colitis. he'll get well. >> wonderful, doctors, to get this great advice. i feel like i could take my boards now, medical boards. >> i'm j.b. colby. thank you so much. >> i'm eric shawn. media buzz comes up with howard kurtz on the fox newschannel. from a newly discovered archive. should the media be diving back into the old clinton scandals? >> monica lewinsky scandal coming back to haunt him and his wife's likely 2016 presidential bid. what one of hillary clinton's closest friends wrote about some of her darkest hours. now public as the 2016 attacks get personal. another setback for obamacare as part of the employer mandate is pushed back again. is the press minimizing the magnitude of the law's problems? chris christie still getting pounded on the scandal front by

msnbc. even msnbc contributor david axelrod said some of the shows are pummeling the governor. one leading the charge, rachel maddow. >> using the bridge gate scandal to drum up some money for the party and to blame the whole thing on the news organizations who have covered the story. >> are some news outlets determined to bring christie down? plus from athletes trapped in bathrooms and elevators to a racist picture of president obama, has there ever been a stranger olympics? we'll have a report from sochi. >> i'm howard kurtz and this is "media buzz." i admit it's hard to resist a story with the phrase narcissistic loony-toon as

hillary clinton once described it. we'll examine the papers of the late diane blair. what's gotten the most media a stengs a description of ruthless and how blair describes hillary's views of her husband's sexual conduct with lewinsky. >> this is really something for people to look back at. the idea that hillary is ruthless is not news. >> republicans tend to reach back two decades if necessary, to fight old wars that has been settled for most people to tear down hillary clinton. >> get this, hillary clinton apparently didn't think too highly of monica lewinsky. wow. i guess she's toast for 2016. >> according to the journal, it was a lapse but she says, hillary says to his credit he tried to break it off, pull away, tried to manage someone who is clearly a narcissistic loony-toon but it was beyond control. it was gross, inappropriate behavior but it was consensual. was not a power relationship and

was not sex with any real meaning. stand up, lie down, oral, et cetera of the term. so is this news for 2016 or a narcissistic rehash by the media? joining us now lauren ashburn, contributor who writes a twitter column. amy holmes who anchors the hot list for the blaze and the correspondent for the daily beast. >> how newsworthy is this? >> let's give serious abounding applause to alana goodman who wrote the story who has given us a complete scoop here. these are documents that have been at the university of arkansas for four years and she's the only one who thought to do it. even though the mainstream media, including joe kline from time said it's nothing, it's really not a story. there have been many people who played it up as ruthless quoting diane blair, talking about hillary clinton. >> right. but does ruthless bother me, it wasn't blair's assessment. it was a 1992 democratic

strategy memo saying the voters perceived her at that time as ruthless. so hillary, monica -- >> also the words of hillary clinton that i think are fascinating when she says that the folks looking for her husband are not mean enough and tough enough and that we learn from these papers. hillary's apparent abounding contempt for quite a number of quarters of public life and politics including the media. but i want to get back to your point, which is that these documents were available for four years and not a single member of the mainstream media could bother them self-to go down to arkansas? when you contrast that to what the media did with sarah palin's e-mails, we had platoons going up to alaska for a countdown to find out she wanted to buy a tanning bed. >> then the documents an the reporting was deemed as not worthy because it came from a conservative site and the conservative site run by a former john mccain staffer. it became as if it was an

importance. >> while certainly there was a lot of insight to be mined from the papers, this was hillary's closest friend. what's been on every cable segment and website? it's been monica, hillary, bill, loony-toon. how much energy should the media put into this? >> this is as kind of overblown as it is predictable. this is the clintons. they can't pass gas without it making a huge, huge media blow-up. >> i think you you mean stink. >> okay. >> we'll double our puns. >> but a narcissistic loony-toon is a great phrase, it sounds fun, looks fun. although, most of the d.c. wives who have caught their husbands making time with other women have called the other women far worse than that. >> something we can't repeat on the air. >> i'm not sure this is an insight into hillary's meanness. >> there are other insights into hillary's views of women. for example, calling the women victims of sexual harassment as

whiners and why are they in her way while she's trying to pass hillary care. it should have gone past the monica, bill, hillary -- >> if we are talking about what made the big news, it wasn't narcissistic loony-toon. >> and ruthless. >> you think that was a mistake. you use the word overblown and overblown by the media because? >> because it's hillary. seriously, everything the clintons do, there's an incredible need to pick apart everything. >> scandal in the impeachment of the president of the united states. people wanted to rehash that. >> who wants to rehash it? >> in a sense that what is the dynamic of this marriage? hillary has always been described as being sort of inskrutable and complicated and to the extent that these papers gave insight into this obviously public and very trying time for this couple, i think it was interesting. >> this is a woman, arguably the most powerful woman in the world who is attempting or may be attempting to run for 2016.

