school administrator.but she has taken to being a university president like a natural. that's it for today. have a great week and we will see you next "fox news sunday". howie: on our buzzfeed * today, the paper saying robert mueller doesn't view trump as being under criminal charges. >> any other person being told usual the subject of a investigation would be horrified. >> if someone walked in my office and said i was the subject of a multi-year investigation by robert mueller i would wet my pants. >> being told he's not a target

is driving them insane and he's only a subject. there is a total freakout over this. the president torpedoes amazon stock. >> amazon and amazon's owner jeff bezos owns trump magazine, president trump wouldn't go after him at all. i think this is because of the coverage in the "washington post." >> we know the president is lying. jeff bezos is the richest man in the world and president trump envies that. >> jeff bezos washington's post questions the president's character. howie: an avalanche of media

criticism for sinclair tv after a video shows most of of its anchors reading a scriment attacking fake news. >> this is extremely dangerous to our democracy. >> this is extremely dangerous to our democracy. howie: mark zuckerberg says he made a huge mistake in not protecting your privacy. i'm howard kurtz and miss is "mediabuzz." "the washington post" reporting on escalating clashes between the president and chief of staff john kelly. sources say his authority has been diminished and he has talked about quitting.

the white house says it's made up coverage and a hit job. mollie hemingway, sarah westwood and capri cafaro join us. this article quotes a senior official. don't these high-level leaks undercut the president's abirt - ability to say this all garbage. mollie: the standard in journalism is 100% of what you write has to be true. it's okay to use them but there is overuse by many in the media. howie: the article says the president still respects general

kelly. so are journalists right in being sceptical? >> i think so. this is something that has been coming up time and time again. on one hand president trump said everything is all quite on the western front and -- all quiet on the western front and two days later people get fired. this has been common practice that people talk on the case of anonymity. it's been overused. because trump has put a light on this, people have become more sceptical of anonymous sources. howie: a lot of speculation about the fate of epa chief scott pru it. he had an interview with ed henry that did not go well that

started with his rent be a $50 a night condo. >> renting the apartment from the wife of a washington lobbyist. i don't think it's remotely fair to ask that question. >> why did you give two pay raises to two staffers. >> i found out about this yesterday and i corrected the action. howie: when you look at the condo and the couple who rented it kicked him out and changed the locks. >> it seems like the totality of these stories show shows pruitt exercised bad judgment. in steve bannon's case it was how much influence and clout he had.

now pruitt he doesn't like the when the headlines are negative. the only thing keeping pruitt in place is president trump doesn't like to be seen as bubbling under media pressure. mollie: there is something unseemly about this media reaction. they seem to be taking this campaign and running with it. howie: you think it's because of the push to scale back environmental relations. mollie: it's clear people don't like pruitt because he's effective in his job it's fair for environmental groups not to like pruitt. but not for the media to run with this. we have had leftist activists. howie: the president has been

defending pruitt in his statements. at the same time there was a statement saying the president wanted to name pruitt as a replacement for the attorney general and the president said it's untrue. >> it did view a real-time insight into what he's thinking and how he's processing his thoughts. sarah mentioned tom price. ben carson and his $31,000 table. howie: a dining set. >> whatever it is i'm sure he has great taste. because there has been a pattern of conduct the media has an obligation to shed light on this. ed henry did an excellent job. pushing and holding pruitt to account. >> the general picture of chaos

being painted by the media. the president imposing tariffs on china. larry kudlow says it's preliminary, they may not take effect, these are negotiations. the president said he wants to send troops to the syria and walked it back. he said the daca deal is dead. does donald trump's style justify the media saying he's an erratic president? mollie: instead of fixing what they were doing, they continued as they are. it's not just the way they cover trump. it's the way they didn't cover obama. there should be one standard for multiple administrations. the same fleement obama administration spent the the same amount of money and they

didn't get coverage. he's obviously very different. how many times do you want to say that without seeking to understand why. howie: the president has a different style. he announces his decision and everybody goes crazy. but for donald trump the businessman it's his first step in negotiating. president trump's decision to send national guard troops to the border, he said some of the migrants are rapists. he said women are raped at levels nobody has ever seen before. the white house can only point to a "l.a. times" story. >> these are the kind of comment

used against president trump throughout. so for him to bring that up again with relatively thin sourcing is baffling. he knows how the media works and his critics will use that language against him. you will have to worry if his press shop cringed when he said that. howie: "the washington post" reporting and cable news going haywire on what mueller's team supposedly told the president's lawyers, he's not now considered a target of this investigation. but he is a subject. do you think the media are minimizing this, saying he's not a target? right now he's not a target. >> i have seen coverage saying

