when you have the right financial advisor, life can be brilliant. ameriprise howie: on buzz view this morning. the pundits say he's changing his stance on crucial issues. >> president trump making a 180 on so many statement he made during the cam paint's enough to give people whiplash. >> it look like they are doing a hard reboot. we have a lot of campaign promises being traded in. howie: why is there so much bashing of steve bannon? the media slamming sean spicer

over dragging hitler into syria's use of chemical weapons. >> it happened again today when sean spicer made one colossal error. >> what spicer said was false and kind of ignorant. >> spicer is in way over his head. >> sean spicer proved himself to be a profoundly stupid liar working for a no foundly stupid liar. the president of the united states has a spokesman he deserves. >> i mistakenly used an inappropriate reference to the holocaust and for that i apologize. howie: why did the piling on continue after his repeated apologies. united apologizes after a

passenger was forcibly dragged off a plane. >> i'm not going. i am not going. i don't go. howie: why did some in the media insist on trashing the 69-year-old doctor whose face wound up bloody? i'm howard kurtz and this is "mediabuzz." it was a refrain throughout the campaign that donald trump was too soft on russia. but this week they accused him of a head-spinning shift from coziness to competitors. >> is donald trump headed for a nasty confrontation from moscow, the man who helped elect him.

>> this is not consistent with what donald trump ran on except i think it was the right thing to do. >> i don't think the administration is sure what it's going to do. sending a message to the whole world that we are not going to be walked over. howie: that's a half dozen issues or more. >> i said it was obsolete. it's no longer obsolete. howie: joining us is erin pike, amy holmes, and marie harf. erin, "huffington post," whiplash. 180. exclamation point.

>> what you played there, nato hasn't changed. some countries are slowly in a very small way increasing their defense spending. in part he says, and the secretary-general says it's because he made it such an issue. but it's the same organization. flip-flops like that have to be called out. howie: they have to be reported on. the president accused china of manipulating its currency. president trump tweeted i'm not going to call china a currency manipulator while we need their help. >> things look different once you are in the white house. i would make the argument president trump is staying true

to form if not through substance. even throughout the campaign he was stays consistent. after san bernardino he made the comment about the muslim ban, then he pulled that back and moderated. what has been consistent is donald trump has always projected strength. that's always his top priority and you saw it with the syria bombing and afghanistan. howie: when a politician flip-flops or changes to a position the media doesn't like, he's flip flopping. if he changes to a position the media kind of likes, he's growing in office. if he's taking a more realistic policy on x, y, z.

martha: . it's a huge change in a short period of time. the second piece is that we have seen voters say that they did think he was going to do what he was running. voters want candidates to fall through on promises. howie: i can give you a long list of barack obama, george w. bush. so it depends on how purist you want to be. marie: there doesn't seem to be an underlying set of principles. amy: his popularity has gone up. he was portrayed as a fascist

when he was advocating none intervention. howie: a chemical attack by assad, saying it was a proportional response. eric trump said if there was anything syria did, it was to validate the fact that there is no russia tie. is the media narrative going to change about he's too close to moscow? erin: no, because there are two separate issues and it was too convenient for eric trump to say. amy: when it comes to conspiracy theories, it doesn't need facts order logic.

>> you saw who he chose for his cabinet. "mad dog" mattis. you saw a lot of his in terms of who donald trump would be taking advice from, and they weren't going to be the isolationists. howie: the russian ties were rooted in the notion there was an unholy alliance between the trump side and putin side. but you don't think the changes in policy are knocking that down at all? marie: i think they are road in the fact that the intelligence community said russia interfered in this election. the f.b.i. investigations and the congressional investigations, these are ongoing.