all information is valid. if you look in there, there are some big discrepancies, not just about whiners, but about bosnia, so in the beginning she said she didn't think that we should go into bosnia because they've been fighting for 900 years. then publicly, she stated that yes, she did advocate early intervention. so there are inconsistencies here and there is a lens into who this woman is. >> everything is fair game when you are at least contemplating a run for president. it seems to me that at the same time and so this was a legitimate story, no question about it. some people were grudging in the credit, wouldn't mention the walk ton free beacon. what somebody says in a private conversation repeated and unearthed a decade later, is it fair to say they're lying publicly because they believe this privately. politicians don't say everything they think. >> let's ask. if hillary clinton does run for president, i think these are worthy questions to ask of potential presidential

candidates here. i would agree, though, that the press covered this with sort of a sense of tedious obligation. oh, here we go again, having to cover hillary clinton and the clinton soap opera instead of asking more pointed questions like for example when hillary clinton is reported to have kpored single payer even though publicly she said she hasn't. i think there's more to it than sex scandal. will they ask the questions, i have my doubts. >> tedious questions? >> do you think this is to protect clinton or because the country went through this spectacular scandal, saturation coverage for two years and the feeling that we already know most of this. except some of hillary's private musings. >> i think it's both. there is clinton fatigue, i also think there's a sense of obligation to protect hillary. >> what about bill clinton because he figures prominently

in these papers and there's a letter back to 1976 where he was setting something up with a woman whose name was not revealed. is it fair to excavate that for this reason? bill clinton could be back in the white house as the first man. >> i think rand paul would like to excavate that. >> he keeps bringing it up. >> i think that you are both making the biggest point here, which is there is stuff in there that's interesting, there is stuff in there that would have a big bearing on her fitness for office or her trustworthiness but none of that has to do with what she thought of monica lewinsky at this point. >> let's be fair here in that she can handle this, right? i think this is a woman who -- who can really just roll with this and it really -- if you're talking about whether or not it matters in the press, okay. maybe. but does it matter to her? very, very doubtful. >> but part of this is, she's in this weird limbo where everybody assumes that she's running or probably will most likely run and all the horse race coverage

basically assumes she's the democratic nominee. at the same time, things like this come out. because she's not a candidate right now, not in contact with journalists and doesn't have to respond. instead we have this industry where we debate it for her. >> if she does respond, we're going to attack her. people are going to attack her. what are we going to do? the poll numbers for her will go down as soon as she announces and as soon as she starts running. >> i think i'm going to quarrel with your use of the word tedious. if it's tedious, there's a lot of it. it seems like the media in a search for ratings and clicks are more happy to talk about this than the debt ceiling fight in washington this week or john boehner rolled over with mostly democratic votes avoided another government shutdown or danced around it. this is a lot more fun, it seems to me, for the press. >> it's more fun but did not attract the type of attention that, say, chris christie and bridge gate has been getting

continuously. when i say tedious, too, go you look at how it was framed, it was to dismiss it and marginal eyes it because it came from a conservative website. >> by one or some? >> by many of the networks. secondly, it gave the press the ability to frame it as -- well it came from the -- we'll put our own spin on it instead of introducing the information in the letters and the diary, it was how will this affect her run in 2016. not at all. >> i think it's the opposite. i take issue with this. i think the press is embarrassed because what they want to talk about it sex and you know what, because part of it is it's much more fun than talking about the debt ceiling and it gets more hits and clicks. >> i think it's the press is embarrassed that they're doing this, they're once again going into this particular well. >> needs a fig leaf of new development. >> we have to do this where we're forced to draw attention to it. >> the conservatives are pressing our hands.

