that's it for today, have a great week. we will see you next "fox news sunday". logo >> on buzz media this sunday, leak letter of mueller causes explosion, partisan debate over attorney general. >> barr put out misleading summary designed to spin it in a much more protrump direction. >> barr has admitted impossible trump's leadership to the department of justice. >> oh, mueller was telling him, mischaracterizing the report. it's so ridiculous on its face. >> i don't know why democrats would not start gathering evidence to impeach this man, this is actually as dangerous in the position of attorney general as donald trump is president of

the united states and unfit and unworthy to be there. >> partisan on cable tv are pretending otherwise. let's be clear, be very clear what they are giving you is opinion, it is not facts. they should be honest about that. the barr letter means nothing. >> house outlets to keep the mueller investigation alive. the press changed after denigrating joe biden and now doing 180 as he surges in the polls. >> shows huge opening weekend for former vice president joe biden. think avengers game. >> joe biden off to blockbuster start today. were -- we are talking about joe biden, now up in the field. >> why many pundits completely and totally wrong about the former vice president, the new k

times. plus media mystery 400 as the new jeffrey champion chatters all record. i'm howard kurtz and this is media buzz. ♪ >> right before senate committee was going to bill attorney general bill barr calculated leak to washington post, letter of complaint that bob mueller had to leave barr in march, 4-page summary has created public confusion and undermined confidence because it didn't fully capture probe. >> i called bob and said, what's the issue here, i asked him if

he was suggesting that the march 24th letter was inaccurate and he said no but that the press reports had been inaccurate and that the press was reading too much into it. >> and it has only gotten hotter, holly, senior editor. district media group and former television producer and caprie cafaro. >> how did we get to the point where some were saying he should be charged, run out of town and so on? >> this is xa you would expect a media and they are frustrating,

do i find it interesting that any criticism of bob mueller no matter how slight was threat to rule of law, threat to the republic itself and now you have someone who has promised to investigate actually how this crazy conspiracy theory alleging that donald trump was guilty of capital crime got going. it is very funny to see how different that's occurring. >> with joe biden and kamala harris, democratic candidates calling for bob ouster. nancy pelosi calling him a liar. >> absolutely, they are making news that the press have to report on it and i don't think it helps them out at all. what the american people do see is, well, you could disagree with how mueller -- excuse me, bill barr released what he released, he let the entire report get out there.

>> some redactions. >> we are not talking about redactions. it's turning a media storm either with what nancy pelosi is saying and others, you see the house when it comes to fried chicken. it's turning into a media circus and not actual thorough questioning. >> i could have done without the kfc. >> not tennessee. >> you served in legislation, you know how partisan things get. >> absolutely. >> are the media basically taking the democratic side accusing barr of crashing reputation? >> well, definitely opinion, you know, opinion reporters that are out there for example legal analyst at nbc that basically said that attorney general has to resign, we heard this that the democrats have a case for the attorney general to be impeached or to resign.

i think we are also seeing is a lot of attention to your point as well for the presidential candidates, you talk about hearing when you have so many members of the united states senate including kamala harris in these hearings, cross examining bar, that is getting a ton of media attention and really making her the flavor of the week as well as taking a lot of headlines from 2020 democratic candidate. >> look, it was mueller's leak letter to the washington post as i mentioned, criticizing barr that ignited the whole thing which seems to validate media criticism that he's fund the report in the past. even if that's true, journalists and everybody else digest the report, isn't it a lot less relevant. we have seen the report. >> it was very surprising to see how outraged people were over the letter given what beverly noticed. we have 440 pages or something of a report that lays out detail bob mueller's bizarre theories

of obstruction, how there were no indictments. >> why do you say bizarre? >> his job was to come out whether or not to indict the president. >> that's true. >> point being the report is out there and all of tin indictments were out there, there's a lot to work with but confusing why we had to be focused on a letter that was upset about how that rollout happened and also does tell us something about how much bob, how much mueller cares about the narrative and structuring the narrative, we have been told he's not political and he doesn't leak, when he doesn't leak i think he tends to leak to new york times or people from his office and they do care about how this is going. >> i would take issue with the word experience, go ahead. >> i was going say another part of it even the release of this report, barr was not legally obligated to do so and he did it in short, 3 and a half weeks to

