for load federal workers across the country. that's it for today. have a great week and we hope to see you back at our regular fox news studios next "fox news >> "buzzfeed" gets a black eye for the report about michael cohen being told by the president to lie to congress. >> this could be a game changer. if this report is true it appears to be the most of clear obstruction of justice. if this story is true, we are adding impeachment. >> the president of the united states in the oval office, on the phone, telling michael cohen to commit federal crimes.

>> do i have my doubts about buzzfeed? yes. the reporter who broke the story said he didn't see the actual documents to substantiate it is a big red flag. president trump: it's a total phoney story and a disgrace to our country. it was a disgrace to journalism. howie: did the media rush to judgment on a story that seems to be falling apart. this as rudy giuliani seems to back off his remarks on campaign collusion. >> are you saying nobody in the campaign had any contact with russia. >> i never said there was no collusion between the campaign or people in the campaign. i said the president of the

united states. i said there is no evidence that the president of the united states con spieshed with the russians to hack the dnc. howie: nancy pelosi essentially disinvites trump from giving the state of the union and the democrats praise the speaker as a baddases. the media mockery of the president for serving the clemson team whoppers and big macs. why they are making a mistake. i'm howard kurtz and this is "mediabuzz." the white house responds to the

buzzfeed report that the president urged michael cohen to lie to congress. but robert mueller said it has to evidence to support the allegation. the president offered a rare bit of praise. president trump: i appreciate the president coming out with a statement last night. i appreciate that. howie: joining us to analyze the coverage, juan williams *, sara fisher, and mollie hemingway. we have been evacuated to the washington statement because of a fire that's been put out in the washington bureau. this basically threw up in 24

hours. mollie: this is basic due diligence. usual talking about the president of the united states, you would hope the editors and people involved would have a higher standard for saying what is accurate. the story itself had no evidence other than claims of a treasure trove of material they hadn't seen. it contradicted known facts. and it told the story in a biased way about business dealing in russia. people should have shown more thought before running with the story. howie: how many times did we hear, if it's true. if it's true.

you heard lawrence o'donnell say if it's a fact. cohen was not a source and wouldn't comment on the story. and robert mueller never comments. juan: it's so unusual for the special counsel's office to come out and say the story is wrong. it had tremendous power in terms repudiating the story. i will say this as someone who was a daily journalist like you. you think back to the most of investigation in our town, watergate, woodward and bernstein and deep throat. they didn't see any documents. they were relying on confirmation sources. if you have two sources independent of each other. almost every news organization

in america goes with this story. buzzfeed says they contacted the special prosecutor's office to say they are returning this story and the response was zero. >> you had the special counsel say now we are going to repudiate the story. this is very political. howie: buzzfeed provided the email. it said we are going with a story that says michael cohen was directed by president trump to lie to congress. that made it easier to do the typical we decline to comment. wouldn't that -- wouldn't you want to give more information before making this exploressive charge? sara: you would. you need to make sure you are crossing every t and dotting

every i. you have top be clear with your sources. and you have to be transparent with the reader about how you got the information you got. when the information came out we saw that they didn't see the documents. they needed to be up front with the reader from the front. howie: one of the buzzfeed reporters said he did see the documents, but it's not clear what the documents are. is it enough for ben smith to say we stand by the story. sara: i think for now it works. you want to support your journalists. they have broken other stories in the russia investigation. but the defile itself is a little bit ambiguous. juan: we are in a media news

that's divided. in the echo. there are. in the conservative echo chamber leaping on it to say the media confirms it. howie: i don't think the conservative media organizations tried to knock the story down until after the mueller story. oh g.q. writer went on msnbc after the mueller story, if it doesn't knock down the story it raises questions about the fundamental truth of it. she says the "new york times" corroborated that donald trump, rr lied to congress. i have not seen any story that could be corroboration for buzzfeed.

so people just went on there and said anything. mollie: it's a problem with people not having well informed about this story. that was one of the things that contradicts the "buzzfeed" story. the idea that it's just "buzzfeed." there are dozens of stories called pack and had to be corrected. last week the "new york times" botched a major russia story. the media have poured themselves into this for two years. they throw caution to the wind. rarely does anyone get held accountable. sometimes they don't even explain their errors. they have gotten stories flat-out wrong and they ever

explained and never retract. the american people are sick of the narrative. at the same time there is a lot of evidence supporting the idea that the fbi and department of justice behaved improperly by putting spies against trump campaign affiliates. these are based on hard facts, actual evidence, and it was ignored by many people in the media. howie: i know michael cohen and his lawyers said in court filings trump ordered him to do everything. you can't go on top suborning perjury without having it locked down. very little scepticism despite the fact it was unnamed sources.

