on our buzz meter, the campaign turns tabboid, with three days to go before the third and final debates, and a spate of stories of women accusing donald trump of sexual misconduct, and he denounced the media and threatens to sue the "new york times." >> he was like an octopus. it was like he had six arms. he was all over the place. when he started putting his hand up my skirt, and that was it. that was it. i was out of there. >> and so now we address the slander and libels that was just last night thrown at me by the clinton machine and the "new york times" and other media outlets. these vicious claims about me of

inappropriate conduct with women are totally and absolutely false. >> the one on the airplane, every guy and woman will say, i can't believe it. >> it's disgusting. and what struck me about that story is when the "new york times" reporter confronted trump about it, he screamed at her said and you're a horrible person, which is just classic abusive behavior. >> the truth is victims of sexual assault, victims of rape, of unwanted groping they often don't come forward. they're humiliated. especially back in the day, they were told move along, it happens all the time, you have to take it. >> i'm skeptical about the timing of all this. talk about an october surprise. >> on the heels of trump's war of words with paul ryan and other republican leaders, is the press all but writing him off? hillary clinton damaged by hacked e-mails from wikileaks that shows dispassengering remarks, collusion with the state department and coziness with some journalists, but are

the media playing this out with the groping allegations against trump. >> and how will both candidates fare in las vegas against the first general election moderator from fox, chris wallace. plus, i go behind the scenes with one of the creators of the showtime program "the circus." >> donald trump has just put his finger on the nuclear button. >> what a circus. i'm howard kurtz and this is "media buzz." >> the questions about donald trump and sexual misbehavior that have dominated the media first erupted after the "access hollywood" tape showed him speaking about groping women, and anderson cooper raised it in last sunday's debate. >> that is sexual assault. you bragged you have sexually assaulted women. do you understand that? >> i didn't say that at all. this was locker room talk. >> now, the "new york times" is

quoting one woman who you saw earlier as saying trump groped her on a plane more than 35 years ago, and another who said he kissed her on the lips. trump hits by at the reporters bringing up a past story on his misconduct to women. >> now today, the same two discredited writers who should have been fired from the "new york times" for what they did, tell another totally fabricated and false story that supposedly took place on an airplane more than 30 years ago. >> "people" magazine writer natasha stoynoff said trump pushed her against a wall and kissed her and said they would be having an affair. this, according to her as she was interviewing donald trump and his pregnant wife on their first anniversary. >> i asked a very simple question. why wasn't it part of the story that appeared 20 or 12 years

ago? why wasn't it part of the story? why didn't they make it part of the story? i was one of the biggest stars on television with "the apprentice." you take a look, look at her, look at her words. you tell me what you think. i don't think so. >> on friday, the "washington post" posted an interview with a woman who said trump once groped her at a nightclub, and a former "apprentice" contestant said trump accosted her. >> the person on my right unbeknownst to me at the time was donald trump, put their hand up my skirt. >> he grabbed my shoulder and began kissing me again very aggressively and placed his hand on my breast. i pulled back and walked to another part of the room. he then walked up, grabbed my hand, and walked me into the bedroom. >> trump forcefully denying both accounts as well as the early ones. joining us now, heidi przybyla, senior political reporter at usa

today. guy benson, a fox news contributor, and krystal ball, a senior fellow at the new leaders council. these stories about trump and the women's accusations have utterly dominated the media. are news outlets going a bit overboard? >> there's no doubt we have gone full tabloid. i myself like a lot of americans thought i can't stand to watch that videotape one more time. the reason why is because the accounts of the women is almost hauntingly match what donald trump said he himself does to women, and also the sheer volume of the women who are now coming out. look, the american people -- >> trump, by the way, said it was locker room talk with billy bush 11 years ago. >> the american people say i want substance, a debate about the issues. i'm there with thel. i agree with them, but the problem is the history of our politics say we care about this stuff and care a laupt about it. i covered every gop campaign since 2000. if you ask gop voters what they hate most about the clintons.

