the president walks away from his second sit-down withrun. -- certaindown with kim jong-un. president trump: we decided we wanted to walk. >> this was an embarrassing defeat for the president of the united states on the world stage. >> i think he did the right thing in walking away with no deal. my guess is donald trump invested way too much in terms

of his personal relationship with kim. >> i think it's a positive step and not a setback. howie: does he deserve credit for rejecting a bad deal. nancy pelosi and alexandria ocasio-cortez warn moderate democrats after a gun control vote, they could face consequences. plus an exposee on facebook censors, they say they are so traumatized they are smoking dope, having sex in stairwells or embracing conspiracy theories. i'm howard kurtz and this is "mediabuzz." [♪] cbs, nbc and abc in a rare move joined the cable news networks

in airing the house testimony of the man who was donald trump's fixer for more than a decade. he'll be serving a 3-year prison term for lying. this time he says he's telling the truth. >> i'm ashamed i chose to take part in concealing president trump's illicit acts rather than listening to my own conscience. mr. trump is a racist, he is a conman, and he is a cheat. howie: the president was in vietnam when the president tweeted cohen was just disbarred and did bad things unrelated to trump. and he said he watched some of the testimony. >> he called you a liar, a conman, a racist. what's your response to michael

cohen. president trump: having a fake hearing like that in the middle of this very important summit is really a terrible thing. he lied a lot. it was very interesting, he didn't lie about one thing. he said no collusion with the russian hoax. howie: joining me, guy benson, sara fischer, media reporter for axios, and clarence page, columnist for the ""chicago tribune"." would the fact that he's a convicted liar -- guy: i would have liked to see a bit more scepticism about this road to damascus moment. i am so sorry, i was ba bamboozd

by this guy and he's spoon feeding the left what they want to hear. some of it is likely true and he has proven it is true with documentation. from my side of the aisle, the conservative press, i think too many of us were too willing to go along with the white house and republicans with all hands on deck, you cannot believe this guy web's a liar. it's disingenuous to say he's a complete liar except for these three things we like. howie: clarence, are many of the media too quick to champion cohen as a whistleblower when he yelled at and threatened journalists. clarence: i'm delighted the

democratic house gave him this platform. a member of cosanostra. it gives us inside into the inside world of organized crime. it's an inside look at donald trump's organization. howie: people are tweeting saying you are comparing this to mobsters? clarence: some people call them a crime family. it's not unusual to have that kind of reaction when you see people possibly colluding and conspiring. howie: this is a television

show, the mob comparison i think goats too far. you trash cohen if you are trump supporter and praise him. sara: they saw this moment that could be leading to the potential downfall of the president. they are going to be losing some commercial money to be doing this because this could be historic. democrats are leaning on a key witness to be bringing out details that could be juicy. republicans say don't believe this guy. this is good for him to be here. he can't be trusted. howie: weren't journalists expecting more bombshells? much of what cohen said,

regarding the hush money he said it was at the president's direction to stormy daniels, or continuing to work on the moscow trump tower during the campaign. guy: there was tons of damaging stuff from his testimony. you can't spin it as an unvarnished. as i alluded to in my first answer, there were some interesting developments when he was asked, cohen, do you have evidence of collusion, did you witness collusion? he said no, i may have suspicions, but i have no evidence. he also said he did not visit prague in the czech republic which was a key piece of that steele dossier.

if the republicans on the panel had been less obsessed with trashing this guy calling him a liar and a sleaze and focus on these other points, it might have been less damaging for the president. howie: michael cohen testified roger stoned called donald trump to give -- roger stone called donald trump giving him the word about the wikileaks. sara: the president is going to leverage the one point he does like. saying all this is not true except the point saying i didn't direct cohen to lie. i think this is an example everyone takes out of the hearing what they need to get out of it. howie: one point had to do with

republican congressman mark meadows bringing an african-american woman to works for hud, her name is lynne patton to counter the democrats' charges of racism. >> the fact that someone would use a prop, a black woman in this chamber, in this committee is alone racist in itself. howie: lynn patton says she is not a prop. did pundits make too much of this one moment? clarence: across the black community there was a bit of awe struck by the moment of seeing mark meadows calling this black woman to stand there looking like the liberal stereotype of a

token. we have found out miss patton has been campaigning to get a reality tv show of her own. it's no sin. everybody watching is doing that these days. but it adds to the media circus. howie: cohen's account of various racist comments by president trump would be explosive. but in this presidency we are used to that. sara: this is a breakthrough moment. a hearing that's supposed to have so much power is being sidetracked around this conversation around race. but it will be something that we'll probably not even be talking about next week. howie: you recall a few weeks ago "buzzfeed" reported president trump directed his long-term attorney michael cohen