>> before we go to break, we'll talk about something not about sex and should get and hasn't gotten more coverage and that is i saw this report this morning, apparently this happened saturday. the 200 illegal workers, miners in south africa, near johannesburg are trapped. efforts are under way to rescue them. i saw reports, british and australian reports, not u.s. reports yet with oscar pistorius, the@looet, it's the one-year anniversary of the killing of his girlfriend and he's facing trial for that. that seems to get much more than the south african miners get. >> he's a celebrity and of course we'll cover celebrities more than tragic accidents. isn't that what the media does now? >> with that crime, a crime of passion. there was a -- something going on emotionally which grabs people in terms of storytelling. i would like to, of course, know more about this terrible tragedy in south africa. >> hopefully we'll have that

information soon. send us a tweet about our show. @howard kurtz. we'll read some of your messages later. msnbc devoting so much air time to bashing chris christie, it's taking flack even from people who work at msnbc. a report from sochi, why are the olympics getting such bad press? hey kevin...still eating chalk for heartburn? yeah... try new alka seltzer fruit chews. they work fast on heartburn and taste awesome. these are good. told ya! i'm feeling better already. [ male announcer ] new alka seltzer fruits chews. enjoy the relief!

chris christie made a fundraising speech in chicago this week as new figures show a healthy haul that he made. he continues to draw fierce scrutiny from outlets as the "washington post" and "the new york times" and on msnbc one contributor, former bush aide nicole wallace, pushed back at the saturation coverage when chuck todd questioned whether

christie had a good day in chicago. >> what's the definition of a good day? >> on till 9:00. >> we're doing a feed i frenzy on somebody who we're not sitting back and you know -- we're overdoing it now. i think everybody is -- >> overdoing what? oh, my god. so much time has been spent in four weeks covering every teeny minuscule breaking non-news event in this. >> not on my show. >> well, on the network on which you appear and i appear. >> i like the water drinking the best. >> amy holmes, msnbc has a problem with a contributor. saying it's going haywire on chris christie. >> msnbc has been mining this because it's good for their ratings and they know their viewers are enjoying this story. they are up. >> i agree with chuck todd it's been a feeding frenzy. he's trying to distance himself

from it saying he hasn't been covering it in this exorbitant way. >> chris christie can't buy a good headline. >> especially from msnbc. >> i think it's a legitimate story, multiple investigations, subpoenas. when i flip around the champnne, i see a lot of msnbc doing this. >> we talked about the hillary obsession. let's talk about the christie obsession. >> twofold here. he was the 8 hundred-pound gorilla. that is not a pun. in the republican race. he was the presumed front-runner. the presumed having the best chance. but he also had a reputation as being above politics. this is why the political media liked him, it is why moderates and independents like him. he was seen as not doing politics as usual. so this kind of scandal feeds into the idea that he's just another politician and corrupt one at that. >> what about the daily drumbeat or the hourly drumbeat? >> they want to keep it going.

their audience craves this sort of thing. >> even there was a headline comparing chris christie and hillary clinton and saying, well hillary might be a bully but it's a different kind of bully. a private bully, not the kind that chris christie is. he's a jlegitimate bully. >> that's interesting. there was a long piece about christie and his scandal and history. it was this photoshop photo illustration as it was identified where the governor's head, i'm not looking at that. there -- out of order. let me back up. leave that picture up for a minute. we'll get it together, folks. chris christie's head and tony soprano's body. if we can go to the mugshot of al capone, rachel maddow had likened him to al capone. >> come on. she said fiscal conservative that led famous individuals in our history to pay very low taxes for years until they didn't anymore. and then up came al capone.

this is someone who has been realing against republicans for a long time. it is not unexpected that something like this would happen. but i think the al capone picture, a criminal, goes a little too far. >> a murderer, by the way. >> he was only convicted of something else. >> it's totally irresponsible. it's clearly trying to smear chris christie, create this cartoon ahead of 2010 to make him unacceptable to the public. >> i understand the soprano's reference because it's new jersey. what about italian stereotyping between capone. >> that's why we're getting it here. we're mob baiting. >> are we saying he's a mobster? come on. >> you're saying that's the inevitable conclusion to be drawn. >> yes, of course. >> given that this investigation is going to unfold and that there will be legitimate news to cover here everywhere, including

on fox, does it desensitize the public when there is so much coverage every single day? another christie story and it becomes old news. >> people will eat this stuff up. keep the story rolling, chum the water with whatever you've got. like when a small child goes missing or when hillary clinton does something, there are certain issues that people want more and more and more of. >> i do think, though it's a niche story. i think it's of particular interest to msnbc's audience and to liberals and democrats who fear a chris christie campaign. >> i just have to quibble with you. i don't think that it's just because there's a feeding frenzy. and i don't think that it's going to go on and on and on. when there is real news, we're going to see a lot more of this. >> amy holmes, michelle, thanks very much for joining us this sunday. in our press picks, this media fail has this for a transition. it's a correction that could have only taken place in new jersey. the new york star ledgers

