arthel: those dogs got you beat. look at it, they love it. rick: he's good. look at that guy. arthel: he's good. dogs love being trained, right? we love doggies. we're back in an hour, right? rick: can't wait. stay tuned. howie: on the "buzzfeed" this sunday with the president calling the russia story a complete fabrication. >> the slow drum beat of the russia investigation all summer long is picking up tempo with reports special counsel robert mueller has now impaneled a grand jury. >> there are questions about how serious the russian investigation is becoming. robert mueller impaneled a grand jury. >> this grand jury is the single

biggest threat trump has ever faced or someone named trump or married to a trump. howie: a "washington post" report that don, jr. was behind the meeting. >> he's clearly focused on covering for his son. it certainly tells bob mueller this guy is into a cover-up. >> washington post reporting the president was personally involved in his son's reaction to the meeting. >> why should anyone believe him on the big stuff, the things that do matter.

>> if i have a have a president who lies about the boy scouts or to destroy isis, i'll take the liar. howie: we hear part of anthony scaramucci's call to a reporter. jim acosta lectures a top white house official over a new policy on illegal immigration. >> it looks like you are trying to evening near the racial and ethnic flow of people into this country. >> that's one of the most of outrageous, insulting, foolish, and ignorant things you have ever said. howie: i'm howrt kurtz and this -- i'm howard kurtz and this is "mediabuzz." it was four weeks ago the "new york times" disclosed donald jr.

held a meeting to obtain negative research on hillary clinton. but the initial statement said it was primarily about adoption. "the washington post" revised that story saying the first story had been dictated by the president. >> the statement don, jr. issued is true. the president weighed in as any father would based on the limited information he had. howie: the media decibel level soared even higher after learning robert mueller has convened a grand jury. joining us, ellison barber, mollie hemingway and joe trippi. massive coverage of this "wall street journal" story which is a leak.

is it such a dramatic story to play out on cnn and nbc and fox? ellison: when i look at it, i see most of stories sitting in one of two categories. stories they need to know and stories they want to know. a lot of them are legal questions because a special counsel exists. but when it comes to the issue of is it too much, if you don't like it, change the channel, or send an email. if it's overplayed viewers' readers have a lot of power in dictating and letting us know maybe we are going too far.

howie: i have the take that prosecutors routinely bring in grand juries to bring in evidence and listen to witnesses. but the mainstream media suggests that's not the view in the dress. mollie: it is a big story related to russia. one of the interesting leaks is mueller is investigating things that have nothing to do with russia or the 2016 elections. are you covering it with enough september civil about what we know how special prosecutors run far afield from their original direction and is that a good thing. they treat mueller like he's beyond reproach. and we have to remember how he botched the anthrax investigation when he was head of the fbi. i understand everybody dislikes trump and they decided he's

guilty and they are waiting to find out the details, but a good journalist should be interested in the process. howie: does it have a big psychological impact on the coverage? joe: of course it has. but the other thing is obvious. mueller is going to impanel a grand jury. that was going to happen. can we manage if he after a year of counter-intelligence investigation came back and said there is not going to be a grand jury, we are moving on to other things and shutting down the office? mollie: if you don't find something out when you are charged to investigate, you should be shutting down. from what we hear they are going far afield. noise geographic limit or

associate limit to what can be investigated. howie: he hasn't been on the job that long so it would take time to shut thing down. you spent time in that white house briefing room. are reporters starting to question whether the president might be lying or is lying? ellison: probably. there have been a ton of thing he said. people are saying more journalists need to use the word "lie." and getting down to specific word we use. when it comes to the lie and whether things are lies. for me as a reporter now particularly with the political climate we are in i find myself going back to dictionaries more than i would have expected triple checking myself to make sure this is the word i want to use. it's important to see you a lie is a lie and ask a question about it.

howie: with flynn, he was fired because he lied to the vice president. then the president says, fires comey and asks comey allegedly to go soft on the one let go. howie: the president's lawyer who initially said the president had nothing to do with that statement. now the white house says he weighed in to some degree. >> did the lawyer know the different story the president had weighed in or dictated or did donald trump not tell him? we don't know that. mollie: what is frustrating about media coverage about this, we are told the president lied about something, then you get the details, or there was a false statement sent out by don, jr.