usually if there is a big story, there are multiple sources. it's a black eye for every organization. not that it shouldn't have been covered. but they blanketed it with pun h punditry. rudy giuliani said i never said there was no collusion in the campaign, just president trump. sara: rudy giuliani is trying to be the president's attack dog. but it's hard to be the attack dog when the allegations are so fluffy. howie: what's gets lost in this environment is another michael cohen story confirmed by cohen on the record. he hired some i.t. guy to rig

some online poll. and cohen came out with a tweet saying i did it at the direction of the president. i regret my blind loyalty to the president. but people on his behalf are denying he knew about it. juan: apparently cohen delivers the payment in brown bags. thissers something about us as media. we rely heavily on polling and grant authority for polls. we don't go into detail with the audience. there are polls that rely on phone calls as -- as opposed to direct phone calls. the hilarious part of the story

was cohen was saying he was sexist. howie: i am just making the point that there is so much of a blizzard of information that it's harder to journalists to keep up. kirsten gillibrand uses colbert to announce her candidacy for president. how did that go? i'm a veteran

and the army taught me a lot about commitment. which i apply to my life and my work. at comcast we're commited to delivering the best experience possible, by being on time everytime. and if we are ever late, we'll give you a automatic twenty dollar credit. my name is antonio and i'm a technician at comcast. we're working to make things simple, easy and awesome. howie: with the shutdown showdown 30 days old, nancy

pelosi has been riding a wave of positive press. especially for telling him not to show up at house for the state of the union. >> this was a baddases move. >> i loved it when she'd called it a housekeeping matter. >> nancy pelosi is torturing the president. she is flexing her powers. this is a move of exceptional cleverness and statism. >> it's time for another edition of petulance and politics with nancy pelosi. she is telling trump to delay his state of the union address. how convenient. >> let me read to you some of these baddases headlines about the speaker. she wields a knife. g.q., nancy pelosi has the presidentout matched. the genius of nancy pelosi's

snub. mall * she has every -- poll where she had every right to do what she did. i don't know what the opinion need to be there but there was no question she had the right to do it. it makes people very excited that she asserted that authority. howie: some of the pape -- somef the same pundit praising nancy pelosi turned around and said the president did something awful with canceling her trip to europe. >> either they are partisan political moves or they are not. juan: i thought nancy pelosi was deceptive in blaming it on security issues. i think the reality the best

argument would have been the government is shut down. people are not being paid. this is not the time to have a forum to attack democrats on immigration issues. but it was beyond petty for the president to not only cancel the flight at the last moment. but to reveal the itinerary that would have put those people in danger. howie: it's fair for the press to point out that nancy pelosi is a veteran skilled leader. sara: i think when you see the press coming to nancy pelosi's side, you are injecting opinion where you don't need to inject opinion. it's her right to do it. and it doesn't mean she outsmarted trump. there are some danger effects

revealing where the security might be. he's putting her in the same way. mollie: the trip wasn't taken. the state of the union is mentioned in the constitution. congressional junkets are not. you should probably think it's worse to infringe on a modern institution. howie: the president gives this speech and offers this deal he'll extend by 3 years not deporting the dreamers here under daca. "the washington post" headlines, trump's pitch is rejected by the democrats. do you see anyone in the press giving the president credit for attempting a compromise? mollie: i haven't seen anyone in

the press give the president credit for anything in two years. what is more important, we have a shutdown and at some point people need to get to the table. the president makes offers, they are rejected on arrival. who is going to open the government. howie: maybe it was just putting pressure on the democrats by going public. white house aides say it was cast as a compromise. it's a fact. he offered something he hadn't offered before. juan: the president has the bully pulpit. he spoke to the american people. he was doing this as a point of political leverage. he knew they weren't accepting it. for the press to say this will be a breakthrough and end the shut down, that would have been

bad reporting. howie: they could have come back and countered. juan: with pence and kushner meeting with people behind the scenes. but this was a public demonstration by the president to embarrass the democrats. howie: i think it's fair to say it won't be solved in front of the television cameras. the effects of the shut yowp is starting to get more media attention. the liberals now opening demanding the president's ouster.

