howie: donald trump says mainstream news organizations are the enemy after the most extraordinary attack on the media ever unleashed on the media by the president of the united states. >> it's all fake news. the "new york times" wrote a big long front page story yesterday and it was have much discredited. the "wall street journal" did a story that was almost as disgraceful as the failing "new york times" story. i watch cnn. thrilts so much anger and hatred.

we have to find out what's going on. the level of dishonesty is out of control. howie: did trump store points against what he calls the failing media. what about the commentators accusing him of being unhinged. michael flynn raised questions about the trump campaign. >> michael flynn, general flynn is a wonderful man. i think he has been treated very unfairly by the media, as i call it the fake media in many cases. howie: how can trump complain about fake news when he fired the guy. and are leaks from inside the administration fueling these stories? the "new york times" reporter who called the first lady a hooker and got called out by a

hollywood star. this pills r -- this is "mediabuzz." if you were watching that 77-minute presidential news conference the other day you could not turn it off. >> the public doesn't believe you people anymore. maybe i had something to do with that, i don't know. tomorrow you will say donald trump rants and raves. but i'm not ranting and raichg. i love this. i'm having a good time doing this. howie: joining us. mollie hemingway and ruth marcus editorial page editor at "the washington post." he did predict the headlines about ranting and raving.

>> the media are playing right into his hands, because top of every newscast was about donald trump going after the media. he's making every single white house correspondents a media reporter. and that means we are not getting to the more important to news. we need to know what he's doing and ask questions unrelated to the media. >> we may be playing into our hands, but isn't he maybe putting himself at war with the media? what people are worried about is jobs and safety. what people are worried about is him fixing the mess he says he inherited. >> i think we are seeing that both donald trump and some of his top aides don't want to answer questions about anything else. sean spicer a week ago deflected a question about sending more

troops to afghanistan and said i defer to the pentagon. howie: let's look at the media reviews which i would say were apocalyptic. trump losing a grip on reality. unhinged, unmoored, unglued. a man about to goinds. you could say the press took the bait. >> these objections are failed and old. you heard them throughout the campaign. yes he goes off on tangents, and yes he exaggerates. if you have keep saying the same thing and expecting a different result, they say donald trump is crazy, isn't that what the media are doing? howie: in many people's view, including mine, this crossed the line.

the fake media is not my enemy, but the enemy of the american people. >> when he goes enemy, we need to gopr -- we need to go professional. the constitution doesn't just talk about freedom of speech, it talks about and of the press. not that we are perfect and don't make mistakes. when he did that, you are exactly right, it crossed the line. the important thing is to not let him push us into crossing lines. howie: there is that part of the country that agrees. >> there is a reason why it resonates with people. when big media come of anies go to small town pizza companies

and try to destroy them because they don't have the same sexual doctrines as the media do. when they have to be shamed into covering it. and if they say any criticism of barack obama no matter how good faith it is is:racist. you feel like you have no voice. i have agree, the best way we can handle it is by not doing such a bad job. howie: trump also went after cnn anchor don lemon. let's take a look at that. and the response from jake tapper. >> you look at your show that goes on at 10:00 in the evening. that's a constant hit. the panel is almost always exclusive anti-trump. the good news is he doesn't have

good ratings. but the panel is almost exclusive anti-trump and the hatred and venom coming from his mouth and the hatred coming from other people in your network. >> it was unhinged, it was wild. president trump you are the president, you legitimately won the presidency. get to work and stop whining about it. >> all he is doing is elevating cnn and giving them a free rating. howie: this is helping cnn. >> i think it is. >> i think it's difficult to go on air immediately after a press conference where the media are being insulted. but we have to take a moment to collect our thoughts and think about how we want to respond and whether we want to take the bait. that's an intimidating statement

to say he's not doing his job. it speaks to the need to have diversity of thought in newsrooms. i don't think many people in newsrooms had a positive response to the news conference and that puts them out of touch with the people who loved it. howie: reince priebus was upon "fox news sunday" and other shows today and he said media shouldn't use anonymous sources because white house people and campaign people do. trump said in the speech in florida that the press sometimes makes up anonymous sources. >> reporters would prefer if all the time campaign official and politicians and their aides would speak on the record. but that doesn't happen. the question i would ask back to reince priebus and the president. were the anonymous sources that

helped woodward and bernstein during watergate, were those helpful or hurtful to the country? i think they were enormously helpful. howie: jim mattis was asked if he agrees the press is the enemy. and he said they are a constituency that needs to be dealt with. the president says it's the for you was given. that's his style. >> that is style. and we can't keep asking him questions like what do you think it's doing when you are damaging your own credibility. we know how he's going to answer this question. we should ask him other questions that get down to the bottom of it.

