be pking up these charges yourself. so get allstate, where agents help keep you protected from mayhem... ...like me. mayhem is everywhere. are you in good hands? >> on the buzz this sunday, saturation coverage for a bombshell indictment as mueller charges 13 russians with election meddling and news organizations turn the spot light on president trump who has always been skeptical about the hacking by moscow. the president claims vindication. while the press says the charges prove the russia probe is no hoax. who is right? the horrifying school shooting in florida sparks yet another media debate about gun control and mental health and attack on the president's response. >> the nra is too powerful. >> when it comes to guns, news anchors take off their journalist hats and put on their activist hats. and they do it without shame or

disclaimers because they believe righteousness is the same thing as being right. >> donald trump knew this day was coming. donald trump knows another school shooting is coming. donald trump knows another church shooting is coming. more christians will be gunned down in churches in middle america. >> once again, we are told to shut up about it. this is no time for politics. those in the pocket of the nra tell us. >> also predictability within hours, democrats, the liberal media, they race as they always do to politicize a tragedy and try to blame believe it or not president trump and republicans. >> after so many mass shootings, after so many school shootings, will the media debate once again fade in the face of political gridlock? the journalistic uproar over the rob porter goes into second week as the white house version is contradicted by the fbi. >> we have been misled and we have been lied to time and again. and for what? to cover up for the guy who allegedly did this? >> apparently the only

acceptable response from the president would have been condemning porter to a life of misery and inviting the wives to the white house for a me too lunch. >> did rob porter not get fired and did the white house not take action? why are we still talking about this? >> and why is the coverage so focused on john kelly amid disparaging leaks about the chief of staff. plus a blockbuster new yorker story says donald trump had an affair back in 06 with a former playboy play mate and the national enquirer's owner played big bucks for hr story so the -- for her story so the tabloid could kill it. the white house is calling that fake news. is it? i'm howard kurtz and this is mediabuzz. >> we have a lot of news to get to today. joining us senior editor at the

federalist. and chief congressional correspondent for the washington examiner. the coverage of the horrible florida school shooting has generated a lot of shock and despair and anguish and numbness among journalists among the whole country among the whole world and some political finger pointing. i want go around the table and get a quick thought. molly? >> it is interesting how much the media just immediately focused on gun control. they like to talk about government action and it all seems to focus on gun control, which is a perfectly legitimate area to focus on, but they do it at the expense of other issues that are also in play, when it comes to these mass shootings such as the moral debasement of the culture, social isolation, as a result of breakdown in civic institutions that form the intermediary between government and individual and these are things that would also be good to focus on as well. >> jessica? >> i agree we need to have the full conversation that includes obviously mental health and what went wrong with the fbi there. but i felt like this was the fairest coverage of a mass shooting that we have had in a long time. i think the key component to that was the voices of these

children listening to the number of students who spoke, closer to the actual tragedy, and with something like sandy hook, where you have 5 and 6-year-olds that were gunned down, they couldn't speak for their peers but to hear these 14, 15, 16, 17-year-olds out there i think made a huge difference. both sides at fault, the ap with the white national story the gun control wouldn't have fixed this when we know after sandy hook tighter restrictions in connecticut have helped. both sides guilty but the kids made a difference. >> a white nationalist group claims that the shooter was a member of the group turned out not to be true. >> how about the president's tweet where he tied the fbi investigation into himself with the shooting was very hyperpolitical but also rather interesting because it highlighted the problematic relationship he has with the fbi but also his focus on the problem the fbi is having with the threat assessments. this is not the first time where there has been a threat of a mass shooting. same thing happened in florida

where they knew about it, they had tips about it or had actual contact but they dropped the ball and the tragedy ended up happening. >> just to button this up, what the president was tweeted was very sad the fbi missed all the many signals sent out by the florida school shooter. this is not acceptable. they are spending too much trying to prove russian collusion with the trump campaign. there is no collusion. more on the shooting in our next segment but now it was deputy attorney general rod rosenstein who announced the mueller indictments against the 13 russians and this was more than just cyber hacking. the russians are alleged to have posed as american citizens stolen identities, committed fraud and disrupted the american political process. starting in 2014 and then the 2016 race these russian disruptors who are told to quote use any opportunity to criticize hillary and the rest except sanders and trump, we support them. so molly hemmingway, this led to a political headline i want to read for everybody. worries about trump legitimacy resurfaced with russia indictment. your take on the coverage? >> you said it was more than