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>> last weekend i didn't wear my insulin pump at all, i took it off base was so frightened about what little insulin i had left. we couldn't afford the $300 co-pay to buy anymore. i actually had a breakdown. i had to drive away to the corner store just to try in my store so my children couldn't see me. from one day to the next you don't know how you will pay your bills. howie: the story in washington is often covered as a political game. this shows there is real pain and suffering among these families. sara: the government has a reputation for being reliable and getting great benefits.

they worked for the government because they thought it was stable. working for the government has been great for decade. howie: in the beginning there was a sense, it will be a paid vacation. who knows when this will end. people mission more paychecks. is it mart for journalists to put -- is it smart for journalists to put the fault of people in the middle? juan: it could be viewed as bad coverage as pressure specifically on the president because he said he would take responsibility, pressure on him and not pressure on the democrats. howie: why wouldn't the coverage be pressure on both sides. whoever you blame, the two side have not come to a deal. juan: overwhelmingly people are

blaming the president. howie: a majority, not overwhelming. mollie: 3/4 of the government is not shut down. you want to make sure you are covering the fight and make sure you are telling the story that the average employee makes $130,000 in compensation. you want to make sure you are telling the full story. but there are people at the lower end of that. howie: the white house had to double the estimate on the economic impact. it could be a half percent per month. sara fisher and juan williams, thanks for coming to us in our temporary studio. the attorney general strongly

backed

howie: house republicans took action against congressman steve king by stripping him of his committee assignments. joining us to analyze the coverage, philippe reines and emily jashinsky. emily, where are the stories saying maybe it took too long. the guy has been saying controversial things for 15 years. but house republicans deserve credit for taking action. emily: the action was swift and wide straight ahead. it wasn't just contained to a few centrist republicans. it was across the board and

quick action, too. howie: don lemon said the elephant in the room. what about donald trump? nbc's chuck todd. they, democrats, republicans finally get to condemn some of the things trump does without saying trump. i am sure you believe trump has said and done some racist things. how did the steve king story become about the president. philippe: he's the titular head of the party. but the -- howie: the press quickly came off congressman team and said what about trump says to me everything has to be a trump story. philippe: when you are at the

top, at the oval office desk. you have to set a tone. mitch mcconnell has been clear about steve king, that he should find a different line of work. i think people believe the president should do the same thing. emily: if donald trump had said what steve king said, if donald trump said that, i think you would have seen a similar reaction from the republican party and i think some of the coverage suggests otherwise and i don't think that's fair. howie: the atlantic has a 7,000 word piece that says "impeach." the argument is the house should move toward impeachment. in the wake of that we have buzzfeed.

i want to play astounded bite of one of the "buzzfeed" reporters talking to cnn. >> have you seen any of that other corroborating evidence? >> no, i have not seen it personally. but the officials we spoke to are read into that aspect of the special counsel's investigation. howie: that was anthony cormier. emily: they were giving interviews the day the story came out. they were saying conflicting things. one was saying they had seen the documents and the other said they hadn't. it made the story and their conduct look even more ridiculous. it's got a news division and has some good reporting.

the other report is jason leopold. 2006, he reported that karl rove was about to be indicted. and of course karl rove was not indicted in the bush white house and repolled wrote a book saying he struggled from substance abuse. philippe: i am in no way defending this story. clearly there is something terribly wrong about it. and i am not defending jason leopold. i tangled with him and i think everyone at home should know. he's not a liberal. i don't know what he is. but he's the reporter most of responsible for the foia request to release hillary clinton's

emails. there was breathlessness. i don't think it's confined to non-fox. i have been on fox at night' where they are thinly sourced, in my opinion. and when you go from there, i woke up friday to what you are talking about. stories about jason leopold's credibility. the minute mueller said what they said. nobody stuck with their guns. they made it clear it was a mistake. and they have been talking about nothing since. they have been throwing themselves under the bus since friday night. but let's not confuse "buzzfeed" making a mistake. the irony of bob mueller giving

a citation. emily: we can go to the story from cnn. the russia stories the media has gotten wrong. howie: they always make the president look worse. "buzzfeed" in 2017, they published the unverified steel dossier. they couldn't vouch for it. your final thought on "buzzfeed"'s role in this mess and the rest of the media. emily: "buzzfeed" has a lot of talented people. they have a serious news division. but they have demonstrated they can't exactly handle it. but at the same time there are serious networks that are older and more traditional than "buzzfeed." the media in general has a problem. it's not confined to "buzzfeed."

i will be curious to see if they concede. howie: i think we all come out against breathlessness. emily jashinsky, thank you very much. william barr takes flack from the left even after testifying bob mueller isn't on a witch hunt.

howie: former attorney general william barr says he respected robert mueller. joining us is susan ferrechio and francesca chambers. susan, barr respects mueller and said it's not a witch hunt. the people i talked to said he's an experienced witness. susan: if he didn't say that it would cause an uproar. but nobody expected him to say otherwise. this is a bush 1 attorney general. he's talked about as a trusted gop lawyer.