>> i couldn't disagree with you more. i thought that was the most important moment of the press conference it was real-time fact checking. it was just saying you say this is the largest since reagan, this is not true, he said it was republican, no, that's not true either. i think he seemed between deflated and rattled. he kept going back to peter saying, is that correct, peter? when you have real-time fact checking it should be important. >> the media is not in a good position to be holding trump accountable. >> when you look at the numbers and facts, it helps you. >> it's an important thing to push back and anything that's not true. and it's important for us to do that with our own stories of. we need to focus more on our own stories so we can hold him

accountable. >> i disagree. i think the most important moment in the press conference was major garrett asking him about all the russian provocations, saying not good, not good, then saying i'm not going to tell you what i'm going to do. howie: there were a lot of important moments. a couple i jotted down. when the president talked about the "new york times" story about previous contacts with by campaign aides. trump said that was discredited. there was an f.b.i. investigation sow it re-mains to be seen. when the president criticized the "wall street journal" piece about spies allegedly withholding sensitive information about this president, he said they never called me.

and the last point is we are talking about this and we are not talking about michael flynn. we'll talk about him in a minute. or the labor nominee that went down or the repeal of the travel ban. krauthammer, one of the fiercest trump critics reportedly quoting him. how can the president fire mike flynn but still say the press treated him unfairly. you wouldn't want your painter to quit part way, i think you missed a spot. so when it comes to pain relievers, why put up with just part of a day? aleve, live whole not part. you want this color over the whole house?

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howie: after the president fired michael flynn following reports in the "washington post" that he lied to the white house about his pre-inauguration talks.

>> they can't pretend they picked on poor michael flynn out of nowhere. >> when you start blaming the leaks and not substance, there is a question. the leaks were wrong it would be different. >> but there is something much bigger and darker going on. that's the part of the alt radical left to destroy donald trump and as collateral damage, anyone connected to him. howie: if the substance of the "washington post" reports were true and the president fires him, asks for his resignation, how can he turn the press for unfair treatment of the general. >> this is one of the things i thought were so interesting saying the leaks were real and the stories were fake. if you can't understand how that's possible, you shouldn't

be in journalism. you can cherry pick any information and give it a journalist who will paint any picture you want to paint. chuck todd says this is the worst scandal since lawn can d n extra. we don't -- iran contra. the on thing we have on record is mike pence's person saying that flynn wasn't totally forthright. howie: flynn apologized and said he had given incomplete information. >> that's not illegal. >> i'm sitting here thinking whether i should get out of journalism. i know all the tweeters will tell me it's time. >> he gave inaccurate information to david ignatius of

the "washington post" and others about the conversations he had with the russian ambassador. then he repeated that in his considerations with vice president pence who went out and inadvertently because he had been misinformed and spread that misinformation on "face the nation." he has two defenses. one is way was overwhelmed by press event and i forgot because it wasn't the central aspect of the conversation. either he was incompetent or deliberately obscuring what he said. the notion that this is some kind of failure of the media with -- that there were nine sources in the "washington post" story. >> not a single allegation is specific. >> but flynn is gone. >> flynn, pence and trump all

tell the same story about why flynn is gone. they are on the record. >> flynn is gone for two reasons. one is he gave it wrong information to the vice president and the second is "the washington post" came out and made that clear. >> people are claiming all sorts of nefarious things. >> again, it was considered a firing offense. and i'm not saying the general did anything illegal. doesn't the president have a problem when he talks about illegal leaks. he has people in his government leaking against him. but he loved wikileaks. >> he said in that press conference he directed the justice department to look into it. we are missing a piece of the story that the day before the inauguration clapper and brennan

and sally gates went to jim comey, they wanted to tell the president that day who was not yet the president, that flynn had misled expires and pence. because he didn't want to compromise the investigation. there are a lot of details we don't know. it could amount to not much. but we don't know yet. >> it's a bunch of former obama officials who have been participating in a month-long leak campaign. the "new york times" has admitted that obama's -- it's something we should be thinking more about how this story is developing and thinking about whether we are being hacked. howie: up next, a daily caller reporter called on by the reporter sparking complaints. for lower back pain sufferers,

