great week and we'll see you next "fox news sunday." ♪ ♪ howie: on the buzz beater this morning, we talk to sean spicer for the first time as president trump is making a blizzard of headlines from jobs to immigration even as the media accuses him of make falsehoods about voting. >> it's a stunning allegation for which the white house is providing no evidence. there is no evidence it's not true. >> the white house has provided

no news to back up these claims of widespread voter fraud anywhere in america. >> the white house is talking about alternative facts or misinformation pore frankly unverifiable claims. all in an attempt it seems to essentially apeets the boss. >> either the president believes something that is false or he doesn't believe it or is using this to explain why he did not win the popular vote. either way, the president is spreading a falsehood. howie: should the meade why be calling the president a liar. as chaos breaks out in airports over the security checks. what about the president calling the media the opposition party. as for sean spicer -- >> is it your intention to

always tell the truth from that podium and will you pledge no never say anything that's not factual. >> yes. i think sometimes we can disagree with the facts. howie: we ask him about his contentious relationship with the media. plus -- >> you have got spunk. >> well, yes. >> i hate spunk. howie: mary tyler noor inspired a generation of journalists. i'm howard kurtz and this is "mediabuzz." president trump has hit back hard against the press and sean spicer has been on the front lines. the president made his fun verified claim about millions voting illegally in the

election. the press hit back hard. >> what evidence do you have of widespread voter fraud in this election if that's the case. >> the president does believe that. i think the president has believed that based on studies and for has. >> i wonder if you believe that. howie: it was a little chaotic with one camera in a noisy briefing room when i caught up with the press secretary. the president said he views the press as the opposition party and they are actively trying to defeat him. >> what p when you look at it, it's not an objective look at he's done. there is a constant scepticism. when you look at the president's

candidacy and his first week in office. the default should be what can't he do, not what will he do. howie: you are entitled to push back against unfair coverage. this seems to go farther and almost define the media like the enemy. >> there are stories and journalists who start out with a negative disposition on how they are going to cover the president and his actions. howie: you yourself said you are going to hold the media accountable towards what you call irresponsible behavior. it's been reported president trump strongly encouraged you to deliver those lines. >> i don't divulge 24579 conversations. howie: you have taken a lot of heat for your handling of the

president's claim that he believes 5 million people voted illegally. but you kept saying, that's what he believes. >> that's what he believes. how * you didn't want to embrace it yourself. >> that's not my nobody. it's my nobody to be his spokesperson and articulate his vision, ideas, successes. and in this case what he believes. howie: if the president points to a pew study that there is illegal voting, and the author of the study said we didn't say that, we talked about registration rolls. isn't it fair to point that out? >> sure. but the president talked about the need for an executive order to look into this. we have millions people registered twice. when you look at the integrity of our voting system, the

question should be why aren't we doing this. our right to vote, one man, one person, one vote, it's the bedrock of our democracy. it's what our country is built on. the idea that we wouldn't take this seriously its something that should be asked. when someone goes to vote and wait in line they need to know their vote is equal to the person in front of them or in back of them. the "new york times" and "the washington post." >> that goes back to your first question about opposition party. it's one thing to state an opinion or to state, hey, here's what he said and here's what the facts show. but when they come out and say he lied. they have no evidence that certain things don't exist. the president said the other day that we had the largest used yerns. when you start combining the

ratings, people who watched on live television. live streaming on twitter and other places. so far i haven't had one person come back to me with number to the refute that, think of it. someone in the briefing room threw out ronald reagan. last time i checked in 1984 we didn't have youtube and the internet. how rrp you think they are acting like an opposition party? >> they the media makes a mistake they write a correction at the bottom. when the administration has a difference of opinion they call it a lie. they scrutinize every point which is fair. but it's interesting how it's a one-way street. howie: on a personal level when some journalists write this week has tarnished your credibility,

does that bother you have? >> no, i have the confidence of the president and i feel good when i go to sleep at night that i'm working opening an agenda that's lifting families you have and making this country safer. i believe in his agenda and what he's going to do. i know when i walk out i'm articulating his success and abilities. how prr the dust-up with mexico, he said the u.s. will begin to pay for this wall. you explained the import tax -- tino the president spoke on friday. >> that conversation was supposed to be 10 minutes long and it went just shy of an hour. howie: the "wall street journal" editorial page said it was amateur hour.