ritzit's the economic policies. it's this behavior. this is something -- >> donald trump says this is all orchestrated by the dishonest media and the clinton campaign to stop him. is that fair? and are his attacks on the accusers and the media fueling the story? >> i think that it's probably unfair to say that, and of course, his attacks are fueling the story. but he has to defend himself. he's going to defend himself. >> he's entitled to defend himself. >> of course. >> but when he says coordinated media assault, do you find that unfair p. >> this is probably some coordination. >> with who? >> i think you probably have people waiting to tell their story, and then the dam is burst now that the video came out, the biggest problem for him aside from the allegations, some of which i think are pretty credible, is he's on tape saying this is what i do to women, and then women are coming forward and saying eyes, he did that to me. i think it's totally reasonable

at the same time to believe it's a legitimate story that deserves coverage and also believe it is getting too much coverage. >> they are legitimate stories because the women are on the record. at the same time, it seems like there's no other issue. let me read a tweet from trump. election being rigged by the media, pushing false and unsubstantiating charges. is there any fact that the mead withdraw is pushing this. they're certainly receptive to these stories. they're juicy and provide ratings. >> you had every day last week including yesterday and perhaps today, a new woman coming forward and saying the exact same thing happened to me. let's keep in mind the media outlets didn't throw up any old accuser. they had contemporaneous folks they had spoken with 10 and 20 and 30 years ago when it happened that were also interviewed. so if this is a conspiracy, you're talking about basically every major national media

organization in the country and women who really do have documented interactions with him. it's insane. >> they have told other people -- it's hard to know, let's be clear, whether these are true, but the fair and skeptical journalist will say why did some of these women wait until the final month of the election to come forward with stories. >> as a journalist, you always have to question the motive of people who are giving you information. that said, i do think that journalists have done a wonderful job in vetting these women, like karen actually wrote a separate piece. >> at the "washington post." >> saying the lengths she would have gone to to vet the woman including tracking her voter registration card, going back to the nightclub where this alle d allegedly happened confirming trump was a frequent guest at the club, that it was very crowded. some of these women, yes, happen to be hillary clinton supports. others don't. it's kind of been lying with the polls. and it's also the media's responsibility to point out in

many cases like this, we see the same dam effect, when there is something at stake, like with the bill cosby case, there was the case, and then the dam broke and all these women came forward. >> in one case, the trump campaign gave to the "new york post" a guy named anthony who was supposed to be the witness to knock down the tale of jessica leeds who said she was groped on the airplane decades ago. this guy has baggage because he went public with a claim a couple years ago that he procured boys for sex parties with politicians. when we get down into the weeds, it gets ugly. >> this entire episode is ugly as this entire election has been. again, when it goes to motive and timing and the press' coverage of both those things, i think it's totally reasonable and understandable at least for republican voters to say oh, my gosh, look at this. we're now in october of a presidential year. all of a sudden these women who had not been heard from at all until just now, they all happen

to come out at the same time. >> it looks like piling on. >> it does, but i would say on the counterpoint to that is, i think that the triggering incident was a question asked by anderson cooper at the presidential debates saying, okay, mr. trump, you say this is locker room talk. what you're describing is assault. did you actually ever follow through and act on that talk? and he denied it in front of 70-plus million people. i can understand why some women would say, wait, that's a lie w. he did do this to me. >> seven days ago, i was in st. louis waiting for the debate when donald trump put on a press conference with juanita brodrick, kathleen willey, paula jones, they later appeared with sean hannity this week. let's take a quick look at that. >> as the mainstream media been receptive to asking you three about your stories? >> oh, definitely not. >> nobody? >> no. >> nobody asked. >> nobody has asked? the "new york times" never called you. >> no. not until we went into the trump

spin room. >> a number of journalists came out and said they had contacted some of these women and were not able to reach them. other have been interviewed. and of course, this goes back to the '90s. if the trump campaign's position in the press is that it is unfair to quote all these women accusing donald trump of various kinds of misconduct. what about the fact that trump himself is trotting out bill clinton's accuser as he did at the news conference? >> it just undermines their argument, a, that allegations from the past shouldn't matter, and b, that these women should be discarded and not listened to. in terms of the timing and in terms of whhow the media has covered the story regarding clinton. this was extensively covered in the '90s. the news media typically covers what's new. there have been stories, large stories in the "washington post" and "new york times" going over the allegations. >> i want to note something really quick. juanita brodrick took years to come forward.

