howie: on our buzz meter the media mount a frontal assault on john bolton, portraying him as a danger to the nation. >> john bolton is the last person in the world who should be near the national security bureaucracy. we are stumbling possibly towards an apocalyptic war that will kill millions of people, turn america into a pariah and our way of life. >> john bolton is replacing h.r. mcmaster and the media is in at meltdown. >> they may not all agree, but

ambassador bolton is the person who gets the message right and it will take the pressure off the white house always having to put that out there. howie: with "60 minutes" set to air its stormy daniels interview tonight, it shines its spotlight on the president's female accusers. >> the president is locked in a legal battle with a porn actress, a "playboy" model and reality tv contestant. >> i'm not sure the probable or alleged affair is having an impact on the president. >> who ended the relationship? >> i did. >> why? >> i was feeling so guilty. when you care about somebody, why would you want to destroy

anybody more than you already destroyed their life? howie: does america care what donald trump the businessman did more than a decade ago. howie: a midge cry sits at facebook as mark zuckerberg admits to a misuse of personal data. >> i'm really sorry this happened. howie: top executives are talking about offering politicians bribes and hookers. but what are the ethics of a hidden camera probe. i'm howard kurtz and this is "mediabuzz." [♪] howie: when the president abruptly fired h.r. mcmaster

and replaced him with john bolton, he didn't not was happening until shortly before he appeared on fox. reporter: the way you spoking with russia was more hawkish. >> the important thing is what the president says and what advice i give him. howie: joining us now to analyze the coverage. coverage. guy benson, susan ferrechio, animal * who runs georgetown university's understand student of politics. animait's five minutes from stag

an apocalyptic war. the open mention, porn stars, hookers. what's interesting about bolton's resume. we see them focusing on on his job description as being a fox news contributor. john bolton held two positions prior to that. he's someone who is deeply informed on foreign policy issues. we should be acknowledging the qualifications he has for the job. you and i may say he's too hawk i shall but that's different.

howie: the "new york times" calls him the most of radical foreign policy team in modern memory. mo: the "new york times" description i don't think is inaccurate. he was part of an incredibly aggressive foreign policy during the bush administration. i agree with guy, let's put the fox news contributor part aside. i am not sure the president would have known much about him. but that's not the reason for the left to be frustrated with him. because of the fact, what's interesting to me, he's incredibly hawkish, he was one of the architects of the iraq

war. at a time when we are trying to figure out what his president's approach to north korea. it's worth examining. howie: john bolton told me he find the coverage so far removed from reality that he doesn't take it seriously. sarah huckabee sanders just spoke to potus. according to reports they have a good working relationship. a member of the trump folks also recommended rex tillerson be fired. we report things and sometimes they happen. susan: i have been critical of the way the press covers the president.

but he's contradicting what someone in his cabinet says five minutes later. it creates a picture of something chaotic. i think the press is fair in the way they cover it. >> if the president wants to be critical of the press, when he screams fake news and only comes back later to do exactly what you described, it undermines his own argument. i'm not saying there is no rationale for being critical of the press. but they are pushing the fake news. it has been trump goes rogue. he's totally unconstrained. then john bolton gets hired. ben: there is somewhat of a contradiction there. if you look at the trump presidency thus far, it's not

been a hyper hawkish interventionist foreign policy. is that worthwhile to be discussing in the press? absolutely. but we don't do anyone a service by setting our hair aflame and thinking this is going to be world war iii. you get the boy who cried wolf syndrome on the media's part and then you get them saying this is fake news. howie: does the president like to hire people he has seen on tv. larry kudlow he, he was going to hire joe genova. but now that's not going to

happen because of client conflicts. susan: he watches fox. he says watching you on tv and you look really handsome. he hears what people say on television. but these are not just talking heads. the problem is these talking heads happen to be experienced individuals. the same thing with kudlow. he worked for trump's campaign. he helped device the tax reform laws. the broader picture here. guy: i have no problem saying trump likes tv pundits. but using that fact, that's where we make the mistake. >> it means they could be good

communicators. there is media coverage of john dowd resigning because he urged a strategy of cooperation with robert mueller. but who knows? mo: who knows what he's going to do. there is a sense of chaos coming out of the white house in every aspect. howie: is it being portrayed as chaos? mo: both the actions of the media and the administration. when they announce they are going to be bringing object these new lawyers and they have to walk it back when they announce -- they stand by mcmaster then a week later let him go. i think there is a little bit of chaos they are projecting. when it comes to legal strategy this much is clear, the president is trying to ramp up

the rhetoric against mueller. he seems to be moving away from the attorneys on his team advocating a softer touch with mueller. howie: dowd before he resigned said mueller should shut the probe down. >> i agree there is some truth to the chaos coming from inside the house. but in this case, here is a guy who went nuclear on mueller then got fired for it. maybe not for it, but related to it. howie: let me turn to the thing that dominated media coverage. a huge turnout, 800,000, maybe less than that. hundreds of thousands in d.c., wall to wall cable news. i thought cnn and fox handled it professionally.