>> when our trade deficit is down and our immigration is fixed, when our border is secure, they might want to revise that. the president made it clear on the economic and national security front that he will take swift action. and that will be to the benefit of every american, every american taxpayer, and every american in terms of safety. it's not just mexicans coming through the southern border. there is also massive economic impact, the copps we are having to spend on immigration because the border is porous. we have a $50 billion a year trade deficit with mexico. that's amount that is currently favoring them, not us. so we can put the american worker back first and foremost. howie: in the past donald trump criticized fox news. right now he seems to like fox.

he tweeted congratulations to fox for having the highest ratings on inauguration day. but he tweeted fake news cnn. >> it's historic. there are folks who have taken the time to give him credit for the executive actions. it's definitely a minority. when i ask reporters privately, what do you think of the week we have had so far. he sat down with union leaders and business owners, car manufacturers. when you have meet with these individuals and ask them how many times were you here in the obama administration. they say never. they will say every day you have had impactful days. howie: why isn't that reflected in the coverage in your view? >> it doesn't get reflected at all in the coverage.

they nitpick and look at whether a word was pronounced right and they are not looking at the successes. the american people are turning on the news and they are not finding out things that are going to impact their lives. but are looking for petty ideas. howie: let show you have not mispronounced any words so far. we just heard sean spicer saying some reporters told him privately the administration is off to a good start by doesn't think it's reflected in the coverage. >> he had a good moment in his briefing where he said it's frustrating and demoralizing to turn on the tv and see this negative coverage. it's why they are going down this road trying to bring in crowd size and voter fraud.

howie: i just caught this this morning. trump's debut was pretty much a debacle but it was a remarkable start. why the gap between the coverage and spicer says reporters -- at least some of them say it's a fast start. >> we have seen through the course of this week, the coverage has gotten better throughout the week. howie: more positive to the white house? >> i think both. monday and tuesday it was petty it was about the media. americans don't want to read about what the media thinks is wrong. what you talked about with axios, it was a dizzying first week. so i think the coverage improved. howie: the coverage has probably been too much about the media. when president trump attacks the

media that's going to generate press. let us know what you think. media bus at

howie: president trump did his first two television interviews this week. he was pressed about his unproven claim that up to 5 million people voted illegally in this election and a study he cite. >> what you have presented so far has been debunked. >> look at the pew reports. >> i called the author of the

pew report and he said they found no evidence. >> then why did he write the report. then he's groveling again. i always talk about the reporters that grovel when they write something you want to hear, but millions of people don't want to hear or have to hear. howie: joining me is guy benson and julie roginsky, a co-host of "outnumbered." howie: the "new york times" headline "trump repeats election lie." >> i have been using you be substantiated claim. sean spicer said famously that trump believes it to be true. but that's not good enough to qualify as the truth. part of it is partisan. if you are a viewer saying how dare you say trump is lying. ask yourself what you would say

fit was president obama saying something over and over for which there was no truth. howie: i'm very, very cautious about the word lie. you are reading someone's mind and know their intent. "the washington post" head fine "trump's disregard for the truth inhibits his ability to govern." >> i agree largely with everything guy said. it happens more often than you might think. i will also say i remember when william sapphire in the 90s called hillary clinton a congenital higher. she because first lady. he made the point and i agree with hip. when you have the president of the united states and his surrogates coming out and saying things they obviously must know not to be true.