she said the reason why waw because he's a powerful man, and she was afraid about the kind of influence. >> this is the same for many women and many women never come forward because of that. >> that also lends credibility to juanita brodrick. i was sitting at the media room in the debate in st. louis when the debate was happening with the bill clinton accusers and i could feel people talking about it saying isn't this so unseemly what trump is doing? how about the accusations against bill clinton? >> brodrick once gave a deposition saying no rape had taken place and this is untrue. but the is a thing we're talking about 1978, and in trump's case, something that goes back 35 years. now, we have a debate coming up in las vegas. moderated by chris wallace, the first fox journalist to do that in a general election. let's take a brief look at his conversation with bret baier. >> you haven't seen anything like this? >> no, because i have never seen a candidate like donald trump. that's what makes this so fascinating and what's made the

debates, and you know this from the three that we did, so challenging. >> what's the challenge for chris wallace, particularly with all these personal allegations swirling around? and of course, he's going to have to deal with them in some form. >> he's going to try to have a debate about substance, but he has to answer the allegations. he has to get trump in a way no journalist has to drill down on this. also with hillary clinton to drill down on wikileaks because she hasn't -- some of the most damaging stuff in there she hasn't had to really answer for. though, he has a good template from the past debate, which is it is good to allow the candidates to just engage each other and not try to stop and check them. >> we put up the "time" cover, which is complete meltdown, and on the sort side, we have a "time" cover from a few month ago, which was meltdown. guy, 26 days left in the election campaign, he has a minuscule chance of winning. donald trump is in full black

helicopter mode, meaning conspiracy theory. the coverage and alleged news story is turning against him. >> shockingly, we get to the general election, and the same media that lavished billions of dollars on free air time in the primary turns on the republican nominee. >> he gave more interviews. >> they also carried his rallies live. >> the whole business of trump, no business to win, the "washington post"/abc poll out today says four-point lead for hillary clinton. still tight, folks. e-mail us. stick to the media. when we come back, katrina pierson responds on behalf of the trump campaign. >> later, is the drip, drip, drip of hacked e-mails hurting hillary clinton or is the press playing it down? ♪ everything your family touches sticks with them. make sure the germs they bring home don't stick around.

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national spoke s national spoke pokeswoman, ckat piers pierson. donald trump is denying the accusations of nine women. do you believe it's unfair for media outlets to publish or brought cast these on the record accusations? >> well, i absolutely believe this is unfair considering how one of the initial women, the lady on the airplane, has already changed her story. many of these women weren't vetted. now we see other individuals coming forward like perhaps a witness, other miss teen usa members who aren't seeing the light of day. >> when it came to and comes to now the women who have accused bill clinton of various kinds of sexual assault and misconduct, kathleen willey, paula jones, waw needa brodrick and others, you told megyn kelly in may

those women are fair game because we're talking about hillary clinton's conduct and it's relevant. how can women making accusations which i don't know definitively aren't true, how can their accounts not be fair game as well? >> well, this whole concept of someone going after someone, and this was not litigated back then. the threats, the slashing of tires, the hurting of pets, the releasing of naked photo threats, those were want brought to the forefront. these are just allegations. these are simply just allegations. as i said. there have been witnesses that have come forward. there are other people that were around during that time that came forward. some of the incidents like the one at the concert, there wasn't even a concert at that date. those are the things i'm talking about as far as vetting of the allegations. we can talk about allegations all day long, including with hillary clinton, but some of these things haven't been fleshed out and vetted. specifically with the coverage of this is absolutely