to lie to congress. michael cohen disputed that. michael cone was asked about this having to do with his account about the trump tour moscow project. here is what he said. >> so i lied about it, too. mr. trump made clear to me through his personal statements to me and through his lies to the country that he wanted me to lie. howie: cohen is saying he didn't directly tell me to do this, i interpreted this as his intent. guy: the "buzzfeed" story is problematic for "buzzfeed." they reported trump directed cohen to lie. cohen said i felt i knew what he wanted me to do which was to lie. it's plausible, but that's not what "buzzfeed" reported. there is an outstanding problem

they have. the two reporters on that piece. one of them said they had seen documentation that proved this directive occurred. one of them said they had seen it and the other said they had not seen it. howie: even if he's telling the truth as he seize it, that's not what "buzzfeed" is reporting. clarence: the argument already started and continues. i call this issue a wash. it's true, "buzzfeed" is on the defensive for good reason. they have to back up that story, if you will. but this whole affair is the media process to try donald trump through the media. and make an issue out of everything and interpret it from the advantage point they are speaking from.

howie: let me get a break here. the democratic house passes a gun control bill. journalists are up in arms over how the white house treated them during the vietnam

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on the trump train. when president trump and kim jong-un first shook hands in hanoi, the reporters from reuters each yelled questions like they would at home. the result, the white house band those two reporters from covering the dinner. it was said to be over sensitivities to shouted questions. i spoke to john roberts from vietnam. howie: welcome. what was your reaction when the white house barred four print reporters from that first trump-kim dinner because a couple them shouted questions at an earlier event. john: it seemed to be another victory for kim jong-un. there was a one-on-one photo op

for kim jong-un. two reporters had the temerity to try to ask a question and they were ushered out of the room. we don't know if kim jong-un complained to trump by the. sarah sanders was asked by the and she said i wouldn't say that. but when they went to go in for the pool spray for dinner. mick mulvaney and a couple of folks on the north korean side, there were four reporters. who were not allowed into that pool spray. the reporter for the "wall street journal" was assigned to be the pool reporter for all of the print. we can't make the direct connection they were being punished. howie: the official explanation was sensitivities about shouted questions. does the white house have a point about that taking place

with a foreign leader? john: every leaders event we are do around the world we always ask the president questions. sometimes he responds to them, sometimes he doesn't. sometimes we'll even ask the leader -- from the other country a question. it's sensitivities dealing with a person who is not used to being asked questions, certainly not by a free press. howie: what happened when kim jong-un arrived at hanoi. john: he hadn't arrived at hotel. he was at the train station at the china-street a number border. the north korean delegation as well as the white house press corps. every time we go to a city around the world with the president we set up a white house filing center. we set this up a couple weeks in

advance. it costs tens of thousands of dollars. when kim jong-un got to that train station true mores started flying around that he was upset that we were in his hotel. just before that filing sr. officially opened tuesday morning, we got an email from the white house saying we are moving the filing center to the international press center. logistically it was a huge hurdle to get over. but principle more than anything, we have never had to shut down and move a file center in a hotel because there was a complaint by a foreign leader. howie: the dominant story was the michael cohen hearings back in d.c. john: not at all. whether it was president clinton, bush, obama and now

president trump, it seemser time we go overseas there is another story that knocks whatever the president is doing, whatever city around the world off of the headlines. howie: thanks for joining us from vietnam. in a few moments more of the coverage of the north korea summit that ended with no deal. how much primetime did each media devote to the summit media devote to the summit versus the cohen hearing. i can't believe it. that we're playing "four on four" with a barbershop quartet? [quartet singing] bum bum bum bum... pass the ball... pass the rock.. ...we're open just pass the ball! no, i can't believe how easy it was to save hundreds of dollars on my car insurance with geico. yea. [quartet singing] shoot the j! shoot, shoot, shoot the jaaaaaay...

