great week and we will see you next fox news sunday. howie: a media earthquake over a "washington post" report that alabama senate candidate roy moore sexually molested a 14-year-old girl 40 years ago. ess it's not just one person. it's multiple people. i don't see how he can represent alabama in the u.s. senate. >> roy moore who has lived his whole life as the holiest man in

politics may serve time in prison. >> a 32-year-old man molesting a 14-year-old girl is disgusting and should transend politics. >> these acts allegedly took place in 1979 and the first time she discloses it is now. howie: president trump, mitch mcconnell and others say moore should quit the race if the allegations are true. four women say judge moore pursued them while they were teenagers. president trump says he believes vladimir putin is sincere in denying election hacking.

louis c.k. admits sexual misconduct after allegations by several women. a stunning account of how harvey weinstein's detectives tried to intimidate journalists who were hot on his trail. i'm howard kurtz and this is "mediabuzz." "the washington post" story on alabama republican roy moore is based on a series of interviews with a 14-year-old who says roy moore accosted her. >> the first time was kissing. the second time he took off her

clothes. he took off his own clothes. >> i have not been guilty of sexual misconduct with anyone. these allegations came just four weeks before the general election of september 1. september -- of september 12. why now. howie: joining us to analyze the coverage. mollie hemingway, juan williams and erin mcpike. four women who don't know each other. reporters came to them. one said she was 14 at the time and she voted for donald trump. mollie: this is an important story. but this is a media environment

where other stories have fallen apart if it was three years ago when the cover story was written about a gang rape at uva. they rerexively -- they reflexively accepted the story and it came out to be untrue. there is a different standard on that. but people are used to sexual assault not being as credible as they are first presented. the duke lacrosse team was accused of a gang rape. the people accused were actually declared innocent. there is a media environment where people aren't necessarily going to accept what they are told by the media.

howie: "the washington post" talked to two friends who she told she was dating an older man. on the radio with sean hannity roy moore said this. >> do you remember dating girls at that time? >> not generally, no. if i did, i am not going to dispute anything. howie: that was not a hard denial. juan: so much of what he said to hannity was emphatic. then he said that. i think what you just played up produced that into their mind what roy moore is disputing. it's not okay to be going out with teenaged girl. howie: there is this tweet from roy moore whose senate election battle is next month.

the obama-clinton machine's liberal media lap dogs just launched the most of vicious and nasty attacks on me. erin: the important thing with this story is you have all four of these women on the record. the "post" interviewed kaufman six times. they talked to the friends of the other women involved because they wanted the story to be airtight. that story is airtight. howie: i take your point that not every allegation is true. some are defending moore but mostly not. they are saying he should quit the race. mollie: stories about sexual

assault are not easy to report. there has been quite a bit of fervor about this story, not as much calm thought about it. but it's a very difficult story and these are very serious allegations. juan: in the political context, the journal stories you cite, yes. but the loss of a republican seat to a democrat, and right now that race is very tight. and to say the democrats set this up to defeat roy moore, the problem is people are saying exactly how is she part of the machine. what is in her interest to expose herself to the criticism

and allegations that she is part of the democrats at this point. she is a trump voter. howie: the "post" gave this story to breitbart. but then you have steve bannon, the chairman of "breitbart" saying this and harkening back to the fact it was "the washington post" who broke the "access hollywood" tape about donald trump. >> is it just a coincidence that the bezos "washington post" did the access hollywood tape, and then hit the did on roy moore? howie: what do you make about this, since the "post" had broken the story about president

obama. erin: i have seen campaigns try to get ahead of stories before, but not like that, to actually reveal everything in the story that is going to be coming out. howie: let's talk about selective outrage in the media. you have pundits denouncing roy moore. he has been removed from the state supreme court in alabama. then democrats when they are accused of sexual misconduct, then they are saying the allegations are untrue. mollie: george stephanopoulos pulled the original trick of going to "breitbart" when the washington "free beacon" * had the story about him giving money

to hillary clinton. but this is such a bigger context. people are pretending this is a genuine story. "the washington post" has taken a position of being in the opposition to the president. people are sceptical about the story itself. it's somewhat unfair because the story should stand or fall on its own merits. erin: to your question to molly that it's based on partisanship, i take issue with that friday in colorado, a story about a state representative who is a democrat, who another state democratic representative accused of aggressively sexually

