howie: on the buzz meter, one of the ugliest brawls in the history of washington isn't over. the hyper polarized media debate rages on. >> i think the reason brett kavanaugh won this is he became one with donald trump. he was the aggrieved party thursday. he soundinged like donald trump in robes. >> they turned the confirmation process into a circus befigure it a what man -- befifthing a

banana rub. >> winning becoming a verb. but he'll likely carry an asterisk around with him for years. the media gone overboard? brett kavanaugh writes a last-minute op-ed for the wall treat journal saying he was too emotional. >> he's doing it as a p.r. move to try to convince people that no i'm actually not unhinged and i can control my temper. >> the fbi report does nothing to address concerns about misleading statements. >> the media cover has been so

one-sided and biased. there has been the presumption from the beginning that he single allegation made against the judge was true. howie: a wave of women from connie cheung to kellyanne conway break their silence on sexual assault. i'm howard kurtz and this is "mediabuzz." the media drama went down to the wire. what we'll remember for decades as an emotional and personal battle that turned on conduct back in high school. kavanaugh was confirmed but the media debate and culture war is far from over. joining us is mollie hemingway,

and as much *, and philippe reines, a former state department official. now that kavanaugh has been confirmed, the mainstream media seemed to be deflated. mollie: you saw a lot of people tweeting on social media. it showed up in how they framed their stories and presented the issues. i saw jim acosta tweet something like can't you all just win graciously? howie: cnn national correspondent saying can't you win graciously?

mollie: it's an admission he had a side. but there is no question journalists are picking a side. howie: this was the first question he asked kellyanne conway. >> how concerned are you given the way this went down, that brett kavanaugh will be seen as a tainted justice by half the country? >> justice kavanaugh should not be seen as tainted. howie: kavanaugh won and we are hearing words like tainted. susan: that's a fair question. it was slanted against him in the media. and he does walk away fairly or not, kavanaugh walks away tainted from this in the same

way clarence thomas did when he was accused of sexual harassment in his can fir nation process. d in his confirmation process. howie: they moved the goal post making this about drinking and yearbook inscriptions. what was the meaning of the devil's triangle. philippe: i think this goes for every network. this has been a confusion and challenging issue for weeks. i think what you are seeing with the media are two things. you are seeing the standard partisan description. people could watch now and confuse that susan and molly and

i have opinions. but the second thing is. this has in some way made us back to a 50-50 nation which we haven't been since election day. i know that sounds strange. we have been more of a 55, 45, 60-40 nation. the seering moments even if they are not incredibly pro trump. how will be unprecedented for a supreme court nominee to write an op-ed piece where kavanaugh said i was very emotional.

i know my tone was sharp and i said a few things i should not have said. that suggests to me the cite civil of not having -- the criticism of not having a judicial temperament stung. mollie: when the media talked about it they said, my my, he's emotional. the outlandish charges were never proven and not provable. the framing of that led to this. howie: he said things like this is the revenge of the clintons. it's over. he's on the supreme court. now people are saying he will be a partisan justice and hurt the court for decades.

philippe: people put an asterisk next to clarence thomas' name. howie: when somebody has been legitimately confirmed by the senate. philippe: if you see a justice doing something. i agree with mollie. it's okay to be furious and frustrated. what he did from there is not okay. to blame the clinton machine for his interactions with those senators. that was someone who in the course of trying to prove he could not have done this actually showed the exact person who could have done this. the media criticism was reflecting people like me. i would be more happy with amy coney barrett who was more conservative taking the seat

tomorrow rather than brett kavanaugh solely because of that performance. susan: he wrote that tart cal. i felt the "wall street journal" article was aimed at, and when he attacked the democrats undercut. he wanted to make sure he looks impartial on the court. howie: what about the media split, 10 people interviewed in total different change anything. the optics were not great. wasn't it all predictable, and isn't the liberal and conservative media predictable?

susan: that's legitimate. legitimate thing for the media to cover. they left out a bunch of witnesses put forward by blasey ford and ramirez. and on the opposite side you had the beginning of this, they said it would be a limited scope. now that we are learning new things about him along the way, that was a legitimate thing. howie: so much passionate on both sides. fox fired contributor jackson who called kavanaugh accusers lying skanks. mollie: they put forth stories that have no corroboration.

there were unprovable and undisprovable allegations. there was flood the media and it was done to delegitimize someone. it's to delegitimize a person. there was no daylight between democratic partisan activity and media coverage. philippe: mollie hit the nail on the head in terms of the fbi. donald trump fired the director and wants to fire the deputy director. now they are the most of precious institution of all time. howie: what about what mollie said about the democrats were there to protest, block and stop

this nomination. once the democrats leaked christine blasey ford's name to the press. philippe: we don't know that. howie: we don't know who did it. i don't see how you could not cover that. philippe: this comes down to he said-she said. but there is a difference in motivation. if you don't believe him, you are attributing certain understandable factors to that. maybe he didn't remember. it was a long time ago. maybe he was drinking. he wants the job. he don't believe her, you are saying this woman is just an outright liar. mollie: in this country you are innocent until proven guilty. susan: they left out covering

the problems with her testimony so it made it look like she was 100% believable. weep just said believable, believable, and social media strong it out and showed how there were big problems. that called into question whether she was telling the truth or not or misremembering. the mainstream media did not cover that fairly. philippe: to impugn her credit it you had to say she worked for the clintons. mollie: people need evidence. howie: a female journalists going public with painful stories of sexual' misconduct.