ridiculous. yes, this is blown way out of proportion, but we know through the revelations of wikileaks that the "new york times" has been colluding with the clinton campaign. >> we'll deal with that in a later segment. we'll play for you how one of your top surrogates, ben carson, responded to questions about this. >> are you saying these women are lying? >> that's your characterization because you need to characterize it that way to try to make me the bad guy. >> no, no, no. you just -- it's a question. >> stop, stop, stop, stop. stop, stop. can you turn her microphone off, please? >> no. >> it doesn't matter whether they're lying or not. >> katrina, it doesn't matter whether they're lying or not. they're saying one thing and donald trump is forcefully and vehemently denying their accounts. >> well, what you just saw was typical of the other networks. any time a trump supporter or surrogate goes on those netwo

networks, they are immediately cut off when you want to talk about policy or when you don't agree with the narrative they want you to participate in. with regard to what ben carson said about lying, they made it personal. that's what they do. he was just simply stating mr. trump's position on that. it's not the job of the anchor to attack the one being questioned. their personal opinion. we're talking about mr. trump. he has come out and said these allegations are not true, and we take him at his word. >> so donald trump called reporters for the "new york times" corporate lobbyist for carlos slim. what evidence is there that carlos slim has anything to do with the newsroom decisions of the "times." ? >> that's a great job and task for journalists to find out. this is also something that we have seen a lot. there are personal vendettas against mr. trump, and specifically with one of the allegations of the women who recently came forward regarding her restaurant. mr. trump has had to release

e-mails of some of these women accusing him of being a sexist or doing inappropriate things as recent as april, she was praising him and wanting him to come visit her restaurant. if you have been sexually assaulted by someone, why is this a revelation 33 days out from the election. >> what trump is saying is the corporate media is against him and there's a global special interests are against him. some critics are saying rigged election, and conspiracy theories. >> it's not a conspiracy. wikileaks has already released documents showing hillary clinton has a very public opinion when it comes to the global banks versus her private opinion in helping them as well as the media colluding against mr. trump, it's been revealed in wikileaks and the reason we're not talking about it is because they would rather try to crucify mr. trump. >> thank you for joining us this sunday. >> great to be here. >> up next, more wikileaks f

fallout as a cnn common tear frontry with the camp. and a different view on the algazes against donald trump. you can run an errand. (music playing) ♪ push it real good... (announcer vo) or you can take a joyride. bye bye, errands, we sing out loud here. siriusxm. road happy. for the best deals on electronics, travel, even shoes. so why not loans? visit lendingtree.com today and get up to five free loan offers from competing lenders in under two minutes. then pick the best deal on mortgage loans, auto loans, personal loans, and a whole lot more. if you choose a loan, the lender pays us. that's how lendingtree® is completely free for you. and it's so easy you can do it right from your phone, right now. lendingtree®. when banks compete, you win.

(announcer vo) you can go straight home. (howard stern on radio) welcome to show business. (announcer vo) or you can hear the rest of howard. bababooey! (announcer vo) sorry, confused neighbors, howard's on. siriusxm. road happy. those who say some media folks are too cozy with theclipten campaign just got new ammunition based on the batches of hacked e-mails disclosed by wikileaks. donna brazile, the dnc's vice chair sent an e-mail to clinton's camp before a town hall. from time to time, i get the questions in advance. here's one that worried me. it involved the death penalty, when her citing these statistics. 156 people have been on death row and set free. since 1976, 1,414 people have been executed in the u.s. here's what was asked at the forum by roland martin who had e-mailed his questions in advance to cnn.

