channel for special coverage with bret baier and martha maccallum. that's it for today, have a great week, and we'll see you next "fox news sunday." ♪ howie: president trump back on the offensive against fake news and accusing the press of publishing fiction. >> i want you all to know we are fighting the fake news. it's fake, phoney, fake. they have no sources, they just make them up when there are none. i saw one story recently where they said nine people have confirmed. they don't have nine people. howie: does the public believe anonymous sources are just plain made up? a huge uproar.

sean spicer holds an off camera briefing and excludes "buzzfeed," and the "new york times." >> the president seems averse to any criticism and called the press the enemies of the american people. they are taking the next step to avoid checks and balances. >> the reporting was not fake news. if journalists follow the same standards as other organizations including fox news here. howie: tucker carlson and corey lewandowski are here. the president blowing off the white house correspondwhite -- e correspondents dinner. this is "mediabuzz" and i'm howie kurtz. president trump wasn't the only

one ratcheting up his rhetoric at cpac. steve bannon who rarely speaks in public slammed what he calls the opposition party. >> they are corporatist, globalist leftist media opposed to an h an economic agenda like president trump has. >> they shouldn't be allowed to use sources unless they use somebody's name. let their name be put out. a source says donald trump is a horrible human being. let them say it to my face. let there be no more sources. howie: joining to us analyze the coverage, white house

correspondent for independent journal review. guy benson, and margaret carlson, columnist more "the daily beast." when he makes that attack they are made up, do people believe that? >> there is a big difference between anonymous sourcing and anonymous quotes. his claim journalists are making up anonymous sources is wrong. if you do that you will be fired like jason blair when he did it for the "new york times." he's right we should have fewer tea anonymous quotes. the "new york times" has tried to get more of those anonymous quotes out of the story. howie: you can't do some of these stories without relying on

people who would be fired if they were publicly identified. campaign officials, don't they speak off the record to reporters all the time? >> all the time. there are the whistleblowers and the background briefings. i think it is good to sort of cut down on our diet of anonymous quotes and anonymous sources and some anonymous quotes are vital elements of journalism. trump has been an tea anonymous source. during the birth certificate stuff he was constantly quoting unnamed people who were telling him things. how report "washington post" story on mike flynn, which led to presidential firing. i thought he could have picked other stories that were more in dispute. >> the editors came back and

said yes there were nine sources. he did that on the electoral college thing. he said people told me otherwise. this white house just this week has against using sanctioned anonymous sources on the russia story orchestrated by the white house putting out intelligence sources to bat down the russia story. howie: i want to get to what happened earlier when there was a gaggle, an off-camera briefing sean spicer held. there was outrage because cnn and others were not allowed in. you think there was a little bit of an overreaction? >> i do. >> it's okay for these organizations to be upset about it to make sure it doesn't happen again. but to devote entire hours of

cable news coverage to it is not something the public wants to see and it doesn't do any good when the media are trying to restore public faith in what we do. howie: based upon my reporting sean spicer seems to think this is overblown. he added some people to the pool an ran out of room because it was in his office. his contention is it was a coincidence that cnn was excluded and cbs and nbc were exclude. by the way, sean spicer calls on them all the time in his daily briefing. >> there is that trap and the media is doing itself a disservice losing the important sorries in the fray.

i saw this with the gaggle as a potential red flag. it reminded me what the obama administration tried to do to our organization, fox news and the rest of the media rallied around. howie: fox is supporting the way it was done with the network pool. it looked like payback, but it's not like the white house announced a new policy and they will pick and choose for every briefing. >> the coverage needs to be tempered, not everything is the ends of the world. this took the place of the white house briefing. if this gal -- if this gaggle hadn't taken the place of that

it wouldn't have been. but those of off the list were e ones called the enemy of the people. howie: coming up, corey lewandowski, trump's former campaign manager. donald trump said he attacks the use of anonymous sources and news organizations often make them up. >> if you look at some of the stories written about this administration in the first 35 days, we know they are factually inaccurate. when you have a story upon major publications, when they know unequivocally because there have been people on the record saying the stories they are writing are factually inaccurate, what they do two days later is say i guess we made a mistake. but the damage has already been