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howie: the press has been acknowledging that president trump was essentially restrained in talking about christine blasey ford until he unload at a rally. president trump: what neighborhood? i don't know. but i had one beer, that's the only thing i remember. >> what the president did last night is sickening. maybe we should only be surprised it took him so long to do it. >> the media were saying president trump's words about ford for an attack. >> i don't know if he thinks it's useful to rid couple a woman hop says she was sexually

assaulted. or if he thinks it was fun. but the president of the united states thinks it's appropriate. >> you are attacking victims, you don't have any empathy. no, he's making a series of common sense conclusions about ford's very shaky claims and differing accounts. howie: given that's sexual assault victims don't remember the details -- mollie: people kept saying he was taunting or mock or ridiculing christine ford. what he was doing was pointing out what anybody could see when they watched her testimony. there were major flaws and contradictions. i thought the media should have been pointing this out themselves. you didn't see the media look at her story which changed multiple

times. they spent all their time look at ice throwing and yearbooks. howie: the political system is going to scrutinize the nominee, let's look at the accuser. susan: it was about the tone and the problem with the tone. all the things you are saying, mollie, is 100% true. but he's speaking to women who believe her and who have had their own experiences. that is one of the problems with president trump when he addresses problems like this. mollie: he previously said he found her credible. susan: he was mocking the "new york times" reporter.

it doesn't sit well with a lot of people. howie: the president telling judge jeanine i had to even the playing field when he did that. mollie hemingway sarah sanders is lying. howie: why do you call it a lie? she is defending her boss. philippe: mollie is conflating a legitimate conversation about this situation with donald trump enjoying himself unnecessarily taunting someone. mollie: there is an issue where a lot of people don't understand donald trump's appeal. he says things you are not supposed to say. it was almost silly how much deference people gave where ford when there is no substance was for her story.

philippe: just because something is appealing to a crowd. mollie: you should be able to say true things and not be condemned for it. he wasn't even using a mocking tone. philippe: like donald trump wasn't mocking the reporter with a disability. mollie: donald trump did that mocking with that reporter which he has done with many people it was portrayed in the media that he was mocking the reporter because of his disabilities. he used the same mocking tone with people who don't share that disability. howie: susan, there is a cultural war debate in which the president is talking about it's a scary time for young men and they are in danger of having their lives ruined by uncorroborated allegations. susan: it's another gap in the

coverage. the #metoo movement. there is a lack of due process. we have seen it with high-profile cases and cases not reported in the media but reported on smaller blowings. that carried over to this where you have one person being accused and being found guilty before any evidence is laid out. >> that debate will continue. it's interesting the mainstream media, but happy with lisa murkowski. mika brzezinski ripped kellyanne conway for saying she is a sexual assault victim.

ask

howie: grudging criticism of the president for striking a deal with mexico and canada. he staged a rose garden victory lap, then he started acting like the reality show producer that he was. president trump: question? she is shocked i picked her. >> i am not thinking about -- president trump: i know you are not thinking, you never do. >> in a tweet you said it's incorrect to say you are limiting the scope of the fbi investigation. president trump: i don't mind answering the question. >> it had to do with the other headline in the news which is the kavanaugh nomination.

howie: we are still in the a block. we'll get to kavanaugh, we are still doing trade. and he stuck to that ask cnn's kaitlan collins. president trump: don't do that. excuse me. do you have a question on trade. we'll do one or two more questions on trade. don't do that. somebody is before you. howie: he made kaitlan collins pass the mic to another reporter and stay with the topic until as promised he took questions about the kavanaugh battle including from her. the "new york times," 8 full pages saying donald trump inherited far more money than he admitted from his father and they committed tax fraud by

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howie: female journalists are speaking out about past sexual assault. the spotlight has also fallen on kellyanne conway who told jake tapper she, too, has been the victim of a sexual assault.

but when she testified the president she drew a tougher view from one of her colleagues, mika brzezinski. >> tell us your story. who is your attacker. who broke the law. who hurt you. you were really uncomfortable. just say i am a victim of sexual assault. i say that as a victim of sexual assault myself. so i want to ask why can't you be the faceboo -- be the egg anl your story. howie: mika took a lot of heat from some pundits over her criticism. your take on the criticism?