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ask your doctor about cialis. howie: president trump held a news conference with canada's fell justin trudeau. >> in the last three news conference, all of the questions to the american news media have been handled by conservative press. and i think there is no other way to describe it but the fix is in. howie: here is the question she asked. >> president trump, now that you have been in office and received intelligence briefings for nearly one month. what do you see as the most important national security thatters facing us? >> thank you. many, many problems.

how require was a weak question because it was so open-ended. >> i don't see it as a weak question. i asked a big question about national security. mike flynn was his national security advisor. i basically said who are we going to war with next. maybe trump didn't and it in a way that pleased people. who was our greatest national security threat. what a lot. people didn't hear was the president's answer to my question it was like wow, another conservative reporter got a question. he brought up north korea in his answer. howie: you have said you wanted something of substance. but given the huge controversy surrounding the national security advisor that within hours would lead to his firing, why not work flynn into the question. >> he didn't resign until much later that evening.

kellyanne conway went on tv after that press conference and said he enjoyed the full confidence of the president. howie: wasn't that a big story. >> it became a bigger story later on. i think my question was more important to regular american people. the people living outside the beltway care about our national security concerns. no one will remember mike flinls name in three years, but they will remember if we get into a war with north korea. howie: on the. >> if the fix is out. howie: of the 8 american reporters called on at the four pressers with foreign leaders, one was reuters, a local d.c. station, three were news stations owned by rupert murdoch.

town hall and you. what do you make of all this grumbling that the president is trying to avoid major questions. >> the question i got was did the white house tell you what to ask? i don't know whether that's offensive or laughable. i don't think he should only call on conservative outlets. i think he should call on the whole room. i don't think there was this pandering when barack obama only called on left-leaning outlets and didn't call on fox news. no one was going on tv saying the fix was in. they are not used to "the daily caller" getting a question. i wasn't aware we were all supposed to go in there and ask

the same question. what's the point of me being there if i'm going to ask what others are going to ask. during the first week trump was in office, i was the only one to ask about the muslim immigration ban and when they were going to sign it it was one of his major campaign promises. howie: ahead, some brand-new fox poll numbers on trump. picking u. here you go. you wouldn't put up with part of a pizza. um. something wrong? so when it comes to pain relievers, why put up with just part of a day? you want the whole thing? yes, yes! live whole. not part. aleve.

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>> good to see you. howie: did donald trump help or hurt himself at the news conference slamming the press, and is this toxic cycle going to go on indefinitely? >> if you want to ask the 25% or so of people who are big donald trump supporters they would say donald trump helped his case. he stuck it to the media. good for him. you have got the 30% to 40% of people who don't like donald trump, and that re-even forced their view of him. the question is, what about everyone else, the people who voted for obama and switched to trump. i don't think he's helping himself with those people. i don't think constantly obsessing over the minutia of media coverage is helping him in any way, shape or form. it's not going to help him get his policies passed, it won't

reinforce a sense of stability. it won't help him with republican senators who are having questions. >> before it counters what he seize as a negative media negative. isn't the distaste much deeper than that. don't most of the journalists dislike this presi they think some of his policy positions like immigration are extreme. >> maybe. let's agree that the main supreme media tend to lean left. when george bush was elected and started in 2001, lost the popular vote and won the electoral vote. we didn't have anything like this sort of acrimony between the media and bush. cough say they were tougher on bush than obama? sure. maybe they were. but nothing like what we are talking about now. this is a whole different level and it's created by donald trump.