>> since 1976, we have executed 1,414 people in this country, since 1973, 156 who were districted have been exonerated from death row. >> brazile now the acting democratic chair and on leave from cnn told me she was flabbergasted by this. she couldn't explain the reference to advanced questions in her e-mail, and cnn is pointed the finger at tv one for the apparent leak. jake tapper calling the whole episode horrifying and unethical. it also includes john harwood, who drew plenty of negative reviews last year for the way he treated donald trump at the debate moderator. >> let's be honest. is this a comic book version of a presidential campaign? >> now we learn weeks after the debate, harwood ripped the arens in an e-mail to john podesta. quote, i imagine obama feels some sad vindication at this demonstration of his years-long

point about the opposition party veering off the rails. i certainly am feeling that way with respect to how i question trump at our debate. in a message to podesta after the clinton e-mail scandal broke, he said if there's any specific plausible suggestion of nefarious e-mail hillary clinton was trying to hide, i haven't heard it. reporters like him attempt to build relationships with campaign officials to get scoops and interviews. harwood did try to book podesta. >> ahead, nbc getting ready to dump billy bush. is he made a scapegoat? first, the accusations against donald trump fueling journalistic soul searching from women. we'll look at that in a moment.

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fairness, but also winlen, their own experiences with sexual assault and how they respond. >> ironically, mika has had experienced with some people who right now are going out and being very self-righteous and with leaders of news organizations that are going out being very self-righteous. and by journalistic gods who are being very self-righteous over the past several weeks. >> i had experiences like that in washington. i was a page on capitol hill. my parents prepared me for men like this. >> joining us, mollie hemingway, and amy, a former columnist at the "washington post." amy, you had experiences like this? have friends of yours? if so, does it change the way you look at the allegations by the women involving donald trump? >> friends of mine have had experiences like this. i think you're seeing a lot of women talk about this, write about this, sharing their experiences on social media. you know, it's interesting. i think we got flashbacks to the bill cosby situation as this

began to unfurl, like an avalanche, really, of different tiers, seeing women find something relatable in the situation. with the cosby allegations, it was somewhat more exotic, people drugged and raped. here, you're talking about women who have been groped, have had aggressive sexual passes made at them. >> unwanted kisses. >> that's something a lot of people have experienced. then a lot of people are sharing their stories now. >> maollie, ruth marcus in her column, the hand began to creep lower and lower down my shirt. natasha stoynoff who published her account said i was ashamed, blamed myself. i minimized it, i was afraid of being discredited. do female journalists look at this differently because of some personal experiences they or they frerndz have had? >> female journalists are

frequently dealing with wealthy and powerful men. sometimes that correlates to sexual entitlement. female journalists encounter this as all other women do. that has to play a role in how they're covering the story. >> kelly oxford wrote, tweet me your first assault. she talked about being grabbed on the bus when she was 12. 27 million people visited her page or responded. i'm getting the impression as a guy this struck a deep cord. >> absolutely. you talk about workplace incidents, but here we're talking about a full range of things. things women experience when they're children or teenagers or whether it happened to them in the work place or walking down the street, and you see a lot of women reflecting upon too is the tend nlsy to remain silent. we all like to think we would throw an elbow, we would yell, and that's not what happened. i think that's why there's a lot of wimb coming forward much later who didn't speak about it before except maybe to a couple friends because that's the

truth. women are disinclined to make a fuss. they think they won't be believed. they think it's not worth the hassle. >> or there will be a backlash or whatever. let's talk now about the accusations by these women against donald trump and how much media attention it's getting. do you see a difference, mollie, in the level of sympathy there was or was not in the case for paula jones and kathleen willey and juanita broaddrick. those incidents were talked about and debated almost 20 years ago. >> i don't think the time difference is as significant as the political difference. there's a big problem with how we cover the stories. i don't get the sense that journalists are concern about the sexual exploitation of women so much as using this as a way to push a political these are issues women deal with whether or not there's a presidential election going on and they should be covered a bit less -- there's so much enthusiasm going into this story, and it doesn't seem like it's genuinely out of concern