get out there. he didn't give out executive summaries that mueller wanted but we should be questioning back to what mueller was saying, why did mueller not move forward in obstruction of justice or indict or clear reasons why he shouldn't. >> i think they are, the process trying to get mueller to come in but from a coverage perspective the absence of mueller's actual voice is shaping and coloring -- >> he's never said much. the only time -- >> mueller hasn't spoken. he is expected to testify before house judiciary committee in this struggle with barr over refusal because he didn't like the idea of staff questioning. flog -- following up with you, there were questions he struggled to answer, did the white house suggest that you

investigate anyone, i have to think about the word suggest. eric holder under barack obama, is the press suggesting that barr go out and trash the president who appointed him? >> i think a lot of this has to do with how the democrats are driving some of these hearings and so i think that's part of what is covered, they are trying to present bill barr as someone who is a puppet for president trump and media outlets that are choosing to follow the route in that coverage. >> i want to turn to new york times story, the fbi sending woman, undercover operative to meet with trump campaign adviser george papadopoulos in 2016, posing as researching assistant trying to find out whether the trump campaign had contacts with russia. michael schmitt was asked about it while on nbc. >> let me start with a central question, how is this not fine?

>> -- spying. >> depends on what you consider spying. >> by the way, it's in papadopoulos. >> the daily caller has done excellent work in this person in particular, george papadopoulos has written about her. the new york times doesn't like to use the word spying but reporting, some of the ways we have learned about how extensive spying has been. we learned last year, almost a year ago that there were national security letters, human informants, there was government operative, who she is, whether she works for the fbi or not, think bring on someone, george papadopoulos wrote about how he's flirtacious.

>> bigger than xeart gate. >> in reverse. >> the question of spying is spying for political reasons or spying because the fbi had concerns. >> it is important that "the new york times" did not use spying and they did focus on the counterintelligence that it was president trump that chose to shape it in that way and all of a sudden the failing new york times is not failing so much because he's now extrapolating from that. >> this comes in the week of facebook banning several people including alex jones on the right, twitter also and the president has been complaining repeatedly about unfair censorship of conservatives, he tweets this, when will the radical left media apologize for not only getting the russian collusion delusion story wrong,

why is new york times, washington post, cnnn, allowed to be on twitter in facebook, much of what they do in fake news, it's now censorship to keep media organizations on social media? >> unless they are seeing outrageous things, but on this i think when we talk about the facebook and the twitter angle what i found most interesting about the farakon statement they were saying he was right wing which he was not. huge error. once again there's that, twitter is private business, business that can put out there, allow people on who they want. when it comes to the president critiquing them, he's helped twitter stock quite a bit. >> more than that. basically equating traditional media news outlets with being fake news machines and then -- >> okay, there's something that needs to be done. the media spent years trafficking in a conspiracy theory that the president was a

trader, had colluded with russia and they haven't accepted responsibility for it. they haven't apologized for it and not changing what they are doing. it's a serious threat. they are their own threat. >> both of president trump's picks are knocked out after. the latest innovation from xfinity

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female athletes shouldn't get equal pay for inferior work, shouldn't be on the shrine except the one who should wear a halter top, on offense a week ago and defiant on fox after the white house withdrew itself support. >> what happened was this kind of smear campaign, character assassination, began 2 or 3 weeks. >> it's awkward for cnn, every night they trash me now for the last 2 and a half years senior economic's writer, why did they have me on every night. >> well, i think he was not going to make it, not only did he owe taxes or not paying child support, denigrating women, did the prez do its job here? >> the press can cover whatever it wants to. i do not believe in divorce, but i think when people are going

through proceedings, worst character should be in play. this is a guy out for decades, kind of a creature of washington. >> yeah. >> i don't think any of this was particularly surprising but portrayed as such. i think that the real dispute might have been more political or opposition to his very particular views on the fed and whether they should target inflation, whether they should target interest rates or how inflation happened but people were using other things. >> that's absolutely true but in every other administration, potential nominee is vetted first. president trump likes to toss names out there, if that potentially nominee can survive, then he let's them bow out, it's kind of throwing in "shark tank", if he had known, he would

never have wanted to go forward with nomination but that's the way this worked. >> like celebrity apprentice. when it came to smear campaign the reason i agree it was a smear it didn't start with personal writing background at all, started with the qualifications. when you first heard people talk about is whether or not he's qualified because he doesn't have ph.d in economics, but it's laughable because even the fed chair doesn't have a ph.d in economics. >> wait, why is that a smear? >> they started there when it came to qualifications and then that didn't work because it wasn't valid criticism, it then went to the writing from decades past, i think there's concerning elements but as americans we are asking is this the style we want to take so that anybody who wants to do anything in public office, i think it's a discussion we need to have, this is the appropriate way to vet people.