just cyber hacking but it was actually almost less than cyber hacking because it was internet trolls, indictments of 13 trolls who posted memes -- >> impersonated americans -- >> that's whey they were charged. -- that's why they were charged. they had nothing to do with the hacks which also has something to do with russia and maybe we will get more from mueller on that. the media turned this into somehow legitimizing their theory that they have pushed for over a year that russia colluded with trump to steal an election. when in fact these indictments had nothing to do with the trump campaign. they had nothing to do with any collusion between the trump campaign and russia. and yet a lot of these stories like the politico one claiming that it somehow cast election legitimacy into doubt when in fact it specifically said it had nothing to to do with the election. the washington post had a headline something trump's russia hoax turns out to be real. >> justice department deals fatal blow to trump russia hoax. >> again, the whole hoax that donald trump has complained about that's been pushed in the

media is this belief that russia colluded with trump in treasonous fashion to steal an election. that may come out to be true at some point. we have been waiting for over a year but there's been no evidence to support that conspiracy theory as of yet. >> to me, it depends on where you put the media lens. if you put it on the question of russian collusion with trump and associates, it is true. these indictments said that nobody -- no witting cooperation from americans. if you take a broader view where the president has attacked the investigation itself as fake news and as a hoax, then you could -- could you argue that that did support at least that part of the media's take on this lengthy investigation? >> absolutely. the president claims that he never said that russian meddling was a hoax but he said it could have been russia, could have been china, could be a 400 pound guy sitting alone in his room, so that implies that he was trying at least to divert us away from the fact that it could have been russia. we have hr mcmaster out there right now confirming what the intelligence community said over

a year ago about russian meddling here. these indictments yes were not about collusion. but what the right has done and if you listen to them, they have gone out there and try to spin this and said rod rosenstein said no collusion at all. he was clear in these 13 indictments >> one of the things that the president tweeted is that started in 2014, before he was in politics, that is true. results of the election were not impacted. that's what the indictment said. that's what the depp attorney general said. -- deputy attorney general said. the trump campaign did nothing wrong, no collusion. he's been on a tweet storm the last few days. this one showing cnn supposedly takes place in 2038 and it is an aging wolf blitzer with a cane saying update we should see evidence of russia trump collusion any day now. kind of a finger in the eye against his least favorite network. >> you see everybody retreating to their familiar camps the people who hate trump are on one side, and people who love him on the other. there's no middle ground here.

you are not getting a sense of what's possible here. the indictments did not say that there was no evidence in the future perhaps. they just said they couldn't find any here that this influenced the election. so in the media it is reflected the same way, one side you say this is proof it was all a hoax. you have people are saying that on the right. on the left people are saying this is not a hoax and in fact is tip of the iceberg and there's more coming. what's missing i think in the media an analysis with a little more balance where you get a sense of what the truth actually is. i think there's a lot of noise on either side. >> one thing has surprised me molly while the president is certainly entitled to say this shows no collusion, the investigation has been all about collusion and to push back and sort of claim a certain measure of vindication, what we haven't heard and a lot of journalists have pointed this out is the president saying this is a terrible thing that russia tried to do disrupt our democracy during an election and we need to take steps to stop this. it's all been about sort of playing defense on the

allegations about him and his campaign. >> for good reason, the media has used this story to undermine the legitimacy of donald trump and he pushes back against that. there's two schools of thought how you handle this, this disinformation campaign, one is to hype it, play into it let russia create chaos and confusion and the other is to dun play -- down play it. donald trump takes the down play approach. the media takes the fall right into russia's hands and hype it approach. >> let me turn to one more subject. that is the rob porter case. after days of shifting explanations about the firing of him, fbi chief says his bureau told the white house about the abuse allegations about two ex wives last march, much earlier than the white house acknowledged. >> is the white house still maintaining that john kelly really had no idea about these allegations of domestic abuse until this story broke? >> i can only give you the best information i have and that's my understanding.