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howie: the michael cohen hearings were a massive media story this week. >> big news on michael cohen. >> let me ask you about mr. cone's testimony yesterday. howie: i fully understand why the president's former lawyer

denouncing him at congressional hearings is a big story. but there was a second big story, the summit between president trump and kim jong-un. on the other two cable news networks, one story dominated, all cone all the time. msnbc in primetime devoted two minutes to the nuclear talks, 132 minutes to the michael cohen saga. cnn, 1 minute 45 seconds to the trump-kim summit and 141 minutes to the cohen hearing. it would have been easy to portray this as his failure. msnbc 5 minutes north korea, 88

minutes for michael cohen. now, look, i get it that cone is the sexier story. but other networks made a decision that pounding away at the cohen testimony was all part of an effort to get rid of kim jong-un's nuclear arsenal. jim acosta had this to say after the presidential news conference. >> the president steered clear largely of the white house press corps and was instead selecting journalists at random from the other side of the room where there were foreign journalists seated. howie: that wasn't quite true. while he did take questions from foreign journalists and sean

hannity, he also called on cbs's major garrett, bloomberg, fox's john roberts. "the washington post," and npr. just not jim acosta. ahead on the polite between nancy pelosi and the moderate. much of the press blaming the president for failing to reach a deal with kim jong-un. that wasf

attack. we are afraid he's going to give the store. and he stands up and said good-bye. there is a lose-lose by some in the press. on thers were more fair. i feel like it's incumbent on journalists to look at the last few decades of history. everything we tried through the

normal channels with north korea has failed. so president trump said i am going to try something different. i am going to try personal diplomacy. howie: the president said sometimes you have to walk, we had handshakes. >> they were pretty realistic about it. we went, we tried, we failed, we got out. you can't rely too much on your personal diplomacy. but at the end of the day he decided to take a walk. anyone who will label this as a huge massive failure, the diplomacy with north korea has not been successful to date. we haven't given up all the sanctions. howie: trump relies highly on personal diplomacy talking about this great love between me and kim. in the old days 98% of it

negotiated twhoant leaders come in. clarence: prepare yourself. whether it's personal or group or delegation, you need to prepare yourself before the big event occurs knowing what's going to happen before it happens. i think both trump and kim misjudged what was going to happen. and i think trump did the right thing to walk away from a bad deal. but is he going to walk into another bad situation to come. sara: kim got a press moment out of it with the united states. there are people who say that is a loss to the united states and a win for kim. howie: the world's most of closed regime, north korean officials had a press conference

saying we didn't demand an end to all u.s. sanctions, we only wanted some of them. it turns out it was almost all of the important sanctions. western journalists aren't used to having a competing narrative from north korea. sara: they will spin anything to have a win to their people. they will use this as an opportunity to spin these talks and we have to be ready for that. howie: the media pounced on the president saying he doesn't about believe kim knew about otto warmbier. guy: i think -- i testified the president on some of the north korea stuff. concessions on military action with south korea, the military

exercises to me is a big mistake, and another big mistake is this comment on the death of otto and holding kim blameless and blaming the regime more broadly. kim is the regime. nothing happens, especially to a western hostage. i guess flattery is part of this whole thing. sometimes you go too far, and sometimes in the eyes of the family and the parents he went too far. howie: he was tortured in captivity. john bolton said that the president didn't mean he accepts kim's version. when he said i take him at his word. but that sounds like that to the average person. did the story have more resonance for journalists because trump accepted putin's word on russian hack of

elections, the saudi prince's word when it came to the brutal murder of jamal khashoggi. >> that's what's disturbing when you see the president kick two reporters out of his press briefing. i was watching kim smile when the reporters were asking questions to president trump. and i was thinking if this happened in north korea, kim would have the reporters hard out and shot. i was won -- the reporters marched out and shot. and otto warmbier's family thought he didn't have their backs. sara: we had jorge ramos being held up by nicolas maduro in venezuela.

did the president address it? no. but the state department did. howie: great to see you all this sunday. nancy pelosi making her move on gun control and "rolling stone" gives her cover along with alexandria ocasio-cortez.

howie: house democrats made two major moves on gun control passing measures for stricter balk ground checks. but they got very little media coverage. emily jashinsky and mara liasson join us. the press cares about gun control. every time there is a mass shooting we have complaints about gun control. this was barely covered. on the new york times it's on a-21. emrequire many competing with the michael cohen hearing and the trump-kim summit. this was very legitimate. it's something both sides should

be something both sides are interested in. howie: this probably will not pass the senate. but it's the first action by congressmen 25 years on guns. mara: that's the most of significant thing. i think in this case the band bandwidth is narrow. but it did get covered everywhere, even if not on a-1. it isn't going anywhere in the senate. but it shows you the logjam on gun control has broken. it's no long ear death sentence to vote for a gun control bill for a democrat. emily: it means they are willing to take action on this issue. that heightens the importance of it in this context. howse there was a story saying house leaders exploded in

recriminations over moderate who defected and voted for authorities to notify i.c.e. if an illegal immigrant tried to buy a gun. mara: when democrats used this procedural rule. it was news. they have in other tools other than the motion to commit. howie: i'm talking about the fact there is -- mara: what i'm saying is the freedom caucus versus john boehner was always a big story. and now the herbal tea party alexandria ocasio-cortez. howie: you should strayed mark that, the herbal tea party.