long-time republican lawyer and democrats really like him. as soon as his name came up, i consulted with a top democrat and he said i know william barr, he's someone we can confirm. i think they still feel he's the best choice to be the next attorney general. and if they keep matthew whitaker in there, they consider him a party loyalist. howie: one thing barr wouldn't budge on was committing to releasing the mueller report. that became the line of criticism. francesca: he did come out relatively unscathed. there were stories about his grandson and how he stole the show. dianne feinstein gave him a snack pack.

he came out very relatively unscathed for someone who wants to be an attorney general in an administration where the president has fired the fbi director and so and and so forth. howie: kirsten gillibrand was on stephen colbert. >> i'm curious. do you have anything you would like to announce? >> yes. >> what would that be, madame. >> i'm filing an exploratory committee for president of the united states. as a young mom i am going to fight for other people's kids as hard as i would fight for my own. howie: in terms of media attention did it help to be on stephen colbert to be holding hands with the premiere trump barber.

susan: an unconventional announcement is a great way to get into the race. senator thompson did it in 2007. he was criticized for that afterwards. but the colbert couch has been a shopping ground for democrat candidates. they need to distinguish themselves. people are watching less news. young people are getting their news through these late-night talk shows and the comedy shows. for these candidates to take it seriously and use that as a platform, that's something we'll see much more of going forward. howie: you will get questioning from the late-night hosts who can't stand president trump. if the idea was to generate the attention, i would say it fell short. this new york senator didn't even make the front page of the "new york times" that she has an

exploratory committee. francesca: given the fact that she did it on late-night television. other candidates have released videos. they will struggle with what republicans struggled with in 2016. there are so many people running. given the news cycle if you plan to do it on x day. that's when the potential attorney general on capitol hill, you can't change the day you plan to do something. howie: some of the outlets criticized kirsten gillibrand saying she moved left. is it fair game? susan: this morning she said on the talk shows. she said her thinking evolved and she has become more

empathetic on issues like immigration. howie: are these questions the right questions for the media? susan: they are dead-on. she went from an nra rating from an a to an f. howie: we'll try to cover every major democrat. susan ferrechio and francesca chambers, thanks so much. "the washington post" has a problem with vice president pence's wife teaching at a christian school.

howie: "the washington post" kicked off a controversy about

the president's wife with this piece. the school that hired karen pence is a private catholic school it begins with a promise they are born again christians. the president was asked about it. >> it sparked negative reaction. does that upset you? >> my wife and i have been in the public eye for quite a while. but to see major news organizations attacking christian education is deeply offensive to us. howie: we are back with mollie hemingway. is it fair tore journalists to raise questions about a christian school who won't high non-christian teachers and

people who don't believe homosexuality is a sin. mollie: they don't believe you should have any sex out of marriage. it's not that unique for christian schools. we push back on the rhetoric that the press are the enemy of the american people. it's important the press not talk that way and frame christian teaching that is 2,000 years old. but to frame it that you are doing something bad and it's bad because she'd holds the teachings that christians hold to. howie: she previously taught at this school for 12 years but mike pence was a congressman and nobody cared. he's concerned about what he sees as an attack on christian

education. do you think many mainstream journalists believe these views -- if it were a public school it would be against the law. but do you believe these schools are mainstream christianity. mollie: everybody has their views on sex. and they should be understanding that nobody holds those views. the media holds to these views stridently. when people have competing ideas they act hostilely. it's doesn't help people have conversations. howie: i talked to vice president pence and i think that's why it's gotten so much attention. the fact that it's a private

religious institution. should it be held to similar standards as a public school funded by taxpayer dollars? mollie: i read one reporter that she should lose her secret service protection. howie: why skeptics of the fast food

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howie: the president got a lot of media mockery when he hosted the champs from clemson with fast food. president trump: burger king, wendy's and mcdonald's. we have big macs.

quarter pounders with cheese, everything i like, you like. howie: leaving aside trump personally paid for the grub, it's reflected as low rent. listen to this. it promoted cuisine that nutritionists warn is high in calories, fat and sodium, and increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. when obama stopped by the shake shack, the media covered it as a pretty cool move. thanks for hosting us. you can get apple itunes. go to our facebook page, continue the conversation on twitter @howardkurtz.

we'll be back hopefully at our regular washington, d.c. headquarters next sunday morning. 11:00 eastern. we'll see you then with the latest heather: good morning. it is monday, january 21st. and this is "fox & friends first." happening right now, a forks news alert, a police officer shot and killed in the line an duty, the latest casualty on the war on cops. what we're learning about the suspect that is in custody. president trump says let's make a deal as his daca for a wall proposal gains steam on both sides of the aisle. it's he all eyes on the senate where a vote to reopen the government could come as early as tomorrow. heather: and apologies are rolling in after a