screwed up in a -- here's how the paper set the record straight. an earlier version of the story incorrectly stated drouin yak referred to the port authority's cute tiff director as a piece of crap. it was david wildstein who referred to the director as a piece of crap. holy crap, that's embarrassing. up next. another big setback for obamacare. are the media falling for the administration spin? >> with all our gadgets, is it possible to go through digital detox? those litt things still get you. cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment is right. cialis is also the only daily ed tablet helpsapproved to treattime the msymptoms of bph, like needing to go freently. tell yr doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthenough for sex. do not take cialis if youtake , as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drinklcohol in excess. side effects may include headac, upset stomach,

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joining us to talk about this is elise bee back, reporter who covers health care for the hill. >> did the media overplay or underplay this delay? >> there was a range of coverage options for the media. they underplayed it. >> because? >> itwe're talking about what i means for the white house, for politics, what it means for congress, what it means for the rollout of the health care law overall. >> one of the needs for politics seems to get a lot of attention. the more complicated questions are hard to answer, correct me if i'm wrong, seem to get less? >> yes. they seem to get less and then do get less because as a journalist working on a print deadline, it's very difficult to put all of that together into a story within a couple of hours or 45 minutes is what we had before the announcement this week. it's very difficult. for a reporter working on deadlines, you're just not going to get very far with the larger questions if you're trying. the media ultimately underplayed

it. there's larger relevance for the rollout of the health care law but very few people asked what it means for the businesses and the employees of those businesses which is really the real story here. >> when you're work og on this story and another delay in the mandate for a large group of companies, do you get pushback from the administration officials? >> immediately after we posted our story, we got an e-mail from the treasury department to me and to another reporter working on the story and they were quibbling with our headline which is common in washington, d.c. if you're writing about the news of the day, you're going to get pushback from one court or another. it was fascinating because it was the media. we shouldn't be calling it a delay, first of all. they wanted us to call it phased implementation. which is such a wonderful bureaucratic term, isn't it? when you think about it, there's no way to fit that in a headline. >> it is a delay for those companies. >> it's a delay. they also wanted us to make sure we referred to it as partial in the headline which i think is fair. this isn't a delay of the employer mandate in the same way we saw it delayed last year.

this is a partial delay for some businesses. doesn't mean it's not big news. >> they're arguing about the headline, not the story. >> that's right. >> conservative commentator is saying that president obama is being lawless here, going too far, repeatedly changing this law. is that a legitimate debate. >> it is. certainly, it assists republicans in campaign season because it allows thome put together all of these issues. they can talk about how they don't want to do immigration reform because the president is lawless. they can sneak around argument and put it out for the voter. all the delays and changes to obamacare's rollout aren't getting into the public's mind the same as in washington, d.c. >> don't follow the story every day. >> many people don't know that obamacare is still the law. many people are confused about the basic facts of this. republicans are in a strong position to make that argument because it allows the public to put together all of these bits and pieces of what they've been hearing. >> one other piece of this is a

couple days after the delay or the phased i am plemtation, excuse me. >> yes. >> the administration to more than 3 million people will have now in total enrolled in obamacare. that led to upbeat stories, maybe a little too positive snoo. >> perhaps too positive. >> how so? >> the administration deserves credit. here's why. the fault was a complete and total disaster. it was like covering a car wreck. that's how it was. the rollout in october, november, december. when you think about these rollout numbers, it was the first time the administration had beat a monthly target it had set for itself. of all of the media outlets that had said in the fall, oh, they're not meeting their monthly targets, isn't this terrible, the administration can't meet expectations, i think it's a fair and sportsman like thing to say things are getting better. at the same time, the press is eager to tell a different story about the rollout. people have health fatigue, congress does, and we're ready to hear a different story. >> the press was pointed out that 20% of those people counted in the 3 million, they haven't

paid premiums yet. >> everyone is noting that. >> list bee back, thank you. christine rein an from sochi and why the olympics aren't catching on or getting media attention for all the wrong reasons? rise asked people a simple question: can you keep your lifestyle in retirement? i don't want to think about the alternative. i don't even know how to answer that. i mean, no one knows how long their money is going to last. i try not to worry, but you worry. what happens when your paychecks stop? because everyone has retirement questions. ameriprise created the exclusive confident retirement approach. to get the real answers you need. start building your confident retirement today. to prove to you that aleve is the better choice for him, he's agreed to give it up. that's today? [ male announcer ] we'll be with him all day as he goes back to taking tylenol. i was okay, but after lunch my knee started to hurt again.