msnbc was cheering for them at the time. andrea mitchell asked the kids, who is in favor of banning assault weapons, and they said, yeah, we are. guy: i'm not surprised msnbc did what it did. i'm surprised they didn't have a set on stage because they very clearly support this agenda. if you are on msnbc and your people are left wing that's fine. what bothers me are straight down the middle reporters who cover gun-related issues and one of the issues on which the media is most of bias. > howie: in interviewing the people who were there, you were carrying the message of people protesting. but at the same time the

magnitude and passion of this, how could you ignore it. regardless of where you are on the issue of guns, we are in a unique moment in the national debate on guns. what happened in parkland and the way the students have come out, whether you are critical or support them, i think you have to recognize they are carrying a voice that has not been carried in this way before. we are not used seeing marches of this magnitude in washington. we are not seeing marchs of this -- susan: 2015. mo: this isn't an he day march. every once in a while you get a major issue. and this is the first time we have seen it on this issue of this magnitude.

susan: you can never capture the complexity of this gun control safety matter with the coverage. let me point you to a good story in "u.s.a. today" that explores the counter narrative. the kid who want to own weapons -- i think it's important to have both narratives. hard to find that with the coverage. howie: let me get a break here. there is a lot in my book about the president firing top aides. "media madness and the war over the youth." it just happened -- the war over the truth. it just happened again a major leak. it's ok that everyone ignores me while i drive. it's fine. because i get a safe driving bonus check every six months i'm accident free. and i don't share it with mom! right, mom?

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howie: after vladimir putin won the so-called election in russia, president trump told reporters about their conversation. president trump: i had a call with president you tub and congratulate him on his electoral victory. the call had to do with the fact that we'll probably get together in the not too distant future. howie: but there was a damaging whreect "washington post" -- damaging leak from "the washington post" saying he was given a note not to congratulate putin. is this being portrayed as an international outrage because the media don't like his policy.

guy: if i were in the white house i would have taken a red pen and underlined do not congratulate. but what you should not do when you work for a president is air your dirty lawby to embarrass your boss. the under mines your diplomacy and undermines your boss. howie: whether you like this president or not or like his policy or not. it hasn't gone the enough attention. >> for much of the first year of the trump administration the conversation among leaks focused on the deep state. this was not a deep state problem. this was not an obama holdover. these were people in the president's inner circle who had this information. the biggest leaks we saw coming out of there are coming from the

white house. from the president's team. and that whatever you think about him, it shows a house that doesn't have its act together. howie: doesn't this further the narrative that trump doesn't listen to his aides susan * president obama congratulated putin but nobody cared. and i think this is more of a media story. there is so much zeal to get the next great trump gotcha story that they are not doing thorough reporting. what about following through to see if he read the briefing papers. howie: you wouldn't disagree he was given legitimate advice.

he congratulated president xi in china. it seemed jarring because of what happened with the killing of the russian spy in london. then here is the could be got laying. so that's a fair context. guy: the white house official position is no daylight between that. here are his top aides apparently bringing all caps, do not could be got laying. but he did it anyway. but john bolton is going to start world war ii. the president is going to listen to john bolton? howie: tonight a "60 minutes" sit-down with annex porn star.

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ask your dermatologist about humira & go. howie: a retired lieutenant colonel and fox news contributor has resigned with an angry blast at the network. he was suspended for two weeks after calling president obama a vulgar name. and there was this exchange. >> he sounds like charles behind berg saying hitler hasn't attacked us. howie: peters say he was aswhaimed his association with fox and his disgust with trump shows through. the network said in a statement ralph peters is entitled to his

opinion despite the fact he's choosing to use it as a weapon to get attention. he says i deeply respect the hard news reporters at fox calling them among the best men and women in the business. he says his blast doesn't totallying pertain to fox business. he says not every host at fox is a mouth piece. some have shown courage. he even says outright he doesn't like their attacks on the fbi, the courts, and the intelligence community which i served. i get the media's attacks. we debated some of the harsh

rhetoric against the fbi and the mueller investigation on this program. but these people are paid for their opinion. can anyone dispute mark zuckerberg has take be his media in a left position? i'm glad ralph peters made those distinctions. but they came later there. opinions play a vital role just like at most of newspapers. cambridge analytics scandal. first the karen mcdougal interview, now the "60 minutes" stormy daniels interview. ♪ gas, bloating, constipation and diarrhea