done. howie: whether they are factually inaccurate. there is a difference between that and journalists get things wrong and she should run reextractions when they get things wrong. but when you accuse them of making things up, i'm not sure you buy that. >> the media is so quick to write a story that isn't accurate. it's unfortunate. but a "time" magazine reporter tweeted out a report that bust. martin luther king was removed from the oval office. he did apologize, but where is the accountability? we had a story that was factually inaccurate. and they say whoops, it's not a big deal. but the media has to do a better job reaching out to the

administration. howie: last question on this point, i think lots of top officials in every administration and campaign have talked to reporters as unnamed sources. correct me if i'm wrong, you did that a lot during the strum campaign. why is that okay but it's not okay to dig out information by using people who won't go on the record. >> it is okay to get information from individuals who won't speak on the record. maybe they are not giving you facts, but giving you their opinion. the difference is when you have on the record sources saying stories are unequivocally wrong, the media needs to understand that and do their due diligence and make sure they aren't perpetuating stories they know to be inaccurate.

what the president said is he will take bad stories as long as they are not inaccurate. howie: this off-camera gaggle sean spicer held, where certain news organizations were exclude. was this a self-inflicted wound? >> what happens is the media has a pool. on a daily basis they row 8 and someone is in charge of the pool from the print and broadcast side. the pool is aloud into sean spice -- is allowed into sean spicer's office. it's called a gaggle. if the pool person would have been a cnn pool or cbs or nbc, they would have been included. if the print reporter would have been from the "l.a. times" or

"huffington post," they would have been invited. but it was a smaller area. they had a limited ability because of space to expands that fool and bring people in. but every person in the media was given access through a transcription from the pool service. howie: i know -- >> it's not a big deal. howie: i know you have a relatively low opinion of the way this president has been covered. and there has been an after land much of stories. when president trump ratchets up rhetoric and talks about news organizations being the enemy of the american people, and that's includes cnn, doesn't that go too far? how is that helping them in general? >> this is the president who

probably for the first time since franklin roosevelt goes directly to the american people. roosevelt did it through fireside chats and this president through social media. he communicates directly with 100 million people. that's something no one else has done. and he's willing and able to push back. if you look at the fox news survey, you say who do you trust to give you fair and correct information, the if mainstream media, 42% of the people. howie: corey, stick around and we'll have more our conversation after a quick break. tucker carlson on the latest attracts on his show.

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and add phone and tv for only $34.90 more a month. call today. comcast business. built for business. howie: we'll continue our covering with corey lewandowski in new hampshire. this has been a rocky month in the administration with some accomplishments but also missteps particularly on the immigration rollout. you raise questions whether the white house staff is adequately supporting the president. >> what i said was it's important you look at the individuals the president surrounds himself with. the top aide officials have no government experience. a lot of people think it's a detriment, i think it's a positive. they put a new set of eyes on things. if you were to ask them was it

their goal t administration their national advisor would have to resign, of course not. look at the work they have done and helped the coal miners already. they are bringing people in. the president is reducing the number of government regulations saying for every one you new regulation we'll put in two new regulations. the president is work on behalf of the american people. there is an ability here to continue to build that team, they are continuing to grow. howie: you seem to be suggesting perhaps it was a mistake not to put a couple people in the white house who did have government experience. >> it's not just about government experience. when you surround any president, making sure you have people with loyalty to him and have the ability to tell him the truth on

issues. that's the most important thing for any president. you need to have people you can rely on to tell you the truth. you see a team around the president with general mattis and general kelly and h.r. mcmaster. all of these people will tell the president exactly the truth through their own beliefs and that's important for the president to be successful. howie: we have about a half minute. with all of this rhetoric about fake news and the enemy of the american people, can you see a lowering of tensions? are we looking at the next four to 8 years of outright hostility between the president and the press? >> i don't think so. president trump is a consensus builder. he's funny, he's self-deprecating.

i think what you will see -- all he has asked for, he asked for a 77-minute long press conference was just write a story that's fair. it has to be fair, it has to be accurate, and it has to be truthful. he has good relationships with the media. he has been for accessible to the media than any other president in the history of our country. both on the campaign side and now as the president. that's something we haven't seen before. i hope he continues to do that. howie: corey lewandowski, thanks for joining us. up next. steve bannon says the media support a corporatist and globalist agenda.