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hi everyone. we're live from america's news headquarters. i'm jamie colby. down in florida, prosecutors say they intend to seek a retrial in the loud music murder case. a florida jury finding michael dunn guilty on four of five counts. but the judge declared a mistrial on the first degree murder charge because the jury failed to make a decision on that count. still dunn faces at least 60 prn 17-year-old jordan davis after an argument in a gas station parking lot. today would have been davis' 19th birthday.

chilling new claims coming from one of the alleged craigslist killers. miranda barber admitting in a jailhouse interview she killed more than 20 people as a cult member. the pennsylvania woman and her husband are charged with a man on craigslist last year. i'm jamie colby. see you in america's news headquarters. it's no secret that sochi has its share of problems, but it seems to me that coverage of the winter olympics is suffering from something deeper. it goes beyond the usual time zone problem which we get the results long before the events air on nbc. i spoke earlier with christine brennan, a sports commentator for usa today and abc news from sochi. >> christine, i'm sure you get caught up in the excitement of being there. but other than the u.s. hockey team beating russia on saturday, i can't remember an olympics that has generated so little chatter here. why do you think that is? >> that's a great question,

howie. i think bottom line is that there have been a lot of disappointing performances for the u.s. athletes. some expected performances, obviously snowboarding, that's a sport the united states owns, x game, that's where the four gold medals have been so far. you're right, lindsey vonn never made it here. you've got bode miller not doing well. any name that is a household name at all or even is close to a household name just isn't doing, making the headlines up to this point. >> right. no breakout stars and sometimes television can create new stars. hasn't happened this time. then the monster time delay. i know a lot of people complained about nbc airing some of these events so much later than they take place. these days, christine, i can already see the results on your twitter feed. >> right. well, that's, i think the real problem for ninette work like nbc. you want to package it and be beautiful up close and personal from 8:00 to 11:00 primetime. but the world of twitter and

social media is absolutely against that. for us, for me, howie, i think it's great. i have never had the ability except now the last two olympics to really tell the story and to break news because, of course, we didn't have twitter or facebook. i love social media and i love being able to get that word out and tell people the story and even send pictures. i've been noticing that a lot of us and i've been doing it, sending a lot of still pictures because i think people get a kick out of seeing what it looks like as it's happening live. >> you have nbc, which has paid billions for the rights to a number of olympic games, being restrictive in the footage that oertel vision networks or websites can use. has the olympics been less of a shared event? >> oh, i think so, without a doubt. because of the restrictions as you mentioned. i think it is much more of a hit or miss thing now if that makes sense. what we remember as kids. sitting down and just you couldn't wait for 8:00 and the olympic -- the music to start and you were off and running.

that's not happening anymore. so i think that there is that element of it not being a shared event. i frankly, think that the sports are no longer as unique as they used to be. we see hockey all the time. so many of these sports stations now howie have all the sports on the air. there's nothing special about watching tennis in the summer olympics. you see them at wimbledon and the u.s. open. golf will be in the summer olympics. i think the uniqueness of the sports is lessened to the point where the novelty and the excitement of it is also lessened for the viewer. >> do you think, as well, christine that it's been overshadowed by the problems in sochi, the fact that some people don't like the russian host, vladimir putin, the warm weather and the low attendance. maybe, to me, the event that broke through was the bobsledder who had to break down the bathroom door to get to his event. >> certainly going into these olympics of all the ones i covered, howie and it's now 16 in a row, winter and summer, i've never seen more of a run-up

about the news and not the sports. very seriously news. the issues of terrorism, security, put in's anti-gay propaganda law. that took up all of the airspace and the headlines really for months leading up to sochi. i've never seen a games where we have focused less on the sports going into the games. now, i would say that in the last week we have really made that turn to sports. you make the point and i think it's well-taken that then where are the superstars. we don't have any huge names to talk about. splut absolutely. there's no doubt it will affect the way the games are looked at for the future, the way history will look at the games and it did take away the sports impact because there was so much news. >> right. nbc's ratings have been about the same as the last winter olympics. i'm measuring in terms of the water cooler factor and how much people are talking about it here in the states. during the women's downhill skiing event, nbc commentator steve parrino said that they do this all the while in a lycra