howie: the notion there is something smelly here. marie: you have multiple trump advisors. it smells fishy because the trump administration has not been up front about these ties. they don't tell the whole truth and that makes people suspicious. amy: they can say relations between the two countries are at an all-time high. >> he fired michael flynn. erin: those things could be true as well, that trump is flip-flopping and his voters might see him as a flip-flopper. and you have seen both stories come out in the media. howie: his voters are strongly

standing by him. the stories about steve bannon extremely negative. i have done some reporting on this, has there been a lot of infighting with bannon versus jared kushner, absolutely. "the washington post" called him a marked man. likened him to a terminal patient in hospice care. erin: i think different times and different weeks there are different leakers. remember reince priebus was on the way out and he's still sitting in the white house. howie: when you look at the tone and the coverage. bannon is portrayed as a nationalist hardliner blow everything up kind of guy, and jared kushner is the leader of this moderate wing, bipartisan, work with democrats. do you have the sense some in

the press are trying to push bannon out of the white house? amy: the coverage of bannon has always been nasty and the press painted him as a darth vader puppet controller of trump. the only story than the press likes more is gop and sex scandals. but at this point the speculation he's going to be pushed out of the white house is pure speculation. the media is licking their chaps at getting to grill steve bannon. howie: has that affected the way he's covered? marie: he treats them with disdain. he said he came to blow up washington and the press is the enemy.

when you have sources going to reporters openly talking about this infighting, the president make up this story. i don't think -- i think it's overblown that he's going to be out of a job. i don't think he would be president without steve bannon. howie: bannon thinks this is overblown. the president acknowledged telling them to work it out because the infighting keeps stealing the media spotlight. but i can't get away from the notion the press does not like bannon. do you buy that? erin: i'm sure that's the case. but you are forgetting the president did give a little bit after smackdown to steve bannon. because he's getting plenty of attention and he was also on the cover of a magazine.

this is donald trump's presidency. how require wasn't a smack-down. in a couple interviews he said he's a staff guy, he came into the campaign late. it wasn't he needs to work and play well with others. amy: the media is always trying to identify who is the puppet behind the american president. they never give the president credit for coming up with his own ideas. howie: medi meade -- mediabuzz@foxnews.com. hello mom. amanda's mom's appointment

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howie: jonah goldberg has been a fierce critic of donald trump since the campaign and he's still feeling the backlash. he writes every day i'm criticized because of my coverage of president trump even if i provide context. you say your criticism of trump has changed your position at fox. jonah: i'm fine with the position of fierce critic, but praised him when i thought it was his due. when i started criticizing donald trump when he got more popular on the right. what was discouraging is how many people were mad at me for not living down to their expectations.

there are a lot of pundits on the right who think their job is to be a cheerleader for their team. that's not my job. my job is to tell the truth as i sight, and that's gotten a lot of people angry. howie: as far as appearances on tv, you think you have take and hit? jonah: i don't think there is a conspiracy * on fox. i used to be on cnn. television news tends to have a format for the base. if you are a democratic administration, you have conservatives criticizing an democrats defending. i don't follow the talking points of the trump boost terse or the insane left. so sit creates this weird space i have never been in before

where i don't have a team where i used to. howie: you were quoted as intaight never trump movement, that was about the gop primary in general, and not the presidency. jonah: which was factually true. for the quote urn quote never trumpers, the point was i wasn't going to vote for him or endorse him, i didn't think he should be the nominee of the republican party. but the fact is he's president of the united states. but what the left wanted the never trumpers to do is say he should not be president. he was lawfully elected. it doesn't mean i give up my scepticism and start waving the foam finger as a cheerleader. but he's a president of the

united states and you have to give him a shot. jonah: the "new york times" agrees that it was mischaracterized. howie: put in an editor's note after you weighed in. jonah: the point of pearl stein's argument was by me saying never trump is over, it meant i dropped to my knees and embraced our new president. it's factually not true. i have been very sceptical except when i think he's right about some things. the "new york times" fact checker never asked me have you embraced trump as the author suggests. i was asked if i wrote those things that were take out of context. to their credit, i didn't think it was going to happen.