>> does the president believe the women? >> again, the president takes all of these accusations very seriously. >> we see sarah huckabee sanders in a difficult position there. in fact politico reported that she wanted john kelly and house counsel to brief reporters rather than her being out there taking more fire repeating what they have told her, and there's been obviously a lot of different shifting versions of just what happened with porter. >> i'm going with christopher wray though as the ultimate source on this since he has the official dates of when investigation started and when they closed. we have heard so many shifting stories from the likes of sarah sanders and the rob porter situation i think refocuses on the fact that donald trump does not take allegations of sexual harassment and abuse against women seriously. he has defended the likes of roy moore, rob porter and it is not i'm not against due process, it

took him nine days i think -- >> on that point i want to play the sound. there is a lot f media criticism that he expressed sympathy for porter and hadn't talked about the ex wives at all. >> i'm totally opposed to domestic violence of any kind. everyone knows that. and it almost wouldn't even have to be said so now you hear it, but you all know it >> i don't think the domestic violence label is going to stick on trump any more than the sexist label and all the other labels because it is not reflected on who he hires. now porter was out of there in a couple days, as soon as they saw the pictures. he's gone. >> the media argument was he should have addressed -- >> let's -- how much money do you want to wager that past administrations have had people on staff -- in fact i know for a fact that al gore had somebody working in his office who was accused of domestic violence, nobody fired him. this has happened throughout history. the media is honing in because

they love to sow the idea that the trump administration is fully incompetent. >> you can argue the white house really extended this story because it kept changing the story about what happened. at the same time it could be argued the press has blown this out of proportion having to do with a white house aide that most of the country hadn't heard of. >> the white house dud -- the white house did not handle this well. the level of coverage has been so interesting given the media itself has so many mistreatment of employees where they didn't show the curiosity. every media company out there has had these similar type stories of mistreatment of women. they didn't show the same interest they showed here. >> that is a point. panelists -- >> security clearance is also relevant. >> we didn't have a chance to get to that. the president and a former playboy play mate and a six figure payment by the national enquirer.

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>> the heart breaking school shooting in parkland florida left 17 people dead, left journalists as sad and numb as the rest of the country and quickly turned into a debate about president trump and the lack of government action. >> our entire nation with one heavy heart is praying for the victims and their families. it is not enough to simply take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference. >> we have all of the resources in the world and we can't figure out why this happens in our country and doesn't happen anywhere else. forget your political arguments why can't we come together as a society and say we're going to

study this and research this and bring our brightest together put them all in a room give them funds and give them whatever they need to figure out why are our children killing each other more in the united states than anywhere else in the world. >> an emotional debate to be sure. joining us now to analyze the coverage in houston, columnist for the hill and in new york, publisher of a magazine and a former washington post magazine editor. after president gave that speech that we just highlighted, cnn commentator joan walsh tweeted this sociopath who can't even manage to mirror real human concern, that speech, your comments on that? >> unbelievable, the media coverage of the shooting and of donald trump's speech the following day is deeply disappointing. before we knew the facts about the shooter including how he got his gun, before we had a chance to pay our respect to the families who lost loved ones, the media used this tragic event to flagrantly push politics.

journalists took priority -- the end result was coverage that was partisan, irresponsible and sometimes not even factually correct. baldwin was demanding a discussion about guns just moments into their live coverage. it is no surprise that only 32% of americans trust the media today, howie. >> i would add there have been some good reporting on the ground of what happened in florida. >> i get that the president didn't mention guns. it is fair to criticize the speech for offering prayers and condolences but no specifics, but that kind of attack that i just quoted and it's come up before at the las vegas massacre, after the hurricanes, president not showing enough empathy, according to his media critics, your take? >> well, yeah, but he didn't. he was opportunistic in that speech. so he did take advantage of the situation by -- he mentioned guns. he mentioned the word gun once. but he was opportunistic in saying that it was a mental health issue -- >> instead of critiquing the speech, tell me what you think of the media's coverage of the

speech, of his response, and of this gun control debate. >> the media coverage was fine, and then immediately went partisan when the president did give the speech. so he kind of opened it up to the discussion of gun control versus mental illness. so the president led the way into this partisan approach that the media jumped on, so the media has been partisan, but that -- we see that. we see that in these cases, not just during this administration. we do see that it is a gun control issue versus no guns. people not trusting the government. people not trusting the media. in this case i think the president led it all off by mentioning mental illness before mentioning anything about gun control in his speech. >> well, but there was nothing blatantly political in the speech, it was by omission to his critics that he didn't mention guns. let me hold this up, this is a conservative pro turn newspaper, mr. president please act we need some sensible gun control. kristen, i think it is fair to have some debate, some