suit, maybe makeup. that is grace under pressure. he caught flack for that. i'm wondering is there a double standard for female athletes. lindsey vonn posed in sports illustrated. they have to look good and be competitive on the slopes or on the rink. >> we talked about this before, you and i. i think there is that element of that. it lessens every four years or two years between summer and winter games. for example, look at u.s. women's hockey. no one is talking about their makeup. they will probably be playing canada for the gold medal. that was a terrific game and it was packed and people cared very much about that. so absolutely, as long as we're in the male-dominated sports world and as long as men are making those executive decisions, in most cases for companies and for networks and sports companies, we're going to have this kind much conversation. i do think, maybe i'm a pollyanna, maybe it lessens every time. the fact that the comment was noted, howie and brought up and

i heard about it almost immediately on twitter, that's good. that means that it did create news because found it offensive or wrong and i think that's a good thing. >> it's been following your coverage on twitter. christine brennan, thanks for joining us from sochi. >> howie, my pleasure. thank you. we appreciate christine standing out there in the dark. al roker doesn't mind mixing it up with politicians. did it go too far when the "today" show star off with the relatively balmy olympics in sochi delivered icy twitter blasts when mayor bill deblasio decided against closing the city's schools. now my daughter's city school is being let out early. is it worth putting kids' safety at risk and this one? talk about a bad prediction. long-range deblasio forecast, one term. writing off the mayor just a month into his term. now, deblasio could have ignored the nbc weatherman. but instead, he stirred up a tabloid storm. >> i respect al roker a lot.

watched him on tv for many, many years. it's a different thing to run a city than to give the weather on tv. >> by friday, roker realized he had stepped over the line. >> i'm very passionate about the weather. i made a prediction that there would be one term of his administration. i apologize for that. >> glad he apologized. roker was on thin ice with his political punditry. i suspect he'll weather the storm. after the break, they loved the tale of the philandering french president, why did they jump on a bogus rumor about the american president? [ male announcer ] this is george. the day building a play set begins with a surprise twinge of back pain... and a choice. take up to 4 advil in a day or 2 aleve for all day relief. [ male announcer ] that's handy. ♪

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it's one of those lines that generates taunting headlines across cable news and the web. even though everyone knows it's a harmless joke. it happened when president obama was showing francois hollande around thomas jefferson's place in monticello. >> we're breaking protocol here. that's all right. that's the thing about being president, i can do whatever i want. >> obama can do whatever he wants. not as chief executive but on this minor protocol matter. even more tantalizing was the sub text of the french president's visit which was catnip for the american media. >> yeah. there's also a little bit of a scandal here coming along with french president francois

hollande because he is here in the u.s. without a date. >> the state dinner at the white house in honor of french president francois hollande. he's going alone. >> a french magazine had disclosed that hollande was donning a motorcycle helmet to secretly visit an actress which led to the breakup of france's first lady who was scratched from the guest list in washington. the people in paris usually take these things in stride giving the rich tradition of high level dalliances. the french newspaper quoted a photographer as floating a spectacularly inaccurate rumor that obama is having an affair with, wait for it, beyonce. claimed that the "washington post" was about to break the beyonce story which is flatly untrue. the fact that this was obviously bogus didn't stop a lot of american websites from trumpeting the false report. not taking it terribly seriously but putting it out there. they couldn't resist the notion that obama was having as much fun as the french presidents and

their mistresses. ahead on media buzz, should we unplug the gadgets and put ourselves on a digital diet? is that even possible these days? [ male announcer ] frequent heartburn? the choice is yours. chalky... not chalky. temporary... 24 hour. lots of tablets... one pill. you decide. prevent acid with prevacid 24hr. you decide. so ally bank really has no hthat's right, no hidd fees.nts? it's just that i'm worried about, you know, "hidden things." ok, why's that? well uhhh... surprise!!!

