>> that will do it for sunday morning futures.% happy labor day, everybody. i'm maria bartiromo. see you next week. on the buzz meter this sunday, the media plunge into a polarizing debate over whether president obama should step up military action against the isis terrorists in syria. why can't we get a straight answer on the threat level to america and/or american interests by isis? you have to kill their leadership and take out as many rank and file jihaddys as possible. i don't buy into all the fear mongering that i'm hearing from the right wing. we are bombing the tar out of them. >> yeah. i think the president is doing a good job handling it. all this as president obama holds a news conference and says we have no strategy yet against isis. we'll examine the coverage of this extraordinary moment.

reverend al speaks at michael brown's funeral and leads off his cable show with reverend al at michael brown's funeral. why does msnbc continue to allow this charade? new evidence from our focus groups on just how deeply americans mistrust the media. >> who believes that all of journalism in one way or another is spin? raise your hand. who believes all of media in one way or another is spin? media critics grapple with this painful question. how did the news business sink so low? plus, why the media are outraged about burger king skipping off to canada and avoiding u.s. taxes. and stephen colbert tangled with me again, this time over the coverage of ferguson. >> we do know the shooting of a young, unarmed black man is a story we've heard so many times before. the only way to make sure we

never hear it again is to make sure we stop reporting it. >> i'm howard kurtz and this is "media buzz." first came the leak, unnamed american america might strike isis in syria. then the confirmation that america is conducting surveillance, then we're not doing enough or threatening to do so much. all that media prompting president obama to hold a news conference prompting this question from chuck todd. >> congress's approval to go into syria? >> we don't have a strategy yet. i think what i've seen some in of the news that folks are getting a little further ahead of where we're at than we currently are. >> the news reports, those six

words unleashing a tidal wave of media criticism. >> when the president says we don't have a strategy yet -- >> saying, quote, we don't have strategy yet. >> the president did say he does not yet have a strategy for syria. >> we do not have a strategy to deal with isis. >> who wrote that? can somebody get fired before the end( of the week? >> joining us now to examine the coverage, lauren ashburn on the fox social website. merrill isthon of national public radio, presidents are supposed to hold news conferences to make news. did barack obama have any news to make on syria and isis? >> filling the void left over by vacation, but the problem comes when you don't have anything to say when you get on the world stage and gas happened like no strategy. and it seems to me that it's just -- maybe the golf coverage that he was getting instead of this. >> and what was the biggest

reaction on twitter? >> tan suit and how the tan suit made him look unpresidential. >> it was absolutely awful. we don't have a strategy yet. the white house comes and says weighing military options instead. >> i don't think so. aaron blake wrote for "the washington post," just today, the reason that resinated so much was because it sort of fed the narrative of what people think that, obviously, the events in the middle east have taken america and at least the obama administration by surprise. the capture of big chunks in iraq and syria by isis, just this morning we get the news that they overran the embassy in libya. they're trying to tell everybody, look, we've got al qaeda on the run. the media played along with that for years and years, the president said isis was the junior varsity. now they're completely flum yoxed by these events so when

the president says we have no strategy, people say ah-ha, he admitted it, finally. >> at that news conference, why did no other reporter ask the follow-up question, what do you mean you have no follow-up ÷ strategy? >> i was there. he called auto a handful of journalists and there were a lot of questions about what he was going to do, was he going to ask congress. i think that you can see his remarks and the definition of a gaffe in the definition of michael kensly. what he meant was yi don't havea military strategy for isis in syria. they have a strategy for isis in iraq. and he'sí5 said it many times. the problem is that it not only feeds this narrative of the administration cat flat-footed, it's deja vu all over again. exactly one year ago, the president -- this has a context, which is the president threatens military action or his aides say (áv