discussion when this was done with an assault style rifle, majority of americans support modest gun changes but are journalists commentators going from there to sort of blame republicans and saying gun control is not the answer. >> it is clear what's happening. this is being used as a political opportunity to demonize trump, gun owners and nra. the narrative on the left seems to be that somehow trump and the g.o.p. are complicit in the mass murder of our schoolchildren. it is okay to have debates about gun control. the problem is you start doing that before we know all the facts and the hard news coverage becomes bias. it is a sad day in america, howie, when we can't trust our news outlets to be factual and nonpartisan in the coverage of a major mass shooting. we deserve to expect and demand better from our reporters. i mean, every outlet nearly besides fox news had some sort of partisan spin in their hard coverage of the event, and you

know, while the media is focused on politics, the rest of us here in america are trying to pick up the pieces of this horrible event and having a discussion about how we can make our schools safer moving forward. politics aside. >> let me jump in. you know, there were political views expressed on fox news as well. they may be some views you were more likely to agree with. president obama in eight years couldn't get any gun measures through. it is a subject on which washington seems paralyzed. your thought on the media, is it politicization as kristen and others suggest saying hey we need to have a gun control debate here, school shootings, a half dozen years after newtown connecticut or is it demanding a substantive discussion of an important issue? >> the media covered the facts. the immediate is presenting the facts -- the media is presenting the facts. the media is allowing the public, viewers, listeners of their outlets to make their choices. they have laid out the facts. now the opinions are coming out. this is what the media does.

they lay au-- they lay out the facts. it is up to the public to dissect them, understand them and form their own opinions. the president did overturn obama's decision to take away the rights for the mentally ill to get such quick access to guns. that was in 2017. and the media covered it. there wasn't much of a hoopla. now we are hearing a lot about it. the president brought up mental illness during his speech. it was perfect timing for this issue to come about. the media is pointing out the hypocrisy here. >> got to wrap it up here. kristen, cathy, thank you very much for joining us. the facts unfortunately are horrifying especially the part about the fbi not following up on the warning. ari fleischer weighs in on how the trump white house handles tragedy scandal and the media. and olympic athletes, how some are polluting the game with politics. with an expert. so, no matter what, i know i'm making

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>> shaun white was dogged by questions of his past. when the subject was raised a a news conference, he was dismissive. he said honestly here to talk about the olympics not you know gossip and that came up on the today show. >> do you have anything you want to say about that and kind of clear the air? >> you know, of course i'm truly sorry that i chose the word gossip. it was a poor choice of words to describe such a sensitive subject in the world today. >> even if you are a gold medal winner you don't get to avoid serious questions about your nonathletic behavior. rippon won a bronze medal in figure skating. he picked a fight with mike pence who was leading our delegation with the olympics because he wanted to drag politics in to the game.

when the vice president heard reports of tension, he tweeted we are for you. don't let fake news distract you. i'm proud of you and all our great athletes and my only hope for you in all of team usa is to bring home the gold go get him. not good enough for rippon who turned down pence's for a meeting. rippon chose to stay on offense. >> i personally don't have anything to say to mike pence. i'm very lucky because legislation that he's pushed hasn't affected my life at all. i spoke out because there are people out there whose legislation -- whose lives have been affected by change that

he's tried to make. >> look, adam rippon has every right to diggs -- disagree with any issue he wants. my problem is when this country ought to be united using his olympic platform to denigrate the vp. nbc just hired him as a correspondent for the olympics. that didn't take long. my new book is available now, check it out, media madness, donald trump, the press and the war over the truth. former white house spokesman ari fleischer on the media's treatment of george bush after 9/11 versus president trump after the heart breaking florida tragedy, but first did a tabloid try to buy the silence of a former playboy play mate who claims to have had an affair with donald trump >> the white house calls that fake news. patrick woke up with back pain.