>> i think it was deserved for the most of part. you can kind of follow her logic. if you are going to cover for his president you can't use your sexual assault to give it more credibility than it is. howie: kellyanne says she was talking about the process of questioning dr. ford. >> if she is being treated like a fabrege egg, you should come forward. what people hate about where we are right now is the way it's gotten so nasty. it was an unfortunate moment, i thought. she told me she would never push

a woman to describe her sexual assault. but she is saying it's not easy to do it before the cameras. >> that's how i heard it. but the social media blowback started right away. i think enemy today brzezinski realized she had not worded it the way she wanted to. she went back on the show and tried to make the point she was trying to make a little more clearly. howie: in this interview she told me about her sexual assault. she was riding a horse in the woods in virginia, she was pulled off the horse, he mauled her and he pistol whipped her. she was covered in blood. it's a horrifying experience, but she realized not everyone is

comfortable talking about that. and karen, you went online and described an assault when you were a child. karen require wachild. the president raised the point if this assault was as bad as christine ford said it was, surely she would have told her loving parents and there would have been a police report. that spawned a hashtag, why i didn't report. that to me struck home. not just in this context, but from the context of the catholic church. why are these reports coming out now so long after it happened. what happened to me when i was 9 years old, i was at a birthday party, at a riding stable. the man who ran the table sort

of pulled me away from the little girls at the birthday party and molested me. even though my parents who were loving parents, i do not know i could have come forward on this if my parents were still alive. even though they had had the conversation with me, i somehow thought i must have done something wrong for this to have happened to me. so i kept that as my secret. i have got to tell you. 9-year-old karen felt she couldn't tell anybody. 20-year-old karen was very remorseful that i hadn't told anybody. i realized, a riding stable, those are full of little girls. and this man did this to me, he must have done it to so many other little girls. by the was not something my 9-year-old brain could process. so when we have people as powerful as the president saying it can't be as bad as these

women say it is because they didn't report it, it doesn't understand what happened. howie: a number of women have written pieces. let's start with connie cheung. >> i, too, was sexually assaulted. not 36 years ago, but 50 years ago. the molester was our trusted family doctor. am i sure who did it, oh, yes, 100%. >> i internalized the idea because i had gone the drunk it was somehow my fault. i passed out and somebody molested me. it wasn't really considered sexual assault at the time. howie: is it healthy for the debate that women are talking about what happened to them? or do you think some of these confessions were an effort to

turn public opinion against brett kavanaugh. >> not only is it healthy, but it's critical. this remind me of the first wave of #metoo. it took so much strength for so many women to share. the prevalence of this problem is what was originally spotlighted by #metoo. the second point, i think every woman has a right to do what she wants to do with her own story. a lot of women who came forward probably don't support brett kavanaugh's nomination. i don't care. that's perfectly fine. howie: karen, you made the point you don't remember some of the details. talk about the reaction you got on twitter from other women. karen: it was extraordinary the number of women who replied to

my tweet saying almost the exact same thing happened to me, except it was my grandfather or an older man at a barn. howie: some say they were 20, some say 15, some were as young as 5. >> i think even here at fox, chris wallace talking about how he had these conversations with his own daughters for the first time. even if you are a diligent airport, these things can happen to your children, to your young adults out there. and it's not an easy conversation to have. howie: which is why anybody willing to do it, you said even your own brother was shocked after all these years. thanks for being here. next on "mediabuzz." many in the media embrace the claims of the second and third kavanaugh accusers.

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howie: the media gave all kinds of attention to julie swetnick when she made weird allegations about attending high school parties where she claims brett kavanaugh was essentially complicit in gang rape. he was an aggressive, sloppy,

mean drunk. i saw him go up to girls and paw on them and try to get to hands handsy and touching them in private parts. howie: she barked off the gang rape allegation. but swetnick originally said she saw kavanaugh spike the punch at these parties, in the interview she says he was near the punch. why didn't nbc and other media outlets say swetnick is backing off these allegations. sara: why didn't they do it? there seems to be a media file-on. all the media want to qula moreo

clamor around it. howie: is some of that context lost when sound bites are played and she did change her story? sara: when it was first reported she said there were differences in her written statement and what she said in the interview. you take sound bites and play them on other shows, that that context is lost. howie: i think it media were played by michael avenatti. second accuser debra ramirez said brett kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a yale party.