>> i think that's a fair question but i think it's been going on for decades, unevitable that will come up. but all this did overshadow, whether or not they were suitable or whether they have experience. >> the herman cain debate, is he qualified to be in federal reserve. you had a number of u.s. senators saying they weren't going to support him which was different than the steve moore situation. >> if you want to portray as either left-leaning media went after nominees or you want to portray it as democrats were unfair to nominees, it's all revolved and became increasingly obvious they could not. that's what happens.

>> no question, we saw headline in new york magazine that called steven moore a misogynist coo. i tell you, that's a really glaring headline even though it's more of an opinion column. >> he's a wall street journal editorial writer and he's been on fox, he's been a cnn contributor. >> right, i think that was extreme language you saw, people actually disagree with economic policy and they are different and i think we are seeing a lot of growth but they also disagree with political impact. >> great to see you this sunday. joebiden calling him strong, wht

happened? judge

>> senate judiciary chairman lindsey graham opening remarks when brian william with nicole wallace took step of breaking in. >> so no collusion, no coordination, no conspiracy between the trump campaign and the russian government regarding the 2016 election. >> we rarely do but chairman of the judiciary committee just said that mueller found there was no collusion, that is not correct. >> not as chairman of judiciary committee but as a human shield for donald trump and william barr. >> an hour later cnn broke in to

interrupt another senator. >> he's lying, he's lying about what the mueller report finds. >> maybe it can be justified for veteran anchor to talk over republican senators for what he views as clarification but allow nicole wallace, a fiercely antitrump opinion host to disparage barr while senators are talking, that's not exactly straight-news coverage. if this has happened on fox, the media would be in uproar, at least wait until break in the hearing. >> andrew napolitano, fox's senior judicial analyst has been in saying the mueller probe found evidence that trump may have obstructed justice, the president struck back on twitter ripping judge nap's, quote, very dumb, ever since andrew came to my office ask that appoint him to supreme court, he's been very

hostile. also asked for pardon for his friend. is that what happened? napolitano told a story on fox business that donald trump asked for advice of vacancy. maria: did you ask to put you on supreme court? >> no, the person i was describing was then judge neil gorsuch, he looked at me and said, sounds like you're describing yourself, i said, no, i'm not describing myself, i'm describing neil gorsuch. >> trump asked for potential pardon of friend. asking napolitano to notify the man he was being considered for pardon. the judge calls the trump swipe at me brilliant. >> he we wanted to divert attention from what mueller had said about him and what i commented about mueller, his relationship with me is not the story, we have been friends for 30 years and probably will be

for the next 30 years. >> maybe, the president retweeted someone this morning saying that napolitano should be taken off the air. the kentucky derby in turmoil, first, the press does 180 on biden, hillary clinton is back on msnbc and which presidential candidate is on the cover of

>> joe biden would be weak candidate, too old, uninspiring and insufficiently liberal to win the democratic nomination but they changed very quickly, changing tune when former vice president raised 6 million in one day and surged in the polls that had him 39% backing of democrats, far from bernie sanders at 18%. >> one thing donald trump is right about when he attacks joe

biden, he's never shown the quality of candidate that we expected him to be, so biden is in a place he's never been before, clear, if not favorite, definitely clear front-runner right now. >> joining us now from new york ben, founder of the federalist and here in washington former adviser to hillary clinton, now cohost of the podcast unredacted which debuts tomorrow. ben, washington post says surprisingly strong for biden, surprising to whom i ask, the pundits, seem to me that they don't think he's liberal enough of the party of bernie and kamala, are they in a twitter bubble? >> i think they definitely are and i appreciate your selection of cnn, given he's the best arbiter of conventional wisdom in washington when it comes to these types of things, the fact is that biden is enormously popular politician.