record-break attendance at the nomination. howie: a dispute. >> spicer backed off on that in terms of the in-person attendance. >> this goes on and on and on. you have to call it for what it is. if someone is telling you something they know to be incorrect, that's what a dictionary would call a lie. it's appropriate when it merits it. howie: let's talk about. >> the lying president. 1998, bill clinton went before a grand jury and admitted he had a sexual relationship with monica lewinsky. "new york times" looked it up. saying he had misled his wife and public, president clinton admitted he had an intimate

relationship with an intern at wise house. it was not called a lie. so is there a different standard with president trump? >> that was 20 years ago and the media have taken a different tack over the course of the last 20 years, not just the last week. howie: the president was tweeting. ripping "the washington post" and the "new york times." he called the "new york times" fake news. both these papers saying our subject ask descriptions and audience are up, not down. >> he's saying somebody should bite "new york times" and as owner of the "new york times" should tell them how to conduct journalism.

howie: does a president have a right to hitback by what he thinks is unfair coverage? >> that's what he's doing. i share some of the concern julie is voicing. but what some of his supporters would say the "post" and others are not unbiased. they have an ideology. you may not like the phrasing. it may seem heavy hand for a president to say what they are saying. to point out these newspapers clearly have it in for them is legitimate. howie: up next. president trump

howie: the charge of the enemy being in the enemy camp came initially from steve bannon. >> i think the media is the

opposition party in many ways. a big portion of the media, the dishonest yi -- dishonesty and e deceit and deception makes them the opposition party. i think they are much more capable than the opposition party. howie: the press rose up in unison against this. do you think they took the bait? >> let's think about yes said this. reporters believe their job to be adversarial. i don't agree with that. i think our job is to cover, not to fight. the democrats are getting no press. there is a major race for the chairmanship and leadership for that party and nobody cares. howie: are they being more adversarial and prosecutorial when it comes to president trump

as opposed to president obama? >> yes. we had in the previous administration a white house communications director basically said the same thing about this network and there was not the same hue and cry. it is obvious the adversarial press is back and it's good. i think to some extent having an adversarial press is good for a republic. but it wasn't that way under obama because most of the press voted for him and would give him the benefit of the doubt. howie: does the press play into the administration's hands when it makes mistakes like the "times" reporter saying the martin luther king bust was removed from the oval office. president trump said what they

are really saying is, i'm a racist. that story was retracted. >> this plays into their hands and gives him the excuse to paint everybody with the same false brush. i remember having an arm of the press act as an arm of the government in pravda. if he wants the press to look ascans. >> the anybody who criticizes him as misleading. that's not the united states we know. howie: you have gone from him pushing back to the opposition party to saying he wants only adoring coverage. >> when he criticizes the press for doing its job. howie: what about when the press falls down on the job? >> they corrected it in

immediately. they have every right to call him out. that's their job. what they should not do is to tell journalists how to do their jobs. >> the owners were told to pound sand, and donald trump is not the first politician in the world to want good coverage. >> what he wants is coverage that suborns bad beshavor. howie: mary tyler moore not only played a tv producer, but he hood an impact on tv news. trump got into a dust-up with mexico and the coverage has been pretty harsh.

howie: media coverage of president trump's orders on refugees turned.

after the president barred all refugees from entering the u.s. for 90 days to tighten vetting procedures. the new york daily news published his cover with a picture of the statue of liberty and the huffington both showed this dead child on the beach. the press has to cover this froafl policy and all its rasmifications and trump's prove over favoring christians over muslims. but isn't this what he said he would do during the campaign? >> some of the coverage has been bad, some of it has been good. there have been ticktocks how it

went down behind the scene which i finds alarming. '. david french in national review is trying to separate fact from fiction of what is in the order. howie: it says it's about wait was before with obama. >> the one thing i have been alarmed by and frustrated by watching the coverage and reading it is how many reporters are using the shorthand phrase muslim ban. there are returns of millions muslims worldwide not affected by this badge with many muslims who are. i think that's a slotchy way to report it. it's tempting to say muslim ban, before it isn't accurate. howie: he originally said that during the campaign, then modified it. they said he's toast, he won't win the nomination.