howie: you don't see it as a two-way street. >> there is absolute an ms.ity towards donald trump because the media likes facts, they don't like to be told things that aren't true. for donald trump to be in that press conference this week and to state oh about the electoral college win. things that are simply factually inaccurate then say i don't know, somebody told me that. from a media perspective where the mainstream media in particular focus a lot on what's true and what's not. you can say there is some bias in that, fine. let's agree to that. but we can all agree the president of the united states cannot be holding a press forensic and just spewing facts that aren't true. that will lead to major derision by the media. howie: after mike flynn resigned

there seemed to be a lot of journalistic back slapping, comparing it to watergate. is there a danger the media are applying. >> tougher, different standard to donald trump? >> they are being tougher on donald trump. i don't know that they are applying a different standard. donald trump is creating a situation for himself and his administration that is much tougher than it needs to be. if it was just about -- let's talk about kneel gorsuch, a conservative supreme court justice that one can expect from any conservative president of the united states, the type of appointment you would expect. has the media gone bananas, saying oh, my goodness? there are left-wing outlets saying no way, no how. so my point is, if the claim is

about policies, gorsuch is a great example of appoint someone who is within the norm, yes, he's very conservative. but you are not going to get a major media attack. you may get some lawyers, different groups attacking him. you are not going to get the media attack. > howie: the politico writes steve bannon is right. the media is the opposition party. your thoughts? >> i think that may be a sound strategy. i think it many a pathetic way to view the media. i think steve bannon always viewed the media that way. he always viewed breitbart as the place you can go to take on the corrupt mainstream media. and now he's taking that to the

white house. here is a leading journalist saying we are the opposition party. my question to you is are we falling into a trap if many of us come to view ourselves that way. we have to save the republic from donald trump's excesses because that's not role of journalism. >> really? it's not the role of journalists if the president of the united states isn't telling the truth? howie: opposition party suggests we are against him no matter what he does and he can't get it right. >> the media shouldn't be the quote-unquote opposition party. but trump made it clear that's how he's going to view it. i don't think that it should shy away any way, shape or form from being incredibly tough. what they want to do is they are trying to undermine everyone's faith in the media. when they get called out on

things, when untruths are point out, they can say it's fake news. howie: coming up, charles krauthammer gets a presidential shout-out. the "new york times" reporter thought it was just fine to call the first lady a hooker. at old dominion, we ship everything you can imagine. and everything we ship has something in common. whether it's expedited overnight... ...or shipped around the globe, ...it's handled by od employees who know that delivering freight... ...means delivering promises. od. helping the world keep promises.

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howie: charles krauthammer has been one of donald trump's fiercest critics from the beginning. >> this is a cover-up without a crime. the idea that one should be aghast because the incoming national security advisor spoke with the russian ambassador and spoke about sanctions. seems to be perfectly reasonable. and the idea it's illegal is preposterous. >> i watched dr. charles krauthammer the other night saying, he was doing his job. and i agreed with him. howie: it seemed like a good time to call in the indicated columnist and fox news contributor.

>> hell has frozen over. first kellyanne conway, sean spicer, then the president quoted you favorably. >> i was gratified when trump referred to me as doctor charles krauthammer. when i left medicine to be a journalist my father was sceptical. i was on "night line," my dad called and said you were great but why did you let him call you mister. howie: you said it was fine to be aghast at flynn's contacts with russia. >> i weren't beyond that. i thought it was normal and reasonable. the case i made this morning is that he's the national security advisor. he's coming into office.

three weeks to go. i would expect him to have contacts with ambassadors of every sort. logan act which is private citizens are not supposed to deal with foreign ambassadors, 1799. no one has ever been prosecuted. he was doing his job. it wants just that it was illegal it was perfectly reasonable. but my question is if it was, why did he lie by the. this is the case of a cover-up in search of a crime. howie: let's remind people of some of the things the candidate said. >> i think krauthammer is just absolutely a disgrace when it comes to me. he was a big war hawk going to iraq. he was wrong on so many subjects. it wouldn't matter if i were abe lincoln during the debate,

krauthammer would be negative. howie: now you are thinking he's not so bad. >> it's simple. i call them like i see them. i had a view of trump when i was campaigning. i don't make any secret of the fact i thought he shouldn't be president. but that doesn't matter on the day he's sworn in. he is president. whatever i thought about him is irrelevant. i want the country to succeed. i want him to succeed. i'm a patriotic american and i call them as i see them. some things he will do right and some things he will do wrong. he can flatter me, praise me all he wants. it won't change a bit. it won't alter what i say. howie: as a conservative you often said and continue to say trump dn't come into this election with a conservative agenda. here he is purposing an