her spokesman confirmed it, she is walking it back saying they are making themselves vulnerable. will this bring more sceptical press? emily: this is going to be a huge issue. it's happening over the course of a presidential election. it means they are actually having a conversation. they are having this process that plays out. but it will be interesting. it has been interesting to see the difference between the john boehner split and the tea party split. there was so much glee in the press watching that play out. >> some of these moderate are in red-leaning districts or states and can't sign on to the liberal agenda. i want to move you to the rolling stone cover. nancy pelosi and alexandria ocasio-cortez is there. ilhan omar is there. the headline is women shaping

the future. emily: this is a perfect example. it's amusing. but it's a great example of what we were talking about. this is alexandria ocasio-cortez literally touching nancy pelosi's arm. it's not an accurate narrative. mara: the truth that it doesn't convey is the house majority was made up of moderate women, not women like aoc. the majority of new female democrats are not like her. that's a failing of the media not to point that out. howie: i think the media are . . i disagree

with. the reason there is not a cover of republican women facing the future. in 2019 there are still only 13 female members of the house. >> there were great women running in 2018 that got zero attention. mara: you mean republican women. emily: yes. howie: a disturbing expose' howie: a disturbing expose' when we started our business

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facebook's content reviewers who remove offensive postings. they tell dark jokes will committing suicide and smoke dope on their breaks. they have sex in stairwells and suffer severe anxiety during training and continue to suffer long after they leave. the verge says they work for a facebook contractor, they sign nondisclosure agreements. apparently they are so trauma tights because they have to watch repeatedly things like people being killed. shana: what facebook has done is they committed to double their

censoring workshop. paying these employees of these just sourced centers are making 100k less than facebook employees. howie: these are the people who protect us from the violent or vasist stuff. shana: these folks are reviewing thousands of these posts whether it's conspiracy theories or violence. they are normal people when they go in. but some of them, while facebook has multiple checks in place to make sure their individual views don't influence work, if you look at the way the conspiracy theories are being posted.

howie: one is promoting the earth is flat. a former employee said he began to question certain aspects of the holocaust. facebook says they are showing examples of when they are in the process of being hired. then you get to the question of community standards. some of theme seem ambiguous and arcane which troubled me. what do you make about the standards facebook is using. >> they are complicated. and some of them seem to make no sense. one of them, one post, it's hard to even say. but a post saying autistic people should be sterilized doesn't come down from the site because that characteristic isn't a protected characteristic. that is according to their standards an okay post to keep

up online. howie: my favorite n word staying up. shana: if you are calling your friends that, it stays up online. howie: wants super duper technology supposed to take care of this. shana: facebook needs to take a close look at these processes moving forward. howie: great to see you. thanks so much for coming in. the corporate shake-up that could affect cnn.

howie: cnn president jeff zucker

may be expanding his portfolio after the shake-up of at&t. zucker will have oversight of sports. david levy resigned along with the chairman who built that network into a powerhouse. the co-host of the today show is a jenna bush hater. >> it was the worst kept secret. if anyone were to ask -- it feels humbling and i can't believe it. my dad just wrote me three words. he said very proud dad. howie: obviously a former president's daughter has advantages. but there are drawbacks in terms

of expectations, just ask chelsea clinton who bombed in her short time as a correspondent for nbc. it's tough to see a prominent member of a republican family make the grade in morning tv. we have been on the air for an hour. when president trump gave his address to the cpac conference yesterday he spoke for two hours with no commercial breaks. the man can certainly talk. he doesn't use a lot of notes. he said he was going off script and he did. check out my "mediabuzz" "buzzmeter." you can subscribe at anding itunes, google play, or foxnews.com. let's continue the conversation

on twitter @howardkurtz. i would love to hear what you think of the show and the issues we discussed. heather: monday march fourth, and this is "fox & friends first", ham right now at 4:00 a.m., fox news alert for you, dramatic videos devastating the south killing more than 20 people, carving out paths of destruction. desperate search for survivors is underway right now. >> i know i am an american citizen and i have no other citizenship. heather: isis bride from alabama who wants to come home getting her day in court, the evidence she needs to make her case and you have to hear about this, a miracle in the mountains,