyone reads the story and will tack about story and it will be driving the conversation. that is what i mean. >> for example, "politico" had a piece by hoover institution fellow who said white house records showed no meeting between president obama and sebelius for three years and the white house said a lot of meetings were not in the records and maybe you went too fast on that. >> no, i don't think so. we had accurate opinion piece,

by the way, not done by one of our "politico" reporters, but it was label as such, and that opinion writer looked at the public record and tried to draw some conclusions from it. the white house had a push back on't think i the piece was, in some way, not something that we stand behind. >> "politico" has capital new york under your colleague jim, and adding staff. how do you become a player if a competitive media market like new york. >> you look at the history, precisely that question was asked about "politico" 15 years ago. and a last people cover politics we do think there is a niche and we aim to do something that our competitors at the moment are not doing which is speaking directly to high per -- hyperand but engaged audience, and a fast

and immediate level. in albany, around new york city hall, in the media world, we and have been at this a couple of months we feel there is intense demand if political-style coverage. >> "politico" does manhattan. now, a white house aide was recorded the last person he talked to was mike allen and the first person he smoke to each morning is michael be and the rap is a last the item are spoon-fed by mike friend office or the white house. >> playbook is mike's world. that is why it is fascinating. that is why it bam is addictive to people. mike has and he has been a colleague of yours and mine from our "washington post" days, and i knew him along before that, we were together as young reporters in richmond, from the remainliest days mike has this

incredible ability since he was a news lover aggregateor. >> from whom? >> he has keen idea of what people will like. mike's world and what people are feeding him, the kind of arguments that are being played out in playbook make it indefensible. what is key is this is no ideological tilt to that. mike has great relationships all over town. people on the right will funnel things through mike. >> not just -- "funnel" that is an interesting. >> unfiltered. >> funnel sounds like you are a conduit. >> people know mike because he has relationships. he is famous for only sleeping a couple of hours a night. he is always out. >> i want to ask you --. >> it is filtered through mike's

sensibility of what is important and, what is more, and we say on occasion, mike has a toughness to him, a toughness, probably one of the most important journalism stories in recent years was broken by mike allen, remember, the "washington post" salon dinner, that is a mike allen story. he is well liked. >> you mentioned "washington post" the play week ruins things involveing their advertisers. fair or unfair? >> totally unfair. when mike allen started playbook it was a few hundred people. that figure grew to a few thousand pause word got out, this is fascinating. now, it is a00,000 people -- 100,000 people or more. >> but you have sponsors? >> we never had sponsors. >> you do now? >> it is something that is highly coveted by advertisers so

its sponsored but in tone, in substance, in the type of items who is in and who is identity, that has never changed a lick in seven years. the idea and it want an argument that i read but more of a suggestion and innuendo and unfair way, that the product is west the of most transparent products in the city. everyone can read it and take a guess why this is in there and why it is not. who had mike lunch with and on and on. i feel very stingily and i can say this about mike, i have then him for 23 of the 27 years he has been in the news business. some people like playbook and some don't but no one has ever in the 27 years, not once, not ever, questioned his journey police tick -- journey police

tick equityics -- journalistic ethics. >> why there is a full time reporter assigned to...hillary

a bit more now with john harris. >> barack obama has had a terrible year in the media. is it piling on?

is the press which was famously seen as having been in love with this press given the benefit of the doubt? >> you know, i'm curious of your view on this. you've been watching the washington media longer than i have. i happen to think that's one of the less attractive aspects of politico. >> we kick them when they're down? >> we kick them when they're down and we celebrate them when they're up based on the quality of the political performance, like oh, so-and-so is riding high in the polls. to be favorable, somebody is down in the polls, their coverage is weak. there's definitely an exaggeration. so somebody is never as high up as they are seen when things are going well, they're usually never down, as low when things are going their way. >> you have a reporter assigned to hillary clinton. so do other media organizations. why does the media insist on everything about her three years before the election? >> i think herr own actions really dictate that we have to be treating her at not a

presidential candidate, but somebody who is a likely presidential today. and who is clearly on a trajectory to becoming a presidential candidate and is taking active affirmative steps towards that. >> so you're not going to admit to any hillary object session? aren't peel interesting in hillary? >> people are interested in a lot of political persons. i don't even actually hear that so much from the crowd. they used to say, hey, will you guys in the press stop hyperventilating, take a break, let her rest? that's kind of a ridiculous assertion now when she's making statements on issues of the day, she's informally assembling a team and taking all the steps that somebody would need to do. i don't think there's a -- could be any sort of -- that she's just relaxing trying to get caught up on her reading and so forth and 2016 is the furthest

thing from hurry mind. we know that's not the case. we're going to cover her appropriately. >> i was going to say i guess i should say why do you own have one reporter covering hillary? >> i think think about five. the simple act of typing your name into a search box. that's next in our digital download.