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time now for the digital download. new york times writer teddy wayne went on a detox largely unplugging from all his devices and asked to see if that would simplify his life. >> i'm sorry, what were you saying? and that made most of us with multiple devices start thinking. should more of us go on a digital diet? and is that a realistic option in this twitter age, howard kertz? >> it is totally unrealistic because you're expected to be available all the time now.

did you get my e-mail? did you get my text? did you hear what happened 15 minutes ago? >> and don't you get annoyed when people don't respond to you? >> yeah. >> you are right. let's talk about what he did, he actually allotted himself to 15 minutes a day, but a lot of people can actually link this kind of stuff to addiction. and they say that, oh, come on, no, it's not, okay, are you more anxious when you're not texting? well, do you text while you drive? a friend of mine, matt mendleson, facebook'd a great picture of a beautiful beach an seven kids all inside on a device. >> the first thing i say is take the tv out of the home, read one newspaper a week, it's the same news repeated every day, excuse me, that's mronic. nobody has any respect for news information. so then that person says, well,

you don't need all the devices. >> you can't do it, but there are a lot of peo who, you know, probably could. maybe their job doesn't rely on the news and they just have to look at the weather. >> i'm all for taking the more moderate approach and we don't have to be tethered to the devices all the time, and maybe multi-tasking is not good when sitting around writing books and poems, but clay sharkey says being on your device is like seco secondhand smoke. it affects everyone sitting there. >> so there's a pew research center sud did we want to show you, couples and technology. 25%, 25% have texted their partner when they are both home. and someone in the makeup room said, yes, her husband said, hey, honey, can you bring me a beer? >> that is so romantic. >> isn't that great? 9% resulted in argument online or by text. they must not like to fight. >> it seems to me that maybe

it's a good thing to resolve an argument because it kind of takes the emotion out of it, but this notion you're in the same house and sending each other a text, i'm sorry, that is weird. >> you have never done that? >> maybe once. >> come on, so you're just calling yourself weird. give me a break. >> but it does kind of underscore this wired world we live in. so to say, you know, how many times have you gone out to forget your phone and feel like you missed all these important e-mails? it was a nice gimmick for "the new york times," but it is not terribly realistic. >> i do. i want to quote bill neil who is one of my twitter followers. he says to enjoy each day to the fullest. i think if you're going to do that, you can't have your nose in the screen all day. >> give me that, give me that, take it away. >> no. you can follow me and read top twitter talks. still to come, our mistake about the beatles leaves one family member very unhappy.

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bill o'reilly here. all on "the factor" your life will be better if you see it. here's some of your top tweets. what about the press reporting on hillary clinton and monica lewinsky? media should be diving into papers for breaking news. media shouldn't use as excuse to rehash old news. kirk allen says, ask yourself what the media would do if the papers were instead about the palins. and the subdued interest in the sochi olympics which i talked to kristen brennan about. and i am usually an olympic junkie but not this year. reasons, lack of stars. tape delay. schizophrenic coverage from nbc. and another, social media spoilers plus tape delay. 80% of the time i know the results before it's aired 16

hours later in the u.s. >> i don't get it. there are the x-games sports in here, i don't get it. >> i would explain it to you but i don't get it ear. some sad news to report to you. >> the long time former anchor and very good friend of ours, tom brokaw is undergoing treatment for multiple myeloma, a former cancer affecting blood cells in the bone marrow. he was diagnosed this summer at the mayo clinic. >> brokaw says he's optimistic and looks forward to continuing his adventures and is the luckiest guy i know. tom is one of the most true gentleman i know in the business and we wish him the best. and last week as i was celebrating the beatles 50th anniversary, we had this exchange. >> not everyone likes the beatles. there's a big percentage of people who don't like them. >> who doesn't like the beatles? >> my dad. >> so in the interest of equal

time, i have an e-mail here from warren ashburg of pittsburgh who tells his daughter he's been getting calls for, what? where did you get the idea i don't like the beatles? i must have 20 beats cds on my shelf. i even have a novelty tie with beatles record covers all over them. loved them back then and love them now. yoik! dad. >> i am so sorry, dad. i just want to say, i'm sorry, and i love you. and do you love me? he loves me, yeah. >> we'll have to see what his response is. if you're going to make a mistake about a viewer -- >> don't make it your dad. >> never report unless you have it in writing. that's it. i'm howard kurtz.

we converge with people who want to talk to us about we are back here at 11:00 eastern and 5:00 p.m. eastern with the latest buzz. hello, everyone. i'm eric shawn. welcome to america's news headquarters. >> i'm may jamie colby. the real cost of obama care. there are growing concerns over the affordable care act's toll on the struggling u.s. economy. and a disturbing confession of a woman killing a man she met through craigslist. the shocking jailhouse interview and there could be even more victims. plus, there's a mega merger in the works. tom comcast buying time warner cable for a whopping $45 billion. it's good busi