action is imminent, like saying isis is unlike any military -- we have seen but all of a sudden he pills back. that's not because of what the media is saying. it's because his own cabinet secretaries were getting out of -- >> well, he could have had a conference call then, but you knew the white house was cleaning up the damage because josh was all over tv saying this is what he mecht. >> in a dark suit. >> and he defended the tan suit. clothing aside, is there -- some demanding air strikes and large chunk of the public which maybe is not to thrilled about perhaps sliding back into war. >> i think there's a lot ooh saber rattling going on that isn't happening out in the country where i think parents have had sons and daughters and nieces and nephews who have been going back for tour after tour in afghanistan and iraq. and the polls do show that, that

there is this disparity. it's really easy to sit in a studio and say obama needs to do more and let's bomb. but, you know, it's harder to live it. >> what about the notion, jim, that the president gets no credit from people on the right, no matter what he does, even when he has at least started and was able to play a role in rescuing some of the ethnic izidis trapped on that mountain? it's always like he's not doing enough. >> well, i think that's the issues with results. you get elected as president and the promise to make things better and the issues haven't gotten better. john kerry had an op-ed in the "new york times" that said we need a grand alliance against isis which makes perfect sense. and kerry cited bush 41 as the gold standard back in the kuwait it would be nice if mainstream media pointed out that kerry voted against the bush war resolution in 1991. the media ignored that completely.

>> doesn't the press have the responsibility to point out air strikes are risky? >> yes. and some of the press -- the media isn't a monolithic thing. we say that all the time. and bombing, as the president says over and over again, in and of itself is not going to solve the problem. you need to have a political component in iraq, like getting inclusive. and in syria, it's really tough. what are you going to do? you don't want to help bashar al assad. >> it's complicated and i do think that we ought to remind people when you have air strikes, you need ground intelligence to know where to target, sometimes pilots get shot down. i wonder, though, whether there's so much intense white house focus, as there always is on the white house, the president, what's he going to do, what's he not doing? what about congress? are the media giving congress a pass here? >> no. where are they again on their five week vacation? i think that's part of the problem. there's no cry from the press saying, congress, where are you? what do you need to do? they're asking, as we saw in the press conference, the president

what he's going to do with congress. and they're not targeting that. the only person i saw, one of the only people was rachel maddow of msnbc who spent a 20-minute segment imploring congress to come back and debate this issue. >> i'd like to see some journalists saying where do you stand on this, john boehner, nancy pelosi, because congress has a role to play here. in fact, jim, on lots of other issues, conservative commentators often complain about the president acting unilaterally, what is he going to do with the action on immigration. but i don't see a lot of people on the right saying, he needs to go to congress. >> right. the hawks in military action, so they want to start bombing somebody and they don't want to slow the president down by having hearings. rand paul -- >> is there any consistency? >> that's not why they don't want to have hearings. >> they don't want to have hearings because frankly, they don't want to take a position on it. nobody thinks this is going to work out well. they would rather not voet on

it, let the president do whatever he does and let the president take responsibility for it. >> there very few voices, tim kain is one of them. most members want the presidá so decide and he should take the blame or credit. >> that's why i think the media scrutiny has fallen low. congress often complains about not being consulted. the president pulled back, at that time, it was widely reported in the press, accurately, i believe, that congress was not willing to support military action. >> right, right, and he punted it to congress. he didn't want a humiliating defeat in congress, so he grabbed on to this lifeline of a russian diplomatic effort to get rid of chemical weapons. the president made it very, very clear. chuck todd knew the answer to his question before he asked it. the president made it clear that

at that time last year he doesn't need congress's approval to q.bomb, but he would like to have congressional buy in. but legally, he has all the authority he needs and his inherent powers as commander in chief to do this. >> do you think what you see as the resident of we do not have a strategy yet will continue to echo throughout this presidency or is it just sort of this week's slap because he -- >> very bad choice of words. >> i think if he turns the tide in the middle east, whether it's through bombing strikes or a grand coalition or something, then sure, it wiló@o(ñ get bett for him. but right now, it's clear, they can't decide what they want to do. again, i think part of the problem is there's nobody in the white house who can stand up to the president. dana purino made a point a while back say, mr. president, don't go out in that stupid white suit, go go out there and say nothing. look serious, have all the trappings of the presidency in order. >> there was one bit of good news this week after the horrifying depressing and brutal murder of james foley, terrorist