no one is alleging there was anything false by the, it's more misleading. if they tempered the expectations by not being so dramatic. howie: most of of the media are campaigning to undermine and discredit this president? mollie: there is no confusion about that. howie: there was an extraordinary leak to the post of president trump's phone calls to the leaders of mexico and australia. they are saying he lied when he said his call with the australian prime minister was testy. ellison: i think to your point it's something that's out there. the only thing i look at and worry about as a journalist who is blamed or criticized for that leak being out there.

howie: we were used to leaks at high levels of the administration. if the president can't talk to foreign leaders without somebody he works for leak it, that seems concerning. ellison: a number of national security experts said it is. the national sportsperson under barack obama said i would have lost my mind if this had happened over transcripts of barack obama's calls. as a journalist that's not my concern. but the supreme court said you go back to 1971 with the pentagon papers, a leak is not necessarily problematic on the journalist's side. joe: other members of the administration said this is a bad thing to have and the president should have that ability to talk to foreign leaders. are you going after the journalists or the leakers.

howie: on this question of journalists challenging actions by the president, there is a statement the president said in various places he got positive calls. >> why did the president say he received a phone call from the leader of the boy scouts and world leaders. >> no i wouldn't say it was a lie. the conversations took place. howie: now was it a phone call or personal conversation. mollie: the problem is trump had a phone call when instead he had an in-person conversation. he said the leader of the boy scouts called him and it was various leaders of the boy

scouts. he's imprecise with these things and it can cause problems. the whole probably with media credibility is how they don't treat misstatements evenly. donald trump saying he talked on the phone instead of meeting in person it didn't cause people to lose their health insurance. but when barack obama said you can keep your insurance and lost it, the media didn't treat that as a lie. if they applied the same scrutiny to other people as obama -- howie: the president often speak imprecisely. this supporters like that and they view a lot of this as journalistic knick picking.

-- nitpicking. it was the leader of the boy scout who said we did not have a phone call with the president. howie: "mediabuzz" @foxnews.com. @foxnews.com. cnn's jim acosta lectured a top white house official on immigration. the dna summer sale is here. get your ancestrydna kit. spit. mail it in. learn about you and the people and places that led to you. go explore your roots. take a walk through the past. meet new relatives and see how a place and its people are all a part of you. ancestrydna.

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howie: it's been six days since anthony scaramucci was fired in part after a call he had with

the "new yorker" that he never explicitly put off the record. the reporter asks to profile the source. >> i will eliminate anybody in the state and start over. >> you are an american citizen. this is a major catastrophe for the american country. i'm asking for you as an american patriot. if you wanted to be profiled. >> i don't want to be profiled. i'm not steve bannon, i'm not trying to success my own [bleep] and i'm not trying to build my own brand. howie: the reporter wrote it as if i said it in a menacing way,

and the actual tapes tell the story. mollie, you heard the tapes. mollie: when we first heard the story it sounded like scaramucci was on a cocaine-filled rant. but when you listen to that, it's relatively calm. during the primary he said jeb bush mocked the notion of mock shootings and in fact jeb bush was saying about human nature and the government can't solve everything about the human condition. if you have a reporter who does that, you should be more careful talking to him. howie: the black and white word versus the audio the "new yorker" released. when you listen to this it sound less like an unhinged rant than

the words suggest in the transcript. joe: it does, but it's terrifying to people like me. that's the most of dangerous thing you can do with a reporter, get into a banter with them, friendly banter is going back and forth, that's when you relax. howie: you said i probably have done this and reporters could have sabotage me and they did not. joe: that's how dangerous it is. every time you talk to reporters you realized you are on the record unless you have said you are not. lizza is great at getting into a kind of banter with them and it does look different on paper. howie: have you had considerations like this with sources, maybe not as x-rated. where they are expecting you not

to report it? ellison: if i'm having a conversation and there is a question whether it's on the record. you need to make sure i have agreed and both parties have agreed to it being off the record. most of people in his position or you knew at the time that you have to make that deal to start. in terms of have i gotten phone calls like this? i covered crimes in my last job. senior law enforcement officials will call me frustrated with a story or something of that nature. never have i had them ask me who my source was or jokingly say if you don't tell me, i'm going to fire everyone. howie: scaramucci comes into the white house and says i am going to fire the leakers.