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karen mcdue gal had an affair -- mcdougal had an affair with donald trump back 06. >> this is the interesting and potentially troubling dimension, george, these, you know, dirty stories about high-profile individuals would be used as leverage over those individuals. obviously national security implications when that happens to be the president. >> you make it sound like the president's vulnerable to blackmail from the national enquirer because they did him a favor? >> we don't use that word blackmail but multiple employees use terms like leverage. >> mcdougal is quoted on the record in the story as saying she regrets signing a nondisclosure agreement with the enquirer's parent company. white house spokes person told the magazine this is an old story that is more fake news. the president says he never had a relationship with mcdougal. we're back with the panel. let's start with the national enquirer. he makes it clear that the

enquirer headed by trump's buddy bought mcdougal's story in order to kill it. there is a term for this catch and kill, shut up her up with nondisclosure, made all these promises, most of which unfulfilled. >> i think first off, there has been amazing work this year uncovering a lot of stories. >> started with harvey weinstein reporting >> there's no question this story isn't taking offer. it is interesting to see why it isn't taking off. for one thing donald trump bragged about his use and misuse of women for decades, the story itself is old, 12 years old, the more recent update of this payment doesn't involve anything illegal, and then also the media are not well positioned to litigate this in that they don't have a strong ethic to come rain down on donald trump. also they show uneven interest in sexual stories of this nature. we saw even recently in the 2016 campaign where there was much more interest in donald trump than the other candidate and her

husbands who were running for are the. there's no question he is kind of getting off easy here. this is a significant story and it should be in any realistic world a much bigger one. >> i want you to respond to that, jessica. as a work of journalism, there's been remarkable done in this area, there are on the record comments from karen mcdougal, her hand-written notes at the time, the friend who negotiated the deal with enquirer, several former staffers several of them on the record, it is not like some shoddy, you know, sources say this happened. >> no, absolutely not. and i think when the white house is so dismissive about it, i understand why they have to be, it rings kind of hollow there with the harvey weinstein breaking that story and that still unfolding and we may see weinstein on trial as a result of this. i'm sure nbc is regretting the fact they didn't want to financially back him in terms of investigative reporting. it wasn't a story this week because unfortunately we had a mass shooting at a school and we

had those indictments from rob rosenstein. it is also because we're just used to the fact that this is how donald trump behaves. and as you said, donald trump hasn't used and misused women for decades and people knew that when they voted for him. they heard the access hollywood tape and they voted for him. unfortunately we are at a point where the president of the united states of america can behave this way or has in the past and the american public just goes -- >> on that point, we will get to the other case in a minute, i would agree that most of the public is yawning about this stuff because it was sort of baked into the cake, i mean donald trump was a celebrity with a playboy image, real estate developer, beauty pageant, all of that, the significant part here it seems to me would create serious problems for most politicians is the allegations of hush money, using the enquirer to give her $150,000 so this story would never see the light of day. by the way the enquirer's parent company american media says well she is allowed to respond to legitimate press inquiries about the nondisclosure and they didn't print the story because they didn't find it credible after spending 150 k on it.

>> is anybody surprised the national enquirer is buying stories and not running them? first of all, newspapers covering up for presidential affairs or politicians affairs is one of the oldest practices in the business. it's been going on forever. what did the washington post have to say about kennedy's affairs? what did they have to say about bill clinton affairs? it took the drudge report to print the monica lewinsky. >> drudge reported that "newsweek" had the story. the washington post then broke the story about ken starr. >> you just made my point, howard. they are not putting -- they are not putting the story out there. >> the washington post did put the story out there, in 1998. i was there. >> the drudge report did it first. >> the drudge report -- i don't want to get into this. >> there's a hesitancy --. >> is there a hesitancy to report pay offs? >> we know the national enquirer buys stories.

>> this deal that was negotiated with mcdougal, stormy daniels, the former porn star who has said in past interviews that she had a relationship with donald trump, there was a "wall street journal" report that she was paid off. now, michael cohen the president's long time personal lawyer acknowledging to the new york times the following: >> a lot of media skepticism about why the lawyer would do this. >> that statement is so bizarre to begin with. although we all want attorneys who pay off our problems -- [laughter] >> he said something about he facilitated a payment. it almost raised more questions than it answered. at the same time, i'm not sure how to proceed from here. there needs to be legitimate interest in what people are trying to fig yourt about this payment -- figure out about this payment. there certainly should be.