for women so much as a wito bludgeon donald trump. >> you're saying you believe that as opposed to when bill clinton was sort of given a pass by a lot of feminists and some in the meadio, although he did get impeached over monica lewinsky and related lies,reaso have fully embraced the accounts by the women is because they don't like donald trump and he's a republican. is that fair? >> i don't think there's any question that the media are at odds with donald trump and they will use anything. journalistically speaking, one of the things that is challenging about the story is when dealing with claims of sexual assault, you're usually dealing with private instances which are very difficult to veri verify, and a lot of people are going with single source stories. that not a typical journalistic practice to go with one source to make a claim. you wouldn't see that happening against steve jobs or bill gates or something like that. we should be careful to be covering the story with the same due diligence we would apply to anyone else. >> i have concerns about the

volume of the coverage. it seems like there's no other issues. you have someone on the record and they provide people and they told this two months ago or years ago. what else can you do? could you not go ahead with the story? >> i'm an editor at the "washington post." i have not been involved in these stories. i wouldn't be surprised if there are a lot of accusations not being reported because journalists don't have the same gut comfort level that they did with the ones that have been coming out. the ones you have been seeing written about, there is an incredible amount of details. like here are five, six people who we have talked to, who say she told us this story contemporaneously. you know, full disclosure. here are the variest legal problems she had in the past. here's her voter registration. >> you do see attempts to do this. the truth is that the nature of this is that it's going to be one word versus another or there's not going to be a story at all. >> on that point, thank you very

much for stopping by. >> coming up, the clinton campaign facing all kinds of embarrassing e-mails in the hacked material, but is the press giving her a pass? >> and later, mark mckinnon of "the circus" uncovering the media circus. ... remember when you said men are superior drivers? yeah... yeah, then how'd i get this... ...allstate safe driving bonus check? ...only allstate sends you a bonus check for every six months you're accident free.

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story? >> it should be a bigger story. what democrats want to talk about is the providence of the documents. these are stolen and possibly russia putting their thumb on the scale of the election. that's a fair point. >> it is fair. if the roles were reversed and the kgb were working against the republican nominee in a presidential election, republicans would be screaming bloody murder and they should, but the time they would spend so much time sucking their thumbs about how the information came to the public, i don't buy that. >> we have john podesta talking about needa latinos. jennifer palmieri, who is catholic, writing about whether catholicism is the most socially acceptable religion for rich people. how is it that, are these routine political embarrassments or is the press judging that it's not that big a deal or something else? >> there press has made a

judgment that there are only so many hours in a day and so much space in a paper. >> and all that has to be devoted to donald trump's problems? >> when you have a new woman coming out alleged sexual assault every day, a massive october surprise every day, and these things were covered. if you look in the papers today, they're covered extensively. >> very little on television. >> that's true because these are salacious claims and they get ratings. also, if this was any other election, even the primary campaign, you would see a lot more coverage because it was a more normal season. now you have things that are outlandish and unprecedented every day, and by the way, the russian piece of this is outlandish and unprecedented and that part is also being undercovered. >> heidi, even political stuff in here, i came across this one. ne neera tanden, hillary adviser, talking about his inability to do a national interview and communicate genuine feels of remorse and regret is now, i fear, becoming a character

problem more so than honesty. people see her as arrogant, but i think it's the truth. so you looked at a lot of these. do they deserve more media attention? >> that is the problem, is just the sheer volume of it. i still think that these -- a lot of these like the e-mail you just cited confirm what everybody's worst suspicions are about washington and about politicians, which is that they're very calculated in the messages that they craft, but there's no single smoking bomb. i think the most important story is the initial leak about her speeches and the focus on the open borders and immigration. >> speeches to big wall street firms. >> i know that chris wallace will come through in terms of pressuring her on this. >> i think a lot of it is the sheer volume. i'm glad to see you make a distinction between broadcast and print as a member of the print news media because we're doing our best to go through all