harassing her. in the same story the democratic speaker of the house called for her resignation and she said i believe there should be extremely high standards of conduct for the state legislature. howie: there are exceptions. mitch mcconnell didn't wait long before going after roy moore. with bill clinton and monica lewinsky many politicians and pundits made excuses for the president. this doesn't necessarily make the story untrue. you look at the evidence, the interviews with the four women. do they have partisan motivation? juan: given roy moore's

evangelical's projection that he is a man of god and standing on the ten commandments, it's difficult for people in the bible belt in alabama to make a decision here. when it comes to questioning the resistance, if you are looking at that story in and of itself in terms of the sourcing and people on the record. as a reporter, i have been a reporter for a long time, that story is pretty stuff. howie: the democratic mayor bill deblasio re-elected to mayor of new york. when we come back, the media pouncing on the president's controversial comments about kim jong-un and vladimir putin. jong-un and vladimir putin. later, dana perino on the press

howie: president trump is getting modest coverage of his trip to japan and south korea until this weekend's tweet storm. mollie hemingway, this is an unusual form of diplomacy. mollie: twitter just doubled its character count which i thought was a terrible idea. but it's a perfect example how

everyone hears donald trump differently depending on your perspective. i think the media issue is so many people in the media reside only in one camp. they only hear it as a threat and danger and don't hear it like so many other people in the world hear it. howie: president trump doesn't speak in carefully scrubbed diplomatic phrases. especially on twitter. juan: these are now official documents. it's in the just something got thrown out. it's real. and it comes from the commander-in-chief and the leader of the free world. yes, it's funny in the schoolyard, but when i'm leader of the free world and he starts talking until these terms it's a

worry. howie: what the president had to say or didn't have to say about vladimir putin whom he met with at the asian pacific conference. he said to reporters, he said he absolutely did not meddle in our election. he did not do what they are saying he did. i believe when he says that he means it. he then tried taken in appearance with reporters to walk it back. president trump: i said i believe he believes that. that's important. i believe he believes he and russia did not meddle in the election. as to whether i believe it or not, i am with our agencies. howie: is this a misstep or miscommunication. erin: there is a lot of

believing in there. i want to go back to this week. john kelly was asked about this by reporters on the trip. he said i tell my staff not to worry about this tweet. when sean spicer was press secretary he said the tweets speak for themselves and that's what sarah huckabee sanders says. howie: the transcript does suggest donald trump believes putin. people who heard the audio the inflection makes clear that wasn't his meaning. mollie: it's also true that you see media respond to things he says or tweets and they overstate what they are saying. it's better to take a step back and look at the larger issue

with russia. he did not -- it's very difficult at a time like that. howie: another president said only haters and fools would be opposed to a good relationship with russia. juan: the thing is the context to the story is so important. we are in the midst of a parole to the extent and dangers of interest force in the american election by russia. you think how is that possible given what the intelligence agents have said, his own cia director. this man has nuclear weapons. howie: most of presidents do. ahead, a bombshell report of harvey weinstein using private detectives to intimidate journalists investigating his

conduct.

county a deal we'll not approve in my administration because it's too much concentration of power from the hands of too few. howie: reports that the justice department might be pressuring time-warner to sell off cnn. is that true? there have been conflicting reports. trump versus cnn. we know the president considers cnn to not have high journalist standards. >> the justice department in our

reporting is putting pressure on them. the justice department wants at&t to do this deal, creating a joint venture so the deal can go forward without warner and cnn in the package. howie: another version denied by the ceo of at&t is that they offered to sell off cnn. or sell off directv. aren't these sort of the normal kinds of concerns that come up in anti-trust negotiations rather than a plot to get cnn to be sold? >> what is different about this is typically the justice department gets involved when

two competitors are involved. in this case at&t and time-warner aren't direct competitors. this is what they call a vertical merger. the concern as we can deshine siefe --decipher from the justie department. saying we are not going to let you, if any other providers want

questions. sarah huckabee sanders told reporters it was she who did not want to have a q and a with reporters. since previous administrations insisted on taking questions. shannon: the barack obama administration had a similar situation where they did not take questions from the press in the first press conference. they learned from that, and they went to the mat on that going forward. i'm sure this will not be the last time president trump is in china. it sounds like it's one of those common mistakes an administration makes early on when they don't know there is a way to pressure the chinese. howie: how much do you want to pressure the chain these on this when you need their help with north korea. ahead.

new testimony appears to knock down the most of salacious part down the most of salacious part of the trump dossier. my name is jeff sheldon, and i'm the founder of ugmonk. before shipstation it was crazy. it's great when you see a hundred orders come in, a hundred orders come in, but then you realize i've got a hundred orders i have to ship out. shipstation streamlined that wh the order data, the weights of , everything is seamlessly put into shipstation, so when we print the shipping ll everything's pretty much done. it's so much easier so now, we're ready, bring on t. shipstation. the number one ch of online sellers. go to shipstation.com/tv and get two months free.