>> now that we're into the financial aspect of it, are these stories going to persist, or is this a collective shrug that we may write them but most people don't care? >> it may last a little longer but if you look at all the work they did at the washington post it was the hot ticket for a while and then eventually people said this is all too confusing, too dirty and really beyond what we can cover when we're also dealing with the mueller investigation and unfortunately mass shootings in america and the day-to-day -- this was infrastructure week or something. >> i think it is like when bill clinton was elected in 92 after jennifer flowers, people knew they weren't getting a choir boy at least in that one area. molly, we will see you later, jessica, susan, thank you very much for joining us. coming up how has the trump white house handled the press at a time of tragedy and scandal? ari fleischer is on deck. later some pundits again mocking mike pence for his christian faith based on omarosa? get fast acting nasal relief that works in seconds,

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after a tough week for the white house, dealing with tragedy and scandal, we turn to our ari fleischer, the former press secretary for george w. bush and a fox news contributor. he joins us from new york. >> ari fleischer, welcome. >> thank you, howard. >> mixed media reaction to the president's speech after the awful tragedy, florida school shooting, now, you have been at the white house of course in times of tragedy. is it getting harder in these

polarized times for this president to rally the country? >> it is harder. one of the reasons it is harder i have never seen an issue where reporters have leaped from reporting to opinionating. how much of the coverage has been in demand of gun control. that's something that's relatively new. there used to be borders before reporters would cross them and go into opinionated reporting. now those borders have been torn down. that's what the criticism donald trump is here he didn't take the position some in the press wanted him to take. >> right, and there's been a lot of criticism on the media on that, are they pushing some sort of gun control agenda. also there was criticism will the president show sufficient empathy. we saw that also after las vegas. is that a new element in way presidents are rated by the press or did you experience much the same during the george bush administration? >> well, i remember on september 11th, the press was pretty sharply critical of the two

first speeches president bush gave. he was not as good in those first two speeches i have to say as he was later as september 11th and the events unfolded. the press can be quick harsh judges. i do have to say donald trump's speech after the shooting i thought was very good. he touched on the right points made the right points. look he's much more declarative president, much more action oriented president. and a twitter oriented president. so he doesn't show emotion as well as some of his predecessors. i don't know that skill alone you should measure presidents by. >> i remember george w. bush rallying the country after 9/11. interesting observation. let's look at the white house handling the rob porter mess. how did this what should have been a two day story at most into a two week debacle? >> howard i disagree on that premise. i think this is a going to be a longer story for two reasons one is the white house believed

porter they didn't believe his wives. secondly the president's remarks when he first spoke to not talk about domestic violence. those two facts alone created the feeding frenzy. it was added to it the white house not being able to get the time line straight when it was contradicted by the fbi chief chris wray on capitol hill. add that up, that's what created a multiday story. >> that's what i was trying to get at. someone who has stood at that podium who has faced the press corps, has sarah sanders been nearly impossible position, she has been given information, some how turn out to be wrong and been revised, she gets the flak from what she has said from that podium? >> in this case i think the press gave her sympathy. they recognized she wasn't getting a story that was crystal clear. there's two ways press secretary has to deal with it when there's conflicting information. one is the press secretary should literally say from the

podium i asked the counsel's office. here's what they gave me. let me read this to you. the press secretary makes clear she's attributing it to the source, in this case the source of the counsel's office or wherever it may be. the second way is you bring the appropriate news making people who are responsible and involved to the podium. that's another thing press secretaries can do when there is conflicting information and it's hard to run down. that forces the principals to get together before that briefing and organize their thoughts, go through the time line, tooth and nail, make sure they have got it accurate, and then they go public. >> and does it also insulate the press secretary and add to the credibility of the press secretary because you are not out there and we have about half minute vouchering for something that later gets revised and turns out to be inaccurate? >> absolutely. you know, in this case, the press secretary is a bit like a reporter. their job is to go around the white house and say all right there's something bad happening, something wrong happened, i need you to tell me exactly what took

place. if somebody is involved in something bad or wrong, they are not going to be all that forthcoming. it is hard for the press secretary to get the truth, to get the facts. absolutely. that is a skill press secretary has to have to keep their credibility while also working for the white house. you still work for the white house. it's a tight rope that you walk when there are issues like this. >> a lot of people don't realize you function as a reporter. ari fleischer, you have been there, thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you. after the break the press declares open season on john kelly fuelled by leaks from some of the general's colleagues. is that fair? later why did the new york times try to hire a columnist with neo-nazi pals?