these e-mails and do regular updates. >> most stories on the front page are about trump. finally, in the debate, trump saying because you would be in jail. and you know, i'm going to ask for a special prosecutor if i win. to reopen the fbi investigation. do you think that's a significant story or political rhetoric? >> i think you saw democrats demanding that senator tom cotton potentially get thrown into prison for the letter he wrote to the iranian regime about the iran deal. i think this happens on both sides. i think the fainting couches from the press over that, especially trump talked about a special prosecutor. he wasn't talking about -- >> but then he said you would be in jail. which is different. >> out of time. thanks, panel. >> after the break, former bush and mccain strategist mark mckinnon on the tabloid turn in the race. you might even call it a circus.

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i was at the second debate in st. louis last sunday when mark mckinnon, former republican strategist spotted me. next thing i knew, thing i knew front of the camera for the serkus, his behind-the-scenes campaign chronicle that airs sunday nights on showtime. and i was asked about the just released "access hollywood" tape of donald trump and billy bush that was dominating the coverage. >> there's really no question this was a very disturbing and damaging tape for donald trump to come out from 2005. but in the last few days it has not only been the dominant story of the campaign it's been the dominant story of our lives. everyone is talking about it. you could not get away from it. it's on minute after minute after minute. forget the hurricane. forget hillary clinton. i think there's some media overkill going on here. >> we'll see if i make the cut. i spoke to mckinnon earlier from new york. >> mark mckinnon, welcome. >> hey, howie, how are you? >> doing great. as an old political message guy,

what's the impact on acampaign like trump's when you get hit boom, boom, boom with media stories about women saying he groped them, he kissed them when they didn't want to? how does a campaign get rocked like that? >> well, it's just leek you're in a boxing ring and you're getting hit with a flurry of punches. and you know, look around, you're on the canvas looking up. it's very tough. i mean, i was remembering back to 2000 we got hit with a dwi just a few days out from the election and that put us in crisis mode. but this campaign in the last week as we talked about at the debate, never seen anything like it, nothing close. it's just one allegation, one revelation after another. you know, there's tapes and women on one side, e-mails on the other. usually a week would go by in a normal campaign. in this campaign it's a matter of minutes before we see new news breaking. >> is it fair to question why some of these women came forward now to outlets like "the new york times" and "people" magazine? obviously trump is saying this is unfair and even coordinated.

>> well, sure, it's a fair question. but i think there are also -- it's fair to get the responses to that. and i think a lot of the women would say, are saying that this is not something they're proud of, they're embarrassed by it, but that they were inspired to do this when donald trump went on television in the debate and said that no, he had never actually physically assaulted anybody. and they're sitting there watching that and saying well, no, wait a minute, i was. >> but now that this is front and center, is it equally fair game for the media to dig and excavate the bill clinton sex scandals and some of his accusers from the '80s and '90s? >> well, i mean, anything's fair game that the campaigns put into play if it's relevant to the election. if it's relevant to the accusations. we are clawing our way to the bottom here. it's you know, who can provide the most salacious material. and unfortunately for the voters, it's diverting any attention away from anything close to policy. i mean, i think -- what's going

to happen now, these allegations get sort of cosby-like, meaning that some women come out, which gives safety and comfort for others to come out. they feel like it's okay now because others have. so i suspect we'll see others come out. and then as donald trump said perhaps there will be more women alleging bill clinton intersections. and then we'll have wikileaks on the e-mail. so i think it's pretty much sex and e-mails for the rest of the campaign. >> let's talk about "the circus." has chronicling the campaign in real-time, as you have been doing, changed your view of the media and the way they cover campaigns since you're now behind the camera? >> it's been fascinating, howie. as you know, i've been on the other end of the camera, but i've always thought there were fascinating things going on in particularly presidential campaigns, behind the scenes. characters, drama, humor, pathos that the public never sees, including by the way not just the campaign behind the scenes but the media behind the scenes. and we had a great show last week where we were behind the scenes at fox with megyn kelly