time now for our digital download. >> when you are looking for

information on public figures, some of what you can get is untrue. >> when you type in president obama, you get obama is gay, an idiot. >> and we've got ted cruz here. is a moror, an idiot, is crazy, is canadian. cruz is heckled during speech. >> forgive me, i find this creepy, scary, unsettling and technology out of control. >> where have you been? it's been going on for forever. >> politico magazine had a good piece about this and showing when people type names. .it's not just politicians. kim kardashian, ugly, a ho, pregnant, stupid. >> did it say that? >> let's talk about leading the witness. i understand this reflects what? what people are looking for. >> it also reflects location which i find interesting. if you are here in washington, d.c., you type in something, it will be different than what you type in in iowa. it also is freshness. there is a big new term that's popping on the net.

then it becomes that. google can't even predict these algorithms. they don't know what will happen with them. as a result, they have put restrictions on hate speech. >> how far should we go in restrict freeing speech? if something something factual lynn accurate, if you want to say some one ugly, that's free speech. if somebody is muslim, gay, shut off this auto complete thing. >> they do. jews are, muslims are, lesbians are. most sex terms lead to porn. there is a new ad campaign that launched in november. can't put in women shouldn't and women need to because the answer comes back sexist. >> i noticed as we researched this, there is a lot of stuff women, search for meg kelly. meg kelly is hot. things about different body

parts. that has to be trouble. >> especially for women. >> this is a can of worms. stop. >> this is what people searching for and there's no harm in everybody finding out about it. it is just some of it is just pretty coarse and unfair. >> you know what, there's a thing called remove buttons. >> there is? >> yes. there is a remove button. you can get rid of auto complete if you want to. it makes everything faster. >> searching for before. how many people know there is a remove button? >> i just told you. now a lot more. maybe a million more know. the other thing is that google doesn't just do this. this is not the only search engine that does it. there are others. >> yahoo and facebook. we can press the remove button on this. still to come, ed snowden takes on his critics again. this is the quicksilver cash back card from capital one.

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here are a of your top tweetsz. tweets. keeping the second-terp curse na'iftive live. i think the media is straight-on about our trouble this year.

the duct dynasty suspension ending before it began. why? because the right wing raised a fit and they are the main audience of the show. that's an easy answer. money, money, money. for that network that trumps values any day. nsa leaker ed snowden told "the washington post" during an interview in russia his mission has been accomplished because he, quote, wanted to give sosa chance to determine if it should change itself. in an unusual move, channel 4 allowed snowden listed an alternative christmas message. >> together we can find a better balance. end manned surveillance and remind the government that if it really wants to know how we feel, ask is always cheaper than spying. a child born today will grow up with month conception of privacy at all. >> snowden remains a fugitive from american justice. unlike most anonymous sources he outed himself to make his case

against government surveillance. john miller, who did that "60 minutes" piece on the nsa, law enforcement and journalists, i lost rack. he has become the new york city police commissioner and joining bill bradley and said they would happily take miller back again in the future. in fact, miller will soon make his first appearance shortly on cbs as an nypd official. revolving doors making my head spin. finally, cnnp's reporter piers morgan, facing a cricket team. >> ouch. the outcome for the british amateur, one cracked wrist and a bruised rib. one crack {off-lin {off-line} will be happy about that. i don't know. his sister wrote in or tweeted

he was -- it was like watching a stoning and was painful. why would someone subject themselves to that? >> i will not make fun. it was clearly his fault. >> as a stunt to take on the australian cricket -- >> and we are playing it on television. >> you say he got what he wanted. >> competing network. yes, he got what he wanted out of. >> it get well soon. that's it for this edition of "media buzz." a happy and healthy new year to all of you. check out our facebook page and give us a line. we continue the conversation on twitter. look for our homepage where we post our material and video as well. we are back here next sunday morning at >> from george zimmerman's acquittal to prince george's birth 2013 was quite a year for the news headlines. this year we have seen an unprecedented level of partisan gridlock. we will talk about that coming

up with the year in review. but first it is december 30th. we begin with a fox news alert. at least 10 people dead in a bus bombing in russia one day after a train station explosion. the effort now underway to increase security. >> they dropped a benghazi bombshell. they packed out on who was involved in the attack and the motivation behind it, but is it the truth. >> you could be counting more than change on the next trip to the vending machine the obamacare rule forcing you to count calories and the crushing costs. fox and frien-- "fox & friends starts right now. ♪

>> we are kicking off the new beak and almost a brand new year. time's square will be full of people and we will be out there live. >> good morning happy monday. >> i am heather childers. >> i am ainsley earhardt. >> griet to be back with you. thank you for starting your day with "fox & friends first". we begin with a fox news alert. terror strikes again in russia. a bomb blast tearing through a bus killing at least 14 people. officials saying it was the work of a suicide bomber. vladimir putin calling for increased security in the region. it is the second terror attack in that city in two-days. yesterday a suicide bomber set off an explosion inside a packed train station