it may have started with the firing of rob porter but the media with anonymous hole p from

white house -- help from white house leakers. >> they are rushing to reporters all over washington to tell them how terrible and incompetent they think john kelly is. that they think he is quote a big fat liar. >> that quote, a big fat liar, according to unnamed white house official, the kelly cover up is unravelling can journalists grant anonymity on somebody on the president's staff not using their own name to level that kind of coverage against him? >> this is well beyond anything with rob porter and domestic abuse. the use of anonymous stories, obviously a big part is people in the white house is trying to politics.

i think does a disservice to viewers. >> right, you know, kelly has made mistakes in this case no question but as i said last week it feels like the media are turning on him. yes, you should report that he may be losing the confidence of staff members in the white house. when you have quotes like a big fat liar and somebody won't put their name to that, that feels like a cheap shot. >> many months ago people thought kelly would be the adult in the room, praising him as somehow different from trump but he quickly showed himself to be a reliable supporter of the president and a reliable administrator of his agenda and the media kind of turned on him months ago. you see that in this coverage. >> let me turn to this it seems like every week now omarosa goes on celebrity big brother and says something nasty about trump or in this case mike pence. as a former white house official she is kind of getting even. on the other day she said pence is extreme. i'm christian. i love jesus. but he thinks jesus is telling

him to say something. >> it is one thing to talk to jesus. it is another thing when jesus talks to you. >> exactly. that's different. >> that's called mental illness if i'm not correct. hearing voices. >> what do you make that kind of ridicule? >> i mean christians can handle this type of ridicule. they are used to it. but it is something that's disappointing to see among a lot of people in the media. you see this tenor of coverage. christians along with some people in other religious groups believe that god does speak to them through his word. the gospel reading for this week is man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of god. christians believe that god talks to them through his word. this is a basic christian belief and not something that should be held up for mocking or ridicule. >> yeah, you know, joy kind of walked it back she says she was a comedian she's joking but no apology. pence has been ridiculed by pundits before for example, this business about he doesn't want to be in a room where there's

alcohol with a woman who is not his wife or that sort of thing. it just bothers me that he's fair game when it has to do with what he believes. we aren't supposed to mock people's religion. >> not just that he's routinely held up to have extreme beliefs that turn out to be held by a lot of people. that belief on how to keep his marriage sacred. the new york times put out a poll that most americans agree with him you should treat your marriage as this way. when you portray mike pence as extreme, a lot of viewers see that as an attack on themselves personally when they have these same beliefs. >> great point. when the new york times hired an opinion writer an cut her loose within hours -- and cut her loose within hours. in an unreasonably narrow fast food drive thru lane. but what a powerful life lesson. and don't worry i have everything handled. i already spoke to our allstate agent, and i know that we have accident forgiveness.

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can start in the colon constiand may be signs of an imbalance of good bacteria. only phillips' colon health has this unique combination of probiotics. it provides four-in-one symptom defense. it's your daily probiotic. new york times hired journalist quinn norton for its editorial board and unhired her seven hours later. the problem her past tweets saying she was friends with several neo-nazis including one

that helped write the daily stormer site but didn't necessarily agree with them. there was this retweet after obama's election if god had meant an n word to talk to our schoolchildren he would have made him president. oh but wait, when norton thought she had the job, she said the times editors quote made it clear they weren't going to be put off by a little weird as for how weird, well, that's for them discover and discover they did. the editors rescinded the offer based on quote new information that you have to wonder, don't they have google? how did much of twitter find this stuff so easily when they couldn't? but norton to her credit wasn't upset tweeting as i said so many times to the new york times no harm, no foul. that's it for this edition of mediabuzz. i'm howard kurtz thanks for watching. check out our facebook, give us a like. post a lot of my daily columns and videos there. if you want to e-mail us, media buzz @ foxnews.com. if you have other plans on

sundays, you can dvr the show. all a way of continuing our coverage of media. what a packed week it has been. sometimes we have to get everything into just 60 minutes. see you here next week with the latest buzz. we start with a fox news alert as president trump goes on an early morning tweet storm this morning, blasting president obama over the on going russia investigation. this as the mueller indictment reveals moscow started planning to attack america by infiltrating our sacred political process during president obama's second term. hello everyone. welcome to america's news headquarters. i'm eric shawn. arthel: i'm arthel neville. the president also criticizing the fbi for not investigating tips they received on the confessed gunman accused of killing 17 people last week. the president saying the agency should focus more on protecting americans and proving russian -- russia collusion wit