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>> they say we can't criticize their dishonest coverage because the of the first amendment. they always bring up the first amendment. i love the first amendment. nobody loves it better than me. howie: who says the president can't criticize the press? he does it all the time and he gets a lot of coverage. >> the other thing he said in that speech on the whole, enemies of the people quote. that's what he said about the press generally then he sort of climbed down from that during the cpac address and he said fake news is the enemy of the people. howie: in the original tweet the fake news organizations he new rated were "new york times," cnn, abc, nbc.

>> is he saying when these organizations print or publish fake news or as a blanket statement they are all fake news permanently? >> he means it as a blanket statement. he does get fully covered. twitter to trump is where the federalist papers are the founding fathers. he uses it to clarify what he wants to say. and because it's 140 characters he gets pretty much covered. so he meant what he said. he listed the organizations, those are his enemies. howie: he weaponized twitter in a way we have never seen. are you or have you ever been part of the corporatist media? >> i think he's trying to drive a evening between his audience,

cpac and his populist theme. saying the media are elites and they are not out for the american people. howie: i think steve bannon is not giving trump all his ideas. he set up a war room. he sees it as a daily battle, a daily offensive against the press, and he believes the media have a globalist mindset. in the coverage illegal immigration, they portray it i am pathetically and opposing trump's policy. are the media which are ticked off by trump's criticism starting to act more like an opposition party? >> they have a war with trump. they detest that guy. a lot of people. it's a daily fight and i don't think it's wrong for the white house to view it that way.

>> you can see trump's anti-media bias increase in the course of the campaign. bannon egged him on to now it's the enemy of the people. it used to be a throwaway line. he would turn the cameras around to see the crowd. but now bannon i think has revved that up. howie: in interviews with me trump was critical of the media long before he was associated with steve bannon. howie: why was the press wasn't satisfied with the

howie: i sat down with the host

of tucker carlson tonight. welcome. steve bannon says the opposition party is the mainstream media. they are globalists and corporatists. do you know any of them? tucker: i live among them. everyone i noise a globalist and corporatist. i don't know if anyone in the press corps thinks i am going to carry the flag of davos to the conversation. people have a globalist outlook and they tend to work for corporations. they have an orientation that is pretty consistent over time. there is very little diversity of background and experience in the press. howie: at c fact presiden -- ate president went after the press and he talked about anonymous

sources and said they shouldn't be allowed. anonymous sources are overdone in my opinion. tucker: it's frustrating if you are trump. i think trump consumes more media than any other president. he's up on what the press is saying about him and it enrages him and he has a right to be mad. as a journalist anonymous sources are helpful. the question is whether the information is accurate. so i have used anonymous sources and i will continue to. but trump is saying they are saying things that are untrue and i think you can prove that. howie: that's a better argument. there has been a lot of leaking of classified stuff. just to touch on this.

the pool that certain news organizations who have protested, the "new york times," politico, "buzzfeed" and cnn were left out. is that of interest to people out there? or is there a principle at stake about pick and chooses news organizations? >> i think what the trump people are saying. >> they are basically remaking it along the lines of the basic fit. they are saying stop lying about it. the cnn and washington post and "new york times," that's watch what it is. i think there has obviously been a decision at high levels, we are the opposition to trump. that's clear live how they are. and the trumppeople don't want to play of along. the question is, where does it go? once one side says you are the opposition and the other side

says yes, we are. where are we a year from now? i don't know actually. howie: a reporter writes the following. there is no more compromise point with those who accept, pro moapt and defend bigotry and xenophobia. trump is a cancer on this country and resistance is the remedy. he's saying to the 60 million people who voted for trump are bigots and misogynists? tucker: that's what you do when there is a tie rant in charge. that language is not helpful at all it's extremist language. they are making a moral on theological argument. they bother to learn that it's