and now there are even stories about how he's dumping on everyone and stories about a divorce he's going through. mollie: the national security leaks and the type of petty white house drama leaks that are routine for many administration, though this administration seems to be full of nothing but leakers. but he didn't succeed in his goal. joe: if you come after people they will come after you. howie: welcome to the nfl. joe trippi, ellison barber, mollie hemingway. thank you. a lawsuit involving the murder of a young dnc staffer. sarah is a fifth-grade teacher. when it comes to molding young minds, nobody does it better. she also builds her own fighting robots. destroy.

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>> the anonymous, uncorroborated claims are untrue and terribly unfair. the murder of a 27-year-old dnc staffer named seth rich has come roaring back into the news. the reason? a lawsuit against fox news by a network contributor, former d.c. homicide detective rod wheeler.

>> when you look at that with the totality of everything else that i found in this case, it's to begin to think, well, perhaps there were some e-mail communications between seth and wikileaks. >> the lawsuit also names a wealthy supporter of president with him to steer attention away from the russian hacking of the dnc e-mails, but less than a week later, wheeler told our web site: i am of the personal opinion that the

information/article reported last tuesday was essentially correct and worthy of further investigation. jay wallace, fox' president of news, said in a statement: the accusation that foxnews.com published malia zimmerman's story to help detract from coverage of the russia collusion issue is completely erroneous. the retraction is still being investigated internally, and we have no evidence that rod wheeler was misquoted by zimmerman. additionally, fox news vehemently denies the race discrimination claims in the lawsuit. the dispute has nothing to do with race. the story was first reported by npr. wheeler was hired to investigate seth rich's death, quote: the president just read the article, he wants the article out immediately. but he now says he was only joking, and he challenges >> wasn't serious because rod wheeler was always looking for a job because he has no money, and by the way, this lawsuit is all

about rod wheeler trying to get money because he messed up. by the way, i've never talked to president trump in my life, and trump has need to do with this. >> the white house spokesman told me yesterday that butowsky had asked for ten minutes to catch up, didn't ask him to do anything, and spicer took no action. >> it doesn't bother me that the press secretary would take a meeting with somebody involved in the media about a story. none of that was disclosed. they had a conversation, and that was the end of it. the president didn't have knowledge of this story, the white house didn't have any involvement in the story. >> wheeler says he asked fox to remove the quotes such as him saying he had found e-mail exchanges between rich and wikileaks but this was not done. that didn't stop wheeler from promoting the story on fox news. now, nobody looks good here. one thing is clear, this simply

compounds a tragedy for seth rich's family. coming up, katrina pierson on the white house pushback during a very tough week of media coverage. and is later, is the press taking a fair approach to the president's new policy on legal immigration? ♪ you don't let anything keep you sidelined. with 9 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. for the strength and energy to get back to doing... ...what you love. ensure. always be you. a trip back to the dthe doctor's office, mean just for a shot. but why go back there, when you can stay home... ...with neulasta onpro? strong chemo can put you at risk of serious infection.

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howie: katrina pierson, former trump campaign spokes fern now with america first policies. the media going haywire over the news that robert mueller convened a grand jury. katrina: i think it's overplayed. but anything involving the president and his administration is overplayed. this has nothing to do with russia, which is what i have

been saying for a long time. howie: how do you know that? katrina: there has been no evidence found. collusion is not a crime. so what are we looking for here? howie: why does russia call russia a fabricated story when his own deputy attorney general rob rosenstein decide to investigate this matter. peer report left lost the election. they claim their server was hacked and leaked to wikileaks. we have not seen the server. there is no evidence that this actually happened. but this an investigation based upon an allegation from the losing team. howie: a number of anchors and correspondents raised questions in the last week or so about

whether the president tells the truth. we had the flap over the leak story to "the washington post" about that first statement to donald trump, jr. the president said he got calls from the head of the boy scouts and the leader of mexico and it turned out they weren't phone calls. they were personal conversations. what do you make about the drum beat about the president's credibility. katrina: the media is trying to navigate away from their own credibility issue. only 18% of voters said the media was credible in a pew research poll. the media sources in time turn out to be fake news which is why the hashtag exists.