is. and i discovered that it's as stressful doing what you guys do as what we do in the campaign. >> i could have told you that. that's not a revelation to me. >> well, no, of course not for you. >> when you worked for george w. bush and john mccain i'm sure you felt you weren't always getting a fair break from the media. do you think now looking at it from both sides, political operative and now a media guy yourself, that there is a decided marked liberal bias in the way the press covers these campaigns? >> i've always felt, howie, that there is a bias toward conflict, that the press just gravitates toward conflict. listen, i know not just -- i know anecdotally but also from all the people that i've dealt with that -- i don't know the number. 75% or more of the press are probably democrats. and it's hard to -- you know, it's hard to cover some inclination that you have. but you know, this is the big leagues and republicans know going in -- we knew -- george bush knew there was a bias against him.

and we just dealt with it. you don't whine about it, you don't complain, you don't call the refs on it, you just go out there and put your best team on the field and give it your best shot. >> a good philosophy for political campaigning. mark mckinnon of "the circus" obviously having a good time. thanks for joining us. >> kick it hard, howie. thanks. >> still to come, there's another big loser tossed aside by the trump tornado this week, billy bush. mother in-law with a keen sense of smell... glad bag, full of trash. what happens next? nothing. only glad has febreze to neutralize odors for 5 days. guaranteed. even the most perceptive noses won't notice the trash. be happy. it's glad. people would ask me that we traveled,ntries what is your nationality and i would always answer hispanic. so when i got my ancestry dna results it was a shocker. i'm from all nations. it puts a hunger in your heart to want to know more.

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[ gears stopping ] when your pain reliever stops working, your whole day stops. try this. but just one aleve has the strength to stop pain for 12 hours. tylenol and advil can quit after 6. so live your whole day, not part... with 12 hour aleve. billy bush, the "today" show co-host, is getting the boot from nbc. this after the leaking of that 11-year-old "access hollywood" tape of him egging on donald trump in their crude talk about women. >> the girl's hot as [ bleep ] in the purple. >> whoa. whoa. >> yes, the donald is good. my man. >> the legs. >> looks good. >> we're ready. let's go. make me a soap star. >> how about a little hug for

donald? he just got off the bus. >> pending further review of the matter nbc news has suspended billy bush, the host of "today's" third hour, for his role in that conversation with donald trump. >> bush apologized, saying he was embarrassed and ashamed and was foolish to play along with trump. but it wasn't enough. my sources say nbc has essentially fired bush and both sides are negotiating a lucrative settlement. now, the punishment seems a little harsh for a hollywood guy who, let's face, it his job on that day was to keep the guest happy. but today is a new show and billy bush's presence there simply became untenable. that's it for this edition of "mediabuzz." i'm howard kurtz. we hope you'll visit our facebook page, give us a like. we post a lot of original content there including responding to your questions. mediabuzz@foxnews.com. questions or comments about the media. mediabuzz@fox news.com. @howardkurtz. i'm heading out to las vegas for the third and final present debate, this one moderated by fox's chris wallace. i've said long before i came to fox that chris wallace is one of the best interviewers in the business. he's going to have his work cut

out for him with aggressive questions for both trump and clinton. be sure to check that out. we're back here next sunday, 11:00 a.m. eastern. see you then for the latest buzz. it is 12:00 noon here in new york. it's 9:00 a.m. in las vegas. we are only days before the final showdown in vegas. two brand new bombshells dropping on the clinton campaign. a first look at her speeches to wall street executives and accusations of dirty dealings with the fbi. and plus we've got some new national poll numbers out as well today. special sunday edition of america's newsroom. where else would we be? i'm bill hemmer. how are you? >> good morning. i'm martha maccallum. we're regular time in vegas. we're on at 9:00 a.m. they're thinking is it monday? it is sunday. and we've got the latest round of e-mails from wikileaks. hillary clinton appears sympathetic in some of these to the big wall street firms she is speaking to. before she