he has a huge good will built with african-american voters particularly in the south, that's going to be a very strong element for him, i think, in this primary and gives him advantage and is underappreciated in the corridor and on the twitter universe. >> a lot of things underappreciated in the new york -- most journalists personally like biden, he has been around forever. we see the polls, skeptical to joe please don't run. >> we agreed, i covered my mic when i made joke. you know, i think with vice president biden it is interesting, if you look at the field whether it's republican 2015 or even the democratic 2008 field with the exception of hillary, they all look alike and they all sound alike, this year wait until you see all 22 and counting democrats on two stages

over two nights debating. i think with biden -- first of all, media gets it wrong. we've all got it wrong. we should be humbled by 2016 but, you know, like you said, 38% of the democratic party seems to know that joe biden is an impressive guy and another number from there. >> why so many journalists got it wrong? >> because we are in a time where white is not the ideal candidate where age is not the ideal candidate, where experience, working for obama, all this stuff and somehow joe biden embodied all of that. >> right, on that point -- >> problem separating that out. biden stumbles for some reason the media and frankly the rest of us, those things are a problem. >> well, it's got a long way to go, how much of this is reporters most of them far younger than joe biden wanted to cover somebody new and exciting, somebody they see as --

>> there are more american who is are over the age of 65 than under the age of 5. this is a country that's a lot older than it used to be, voting popular that went along with the baby-boomer experience that the current president and joe biden went through. i think that that means that the age factor is while significant for the media, significant for the cohort that will be deciding who takes on the president's next. >> pete buttigieg, may be the man, done good job, a lot of interviews, come out of nowhere, first major gay candidate. >> you know, i think there's legitimate energy with pete and, you know, back to -- seems like joe biden would be the last person to compare to but in a

way he's not. you have people that embody sort of the self-contained of so many interesting banks, i think that if pete buttigieg was not gay he would still be on cover of times because of his rise over the last few months and i don't think rise over last few months is because he's gay. >> right, washington post, talking about he was homeless and now could be first gentleman here where -- we go. >> china if you're listening, why don't we get trump tax returns, i'm sure our media would richly rewarded you. i'm living rent free, not a nice place to be. i guess it is one of their tools to fire up hard core base. when in doubt, go after me.

>> the media's conventional wisdom, gives speech, it takes oxygen away from the other 21 or 22 democratic candidates. >> yeah, i just think that america's grandma should stay away. the more that hillary clinton is out there, the more people are reminded about all factors that they dislike about her. it's someone who is anything more than a bitter former candidate who lost to one of the most unpopular candidates in history, it is, i think, a very strong argument to be made that this is the only person who could not have beaten donald trump in 2016 and i think that the more that she's out there, the more in media landscape, the more it hurts and takes away jury box again from 2020 candidates that want to move on from the clinton era. >> you not only worked for clinton but were with you, your reaction to that and criticism from people, if hillary clinton

doesn't shut up, she will reelect trump. i think wining grandmother is not necessary. pundits don't get to decide who gets to speak to the american people and who don't. rachel maddow have a few million listeners and they want to hear her out. even democrats want to hear perspective on a number of things. if she bothered republicans, i bet there are people in audience that watched clips and head exploded and they don't realize point that she was mimicking what donald trump had said word for word but when they watch her do it, they will say she should be arrested, locked up, but it's okay when donald trump was just joking. >> go ahead. >> i said wining grandma.

>> i don't know how much better that is, but okay. >> i will have to get to a break. thank you, gentlemen. next on media buzz, new york times otterly botched antisemitic cartoon and even the paper says it's awful. nemp the press isn't cheering on the new jeopardy champ

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>> first new york times issued rather bland statement after antisemitic cartoon showing b.b. netanyahu as dog being led by president trump and then came a second statement to the paper, deeply sorry, next was time's columnist stevens calling out paper and finally new york times editorial, the opinion pages of national edition last week, appearance of such an obviously bigoted cartoon in mainstream publication is evidence of a profound danger and not only anti-semitism. i still look at this cartoon and say how on earth is does this piece of filth get published? >> it's not a bigoted cartoon but bigoted columnist.

it's disgusting, the new york times has a serious problem when it comes to dealing with these types of issues, we saw after the 2016 election when they came out and we need more people in news room who understand religion, yet, here we are, you know, more than two years later and we still continue to see them having problems when it comes to coverageover -- coverage of deeply important issues that they should be more careful about. >> the times has perceived by jewish problem, goes back to world war ii, the news of the holocaust, stopped using cartoons and unconscious bias training for staffers, how much of a blow is this in your view to the paper's procedure? >> i can't overseed this, what they did was horrendous, people should more than just be

chastised but fired. i don't think the paper is inherently antisemitic, i know enough of their reporters including jewish reporters, that doesn't make sense. the paper in a lot of ways has lost its way for some time first under previous editor and now under dean and while comment for the right to call "the new york times" an instrument of the law, donald trump could look and not have suffered as much as hillary clinton has for their missteps. we are all on the same page about them getting a lot wrong and they not trying and they need to do a lot better and this was unacceptable. >> the editorial pivots so the dangers of anti-semitism mentions the shooter who opened fire in san diego county synagogue and then says that trump who criticized the paper has done too little to rouse the