i said the issue isn't that it was criticized. the issue of is it's fact actually untrue. howie: you support president trump's airstrikes against syria, but you write. jonah: the problem is he's doing good stuff on china as well. but the flip-flops, when i heard your previous conversation about it. they should give some people cause, concern that he's not as committed to this thing called trumpism as a lot of us thought. he's calling these things on the fly and that's something to be aware of. howie: melania trump wins a big tabloid payday. how the press treated sean

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howie: melania trump sued london's daily mail over allegations that she once worked for an is court agency. they have agreed to pay a settlement and retract it. and the jerry awarded the student at the university of virginia.

tomi lahren went on "the view" and proclaimed she is pro-choice. it is puzzling beck says that she is still being paid. >> i'm struck by every time we go there, you get emotional. >> my job is my life. i feel lost. when your outlet is taken from you. and you don't understand why, you are so disappointed and blindsided by it, it hurts. howie: i think it's fair to say she has a future. remember when sean spicer told a reporter in the briefing room to

stop shaking her head. almost immediately cnn hired her as a contributor. spicer tells the press he's sorry that his comments about the holocaust and it was overplayed. and more on the doctor who was dragged off the united airlines flight. they work fast and don't taste chalky. mmmmm...amazing. i have heartburn. alka seltzer heartburn relief chews. enjoy the relief. listen up, heart disease.) you too, unnecessary er visits. and hey, unmanaged depression, don't get too comfortable.

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what did you mean by that? >> when you come to sarin gas, he was not using the gas on his own people in the way assad is doing. howie: he apologized in interviews and the next day at washington museum. >> i made a mistake. i got into a topic i shouldn't of and i screwed up. it's a holy week for the jewish people and the christian people. to make a gaffe like this is inexcusable and reprehensible. of all weeks, this compound that kind of mistake. howie: a gaffe by a spokesman led all three network newscasts. overplayed or not.

erin: i think it's overplayed when you see lawrence o'donnell calling him a liar. as we know in journalism and political discourse. never make the hitler comparison. strike it off your list. but i think alan dershowitz made a comment. howie: there was one mention of this on martha maccallum's show. was it newsworthy? marie: absolutely. i know how hard it is to be in the briefing room. but sean spicer has shown not just in this case, although this is definitely the most

egregious, but throughout the whole administration that he's a little out of his depth. he was trying to make a historical analogy that wasn't historically accurate. when his first briefing started out as not telling the truth about the size of the crowd at the inauguration. that's how he got off to a bad tart with the press. if you are the press secretary and i asked you to do that, you say no. howie: when you were the state department spokesman you got a lot of flack about going after isis and the opportunity for jobs. when you were in that harsh spotlight did you feel there was a lot. marie: i have some sympathy for sean spicer. you are up there briefing on

complicated issues. but if you are the white house press secretary, you need to be better than this. this is the last in a long series of gaffes and misstatements and telling things that weren't exactly true. i think that hurts the office of the president and i think that hurts the white house. howie: in real-time it made reporters say this is a big story because it's blowing up on twitter. it's amazing how social media drives the regular media. erin: i would also point out when sean spicer is briefing at the podium, he doesn't have the ability to see what's blowing up on twitter and the reporters do. he didn't realize what he had stepped into.

spicer did try to take this apology on in full force which is not something you see from this white house very often. see he deserves -- so he deserves credit for doing that. howie: we all make mistakes. you just say, i screwed up, and i'm sorry. some of the critics weren't further. obviously he said hitler used gas but calling him a holocaust denier. no one thinks that's what he was trying to say. amy: i want to go back to mr. dershowitz' column. he said those kind of criticisms and attacks on mr. spicer, they serve to diminish the importance of the holocaust and hitler and none of us should be going in