bert to rebut the details of the opposing argument. they say i'm a good person and you are a bad person. it's no way to conduct political discourse. it's not even discourse. howie: after you did a segment with a filmmaker about sweden -- >> you look at what's happening in germany, you look at what's happening last night in sweden. sweden. who would believe this. sweden. they took in large numbers, they are having problems they never thought possible. howie: there were a lot of questions what did he mean. he said last night sweden. tucker: the problem with the phrase last night was that something changed last night. i'm glad people watch our show,

including the president. at its core he made a great point. they have caused a lot of social turmoil. a lot. not just crime, but political drama and we should note that see see if we can learn something from it. but the reaction from the press was unbelievable. place that are just purely political and partisan to convince us that's all a lie. everything is fine in sweden. do you know anyone who lives in sweden? have you been living in sweden? this is real. this is actually happening. howie: this is a president who watches a lot of television and often fires off tweets or makes comments based on that without going through the normal vetting and fact checking. tuck require am not the medium

he uses to express himself, it's the lack of precision. the president's words are the most valuable currency in the world. make sure they are accurate and nobody can violate that rule. howie: the president seems to set his own rules. the anchor who says the media want to control what you think. but first president trump denounces the rise in anti-semitic vandalism and threats and still i wanted to know where my family came from. i did my ancestrydna. the most shocking result was that i'm 26% native american. i had no idea. it's opened up a whole new world for me. ♪

howie: president trump preached a message of tolerance at the african-american history museum. >> will you desnowns anti-semitism once and for all? >> i do all the time. i think it's terrible and hoicialt, whether it's anti-semitism or racism or anything having to do with the divide. i'll tell you have anti-semitism is horrible and it's going to stop, and it has to stop. howie: but reporters were sceptical when they questioned shawns spicer. >> is the president comfortable delivering that forceful message to the american people?

>> i get a question, is he going to denounce this one or this one. no matter how many times he talks about this it's never good enough. howie: you look at the headlines. "trump too late on hate" critics say. so it's not enough for the press. it's too late critics say. >> this was trump talking past the press and the press misunderstanding. when trump was asked a few times about anti-semitism including at the press conference. i think based on reading what he said, he thought this was a roundabout way of attacking him suggesting he was an anti-semite. when he had a moment to sit down and think, they want to you talk about this phenomenon, he couldn't have been more forceful. actions are louder than words.

and the vice president helping clean up that december crated cemetery in missouri was a powerful suggestion. howie: i understand people saying trump should have spoken out sooner. but there were a lot of headlines that seem to suggest it doesn't count on it's on the media's timetable. >> it was forceful, it is welcome and it is time. this came after a series of things in which you have did not stand up. that holocaust memorial remembrance statement which left out jews. then instead of saying oops, we didn't mean just the disabled either. instead just correct it. when the jewish reporter asked a benign question at the press conference, he said sit down like a first grader. that didn't come across.

he needed to do this. it's really welcome and it's time and thank you. >> the press is expecting him to sound like president trump and he's never going to sound like president trump. we have to cover him for what he's speak and what he's doing. we saw president trump for all his faults was an extraordinary speaker and called limb self the healer-in-chief. howie: the story everyone is buzzing about inside the beltway is a tweet, another news-making tweet, president trump will not attending the white house correspondents dinner in april. i wasn't that surprised. given the war between this president and the mainstream media. why would he want to spend hours with the washington hilton? but it's big news because this has become -- the whole weekend has become such a spectacle.

>> i think most people watching are either what is that dinner exactly. what is it? it's viewed as a self-congratulatory d.c. event. if donald trump takes down the white house correspondents dinner it will be his number one drain the swamp accomplishment. i just don't care at all. have the dinner, have a nice time. he's not going to be there. fine. >> it has been in decline since the "new york times" stopped going. howie: it became which celebrity could you get to come in from hollywood to stay at your table. then a lot of celebrities wanted to come. even before we knew whether president obama was coming, there was a lot of i am not sure we should go and honor this president. bloomberg pulled out, the new yorker.

they were happy to celebrate obama. >> also it's filled with advertisers and underwriters. most press people can't get in. howie: now will reporters and others want to come without the presidential star? >> i assume they still will. there will be another wrinkle in the story and it will be what president obama does that weekend. i assume he will go to mar-a-lago. instead of going to dinner the press will have to go to florida and cover president trump. howie: this dinner raises money for scholarships. so we may have competing the dinner which is probably on tv. samantha bee having a counter event in d.c. after the break, big play for