howie: you are right about the media's own record-low credibility. i have to push back on the allegation that any story based on unnamed sources is fake news. the story about don, jr. neating with a russian was fake news. howie: cnn's jim acosta at a white house briefing delivered a pretty big lecture to stephen miller, a white house official saying this plan is not in keeping with american tradition and quoted the statue of liberty

inscription. stephen miller reeducated jim acosta and cnn on the difference between green cardholders >>

next on media buzz, jim acosta versus stephen miller this a briefing room showdown. you've got to see this. and later, our new segment on why hbo is getting hammeredded for a show that hasn't even started filming yet. ♪ ♪ (woman) when you have type 2 diabetes, there's a moment of truth. and now with victoza®, a better moment of proof. victoza® lowers my a1c and blood sugar better than the leading branded pill, which didn't get me to my goal. lowers my a1c better than the leading branded injectable. the one i used to take. victoza® lowers blood sugar in three ways. and while it isn't for weight loss, victoza® may help you lose some weight. non-insulin victoza® comes in a pen and is taken once a day. (announcer) victoza® is not recommended as the first medication to treat diabetes and is not for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis.

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howie: stephen miller was take questions from reporters but when miller called on cnn correspondent jim acosta, he got >> what you are proposing doesn't seem >> the statue of liberty says givee your tired, your poor, your huddled masses. >> d do you not know theff difference between green card policy? >> he came to this country in 1962 right before the cuban missile crisis and obtained a green card. you're trying to engineer thesi racial and ethnic flow of peopla into this country. >> t jim, that is one of the mot outrageous, insulting and foolish things you've ever said, and for you that's still -- the notion that you think this is a racist bill is so wrong and so insulting. insulting.

howie: joining me, amy holmes, and kathy areu. was jim acosta acting like a journalist? amy: it's my understanding you are there to collect information, not a debate club. i think he should be going to other sources to challenge the policy. it was painful to watch. i know a lot of conservatives enjoyed stephen miller school mr. acosta. from my point of view i would like to have seen it not get so personal and move on. howie: cathy what did you make of that performance? cathy: he didn't follow the rules of that room it's journalism 101.

you are never the story. jim acosta made himself the story so much so it was a battle between jim acosta and stephen miller. it was all over "the washington post," the los angeles time, the "new york times," the "huffington post." it's pages and pages on the internet. he became the story. and i think that was his intention by bringing the poem he did not know by heart and read off a sheet of paper. it seems like he was prepared to make that statement and i don't know why stephen miller called on him. howie: let me play a sound bite of acosta talking about the encounter afterward on cnn. >> i was just essentially trying to test stephen miller on a couple of those points. i think what you saw unfold in the briefing room that he couldn't take that kind of heat and exploded before our eyes. howie: he says stephen miller

exploded. there is a history here which some of our viewers may know of jim acosta getting in with president trump and criticizing sean spicer. i have to conclude this is what cnn wants him to do because he's a front-line white house correspondent. amy: they wanted him to go in there and create those showboat moments. it served a function for the viewing public to find out how little this reporter does know about american immigration history. that he thinks it boils down to a rather beautiful poem on the statue of liberty. but it has nothing to do with immigration policy, immigration history or the debate the american people will have about this. howie: he may be reflecting in part his own family's immigration history. you may have problems with this

bill, but the question is how you will question the administration official were you in that situation. cathy: i do have his exact history. my parent are cuban immigrant. but i wouldn't reveal it. it's up to the press to be in that room, ask questions, then we give the audience the readers, the listeners, the facts, the viewers the facts. it's up to the viewers to interpret what they will. it's almost as if acosta thought this viewers weren't able to understand what this bill was. and he has it dissected for the viewers, the readers, the listeners. amy: it had to be pointed out to him that green card policy is different from comprehensive immigration reform that deals