president trump isn't the starring the of an investigation but is a subject. but there is this yeah but coverage. the way the investigations work. you can go in and be a subject and move from subject to target and subject to witness. they are waiting for the other shoe to drop. poll rsh it's old news -- mollie: it's old news that he's a target. after all this time trying to find collusion between trump and russia, there is no case there. howie: between the president himself. mollie: not that we have heard of. the media should have started to come to terms with the fact that the narrative they have been

pushing that people will be laughing at them when it's discovered it isn't true. and they need to cover why the fbi and doj are hiding things from congress. congress has been asking for the information on what started the investigation and they are refusing to turn it over. howie: i'll be in the philadelphia area at the newtown theater. you can get a ticket at 1210wpht.com. when we come back. how is donald trump rising in the polls despite all the negative coverage? frank luntz i

you know what's awesome? gig-speed internet. you know what's not awesome? when only certain people can get it. let's fix that. let's give this guy gig- really? and these kids, and these guys, him, ah. oh hello. that lady, these houses! yes, yes and yes. and don't forget about them. uh huh, sure. still yes! xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone.

now you can get it, too. welcome to the party. howie: the media says the president is presiding over i os, but he's -- or chaos, but he's rising in the polls. they are saying erratic, kim jong-un, starting a chinese trade war. but he seems to be bumming up in a number of polls. frank: take a look at the numbers of economic satisfaction, expectations for the future. this president is presiding over a clear recovery. the numbers are better than they were under barack obama and the president is ghoaght credit for

it -- the president is not getting credit for it. we used to be the most of pessimistic nation. for 10 years we thought the future was bad off. and this did not just start at his inauguration. it started at his election. if i were advising the trump administration which i don't. look at satisfaction from election today to today, you would see a tremendous improvement, but not with trump's numbers. howie: the issues the media obsess on don't matter as much to people's daily lives when they look at presidential performance. frank: it's his own tweets that are causing so much of the trouble. if he would remove about a third of them, he should be focused on

the economy. howie: not on so-called fake news? >> it hurts him because it allows the media to focus on things that are less important. howie: there is a new poll from monmouth does the media present fake news on a regular basis. 77% say yes. those are pretty startling numbers. has donald trump won his campaign to make us think we are awash in fake news? frank: yes. how do you hold a president accountable? how do you hold the democrats accountable if nobody trusts anyone. we get our news to affirm rather than inform. that's one of the greatest

threats to the health of this democracy. howie: fake news would be false stories. the same poll, who do you trust more? in the case of cnn, msnbc and fox. the media is trusted more than president trump. frank: our level of credibility whether it's politics, economics, sports, entertainment. he institution is watching their credibility get shredded. that' the reason so many americans are sopes mystic about -- are so pessimistic

about their institutions. howie: it helps him in the narrow sense to attack the main real media but you think it helps democracy. his base hates the press, too. frank: i think the republicans are in deep trouble in the house and senate, if the election were held today i think the republicans would lose both. if the president wants to keep a republican congress he has to differencate when he's attacking the congress. howie: he has he right to beat up on what he sees as unfair coverage. some people would agree with you, some people don't. ahead, the president slams cnn after its reporter shouts

questions at an easter egg roll. mark zuckerberg says he made a huge mistake by not protecting users'

>> are you going to step down? >> into, according to our benefits, i don't want to and you can't make me. howie: zuckerberg spent an hour object a conference call with reporters. it was 87 million or most of of its 2 billion worldwise customers, but some of the information was scraped in his word. >> we didn't take a broad enough view of what our responsibility was, and that was our mistake. it was my mistake.

howie: he keeps dribbling out the bad news. is he botching this? >> he initially deferred some of the responsibility. but he course corrected and his talking points have been on point. the problem is we have been here before. we heard the same apology the last two years and they aren't followed by major changes at facebook. howie: when he did that cnn interview, will you testify, maybe i will send someone else, that was wrong. of course, he has to testify this week. this time he's saying we didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibilities. this is what critics have been saying for years. it's a media company that has to police its own constant. why is facebook so hund the

curve. >> this is bigger and weightier, the american public is more concerned than it was before. he spent the past two years being primarily focused on connecting the world. but he doesn't seem to care unless it becomes public which is where we are now. howie: he has an idealistic view of facebook. sheryl sandberg doing a media blitz. they disclosed they are going to have tighter vetting. but the election is a year and a half ago and suddenly they are rolling it out right before he goes to the hill. it's not over yet with this test moby coming this week. he'll get grilled. he'll have no friend on those

committees. the larger issue is whether users can respect users data. it's got a lot of customers around the world. how much would you say about the zuckerberg p.r. debacle have hurt him, his image and the facebook brand. >> a lot. more than before. >> i see it reflected in my own facebook. there are people who are pulling back that i thought would never question their presence. howie: i think zuckerberg has his work cut out for him. ahead on "mediabuzz" why that controversial promo read by so

many sinclair anchors is getting backlash.