released another journalist named peter theo curtis. and he met with the press outside his family home. let's take a brief look at that. >> my family now and i can't give you an interview. but in the future, i promise i will respond to[ help you guys do your job. >> what does that say to you? >> it says that he's a good journalist, that he knows what journalists need. they need information and he's just asking for some time. journalists usually take it easier on other journalists than they do on the public. >> such a reminder of the remarkable risks that people take in going into these war zones. >> especiallies a freelance journalist. that's what we have seen, there are freelance journalists who are trying to sell stories and sell video and they don't have the protection of the "new york times" or usa today ton help

them. >> jim foal lee being executed by that isis butcher, it's become a video wallpaper. we are showing this brave guy, his life is about to end. i think to ease up on those images. send me a tweet at this hour, @howardkurtz. ahead, we'll unveil new footage from our focus groups and why people think reporting is mostly thin. but when we come back, reverend al and michael brown's funeral sharesyq the spotlight. he plays lots of highlights on his msnbc show. is this just getting out of control?

al sharpton has been deeply involved in the ferguson tragedy as an advocate for the michael brown family and covering this story on his msnbc program. this week, it was almost surreal. reverend al delivered the eulogy at michael brown's funeral and led you have his cable show featuring the host himself. >> you've got to deal with the streets in ferguson and st. louis. the brown family asked me to give the eulogy today and i explained how i first took a call from michael's grandfather. america, it's time to deal with policing. we are not the haters, we're the healers. we can't ignore thwhat we've se. that's why we must continue to peacefully protest and get the change this country needs. >> just a small bit of it. the question came up, sort of,

when joe scarborogh) criticism. >> why was al sharpton there? he's chasing cameras. why were you there? >> first of all, i was called by the family. it's not about chasing the camera. i'm on tv every night here. >> why is msnbc so im peevus to the criticism that sharpton is clouding the basic rules of journalism? >> msnbc and nbc owe him big time because he supported the mergers when comcast bought nbc years ago. >> do you think this is a payoff? >> i do. he didn't go to the fcc and complain like ekdz have. the next thing you know, he has a tv show. believe in accountability. if you want to know who al sharpton is, google the warner browley case. >> i covered it. >> you covered it.

you can google freddie fab fashion, martin harlen. these are all cases sharpton was responsible for. there was injustice and death some some of those cases. now sharpton has walked away from all of it. >> and the rest of the press is yawning about this conflict question. doesn't this cross a bright red line? >> i don't think al sharpton is a journalist. he's a commentator with his own show and he has the high self-regard that a lot of commentators with their own show have for their own selves. he has become a story in and himself and there has been some coverage of that. glenn wrote a piece from politico where he chronicled the transformation of al sharpton from kind of a civil rights activist to somebody who has the civil rights's ear and is a conduit for them. >> but there was this fahning profile of al sharpton that didn't really address -- it

didn't raiseizññ the racially incisive or doctor. >> charged. >> yeah, racially charged way that he has gone about his life. it was almost as if this is a new person and he wasn't this track suit medallion wearing, you know, big guy who was throwing his weight around. this was moderate. >> he has every right to speak at the funeral. but when he leads his show with clips of himself at the funeral -- >> talk about butspah, right? to lead your own show withx@ fo sound bites? the first seven minutes were all sound bites of al sharpton at the funeral.9ef >> he's the story. he is becoming himself. >> he is the story. he is the story. >> sharpton fit right in. it traces back, though, to what fred siegel, a historic academic called it, which is to say if

you don't give us what we want, we'll riot. msnbc is now part of the process. >> the "new york times" got criticized for pretty balanced michael brown profile that said he had done the robbery, he had done the drugs and he wak quote, no angel. the editor said that was a regrettable mistake. was it? >> because he's dead, yes. i know exactly what they meant and i think it was a totally fair description of him, but now there are a lot of people who think he is an angel in heaven. >> the person who where he that article himself is an african-american. if you want to watch michael brown at that convenience store, you can reasonably concluded that that was no angel. >> but the problem was that article appeared on the day of his funeral. it's a characterization, but not a fact. >> i thought it was a very balanced article. those two words, not great. ahead, my critique of the

coverage for ferguson by stephen colbert. i'll have a few choice words for him. up next, charlie gasparino will be here.