with illegal immigrant who are here. what are we going to do? but that's not what was debated at the white house press briefing. cathy: they were both at fault. the rules of the room are you answer the question at hand. howie: let me move beyond acosta. i believe reporters should question reporters aggressively. this is a controversial change if it goes through to emphasize skills and speaking english and not necessarily bringing in people who are parent or children of those already here. was that fair? cathy: this is a sensitive issue when you are talking about families. i was surprised and maybe disheartened i saw when it came to conservative press how quickly it went from a discussion, debate and analysis of the policy to the politics. that's where it seems like so

much of the coverage goes to the politics. does this have a chance of succeeding. is this what americans want? what does the polling say about it? howie: shock. we are out of time. thanks very much. after the break. media grill think saying the justice department is justice department is investigating colleges for [upbeat music] >> announcer: no one loves a road trip like your furry sidekick! so when your "side glass" gets damaged... [dog barks] trust safelite autoglass to fix it fast, and we'll get you back on the road! [dog barks] ♪safelite repair, safelite replace.♪

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series. >> there are times when things are so egregious that you don't have to wait for them to come to fruition. our gone is to not have the show "confederates" see the light of day. howie: they are being slammed over being pro confederacy. mollie: hbo put out the information to get some critiques. this idea that hbo of all entertainment companies would be coming stout with slavery fan particulars is ludicrous. it will be nice to see more thoughtful commentary and

pushback at attempts to shut down a show before it's on. howie: the new dynamic to pressure networks to killing shows before they go to filming. mollie: also if you know about the show about who's writing it and who's behind it you will have another idea of it. not to say nothing concerns about a show. howie: "new york times" reporting justice department is preparing to investigate and possibly sue universities over policies that discriminate against white applicants. mollie: the story turned out to be basically false. the doj was investigating a complaint from 2015 that had not been dealt with by the previous administration and it involved asian americans.

to get that story wrong is a problem at the front end. but so many people took that story and ran with it without checking the underlying details. this is another problem we see in stories that get out of control. even when someone like the "new york times" is running with something, you have to check the facts. howie: the "times" had the document and their interpretation said it's. >> become policy under jeff sessions. the "times" did a follow-up story involving the asian americans and harvard. mole * an interpretation is a good thing to point out the original story was a product of interpretation. we understand that you are interpreting what an anonymous source tells you without having something you can go and find out greater details from.

you are midwest flying blind. howie: is there a mentality where other organizations jump in and repeat what another news organization says? >> the underlying problem cities outside of news rooms you have more intellectual diversity. there are a lot of people who don't like how affirmative action programs are implemented. so you need that greater viewpoint. howie: thanks very much. still to come, a sports story of president trump the golfer creates a major flap. did he really call the white house a day 13. if only this were as easy as saving $600 when you switch to progressive. winds stirring. too treacherous for a selfie. [ camera shutter clicks ] sure, i've taken discounts to new heights with safe driver and paperless billing. but the prize at the top is worth every last breath. here we go. [ grunts ]

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.. howie: "sports illustrated" put in the 24th >> sports illustrated quoted unnamed members of the new jersey golf club saying that the white house is a real dump. the president flatly denied this calling it fake news. the reporter said that he is

comfortable with it, but so many news outlets whacked away at the story, saying it was fact. and the president has been called "a lazy boy" for his 17-day vacation. every president is entitled to relaxation and every president works on vacation. have you ever seen a more snide, condescending, cheap shot cover? the president had to get out of the west wing, because they're renovating for two weeks. he had to go somewhere and he happens to play some golf, i think that's okay. i thought that was unfair. that's it for "media buzz." i'm howard kurtz. give our facebook page a like. we post a lot of content there. let us know what you think

@mediabuzzfnc. dvr the show if you are going to miss it and let me know what you think on twitter. it's back here next sunday. we hope to see you then. i will see you with the latest buzz. >> hello. i'm rick leventhal. welcome to a brand-new hour. >> and i'm arthel neville. one day after a unanimous u.n. security council slapped the toughest sanctions yet on north korea. >> and the bombing of a minnesota mosque. what the fbi is saying about that explosion. >> a possible tornado tore through a major city, leaving a trail of destruction and injuring dozens of people. "a