howie: the "new york times" story on sexual misconduct by louis c.k. has caused the cancellation of a story about an olderman pursuing a young girl. >> everybody is a pervert. i'm a pervert. who cares. howie: the "times" quoted five women who said the comedian masturbated in front of them.

he said people didn't want to hear it. i brought pain to my family, my friend, my children, and their mother. netflix said it will no longer receive revenue from joint productions. the "hollywood reporter" broke the news just before the "new york times" broke the story. did he have much choice? >> this is an issue roiling the entertainment industry. fx the next day canceled the louis c.k. program and all the program he has an involvement with he will be taken off of.

howie: it shows you the swiftness of the allegations in this environment. it took the "new york times" which also broke the harvey weinstein story to get the women on the record, which is the key to any of these stories. matt: the louis c.k. stories had been raw mored in the comedy circles for years. his comedy touches on this kind of rumor and sex talk. but women coming on the record to tell their stories. it's a very courageous thing these women did and that broke the tide. howie: there is a story in the "hollywood reporter" about harvey weinstein's detectives

intimidating the accusers and journalists on the story. is that your understanding of how he operated? matt: absolutely. it shows how this kind of behavior was kept under wraps for decades. these are former israeli's hired to help harvey weinstein attack these potential accusers. they dug up dirt on various editors. he would try to do book deals with people to take them out of play. this is a very sophisticated and sinister in my opinion operation. howie: movie moguls would use bogus firms, contacting

journalists and have it remain this secret? matt: i didn't know this was going on. i think a lot of people in the entertainment industry didn't know it was going on. everybody i talked to in hollywood was shocked. we knew harvey had expensive lawyers. david bois is a $1,000 an hour attorney. they were very powerful and their job was the keep harvey out of the news in a negative contact. but we had no idea david bois who represented al gore in the recount was doing these kinds of thing. howie: david bois also argued the gay marriage in front of the supreme court. they are trying to stop the "new

york times" from publishing the harvey weinstein story. the "times" said we find this a betrayal of trust. bois said he didn't know the details but he admits he made a mistake. kevin spacey has been dumped from "house of cards." more allegations against him, including a former boston tv anchor talk about an alleged sexual assault on her 18-year-old son. >> to kevin spacey i want to say this, shame on you for what you did to my son. howie: when spacey goes off to sex rehab and he hasn't addressed any of these. are the media justified in assuming he doesn't have a response and he must be guilty?

>> we reached out on every one of these application instances and the fact he hasn't put out a statement is somewhat telling. a lot of the strategies for these people is to do one statement and they ask the original statement be included in the article. harvey weinstein did that. the kevin spacey allegation is a serious one. there could be criminal charges against him. police in a couple jurisdictions are looking into this. when you don't have much to say, that's when you don't do a statement. howie: a couple weeks ago kevin spacey was on top of the world. he had all these projects. i keep looking at the "hollywood reporter" and half of the page is these stories. coming up, the media that

pummeled sayfullpull -- pummele.

howie: sarah huckabee sanders is starting to get the sean spicer treatment with a twist. some pu -- some pundits are mock her appearance and her he nuns

yaition while writing she is awful at this, which makes her an excellent fit. then there is snl. >> halloween is over but i see some of you are still in your journalist costumes. >> you deny any connection between the trump administration and the russian interest force. howie: i spoke earlier with dana perino, the co-host of the five and white house press secretary for george w. bush. white house press secretaries are always on the front lines. but some of the press are even cite sizing her appearance as in

that snl clip. does this go too far? dana: yes, of course. when i was press secretary i don't think anybody at snl even knew my name, and that's how i liked it. but we are living in a different time. everything sarah huckabee sanders says and does is scrutinized. i would like them to point out where do they think she lied. i don't see direct accusations of that. i can tell you press secretaries cannot do their job if they lie at all. it does not happen. howie: given the battering sean spicer took, is there any trump press secretary the media what find acceptable in this environment? dana: i don't know. i asked sarah huckabee sanders a few weeks ago when i interviewed her if the hostility was a

little bit less than it seemed. she said no, the hostility was there. i think? some ways the media believes it goes both ways and i think that's partly true. we are in a hyper charged environment. but i hear from reporters at the white house that she does a good job working with them on logistics, making sure the reporters will be at the right place at the right time to get what they need in the president to do their job. that matters. in some ways she has figured out a way to use that charm and humor. if she dialed that up a notch it would be useful. howie: . a columnist wrote sanders looks more like a chunky soccer mom that organizes snacks for the

kids' games. here is what he said to megyn kelly. >> what could you have been thinking? >> i gliewpt same sexist -- i group in the same sexist world others did. howie: he referred to female journalists at fox as blond barbie dolls. how did the "times" editors approve this for publication? dana: i was raised to never say anything derogatory about people at any time. i have felt uncomfortable with politics the last couple years. it makes people feel bad about . .