it's not a new issue, but it's udly become a whooper of a story. burger king moving north, moving its headquarters out of the country exploring a major loophole in u.s. tax laws. >> it is a whooper of a deal. miami-based burger king is buying tim hortons. >> this news instantly sparked outrage in the united states. burger king would have joined the growing list of u.s. companies moving overseas to do what? avoid paying taxes. >> but you know what? we've got to see something in this country to keep businesses here and not have punitive taxes that prohibit people from having businesses here.

>> but why have a news organizations cared much about this issue before? joining us from new york is charlie gasparino. doesz of companies have done something like this, charlie. why did it take burger king to put this on the front page? >> well, i mean, corporate inversions have been going on for a while. i think there's a conflict of factors. number one, it's the latest one, but also the obama administration has been stepping up its rhetoric, essentially, saying that it wants to kill these things, basically make a massive penalty if you do one of these corporate inversions. i will say this. this is a fascinating story from the media standpoint for two reasons. number one, it was the outrage leading up to it, but then there was a weird justification for it right after the news broke because warren buffett, you know, everybody -- every reporter+4 favorite limousine fat cat was involved in the financing. once that happened, i noticed an interesting, more than subtle change. it was a justification. you saw i tell in the times, you saw it in usually the left of center news outlet that's

basically say here is why warren buffett is doing it. he isn't dodging taxes, unlike everybody else that was domging the taxes. so i think this is kind of a fascinating story from that standpoint. there's a political element here. warren buffett, the chief spokesman for higher taxes during the 2012 election cycle is now part of this whole effort of burger king to do a corporate inversion throws, i believe, a monkey wrench into his public relations attack on this stuff. andgñ essentially the attack he trying to -- the efforts he's trying to get these sort of penalties passed on inversions. >> well, i agree with you on the buffett angle, berkshire hath away financing part of the deal and he has been a spokesman for more tax. on the other hand, i don't think it's fair to say he should play by a different set of rules until the rules are changes. >> if you're going to be the spokesman for higher taxes, you get the criticism that you deserve. >> what about the fact that it's

burger king and everybody has had the fries and burgers, buying tim hortons and because of that a reason to move up to on tear your. >> from a purely business poi. the tax rates are lower there. this is a declining franchise. as a matter of fact, all the sort of fast food, mcdonald's, all these chains are declining, particularly with new generation, a younger gem graphic. so this makes complete sense from a financing standpoint, not just a tax standpoint. tim hort yop's apparently is vary good company overseas. but what i find more fascinating, the reason why we're reading about this stuff on the front pages is the yi politicoeconomic issue. warren buffett being for something he's against. that's the story. >> one of the things that takes the juice out of this story is that washington isn't going to do anything about this.

the democrats want to close this loophole in tems terms of companies reincorporating abroad. and the republicans say we need to lower corporate taxes. they both may be right, but no prospect of compromise. >> no prospect of compromise, but the president through some sort of executive action could go out there and impose a penalty as jack lew has threatened. but the fact that warren buffett is involved is going to make it that much more harder for jack lew and president obama to do that. >> thank you so much for the weighing in. come up, our fox news focus groups deliver a verdict on media credibility and it isn't pretty. and later, we'll call foul on espn's reporting on the showering habits of the nfl's first openly gay draft pick.