turned out they were wrong and public sentiment and are missing those in the country who think this is a good idea. >> definitely i need to just look at my twitter feed to see how many people think this is a good idea. the one thing you can't criticize this president for is not doing exactly as said he was going to do. i think to some extent people in the media and others including liberals who thought donald trump won't be as bad as they thought he would be. they have woken up he's coming through with his promises. you had rudy giuliani on this network saying the president asked me to put together a muslim ban and this is the best we could do. the original intent was to have a muslim ban. howie: do you think many journalists in covering all the things this president was going to do are controversial,

building a wall on the southern border, this immigration ban, kinds of had the feeling, he's saying that in the campaign, he's not really going to do it. but again if he didn't do any of these things the story line would be president failed to deliver. >> exactly. in that sense, you are right. i think a lot of the coverage has been quite good. i think this is forcing so many news organizations to go out into the country and see what the impacts of the policies are. you point out the post saying there is chaos nationwide. there is a lot of chaos and it's important to cover that. howie: people have gone the on air airports and landed at airports in america and were detained. there is a guy who was and i interpreter for in truck for the u.s. military who finds himself

in legal limbo. what about the coverage that is not so good and what is your criticism there? >> i can understands specially in television you want good pictures and good tv. people storming airports and picketing it's good tv. it's not necessarily representative of how most people feel about this. how did this executive order get written. why is it so very sloppy in a lot of ways. it seems like a lot of the relevant lawyers were not consulted which i think is crazy. so then to your point and how the media, damned if you do, damned if you don't. look at the countries who aren't on it. like saudi arabia and pakistan. would anyone rescind their criticism if they were. i don't think so.

>> there were criticisms by sheer coincidence some of the countries that sent terrorists were places where the trump organization had done business. howie: this morning kellyanne conway, sean spirals and reince priebus defending the policy. i didn't hear as many voices yesterday, particularly because pass guy said, there is a tendency to cover the protest and chaos as opposed to -- newspapers acknowledge some people think this is a good idea. >> you have people with green cards, who are american citizens, and they were band. there is a woman with aroundian citizenship who is coming here to do diabetes research at

harvard. the goal is for everybody to prevent terrorism. but you can't ban a class of people in doing that. howie: the statements on building the wall and whether mexico would reimburse the u.s. journalists say that's a bad idea. refugees is a bad idea, and the tone of the conversation -- >> there is no question the press thinks a lot of these ideas are bad. that's clear. i think the president of mexico was made to be a hero after that. howie: in his country at least. >> and the american media showed that. howie: thank you very much for joining us. coming up, sean spicer. more on that interview that president trump spends too much time watching cable news and firing off tweets.

howie: president trump is enjoying media scrutiny and criticism. more on my interview with sean spicer. he seems to be reacting to things he seize on cable news. bill o'reilly reported on a

siewrnlg of violence in chicago and the president said he will send in the feds. >> he's constantly getting briefed on a team of advisers on dough mess like and foreign policy issues. at the end of the day the president is in meetings with staff and advisors about key issues. there are times when he may get triggered, he will say that's right, that's important. but to assume they understand his thinking is short-sighted. howie: do some of these tweets detract from his main message, jobs, trade, immigration? >> sure it does. but by and large, it drives news and success. you look at what he did with carrier, boeing and lockheed.

he saved the taxpayers money and brought jobs back. there is generally criticism in the media about his use of twitter baits shows he can go around the media and get things done. but he can also be successful because there is such a reaction to his message. howie: the media don't like that because they feel cut out of the loop. >> the idea he can have this direct conversation with the american people. congress is going to take up an action. he didn't think it made sense in terms of the level of priority. he tweeted it out and congress read moved the bill from the floor. that shows the power of him and his movement. howie: here in the briefing room you broke the tradition of always starting with the wire service. you started with the right-leaning post. >> my thinking is i think there

are a lot of voices in this briefing room on a daily basis. and each one deserves to have their voices heard. sometimes the tone and subjects that come up earlier can help define what goes on through the briefing. so allowing an organization like cbn, the christian broadcast network, put lot of ideas in play. it helps set the tone. bring up an idea that is not getting the exposure or covering it needs or would get drowned out toward the end. howie: as soon as we wrapped that interview which was put together on the fly. a bunch of reporters descended on sean spicer with quetions and he held a mini gaggle. reporters upset -- protesters upset about the refugee ban

descended on the white house. after the break, a white house correspondent says the president's foreign policy seems to be us first. rodney and his new business. he teaches lessons to stanley... and that's kind of it right now. but rodney knew just what to do...he got quickbooks. it organizes all his accounts, so he knows