megyn was right to grill him. howie: when the press goes after sarah huckabee sanders because she is defending comments that they find indefensible. isn't that part of the job of press secretary and you must have been caught between the press and the bosses. >> yes, but not in this way. i don't remember having a situation like this. we had other situations. we were a nation at war, take on casualties and that caused a lot of hostility. the best thing to do is explain the president's decision and respect the decision-making process. the media will in that room give you a little bit of a break if you have say i understand why you are asking the question. what i'm going to tell you is x

or y. and i think there are ways to show, i get it. i know why you are asking that question. but i'm not going to be putting myself out there defending every single thing that's tweeted or said. i think the job of the press secretary is to advocate for the country, for the president, and protect the rights of the media to ask questions of its government. howie: you don't necessarily have to defend every controversy. but the culture has certainly changed. dana perino, thank you for joining us. the latest leak in the russia probe, how an unsubstantiated allegation made it through the mediate filter.

howie: unverified strum dossier is back in the news. nbc reports donald trump's long-time security investigator told them when they were in you've kraint russians offered to send five women to trump's room which he immediately rejected. if trump's security guy is telling the truth -- mollie: think about this. you have the bodyguard saying he was offered prostitutes, laughing by the, saying no, telling donald trump by the and laughing by the. to compare that with the dossier, it's a profoundly different story. it's a reminder of how this

dossier has been hand by the media. it's been treated as a highly credible document that should be taken seriously. we are told by some reporters we can't tell you some of the details but some of it has been verified. story after story shows this was not a good piece of intelligence and there aren't ways to independent have i verify it. howie: when buzzfeed published this back in january. other news organizations say no we can't do this, we can't verify it, we won't publish it or embrace the. but everyone seems to know about it and i avoided write big it or talking about it. the notion that russians on the trip provided donald trump with prostitutes. how does that seem into the media cultural when everyone is saying we should not report

this. mollie: people know about this story. they knew of about it by the time "buzzfeed" published because they had been briefed on it. and if you take a step back. this has been driving our coverage since january. this idea that the dossier was beyond reproach and taken seriously by our intelligence agencies. we learned it was a clinton campaign operation all along. howie: in the sense the clinton campaign paid gps:which paid for the dossier. mollie: the big thing that's supposed to substantiate the russian story is that donald trump, jr. met with the russians, but they have also met

with gps. how very trump associates are put in the position of saying there were no hookers when the bodyguard said this never happened. we only know this because of a leak about his testimony. everybody had so much fun with this salacious detail. it was the only thing people hung on. donald trump addressed it in that first press conference it's all based on from what we know, it doesn't sound like it's based on much. howie: still to come. disney tries and fails to retaliate against the "l.a. times" and president trump.

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howie: i want to nibble at this fish story it's an example of how the media feeds on a fish narrative. this what the koi pond shows. a cnn headline says trump foods fish and winds up pouring entire box of food into koi pond. they said trump decided to dump the whole box in. president trump was criticized for throwing an entire box of fish find pond. abe dumped his own box of food first. donald trump was just tolling his lead. this was a tall fish tale.

the disney company retaliated against the "l.a. times." the punishment? disney barred all "l.a. times" reporters from advance screenings of its movies. but others quickly joined a boycott. disney backed gown and ended the ban on "l.a. times." the advance screenings of these movies, that's the game. continue the story on twitter @howard kurtz. other videos i do during the week and the columns i write for

the fox news website. we like to engage in the dialogue. we'll see you next sunday at 11:00 a.m. eastern with the >> as the world knows, the united states since our election on november 8th has been moving ahead really brilliantly. >> i think he's giving putin a pass an demonstrates to mr. putin that donald trump can be played. >> what the president believes is what's most important here, he believes the assessment of the intelligence community. he wants to deal with president putin and other world leaders on major issues. >> are republicans in the house know it is time to deliver on this economy and grow the paycheck by getting rid of this current tax code, that's exactly what we are going to do. >> over 50 people dead and hundreds more injured after