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howie: there has been a huge made idea build yum for the stormy daniels interview on "60 minutes" tonight. she spoke out despite signing a $150,000 contract giving her story to a.m.i. >> when said it's worth many millions -- >> it was hard to pass up. >> sure. >> you were happy to have the story killed. >> yes, of course. >> the thought of telling your

story to ami, some people are going to think you wanted money and wanted to damage the president. >> i voted for the president, i voted for donald, why would i want to damage him? howie: joining us. emily jashinsky, and leslie marshall. she was contradicting herself on motivation. she says donald trump was sweet, respectful, kind, caring. ies she reveal swag was their secrets? emily: i don't have a good reason to believe he's lying but he should have pressed her more on the money. other than that i thought the interview was pretty well hand. but the big question is what --

is if anybody actually cares. howie: mcdougal says american media inc signed this $150,000 deal top bury the story and protect trump. but then she said, and i reported this before, that she wanted the story buried because she got cold feet at the end of the campaign and backed out of a interview. i was waiting for anderson to say. leslie: i thought anderson cooper should have pressed her more regarding the money and the motivation. you knew he was a married man, shame on you. but at the same time you have got to get more about the money. because we know the money at the

end of the day is the motivation if you are quiet for so long, then you come out and a check is written. howie: american media inc says she's doing it for the money. she is supposed to have two cover stories where they asked her to do a photo shoot and they wouldn't commit to doing a photo shoot. stormy daniels has the $130,000 payment. this really about her and the tabloid firm. when "60 minutes" airs this tonight. we know what she is going to say about the relationship. she gave a 2011 under view to "in touch" magazine. the only real news will be about the hush money and what her lawyer said in a tease is a

physical threat. emily you have the allegations about the affair and the cover-up. the affair is probably less interesting to the public than possible campaign violations. so you have stormy daniels saying part of their affair occurred there and another person saying part of their affair occurred there. so there is a fair reason the media is asking these questions. i hope we get some answers tonight. howie: her attorney i think has done a masterful job driving this stormy. he tweets a picture of himself and stormy daniels after the interview. he says she passed a lie

detector test or she may have photos. he has kept this in the news day after day. leslie: i think he's earning his money. she has got a good lawyer. i thought it was titilating when he showed the picture of the computer and the disk when he says i have evidence. like there was a hidden camera. that could be a complete bluff. but i agree he's doing a great job keeping the story front and center in the news on social media and portraying his client as the one who is not lying because it comes down to he said-she said. we know people lie under oath. we even know presidents can lie.

howie: are the media using these cases to sort of pile on trump about what he did and of course there is a real aspect here. what he did in his days as a celebrity missman in contrast to bill clinton with an intern while he was in office. are the media gleeful in covering these stories? emily it can take away from it. howie: cnn and msnbc covered the stormy daniels story extensively. and fox has covered it farb less. who do you think is closer to

the mark in fair coverage on this? leslie: quite frankly even though i work here and am on the payroll, i would have to say fox because there are other issues that are just as serious. but the other networks will go for what their audience wants. monica lewinsky did very well for the networks during the clinton presidency so i'm not surprised. howie: good discussion, guys. mark zuckerberg says facebook has made mistakes with a massive data breach. but is he doing enough to fix it? ♪ with expedia you could book a flight, hotel, car and activity all in one place. ♪

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howie: facebook is in hot water after it was reported that cambridge analytics improperly extracted personal data on the facebook network. >> will you testify before congress? >> i'm happy to if it's the right thing to do. what we try to do is send the person at facebook who will have the most of knowledge about what congress is trying to learn. howie: i spoke earlier from san francisco with kurt wagner

who also just interviewed zuckerberg. howie: mark zuckerberg said he was sorry, but he waffled when asked if he would testify on the hill. what was up with that answer? >> i think he was afraid of saying yes outright because he would have to show up and testify. he says i'm open to do it if i'm the best person for the job. we saw this when they had to testify on the ad stuff. he wants to come across as helpful but he doesn't want to lock himself in to having to show up. howie: the correct answer would have been yes. he's never wanted to spend the hundreds of millions of dollars it would take to root out fake news.