people. what about excess? i think about the coverage of ferguson as the latest example. it seems to me that cable tv in part turns it into a nightly reality show and may have exacerbated racial tensions there. and i don't think that that helps the media's reputation, either. >> absolutely, howie. it's supersonic social media. david brought it up before. that -- and i've used this analogy before, it's like a blitzing linebacker, releasing the ball too soon because they're afried they're going to

get beat to the punch. they put out audio that wasn't authenticated. 36 hours later, they put their own experts on who basically called it cnn getting punked, a host. they should have at least checked with the fbi first, checked with their own experts first, held off on it, but they were afraid they were going to get beat with some other news organization putting that information out there. social media is having a big effect on this. one more point, howie, for those people at home saying, well, the public has always been mistrusting of the media, not true. gappul did this same poll 40 years ago asking how many people trusted the media. three in four people said they trusted the media. why? because it was straight news at that time. >> i'll tell you something else we've done. we've lost our sense of being a watchdog for the people. people are really suffering in this country and they don't see us as on their side trying to get them information. >> it's a really good point

because, you know, while the world is falling apart and certainly that's been covered, there's also what i would call the miley cyrus factor. this week i've seen should the media have put sophia on a rotating pedestal even though she doesn't have any problems with it. >> that's it, losing our confidence. but i think this goes even deeper in losing our sense of mission -- >> wait a minute, you've got almost five minutes and you haven't brought up chelsea clinton leaving nbc news. >> if you look at nbc news and you see chelsea clinton making $600,000 a year and you think you're going to trust them as a news organization and your eyes tell you she's terrible, and the nbc executives telling you she's great, you don't think you're not going to trust them and say, you know what? the media is in bed with the one percenters, the media is part of that same game, the clintons, wall street, the media. no, they're not on my side. i'm not going to pay attention

to the media. i'm not going to trust them. that's what wrong with chelsly clinton being on tv. >> joe, a quick final thought. >> how could i follow that? gallop, 60% of democrats have a fair or greater amount of trust with the media. 31% of independents, 26% of republicans. that goes back to the charles crowdhammer equip about its success and its ability to appeal to a niche audience, half the country. that's because republicanes and independents, democrats maybe now because they like what they're hearing, howie. >> i'm too depressed to do the rest of the show. thank you, guys. after the break, espn goes there with openly gay player michael sam. diane sawyer says she's not slowing down as she gives up her anchor chair and steven coal bare says he's worried about me. he's the guy that should be worried. that is next.

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time for our digital download. one group has an unusual i high level of abuse. >> tell me about it, men have it worse among public figures overall. but in the media business, female journalists and anchors are three times more likely as men to be on the receiving end of abusive messages. i had a death threat and many other names that i cannot bring up here on television. you have to learn to take it in stride, it's the neighborhood.

as you said, a very rough neighborhood. it does give you pause and it makes you not want to go on twitter. i would much rather go on facebook where i choose the friends that i can have on my page, as opposed to a free for all. >> the swexual taunts, you're fat, you're ugly, here's what i want to do to you. but i also wonder if it is designed to intimidate. of course it's designed to intimidate. but intimidate by getting journalists -- female journalists not to be journalists, i don't know if that's the case, i think that it's just to get journalists to stop -- or female journalists to stop being uppity and saying what they think. >> so-called slult shaming by other men happens almost as much

as men. and women using words like rape, slut and whore. >> you creep, i can't even saying anything bad enough. women need to stick together as opposed to attacking each other for things like this. it's part of the media landscape now and that's really sad. your best tweelts, the feel-good college football that's crashed and burned and the pounding sound not heard in newsrooms in a very long time. h. h

>> labor day weekend takes a terrifying turn as lightning strikes a popular beach. >> voom, like a bomb blew up.

>> we seen people lift up and people running. >> three poem were hit. what will the weather be like today? maria molina tracks it all. >> tony stewart welcomes back to racing with a standing ovation. his run ends early. we are live with him going back on track. >> jihadists gone wild. this is spring break in cancun as a booed filled party in libya.

♪ >> "the boys of summer". send up your photos of your summer plan of what you are doing this summer or even summers in the past. we will show them on the show. this is labor day monday morning. i am ainsley earhardt. >> i can't believe it. summer we know the by way too fast. >> not over yet. >> not quite. we start with an extreme weather as lightning strikes three people on a bronx beach in new york. a father and his 19-year-old son were taking shelter under a tree when a bolt hit. >> take a look at this photo. the lightning so powerful it actually shredded their clothes. >> it was really loud. like voom can like a bomb blew up. >> lightning hit the water. >> it hit the water or the sand. you can see like