infrastructure program. have you changed your mind about his credentials on that score or is he redefining conservatism? >> the answer to that will be given by history. if he has a successful presidency he will redefine conservatism and the republican party. reagan came into a party that was right of center. he turned away conservative parties. he turned conservatism into the aseasoind intothe ascendant idee country. how did the necessity do and is the country stronger when he leaves. howie: trump brought this up at the news conference and made fun of it. >> i didn't know what to expect because the man is suigeneris.

of course it's chaotic. this isn't stuff coming out of a leak from inside the nsa. these are people talking to the press about the chaos inside. he's lost his national security advisor. he offers it to somebody else who turns him down. that's pretty unusual. it many a very important job. there is conflict between the cabinet and the white house. howie: do you think that the press portrayal of an administration in chaos is largely on target? >> yes. howie: you gave me a short answer. >> i'm leaving you have hanging with 17 seconds of dead air time. while see how you handle it.

howie: i meant president trump's trillion dollar infrastructure plan. will americans trust reporters or donald trump.

howie: who do voters trust to tell the truth. the pres a sobering finding by the press. are the media tougher on trump than obama? would it be better for the country if journalists cover the president aggressively? journalists who think they are far more credible than this

president bert rethink it. >> there is a tie. so for who is the enemy we'll go back and forth for a long time on this one. howie: i think a lot of reporters think our job is to deal with facts. independents, 52-26 in favor of trump. >> that's not a good thing. we haven't gotten a chance to do the introspection after the election. when i say the media are playing into trump's hands web's not allowing that introspection to go on. howie: even democrats say the coverage of trump is tougher. i don't think there is any

question about that. i don't think the media -- we keep doing the same thing maybe expecting a different result? >> i think we do. we have seen so many news organizations say now we are going to bring on the investigative journalists. we need to go after this administration. i don't think that's the message the public wanted to hear. it's cover the president fairly. another more journalists ram up special -- ramp up special teams, do you think they are playing into the president's hands in his war on the media? >> absolutely. we need to ask the president tough questions. but we need to stop asking him about being mean to the media. howie: the labor nominee withdrew, andy puzder. there were questions about his

undocumented nanny and his ex-wife saying this on oap rap. on, on oprah. >> once i made that public, she said i will see you in the gutter. you will pay for this. >> it had to do with him. it's not that he just once worked for a law firm that prior to him joining the law firm they represented a company that did business in china and there were human rights abuse. this concerned him and that's why it was fair game. here is a cliche'. if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen, and that's what i did. howie: the new york times reporter who ordered that

terrible slur about melania trump and was outed by a hollywood across trets. um. something wrong? so when it comes to pain relievers, why put up with just part of a day? you want the whole thing? yes, yes! live whole. not part. aleve. g new cars. you're smart. you already knew that. but it's also great for finding the perfect used car. you'll see what a fair price is, and you can connect with a truecar certified dealer. now you're even smarter. this is truecar.

howie: promotion people created bogus websites and they shared it on facebook. this was a blunder. i'm buds off about this after an event last weekend. i sat next to a journalist from the "new york times" last week

who told me melania trump is a hooker. "times" editors save they have sphoangt reporter. the reporter is jacob bernstein. my editors made it clear my behavior was not in keeping with the standards of the times and i agree. bernstein's apology was welcomed after that gossipy bit of slander about the first lady. the new era of "playboy" getting rid of nude pictures lasted one year. i guess too many people didn't want to reefd it just for the articles. that's it for this edition of "mediabuzz." we hope you will like our facebook page. we post a lot of original content there.

our twitter has been blowing up this fast hour. let me know what you have think. tough miss our program, dvr it and watch it whenever you want. we are back next sunday, see you then. arthel: president trump back to work at the winter white house fresh off his big campaign-style rally in florida. i'm arthel neville. eric: hello, i'm eric shawn. president trump is making call to the three foreign leaders today. and interviewing four candidates for national security advisor following the resignation of michael flynn.