that direction. howie: the white house announced it will not make public the visitor logs so people will know who goes in and out of the white house. isn't that something that mostly affects journalists? because that's one way we can get stories? marie: it affects journalists and the american public. they have a right to know who their government is meeting with. we get sent to washington as elected official or public servants to act on behalf of the american people. this is the latest in a long stream of trump administration decisions to keep information from the public. i'm not sure what they are trying to hide. but it seems like an unforced error. in the grand scheme of things, bombing syria and afghanistan. this is not the top story. erin: i would say the context is

another flip-flop because trump and his team said they would have the most transparent administration in history and this is not transparent. howie: they say for security reasons, it saves money. marie harf, erin pike and amy holmes. happy easter. why tv news has so little coverage of religion. the dragging of a passenger was turned into a huge media story. >> what happened to my dad should never have happened to any human being. a heart attack doesn't care what you eat or how healthy you look. no matter who you are, a heart attack can happen without warning. a bayer aspirin regimen can help prevent another heart attack. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. bayer aspirin.

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the most common side effects are headache, nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting. side effects can lead to dehydration, which may cause kidney problems. now's the time for a better moment of proof. ask your doctor about victoza®. howie: sometimes the media freakout is justified. united airlines having a -- a 69-year-old doctor dragged off the flight because the company wanted his seat. >> oh, no! >> come on! come on! >> when you drag someone off who paid for a ticket and you see them bloody his face, it's kind of rude. >> it's horrible, united, you

screwed up, the cops screwed up. howie: the airlines' totally tone deaf response. the ceo said i apologize for having to reaccomodate those customers. one of the passengers who politely asked to deplane was refused. the ceo apologized on good morning america. >> what did you think when you saw the man being dragged off one of your planes? >> it's not as much what i thought as what i felt. the word shame comes to mind. the first thing is to apologize to dr. dao, his family, the passengers on that flight. our customers and employees. howie: i sat down with liz claman on fox business network.

obviously the footage of this 69-year-old doctor being dragged off the plane by these goons is so appalling everybody covered it. but is there something deeper here? liz: this was the smashed teeth heard around the world. i have been amazed by this. we have seen things that are horrific caught on tape. but this struck at the heart of what people feel is bad treatment on behalf of the airlines. as long as i land safely, to me it's a decent flight. but this went far and beyond anything that's called for. but when it's caught on tape and the youtube. there are were so many people holding up their phones. howie: without the

individualout's a he editory. the next date ceo holds a press conference and says how sorry he is. were journalists outraged that he didn't seem to get it? liz: from a business standpoint we are were are you kidding me? you came out and said dr. dao was belligerent? ceos better take a lesson from oscar munoz. you can stand by your employees but still take the part of a 69-year-old grand far it. he was a smaller stature and asian. but certainly everybody looked and said he had a ticket, he paid for it and they seated him, and that's been me. howie: how many of us have been on overbooked flights.

it turns out the flight wasn't even overbooked. united just wanted the seats for crew members. by saving $800 on the offers they gave people, the stock took a big hit. and tens of millions in bad publicity. liz: it knocked millions of dollars off the market cap value of the company itself because it's publicly trade. that's the monetary aspect. the human aspect is people looked at that and said wow! my dad used to say the pen is mightier than the sword. but television may be mightier. you see it and it's visual and it became quite dramatic. first it's all this -- it's always this horrible, then what is the company going to do.

then the smear campaign of the victim. howie: we had the "new york post," "people" magazine and tmz and others reporting on dr. dao on how 12 years ago he lost his medical license when he traded drugs for sex. i wonder if that was overplayed and unfair to a guy who was a victim here. liz: irrelevant to the crime. when journalists do their due diligence, they will find out people's backgrounds. but that did not have anything to do with what had happened. finds somebody who hasn't done something slightly belong their lives. does that make them unable to complain about the fact that they have a concussion because they didn't want to give up what they paid for? howie: every time i see it i got even more angry.

liz: i got even more angry when i heard the teeth were smashed. let it be a lesson on every ceo on how not to handle a crisis. howie: after the break, the editor of the "new york times" admit the elite media don't get the role of religion in people's lives. umbrellas!! you need one of these. you wouldn't put up with an umbrella that covers you part way, so when it comes to pain relievers, why put up with just part of a day? aleve, live whole not part. tell you what, i'll give it to you for half off. briathe customer app willw if be live monday. can we at least analyze customer traffic? can we push the offer online? brian, i just had a quick question. brian? brian... legacy technology can handcuff any company. but "yes" is here. you're saying the new app will go live monday?!