he said i feel fundamentally you be comfortable sit hearing in california making content policy decisions for people around the world, things like, where's the line on hate speech? but somebody has to police the content, true or false? >> true. he talks off brand-new the community. he calls facebook a community. it's a group of people, and those people should be living by certain rules. who is to make the rules but the person who created it. it's mark zuckerberg's responsibility. i think from the interview we had it sounded like he's final realized he might not have a choice. howie: when you were sitting down with him, did you have the

impression this was once again as with the russian meddling a situation where after the fact, after the damage has been done, he does a facebook post or does a couple interviews and says he's going to fix it but offers only vague promises about that. >> it was very reminiscent. for people who don't know mark, it's hard to feel i am i think off of him -- to feel any sympathy for him. there are not a lot of people who feel bad for mark zuckerberg today. but as someone who has talked to him multiple times in the past. he comes out and he wants to fix things. a lot of this started because as he said himself he was too idealistic. he thought facebook would be a place where everybody would play nice and play by the rules. i think he feels legitimately

bad about what happened. but there are not a lot of people who feel bad for him because facebook does this over and over again. howie: he was asked in the cnn interview about the possibility of the feds stepping in. >> why shouldn't facebook be regulated. >> i am not sure we shouldn't be regulated. howie: here he's opening the door to government regulation i think because of the failings of social media giants like facebook. >> i think he knows it's coming. facebook has started to put some stuff in place around its political advertising business. saying we want to get ahead of this regulation. we want a dashboard where people can go to see who is paying for the political ads. howie: with several

investigation and this cambridge analytics mess, do you think facebook and mark zuckerberg who you know will finally have to change their strategy and be more open with the press and be more aggressive in driving their message? >> i think they will have to. there were five days before finding out and i think they would say maybe they should have come out earlier. i would expect facebook to do a lot snore outreach in the background with the press. hopefully we'll see mark on tv more often taking questions from journalists, not just posting to his facebook page. we need to hear more from them and they need to be held to a higher standard. howie: zuckerberg take out full-page ads in british and american press saying sorry for the breach of trust.

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howie: cambridge analytics, the british data firm is in big trouble after undercover footage showed the ceon talking about

bribes and prostitutes. howie: joining us from new york, shelby holliday. i have seen cambridge analytics called a trump-linked firm. there was no evidence the campaign knew it was getting anything illicit. shelby: cambridge analytics is a company that does get involved in elections and worked with the trump campaign and they worked with senator ted cruz in his presidential bid. the firm is under fire because

they violated facebook policies in getting information of americans. they purchased a ton of facebook data from a researcher who unlawfully obtained it. they are saying they used this information to target americans in the election and use psychographic methods to get out the vote in swing states. howie: cambridge analytics broke the rules, i understand that. how different is that from other firms that try to get information about people so they can target them for advertising and what the barack obama campaign did in 2012. >> that's a good question. what campaigns do.

they work with facebook above board openly to target voters to help get out the vote. there are useful things you can do on facebook. what cambridge analytics did was go behind

>> there are ethical rules various organizations set out. this is of vital interest to the public. you could say it was good investigative journalism. this firm was at the center of the brexit campaign in the u.k. so it was vital to the public interest. it was also information we couldn't get otherwise. howie: but the lying makes me uncomfortable. >> it does. howie: journalists scold the president for typos. hey! we didn't have a homeowners claim last year so allstate is giving us money back on our bill. well, that seems fair. we didn't use it. wish we got money back on gym memberships. get money back hilarious. with claim-free rewards. switching to allstate is worth it. dear freshpet, zooka had digestive problems and wouldn't eat.

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howie: the chairman of the old tribune company announced his resignation after he was accused

of past sexual misconduct. tronc is slated to keep paying farrell. donald trump, jr.n't a great speller. that's obvious. >> you have to actually hit the keys to spell the word right. >> i assume he can spell. but he's sitting there in what they jokingly call executive time watching cable television. the president of the united states needs supervision? howie: it seems there might be more presidential qualities than being able to win a spelling bee. that's it for this edition of "mediabuzz." i'm howard kurtz. we hope you like our facebook page. and check out our new home page.

you can watchful episodes if you happen to miss a program. we hope to see you next sunday with the latest buzz. [♪] eric: mr. trump once again tweeting about the russia investigation. he said he would have no trouble finding a replacement for his personal attorney, john dowd. this as his most of recent choice has stepped aside because of some legal conflicts. welcome to "america's news headquarters." i'm eric shawn. arthel: i'm arthel neville. the president also announcing former u.s. ambassador john bolton would replace national security advisor h.r. mcmaster following the firing of secretary of state rex tillerson.