national conscious but president trump condemned the attack, called the rabbi who was injured and then later invited to the white house. >> i think it's ridiculous example, the president is clearly not antisemitic, norman gave a good defense on an interview. looking around for someone else to blame, this is a situation that has to be in media broadly, lack of understanding of ethic issues that are associated with it. isn't just confined to anti-semitism. the times coverage most recently when it came to a number of catholic issues surrounding coverage of burning of notre dame, run a number of corrections for them getting basic facts wrong and understood if they just had a catholic in the building. >> i had to jump in, editor

rescued himself from 2020 campaign, his brother colorado senator. >> that happens a lot. i don't think when somebody runs for family the whole family has to be unemployed. >> absolutely not. >> i think just to go back a second, for steven that you're quoting, that was conservative columnist. >> yes. >> he's the one who said that trump has done too little and referencing also not condemning charlottesville and after that, jews will not replace us and donald trump has higher responsibility and greater opportunity, he tweets more about snl and kentucky derby than anti-semitism. >> i have to break. all right, gentlemen, thank you both for entertaining and enlightening discussion. after the break, is james somehow ruining jeopardy, some say he's winning too much. isn't that the point of the game

>> probably center of heated mia debate, -- media debate. >> what is false. >> that's it. [applause] >> james, las vegas, unbelievable winning 1.7 million, blown away the competition, long-time host alex who is battling pancreatic cancer talking about super star contestant. >> when you look at performance, he has no weaknesses. one final jeopardy, i believe he's missed four daily doubles,

he's all in so often, he knows how the play the game. >> joining us from new york kat kempf, do you not see that this guy more troubling, a menace. >> why is it a menace to win a game where objective is to win, i really don't understand this, the columnist, maybe he had dreams of all succeeding in jeopardy and he didn't. he wrote the need -- >> he said he might be -- >> yeah, i think that this is sore loser syndrome here and we see that in the media these days , media scrutiny. i've never seen an example so blatant as this where they're

literally attacking him for doing a good job. >> in reality he's awkward, a dad, and worked really hard. he's doing the job, that's the game, right? >> right. going for higher money questions first and working his way up. so what. he still knows the answer, you still have to know the answers. it's not like he's cheating, he's not breaking the rules and the tone of some of the coverage is acting like that is what he's doing. a lot of people who are jealous. >> i guess, you know, criticize rather than say, hey, ignited

interest in jeopardy, it's, like, he's ruining the game. somebody will beat him eventually. >> someone will beat him eventually. they don't need to get mad when they see somebody succeed. ratings aren't as good as ken jennings, the guy who has the record for most wins. yeah, he's up against netflix, he has brought back interest in the game. >> i'm with you, kat, thank you very much. still to come, that wild finish at the kentucky derby, we will be right

>> not.

turns out instant replay isn't just for human beings, nbc sports caster were stunned last night when apparent win by maximum security was challenged. scrambling to instant replay cameras, something that we have become accustomed in other sports before ruling 20 minutes later that security improperly interfered with other horses. >> for the first time in history of kentucky derby, the horse that crossed the line first has been disqualified. >> gave crown to country house, barbara read statement to take questions from reporters. big shake-upcoming at cbs, one that would move from morning show to anchor, it's not quite announced yet. >> we are reading lots of things with great interest and i just want you to know we will address them on monday when gail is back here and john as well.

>> the expected move confirmed by the hollywood reporter would make gail king with much bigger contract. reporter john dickerson removed from morning, 60 minutes, all this effort by susan to boost programs especially morning show which has struggled in ratings after charlie were ousted as i'm sure you remember on sexual harassment scandal. that's it for this edition of media buzz. howard kurtz, check out my new podcast, everyone has a podcast. you can subscribe in apple itunes, google play or fox news podcast.com. we hope that you will check out facebook page, original videos and back and forth, twitter, at howard kurtz, keep the dialogue going, i love getting getting te feedback and maybe you enjoy hearing from me.

i would like for this to be a dialogue not just us talking at you, we are back here, heather: good morning, may sixth, "fox & friends first", happening right now, fox news alert for you, officer shot and killed in cold blood right outside of police station. search intensifies for killer ta bracing for war, message for iran. finishing finish