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howie: the white house briefing room has been a highly contentious arena. let's talk to someone who covers the beat. after the news conference with theresa may. you wrote the following. the coverage is mostly about president obama.

is guiding philosophy is more trump first. it sounds snarky. >> donald trump is not the first president who placed an emphasis on personal relationships when it comes to foreign policy. and you could have gone back further than that. but what was striking for me sitting in that room was how much when these policy issues came up, donald trump returned to the personal. you got sense when he was asked about putin that his russia policy would be dictated on whether he and the president of russia hit off on a personal level. when he was asked about britain's decision on the brexit vote, donald trump said it was a good idea, and the evidence he gave was he in his past life as a real estate magnate had

trouble getting a deal. howie: explain what you were trying to do on the refugee policy. >> he signed the orders around 4:00. and this was several hours later and none of the press had seen text of the orders. we needed to understand what the text said in order to report on it. we were desperately trying to get the white house to release the text of those orders. howie: you also reported on intern feuding at the white house, who's backing sean spicer, and who's not. given this is not a team of long-time trump backers. >> we went in expecting there to be a ton of rivalries between

steve bannon, and reince priebus and by all accounts they are getting along better. the way trump has the white house set up, he has different power centers. and they are all competing for a slice of donald trump's brain. so at times you see them undermining each other in the press. howie: you heard sean spicer say about reacting to cable news on twitter. he said when the president uses twitter a lot the press corp feels cut out of the loop. >> there is something new about when you are awake at 5:30 a.m., your alarm clock becomes donaldd

trump's twitter feed. the press is just lining the rest of the american public are we are getting what trump is thinking and feeling in real-time via twitter. it may be non-traditional. but we are getting that message. howie: it's hard to cover because there is so much air time and so much ink and people to cover. >> there is a ton of ink coming. at "the washington post" we have a position called the hot seat. one reporter each week is responsible for those tweets and making sure we have everything under control. howie: "nightline" engages in deceptive editing. and the passing of mary tyler moore.

howie: "nightline" engaged in some deceptive editing. here is what they aired after his scolding of the press. >> george w. bush's press secretary ari fleischer said spicer shouldn't have delivered unprovable falsehoods. >> it looks to me as if the ball was dropped saturday. howie: but fleischer complained. this what he actually said it looks as if the ball was dropped friday spicer recovered it and ran for a touchdown monday. they are fixing the piece online to include his full comments online. the white house put out a

statement asking that the president's children be allowed to grow up outside the political spotlight in response to an snl writer posting a sick joke about president obama's son barron and guns. >> for nbc do attack my 10-year-old son is a disgrace. howie: . she apologized and was suspended. like everybody in america i love mary tyler moore. from the daves when she was mary richard working for lou granted. it was then that she helped redefine the cultural boundries for a single career woman who could stand up to the boss. >> could you answer the questions as i asked them. >> you asked personal questions that don't have a thing to do

with my qualifications for this job. howie: when she dried this week i was struck by how many female journalists said she inspired them. >> it was during an impressionable time in my life. she is an independent woman pursuing a career. and i thought, why not, why couldn't i do the same thing? reporter: the actress said she was a libertarian centrist who watched a lot of fox news. thanks for joining us. hope you lining our facebook page. check out my news abuse segment. it's something we do every monday night with tucker carlson on his show. let's continue the conversation on twitter at howard kurtz.

back here next sunday, hope to see you then with the latest buzz.