so the only source -- other source that ronan farrow had was saying he heard this from someone else. in a follow-up piece, they named the source, and that classmate said he had no memory of the incident. sara: it tells us there is credibility lacking with that original piece. if you are the new yorker, you want to make sure you are getting the story out. but if you are not telling it in full context, then the meaning is lost. it's really causing credibility problems for the first story. the new yorker will have to find a way to tie this together to get the due context that there might be some holes here. howie: i think while the "new

yorker" was transparent about the holes. but it was run under great pressure because kavanaugh was on the verge of being confirmed. sara: so many news outlets want to get on top of this story. but sometimes you have to take a step back. howie: the "new york times" got a huge amount of attention about a 1985 bar fight where kavanaugh threw ice at a guy. the guy was bleeding because a classmate threw a glass at him. was this worry of a news story. sara: it might be worthy of a news story if it points to his character. but it shouldn't have been -- howie: anyone ever been in a bar fight is disqualified? sara: anyone who wants to come forward with more stories to

tell about his personality, i get that. i don't get why you have an opinion writer contributing a news story. howie: the coauthor is a liberal op-ed writer for the paper. she is a lecturer at yale and makes no bones about it. she says he's a fifth vote for a hard-right turn on voting rights and so much that will harm the democratic process. she occasionally writes op-eds. in retrospect editors should have used a news room reporter for that assignment. sara: there is never answer incident where an opinion piece

writer should be writing a news story. howie: i think it was an effort to chip away at kavanaugh's credibility showing he has a drinking problem. sara: the bar fight, it could be questioned whether it' it's worh publishing. howie: leading conservatives complain to "the washington post" that one of its leading columnists isn't conservative. is this a big problem in the trump era? i found my tresiba® reason. now i'm doing more to lower my a1c. once daily tresiba® controls blood sugar for 24 hours for powerful a1c reduction. tresiba® is a long-acting insulin used to control high blood sugar in adults with diabetes. don't use tresiba® to treat diabetic ketoacidosis, during episodes of low blood sugar, or if you are allergic to any of its ingredients.

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(woman) learned ao play second language. applied to college. applied for a loan. started a business. started a blog. shared a picture. shared a moment. turn your wish list into a checklist. learn more. do more. share more. at home, with internet essentials.

i decided that i wanted to go for electrical engineering and you need to go to college for that. if i didn't have internet in the home i would have to give up more time with my kids. which is the main reason i left the military. everybody wants more for their kids, but i feel like with my kids, they measurably get more than i ever got. and i get to do that. i get to provide that for them. howie: jennifer rubin billed as a center right opinion column

nest are strident lip anti-trump. >> every president reminds you of someone. this guy reminds you of your abusive ex-husband. howie: the conservatives are saying to stop labeling rubin as a -- as a conservative. mollie: when there are almost no conservatives at "the washington post" they would call jennifer rubin as a conservative. she has reversed her conservative positions whether it's the iran deal or jerusalem being the capital of israel. conservative justices. she has turned against donald trump because she is strenuously anti-trump. but to be build as a

conservative columnist when she is not is frustrating. howie: people like mark theissen and hugh hewitt. when you look at "the washington post" opinion pages. smart people, don't like the president. on msnbc nicole wallace, joe scarborough are anti-trump. what does it say about the way in which the opinion media deal with it. mollie: whether you are looking at tv shows or newspapers, if they are build as a conservative contributor they are never trumpers. the vast majority of republicans are supportive of president trump. he's one of the most of popular

republican presidents in recent history. howie: you are saying there are no serious conservatives in america who don't have concerns? mollie: they are overwhelmingly happy with donald trump. even on this network you see way outweighing their actual numeric numbers. you see a lot of the weak thinking and weak writing in the anti-trump movement that does get published. i publish hundreds of people all the time ranging from never trump to trump supportive. howie: jennifer rubin on her twitter page calls herself a conservative. mollie: there are people who identify as conservative who oppose donald trump. and most of of them you see on tv and newspapers.

howie: why is there such a misrepresentation of a chunk of conservative opinion through the opinion media outlets. it's not represented in much of the rest of the country it's overwhelmingly represented here. he's a disruptive force not just for d.c., but for the conservative women as well. howie: that's it for this edition of "mediabuzz." check out-my podcast. mollie comes on one day a week. you can subscribe. let's continue the conversation on twitter @howardkurtz. i hope you will like my facebook page. the last few weekends it's been pretty raw.

i'm glad the battle is finally over but it's not over in terms of media debate. back next weekend at 11:00 a.m. for the latest edition of "mediabuzz." ♪motorcycle revving ♪ motorcycle revving ♪ no matter who rides point, ♪ there are over 10,000 allstate agents riding sweep. ♪♪ and just like tyrone taylor, they know what it takes to help keep you protected. are you in good hands?

[♪] mike: new reaction to judge kavanaugh as he's confirmed as the supreme court justice as protesters chanted outside. welcome to america's news head quawshters. i'm eric shawn. arthel: it come after weeks of heated debate on capitol hill. the president favoring the moment with reports in topeka, kansas. president trump: he'll sit proudly alongside justice kneel