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howie: republican members of congress faced off with voters in a series of raucous town hall meetings and the loud voices amplified by media coverage. >> members of congress returned home to loud voices, frustration boiling over. >> now we people don't have the insurance they need. reporter: in rural virginia. howie: joining us now, the

correspondent for the -- when the democrats are being shouted down. >> let's think back to 2012 when the tea party was reported on. howie: 2009 as well. >> what we saw was the portrayal of the tea party as a fringe group with an angry agenda with when they held up signs saying "impeach obama." they said i can't believe it,er in trying to undermine the president. now they are being portrayed as a group fighting for the truth and fighting to bring trump around on his agenda. and you are seeing sympathetic headlines that you didn't see with the tea party. howie: conservatives try to

dismiss it saying this is organized -- >> it's organized. howie: whatever the extent, does that neutralize its news value in real people do show up. >> and what power will they have in the next election? it's an incredible story, just as the tea party was an incredible story that resulted in overturning the democratic majority in the house and senate. but getting at the root of what's behind it and look at the comparison from the tea party to now is important for journalists to think about. howie: the new chairman of the dnc, tom perez. there has been very little media attention to this race. why is that? >> because there is a new dynamic called the president who

is hog up all the oxygen. in 2012 we were focused on divisiveness in the republican party. more interesting to look at the party on the outside. but i also think there is more interest on the part of the media and i have said this before, to focus on divisions within the republican party and serious divisions within the democratic party. there is a big split there. it will persist after yesterday's election. people said they weren't sure they would get behind perez because they wanted ellison to win it's a party without a message and a party quite marginalized. >> a lot of coverage is driven by personality. i don't think 95% of the country knew who tom perez was. >> these party cheefs never are very dynamic individuals who get

a lot of attention. howie: you look at ed rendell or howard dean, yes. >> they need a charismatic leader. and right now he's leading a divided party. howie: perez is the leading spokesman for his party that doesn't control anything in d.c. still to come, an unfair knock on kellyanne. and an anchor who says they are [vo] quickbooks introduces jeanette. and her new business: i do, to go. jeanette was excellent at marrying people. but had trouble getting paid. not a good time, jeanette. even worse. now i'm uncomfortable. but here's the good news, jeanette got quickbooks. send that invoice, jeanette. looks like they viewed it. and, ta-da! paid twice as fast.

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howie: it's no secret the msnbc's morning host is a critic of trump. but she kind of went off the rails in her latest broadside. >> i think that the dangerous

edges here are that he's trying to undermine the media, trying to make up his own facts. it could be while unemployment and the economy worsens, he could have undermined the messaging so much that he can actually control exactly what people think. and that is our job. howie: it's not our job to control what people think. it's our job to provide analysis and commentary so people can make up their own minds. alan colmes died this week. he got flack from the left for not being tougher in take on hannity. >> they are so afraid of being labeled mean spirited. after the two years of vicious attacks.

>> the attacks have been against bill clinton. howie: alan was a lovely guy who had a sense of humor dating back to his time as a standup comic. we also lost brenda buttner the host of "bulls and bears." there were reports that the white house sidelined kellyanne conway even though she did four interviews in 24 hours and kicked off cpac. she is busy look at house and schools for her four children. even top government officials have lied. let's stick to the facts. that's it for this edition of "mediabuzz." i'm howard kurtz. we hope you like our facebook page. we post a lot of original content there.

remember to dvr the show if you happen to be doing things. we'll see you back here next sunday with the latest buzz. thanks for joining us. could have made with the oranges. >> or orange juice. >> harris faulkner is up next. harris: fox urgent, new developments as the white house is cracking down on staff who leaked information to the media. fox news confirmed white house press secretary sean spicer personally told staff to turn in their cell phones so they can be checked out. he warned this is just round one. we'll have more on those breaking developments in a moment, first, president donald trump is kicking off arguably his most important week in the white house so far. here's what we expect to see rollout. by midweek, so-called executive order on extreme vetting and the president's vision for mo