howie: president trump's attacks on amazon and jeff bezos helped tank the companies stock an kept it up in answer to a question. president trump: the post office

is using billions of dollars and the taxpayers are paying for that money because it delivers packages for amazon at a very low cost. and it isn't fair to the united states. howie: and the president made it clear he's steamed with the "washington post," a bezos company. the "post" said he made it up that bezos influences the or suggested a story to anybody here. mollie: i think it's aimed at both companies bezos is involved in. it's true that bezos has disrupted a lot of main street businesses.

people can say either bezos is controlling everything "the washington post" does or he bought it for no reason at all. howie: for clout. the president linked some of these public statements, he thinks "the washington post" is terribly unfair to him. is this on some level retaliation over news coverage. capri: there is no secret that president trump does not like "the washington post." the failing "washington post," the fake news "washington post," the amazon "washington post." i think it's retaliation. obviously he's a counter puncher, we know that. but the value of president trump's tweets and how that impacts the markets. he wants to defend himself against what he feels is unfair news coverage. when you go after amazon it has

a direct impact on the market showing president trump's tweets have no impact. howie: as the owner of the "washington post" he's able to influence editorial policy. but he says he never edited or modified an editorial. sarah: i think you can look at the neglect tef stories they are tide to in the "washington post." why are you going after amazon. amazon isn't doing anything different at the moment. howie: he believes it's hurting brick and mortar stores. he's wrong that the post office gains by shipping their

packages. barack obama attacked a casino company. mollie: barack obama did attack companies, fox news and the casino company. it seems unseemly for a president to do that. amazon does a lot of business in china. the editorial page ran a pro china editorial that is disconcerting. people are so upset with donald trump they are not doing as much due diligence with what's happening on the editorial page. mollie: the president was asked about stormy daniels. michael cohen and the president said he didn't know about it. cbs, abc, nbc, all led with this. we can put that up to show you a

taste of it. did this deserve to be the lead story? >> what the president said is consistent with what the white house has been saying, that the president had no knowledge of the $130,000 payment. the story diminished dramatically once she went on 60 minute *. she spilled all the detbailts affair. the agreement has been violated because she has given a national interview. howie: do you think it's been overplayed? >> absolutely. howie: the media loves stormy. there was one other incident involving the president and cnn at the white house easter egg roll. jim acosta, we'll show you what he did.

>> what about daca. what's going to happen. president trump: the democrats have really let them down. they had a great opportunity. the democrats have really let them down, it's a shame. howie: didn't you kill daca, which is what acosta said. waits appropriate for the president sitting down with children at an easter egg roll to be shouting these questions. >> journalists take whatever opportunity they can to get whatever access they have and take it. is that right? maybe not. these folks need to learn boundaries. i was saying earlier on our way into the studio, as a sitting elected official i was followed into the ladies room more than once by journalists. thankfully they were female journalists. but there are no boundaries. howie: jim acosta who is almost

an advocate on the question of the dreamers. mollie: i think jim acosta is frustrating. they botched a lot of stories and they are facing pushback from the white house. this did not go well for the media because people look at it and say can't you just honor this moment? howie: the president tweeted you can't get a job at cnn unless you state you are totally anti-trump. cnn said that's false. and they took a shot at the president for misspelling the name of jeff zucker, the president of cnn. the securing of those sinclair promos cause its possibles to say it's the media. a new evident to check up on

facebook's fact checkers.

howie: sinclair broadcast group required its anchors to read a script bashing fake news. butment journalists -- but many journalists bashed the company.