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howie: christians celebrating easter today and jews are celebrating passover. but religion is often invisible on television news. mollie hemingway, senior editor at "the federalist."

the media struggled over covering religion. >> the new york-based and washington-based media powerhouses don't quite get religion. we have a fabulous religion writer, but she is all alone. we don't get the role of religion in people's lives. howie: i give him credit for candor. mollie: it's something you hear editors say every few years. but you don't see the changes you would like to see so they do a better job of covering the news. a lot of the problems with coverage of religion which is one of the most important aspects for many people's lives is it's not more covered anywhere else from sports to politics. howie: particularly when you get to television news.

it seems like it's barely covered except major holidays, the pope gives speech, the pope comes to america. why do you think that is. mollie: for many people religion is a subtle force for good in their lives. howie: there is no conflict. you can't put two people to yell at each other. mollie: someone making a casserole for a neighbor whose husband just died does not make the news. that's not how it works out in people's lives. media outlets need to figure out a way to incorporate that day to day way religion can play a role in people's lives, the decisions they make. howie: the exception seem to me to have to do when politics

plays a healthy role in a religion story. for example will donald trump win over evangelicals. when you reduce it to politics it seems easier to deal with. mollie: for many in the media politics is their religion. there is certainly you are you e certain traditions that go along with it. but i would still argue they don't do a particularly good job even when you take the issue of how it was evangelicals could vote for someone like donald trump. they did not understand how religious people felt the last 8 years, they felt under attack and they voted for somewhere one they might not have otherwise voted for. howie: speaking of trump,

"washington post" had a piece that boggled my minds. it's about passover, how some jews are updating the seder. is it right to cast trump as the pharaoh? that struck me as a phoney trend story before it was cast as a perfectly acceptable question. poll require's an example of what religious people have become accustomed to. people don't like covering things that happen year after year. they are look to for a twist or turn to make it seem like something different. and you combine that with the insatiable hatred of donald trump. howie: is there co.

the media needs to do a bertd job. thanks for joining us. do you trust news on facebook? it's the phillips' lady! anyone ever have occasional constipation,diarrhea, gas or bloating? she does. she does. help defend against those digestive issues. take phillips' colon health probiotic caps daily with three types of good bacteria. 400 likes? wow! try phillips' colon health. yeah, 'cause i got allstate.? if you total your new bike, they replace it with a brand new one. that's cool. i got a new helmet. we know steve. it's good to be in (good hands).

howie: how to lose 44 pounds without any exercise. but there was a horrifying catch. she was suffering from cancer. the next to the last line says it proves everybody can lose weight without break sweat. they changed the line after

social media pushback. 50% in a new or say say they trust facebook or not at all. 44% just don't trust news on social media. 42% says mark zuckerberg's company doesn't do a good job of removing fake news. 82% says it depends on the news source. and 63% will read what their friends or acquaintances share online. that's it for this edition of "mediabuzz." i'm howard kurtz. i hope you are having a good easter or passover weekend. i'm howard kurtz.

if you want to weigh in on the show. mediabuzz@foxnews.com. back here next sunday, 11:00 eastern as always with the latest buzz. [♪] eric: days of anticipation and anxiety seem to be coming to a head as north korea fired another missile and as we know it failed almost immediately. this has vice president mike pence has arrived in south korea for a start of his 10-day trip through asia, trying to reassure allies that america does have their back. arthel: happy easter. north korea's setback coming a day after the regime flexed its military muscle in a huge parade