>> unfortunately their own personal bias was out of control. and it's dangerous to our democracy. >> this is extremely dangerous to our democracy. >> this is extremely dangerous to our democracy. >> this is extremely dangerous to our democracy. >> yeah, nothing says we value independent media with reporters repeating the same message over and over again like a brainwashed cult. howie: joining us now, emily jashinsky, and bill press, former co-host of cnn's cross-fire and the book "from the left." has it given you any pause? and there is a media

overreaction? emily: i think this ad says truth is not politically left or right. there is hard to dispute anything in the script itself. packaged together, but calling it or wellian or propaganda i thought was a stretch. howie: it says sharing advice and false news all too common on social media and sometimes news outlets pick up the stories. >> it said some people reprint the stuff on social media without checking the facts. i don't know of any concrete example of that. if they do, it's wrong. one says unfortunately some members of the media use their platforms to push their own

personal bias and agenda. i worked for five networks. i have never been asked to read anything like that, i never would. i would quit before i would do it. it troubles me to see these anchors we trust as the purveyors of local news to see them all reading the same script. howie: a former white house aide who works at sinclair, when you smaisht together they look like mindless zombies. emily: this looks just like the advertisements that local news stations run all the time about trust and i didn't see anything overtly political about it. now we interpret it as being overtly political because we talk so much about trust. but disputing the script itself

is hard to do. bill: it would not have been a story if they said this is an editorial. but they didn't i'd fight as an editorial. howie: is it comparable to say as sinclair contends, nbc, abc, cbs may run left-leaning reports from their late-night shows which are anti-trump, this is not something adri tributable to sinclair. bill: there is another thing about sinclair. a badge of honor. here is another thing about sinclair. they are sort of at stealth broadcaster. i went to wgn in chicago. if you look at them you don't know it's sinclair. if you look in your box for cnn

or msnbc, you know. but with sinclair you don't. howie: they are looking to increase their scope in local news. david smith the executive chairman said this. i have never seen a single article about us that is reflective of reality. the media is so left wing which is why it will fade away. just no credibility. emily: they should say they are the counter-balance. they should say we are balancing out all this other stuff. what they are doing is exploiting the concerns about media bias for advertising purposes. bill: when david smith says the

print media serves no real purpose. does that include the "wall street journal"? the washington examiner? the washington times, "the weekly standard"? the national review? i think you are touching on something. this whole story, the real story is the largest tv broadcaster in the country are applying to buy 42 more. i think the media mergers between at&t and time-warner are something we ought to be concerned. the rules say you can only cover 39% of the country. this will make it 70%. emily: i agree on that. howie: after our break, exclusive look at how facebook decide whether disputed stories are true or false.

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howie: real clear politics is launching a new page to fact check the fact checkers use bid facebook in deciding which stories to brand true or false. do these media fact checkers lean to one side and pick the wrong targets? we are back with mollie hemingway. facebook has global clout and it's relying on outside fact checkers. why is it important to be truth squadding the fact checking. mollie: people intentionally

writing false stories that get shared. their is an air of objectivity that goes with a fact check. some visual metric of whether they are telling the truth. and very few people read the underlying pieces which can tell us whether to take that fact check seriously or not. whether people are judging opinions or facts. how they are determining whether something is true. these are things that will be helpful to the news consumer. howie: sometimes you get into opinion and sometimes the fact checkers have kind of a tin ear. mollie: recently you had a situation where the christian site babylon said cnn was

washing their newsroom spin cycle. and snopes looked at this like it was worthy of news. howie: a picture of a washing machine is designed to get laughs. mollie: i think facebook figured out the problem. but the damage is done. it's so important. a lot of these fact checks. university studies say they are three times as likely to call a republican politician a liar than a democrat. we had the lie of the year if you like your health insurance you can keep your health insurance. howie: you have six outlets

facebook is using for fact check. they are from the "new york times," "washington post," snopes and one person from "the weekly standard." do you worry about a tilting? mollie: there is a problem not just in the partisan bias. there are problems when you are evaluating opinions rather than facts. they rate something false because you didn't provide enough context. that's not what a fact check should do. we would like to see tightening up of these things. and comparing them to each other, hope any they will uphold the standards. still to come, the big washington bash. the white house correspondent's

..

howie: president trump is blowing off the white house correspondents dinner for the second straight year. he went to the gridiron. but there are no cameras at the gridiron. it's too bad that the relationship has gone the so bad on both sides. hanging out with journalists and being mocked by a >> time. without his star presence and all the celebrity hangers on, d.c.'s nerve prom should focus on its original purpose, giving out journalism award and raising money for scholarships. check out our facebook page, follow us on twitter. keep the conversation going. if you missed any part of the show you can dvr it and watch at your convenience.

maybe that would be a good thing to do. we'll be back here next week. see you then with >> i wouldn't take anything off the table. these are horrible photos. >> these people are butchers. not only do they use chemical weapons to kill people, they prevent humanitarian aid after the attack. >> it's been more than 30 years since congress tackled comprehensive immigration reform. >> facebooks has acknowledged that 87 million users had private information shared without their consent. >> privacy issue and the propagandist issue are both too big for facebook to fix. >> yes, it will. captain america, patrick's augusta. ♪ ♪